VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 44

"No hidden cells? No out-of-the-way jailhouses? Nothing in the you-know-what? Anywhere Undyne would take somebody to lock them up?" Trickster stood in Police Chief Dowary's office, and he was appearing flustered, sweating and adjusting his collar every now and again.

"N-no ma'am," He replied. "I've been monitoring Officer Dhelaron heavily ever since she-"

"It's what she was doing before you started monitoring her that has me worried. Get back to work or whatever. The Messiah doesn't need you anymore right now," she waved her hand dismissively, and Dowary hurried to the door, opening it for her.

"Of course, ma'am. Have a lovely day . . ."

Trickster was about ready to pull her hair out in frustration; what a waste of time . . . but on the bright side, she was certain that the next place on the list was where Magnum was. There was no other place she would be. All her efforts would finally be worth it as soon as she found Magnum, and even if she wasn't at the laboratory, Trixie could always pay a visit to the skeleton responsible for her disappearance. "Mag . . . you really are always in the last place I look."

On her way out the door, she bumped shoulders with a particular fish monster who was coming up the steps. The two briefly looked at each other, before continuing on their way, Trickster picking up her pace, and disappearing around the corner before Undyne did a double-take. She was interrupted when "UNDYNE!" was suddenly yelled from her boss in his office. With a groan, the monster made a beeline for the door.

Trickster stared back at the police department for a moment, holding a walking stick as she stared through old wizened eyes and wiggled her spruce mustache, remaining in her disguise for a moment, before continuing on, deciding to keep the disguise for now.

Her next stop was obviously the laboratory, but the only issue was, she couldn't go in yet. Unlike the other places she'd visited, Alphys' place wasn't managed or monitored very closely by the Messiah, mostly due to it being a rather new facility, in addition to being funded by outside scientific communities, and owned by a monster.

Trickster had devised a plan—she'd sit outside the lab in disguise, pretend to be a harmless old man, and wait to see who dropped by the most. Wait to see who Alphys trusted without a doubt in her mind.

Then she would move in, and find Magnum.

"HYAH!"

A small fist collided with a much larger individual's chest. "Ocherednoy raz!" the larger person yelled. He was tall, towering over the platinum-blonde boy, with shaggy black hair and an unkempt beard. He was without a shirt, wearing only pants and a headband.

Krashna landed another punch to Nikolai's chest, who nodded in approval. "Ocherednoy raz!"

Another hit.

"Ocherednoy raz!"

Another.

"Ocherednoy raz!"

"Ocherednoy raz!"

"Ocherednoy raz!"

"Alright, enough," Krashna shook his head irritably, shaking his stinging hand slightly. He was powerful, but Nikolai's steel defenses were practically impossible to break, which made him a much better training dummy than anything humanity could conjure up, not to mention Nikolai enjoyed taking the hits, believing it strengthened him as well.

"Vy popravlyayetes'. YA pochti pochuvstvoval posledniy udar," Nikolai nodded to the boy, grabbing a towel nearby in the mostly dark room, wrapping it around his neck.

"Your defenses are as formidable as ever," Krashna responded politely, something he only ever did toward his fellow Leaders. He picked up a towel of his own, dabbing away the sweat beads on his forehead, before slinging it over his shoulder.