PLD Chapter 25

" CHAPTER 25: Into the New Year "

Sub-Entry 241: "Happy New Year":
What a rarity...two holidays practically rammed together. It's been one week's time. We're fresh off the hooplah of Christmas. Now we're going right into the New Year.

A good TIme Traveller should never take the moments like these for granted. Whether you're experiencing your first grand New Years Bash.

Or your millionth one.

For Asriel, it would be his first one.

"I didn't realize the start of a new year needs so much celebration!"

"Yeah. Really something, isn't it?"

"Mmm-hmm!"

The celebration itself would be special for Asriel. But he wasn't the only one it would mean something to.

"Hey there, Asriel! Are you excited for tonight?" Mitzi had a seat next to us.

"Am I ever!" Asriel smiled.

"That's great! I promise you're in for a special treat. Back in Neon City, New Years Celebrations are absolutely dazzling! I've heard sometimes they get so bright they can be seen from space. Don't know if it's true but it always felt like it could be."

"Wow!"

"Trust me, Asriel. No one rings in the new year like UCIAT. The Commander and everyone work so hard every year to make it as impressive in Miranda City as they do back home."

"And speaking of which..." Asriel started as he hugged Mitzi. "I hope you don't mind if I wish you happy birthday a day early."

"Why thank you! You're such a sweetheart! I can't believe you know already! That's so considerate of you, Azzy."

"I might have played a part in that." I smirked before I found myself on the receiving end of a hug.

"You're wonderful, Commander!"

We of course went though some festivities and such as well as prep work before the night hours.

Violet made sure to completely ban Al Dente from the event. By padlocking him in the spare pantry at Little Tokyo Palace with nothing but his own leftovers to eat. And a flash light and a few other minor necessities.

"...was this about the video camera suppository?  I wasn't actually going to administer them...!"

My gods, you were horrible, Al.

Dr. Nikita Lynx had worked with Rotor, Gadget, Violet, and myself on the New Years Shimmer Ball. We wanted to make it our best one yet.

But more importantly...we wanted to make sure there were no...mishaps like previous years.

Some years ago I overestimated the power requirements for the ball and display. You never live down blacking out town for a good several  hours into New Year's Day. But you're marked for life when it happens two years in a row.

So when you learn your lesson, you start using alternative power sources. That's when you try cold fusion batteries, arc reactors, and the current gold standard--a solar fusion energy core.

But wouldn't you know it the mishap would neither be power, hardware, or software...no, it's when you overestimate how bright your display is, you're not mindful how much UV sunlight it emulates, and furthermore, overlook the fact that there are several vampires living in Miranda City. The fact that I was at least forgiven after many were out of the burn ward was some degree of comfort. What was it I said again about learning to forgive yourself...? Eheh...

But that paled in comparison to the mishaps that WEREN'T my fault. Let's revisit our ab-human friend, Ripper. If I've gotten your attention with just his name alone you know what it involves already. Take your average New Year's Shimmer ball on a traditional carbon-nanotube composite pole and add some...questionably legal explosives that didn't get Drew's approval and sneak them into our Nikita and my hard work under our noses.

Now picture the Zero Hour when a few tons worth of electronics, mirror tiles, lights, neoen, hologram generators, display, LED panels, and a solar fusion reactor suddenly reverse direction and rocket upward, tearing said pole and part of the rooftop off our HQ and sending them somewhere into the sky only to crash down in the outskirts of the forest.

End result: no longer would we use a metal pole to drop the ball; we'd use an electromagnetic tether and gravity tech. Plus there would be tighter security measures. And on top of that Ripper would be blacklisted from pyrotechnics on New Years. But there was a silver lining to it, too. Queen Brooke was so impressed by the display she doubled our budget for the following years. It was a dirty little secret that Nikita and I never confessed to. Oddly enough...it was Chameleon who advsed us to keep it under wraps. The fact that I couldn't tell if he was genuinely compensating us for Ripper's misdeeds, or taking a play for Violet's book and putting us into a situation he had alterior motives to benefit from keeps me paranoid to this day.

Which of course lead into his debt growing larger the next year when Tithius got clever with explosives and pyrotechnics but this time from a vantage point on the clocktower. Yeah...I'm just going to ask that you use your imagination and whatever you come up with is accurate enough.

Well. That was certainly a lengthy walk down memory lane. So back to matter at hand.

That night...

"...perimeter secure, Neil."

"Hyperion, can you please just call me by my adopted name?"

"...right. Volt. Oh, can you tell Master Rabbotou--"

"You're breaking up, Hype! Electromagnetic interference...up......very...."

"..."

"Please don't give me that look, Major. You know if I didn't stop him now, he'd waste no time in worshipping the ground you walk on and preaching how superior "Bunn-itsu is."

Bunnie wais wearing a sparkling pink gown and matching strappy icepick sandals. Plus her pink, metal kenseiken hairpieces in her bangs.

"Point taken. But still. You know how I feel about being untruthful. When you lie, you kill a part of your soul. So it is written."

"Dualy noted."

My T.A.O. link chirped at that moment.

"Go ahead, Dr. Lynx."

"It's complete and ready for download."

"Copy that, Doctor. Magnetic tethers and gravity anchors are installed and online. Violet's standing by with the software suite. Drew's got pyrotechnics and acoustics under control. Sally's got the sound system, music, and mixer equipment ready."

At her sound station nearby, Sally was in full OGPX gear with her D.J. headphones and accessories on, readying a pair of vinyls on the turntables.

"We're in for some serious audio crank, Commander!  I got the boomin' bass to rock this place!"

Sally grinned.

"You're enjoying yourself."

"Hey, at least I get out of putting on a Barbie doll dress and heels this year, now that I'm DJ-ing." Sally did what she could to avoid getting all gussied up in royal gowns or the like.

"Commander, all is ready."

"Acknowledged. Synching chronometers now."

I checked the clock against the control watch against the feed from Nikita's lab.

I got a second page on the T.A.O. link from the security teams.

"Miss Mozzarella is on her way up with her guests."

"Ten four, alpha team. Send them up."

And a few minutes later the door to the UCIAT HQ rooftop opened and Mitzi stepped out...but none of us were prepared for the sight that beheld us.

"M..Mitzi...!" My eyes widened.

"Hi, Commander." She waved, humble as ever. But considering how she was dressed up...I wouldn't have blamed her in the least if she was actually prideful.

That dress. That sparkling emerald green, gown of a dress. Those emerald spaghetti-strap, stilleto-heel sandals. The contrasting ruby, red lipstick and purple eye shadow. I couldn't believe this was our girl-next-door, Mitzi. She was absolutely gorgeous.

"My student! You've brought your inner beauty out most splendidly for this double special occasion."

"Why thank you, sensei! Foxy and Honey helped me with it. I really like it. It's so wonderful."

"It's you, Mitzi. It's really you."

"I agree!" I heard him say. And that's when Asriel stepped out from behind Mitzi with Gadget, Felicia (decently clothed for a change), and little Mina--heavily cloaked and wearing dark protective shades. I wasn't about to repeat the vampire incident even if I was sure that Nikita had reduced the ultraviolet light component by 98 percent from that incident.

And behind them came Pit, Rotor, Skeeter, Jon, Aiden, and Marcel.

Finally bringing up the rear were the rabite trio, Marie, Wrench, Josquin, Glitter, Kuma, Lil' Bulb, and Rubik.

It was quite the gathering.

"Ready for your first new year?"

"I was born ready." Asriel said, fists gripped and a look of confidence. His eyes were lit up neon red. He was filled with...Determination.

Down below, Chameleon made sure that Ripper and Tithius weren't leaving his sight for anything. It was...less expensive that way.

All over the city, friends, family, and acquaintences were watching and waiting.

Violet toiled away at the circle of computer towers and bundles of cables leading to the download platform.

Violet began the download sequence. And little by little, the Shimmer Ball materialized into physical existence; happening very similar to how Kabuki Quantum Fighter loaded the program into Scott's physical structure--wire frame, 1's and 0's, and rapidly-evolving 3-Dimensional polygons. And before long it had completed its transformation into the most magnificent New Year's ball I'd seen yet.

"Brilliant." Violet couldn't resist the pun.

THE COUNDOWN BEGINS! * 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 *

-=[ HAPPY NEW YEAR MIRANDA CITY -=2017=- ]=-

Every light on the UCI building went absolutely crazy as every holo-projector displayedevery possible animated image a computer could generate from a ball-drop.

Foxy Flannigan emerged with a damn impressive lime green birthday cake.

"A cake fit for a wonderful lass on her New Year's Birthday!"

"Happy birthday, Mitzi. And Akemashiteomedetougozaimasu!"

