Chapter Warnings:

Battle and injuries

Cursing, once again ;T

Chapter Four Start

"Nightmare! We've come to stop your reign of terror, we won't let you torment these innocents any longer!" Ink struck his typical heroic pose, oversized brush held like a lance.

Nightmare barely flickered his eyelight, unamused. "Ay Speckle, were in fuckin' Underfell. No one 'round here's innocent, fuckin' dumbass!" Dust glanced over to see that Killer was the one to try to correct the creator.

Ink put a hand on his hip, his pose popping out a little, and he stood his brush back on the snow. "Well duh, everybody knows that. I mean it more like theyre innocent in uh.. Dream, whatd I mean?"

Dream answered before Ink could try to scan his scarf, as he'd done countlessly before. "More like they're innocent in multiversal matters?" Dust could see even the positivity beacon sounded a little anticipatory.

Dust spoke up as Nightmares tentacles flicked in what he recognized to be aggravation, and he could see Paps getting restless as well. "Alright, alright, enough about the speech discussion. Lets just get started already, yeah?"

There was but a moment of calm, both teams stilled, waiting to see who would attack first. The field erupted in a flurry of movement in the next moment, the whine of charging blasters and the hum of magic loud in the vast cavern.

An irritated grimace formed on Dust's skull, having narrowly missed a swing to the shoulder from Blue's warhammer. Dust shot a few bones his way in retaliation, his attacks strong in hungering malice. He could hear a crack, one of his attacks must've landed, and he could feel his eyes flare. Blue and Dust pivoted to face each other, surging forward with a clash.

"Having trouble keeping up?" Dust poked at his opponent, hoping to make things more interesting. He earned a grunt in reply, Blue apparently uninterested in his taunt.

He couldnt help but smirk a little as they both pushed for an advantage, seeing a smaller puncture wound to Blues left ribs, having missed the action, the fight of it all. He knew he always would, and his eyes flared a little sharper at his brothers whispered encouragement.

"Just make sure you can keep up." Blue shoved him back, getting in a right hook to his skull and knocking him out of range.

Dust's smile twitched wider, and he threw his weight upright and met Blue's blank face. He was frowning a little, displeased with having to fight but set on trying his best. Dust took the moment to glance at his teammates, and saw they were toying with their opponents, but was only able to look for a moment before his attention was once again redirected.

"Don't get distracted just yet, Dust." Blue swung his hammer in from the right, aiming to knock him into a tree likely, and Dust grabbed onto the hammer to slingshot himself upwards.

A blaster made for an easy platform, and he charged it for a small shot. "How's this for distracted?" Blue darted to the side, the blast glancing his battle armor, and summoned a few bones to sling in his direction.

Dust didn't bother to dodge, hopping off the oversized skull and letting the bones dissipate his attack. The pang to his mana was familiar, but not comfortable. He dashed towards his opponent, who swung his warhammer just enough to knock him into a tree. Blue responded with something Dust couldn't hear over the ringing in his skull, but he grumbled and pulled himself from the shattered bark. Something trickled unpleasantly from his spine, likely some shattered vertebrae if he had to guess, and he glanced to his right to meet his brother's gaze.

The apparition gave a smile tinged with malice, and his brothers pings towards his magic grew more insistent. Dust decided to give him a little control, he knew his brother was impatient too. Control lessened over his mana pool, he straightened a little as he felt his LV fill him further, and the blue of his eye was swallowed a little more in the red. Paps immediately urged him to summon more complex patterns, up the intricacy for his opponent. Dust complied.

Blue was getting more and more tired the more he threw at him, Dust could see it. He had him on the defensive, banter forgotten in their concentration. Blue had just started to really get the hang of the patterning and sling more attacks at him when something changed in the other half of the battlefield.

They paused, turning to look at the commotion just as he could see his teammates had. Some of the citizens of Snowdin had begun to scream and cry out, and he could hear buildings groaning in the distance, seeming unstable. Dust smiled, and turned his gaze to his Boss in anticipation. Nightmare was grinning, wisps trailing from his eye as his power increased, the viscosity of his sludge churning faster.

Dream was grim-faced, having been distracted by Killer and others long enough that he wasn't able to get to his brother, who was able to kill citizens en masse and prepare for consumption of the universe. Dust could see the rising tides of negativity swallowing the edges of Snowdin, sucking in the snowy landscape and growing ever closer as it consumed the world. It took a lot of Nightmares focus to be sure, but Dreamcatcher hadn't been able to get to him this time.

Ribs cracked and wounds bleeding, Dream called for a retreat before any of the crew could try to capture him. Blue and Ink retreated to the guardian, disappearing to another universe with a portal, defeated. Killer and Cross left to go ransack the shops for any healing items they might be able to snatch before the tar reached their area, and Dust grouped up with his leader again. The world grew darker as it was saturated with pure negativity, and Dust could see Nightmare was sweating as he grew closer, his healing and reforming temporarily on standby.

Dust didn't say anything. Killer and Cross were back with a dash, healing items and food in their grasp and presumably in their inventory. Dust was the one to open the portal, and Horror stepped through first, Killer and Cross following a moment after. Dust was about to step through when he heard an odd noise, something close to that of a portal opening distantly. He stopped immediately, turning to look at Nights and wonder if the so-called Star Sanses really came back.

He looked on edge, and they both glanced up to see a small, distinct white square among the black tainting the world. Tensing, they could only watch as something, no, someone, moved and the box closed. It was too far for Dust to see who or what it may have been, but he wondered if Nightmare's sharper eyesight may have been able to pick it out.

With a shared glance, they agreed to discuss it after and moved through the portal. The world was swallowed up behind them, another universe extinguished in the expanse of the multiverse.

Dust closed the office door behind him with a quiet click. He turned to see Nightmare seating himself at the desk, and sat in the chair before the desk. "Alright, the fuck was that? You saw that too, right?"

"Yes, I saw it too. It looked to be a portal, but I dont know of anywhere that looks so indistinguishable, just a pure white.." Nightmare's expression furrowed in contemplation.

"Yeah, there isnt anywhere I know of that looks like that. Wasn't even a shadow in the place. I couldn't see whatever was on the other side, did you catch it?" Dust was a little frustrated at the elusiveness of the situation.

Nightmare responded, "I could see it was another skeleton, apparently black boned like myself, which is rare enough as it is. They also seemed to fluctuate, like the entire thing didn't look right. It may have been the effects of the portal, but it was odd nonetheless."

Nightmare seemed to make up his mind, and straightened, looking to Dust. He knew he would be getting another assignment, but he was more intrigued with this one. "This will need to be watched for further development. We won't need to mention it to the team yet, but I will keep looking for anything relating to the situation at hand."

He continued, "Dust, I need you to keep an eye out for whomever may be watching us, in the meantime. I have a feeling this is not the first nor will it be the last time we may be observed on our excursions, if not our HQ."

"Understood. I assume we will be telling the others if the situation escalates, or if they see it themselves." He knew they'd be made aware of this portal situation one way or another.

"Correct. You may be dismissed if you have no other inquiries, go make sure the others have healed themselves." And make sure Cross and Killer haven't eaten all of the sweets they took from the shop. Got it.

Dust exited the office and started towards the kitchen, a small smirk lifting his grin. Things were going to get interesting.

Characters made by:

Ink - Comyet/Myebi

Dream - Jokublog

Blue/Swap - Originally Popcornpr1nce, Community

Word Count: 1,537

Pages on Docs: 4