Iceberg Adrift- Part 1

Our biggest winner for the Undertale poll was... Ice Wolf. I'm a bit surprised, but was happy for the challenge- for this one, I had to basically invent a whole character, so I hope you all enjoy- Isaac Wolfe, or the Ice Wolf, is adrift without his previous job of lobbing huge chunks of ice into the underground river. When he finds new purpose as a guard, however, he quickly grows into the new role. Enjoy!

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Isaac Wolfe, or Ice Wolf to his friends, had trouble adjusting to things on the surface. Things were simple back under Mt. Ebott, back in Snowdin— he picked up huge slabs of ice, dropped them in the water, and kept the whole place nice and cool. It was simple, but more than that, it was essential— King Asgore himself told him how important his job was. Or rather, King Asgore told him that his chief scientist Alphys said it was important.

Now some human kid dropped in out of nowhere, there was some business with a flower and souls, and now everyone was told they had to go move up to the surface. Hometown was fine, he supposed. It was too warm for half the year for his liking; Isaac liked ice and snow. He was a big wolf, with thick dark fur and big muscles— lifting ice would do that for anyone— and these seasons were not doing him a favor during spring and summer. 

He had drifted around from job to job, with nothing really fitting him. He had joined Sans at his hot dog stand, and the hot dog stand had ended up in the park's lake when Isaac panicked. He had worked as a janitor at Toriel's school, but then the teachers' printer ended up chucked out of a window when he was asked to clean the teachers' lounge. It was instinct— he picked up heavy things, and he threw them away.

That is what left him working at Burgerpants', with his boss, the perpetually stressed feline entrepreneur also named Burgerpants, walking him through the fryer. "Alright, look Isaac— all you have to do is pick up the fryer basket, put it in the oil, and then just pull it out when the alarm goes off. It's easy."

Isaac furrowed his brow, looking over to Burgerpants. "Can't I work on the ice cream machine…?"

"Not right now, it's broken— we need fry orders in, so, get to it." Burgerpants pat Isaac's broad shoulder. "You'll be fine. You got this."

"Mmngh…" Isaac grumbled nervously as he watched the fries. About a minute after Burgerpants left him alone, he nearly jumped as the alarm went off, hesitating as he could eel the heat radiating off the machine.

"Icy! I can hear the alarm, get me those fries!"

"I-I'm on it!" Isaac reached for the basket, but then a bit of oil flew out and hit his hand, making the wolf recoil— the alarm continued to go off.

"Isaac! Fries, need 'em! We got a crowd up here!"

Isaac let out a small whine as he reached for the basket, and the oil singed him again.

"I need those fries now, man!" 

Isaac growled low— for a third time, the oil leapt out and bit at him, and out of frustration, he tensed his thick muscles and gripped the bottom of the fryer. "I'll give you fries!"

"...And that's how I lost my third job in two weeks," Isaac let out a small moan as his ear folded back, and he sank down on a bench in the local gym locker room.

He had been commiserating to none other than Asgore— the hulking, burly goat monster sometimes worked out with Isaac, and he was still technically Isaac's King— even if he was now running a flower shop. 

Asgore let out a low whistle, running a hand over his horns. "So… you just dragged the entire fryer out to the cash register?"

"I couldn't get the little basket out!" Isaac groaned, burying his face in his hands. "I feel like I'm hopeless… All I'm good at is lifting ice, and… there's no ice around anymore!"

Asgore blinked. "Well… You know you're equally good at lifting other things, right? Actually…" he stroked his chin. "There is one person that I think might be able to harness your talents into something new. How do you feel about being part of the town guard? Or… police? I don't know what Undyne is calling them these days."

Isaac's ears folded back against him again, his tail wrapping around one of his thick legs. "Work out with Undyne? That's, uh. That sounds… intense."

"Well, it's either that or… I don't know, you could get a job picking up garbage?"

Isaac let out a full sigh. "Let's go see Undyne, I guess…"

The two exited the locker room, and found Undyne in the boxing ring. The tall and imposing captain was taking on two opponents at once— Reggie and Rigby, designated as RG1 and RG2. The two powerfully built guards, a musclebound pair of a dragon and rabbit, kept running head long into Undyne, and she kept turning them back onto one another with a quick counter attack or redirecting strike.