Not moments after the ball dropped, a loud "WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" of excitement rang out as Red Stokes leaped on off of the largest nearby building. Null latched onto him and morphed, becoming that powered armored suit. Red zipped upward from the ground, rocketed into the sky and let a few flash decoys fly in a dazzling fireworks display!

"That's all I asked for at the end of this year...a New Year's Celebration without any mishaps."

"It's beautiful. So much color." Asriel watched and beheld the splender of it all.

I hugged Asriel close.

"Happy New Year, Azzy."

"Happy New Year, Volt."

With that, all of us on the rooftop joined in the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

Sub Entry 242: "Winter Is Here (With a Vengeance)":
We certainly rang in the new year. Everything was awesome.

With a yawn, I woke and brushed off the countless schematics that made up makeshift bed covers for my cot.

A freshening up in the small bathroom in the far back. Clean undergarments, shirt and tie, silver karate gi, and lab coat, my sandals and other minor prep and I was ready to leave the shop.

I opened my door and--

"........."

Oh. Crap.

There are limits to how much snow I'm willing to put up with in the morning. Suffice to say...there was more than enough to exceed my limit.

"....F-(FLOWEY CACKLE) winter.  F-(FLOWEY CACKLE) winter long...and F-(FLOWEY CACKLE) it hard..." I growled as I folded my ears back.

I went back to the back and made a sliiiiiight addition to my wardrobe.

Electric blankets were an overlooked invention from days past. But to make thermal undergarments out of one and design it to run off of your electric/magnetic powers and complete it with a set of custom made sandals with the same Varia technology that Mitzi used in her Thermal Belt (based on Samus Aran's Chozo Power Suit expansion, mind you)...

I'm...going to hesitate to call myself a genius. Arrogance is a sin, after all.

"Alright, winter. Do your worst."

I stepped outside, the field from the Varia Sandals melting the snow away from each footstep.

"That's what I thought--" I started as I yanked the door shut.

And low and behold my ego deflated as I soon found myself buried under a mass of snow that dropped off my roof and onto my head.

Angrily, I dug myself out.

"You know what happens, Mother Nature, when you dump your ice-cold dandruff on me? You know what happens?!" I flared up. "YOU JUST MADE THE LIST!!!" I screamed.

I think my scream echoed for a good amount of time, considering the square was empty at the time.

I went back inside my shop. Don't tell me I'm overreacting. This stupid snow has it coming.

"And you know what happens when you make the list?" I bared my fangs as I hefted the flamethrower, making sure the tanks were full-on. "You're going to get...IT!"

And I opened fire with no regret until I had liquefied a good amount of it around my area.

Okay...I miiiiiight have some issues with cold weather. Juuuuuust might. But there's a certain satisfaction in taking out your aggression on a lifeless, inanimate entity with questionable firepower.

I'm sure I could think up an excuse to Violet why the fuel tanks are a bit lower when I returned it to her. Okay it was hers. Who else would have one just lying around and in need of repair?

"Uh...Volt?"

Oh. Uh. Hi, Azzy. This......this is a bit awkward.

"Heeeeey." I said, quite embarrassed.

"What are you doing?"

"There's...a perfectly logical and rational explanation for this." I snuffled the flame on the barrel and tried to hide it behind me, to a futile degree.

"Soooo...I'll let you know what that is when I figure it out. YOINK!" I ducked back into my shop for yet another time.

Asriel just stood there and blinked.

"Obvious goat son says obvious thing: I don't think my best friend likes snow much."

Dammnit, Violet. You're rubbing off on him.

I came back out, still embarrassed as heck.

"So..."

"Uh...so." He paused for a moment. "Let's...never speak of this again?"

"Darn skippy." I replied.

Another few awkward moments later.

"So. What are doing here, Asriel?"

"School's cancelled. Snow day."

"Oh. Well...that makes sense."

"The other kids and the grownups whose work shut down for the day are at the park. Want to join in?"

"What have I got to lose beside more of my pride?"

I shoved my hands in my lab coat pockets and tried in futility, to pull my head in like a turtle.

"Come on! It's not that bad!" Asriel took me by the hand and led on, laughing. He was bundled up but also wearing sandals.

I'm guessing that the Dreemurr family didn't mind the cold much. Heck back when I brought my saxophone to Snowdin Town and serenaded Toriel for a bit, she was barely bundled up. Even barefoot. And that made me wonder...if none of the Dreemurrs wore shoes......why DID Toriel have a sock drawer? Scandelous, indeed.

"It's just like back in Snowdin Town!" He giggled.

Oh well. Whatever makes him happy.

Sub-Entry 243: "Good Grief, This Seems Familiar..."
So. Small surprise, Jon Talbain was of course there and having the time of his life. I think he spent way to much time with Sasquatch in the olden days.

My son-in-law used to joke that he was part timberwolf. Whatever, man. Currently he was in the biggest snowball fight I'd ever seen. And he was loving it. Whether he was dishing it out or getting dunked on himself.

"This snowball war is bangin'!"

"Oh wow! I want in on that!" Asriel let go of my hand and charged it, finding where Gadget had bunkered down.

"Oh! Hey, Asriel! You're just in time! I gotta show you my latest invention!"

"Golly! Does it shoot snowballs?"

"Does it shoot snowballs! Just you watch!" Gadget grinned as she loaded it up with "ammo" and popped up from behind her snow bunker and let loose with a rapid fire of spherical snow projectiles.

"Heeeeey!" Skeeter took ever one of them before falling flat on his back. "A little help here, bro!"

"I'd love to help but I've got problems of my...oh no...!"

KA-WHUMPH!

"That's cheating!"

"Lisa..."

Well. Opposites attract. When you have a wife who's a water/ice element you tend to know which climate she prefers. Still love her to pieces. Thank goodness Elektra takes after me when it comes to liking it hot.

"Give them at least half a chance, dear." I mused, rather smugly. "Skeeter may be able to manipulate water but not to the scope and scale you can. For him it has to be liquid. You control it as ice, water, and steam, Lisa. And apparently snow, too."

"It's harder than it looks, you know. Since snow is more air than water."

Heh. It's hard to argue with someone so lovely who still has plenty of youth to join in the kids' games. Wait a minute, she dodged the issue...meh. It's not worth pressing it. She was having as much fun as the kids and Mitzi and everyone else present.

I shrugged and found a seat at a park bench after sweeping the snow off and decided to watch the fun rather than join in it. I know the sensible thing to do is to move around and keep active to stay warm...but nah. I was okay where I was.

A little while later I awoke having curled up into a ball. Then I remembered where I was.

It was a little too quiet at that point.

I got up and trudged across the snowpack until I came across a sizable snowman.

"Heh. I have to say, the kids really put a lot of effort into this." I smirked. Then I noticed.

"...wait a minute...since when does a snow many have mouth and nose holes instead of a carrot stick and a couple pieces of coal..."

Pranking...imminent.

"You've got to be--"

And that's when it started to move and the head shook until...

"You are INSANE!" I about freaked when I saw Jon's muzzle.

"I dare think it's rather lovely."

I stepped back and let him fall to all fours and shake the rest of the snow off of him. Just like a dog.

"Jon, no sane person goes out into snow back in just pants. And I mean JUST pants."

"You forgot the belt, gov'nah."

"Riiiiiiiight..."

"Besides, you're one to talk. Wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants in the middle of summer. Heck, you were pretty covered up the last time we were in the Augustgradian desert. THe only one of us not in shorts and a tee."

"I guess we'll havce to agree to disagree on what's sane."

"Too right, you."

"So...where are the kids at? It's too quiet."

Jon lead on and sure enough at the frozen pond.

"Ice skating. I vaguely remember lessons back in my childhood. Wasn't a pleasant experience. Oddly my ankles were a lot more sore than my back side."

I technically didn't consider it a sport. Not without pads and a hockey stick. Besides. That wasn't the sport I was talking about in an earlier mission log; when I stated I didn't have a good experience playing a sport. No, what I tried was more of a spring/summer type. But I digress.

I watched in curiosity.

"But it looks like Asriel's not having a problem with it. All of them seem to have it down pat and are enjoying it."

At first they were all doing their own thing. Some just casual skating. Some were more skilled at it; Mitzi was among that group. A couple enaged in some races, back and forth.

For as much as I disliked ice, I enjoyed it when others found enjoyment on the ice.

And before long they all joined hands in a chain. I felt I had seen this somewhere before. But I couldn't figure out where. By the yellow, black-zig-zag-striped shirt of the bald son of a barber, I couldn't figure it out.

"There's a sight that's pleasing to the eyes."

