PLDN Chapter 36

"Chapter 36: A Peaceful Period in the Crossover Wars Closes on a High Note"

Sub-Entry 351:  "From Chaos Incarnate to the King.  Farewell to the Darkners":
I turned the corner and was about to enter Callista's Psi-Research Sub-Lab...when there he was.

It was what felt like the longest exchange of eye-to-eye glances..

"You know."

A nod.

"Well.  I'll explain as best I can..."

Asriel and I went inside where Callista and Bunnie were waiting.

It was...an awkward explanation…it was an unusual explanation...it was one heck of a detailed explanation. Sometime later, I finally finished up.

"Well...I guess I can excuse why you didn't invite me along for this.  But..."

"I just didn't know how I'd tell you.  Honestly...despite how seemingly connected you are to it...it never occurred to me to talk to you about it.  I really should have but...it all just drew me in so fast...so suddenly...and honestly it--"

"Felt like it would endanger our promise."

"Yeah."

"It's okay.  I understand." Did he? Did he really?

"Try as I might...I can find no physical evidence of it existing in our UltraVerse.  It all seems to be a dreamscape--"

"Like Koholint and Subcon."

On top of things, already. If you ever became immortal, Asriel, I had no doubt you'd surpass me.

"Well?" Bunnie asked.

"Yeah...it's nipping at my subconscious.  It definitely wants to be concluded.  And really...I think we need to contain what we just released...or least deal with them."

I got up on the table and laid back.

Asriel gripped my hand, suddenly.

"I'm here with you, best friend.  I just hope me being here doesn't interfere with--"

"Nah.  I think for this...I could really use a good luck charm and a best friend.  With you watching over me, I'm sure we won't fail."

Callista and Bunnie gave me the go-ahead and began the assisted induced slumber.

"Good luck, Volt..."

And back I went...

As my eyes opened I realized they opened from a causal blink right after I had brought the key to the door.

"So that's how it worked..." I muttered.

Maybe it was the Mandela Effect but I could have sworn I unlocked the door and pulled it open...but...that's not what happened.

I had put the key in front of the door...and the door key created a door. A door on a door?

It swung open.

We all looked at each other before Kris went inside and we all followed...

...the next thing we knew we were inside a black void with a ten-sized polygon...floor in alternating shades of dark blue...and the floor stretched up in the very center into a point...reminding me of a phonograph needle somehow.

But from that point, it stretched up into a mirror image of the floor, forming a ceiling. Something about it seemed...circus-like. Like an early 3D polygon version of a round circus tent mirrored into something that reminded me of Iridion 3D's first stage reactor core......wait...this thing's not going to start spinning is it?

That's when we saw him.

Dressed in a black, purple, and yellow jester outfit. Small, round-ish, gnome or imp-like. A toothy grin that would freak out Pennywise the Clown. Yellow flowery collar and shoes. Triangular black makeup over those beady eyes. And a Nightcrawler-like tail.

"UEE HEE HEE!  VISITORS!  VISITORS!  NOW WE CAN PLAY, PLAY!"

The way he repeated that last word gave me flashbacks of the Insecticon known as Shrapnel from back in my early Cybertron research days.

"THEN, AFTER YOU, I CAN PLAY WITH EVERYONE ELSE, TOO!"

I did not have a good feeling.

"So what are we playing, exactly...?"

"OH, IT'S A SIMPLE NUMBERS GAME."

That was about the time that I screamed "LOOKOUT!" and pushed everyone backward, moments before what looked like a giant death scythe came tumbling down, nearly slicing through all of us. It was in that style I'd see before; all throughout this adventure...empty space within a white outline. But it was wrapped in weird twilight sparkles; not like white flecks of light as we knew it but...something that existed between light and shadow. Something that reeked of darkness yet still looked like pixie dust.

As it did, our mysterious stranger howled with laughter.

"WHEN YOUR HP DROPS TO 0, YOU LOSE!"

"So that's the kind of game you want to play, huh...?  Then I gotta warn you..." Suzie had that sadistic grin; the kind I recognized as meaning that she was really going to enjoy this.

SLASH went the battle-axe.

"You're dealing with a couple of sharks!" There's the bloodthirsty grin.

"UEE HEE HEE!  SHARK-TO-SHARK!  I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!  NOW NOW!  LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

And the platform/ceiling started spinning counterclockwise, yet both we and our opponent stayed exactly where we were standing.

I totally called it.

My scanner glass turned up a name. Jevil.

"JEVIL.  There is no strategy to be the enemy.  Good luck!" I blinked. "Good luck?  That's it?!"

"CHAOS!  CHAOS!  CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"

Out came waves of familiar spade blades; the same kind I'd seen Lancer and others use.

But as two waves of them fountained out, Jevil teleported to a different spot and sent fourth two more waves...and then teleported again and sent out more waves...he was all over the place in a barrage of these attacks that were going every which way!

"It feels like a whirlwind!"

We didn't get a chance to counterattack.

"SHALL WE PLAY THE RING-A-ROUND?"

And we were immediately surrounded in a ring of much larger spade blades. And they were converging on us in a spiral formation. Dodging was madness. The moment the last of them flew past another ring of blades surrounded us and repeated. Over and over.

"Smells like chaos." I remarked, dizzied by the experience. Wait...since when do I get dizzy? Centrifugal force rides were my jam when I was a kid and that hadn't changed in millennia.

Out of desperation I suggested to Suzie

"Um...try...hypnosis?" I said with a shrug.

Suzie rolled her eyes then spun something around. Jevil's next attack became weakened...wait, really?

And on top of that, Jevil became...tired?

"MY HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL YOU SINNERS!"

Oh no...

And down rained the heart-box bombs. Each one shattered into a spinning heart barrier like a Leaf Shield or Skull Barrier...or more accurately like Turbo Man's Scorch Wheel. And they rolled right toward us. Not one at a time but in waves and waves. This was insane!

"The air crackles with freedom." That...doesn't make sense...!

Ralsei tried Hypnosis next, chanting something

Jevil's attack weakened again and he became more tired. How was this working?

'HA HA LET'S MAKE THE DEVILSKNIFE."

A quartet of scythes surrounded us and  spiraled inward and outward in converging, de-converging pulses.

It still feels like a whirlwind. Just go with it.

Kris had to use a Dark Candy after a bit.

"PIIP PIIP!  LET'S RIDE THE CAROSEL GAME."

What happened next I could only describe as...we were surrounded by a spinning, lop-sided cylinder of carousel horses...that seemed more like rubber duckies than horses. Some weird hybrid of the two. Weaving through them all as the cylinder spun and tilted forward and back proved even more of a task than the previous attacks.

"The world is spinning, spinning."

Another use of Hypnosis from Ralsei.

The next attack weakened and Jevil became more tired.

"HEE HEE, HAVING FUN?  JOIN THE CLUB!"

But how could we tell?

A variation of the heart box bombs ensued with the club box bombs. Same effect. Different house of the cards.

Suzie was taking the most attacks and burning through a lot of our food supply, having just dug into a Dark Burger. Eventually, Kris had to bust one out, too.

"HEARTS, DIAMONDS!  I CAN DO ANYTHING!"

Speaking of...it began raining diamonds...upward.

Kris tried a Hypnosis of their own by gazing strangely.

Jevil's attack again weakened and he became more tired, still.

"WHO KEEPS SPINNING THE WORLD AROUND?"

The attacks kept coming.

"Jevil is laughing incomprehensively."

Suzie's turn with hypnosis. Yet again, Jevil became tired and his attacks weakened.

"YOU KIDS ARE REALLY KEEPING UP!"

I could have sworn I heard him actually SAY "I can do anything!"...like a voice clip.........wait a minute..!

There's that "meta" again.

At some point Kris was taken down to minus 35...how did that even work? Then again...he did say zero. Another health item.

More use of hypnosis. We were really pouring it on, but this guy's energy was endless...so it seemed.

"A BEAUTY IS JOYING IN MY HEART!"

I was beginning to lose track of which of us had cast Hypnosis at this point.

"EVEN DEVILKNIFE IS SMILING!"

This variant of the attack came complete with a larger, red-outlined version of the attack attempting to ram and impale us.

"IT'S SO EXCITING...I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!"

More teleporting while pelting us with diamonds.

I would never take Sans' genocide assault for granted after this.

"CHAOS BOMB was prepared FOR YOU."

Wait, WHAT?!? That doesn't sound good...

"THIS IS IT BOISENGIRLS!  SEE YA!"

And then he "kitchen sink-ed" us, unleashing every attack he had, one after the other; many of them even overlapping.

After that final barrage, I tried hypnosis of my own to seal the deal with a pair of Violet's spinning spiral novelty glasses that I had confiscated the last time she was in a practical joking mood...but...how was I carrying them here in this dreamscape?

Well...whatever the case was...they worked. Because their hypnotic effect sealed the final nail in the coffin. Or so I thought.

"ENOUGH!  YOU KIDS TIRED ME UP!"

But the diamonds were still coming.

"Something terrible is coming....!" I said...but as I did I almost felt Bunnie speaking at the same time, our words and our essences overlapping for only a second or two.

"KIDDING!  HERE'S MY FINAL CHAOS!" Jevil disappeared...and then it came.

A rain of scythes...and as each one came down, a giant white pillar of a death laser swallowed up the area where each dropped. And worse...the patterns were accelerating...really accelerating. And getting more maddening. Scythes dropping twice at the same time...then three at the same time in rapid-fire succession.

And then I saw it...oh gods no...no...NO, IT'S NOT!!!"

I stared into the abyss...the abyss stared back. But the abyss wasn't an abyss. It was the mother of the mother of all scythes. The True Devilknife.

As it plummeted, the world turned white...and then we were back.

"Jevil is pulling out all the stops!" He was dancing around so fast he was leaving shadow images as he teleported about. I could barely get a bead on him.

We kept the hypnosis going.

"IT'S ALL TOO MUCH FUN!"

And the attacks STILL kept going. If the King was even half as strong as this...we were in serious trouble.

"A CHAOS, CHAOS!" Again...what was with those echoing...err...voice clips? Was I going mad?

We just kept using hypnosis...over...and over...and over...

When we were at last at our breaking point and I'm pretty sure the last of our HP and low on healing items. I'd estimated we'd been battling for longer than twenty minutes with no end in sight. In terms of battle where a split second changes everything? This was an eternity.

"Jevil is truly exhausted!"

His name had turned blue in my scanner. I nodded to Ralsei and he acted accordingly.

Ralsei cast PACIFY! That did it.

"WHAT FUN!!! I'M EXHAUSTED!!!  YOU KIDS REALLY TIRED ME UP!!!" Whew. But what he said next...?

"NOW I WILL SLEEP FOR THE OTHER 100 YEARS.  UNFORTUNATELY YOU KIDS CANNOT HAVE SUCH A PLEASANT DREAM.  FROM NOW, A NIGHTMARE WILL AWAKEN IN YOUR HEARTS.  IN THE SHADOW OF THE KNIGHT'S HAND...  LIGHTNERS, CAN YOU STIOP IT?  UEE HEE HEE!  EITHER WAY...  A MISCHIEF-MISCHIEF!  A CHAOS-CHAOS...!  LIGHTNERS!  FROM INSIDE YOUR CELL...TAKE THIS AND DO YOUR STRONGEST---!"

And he disappeared, leaving behind...!

"JEVILSTAIL was added to your ARMORs"

Reluctantly...I let Suzie equip it after we exited his cell.

None of us spoke a word. We took the elevator back up, restocked on healing items from Rouxls Kaard, and headed back where we came...the hallway leading to the King.

And right before us...was Lancer.

"Hey, there's Lancer...!"

He didn't see us. But he was headed into the dark empty space before us. Something...white seemed to hover in the darkness...a crown...? It was more like a tiara but...

Lancer stopped before it.

"Father!"

And that was when we heard the king speak.

"Lancer, my son.  Have you dispatched the Lightners, as I command?"

"N...no, b-but...I did even better!  It turns out we don't actually have to fight them!  They said they could just talk to you and..."

"They're ALIVE?" Uh-oh. The mood turned icy cold and angry.

"Yes, and I think you'll like them a lot!" Lancer...please stop talking. I was not liking where this was going, but he hadn't picked up on it.

"There's Suzie, she's purple and strong and..."

"WHERE ARE THEY NOW?"

"Umm..." Lancer turned around as I tried to suppress the cough into fist...when really it only hammered our presence home.

"Hey." Suzie said.

"It's nice to meet you."

Silence for a moment.

"Lancer... Lancer, my son."

"Y...yes, father?"

The silhouette approached Lancer and knelt down. Still couldn't get a good look at him. Despite Lancer being pretty well visible...I barely had any indication that there was anyone in front of him.

"Do you remember what I told you?"

"D....Don't...get too attached...?"

Oh no...

"You have failed.  They have poisoned you with their sentimentality.  Free yourself, Lancer.  They care NOT for you.  Their only goal is to destroy our glorious fountain. They.  Are.  Scum."

Yikes. A little harsh there, you maj--"

"N...No, they aren't..."

In that moment, the king grabbed his son by the throat and hoisted him up.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" That was enough to set Suzie off.

"Let him go." Calm...but pissed.

"Ha ha ha ha ha...  You want me to LET HIM GO!?  Then how about this...?  I'll drop him off the edge and let him splatter.  Unless you all KNEEL and learn your place!  What will it  be, Lightners!?"

It was setting in what Lancer was protecting us from all this time. It was setting in just what kind of a monster the king was.

I noticed the room was gradually becoming more visible...I could see things in the darkness now. The spade insignia on the floor. We were atop a large tower in a very huge empty room that stretched into bottomless abyss all around the tower. On the far wall...I could see something that looked like a giant gaping open mouth...and a row of upper fang-like teeth were rising up from below and to the top lip before disappearing in regular intervals, the whole thing warbling...giving it the appearance of laughing sadistically.

"D-don't listen to him, Suzie, he'll...he'll..."

The choice was too simple...but too cliché. It always led to this. There was no choice.

We all complied.

"Now, WATCH, Lancer...!

Before each of us, a trio of spade-shaped blades as sharp as guillotines hovered in formation, ready to fly through us.

"SEE what happens when you befriend Lightners!"

I suppose it could have ended there...but in that moment, Lancer made his own choice. The King never saw his spade attack as it pierced him from behind. But that wasn't even barely enough to hurt him...just enough to make him cancel his attack. The shock of it was enough.

"Wh...What the!?  YOU!  YOU TRAITOR!  COME BACK HERE...!"

Lancer ran off. He'd given us a chance.

"Alright, enough already." Suzie chopped down with the axe. "Who the Hell do you think you are?" Out came the bloodthirsty face. That fang-y look with the beady eyes and the look of murder.

The king only took a few steps back but I could tell it wasn't in fear. He was getting  a better vantage point.

"Heheh... Heheheheheh...  To my people, I am a hero...  ...to you?" That was when we could see him clearly.

A full-sized adult-looking Lancer in armor...but it was his stomach that really...really...REALLY freaked me out. From it, a gaping open mouth with teeth...from it, a tongue stretched out like a tail...with a deadly spade-shaped blade on the end. And this blade was held firmly in his strong grip. His black, collared cloak swallowed up the light around it. I could see the crown, not so much as tiara but definitely reminiscent of one, the way it was covered up by the pointy baklava-hood of his head. The same black spade mask.

And that's when it came back to us, full circle.

"I'M THE BAD GUY!!!"

That...toothy...grin.

He laughed darkly in an almost too familiar manner. Yeah...like son...like father.

As  his cloak billowed, we had no choice but to go into battle. The first action we took was attempt to talk to him.

"King blocked the way." I checked the scan.

"King - Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.  He cannot be reasoned with, but don't give up...!"

"How dare you come in here, Lightners...?"

His attacks were familiar...but stronger. Spades. So many spades. In so many different attacks.

"The battlefield is rumbling.  You tried to reason with the king..."

"SILENCE, LIGHTBRINGER!  Your very existence goes against our own...  By the Knight's will, I shall shatter your heart to pieces!"

"Your will is changing...TALK became COURAGE!" Sometimes I didn't mind when the game changed the rules in the middle of a battle. "You, that left us in the shadows, stripped of meaning..."

Suddenly he speared out with a whip made of cards, with a spade as a tip. He actually impaled our...action box? How meta was this going to get? As he rippled the length of the...err...card rope, he was in partial control of our ability to dodge as the waves of spades kept coming.

"King's mouths babble indecipherably."

Suzie tried to reason with the king.

"Alright, listen up.  Lancer's my friend.  So if we can get by without hurting you, then..."

And she was cut off.

"If I perish, so be it!  Show my son the monster you REALLY are!"

Oh no. Don't be that gullible, Suzie.

"Alright, you want to see what I can do, huh?" You idiot. You let him bait you!

"Suzie's will is changing, TALK became RED BUSTER!"

"You DARE return to torment us again?" The king responded with multiple "card harpoons">  Another dance of avoiding the spade-tips.

It was Ralsei's turn.

"You might not realize it but...  This is a world where you don't have to fight.  I know if we try, we can all find another way..." As he said that, his image seemed to flicker between his...and Asriel's. My Asriel's, mind you, not Kris' brother.

"Such simple-minded platitudes...  A shame you will not live to realize your naivety.  Now perish with the pathetic Lightners you worship!"

"Sorry, my friends and I aren't going anywhere."

"Ralsei's will is changing.  Talk has become DUAL HEAL!"

"Begone!  We have found fresh purpose!"

Our "action box" again took off with a mind of its own, slamming our souls around; its form almost white hot. How was he doing this?

"King's mouths gave a berserk smile."

Kris' soul shined its power on Ralsei. And with that he cast DUAL HEAL, giving us all max HP again.

"For the knight has appeared!" the King continued.

He speared our "action box" again with the card harpoon and repeated his attacks.

"Darkness pours from the Fountain."

Kris encouraged the party, raising all our defense.

Now...how could I attack without really attacking?

"The Knight that pulls fountains from the Earth!"

Hmm? I pondered that. The more I heard about this knight...the more I realized that even if this story came to an end, this would be a mystery we might not solve any time soon.

That was when his spade harpoon turned red and impaled itself into the "action box" and burrowed into it. My soul could sense it...the inside of the box felt like it was now lined with deadly spikes...and the red spade was now towing the box all over the place, threatening to impale our souls if we didn't follow its movements! This was...just...so...meta!

The battlefield was still rumbling.

Kris kept encouraging us.

I got the idea to energize my fur and turn myself into a glowing firefly of sorts, lighting the darkness. It was the only thing I had and filling the really dark room with golden light was better than nothing. It seemed to have an encouraging effect on the others, as well.

"Holy fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...  OUR world!"

Kris kept amp-ing up our defense as the king continued to monologue.

"Hahahah... do you see now our NEW purpose...?

Ralsei kept healing us.

"Soon, this world will be blanketed in darkness...and darkness shall RULE!  Then you will see what it is like to live in DESPAIR!"

"Now enough talk...fall before the chain of justice"  Oh, so that's what he was calling it.

We kept raising our defense and healing, over and over while I lit the way. We were honest-to-goodness stone-walling him!

"...ha, you're quite strong, aren't you!?" And he was taking notice.

"If I keep fighting you like this, then...  it seems that... MY KNIGHT...I shall not fail you..."

We were taking a toll. But he was just as stubborn and determined. There was one of him and four of us, counting myself. He stood alone. We stood together. Stop me if you've heard this trope before. Cliché? Or timeless?

"Enough... is enough..."

And somehow...it still worked.

"I see...I see that I cannot defeat you." That same puppy dog mouth. "I have grown exhausted from our long battle."

And from the fatigue alone, the King dropped to his knees as his cloak flew off and away...

"Lightners...I...  Perhaps I...  I have been too cruel.  The truth is... I was not always this way.  There once was a time...  ...where Darkners and Lightners lived in harmony.  A time when Darkners could fulfill their purpose in peace...   It would be a lie to say that I, too...do not yearn for those days.  Perhaps...perhaps you young ones are right.  Please.  Let us put away our weapons.  There must be a peaceful solution to all this."

We disarmed. And frankly I was starting to eat up a lot of juice keeping myself literally...lit.

Suzie was silent...but obviously being stubborn.

"Come now, Suzie!" Ralsei urged.

Suzie was the last one to put away her weapon...begrudgingly.

"I'm glad you're starting to realize, Mr. King...none of us really want to fight.  If you can just tell us about your worries...I'm sure we can call be friends, Mr. King!"

"Y-yes..."friends".  That sounds...lovely...  *c...cough*  My apologies, I am...I am not used to fighting like that...My body is...getting weak..."

"Oh, don't say another word!"

And Ralsei healed him without thought or question.

"There, you should be all healed up!  How do you feel?"

"L...Let's see..."

* CHOOMPH!!!*

None of us saw the barrage of spade blades coming!

That sinister grin told all. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

"Never better."

"Y...you...!" Suzie snarled.

"Did I say you could get up?  The next barrage would have torn her apart...

...if Kris hadn't suddenly jumped in front, with shield out.

"Kris...!?"

But another barrage of spades laid Kris out...and knocked them out of the arena.

"So it's come to this...you can beat me down, but you'll never extinguish the likes of me..." I challenged. But he just plain ignored me and walked past us all and approached the fallen Kris.

"You...you're the leader, aren't you?  So what's your plan?  To laugh as you cast us all back into obscurity?"

Silence.

"You can't even say...?  Young one...let me tell you a secret." He suddenly grabbed Kris and held them up with both hands, in a steely grip.

"QUIET PEOPLE PISS ME OFF."

It was funny that I mentioned that he didn't see his own son's attack coming. For this time he didn't see Suzie's axe land a hit.

"Hey.  Get away.  From my.  Friend." I'd never seen THAT look from her before. It was sly but it wasn't bloodthirsty. It was almost a look of...wait...I know that look. That's the look of someone REALLY pissed off and just barely containing it.

"Heh heh heh heh...  Or what?  You'll KILL me?"

"Nah." Suzie mused.

"So what's your plan, then...?  To talk me to death...?  You stupid, stupid, Lightner.  You honestly think you have any way...to convince me NOT to kill you?"

"Nah." Now her look was...what I'd describe as lazily bored...no...it was...aloof. Toriel be praised, she was acting aloof!

"But THEY might!" Suddenly it turned to a grin.

