Arc IV: The Blasters

Chapter I

"Arbogast, you cannot stand at your full height, you will not fit into the picture."

"Right, right, I can slouch."

"-Sans you are the shortest so you go in the front."

"gee thanks."

Gaster peered out at them from behind the camera tripod, good eye narrowing slightly. "…? You are welcome?"

Sans grinned and waved his hand a little dismissively, straightening out the lab coat as he made his way to the front and center of the group. "never mind, doc."

"…Right. -Dr. Likker try to closing your eyelids a little, the shine from your eyes is throwing off my lighting system."

"I don't have any eyelids, W.D."

"Then use your hands or something."

Amid a couple jostling elbows and rearranging, Gaster let out a small growl, pinching just above his nasal hole. "Taking pictures should not be this difficult…Where is Alphys?"

She hadn't shown up for work today. Perhaps he'd assumed that she was merely late, but then she didn't show up later on either. Sans looked at the confusion of his colleagues before raising his hand. "she's out sick. picked up a bug the other day."

Or so she claimed.

Gaster snorted, expression darkening just a little. "Well that is what you get when you spend so much time at the dump, isn't it? I guess she doesn't get to be in the picture."

"i guess so."

The team working in the laboratory, minus Alphys, wasn't particularly large. But then neither was the viewfinder on Dr. Gaster's camera. In the front was Sans, teeth bared in his usual, skeleton grin. Just next to him were Doctors Likker and George, one of whom was in his usual bug-eyed stare and the other smiling as though he'd eaten something foul just before. And then behind them, with his jagged smile going up his entire head, was Dr. Arbogast.

"Alright, now hold still all of you." Back behind the camera Gaster went.

There were no announcements of "smile" or "say cheese"-just a sudden flash, and the click and whirr of a camera producing its picture. After another few shots finally Gaster gestured for them all to move, and there were some collective sighs of relief and chattering. As the others began to wander back to their stations Sans took a step towards his desk-smaller than the others. Made using any spare equipment they had lying around, though Asgore was footing the bill for a new computer.

A holed hand waved in front of his face. "[I am not finished with you yet.]"

Sans sighed at the flip to wingding but stopped in his tracks. "what do you want, doc?"

"[Your photo for your badge.]"

The shorter skeleton blinked. For the past week he'd had above his name on his security pass not a picture of himself but a little image of him that Papyrus had taken the initiative on drawing. "PEOPLE WON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE!", he'd said.

"oh. …well, uh. finally. although um-i kind of like the picture i have now?"

Gaster tilted his head somewhat, putting his hands on his shoulders and physically moving Sans into place against the white backdrop he still had set up. "[Don't be ridiculous. This will only take a minute. Five, counting the time it will take for you to get it in the badge …Or perhaps in your case ten with how lazy you are.]"

"hardy har har." He obediently stood still as the doctor moved the camera in closer before taking the head shot. Having the flash closer blanked out his eyes for a moment.

"[There we go.]" The picture made a little humming sound as it was printed out of the camera. Gaster handed the image off to Sans. "[Go to the paper slicer and get this the proper size. Then switch out that crude scribble.]"

"i think the crude scribble is cute. can't i keep this in here?"

"[No. Just because it is boring and menial doesn't mean you can get out of doing it. Now go on, I have other important matters to tend to. Now that Alphys is slacking off at home.]"

Sans almost tried to remind him that she wasn't slacking off, she was sick, but then she might have been lying anyway. He just blew out a long breath-one he didn't need because he had no lungs-and trudged off to head for the printing room.

It was a little off the beaten path. No one used it except for getting reports around. Which by itself didn't sound too complicated but apparently King Fluffybuns liked to have a little color and flash in the papers. Made it easier for him to read.

As he passed the vending machine he punched in one of buttons without really thinking about it, hearing a small beep as the machine protested the lack of payment.

Still full of chisps.

Finally he made his way there, flicking on a light and waiting as it fizzled to life.

The paper slicer was off to the side on the counter, surrounded by bits of paper scrap that no one had thrown away. Sans sighed, lining up his picture on the surface of it. Or trying to. Every time he was about to bring down the blade his fingers would nudge it just a little off the line and he'd have to line it back up.

