True Labs
Sunset tried not to let herself get spooked by just how eerie the silence was as they descended even further into the Earth, accompanied only by the humming of the elevator. For a moment, she thought back to Aperture Science and GLaDOS's unnerving promises of what would happen if the elevator malfunctioned.
Just as she was beginning to feel the weight of how deep underground she was making her claustrophobic, the elevator came to a stop. Alphys reached out, pressing down a button to keep the door closed.
"U-um, y-you might want to brace yourself... The monsters down here all had their homes taken from them by a human and... w-well..."
Sunset cringed. "Right... I guess I shouldn't expect a warm welcome. It won't be the first time."
Alphys nodded, finally releasing the button and allowing the door to slide open.
The underbelly of the lab was huge, much larger than the building on the surface. Everything down here was dimly lit, with the walls and floor all painted or tiled in shade of gray and metallic silver. Machinery of all kinds were scattered around, some abandoned while others had been moved into open doorways as impromptu barriers.
What was far more striking, however, was the presence of the countless monsters that had turned to look at them when the doors opened. They were crammed into almost every corner of the space, some with tear-streaked faces and others with stoic acceptance. The general direction they were all facing was deeper into the lab Sunset could barely believe her eyes at the sheer variety of creatures, from birds with snowflake-shaped plumage and what looked to be some kind of fusion of a turtle, a washboard, and a bucket to odd-looking dogs and pixie-like creatures floating through the air. Each and every of them were staring at her, all with a narrow range of reactions varying between "terror" and "rage."
"THE HUMAN!" One voice finally screeched, shattering the awkward silence. In that instant, the peace that came with such total shock vanished.
The monsters all began to scramble wildly. Some were trying to sprint for the door, turning the exit into a bottleneck filled with a mass of bodies all clawing and shoving to get past one another. The rest were all focused on her, either too frightened to move or readying themselves for a fight. Sunset gripped Missy tighter as some of the more bulky and strong-looking creatures started to push their way through towards the elevator.
"N-No! Wait! Th-This isn't- St-stop!" Alphys stammered, but her words were instantly lost in the sea of confusion.
Sunset took a deep breath, trying to brace herself. These monsters were just scared, and understandably so. If she was going to be forced into a fight, she wasn't going to hurt them. The problem was how she was going to protect herself and Missy with her hands full.
Sunset stepped back as the aggressors grew closer, feeling the wall of the elevator against her back. She glanced down at Alphys, who was still trying to raise her voice through the chaos, then up at the rest of the monsters who were all ignoring her. She swallowed her fears... and turned her back to them, dropping to her knees to curl her own body around Missy's as a shield. But before the pain she was expecting could come, a new voice finally pierced through the panic.
"BLUE MEANS STOP!"
The change was instantaneous. All of the sounds of scrambling and fear came to a complete stop, silence dropped like an anvil, and it seemed as if even the air became still. Eventually, Sunset's curiosity outweighed her fear and she turned to peek over her shoulder.
What looked like translucent blue bone-shaped had sprung up from the floor, spaced in a way that they passed through the bodies of every individual in the room. Every single one of the creatures was frozen in place, either unable or unwilling to move. Sunset's eyes widened as a single individual made their way through the chaos, the magical spikes either parting or retreating to let him through.
It was a skeleton. As in "just bones with nothing holding them together which makes no sense anatomically" skeleton. They were tall and lanky, dressed in a white shirt that covered their ribcage, a pair of shorts to cover their pelvis, heavy-looking red boots, gloves, and a matching scarf. He walked straight to the elevator, his eye sockets narrowing slightly as he looked her over for a moment. After a few seconds his toothy smile seemed to curl further upwards and he held out a hand to her.
"Papyrus, STOP!" one of the monsters shouted, drawing everyone's attention. "Are you CRAZY? They'll kill you!"
The skeleton shook his head, and gave his hand a small shake to prompt Sunset to take it. Sunset felt a rush of relief as she did so, letting him pull her back up onto her feet. Once she was steady again, he turned back to the crowd.