Who could have predicted the entire kingdom would revolt at that very, very instant? And leading the revolt was...!

"L...Lancer!?  E...Everyone!?" The king was dumbfounded. "WHAT is the meaning of this!?"

"Sorry, Dad.  You're being overthrown!   When I told everyone you were fighting the Lightners... Everyone remembered how kind they were.  They decided they'd rather have a king...  That accepts them!  ME!!!  Now I'm the dad!"

"You IDIOTS!  The Lightners are your ENEMIES!  FOOLS!  I'LL KILL YOU!  I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

I decided to throw in my two cents as I got up and dusted my lab coat off.

"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments...governments should be afraid of their people." The nameless man, code-named V definitely made a very good point.

"Yikes!  Someone needs a time out!  Go to your room, Dad!!!"

"NOOOOOOO!!!!" And that was the end of that as the people carried him away.

"Y'alright, Kris?"

Ralsei was last to recover. Even before me.

"Kris!   Suzie...!   Oh, you're all right...!"

"Yeah, it'll take more than that to take us down."

"Kris...Suzie...I'm sorry.  Because I healed the KING, we almost...we almost...  Suzie, you were right.  I...I was foolish to think we could act so soft to everyone...  This isn't a world where kindness always wins, is it?"

"Eh.  It's complicated.  Yeah, sometimes there's people you just gotta fight.  But if you NEVER let your guard down, then...you might just...hurt someone you care about."

I decided to speak my mind.

"Ralsei.  A person who has stopped standing by their own convictions has already lost.  Don't lose yours.  Otherwise you'll stop being yourself.  You're not wrong for trying to reach out to someone.  Even if they didn't want help."

"Aww, Suzie...  You're beginning to sound like a real hero...!"

You know what? I was okay by this point to being brushed aside. I didn't truly have a role in this. Just an observer. As if my own choices really mattered in this topsy-turvy world. Who could say what the point of it was.

"Eh, don't get used to it."

"Then I suppose you and Kris should return home now."

"Yeah, I..." The sly aloofness faded. "I guess that's right, huh.  Well, uh...  See ya."

That was it. No real goodbye. We just left Ralsei standing there.

Kris and Suzie headed down the path...I followed.

Just before they were going to turn the corner...

"...huh?  Kris, you wanna...go say goodbye to everyone, don't you?  ...Heh, well...if you're going to MAKE me, I GUESS we can go back for a bit.  Let's go!" And that was by far the most sincere happy face I'd seen Suzie make all journey.

One by one, we traversed the kingdom, starting with Ralsei.

"Kris...?  Suzie...?  You came back...?"

"Umm, well...  Kris just wanted to say bye, y'know..."

"Oh!!!  Actually...everyone wanted to say goodbye, too.  Please let me know when you leave, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah.  We'll try not to skip you."

So many people we encountered. Well...here's a summary of all their final words to us.

"Way to go, kids!  Now we can go back to making the puzzles we love...and thanks to your donation, I could buy a new hat and shaving cream.  Got nothing to teach you now.  Life’s got no tutorial, so try your best!"

"Best!  You're the best!"

"...'Onestly, we owe you."

Even a little ball can say something like thank you.

"Thank you, I can go back to being a coat hanger now.  By the by, I asked Seam to come here, but...  There wasn't any interest."

"Bgreat Bwork!" Right...that.

"Darn, horsey.  You've'n done us a big help.  Now all'n us pieces can live in peaces."

"You did it!  You ousted that rotten tyrant!  I'll happily accept a bounty of credit for my contributions...  Unless the King reappears, in which case--I did nothing!" Oh, brother.

Well, well. The duke, himself.

"Wonderful worke mine Amigose.  Thou hast  toppledst the Tyrrant!  Freedst our Creedst!    Trulyeth, History shall not forget - The Tale of Rouxls Kaard, and the Three Heroes!"

"What about the part where you tried to kill us?" Suzie reminded.

"Ah...and interesting Historical Theorie, is it not?  Nonetheless, the evidence precludeth, such a thing..."

"What evidence?"

"I shall giveth thou a plate of Worms for thou silence."

"Deal."

Who was getting the worse end of the deal?

In the next hallway down...

"I knew you could do it!  Though I was your enemy, I was cheering for you!  That's how much I disliked my job."

"The future looks sweet~!" "Like a pike of BEE'S PUKE." "Which is honey, I think."

Getting it in triplicate.

"A kingdom with so much hope~!" "Hope you didn't SCREW IT UP." "...that means thank-you."

"Come to our next b-day, too~!" "We'll have one SOON!!!" "...if that's...possible..."

Hathy looked at us proudly. *KISS*

"What's going on?  I slept through everything..."

In the throne room...

"What ho!!  What about us!?  Aren't we going to be restored as kings...!?  ...Ah?  My treasure is unharmed?  Carry on, then."

"Us animals decided it's OK if the kings stay in cages, as well.  ...but they’ll have to put on the animal ears and noses..."

TopChef had this to say:  "Mama miba!!  What a celebration!!  This calls for a cake!!  And this time, I'll make it out of metal, so animals can't eat it!!"

"I'll be honest, at first we weren't sure who to make our new king...  I mean Lancer HAS always been a bit of a pain.  But after seeing how nice he treats YOU guys; I think he'll be fine!"

Speaking of Lancer...

"Suzie!  Blue person whose name I neglected to learn all along!  I thought you were going home ways."

"We were, but Kris wanted to say bye, y'know?"

"Oh!!!  Really!?  Hohoho!!! That's funny!!  I thought YOU wanted to say bye, because we're friends!"

"Huh!?  I mean...I didn't NOT want to!  Umm, so you're the king now, huh...?"

"Yes!  And I'm changing some big rules!  First, Lightners are now legal!  Second, prison is now only for dads!"

"Sounds like some pretty good changes.  Hey, your dad was protecting the fountain, right?  ...is it gonna be okay, if we mess with it...?"

"I have no idea!  But it's you guys, so I trust you...!  If something bad happens, we'll fix it out!!"

"Yeah, I guess we'll just see, I guess.  Umm, well...see ya later!"

"Come back soon!  There's always room in town for a couple of clowns!  You should tell your Prince I say goodbye as well."

"...is he leaving?"

"No, he's just a sweet little peach."

And then there was C. Round. Because you rescued it, it grew to respect you... Well, actually maybe it shrunk to respect you.

I just kept quiet. Maybe I just couldn't relate. Maybe I just couldn't communicate. Maybe I was going to miss them all, just as much.

And that was everyone. We doubled back to Ralsei.

"Kris...?  Suzie...?  Are you leaving?"

"Hell if I know.  I'm just following Kris  Guess we'll just walk to the right if we are."

And we did so...but just before we turned the corner...

"Suzie, Kris...?  Are you going to leave...?  Sad goat glasses.

He approached us, pulling his hat down over his face.

"I just wanted to say...I..." He gripped the sides of his hat, firmly, pulling it completely over his face. "I...really enjoyed meeting you two, and..."

You're...going to make me cry, goat wizard.

"Hey, can you stop mumbling into your hat for a sec?  Can barely hear ya, dude."

"O-oh!  I'm sorry!

And then he pulled it off...and we all...saw it. Red horns. White fur. Blushing cheeks. Save for the glasses...he was the PERFECT SPITTING IMAGE OF ASRIEL!

Suzie recoiled in SHOCK.

"Um...Kris, Suzie...I...I hope I can see you again soon.  Next time I'll make you lots of yummy cakes, alright?

"???????????"  Suzie was speechless. Kris...ominously silent.

"...!"  I could only just blink...and blink...and blink. Was this...real? I mean, I'd SAID that the resemblance was uncanny...but with that hat on all this time...I had no idea that he was COMPLETELY identical save for the red horns. The anagram was there. The voice was there. The personality was there. I had dismissed it for so long as just coincidence. Why...? Why was it just...just this OBVIOUS, in retrospect? They couldn't be the same person. Could they?

"Umm, yeah!  Sure, dude, haha!" Suzie turned away. "Let's go, Kris." She was really trying to cover up that she was freaking out.

A turn to the left and down a dark hallway...into a final room...and there it was. Pouring darkness out in a constant geyser. A geyser of that same twilight energy I'd see before. Up close...it was cycling through the rainbow...yellow...green...cyan...blue...purple...red...orange...and back to yellow again. So...familiar...but so unfamiliar at the same time.

"Is this the fountain?" Suzie asked. "Dunno how, but...it feels like we stumbled into something really important, didn't we...?  ...Well there's no time to think about that now.  Right now...  It's time to go home, right, Kris?"

Kris stepped forward. As they stood in front of the fountain, they felt something strange...we all felt something strange. It was as if their...our very SOULS were glowing...

But it was Kris' that emerged...drifted forth...and entered the fountain...turning it from technicolor to pure white...and then the white light spread out everywhere...

And that was the last thing any of us knew until...

Sub-Entry 352: "Goodbye, DeltaRune.  A Happy Ending...Or Is It...?":
"Wh...what happened!?  I can't see anything!!"

A string of strange noises, a squeak and a thump...maybe an impact?

"Hey, WATCH IT!" More noises followed by what sounded like that Annoying Dog's yip--

And then the lights came on. And there we were...well...there they were. I was still intangible. From the looks of it, the Hazard Card had never been removed! I had never integrated with this world's timeline, had I?

"H...Huh..?  The unused classroom?  How'd we get here...?"

A checkboard rug. A chess set. A storage locker. Playing cards all over the floor. Building blocks. A stuffed animal?

"...Hey Kris...  What...  What just happened...?"

Don't you remember, Suzie?

"Like, that wasn't a dream or anything, was it...?"

I...guess she did.

"ANYWAY...as I was SAYING, let's just tell Alphys we couldn't find any chalk." And that was when Suzie just walked out of the door.

Kris just stood there in silence for a moment...before exploring their surroundings. Inside the storage locker...a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle. It's signed 'Alvin'."

"Gerson?" It was the only turtle monster I could think of. Alvin must've been a student, long ago.

Yup. Playing cards spilled out of a deck from the closet. A checkerboard with pawns strewn on it

A light switch. A worn down stuffed animal--  ...wait...Seam?

"Man, the sun's already setting." Suzie complained as we finally exited the room. "Everyone else must've gone home by now."

I know I should have checked the clock inside the room but... Yeah. We'd been out for a long time. This…might come back to the two of them later.

"Guess Alphys will know better than to ask US next time, huh?" Back to her old punk self, I see.

"Well.  Guess we should go.  See you later, I guess." Suzie walked off...and stopped in mid-step with a lengthy silence.

"...Kris?" Suzie doubled back and placed a hand on Kris' shoulder. "Let's go back there, tomorrow, alright?"

And then the purple reptile was off, leaving Kris and me. Still no sign that Kris sensed my presence.

Kris decided to take out their cell phone and call home. And lo and behold, a familiar voice answered.

"K...Kris!?" Hello, Toriel. Good to hear your voice again, even though you won't be able to hear mine even if I spoke into the receiver.

"Whatever have you been doing!?  I sat in the car waiting for you for half an hour...!  I called and called but you never picked up...  You had your poor mother worried sick!   Kris, I am afraid I'm going to have to punish you...   ...huh?  ...a friend?  You were spending time with...  a friend?  ...Kris...   I will make an exception this time.  You can continue your adventures a little longer.  But when you return home...  You are going to have to go to bed early...  See you soon, honey."

* click*

Heh.

I scanned Kris with the scanner glass. All stats the same as before this...dream adventure began. A bandage  No EXP, attack and defense 10, 20 HP, weapon was a pencil, armor was a bandage. And 2...whatever denominations of money. Inventory:  A ball of junk. Looking at the ball of junk in admiration...nothing happened.

Kris called home again. No such luck getting a ride home. Toriel was firm but fair. I did agree though...walking home would build character. Besides...there were things I was curious about. Things…unanswered.

Further calls only revealed that Toriel was grading papers and she reminded that their house was at the top of town.

Further exploration of the school revealed a flier on the bulletin board that read: "Do you like, breathing?  Moving fast, with or without, legs?  But usually, with legs?  Join the Cross Country Team with Jockington, and Noelle!"

I questioned the grammar and punctuation but saw really nothing significant. It pretty much reaffirmed my own presumptions about Jockington.

Inside Toriel's classroom...some kind of "primitive sculpture" on the table. Who knows what it represents?

"It's building blocks." I said flatly.

A number of chairs stacked up in the other corner; the "throne of the gods".

Inside the storage locker was a primitive drawing of Toriel. Wait...what grade level did Toriel teach again?

"Kid's books.  Some of them used to be yours." I noted as Kris thumbed through them.

Even if it was a dream within a dream, I was still commentating on things.

"It's a computer.  Its desktop wallpaper is you [Kris] and your brother dressed up for Halloween 8 years ago."

A lone apple. Some kind of teacher food.

Scented markers. Wait...what was the choice here?

Kris picked the marshmallow-scented one and started huffing it. Really,  Kris? Really? Okay, you definitely had...unique issues.

"Ms. Toriel" was written in cursive on the dry-erase board. Seems like it hasn't been erased in a very long time.

So finally, Kris left the school. And the ominous silence broken up by nature sounds coming from outside the windows somehow gave way to...what felt like theme music. Was I imaging this, too?

Kris followed the street west and stopped in the...*cough*...Librarby. Inside I found familiar faces.

Berdly was surprised to see them...in one piece.

"Kris!  You survived Suzie!  I was getting worried!  Now you can finally pay off your family debt."

Family…wait, what?

"How to draw Dragons is 2,583 days overdue.  However, Kris, I am a benevolent volunteer assistant.  If you turn it in this week I'll reduce your fine to...a mere $64.23!  Consider it, Kris!"

I folded my arms and folded my ears back. "Oh, go on..."

"Ah!  Did you  forget what it looks like?  The front is perhaps... a mauve dragon wearing lipstick.  And as for her clothes, I believe they are, well...  You know I think you'll know it when you see it!"

Kids can be so cruel. I facepalmed realizing the implication.

Jockington had this to say:  "Kris, what'sup?  Catti's working so I'm starting on our Project!  I've already copied a bunch of pictures."

It's the same picture of a soccer ball...73 times over.

"You could say I'm having a Ball!  Ha haha!"

Somewhere in the conscious world, I hope Asriel was having a chuckle. I found it kind of lame.

A look at the Teenz-Own magazine rack revealed an anime review. Read it? Yes? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO? Err...okay.

A discussion with Temmie yielded:

"gotta go to colleg...  so tem stuby...  HARD!!!" I didn't have the heart to point out that she was reading a comic full of hot demon guys. Wait...she? I guess Temmies DO have genders.

A large pale blue and yellow striped lizard-snake...with an oversized head I didn't recognize responded with  "I love reading books.  Especially the books upstairs.  You should really read them!

Kris peeked at a random book on the shelf. "Please remember my name.  Please.  I wrote a book to help you remember.  By Hots Fireguy." Huh...something familiar about that.

"Lord of the Hammer.  First in the award-winning fiction series by lauded historian Gerson Boom."

Nice.

"There's a book here.  You lick the page...  It's delicious!" Uh...Kris...? Not...gonna question it...even though I REALLY want to. "This must be what they mean by flavor-text." Goddammit.

"An unlabeled book....it says:  "oh...i accidentally returned my personal journal instead of my book...oh no....they're putting it into their catalogue...oh no...I have to take it out every time i want to write a new entry..."  That was...surreal.

"Computer Lab.  Please surf the web responsibly.  In fact maybe don't do it at all." What a glowing recommendation.

Kris and I both looked through the computer lab's door window. There seemed to be a dog inside working at a computer. Seems like he's making a game...seems like you shouldn't interrupt it...seems like when the game's finished you can go in...you just have to trust the dog.......waaaaaaaait a minute...!

Kris changed their mind about the anime review before heading out and had a look.

"Teen'z Corner Monthly Toon Review:  Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2.  This reviewer had Mew Mew 2 as her first exposure to the series...and let her tell you, it makes Mew Mew 1 look like a dumpster with sparkly cat ears!  With a darker storyline and more mature themes...  The second one treats the viewer like a real adult...instead of an animal that will die if it goes 10 seconds without seeing a beach ball.  Not to mention, Mew Mew's character in the first one...Is more stale than the ramen I eat at home my myself with the lights off.  Teens and older should check out this dark masterpiece!  Signed, the Anonymous Yellow Lizard."

A deadpanned for a moment before coming to a pretty good conclusion.

"Do NOT under any circumstances show this review to Undertale Alphys.  It'll make her head explode in rage quit.

And we were outta there...only to run into another familiar face. And a pretty major one at that.

Police Chief Undyne, I presume?

"HEY, PUNK!!!  GET OUT OF THE ROAD!!!  YOU'RE BLOCKING TRAFFIC!!!  ...Oh, wait, it's just Asgore's kid.  Sorry, I'm a little uh, worked up lately.  This job is SO boring!  Nothing EVER happens in this town!  Ngh...I just wish SOMETHING would shake things up!   ...huh?  You got something to report?

Don't ask about--

"What?  There's a Dark World inside the school?" Goddammit, Kris. I know you can't see or hear me, but I asked you to not do one thing--

"Uh...sure, Kid.  There's no law against Dark World's anyway!  That's a job for the school board!"

Again. Your choices don't matter.

Kris then offered to volunteer help.

"Aww, you wanna help me?  Sure, punk.   Get someone to rob the bank so I can suplex them!  ...wait, do we even have a bank?  Hey, get someone to build a bank..!"

Haaaaaaaaah. Try to imagine how hard I'm resisting the urge to facepalm. Oh well...I guess you're delightfully you, Undyne.

Okay. I gotta know. Is the ship real?

"...Alphys?  Who's Alphys?  No idea who you're talking about.    ...Why, did they do something illegal!?  Gotcha, if I see 'Alphys', I'll tackle them.  Fuhuhuhu!!  They're as good as dead!"

My brain shifted without the clutch. Also...what have we done, Kris?

"Don't do anything illegal, punk!  And lemme know if you got a lead on any purple girls.  There's one wanted on SEVERAL counts of comic mischief." Gee, I wonder who that could be?

The driver of one of the cars she had stopped complained "Police Chief Undyne is supposed to be directing traffic, but all she's doing is standing in the middle of the street yelling "GET OUTTA MY WAY!!"  At least I THOUGHT they were complaining until--  "She's the best, huh!? I really feel directed!!!"

The other driver...? "H-how am I supposed to get past this blue lady..!?  I'm stuck!  I guess I should just runaway.

We...bolted for the hospital. Inside the receptionist seemed familiar. Very tooth...in fact almost entirely fang-y smile with a single eye.

"Oh, it's you.  Are you here to play the piano again?  The patients can't hear it well from here, but I personally enjoy it.

An obligatory bead puzzle that spawns naturally in hospital waiting rooms...and a piano shrunk down to fit in the corner. Kris tried playing but somehow all of the good keys were missing. We went on inside.

In the right room... a large monster wrapped completely in a body cast.

"This castle's WHITE WIZARDs relegated me to this HEALING CHAMBER...but my blood is BOILING FOR BATTLE!"

I think the lesson to be learned is that hardcore extreme Live Action Role Play (LARP) is...a really bad idea.

A classic 1 to 10 pain scale, using ICE-E as an example lined the wall. At 0 pain he's happy. At 10 pain he's happy and sweaty. Riiight.

A look inside the cupboard revealed...a very tiny obligatory piano inside? Whaaat?

"This HAS to be a dream world." I muttered.

A regular sink and a clone of the sink. Was a large sink cut in  half to make these?

The room to the left...was someone familiar but unexpected.

"Noelle." I muttered as we walked in on the conversation.

"Ahahaha...DAD! I can't just SAY that to her!  Oh my god...I'd DIE!  I'd LITERALLY die."

In bed was a red reindeer monster.

"Noelle.  Sweetheart.  First time I laid eyes  on you mother I walked right up and told her she was a HOT piece of work."

"R...Really?"

"Yeah, she slapped me so hard I blacked out!" Rudy laughed boisterously before entering a coughing fit.

"Hahaha...!  Dad, that doesn't help at all!"

"Anyway, how's Dragon Blazers III?  Beat it yet?"

"Nah, I'm still at the Ice Palace.  I've been kind of...  ...kind of waiting to finish it with you, Dad."

Awww...

"...Noelle....Maybe...Maybe you shouldn't wait."

I think...my heart was breaking. I barely knew these two and...I think a little bit of Asriel's old crybaby-ness crept into me at that moment.

"D...Dad...?"

"You should bring it HERE!  I'm bored as Hell!"

Okay, moment's over. Goddammit...

"Har har har!  FINE, you win!  I'll bring it next time.  Oh, it's getting late...  Guess I better go.  I've got HOMEWORK."

"Oh, that's the group project voice.  Bird guy again?  What's his name?  Nerdly?"

I chortled.

"It's, um, Berdly.  He's not that bad, dad."

"I'll kick his ass."

I'd pay to see that. Okay, I'm being horrible. Don't do that, reindeer dad.

"Hahaha...  Dad, you're not even supposed to get up."

"Bring him by the window.  I'll throw something at him!"

"GOODBYE, Dad."

"Bye, honey.  And then she left.

"...oh?  Hi, Kris..?" And then she was gone. Awkward delivery, there.

Kris entered and washed up at the sink in the corner...okay...

" Oh, so you're just here to use the sink, huh?  Come on, Kris!  Be a little friendlier!" I noticed the angel doll. It's lack of facial features was unsettling. Not very Pit-like to say the least.

"That angel?  Noelle and Dess made it in youth group.	 It's kind of like a good luck charm to me now." I'd almost forgotten about the religious themes around town. "Oh, right.  You and Azzy tried to make one too...but you wasted the whole time making huge wings for it!" Huge...wings...? Please tell me that wasn't a weird allusion to Hyperdeath.

Kris looked at the medical chart. "Patient name:  Rudolph "Rudy" Holiday."

"Hey, Kris!  You forgot my name or something?"

There were a bunch of roses in a glass container nearby.

"Hey, I'm glad your dad brought me flowers, but...ROSES!?  What is this, man?  Beauty and the Beast?  That ain't gonna work, man!  We're both beasts!"

There's a reference. Also...yeah...shades of Mr. Dad guy...was he...?

Also.... *cringe*  ...even for a dad joke that was bad.

There was a signed get well card from Toriel, too.

