“H-hold on a minute,” Alphys said, checking the tablet again. “Under the c-current circumstances, that shouldn’t have n-needed to happen. It m-might be fine, but… I’ll have to check a l-lot of other stuff.”
“Flowey?” Twilight called again. She approached the machine slowly, ignoring Frisk’s hand on her wing trying to hold her in place. “Flowey, are you okay in there?”
“D-don’t be too worried,” Alphys said. “It w-would be perfectly n-normal if he blacked out from t-the extraction. But p-please, st-stay away from the Extractor! It’s still cooling off. The sudden removal of his determination could have caused him to go into a… slightly less active, drowsy, or unconscious state. To be fair, I’ve never used the Extractor on a person like this, only souls.”
“You what?!” Chara yelled, turning to Alphys with a look of terror and anger.
“I-I’m sorry, I should have t-told you…” Alphys stuttered. “H-he’ll be fine! Probably.”
“‘Probably’?” Twilight asked as she turned to face the lizard. “What do you mean ‘probably’? You mean this could have… could have killed him…?”
“Th-that’s a little extreme, but… maybe,” Alphys said, wringing her hands. “It’s a v-very slight chance! J-just give me a m-minute to retrieve him f-from the Extractor a-and we’ll see if he’s okay.”
Alphys pressed several more buttons on the tablet and the voice spoke again, “Status update: Cooldown. Connection severed.”
“Oh… o-okay…”
“What’s happening?” Undyne asked, crouching behind Alphys and massaging her shoulders gently. “Talk to me, babe.”
“T-the connection- that’s, um, the pipes- is disconnected from the machine,” Alphys explained. “I-it’s not necessarily bad, so to sp-speak. It j-just didn’t need to do that. The Extractor sh-shouldn’t be that heated after such a… short extraction. Th-then again, I’ve n-never used the Extractor on a person before.”
“How can we help?”
“Uhh… I just need to get into the m-maintenance shafts for it. M-maybe the entrance underneath it is still serviceable?” Alphys thought for a second, then nodded with a determined smile. “Y-yeah! I need to get underneath the machine. It sh-should be simple.”
She walked next to the Extractor and crouched down by the hole it was over, then turned and climbed down a short ladder onto the floor below. She looked around and found the maintenance shaft entrance for it. Pressing one finger to a pad next to the closed door, she waited for it to open, then climbed in.
“How is it looking?” Undyne called after a couple of minutes.
“I-it’s fine! I don’t kn-know what happened, but whatever i-it was, it’s g-gone now,” Alphys responded. “I’m going t-to come back up a-and open the Extractor.” She made her way back out of the shafts and up the ladder again.
“What are you doing now?” Twilight asked nervously.
“I’m g-going to open the machine,” Alphys said. “Flowey should be fine, b-but we need to prepare for the worst, okay?”
“I thought the machine was open,” Chara butted in.
“It is. Partially,” Alphys said. “Its outer shell is open, but the inner layers are still sealed. Be ready for anything.” She inhaled shakily and pressed a button. There was a loud clunk as the inner layers opened. This time they didn’t release any steam, instead immediately revealing the flowerpot wrapped in a bulging cocoon of vines.
“W-what… in the name of Dog… is that t-thing,” Alphys said, eyes wide. “I-it’s… not Flowey. I think? Hello? F-Flowey? Are you okay there?”
A white, furry fist punched out of the cocoon, covered in plant juices. The arm retracted and a head burst out in its place, enlarging the hole. Asriel blinked several times, hissing as he tried to blink the plant juice out of his eyes.
“H-hey, can someone get me some clothes?” he asked with a nervous laugh. “And maybe a towel or two?”