VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 144

It felt like just about everywhere had memories now. Well, they usually did, but now the awful memories were overpowering the better ones. Originally, the exterior of the VCPD reminded her of the day she'd seen Undyne's massive grin as a badge was fastened to her dress suit by the mayor, announcing the first monster in law enforcement. Already thinking about her was pretty painful, but to top that off, some of the Chief's blood still stained the ground from when Layla had straight-up killed that guy. And to speak of the devil . . .

When Frisk entered the VCPD for the purpose of speaking with Chief Stanton, she found none other than Layla talking to him near the entrance to his new office. Frisk honestly hadn't been expecting to see the girl again so soon, and wondered what she could possibly be here for.

The station itself hadn't changed much, but it appeared officers had been brought in from other places to compensate for the fact that the ones associated with the Messiah had been fired, and most of them were awaiting trial. The lack of matching uniforms reinforced this idea, but one thing that remained the same was the new chief himself. With Asgore becoming acting mayor, and Carl becoming chief of police, people she trusted and knew other people could trust, were rising into positions of power. With people like them around, surely another last gasp of the Messiah would never be able to see fruition.

"Well, if it isn't the lady of the hour," Carl Stanton noticed Frisk out of the corner of his eye, giving her a nod as she walked in. Layla, too, redirected her attention to the new arrival, her emerald-green eyes sizing Frisk up.

"Hey, Chief," Frisk greeted back with a little less enthusiasm than she'd intended, considering she was sizing Layla up at the moment as well.

"Oh, please," the man waved his hand. "Carl's fine. Still not used to that title, anyway. What brings you here?"

"Just wanted to check up, see how things were going," Frisk replied. "Wasn't expecting you, though," she directed to Layla. "What's going on?"

"Oh, Miss Layla here was actually confessing to the murder of Chief Dowary," Carl replied. "But we . . . have come to the agreement that his death was a self-imposed accident until further proof sheds light on the truth."

Frisk blinked, glancing toward Layla, who winked back. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense," she felt herself reply, reflecting back on the thoughts she'd just had. Carl's averting gaze gave the impression that . . . had he been bribed into giving Layla innocence? Intimidated? Frisk felt that this situation was pretty sketchy.

"Really, it's just surprising somebody else didn't do the honors first," Layla shrugged. Frisk had a guess why, because there were so few people who could actually afford to take such a target out without risking serious consequences. Whether it could be considered right or wrong wasn't always what the law was interested in, after all.

"Anyways," Frisk chose to change the subject. "Chief- er, Carl, haven't you been overworked lately?"

"The force was really struggling until these officers from America showed up to help out about half a week ago . . . until we get some new recruits, they'll be sticking around. With their help, we might just be able to pull Voxis back together."

"Have you heard about Asgore's "promotion" yet?" Frisk asked, to which Carl raised a brow, still appearing miffed as Layla continued to lounge around.

"Can't say I have. He takin' over Obatech?"

"No," Frisk replied, though that did make her wonder what would happen to Obatech without its lone boss. "He's been offered to be Acting Mayor until elections are held," she paused, glancing toward Layla. "So hopefully there'll be less . . . "accidental deaths" going around with you two working together."

"Mhm, especially with our newfound support pushing me to bring in all the Messiah stragglers that are still hanging around. I'm afraid my new position as Chief won't last very long if vigilantes get their hands on those stragglers before I do," he let out a sigh.

"I'll try my best to leave those to you," Layla replied, though her tone indicated that she was either teasing or flat out lying. Frisk didn't know what exactly the girl's deal was, and as much as she knew that Chief Dowary had deserved a punishment, it didn't make Layla seem any less eerie. The way she just didn't care about someone dying, regardless of who it was, it felt wrong. And now getting out of the punishment in such a way . . .

"Where are you keeping Obaseki?" Frisk asked.

"In a cell the Messiah funded, funnily enough," Carl gestured toward the nearby elevator. "Way down, lots of magic dampeners in those walls. Not a single ounce of SOUL power can be used anywhere near the cell, let alone inside of it."

Frisk did find that to be pretty ironic. Below her right now was the man who'd caused so much heartache being held, hopefully to rot forever. Frisk didn't really care if his intentions had been the downfall of the Messiah or whatever he'd been going for. The simple fact that he was the man extensively responsible for all the shit they'd suffered for so long now was enough to make her happy to let him rot his years away down there.

"Anyway, I'm off to gather some intel. Stragglers aren't gonna catch themselves, and everyone knows Americans can't be trusted to get a job done," Layla joked with a wink before she skipped away, at which Frisk watched her abrupt departure.

"Please don't tell anyone about her," Carl said to Frisk. "She's a good set of eyes to have on the street, better than any street camera, and she's working for me in order to make up for the blood on her hands."

"Catching criminals doesn't amount to someone's life," Frisk replied. "No matter how crappy of a person they were."

"But it'll be a start," Carl offered. "I feel bad about it too, feels like I'm letting murder go unpunished, but right now I need her for this. She'll still be punished down the line, but her work for me is going to ease her sentence, at least."

This didn't seem like the strongest start to Stanton's work as the new chief, but Frisk hadn't planned to rat him out for it anyways. Even if this wasn't a decision she could fully get behind, she knew why he was doing it. Voxis City was massive, and even if the police were operating at their best, monitoring it would be incredibly difficult. If Layla could prove helpful in that regard, allowing her to put her skills to use to work off a bit of her sentence wasn't the worst idea. "I won't tell anyone," Frisk assured Stanton, who nodded with appreciation. "Has Mr. Black come here yet?"

"The guy from the C.I.A. right?" Carl asked. "He may have stopped by once or twice. Said he was wanting to pay a visit to Obaseki himself sooner or later."

"He sure seems to get around," Frisk noticed.

"I swear I've been seeing him everywhere today. Out of the corner of my eye," Carl added with a shake of his head. "I've been too busy to do much, though, let alone talk to the guy and see if he's some kinda teleporter. Won't lie though, I always figured Undyne'd be in my place once Dowary was out of the way. It's . . . still hard to believe she's gone. She always seemed too determined to let a silly little thing like death keep her down."

"She would have loved to be the chief," Frisk nodded. "She was the captain of the Royal Guard back in the underground."

"She mentioned something about that once. Also means she had familiarity with leadership. Would've been a kick-ass chief."

Frisk had never really thought too hard about whether Carl and Undyne had been close or not. It didn't seem like they were best friends or anything, but there was certainly a lot of respect there. More respect than most of the force had bothered to show her before her death. "I think so too," Frisk exhaled, feeling a weight in her stomach as she thought about Undyne again. She'd never really seen the repercussions of a timeline without her before, but there was no doubt that the fish woman had been . . . extremely influential to the people she'd been around. "Anyway, just wanted to check on how things were going," Frisk brushed off her momentary lapse into her mind, giving Chief Stanton a smile. "I won't keep you from your work any longer."

"Take care, Frisk," Carl smiled back, and nodded his head. "You ever need anything, feel free to ask."