Monster Age

by GR Griffin

  As the last light in her eyes faded, Asgore, using every ounce of his being, burst through the bubble and tackled her into the open air. He collapsed on top of Toriel, who barely had her eyes open.

  Asgore tapped her cheek, desperate to restore life to her. "Tori! Tori!" Completely soaked, freezing, and in pain, he cared not for himself as he rolled her onto her side and slammed against her back. A trickle ran down her chin before she started coughing out the mouthfuls. "Breathe. Breathe. Cough it out and breathe!" He slapped hard and quick as if the last one would be the last before she crumbled. Toriel upchucked more water before drawing in breath in the ugliest, croakiest sound anyone could make, yet it was the most beautiful sound to Asgore at that moment. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she darted in and out of consciousness. "Hang in there, Tori. Just hang on."

  Mew Mew destroyed a total of fourteen blocks before the guns clicked dry and the last payload was launched. Her installed jet boosters launched her high above the next bombardment as she threw off her guns and out came the ninja swords, the real deal straight out of Japan.

  Heaven's Shard and the dual katanas met upon landing, clashing with a sharp slice of metal on metal. The teenage robot went to slash with her swords, only to realise she had none. Her uncanny valley grin failed to fade even as she stared at two butter knife stubs which used to be full length katana blades. Zeus thrust his sword straight through her abdomen with a crash, breaking and crunching key components within her robotic frame.

  "Worthless toy," Zeus hissed.

  Alphys cried out as the robot she worked tirelessly on, put all her love and care into for weeks, shuddered, trying to stay active despite the blade through her body. Sparks flew from the hole in her torso.

  Mew Mew talked. "Mew Mew… feel sick. No more episodes for this year. Time for…"

  Alphys gasped. "Mew Mew, don't!" She knew what was coming, she programmed it. Now she wish she hadn't. She hammered on the controller, attempting to avert it. "No no no!"

  "The season finale!" Mew Mew finished.

  Her red eyes turned white, then a digital countdown appeared. The right eye showed the seconds and the left eye showed the milliseconds, counting down from three.

  She started beeping, getting faster and faster.

  3…

  "Thanks for playing," Mew Mew said.

  2…

  Alphys tossed the controller aside and scrambled to her feet, bolting toward her. "STOP! ABORT!"

  1…

  Zeus raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?" The beeping reached a single, constant tone.

  0.

  "You've been a real blast!"

  Mew Mew self-destructed in a mushroom cloud, engulfing Zeus in the blast and throwing everyone else to the ground. Plutonium, remember.

  * * *

  Battered and exhausted, Sam an' Rita could just barely keep track of Lord Grill. The lord himself probably lost six pounds from his exuberant mass to use as fuel for whatever semblance of muscle he had underneath.

  Around them, Grill's light clad troops wrestled, whacked and butted heads with the rebels. Monsters battling fellow monsters was a long and gruelling task, but it appeared the first loser would crumble to dust very soon.

  The mummies wrapped their bandages around Grill and attempted to lift him; a feat which proved too much as Grill remained grounded to that boxy hallway, laughing off the lieutenants' fruitless endeavour. He fabricated his unhealthy produce to use as projectiles against the mummy lieutenants, whacking them in several spots with sausages, pork medallions and fried chicken.

  After weakening them, Grill grabbed the bandages and pulled, drawing the couple closer. Rita toppled and landed on her face while Sam remained standing just to take a leg of meat to his, knocking him flat, too."

  Lord Grill glanced to the floor by his feet and found a sword dropped by one of his men. He knew he had waited a long time for this moment as he risked his top-heavy body down to pick it up. With steel in hand, he waited for Lieutenant Sam, disorientated, to rise.

  Sam got up and Lord Grill charged like a stampeding elephant. The sword was stuck out, rocketing toward the chest of his enemy. Sam shook his head as he tried to regain his senses in time.

  "Sam, look out!"

  At the last second, Sam felt a shove push him aside inches before the sword could impale him. He recognised the feel of those hands from anywhere. They were his wife's.

  The sword stabbed through a torso of bandages. Rita's glowing eyes went wide. Sam yelled out.

