Chapter Text
Legends around Ebott mainly tell about the mountain the town was built next to. One of the legends was about a monster society locked in the mountain, and how they take anyone who goes up the mountain and kill them. But of course, not everyone takes the warning seriously, even after 7 children were reported missing after climbing the mountain. So, when stories popped up about an expensive gem being somewhere in the mountain, people knew it was fake. After all, why would anyone risk their lives for just some gem that may not exist?
The Toppat clan would. The Toppat Clan would risk their lives for a gem that may not exist, as long as there’s no cops around.
Of course, there wasn’t a full scale heist planned, but there still had to be people to go and get the gem. The people who did this were none other Henry Stickmin, Ellie Rose, Reginald Copperbottom and the clan’s Right Hand Man. They had left the orbital station early in the morning, leaving Sven in charge while they were out. Hours had passed and the sun was setting when they finally reached the top of the mountain.
The four of them inspected the cave thoroughly until they realised that the story was fake. At that point they were exhausted and didn’t want to walk all the way down the mountain again, so they decided they would set up camp for the night in the cave.
As Henry laid down on his set up sleeping bag, he heard something in the distance, something like talking. He knew it sounded too far away to be any of his coworkers he was with. He tried his best to ignore it but he couldn’t and decided to check it out.
“Hey guys, I’m gonna go take a quick walk, y’know, get fresh air and stuff.” He said. Henry stood up and walked out the cave entrance and looked around. He saw no one decided to walk a bit down the path until he saw a group of people on a cliff edge, just talking and staring at the sun. He stepped closer as some of the group began to disperse and walk down the mountain, to see that it wasn’t people, but monsters.
He stared at them until it was just two left, a small human child and a tall goat woman. He didn’t know what to do, so he pulled out his tablet. He hadn’t used it in a few months, ever since the Toppat clan first went into space, but he felt he needed it. On the screen, it showed him three things he could do, and he considered each carefully.
The teleporter could get him back to the cave, but it was still buggy and would most likely teleport him to his doom. He could try to fight them, but he doesn’t exactly think it would be a good idea since, y’know, cliff, and he doesn’t know what they’re capable of. He decided that saying hi would be a good bet, plus he could always come back, right?
He watched his step as he made his way over, once his footing was balanced he cleared his throat and spoke.
“Hi, uhm, excuse me?” He said. The two in front of him turned and looked at him with a bit of shock on their faces.
“Oh! I wasn’t aware anyone was up here.” The goat woman responded in shock. “My name is Toriel, and this is Frisk, my child.”
“Uh, nice to meet you, I’m Henry! Yeah, me and some friends were just… camping up here, and I heard some talk going on down here just to check it out.” Henry Said.
“Oh, make sure to be careful, you may fall.” Toriel mentioned. She smiled and the albino man nodded.
“Thanks, but, can I ask what you’re doing here? I mean, I heard stories about monsters being inside the mountain but not of any leaving. So, how are you here?” He asked.
“That’s a long story, and I bet you wouldn’t want to hear that right now. The sun is nearly set after all, so I think you need to head back to where you’re camping for the night.” The woman spoke. Henry nodded but asked one last question.
“Where will you be staying? I mean, it’s quite a trip down the mountain and I didn’t see anyone carrying any sort of sleeping bag or anything, plus I doubt you guys will want to go back underground.” Frisk and Toriel’s face’s twisted into a confused expression.
“We…haven’t considered that yet.” The child said, gripping onto their mother’s dress. Henry felt a bit tense and regretted asking it, but it would have had to be addressed sooner or later.
“Well, I’m sure we can figure it out, my child.” Toriel reassured as she rubbed her hand on Frisk’s head. Henry awkwardly rubbed his neck before she spoke again. “Henry, you can go if you want, it’s alright.” He nodded and waved goodbye as he walked away.
It nagged him the whole walk back to the others, how are they up here? What will they do? Where will they stay? But there was nothing he could do, at least not without talking to his friends. Once he reached the cave, he saw Reginald and Ellie asleep while Right Hand Man was standing near the entrance staring at the nearly set sun.
