Almost forgot there's actually a good long section between Muffet and the current point in the story. Good thing I caught myself…

Also haven't written in a while.

Chapter 25: This Place Really Grinds My Gears

We continued after Sans's Dog-Stacking Adventure to make our way around one of the tendrils of stone, running into a series of switches next to a conveyor belt.

My phone buzzed. Alphys was calling.

"Hello?" I answered.

"H-hey, Frisk." Alphys said. "Um...you see those switches? Hit all three of them and you'll be able to deactivate that barrier on the other end."

Seemed simple enough. I closed the call, hopped on the conveyor belt, and started flipping switches. One...two…

I almost threw my phone into the magma as my hands fumbled for it as Chara smacked the third button for me. "Hello?" I answered, again. It's became a bit of a greeting for me.

"H-hit the third button!" Alphys said. Then realized Chara already hit it. "Oh, uh...never mind then!" she said as the barrier deactivated. "Guess, you, uh...better get going!"

She hung up on us this time, as a notification popped up for me that said, "lmao epic failed last puzzle - not gonna help the human anymore RIP" from Alphys.

I couldn't help but let out a long, audible sigh, continuing on through our stone tendril adventure. Two Royal Guards walked right past us both, as they idly chatted about a human with a striped shirt, singular. They took a look at us both and muttered something about how I looked like the human. Then the one with the longer helmet told his partner off, saying "the human's alone."

Well, whoever told them who I was, was horribly misinformed. And they really did not know what the heck they were doing.

"Halt, citizen." One of them commanded. We stopped. "This area is strictly off-limits. We've been told there is a dangerous human in the area. Come with us and we'll escort you back."

Chara looked a little confused, while my mind started racing through the options. "But you can't." I replied.

The guard stopped. "Why?" he asked.

"Because we…" I took a little while to search my mind for options. "Because we have to get to the Core. To the MTT Resort."

If Chara was impressed by my quick thinking, she didn't show it. "The...Resort?" the guards asked. "It's expensive...and if you miss your reservation, there's no refunds…"

They let us pass with no further delay, calling us both "little missuses." At least they tried their hand at chivalry. A for effort. C for calling us "missuses." Because both of us were sweaty and quite frankly miserable, smelling like hot dogs, very much not lady-like. Although, to dog monsters, we would have smelled amazing. So, if they were dogs under those thick suits of armor, that score turns to an A.

Chara, once out of earshot, pat my shoulder while we waked and said, "Nice move." Hey, gotta be good at something at least.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. I picked it up while walking. "Hello?" I asked. Third time today.

It was, again, Alphys. "Don't walk forwards!" she shouted.

"Uh...why?" I asked.

She barely had time to yell, "METTATON!" before a barrier of force closed behind me, trapping me and Chara in a large cube.

Oh great.

Old-school Breaking News beeping started echoing through the cavern as Mettaton's voice blared through some speakers mounted on the large metal struts.

"And welcome audience, to MTT news!" his voice echoed. I looked around for him. On top of the big box, Mettaton was sitting there with a green cardboard cutout, emulating a budget green screen. He could probably process all of that in his ridiculous box face. Probably. He might lag out and overheat in the middle, something that probably would be a little amusing. But would also be really disturbing. Maybe.

But it also meant I was on another one of Mettaton's TV shows. And by the rule of correlation that probably meant I run the risk of death. Not that I already ran the risk of death just by being near the Core in general. Even when I walked around there were bolts of energy that leapt dangerously close to where I was. And I certainly did not want to figure out what happened to a human that gets time-rewinded by the Core's strange magic. Or anything alive, for that matter.

And it certainly didn't stop Mettaton's talking. "And here we have our reporter, out in the field!" Oh. He must mean me. Although Chara was very visible. That was a bit odd. Did cameras not pick up Chara or something? I took out my cell phone to look at Chara with the camera, inciting a remark from Mettaton about how hard at work I was. But the thing that mattered more was that Chara was completely invisible on camera.

Huh.

"Chara." I whispered to her. "You're invisible to Mettaton."

"Good." she said. I swear I saw mischief in her eyes.