  The resistance as the sword went through, although smoother than what he anticipated, filled Lord Grill with satisfaction. In the next instant, he was horrified. He tripped over his heels and landed on his wide rump and shrieked a truly horrific shriek that ceased all fighting within that hallway. Every monster looked up and, too, cried out at what Lord Grill had done.

  "That… wasn't… very… nice…" the being of grey sieved through unseen lips, features blank. Invisible eyes looked down with disapproval. The sword was stuck deep within his belly, the tip just shy of Rita; it sieved out and clanked harmlessly against the floor.

  Another one just like him, also grey and ashen and wrapped in scarce wrappings, approached a pair of fighting monsters, pulling them apart. "Violence… is not the answer…" she said. "Now, kiss… and make up…" The monsters she addressed, who seconds ago were at each other's throats, actually started kissing and hugging out of fear. They imagined that fifteen years from now, when their eldest kid asked how they hooked up, they would recap this sappy love story and end it with 'And that's how I met your mother.'

  All around, more monster made of dust, rose from the darkest corners and pulled the living monsters apart, ending their quarrelling in an instant. Weapons of all kinds clanked against stone, their fighting spirits having left them the moment these things showed up, replaced with paralysing dread.

  "W-w-what are you?" Lord Grill quivered like a leaf. Sweat dripped from his fur.

  The ashen figure who took the blade to the stomach did not answer. He slowly turned and faced Rita. "…Ritie…" he said. "… My dear Ritie…"

  Rita began to shake uncontrollably. Their voices. Her name. Ritie. Only two people had ever called her that. "Pa…? Ma…?"

  * * *

  Dom pushed Barb's wrist aside and pinned it against the floor before one of her paralysing shots could connect. In the other hand, they struggled with a bread-slicing knife. The heel of Barb's right boot dug into his portly belly.

  "No way…" Dom muttered as he pushed down, feeling his arm burn. "You're too skinny to have this kind of strength."

  With her other foot, Barb kicked the ground and out shot a fang beside her, just missing her target. This was Dom's strategy: he had been avoiding her magic for the past ten minutes until he decided to get on top of her like so and use her as a shield. A shield against her own magic, quite ingenious. In order for Barb the Bounty Hunter to properly impale Dom, she would need to impale herself.

  Barb was taught never to give up. Her high heel dug deeper below Dom's ribcage. The deeper she dug, the harder he pushed with the chef tool. She lost the feeling in her arm. Her wing, flat on the grounded, throbbed without end.

  The knife edged nearer her fine, green eyes; the shimmery edge becoming a blur in her vision.

  Several arms of grey dust latched around Dom's arms and body, prying him off the bounty hunter. "Stop it! Stop fighting," they said. He went to turn around and lash out at whoever it was, as did Barb go to shoot him, but the two stopped the second they saw the figures made of dust. "You wanna end up like us?"

  "Oh, my…!" Dom cried out. "You're… you're… dead!" All of a sudden, revenge wasn't worth it knowing this would be the result.

  Barb stared wide-eyed at the dead figures, a couple piles of dust helped her up to her feet. "I… I…" she barely got out. Suddenly, she felt eternally grateful to herself for not breaking her no killing rule.

  One dead monster, with straw sticking out of joints, had ashen arms akimbo.
"Don't you both have something you ought to say?"

  Dom the train chef rubbed his elbow. "Yeah." He sighed. "I'm sorry."

  "I'm sorry, too," Barb replied.

  Then, from above the high roofs beyond, a great flash of light burst, followed by a massive cloud rising above. The boom and the quake came last.

  Barb squinted at the blinding flash. "First these guys show up, now this?" she said to herself. This day was getting crazier by the— "Maxie!"

  * * *

  The current general and former professor continued with their fight, which was more of a clenching competition than an actual brawl. Leigh threw his body to one side, finally tossing Haze off. He tried to stay on his own two legs, only to fail.

  As the eye glowed on Leigh's palm and Rickard rocked back and forth, Haze reached for his cane. It was close. Who would strike first? Leigh could pierce a single laser into Haze right there, but Haze himself could snatch his cane in time and whack Leigh's wrist away.

