Chapter Text
Spamton G. Spamton never thought that Television actually cared. Not after that TV abandoned him and caused him to lose everything.
That is, until a Pipis fell out of a closet.
He couldn’t believe it. That guy actually kept it. And then the guy said that he actually needed him?
He flew out of Kris’ inventory and transformed into his normal form in front of Tenna, who was still freaking out deciding what to do about the Pipis.
“[Trash heap]]!!! YOU KEPT IT!!! YOU REALLY DO CARE!!!”
Tenna immediately turned around.
“What the..!?”
“WHAT THE HOW THE MAMA WHAT THE HECK THE WOH MAMMA WOAH MAMMA MA WHAT’S WOAH MAMA MIA WHAT’S WHAT’S WHAT THE MAMA MIA WHAT’S WOH MAMA MIA MAMA MIA WOAH HECK WHAT THE MAMMA HEY HECK HECK WOAH WOH WOAH MAMA MIA MAMA MIA HECK HECK MAMA MIA MAMMA WHAT’S MAMMA MAMMA HEY MAMMA MAMMA MAMA MIA MAMA MIA HECK MA MA WOH MAMA MIA WHAT’S WHAT THE MAMMA HECK MAMMA MAMMA MA WOH WHAT’S MAMMA WHAT’S MAMMA MA HEY WOAH MA HECK MA HEY WHAT THE WHAT THE WOAH HEY WOAH MAMMA”
Tenna took a moment to compose himself.
“HOW THE WHAT THE MAMA WHAT THE HECK THE WOAH WHAT THE MA WOAH WHAT’S WOAH WOH HEY WOH MAMA MIA WAH MA HECK WHAT’S HEY MAMMA WHAT’S HEY WOAH WOH WHAT’S MAMMA MAMA MIA MAMMA MAMMA WOAH MA MAMMA MA HEY WOAH WHAT THE WOAH HEY… MAMMA”
“What the HECK is THAT THING!? Some kind of RAT!? Some kind of CREATURE!?”
Spamton stepped forward.
“DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE…”
“STAY AWAY FROM HER, you FIEND!!!” Tenna stepped toward him and pulled out a can of sprayable foam with intent.
Before Tenna could spray him, he tried one last ditch effort and took off his glasses. The TV froze for a good few seconds, staring at him. Then he lost his composure.
“IT REALLY IS YOU!? HERE??? NOW???” Spamton couldn’t help but cackle.
“[[I sure hope it does]] YOU [CRT]!”
“Oh I have SO many questions for YOU, you little… ahem.” The CRT quickly regained his composure, before losing it just as fast. He yanked Spamton off the ground. “YOU are coming with ME!”
“HEY! H 3Y! I’M NO [Marketable Plushie]! [[Unhand me!]]” Spamton’s complaints were not listened to as Tenna walked away with the failed salesman in hand.
—
Tenna had put the puppet in a spare shower station with soap and a change of clothes. After he took the first shower in what felt like forever, he dried off and scowled as he put on the tacky TV time merch that the CRT had brought him. He left his old filthy clothes on the floor for some employee to clean up.
He didn’t know where to go next, so he just headed to the green room. Lucky him, Tenna was sitting there on a couch waiting for him.
“NICE [[FREE Commemorative Clothing]] YOU GAVE ME, [Trash Heap],” Spamton graveled as he walked into the room.
The CRT only looked mildly annoyed.
“Do you really think we have fancy clothes in YOUR size?”
Spamton knew the answer, but answered incorrectly anyway.
“Y ES”
“We don’t.” Tenna motioned for the puppet to sit across from him on the L-shaped couch. Spamton hesitated before complying. “Now what is going on with your voice?”
“[[Hyperlink Blocked]]” Spamton didn’t want to bother weaving together an explanation, so he said the concept that he can’t say instead.
“That, uh, doesn’t answer my question.”
“[[Hyperlink Blocked]]”
“You know what, forget it, I don’t need to know. Now, are you going to explain yourself? Why, did you walk away all those years ago?”
That sent Spamton off.
“ME? WALK AWAY? YOU FFFF[ifty percent off], YOU ABAND0NED ME! I LOST EV 3RYTHING BECAUSE OF Y0U, [Boob Tube]! I…” The puppet realized that maybe wasn’t the truth a bit too late.
“How?? WE were a TEAM! Our partnership was going so well! We both were STARS! All you had to do was SIGN the CONTRACT!”
“OK [Trash Heap] I-”
“But you RAN! You ran away from EVERYTHING!”
“[Boob Tube]-”
“Were we ever ANYTHING?! Did I mean ANYTHING to you?? Was-”
“Tenna.” Spamton’s sudden tone shift caused the CRT to finally shut up. “Maybe I was wrong back then, but you meant everything to me. Let’s start over. While you still have time.”
“Still have time?” Tenna’s anger was gone, replaced by confusion. “Spamton, what do you mean?”
The puppet couldn’t help but chuckle sadly. Everyone was a victim of fate, after all.
“The Lord of Screens, cleaved red by blade. That’s you. You’re not strong enough to survive.”
—---—
“Look! There, I can see it…!”
Kris, Susie and Ralsei moved past the large snowbank to take a good look at the fountain in the distance. Ralsei spoke again.
“There’s the Dark Fountain! If we can just…”
Tenna fell from the sky, preventing the three heroes from moving further forward.