"Yeah. But personally I'd prefer a gorgeous pastural setting." I smirked.

"All down on the farm, yo?"

"You've got to picking up slang from Violet. It's not good for you. Or me."

That's when I noticed a large dog had gotten onto the ice and grabbed hold of tail end of Skeeter's oversized muffer and got into a tug-of war that somehow ended with Skeeter slipping and slidding--sans scarf--across the ice into the trunk of a tree, the impact knocking all the snow off the branches and burying him under it for a moment.

He unearthed himself with an anguished cry that I couldn't make out...but it sounded

like "SCHUUUUUULTZ!"

I looked at Jon and he looked back an shrugged.

Good grief.

Sub-Entry 244: "Hot Cocoa to Warm You to the Core and Stories to Chill You to the Bone":
Well that was my limit. So inside we go.

"Thanks for putting up with my selfish demands, Volt. I know it was torture for you to be out here."

Huh. A bit blunt and a little hard on yourself, Azzy. But...y'know.

"It...wasn't that bad." And I was a terrible liar.

A gathering inside one of the other buildings of the Rabbot Dojo. A little more western influence here. Enough for a fireplace and what I assumed were Southern Ecotropian furnishings.

All that mattered to me that it was cozy warm in here.

Megami provided warm, dry clothes for us while taking care of our wet, snow-laden attire. It was nice. I warmed up by the fire, a thought occured, thinking back to my treks through Hotland. I envisioned the minature volcano monster, Vulkin taking refuge inside the fireplace. I'd seen him before with one of Sans' hot dog's stuck in his er...spout...mouth?

"That really brought me back." Asriel smiled.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"What? What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little caught off guard by someone so young speaking of fond memories. But you're a unique case. You already have 111 years under the belt."

"It's weird, isn't it?"

"Weird...isn't the word. More like..."

"Peculiar?" Violet popped up.

"......"

"Well I know what movie you watched recently, Vi." I folded my arms.

"The last one of these I remember, Chara was still with us. We'd go to Snowdin together. I remember going with her to the library..."

I knew where this was going. I'd encountered the library before in my travels to Snowdin of the stable timelines. I'd also graced it during my interactins in UTPR-3224. I was reassured that Monsters managed to stay educated...yet daunted that they couldn't spell "library" correctly...

"...that's where we found the ancient texts about absorbing souls and crossing the barrier. We stayed out so late that I couldn't keep away. The innkeeper let us stay the night until we could head back home in the morning."

I smiled.

"I like it when you can relate to happy memories of your past. Of your family."

"I like it, myself." Asriel nodded. "The only thing really missing is--"

Asriel stopped short and sniffed a little.

At first I was confused until I smelled it too. And it was probably a lot stronger for me than him, being a werewolf and all.

"Is that...?"

"It is!"

At that moment Bunnie had personally brought us all mugs of hot chocolate. Filled to the brim with marshmallows and whipped creme, together.

"Oh yeah...that's the stuff." I said as we all thanked the Major for the drinkable treat.

"Delicious!"

We were all enjoying ourselves. So you got a winter day...well...night; it had already gotten dark...ahem......a winter night, a warm fire, good friends and family, and the best hot chocolate you could ask for. What more was needed to set the atmosphere?

"So. Ghost stories? Campfire stories?" Gadget suggested.

"I'm up for that."

So we all took turns. Some of us told happy ones...

"...and Mandy had her kitten back, safe and sound."

"Thanks to Gadget's Rescue Ran--"

"Violet, where do you get this stuff from?" I rubbed my eyelids. "Next you're going to say there were chipmonks, one in an coat and hat and the other in a Hawaiian shirt?"

Violet just grinned. "I don't have to. You did it for me."

"Dammit, Vi."

To funny stories...

Rick "Beach Bear" Bailey did a funky little dance as he narrated.

"...and Slew Foot's butt was going doodle-loooooo! Doodle-looooo...!"

"Skeeter! Why do you keep laughing every time someone says butt? Chara used to do the same thing."

To ones that probably shouldn't have been told...

"...and she sh--(FLOWEY CACKLE) on a turtle!"

I facepalmed. I don't know whether it was Jon's "English-English" that was annoying me or the fact that Violet put him up to quoting Austin Powers: Goldmember.

But it wasn't until Violet decided to tell the story once done by John Candy's character in the Great Outdoors that I could tell things went a little too far and got a little too scary.

Gadget pulled the covers up over her face, just under her eyes and trembled. Asriel clung to me. By this time Jon was about biting his claws and his teeth were most certainly chattering.

I knew Violet was a big girl so I didn't object when she treated herself to "liquid courage", as long as it was in moderation. We didn't need a repeat of the time Violet was thrown out of a bar for one too many carrot daiquiris and played "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band following a bad breakup (before she met Miyamoto Usagi).

What I should've thought of was what she did with the remainder of the glass full of alcoholic beverage she DIDN'T drink by the time she finished her story.

"...so...when you go to bed at night...if you hear scratching at the door. Don't...answer it..."

All of the kids' eyes were wide as dinner plates by that point.

"BECAUSE IT COULD BE A BEAR!" Violet suddenly shrieked and tossed her liquor into the fireplace causing a huge flare which lit up the whole room with a flash and belched a huge fire blast up the chimney.

Screams went up as Asriel yanked his ears over his eyes and Gadget pulled the covers up over her head, Skeeter fell off his chair, and Jon dove under the table in the other room.

"VIOLET NO BAKA!" Bunnie roared.

"You idiot!" Mitzi snapped.

By the time I recovered from Violet risking burning the whole damn building down.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?!?"

"Whaaaaat? It's a story!"

"I about had a heart attack, Vi!"

"Not cool, dudette.  Some of us happen to BE bears.  Insensitive rabbit..." Beach Bear left the room and the building. "I'm outta here, guys. See you at work."

"Wait for me, B.B.!" Mitzi followed with Foxy beside her.

"I won't be able to sleep for a month."

"Big brotherrrrrr!" Gadget and Asriel held onto me tightly, shivering and crying.

"We will have a talk about this, you know." I glared as we all went our ways and tried...key word being TRIED...to get some sleep.

"...so I made its fangs a little bigger and bloodier..." Violet crossed her arms and pouted, before making herself comfortable on the sofa and pulled the quilts over herself.

Sub-Entry 245: "Search for Frisk":
I've been debating for a long time if I should starting bringing my second or third in command with me. The former because I had so much trust in her. The latter because she already knew as much or more about the Underground from hacking my data. In the end I decided to keep going solo. If anything forced my hand, I'd bring them in on it. For now...I was keeping it one-sided.

There was only one question on my mind: where is Frisk?

They'd been able to stay under my radar for so long. With every revisit to this territory, it got more and more a coincidence that I'd not run into them since my first encounter with Undyne.

This was when I remind myself, as a time traveler, there are no coincidences; only the illusion of them. Everything happens according to Lady Destiny's and Madam Fate's plans. I wasn't sure which, however, was scarier--when they disagreed with each other...or when they agreed with each other. There was always a catch, regardless of who got their way. And all too often when Destiny got her way, Fate would wait for her chance to undermine it.

"Damn...I'm starting to wish I had taken Muffet up on her offer to have her spiders search for Frisk."

I wasn't fond of the idea that Frisk could be actively avoiding me; I knew they were avoiding seeing Asgore. The question was...why?

"Why are you not seeing this through? You must've reset, true reset, and erased hundreds of times. Did Sans already confront you about taking away happy endings?"

That was a thought I wasn't keen on. I wasn't sure which AU it was, but I I recall Sans striking a deal with the weed to put an end to the Resets. That meant sending him to find Gaster...and that meant he had to have a soul to do so. What it ultimately boiled down to was...taking Frisk out once and for all. This was one of the reasons I didn't fully trust Sans. In many, many a timeline he and Frisk would be friends. It was the other ones that cast the shadow of doubt.

Until I could figure out which Sans this timeline ended up with? I considered him a two-faced Janus, for any readers familiar with mythology and the Ancient Greek Gods. And if I couldn't get his complete support, then my efforts toward a better pacifist ending was incomplete.

So where to start?

I touched down at the runs, yet again, combed my way through. And then I checked on Toriel from beyond the veil of time and space. I didn't want to explain how I got to the other side of the ruins without backtracking through her cellar and house.

"That's strange...the writing on the switches are all back to normal. And the Froggits are behaving normally, again."

In fact there was no sign of the micro-glitches. Everything was back to the way it was.

I phased into Toriel's house and looked around for her.

"Well, Toriel...what mood are you going to be in today?"