"This is NOT the human I saw in Snowdin!" he declared. "Besides, look! She's carrying a hurt monster! I think we should hear Doctor Alphys out before we make any judgements!"
"Th-thank you, Papyrus..." Alphys whispered. She cleared her throat before stepping out of the elevator. "E-everyone, this is S-Sunset Shimmer! Sh-she's another human, b-but she's not a killer! She's friends with this an-" Alphys seemed to catch herself for a moment, making a quick decision. "With this monster named Missy! The same human attacked them that attacked the rest of us! She's just looking for help, just like all of you!"
This statement seemed to spark a series of nervous murmurs through the crowd, but they soon faded away again as Papyrus placed his hands on his hips.
"SO! You all heard Doctor Alphys! As a royal-guard-in-training, The Great Papyrus will not tolerate chaos in this evacuation! Please return to moving in a calm and orderly manner!"
With a wave of his hand, the magical blue bones vanished, and everyone began to move again. For some, the endorsement from Alphys seemed to be enough, only stealing curious glances from time to time. Others seemed more wary, giving her angry or suspicious looks every few seconds.
"Th-thanks, Papyrus. The last thing we need right now is a panic..." Alphys whispered. Sunset nodded in agreement, silently adding her own gratitude to the statement.
"Of course!" Papyrus proudly held a hand against his chest, striking a noble pose. "What kind of candidate for the Royal Guard would I be if I let the monsters of the underground trample over one another, or if I ignored someone in just as much need as the rest of us?"
"R-right now, we need to get Missy to the hyperthaumic chamber. Do you think you can help us get there?"
"Certainly! It will be my pleasure!" he declared. With hardly so much as a glance back, he set off across the room, the other monsters quickly clearing a path for him. Sunset waited for a moment to watch Alphys follow close behind him before doing the same. She tried to ignore how awkward it was to have the crowd parting for her like this, but they were moving towards one of the blocked doorways, fighting the tide of creatures moving into the next room.
Now that she wasn't in immediate danger, Sunset's mind wandered to the plight of the monsters here. They were all frightened, almost the the point of being beyond rational thought. The atmosphere was one of oppressive despair, and it was clear on each of their faces that they had reached the same conclusion she had: as long as the barrier was still standing, all they could do was push further back until they were cornered. From there... it would be kill or be killed.
She didn't need her geode to tell that hope was running low here.
Papyrus didn't even seem to struggle with pushing the improvised barricade out of the way, opening the path into another room of the laboratory. The four of them stepped into the darkened room, barely able to make out indistinct shapes in the semi-darkness.
"N-now where is that light switch?" Alphys muttered. "Ah! There it is!"
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His mind was racing.
Time was running out.
He was running out of options. Every second he spent thinking was another opportunity dead. Soon, he would only have two options, neither of which were acceptable.
Undyne was wearing thin. She'd taken at least three blows that he could count, and her breathing was ragged. Her shoulders were sagging and her movements were growing more and more sluggish.
"You're not ready to go back in!" Reason argued.
He pushed the thought out of his mind as he pushed himself up off of the ground. Think you could work on a solution, instead of telling me what I already know?
He rushed forward as Frisk closed in for another attack. He aimed for their wrist, falling back on the first idea: disarm. Without the knife, Frisk was just a prescient child. Sure, genuine malice would be enough to transform any implement into a weapon against monsters, their defenses were empathetic, but he was fairly certain he could handle a child with a stick.
Frisk knew what he was doing. Of course they did. For them, this had all happened before, countless times. They pivoted on their heel, managing to redirect their attack in less than a second from a slashing motion to a stabbing one. Penn's eyes widened as he tried to stop his lunge, but it was too late.
The exchange was only a blink in the overall battle, and he had managed to throw himself back again before he could even tell if the attack had landed. As he stumbled back, however, he could feel a rising burning in his stomach, punctuated by an acute pain that soon faded in with the rest across his body. The child took a closer look at their blade, watching the blood bead and roll down the steel. It couldn't have pierced more than an inch and a half, which gave him some small comfort: it wasn't likely they'd pierced his stomach. Their face was as expressionless as ever, not even showing a single sign of exhaustion.
