20. Chapter 20(1)

The flight to Newtopia took a while, especially with Joe Sparrow needing to take the occasional break. Marcy, Anne, Sprig, and Polly in the seat on his back was a decent enough amount of people. Adding Hop Pop to the pocket on his chest wasn't that big of a deal, but carrying Frobo in his talons wasn't fun at all! Then the moment that they added Sasha and Grime standing behind the seat and clinging onto it for dear life with their claws, Joe knew that was too much!

And yet, he carried on and did his absolute best to lift all of them at once! Sure, it was hard, but his master was counting on him to carry everyone. And maybe, just maybe, if he did well enough with this, then she'd let him go back to Wartwood and be with Bessie. That alone was enough of a motivator for him to push himself as hard as he possibly could!

He felt ashamed when he lost altitude and practically crashed into the water just outside of Newtopia! The metal construct didn't need to breathe and was apparently waterproof, so he wasn't an issue. Then the amphibians were perfectly okay with the water, right? But still, the fact that Frobo was able to lift everyone including the bird made him feel a bit inadequate. Thankfully his master verbally jumped to his defense right away.

“For Joe’s sake, no one else is allowed to join our party.” all three of the frog children slid off of Joe's left wing and Marcy slid off of his right. Both of the toads hopped off of his back while the princess ran around to his front and helped Hop Pop get out of his pocket. Frobo then spent some time with Joe, getting him back to his feet enough that they could leave him to rest without fearing for whether he'd collapse and drown or not. Meanwhile Marcy ran towards the gate to the city a little bit while shouting.

“Woo! Back to Newtopia!” She turned around to address the party “Alright, let’s go over the plan one more time. First, I’m going to get us into the city. We’ve got the music box, ready to give to the king. Sasha, Grime, hoods up until after we give the king the box. Once I tell him how much you helped, he’ll clear you for sure.” The princess explained, making sure the fugitives were comfortable with trusting her.

Of course she knew that the two of them wouldn't be completely cleared, but she needed to tell them SOMEthing, right? After all, they were about to meet her dad and she didn't want to risk them turning and trying something drastic. She’d make sure they didn’t get hurt and that their punishments were lessened, but said punishments were still going to happen! Maybe if Grime could take on enough community service, then Sasha could focus on her therapy and things would actually be okay. At the very least, she seemed to be fooling them enough so they just agreed to follow her directions.

“Copy that.”

“Will do.” Sasha and Grime respectively said while pulling up their hoods. Seeing that the two toads were sufficiently disguised, the princess had her group approach the main gate to the city and flag down the newts who were manning it.

“Chief ranger of the Newtopian Night Guard and crew reporting to King Andrias!” Hearing this, Sasha began to wonder about why Mar-mar didn't use her name. People usually do that when they make a declaration like that. But it was small when compared to the revelation that she was somehow a part of the military! Sasha figured it must have something to do with how the king was keeping an eye on her without arousing suspicion at the fact that she was different.

Thinking about it, the pink toad realized that the 'chief ranger' position was actually a pretty cushy one with a lot of backup whenever they wanted it. Perfect for someone who needed protection, but was still supposed to be a part of the military. She began to wonder if Mar-mar even had to do any rank climbing, what with her clearly having the king's blessing. Either way, she figured that everything would make more sense once she actually met Mar-mar’s newt family and discussed things with them.

Sasha was broken out of her thoughts by the gate to the city opening and the rest of the group starting to head inside. The two toads stayed silent so that their voices wouldn't be recognized by any of the newt guards. Meanwhile the few toads who were waiting for their signal noticed them and acknowledged the sudden need to keep an ear out for their signal. It wouldn't be long at this point. A little ways ahead, though, Marcy held her arm out for Anne to hop up so that they could talk without Sasha overhearing.

“So how do you think they’re gonna react when they find out who my dad is?” The princess started. The farm girl shrugged and responded.

“Heh, who knows? Maybe shock and awe? I know for a fact that they’re not gonna like the trap you have set up for them, though.”

“Well it’s better than what they’d be facing otherwise. I’m sure in a year or two, they’ll be thanking me. Especially when they consider who I really am and how many strings I still had to pull to get them all of that!”

“I guess. We’ll have to see, though… hey, if this whole thing really does give us answers and it turns out we really are aliens from another world… will we still involve Sasha in all of that?”

