Memories of the Surface Chapter 3: Special Attack
Rain pattered in the distance. It wasn’t a real, fresh-smelling rain, Gerson knew, but good enough.
A brook babbled behind him. It wasn’t a real, sun-warmed brook brimming with life, but it was good enough.
The stars glittered above him. Not real. But...beautiful. The ceiling never changed, as if its ‘stars’ of shining stones were frozen in time. Sunrise never came. Constellations never shifted with the seasons.
Gerson stopped on the path close to the star-stones and turned his face up. His eyes leaped from constellation to constellation, before finally settling on one cluster of seven vertical stars.
“The Bunny’s Ears.”
Someone had told him about that constellation before...Harrold, that was his name. His old war buddy, the timid bunny monster. A faint smile cracked open Gerson’s face.
Yes, those unchanging stars embedded in a cave weren’t real. But they were good enou—
Gerson crouched, his opponent sailing over him. In an instant, his war hammer blinked into existence from his inventory with a disorienting spark. His hammer-shaped bullets manifested several paces before him as he rose to his knees, his neck raised, his hammer lifted…
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite hero-in-training! You’re getting faster and faster! You sure are lucky you don’t sound like a human, or you’d already be down.”
Undyne’s blue spear disappeared. “How’d you dodge my attack? I was ‘strat-ee-gic’ this time!”
“Well, it’s ‘cause of your battle cry! You don’t give your opponents warning!”
Undyne looked to the side and frowned. “Well, uh...you’re Gerson! I need to give you some warning! It’s honorable! And...um…” Undyne looked sheepish. “I don’t have any humans to practice on.”
Gerson sat down by the ledge with a subtle wave towards the fish girl. “Be thankful you don’t, kiddo.”
Undyne sat by him, aimlessly kicking her legs. “But when they show up...I’ll fight them.” Undyne said, the steely determination at odds with her fidgeting.
“Hopefully when you’re older and better at fighting.” Gerson replied, staring into the distance.
“That’s the problem!” Undyne exclaimed. “Gerson—I’m nearly eleven and still haven’t found my special attack! Everyone in my class has found their special attack months ago! If...If I can’t find my special attack...I…”
“Don’t worry about being a late bloomer, kiddo. The ol’ Hammer of Justice was a late bloomer too.”
Undyne’s eyes went wide. “Really?! You?!”
“Wahaha! Yeah, really. I figured out my special attack when I was much, much older than you! In fact, I learned it very late in the war...the First War of Humans and Monsters…”
---
Gerson woke up to another tense, quiet morning in the camp by that old pasture-turned-battlefield.
Harrold wasn’t on his mat at the other end of the tent. Must have woken up early...probably to go see that dragon woman of his in her tent across camp. His journal opened, he picked up a quill and wrote: Nice day today. He paused. Probably won’t get slaughtered. Fluffybuns is still negotiating surrender.
Something poked out of the journal, and Gerson’s hand flipped though the pages.
A map---a coarse piece of paper, a bit faded, a bit water-stained.
A bear and a skeleton packed up the monster market. Things weren’t bustling like they used to…
“Take it.” A brown-haired human girl (woman?) said, handing him the map. “One of my aunts lives in that town. She’s nice to monsters.” The girl tensed. “Just...tell her Abelai loves you.”
Abelai, that was her name! How could I forget the name of my old childhood friend?
Because I don’t see a lot of humans anymore...at least, ones worth talking to.
Gerson carefully slid the map back into place. It was mere months ago...feels like years.
She sure acted odd that day...Gerson thought. Like Harrold and his girlfriend. He laughed out loud. Oh, an old childhood friend, crushing on a forbidden monster love? Isn’t that the perfect fairy tale?
Gerson shook his head. Didn’t matter, did it?
--
“Gerson! That’s not about the special attack!”
“Alright, alright. I’ll skip ahead.”
----
“Good to see you, Harrold. Didn’t see you at breakfast. Gone off to find a private bush for relieve yourself?”
“N...no.” Harrold replied distractedly. “It’s Samrel. I haven’t….seen her lately.”
The silence stretched on. No birds chirping. No frogs peeping. Not even the breeze made a sound as it gently fluttered clothes and hair. Only the intermittent clank of armor being dropped into the carts for later salvaging split that awful quiet.