Just for science, I took a picture of Chara's location with my phone, though I didn't see her. Suddenly, she appeared perfectly in the image, sitting cross-legged on the floor, not paying attention to Mettaton's yammering…

"Reporter? Hello? Studio to reporter?" Mettaton called. "It appears our reporter is a bit absent-minded today. Could she be sleepy? She's so dedicated to her work that she doesn't even sleep much anymore!"

I sleep a fair amount, thank you. Sometimes, as people complain, almost too much. Though lately after, you know...siblings dying, then coming back to life, then me having a close brush with death, it's been much harder to sleep.

"What?" I shouted at Mettaton.

"Good! So our reporter isn't completely zoned out!" Mettaton replied. "Now, reporter, can you get us a story for our news show? We're running a little bit late here!"

Well. He probably wasn't letting me out unless if I humored him...again. Darn. I begrudgingly decided to look around, checking for things to report. There was a book, a basketball, a script, a random glass of water, a freaking dog, and a game called Under...what? Under-something. I couldn't make it out from how far away I was. I walked a little more towards the game and picked it up, Chara walking right behind me.

I picked up the little black box that the game was in and took a closer look. The box was labeled, "Under Your Feet."

Who names a game like that? Needless to say, I checked under my feet. What was underneath my feet was...a ticking timer.

"Oh, my!" Mettaton declared. "It appears that our reporter here has found a game! And something else…but anyways! This game was the Game of the Year! An absolute bombshell!"

To brush the soil a little better, I dropped the game case, which fell open at my feet. Inside wasn't a CD-ROM or a download code or anything. It was a ticking timer and a grayish-white lump with a stick jutting out of it. I've watched enough Mythbusters to know what it was. It was a lump of C4, and although I didn't know where Mettaton got the C4 from, I still threw it at the nearest ledge, where it didn't travel the full distance and only landed with a soft whump. Well, I tried.

Mettaton did his best to feign shock when the case opened to reveal the bomb.

"Wait...that's actually a bomb! Oh no!" he shouted, mock freaking out as he threw away his cardboard cutout green screen. "And not just that, either!"

Wait, there was more bombs? That question was answered as Mettaton flew down and...started ripping objects open. Revealing, yes, more bombs.

"The basketball's a bomb!" Mettaton yelled, as he ripped the top of the basketball off.

"The book's a bomb!" Mettaton opened up the book, revealing dynamite inside of a hollow space.

"The dog is a bomb!" Mettaton...slapped the dog on the butt, and the tail ignited. Questionable design...but now wasn't the time to worry about dog-slapping. Or the fact Chara had a nice giggle over that one. Or why she looked so calm.

"Even my words are…" Mettaton threw a shower of bang snaps, crackling all over the ground. Some of them burned me when they hit my head. Ow.

"And, brave reporter, if you don't defuse them all in two minutes…" he flew a little closer to the ground, blowing away a huge cloud of dust, revealing a really big bomb with a timer on it. "...this big bomb will explode! Ta-ta!"

And Mettaton, as always, flew off to a safe location. Leaving me with a bunch of bombs. And no method of escape, again.

And just then, my phone suddenly dinged with a new text message. From Alphys, at least.

"Your camera app comes with a new Bomb Defusal feature," it read. I wasn't sure how that worked. But I opened up the camera and found the setting for Bomb Defusal, which had a very neat instruction, "Place the timer of the bomb in the camera square." Hacking? Probably. Again, not the time for questions. There was a very bouncy basketball bomb bouncing around, a book and script, a dog, a glass of water flying around, and the game, which should have been…

It wasn't there.

I ran towards the nearest bomb, looking for where the game could have gone. Farther off in the distance, I spotted the game dangling from the air by what was probably a fishing line or something. Pausing to take a breather, because of how short of breath I was currently, I reached the dog, camera already out. The dog was napping, but when I started ruffling through its fur, it instantly bolted up, running around my legs in circles, barking at me.

"Chara!" I yelled. "A little help here?"

I tried to grab the dog and pin it to the floor, but it dodged around me, being a very annoying dog. Chara, however, was too busy trying to track down the extremely agile glass of water. So I was alone with this dog problem.