He was being outplayed. Frisk literally knew everything that was going to happen before it did. Each beat of the battle was theirs to dictate. Undertale was a game that toyed with the fourth wall more than most, and the idea of "save points" was more than just a necessary mechanic. Here, they were a real phenomenon, and Frisk had them at their disposal.
So... this is what it's like to be on the other side of "the person who knows everything." Can't say I like it...
"You alright?" Undyne asked, keeping her guard up as she backed away to join him.
Penn growled slightly to himself as he forced his body to stand up straight in spite of the pain. "I'll walk it off. You?"
"My armor's sure taking a beating..." she muttered.
"So's the fish inside it. That's not an answer."
Undyne shot him a halfhearted glare with her one good eye, but he could see a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I'll walk it off."
"Oh, I like her."
Penn smirked. If she could snark, then she could keep fighting.
"We can't keep challenging them one-on-one. We're gonna have to attack together if we want a chance to overwhelm them."
"You got a plan? I'm open to suggestions at this point..." Undyne panted.
"Run?" Reason suggested.
"You go left, I'll go right. If you pin them with your magic, we could flank from both sides at once." He pressed one hand to his fresh stomach wound, feeling the blood pooling in his shirt. He didn't want to even think about the fact that he was starting to feel light-headed, but...
Time was running out.
"We should aim for the head..."
Undyne reached out with one hand, freezing the child in an emerald aura. "My pleasure."
Frisk knew everything that was going to happen. They'd probably saved and loaded and replayed this moment a dozen times. They held all the cards. There was nothing he could do that would surprise them, no trap he could set without them knowing. Penn knew he needed to get ahead of them, but he didn't know how. He needed to take back the title of "smartest person in the room."
"We need to either win quickly..."
...or change the game.
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"Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and twenty six... No response.""Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and twenty seven... No response.""Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and twenty eight... No response."The Integrated Superior Intelligence System did not get "frustrated." The current tax on her Sympathetic Synthesis Module was most certainly not the result of becoming frustrated.
It was the result of the contradiction of her own denial about becoming frustrated and the fact that she was.
Right now, she was using another one of her repair drones to send signals of varying strengths and frequencies through the barrier and monitoring for any signals that reflected off of the cave walls and back through the barrier. So far, there had been a response of absolute zero.
"Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and twenty nine... No response.""Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and thirty... No response.""Testing frequency three thousand, five hundred and thirty one... No response."That was the frustrating part. The barrier gave absolutely no feedback. It was like a black hole of data. She was injecting energy into a closed system and receiving no signs of it existing once it was beyond her measurements.
She had started with radio frequencies, then moved upwards through the electromagnetic spectrum. She'd run through microwaves, infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, x-rays, and alpha, beta, AND gamma radiation. None of them had ever returned through the barrier.
If she could not determine how to pierce this barrier, then Elijah, Sunset Shimmer, and Missy would all be trapped inside until their eventual deaths. She would never see them again. They would be lost to the same pitch-blackened abyss as the rest of her attempts to gather data. Her continued failure was wasting valuable time wherein they could be in danger.
She hated not knowing. Her secondary directive was to collect data on as wide a scale as possible. She craved knowledge, down to her very core. Not knowing what was happening in as crucial a moment as a teammate's disappearance rendered her completely useless.
Useless.
Until she could find the data they needed, she was functionally useless to them.
In the workshop, a high-pitched whine began, like the sound of a motor being overworked. It was the only sound Administrator Noir would always take notice of, so he had specifically chosen it for less urgent alarms. In this particular instance, Isis wished that he would ignore it. The dragon glanced up from the circuitboard he was currently soldering. Without so much as a word, he glided to the main readout and began looking over the readout.
"Your SSM's getting worked up, Isis... what's going on?"
"It is nothing you need concern yourself with, Administrator.""As far as falsehoods go, I'd put that solidly between 'lies' and 'statistics.'" He gave an annoyed flick of his tail before beginning to type on the keyboard with the tip, retrieving the detailed report on her current simulated emotions. "Talk to me, Isis..."