"Come on, guys!" Undyne shouted, bearing her fangs. "You're supposed to be big, beefy walls of meat that get between innocent monsters, and anything that wants to hurt them! I shouldn't be dancing around you like this!"

Asgore cleared his throat. "Undyne! Got a moment?"

"What?!" Undyne turned on her heel, dodging Reggie and Rigby's latest attempt as they ran into one another, hitting the ring with a heavy thud. She lightened up immediately when she saw Asgore. "Oh! Uh, my King. Sorry. What's up?"

"I'm not— well, I don't really know… regardless, I have a new recruit for you!" Asgore slapped Isaac's broad back, and the wolf felt the fur on the back of his neck stand on end as Undyne's eye fell on him.

The captain narrowed her one good eye. "Ice? Look, Asgore, I never question your judgement, but…" She sighed, running her hand down her face. "Isaac, do you have any fighting experience?"

"Uh…" He wobbled his hand. 

"But he's strong! Look at him!" Asgore gave the wolf a firm shake at the broad shoulders, thumping his beefy chest, and tugging up his large, thickly roped arm. "He's brimming with potential."

Undyne sighed, shaking her head. "Look Ice, you're a nice guy, but— do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I mean…" Isaac canted his head towards Reggie and Rigby. "I think I have enough sense not to run headfirst into my partner."

"Hmph!" Undyne scoffed ruefully, casting her stern eye back to RG1 and RG2. "Yeah, you've got me there." With an acrobatic leap, she hurdled over the boxing ring ropes and landed in front of Isaac, prodding his thick chest. "Look, Ice boy— you want to be one of my guards, I'm going to work you hard. Asgore taught me everything he knew, and I've only had time to make the training more intense. I will break you down and build you into something bigger, tougher, badder than you ever imagined— if you don't quit on me. Are you ready for that?!"

Isaac gulped, looking between Undyne and Asgore. "Well… It'll be better than picking up garbage…"

The workout regimen Isaac found to be blessedly familiar— what was weightlifting, after all, besides picking heavy things up and putting them down? The wolf understood that, he had been doing it on his own for ages. But he never knew there was an actual process to lifting big and heavy things— he had never considered positioning, form, or how to actually work out. He had never actually asked Asgore what to do, really, or how to properly lift the weights, he just did what came naturally.

Not so with Undyne— she watched him with a critical eye, took note and altered every slight wrong step and mis-angled move in his routines. It was difficult, but it was still lifting heavy things and putting them down, he could understand it and he liked doing it— it all felt natural. But then, Undyne introduced him to his new diet; supplements and protein powders by the bucketload. 

Then, Isaac noticed the effects such a serious routine were having on him. He had already been one of the bigger monsters, but soon he noticed that he was beginning to grow. All that protein powder had to go somewhere, and he knew what happened when you lifted heavy things long enough. His already impressive musculature began to billow out, as his chest became thicker than most ice shelves— a great, jutting mass that surged past his jaw, buffeted by sprawling shoulder blades and heftily fortified arms, with slab like triceps and bulging, overly ripe biceps larger than his head, legs heftier than most of the trees around Hometown, and thick as the slopes of Mt. Ebott. 

The wolf couldn't help but smile when he saw his reflection in the mirror— and how he began to overfill it. He was like a brick wall, if brick walls could throw huge, heavy things. He felt more like himself, more like he did back in Snowdin when he had a purpose and a job he knew and understood. The ice he threw in the water cooled the vents of volcanic activity deep inside the mountain, that kept them from exploding and endangering monsters— he was keeping people safe. As one of Undyne's guards, he was also supposed to keep people safe. His chest swelled with pride dwelling on that, engorged pectorals buffeting his chin. He had never been stronger, and the things he lifted had never been heavier. He understood his job and what it meant— there was just one problem. He was horrible at fighting.

In the ring, Isaac hadn't been able to win a single fight— Undyne regularly wiped the floor with him, Reggie and Rigby always managed to pin him down, and even Papyrus managed to get a win in on him. The wolf, once again, slumped into the locker room, feeling sorry for himself after Papyrus got him with his blue attack— it had taken him far too long in the shower to wash all the blue off of him.

"Gah… this is hopeless…" Isaac muttered darkly to himself.

"Ice, do you want to know what your problem is?"

Isaac's head snapped towards the voice he just heard, and he nearly hit the ceiling when he saw Undyne. 

"Captain!" Isaac grabbed his towel tight around his thick waist. "Y-you can't be in here! This is the Men's locker room!"