"Hey, Kris, you KNOW you signed the inside, right?  Why are you staring at it like you've never seen it before?  Is your penmanship that good???  Was I not moved enough???"

There were subtle clues I wasn't picking up on and most of them centered around Kris' behavior. But I dismissed them. Kid was weird but nothing alarming.

Finally Kris decided to have a chat with him...and by chat, he did all the talking. Kris wasn't ACTUALLY mute...were they?

"Well jingle my goshdarn bells!  Looks like Krismas came early."

* groan*  Tell me Asriel would at least laugh at that.

"Alright, Kris.  Give me the straight shot.  Why you  here?  Did your mom make you come here?"

Kris answered no. That was the truth.

"Really?  You've grown up a lot, Kris.  I'm proud of you.  Wasn't too long ago you were just the creepy kid next door.   Now you're the creepy kid right in front of me!  Hahahahaha!  Okay, seriously.  You wanna chat or something?"

Let's talk Noelle. About your daughter...?

"She's a sweetheart, isn't she, Kris?  Smart, kind, sweet...couldn't ask for a better daughter.  I just wish she wasn't so...defenseless.  Scary movies, bugs, Santa Claus...everything scares her.  And when it happens she freezes like a deer in headlights.  Remember, she used to be afraid of humans under the bed?  (Kris, it was not nice of you to hide under there, by the way!)  ...anyhow, that's what's tough about being in here, Kris.  Not what's going on with me.  Just that...in the mean time I can't be there to protect her.  Keep an eye out for her, okay?"

Respect, reindeer dad. Respect.

Okay...family?

"Kris, even if we've grown apart, we still love your family.  After all, me and Asgore were college pals, right?  Oh hey, now that Asriel's off to college...  Y'think he's doing any CRAZY parties like me and your dad?  Heh, I'm just pulling your leg.  Your ad was no party animal.  Your MOTHER on the other hand...!  Whoo...!  She'd always fuss about going, but when the party started...  Yikes, man!  Once she hit me clear across the room with a key lime pie!  I got smashed into the snack table and toppled everything!  Tasty pie though.  Couldn't complain."

And lastly...illness?

"...So, why am I in here...?  Well, they found some crap, so it's just some	 tests.  Yeah, it's no big deal.  Nothing a Holiday can't handle.  I'll be out of here in a jiff, then I can go back to, I dunno...Yelling at you for getting tangled in our light display."

Oh gods...it's not...that, is it? Even on worlds like this Monsters could get...uhh...I don't want to think about it. And apparently neither did Kris because they were already on their way by the time I shook it off and missed the farewell.

Outside, Kris continued on, stopping at the police department to knock on the door...and was immediately greeted with someone shutting the blinds on the window.

The way further down was blocked by police tape that simply read "NGAHHHHH!"

Kris headed south. Inside town hall...

I'd seen that bear before. The Mayor's charisma was apparently zero. No...it's apparently negative. But he assured me that she works hard and has a good track record, so she runs unopposed. Thaaaaat's politics. Rarely.

Hey...that hand monster...wasn't she in M.T.T. resort back in Undertale--

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry.  The mayor is busy right now.  If you need to see her, try causing some terrible crisis." Eheheheh...right.

There was a jaundiced guy leaning over a briefcase I didn't recognize.

"Hey, short-stuff.  Why would YOU possibly need to talk to the mayor?  Your allowance too low?  At too much candies?  Lost your frisbee in the wash?  Hey, short stuff...that's what the cops are for.  What?  Don't talk to you like you're a "kid"?  Fine...  If you need someone to change your diaper, go ask the Cops."

Friendly jerk. We're outta here.

The rest of the interactions with the other two were boring conversation. Something about complaining about teachers and the Mayor being "icy" because she keeps the AC cranked up?

We left and went next door to the church. A mauve-haired, green tortoise-ish monster was there. Definitely not Gerson. I think he was the priest.

"Kris...what a pleasant surprise to see you here.  And on a school day.  There must be a reason that you came here at such a time.  I, Father Alvin, implore you.  if you have anything on your mind, please speak."

Ahhhh. So there's the earlier connection.

Annnnnd Kris asked about, of all things, fruit juice. But I immediately caught on what they meant.

"If you want some of our "sick" fruit juice, you should come to our service.  Our choir sounds a bit thinner now that your brother went away.  Kris, it would be wonderful if you would sing with us.  Or even participated to any extent, instead of just trying to drink the fruit juice."

Riiiiight. I think you mean "fermented" fruit juice.

Kris went further west to the cemetery. Four headstones in particular stood out.

"Shyra.  A karaoke microphone for a brave singer.

Muttler. A big bone for the leader of the pack.

Crystal. A snowy gemstone for a proud mother.

Gerson. Renown historian, author, and teacher."

Oh. So that's what became of you.

Outside of the picket fence...

"Gerson Boom memorial bench.  'Throughout my career, some of my best ideas came from dreams.  Take a rest here.  If anyone asks --  you're writing!'  - Gerson Boom

Huh.

Doubling back and heading south...

Down a long woodsy path of trees...

There it was on a mound. A pair of red doors sealed shut.

"It's locked."

But...what was it? Was this...some kind of allusion to Mount Ebott and the barrier? Or was it just...not important at all?

Doubling back we headed North to QC's diner. Well this was a familiar but more family-friendly setting.

The waitress was serving...wait, is that Grillby's daughter?

"So, for you two girls, that'll be the crepes, a cinnamon latte...two bunny parfaits, and...a piece of firewood?  And how would you like that firewood done?

Fire Elemental claimed to like the vibe of the waitresses here and considered signing up to work...

But nah. Serving drinks wouldn't really suit a fire elemental. If she got nervous she'd melt all the ice. Servin just coffee? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Her purple, snake-headed friend recalled how they used to skip the first hour of class to come here. Fire Elemental was fine, but she had to almost repeat the year because of it. Apparently the crepes were worth. Delinquency is the best condiment? If they didn't bring Gerson their leftovers, they probably both would have failed for sure. Heh.

Hey...isn't that Ice Wolf?

"Ice Wolf doesn't like ice in his drink." Huh...I was being reminded of Ice Bear from the bear trio...We Bare Bears, I think? Also...ironic that he didn't like ice--

"Ice Wolf likes ice...to BE drink."

Never mind.

"Ice Wolf also likes ice-themed mascots."

Another patron was wearing a ridiculously tall hat...which they were hiding pancakes in.

Well, I'll be. The person behind the counter was none other than the purple rabbit shop owner from Snowdin.

"Hey there!  Haven't seen you in a while, hun.  I remember back on Sundays, after service...you and your family would come in and order the Special.  'Course, things happened and then...Y'all...stopped comin' altogether.  But every Sunday, you and your brother'd still come in.  He'd order you a hot chocolate...and you two'd sit down at that table in the corner...drawing shapes in the window with your breath. ...you must really miss him, huh?  Here.  How about this?"

And Kris got the hot chocolate. " On the house, hun.  Don't be a stranger, now."

I noticed Catti from serving a family requesting something with edible glitter. She barely glanced at Kris and noted that they were alive. Nice. And then reminded that she's working.

Next door was a pizza place with an ICE-E walkaround mascot.

"ICE ME UP!  ICE ME UP BOSS!"

ICE-E's P''E"ZZA, You're "1"  Spot for a piping hot pe"E"ce of p"E"zza.  Oh god...I know the marketing pitch was obvious...but somewhere an English/Grammar teacher just keeled over.

Here at ICE-E'S P"E"ZZA you're family...is going to love it!

The slogans are killing me.

"Would you be interested in trying some of our many 24 Pezza flavors?  We've got normal, cheese, ice, gravy, double ice, peeperoniss, and more!  Stop on down at ICE-E's PEZZA!"

Oddly enough...the entrance was locked. No one was inside. Seems like all the employees are outside in costume.

Huh...that last one on the far end...

"(Oh, God.  Someone's actually here...)  Uh...ICE-E's P''E"ZZA, You're "1"  Spot for a piping hot pe"E"ce of p"E"zza. H...Hey1  Wait a sec...! I recognize you!"

You do?

Off came the ICE-E head.

B...BURGERPANTS!?

"Little buddy!  It's me!  Wanna chat for a minute before I lose my mind?"

Yup. Same old Burgerpants.

At first Kris leaned toward no until Burgerpants guilt-tripped them into talking with "It's fine, little buddy.  You don't have to watch me suffer.  Just enjoy your freedom...while it lasts."

Is there ever an AU out there where you're actually happy?

So...ask about Asriel?

"Do you know when Azzy's coming home?  Y...you can't tell him this, but I really miss the guy.  It'd be sweet to cruise around town like old times.  Picking up for example...CHICKS.  Which a matter of course may not have ever actually happened.  B-but one time Undyne made eye contact with me...while she was writing me a speeding ticket..."

Co-workers?

"Ah yes, little buddy.  Good idea.  Meet the Rogue's Gallery.   Blue ears - soft-serve obsessed, no concept of personal space.  Keeps accidently pouring slushies on me and giggling.  The Warrior - thankfully absent due to pizza-related injuries.  Constantly terrorizing customers with war chants.    Purple guy - Man, THAT GUY, you gotta...actually...does that guy even work here?  Ah, my co-workers.  What would I be without them?  A happy place, little buddy.  A much happier place."

And the Pandora's Box, itself...the job?

"Make no mistake, little buddy.  ICE-E'S P"E"ZZA IS H"E"LL.  I can't slack off for SECONDS without hearing...be a team player!  There's no I in pizza.   YES THERE IS.  YOU JUST TOOK IT OUT.  But it's okay, little buddy.  I've been saving up...to go to college where Azzy is.  Then I'll get a theater degree and become a famous actor...and let the fangirls roll in, little buddy."

Eastward. And who should we run into in front of the grocery store (which was closed) but...Sans.

"hey, look who's walkin' around.  how are ya kid?"

Because I felt like being a jerk, I asked "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" as if I expected a response.

I didn't actually expect Kris to actually ASK it, though, much less in unison with me.

"hmm...y'know good question.  i'm sans.  your friendly neighborhood skeleton.  what's up?"

Store?

"behind me?  yeah, that's the grocery store.  unfortunately it's closed.  what a pain.  i really wanted to buy some milk.  someone really oughta complain to the guy who runs it."

I looked at Sans...then his name on the grocery store...then back to Sans...then back to his name on the store. Yeeeeeeeah. Do complain to that guy, Sans...you do that.

Friends?

"we just moved here.  so we hardly know anyone.  why, got anyone i should know better?"

Don't you dare ship him with Toriel--

Instead, Kris implied them self.

"whoah there, tiger.  you can't just jump straight into friendship.  it takes time.  ...alright, that's enough time.  take this.  call it whenever you feel like."

And we got Sans' cell phone number.

Annnnnnnd THEN came the introduction to Toriel.

"your mother, huh...?  too late.  i already "befriended" your mom last night."

DOUBLE-TAKE WHAT WHAT WHAAAAT!?

she's great. came to the store to buy chocolate kisses. says she's gotta lock her door to stop you from eating em'. heheheh...you sound like a fun kid, huh?"

And then Kris named dropped Alphys.

"alphys.  yeah I know about her.  came in the store with a suitcase and sunglasses.  thought she was part of the mob.  she opened the case and stuffed it full of noodles.  paid in small bills and slunk out of the place.  pajamas trailing on the floor.  anyway.  our relationship is purely business.  so, uh, i guess i'll just let her do her thing."

That's about all of that I can take.

As we left, though...

"...hey, bud.   ...are you busy tomorrow...?  i need some help with something.  it'd be great if you could come over.  i live just next door ya know."

Err....yes?

"wow...you answered quickly, huh.  that's not good.  i'm a total stranger.  you should probably hesitate more.  well I guess I shouldn't complain...  huh...?  what are we going to be doing?  oh, i'm not going to be there.  that'd be weird.  it's just going to be you and my little brother.  he needs friends.  thanks for hanging out with him.  see ya."

Did Kris just get suckered into babysitting? Also...little brother? Papyrus?

A knock at the door at Sans' house next to the grocery store. No answer...but the distant trousel of bones. I won't question that.

Knocks at the doors of random apartments yielded offbeat responses. Okay, Kris. We'd need to talk someday.

What? That looks like Monster Kid and Snowy up ahead.

"Yo, Kris!  You survived Suzie, haha!  I mean I never saw her beat anyone up, but I'd be careful.  Like one me, Snowy, and Jockington were playing handball, and she kept creepily watching us from the corner.  Then the ball rolled over to her and she just, uh, froze solid...and kicked the ball as hard as she could, right into officer Undyne's car.  Then Undyne came out, smiling, cracked her knuckles and totally wiped us at handball...  Anyway, Suzie sucks, Kris, haha."

Oooooh.

"Yo, Kris.  You look kind of annoyed.   Everything OK?  You can calm down now, dude.  Suzie's not here, haha!  Huh...?  You look even more annoyed..."

Just stop talking.

"HOOH!  You're lucky, Kris!  You got to miss class with Alphys!  It's not fair!  Ha ha ha!  If I skipped class, my dad would never hear the end of it!  Ha ha ha!  ...that's not even remotely funny."

Just keep on walking, Kris.

Northward into an alley......weird place for you to be, Alphys.

"O-oh!  Kris!  Kris, you're OK!  I was really worried when you didn't come back.  Where did you go...?  Did you skip class..?  W-well don't worry about it.  I'm the cool teacher, y'know.  You're not in trouble.  ...W-well let me know if you need anything."

Let's talk.

The large bouquets of flowers lining the alleyway?

"O-Oh!  These flowers?  They're from your dad...  He... He always asks how you're doing in school...  ...then gives me a bouquet of them."

Uh. Mind just broke.

"A-Actually, that he always gives me flowers...Really makes me w-wonder if he...if he l-likes...if he l-likes...If he l-likes.......the awesome comics I lent him."

Smooth.

"Honestly, HE kind of reminds me of a superhero, Kris (He's huge and could kick my ass)."

So...the chalk?

"K...Kris, even though you never got the chalk...you deserve a reward for trying so hard to find it.  So in return, I can let you borrow, um...M...My homemade DVD collection of the Symptoms!   Y-know the sitcom about the middle-class monster family?  It's got every episode from all 28 seasons.  It's the funniest, most quotable show ever...!  But make sure you don't watch the second season,  since they just rebooted it as Symptoms Turbo.  They all started driving their own motor-vehicles and fighting giant giga-demons and stuff.  The main problem about that is it kind of lost the focus on the family it had earlier.  When their vehicles were shaped like animals and they were friends with the animal vehicles.  And let's not get into Symptoms Galaxy Force when the Symptoms discover another Earth on the other side of the sun.  WOULDN'T THE GRAVITATION FIELD JUST--"

Jeeze, Alphys! Kris just asked about chalk. There were more obvious references to the Springfield family and Zordon's chosen task force protectors in your one explanation than I make in a week.

"...huh?  You don't want to watch it?  Th-that's okay, Kris..."

And then Kris asked about..."saucer"?

"Oh, this saucer of milk?" Huh. There was a saucer of milk laid out on the ground.

"It's for my kitty, MewMew!  She's a perfect angel!  ...uh?  What does she look like?  W-well, I've never actually s-seen her b-but... Ever since I started putting out milk, it's been disappearing.  S...so I'd like to think that there's a cat.  M...my cat."

Off we go.

"Okay, um if you ever need help with homework... My office hours are in this disgusting alley.  H...Heheheh...umm, tell your mom I said hi."

Further north...

There's Catty...and husband?

The Mister greeted Kris...and I got echoes of Ned Flanders.

"Hey, neighbor-beighbor.  When's your brother Doug gonna come by?  Hu hu huh!  My girls'd love to see him!  He's a sweet little man!  He's just got one problem.  He doesn't like my wife's cookin'!  What's wrong, Douglass, you don't like frozen cat food?  Huh huh huh!"

Okay...don't know who Doug is. If he means Asriel, he's way off. There was a broken grill behind him that smelled of burnt cat food. Okay, Catty. What's on your mind?

"Lil' Krissy?  What's up?  Give Aunt Catty a hug!" *MWAH  MWAH MWAH*  Ha ha ha! I'm not even your aunt! Oh my god...can I talk to you about something? ...actually, like anything, though. Your choice."

Neighbors? Overly...familiar neighbors, in fact. Bratty?

"Like that green girl next door?  Oh my god, Kris, she's like...my LIFE VILLAIN."

* record scratch*  Say what?

"Like the other day went to see Cat Petters 2...and the only other person in the theater was her!  Then I want to QC's and ordered a catpuccino...And she, like, was already drinking one!  She's SUCH a copycat!  ...uh, copygator.  Copysaurus?  Copodile?  I.D.K., she sucks!"

Annnnd what did Bratty have to say? Wait...are the both of them wearing the same color flip-flops?

"Krissy!  Like, long time no see!	  What's up?  Did you want to talk about something?"

Neighbor?

"Uh.  That chick next door drives me NUTS.  I keep seeing her EVERYWHERE I go.  She's a TOTAL copycat.  Like WHY, though?  Doesn't she realize she'll NEVER be me?  Honestly, her whole family is, like, SO trashy.  Once her sister served me coffee and I swear it was half cat fur.  Like, get a hair net girl.  For, like, your whole body."

Wait. Catti was her little sister. Oh. That makes...sense? I think? Total opposites, though.

A bit of back and forth...I learned some things I wish I could forget...like how Catty embarrassed herself at the school dance where she spilled the entire punch bowl on Asriel and danced inappropriately in front of Toriel...and got herself arrested in the parking lot for making a scene  Why did Asriel let her be his date, again? Or how Bratty had Kris do a run for burgers...and fries...and a dozen mini cakes...and then Bratty suddenly got sick and had to go home. Or the time Bratty had Asriel play truth or dare...and she made him give her his first kiss...and when Toriel found out she basically dialed 9-1-1.

Getting out of here. Please?

To the east...a familiar droopy pathetic house.

* knock knock knock*

"Ah, I'm afraid there's no one home right now, darling.  Now why don't you prance on home?

Another knock.

"I'm telling you, they're not home right now.  ...ah, you just wanted to talk to me...?  My apologies, beautiful.  I'm afraid I'm a bit of a nobody."

Huh...well that's--

I did a double-take. "Mettaton?  I mean...Hapstablook?

Lastly we stopped at the school gate where...Noelle was outside looking in.

"Oh, hi, Kris!  Did you need help with your homework again?  I know you were having trouble last time, so, um, I got a few things ready for you just in case -- Ah, wait, sorry!  I can't right now...  I forgot my house key again and...  Sorry, Kris.  I'll help you later, if that's ok.   See you at school, Kris!"

A moment of silence...I could tell she wanted to ask something.

"Umm, Kris?  Did you...want to talk about something...?"

Anything?

"Umm...Kris...?  Are you feeling alright?  Normally you're not so...talkative.  Oh!  I don't mean to sound like something's wrong with you...Um, Kris?  Is something wrong?  Why did you go to the hospital to see my dad...?  I mean, I'm sure he appreciated it, but um...  Gosh, I'm sorry, Kris!  Forget I said anything!"

Key?

"...huh?  Why don't I ask my mom for the key?  I...I mean, um...I...you know, she doesn't like it when I bother her when she's working.  Don't worry, okay?  I'll just go over to Catti's."

Well. Let's not beat around the bush.

"Suzie!  That's right!  You were with Suzie!  When you didn't come back to class, I was worried, but...  Everything turned out OK!  I think?  ......Um, Kris?  Can I ask you something, if that's OK?  Suzie...I'm kind of...curious what she's like you know?  I mean who DOESN'T wonder about her?  She never talks to anyone.  So Kris, could you tell me about her?  If that's OK..."

Better you than me, Kris. What's it going to be?

"What...?  She's...a nice person?  Really!?  L-like, really!?  Honestly!?  Truly!?  I mean that's what I'm hoping, but...W-wait, this isn't another trick, is it, Kris?  Like when you put ketchup on your arms and told me it was blood?"

Yikes. The clues were there...what kind of a person were you, Kris Dreemurr?

"...R-really?  You're serious?  You're totally serious?  ...gosh, then maybe I should try talking to her...  B-but if I die, you're paying for my funeral, Kris!  (Though, honestly, if she's nice, I might die, too...)"

There's...nothing else for us here. I remember her saying "Tell Azzy I said hi, Kris."

One last place before we go home.

To the very edge of town next to the pathetic house...to the Flower King flower shop.

There he was inside...back to us...in that flowery pink shirt I remember from...well...I don't have to say it, because I've already said it.

"Dum de dum... Oh?  Is someone there?  Just a moment.  I have almost finished watering these flowers...  ...here we are!"

And he turned around. I was freaking out. This was word-for-word...action for action...the same...!

"Howdy...!  How can I..."

I held my breath.

"...Oh!  Kris!"

Over he came and oooookay, that's a big Mr. Dad guy bearhug! And oddly familiar. At least I wasn't on the receiving end this time.

"Oh!  I'm sorry!  I forgot if you don't like hugs like that.  Well now, make yourself at home Kris.  You can help yourself to anything you like."

I gave Kris his/her space to explore around. I just...had too much to ponder to accurately log what Kris observed and found. But eventually...they decided to talk to Asgore.

"Say, Kris...I was thinking.  Perhaps when Asriel comes home...we could all go to the diner, just like old times...  My treat.  Doesn't that sound yummy?  Then we could have a nice drive around town.  I might need to clean out my truck, but..."

A nice sentiment, Asgore. But... Huh? Where you going, Kris?

Asgore and I followed upstairs where--

I about turned white for a moment when I saw the seven bell jars and the seven colors...but then I realized...!

"F...Flowers.  They're flowers...not souls."

Nearby there were a pile of past due notices that read "No rent received.  Again.  Stop giving away flowers.  Start selling them.  You have one month.  - C"

Well that's depressing.

I noticed the wedding photo hanging up...those same flowers were in the photo in a bouquet held by Toriel. Still alive and kicking after all these years? Those are some flowers.

I don't know about you...but this was too much to take in. It was like staring into the abyss...the abyss of a possible future if my ultimate happy ending plan didn't work out. It was beautiful but Asgore ending up like this? No...just no. There are punishments far worse than death and I had no idea what he did to deserve this in this DeltaRune.

I headed out, with Kris behind me, still unaware of my presence.

"Oh, Kris, before you go... Here.  For your mother.  Our secret."