“Hey ‘enry. Didja get lost?” The man snarked. Henry just stared at him before shaking his head.
“No, just met someone and we chatted for a bit.” He responded.
“Who would be up ‘ere? ‘Specially at this hour?” The Australian asked. As much as Henry wanted to answer, he elected not to. He just leaned against the cave wall next to the other man and shrugged. “Do you think they’re able to make it back down and get home?”
“No, and they didn’t have any sort of camping gear either. But I do hope they figure something out.” The younger man answered as he tapped his mask a bit. Right sighed and looked back into the cave at Reginald.
“Think I’m gonna hit the sack for tonight, gotta be up early if we want ta get to the designated pick up spot before lunch.” He said as he stretched before going back in.
“Night!” Henry called to him. He took a deep breath before removing his mask and feeling the cold air on his face. He should sleep as well, but something kept him awake. He looked over at a patch of shadows as a translucent figure stepped out from it. The figure signed to him, asking if he was ok.
“I’m fine, Player, just worried. Also, you can talk, the others are asleep.” He answered. The figure stepped out more and the remaining sunset illuminated their features.
“Can’t be too careful. But are you worried about that goat lady and her kid? I’m sure that they’re ok.” Their voice spoke. “You should sleep.”
“You know I can’t when you’re around, you force my soul to be active, and thus I can’t sleep.” The albino man retorted.
“Fine, even though the void is sooo boring. But seriously Hen, as your friend, you need sleep, for both our sakes.”
“I know, I’ll sleep, I promise.”
---
When Henry woke up the next morning his eyes felt sore. He blinked a bit before sitting up and looking around. Ellie and Right appeared to still be asleep, but Reginald was noticeably awake, sitting up while cushioning his small pillow in between his face and knees. Henry quickly grabbed for his discarded mask and put it on before his boss noticed his consciousness.
“Hey, uh, boss. Nice to see you up.” He said after he finished adjusting his mask.
“Hm? Oh, hello Henry.” Reginald said after looking up at his subordinate. He rubbed his eyes a bit before speaking again. “I didn’t realise you were awake, sorry. So, how was your walk last night?”
“Oh, it was fine, got to clear my head, y’know? How were things here while I was out?” Henry asked in return.
“Fine, I think. I fell asleep pretty quickly.” The brunette answered. Henry was hesitant to tell him about his interactions last night, but he figured out of everyone, Reginald is the safest person to tell.
“Actually, when I was out, I saw some monsters. Y’know the ones from the legends we heard when researching this place? I met one of them and her human kid, they seemed nice but they didn’t have anywhere to go. They most likely went back inside the mountain for the night but I doubt they would want to stay there.” He went on. Reginald just stared at him while hugging his pillow and kicked his feet a bit. “I am a bit worried because they were nice and not even that scary, so you can’t help but feel bad for them, you know? I know that places aren’t super accepting of monsters, especially this town so it’s not going to be easy for them.”
“Calm down, I’m sure they have a plan.” Reginald said calmly. Henry sighed and nodded in return, trusting his boss’s words. “I think we should wake the others and pack up to go. I miss the station.”
Henry put his top hat and shoes on before rolling up his sleeping bag and packing everything away. Reginald followed suit of redressing and packing, watching Henry carefully as he shoved everything in his bag. Once Henry noticed, Reginald tensed up a bit and stared back down.
“You okay boss? Why were you staring at me?” Henry asked.
“Nothing…it’s just a terrible habit of staring at anything making noise. Just a defensive thing.” Reginald responded.
“Hey, it’s ok, I get it. I have some habits that I can't help too.” Henry reassured. The brunette looked up at him and smiled. He whispered a small thanks before turning around to his sleeping right hand man. He scooched over and shook him until his eyes cracked open.
“Mmm, Reg? What’s up?” Right asked tiredly.