To my relief I saw her writing new skeleton puns in her diary in the longest while. It was still up in the air whether this timeline would result in "Soriel" or "Tori-Gorey". As much as I wanted Asriel's parents back together I was not about to stand in the way of things if it did end up being the former. It was her choice. You already put your cards on the table to ship them back together. All you can do is wait.

I slipped out of the ruins. Sans was asleep at his sentry post. Doggo was exactly when I had left him last time I was here...and still smoking dog treats.

I passed Doggamy and Doggaressa. Since I already smelled like a dog (or *ahem* similar canine species), they let me walk on by without question. I decided to search through Snowdin Town.

"Ollie-Ollie-Oxen-Free! Frisk, where are youu?"

Not at Grillby's. Not at the Skeleton Brothers (plus Undyne). Not at the Inn. Not at the Librarby...er...Library.

"Not here? Huh."

I pressed on to Waterfall. Dropped off another CD at Napstablook's. This time it was one of Sally's mashups.

"...come...again......if it's not too much trouble...I mean..."

"It's never too much trouble, Napstablook."

I really liked that little ghost. I wondered where Dummy Ghost and Mad Dummy Ghost were at the moment. I had neglected to include the former when writing one of my previous lab notes on the ghosts of the Underground. Which brings the total I knew about up to four, counting Napstablook and Hapstablook AKA Mettaton.

By that time I needed to take a load off so I dropped in on Gerson.

Puke-green-yellowish turtle monster. Crooked teeth. Yellow eye. His right eye seemed to be constantly swollen shut, probably from permanent injury. Wore a tan safari outfit with a bwana explorer hat. The image brought to mind the kind of English huntsmen who'd visit Africa. There was also something about his attire that harkened back to the rifle-wielding huntsman from Jumanji.

Something about his voice reminded me of...coincidentally enouhg, the Turtle Hermet, Master Roshi. Yeeeeeah...I'd better quit while I'm ahead. Let's not drag THAT anime world into this.

"Woah there! I got some junk for sale!"

I looked over his wares. I wasn't really set on buying. I really should to at least sweeten the pot a little. Maybe he'd be more generous with his info if I at least bought something.

But just my luck...nothing of interest. Didn't feel like investing in a crab apple or sea tea. And it looked like Frisk had already purchased both the Cloudy Glasses and the Torn Notebook. I thought of the child with the purple soul; the one aligned with Perserverence.

It made me think how backed into a corner Asriel must've felt when he couldn't understand why Chara would betray him like that. Why she'd try to kill him. He was so driven to survive, but not for his own sake...for all our ours. He was thinking of us...what losing him would do to us. He was scared but compelled to survive to protect us.

"You seem like a sagely kind of a guy. Hopefully you're the best person to get advice from."

"I've been around a long time. Maybe too long. Studying history sure is easy when you've lived through so much of it yourself! Wa ha ha!"

I was curious about other things. I had a feeling I wasn't going to catch up to Frisk this quickly. So I decided to collect information and compare it to my database.

"So about the Royal Crest--"

"Eh? You don't know what that is? What are they teaching you kids in school nowadays...? Wa ha ha! That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom. The Kingdom... Of Monsters. Wahaha! Great name, huh? It's as I always say... Ol' King Fluffybuns can't name for beans!"

I gathered that from Asgore based on how everything in the kingdom was named.

"Eh...yeah, I know the name but, I was hoping to get more insight on its meaning--"

"That emblem actually predates written history. The original meaning has been lost to time... All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes... Somethin' else. Most people say it's the 'angel,' from the prophecy..."

"Angel..." My gaze lowered. The debate whether the angel was Frisk, Chara, or Asriel plagued my mind. I subscribed to the theory it represented Asriel. Others would be able to argue for Frisk or for Chara, depending on which timeline ran its course.

"So...the Prophecy--"

"Oh yeah... The prophecy. Legend has it, an 'angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom. Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook... Callin' that circle the 'Angel of Death.' A harbinger of destruction, waitin' to 'free' us from this mortal realm... In my opinion, when I see that little circle... I jus' think it looks neat! Wahaha!"

Darnit, Gerson, stop cutting me off. You're presuming I'm a first-timer down here. I could ask him to explain that again just to troll him, but I knew it would backfire and he'd tell me to read a book.

"Speaking of King Asgore--"

"King Fluffybuns? He's a friendly, happy-go-lucky kind of guy... If you keep walking around long enough, you'll probably meet him. He loves to walk around and talk to people. Eh? Why do I call Dreemurr 'Fluffybuns?' Oh, that's a great story! ... I don't remember it. But if you come back much later, I'm sure I'll have remembered by then."

Fat chance. He didn't even remember I visited him previously.

"Anway....about Undyne--"

"Undyne? Yeah, she's a local hero around here. Through grit and determination alone, she fought her way to the top of the Royal Guard. Actually, she just came through here asking about someone who looked just like you... I'd watch your back, kid. And buy some items... It might just save your hide! Wa ha ha!"

Kid? He needs those glasses more than Frisk does. And for that matter he was a little late on--

I stopped short.

Wait a minute. Asked about someone who looked like me? Undyne came through here AHEAD of me? How did she pull that off? Was she really that fast out of her armor? I suppose if she factored strength into the equation she could make jumps like the Incredible Hulk and clear some pretty sizeable distance. But why would she be looking for me? Did she have a lead on Frisk?

"Anyway...what I really need to ask is if the human child has come through here?"

"Eh? Oh that little nipper? Can't quite remember but...they might have come through here...it might have been a few times. But you see one striped shirt you've seen em' all."

Then Frisk WAS commuting back and forth all over the Underground. Now how to catch up with them.

"Well...I guess that's all I need to ask. Uh...thanks for the information."

" Be careful out there, kid!"

How young DID I look, for crying out loud? I probably should be flattered, rather than insulted but...I guess I'm channeling that part of young adult life where we get a little tired of being called "kid" and start being treated like an elder. Maybe be on a first name basis more often than not; saying "Mister" and "Missus" at my apparent age still felt awkward.

I checked my chronometers. Yeah...it was getting late out. Time to reel the line in and pack up the tacklebox. I'll resume this next mission out.

So I set a Save Marker just in front of Temmie Village and had Kommand recall me.

Sub-Entry 246: "Mon Chi-Chi's vs. Paw Paw Bears":
"VIOLET!!!"

There are a number of things Violet does that gets under my skin. But it's the ones that nip a little too close to my line of work as an agent of S.T.C. that endanger my constantly shifting reputation that really tick me off.

"Stop hacking the gateways! Every time you do, you bring someone or something else to our realm that we have to waste valuable time rounding them up!"

"Awww! They're adorable!" Asriel knelt down and waved to one of the two sets of beings that Violet had brought into the lab.

"My name is Too-Too! And you're just too-too adorable, yourself!" The female mon chi-chi looked up and responded with a spritely, giggly voice.

"I'm Asriel! Where are you from? Are those other creatures your friends, too?"

"From Monchia! I've never seen them before in my life. But it looks like the others are having a hard time getting a long with them."

"...do you work for Dark Paw? Answer me!" Brave Paw challenged.

"Who's Dark Paw? Maybe you're with Grumplor and his Grumplings!"

"Goddammit, Vi. You've turned this into a war zone between the Paw Paw Bears and the Monchichi's!"

* CRASH*

"Violet..." I growled. "Did a Totem Pole just come to life and separate into spirit animals?"

"Ehhhhh..."

"Times like this make me start to see things from Al Dente's persective."

"Don't even joke about that. If he had his way this place would look like the Apple computer commercial from the early 80's. You know the one. With the drone workers, the oppressive man on the giant monitor and the woman who swings a giant hammer and throws it through the screen.  Then the next thing you know we're goose-stepping and giving the Spaceballs salute."

To accentuate Violet gave that rude jester...you know the one and ended with a silly wave.

"Vi...how do you come up with references that may or may not be questionably before your time? Then again..."

"Heeey. No age jokes, pay. You're one to talk, Mr. Several Billion Lifetimes. I can't even be sure how much of an exhaggeration that is or if it's completely accurate."

"You're better off not knowing. Now what are we going to do about this?!"

"Everyone! Everyone! Calm yourselves and stand down!" Wise Paw pleaded for order.

"This fighting is getting us nowhere!" Wizzar, similarly tried to reign in the insanity.

"Maybe I should have a talk with your tribal leaders." Asriel offered as he was joined by Princess Paw Paw.

"That might be a good idea."

"Violet, this is hardly the worst thing you've ever done but it ranks up there."

* KA-WHUMPH*

"Okay...when Ben 10 does it, it doesn't bug me as much because it ticks Asmyth off a lot more. But when monkeys and bears do it--"

* ZARK*

"VIOLET! This little fight between cuddly animals is beginning to give me the RED A--(FLOWEY CACKLE)!"

