The Famed Star!

Y'know, it's always good to have a space song for the space-themed adventure!

***

The gasp escapes me before I can think of whether or not to utter a word. Sans's eyes momentarily flash with a decision of whether or not to slam on the brakes or hit the person who has just flashed through a portal and onto the highway, and suddenly the entire car swings to the left in a broad curve and I go (hilariously) flying into Sans's puffy hoodie.

We've just barely missed the girl. Discombobulated, I manage to push myself off of Sans and back into my own seat. So much for a seat belt.

"geez," Sans breathes out. Beneath his blue sweatshirt, I can hear his heart pounding. I never wanna drive ever in my life if I have to make that kind of decision.

My eyes lock onto the girl who stands in the middle of the highway, brown curls of long hair flowing in the solar winds. The yellow cartoon star is imprinted brightly on her white long-sleeved shirt, and her big, fluffy boots handle the uneven, rocky ground easily. I know immediately who she is. I have never seen her in my life, but of course, I knew Sans, and I had never seen him in my life, either.

"Star!" I pipe up, unbuckling so I can reach over and show Sans the spectacle of who this teenager is. "That's Star!"

He looks at me. There's nothing judgmental about his eyes, but it seems as though he's considering the fact that I might be insane. "yeah... there are a lotta those out here." He casually motions to the window, showcasing the fact that there are about a thousand other stars in current view.

I blink. "Wh-- No, no! That-- she-- is Star!"

He doesn't seem to get it. The girl in the headlights shifts, rubbing her arm. She sees Sans through the windshield and starts to run excitedly toward our taxi.

I swallow. "You don't know who Star is?!"

Sans shrugs his shoulders. "apparently not."

"How could you not--?"

He turns his head. "listen, kiddo." Sans puts his hand atop my head and pushes me back down into my seat. Only then do I realize that I had been standing in the passenger's seat. "i don't keep up with all the news. i'm a taxi driver."

I blink at him. "A galactic taxi driver."

"yeah."

The girl reaches the car and finally notices that I exist-- er, that I am sitting in the front seat. She looks at me doubtfully, and I reciprocate, trying to seem as nasty and yet as awestruck as possible. Finally, after a five-second staring contest, she opens the door and slides into the backseat. After the door shuts, several moments of silence occur.

I look at Sans again. "That's Star."

He takes a glance at her shirt. "well, yeah, i guessed that much."

I wave my arms. "Star is THE intergalactic juvenile delinquent!"

A smile creeps onto Star's face. "Yeah. I am." She leans forward in her seat, squinting at the portal of light that she had come from. Whatever crazed being that was chasing her seems to have disappeared, but she looks unsure of the fact. "By the way, Sans, couldja possibly get me outta here? I'm in a little trouble currently."

I see Sans roll his eyes. "ah, gee... another kid who knows my name." He turns around to look at Star, still keeping up his usual expression of a smile. "say, have we met?"

Star chuckles. "I mean, I bet you don't remember, but I've met you 10 times, bucko."

Sans looks surprised. He blinks, processing, and then turns back around in the driver's seat. "you must have an exciting life."

Star glances at me, as if expecting me to relay all the information about her in 20 seconds flat. I shrug my shoulders, as if to say, "If you say so," and get with it.

"Star is actually the most famous delinquent in the entire Intergalactic Space-Time Town Square, Sans," I say, folding my arms. Sans reaches over and, without looking, buckles me in.

"safety first." He completely ignores everything I've just said.

I sigh. "Are you ignoring me on purpose?"

"i mean, not really." He presses his foot against the gas pedal and the taxi slowly trudges forward. "it's just kinda surprising to have two kids who are both in trouble in my taxi. seems like i'm involved in somethin', doesn't it?"

I stare at him, confused, while Star laughs in the backseat. "What do you mean?" I ask.

Sans motions his thumb back at Star. "she's a felon, apparently."

"It's a delinquent, not a felon--" Star is interrupted by Sans.

"--and you're being accused of stealing some 'stuff'."

"'Stuff'?" Star wonders aloud, peeking over the edge of the passenger's seat at me. "You're a thief?"

"I am not!" I frustratedly extend my legs all the way down to the floor of the taxi, frowning. "The stupid space police accused me of stealing some crap that I don't even know about, and then they sent their dogs after me!"

The teenager behind me laughs heartily. "I'm shocked that you're not beef jerky, then."

Sans mutters something about how the term "jerky" is overly-used by modern-day Intergalactic Space-Time Town Square teenage delinquents.

"I'm not a delinquent!" I shout.

"well..." He turns on the radio and presses on the gas, pulling the car forward and out of our twisted position. "let's see what the radio has to say."