I tried to chase the stupid dog down, which only earned me a few times falling flat on my face as the dog bolted off, then ran towards me, tripping me over. Finally I gave up as I sat still and let the dog come to me, where I in a swift motion grabbed the dog by the neck, where my fingers found a hard object that was the timer. I quickly pulled out the phone and clicked the camera on the timer, where the dog suddenly slumped over and turned inert. Apparently it was a robo-dog programmed to be really annoying. Which was very, very, successful in doing so. Because there was only a minute and thirty seconds left. And Chara was still trying to jump on the water, looking somewhat like a cat trying to catch a bird or a butterfly.

I tried my best to sprint for the next nearest bomb, which was the script. There was a pretty clear route I should take, at least. Much like the script bomb, as I quickly discovered, the timer lazily stuck on the first page.

Next was...the book bomb. Again, I ran for it, again having to take a breather. Having one lung sucked. Literally, because I was constantly taking doses of Alphys' aerosol spray she gave me. And again, the book bomb was trivial, the timer glued on the spine. At least it wasn't a very good book.

Now was the game bomb, dangling by a fishing string. I took another breather just before I took it on. It dangled over some conveyor belts, and I lunged for the game bomb as I let the conveyor do the walking for me, grabbing it off the fishing line. Again, a trivial bomb. Open it up...and it was anything but trivial. In fact, it was a thing with a Simon Says game stuck on it, and a note that said, "Pass 4 rounds to get the timer."

Screw that.

I put my foot on the game box, grabbed a random rock, and smashed the plastic cover of the Simon Says right off, revealing a small timer. A quick usage of the bomb defusal function rendered the game bomb defused. See? Trivial. Unlike Chara's flying cup of water problem.

I ran for the basketball next, which I easily caught and defused after holding it down. Because there was something in it that made it struggle in my grip.

"Hey, Frisk! I think I got it!" Chara shouted, tackling the water to the ground when it came a little too close. The defusal after that was easy. And all bombs were defused, two seconds to spare. Whew.

Mettaton came floating down, looking about as grumpy as a metal box could.

"Well, well, well. Looks like you've, 'beat' me this time." Mettaton growled. Yes, it was, and is, possible for robots to growl. Case in point, him right now. "And as always, with Doctor Alphys."

"Yes, yes we have." I said, triumphant. "And now, with your big bomb inactive, whatever your plan is, is over." Hey, I had to give the audience something.

Mettaton only shook his entire body, a sort of "head-shake," I guess. "Dearie, dearie. Don't you know the basics behind every well-engineered bomb?"

"I'll admit, I don't." I replied. Because I didn't make bombs. "That doesn't stop me from defusing yours!"

"Now, now. Riddle me this. Why do houses have back doors?" Mettaton asked.

"To...get in from the back." I replied. Then it clicked. And it was only confirmed when Mettaton held up a button on a stick, attached to a wire. Of course he would! He put a redundant detonator in his big bomb. Which only confirmed that he was indeed out to kill me.

"And now…" Mettaton exclaimed, "the bomb's not gonna explode in two minutes. No, it'll explode in two seconds! Two, one." I accepted my fate as he pressed the switch.

And pressed it again.

Click.

Click.

Clickclickclickclickclick.

"Why isn't it working?" Mettaton asked. Little did he know, behind him was Chara, who managed to cut the wire in half with a sharp piece of rock. And the timer was off. Whew. I gave Chara a "thank-you" look.

And just then, Mettaton's face buzzed, exactly like a phone on vibrate. He turned one of his face's knobs to respond to the call. "Hello, Alphys! You're interrupting the show!"

"Or," Alphys proclaimed, "maybe I just changed it. Because I hacked the big bomb while you were messing around for two minutes!"

"Well, well, well then, human." Mettaton turned towards me. "Looks like you've won the day with the help of Doctor Alphys yet again. Well, with this done, and the trap disabled, there's nothing left here! Toodles!" And, as Mettaton always did, he flew off, leaving us with nothing. Well, nothing except the fact that the cube of force fields went down, allowing me and Chara to safely walk to the next elevator.