Chapter Text
Coffee in hand, you walk back into the generator room, and ascend up the stairs. Instead of going out the way you came, you walk down the side of the bridge that you had ignored. Your backpack is weighing heavily against your back, notes and numerical figures flitting through your head.
Will this have any affect on the environment? I certainly hope not. It's bad enough that drawing from the damn energy source causes the occasional earthquake. You remember the first time one happened. There had been a computer error, causing the generators to pull more than the usual amount of energy to convert into electricity. The earth began to shake, almost imperceptibly at first, until it was an all out magnitude four earthquake.
Since then, we added David onto our team. He's a top notch geologist, and drew some helpful conclusions. The source helps keep the structure of the mountain stable in some way. We don't even really know what the source is, or where the large fissure in the side of the mountain that the energy comes from leads to. The energy creates a physical barrier around said fissure, and nothing has broken it. Until today.
The readings that Torrence had shown you resemble a glass being exposed to its resonant frequency, causing it to vibrate and shift until it breaks. You intend to be there when it happens, and take lots of notes on it. Hopefully you will be able to glean some information on this phenomenon, and answer some of your questions about what the barrier is made of.
Your attention is snapped back into the real world by a closed door. You ran into it. You rub your nose, and open the door, stepping outside. You hike up a trail, small but well worn. As you walk up, the hairs on your arms raise, and the buzzing pressure on your mind begins to intensify. You hiss in pain, but continue your upwards march, knowing it will end soon enough.
The fissure rises above you, tall and intimidating, leading into pitch blackness. The barrier shimmers in a twenty feet radius around it, and you can feel it's power from fifty feet away. You approach it, and the pain ends quite suddenly, the moment you reach twenty feet from it. The buzzing ends completely, and you sigh in relief.
You go up to the large opaque barrier, and set your hand on it, expecting resistance. You nearly fall to the ground, the barrier stretching at your touch. You blink in surprise. That was certainly unexpected. You poke at it, and it sinks at your touch, but snaps back into place when you pull back your hand. You give it a curious once over, and press your hand into it again, receiving the same results. You repeat it, until you decide to just go for it.
You inch your way slowly closer, until your entire body is pressed into it. You heave at it, feet digging into the ground, but eventually you reach the same solidness that was usually on the surface of it. You sigh, and step away from the puzzling wall of energy. You walk its perimeter, testing to see if it is consistent throughout. You conclude that the surface is now squishy, but the inside remains as hard as it was before.
You take out your notebook, and turn to a fresh page, writing your findings, and writing several hypothesis that come to mind. Because we are drawing so much energy? Maybe this is the cause of the shockwaves. Not electrical. Magnetic? Gravitational? You take a sip of your now lukewarm coffee, and decide to drain it.
You set the empty coffee cup inside your backpack to await disposal later. You watch as a ripple moves down the barrier, and you narrow your eyes. What was that? Today is just a day full of weird coincidences of things happening. You hear a door open and close, and you turn around to the thumping of feet moving fast, just in time for you to feel the pressure on your mind escalate exponentially.
You fall to your knees, and you can hear muffled shouts. You can't. Make out any of the words through the buzzing in your head. You look lazily over to the noise, and find your colleagues standing at the very edge of what they can handle of the barriers power, much further away from it than you. They appear to be shouting, but you can't hear them over the roar of energy in your mind and body. You smile at them, trying to reassure them that you are, indeed, okay. This only seems to encourage more shouting, so you stand up as well.
You look back at the barrier now, deciding to ignore your friends. The barrier now has ripples all along it, like water. You stand up, and with a sudden sense of urgency, put your hand on it. You feel a pull of your chest, and your breathing becomes heavier. There is a faint ‘pop,’ and you see a faint red glow from your chest. You look down curiously, watching the wine red heart float in front of you.
You reach your hand out to touch it, and you poke it, sending it spinning, as if it were on an axis. It feels warm and velvety, so you decide to cup it in your hands, holding it protectively. You look at the barrier, and decide you don't like it anymore. It's too…..barrier like. It prevents you from getting to what you want to know. You press and feel with your hands, searching for a weakness in its jelly surface.
You realize your friends have fallen quiet, and you glance back, only to find them all passed out, blood running down from their noses. They each have a faint glow around them, each person with a different color. You cry out to them, hoping to wake them up. When that doesn't work, you try to move towards them. Your feet stay solidly planted in front of the barrier. Your hand against it is sucked into its surface, and red vine like cracks begin showing in the barrier.
You feel yourself become woozy, and sway on your feet. You are stronger than that, so you stay upright. You glare at at the barrier, and try to make it burn, but the red is just pulled from your hand faster. Your little red heart is slowly becoming dimmer, and you are hit with a wave of nausea. You throw up coffee onto the ground. Ew. Your planted feet prevent you from moving away from it as well.