"Yeah? Who's going to stop me, you?" Undyne stepped right up to the wolf, shoving her hands against his beefy chest— Isaac grunted softly as his meaty pectorals bounced, but he didn't actually budge an inch.

"I, uh…"

Undyne frowned, looking up at him. "Ice. Do you realize I just shoved you, and I couldn't move you at all?"

"I…" the wolf shrugged his huge shoulders. "Do you… want me to move?"

"What? No! You're supposed to stand up for yourself, you dope!" Undyne groaned, rolling her eyes. "You're a guard, now. Your job is to keep people safe, and enforce the law. Enforce, Ice. You're gonna have to do something, you know? Push back when someone is doing something they're not supposed to."

"Mmngh…" Isaac shrugged again, looking away as his chin sunk into the cleft of his chest. "I… I'm not very good at… confrontation."

"You've built yourself into this… absolute mountain of a monster. You're insanely strong. Use it!" Undyne said. "Confrontation should be nothing to a big guy like you. Look— I'm not trying to be mean, but… you gotta learn how to say no, how to stop people from doing things they're not supposed to, and fight back. Otherwise… You might need to get a different job."

His head whipped back to Undyne. "What?! But… I-I can't! I… I've been through so many, and… I like this job…"

"Yeah?" Undyne punched Isaac in the arm. "Then you're gonna have to fight for it."

The wolf's mouth twisted a bit, but he reluctantly nodded. "Alright… alright, yeah, I see your point." He took in a deep breath. "I'll get better at… confrontation, Captain." He glanced around. "Now… uh. Leave the Men's locker room. Please?"

Undyne arched her brow, casting Isaac a dry look.

Isaac huffed, drawing himself to his full height, looming large over Undyne. He puffed up his chest, and pointed his huge arm towards the door. "Captain, you need to leave— you're not supposed to be in this room!"

The aquatic monster grinned approvingly. "That is more like it. I'd be intimidated, if I hadn't just seen your last match against Papyrus." She gave him a mocking salute, sauntering out of the locker room.

Isaac furrowed his brow as he thought of something. "Hey, uh. Undyne?" He called after her. "What would you have done, if I had gone into the Women's locker room?"

"Oh," Undyne chuckled a bit. "I don't know, really. But I do know that they wouldn't have found enough of you to identify the body." She flashed a toothy smile at him. "See you tomorrow for training!"

After his training, Isaac wandered out to the small park near the gym, down by a river that ran through town. He liked it here— it reminded him of his old post in Snowdin. He had heard it was supposed to snow in Hometown, in a few months. Still, he couldn't wait; he liked to wait out in the park now that it was starting to get cold again, hopefully he could catch the first snowflake that fell.

"Woah! Ice, you're huge now!"

Isaac turned and looked down, spotting MK, a little yellow monster with no arms. That didn't stop them from being an enthusiastic little tyke. The wolf grinned, curling one massive arm, and chuckling a bit as he watched MK's eyes go wider as they saw how big his bicep swelled up. "Heh. Yeah. I'm a guard now, so. They said I had to get into shape."

"Wow… you, a guard? So you work with Undyne?"

"Well, work for, more like."

MK's eyes had stars in them as they gasped. "That's awesome! She's the best! Wow…" the monster looked out across the park. "That's like, the first change I've heard in a while that was good."

"Had a lot of bad changes lately?" Isaac asked.

MK smiled crookedly. "I kinda miss Snowdin… like a lot." The monster kid canted their head up to the sky. "The sun is like, crazy bright. You can't even look at it without hurting your eyes, it's weird. Why put it up there, right?"

Isaac let out a small, rueful chuckle. "I suppose we should ask someone about that."

"That's what I'm saying! Anyways, I think it's really cool you're a guard, now. Beat up any bad guys yet?"

"I, uh…" Isaac rubbed the back of his head, his bicep rubbing his cheek. "I'll let you know when I do."

"Sweet. Anyways, see you Ice!"

"See you," Isaac sighed, thinking back to Snowdin, rubbing one of the many bruises Undyne had left him with under his thick fur.

Isaac continued to see MK and their friends as he officially began taking his rounds. Undyne was still working him hard in training, leaving him tired and sore, and he didn't have anything so official looking as Reggie or Rigby's armor, but Isaac started liking his work— if only because everyone seemed to like him. People seemed to approve of a hulking wolf like him as a guard— apparently, they felt safe. He just quietly hoped he never had to fight anyone…

While patrolling around Toriel's school after hours, the massive wolf spotted MK running up to him.