"Did you say "Red Ash" Whatever happened to Inafune's second project--"

"Stop dodging the issue and--

That was when I noticed the noise suddenly died down and I heard conversation. And then I saw both races crowded around Asriel.

"See? Nothing to worry about. Our little prince has everything under control."

"Then it's agreed? Do we need to draw up a treaty or something? Dad...King Asgore never quite walked me through the ins and outs of diplomacy."

"I think you did just too-too well!"

"Agreed!"

And with that as Too-Too and Princess Paw Paw perched on each shoulder, each gave goat son a kiss on each cheek at the same time.

"D'aaaaaaw!" Asriel blushed deep red before quickly getting his ears stroked. Which of course lead to a lengthy period of bleating.

After a bit of time and a celebration both races headed off to their respective gateways.

"You know for a sequel, I was thinking a Smurfs and a Snorks mashup--"

* THWAP*

"That's enough out of the peanut gallery."

"I don't have to dress as Azriel the Cat again, do I?"

Sub-Entry 247: "Get the Picture Revival":
There's just no limit to Violet's appreciation for nostalgia. I'd seen hints of it in her game quiz tribute to the Wizard. It was a matter of time before she went full-on gameshow host.

For the last couple of weeks she'd find some old school game show to revive and pick something out of the past. The better ones included Double Dare, Finders Keepers, and Nick Arcade. The ones many of us tried to avoid included Match Game, Press Your Luck, and for some reason Turn Ben Stein On. I think we all gave Violet a lot of head trauma for that one.

I wonder which one she found this time?

"Okay, Vi. I guess we've braced ourselves."

"Do be kind to us."

"Today's mystery gameshow revival for this one time only is....!"

I had to hand it to Violet. Her flair for showmanship was admirable. And her unwavering confidence only drove it home. I think when she was in this mode, she was her most "Mettaton" self. Of course one could argue that because she was also encouraging us to embrace science, mathematics, anime, and all things nostalgic, she was also in her most "Alphys" self.

Now that's a scary thought. Alphys' vast knowledge and geekdom combined with Mettaton's flamboyant (if not a little self-absorbed) showstopping talent. And yet around her friends (and her enemies) she'd always downplay it to the point of seeming far less capable and far more obnoxious than she really was. It was being able to hide how impressive she was that made her the shrewd buisnesswoman and active matriarch of the Tokugawa family.

Violet opened the doors the the room in question. Every time we entered, it was completely and I mean COMPLETELY overhauled from the ground up.

Violet pulled out her smart phone and called up an app with a single old-timey Frankenstein Power Switch on the interface.

"Really, Vi?" Bunnie crossed her arms.

"C'mon. Appreciate my flair for effect."

Violet slid her finger upward, throwing the "switch" with a spray of digital sparks and powering up noises. At the same time that was happening all of the lights in the room came on. It was then I noticed the 4 x 4 wall of 16 square flat-screens. And from that wall lead hoses and pipes to a controller box in front of it. The contestant teams shared a combined buzzer podium unit. Each team had their own LED matrix scoreboard behind them with a massive transluscent circuit plate backdrop behind the boards.

In fact the entire motif of the whole room looked like the inside of the world's most flashiest computer motherboard. Printed circuit board patterns, wires, cables, and components.

Violet took her place at the podium in front of a giant-sized microchip tablet wall with bundles of hoses coming out of each side. The face of which was emblazened with the gameshow's logo.

I was too flabberghasted to comment. Not because I was irate at her. No. This time because I was absolutely tickled pink over her choice.

I ask life to throw me bone quite often. Yet I'm never prepared for when it actually does.

If you haven't gathered it by now...then let me spell it out: I was SO a fan of this gameshow. I was not usually one to like gameshows because of my philosophy against competition...but this one always made me forget it was a competition. I loved the theme of it. I loved the look of it. I loved the sounds of it. I loved the concept and structure of it. Heck, even the host was pretty cool. And I was always hanging on ever square uncovered on the screen, waiting to hear those two words that about sent me into an excited frenzy...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

"Iris, run my intro!" Violet grinned.

Iris began the playback of the old voice clip from the show, modified to insert Vi's name and gender into it.

"To gain the right perspective, you need to be selective; Connect-The-Dots is your objective. It's tiiiiiiime...to GET THE PICTURE!    (Music Link)

And now here's your host for the Get The Picture Revival, a gal with such a sunny disposition, rainclouds carry a picture of her in their wallets! Here's my gal, Violet Tokugawaaaa!"

"Oh brother..."

"Nantekotta..." Bunnie muttered under her breath. Then she put a copper piece into Asriel's swear jar.

"Vi's giving you a real potty mouth lately, Major."

"Don't start."

"Well let's get things started. To shake things up let's split up the brains of our little group. Yellow team, that's the Commander and Buns. Orange Team, that's Gadget and Azzy!"

Well...I didn't see that coming. That meant I'd be competing against Gadget.

A quick explaining of the rules for the newbies while skipping the introductions (since we all knew each other).

The first round was "Connect The Dots". Basically what that amounted to was that the 16 monitors were numbered sequentially superimposed over top of them. We were giving the single clue that "It's an animal".

For each correct answer to the general knowledge question, that team would uncover a square of their choosing. Underneath would be a portion of the connected dots picture.

There was one wild card I was chomping at the bit to see, though. I was hoping we'd be lucky enough to see it.

Knowing VIolet she'd probably reach into her grab bag of science and nostalgia questions. This was going to be a piece of cake...or so I thought. Wouldn't you know she'd switch things up and open the entire knowledge database and pull everything from world history to current pop culture to...ugh...sports. But at least she did include math, science, and anime in the mix. I just wasn't prepared for how random the mix would be.

It wasn't until she asked a trick question that Asriel got it.

"...a coffee cake doesn't contain COFFEE!"

You ever get that one cooking question that's so obvious that it's not? And when you realize how simple the answer is, you just feel like an idiot? Welcome to my world at this moment in time.

"Correct! Pick a square."

Asriel discussed with Gadget for but a moment before answering...

"Eleven."

His age. Of course. Well. He's good for a small victory--"

And suddenly the square opened up with a massive sound like a machine charging up fast as the red hoops lining the columns on each side of the monitor bank started flickering madly. Every light and circuit path in the entire room went haywire! I looked upon the image that had appeared: two electric pylons with an arc of lightning between them. As I read the two words emblazened across, Violet's exited scream hammered it home.

"POWER SUUUUUUUUUUUURGE!!!!!!!"

How long had it been since I saw this happen. My excitement was peaked. I almost didn't care that it was the other team scoring it.

What this basically meant was that Asriel and Gadget had won a bonus chance to double their score with a mini game.

If they succeeded they'd not only double their score but uncover a square of the REAL picture behind the connect-the dots image.

To really drive home how much of a game-changer this was (literally), if they correctly guessed the picture, they'd add a whopping 50 to their already doubled score, making the first round a clean sweep.

The mini-game that Violet selected turned out to be "It's Raining Pictures". Basically what that meant was pieces of a set of four pictures were broken up into squares and they dropped down like a game of Tetris. It was up to Gadget and Asriel to guess each picture before the image completed.

As it turned out, Asriel had been practicing with Tetris. Between him and Gadget, alternating guesses, the two of them nailed all four images. And by that point...

"Did Violet say she split up the two brains of our group?" I muttered to Bunnie.

"Humility is good for the soul. There is no shame in acknowledging the younger generation has a leg up on us on some things."

Why bother arguing when you know she's right? At least it couldn't get any--

"Want to take a guess at the picture?" Violet said as she uncovered the square.

Gadget and Asriel looked at each other and answered in unison. "Is it a rabbit?"

And with that the whole image uncovered of all things a white rabbit.

Okay. This is the point where I was tempted to bend the fourth wall a bit and ask if the person who might be reading if they agree with me that this first puzzle was rigged. But then I remind myself to keep this mission log professional.

Why does is it that competition has a way of stinging enough to make you forget to have fun? I think in a way all games are like that when your opponent isn't a computer program that doesn't care about winning or losing.

Since this puzzle was solved early, Vi put up a second Dots image and the round continued; the clue being "It is food".

That was when luck shifted in our favor. The one advantage OUR generation had above all others against Asriel and Gadget's above...was experience. And that came easy for when you lived through the times.

One correct answer and I boldly chose square number 3, my long-time lucky number. This time it was our turn to get the Power Surge. With that Bunnie and I approach the inderactive video podeum that rose out of the trap doors in front of the monitor control box.

