The shopkeeper of Ebott's only grocery stoor glanced up the moment she heard the jingle of the door bell. ""Welcome to O'aka's ... oh, hello Miss Glen."
"Evenin' Shirley." Glen said as the door shut behind her. "Having a good night?"
Shirley rolled her eyes. "It's two in the morning, Glen; I wanna go home and go to sleep."
"Oh, come on." Glen said with a grin. "Sleep is for the weak."
She wandered down near the small bakery; it wasn't open that late, but sometimes there were leftovers still there at a discount. Not that day, however; in fact, there wasn't much of anything in the bakery area, other than a small loaf of whole-grain bread that Glenda was certain had been there since the first day she stepped into the store over ten years previously.
In fact, there was a distinct lack of merchandise all over. Glen passed aisle after aisle, staring at the shelves she'd never seen so empty. In the end, she found a box of off-brand chocolate chip cookies and a half-gallon of skim milk.
Shirley chuckled as Glen set the items near her register. "Eating healthy again, huh?"
"Bah. I just want a snack; good thing too; not much to choose from here."
"Don't worry." Shirley said, ringing up Glen's purchase. "Next shipment should be here early in the morning.."
"What happened? There's not a hurricane heading here or something, is there?"
Shirley laughed and shook her head. "Nah. Our recent surge in population's been making it hard for us to keep stock."
"Surge in population?"
"You didn't know? Jesus, Glenda, you need to get out of that workshop during the daylight sometime."
"Never." Glen said, handing over the money with a smile. "And don't call me that."
"Sorry, Glen." Shirley shook her head as she put Glen's purchase in a bag. "If you insist on remaining nocturnal, things should be back to normal soon enough. Mark's already paid the carpenters to expand the store."
"Oh? Guess the new folk brought some money, huh?"
Shirley reached in the till and brought out a single coin. She handed it to Glen, who looked at it curiously.
"Is this ... gold?" Glen said, eyeing the goat head etched on one side of the coin.
"It sure is." Shirley took it back and dropped it in the till. "The new people have a ton of it. We've made out a fair exchange rate."
Glen crossed her arms and gave Shirley an incredulous look.
"All right!" Shirley confessed, "It's a little more fair for us ... still, it's going to better the community, right? They certainly wasted no time cleaning out our store shelves."
"Hmm." Glen felt like it was still pretty damn exploitative, but she kept her feelings to hersel f as she picked up her bag. "Well, G'night, Shirley."
"Good night, Glen."
Glen approached the front door, only it to be suddenly flung open by a skeleton wearing what appeared to be paper mache armor.
"Spaghetti!" He cried out, his eyes wide in panic. Glen was at once startled and intruiged; she'd seen skeletons back on Vinta, raised after death to continue on. Those were different than the skeleton facing her, however; where Vintan skeletons were bound to their remains and unable to move in any way other than that which their joints allowed, this skeleton had a face. Oh, it was definitely skull-like, but where a Vinta skeleton's bone was rigid, this skeleton's skull moved and emoted. At the moment, it was clearly emoting panic.
"Tell me they haven't run out!" The skeleton demanded, shaking Glen by the shoulders.
"Uh, I think I saw some still on the shelf." Glen said, still a bit stunned.
"Thank you, human!" With that, the skeleton dashed into the store. Glen watched him for a moment before turning to the door to leave. Unfortunately, she did so just as the door closed right in her face, knocking her to the floor.
She slowly opened her eyes only to find herself staring up at the flickering florescent bulb. It wasn't the warm yellow bulb of O'aka's Grocery, however, but one of the slightly blue-tinged lights of Alphys's lab.
Glen found she was in some kind of stasis pod that looked to have been at least partially converted from an of refridgerator, the door mysteriously open. A quick glance around found several others nearby, the pod directly next to hers open as well. The cookies and milk were naturally gone with the rest of the dream, much to Glen's disappointment.
"Jake?" She called out, looking for some sign of her robotic canine companion. There was no answering bark; there wasn't anything. No one else was even in the room.
As she climbed out of the pod, she noticed her little reality-detector sitting on the console beside her pod. With a sigh, she picked it up and slid it on her belt. Without a clear answer on the reality/temporal debate, she'd just have to be careful.
There were two doors; rather predictably, she managed to find the door to the supply closet first. Shaking her head, she approached the other door. As she reached for the controls, however, a hair-raising wail from behind the sliding panel froze her in place.
She took a step back, wishing she'd brought Headache with her. That feeling doubled as something banged against the sliding door. Her hand quickly moved back to the console beside the door, activating the locking mechanism with a beep that seemed oddly loud.
