Fresh New Antivirus

Ch. 29 - Batter Up!

The town was still bustling with activity. Monsters of all shapes and sizes milling about and going about their day. Word of the oncoming genocidal human wouldn't appear until a number had already been lost.

Snasy saw Snowdrake, Icecap and other teen monsters head into the woods, laughing and goofing around joyfully. They couldn't help a twinge of regret knowing what was about to happen. But soon the geno loops would stop. Snasy would help to make sure of it.

"It's so pretty." Spiffy said, taking in the lights and atmosphere of the happy little town.

"It sure do be that, broseph." Fresh agreed.

He set a hand on each of their shoulders and a notification popped up.

*You received 500G!

"You bro-dudes head on into this fine establishment and get what ya need. I'll wait for ya's out here."

It didn't take long for the two to stack up, filling their 8 inventory boxes each. It barely put a dent in their G. The Shopkeep mistaking them as tourists from New Home.

"It's so cute." Spiffy said showcasing the pastry shaped like a bunny head with frosted whiskers to their friend.

"You're cute." Snasy said pinching Spiffy's cheek causing them to squeak and duck away. Snasy laughed.

"Rude." Spiffy stuck their tongue out at them, rubbing their cheek.

"In that case, you're hideous." Snasy said, smirking and raising their hands to form some kind of cross. "Can't even stand to look at your demonic face."

Spiffy dead panned. Considering they were wearing a Frisk face, it was a 10/10. Snasy cracked up again.

"Alright muh fellow radical children." Fresh said amused, giving them both nuggies through their hats. "I think it be time we wrap things up in town and slide on down to our place o' acting, ya gettin' me?"

Snasy reversed their hat and flashed some hand signals. "I'm ready to throw down, yo."

They made quite the colorful spectacle with their twirly primary colored baseball hat, rainbow suspenders and neon bomber jacket.

"Now dat's what i'm talking 'bout, dawg!" They exchanged high fives, Snasy's entire face lighting up in a smile.

Spiffy rolled their eyes as they attempted to straighten their seemingly permanent mess of their hair as they straightened their hat.

The three made their way toward the ruins, crossing the long bridge leading into Snowden and Fresh teleporting them the rest of the way - effects forgone in favor of stealth.

The Player-Hackers stumbled as the footing shifted suddenly (Spiffy face planted into the snow) and they were in Snowden Woods, perpendicular to the gate-thing Papyrus made.

"Dude!" Snasy said, with a light smack that was dodged. "A little warning!"

"Sorry, man!" Fresh said, hands raised but a smile plastered across his skull spoke of no regrets.

Spiffy just rolled over, still on the ground. "So when's the bot coming?"

Fresh glanced off in that direction, gaze zooming and x-raying through all coded obstacles to see the bot listening to Flowey. He vaguely noted Sans waiting as well. Toriel had already been dusted and they were just about out of the Ruins.

"About a minute, bro." Fresh said.

Spiffy sat up. "We're cutting close then, huh."

Fresh shrugged as they got up and patted the snow off.

"Remember, kiddo-dudes." Fresh said. "The goal is to weaken the bot bro. Not defeat them. This is practice for when the Hacker-pal finally logs on."

"How hard can it be?" Snasy said.

Fresh shrugged again. "No clue peeps. Probably not too hard." His expression lit up with excitement. "This here will be muh first time doin' muh job in any official capacity, dawg."

The two paused at that.

"... really?" Spiffy asked. "What about us?"

"More of a spur o' da moment thing broski, and y'all be a special case, what with being registered as Players. Never done Hacker stuff all properly before, is what i mean ta say. But I was told the basics by papa-Void-bro, so I imagine things will go rather smoothly."

"... never?" Spiffy tried again, confused.

"Na-da."

"But isn't it your job??"

"I'm new, bro." Fresh shrugged.

"How new?"

"Mmm about one day, broski."

"Fresh." Snasy asked seriously. "Are you a one day old with access to god-like abilities and dropped into the multiverse without supervision?"

"Well, no, broseph. Void be keepin' an eye on me at times." Fresh gave a quick two finger salute to the viewing portal, Void dipping his head in return. "But for the rest of it? Yup! Voids totally an idiot."

<How rude.> Void said, leaning back and crossing his arms. <Talking like that about someone who's listening.>

"So it was Void's idea-?"

There was the sound of crunching snow. The bot was at the gate. Sans was walking up behind it.

"Hol' that thought, homeslice." Fresh said, holding up a finger and hoping out of the treeline.

"h u m a n -"

Using the readily available information of the coded encounter, Fresh timed things so that he seamlessly injected himself into the situation, taking the 'humans' hand as they turned around before Sans had the chance to ask. He put a lazy elbow on the Sans' skull who was now no longer shrouded in darkness.

Sans appeared to be super frozen with the unexpected script deviation, eye socket wide with confused shock.

The LV 6 bot showed no outward reaction. But Fresh could feel their limited AI churning and cataloging the encounter. The notification was sent.

But just below the AI Fresh could vaguely make something else out ... was ... was the Frisk still ...?

He'd deal with that after.

"Sup! Names Fresh." Fresh said, giving his greetings. "And things be going ta go a little bit differently this time around, broseph. All this genocide-buiz is gonna stop, y'here?" Leaning in and using his gip to pull the bot closer, he smiled with his shades going out. "I'm gonna have a Rad Time."

Spiffy and Snasy both fell out of the treeline just as he dragged the bot into an encounter. Everything went greyscale, Spiffy, Snasy and Sans all being dragged into the encounter as well.

Pulling his baseball bat from his inventory, he made the first move. "Let's play ball!"

He swung his bat at the Red SOUL - with a crack and shatter the three ended up back at the edge of Snowdin.

"Huh." Fresh said, rubbing his chin. "This might be harder than I thought."