The First Ride

Don't forget to listen for the My Galactic Taxi Getaway Driver theme!

***

I hold my breath while the galactic taxi speeds off. Once I regain full awareness of my quickly-passing surroundings, I take a glance out the window to check if the space police have found out that I've fled the building. Any red-and-blue lights?

Nope. Absolutely nothing. We are not even in the stratosphere of the Intergalactic Space-Time Town Square.

I breath out a quiet wow. Over the years, I have completly forgotten how fast galactic taxis can move. How fast was that, anyway? No normal car can go at that speed!

I catch myself wondering if there's a rocket strapped to the back of this neon-purple minivan.

Sans looks at me. "i'm guessing you haven't ridden one of these in a while, have you?"

I shake my head. "Not since five years ago." I'm fairly certain that every child on the planet has ridden a space taxi at least once, and it was at most five years ago. Come to think of it, a five-year-old would never have experienced the world that I used to live in-- one without the ability to travel wherever you would like to almost instantly thanks to the courtesy of a taxi driver and meet your favorite characters of television shows. How old that makes me!

My thoughts race off. I pause, peeking over at the rear-view mirror. Obviously, from the passenger's seat, I can't see anything, but I still check for those flashing lights that signify an intergalactic space police car.

Nothing. Phew. For now, I'm safe.

That reminds me. "Where are we going?"

Sans relaxes in the driver's seat. His hands slide down the wheel. "you said 'anywhere far away'."

I nod.

"so... it's somewhere far away."

I bite my lower lip. I didn't mean for us to go zooming out of the atmosphere and into blank outer space. Even though the Universal Code says that the government swept all of the interspace highways for black holes, there still could be some! And I don't want to go completely away from my shop. What if someone steals one of my shiny items?!

Sans takes a glance at my face. His set-in smile seems to grow. "are you in trouble of some sort?"

I shrug my shoulders. Telling my taxi driver about my eventful morning of finding a citation on my fridge and being accused of thievery doesn't seem like a good idea. Wouldn't that just get me stranded on the side of the interspace highway?

But I've always wanted to walk on the rings of Saturn! I look out the window, trying to find out if Saturn is anywhere nearby; if so, I could maybe take the risk of telling Sans. But then I recall that Saturn's rings have now become freeways, and walking on one of them would be both a death sentence and a dream come true.

Oh well. I may as well just take the chance now. I doubt it would be long before the space police find me at whatever place Sans decides to drop me off at, anyway.

"Can you keep a secret?" I twiddle with my thumbs.

He looks at me again. "well," he starts, as I impatiently wait for his response, "depends."

I huff. "Depends on what?"

"i dunno. it just depends." He takes his foot off the gas, and the taxi begins to slow to a non-light speed pace. I feel the change in pressure and find myself finally able to sink into the puffy passenger's seat.

I sigh. "Will you?"

"yeah, sure. go ahead." He waves my question into the air with a hand, as if he can drag it out of me with a motion.

I swallow, shoving my hands into my pockets. "I kinda... sorta... got... accused of stealing stuff."

He doesn't seem surprised. He might've read my mind! "what kinda 'stuff'?"

I shrug again. "I actually don't know. The citation never said anything specific. It was just an anonymous tip that got me in trouble."

"oh? citation, huh?" Sans looks up into the rear-view mirror. "so you weren't actually in real trouble?"

I shake my head. "Oh, I was. They sent the police dogs after me."

He smiles. "geez."

"Yeah, I know." I inhale slowly, still searching for Saturn if Sans decides to kick me out of his taxi. "I would've become beef jerky if I had stayed in my house. So I kinda just had to run... away... and so now I'm kinda sorta..."

Sans finishes my sentence for me. "...on the run?"

"Yeah." I nod shamefully, half blushing. I have nowhere to go. I have actually nowhere to go. What was I thinking, running away like that? If those police dogs find me, they'll tear me to meaty bits! And if the intergalactic space police finds me, they'll arrest me because I'm suspicious! I don't have a space-driver's license, or a space-learner's permit, and I have no idea if a galactic taxi speeding along the interspace highway would even have the chance to see me standing on the side of the road begging for a ride!

The look on my face must be quite obvious, because Sans starts to laugh. "oh man... sounds like some real trouble, huh?"

