LESSER KNOWN AUs ADVENTURE

*PRESS THE BUTTON

Papyrus feel uneasy, but maybe it could work...

I mean, if something's wrong with the RESET button, then surely pressing it will RESET it and therefore mend the problem?

That vaguely made sense. Let's do it.

Ignoring any second thoughts, he  reached his arm out and slammed it down on the yellow glow.

He twitched his hand away. He glanced around nervously, his frayed scarf being twisted into oblivion.

Nothing happened. Huh.

Papyrus' shoulders relaxed. Perhaps it was just a bug. Yeah, something that accidentally slipped through and came into being here.

Like me. Papyrus sneaked
look at the button. It's producing faint surges now, like it was laughing at him.

Why am I having a relatable moment with a freaking button? Papyrus turned away from it, rubbing his wrist in his usual disturbed way.

"If it's..." Papyrus trailed off. It can't be broken. The RESET to the universe can't be broken. You have to fix it, fix it, be the repairman to be the RESET of the world.

That's usually my job anyway. Not that is ever happened before, but...

Oh my God, it's pulsating.

Papyrus waved his way around it, careful not to touch it again but oh so desperately wanting to poke it. He kicked the air below the button. Nothing invisible was making it do this.

He studied the RESET button more closely. Where's the problem? Yeah, it's pulsating and it's yellow, but how do you bang a hammer on it and transform it back to normal?

He noticed for the first time it's semi-transparent. How did he never notice it was see-through!?

A sigh escaped him. He hated the guy more than anyone, but he's the only one that can at least know what's wrong if it with the whole "peer through the code" jazz.

Maybe the doctor is even doing this on purpose, so Papyrus can be forced to trust him. If it's a trap, does he have much choice? He's not getting anywhere by assessing the irregularities, and, judging by the throbbing light, it's only going to get worse.

His resigned thoughts came to a screeching halt. Hold up. What if this really is just a little bug? Just a tiny mishap with an even shorter lifespan. What if gets rid of those problems all by itself? He can't be messing with a little hiccup that might already had a solution.

Papyrus slowly flopped back down on his little round oasis. Not his headache anymore. Which is good, because he was generating an actual headache from this.

If something else happens, I'll call the doctor. The tall skeleton's tense features smoothed. 4-18 23-9-14-7-4-9-14-7-19 might not even answer anyway. He kinda ghosts around and does his own thing.

"Papyrus? Is that you?"

Papyrus froze. His mind immediately ruled out that fact that it was the good 'ol doctor, but who else could it-

The kid? The human child apparently came back. Papyrus expected a rush of anger so high that bile had to block it from drowning him. Instead, he awkwardly patted the spot next to him.

"Come here, buddy." His throat was horse. He realized that he wanted to apologize. God, what happened to him? When he pressed the button, did it RESET his brain, somehow?

"Oh! Okay..."

A small figure skipped into view. It looked remarkably like the kid, but... well, it was starting to leak a bit. Oh, and their glitches were entirely missing from view. Their face was beaming wider than should be possible. Or legal.

Papyrus squinted. It maybe the conspiracy theorist inside him telling him this, but this wasn't right.

"You look different." Am I feeling concern for the kid? Really? Look at those teeth. Those teeth are untrustworthy.

"I looked never better, I can promise you that." They giggled. Faster than he could react, they zoomed toward him and wrapped their arms around his middle.

Disclaimer, Papyrus panicked, okay?

He kicked and tore at the human's grip, but it didn't budge one bit. So...

Little wisps of light crackled and burned into his eyesocket. He summoned his magic and lifted the impostor in the air.

He planed to throw them off, but the human was conjuring magic of their own. A small, white, see-through square appeared in front of them.

Papyrus knew what it was. Without thinking, and panicking immensely, he dropped the floating child.

The adolescent basically did a belly-flop in grass. Disclaimer is in place, so you can't get mad at him, can you?

Despite all the battering and belly-flopping, the human wobbled to their feet. Their grin was more of a grimace now.

They waggled a finger at him. "You put up a big fight, didn't you! Well, Papyrus, you're coming with me no matter what. Oh man, we are going to have so much fun!"

*WHAT SHOULD PAPYRUS DO?
*RUN. RUN. AS FAST AS YOU CAN.
*FIGHT! YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!