Soul has no idea what he's doing when he turns and sprints away in Blue's body. If he could, Soul would have already created a portal to a different AU. The problem is that portals can't be made in the meeting hall. Soul has to get back outside first. The sudden jump into Blue's body has also made him a little disoriented. The new memories confuse Soul as he tries to shove them away. Why is he running from his best friends?

Ink and Dream shout something behind him. Most of the monsters in the hall are still confused about what's going on, but Soul looks guilty enough by running. Red's unconscious body doesn't look good, either. The others still hesitate before trying to grab Soul. Blue is a very well-liked and sweet monster. Soul could not have picked a better host if he tried. Energy buzzes around Soul's smaller body and lends him speed when monster do finally decide to move. Those few seconds of hesitation get him almost all the way back to the main doors. Soul ducks out of the way when someone makes a grab for him. He's not so lucky the second time. Another monster steps directly into Soul's path to the door. He tries to stop, but ends up tripping and body slamming into the other monster.

Soul can't quite register what just happened. He sits up blearily and rubs his skull at the beginning of headache. The weight in Soul's lap makes him pause. Blue is passed out and sprawled in Soul's lap after they collided. That's not right. Soul stares for another few agonizing seconds before he realizes that he jumped bodies again. This time was a complete accident. New memories and emotions flood in the fill the gap that Blue left. Soul recalls an expanse of stars filling the sky and the taste of dry ice cream. He's hopped into Outer. The stars remind Soul of the time he and Error visited OuterTale, and Soul feels horrible all over again. Everyone here probably hates him just like Error does.

"Did you get him?" someone asks Outer, referring to Blue. Before Soul can respond, Dream has caught up enough to speak.

"Watch out! They can jump bodies!" Dream shouts a warning. The monster next to him flinches when they realize that Outer might not be himself. Blue is light enough to easily shove off, and Soul waste no time after that to get back in his feet.

"I-I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot here," Soul nervously chuckles, adapting Outer's nervous grin by instinct. Too weary now to touch him, someone fires off a bone attack. Soul calls up Outer's gravity magic as fast as he can and throws himself up into the air. The gravity doesn't affect Outer as much even outside his AU and slows his fall. Soul might have laughed at the floaty feeling if another bone attack hadn't flown past his face. It barely misses Soul's head, but pierces right through his jacket hood and sends him flying across the meeting hall only to be pinned to the wall. Soul is further from the door then ever.

The meeting hall is breaking out into chaos. Most are unsure of whatever is happening, and a few more battles have even broken out with random attacks bursting to life around the hall. It's complete anarchy. Soul twist around and tugs at his hood frantically. He braces his feet again the wall for more power. The monsters who do know what's happening are closing in on him. With one last vicious tug, the hood rips. Soul goes flying away from the wall and crashes into a trio of monsters who had yet to join the fight.

"Aw shit," Soul mumbles. "Again?" With his emotions flying as they are, Soul can't seem to get a grip over his own magic. He's accidentally jumped into yet another body. Soul winces as the new sensations worsen his headache. The taste of sea salt is a disgusting flavor on his tongue, and he can't see out of one eye due to the eyepatch. PirateTale?

Soul ducks as purple paint flies over his head. It seems Ink is keeping well enough track of him, but Soul's body swapping is confusing almost everyone else and buying him time. It might actually be useful to get out of this situation. The headache that's worsening into a migraine says otherwise. Three unconscious bodies have been left behind in Soul's wake, and he's not sure how many more times he can jump without resting.

The next attack comes before Soul is even on his feet. He yanks his sword out of its sheath and bats away the bone. Soul is able to fend off a few more before purple paint hits the sword and yanks it out of his hand. Before Ink has the chance to try again, Soul turns and grabs someone by the shoulder.

The battle continues like this for several minutes. Soul is able to quickly adapt to any and all abilities he gains while switching hosts. The abrupt changes in battle strategies keep Ink, and now Dream, from catching up with him. The pain in Soul's head is almost unbearable by the time he jumps a ninth person. It's getting harder to think straight and not react to his host's emotions. Soul's last few jumps have gotten him close enough to the door that he makes a break for it. Soul almost falls over when he turns. This is why he hates being a G!Sans. Their legs are so long that Soul feels like he's on stilts.

So close. Soul is only yards away from the door. It feels like something alive is pounding on the inside of his skull and sending pulses of pain down the rest of his body. Soul sees a decaying Underground and dimmed lighting down a long tiled hall. A whole tsunami of regret and bitterness strangles Soul. He stops running. G never runs from a fight. Loosing himself G whips back around just in time for someone small to crash into his gangly legs.

Soul gasps as something heavy lands on his back and forces the air from his lungs. The weight is nothing as stars explode behind his eyes. Soul's vision goes blurry with the pain. He cries out and clutches his head, unable to curl up in the fetal position. He's pinned on his stomach and can only move his head and arms. There's a blurry image of his brother's spiked collar and a blood dripping off his cracked fist. Swapfell. The original Sawpfell is somehow even tinier than Underswap. Soul is pinned underneath G's much larger body. Soul doesn't know if he could move even if he were free. His head feels like it's going to explode.