I sit up in my seat. "Can you read minds?" The question is impulsive.

He chuckles again, putting his hands back on the wheel to make a turn past a nearby blue planet. "y'know, maybe you aren't one of those kids that knows everything about me." He doesn't end up answering the question, but he does bring to mind something I have been thinking about for the past five minutes.

"I'm really not," I admit. "The only stuff I know about you are the things my cousin told me, which is actually very little." I stop, pondering. "It must be really annoying to always meet people who know everything about you."

"well, i gotta admit, kiddo... it is pretty creepy." He changes gears, shifting the stick. "they all know where i live, and that's kinda weird... and now i bet i have a bunch of junk mail."

Both of us laugh at the mention. "At least you're famous. Almost nobody knows that I even exist." I sigh halfheartedly. After five years working in (apparently) retail, I have discovered that almost no living person, especially not all the characters that live and exist in every other universe of the television shows I used to watch, knows who I am. My name resonates within no one, whereas Sans's name is the most well-known moniker in the entire Intergalactic Space-Time Town Square.

"you never know, kiddo." Sans sighs softly. "it could be better to be an unknown just floatin' around out here. i never tried to be famous... and heck, i didn't wanna be, honestly."

"Is it bad?"

"not really. just... y'know, too much attention for my taste."

I lean my arm against the windowsill and hold my head, wondering. My eyes squint at the dash in front of me. "I guess it feels different when it's like... no one has ever given me any attention in my whole life. Ever."

He looks at the rear-view mirror again, and this time his eye sockets widen. Immediately he reaches toward the gearshift and plunges it into drive. I reach down and hold the sides of my seat, realizing that we could go flying at any minute now.

"i think you're gettin' pretty famous now, actually." Sans nods his head to the back, and I reach around my chair to find red-and-blue flashing lights violently heading toward us. The police! They've found the taxi already?

Oh golly! I shiver in my seat at the thought of being arrested at only 14. "Oh, gee, I'm sorry--"

Sans interrupts me with a hand. "nope. no needta be sorry, bucko." He jams his foot into the gas pedal and I grip the sides of the leather seat as we go zooming up at light speed, probably out of the boundaries of the interspace highway and into the limits of the unknown. "this sure isn't my first rodeo."

I gasp, then look at him, feeling slightly disheveled. "Y'know, you don't have to--"

"nah." He takes a glance at me. "i'm pretty sure you're innocent--" Of course, he can read expressions! I forgot! "--so it looks like you need a getaway driver from these crazy space police."

"Um..." I blink. "Actually, yes. That would be great." We may have lost them by now, but I don't want to get out of this taxi... "Do you, uh... want anything in return, or... uh?" Dang it, Channing. Where did your words go?

Sans chuckles to himself, shaking his head. "listen, buddy-- i don't need nothin' from you, because it looks like you've been accused of somethin' that you didn't actually do. i think i'd rather have it that you got somewhere safe before i went around taxi-ing some other wild teenager."

I spit out laughter. "How long do you think that will take?"

"huh?"

"Getting somewhere safe... where I won't be chewed into jerky by space police dogs?"

He shakes his head and heaves an exaggerated sigh. "i dunno. but at least you're not some insane kid who knows where i live, so it wouldn't hurt for me to drive you around for a while. 'specially till you can get your name cleared."

"Will you help me do that?" Excitement lights up like wildfire in my veins when I think of Sans the skeleton helping me clear my name of accused thievery.

"sure."

I smile. The words "That's awesome!" almost come out of my mouth, but not before a blinding star of light splits the space in front of us completely in half. A figure drops out of the space, spinning and flipping as if an acrobat, and then lands on the bits of crushed rock in front of us. Her hair flips as she looks up.

I stare. And so does Sans.

Star!

***

[Ey yo! Chapter 2 in the same day? I told you I was excited about this! I hope you're liking the series so far, as ridiculous as it is. And I also hope you enjoyed the space-themed song at the beginning. It seems fitting, doesn't it?

[Thanks for keeping up with the reading! I'd love to hear feedback of how it's going so far.

[Side note: I do not own Undertale or any related characters. All rights of Undertale and its character(s) used in this series belong to Toby Fox.]

Chapter 3 out soon...