Maybe he could cut the photo in half and lie and pretend that he hadn't messed it up on purpose. And then keep using the drawing. So Papyrus didn't have to look on his badge and frown and ask where his drawing went.

…Or maybe he'd just look at it and cheer that it looked all professional like he was a real scientist and it wasn't all some stupid game of pretend.

Whatever.

Making a big deal out of nothing.

The edges weren't completely even but eventually the sides were gone and it was small enough to fit inside the plastic slot on the badge. It took a bit of maneuvering. It was especial tricky because he'd opted to leave the original drawing inside, underneath the more professional looking photo. But eventually it was in there, and he turned it around to give it a once-over. See if it looked like the one Dr. Gaster used.

Sans the skeleton.

He shook his head, chuckling lightly and then heading back to the lab room.

"[Sans we are not calling them 'Gaster Blasters'.]"

Gaster heard his new coworker giggling behind him and sighed, erasing the image on their whiteboard with a sweep of his sleeve.

"[I knew I shouldn't have shown you a picture before giving you the rest of the details. We are calling them Energy Manipulation Cannons.]"

"aw come on doc."

"[They are weapons, they are not toys.]" He considered himself fortunate that they were the only ones in the lab at this hour. No one else to overhear the embarrassing nickname. "[Besides, you know how Asgore is. If we introduce him to them through that name he'll never want to call them anything else.]"

Sans tilted his head slightly, hands in his pocket. "and that's a bad thing how?"

Gaster's working eye narrowed and Sans put his hands up, lightly waving them.

"alright alright, just tell me how we're gonna get it to work."

"[Well-]" Gaster began scrabbling out some notes on the board-starting in wingding before suddenly realizing that Sans couldn't read it and begrudgingly going back to aster. "[I have been preparing a device that can be used to sort of…implant the ability into any subject that I choose. -The process is a little more complicated than that but for simplicity's sake that is what it does.]"

"sounds fancy."

"[…Fancy is not the adjective I would use.]" He paused, erasing some text and making a crude sketch of the machine that he had stashed away in a far office of True Lab. "[There are some stipulations to using it, of course, otherwise I would have every monster in the underground installed with a cannon. First of all being that the process is…excruciating?]"

Sans took a step back, brow lifting slightly. "…excruciating, question mark?"

"[Well, I have not actually been able to use it, yet. That is just an educated assumption. You see I derived the cannon's properties from my own genetic structure, so it only works on…skeletons. And they have to be very magically robust skeletons at that.]"

There was a pause as the words sunk in and he turned back to his charge.

"[-This is partly why I was so excited when I first met you-another pair of skeletons with such precocious abilities.]"

"oh. …this is…what you intended all along, isn't it?" The curve of Sans' smile began to wane. Hands slipping out of his pockets to hang limply at his side. "…for me and papyrus."

"[You mean for Papyrus and I.]" His correction only seemed to make the suddenly tense atmosphere even worse, and Gaster sighed. Turning back to erase the whiteboard again. His sleeve was smudged and dark with black dry-erase marker. "[For you two, yes. –You did know that, didn't you? Or at least you suspected it? I can't believe this is the first time such a thing has crossed your mind.]"

"…i guess this isn't nearly as horrible as what i'd been thinking you had in mind."

"[That's the spirit.]" Gaster glanced back, going to put his hand on Sans' thin, bony shoulder. "[Yes.]"

"this is the thing you want me working on."

"[Of course. You're the only person I can-trust with this.]"

"…great."

The half-hearted way that Sans responded made Gaster the slightest bit uneasy for some reason. Like he didn't view this as the opportunity it was. He wanted him to be on board. He wanted his full energy towards it. Whatever energy there was lurking inside of him.

"[It doesn't bother you, does it? …Things actually turned out much better for you, you know. Now instead of being a subject to experiment on, you get to be a participating researcher.]"

That did seem to perk him up, surprisingly. Making that light noise that could be mistaken for laughter, if one didn't know what Sans' actual laugh sounded like. "…participating researcher, huh?"

"[Oh yes. I am excited to work with you, not using you. You would assist me with calibrating the machine to make the process easier and more efficient, and develop usage of the actual cannon. Not aid that would be useful from a mere subject.]"