* Kris got the bouquet of flowers. *

"Have a great day, Kris."

And home we went....just one final stop.

All the way to the east, as we passed...wait is that 01 and 02?

"Nothing better than hanging at the lake with my best bro...watchin' the waves go by..."

"...true."

And there...just a lake.

And...Onion-san?

"Hey...there...  Noticed you were...here...  It's me!  You know ME, right?  Of course you do!  I'm REAL popular!  I just!  ...Don't have any friends...  But it's okay, y'hear?  Because you're y'here!  Will YOU be my friend?"

Sure.

"Oh!  Oh!  I'm so happy!  Y'hear!?  I'm so happy I...I...I don't know what to do...I don't remember being this happy before!  What's your name, friend?"

Did you just answer "Hippopotamus, Kris?  You kidder, you.

"H...Hippa...Hyper...Hoper...Um, Hippopotamus!  That's you!  Big name, but worth it!  Oh, excuse me, I forgot to introduce myself.  ......actually, since no one talks to me, I forgot my own name.  Hippopotamus!  Can you give me a name...?"

Onion it is.

"Hmm!  It's perfect, y'hear!  I don't know what it means, but it's perfect!  Hmm!  Feels like it's shaped like me.  Feels like it smells like me!  Wait...what was the name?  Umyun?  Yeah!  It's perfect!  Umyun, that's my name.   Thank you for giving me a name!  I'll c cherish it, y'hear!?"

"Umm...h...Hippa...um...Hyper Potato Mask.  That's your name, right?  I wanna tell you...something...tomorrow.  Somethin' I can only tell a friend...  Come back soon, y'hear?

And back home we go.

Toriel was inside, reading at her recliner.

"Did you have fun with your friend today?  By the way I just finished baking a pie...If you go to bed it will be cool when you wake.  But do not eat it all this time.  All right?"

Only you, Goat Mom.

"Kris?  What is it, honey?"

Okay. About you, Kris?

"Kris, honey, you have grown up so much...someday you will be going off to university as well...  ...remember when you were little?  You asked when your horns were going to grow in?  So we bought that headband with the little red horns on it.  Oh, you wore it for months!  Whatever happened to it?"

Little. Red. Horns.

Okay. Asriel?

"Remember that video game you and Asriel used to play?  What was it called?  Super Smashing Fighters?"

...right.

"When he was little he LOVED the little green lizard from that.  We even had a birthday party for him themed around it.  Your father painted all these eggs with spots as decoration...  Oh, your brother LOVED it...!  Until the next day your father cooked them all for breakfast.  Your brother just kept crying...  Ever since he hated that book about eating green eggs!"

Seuss be turnin' over in his grave, yo.

And last...the flowers.

"Oh, Kris...?  Flowers?  For your mother...?  How sweet...  These are from HIM are they not.  ...Err, well, worry not, Kris, I will... ...find some place for them."

My ears drooped. I'll spare the disappointment. I didn't have to read into it to know where this would go, unbeknownst to Kris.

Pie?

"Kris, since only you and I are living here right now...It feels...just a bit lonely, does it not...?  But fortunately, sharing a warm, freshly-made pie, is the perfect cure for such a condition...as long as I get to eat some, of course."

Yup. A butterscotch-cinnamon pie. It's still cooling.

Back to their room. A look into the hallway mirror...and yeah. It's only you.

Inside...

"If you go to bed, this chapter of your adventures will end.  Will you go to bed?"

I was about ready to close the book on this. How about you, Kris?

And that was that. I thought I would wake up at that moment. Everything just seemed so perfect. A book-end to a weird adventure.

I waited...it got dark.

I waited longer. Why was I still here? What was left to see?

It was the middle of the night and I noticed Kris was restless. I resisted the urge to sit on Asriel's bed.

Suddenly Kris threw them self out of bed...rather violently.

"Wha...what?" I narrowed my eyes. They pushed themselves up to their feet, hanging their head all zombie-like.

They inched to the center of the room...ominously...turned and faced the old bird cage.

They outstretched their left arm...clutched their hand open and closed a few times.

"What's going--"  I started. Then the shock hit me without warning as it happened without warning.

They plunged their hand THROUGH their chest!

"WHAT THE HELL--!" I recoiled in horror as I could hear the thumping heartbeat.

And in that moment, they tore...their very SOUL out from their chest! They slowly walked over to the cage...and THREW IT IN HARD!!!

I was scared. Rightfully so.

They shuffled back to the center of the room, facing the window. They outstretched their left arm again...that was when IT...appeared in their grasp.

The blood-red...REAL KNIFE.

They slowly turned around, looking over their shoulder at an invisible camera...and I could see their eyes turn red...with a flash.

And then.

DARKNESS.

I lurched up from the operating table in a panic, screaming bloody murder.

"Commander!"

I panted for a bit...before I noticed the squeezing pain in my hand and wrist...where Asriel's hand was clutched around it in a vice-like grip. And mine was clutched around his just as tight. I think...our claws were actually making marks in each other.

He looked as pale and afraid as I did.

"Asriel...?"

"I...I felt as if...I was there with you...and it was...like I could see blurry visions of...what you'd been through.  I kept...drifting in and out so...I only saw bits and pieces of it...most of the things after...the fountain I didn't catch but--"

Did he...see or hear my thoughts? How much of it was he privy to? Was this Bunnie and Callista's psychic link at work? They wouldn't be that slip shot. They would have guarded him against latent thoughts and shared images like that.

"Asriel...how much did--"

"Not a lot...and what I did experience...is quickly fading from memory...I...can't quite remember what all there was...there was a lot that was...familiar but...so distant."

"Asriel...that last image.  You saw it, didn't you?"

"It was clear for only a moment but...I saw the soul...I saw the Real Knife."

I swallowed hard. He followed suit.

"What...what does it mean?"

"I don't know..."

"Is it...is it over?"

"I...I think so.  I...hope so."

DeltaRune was the single most unusual experience I'd ever encountered. And I worried that it was the closest Asriel had ever gotten to seeing at least pieces of the truth for himself. But now I felt like...the journey was over. But at the same time...I felt like it was prelude. Prelude to times changing. Prelude to something...dark on the horizon. More than that...Jevil's words echoed in my head about awakening a nightmare.

This was not the way I was expecting this adventure to end. And I hoped...it really was the end. For all the good, all the strange, all the bad, and everything else...for it to end so suddenly and darkly...

I guess it was true. I was just along for the ride. There was no payoff. I couldn't change anything in that world. And it led to me questioning what the point even was. The only thing clear was...my choices didn't matter in the end.

Sub-Entry 353: "Future Echoes Tie to the Manhattan Crossrift of 1984":
Let's face it. There was no year quite like 1984. I say that casually, but you really had to be there to understand. As a time traveler? I've been there. I've been there and back. Several times. And 1984 continues to be a year of wonder. And I'm not just saying that after crossing paths with Themyscira's own princess and god killer herself.

No, actually, the focal point of this is none other than the Crossrift of 1984. Though comparing it to the Walking Dead is a matter of opinion; despite Violet daring to risk Chameleon's wrath over saying something so matter-of-factly.

But actually...what got me thinking about it were some tasks that my mentors had me undertake which...when connecting the dots formed a pretty evident pattern by the time I embarked on the most recent one. And it ask this question: How long could my mentors keep their research into the paranormal going? I'd seen it timeline branch into more than a couple of AU's; some extreme, some which, in retrospect, I wish hadn't answered the call, some "IDW" cases that were my jam, and of course the still unspoken "third apocalypse" that I had yet to tell Asriel about--the one that brought us all back to Ivo Shandor.

While the actual number of errands would stretch across years to come...I'd say under 35 years in total before...well inevitability hammered it home immortality really kicked below the belt when it was your mentor's time.

Their teachings may go on, but it's like it was once said. It's not the idea I missed...it's the man.

"...he really likes collecting these samples of spores, molds, and fungi, doesn't he?" Asriel warily eyed one of the sealed Petri dishes full of a strain that I'm sure most of his high school classmates would have trouble pronouncing. Azzy never failed to remind me he was in accelerated classes a majority of his life in Miranda City. Big words were his bread and butter...then again it was most of ours in UCIAT's.

"We all have our hobbies." I shrugged as Asriel placed it back in the box and rearranged the bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts.

"That reminds me, Sally wants to know if Miss Melnitz is on for racquetball next week?"

"Oh right!  OGPX season ends this month.  We'll have her back full time for another half year."

I continued driving Ecto 1B, the less upgraded iteration toward our destination.

"You know when he asked us to deliver all this stuff to his personal lab, I wasn't expecting some place out in Oklahoma."

"You think you know a mentor..." I shrugged. "But seriously...what's in a hometown?  At least...I think Summerville is his hometown." I pushed my glasses up. By now it was reflexive to be in human form on certain worlds.

The thought hadn't occurred to me that it could also be one of the cases my mentor had put on the shelf and hadn't had the time to come back to.

"Yeah...but a creepy old farmhouse out in the middle of nowheeeeere...and that's exactly why it has to be the place." Asriel doubled back in mid-sentence. He looked over at the P.K.E. meter I had among the stuff.

"Don't you...find it odd that he's having us leave this highly experimental, potential dangerous, and in some cases very nuclear-powered equipment in a place like this?  I mean...obviously no one would think to come looking for it here but...why would Dr. Spengler need to store it here at all?  It's not like the Ghostbusters are going out of business any time soon."

"Need I remind you of the gap between 1984 and 1989?"

"Ooooh...right.  The judicial restraining order."

"Besides...even though I've seen many possible futures...I don't like thinking about the ones I haven't considered, yet.  Less...pleasant ones."

Asriel seemed to accept that. But also...I had the feeling he came to the realization before I did.

While Egon had plenty of time left to get his affairs in order to preserve a legacy...too many times had I seen life get in the way of other colleagues and mentors, leaving all they had worked for, all that they were buried under dust and time with no one to carry on their work.

It happened with Dr. Light. No one could have predicted Dr. Cain would find his old lab and research, much less X. But it took 100 years for that to happen.

How long would it take Emmett's time research to surface if he didn't have his family and Marty McFly to safeguard it...and by extension, me to carry it to its eventual destiny to found S.T.C.

There was no way Asriel wanted to say out loud to me what we were both afraid of. Somehow...we didn't have a good feeling about where this road would lead. It wouldn't be Walter J. Peck or Jack Hardimeyer much less Gozer the Gozerian, Vigo the Carpathian, or Ivo Shandor that would be their undoing. It would be time. It was always time. Catching all those ghosts over the years...the bitter pill was that that no matter who wore the proton pack...save for an immortal werewolf contracted by a goddess...that person was always looking at their own future before dumping them into a muon trap. As an honorary Ghostbuster, a Substitute Soul Reaper, and a number of other temporary or unofficial positions in the field of the supernatural...I could definitely confirm the existence of the afterlife. Is this log depressing yet?

"Lot of cornfield."

Thanks for changing the subject, Asriel. But maybe that distraction is what prevented the both of us from noticing a spike in readings as we drove past a mining area. The both of us really should have noticed the name read Shandor Mining Company, established 1927. That should have been a red flag and it would have answered a lot before we even set foot in town.

I wanted to question Egon Spengler's thinking on this. But...even with the number of years, decades, centuries, and millennia I had on both him and Ray, I knew very well I still had things to learn. It would make sense someday.

We eventually reached the town. Standard Mayberry-looking place with a standard water tower. Curious geography, according to Lupe. No fault lines or tectonic plates. Heck, there wasn't even loud music. And I made sure of that by triple checking that Violet didn't sneak anything into the car's stereo; as tempted as she was, I wasn't about to end up getting ticketed for violating a noise ordinance because I accidently blared Fallout Boy at peak volume as a result of her pranks.

"Hey, Volt?  I think this doesn't belong with the rest of this?" Asriel handed over a vial of red liquid.

"Yeah...pretty sure we don't want Pymm Particles in this time period.  How careless of me." I slipped it into my lab coat pocket. "I must have ants on the brain or something."

We did get a few stares as we entered town but nothing that was unexpected. I mean it was still the 1980's, thanks to taking the time gate here so our favorite professional paranormal investigators and eliminators were still in business, relative to the timeline. I think some of them were just expecting their hometown hero to come back after making it big.

We stopped in town long enough for lunch and gas.

Asriel took notice of the news report on TV, recapping the events of that fateful Crossrift of 1984. This world and that date was really starting to set in. For a goat not born on this world, much less this era, he was really starting to grow attached to this era and all that it held. I'd planted the nostalgia seed deep and it had grown into quite a flower. Oooh...bad choice of word.

I couldn't imagine that the name of Spengler would ever disappear from this place. Sounded like his legacy was pretty well established. But it still gnawed at me.

Eventually...we reached the farmhouse.

"If you're going to say it looks way worse than you thought it would be--"

"Why would I say that?  I think it's kinda cool."

"Heh." Maybe I was the one who was getting cynical in my old age.

That said...even at this point it was looking like a fixer-upper. I could only imagine what a few more decades would do to the place.

Asriel carried in the paperwork and I lead to the rooms and storage locations that Egon had specifically requested I allocate them to.

"You really think anyone's going to be able to make sense of this stuff if they find it by chance?"

"You'd have to be out of your mind or desperate to break in the hopes of finding anything valuable to sell."

"Or on the off chance your mentor has surviving family, wouldn't they have to be at least half as intelligent as he is to even make heads or tails of it?"

"Good point.  Still...information is dangerous in the wrong hands.  I should hope he's considered this."

That took care of the paperwork...but the rest of the stuff...?

"Volt, this can't be the right spot.  It's too small for a laboratory."

The shack was only the side of three or four outhouses put together if I had to be honest. Barely big enough to be a tool shed in my opinion. Then again, my idea of a tool shed was probably larger and more well-stocked than the average person's.

Asriel opened the door.

"Whoah.  Watch that first step."

So...most of the floor collapsed. Well. Mostly empty at ground level, anyway--"

"Azzy?" I watched him go for the NX grapplers and climb his way down into the darkness.

"Of course!  It's underground!" His voice echoed up.

Oh boy.

I carefully followed suit and joined him, handing him the checklist and instructions of what to do with what.

"Okay, NOW I believe this is mentor's lab.  But...still a bit...err...makeshift."

Okay, it was the cramped space and the low lighting conditions speaking. If this were the firehouse's lab area, I wouldn't bat an eye.

"But functional." Asriel looked at all the 80's era tech and oscilloscopes and such. He turned and his eyes widened at the lone proton pack on the table.

The gears were grinding in his head.

I went ahead and added the samples to the table where there were already an overwhelming number of containers full of spores, molds, and fungus samples.

"Microconidia...Aspergillius Fuitigatus...Plasmodium--"

"That's the last of the it."

"Not all of it."

Asriel stared at the PKE meter in his grip.

He sighed.

"I'll take care of this one.  I feel like...I should let you have some space down here.  He's your mentor.  You're closer to him than I am."

"That's...considerate of you, Azzy."

A moment of silence.

"Hey.  It's not like he's gone.  It's just...a time capsule.  Right?"

"Y-yeah...time capsule."

Time Capsules didn't carry as much weight to me as they did everyone else. The goal was to leave behind legacies so future generations could see evidence of the past themselves when the past generations were long gone. But for an immortal Lycan? It felt like a dog who buried a bone in the back yard and dug it up maybe only a week or two later.

I looked over more and more of the equipment while Asriel headed back into the house.

I was alone for a bit. It was during that time I felt it...or experienced it. It felt like a Ripple Effect. Had something happened in the past that reverberated into the present?

The temporal distortion passed and I thought that was that...but I wasn't prepared for what I could only describe as an aftershock "reflection". Whatever that ripple was as it echoed further into time...something echoed back from the future, carrying with it a shadow of events to come.

"What...?  Who...?" I watched the bespectacled child rappel down...before taking out the P.K.E. meter I had just had Asriel take into the house. The image drifted in and out before vanishing completely.

"What...what was that phenomenon?"

In my years of S.T.C...this was something completely new. I wish I hadn't given Asriel the meter. Had I done so; I might have recognized the valence carried a familiar signature...the same one as when Shandor's spiritual antenna activated on top of Dana Berret's apartment. Unknown to me, that would have explained the origin. But what did it reflect off of in the future? The answer had been back toward the mining company the whole time. Something was lying dormant in this present.

I calculated the echoes to be about 60 to 70 years in the past...and about 30 to 35 into the future. I'd probably come back to this event some year but not without authorization.

At the same time I encountered this, Asriel was attempting to solve the puzzle in the floorboards that mentor had constructed.

"...and done." He opened the hidden compartment.

He looked at the meter for a bit before switching it off and then setting it inside...and they closing up the puzzle. The moment he did was the moment the echoes had ended.

"Hmm...?" Asriel looked over his shoulder.

"That's strange.

As we met up outside.

"Mission accomplished?"

"Yeah...I think so."

Awkward silence.

"Well...let's go."

We piled into Ecto-1B, driving past the barn. I glanced casually at the large tarp on the ground inside. Large enough to cover something the size of this very car.

I was getting that vibe again...like my gut was telling me I knew what the future was here...but my mind couldn't rationalize it. I didn't have Bunnie's sixth sense. It was just a feeling. That was it.

I kept quiet about it as we drove out of town toward the space-time gate.

Asriel seemed to be fixated with the town as he wouldn't stop looking out the window. As if he felt...something or someone was there.

Asriel rubbed his eyes to make sure he didn't just imagine a vaguely green potato shape drift in and out of existence.

"Volt...do you think this place is a supernatural hot spot?"

"I do...but...I don't have the authority to investigate it.  This is mentor's turf.  We should leave it to him if there is something here.  Anyway...that's probably why he had us take care of this in the first place."

Asriel wanted to ask if Egon was preparing for something coming. I wanted to ask the same question.

Something was weird in time and I felt like there was another crossrift on the horizon. As if they didn’t' have enough on their plate with Gozer connected to Cybertron and with Ectronymous still hanging around the firehouse as a spare car.

"Volt?"

"Yeah, Azzy?"

"No one's ever really gone.  Just...wanted to say that."

"Asriel?"

"You're thinking about...how you outlive so many people and...you're thinking about the friends and teachers that you'll have to say goodbye to someday.  I mean--"

"I guess I have to thank you for finally saying it.  Yeah.  It's...not a good power to have.  Immortality."

"When...that day that we don't want to talk about comes...what are you going to do with--"

"That's not up to me.  That's...whatever's up to mentor.  Whatever he leaves in his last will and testament.  He knows I'm going to still be around so...I'm better off to him as a silent partner that will be there if...when the time for a successor is at hand."

I was okay with this. It would be a lot to juggle both Emmett's time research and Egon's paranormal research. Strange as it seems...I was having trouble remembering what was going to happen to the both of them...to all of the people I'd met. I'd glossed over that I had come back to Miranda's past and I was constantly jumping around other worlds' pasts with each mission.

My mind kept playing tricks on me with that way. I was writing these logs and living these events...but these events relative to where and when I had come from in my ongoing mission in S.T.C....they had to be already archived, right? That was where Miranda's remastery of timelines really set in. Maybe it was an End Game effect with how time travel worked?

The future was still changing and I was a part of it...and trapped by it.

"Volt.  It's going to work out.  You've been through that pain before.  Just...don't ever become numb to it.  I've learned something from...losing Chara.  As long as it keeps hurting to lose people you care about...you're still you.  You still have a heart and soul."

"Thanks, Asriel.  I...I really needed that."

We drove off and into the time gate. Rest assured, I would not be taking my mentors for granted. Not now, not ever.

Sub-Entry 354: "The Password is Munka Spanka":
"...why do we keep humoring Violet, Asriel?"

"Somebody has to?" He shrugged.

"I do not object to her hosting training sessions but her...unique spin on things puts even my patience to the test."

"I have to say...a nostalgia obstacle course is a new spin even for her."

"One thing's for sure...it's definitely a case where the division of our talents becomes obvious." Rotor panted. "All of our athletic members are leaving us heavier-sets and diminutive types in the dust."

Gadget caught up to him a moment later.

"But you brainy ones are making us jocks look like fools." Jon dropped the giant steel Rubik's Cube into the socket, lighting it up after I had used my magnetic powers to solve it.

"Can we agree to disagree about the differences holding us back and agree to agree that our differences are complimenting each other making the team stronger on the whole?"

"That's just corny enough to be true, goat son." I mused.

"And an easy enough speech for someone who's the best of both worlds to deliver." Vi's voice mused over the P.A. system.

"Salty about being a diminutive brain?" Jon taunted.

"Dude." Rotor warned. "You're only going to encourage her!"

"Too late." I groaned.

"This team building exercise forgot to include tact among our fellow team mates." Bunnie narrowed her eyes. "After this we're going to have a nice long discussion about minding your tongue on the battlefield...you're not exempt, Vi!"

"But a blue streak tongue is my best feature!" Violet said with a grin.

"Wha--!" Mitzi gasped before she found herself launched by a spring unit from Super Mario Bros.

"I gotcha!" Asriel pulled her out of the air onto the NX Board.

"She really likes hearing herself talk." Mitzi wrinkled her nose.

"But it's serving a purpose.  She gave us a hint just now.  Bluestreak."

"Bluestreak?"

"I follow ya, Asriel.  Bluestreak is a G1 Autobot reference.  He was named so for his "blue streak" way of being chatty and wise-cracking."

"Sally would have appreciated that reference." Bunnie rubbed her chin.

"And I'm starting to...do you notice it, Asriel?" I furrowed my brow.

"Mmm-hmm." He nodded.

"Clue us in!" Mitzi caught up.

"Save for a few bits and pieces...most of the references she's been throwing at us are all Cybertronian.  And not just from any one AU continuity." Asriel pointed out.

"Hmm?"

"Think back.  Remember when she got Sally to lose her temper for a moment back there and she taunted with "She's trippin' cause she got served"?" He continued.

"That's a reference to the Unicron Trilogy.  That version of Soundwave used that same line after Megatron was defeated and was frustrated with his loss." I followed up.

"Yeah...Megatron being completely out powered and all.  It gave us the clue to search for Soundwave's alt mode in action figure form.  And no one has a bigger action figure collection I know of that Aunt Vi."

"Yeah, a lot of the collectables we've been acquiring have been in fact..."

"Hmm." Bunnie pondered.

"I mean the first one was Ectotron."

"He'd be flattered.  And creeped out at the same time." I mused.