The cracks begin getting larger, and from the other side of the barrier, you see a small….humanoid goat? Maybe it was hallucinations now instead of nausea. A step in the right direction. It gives you a gentle smile, and raises a small fluffy hand, and light pours out of it. Cracks form all along the once clear surface of the barrier, in all shades and colors. You hear a resounding crack, and with a final tug on your tiny heart, it releases you. Your hand is released with a wet sounding ‘slurp.’
You fall to the ground, drained and weary. Your head remains fuzzy feeling, like your brain was stuffed with cotton. The heart floats back into your chest, glow diminished. It returns with a soft ‘click,’ and suddenly, you feel like you've come off of a drunken high. You make to stand up, but the pain in your head forces you back to the ground. Maybe this is a side effect of….whatever it is that happened. You can only conclude that it was not good, whatever it was.
You look over towards where the barrier once stood, and find the area free of any shimmering energy, clear or otherwise. You turn your head again, and find your friends. You scan each of their forms quickly, making sure none of them have external injuries. They are still glowing, but they don't appear to be in any imminent danger from it. You sigh in relief and lay your head back down, gently.
You lay there until you hear faint voices, and not from the direction your friends are lying. You groan, and tilt your head to look at the fissure. A few figures appear to be walking out of the dark tunnel. They all appear to be talking, and it slowly gets louder, until one finally steps out, a small human figure in its arms.
Another large fuzzy humanoid goat stands where the other, smaller one had been standing before. It sets down a human child, and begins talking to them. You struggle to sit up, but instead maintain your lying position. You grunt, trying to make some kind of noise, but it fails. You settle for watching.
As the goat hovers over the child in what appears to be concern, other creatures appear from the mountain. A much larger goat, a fish lady, a lizard lady, and two skeletons, one short and one tall. You watch them with a sort of morbid curiosity. You hear the child’s gasp from this distance, and you immediately watch the monsters for their reaction.
The goat is obviously relieved, as it immediately slouches and hugs the child. You feel your body de-tense slightly, and your gaze travels from them when bright colors grab your attention. From the crack in the side of the mountain, you can see hearts, six of them to be exact, begin floating out. You watch as they drift over to you.
The creatures are either ignoring them, or don't see them, which would be improbable. They're so bright, it would be hard for the blind to miss them. Especially given the warm feelings they fill you with as they drift past. You watch as the hearts take a place above the chest of each of your friends. You make a muffled sound, sounding more like a whimper than a call for help. They descend into your friends chests, and their glow becomes more pronounced than it was a moment ago.
You grunt and wiggle, attempting to do anything to catch the attention of anyone or anything. The crunching of leaves seems to attract the attention of the creatures. You hear more talking, and within seconds, you see a large fluffy paw in your line of sight. You try to jerk back, but being on the ground and incapacitated makes that hard. The hand hesitates at your jump, but green light glows gently on the hand, and descends into your body.
Your body immediately relaxes, and you slowly feel your mind clear. The light fills you with a warm feeling, maternal and loving. You look at the owner of the hand, and watch the muzzle and eyes of the goat carefully. She has two small horns on her forehead and two sharp teeth sticking out from her top jaw. She smiles down at you when she notices your eyes on her.
You give the goat woman a small smile back. When her hand withdraws and the light ceases, your mind immediately goes into overdrive. Your body lurches into a sitting position, and you look at the creatures around you with awe. The taller skeleton is hovering over you, looking concerned. The make goat withholder horns is hanging back, looking uncertain and worried. The shorter skeleton is looking around, watching for anything that might be dangerous. The fish and lizard ladies are behind the man goat. The child sits right next to the goat woman, smiling at you reassuringly.
You are pretty sure your jaw will be stepped all over, the way it's on the floor. The goat woman smiles at you. “Hello little one. My name is Toriel. It is nice to meet you. Might I ask why you are laying out here?” The question sounds genuinely curious, and you glance around at the others before answering Toriel. It takes a moment to regain your voice, but after you clear your throat you get it back. “Um, there was just a…..barrier here. Large. Produces a lot of energy. It sucked in my hand, and there was a small goat, and it broke.” Your answer sounds horrible even to yourself. Nice first impression.
Toriel is obviously confused, but tries to look understanding. The large goat speaks up. “You saw the barrier?” His voice is deep, but not unkind as he asks. You nod. “Yes. It was clear, and shimmered. I've been studying it for the past three years.” There is an excited gasp from behind the goat. The lizard lady pokes her head out.
“U-um, my name i-is Alphys. I, uh, studied the b-barrier as w-well.” She has a cute pair of round glasses on her face. You look at her in interest. “Would you by any chance happen to know what it's made of then? We only have speculations, but I was thinking it might be magnetic energy.” She looks up at the large goat at that, who nods. “W-well, it's, um, made of m-magic.” You look at Alpys and let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Magic doesn't exist.”