  General Leigh charged his magic, Haze grabbed his cane, and then the entire foundation around them rocked from a devastating explosion. A vase tumbled off a table around the next bend. A chandelier broke from its holding. Two suits of armour toppled.

  Leigh stopped. Haze stopped. Rickard stopped. Haze turned onto a sitting position and both he and Leigh looked at each other for the longest time, silent.

  Haze dared to break the silence. "I think this is the part where we stop fighting," he said.

  "For once" – Leigh reached down with a helping hand – "I concur," he replied.

  The professor grabbed his cane then grabbed Leigh's hand. As he stood, his walking stick retook the role as an extra leg. Haze brushed out the creases in his shirt and trousers.

  "That sounded like it came from the garden," Haze said.

  General Leigh said, "I was about to say that."

  They picked up Master Scribe Rickard, who was not too thrilled from the whack to the back of the head, and they limped down the hallway, in the direction of the Obelisk.

  * * *

  The army of the Rebellion, up close, resembled less an army but more an angry mob. An angry mob multiplied by ten. They weren't that better equipped, but so what? If the gate is down and the defences are relinquished, then they all could have turned up dressed in their birthday suits or suited for an eighties disco. Seventeen-eighties, that is. Aristocrats were still a thing, right?

  Up ahead, the Monster Military were sparse, but as ready as they would ever be. The troops on the wall had the cannons loaded and rows of archers with magical bows stringed with magical arrows. Below, three rows of troops formed a bottleneck around the open entrance. Thousands of invaders stormed toward the walls; however, as long as they kept them within the gate, their numbers would account for nothing. They could keep the invaders held off while the ranged units pick them off until they either fled or were all destroyed.

  Above, arcs of lightning slithered between the clouds like snakes, casting blinding flashes off armoured helmets and spear tips and puddles strewn across the ground. Most soldiers felt their fingers twitch and their eyes darting upward, afraid that at any moment the lighting would pick them out. Every member of the Monster Military, especially the ones holding spears, were primary lightning rods just waiting to get struck.

  A terrible feeling grew in everyone; none of it felt right. What were they doing here? Why were they about to fight to the death? A lot of monsters at the bottleneck held their shields at half-mast, aimed their weapons lower down than usual. Plenty of those marching toward the northern wall had the urge to turn around.

  From behind the castle's defence, Colonel Fischer and her crew of insurgents, both at the gate and halfway up the wall, prepared to strike. The cannons had been sabotaged, but they would not be able to stop all the bows and arrows. If the rebellion needed to take a few shots to win, then let those shots be the worst of it.

  The guards around the gate were focused and fully concentrated on those thousands advancing up those fields. No way would they expect a pincer attack. If she and her fellow insurgents could disrupt the lines long enough, the army could rush in and overwhelm the forces here.

  Colonel Fisher looked at the troops behind her. All of them, herself included, had tied red ribbons around their arms and waved a different banner for the rebellion to differentiate between them.

  She was seconds away from commencing her plan when the explosion from the royal garden turned all heads around. So much for a surprise attack. Now the military knew they were there.

  The rebellion went to charge. The archers let their arrows fly. Half the defenders turned to engage the insurgents. Then a dark cloud descended upon the people and formed walls of dust between them all. Everyone froze as these things took all the arrows, all the magic strikes, and all the swings. They took them so the living did not have to.

  Figures and faces dragged themselves out, insisting that nobody fight.

  "EVERYONE! DON'T FIGHT!" The former, late Emperor Juhi stood atop the gate, roaring what might be his final command. "IN THE NAME OF YOUR EMPEROR, I ORDER YOU NOT TO FIGHT!"

  Members of both the rebellion and Monster Military alike dropped their weapons and broke down into sobs as they recognised loved ones from within the dusty remnants: mothers and fathers, grandmas and grandpas, uncles and aunties, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.

  Among them was Colonel Fischer, who dropped her arms in shame. "This was stupid…"

  * * *

  No sounds existed within the garden other than the ringing in Alphys's ears. Her non-existent ears. Her skin sizzled with the heat of a thousand suns. Alphys snapped her eyes open to nothing but a blur; her glasses missing off her bruised snout. The annoying buzz remained the single, only din as she scoured her area for her spectacles. The rippling of a dirty pool close to her mouth informed the doctor that she still breathed.