"But not all of us are in the know about Cybertron." Mitzi shrugged. "I mean yeah this...Generation 1 as you call it is closer to my era but...back then the series wasn't exactly touted for both genders, if you follow."

"Yeah.  That's why there weren't any female Transformers until--"

"Let's not get into ugly controversy."

"I admit...it is kind of fun sometimes when Miss Violet has us do things like this." Gadget patted me on the back.

In light of everything...I could always count on little sister to remind me that even if it got on our nerves, it was still all in fun. And it's not like it didn't serve a completely useless purpose. Truth be told, some of our best training regimens was thanks to Violet.

"Let's never admit it to her.  It'd go to her head."

"Agreed." Bunnie nodded.

"Less chatter, more clatter, you guys!"

"What was the clue she gave us at the start of this?"

"She didn't really give us a clue.  Just that it's a password we need to discover to finally complete this thing."

"Fair enough.  But how we figure out what we're supposed to do to get this password?  We're not collecting any letters spelling out anything.  We haven't gotten any equations to solve or some clever puzzle.

"We're still also going to have to keep on our toes for Violet's vast number of 80's references."

"We've already been through so many of them that just seem...to weird to be real." Asriel shrugged. "Stuff like 'big hair, don't care', checking movies out on VHS cassettes from library-like places called video rentals, phones with cords,  the whole "Very Special Episode Of/Just Say No" programs, neon clothing...!"

"All staples of another lifetime, Goat Son." I assured.

"Yeah, we older generation who weren't on the run from Vorostov that lived through that era have an advantage of knowing what that's all about." Mitzi rubbed her chin. "I was younger then and remember it all, but really...it was Volt's time and kinda before Gadget's time."

Mitzi was sporting a set of green and white leg-warmers she had picked up as a prior clue.

"Lucky.  I would have loved to have grown up in that environment instead of being on the run from the Vorostov Security Force." Rotor crossed his arms.

"Okay, Boomer!" Violet's voice taunted.

"Dammit, Violet!  I told you never to call me that...nickname." Rotor hollered at the P.A. System. But I think he was also annoyed by the recent internet meme trend of a sardonic response to the generation before Gen-X.

'For that matter, where do you get off hassling the rest of us about it? Wasn't your time closer to the 90's?!"

"Now now.  Let's not get salty.  Time's running out on your challenges."

"C'mon.  Don't let her get to you." Sally tugged on his shoulder. She was only back for half a day before her big race.

"Right."

"This one." Asriel picked up the second of two Optimus Prime figures.

"How do you know?"

"Because this one is Power Master, God Ginrai.  The other is G1 Optimus Prime."

"So I guess that's the "fake" Prime the clue said to watch out for--"

"Speaking of watch out!" Sally pushed me to the ground moments before a nasty fume sprayed out almost in a solid stream.

"Gaskunk!" I recognized the form of the Predicon from Carrobot/Transformers Robots in Disguise.

"Frankly I would have preferred a shark sonnet from Sky Byte.

Mitzi reshaped her weapon into X-Brawn's weapon and sent the holo-lyth Predicon into the wall where it broke apart into matrix code.

"We've been going at this for what feels like ages!" When will this end?"  Rotor's unfortunate physique was catching up with him.

Asriel caught it out of the corner of his eye.

"Hmm?  That Martini Porche 935 Turbo... RC car.  It's driven past the action in the background all this time...and is constantly passing a holographic checkered flag...it couldn't be that simple."

Asriel did some computations on the NX Switch board in tablet mode.

"Meister?  No...it's too simple.  It's got to be more obscure than that.  Keep working on it, Azzy." He muttered to himself.

"I've got something!" Gadget spied something in a crack as we proceeded to outrun the Vehicon drones following us like a sort of timer mechanism. If we lagged too far behind we'd be penalized at such a rapid rate it would be an instant challenge failure.

Gadget shrunk down and ducked into the hole in the floor before emerging with...

"Micromasters." Gadget pushed the tiny-sized action figure up out of the hole.

"Good eyes, Gadget." Violet's smug voice rang out.

"Hey, bet you didn't know that black-suited Spider-Man clashed with the Transformers."

"When did THAT happen?" Asriel arched an eyebrow.

"Marvel universe." I rolled my eyes.

"I hope we're not going to be doing this for every possible world you have a nostalgic connection to, Violet."

"Would there be something wrong with that?"

"Proof that we never left school..." I muttered.

"The School of Violet Tokugawa is never out, yo!   Now focus or end up being Unicron's b--"

I ahem-ed loudly.

That didn't save us though as the next holo-trap turned out to be Wreck-Gar and the Junkions.

"Oh man...we don't have time to confront--"  Rotor started before Bunnie jumped in, cleared her throat and spoke.

"Bah weep gran ah weep ninny bong!" She hurriedly said before offering a strip of Energon cube.

"Bah wee gran a weep ninny bong!" Wreck-Gar responded as he and the Junkions saluted.

"How did you...?" I started to ask.

"I don't want to talk about it." Bunnie brushed me aside, covering up the fact that she was flushing with anger and embarrassment. Yup...somehow Violet even managed to badger Bunnie into agreeing to a bet...and somehow Bunnie lost.

At every turn we were confronted with more things all over the multiple continuities of our Cybertronian allies.

I did have to give this to Violet...perhaps getting to know our allies better would prepare us in the long run. Right now we had so many collective allies that we had recently reconnected with that it was impossible to be in the know about everyone and everything much less every event and every facet of their worlds that we'd never be fully prepared for the next Chaopolis plot that pitted one against another.

"Victory Leo." Lupe was the next to figure out a clue. It wasn't that surprising she'd guess the one based on a lion motif.

By now Asriel had been noticing the reoccurrence of that one thing that was slipping past each of us.

Bunnie unsheathed the main weapon of Windblade, the Autobot City Speaker. Violet was really delving into recent lore that AEON was just now being updated with.

"That's three so far, now.  Power of the Primes, the Titans Return, Combiner Wars, Cyberverse...!  How are ANY of us supposed to know any of these."

"Big Brother!  T-Cog!" Gadget managed to use her glider wings to navigate her way through a series of wind traps and snag something resting in a scrap pile at the center of it all.

The clues were getting so crammed together it was impossible to say which clue belonged to which item and which inside-reference. Much less be able to properly list them in this log entry.

"Okay...seriously...a boss battle against freakin' DEVASTATOR ripped right out of Transformers Devastation?!" I entrusted the Protoform to Mitzi to protect while Bunnie, Sally, Asriel and I directly battled Devastator. At the same time Gadget, Rotor, and Lupe to try to answer the question prompts to open the lock onto he gateway to the final doorway.

"Okay...the seven senses of a Cybertronian are...?" Lupe asked.

"Umm...let's see...sight--"  Rotor started as the corresponding lock lit up and disengaged from the correct answer.

"Sound." Mitzi and Sally called out in unison. Two locks down.

"Touch?" Lupe guessed.

"Smell." Rotor followed up, while getting a few looks. He was right though.

"Short-range radio-wave transmission!" Gadget said after a bit of thought. Right again, little sister.

"Magnetic sensitivity." I chimed in while I had a moment. "And electric sensitivity!"

All locks were opened and just in time as Asriel landed the final blow, using Perseverance to emulate Optimus Prime's transformed outer shell for a final shot with his rifle buster.

We all ran into the final room. One giant door. No way out once the path we exited slammed shut.

None of us were any closer than before to give the final response.

"Think...it must be something...Violet would find juvenile humor in!" I suggested.

"But where in the Transformers collective would we find ANYTHING like that!  It's not like there's a plethora of fart jokes and toilet humor much less innuendos." Sally rolled her eyes.

"Bloody Hell...why did she have to drag us all into this?" Jon had laid low most of the test save for a few feats of strength and the occasional mention of something only British G1 Transformers comic lore could hold the answer.

Asriel paced back and forth...also the Vehicons were right outside the door.

"Relax, they can't get in--"  Rotor started before...!

"Oh.  They teleport.  That's...not good."

"We're out of time!  We have to guess something!"

"Man all this way to race to a big fat black flag..." Sally pounded her fist into her hand.

"Race...?  Race!  That's it!" Asriel suddenly put it together.

"The answer is...MUNKA SPANKA!" He suddenly shouted into the microphone on the door.

And with that...the simulation ended and the gate ended.

A cheer went up among us...but it eventually wound down before we were all silent and I asked the proverbial question.

"What the heck is Munka Spanka!?!"

"The most obscure Transformers reference that Violet could have made.  Was the winner of the Olympic-like games at the start of the first episode of season 3 of G1?

You see all this time while we were completing her TF-themed obstacle course, she's been dangling red herrings around us but she did have one true big clue that she's been driving around in the background, unnoticed by Remote Control. An RC car version of the Diaclone toy, Meister! But we know him as Jazz.

Jazz crossed the finish line in the race during that first episode...BUUUUUT...! In the very next scene, due to what might have been an editing mistake, the announcer declare the winner to be "Munka Spanka" from the Argonon Cluster."

Whoah. Goat Son's attention to detail after cross-indexing AEON's records with Violet's master DVD set of seasons 1, 2, and 3 plus the partial season 4 of G1 Transformers astonished me.

Yeah...Munka Spanka was a name that sounded like it should be obscene and definitely something Violet took humor in.

We were let back into Violet's waiting area before she allowed us back into the main lab.

"Only you, Vi.  Only you." I shrugged my head.

"Well, we're all in shape for a while.  I'll let Arlene know you all passed the physical fitness pop quiz with flying colors."

"And what about you, Vi?" Jon growled.

"I already sent mine results in."

"You didn't cheat, did you?"

"Me?  Heck no!  I just happened to have...a different curriculum that I was lucky enough to qualify for at a time I happened to be available."

"And we were not." I crossed my arms.

Bunnie deadpanned.

Mitzi just sighed out of frustration.

"Well.  it was a heck of a workout.  Anyway.  I gotta get going.  The last race waits for no one!" With that Sally was gone again.

"Cheer up, Volt.  Now we at least know more about our friends, the Autobots and our enemies the Decepticons."

"And the Maximals, and the Predicons, and the Minicons, and the Omnibots, and the Terrorcons, and so on...and so on..." I shook my head. "As long as we're not getting another Michael Bay move any time soon, I think she stopped just shy of overdoing it."

"C'mon.  Let's break for lunch.  I'm buying." Goat Son led me out of the lab. But not before taking a moment to flip over the Decepticon Shield on Violet's Door, revealing the Autobot insignia underneath. As he did so he hummed the G1 jingle used for scene transitions.

"Nice touch there, Azzy.  Nice touch."

And off we went to cool down and enjoy some food.

Sub-Entry 355: "TMNT x Power Rangers"
I'd like to reflect on some wisdom before I go any further. Wisdom relayed to me through my second in command, Bunnie. As to its source, I don't know if it came from Master Splinter or his sons. But conversely, I had ever indication it could have been the insight of any one of five...no six teenagers with attitude selected by Zordon of Eltar.

Either way, the same advice goes. I remind these are not my words but someone else's. I hope in time I will find the source of who said it originally such that credit may be given where credit is due. For now, I'll list it as anonymous; in keeping with both the ninja code of invisibility...and Zordon's third and final rule of keeping identities secret. Of course...if that rule still applied to our time and not theirs back in 1993 and such, I wouldn't be naming names in this research log. So...yeah. Excuse my moment of meta.

To directly quote the source,  "No one will ever know you better than the people you grew up with.  The ones you've won with, lost with...and changed with.  Sure, you may end up drifting apart.  That always happens over time.  But that will never change the fact that they knew you before you knew you.  And that bond...that bond can make them family."

That moment of profound insight out of the way...

"...that never happened."

"Whaaaat?  Of course it did.  Astronoma totally--"

"Not that I doubt your intellectual capacity, Violet...but A) I agree with Michelangelo.  No, it didn't happen.  B)  There isn't , there have has been, and there never will be a fifth turtle although I appreciate a reference like Venus De Milo, and C) Who is Astronema?"

"You're killin' me, Donnie!" Vi frowned.

I rolled me eyes and decided to withheld that bit of confusion from Splinter's students...or were they his sons? Which continuity are the four of you, again?

"I apologize for this, Bunnie-chan."

"Only if I may offer mine in return, sensei.  Violet is being--"

"Extra troll-y this day?" Mitzi cut in.

"In so many words." Bunnie admitted, not minding the interrupting.

So. Yeah. Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. Why not? The former had already crossed paths with my mentors, the Ghostbusters. A tale for another time, perhaps. As to how and why? Also another time and place.

The trend of crossovers between people and places to the point of overlapping had long since started forming a network which I was at the epicenter of. But now it was like it was building to something bigger in the long run. Something better for our side. And maybe...something that would change the UltraVerse for all time. My adopted Grandpa, Giovanni Marco Arcade had taken the first steps toward this path. My adopted Father, Garfield Powerhouse Arcade laid the groundwork for it. I was now bringing the cars onto this highway. And it would be Asriel's destiny, if he chose it, to bring this metaphorical cattle drive to its ultimate destination in the undiscovered new frontier ahead.

But along the way...things like this would pop up in the road. Whether conflict or comradery would set the stage...rest assured it was up to UCIAT and STC to clean up the mess and reserve the timelines while maintaining the balance of the dimensions.

At least that's how it read on paper.

"One thing I'm glad of, Goat Son."

"What's that, Volt?"

"Just glad it's not Infestation or Infestation 2 again."

"Infes...?  Hold on, give me a sec..." Asriel clicked on his new visor and did a quick history search into A.E.O.N and accessed a dossier from the IDW archives.

"...ohhh yeeeeah.  Yeah that would suck big time.  And I guarantee we'd never talk Chameleon into helping us out.  Wow, four worlds invaded by the undead in the first instance of it.  Some of our ally worlds, to boot, including Ghostbusters realm Earth, Cybertron, G.I. Joe realm Earth, and the Federation of Star Trek."

"Only to be followed up by the Elder Gods of H.P. Lovecraft lore doing the same thing invading TMNT Earth, G.I. Joe Earth, and the Cybertron AU code-named Hearts of Steel."

"There's a reference that came up recently.  During Violet's Transformers themed obstacle course.  When Gadget and Mitzi found the clue and you immediately told them to look for something resembling John Henry's hammer from post Industrial Age folk-lore.  Nicely on the ball then, Goat Son."

"But that crossover was NOTHING compared to this one you were involved in which somehow involved the "Lone Gunmen" investigated by Dr. Nicodimus when he was assigned to watch over the X-Files world."

"Good times and right around the time Nicodimus and I ended up bringing my mentors the Ghostbusters together with Splinter's son.  Which SOMEHOW still lead to ending up colliding with Hearts of Steel the AU again.  But things REALLY got confusing with the whole mess with the Yukarian Transformers reanimated by Shockwave--"

"I do not wish to break up this interesting conversation, Commander.  But we do have to straighten out this confusion before Chaopolis springs whatever trap they've set up this misunderstanding between our ally worlds over upon us in the confusion."

"Right.  Which makes me wonder how Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles fit into their plans this time..."

Why not? Asriel had pointed out a pretty obvious fact by that point;  namely letting it sink in how much of an interconnected web we had in fact created among worlds and universes that, by all means, in their Prime Universe iterations...would NEVER have met and NEVER would. But this was the UltraVerse. Crossovers were initially no exclusive to our UltraVerse than they were to other universes outside our own.....but until the Arcades changed everything, crossovers were few and far between. My family legacy had elevated crossovers into becoming the norm. And now that Asriel was part of my world...he and I were making it something even beyond that.

Bunnie did have a point though. There was so much nostalgia colliding we were losing focus over the present.

"Right.  We do need to get our heads out of Vector Sigma's cloud storage and back in the present, Sensei." Asriel rubbed the back of his head.

We thought we had arrived in time to prevent two different factions of heroes who were allies of ours but hadn't actually met yet...

"You know just 36 hours ago we had just came from Coral Harbor following the loss of the Morph-X tower but the destruction of Evox and his Avatars.  And we're back to where it all began with Mighty Morphin." Violet reminded. "And the obligatory Christmas--"

"Save it, Vi.  Let' s just snip the fuse on this before--"

And here came the Putty Patrol.

"Dammit all..." I groaned. Yup.

It seemed like this was a lot less complicated just a while ago. Couple hours at most? Half of one at least?

We'd worked this hard to get Michelangelo and Donatello on the same page which meant we had the situation half-way diffused.

But even then that wasn't without its problems...

~

It started in New York with activity of the Foot Clan spiking at Mason Industries

"We got here too late!  They're already starting to rumble!"

"The Rangers must think that the turtles are some of Finster's monsters created by the Monster-Matic for Rita to destroy the Earth with."

Good gravy. When Adonis pitted the Silverhawks against the Eagle Riders, we had the advantage of getting to the battlefield before anything major happened and we had a plan to diffuse it despite both hero factions starting to battle it out. The important thing was we got there before the villains could add fuel to the fire and really stir things up.

"Every moment counts!  If Sally were with us, we could have had this battle diffused before it even began!"

It didn't help we were crossing from rooftop to rooftop. Some of us with flying or gliding abilities had an easier time.

Those of us who didn't had to parkour our way toward the rooftop.

Asriel and Gadget got ahead of us and were within hearing range.

"Okay Power Ranger Blue...I know we're supposed to be fighting but...I have so many questions.  Are you guys extraterrestrials or polygenetic hybrids?"

"Uh--"

I think Billy was actually taken by surprise by Donatello's level of intelligence. But then again...sometimes birds of a feather flock together...though there wasn't a bird theme among any of them considering four were mutant turtle brothers and  five were teenagers with powers derived from dinosaurs (and a wooly mammoth and a sabre toothed tiger)...though it was debatable if the triceratops actually existed... You know what, I'm letting the scientist in me get off track.

"Wait, your powers, they aren't supernatural based are they?"

"Well--"

And yet he couldn't get an answer in edgewise.

Asriel and Gadget looked at each other, momentarily distracted by the...actually rather good questions. Truth be told, I wasn't quite sure how the Morphing Grid worked. What WAS the nature of the Zordian Morphing Grid? I know the BioField that Sally derived her powers from was the same one that the RPM Rangers derived theirs from...though our world was a different universe's take on it.

"Oh, and the big one...the Green Dude, how does he play a flute through a metal face plate?"

"Um...you are much smarter than Rita's previous monsters."

"You know Aunt Vi never stops trolling about that question back home." Asriel wrinkled his snoot.

"It is a good question, though." Gadget pointed out.

Cue the extended pause from the both of them before it him them that...

"Oh wait!  We're supposed to be breaking up the battle!"

Asriel put on a burst of speed.

"Hey, wait for me!" Gadget on the other hand didn't have the luxury of powered flight.

"...I do enjoy Ranger Station.  The Big Guy's funny."

Wait, what? That felt like a shoutout to something. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if someone name-dropped Hyper Force.

Just as Billy was about to voice his thoughts--

"Waait!"

And that ground the battle to a halt.

"What?  Asriel?" Trini was first to recognize him.

"Heeeey, Goat Son!" Mikey also recognized him.

"This is all just a misunderstanding!" Gadget finally caught up.

"You know I was just about--"  "Leo started

"--to declare a--" Jason interjected.

"Ceasefire?" Asriel finished.

"Right."

In retrospect...if we had left things alone this probably would have taken care of itself. It was looking to be like a rare case where UCIAT didn't need to intervene in the first place. Usually we weren't that lucky.

But if it was the case then...it meant we jumped the gun. It had been known to happen in adventures past and it would be just like Chaopolis to set us up with a red herring.

One discussion later and we did figure out what this was all about. So returning to the present...

Back of course to the matter of dealing with the Putty Patrol? Yeah, they were easy cannon fodder.

"They have the weirdest yodel, don't they?" Violet chuckled as they faded away.

"More like someone giving the worst attempt at a raspberry, I'd say." Asriel agreed.

"And I thought Foot Soldiers were easy targets." Mikey replaced his chuks.

"Hardly a fight." Raph spun his sai before replacing them.

"We didn't even get a chance to study them." Donatello looked dejected. "Are they really made out of clay?"

"Trust me. It's for the best." Kimberly assured. "They SUCH a chore."

Honestly I was waiting for Foot Soldiers to show up...but they never did. I guess Shredder didn't want to tip his hat...er...kabuto helmet too soon.

Either way...it's ultimately battle on the same side that solidifies the bonds of friendship. Or at least makes us common allies. But now we had new questions. But more important...we needed a place to have a sit-down

Of course that's when we had a meeting of the spiritual leaders back at the Power Chamber in Angel Grove.

As if I was going to jump cut to a venture into the sewers. No disrespect to the Turtle Lair, mind you...but if a werewolf has to choose between an alien base that vaguely resembled  a temple or church of indeterminate religion out in the desert mountains of the far southwest hosting a plethora of Eltarian technology and a fully-sentient mobile automaton named Alpha 5....and a dark, dank, musty maintenance chamber connecting a series of waste channels filled with poo gas and doody water; and storm drains deep under New York City? Yeah, I was going with the Commander Center.

Even if it meant a lack of pizza. Besides, Mitzi would take care of that soon enough.

Granted the meeting of all of us for a peaceful solution was a sign that things were not going to blow up (the bad kind) was welcome. However the sign that we TRULY had a mutual understanding was Zordon giving the OK to waive the most important of the three immutable rules to being a Power Ranger. Namely...the one that they NEVER broke, if they could help it.

Yeah. Keep their identities a secret. I admit it was amusing to see the disappointed reactions to finding out that the rangers were human. Though...it did harken back to some of Mikey's previous hypothetical questioning over what it must be like to be human. In that sense I felt a little bit of collective jealousy over being both "mutant-like" but still able to transform into a human.

"...so Tommy got himself involved with the Foot Clan.  Yeah...yeah, it sounds like the Green Ranger just can't catch a break from either being turned evil or being forced to do evil deeds." I crossed my arms.

"Volt, do you think we knocked the timeline off kilter by intervening?" Asriel asked.

"That's a good question.  Chances are that was what Adonis was counting on.  For this timeline to diverge from what was supposed to happen.  It doesn't even have to be for a major reason.  We've seen before his brands of chaos can be as simple as that stunt with the Teen Titans in our sub lab that didn't amount to anything other than dancing to the Night Begins to Shine followed by defeating each other's versions of Slade.......to that thing with the Hate Plague that could have become a galaxy-wide threat if he had turned them all loose on other worlds."