Glen stood in front of the door in complete silence for several long moments. Just as she started to hope that whatever it was departed, it banged hard against the door. It didn't stop; again and again, it flung itself against the door, occasionally letting out another wail. Glen backed away, her eyes scanning around the room for something to use as a weapon. None of the scientific equipment seemed large or sturdy enough, but she did spot the circular end of a large spanner sticking out from the base of the pod. She pulled it out; it was about three feet long, and apparently made for the comically sized-nuts beneath each of the pods.
She jumped as a particularly hard smash left a massive dent in the door. Glen slipped behind the pod, hiding from view in hopes of gaining an element of surprise. The door took a few more hits before finally giving way with a ear-splitting shriek of mutilated meta.
For a few moments, all Glen could hear was a soft, raspy breathing. She tensed as whatever it was finally spoke.
"It's ... s-so ... cold ..."
It took a step, the creature's foot hitting the floor with a wet slap. From her crouched position, Glen could see a familiar black liquid slide across the floor. A mishappen foot hit the ground shortly afterwards, spreading more of the muck as the creature shambled into view.
Glen very nearly gasped at the sight of the thing. At first glance, it looked like some kind of avian. This was only barely evident, however, as the bird's snow-white feathers seemed to be melting, those closest to the ground almost solid black and dripping ichor. Two massive vegetables occupied the place on the bird's head, each with their own faces bearing looks of intense pain.
"Snowy ..." The creature crooned softly in its strangely harmonic collection of voices. It slowly walked forward, leaving black puddles of ichor as it walked past the pods. Glen watched in silence as it passed her when it suddenly occurred to her that whatever the creature was, it obviously couldn't see. That gave her an idea.
Glen hefted her spanner, took careful aim, and tossed it through the still-open door of the closet, where it hit the floor with a loud clatter. The creature froze for an instant before letting out the same freakish wail as before. It rushed into the closet, at which point Glen hurried over to the door control panel and sealed it shut.
"There." She said, peering through the window as the creature destroyed anything it could reach within its little cell, seemingly unaware that it was trapped.
Still, it was only a matter of time before it realized its predicament, and it certainly hadn't had much trouble with the other door. Careful to avoid the puddles of black liquid, Glen hurried out of the room.
If the secret lab seemed creepy before, it was down right terrifying now; the only remaining light flickered, offering brief glimpses of broken lighting panels and shattered consoles. Black ichor was everywhere, making it extremely difficult for the barefoot Glen to proceed. Occasionally she'd accidentally brush against it, only to recoil from the burning sensation.
It was hard going, especially considering that she was trying to keep her ears open for the creature she'd trapped. Sure, it hadn't moved quickly until she made a noise, but being stuck in a closet would likely leave it in a rage.
After what felt to her like an hour of careful maneuvering through the corridor, she entered a room she recognized; she was back in the room with the secondary elevator. The lift doors were open, the floor of the lift completely coated with ichor. They left two distinct trails; one leading back to the corridor Glen just left and the other leading to the passageway to the right of the lift.
Glen glanced at the lift with distaste; even if it was functional, she wouldn't want to stand in a pool of the ichor, not in her bare feet. There was the other elevator, of course; there were no ichor puddles down that path, strangely enough. It stood to reason she could head back up to the lab from there, but there was still the matter of the other monsters. She wanted to assume that they left the moment those things showed up, but she was far too cynical to believe it. Besides, Jake might still be down there as well, and Glen promised Finn to bring him back.
Sighing, Glen said, "Well, if I'm gonna go looking for trouble, I might as well get a move on."
She turned and found herself face-to-face with a ghost.
"Gaah!"
"Aaah!"
Both ghost and Dreamer recoiled in fear, only to give the other a puzzled look.
"Um ... hello." The ghost said.
"Hi." Glen replied, not sure what else to say.
Another long moment of silence passed before the ghost asked, "Why did you scream?"
"Ghost. You?"
"Human."
Glen paused for a long moment before saying, "Right. Fair enough. Er, I'm Glen."
"Oh. Hello, Glen. I'm sorry if I bothered you; I'll go away."
"Wait!" Glen said, "I could use your help."
"My help?"
"Yes!" Glen gestured to the lab. "What happened here?"
"Oh ... I don't know. I came here looking for my cousin, but he's not here."
"What about those things?" Glen asked. "Those ... whatever they are."
Napstablook looked uncertain. "I ... I don't know. I really think I should go."
"But ..." Glen sighed; all things considered, a ghost probably wouldn't be helpful in her current situation. "Okay, fine, but let me ask just one more thing; I came here with a robot dog, he answers to Jake; have you seen him down here?"
"Robot dog?" Napstablook appeared to think for a few moments. "I heard barking further inside, near the room with all the beds ... that's something dogs do, right?"