I knew this bonus round. It was "Off The Charts" It was a pyramid-shaped take on crossword. This would definitely get an interesting reaction from Sans and Papyrus. In 30 seconds we had to circle four of five hidden words in the pyramid. Picture clues lined each side.

Luckily the animal theme carried over from the last puzzle.

I handed the stylus over to Bunnie, knowing she was quicker with a pen...or caligraphy brush, whichever was the case. And with 7 seconds to spare, we crushed the challenge.

"Hmm." Bunnie smirked as she twirled the stylus between her fingers.

"Wow." Gadget blinked.

"I know, right?" Asriel wasn't that suprised by his sensei's skill.

And with that a piece of the real picture was revealed. Oh come on Vi. You're making this too easy.

"Pizza." Bunnie and I said flatly.

And low and behold we caught up to Azzy and Gadget like that.

Another picture later and Azzy and Gadget pulled ahead.

Before we knew it, Round 2 was underway. With this round, a minor change in order to slow the process: no further connect the dots. Each panel held a square of the real picture.

This time it was just "Dots". In a way it reminded me of a the stage selects from the simulations made based on Rock's adventures when he and Pit were still N-Division members. A total of 25 numbered dot lights at each intersecting corner of each monitor bank, forming a total of 40 line segements all together between the numbers.

Each correct answer started with two lines connect then from there three lines. Each square that was completely outlined was uncovered.

Suffice to say Bunnie and I managed to claw our way back up and get the lone Power Surge.

I got to attempt one of my favorites, "Toss Across" A variation on the old cook out game where you tried to throw hacky-sacks into a target with holes. Only this time they weren't hacky sacks but foam rubber computer chips. And instead of holds they were more like flip panels on spindles. THe object was to pitch one chip into each of the 9 targets within 30 seconds. With each successful target we nailed, a piece of a new picture would be revealed. But to lock it in we still had to correctly guess the answer.

And this time the picture started out of focus. But no worries. "Carrot smoothie." Bunnie spoke up.

Nice.

My confidence had never been on such a roller coaster ride like this before.

Azzy and Gadget soon caught up with a second puzzle.

But time ran short by the third one and try as we might, Asriel and Gadget ended up ahead of us. Which mean they were going to the Bonus Round.

What do you know? My ego wasn't that bruised. And...I did have a lot of fun. Maybe I should rethink my stance on competition......yeah, another day.

So I knew what was coming next. The Bonus Round, known as Mega Memory. By that time I noticed the control box in front of the monitor bank had opened up and revealed a giant touch tone phone keypad. An electrified splash border took up seven of the monitor banks, leaving the nine in the lower left corner for the numbers 1 through 9.

It was simple. Ten second to memorize 9 pictures in the nine monitors, remembering which number goes with which picture and 45 seconds to press the number key on the giant keypad corresponding to the correct picture for each question asked. Violet gave the theme...which happened to be classic NES games. Oh boy. Kinda cruel to given them both something before their time.

I recognized every screenshot on the board. Best of luck, best friend, you were going to--

It started before I could complete my thought. And to my surprise Gadget and Asriel took turns like a dynamo, not only remembering each picture, but recognizing the answer to each question almost right away.

When it was over my jaw dropped. H...how?!

"Asriel...what...has Violet been teaching you when you drop by Computer Valhalla?"

He just grinned sheepishly.

"Gadget?" I turned to my little sister.

All she did was just giggle.

Bunnie just pat me on the shoulder.

"Remember. Humility is a virtue."

How can I forget?

Sub-Entry 248: "Sally's Smarts":
Sally's been back for a while but the lack of action, specifically UCIAT missions available were making her a bit antsy. Several times she was about ready to bounce around town like a pinball to take the edge off. One thing I an honestly say about her; she did not like to stay idle. Sally would get along great with Papyrus and Undyne. The former because she was no lazy bones. The latter because of how tomboyish the both of them were.

"Sally?"

"Oh. Hey, Commander. Got a moment?"

"Sure. It's odd to see you just hanging around the Fountain. Usually you don't like staying idle for long. You tend to get antsy when you don't have missions or DJ gigs to go on."

"Yeah...not really feeling it today."

"Well it goes without saying, but...want to talk about it?"

I sat down with her.

"It's a rare thing when I get philosophical."

"I've come to notice that. The time I've gotten to know you, you've been very instinctive.  You normally don't like to overthink things...like I do.  You just think it through once and bam.  You've already got a plan."

"Well I trust my instinct a lot more than I did way back then. But I still balance between what I can plan and what I can sense."

"So...what's the problem."

"I think that IS the problem. I...didn't want to admit it but I think Chara-Wraith cut a little close to the bone when she peeked into my fears and regrets."

"Sally, I don't think any of us have really gotten over that. She cut us all deep. Some of us are less willing to talk about it than others. Compared to what you all went though, my paralyzing fear makes me feel like such an embarrassing coward."

"Commander, watching a fellow child asphyxiate from a deadly allergy--when you're a child yourself--is nothing to feel shamed over. It just happened to be a bee that caused their death; and now that's what you connect your fear to."

"Huh. I thought you were coming to me for advice." I mused.

"Yeah..."

"Come on, Sally. Start from the beginning."

"I guess that is the place to start. And it begins with daddy issues. My father...was a noble man but...very patriarchal."

"Which today's society would call bordering on misogynist."

"Let's not go there. The point is, he had decided that my brother, Elias was next in line for the throne. I would have my place but if I ever married, the lesser probability would be that I'd wed another kingdom's prince."

"But...?"

"But the more likely probability would have been that it would be an arranged marriage....to Antoine D'Cooliette."

"Just...ouch." I winced hard.

"I don't even wan't to know how our titles would be amended. I mean...for a marriage to be even considered that early on, when Antoine was only trained as a squire and had not yet even been sent to the military academy...and I was four years younger than him. Even at that young an age I knew a bad life's path when I heard it."

"I see."

"To keep him appeased I kept diligent in my studies. So much so I had convinced myself I wanted to be an intellectual. I tried too hard. I outshone the other students so effortlessly. The teachers loved me because I was smarter than they were. A number of my classmates hated me because of how bad I must've made them look by comparison."

"Oh yeah...that story. Sounds like a story Dad...Garfield used to tell me about his college friends. One of the students was a prodigy, much like Miles. Fifteen years old and accepted into this tech school to pursue his study of lasers. His room mate was a physics legend, three years before then. It was the story of the parents who dressed their kid up in button-up shirts and Hushpuppies shoes and made them carry a briefcase, guaranteeing that a girl would never talk to him. And for those three years he studied all the time."

"Uh. Nice story...but it doesn't really apply to me as much as you think."

"Sorry. Went off on a tangent."

"I was so determined to be someone I only thought I wanted to be. I just didn't know it. I just couldn't understand why...HE...kept undermining me."

"Ohhhh. I see. Your mutual friend. So...you're at a crossroad. Caught up between who you think you should be and who you feel you should be."

"The fall of the kingdom tore my world apart and burned it to the ground. Then Vortex Labs tried to rip my heart from my chest...metaphorically."

"Knowing them they would have tried to do so literally. Sadistic Hellbeasts."

Since meeting Asriel, and even after he had fully become a Hybrid, I stopped using the word "monster" to describe people who did horrible things without remorse. I tried to avoid use of "demon" and "devil" as well. But that was beside the point.

I looked off to the side.

Okay my adoptive family did teach me better about turning the other cheek when it came to confronting the ones who tore your life apart and nearly ended your life...but nowhere did they say I couldn't take a moment to be pissed off about it when I needed to. Or be more pissed off about the people that caused your friends pain and suffering. It wasn't the country of Vorostov that was twisted. It was the individuals that made these things happened; they knew what they were doing. And not only did they NOT care. They enjoyed every minute of it. In the end they got what was coming to them.

Sally looked up at me.

"I rewrote my entire life based on a philosophical whim. I just decided that if you can't beat em', join em'. And so I stopped having a love-hate relationship with our mutal friend and just...started waiting for him to come back...maybe on the foolish notion that we could have a love-love relationship."

"Sally..."

"Commander, that was the only reckless choice I made in my life; one without a plan, and one without any direction or vision for where I was going to go, what I was going to do, and how I was going to do it."

"Sally. Don't start doubting yourself. I do that enough for the whole team."

"I prided myself on my smarts once...now I just live for the thrills of living to life's extremes."

"Well...at least you don't live life's extremes without regard to safety protocols or plans."

"Oh, don't drag Ripper into this. We'll never be able to get back on topic."

"It'd be kinda hard to drag him into this until he gets that ankle bracelet off from his house arrest following the last disturbance he caused."