Shouts are still echoing around the hall. The confusion of voices only makes Soul's pounding headache worse. Someone is screaming above all of the rest of the noise. At this voice's insistence, the chaos starts to subside. The few scattered fights around the hall die down. Soul can't pay it any attention. Even the hard floor is hard to notice with the waves of pain rolling through his head. Some part of Soul is relieved that he has limits. This is the price for taking advantage of people. Soul is so lost in his agony that he doesn't even register it when Ink and Dream are standing right in front of him.

"Are you sure it's them? They could literally be anyone," Ink frowns. He's not sure why the strange...... Entity? Spirit? Virus? has stopped struggling now. Soul isn't even looking at the two, his face buried into his arms to block out the light.

"Very sure. If I'm looking for it, I can sense two sets of emotions from Cherry," Dream nods. The Guardian doesn't know quite what to think as he looks down at Soul. Dream can tell that Soul is now in some sort of pain, but he doesn't know if he should help, or if he even can. Dream is also scared to touch Soul. Those blurry memories of being puppeted around terrify him. Dream can only remember a handful of minutes from the half-day that Soul was apparently controlling him. Those memories are just as confusing and scary as the rest of it. Dream remembers sitting on the floor of his kitchen and healing someone- someone with so many untreated scars that it makes Dream gag- but he can never remember who it was. The next thing Dream remembers is landing in his dead AU at what used to be the Tree of Feelings. Ink and Blue found him there.

"Are you done running now?," Ink asks, directing the question at Soul. When the Creator doesn't get a response, he uses the base of his brush to poke Soul. Soul doesn't even whimper. He's passed out from the migraine. "Did they leave?"

"I don't think so. Just unconscious. It's...... weird," Dream tries to explain. "I can feel two separate consciousnesses, but even with the other one falling asleep, Cherry is so much...... deeper. I'm not surprised that I lost all awareness if this is how I was when possessed. I'm not sure if I could even find Cherry in a dream at this point."

"I can't let someone like this roam around. They could do something awful as someone else," Ink frowns. Whatever Soul is has Ink oddly curious. Ink doesn't usually feel any one particular emotion very strongly, if he mixes his paint right, but he finds himself wanting to figure out this mystery quite badly. "Can I keep him?" Ink says abruptly.

"W-What?"

"Can I keep them? For a few days at least?," Ink repeats. He seems to realize that this isn't a normal question, and tries to back peddle a bit. "I mean, well, we could keep him here for a while. Find out what they want."

"That is a terrible idea. We don't know anything about them!" Dream protests.

"Exactly! We don't know their motives or goals or even where they came from. I should know about everyone in this Multiverse, but I don't know them. Isn't that enough to be concerned over?"

"............ I'm not taking responsibility for this."

"That's not a no!"

"I have to call Cherry's brother," Dream sighs, "Just don't do anything too rash. You can't prove that they're bad, even with everything." Dream gestures to the unconscious bodies scattered around the hall.

"I'm not a baby."

"You do tend to go overboard sometimes."

Ink sticks out his tongue immaturely at that.

News of the situation spread fast. There's some sort of new virus running around that can jump around into different bodies. It certainly sounds villainous enough. While still unconscious, all the monsters that Soul left on the floor in his wake seem alright. They were sent back to their AUs as the meeting was canceled after all that had happened.  Dream makes sure that Blue is alright before taking him home. Sci ended up hauling Red back to ScienceTale, planning on texting Boss about the situation.

There isn't actually a proper place to hold people in the AU that the meeting hall is in. Ink ends up choosing a smallish room in an unused corridor off the meeting hall. He uses his paint to switch out the wooden door to one made of iron bars. Ink then reinforces the rest of the room, creating a comfy bed in one corner of the otherwise empty room.

When this is done, Ink returns to the now nearly empty meeting hall. Dream is waiting in there for him. Soul is still lying unconscious on the floor, no longer pinned. Dream has been trying to get a better feel for what kind of person Soul might be, but it's hard with a sleeping monster.

"How should we move him?" Dream asks Ink approaches.

"I've got a plan!" Ink laughs. He pulls out a blanket and lays it out in the floor. Using purple paint to make a single chain, Ink lets it wrap around Soul's torso and simply lifts the smaller monster onto the blanket.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to drag him against the bare floor first," Dream comments.

"I'm not that bad!" Ink protests, but after a moment, adds, "Am I?"

Dream doesn't like the genuine doubt Ink has in himself. "No. You try too hard to be normal to be bad. You'll stop questioning yourself one day, I promise." After all, Dream only wants to protect the few people who stand at his side. If that means being Ink's back-up morals, then that's perfectly fine.