Alphys was an oddity even in the world of the UNDR-Ground. Unlike her counterpart in Sans's home dimension, the UNDR-Ground's Alphys was less of a scientist and more of a tinker. Responsible for making special effects, rigging stunts, and building things she simply found interesting, her show, simply called 'Build It!' was more of a games show where challengers were given access to her junkyards and a task to complete. The contestants were graded both on speed of construction and completion of the goal and for their design. At the end of the season, the top contestants were tasked with building mechs and pitting them against each other.
She spent much of her free time in her junkyard, always tinkering and working, be it on her own projects or on some prop that had been requested. While on the surface she seemed to have no connection with the Undyne of the UNDR-Ground, Sans noticed that some of the inventions Alphys showed off during her show ended up in Undyne's Royal Knight Challenge.
The Junkyard was situated near Waterfall. Trash from the world above still had a tendency to fall down there, even more so now that a thriving city sat on top of it all. As Sans passed the rusted gates into the junkyard proper, he found himself staring at Alphys's Workshop. Looking for all intents and purposes like a starship from a science fiction movie, Alphys's workshop sat in the center of the mounds of garbage, an ever growing construct born from the lizard woman's imagination.
Sans approached the ramp that led to the main entrance when he spotted his UNDR-Ground self standing outside the entrance with his brother. The two were having an argument ... that is to say, Papyrus was yelling while ComicSans watched with a bemused smile.
"What are you even doing here anyway, you lazy-bones?" Papyrus said, his hands on his hips. "You're flight leaves in half an hour! Are you even packed?"
"Eh, you know me, Paps. I just like to," ComicSans grinned wider. "Wing it."
Papyrus seethed at the pun as Sans approached. "You're too reckless, Sans! What if you miss the flight? Think of how sad all your fans will be!"
"They'll be gust heartbroken." Sans said, now standing behind Papyrus.
ComicSans chuckled as Papyrus rounded on Sans. "Don't encourage him!"
"Sorry, Paps." Sans said.
Seemingly mollified by his sincere tone, Papyrus said, "That's all right, brother. I've already forgiven you. Say, where is your friend? The blue fiery one?"
"Fuku? She went home to have dinner."
"She say what they're eating?" ComicSans asked.
Sans shrugged. "Blazed chicken?"
"Ugh!" Papyrus said, shaking his head. "And I thought it was bad having one pun-loving brother!"
"Ah, you know you love us." ComicSans said, giving his brother a playful punch in the arm.
"I suppose I do." Papyrus said, glowering at him. "That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."
"Cheer up, Paps." Sans said, patting Papyrus's other arm. "You got a show today?"
"Sadly no; I'm still running my highlight episodes while I learn how to prepare new and exciting dishes. I'm working on an interesting pasta variant known as Gnocchi."
"Sounds like an interesting way to pasta time." Said ComicSans.
Papyrus let out a groan. "Really, brother, must you?"
Winking at ComicSans, Sans said, "It wasn't soba-d."
"Sans!"
"Well, they do call me the Champon of puns."
"Udon't say?"
"Enough!" Papyrus shouted before stomping away from the Two Sanses.
Chucking, Sans turned to ComicSans and asked, "Say, why are you here?"
"Hmm? Oh, right." ComicSans said, brushing off his suit. "Out-of-towner caught me on the way out asking to see Alphys. I can always take a shortcut to the airport, so I figured why not?"
"Out of towner? What's she want with Alphys?"
"Probably wants to be a contestant. You shoulda seen how much tech she had on her."
Something about that statement raised a red flag in the depths of Sans's skull. "Her name wouldn't happen to be Glen, would it?"
ComicSans nodded. "Right in one. Nice enough lady for a human. Fan of mine too, apparently, seeing as she recognized me on sight."
"It might be a little more complicated than that." Sans paused, an idea forming in his mind. "Say, there's something I've been wanting to try. You got another suit handy?"
ComicSans vanished, only to appear a moment later with an identical suit on a hanger. Sans quickly hurried behind a stack of garbage and changed into the suit. Now feeling over-dressed, he rejoined his other self.
"Wanna prank the visitor?"
"Something like that." Sans said. He quickly told ComicSans about Glen. ComicSans already knew about Sans's doomed universe, but Sans had yet to go into detail on the human who saved him. As such, ComicSans was quite surprised to find the person he'd helped had in turn saved his other self's life.
"Wow." ComicSans said, shaking his head. "Heavy stuff. If I'd known, I'd have offered her lunch."
After a moment of silence, ComicSans asked, "That's why you aren't going with us?"
"It was, yes."
ComicSans raised an eye ridge. "Was?"
"We'll talk about it when you get back from your tour."
Grin widening, ComicSans clapped his hand on Sans's shoulder. "Three Sanses spreading laughter. Think of the venues! Think of the ratings!"
"Think of the puns." Sans said, his grin matching that of ComicSans.
Further conversation was cut short as the metal doors slid open, revealing Glen and Alphys. Alphys wore a thick leather apron with pockets and a belt laden with tools, with a oil-stained short-sleeve shirt and pants beneath. As she walked with Glen out of the entrance to her workshop,
"Fascinating device." Alphys said, holding the dimensional analyzer in her hands. "Where did you learn to make this?"
"An old scientist from a space-faring civilization taught me the basics. They experimented with dimensional travel briefly, but found it too unstable." Glen shrugged. "Still, they were a bit busy trying to save their people from extinction. Maybe you'll have more luck."
"Thanks, Glen." Alphys said, shaking Glen's hand. "You've definitely given me plenty to work on."