“Hmm… I want to, but it’ll all depend on her attitude regarding the therapy and everything. I think there’s also a lot we’re gonna have to play by ear, depending on what we see when we activate the box.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Their conversation trailed off a little bit until they heard Polly grunting like she was in pain. The green newt turned so that the blue frog and her were both looking at the tadpole in concern. She'd been riding on Frobo's shoulder since they got off of Joe, but then she'd just hopped down. Sprig was the first one to show concern for his little sister.

“Woah. Polly. What’s wrong?”

“Ugh, my butt is so ITCHY!!” The tadpole answered. Anne took a look of concern, wondering what might be causing it. The last time she saw something like that was the day that Sprig's legs had finally started to poke through. Anne started to get a little suspicious that maybe Polly was finally getting hers, but she knew to simply let it go. If it really was just regular itchiness, then she wouldn't have wanted to get her little sister's hopes up. Thankfully Hop Pop seemed to have a solution.

“Here, I’ve got some ointment that’ll fix that right up.”

“Hop Pop, no! It stinks!” She screamed while hopping away. Hop Pop chased after her, catching her without much issue. As the pollywog yelled at her grandpa to let her go, the older kids all laughed at their antics. Frobo clearly didn't know what to do, so he just stood there and watched. After the laughter all died down, Sprig sighed and turned to look up at his big sister while she sat on the newt's shoulder.

“I can’t believe it. After all the questions, hiding yourself, revealing yourself, searching, and adventuring, we’re finally going to get some answers!” The blue frog hopped back down to the ground at hearing this. She wanted to be eye-level with whoever she was talking to.

“I know, right?! Maybe, if we’re right about all of this and we’re super lucky, we might be able to track down some biological relatives of mine, Marcy’s, or Sasha’s!” She exclaimed. She'd been acting relatively cool about this so far, but some of her actual excitement leaked through, there. She knew that she should be managing her expectations a little better, but she just couldn't help it! At the very least, her little brother seemed to join her in her excitement as his eyes began to shine!

“Woah! That’d be awesome!... I hope that whatever we discover is good, though. I mean, it could just as easily be pretty bad.”

“Sprig! I'd honestly rather not think about that!”

“Ha! Alright, then.” He shrugged it off. As much as he could tease his big sister about this, he figured it'd be better to just let her have this. The rest of the trip to the castle was relatively uneventful, what with them just chatting about whatever came to mind after that. When they finally got there, Marcy rushed ahead and spoke to a few guards out of earshot. Sasha and Grime seemed a little surprised that they got into the palace so quickly after arriving, but Sprig assumed they just thought the king was expecting them. After all, they wouldn't be wrong!

As it was, that was exactly what the toads were thinking. Add onto that the fact that the king probably had a special doctor studying Mar-mar’s true form and she’d probably see the king relatively often. Heck, she might even be personal friends with the princess! Maybe they could use the green newt to capture said princess? Sasha didn’t know what she was supposed to look like other than the fact that she was a newt of some sort, so having someone who might know would be really handy. As Mar-mar led them throughout the castle, the likelihood of that increased and Sasha couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.

The group only stopped once they reached the throne room. The guards took one look at the newt in their party and nodded to each other before opening the door. So the king was expecting them around this exact time! The pink toad made a mental note of how punctual Mar-mar evidently was. As they walked inside, though, she couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful the throne room really was. Maybe they wouldn’t have to change as much as they thought after they took over! She then looked up to see the massive king seated perfectly in his throne.

“My friends! Wonderful to see you! I trust you were successful?” His booming voice rang out. Mar-mar pulled the music box out of her satchel to present it to the king. All that they had to do after that was snatch it before King Andiras could get his hands on it! Once he saw it, he spoke again.

“The charged music box! Well done! WELL DONE!! Now, let’s finally get some answers about your origins, shall we?” He put his hand down in front of the far smaller newt and waited for her to hand it to him, so that was when Grime finally struck and grabbed it right out of their hands with his tongue! He brought it back to himself and Sasha, tossing it into the air for the girl to catch. Everyone stared at them in disbelief, but at that point, it was go time!

“Sasha, what are you doing?” Anne yelled at her. The blonde pulled her hood back and responded.

