Nightmare And The Babybone Sanses

Baby's First Mission Pt.1

It's been a few weeks since Nightmare started training the boys. It hasn't exactly been easy, since they brought home the tiny brat. The little monster complains almost every hour, even at night, and if anyone touches him, he screams his little head off. Nightmare has been having to remember to use a blanket as a barrier around the little demon anytime he has to pick him up - he seems to do a lot better if he doesn't touch him directly. With all of this baby nonsense going on, he hasn't had a lot of time to train the boys, and time is of the essence now that Dream is awake.

Since time is not on their side anymore, Nightmare has decided that the fastest way for the boys to learn is with experience. So today he's leading the boys to the portal room to send them on their first mission. Of course, it won't be anything too difficult, since they've never been on a mission before – this will mostly just be a test run to see how well they perform. Despite being so young, they're actually very smart, Dust being the smartest of them all. He may not act intelligent with his lazy demeanor, but he was able to surpass Cross when it comes to reading in only a few weeks of Nightmare teaching him, even though he would spend most of the time doodling or goofing off while he was teaching. The older skeleton has no doubts that they will be able to learn quickly from this exercise.

As they entered the portal room, the boys looked a bit confused. Why would he bring them to this room if they weren't allowed to go outside, let alone to another AU? Nightmare just opened the door to the portal, opening a way to the AU he picked out. It's a much more peaceful area – this AU has only ever seen a pacifist rout, so even the Sans here should be less cautious.

"I'm sending you on your first mission to a pacifist timeline," Nightmare announced as he turned back to the boys.

"...but you only just started training us. Why do we have to do this so early?" Cross pointed out.

"If you're worried about it being dangerous, then you don't have to worry that much. This timeline has not had any violence in it, not even a neutral rout. Also, I wouldn't be sending you on a mission this early if the situation were different. Now that Dream is awake, we don't have much time before he decides to attack again, so I need you to learn quickly. The fastest way for you to learn is to experience this for real, but don't worry, I don't expect you to do much for your first mission. I just want you to cause negative feelings however you can – there are no rules other than stay out of fights. If anyone gets hostile just run," Nightmare explained.

"...and what if Dream or Ink show up?" Cross asked a bit warily.

"If you see either of them, then come back to the portal immediately and close the door behind you. Do NOT confront them." Nightmare pressed. He knew that if they tried to fight Dream or Ink, they certainly wouldn't win. He doubted that Dream would want to hurt them, since they're only children, but Ink is unpredictable. If that psychotic artist decides to fight them, they will surely die.

"Are you not coming with us?" Cross asked, he didn't seem to like that Nightmare was sending them to an unfamiliar AU with no supervision. What if something happens?

"No, since you decided to bring Error here, someone has to stay here and look after him. This place isn't that dangerous – I wouldn't send you here if it was. Just don't be idiots, and you'll be fine." With that, he motioned for the boys to step into the AU. Cross was a bit hesitant, but once he was through, the rest followed with no problems. "I'll come check on you in about an hour..." When he saw how Cross still seemed worried, he sighed, "... you'll be fine. Even if something does happen, I'll be back soon anyway, so I'll be able to stop it."

That didn't seem to make Cross feel better, but he nodded regardless. Nightmare took that as his cue to leave, so he left the portal room to go check on Error. With the larger skeleton gone, the boys took in their surroundings. The portal dropped them in what looked like an alleyway of a big city. This alleyway in particular looked pretty secluded, since there wasn't even much trash around to show that anyone had been here. At least they didn't have to worry about anyone finding the portal.