Okay that was a lame joke.

"You know what I mean, Commander." Sally put her knuckles to her hips.

"You're smiling."

"I know. And I hate it." She pretended to pout. Where had I heard THIS before?

"Sally. Don't regret your intelligence. They might not be used in the way you'd hope they'd be...as a scientist, technician, engineer, or other. You channel it in ways I can't even begin to attempt. Remember when you came up with a six-fold plan in a matter of seconds, in the heat of battle, relayed it to us almost as quickly and we executed it in the remainder of the minute, scoring a massive victory over Natural Selection?"

"In the span of 90 seconds, we took out their base's armory, command center, barracks, torture labs, and communications hub, AND freed all their prisoners." Sally agreed. "I guess that was one of my finer moments...but it was still a team effort."

"Well there you go.  A plan for the ages.  No one could have come up with something that crazy let along something that executed even close to that fast.  You're doing a fine job." I smiled. "Listen...if you feel like you have issues with the late King Maximillian Acorn; like you feel like you only chose this life to spite him and have the last word, don't feel bad about it. It's your life. He doesn't control you. And really...it shouldn't even be about spite. It's about being happy with where you're at. And letting your friends be happy with you."

"You're right."

"Now come on. Let's not let Asriel see his favorite superhero down."

"Right again, Commander. Only one thing. I know Nikita added a twin grappling induction tether system to my Tengu Suit, but could you PLEASE get Violet to stop singing that song when I practice using it. You know the one."

"Song?"

"...I really gotta sing it?"

I shrugged.

Sally rubbed her temples then cleared her throat.

"Spider-Sal, Spider-Sal, doing anything like a spider-gal. Climb up walls, how bout' that? Doing tricks like a spider-acrobat. Look out it's the Spider-Saaaaaal."

I covered my mouth to suppress the chortle. I had to admit, she was not that bad of a singer. But Willamina could still sing circles around her, being a famous pop star back in Technopolis.

"Hah-hah-hah, Commander. It is to laugh." Sally crossed her arms.

Sub-Entry 249: "Raxis Arena":
"Howdy, Volt. Where are you off to?"

Like clockwork Asriel showed up at my door right as I was leaving.

"Heading to Raxis."

"The snowy kingdom?"

"In so many words." I wrinkled my snoot.

"But...you hate snow, ice, and the cold. Why would you go to a place more wintery than here in town?"

"Well, every year I do general maintenance on Raxis Arena. Its scoreboards, Jumbo-tron monitors, lights, P.A. system and of course its state-of-the-art Hard Light Holo-projection battlefield."

"Battlefield? You mean...where people do a lot of fighting?"

"Yeah...I never quite got the appeal of competition. From my perspective it's a gamble for public recognition or humiliation. They say that overcoming tough competition earns respect and forges friendships but...I never really felt that way. With my ego as fragile as it is, I was always afraid of getting my butt kicked...or worse the other guy getting his butt kicked and feeling bad about afterward."

"Better lover than a fighter?" Asriel asked.

"Not even going to ask where you heard that expression. But under ideal circumstances, yeah. Birds of a feather flock together, huh?"

"But we're not birds and we don't have......oh. Another figure of speech, right?"

"You're learning." I said with a wink.

"Ready to go?" Mitzi pulled up in the CMD-X, having put its convertable top back up; a mod I personally installed. Bunnie was with her.

"Miss Mitzi! You're barely dressed for winter weather!" Mitzi was in her casual Toxic Audio tee and jeans with her star-buckle sandals. She wasn't even wearing her Showbiz Pizza Place jacket.

"It's all good. Check it out." Mitzi pointed to the Thermal Belt.

"Sometimes I wish Odie would have made two of those." I crossed my arms and fumed.

"What's that?"

"That's her Thermal Belt. It basically functions as a Varia Suit. When she wears it, Mitzi is not only able to survive dangerously sub-zero climates and dangerously super volcanic climates, she can do so in comfort. The field it projects keeps every part of her from ear tips to toes completely in her most comfortable temperature range. And it also boosts her defensive ability somewhat."

"Wow."

We were soon off to the airport. It was a short flight to Raxis, compared to flying across the world to Kaeleron.

We touched down, got our gear in order. And I immediately felt nothing but contempt for the climate.

"Dear gods...it gets worse every year..." I grumbled. Global warming? WHAT global warming? Someone better slurry up the roads, because the salt is very real.

"It's...colder than back home." Asriel was beginning to wonder if he was bundled up enough. I had my electric blanket undergarments cranked to the top capacity I dared go without risk of setting me or my clothes on fire.

And while I wasn't giving Mitzi dirty looks, I was SO tempted to. I REALLY wanted to. I just wasn't that mean.

As a courtesy we dropped by Lord Jaimas' castle. Violet jokingly called it "Ironforge". I think she's playing too much World of Warcraft lately.

The detail of guards showed us in. We found our favorite frost king in of all places...

"Brings back memories doesn't it?"

"It does. You don't forget when you're poisoned on the first attempt at your wedding day. Even if you forget the rest of it due to being in a temporary coma."

"Which ended up putting a bounty on Aurelis' head until we got the whole mess straightened out. And ferreted out the fake one. It caused a major shakeup in the Dragon Council."

"I was there. I was chased by a steam dragon and helped sensei fight a wyrming magically supersized to dragon-sized."

"It was one of the few times we got David on the same page, if not begrudgingly."

"Uhh...I...don't know any of those things."

"That's okay, little monarch. It's--"

"I know. Before my time. I'll understand it in time and annecdotes. Right?"

"Right."

"It's ironic catching you in a moment of nostalgia while I'm thinking about the present and the future." I mused, entertaining a little smugness.

"Instead of the other way around. Don't get too used to it. You'll be back to brooding over past experiences before you know it and I'll be there to help you out of deep waters."

"Just go with it my student."

"Him or me?" Asriel and Mitzi asked in unison.

"Both."

"Well. I don't mean to hold you up. Let's head over to the arena and see how she's held up since the last arena tournament."

And after a trek across snow and ice covered territory to said arena...

"Is everything in this world so BIG?" Asriel scanned his gaze in a full circle around the rows and rows and rows of seats in the massive coliseum.

"After a while, for us it just seems kinda quaint." Lord Jaimas looked on with his daughter Zoe in his company. She kept mostly quiet, not really having much to say.

Bunnie had made her way down to the field. A platform lifted up with massive alloy metal struts over a massive drop into a icy, watery splash down below. Talk about your ring-outs. At the moment the field was COMPLETELY bare. And I mean FEATURELESS. Whatever came to mind when I say as blank as a slate is as accurate as it gets. But that was about to change...provided I could get this rig hopped up.

I entered the command center control room. Dark. Dusty. A few cob-webs. Frost on the walls.

"Not a good sign." I said as I tried to get the power on.

After a while. "Cables are frozen up. Gonna have to do some work in here."

I got my tools out, started defrosting and changing out high density power cables and replacing cracked motherboards and power conduits. And before long I had the main power back on.

"That wasn't such a chore, now was it?"

But I was happy for another reason. With the main power back on, the climate systems were back on so before long I had the room cranked to a sunny-and-seventy degree climate. Really I could have cranked it to 80, 90, or a sweltering 100 degrees, but all things in moderation.

Next came the trickier part. WIth the heavy duty circuity repaired, it required a delicate touch for the digital systems.

Several sessions with a logic tester, an oscilloscope, and a frequency counter to check clock signals, followed up with a lot of trial and error and the "glue logic", "I/O", and "Memory" sections were all back up and functional.

That left the CPU core, arithmetic logic unit, high level math coprocessor, and surrounding processing systems. And with that task complete, it was time to fire up the whole system. Violet had provided me with a BIOS update, an overhauled OS, and additional software patches as well as an antivirus suite and network support. Okay maybe it was a little much for the system. In fact I had a theory she had ulterior motives for taking this thing online. But no matter. We were live in 3...2...1...

And before then all the spotlights in the arena came on and all eyes were soon on the Jumbotron screens as it counted down from 10. When it reached zero, it displayed the flag of Raxis, followed by the Royal Crests and a few quick acknowledgements to those who had made the modernized arena possible. It's kind of an ego boost to see your name on a matrix of millions upon millions upon millions of 4K definition digital splendor.

"Woooooow!" Asriel was really impressed.

I picked up the microphone from its stand and made a brief announcement.

"Good evening, all attendees at Raxis Arena! This is your announcer, Volt Arcade coming to you live from this beautifully climate controlled sky box."

"Commander...don't be a a showoff." Bunnie mused.

