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Ahh, great. First Frisk's kharra got so bad, they had to leave with Dust. And now sonic deterrents were keeping Horror out. You had plently if time to refelct just how badly this planet wanted to kill you as you slowly arced towards the facility. Horror's aim was surprisingly good; he threw you with just meters to go before you could enter it.
Shit. You really didn't think this plan through. What were you supposed to even do when you found the cure? Its not like you could haul a whole-ass leviathan through the lava tunnels. I mean, you suppose you could just bottle the cure but that would be-
White light flooded your vision as you were jerked out of your P.R.A.W.N. suit, passing through the solid metal like it was nothing. Huh. You had never teleported before but-
A gurgling scream tore out of your mouth as a sharp claw caught the back of your thigh. You thought previous wounds were bad, but this was pure agony. The superheated water rushed in to (in hindsight, thankfully) cauterize the wound, searing the flesh shut. You flailed around in the water, managing to turn around and get a glimpse of your adversary. A warper. It encircled your body with its razor-sharp claws, and you instantly went stock-still.. One wrong movement and you could be cut in half by those.
It traveled to the far side of the cavern, half swimming and half teleporting. You were beginning to feel a little green around the gills (no pun intended) by the near constant teleportation, before you were carried to...
...What even was this place? It was a circular bowl of rock surrounded by lava, with... were they cheering? It seemed like it. The bowl was lined with hordes of cheering warpers, waving their claws around in delight. A burly warper was dicing what looked like a heatstroke-ridden stalker into tiny pieces with its claws. You gulped.
As the warper carrying you into the arena got closer, you could see there appeared to be holding cells set into the rocky walls. You were steered into one of these, then pushed inside. A solid-sounding set of metal bars slammed down behind you. Another set of bars was in front, offering you a view of the arena.
What looked like an O2 pipe was poking out of the wall, venting a stream of bubbles. You had no earthly idea how that got here, but as you got closer you were glad that you could at least refill your air tanks before it was your turn in the arena.
Turns out you didnt have to wait long. As the burly warper slice n' diced a crabsquid into bite-sized alien sushi, the bars leading into the arena lifted up, and another warper floated over and teleported you to a spot about ten meters away from the big bad sushi chef warper in the middle. You gulped. Up close, it was even larger, and you could see several nasty-looking scars littering its body, proof of its many battles.
The bars behind you swung shut with a distressingly final clang. You pulled your dive knife from your utility belt. If you were going to die, you would sure as hell die fighting.
The warper charged. You ducked under a swing from its claws as the audience roared in approval, stabbing towards its carapace. It teleported out of the way, appearing to be reassesing its chances. You werent planning on letting it assess anything for much longer. You swam towards it with broad strokes, kicking off its swinging claw and slashing at its face with your knife.
The blade caught it in the eye, pucturing it and causing it to spill a thick, green fluid. It roared in pain, pawing at its face, before going still and silent and floating towards the ceiling of the cavern. The crowd went eerily quiet.
Shit. You were in trouble now. That notion was reinforced when three warpers, each as built as the last one, emerged from the stands and converged on you. You were trapped. You gulped, then turned to the closest one. Time to face the-
A flash of light burst from one of the holes in the arena wall, freezing a warper in a stasis bubble. Another turned around and caught a thrown survival knife in the face, bellowing as the life slowly ebbed out of it. The first recovered from its shock, teleporting out of the stasis bubble just in time to be stabbed in the face by another thrown knife. The third warper turned to face the hole, screaming in rage as someone who gave a new definition to the term 'armed to the teeth' rapidly swam out of it.
On their wetsuit toolbelt, two knives were holstered, one on each side. There were two empty sheaths behind each. They had sheaths on each thigh, both sporting knives. Their stasis rifle had-you guessed it-another knife attached to the barrel like a bayonet. They used this to stab at the warper without getting into the range of its claws, slicing its head and chest until the blade finally caught something vital. It succumbed to its injuries with a scream, floating belly up to join its companions.
The figure activated a pair of jets on its back, similar to the ones on your P.R.A.W.N. suit. It sped towards you, grabbed you around the middle, then executed a neat turn in the water and bolted for the exit. You clutched your knife, irritated. You were getting real sick of being hauled around like this. The other person crused along the wall of the chamber, heading for a small nook in the rocky wall.
They darted through a tunnel so small no warper could possibly get through, and long enough that they couldnt teleport in either. Finally, it opened up into... a cave. With a base. The water was mercifully cool here as the person turned off their jets and swam to a hatch in the base wall. The hauled it open and shoved you inside.
You landed on the floor, a disgruntled, soaking heap. You retched, yanking your helmet off just in time to spit a bit of black fluid onto the floor. The other person followed you into the base, taking off their helmet and giving the black gunk on the floor a disgruntled look. They had pale skin and rosy cheeks, and their hair was in a brown bob, similar to Frisk's. They grinned, disapproval and disgust melting off their face in an instant, replaced with the euphoria of adrenaline.
"Hah, I really saved your ass there! You're lucky i happened to be watching the fight, otherwise you would have been dead meat!" They extended a hand to help you up.
"My name's Chara by the way. Nice job of taking out that warper!" You took their hand, using it to haul yourself to your feet.
"My name's Y/N. Im here to cure this bacterium that seems to be spreading around. The cure in that alien facility there." Chara looked thoughtful as they reached into a wall locker, sticking two knoves in the empty sheathes in their belt.
"Damn, I'll have to get my knives back, assuming those fuckers don't get to them before i can- wait, you're here to cure kharra? And the cures in the facility?"
"Yeah. Its slowly killing everything here, and all the evidence points to the cure being here."
"Well, i hope you brought a way to get past the forcefields." You proudly pulled a tablet out of your belt.
"Oh, by the way, how did you survive Horror? The sea dragon?" Chara shrugged, looking proud of themself.
"I just fed him some fish. And if you're heading to the facility, then do you mind if i tag along? Damn, i looked at that stupid alien cube every single day and i never found out about the cure, and even if i did, i couldnt get past the forcefield. At least now i can finally see for myself what all the hype os about." You grinned, glad to have a new companion.
"Yeah, sure! Lets go!"