Star and I both fall silent, mouths shut, waiting intently for the policemen's word on my current situation. And maybe something about Star, too. She is, after all, the most well-known galactic juvenile delinquent to ever live! There must be some update on how many crimes she has committed.

The radio crackles as the waves get to us in deep space. --Fizz, fizz-- "And as for the latest crime report, we have..." --Fizz, fizz-- "...evidence to state that the accused thief, Chloe Fitzwater..." --Fizz, fizz-- "...is now on the lam." --Fizz, fizz--

"Oh, golly." I sink into my seat as Sans switches the radio station, not wanting to hear the rest of the daily bad news report.

"it seems like you're in big trouble," Sans comments, to which I give the snarky remark of "Yeah, I know," like I've known him my whole life and he's a close friend.

Star shakes her head, sighing. "Sure. Call that 'trouble', if you want to."

My interest shifts away from my own dealings and over to Star's. I turn around in my seat, facing the back. "What kinda trouble are you in?" I feel the pressure change in the car as the galactic space taxi starts to gain speed.

She grins at me. "Take a guess."

I look away, then back at her. "I don't watch the news."

"Oh well." Star brushes some dust off of her shirt, lifts her eyes to the rear-view mirror, tosses a stray strand of curly hair out of her face, crosses her legs, and proceeds to tell me that she has been accused of fifty crimes, has committed seventy-five, and has crossed between different universes over 100 times.

Sans breathes out air through his teeth. "that's a fun life on the run, huh?" He takes a deep breath, shuts off the radio, and then lifts his hands off the wheel. "ok, listen, kiddos."

Both of us look at him. Strangely, Star, a 16-year-old, doesn't seem upset by the term "kiddo."

"if we end up getting caught for some weird reason, i was never involved. there are two criminals in my space-taxi, and honestly, i don't want that ruining my whole shebang." His voice is slightly serious, but I can sense the humorous tone behind his mask.

Star laughs at his words. "If we do end up getting put in the space-jail, I could just break you out. I could pick those locks with a hair."

Sans looks away from Star, smiling. "well..." he says softly, "i could probably get out on my own, heh."

Star grins at him. "Why's that?"

His smile gets bigger. "if you've already met me 10 times, then you know." At me, he winks.

Keeping secrets, huh, bucko? I huff. That's not very nice.

The space taxi zooms off the highway and into the middle of nowhere. It's only then that I start to wonder where exactly Sans is taking us, especially now that the famed Star is in his galactic space taxi. "Where are you taking us?"

He takes one hand away from the wheel to turn on the radio. "now that your criminal friend is here, i'd say we don't really have a good place to go to."

I shrink in despair. "Really?" My word comes out as a squeak.

He nods his head. "not any one place, actually. i figure, since you two both seem like..." His eyes look to Star in the rear-view mirror. "...'fun' kids, it'd be better for you to be on the run than stay in one place. if those space dogs are as bad as you say they are, i'd suggest you stick with this taxi and the interspace highways... and maybe some fast-food joints."

"So you're saying..." I consider his way with words, trying to figure it out like it's a puzzle. Star comes up with the full picture long before I can. I guess it's because she has met Sans 10 times before in his own universe, and he doesn't remember because... well, that's just how the universes work.

"We should stay on the lam with you?" Star finishes my sentence.

Sans shrugs his shoulders. "unless you wanna get out now. feel free..."

I look out my window and see such an emptiness that my face and the reflection of my glasses is all I can catch sight of. It's so dark and black and scarce of any life. In the distance, if I squint, I can see a few flashing lights; maybe those are the fast-food joints Sans was talking about. And some intergalactic fuel-stations. But otherwise, I would not like to get out of this warm space taxi with both my idol and the skeleton that I have thought about meeting for my whole life.

I shake my head. And so does Star, smiling. "I could have a lot of places to go," she admits, finally buckling herself in at Sans's "safety first" prompting, "but it'd be nice to have a break from all the cops chasin' me... and don't even get me started with all the evil monsters."

Sans and I both laugh. Instantly, I become interested in Star's assorted stories of all her life experiences, and so I turn around and begin to ask her a wide arrangement of questions. Sans, comfortable with our chit-chat, turns on the radio, playing a song with apt lyrics and a chorus that repeats the word "space." And off we fly, into the vast emptiness of the interspace highway.

***

[How was it? How are you liking it so far? I think chapter 3 was pretty good. If the feedback says so, I could write up some more information on Star, but I promise that more will be coming in chapter 4. Chapter 4 is where it starts to get exciting!

[Please note... Part 1 of My Galactic Taxi Getaway Driver will have very few chapters.

[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 4 coming soon...