I got a pretty close up view of her from the camera system. And with the omnidirectional microphone ring around the arena, I got an ear full of it too. I was proud of the the system I had engineered. Every action captured in crisp vibrant color, no "frame-skipping" like those choppy emulators on slow computer systems and every sound, taunt, and grunt captured in only the best hi fidelity sound.

"It gets even more amazing, Asriel. Wait til you see the Commander show you what this place can really do."

"Can I have his Lordship's blessing to take this bird off the ground?"

Jaimas responded with a bold thumbs-up.

"As you command!"

I inserted my activator keys at the same time and turned them at the same time, lighting up the arena's best feature.

I opened up a container containing a set of modified glass microscope slides. Outfitted with micron-layer circuit tracks to form customized connector interfaces. In the center of the slide, where all the tracks converted there was an nano-film receptor cage. The tiny windows slid apart via nano-motors allowing access to it.

I opened a vacuum-sealed case in the wall of the room where countless sealed containers--each code-numbered-- occupied its own cell along side its own medicine dropper. After re-pressurizing the containment vessel and opening it up, snatched one of the bottles and its medicine dropper before sealing the case back up and pumping the air out again.

"The M.E.R.B.I.T. System. Microwave Encapsulated Resonance Buckminsterfuellerine Ion Trapping System--programmable, nano-gel based on the gold old Buckyball. Violet discovered a gold mine when she starting figuring out Scott's quantum processes."

Each bottle of the memory gel was already "programmed". Violet had taken great pains to do so after months and months of 3D motion capture and HD photography, plus a huge amount of research on the chemical and physical properties of countless forms of matter. Both artificial and organic. Plus extensive sessions with Sally and Nikita on static and kinetic physics, moments and load-bearing members, stress factors, and certain rules of thermodynamics and other factors. Basically a whoooole mess of of numbers and vector calculus and real-world mechanics to make one very real (or surreal) experience.

I drew only a drop's worth and squeezed it onto the center of the slide, the tiny windows sealing the gel into its tiny reservoir. With that I opened the main reader unit on the console of the control room and gently fit in the slide, the clamps and shielding locking into place. The whole unit pulled down into the machine.

"Coming to you, live, Major. Hope you're ready for this. I present to you Arena Configuration JN-044." And with that I slapped my palm down on the RUN switch.

Down below changes started happening to the field. It started as wire frame, then vector graphics. A splash of numbers, a few strings of raining computer code, and some scrambled sprites before it started to stablize into a 3D image all around Bunnie.

"Commander..."

Bunnie sounded amused if not a little pleased. Once it was done loading Bunnie found herself amidst an oriental town with temples and castles much like the Earth city of Kyoto, Japan. Bunnie rapped her knuckles against the door of a building. A solid wooden thumping. By far our most advanced hard light projection holography yet.

A step back and a moment of reflection...and then Bunnie suddenly leaped to the rooftops and began her most lavish of ninja parkour practice across the buildings.

"Golly! That's beyond amazing! How did Volt do that?"

"I'm sure he has a good, lengthy explanation, but for now, I'm just going to say: SCIENCE." Mitzi said with a wink.

"Wow! Science is so cool!"

I grinned from the comfort of my reclining, souped-up computer chair.

"Now who's showing off?"

Bunnie donned her grappling spikes and made a speedy climb up the tallest of the castle/temples, letting her scarf flutter in the wind. I had flashback visions of Strider Hiryuu at that point.

Once everyone got a chance to mess around in various holo-settings of their choosing I was satified the arena was in good shape for the next tournament when it came round. I'd be running the scoreboards, lights, display and public address when that happened.

"Have a good time out?"

"Did I ever!"

"Yeah. It wasn't so bad. But...let's get home. Home to where it's marginally warmer."

"Absolutely." Bunnie agreed.

And back to Miranda City we went.

Sub-Entry 250: "Movie Night Take 2":
To quote a certain guy who remembers it so you don't have to...Sequel Month. I speak of course of Movie Night.

"This time, the VARS sisters are choosing the lineup, Vi. So don't even think about--"

I stopped short.

"You've already made additions to the playlist haven't you?"

"Ain't I a stinker?" VIolet grinned as she nibbled on a carrot.

Bunnie put a GP into Asriel's swear jar.

"Sensei? What's this for--"

"Kusottare!" Bunnie growled.

"Oh. Nevermind then."

Violet provided the 4K flatscreen. I think she must buy them in bulk. Mostly to rub our faces in her good fortune; the most obvious method by which she chose to be obnoxious.

Admittedly the last time I commented on a movie night in my logs, I cited a lot of random comments. Considering how out of it we were and how very little I had to work with, I only saved the *ahem*...best parts of our night. Well, hopefully this time there can be a little more coherence. But I'm not a miracle worker. Things just gotta run their course, you know?

So let's run down the lineup of what we were in for.

Violet slipped in quite a few bits and pieces of the Internet. Leading off with something to lower our guards. Something relatively non-offensive. Starting off with Learning to Fly 3: The Penguinterview.

"Aww! So adorable!"

"When did Adventure Time's Gunther agree to an interview?"

Then she slipped in a trailer for Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight.

"I still don't understand your modern video games, Vi...but this looks beautiful!"

"And not really that violent, either."

That brought us to our first main feature, a video from the VARS Laboratory video archive. To say it was a little...dated might be understating just a bit. But it came in the form of a black and white PSA called "X Marks the Spot", warning about the dangers of careless and inconsiderate drivers during war time.

"Did he just acknowledge the narrator? THey were fourth-wall breaking waby back in the old days!" Skeeter chuckled.

"Why does he look like a gangster?"

"So Hell is really just a lengthy session in traffic court?" Chameleon mused.

"But if he's an angel, where are his wings?" Pit scratched his head.

"First base? I thought he was being judged for reckless driving not baseball."

"Taken out of context that could mean something entirely different, Goat Son..."

"Just another name in the physics book?! Jeeze. I couldn't compete if I didn't understand the concepts of momentum." Sally lowered an eyebrow.

Jon jumped to the ceiling and dug his claws into it as soon as the squeal of tires and the crash rang out over the bullhorn speakers.

"!!!!"

"...well...that's a bit macabre. A clock that blares a crash every 20 minutes then advances the count of injuries and/or fatalites." Mitzi blanched.

"That many cars rejected for punk steering gears, dangerous brakes, and bad lights? And we complain about factory recalls these days." Rotor crossed his arms.

"The hypotenuse of a triangle...what the math?" Skeeter frowned.

"Oh! So he's not an angel but a ghost. That makes sense." Pit beamed.

"I...just realized what his punishment is going to be." I grimmaced.

From there a couple more internet memes. I didn't really keep track of them.

The second main feature was an anime feature. Something about a Pet Shop of Horrors...episode 3...Despair, I think?

Violet couldn't help but draw similarities to the Gremlins movies. Mainly if you're going to get a "unique pet", you darn well better follow the rules.

"She's..a Medusa?" Pit wrapped his wings around himself.

By the end of the episode many of us were in tears.

"...that's so tragic!" Asriel and Mitzi had a good cry together.

Violet couldn't help but slip a video in showcasing video games done in the style of that one game...you know the one.

"Gotta catch em' all."

"Okay, Violet...that was actually rather clever." Bunnie conceded.

Which of led us to the inevitable part where Violet blindsided us with our third main feature: Jimquisition's feature on the Cautionary Post-Mortum of Evolve.

"Commander?"

"I got his eyes." I covered Asriel's eyes.

"I got his ears." Bunnie slipped her hands underneath his floppy ears. He was already blushing.

And then we were in for a storm of critical analysis coupled with a couple...shall I say..."deluxe" F-bombs.

After it ended 20 or so minutes later...

"Major."

"Commander."

We each thwapped Violet upside the head on the left and the right at the same time.

"Owww."

"If I hear you repeat any of that, Skeeter, I'm going to wash your mouth out with broccoli."

"Harsh, bro!"

Beyond that the rest of the night was remnants Violet scraped together. From a Cracked After Hours feature on the best and worst Disney Kingdoms to live in to various clips of Hitman. From a MGS5 video featuring Quiet to creeping the heck out of Jon and Mitzi with "If the Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device Short 7: The Imperial Law".

By the time Movie night ended, very few of us were still awake. I was barely conscious enough to watch it close on F-(FLOWEY CACKLE) YOU! IT'S JANUARY!"

And with that, amongst the empty popcorn bowls and drink tumblers, I conked out.

Admittedly this turned out to be a short entry in my personal mission logs...but not every one can be a massive opus of inner monologue or a jaw-dropping account of something crazy going on the square or the Underground.

It is what it is, and I had no regrets leaving off here for now.

Not a bad way to close out the month of January. Chapter 26

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