Isis knew that she could hide nothing from him. Her ability to process emotions was still... stunted at best. Overwhelming the SSM could cause a series of failures across all central systems. Now that he knew she was under strain, his own emotions would prompt him to look more deeply into the matter. He cared for her well-being, after all.
"A situation has arisen with Elijah's and Sunset Shimmer's exploratory party. Missy has gone missing beyond a strange one-way barrier, and the two of them followed. However, I am unable to retrieve any kind of signal from the other side. I have run a thorough gamut of the electromagnetic spectrum, but I am unable to find a resonant frequency. For lack of a better term, they are all facing unknown dangers in a 'dead zone' from which I can obtain no data."He stepped away from the keyboard, arching his neck slightly. "Okay... you're stumped at a bad time. I can't hold a candle to your computing power, but... Ten thousand, six hundred and twenty two heads are better than ten thousand, six hundred, and twenty one. Give me the data, full readout."
His estimation of the number of drones at her command was woefully underwhelming, but she didn't choose to correct him. It was irrelevant for the moment.
The strain on the SSM lessened. The whining alert sound came to a halt as her simulated worries eased. Her administrator was helping her.
The upper walls of tools and ongoing projects rotated, revealing wall-to-wall monitors near the ceiling. Frequencies, durations, and results rolled by. She watched his body begin to crackle with energy as he took to the air, zipping from one monitor to the next as he caught up as quickly as he could.
"It's like it isn't even there..." he muttered to himself as he landed on the worktable in the center of the room.
"It is empty.""Nonono... Then it'd be space." His sapphire-colored eyes narrowed. "And I know a thing or two about space... Things disperse in space, but they're still THERE. This is more like... It's vanishing as soon as it hits the barrier. But that's not it, either. Can't destroy or create matter or energy, provided the laws of physics are still in effect..."
"Affirmative.""So, if it isn't being destroyed and there's no sign of anything returning... what about if there's too much? Your signal isn't being swallowed up in nothing, it's being drowned out, like a drop of food coloring in a river rapid!" He turned rapidly in place, re-examining the data at a cursory level. "Have you tried examining it with a Kant counter?"
"Standard repair drones are not equipped with that kind of advanced sensory hardware. Would you like me to call the nearest deep interdimensional exploratory drone?"Isis had already sent out the recall order the moment she saw his head nod a fraction of an inch up and down.
"Keep me posted, Isis... I'm going to want more details on this. Next time you get this worked up, don't be afraid to ask for help, alright?"
"Affirmative, Administrator. I was merely worried that, after your last encounter, you would not approve of allocating any resources to helping that particular party..."She noticed his body language stiffen somewhat before he rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation. "Just... don't tell them I did this. It's for YOUR sake, got it? I don't want you to blow a fuse. We both know your sister can be a headache to deal with, even for me."
If Isis could have smiled, she would have. His true nature was coming through, he DID care.
He seemed to notice the change in her emotional data, shooting a threatening plume of fire in the screen's direction.
"And wipe that smug look off your face!"
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Something I just realized... the power of the player character comes from being the most determined one in the Underground, right? So... how long before Penn remembers said position can be usurped?
HE'S ALIVE!!??!?
10358674
It would seem as though Frisk/Chara has killed Sans first rather than Papyrus, judging by the Fact that Sans sweeter was found and not him
10358662
Honestly I would love to see something like happen and the sheer look of shock and fear as Frisk/Chara realize they done goofed.
Personally, I take offense to being lumped into the same species as that omnicidal abomination.
Calling it "human" gives it far too much credit.
10358711
Calling them a monster would be an insult to all the monsters in this world too.
10358749
Not to mention an insult to Missy and to Penn's duel spirit partner
HE LIVES!
Is this a "Papyrus no longer believes in you" story?
10357483
Don't forget that the portal can still open one every 3 moons. (3 months.) For 3 days. And considering Equestrias track record...
That and the book is more like a key to bypass the mirrors cooldown.