“What I do best: taking control!” She turned to the other toad “Now, Grime!” At the signal, he threw off his own cloak and grabbed Barrel’s hammer from the place it was resting on his back. He immediately brought the hammer down onto the ground and shook the room, causing everyone to lose their footing. Sasha was the only one who didn’t fall over, seeing as her lower center of gravity and wider stance as a toad gave her better footing.

The two of them were immediately attacked by the nearby guards, but they took care of the issue with surprising efficiency. All Grime had to do was punch the lights out of a couple of newts while Sasha turned her sword around so that she could use the pommel as a makeshift mace. They didn’t feel the need to kill any of these guards, after all. They were only doing their jobs! By the time they were done, the only ones who weren’t back on their feet already were the king and Hop Pop.

“What the heck is goin’ on, here?” The older frog blurted out. Meanwhile Anne decided to get a lot more commanding.

“Cut it out, you guys!” She was going to say more, but then a deep, guttural roar echoed throughout the room! Everyone stopped and looked at the source to see King Andrias absolutely furious and charging straight at Grime on all-fours! Marcy’s tail curled in fear. She’d never seen her dad this angry before and it was downright terrifying to see!

It was in that moment that everyone in the room remembered just how skilled the king supposedly was in combat and how he easily could have used violence to get his way at any point in history. That he was benevolent, but not completely harmless. His charge came to an end when he headbutted Grime into one of the throne room’s many support pillars. He seemed about to get even more violent before Sasha yelled at him in a commanding tone.

“STOP!!” King Andrias looked over at her with all the righteous anger that everyone was expecting, but then it all dissipated when he saw what she was doing. She was holding the box over the edge of the balcony in what was clearly a threat! She continued her command.

“Not another move or I smash it to pieces!” Sasha, for her part, was completely bluffing! She wanted answers just as much as all of the others, but the King clearly valued the box far too much to just let go of it like that. All she needed to do was convince the giant oaf that she wasn’t. Anne and Mar-mar both ran up next to the king and called out to her in near perfect synch.

“NO!! SASHA!!”

“You wouldn’t! That’s your only way to find answers about your origin!” King Andrias completely called her bluff, but she wasn’t about to lose it all that quickly. She’d just need to double down on it.

“Well maybe it’s actually got nothing to do with that? Nothing’s confirmed either way and we’ve been doing well enough so far! So what does our collective origin really matter at this point?”

“You’re bluffing!” Sasha kept her face as straight as possible. He may have been right, but he’d said it with an air of disbelief that Sasha knew she could exploit. If there was one thing she learned from her adopted mom, it was how to not take garbage from anyone!

“Try me!” She yelled back. She then lightly tossed it into the air, making the king nearly lunge at her before she caught it with her tongue! This time, she held it even further out over the balcony in order to get her point across. The moment she saw pure dread lace the king’s features, she knew that she’d won the argument! From there, he was distracted enough for Grime to sneak up behind him and hit him right in the exact place on his ankle that would make him drop to his knees

“DA-” Marcy started to call out, but cut herself off. If she called him ‘dad’ in front of Sasha, then she’d be revealing herself as the princess to these dangerous people. She started trying to play it off as a simple expression of shock and when she noticed that it worked, she nearly breathed a sigh of relief! She looked down at the blue frog, who jumped up onto her shoulder so that her voice would carry farther.

“Both of you, stop this!” Grime turned to the source and gave her a devious smile.

“Stop? But we’re just getting started.” He then let out the loudest croak that anyone had ever heard. The only person there who understood what it meant was the other toad, though. But whatever it meant, chaos immediately followed! The other two disguised creatures watched as various toads that were previously hidden throughout the city suddenly rose up and started fighting the newt guard! They got the advantage of surprise quite easily and as soon as the newts started fighting back, Grime’s voice rang out over the city!

“SOLDIERS OF NEWTOPIA!! Put down your arms this instant or the next thing I smash will be your king’s head!” It only took a moment for them to surrender after that. The toads who were on ground level wasted no time at all apprehending them! They had orders to not hurt the average newt guard, but at least a few of them ended up with bruises for their efforts.

“Excellent. OPEN THE GATE!!” Grime finally called out. A couple of toads who were situated on top of the gate tower started pushing on the wheel to do as ordered while some others who were on ground level put a giant doorstop in the way to prevent it from closing. Meanwhile some spare toad guards who’d rushed inside the palace finally appeared in the throne room with a rather big and long set of chains. They tied King Andrias’ hands together behind his back and started to take him away.