  Alphys's claw brushed a lens which she could only assume were them. She picked up her glasses and rested them where they belonged; the left lens cracked around the edge. The mushroom cloud stretched higher than anything seen in the Outerworld; higher than the Obelisk, higher that the towers of Castle Highkeep, and higher than the treetops in the Forest.

  She looked around into the soupy mist of smoke and screamed out into the emptiness. Doctor Alphys inhaled then shrieked out Mew Mew's name as loud as she could, except she could not hear herself yell it. She felt herself call out to Fleck and to Undyne, to Gorey and Tori, to Papyrus and Sans, shredding her vocals in the process.

  Each footfall sank into the mud as she went to search for survivors. Hopefully, the Emperor of Evil, Zeus, was nothing more than an outline in the dirt inside that cloud of death. Her next step struck something hard and she glanced down.

  Mew Mew! Or what was left of her… namely, her head. The hair discoloured. The smile still persistent even in death. Big, anime eyes, empty and dimming black. Alphys's hearing returned enough to fear her robot's fleeting words.

  "Game ooooooooveeeeeeerrrrrrrrr…" With that, Mew Mew's eyes went empty.

  Alphys collapsed to her knees. "Mew Mew, no!" She picked up the head, surprisingly heavy. "Please don't die on me! I'll… I'll get you home. I'll fix you up. You'll have a body again – a better body! With a pocky dispenser and a friendlier energy source." Alphys cradled the robotic girl's head. "You'll be as good as new – even better new! I promise!"

  But it was too late: Mew Mew had shut down. The surrounding screen had cleared enough to make out shapes. Over against the eastern wall, Sans and Papyrus sat budged, the taller of the two leaned against the shorter. Asgore's unmistakable frame rolled off Toriel, having shielded her from the blast. Alphys could make out the threads of smoke rising off his body. But… where was Undyne? Where was Fleck?

  The thick cloud in the middle dispersed and a massive shadow marched slow and menacing. Alphys's mouth went dry as Emperor Zeus stepped into the dying light. Not a scratch on him. The faintest chuckle sounded as he reached to
his shoulder and brushed off a single speck of dust.

  "N-no… freaking… way…" Alphys barely breathed.

  Zeus's gaze was set on the doctor. Easy kill.

  The thunder rumbled above, Zeus felt it. Electricity snaking through the clouds like parasites. What a splendid way to finish this. He reached one hand to the sky and thunderbolts crashed down on him. Millions of volts of electricity rained into his body and flowed through him just as it flowed through the sky.

  The lightning pulsed between his fingers as black as petrified branches before he turned in on Alphys. Streaks of dark power electrified the doctor, ravaging her body. She snapped straight, crying out at the top of her lungs.

  A spear burst from the ground and into Zeus's wrist, knocking his hand away. Alphys fell in a smouldering heap.

  He stopped and found Undyne limping across the garden, clutching her side, hardly having the energy left to stand let alone fight. Her scales bared scrapes, cuts, bruises and burns. Her eyepatch was missing, and she glared at the Emperor with one eye alive and the other dead. With anger such as hers, it was a pity she had not lived long enough to match his own control over the Outerworld. What a battle that would be.

  "You are determined, I'll give you that," Zeus said before letting her have it.

  The first bolt hit Undyne's shoulder. She twisted but kept going, willing a spear into her hands. As the next bolt arched toward her, she span her spear with the speed of propeller blades, batting the electricity away. Zeus pulled a rock from the earth and threw it; Undyne sliced it in half.

  Undyne mused under her breath. "I'm the heroine… I'm the heroine… You pose a risk to the entire world. Your wickedness will be the end to both humans and monsters. And I, Undyne, must stop you." Getting second wind, she burst into a sprint. "For I am the heroine this world needs!"

  As they clashed, even Zeus was surprised by how strong she had become. Undyne was ferocious, striking so hard she was breaking her own spears. Heaven's Shard failed to make contact, but her spears nicked and cut at his steel skin. She jabbed his ankle out before following with a fierce tornado kick to the face, stumbling him back.