Iceberg Adrift- Part 2

Isaac descends back underground to save the day, and chuck one last iceberg before being the biggest thing under Mt. Ebott besides the mountain itself- Enjoy!

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Isaac woke up suddenly to the urgent, nagging buzz of his phone. Bleary-eyed, the hulking wolf peered at the screen— Undyne was calling him. "...Hello?" the wolf muttered. "What's up, Captain? I'm not on duty for another three hours."

"Get your icy butt down here, Isaac, we got a situation— four kids have disappeared on us, run away from home. I'm calling the rest of the guards to the station, move it!"

The overly muscular canine grunted as he grabbed his things, rushing out the door as fast as he could. When he reached the station, he saw a lot of the other dog guards crowded into the briefing room, then Undyne took to the stand. "Alright! Everyone, listen up! We've got seven missing kids, all of them formerly from Snowdin. You're all familiar with MK, they've got a little gang and after Guard Isaac rescued them from a narrow chasm yesterday, they've now all run away from home."

Isaac gasped sharply, his ears flattening as he instinctively looked away from his eyepatched captain. A pit fell into his stomach; MK had just been telling him about how much they wanted to get back to Snowdin. He didn't want to make a fuss… but maybe if he had spoken up when he had a chance, the kids wouldn't have been able to run away. The huge wolf frowned deeply, his chin sinking into the cleft of his chest. His face fixed in grim determination, the wolf shot up from his seat. "Captain? I think I know where they're going. I can bring them back."

With Undyne's approval and the whole town behind him, Isaac rushed for the chasm along the slopes of Mt. Ebbott. The boulder he had pulled free still rested against an outcrop, and he sniffed the air, trying to catch a scent, a trail, anything— then, he saw it. Grabbing a hold of small piece of brightly colored cloth, Isaac swore under his breath— he recognized it from MK's jumper. The wolf then peered at the chasm. It was dark, a yawning void in the ground that may as well have led to the center of the earth. But he knew better; it led back to home.

The wolf barely fit in the narrow caves; he didn't recognize them, but then what little he knew about the underground, he knew that there were any number of crags, caves, caverns, and openings that could lead anywhere. It didn't matter if this led back to Snowdin, necessarily— what mattered is that this was where the kids travelled. He grunted softly, then started to pant; it was far warmer than he remembered, and when at last his eyes adjusted to what dim light was still in the old, abandoned realm of monsters, he let out an audible gasp.

Snowdin was completely snow-free. The huge drifts and banks of soft, fluffy snow were completely gone. He felt his heart sink into his stomach; Snowdin was nothing without its snow. He never realized how dull and lifeless it all seemed without a thick blanket over it, nothing but the hard, stone ground and the winter decorations either packed up or turned off, presumably forever. His ears twitched as he studied the town, then heard a noise from Grillby's old place.

"Kids?" He called out. "Kids! Hey! It's Isaac, you're safe!"

One of the kids made themselves known, sticking their head out of the door. "Ice Wolf? Quick! Before they show up again!"

Isaac furrowed his brow as he rushed across the old street, ducking under the door frame, filling it with his wide back and broad shoulders. His eyes widened as he saw a half dozen or so of the Snowdin kids, huddling behind an upturned table. The wolf scanned them all quickly, doing a head count in his head. "Wait… Seven kids are missing, there's six of you here. Where's MK?"

The others exchanged nervous glances with one another. "The… those things got them."

"Things?" Isaac frowned. "What things?"

The door to Grillby's was flung open as a creature unlike anything Isaac had seen before stormed in— a strange, misshapen thing with too many mouths and eyes, shambling and letting out a guttural roar. Isaac snarled, putting himself between the kids and the creature. 

"Stay behind me!" the huge wolf snarled as he picked up the table the kids had been hiding behind, and chucked it at the creature— the table hit it with the force of a catapult, and it reeled and screamed. Isaac stared as he watched the creature twist and writhe, hissing and snapping a few sets of jaws at him in anger before lunging at him. Limbs that twisted at angles that shouldn’t have been possible swiped at the wolf, forcing him to duck. The screams of the children made him tense before his hackles rose.

In a surge of fur and mass he launched himself forward, arms locked against the amalgamation’s wretched form. It tried to pull free, screeching and snapping to try and break his grasp, but still it made no headway in being released. Isaac let out a roar, arms rippling, biceps digging into the ruined flesh of the creature before he lifted it bodily from the floor. Growling he slammed it down, boards splintering and cracking before one cinder block-sized fist curled up and slammed into the creature. It was sent sprawling back, crashing into the wall near the door.

Letting out a few pathetic hisses and chitters, the amalgamation struggled to its legs before scurrying haphazardly from the bar, yelping in pain while Isaac stood, panting; not from exertion, but from concern. Looking back to the children he let out a soft groan. “You guys should not have just run off like that! You got the whole town riled up worried sick over you. Look— the way I came is safe. It'll take you five minutes to get back to the surface and then home. I have to go after MK; you all just get back to Hometown. Understand?"