Harrold paused in his picking. “I don’t know where she is.”
The idea was left unspoken, and yet he could hear it, loud and clear...those faceless piles of dust blended together so much…
They carried on in silence for what felt like hours.
Gerson lifted up a promising chest piece...one with no big hole in the back.
Just my luck! Not one outfit that could fit a shell!
But at least I’m still wearing my clothes. Dust can’t wear anything. Gerson snorted. “It’s sometimes hard to tell what belongs to what,” Harrold began, as Gerson outright chuckled. “the wind keeps tossing the dust away from their uniforms.”
“Look on the bright side, Harrold,” Gerson said, holding back laughter. “Maybe…wa...hah....you’ll see your girlfriend...without her clothes.”
Harrold’s face darkened in disdain. “How can you laugh like this!?”
“Gotta keep up some cheer in times like these. And it was at least worth a smile.”
Nose wrinkling, Harrold walked away in a huff.
Without her clothes without her clothes.
All those bodiless clothes in the sack…
He couldn’t stop laughing. He couldn’t stop laughing, not even when the shame flooded up inside him, boiling him. He couldn’t stop laughing...until he choked on the dust on the wind.
---
“It was not a good joke,” Gerson said.
“Yeah!” Undyne said. “Monsters don’t wear clothes all the time!”
“Where was I…? Eh, you’ve waited long enough. I’ll just skip to the good part...the part where I learned my special attack.”
----
Two humans, their hands on strange objects.
Harrold, distracted. Stuck in one spot, not noticing them.
“Harrold was in a tough spot...somehow, two humans had shown up on the field...”
Two humans. Radiating menace. Their hands on the objects...weapons. Drawing them—ranged weapons!
Harrold. Still distracted by his tears.
Gerson raised his hammer…
“But my old tactics wouldn’t work. They were too far! And I couldn’t hit both…”
The smell of ozone wafted through the air. Gerson’s magic glowed, manifesting into the world…
“And so I drew upon a power I had never known before….”
Manifested into his hammer.
Thunk.
Twang.
“And I split my hammer in twain!”
Two huge, ghostly images of his hammer flew away on impact---
And struck both humans dead.
“Those humans had no idea what was coming! They were down in an instant!”
For an instant, the humans just stared at him in shock...then they fell like cut trees. Their breaths rattled as Gerson knelt before Harrold.
“Harrold. Harrold!”
Harrold slowly turned his head to Gerson, his eyes wide.
“And, oh, Harrold was so grateful I had rushed in to save him, had discovered my special attack at just the right time! Real surprised, he was! We had a big ol’ hug!”
Gerson rushed in to embrace him. “You’re alive! You’re—”
“Haa…”
Two arrows stuck out from Harrold’s other flank. They went right in through his armor.
“Haa...haa...” He shuddered just like the humans on the field. “Haa...haa...”
“Haha, right! You...you get the joke…” Gerson said quietly.
----
“We were friends to the end, Harrold and I.”
Gerson sat down from his dramatic telling, setting his hammer down on the stone floor. He put a thoughtful hand to his face as he stared intently at Undyne.
“You remind me of him, actually.”
“Was he brave?” Undyne said, her mouth slightly apart in excitement.
His face crumpling in fear.
“Nope.”
“Was he strong?” Undyne’s lips moving.
His arm reaching weakly to Gerson. A sudden crack in the air.
“Nah.”
“Then why am I so much like him?” Undyne set her mouth into a frustrated scowl.
Harrold giving one last, big, toothy smile.
“It’s your big buck teeth, of course!” Gerson guffawed, and then leaned over and patted Undyne on the head.
“Now remember: if it took that long for the Hammer of Justice to find his special attack, then you’ve got nothing to worry about! Now go out there and show the world all you have to offer!”
And Undyne ran off, her normal blue spear attack summoned, shouting at imaginary enemies.
Harrold’s body dissipating with a hiss. His arms...burdened with a hideous lightness.
And he never even saw what the human SOULs looked like before they shattered to pieces.
Gerson shrugged. He slowly rose from his spot.
And the imitation stars kept shining in the most beautiful spot in the Underground.