"It's a start." Glen said. "Thanks; you should go ahead and get to safety."
"All right." Napstablook floated away for a few moments before pausing and turning back to add, "Please be careful, Miss. You're the first living thing I've seen in the Underground for a few days now."
With that, the ghost floated up through the ceiling, leaving Glenda alone to brave the passage to the right of the elevator. She moved through the decrepit hallway slowly, hopping from clean spot to clean spot like a child engaged in a madcap game of hopscotch. By the time she reached the room with the beds, her feet were extremely sore from ichor burns.
Unfortunately, her hopes of finding a place to sit were dashed as she stared around the room. The bed frames were mangled, their mattresses torn asunder and thrown about the room. Those did not catch Glen's attention as much as the pulsating piles of ichor, sitting here and there on the floor like bloated tumors.
"This is so not good." Glen said in a low voice, backing away from the room. "Maybe I should check for Jake upstairs."
She froze as her back hit something solid where there should've been an open doorway. Dread filled her chest as she slowly reached back with a hand to feel something furry, something that burned her fingertips ever so slightly.
"Jake." She said slowly. "I really hope that's you wearing a fur coat."
The creature behind her let out an unearthly hound-like wail that made every hair on Glen's body stand on end. She didn't even bother turning to see what it was; she bolted across the room, her feet splashing in the ichor despite the burn.
Rushing down a corridor lined with pots filled with wilted flowers, Glen finally came to a halt when she realized the thing wasn't behind her. She could hear the sound of it approaching, but apparently it wasn't as fast as the vegetable-eyed bird-thing.
She caught sight of movement in the corner of her eye and quickly whirled around to find herself face to face with ... herself. Her reflection stared back at her, eyes wide in panic that quickly faded to annoyance.
"What you lookin' at?" She said, making a face at herself. Just as she started to look away, she realized the source of movement hadn't been her. Behind her, all the wilted flowers were slowly twisting their stems. They weren't wilted; their petals were black.
That was bad enough, but little faces appeared in the center of each flower, each face that much more horrifying ... possibly owing mostly to the fact that the idea of flowers with teeth just didn't sit well with Glenda.
Feeling a tug on her hand made her look down in time to realize that thick black vine-like roots were reaching for her, some already slipping around her wrist. Glen yanked her hand free with a yelp, only to hear her yelp answered by the thing chasing her, far closer than she realized.
It towered over her, filling nearly the entire corridor. There was a faint hint of a dog to the thing, completely belied by the massive hole dripping ichor where the dog's face should be. Just like with the bird-creature, its body was mostly white, but splotched with ichor.
"Good boy." Glen whispered, backing away while being careful to avoid the flowers.
Growling filled the air, but it wasn't from the hole in the dog's face. To Glen's horror, she realized it came from dog-like faces in what she'd believed were spaces between the dog's legs. They snapped and snarled at him as the huge creature hunkered down, no doubt ready to pounce.
Glen turned to run, but the creature was already in mid air. It landed squarely on her, its mass enveloping her body ... or at least, what had been her body. Her rune shining, Glenda leapt out of the mirror as her reflection, now pinned beneath the monstrocity, faded. Wasting no time, she made a run for the end of the hallway and hurried through the only doorway there.
It was only a storeroom, but Glen didn't care; once she was inside, she closed the door and used a nearby fire extinguisher to smash the controls to pieces. Feeling at least a little safer, she looked around for another way out.
"Shoulda brought the doorknob with me." She muttered, despite the fact that bringing her CPD's doorknob was what got her stuck on Tuchanka. Not for the last time, she wished she had a way to simply summon the door to where ever she happened to be.
Something brushed against the outside door. Glen waited for the inevitable thud of the massive beast against the closet door that strangely never came. The reason why became obvious a moment later, as a thick layer of black ichor slowly oozed from beneath the doorway.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Glen clambered onto the shelves, knocking over empty flasks and test tubes. The ichor soon covered the floor, swirling around as though searching for Glen. Her imagination formed angry dog-like faces in the muck ... at least, she hoped it was her imagination.
Ashe she climbed higher, a sudden burst of cold air brushed the top of her head. She glanced in the direction of the wind and spotted the edge of an air vent behind several boxes full of notebooks. She tossed the boxes to the floor to uncover the rest of the vent. It was going to be a tight fit, but a glance at the floor made it clear she didn't have a lot of options. After disposing of the vent grille, she took a deep breath and pulled herself into the vent.
It was a tight fit, so much so that she could barely draw in breath. Turning down one of the adjoining vents was out of the question, but fortunately there was another vent straight ahead. Ignoring the ache building in her lungs for a proper breath of fresh air, Glen managed to shuffle herself forward until she reached the vent on the other side. After a few rough punches, she knocked the grille from its screws and pulled herself through the opening.