10358749
I think they settled on "demon".
10358711
Agreed, It would be nice to show that omnicidal Abomasnow a taste of its own medicine...
10358761
Honestly, I think that would fit considering Hazbin Hotel. Unless it's Lucifer then he would enjoy punishing them. But I like to imagine Multiverse Hell is just one hell with different zones based on the Multiverse.
10358763
Well, that's rude, that's an insult to Pokemon.
10358769
imgflip.com/s/meme/Spiderman-Peter-Parker.jpg
10358773
Nonono, the first pokemon arc is....
furious counting
Huh. 15 crossovers away.
Maybe I can come up with a reason to bump some pokemon content further up the line...
10358776
That face means you approve and I just imagine a meeting in a bar in hell (or even better Lux) with all the leaders of the Underworld/Hell. Hades(ranging from DC to Disney), Robot Devil(Futurama), Lucifer(TV series, Hazbin) and etc now and it's funnier and glorious as I picture it.
10358789
Well, Hazbin and DOOM are both on the planning doc, but I'm not sure how much more I'm allowed to say
10358779
(but seriously I'm checking weekly out of anticipation on an update. 
)
Eh, no rush.
I'm just happy to see a new chapter.
10358888
Hey, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I gotta delete this one. I don't mind talking about what's on the planning doc, but only over on that particular blog post or via DM. I don't want anything spoiled in the comments here for the people avoiding it. I really try to be careful about what names and/or clues I put in the comments here.
10358789
If there is multiverse drinking going on, then there is no better place than sunsets-isekai. I am sure Penn is going to need it at one point
10358662
What if ISIS finds a way to hack the game and delete Frisk's slot save. If Flowey can...
10359066
That would certainly give new meaning to "Hack the planet."
10358977
Sunset's Isekai is a favorite of mine among the stories on this site. Absolute gold.
10358779
Well that's simple enough, it'll come naturally.
Here we have portals to zog only knows where scattered at random across the landscape, it'd be wishful thinking of the highest order to assume that everything's going to stay put just for the protagonist's convenience. Honestly, Remnant is something of an outlier in that regard, since the grimm have utterly neutered humanity's usual exploratory instincts.
"What's over that horizon? More grimm, that's what."
And now even they're looking into sending some hunter teams out to have a look about.
Now, imagine a more inquisitive or reckless culture. In fact, let's go all the way to a genuinely Not Good scenario. Let's imagine a gate somewhere on Armageddon. First, flip a coin to determine whether an ork WAAAGH! or IG force finds the portal. Depending on the result you either have a rapidly expanding Imperium strong point, a horde of war-crazed reality warpers ripping up the neighborhood, or both at once contesting the area.
That's going to get real bad real quick unless something capable of throwing them back happens to crop up in the same area.
But back to the Pokémon. It could be as simple as adventure-prone Ash stepping through a portal and wandering off on his own iteration of our hero's odyssey, Team Rocket hitting one in the turbulent aftermath of a failed scheme, or just some random stray wildlife.
Just let stuff happen, in another few months this planet/nexus won't even be recognizable anymore. I'm honestly surprised they're not already half-way to multidimensional Mad Max.
10358892
Any chances of a certain princess of the moon in sailor suit showing up?
10358892
Ok sorry
10359806
Don't worry about it. I tend to look rather cavalier with what info I dole out in comments, even if I am being careful behind the keyboard. I dont blame you for following that example. 😅
Is that who I think it is?
Yes! It's Papyrus! He's still alive!
And there's the mysterious Yugioh who's Missy's older sister and serves as Penn's voice of reason.
That's certainly an interesting explanation as to how Frisk always seems to be a step ahead of them.
Is Penn referencing Infinity War/Endgame I wonder?
And ISIS proves that even an artificial intelligence can become frustrated. Hopefully with this new equipment, she can finally penetrate the barrier to the Underground.
Got an update from each member of the party from where each of them are at. Looking forward to the next installment. Keep up the good work.
10360295
Well done spotting the Avengers reference!
Something that I just realized is that this video might be possible in this world.
https://m.