"Then there is no end game to this.  It's just to remind us Chaopolis is watching and waiting."

"This still doesn't answer what's going on with Tommy." Kimberly was more worried than any of us.

"The fact that he didn't tell us suggests that he didn't want to involve us." Bunnie pondered. "I had a tendency to the same with my team before I met Violet and learned to share my problems rather than try to shield them all from them."

"Hmm...does that not sound familiar?" Splinter pondered, resting his palms atop his walking stick.

"What are you implying, sensei?" Raphael growled.

"Ohhhh, I don't know...a loner with a temper who has a problem with authority.  At least two of those make you a turtle after my own heart."

"Skip the flirting." Raphael growled at Vi.

"After all this time, he still doesn't trust us?" Zack protested.

"Easy to make that assumption when you have lingering doubts about whether we still trust him.  Not after being under Rita's spell." Jason reminded.

"Well.  We're involved now.  So let's figure out how this fits into--"  I started.

Wait a minute. Something didn't add up. Which iteration of the Foot Clan was this? When I had sat in on Splinter's discussion previously about the Turtles meeting Batman...? If that was the case then why wasn't Shredder...or WAS Shredder...?

"Maybe this situation is more serious than Chaopolis let on..." I considered.

By now the web of who was who had gotten complex. UCIAT were allies with the Ghostbusters...who had met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, previously. Said Turtles had met up with Batman...who was our contact into the Justice League. The Ghostbusters had also crossed paths with the Transformers. In fact I had a record of the Transformers being involved with something that had also crossed the TMNT.

Holy schnikees. Had the Crossovers gotten such that even the King of Crossovers couldn't keep up?

"Hmm?"

It was about that time when KOMMAND contacted me.

"Yo, just a heads-up, but the Council's about to drop another thing to investigate on your IN pile."

"And that would be...?"

"Well...seems Cybertron may have crossed paths with...well...Skynet--"

"Are you kidding me!?" My jaw dropped. "Transformers vs. Terminator?"

An exchange of looks all around.

"Is Chaopolis taking things up another level?" Asriel asked.

"No...I think it's more of a taunt and a prelude to something bigger on the horizon." I responded.

My gut was telling me something much bigger. I felt echoes of the previous siege Chaopolis put us under when they kicked off the Crossover Wars. And that time Adonis banished Asriel and me to alternate VideoLand.

"We should clean up one mess before we dive head first into another." Mitzi advised.

"What say you, Zordon-sama.  How should we proceed?" Splinter pondered.

"This joint venture can only improve our chances of resolving this quickly before Rita has a chance to complicate matters." Zordon responded.

"We must isolate Tommy-san from the Foot Clan once the opportunity arises.  But to do so recklessly may only worsen matters." Splinter agreed.

"If he IS in fact undercover, then contact with him may endanger whatever plan he has." Donatello reasoned.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer?" Asriel suggested.

"Agreed.  We'll intervene where and when we have to.  As soon as we find a way to draw Rita and her monsters out and establish an alliance with the Foot Clan, we'll make a plan to get Tommy out of there."

"Without blowing his cover." Kimberly reminded.

"Man, this is just crazy enough to work." Zack followed up.

"Crazy is what makes it fun!" Michelangelo interjected.

"Aye-yai-yai-yai-yai!" Alpha 5 seemed in a bit of a tizzy over it.

"Alright.  From this point we work as one." Leonardo declared.

"We're practically family already!" Mikey got between Asriel and Raphael  and one-arm hugged them together.

"Grrrrrr!!!" Raphael glowered.

"Uh...hi!" Asriel sheepishly grinned.

Bunnie and Kimberly face-palmed at the same time.

"Provided we can keep the awkwardness to below 5 percent." Donatello replied, rather sardonically.

"Affirmative." Billy agreed.

From this point, whatever WAS going to happen in the timelines...granted even if there was the extremely rare and unlikely possibility that it was a natural-occurring crossrift event not actually orchestrated by Chaopolis...something new was taking shape in its place.

Oh well. Sometimes interfering with timelines was unavoidable. Despite doing this for millennium...? I still didn't have a perfect formula for preventing this. So, I guess...just like UTPR-3235...I might as well own up to it and just OWN it. This was our story, now. Our take on the story.

Man, sometimes this story just keeps getting more and more confusing on the road to toward how this second Project Lost Dreemurr story ended and the final one began. But...again, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

We'd teleport back to New York.

But as Bunnie suspected, the Foot had gone underground and vanished without a trace. On top of that...Rita and her monsters were being just as quiet.

I hated to put a to-be-continued note on this with a stick-pin...but it looked like we weren't going to make progress on this one.

Now I had two ongoing investigations. Ghostbusters x Transformers. And Power Rangers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With another one--Transformers vs. the Terminator looming ahead. And it would only be a couple days before I'd discover the Rangers has already crossed over with Batman. Zack related how Batman informed him that the last time he had anything to do with dinosaurs...well...I'm pretty sure that T-Rex in the Bat Cave wasn't an animatronic. Leave it up to the Dark Knight to be the only one to have a dinosaur given the taxidermy treatment... *ahem* Either way, that meant now the Justice League was connected to the Power Rangers, who were now connected to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who were connected to the Ghostbusters who were already connected to the Transformers and were also (through me) connected to Emmett Brown Scientific Enterprises...and so on...and so on...and so on.

Kind of a disappointing if not anti-climactic way to end a log entry. But while I traveled through time, actually CONTROLLING time was beyond my ability. Sure I could use tech like Chronoton Detonators and other STC tools to manipulate it at localized levels and fix a lot of damage caused by our adventures...but I never failed to remind myself I was an electric-demigod at my best. And I had limits.

"My guess is Tommy predicted we'd get too close out of warning to the Foot Clan." Asriel surmised.

"I don't think Karai trusts him." Leonardo crossed his arms.

"She trusts anybody but the Shredder?" Violet prodded.

"Point." Leo agreed.

"Tommy's smarter than this Karai  probably gives him credit for." Jason offered.

"Rest assured, trust is never even a factor with the Shredder.  Now that Tommy-san has proven his allegiance with the theft of the item from Mason Industries, his life belongs to him now.  My ancient enemy, Oroku Saki does not believe in allies...only possessions that serve him.  When they outlive their usefulness--"

"No!  Tommy would never let some guy in a cheese-grater helmet--"  Kimberly spoke up.

"Having fought the guy, I agree, Pinkie." Raphael growled. "If I cross the guy before you do, I'm going to take this sai and--"

"He has a way with making friends, doesn't he?" Violet trolled.

"Just call him Mr. Personality!" Mikey agreed. Moments before Raph slugged him in the shoulder and Bunnie whapped Violet over the head with a tessan fan.

"We'll be in touch.  Both factions of you have communicator links with us all.  Don't hesitate to bring us in the MOMENT a development turns up." I warned.

"Let the Power protect you all, Volt Arcade.  We will contact you if the ongoing stakeouts turn up anything." Zordon assured.

Maybe this was the point. For us to start more projects than we could finish? Chaopolis having work pile up on us;  cases that would remain unresolved that the Council wouldn't DARE assign someone else to pick up the slack, lest they repeat another incident.

"Take care Ultra Crew Institute." Jason bid us farewell for now.

Each of us bid goodbye in our own way. I noticed Bunnie was particularly secretive with her conversation with Trini. I'm sure Asriel noticed.

"Until our paths cross again." Leonardo bowed to us. Bunnie returned the bow. "Sensei, you know how and where to find me." She turned to Splinter.

"Of course."

"Cowabunga!  Or is it Booyakasha?" Violet questioned.

"Well, actually--"  Mikey started before Raph clamped down on his mouth.

"Actually I think they were about to leave." He growled, eyeing Violet's grin.

"This experience was...what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Prodigious?" Billy suggested.

"That'll work." Donny confirmed.

When at last we had come back home...

"So.. about the Yellow Ranger?"

"My discussion with Trini Kwan?  I wished her a belated happy birthday." Bunnie mused.

"You know Trini's birthday?  How--"  Asriel blinked a moment.

"Do you...have a previous history with the Power Rangers, sensei?"

No response...save for the briefest of side grins.

Okay. Bunnie definitely tied me when it came to connections. Violet an even closer second or third.

"Sorry we didn't crack this case, Volt."

"Not every mission can end in a victory.  Sometimes we have our losses...and sometimes things just get put on hold.  That's the way it is."

"But we WILL get this mess straightened out and prove Tommy is on our side.  Right?"

"Right you are, Asriel.  Right you are."

Sub-Entry 356: "Team Acorn's Back Again":
December meant the end of the OGPX season. It was like clockwork at this point.

Kind of a tradition by this point that Asriel would eagerly await their arrival.

At the time I was dealing with some old early UCIAT issues. And by golly...I wished I could get out of them.

"...no disrespect to you both; as the King of Crossovers, I whole-heartedly appreciate your situations.  Really I do.  But no.  The answer's no.  This is one that both the Arcade Foundation and STC are putting their foot down on."

Both transmissions were staticky so I could barely make them out. But I could identify who was on each monitor.

On, an orange marsupial in tennis shoes and baggy pants. Crash Bandicoot.

The other had a purple quadruped dragon. Spiro.

"The Major closed the case on your issues with each other ages ago.  We gave you every opportunity then to get things cleaned back up on your own.  Cortex and Ripto were both put into maximum security detention centers, because of your objections to NOT have them transferred to Wario Galaxy Prison."

More static protests.

"This isn't anything personal.  This is actually a major deal that the both of you are kind of responsible for."

More backtalk.

"Look, we didn't start Ripto's Rampage or the Cortex Conspiracy.  We helped you put things back in place and trusted you to make things right again.  Our people very SPECIFICALLY said we we'd help you but we weren't giving handouts beyond that.  We're not your solve-everything Game Shark or Action Replay.  We were your crutch, not your cheat device.  Got it?"

Crash whined about something unintelligible.

"No, no.  Crash Boom Bang is on your head."

Spiro then objected.

"For the last time, no.  We had nothing to do with that.  Hey if you didn't get invited to Smash, that's out of our hands.  Seriously.  Stop hounding Pit as your way in."

More overlapping arguments.

"I don't want to have to tell you what Violet said about the Mind Over Mutant incident.  You were already marked the moment you involved her in anything that even breathed the phrase genetic manipulation."

It went on...and on...and on...

"Look, congrats on reinventing yourself, Spiro, but the restraining order still stands.  The next time you almost mistake Asriel for a sheep and try to set him on fire, I'm making you the sixth member of Rainbow Wing and you can serve under the Black Wyrmling."

A chuckle from Crash.

"Hey, you have little room to talk with the tribal tattoos you seem to have been sporting during Crash of the Titans.  I warned you before crossing paths with some of the natives of this world, that they could be interpreted as offensive in other languages and cultures."

That shut him up for bit.

"I respect the both of you.  I really do.  But things happened on both your worlds that until further notice no one really wants anything to do with you.  I mean you know what kind of environment our current age is in right now?  They're saying we're out of the Information Age and into the Reputation Age.  Which means if you post something that offends on social media or say something REALLY out of line on national television, you've just made yourself the least employable people alive.  I'd rather not say what Dr. Psycho did...twice."

Okay, that little DC Universe matter technically wasn't my territory. And I didn't blame Dr. Persephone over wanting to get out of it and foist it off onto another STC agent.

Neither of them did anything THAT bad...but...certain people in power were still avoiding them until their images could be properly rebooted. Yup. Reputation Age.

I rubbed my eyelids.

"It's out of my hands.  I don't have the authority and the clout you think I do."

Maybe I wasn't giving myself enough credit.

"Look.  Not every crossover can be Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games...still not sure how that works or which iteration of Mobius crossed over with which Mushroom Kingdom AU...or Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright.  I'd authorize this if I could, but I can't.  Daimyou even agrees that the two of you need a time-out and a time-away from one another until things settle down and the UltraVerse is ready for your worlds to collide again."

Spiro was the first to hang up on me.

Crash gave me a few more harsh words.

"The answer's no.  And for the record, if you run into N. Brio again, tell him that he's STILL blacklisted from the entire galactic science ministry.  He knows the reason why.  And yes, his name DOES sound like a fetus."

Crash rolled his eyes and the transmission cut out as Coco pulled him away.

"Good grief...were the 90's really this crazy when we formed our alliances with the Sony Supercluster?  No wonder we focused efforts into the Sega Nebula."

But what I should have paid attention to was that this act alone was a prelude of things to come and a warning that went unnoticed to me.

The fact that we weren't going to help them was an admission of failure. My justification that we weren't a cheat code service was honest...but really. I wonder who'd HONESTLY accept that answer. I felt like it was the same reasoning why a certain dog in Quahog couldn't be allowed to make himself the author of the Harry Potter books or prevent a certain event in 2001 from happening. There's ALWAYS consequences even if you don't see them right away.

Heroes have to be heroes not let other heroes be the hero and then take the credit for their work. About the only place THAT had ever remotely worked was the curious case of Walter Melon and his sidekick, Bitterbug.

I'm explaining this too thoroughly, aren't I?

A knock on my sub-lab's door.

"Come in, Azzy."

"How'd you know it was me?"

I pointed my snoot.

"Oh.  Right." Asriel rubbed the back of his head.

"Anyway...it's that time again.  Are you ready for...?"

I blinked.

"Wow.  It really sneaks up on you, doesn't it?"

"I have everything set up top side."

"Really going "Ful Flej" to honor their victory, huh?"

"I see what you did there...with the music group that performed "Shift Into Turbo"." Asriel picked up on that. He still had Power Rangers on the brain.

"A fitting song to welcome them back to town?"

"It could be.  But you know she prefers to go with a little Judas Priest."

"And you happen to have Turbo Lover queued up, don't you?"

"Thank Aunt Vi."

"You know I won't." I crossed my arms as he headed up the elevator to ground level.

We exited the building.

"So.  Where 'bouts is it?"

Asriel gave a brief closed-eyes wide smile and waved me on to follow.

I was expecting a couple of possible locations. Rabbotou Dojo. Computer Valhalla. Walrus Bros. Plumbing Service & Supply. Gaia's Navel Nature Preserve. Yeah...all good locations.

But when it came down to it? Yeah. The good old Miranda Fountain; adorned with the stone statue of Queen Victoria, Brooke's ancestry. It had been the epicenter of our world since the very beginning and a favorite spot of Asriel's...and just about anyone in our operation.

That's when I noticed the hololythic checkered flag across the ground and the path of checkered flag pennants right out of the Rad Racer games with a FINISH banner right before it.

"Subtle, Goat Son.  Subtle."

"Pretty sure they'll appreciate it."

"Wow, even Ripper's waiting on their arrival.  Please tell me he didn't arrange a nitro-fueled welcome party for them?"

"Ehh...that I don't have any control of."

Ripper gave two furry thumbs up and a toothy grin. Also...he was NOT covering up that giant Thunder Buster stereo system which I KNOW he had plugged into a stereo which Vi had set up to blast Turbo Lover at full volume. I...think I better double Chameleon's compensation for this.

Oh boy...

Asriel coaxed me to a safe distance behind the white chalk lines he and Pit set up.

"Ready to receive, Commander!" Pit got airborne and started scouting.

"I got the pizzas ready and waiting." Mitzi had the celebratory spread set up.

You know it's been years, now and they'd blossomed into quite the celebrity hometown heroes.

Bunnie had been leaning up against a lamp post, arms crossed and head bowed with eyes closed.

In that moment she casually raised her head and opened her eyes.

"Hmm."

"We have incoming." Pit spotted something on the edge of town.

"Don't blink or you'll miss it." Asriel advised."

It was a miracle the snow had held off all this time. I wasn't complaining. But it made the "track" a lot more maneuverable in that regard.

"They're on route and lighting up the traffic grid." Drew confirmed from where he was stationed in the harbor.

From an aerial view, Pit could see the crisscrossing patterns of blue, yellow, and red light contrails, forming overlapping circuit paths through the streets; the whole collage of light fantastic slowly shifting and drifting toward the center of town. They had been rehearsing this for a while, hadn't they? A flurry of splitting up and reuniting in formation through complex rectangle-path patterns like three Etch-A-Sketches overlapping as they drew.

"They're almost here!" Goat Son wagged his tail. Wow...when was the last time he did that? He had grown up so much I was beginning to think he grew out of it.

And then there they were--Team Acorn--lit up like the three primary colors--headed toward the fountain in formation. Like a 3-way Tron Lightcycle exhibition, they were putting on quite the show as they segued from merely running at sub-quantum speed, to going up and down and coiling around buildings and then again into a parkour show that left fading after-images like neon shadows.

"This is gonna be so rad!" Violet was already recording.

"Cue the music!" She gave Ripper the verbal cue and he mashed that play button as the sparklers and pinwheels ignited.

I knew that was just the warmup. Knowing him, he had the REAL pyrotechnics ready and waiting.

I probably should have expected the ring tunnel made out of hoops set on fire. Goddammit, Ripper! You set my Terrain Masters ablaze, and we're gonna have words not to mention a lawsuit your boss will be paying out his scales to settle out of court!

Lucky for him the three of them were that good at being daredevils. And sure enough all three made it through the burning ring tunnel before coming into an elaborate series of flips, spins, twists, and a 1080 degree spin out into the most epic of landing poses at the fountain--having crossed the finish line with style.

And yup...there went the nitro-boosted fireworks--which, once again Ripper set up without consulting Drew.

Miracle of miracles, he didn't set anything on fire or blow anything up this time. He's improving.

"HELLO, MIRANDA CITY!!!" Sally declared as the three of them held up this year's gravity-defying crystal championship trophy.

By that time we'd drawn a crowd and the crowd was cheering full force.

"Welcome home, Aunt Sally and Team Acorn!" Asriel was first to meet and greet.

"A perfect 10, Terrain Master.  You were in rare form.

"Welcome back, old friend." Bunnie engaged in a LEGENDARY high-five. Whatever comes to mind when I say legendary? Yeah...you're probably not far off.

"Heeeey guuuuuurl!" Violet prompted after leaving the cameras running.

"Heeeey gurrrrrrrrrl!" Sally responded.

We tried to give Team Acorn at least some semblance of space but the autograph hounds were already swarming.

Honey and Willamina were all to glad to pose for photo-bombs and selfies while Nikita had...manifested to slyly slip Sally out of the epicenter so she could meet and greet with us for a bit.

"You've got these OGPX seasons on lock, Aunt Sally." Asriel thumbs up.

"Not to say they're not still challenging.  Keep in mind the three of us got to work at it.  There are no trophies for anyone who sits on their laurels and hopes to just coast on to the finish line."

"Good advice."

I smirked.

"I trust you'll want to get back on the active roster full time until June?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

Honey and Willie managed to slip away from the crowd to join us and snag some pizza before it got snatched up by the surrounding patrons.

"Just think.  A year ago, Azzy and I had to thank you for your impromptu street-plowing when you came back to town."

"There's no biz, like snow-biz?"

"Good one, Aunt Sally." Goat Son snickered.

"Well, as soon as the crowd disperses and the excitement winds down we'll let you all get situated back at HQ."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Your gear will need its standard post-season maintenance." Nikita reminded.

"Of course.  I can't wait to slip out of the OGPX regulation gear and into a comfy UCIAT Tengu Suit."

It was always a good thing when our UCIAT family was complete again.

Quite frankly it was a good timing for what lay ahead. It would make all the difference in the times to come.

For now...a different celebration lay ahead.

Sub-Entry 357: "Christmas Time Once More":
For all the dwindling light that had been implied as the result of Adonis' action, one beacon of hope and dreams still stood tall and strong and shined bright this month. No matter what world it existed on or how and even why; Christmas seemed to be the universal lamp that brought out our best.

"That time of year again.  Thank goodness." It was the one thing that could make me ignore the fact it was very much winter and very cold, snowy, and icy.

I wrapped the scarf around me that I had used back in the Underground whenever visiting Toriel.

"Well, Goat Son?  How are we going to one-up ourselves this year?"

Elsewhere, Bunnie had prepared Rabbotou Dojo's entire campus; decorating it festively. It was a holiday considered pretty universal and Jang most certainly had their own take on it with not all that much variation when it came to decor and celebration.

I left my sandals outside the dojo doorway and entered.

"Festive, Major.  No one can put on the holiday spirit like a Jangese rabbit, eh?"

"I'll take the compliment, Commander and say, I do my best."

Bunnie handed me a candy cane.

"We've been doing this song and dance for a while now.  Never gets old."

"It does not, Commander."

Bunnie handed me a large tumbler of egg nog.

"No alcohol.  Just like you like it."

"You are a peach, Bunnie."

Bunnie giggled. "I could never imagine my nickname being Momo-chan.  But I am flattered."

It was ironic that I had chosen to call her a peach out of respect and endearment. For Violet had a tribute to something--not very holiday-related, mind you--that did feature a princess named Peach. Though Violet would attest she was the monarch formerly known as Toadstool...

In Computer Valhalla,  Violet's cosplay troop was in the middle of a session dedicated to a certain legendary member of our long-disbanded N-Division. And leave it up to her to find the one obscure reference to him that only the hardcore gamer would ever recognize.

"Kyou mo genki ni mario ga hashiru harishu

piichi hime wo tasukeni ikuze

kyo mo genki ni mario ga hashiru

kyo mo genki ni

ja~n~pu

Kyou mo genki ni koin wo sagase

kyo mo su sumeyo ma~ri~o

kinoko wo totte super mario daze

fura wa totte fire mario!"

I looked to Bunnie.

"Why is it the only Jangese she learns--"

"I have been asking that for years and never found an answer."

"At least she's doing it in holiday costume.  Frankly I don't know if I want to see her in Mushroom Kingdom cosplay.  We know she'd never put on a Princess Peach dress, despite how much she reveres the crown.  Though...she would be the right height for a female Mario."

It escaped me that she might ALSO be referencing the Cave Christmas episode of the New Super Mario World. Can’t believe Violet actually had that on DVD.

"Just a fair warning, despite the music and singing...she CAN hear us up there, Commander..."

"Uhhhghlll..." I cringed. To confirm this, Violet shot me the most mischievous of grins.

"I think I'd rather get coal in my stocking than get what's coming to me..." I moaned.

"Stick around, everyone, for my annual reciting of my R-Rated version of the Night Before Christmas!" She cackled.

