VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 30

"Alphys, darling. I've disabled the communication jammer. It's just like we thought, this place is empty," Mettaton stood within the control room of the base he'd discovered the previous night, his new body finally fully assembled, gleaming silver. All it needed now was a gorgeous paint job befitting a bot of his status, and another polish to gloss things over.

Papyrus stood beside him. Despite still recovering from his wounds, and having been released from the hospital an hour ago, he had volunteered to join Mettaton as support, which the robot had gladly accepted despite Alphys' initial reluctance.

"D-Dangit . . ." Alphys's voice crackled over from the other end, still a bit staticy due to Mettaton being underground. "I had a feeling this would happen . . . um, is there any evidence that might g-give us any leads?"

"Unfortunately, the answer would be 'no', darling," Mettaton shook his head dramatically, despite Alphys not even being in the room to see it. "Papyrus and I searched every-"

"THAT'S ME!"

"Yes, that was Papyrus—he and I searched every single floor in this base, and they left behind not a single shred of evidence," Mettaton could hear Alphys mumble something unhappily from the other end, but couldn't quite make it out.

"O-Okay. It looks like there's no point in you staying there, then," she stated, much to the robot's relief. Mettaton swiveled his head to face Papyrus. "Come, darling, we should go."

"OKAY!"

Almost the exact moment the decision had been made, the large screen in front of them suddenly flashed to life, illuminating the control room in red. Mettaton nearly jumped, turning quickly, ready for anything—but what he saw he hadn't accounted for facing.

A timer.

Counting down.

From 10.

He only managed to process it the moment it hit '9', Papyrus only just now turning to face it. With no time for words, Mettaton twirled on his heel, activating his thrusters, flames jetting out of the bottom of his boots. He slammed into Papyrus, grabbing him quickly into his arms and stream-lining for the open elevator, raising an arm as his hand mechanically turned inside-out, quickly forming into a type of arm-cannon.

Frankly, he had little to no idea what the countdown meant, but he wasn't about to wait and find out. Best case scenario it was a lunch timer. Worst case scenario was exactly what he presumed it to be; a detonation.

How much would go up in flames? He wasn't sure. He just wasn't going to allow himself or Papyrus to get destroyed along with it. The elevator would be too much of a hassle to get through, he'd need to blow it out of his way if he wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, Papyrus obliviously being carried along over Mettaton's shoulder.

"Hold on tight, darling!" Mettaton told Papyrus, who eagerly did so, clearly valuing his safety, especially once he noticed the countdown. Mettaton's arm-cannon fired at the elevator, blowing it wide open. The robot quickly flew through the doors, and the hole in the ceiling was still there from when he'd been forced to bust through just the previous night. Mettaton made the mistake of looking back at the timer, and saw that there were only six seconds left.

No time to waste, and with his grasp on Papyrus still tight, Mettaton flew through the top of the elevator, his rockets forcing themselves to the limit in such short notice. It wasn't long before the two of them could feel a massive torrent of fire chasing them from below. There was just barely enough time for them to go through the already busted-open elevator shaft door, before the flames spilled out onto the street, explosions flooding the entire apartment complex.