“So you think you’ve won, do you?” He asked the one-eyed toad, who responded with a smirk.

“Sure do. And if you think things are bad now, in a couple of hours, the rest of our army will be at your doorstep.” He turned to the guards “Take him to the dungeon and find him an extra large cell. Also keep an eye out for the princess and capture her too once you find her. She’s no doubt already gone into hiding by now!” As the toads followed Grime’s orders, the king called out to him.

“You’ll never get away with this!” While Marcy watched her dad get taken away, she noticed him make eye contact with her and discreetly nod. With that gesture alone, she realized that he was asking her to take control of the situation and solve it. Her whole life, she’d been involving herself with military affairs and had even joined said military within the last couple of years. now that there was an emergency going on, she was being trusted to handle it. She nodded back, knowing that she could do this. She had to!

Her first order of business was to distance herself from whatever the toads thought they were looking for regarding the princess. She didn’t know what they were thinking, but none of them seemed to actually suspect her, so at the very least she had that. She was about to say something to the two most offending toads, but she was cut off by the older one.

“Well frogs, say ‘hello’ to the new rulers of Amphibia.” As he said this, Sasha held the box and walked over to the frog and newt.

“Sorry things got a little crazy back there. There’s so much wrong with the current system, so we decided to just solve it at its roots. You guys good?” She casually said as she rested a hand on Marcy’s hip, not being able to reach Anne from where she was. At this point, though, Marcy curled her tail in the opposite direction while Anne’s eyes widened. She jumped down from her perch on the newt’s shoulder and placed each foot on one of Sasha’s shoulders so that she’d be right in the toad’s face!

“‘Good’? Are you serious?” From there, Sasha calmly and gently nudged Anne so that she got off of her. She knew the frog was upset about what just happened, but she also knew that if she got heated, then it would only escalate the problem further. She needed to try to lead Anne into being more calm about all of this! She ran up the stairs to the throne and sat down, placing the box next to herself.

“Sheesh, don’t be a sore loser. I was actually bluffing about smashing the music box, you know. We’ll still investigate and see if we’re actually from another world or not, just with me and Grime in charge instead of Andrias. I’ve even got plans to let you two have some pretty high positions in all of this with protection for your respective families and everything! So what do you say?” She fully expected them to actually consider her offer and even take it. What she got instead was pure rage from the little blue frog.

“What do I say? After everything you’ve DONE?! I say you’re clearly insane if you think I’m gonna let you bully me and everyone else just to get what you want!” Sasha gave her a sympathetic look. She needed to keep a level and gentle tone in order to get her to calm down a bit, but she was starting to lose her patience. It was a good thing she knew how to remain calm during an emergency, so she did exactly that. The fact that Anne was still trying to establish dominance as the alpha between them was still frustrating, though.

“Anne, I know you’re upset, but jus-” She got cut off by the furious frog.

“NO!! I’m DONE listening to you! I’m done even trying to trust you! You’re a horrible person and I am DONE giving you second chances that you CLEARLY don’t deserve!” And with that, the blonde knew that she’d completely lost Anne. And seeing as Mar-mar had moved to stand directly behind her, Sasha saw that both of them were now out of her reach. Sasha was completely alone regarding her original species, here. This realization was what made her snap out of her gentle tone.

“Fine. Well, since you’re not gonna listen to me, I’ll just open this box now and let you figure it all out on your own! But don’t worry, I’ll send your little family along with you so they can watch you return to your natural state! I wonder if you'll lose your mind immediately or if it'll be more gradual…” She saw Anne’s eyes widen at that while she flinched back. The frog then leaned forewards and narrowed said eyes.

“You wouldn’t!”

“My box, my rules!”

“Sasha, wait!” Marcy interjected. She needed to stop the toad from activating the box before she somehow doomed them all! She didn’t know how to work it, so even if the three of them really were from a different world, there was no guarantee that she’d open a portal to the exact same world that they might be from. The newt realized that this was the real emergency she needed to stop!

Not to mention that the trap she’d set for Sasha and Grime must have been dismantled by the toads that took her dad away! Because of that, she wouldn’t even be able to get Sasha the help she needed. But even if everything stopped right in that moment, Marcy knew that she wouldn’t be able to get the toads out of the trouble they had just gotten themselves into, that plan was completely gone now!