One of the monster kids looked around at their friends, then back up at Isaac. "But… this was our Hometown. We just missed it."

The huge wolf's ears flattened, then he let out a soft sigh. "I know— I do, too. And— And I should've told you all not to come out here yesterday. But this isn't home anymore, because… well, the people that made it home are all back at Hometown. You didn't really want to live here without your folks, right?"

They all shook their heads, and Isaac grinned softly. "Alright. I'll walk you to the edge of the town to where I came in— the tunnel will take you straight back outside. Let's go."

The cavalcade of children began to band together, wishing Isaac luck. One small girl held out a bottle she’d found under the bar, pushing it into Isaac’s hand before the group departed to get back home and away from any of the remaining monstrosities.

Looking at the bottle he lifted an eyebrow. He had seen some of Grillby's Firewater before, but it wasn’t something he had ever really tried— mostly because of the name, he wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of heat to begin with. Still it wasn’t like he’d had time to grab a drink before rushing down into Snowdin. Popping the cap off the drink he tipped the bottle to his lips and drank deep. The liquid was cool on his tongue, but as soon as it hit his stomach it was like he was being burned from the inside. Heat raced through his body, snaking its way through his limbs as he hunched forward, groaning and panting.

The wolf’s jaw clenched as he felt that heat searing into his muscles, fibers twitching beneath his fur before he roared. His body shook, heaving as bulk piled on, fighting against his own pelt as raw meat filled out his frame. That broad chest bounced, pushing up against his jaw while his lats flared out, forcing his arms up and against his body. Biceps that could have ripped chunks from the mountain itself brushed into the sides of his pecs while his stance was forced wider by the marble pillars of his thighs. Quads ground together even as he shifted his feet wider, tail whipping around below a back that could have blocked much of the entrance to the mountain on its own. Lurching forward he planted one enormous hand on the floor, sucking down air as his vision swam for a moment. 

"Has this stuff always done that?" he managed to mutter to himself before forcing his way back up to standing. His mind raced, trying to figure out the best way to find MK. If the amalgamations had taken them, it meant they were downriver of the town. His eyes widened, an idea bubbling up before he rushed out of Grillby’s, ripping the door off the hinges in his haste.

The thawed town was eerie to see, after so many years of the cold and snow it was like a husk of itself. But still Isaac ran toward his former perch, knowing its position above the river would make getting downriver easier. For all his urgency, he still wasn’t prepared to see the ice-maker he used to throw blocks from encased in a boulder of rime and solid frost, a bit dripping off it. Staring in shock he rubbed at his cheek before looking down at the river. He’d hoped to just use one of the ice blocks to float down the river, but with the machine frozen that wasn’t an option. 

“Or is it?” he murmured, something off to the side catching his eye.

Looking up at the chunk of ice encasing the machine he sank his claws into the frozen water. Gripping hard he snarled, arms billowing as he began to lift the boulder of frost off the ground. With a deep grunt he heaved the frozen block of metal into the river, watching it send waves rippling as it crashed down. Bobbing slightly he gave a quick nod before leaping down from the perch. Claws raked over the iceberg as he clung on, feeling it begin to move with the flow of the river.

It didn’t take long before the True Lab came into view, the former site of many dark experiments on fallen monsters. And even as he approached he could hear panicked screams carrying across the water. Isaac’s eyes went wide at the sight of MK running from the lab’s entrance, scraped and bruised as they did their best to keep sprinting.

“Run MK, keep going!” Isaac bellowed as the iceberg floated closer toward the lab. Heaving himself  from the block of ice his legs sank into the water. Trying to plow his way to the shore he looked at the broken door of the lab and the iceberg. Gritting his teeth he gripped at the block of ice, groaning loudly as he started to haul it from the water. Chest pumping, biceps swelling, cracking some of the ice from the pressure. “GET DOWN, MK!”

With a roar of exertion he sent the mass of frost and metal hurtling through the air as the child dropped to the ground. It soared overhead before slamming down into the front of the lab, crushing some of the doorway, the metal twisting and creaking. The sounds of the amalgamations was cut off while Isaac dragged himself from the water, lumbering over toward MK. “Are you okay? How hurt are you?”

MK groaned softly, slowly getting to their feet. “I think I’m okay. I just really wanna go back to Hometown now.”

Sighing deeply, Isaac rubbed a heavy hand over his face before planting the other on Mk’s back. “I’ll get you back home, buddy. And then I’m fairly certain your parents are going to have a talk with you, but you’re safe now and that’s what matters.” He picked MK up, lifting the monster child like they were nothing, and resting them on one jutting, shield-sized shoulder. "Though you're gonna have to tell me how you found the way down here in the first place… I may wanna get that Ice Maker topside. For old time's sake."