Not this again...

Skipping Violet's deceptive wrath; disguising it underneath her overly smug pleasantries, mind you, I fast-forward to where Lupe stood idly outside of Gaia's Navel nature preserve. She was melancholy due to having since closed the facility for winter time.

It couldn't be helped.

"Hey.  You look like you could use a mug of mint-chocolate flavored hot cocoa.  Asriel just loves his cocoa with marshmallows and he suggested when I meet up with you to bring a thermal mug worth."

Lupe's depressed expression turned to a warm smile.

"You are so kind, Commander.  Thank you so much.  I appreciate that."

* sip*

"It's good.  You can really taste the mint."

"Thought you'd like it."

We looked at the winter-scape for a bit.

"Seasons are temporary.  That's what sensei tells me to keep in mind when I'm grumping on snow and ice taking over everything."

"That's good advice, Commander."

I took the liberty of walking her back to her residence in town. Along the way I bumped into Rotor, making a house call to fix a busted water heater.

He ended up giving me a lift to the next stop on my list.

"I owe you one, Rotor."

"No you don't.  It's the Holiday.  I don't need a reason to be helpful."

"That's you to a T, Rotor.  Old reliable."

"Reliability...yeah...I guess so.  I'm a bit like Joe Kidou of the Digidestined that way, huh?"

"You have...more than a few similarities...but I won't get into them."

Rotor managed to drop me off at Rock-Afire Pizza where Mitzi had just finished up a special order of pasta and such she had chosen to donate to the local homeless shelter.

"You embody the very word of kindness.  You know that, don't you?"

"I think the Christmas season is when I'm at my best.  As long as it's not snow skiing for publicity stunts."

"Never going to let that go if you ever run into Rolfe?"

"Not a chance."

"Well.  If you've got a minute, I could use a hot slice of pepperoni, extra sauce."

"You got it.  On the house."

"Well thank you."

A visit with Mitzi lead to Sally at a Christmas Party rave where, as D.J. Aelita, she was raising the roof. Somehow I couldn't help but think of how Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew invited him to a dinner with his family. I don't know why that particular scenario resonated here but in some respects, Sally inviting me in felt like a modern day take on that scene. Even harkening back to the movie Scrooged with Bill Murray.

"The S.S. Minnow.  What was the name of the ship that the passengers of Gilligan's Island took their 3-hour tour on?  The S.S. Minnow!  No points this round."

"Hmm?  What're you talkin' about, Commander?"

"Nothing.  Just a wonky trip down memory lane."

"Ah.  Thinking of what you're going to get the richest duck in the world who already has everything?"

Wrong Scrooge...out all things considered.

"I got it covered." I assured. Lovin' the show, Sally. Never thought I'd get to actually enjoy Run D.M.C. doing Christmas."

"Vi suggested a little carry-over from Die Hard."

"Ah.  There ya go."

"And to anyone who says it's NOT a Christmas Movie, I'll totally slug them for it."

"It's not the only one with that distinction..." I said, implying the first Lethal Weapon movie. Ahh, this is how we do it in the universe of combined nostalgia.

From Sally to Gadget who was helping with the Christmas pageant. Still not going to figure out how Christmas fit into our world with a different history and religion collective than Earth, but...did it matter? The spirit of Christmas was universal enough for all worlds.

As luck would have it, Asriel as a favor would have just enough time to deliver a word-for-word telling of Linus' Christmas Speech.

"...and on Earth peace...good will toward men."

A standing ovation lasted a good five to ten minutes. Unfortunately Asriel didn't have time to stick around but he had assured me prior to this engagement that we'd meet up later on.

I spent a bit of time with little sister before hugging her goodbye with the promise we'd all meet up at UCIAT H.Q.

All over Miranda I travelled, observing how Christmas was being celebrated in everyone's own special way.

Once again, Violet hosted another of her massive blowouts. Once again, Al Dente was the butt of every annual joke at his expense...WHICH he still invited upon himself, mind you.

Not to say he didn't have one moment of reprieve out of the whole night. But that's between him and Violet...at least when he regained consciousness.

Antoine even managed to get the smallest of pecks on the cheek from Sally, but only out of protest from standing under the mistletoe.

It was the best deal he was going to get. And honestly? That was enough for him. In fact...it was just perfect.

"So...where's Asriel?  He's never run late before."

"He said he was making this year special." Bunnie assured me.

I shrugged, not sure what she meant.

And then that's when we heard the sleigh bells outside. No...no, it COULDN'T be!

And there he was...dressed in red with a thick beard on and that stocking cap. I could tell there was a pillow or a fat suit on underneath his costume to make it more convincing.

"I don't believe it...!" My eyes widened as I saw goat son enter as Santa Claus. And in that moment I had echoes of Mr. Dad Guy ring out loud and clear. History was repeating before my very eyes from what I had seen when I had traveled back in time to view the red-zoned section of UTPR-3235's timeline.

My god...he was so much like Asgore at this moment, it was scary. For someone who felt like his past was slipping away...he was embodying it so flawlessly in this moment.

"Ho ho ho!  Merry Christmas, everybody!"

Needless to say the children that Violet had invited were absolutely delighted with his appearance. He had one job...and he was NAILING it.

"Did you know about this, Major?"

Bunnie just smirked. Mitzi giggled before heading up on stage with her old band, the Rock-Afire Explosion, reunited yet again for another Christmas Show.

Pit as a special request flew up and hovered above the top of the Christmas tree, just above the star.

"How about that, Commander.  Only Violet would find a way for a Christmas Tree to have both a star AND an angel at the same time."

"She gets one." I mused, implying that whatever goofball stuff she had in mind? I was going to look the other way for now.

After a while and the festivities died down and Asriel found a way to escape the kids and slip back into his civilian attire.

"Well?  What did you think?"

"Goat Son...that was the best surprise you've ever sprung on me.  Well done.  Very well done."

I wanted to congratulate him own successfully carrying the torch that had been passed to him by Asgore. But...it was just as well that I said nothing. Some of the best, most meaningful things were the things that were left unsaid to preserve the moment.

"This year has been something else.  I never would have believed we would come this far eight years ago."

"And who knows where we'll be in another eight?"

"Always thinking about the future.  You've really taken after me, Azzy.  I'm so proud of all that you've accomplished."

"You're the gift that keeps on giving, Volt.  A best friend who never stops being amazing.  You just keep giving me hope and dreams, light and courage...everything I could ever want.  Everything I could ever need.  Sometimes it feels like it's too much...but then I just remember.  It's your gift to give of your volition.  The same as it's my gift to give of mine.  We know what that gift is, don't we?"

"We do." I nodded.

"Friendship." We said in unison. "You really are something else, Goat Son/Spark Wolf." We said in unison before laughing over jinxing each other.

"Merry Christmas, Volt."

"Merry Christmas, Asriel."

"The powers that be bless us...everyone." Asriel reminded me as we one-arm-hugged and looked on at the best Holiday of all and all our friends and family who had taken part.

Truly the most magical time of the year."MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!"

Sub-Entry 358:  "Catching up with Soul Reaper Chara"
Asriel and I both...had a lot of unpacked baggage from Evil-Chara's death. And one thing we had never gotten to was a lot of unanswered questions that our Chara...the good Chara had left on our doorstep. And probably questions that she had as well.

In retrospect, I had UCIAT's spy satellite replay the video image Garfield had recorded of the battle for our reports.

From this footage I immediately recognized that Chara had in fact completed her Soul Reaper training and had acquired her Zanpakutou...but furthermore...I recognized right away what squad she was assigned to.

"A marigold."

That lone flower told me one thing. She was assigned to Squad Three. Gin Ichimaru's squad. I couldn't deny it any further. As much as I had issues with it...it really was the best...no the only choice. It was perfect. Let me explain why.

Gin Ichimaru. I'd already explained this before but... He was infamous for being disturbingly and smugly pleasant...to the point of being really creepy. I was told that there were rumors that he used to speak in an informal, yakuza punk manner...but rumors are just rumors. The idea of him using the word "ain't", for example...just seemed too weird to be true. A tick I'd already had experience with during my experience with Knight Industries Two Thousand; who was adamant about proper English and considered such informal speak...nauseating.

I digress. What made Gin REALLY infamous was the very extended period in which he seemed to turn traitor against the Soul Society. Being Sousuke Aizen's somewhat belligerent right-hand man, he contrasted feverishly-loyal Kaname Tousan. Considering the difference between the two, it should have been obvious that he'd end up betraying Aizen in the end but not for the reasons that seemed apparent...that he was just untrustworthy.

In the end...he really did turn out to be on the Soul Reapers' side all along...and died a hero’s death after failing to dispose of the Hougyouku. Nevertheless...the whole affair left a huge stain on Squad Three. A stain that was now being cleaned up. At this point...I don't know who the active captain was. Originally the captain was Roujuurou "Rose" Otoribashi until she was forced to relinquish it due to her hollowfication, allowing Aizen to instate Gin. After Gin's death I couldn't quite confirm if Lieutenant Izuru Kira was elevated to captain...Bunnie would assure me his depression driven by his bad track record with drinking. Bunnie suggested, based on sixth sense visions that Rose might be reinstated someday.

That top-heavy amount of exposition taken care of...

So why squad three? It was simple. The marigold represents…despair. Their philosophy was such: battles are gruesome...dark...terrifying...and well...unpleasant to understate it in Asgore's words. The marigold was chosen as their symbol as a reminder of their credo that battles were not to be glorified. Their enemies would be subjected to the true horrors of battle in the hopes their fighting spirit would be broken. That their drive toward violence as a solution would extinguish from the sheer horror of it all. If people knew just what fighting entailed then they would be less likely to fight and more open to surrender. Maybe even peaceful solutions.

I could see it in Chara's eyes now. In her own way this was a penance she would willingly serve with the underlying belief that even though the means was terrible...if it meant the end would be that her enemies would be convinced not to fight, that was an end that she could be comfortable with. One that maybe Asriel would be okay with if he didn't have to know the details.

But even that felt like withholding a bit of truth for his sake. Still...it was a solution she was okay with. Asriel wasn't naive anymore. He'd have to understand. Maybe not right away but some day.

"You have spent a long time in deep thought, Commander.  Are you having conflicting thoughts about this?"

"You know I am.  But a coward would let those thoughts deter him or her from what needs to be done.  What needs to be said.  What consequences have to be accepted and endured if any."

"Spoken like a responsible substitute Soul Reaper."

Asriel was ominously silent as he accompanied us. All three of us were going to visit. All three of us had a lot to come to terms with. And I'm sure Chara had her own regrets to overcome. And furthermore...the truth was closer to Asriel than ever. Why don't we just tell him? If he discovered the truth before I could tell him, straight out, I'd spend who knows how long kicking myself for procrastinating until it was too late. It should be so simple. Just reveal it to him. He was his own man. He was ready. So...what was holding me back?

"What is holding you back, indeed, Commander."

Gah! Don't do that, Bunnie.

"Thinking too hard again, aren't I?"

"You are broadcasting your thoughts like a TV transmitter tower."

"Sorry.":

"Volt...it's okay.  We've...all got a lot on our minds."

Man...this was kind of painful. Each of us had a dark cloud hanging over us.

In a way, this was shades of Adonis' coming efforts to subvert and taint us with regrets and transgressions that would cross lines. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

"Azzy.......Asriel...we...never talked about it after--"

"It's harder than ever to resist the call of the secret that my mind is still guiding me toward.  I'm...I'm afraid I'm going to figure out what you want to tell me before you actually do.  I want this promise to be released on your terms."

"On OUR terms, Goat Son." I corrected.

"By now it just feels...it's barely holding together...and there's a giant bullseye on it that someone in Chaopolis is going to take aim at--"

"You both are hounded by worries.  This is not good."

"Sensei is right.  This is what Chaopolis wants.  It's a weakness."

"One we know about.  The only issue is, Goat Son...how do we overcome it?"

Silence.

We finally exited the Senkaimon.

"Do what you need to do to prepare yourselves."

And we split up to pay visits to various squads. Some of us to work up courage. Some of us to achieve peace of mind. Some...just because we could. I'll leave it up to the imagination who of us did what.

* knock knock knock*

"Hmm?  Captain Arcade.  This is a pleasant surprise."

"Greetings, Sajin.  Would it be terribly inconvenient if I invited myself in?"

"You look...troubled, my friend.  By all means.  Join me inside."

As long as you didn't do something ambiguous, related to dogs as pets that could be misinterpreted like your lieutenant seemed to casually stumble into...that's cool with me.

I entered.

Elsewhere...

Bunnie tightened the grip between her fingers as Suzimibachi's tip stopped just short of her forehead.

"Five seconds.  Time is up."

"Curses." Soi Fon turned away in a grimace before withdrawing her Zanpakutou in its summoned form--a hornet-like stinger weapon that wrapped around her middle finger to form a melee piercing weapon of sorts. One strike would manifest the kill mark. A second strike to the center of that target was like hitting a bullseye...and sealing your permanent fate.

"You've improved, Soi Fon.  Rest assured Lady Shihouen would be pleased."

Soi Fon's face flushed for but a moment before she regained her composure. Cut from the same cloth as Undyne? Yes...but where Undyne was brutish, she was an assassin with finesse and as strict and unforgiving as they came. On top of that...she refused to let her now-missing arm--a permanent injury from her battle with the Arrancars--let her hinder her in the least. She would REFUSE to allow Bunnie to grant her any quarter for that handicap. Not that Bunnie would ever do so.

"You are granted audience, Captain Rabbotou.  But do not think for a moment this puts you on equal ground with Yoruichi-sama."

What a tsundere. But seriously...the respect between them was real but unsaid.

And elsewhere...

"Captain Hitsugaya?"

Asriel was greeted by white-haired Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. Visually, he and Asriel were the same age. But the dour look and his overall serious nature coupled with his REALLY strict nature kinda made Azzy reciprocate. On top of that there was NO way Toshiro would ever allow anyone to treat him like a kid.

"Captain Rabbotou said you would be paying a visit as her guest.  I should hope you uphold a level of maturity while--"

In the next room over a very suggestive and obviously intoxicated moan of an older woman interrupted him.

The throbbing anime vein on Toshiro's forehead was more than a little obvious as he squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his fist in frustration.

He tried to maintain his composure and continue his thought...but was interrupted a second time.

"Grrrr...." He roughly brought his cup of tea down upon his desk, pushing himself up from his seated position with the heels of his palms.

"Captaaaaaaaain...!"

Oh no...that could only be his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto. Infamous for being a frivolous flirt, a childish complainer, and a cantankerous drinker often showing up to her duties late and often completely inebriated.

"Uh...if this is a bad time, I can come back--"

Asriel was cut off immediately before Rangiku came up from behind and draped herself over Asriel.

"Mmmn...so fuzzy...maybe you'd like to get to know me better...*hic*..don't be baaaaaa-ashful..."

"...!!!!"  Asriel blushed about ten progressive shades of red when he realized that the buxom blond female was definitely not resting a pair of...err...water balloons on his head.

I think the term that best fit was...deer-in-headlights.

"RANGIKUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Toshiro's scream echoed all throughout the district.

Oooooh boy. This is something that's going to come back to bite him in the behind in say...another seven years, isn't it?

Sometime later...

"Feeling better, Commander?" Bunnie greeted me outside of Chara's place.

"Sajin Komamura is a godsend.  I don't know what I'd do without him to clear my head.  How about you?  Was Soi Fon in a good mood?"

"Adequate." Bunnie shrugged over the hair-line slice in her kimono.

"Hey, Asriel.  How was your visit with Toshiro...?  Uh...!"

"I do not wish to talk about it." Asriel was still deer-in-headlights, beet-red, and I could swear steam was evaporating off of him.

"Oh gods..." I facepalmed.

"I will...straighten out Rangiku the next time I see her."

"By straighten out...you mean completely drink her under the table.  You and Brooke still make the best drinking partners." I folded my arms, alluding to Brooke's demonic nature giving her a tolerance to alcohol that was waaaaaaaay off the charts. And Bunnie's nanites basically made it impossible for her to get drunk, herself.

Sick fruit juice indeed. Laugh it up, Kris...or whoever you really were.

We knocked on Chara's door. A short wait and it opened. No wisecrack. No smirking grin. Yeah. She wasn't in a place any better than us.

She let us in. We left our sandals at the door. She offered us a place to sit down. So we all did.

And the silence continued for a bit until someone worked up the nerve to speak.

"We couldn't save him..." Asriel sighed as his eyes started to tear up.

"Failure is...a part of life..." Bunnie crossed her arms and hung her head, eyes closed.

"C'mon, we didn't fail...we..." Chara protested.

"We played right into Adonis' hands.  This was his wake-up call to us.  This is him telling us we can't stop what's coming." I growled. "I blame myself."

"Me too." Asriel admitted.

"There's nothing to be gained by accepting blame for what wasn't our faults.  Remember, it's okay to lose every now and then.  As long as you stay alive."

I know what she was saying was right...but the toll this war was taking on us. It was easy to shrug it off on the surface with our quips, banter, one-liners, and awkward situations. It was easy to get lost in all the nostalgia and crossover. I could feel it...the winds of change were upon us.

"Jeeze...what is this...is there a funeral dirge playing that I don't know about?"

"Chara, that's not funny."

"Wasn't supposed to be.  Not saying laughing and joking around is the answer but...really?  You all going to let him rattle you this much?  At least Master Rabbotou over there is being somewhat level-headed."

"I'll take the compliment." Bunnie said rather deadpan. "That said...you may be right."

"C'mon.   I know it's a cruel thing to say but strategically you've gained ground.  You're down a rival.  Don' t let it get to you how much he may or may not have deserved it.  Don't let it shake you that what Adonis did was a jerk move.  That other me...he was the ENEMY.  And he tried to KILL you, Azzy."

"You're going to say it, aren't you?  I'm still too soft."

"I don't have to.  Admission is the first step in doing something about it."

"Chara...what can I do?  Nothing I do can bring him back."

"Yeah.  How 'bout that.  Seriously.  You learned your lesson about this.  But you're letting Chaopolis make you unlearn it."

Asriel looked over to Chara.

"Don't.  Don't start with the doe eyes.  You know I'm right.  You look to me and you see someone tough.  Someone hardened.  You feel like you have to toughen up and be like me.  But, Azzy...didn't you learn some crap about integrity and stuff?  You gotta be you.  But at the same time...you also learned things like bravery and justice.  You know you can't avenge him but you can choose to ensure that others don't suffer his fate."

"You seemed to have adapted the virtue of justice, yourself, Chara." Bunnie noted.

"I have a lot to make up for." Chara looked to the side.

"Speaking of which...Squad Three." I decided to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"It's a good fit.  I think you know why."

"I do." Bunnie interjected. I hesitated and nodded.

"Izuru isn't...um...bringing your mood down is he?"

"I have to admit...he's a killjoy and all...but I get where he's coming from.  I learned the hard way about the effects of Wabisuke.   Brought me to my knees pretty quick.  Literally."

"Yeah.  Doubling the force of gravity on you with each strike so that your weight keeps increasing by a factor of two with each strike."

"My sword was like an anvil after blocking only ten times."

"Heh."

"So he made you kneel before Zod, so to speak?" Okay. My attempt at a joke was at least a step away from the negative.

"Come closer and say that...please."

Asriel blinked for a bit...before letting out a chuckle.

"So...your soul slayer?"

"I guess I'm forever stuck with it." Chara looked at her scabbard.

"Of all the forms it could take..."

"Yeah...my actions back in the Underground...they've marked me for life.  This is proof."

"Chakuyou Tanken..." Bunnie noted. "...in translation?  Worn Dagger."

"Yeah..."

In a Pacifist Run? Instead of the Real Knife? Chara's gift box in Asgore's New Home copy of Toriel's house...contained the Worn Dagger.

"Not a very flattering name...but even something like this born of...well...you know." She avoided saying Pacifist Run, ensuring Asriel still did not learn the nature of their world.

"And you've already achieved a Bankai.  You may have actually surpassed Ichigo Kurosaki.  Or at least tied with him."

"Jitsuzai Debabouchou." Chara looked down at the ground.

A long pause.

"What...what does that mean?" Asriel blinked. "That's a Jang phrase I don't know yet."

"It means...Real Knife." I said after a long hesitation.

"...oh...then your weapon was...the same as his?"

"In name, yes.  But...you saw the difference in our blades.  You saw what it did to him."

"It left him...so broken.  What did he see?  What did he feel?"

"You don't want to know." Chara closed her eyes.

"I...see...I...get it." I sighed.

"Do you?" Chara asked.

"No.  I don't.  And...I'm afraid to pry further." Asriel's eyes were hidden beneath the shadow of his bangs.

"That is for the best." Chara's eyes were hidden beneath the shadow of her bangs.

There felt like a wedge driven between the two of them.

"Chara.  The soul reaper doesn't choose the soul slayer.  Nor does the soul slayer choose its soul reaper.  But the soul slayer IS a living entity.  It's bonded to you.  It's an extension of you.  It's a reflection of you.  It radiates your personality.  It may as well be your soul given form."

Asriel and Chara stood up at that moment, turning around...back to back they stood...still in silence.

I was the first to see it. The tear rolling down from that shadow underneath Asriel's bangs.

Bunnie noticed the one rolling down Chara's.

And then there was the simultaneous turn...and the long hug.

"And I don't want to understand.  Because there's nothing to understand.  That's how it is.  That's the hand that Fate dealt you.  I can't fault you for it."

"I made my bed.  Somewhere in some religion there was something in the old scripture about the first person to commit murder was...marked for life.  I...haven't...really killed anybody but...I have caused so much pain...so much suffering.  I let it happen.  I was worn like a suit by something terrible.  But I was still weak.  I was still a coward.  I still let the Wraith have its way with me...all that pent up resentment for you, Azzy.  That cursed plan."

"We're both to blame.  All that time I was an enabler.  I was a coward, too.  I should have spoken up.  I was so afraid of going against you that I was afraid I might lose you.  I couldn't let our friendship be hurt.  I...I couldn't think of myself.  You were all that mattered...I..."

"Don't say that.  Azzy...I'm...well...dead proof that nothing is forever.  No one is forever.  But...Destiny was kind enough to return me to you.  And you to me.  Were siblings.  We're family.  We're best friends."