"Well, just remember to be careful. We've run into that ichor stuff in three separate dimensions already, and that's probably not even the worst of what might be out there."
Alphys chuckled, drawing a curious look from Glen. Shaking her head, Alphys said, "I was just thinking of Undyne fighting inter-dimensional creatures. She'd like that, I think."
Chuckling herself, Glen said, "Yeah, she probably would. Good thing she has you to keep her in control."
Alphys blushed. "Well, I-I guess … oh! Sans! Er, and Sans!"
"Hey." Both Sanses said in unison.
Glen glanced at each skeleton for a moment before focusing on Sans. "Heya, buddy. Sorry to run off like that. The local you was nice enough to-"
Letting out a sigh, Sans said, "How?"
"Pardon?"
"How'd you know I was me?"
Glen raised an eyebrow at Sans. "Is this a trick question?"
"We're wearing the same clothes, and as far as I can tell I look exactly the same as he does." Sans said, crossing his arms. "You barely even looked at him before focusing on me. How did you know?"
"Uh, intuition?" Glen said uncertainly. "Look, it's not important. Say, where's Fuku?"
"Don't change the subject."
"I'm just curious. I mean, she's the reason you're going to tell me you can't come with me, right?"
Sans's eye sockets widened in surprise. "What? How did you-"
Glen rolled her eyes. "Come on, Sans, give me some credit. I saw the looks you gave each other, and I've been around enough couples to know the signs. To be honest, I kinda saw this coming."
Sans let out a sigh and rubbed the top of his head, feeling awkward. "I'm sorry, Glen, but-"
"You don't have to explain." Glen told him, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a kind smile. "I'm happy for you, man. And don't go worrying about me; I always make it out in the end somehow."
"I believe it." Sans said. "I still feel like I'm abandoning you."
"Well, don't." Glen said. "I set out on this adventure of my own free will. You got pulled along for the ride; you have every right to get off if you want. If it makes you feel any better, you've been a great help, especially with the information about Asriel. Not sure how I'll get my hands on a bossun soul without violence, but I've got a few ideas that might work out"
"Something to replace a soul?" ComicSans asked, his hands in his pockets. "Color me curious."
Glen shrugged. "Well, I don't know if it exists in this reality, but if I can find my way to Nirn, I might be able to use the stored energy of a soulstone. You can buy them in practically every magic shop there. I've heard rumors that heartstones can absorb a soul's worth of energy over time, though finding them on Vinta can be tricky. Still, it's not like I'd be starting from nothing. One of the advantages of wandering around so much."
Shaking her head, Glen said, "After I find the Inverse Harmonius shard … and Jake, of course. Creator only knows how Finn's doin' without his big brother. Still, anything with as much power as the Inverse Harmonius should be simple to track, especially since it'll resonate with the fragment and the imprint in the crystal."
"You don't sound too convinced of that last bit." ComicSans said.
"That's because if I've learned anything, it's that nothing is ever simple." Glen sighed. "But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I've also got the whole ichor thing to look into. I've already given Alphys a copy of my research including the location of a few lumite deposits that should come in handy should the ichor show up here, but that crud is showing up everywhere. I may be wrong, but I suspect the source might be bigger than any one dimension. If I'm right, the sooner I find it and deal with it, the safer everyone will be."
"Sounds like you'll be busy." ComicSans said. "Can't say I envy you, but sounds like it'd be a blast to watch. You should grab on of those headstrap camera things Undyne makes her gladiators wear."
"Yeah, that's what Undyne said." Glen said, pulling a black headband with a small mounted camera on it from her pocket.
A loud beeping noise from ComicSans's watch made Glen and Sans look his way.
"Welp," ComicSans said, checking his watch, "Looks like it's about time for me to get moving. Later, bro … and good luck, Miss Glen."
"Have a fun tour." Glen said, she and Sans waving as ComicSans walked nonchalantly away from Alphys's workshop. He waved back before slipping behind a pile of garbage, presumably to take a shortcut to his flight. Sans didn't blame him; he wasn't comfortable using shortcuts in front of people either. In front of the other Sanses, sure, but not in front of anyone else.
"I should probably go too." Glen said, slipping the headband around her brown hair.
"Hang on." Sans said, reaching out to her. "There's no reason to run off right away. I mean, you just got here, and you've only had a few hours of rest."
"Well," Glen said, rubbing the back of her head, "I suppose I could use some time to rest. I've pretty much had my nose to the grindstone the past few months … and I would like to run a few theories by you about the ichor."
"See? No reason to run off half-cocked. We can get Paps to whip us up some dinner, talk about your theories and plan of investigation, and you can get a full night's rest before running off."
"All right!" Glen said, "You talked me into it. You can tell me all about you and Fuku over dinner."
Sans opened his mouth to make a joke about her being nosy when his cell phone vibrated. He moved to grab it, but Glen was just a bit faster.
"Fuku Fire." Glen said with a grin. "Speak of the devil."
"Well, you got the flames part right." Sans said. He reached for the phone, but stopped when he saw the smile on Glen's face fall, leaving a look of shock and concern.
"Glen?" Sans asked, worried by the Dreamer's reaction, "Glen, what's wrong?"
She held up the phone so he could see the picture. It was Fuku, along with Asriel and Frisk, all looking frightened as they were held aloft by glowing blue strings trailing from the red and yellow fingers of a skeleton who would've looked identical to Sans if it weren't for his black bones and clothes; his wild red, yellow, and blue eyes; and the strange glitch-like patterns dotting his body punctuated with white letters all spelling the same thing: ERROR.
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