“We’re packing up to leave, I’m waking you up.” Reginald responded.
“Oh alright, I’ll get my stuff together.”
During this, Henry grabbed one of Ellie’s shoes and threw it at her head to wake her up. She yelled a bit after it woke her and threw it back at him, hitting the ground a few inches away from him.
“Haha, you missed! Now c’mon, we’re getting ready to go.” Henry laughed. The red-head glared at him as she got up and retrieved her shoes. Once they all had collected their things they began their descent down the mountain.
Things seemed fine at first, everyone just talked and laughed the way down. But something kept nagging at Henry, something felt off. He looked around, and everything looked fine. Then, he felt like his soul was grabbed and he was dragged to the ground. His eyes were forced shut, and all he heard was a gunshot. When Henry opened his eyes, he saw the others standing in front of him, weapons immediately drawn. In front of them were some government agents, bearing furious and confident looks.
“Well, well, well. Looks like we managed to track you thieves down.” The oldest of them said. Henry recognised him as Captain Hubert Galeforce, whom he had met before stealing the ruby. Alongside him were four faces, one he recognised as the pilot from that mission (though he couldn’t remember the name), a guard who he swore looked familiar, and two identical twins, all of them with guns drawn. “Now, either you hand yourselves over now, or we will have to use force.”
Henry crawled off to the side undetected and pulled out his tablet for options. He first thought that a grappling hook could work well, so he pulled one out of his bag and made sure it was ready to fire. He then lunged out of his hiding spot and yelled “Duck!”. Once his colleagues did so, he fired at Galeforce’s face.
And missed. Turns out he didn’t have good range with it. He laughed a bit before one of the soldiers shot him.
“Fail! Why did you think that would work?! Like- what were you hoping would happen?! They would disintegrate or something?! I swear…” Player’s voice echoed in the darkness.
Then, he opened his eyes, and he was back. He sighed and considered the other options presented to him. Then, it hit him. The teleporter. It could finally work in his favour. He whipped it out and began importing random coordinates, one push of a button away from sending the user to who knows where. He got up from his hiding spot slowly so as to not draw attention.
“What makes you think we’re scared of you?!” Reginald laughed.
“Copperbottom, I’m giving you one last chance to come with us peacefully. I know you’re a respectable man so understand we don’t want to do this the hard way.” The captain spoke.
“I wouldn’t trust ‘em Reg.” Right said, staring down the pilot who was cowering under the glare.
“Stay out of this you!” One of the soldiers (Who Henry noted was the one who shot him in his previous attempt) spoke loudly. He raised his gun up at Right immediately. Reginald quickly moved to cover his second in command, just before…
BANG!
Almost immediately, Reginald’s body slumped to the ground.
“Price?! What the hell?! I ordered you to not fire!” The captain shouted at him. Henry started shaking, gripping the teleporter in his hand.
“Reg!” Henry’s boss cried as he dropped to the floor and gripped the chief’s lifeless body. The albino man was dragged back into focus, and he threw the teleporter at the guards. Once it hit the captain, it engulfed them in a glow of green energy before teleporting them away.
“Holy shit…what…Henry what did you do?!” Ellie asked in fear. Henry just rubbed his throat and tried to sign with one hand, that they should be gone for a while. He was thankful that his friend understood him, he hated how his throat closed up under stress. “Then…what now?” The woman asked, looking over at their superiors and letting her guard down. All Henry could do was just shrug and watch as Right Hand Man sobbed and cradled the dead body of their chief.
“Well…at least it seems like that was the best outcome right?” Player asked. But all Henry could think, was that he should have done something sooner. He quickly pulled out his tablet and loaded his save. He first tried the other options, but they all ended in either him dying, or everyone dying. Then, he tried the teleporter again, but when he went to throw it as early as possible, his body froze. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but watch as Reginald was shot all over again. Henry tried a few more times but he still couldn’t move. After witnessing his chief’s death for the 6th time, he finally came to terms with what Player had said.
It was the best outcome.