Anne, for her part, looked at how Sasha was seated in the throne and listened to the tone behind everything she said. Her eyes widened as she finally processed the fact that while Sasha may have been bluffing about smashing the box, she certainly wasn’t when it came to throwing Anne and her family into another world! She broke away from the princess and hopped over to her family, knowing that if she didn’t, then she might just get thrown away without them instead.

“NO!!”

“Sorry, Anne. But just think of it this way: you wanted to find out more about our true forms so badly and now here you go!” The blue frog held her family close in both fear and preparation for what was about to come! She squeezed her eyes shut as she heard a damning click come from the direction of the throne and… nothing. Nothing happened! There was a pause before the frogs all made a confused sound. And they weren’t the only ones who were confused!

“Whaaa?” The blonde turned the box around to look at it, then opened and closed it a few times. She turned the key, opened it, and started shaking it as if she were trying to get something to fall out. She gave it an incredulous look before closing it and going back to holding it in only one hand.

“Well. That was embarrassing. Until I can figure out how to use this thing, GUARDS! Take them to the dungeon!” A bunch of toads surrounded the group (including Lady Olivia) and started leading them away. In her rage, Anne started fighting back a little bit. Seeing as she was the only one and she really didn’t have a weapon on her, one of the toad guards simply grabbed her and pinned her arms to her sides. She ended up just yelling back towards Sasha because that was all she was able to do at that point.

“This isn’t over, Sasha! You hear me?! THIS ISN’T OVER!!” The doors to the throne room slammed shut behind them and the toad carrying Anne threw her to the front of the group in order to keep an eye on her. There was nothing they could do at that point! She was reminded of the time she and the rest of Wartwood was at Toad Tower and they were forced to climb to the top for her showdown with Sasha.

Nobody retaliated back then because the toads were threatening to hurt them, so Anne knew that the same thing would happen here. There was no getting out of this and the toads definitely didn’t want any of them speaking, but she just couldn’t help herself! She ranted anyways!

“I can’t believe I trusted her! She is such a jerk! I just wanna…” She was too angry to properly form words, spiraling in on herself. She was shaking and nearly growling without even being in her true form! If she were, then there was a good chance she might’ve actually gone feral. She felt her little brother's hand on her shoulder in an obvious attempt to calm her, but it didn't work.

“Woah! Anne, slow down. Take deep breaths or you’re gonna-” Anne hopped up into the air while screaming in rage.

“Hey, no talking!” The guard in front of them ordered. He didn't get any farther than that, though, because Anne shot her tongue at him to disorient him before full-on body slamming right into him! It was just enough to knock him over into two of the other toads, causing them all to hit the floor. The toads all readied their weapons at this and Anne suddenly regretted doing all of that! They couldn't take on that many toads by themselves!

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Another one of the guards yelled. The four frogs and two newts prepared to defend themselves when suddenly a long, pink and silver form dropped down in between them and the toads! They slashed at the lot of them, knocking them all down and into an unconscious state before standing up and locking eyes with the main group!

“Woah! General Yunan?! What’re you doin’ here?” Hop Pop asked. The general in question stood up to her full height and turned to the group she'd just saved.

“I’ve come to protect my lady Marcy from this evil toad regime!”

“YUNAN!! Oh thank olms you’re here!” Marcy yelled while running up to her. She gave the pink newt a quick hug, then stood beside her while Lady Olivia spoke up, clearly in a rush.

“Yes, thank olms. Now let’s get going!” She immediately ran over to a nearby wall and pushed one of the bricks on it. In response, a nearby statue moved out of the way and revealed a secret passageway that led outside. Marcy was aware that Olivia knew this castle better than anyone, but she didn’t realize the good lady knew it that well!

“This way, everyone.” She herded the group through the passage and into the outdoors behind the castle. Marcy heard a metal clang just a little while after she went through and looked behind to see that Frobo had bonked his head on the top of the frame. She was tempted to check him and see if he was okay, but there wasn’t enough time. Polly was already doing that as well, seeing as she mostly just rode on the metal construct’s shoulder nowadays, so the princess simply focused on following the rest of the group.

As they snuck through the city, they saw that the place was absolutely CRAWLING with toads! After a while, Anne started leading the pack because with her smaller size and her cloak’s hood being able to hide her face, she was by far the most stealthy member of the group. Eventually one of the corners she peeked around had her make the decision to herd everyone into a nearby abandoned building. Even though Marcy had always kind of wanted to get rid of any old businesses that weren’t operating anymore, she had to admit that this one came in handy.