"Ice! Ice! I need your help!"

The wolf trotted forward to meet the kid. "What's wrong?"

"Me and my friends, we were, uh, w-we were on the slopes of Mt. Ebott, a-and then we found an opening, and we thought we could, uh…" MK gulped for air. "Please, Ice, I came looking for you because I knew you were cool— promise you won't tell, or we'll all be in trouble!"

"Won't tell what? Is someone hurt?" Isaac asked, crouching down to be on eye level with the kid.

"Promise me!"

"I promise, I promise!"

MK nodded desperately. "We were trying to find a way back to Snowdin, see— y-you said you missed it too, and we thought we could find a way back to town, and—"

Isaac placed a huge mitt on MK's head. "MK, just tell me where your friends are."

"R-right! This way!"

With evening fast approaching, MK led Isaac out to the outskirts of town, and up the slopes of Mt. Ebott. The wolf spotted one of MK's friends waving them down.

"What happened? Where are the rest of your friends?" Isaac demanded.

"They're down there!" MK canted their head down to a gorge that ran about the length of a house, just big enough for a group of small monsters to squeeze through. "We were exploring, and then… that!" Isaac's head followed MK's towards a giant boulder that was now wedged into the gorge's opening.

"It rolled right over us! Help!" One of MK's friends called from deep within the gorge.

"Alright, alright— I've got this." Isaac lumbered up to the boulder and grabbed the rocky surface, his claws gripping into the rocky exterior. The massive boulder was bigger than some houses, but— it was a moment like this that Isaac had been training for his whole life. If he couldn't lift this, what would it all have been for?

He tensed his huge body, every muscle primed. His legs locked in place, the ground cracking under the force of thighs thick as tree trunks. His broad back, a tapestry of swollen muscle clad in dark fur, flared  out like a banner unfurling in the wind. His massive arms flared, tensed biceps pressing into the rock, and the sheer bulk cracking away rubble. As he breathed in, his chest pressed up against his chin, and with all his might, Isaac heaved.

With a loud grunt, the gigantic boulder was hefted high into the air. "Go on," Isaac grunted. "Get up out of there!"

"Wow!" MK gasped. "Ice, you're amazing!"

A gaggle of Snowdin kids, rabbits and slime kids, rushed out before Isaac set the boulder off to the side, nestling it against an outcrop of the slope of the mountain.

"You're a hero!"

"You're so big!"

Isaac grinned broadly. "Well— so long as everyone's alright!"

MK nudged the wolf in his thick side. "Hey, Ice? Please— promise me you won't tell the adults about this. Mom would freak if she knew about us trying to get back to Snowdin."

"Well… I'm a guard now, I kinda gotta… make sure you guys are staying safe, and you shouldn't be out here anyways on your own…" the wolf rumbled.

"Aw, c'mon…" MK said. "You miss Snowdin too, you said! We just wanna find a way back."

"Mmngh…" Isaac sighed, patting MK on the head. "Just… don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"There they are! Over here!"

Isaac looked up, spotting lights along the tree line. Several of the monsters from Hometown were trudging up the slope, led by Toriel. The matronly goat breathed a deep sigh of relief as she saw all the Snowdin kids. "Oh, thank goodness! Everyone, we found them— they're alright!"

"We are, thanks to Isaac!" MK responded. "He saved my friends! He lifted that huge boulder and helped my friends get out!"

Toriel turned to face the huge wolf. "Isaac Wolfe— Well." She smiled warmly. "I had heard Asgore sent you to the guards, and… I admit I didn't think you had the right temperament for it. I'm glad to see I was wrong. You did a very good job here, today."

"Oh, uh… thank you, Miss Toriel," Isaac rumbled, grinning bashfully.

As all the monsters gathered around to thank Isaac, he found himself looking back at the gorge he had helped the kids climb out of. It occurred to him that, without the boulder there, it would also be easier for them to climb back in. Maybe try to find a way back to Snowdin. He knew he had been tempted… the thought occurred to him that, maybe, he should mention it to Toriel, Undyne, or even Asgore— but then he looked back to MK, still beaming up at him as their new hero. He didn't want to make trouble— maybe it was best to leave it alone, for now.