The Fallen Player

Chapter 7 A Hollow Crooked Smile

Back down in the True Lab, my eyes started to open, groaning from the sudden crash landing. With Frisk pressed against my side, still hugging my waist, I was on my back, looking up at Undyne. She used her body to protect us from the fallen debris. Alphys was in the fetal position beside Frisk and me, covering her head in fright. Undyne pulled off chunks of the ceiling from her back and helped Alphys up.

Meanwhile, Frisk removed themselves from around me and presented their hand to help me up. It took me a moment to get out of my shock before I willingly grabbed their hand to pry me off the cold elevator floor. I soon realized that I was not holding the flower pot. I saw Flowey knocked out in the corner with the flower pot broken in half, leaping into action, and rushed to pick him up off the ground.

Flowey woke up and shook his petals, using his leaves to rub his face, "Ugh....stupid elevator!" He opened his eyes, seeing that he was no longer in the planter, suddenly freaking out as if he was naked. He wrapped his vines around my left arm tightly, almost causing his thorns to penetrate my skin. I grunt from the pain, having Flowey loosen his tight grip but still hanging on. "Oh...sorry...."

"It's....fine...." I swallow the pain, "Just try to keep your voice low around Undyne."

Undyne was oblivious to the flower gripping my arm as she stepped over to the elevator door to pry it open. With a loud, "NGAHHHH!" She effortlessly pulls off the door, stepping out and throwing it away. "There!" She turned to face us, dusting off her hands afterward.

We all step out of the elevator and look around the empty room. Alphys sighs and comments, "Welp....so much for the others to use the elevator. We sh-should notify them and let them know we're safe."

Frisk takes out their phone and sees multiple voicemails and texts from their frantic mother, but the phone never rang out. "Toriel has been trying to reach me...." They tried to call Toriel, but the phone replied with only garbage noise, which gave me goosebumps as I could hear it loud and clear through the phone. "Hmm, let me text her instead." Frisk started to text Toriel. Luckily, it worked, and seconds after Frisk hit send, Toriel replied. Frisk read Toriel's text reply aloud, "She said they've been trying to reach us and use the warp door to get to us, but it's not working."

"Th-that's strange...." Alphys's worried voice echoed through the corridor. Frisk types back to Toriel, reassuring her that everyone is okay. "Tell the others that we'll keep g-going forward. Maybe the warp door will start working again if we leave this room?" Frisk understood the order and started typing to Toriel while we walked down the hall into the other area.

We arrived at the other elevator with the four lights already lit up. I was thankful that we didn't have to go into all the rooms to activate it, yet I wasn't ready to go into another elevator after that stunt back there. I was eager to press on, following the royal scientist to the machine that would take me home.

She presses the button having the door open. "The device that'll get you home isn't too far from the room that turns on the power."

Thankfully, when we ventured into the elevator, we didn't need to go to another level. Another door opened to our left as we followed Alphys. Another corridor was before us as we walked to the end, making it to another door, not saying a word to one another. Frisk was glued to my side while they texted Toriel about our progress. Sans tried to use the warp door in each room we went in, but luck was not on their side, having the warp fail each time.

The group entered a dead-end room as Alphys stood in the middle, facing us as she spoke, "Th-this is the room where Frisk turned the power back on for the elevator."

Undyne shouted out, "Is that the machine? Don't look like much if ya ask me."

"Actually, no." She paused while we all looked around, not noticing any other machine. "But we may need to use this device to turn on the elevator later to get back to the shattered barrier."