As the group clamoured inside, Marcy noticed how Yunan actually crawled inside on the ceiling, thus making more room for everyone else. She’d need to ask her how she managed to do that, seeing as she was wearing gloves and boots that covered her cling pads. But in that moment, there were far more pressing matters at hand. As soon as they were all crowded inside, they spread out and Sprig pulled the blinds down on one of the windows.

“Ugh, the city’s crawling with toads!” He exclaimed with Hop Pop following up after him.

“And there’s still a whole army comin’?” Marcy looked at the old farm frog with a sympathetic gaze. At that moment, she needed to be strong enough to make sure she didn’t let her people down! But that didn’t mean she was about to ignore what was right in front of all of them! She answered with an affirmative voice.

“Yup! It’s a full-on toad rebellion.” As soon as the words left her mouth, her tone turned nervous “Uh, but don’t worry, I’ve got a simple plan to solve all of this.” She reached through her satchel and pulled out a collapsable telescope to look out of a window with. The inanimate object being pressed against the window was far less suspicious than a face, after all. She eventually managed to find an angle where she was able to look through the open gate and see the army approaching.

“The toad army is less than an hour away. We have to close the front gate before they get here, otherwise we’ll be overrun. But we also have to free my dad, defeat Sasha and Grime, work through our emotional baggage regarding our species, and finally: redesign the current political system so that this sort of uprising never happens again!” Her speech got faster and faster as she went on, ending with the newt panting. She wasn’t doing a very good job of making it look like she was calm!

“Gee, is that it?” Hop Pop sarcastically asked the princess. He felt bad about placing so much pressure on a child like Marcy, but he couldn’t help it. If she wanted to take control of the situation, then she’d need to realize just how big her workload really was. He felt a little more justified in his comment when Polly joined him.

“Yeah, it ain’t looking good.” The whole group let out a sad sigh and Frobo even sat down on the floor. Anne looked at the people around her and began to think. Yes, everything that Marcy said they needed to do was indeed necessary and it was a lot , but they still needed to do it! And if they were going to do that, then they’d need some encouragement.

“Come on, you guys. We can do this! They may think we’re just a weak little frog family, a clumsy nerd (because they haven’t realized that you’re the princess they’re looking for), and a big metal baby, but they have no idea who they’re dealing with!...” She paused to look at Yunan and Olivia “Well except for you guys, I’m sure they think very highly of you two.”

“They do.”

“Just continue your speech.” The two respectfully added. Anne resumed.

“We’ve been through so much together! Cannibals, a coastal kill-a-moth, combining vegetables, you name it! And we’re gonna beat this too because when we’re together, nothing can stand in our way! Now, who’s ready to kick some toad butt?!” As she spoke, various members of the group looked straight at her and smiled. Seeing that everyone was actually getting motivated by what she was saying, she knew to get louder and more confident! But in order to keep them all just as motivated, she needed to have a plan!

“Alright, so here’s how we’re gonna do it. Hop Pop! You, Marcy, and Lady Olivia are going down to the dungeon to free the king. Time to put those acting skills to good use. Polly, you’re going to attack the soldiers in the city head-on. Keep them distracted and of course, take General Yunan and Frobo with you. Finally, while you guys are doing that, Sprig and I will sneak into the guard tower and shut the city gate before the toad army can get in. Sound good?”

“That’s a great plan! Let’s do it!” The princess cheered! Seeing as she was actually the smart one and she approved, the overall confidence of the group shot through the roof! Everyone split off into their designated groups with the Hop Pop, Olivia, and Marcy all taking routes through the sewers in order to get into the dungeon. Once they were there, Hop Pop made sure to pretend to be sneaking around only to put on an act once he was caught!

“Hey, what’re ya doin’ down there?” A guard who was just outside of Andrias’ cell yelled while another one who was above shone a spotlight on him. Showtime!

“Forsooth, I am an elderly frog who hath lost his pet spider, Charlie Big-Bottom.” Hop Pop started getting all weepy, playing the part of an innocent civilian who was just looking for his pet. Mentioning the name of his actual beloved pet who passed away some time ago helped him reach that despair he needed in order to sell it.

Olivia and Marcy watched from the shadows, not having known what to expect, but just watching the old frog’s performance. With the use of the old-timey language, Olivia facepalmed.