"…yeah? -yeah i guess i see what you mean." The smile returned, though hesitant and small. "i'm sure i can pick up on it all lickety-split, ay? like finding my way around in the core."

"[Precisely.]" Perhaps he should have gone for flattery years ago. Ah, well. Gaster started to move towards the exit into the hallway, gesturing for Sans to follow. "[We are not going to begin anything at this point but I am going to introduce you to the machine to better explain how this is going to work.]"

"introduce me to the machine?" Sans began to laugh again, and, encouraged, Gaster picked up the pace. "we gonna exchange names?"

"[Oh hush.]"

The lights flickered and wavered ominously as they walked through, not that the scientist paid any mind to it. The lab was always a little creepy when the others left-when it was just him. And now, Sans. Hm. Maybe that made it less so.

In the far removed corner, past some makeshift firing ranges and botany labs, he punched in the code for his personal technology lab. Quietly leading Sans inside. The lighting was much better in here-so bright that everything inside could be clearly seen, in fact. The both of them had to pause, let their vision adjust to the brightness.

"jeez you're a real pack rat, aren't you?"

The place was filled with junk.

-Not that Gaster saw it that way.

The countertops were not visible from all of the various machinery and parts that littered the room Half-finished inventions that were overtaken by more pressing projects, parts for ongoing ones that couldn't yet be installed. The only thing that really qualified as garbage in his mind were the pieces of a rubix cube that he hadn't been able to solve, strewn somewhat over the tile floor.

"[Nonsense. All of this has to go somewhere, doesn't it? I certainly can't keep it at the house.]"

In the corner was a mechanical base-looking like mere scrap at the moment, but still he quickly pulled a tarp over it before Sans could get a good look. "[Anyway, the machine there in the side-We're going to move this out somewhere less crowded, so that it can be used properly. I installed wheels. I figured you would approve of it requiring less work to move.]"

"har har, you've got a really one-track joke mind, don't you?"

"[So do you, if Papyrus is to be believed.]" Gaster gave him a bit of a smirk, wrapping his thin bony fingers around the frame of the magic injector and slowly starting to pull it from its position. "[-Hold the door open, would you?]"

"sure." The wheels squeaked unbearably as it only just barely made it through the door-Gaster huffing slightly from the exertion. Mobile it may be, but the thing was still heavy. Rather than assist once he no longer had to hold the door open Sans just trailed along behind, hand in his pockets. "hey, uh-speaking of. this project's just gonna be the two of us, right? no one else?"

Gaster's broken eye dropped as he looked back, smile arching in its crooked way. "[Why would I need anyone else? We two are the only people this machine will work on, and we certainly don't need someone else to write notes. You are full of such unnecessary questions, Sans.]"

"hah. yeah." The taller skeleton waited for a self-degrading pun. It did not come. "nah, i mean are we gonna-you know, involve…" When Gaster looked back again Sans' eyes wavered, glancing briefly down at his new security badge, and then he shrugged "aw forget it. do i gotta keep this a secret, i mean?"

"[A secret?]" It was something that he'd briefly considered, surely. When given a choice between exposing his work to the world and hiding it behind closed doors, he would always prefer the latter. Just because sometimes he wasn't understood. Sometimes he was misread. And sometimes, some people, who he would not think about, tried to steal credit for his work.

But ultimately, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible, he replied, "[…No. No you do not have to keep it a secret. Although I would like that you not broadcast it to your little friends.]"

"you mean i can't text everyone all your calculations?"

"[Do not joke with me, Sans, you know I have no sense of humor.]"

The testing room was ultimately about the same size as Gaster's personal tech lab, but it wasn't filled up with other projects to hog space. He carefully slotted it against the wall, grabbing a chair from the side and positioning it in front of the machine. It was only then that Sans took a step forward to provide a stabilizing influence, grinning as he usually did.

He flinched when Gaster put his hand on his shoulder.

"[You will make me proud. I know you will.]"

"…sure. thanks doc."

Author's Note: I'm so sorry this chapter took so much longer than the others. Please know I am not dropping this fic. I have written so much for what comes next already, there's no way I could. But my life is picking up and I have several things on the burner. Including working on a future story collection I really hope I can get through. It doesn't help that when I did get some clear inspiration, I ended up getting inspired to write the chapter after this one.