"Yeah...I guess I just never realized...that there's room for more than one best friend in my life.  There's no settling for one...I'm...coming to a realization--"

Chara covered Asriel's lips with a single index finger, shushing him.

"Azzy.  Save the realization for another day.  This conversation is getting pretty corny and sappy.  Let's just agree that...times just suck but...times have to suck for a bit before they get good again.  Right?"

Asriel closed his eyes after Chara removed her finger.

"I guess...this is just and aftershock from the quake, huh?"

"Or a pre-shock before the big one.  Who knows?  Just don't let this knock you off your game, little brother."

"I'm the same age as you!"

"Pfft...yeah yeah...118."

"You've sure aged at a weird rate, Chara.  It should've taken hundreds of years for you to catch up to anywhere Rukia's age."

"Eh...I'm getting it from two ends.  Real fair."

"Hey.  Who said the afterlife was fair?" I prodded.

"Well.  I guess we've...had quite a conversation." Bunnie noted.

We continued to talk about matters for a while longer...but we never could cobble together a plan or any vision for the future.

And before we knew it, night had fallen. We'd spent so much time in conversation...sorting out our thoughts and feelings. So here we were. Not really sure what to do next. But we were at least expecting retaliation for dealing a huge blow to Chaopolis almost two months ago.

Lady Destiny...please be in our corner when it happens.

Sub-Entry 359:  "Frisk Returns":
I again took the Time Train to the top of Mount Ebott.

"The loneliest number..."

I'd come alone. I didn't feel any need to hand-hold Frisk any more than she would be once the game started.

Speaking of which...once the game started? There was no turning back. This was technically my third chance. I'd lost one timeline. I neurolized the whole of this timeline. This was the third run of Frisk through an unstable pacifist timeline that I had recorded. And I was deathly afraid that it could be her last.

If this game reset again, who knows what Frisk would take her place. Who knows if it would even be a viable timeline. Who knows if I'd even still be assigned to it. The position of Vice-Emperor of Space, Time, and Dimension wasn't as glorious and as without restrictions as it sounded.

But still. I had a mission. And by extension so did she.

We were in this together.

We owed it to the Boss Monsters. We owed it to the Normal Monsters. We owed it to everyone in between. We owed it to Asriel...this timeline's Asriel. And even though he didn't deserve it...we owed it to this timeline's Chara; but at the same time...it didn't matter what he deserved or what he brought upon himself. Everyone deserved a Happy Ending. Even the ones who couldn't come back. Somehow everyone else had to go on. Everyone had to live for their sakes. Somehow I'd bring our Asriel and Chara back to them all. It wasn't meant as a substitute. It was meant to be a real thing.

Undertale needed to run its course. The cycle of resets and circular timelines had to come to an end. It was an ambitious goal. It was a big thing to promise. I didn't know any other way I could do it but break the game, permanently. At least in our universe.

Adonis had long since made this no longer a game, by the will of Madam Fate. Despite how much she considered it one of many "Ultimate Games". Each of which was touted as the "Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil"...but as quick as Madam Fate and Lady Destiny added a new game to their collection, a new series of Ultimate’s would begin again and again.

And every time Madam Fate would pull out some...unforgivable twist in her script that would just make me want to rage-quit. But I'd power on through and usually come to...semblance of a good ending. Sometimes the end result would still be unresolved. And then there was Universal City--the one that went too far. The one that I nearly DID rage-quit over. The one that broke me. I never wanted to be a pawn. And back then...I'd do anything to get out of it if it meant not hurting anyone ever again.

I understood how Frisk felt. I really did.

I set up the Cyber Gate one last time and ignited its pilot lights. Roll your eyes, "smartest man in the universe". I dare you.

"Well.  Now I wait."

I trusted Frisk the last time to get here on her own. I didn’t' t know how she'd be dressed this time around. Honestly, between the latest "Animal Crossing" I would have figured that Frisk came from there and not Stardew Valley. I'd wondered where she got the outfit, anyway.

I expected her to arrive in a villager outfit I'd see from Pit finally bringing back memories of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament. Exhibitions were still ongoing, even THIS late in the year. On top of that, new fighters were joining up each time he came back to us with news. Joker (from the Persona series, not the Clown Prince of Crime) a while back. A Piranha Plant out of its pipe. Then the Bird and the Bear that battled the witch of Spiral Mountain. The Hero from the Dragon Quest games. Terry Bogart from Fatal Fury. And there was still another not yet announced and rumored to be even more coming.

"You really gotta stop being alone with your thoughts, Volt.  It really gets your eyes and mind off the prize."

It was taking longer this time.

What if...what if she had a total relapse and had second thoughts?

What if she didn't want to leave?

"Oh gods...tell me I haven't made a horrible mistake..."

And there was the worry setting in. That moment when I felt like I wound up an alarm clock or wrist watch...only to realize the mainspring was gone and I'd been winding all this time for nothing.

"No.  No it can't be." I paced.

I think this was the state that Adonis wanted me in. It was too easy to fall into it. I was putting a target on my own back with how vulnerable I was making myself. And if I didn't pull myself out of the distraction, soon...I'd be completely unaware and unprepared for a sneak attack. How could Chaopolis resist?

"Get a grip, Volt.  Snap out of it.  If you don't stop freaking out, you're not going to see it coming when something sneaks up on you from behind--"

That was when I felt the hand on my shoulder and my fur just POOFED out in complete terror. I couldn't even scream.

"Dr. Arcade...?" The voice spoke up.

I turned around and walked right into a big, warm hug.

"I missed you so much!"

"F-Frisk?!"

It was Frisk alright. Hair had grown a little more, build was the same, and yes...Villager clothing. Vi was going to be disappointed she wasn't wearing sandals or flip-flops this time. Admittedly sunflower flip-flops were cute and Asriel would have found them endearing, but...I wasn't entertaining Vi's weird fetishes.

"You were right, Doctor!  You were right all along !  I just needed a vacation!  Those places you had me go to were so wonderful!  No having to worry about hurting monsters or be put in life of death situations.  After a long time of reflecting upon all of my life experiences here in this...Undertale you call it...?  I realized...there's nothing to be afraid of, anymore.  Not even...what did you call him?  Photoshop Flowey?"

"Y-yeah.  Nothing to fear but fear itself." I calmed down.

"Are you alright?  You seem kind of--"

"Yeah...I think I'm going to be fine."

"Frisk...you're up for this, right?"

"Doctor?  I'm DETERMINED."

Well. That says it all.

"Before we turn you loose...got a minute or two?"

"Sure."

I checked my chronometer. There was still a short leeway buffer before Toriel would be headed toward that spot in the RUINS and Flowey had agreed upon the arranged time and place. He was bored out of his petals with having to do this over, and over. But I assured him if this worked out, it might be the last time. No more resets. No more of Evil-Chara trying to hunt him down. No more of these annoyances. He could finally look forward to something new. Maybe...even a way to be saved.

But honestly...like Sans, he'd given up on that a long time ago.

I was so distracted I hadn't realized I'd inadvertently given Frisk the moments of privacy she needed to change back into her striped jumper, jorts, and shoes. Back into the clothes I remember from when this timeline first started. I felt like I should have offered her a changing station to duck behind but...since I was looking away, anyway, it all worked out.

"You...look like you got a lot on your mind.  Are you okay, Dr. Arcade?"

"Volt.  You've earned a first-name basis.  Plus you're not a kid anymore.  You're practically...well...his age."

"You mean--"

"Yeah.  The name that needs to remain unsaid until the end of your noble quest."

There was something that tugged at me over the knowledge that this iteration of Frisk pretty much had a complete memorized walkthrough of how to get a true pacifist ending. She knew what the boss monsters were going to say and what they were going to do.

Part of it was my doing. Part of it was the reset. Part of it...well...part of it was really no one's fault as much as I wanted to blame the Goddesses. It was their script but if they were truly the puppet masters, they'd be controlling every word and every action like they were at a keyboard with on hand on the mouse while wearing headsets to dictate our every conversation.

Now that was a scary thought. And the fact that I was thinking about this proved just how meta this game world had gotten on me...while drawing me into it.

There was one comfort I was sure of. I was convinced that not even they controlled or influenced that Annoying Dog that seemed to be in the shadows of this world, doing his own thing...creating his own thing. I was sure...that really pissed Madam Fate off. Annoying Dog was an anomaly that, while unique, I'd seen instances of the phenomenon before. Entities and beings that were not bound by destiny and fate. Beings like Kid who were above prophecies and pre-determined history. They lived by their own rules. I even had a theory that Sonic the Hedgehog was such an unbound being; so much like the wind that not even the wind could manipulate his path in life. Some things even Fate can't decide. Like I said. That was something that really pissed her off.

"You're...deep in thought aren't you?"

"It's scary.  You read me almost as well as...he does.  It's that sixth sense perception of yours.  You knew I was around even when I was outside of space and time as an artificial specter."

"I...don't really see it as that special.  Back then, you just....well...were."

I ignored that it sounded like an incomplete sentence but I knew what she meant. I was just there. It wasn't anything to think deep into. It was like the air. You breathed it but never thought about it as long as it was clean. It was like a heartbeat. It's there but you don't spend your all day counting each one...that would be madness. I get it. For her it was so instinctive it was as natural as blinking.

I couldn't think of anything to say, but Frisk had another matter to ask about.

"You...seem troubled about something.  Did...something happen?"

I nodded.

"Chara is gone.  I mean this version of them.......well this version of him."

"Gone?"

"The details are...unpleasant." My use of Asgore's choice of word told all.

"Oh no..."

"Yeah."

Frisk harbored no ill will toward him. Even now, she wanted to save him and help him...but was facing an undeniable truth. That was never going to happen.

I shook my head, indicating their SOUL was no more. If this game reset or erased again, another Chara would probably take their place. Again. I had to wonder how many Frisks and Chara’s there had been in our UltraVerse.

Frisk didn't have to ask if Asriel knew. It was an instant realization.

"What about...?"

"At large...and gone silent.  I don't like it.  I'm worried he's up to something.  Something that could happen soon.  That's why I've entrusted Dr. Alphys with keeping me in the know if...he tries to set foot on this world again."

"This...this has gotten a lot more complicated."

"It's been complicated for a while.  The Goddesses have revised this AU's script so much I wonder how much of it is even still an echo of the original Undertale Prime Universe.  I can tell you right now...it's not a universe where he has a happy ending, either."

"And this is the one you think he can have one."

"Won't be the only one...but it's our AU's chance for one.  I'm putting everything I have into making it happen.  I'd like...to ask if I can count on you to help me break our AU's game once and for all.  No more resets.  No more Sans looking over our shoulders waiting for it all to come to an end.  Just a chance to give everyone their hopes and dreams...and not have to worry about them being taken away."

"You feel as I do.  I...I think I've waited all my life for someone to understand."

"You and him both." I again alluded to Asriel.

"Yes.  You can count on me to play my role in this to the very end.  I'll give them that happy ending.  I promise.  I'm more determined than ever."

"Then I have no further guidance to give you.  You're on your own, but that's the way it was always meant to be.  This is your story.  This is his story.  This is all of your stories.  I was just...just the guy to help it be told.  Nothing more."

Frisk hugged me again.

"I owe you one, kid."

"Owe me one?  But I haven't done anything for you--"

"You gave me the last shard of hope I needed for this dream to move forward."

Frisk smiled.

"The boss monsters might pick up on familiarities with you.  Some echoes of the past even I can't suppress with a Neurolizer.  Just...roll with it."

"You got it."

"Well...be on your way now.  Flowey's going to get impatient.  And Goat Mom's going to be there when he makes his move.  But you already know that."

"Better than anyone."

"Good luck."

I waved as Frisk turned and headed through the doorway into the next room. Don't let me down, Flowey.

Hopefully he'd do what he said he would and Frisk could make it to the first Save Point. I was sure their save file was working again. I felt it but I didn't confirm it.

I snuffed the pilot lights on the Cyber Gate and collapsed it back down...then superconductively hovered back up to the mouth of the mountain, passing through the barrier and loaded up into the Time Train.

And then I was off and away.

Sub-Entry 360: "Graduation Day for Asriel at the Ultra Crew Institute":
From the moment he was high school bound, Violet spearheaded Asriel's education. Not just the basic and extended curriculums but her...ahem...own vocational studies into all things video game, comic book, movie, and pop culture. In short...Advanced Otaku 1-0-1.

After all this time, Asriel's education, Kindergarten through 12th grade finally came to a head. He'd be college bound in no time.

But before that, came final exams. Not just the school's curriculum but everything that he has practiced in the simulator, everything he had mastered at the dojo, everything he learned from us. The collective of all we had bestowed upon him required the final tests to show aptitude and practical application. At least that's what it said on paper. But really...this was the sign that Asriel was ready to open the door to be his own man.

That meant...he'd be moving out of Scott and Callie's before long. He'd find a permanent day job as cover for his position as an agent of S.T.C.

And so much more.

Azzy had proven himself ambitious and determined to succeed. But I guess it wasn't that surprising that he didn't just aim to be great...he had a goal. And that goal was to be valedictorian....in short? Number one.

And all seemed to be choreographed to a Chaz Jankel song out of the 1980's...

"Number one is a hard time in the making."

Asriel grimaced as he struggled with the unholy combination of vector calculus, trigonometry, algebra, and blends of Violet's own programming languages and quantum mechanics algorithms.

"Number two is the one plane I'm not taking."

Asriel passed by the turbo jet on the Pilotwings airfield in favor of the simple bi-plane.

"Number three goes on one knee for a token."

Asriel finished offering his line-for-line prayer to the gods--based on the RPG she had picked beforehand--before Violet finally let him use the change machine in Computer Valhalla's arcade for about 10 dollars’ worth of tokens to continue his gaming exam.

"Number four is the short straw but it's broken."

Asriel drew straws from the bunch as his guild drew lots. His was the shortest and obviously broken rather obviously. He sighed and picked up the Rocket Launcher and headed into the boss room.

"I'd give my all just to be number one!"

Asriel eyed the midterm standings from earlier in the year. He had the second highest score in Vi's curriculum.

"Number one is a hard time in the making."

Asriel tightened his black belt as he went into the dojo, ready for his next dan rank.

"Don't give (don't give!)  A damn!  (A damn!)  What else (What else)  I am (I am)  I am (I am)

The man...in the making!"

Asriel exited the library with a massive stack of books.

"Number five is a bad crime 'round the circuit!"

Asriel' hit the nitrous boost and aimed his laser cannon out the cyber-car window as he closed in on the armed robbers in the cyber-vehicle ahead of him as their light contrails arc-ed around the angular path of the giant circuit path on the digital motherboard. Sally looked on as she watched Vi's latest simulator mashup of Tron Legacy, GTA,  and who knows what else.

"Number six is a sad dream when you're working."

Asriel sobbed and wiped his crying eyes on his sleeve as he finished the holo-simulation of Mother 3, having just gone through Earthbound earlier in the day. Hey, he's not crying, YOU'RE crying  *sniffle*!

"I'd give the world, I could be number one!"

Asriel toiled away in our mechanics lab with Gadget supervising his progress on the giant set of robot factory arms and hydraulic presses.

"Number one is the one way to salvation!"

Moments before I chased a Terminator exo-skeleton into the room from a malfunctioning Cyber Gate in the gate room. He quickly managed to trick it into said hydraulic press before terminating the *expletive redacted*.

"I'll do!  (I'll do!)  My best!  (My best!)  To beat!  (To beat!  The rest!  (The rest!)

And be (and be)  The best...in the Nation!"

Asriel was front and center in the lecture hall, taking exams among a classroom of about 200 or so it seemed. He got up and submitted his test to the teacher, a bit surprised how early he finished.

'I'll stake! (I'll stake!)  My claim! (My claim!)'

Goat Son hefted the flag and shoved it down into the ground at the top of the snow-covered mountain peak during the harshest blizzard. Jon clicked a stopwatch nearby as he stood in the snow-pack in only pants. ONLY. PANTS.

"I'll make  (I'll make!)  My name!  (My name!)

The name of Asriel T. Dreemurr-Arcade was plastered prominently aboard the stage theater as Sally and Willamina arranged for him to perform his final Guitar Hero and D.J. Hero exams on their highest difficulty in front of a live crowd.

"My love!  (My love!)

Asriel received a kiss from Goddess Palutena as the simulation wrapped up. Aww gaaawrsh.

"My game!"

Azzy raised his fists in triumph as the horn sounded and the Tetris finals declared him the winner with a new world record high score.

"My vocation!"

I was standing there as I watched Asriel be issued his graduate's cap and gown. Tassel and all. Oh god...how proud was I?

From there I could list the vast montage of things he'd be doing into the final stretch of his last practical exam but I'll rattle off a few.

Mercenary tactics, in which Chameleon was handsomely compensated for giving him the most extreme in final exams on the grounds he not end up killing goat son in the process. Azzy took his lumps like a man.

Sports with Arlene, with the Pro-Stars guest starring and assisting. Asriel must've gone through every kind of game and competition there was a name for in this modern world. Even a few that hadn't bene dusted off in many eras ago.

More stunt driving with Sally and Ripper gladly volunteering.

Marcel teaching him the ins and outs of being a gentleman thief, since Asriel objected to taking an Assassin's Creed or Hitman exam. He still didn't like the k-word. Yeah. Don't kill and don't be killed all the way.

Saxophone practice with me because what curriculum is complete without a music elective? No, D.J. Hero and Guitar Hero doesn't count!

Adventure in the simulators. Real sparring in the dojo. Gardening and animal care with Lupe. Flight practice with Gadget and Violet. Sharpening detective and police skills with Bunnie. Cooking Mama as well as actual kitchen-work with Mitzi. We must've quizzed him on every skill imaginable...though how all this fit into an Ultra Crew Institute Action Team curriculum, I'll never figure out. Much less how some of it interrelated.

I even helped him finish up a design project which amounted to building a 5 Megawatt laser using a laser fuel of his own design. He went with an exomer. A unique take on excited bromide in an argon matrix. An exomer...frozen uniquely in its solid form. He got easily 6 megawatts out of a sample that could last maybe 20 seconds before it destroyed itself.

Even down to giant robot practice with Coop as a sparring partner.

"I'd give my all just to be number one."

But I think it finally culminated with of all things a Pokémon Battle in Raxis stadium against none other than, father himself, Garfield Arcade. It was down to Asriel's Mewtwo against his Mew. Both were equal level. Both were trained to perfection. Both had psychic power to spare.

Mewtwo had braced against a powerful Psychic energy ball that left him pretty worse for wear. Mew drifted around in the air rather care-free. It seemed like a shame to have to K.O. something this cute.

Driven down to one knee, Asriel refused to give up. He was too determined. It was reminding me of PokeTale, really. To bring that AU up so casually only made sense.

Asriel yanked the bill of his official Pokémon cap backwards as he got up and he commanded Mewtwo to land one final attack.

Mew braced for impact. It struck against his psychic energy and pushed to no avail and I thought that as it, until...

"I'd give my all just to be number..."

Asriel let out a mighty yell as his Mewtwo yelled out, psychically, in unison. Mew's eyes widened as Garfield remained as blank as a refrigerator door.

"I'd give my all just to be number one!"

The attack suddenly swelled and overwhelmed Mew, swallowing him up before plastering him into the ground, across the arena and into the far wall...before it dissipated. Mew's eyes spiraled as he collapsed onto his stomach, out like a light.

"Don't give (don't give!)  A damn!  (A damn!)  What else (What else)  I am (I am)  I am (I am)

The man...in the making!

Garfield stood stoic for a moment...before he twisted slightly and gave a smug thumbs-up with a proud smirk.

Asriel jumped in the air, throwing his fist up in victory.

And then there we were at Graduation Day.

Asriel was chosen as valedictorian. He made a speech more epic than his previous Thanksgiving Day one. I was elated. I was ecstatic. I was so damn proud. This is the Asriel I wanted to present to Toriel and Asgore. Their hopes. Their dreams. Realized. They wouldn't have to spend their lives wondering what could have been.

This...this was the culmination of everything. We gave him the tools. He took everything to its most ideal state. He was the Prince of This World's Future. That was no longer something dark. That was no longer the ambitions of an evil yellow murderflower. It was hope. It was dreams. It was wishes. It was promise. It was...his determination.

"I'll stake!  (I'll stake!)  My claim!  (My claim!)

'I'll make (I'll make!)  My name! (My name!)'

My love (My love!)

My game!

My vocation!"

And the dean turned to us all and spoke out

"I give to you...your graduating class of 20XX!"

Wait, wasn't the year...? Nah...it doesn't matter.

And with that came the turning of the tassels, the cheers and the sea of caps going up into the air.

Asriel ran to Scott, Callie, Bunnie, Violet, and me and caught us in a group hug!

"I did it!  I really did it!  I graduated!"

It wasn't the most conventional of school curriculums and boy did his material go ALL over the place...but yeah...never a better UCIAT agent ever trained, I say.

"Well.  The future is yours, now, Asriel.  So...you...?" Callista

"No way.  I'm not leaving home until I'm ready.  You can rest easy, Mom."

"Well, champ...um...feel like helping your old man around the house?"

"Sure.  Among other things.  I do still have a job and other responsibilities.  And I'm also a full-time agent of S.T.C. so...I'll have to be on call for Volt's missions that are A level and below."

"Of course, son."

"Plus, don't forget.  We still have a war going on." He narrowed his eyes, furrowing his brow.

"It's terrible that you have to grow up during a time of war.  Much worse that you have to actually fight in it."

"Well...it's corny to say but I'm sure Dad understands.  We fight for peace so the next generation won't know the horrors of war.  Right?"

"...yeah." Scott looked away uncomfortably. Still a touchy subject but he had accepted that this was a cruel truth of the world.

I didn't have much to add.

This moment. I wanted to preserve this moment forever.

Time would prove that I needed to treasure this moment...for it would be last hurrah of the good times.

The calm had passed. The real storm was upon us. And it was going to hit hard. It was going to hit below the belt. It was going to change everything. Surviving it would leave us all broken. But no sin Chaopolis could commit would be far worse than the ultimate one. The one which Adonis himself had intended this sin eight years ago. But that was a taunt. This...would be the real one. The one that I didn't know if Asriel and I would come back from.

The very thing my Inner Circle feared was at hand.

CRYPTOSMASHER LOGOFF

END TRANSMISSION

End of Part 3.

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Chapter 37

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