She landed on the floor in a heap, her chest heaving and quite sore from the tight fit. The loud thrum of fans filled the air, the breeze they created feeling nothing short of heavenly to Glen as she pushed herself from the ground.
"Woof!"
Glen looked up, horror shooting through her for an instant before she raised her eyes and met those of the cartoon dog face on Jake's monitor.
"Jake!" Glen said, throwing her arms around the KEI-9. "Thank the Creator, you're safe!"
He let out an affirmative yip before sitting down on his haunches. He looked up at her expectantly.
"Is anyone else down here? Besides those ... things?"
Jake let out another affirmative bark before taking off running. Still sore, Glen nevertheless pushed herself to follow Jake.
There was less ichor on the ground here, something for which Glen (and more specifically, her feet) were grateful. Jake's monitor functioned as a flashlight, illuminating the corridor, not that there was much to see; while there was less ichor, the lights and wall consoles were pretty much shot.
As they entered a large chamber with a strange device hanging device in the very center. More of the pulsing black tumors were there as well, one blocking the passage to the left.
Glenda let out a cry as something sharp cut into the sole of her foot. After reaching a wall with a few hopping steps, she managed to twist her foot around to see a shard of glass. It wasn't deep, though the wound did bleed a little.
Glen's eyes fell to the floor, only to discover quite a few shards of glass. From the shape of the pieces, it had been some kind of glass container.
A sudden growl from Jake made Glen look up. Jake was standing near the black blob blocking one of the two passages that led from the room. He backed slowly from the ichorous mass as it started pulsing faster.
"Jake." Glen said, already backing into the corridor.
The mass was growing now. There was something inside it, Glen realized, something that was trying to emerge. She watched, frozen to the spot as the ichor pulled away from the creature that lay beneath.
It was the robot; Glen could tell from the bright pink paint. Even as it stepped forward, however, it was clear that something was wrong. When Glen first encountered the robot, it showed signs of damage; now, however, it looked to be melting into the body of what Glen was sorry to recognize as the young Kid.
"Daaaarling ..." The robot said, its voice strangely distorted. "So gooood to seeeee yoooou ..."
Glen stared at the hybrid machine and monster as it approached on shapely legs. She'd encountered some seriously strange tech before: the cyborg monstrocities that were the Borg, the shrill-voiced genocidal Daleks, the corrupted core units if the Glyche Corruption, just to name a few. None of those, however, seemed so visceral, so ... organic. The metal of the robot seemed only partially solid; for the most part, it seemed as solid as normal metal. Where fused to Monster Kid, however, it seemed as pliable as putty. The whole thing was dripping with the ichor.
The composite creature took a few more steps toward Glen and Jake before coming to a halt. After a few moments, what eyes weren't horribly melted focused on Glen. It stood there, unmoving, watching Glen in silence as though expecting her to do or say something.
"I'm never one to disappoint." Glen coughed and said in a louder voice, "Where is Alphys? Where are the others?"
"Alphys ... gone. Others ... gone. Some changed ... like us."
"What happened?" Glen asked. "Did Frisk find this place?"
"Amalgates loose. Smashed container, black ooze spread. Those touched became like Amalgates ... like us. Hurts. Hard to think ... darling."
"I'm sorry." Glen said, sympathizing with the monsters' plight. "But ... what is it? What is this black stuff?"
The monster twitched twice before a twisted smile spread across its face. "Desire ... to destroy. Desire to corrupt. Desire ... to consume."
It flung an arm toward Glen, the appendage stretching unnaturally as though made of rubber. Glen didn't have time to react, but Jake did; light flared from Jake's monitor, engulfing the arm. MettaKid shrieked, its arm smoking where Jake's light touched it.
Glen didn't wait for another attack; she legged it back down the corridor, stopping only to make sure that Jake was right behind her this time. Together they rushed down the hall until they came across a door that led to the mattress room, where more of the black tumor-like masses were shifting, revealing more merged monsters. Glen didn't waste time looking for details; she ducked claws, dodged talons, crouched under massive paws and leapt over bursts of ichor before finally bolting down the corridor back to the main lift. Jake kept pace behind her, his monitor flashing occasionally at any ichorous beast that drew too near him.
The main elevator was still inactive, so Glen continued running down the corridor she'd originally taken. There was no ichor on the floor here, nor any in the secret lift. With the sounds of pursuit closing in on them, Glen hauled Jake the rest of the way into the lift and slammed her hand on the up button. For one terrifying moment, Glen was sure the lift was inoperable. Relief poured over her as the doors slid shut and the lift rumbled to life.
"Thank the Creator." She murmured as she sank to the ground beneath the control console.