“No!! NO!! NO!!!! You CAN’T go just yet!! There is still SO MUCH to do!! There are still, Games to play!! GAMES and SHOWS!! You CANNOT miss!! YOU’LL be HOOKED, to your SCREEN!! So why don’t we just-”
“Dude, are you like, okay?”
Susie had a fair point. Tenna was fidgeting around much more than normal. He also looked nervous for some reason?
“Me? Okay?? Of course I’m ‘Okay’! I’m all hunky-doory! I’m as happy as yet to be cooked clams! The Lord of Screens, cleaved red by blade. That can’t happen to YOUR favorite TV host, right?”
“Wait, that’s a line from the prophecy!” Ralsei looked at the TV man, both horrified and confused. “Where did you hear that from?”
Tenna stopped.
“Wait, that’s a real line?”
“Yes,” Ralsei confirmed. “It’s from, the prophecy.”
Susie glared at Ralsei.
“Why the hell didn’t you talk about that ea-”
“Then PLEASE!” Tenna fell to his hands and knees to beg. He was only the size of a normal darkner at that point. “Won’t you SAVE this TV host’s life?!”
“Well, you did trap us in some capsules.” Susie pondered out loud. Tenna shrunk even further from that statement. “But, for some reason, I don’t think you’re a bad guy. Just really desperate for some reason. So yeah, I don’t see why not!”
“Are you sure, Susie?” Ralsei looked with concern. “It’s the prophecy. His fate is already sealed.”
Susie shrugged.
“So??”
“I just don’t want you to get your hopes up for your effort to be useless. You shouldn’t waste your efforts on us Darkners.”
Susie proceeded to ignore Ralsei’s last comment.
“Dude, screw the prophecy! We’re gonna try anyway. Right, Kris?”
♥️Of course No way
“Well, I suppose I can’t argue if Kris is on board.” Ralsei smiled and turned to Tenna. “Mr. Tenna? We’ve agreed to help you.”
Tenna perked up.
“...Really? You’ll help little old me?”
“You gotta give Toriel back though,” Susie flatly stated.
Tenna shot straight up, his TV face full of glee.
“It’s a deal!”
—
The five of them were awkwardly sitting on the same L-couch in the green room (Spamton was there for some reason). Tenna, still fidgety, was watching Spamton, who had weaved some green string between his fingers and was messing around with it.
“So, um…” Ralsei caught the attention of everyone in the otherwise empty room. “Shouldn’t we, um, make a plan on how to protect Tenna?”
“Easier said than done, I guess.” Susie slumped into the couch. “I mean, we don’t even know when this will happen. Who even has the power to cut a robot in two?”
Nobody could answer that.
“...Hey Spamton,” Tenna asked. “Do… Do you know?”
“...ME? WHY W0ULD I HAVE [[the knowledge you seek]]??”
“Well, you uh, knew about the prophecy! So I thought that, uh, you might know something?” Tenna sighed. “Just… say what you think! Maybe it’ll lead us somewhere?”
Spamton paused for a long moment. Then, he laughed.
“HAEAHAEAHAEAH!! I’VE NEVER H3ARD [[Your Soundscape]] SO PATHETIC! I’LL [[Info Booth]]! WHO ELSE C0ULD [[Slay the Beast]] OTHER THAN TH0SE WHO HAVE [[Hyperlink Blocked]]. THEY CAN STAB A FLOOR TH3Y CAN STAB A [CRT]!”
“...Kris?” Susie turned to the human next to her after an awkward silence. “You... know him more than most of us. Any idea what he means?”
No Idea ♥️He means
Lightners?
“Really?” Susie seemed surprised. “What kind of Lightner would try to kill someone like him? …Whatever. We can make a plan based on that, right, Ralsei?”
“Um, sure!” Ralsei smiled.
—---—
Tenna stood outside, next to the Christmas tree. He spoke to nobody.
“Since the Heroes have won the GRAND PRIZE, I should remove the capsule so they can see what it is!”
Toriel’s capsule slowly floated down from the tree before releasing what was within. She was still sleeping peacefully.
“There you go! How wonderful!! The family can all be together again!! Now you all can-”
KLANG!
Tenna immediately teleported 30 feet back as a black figure was tied in place by green string. The figure roared and the strings easily snapped away. In the split second that it was looking for the culprit, the three heroes shot out from behind the snowbanks, with Susie holding the top half of a capsule and Kris and Ralsei holding the bottom half. They sealed the figure in the capsule.
“Did…” Susie took a deep breath after some silence as Spamton hopped out from behind the snowbank to inspect. “Is that it?”
The figure roared once again and the capsule shattered, which caused Spamton to jump behind the heroes. The figure summoned a sword into its hand and pointed it directly at Tenna, with its helmet resembling a grin.
Tenna stood there like a deer in headlights, unable to take his eyes off of the shadowy figure. It summoned five swords and sent them directly at Tenna’s head.
Tenna was still petrified in place.
Spamton ran over as he summoned some strings that latched onto the CRT’s head and yanked him to the ground. Meanwhile, Susie sent a magic attack at the knight.
“We’re right here, asshole.” Susie quickly turned to the two Darkners. “Get out of here! It’s dangerous!”
Susie turned around and joined the other two heroes in facing the Roaring Knight.
Spamton smacked the TV in the nose, which shocked him out of his daze. Tenna quickly latched onto Spamton like a teddy bear and teleported away.