“That’s never going to work.” She whispered to Marcy. She expected the princess to rebut with some sort of solution, but all she did was point back at Hop Pop while clearly trying not to laugh. She also seemed shocked at the same time, so Olivia spared some attention and noticed that the vast majority of the toads were crowded around him and crying alongside him! 

“Oh, Charles. Without you, the world hath lost all colour!” He played up the proposed tragedy of the situation, even falling over with his tongue out! He noticed for a split second that the newts had successfully snuck by all of them and were over at the king’s cell! All they had to do was free him and they’d all be able to get out of there safely. After all, it wasn’t like King Andrias was a slouch in combat!

Meanwhile, Polly hopped out of her hiding spot and up to a bunch of toads who were playing cards. She pulled a small dagger out of her bow and pointed it at them. She knew she didn’t look very intimidating, so she tried to make them at least a little bit scared of her with her voice.

“Get ready for the pain!” She yelled. The toads all laughed at her, but she kept her face straight until her help arrived. She felt Frobo land behind her more than she saw him and she heard General Yunan’s boots click against the ground. The toad laughter died immediately when they realized exactly what they were suddenly dealing with.

“Ooooh crud.” One of them said before they tried to flee from their attackers. Frobo launched some sort of explosive at them while General Yunan jumped into the fray! From the shadows, two little frog children snuck by all of that chaos and over to the base of the guard tower. Marcy had told them which one was connected to the gate’s mechanisms, so they knew that all they had to do was climb to the top!

When they got there, they found that no one was manning the gate. They'd expected a fight or something, but if they didn't have to, then they figured it was a good thing! The toads clearly hadn't expected anyone to actually go up there, so it worked out for the kids! As it was, they had the freedom to run over to the ledge and take a look at the approaching army's position.

“We don’t have much time. Let’s shut this gate already!” Anne commanded her little brother, knowing he'd do exactly as she requested.

“Right!” He followed up, the two of them hopping over to the device that controlled the gate and pushing on it. The problem? It wasn't moving! Anne started reaching for her berries, thinking that maybe she'd need her monster strength to help out with this. Thankfully her little brother had the forethought to look over the ledge and check to see if anything was blocking the gate.

“Uhh… Anne, before you do that, you might wanna take a look at this.” He called his big sister over and what she saw nearly made her facepalm. Right there, propping the door open was a giant doorstopper! So that was why no one was manning the wheel: someone would need to move that thing first in order to get the gate closed! But they didn't have time to just go down there and remove it, themselves. The eldest frog child called out to her little sister on the ground.

“POLLY!! You’ve gotta move that doorstop!” Seeing that the tadpole heard her and seemed to know what she was talking about, Anne breathed a sigh of relief.

“On it!” She heard her sister call up. Once she hopped over to try moving it, the much stronger members of her little group joined her. The three struggled against the doorstop for a few moments until it finally started to give way! Once it did, moving it out of there entirely was pretty easy! All they had to do at that point was actually close the dang gate!

While all of that was happening, Sasha sat on the king’s throne and sulked. Grime had excused himself for some reason, leaving the young toad to just sit there and fiddle with the music box. She opened and closed it a few times in her boredom as her mind began to wander. She was brought out of it by Grime’s return and him clearing his throat to get her attention.

“I, uhh… got you something. I had it made especially for this day.” He pulled a long, flat box out from behind his back. He’d left to grab her a gift? That certainly made the pink toad perk up!

“Whaaaat? Grime, you didn’t!” She unwrapped it to find that there was a bunch of soft cotton inside the box. The whole package had a decent amount of weight to it, though. This meant that there must be an individual weapon inside, as that was how those were usually shipped!

She carefully reached into the gift box, pressing the back of her hand against the end of it and allowing her claws to touch the bottom. She slowly scraped the bottom of the box until her hand encountered something. Thankfully it wasn’t anything sharp and instead, it felt almost like a pommel! Grabbing and pulling on it, she saw a beautiful silver sword rise up in her hand. It was designed to look almost identical to her trusty pink sword, right down to clearly being designed for her true form! She gasped at it before looking directly at her godfather.

“How’d you know I wanted to dual wield?” She smiled at him, knowing that this meant he wanted her to rule in her true form! He obviously wanted her to be comfortable, knowing which form she really preferred. Seeing how meaningful this gesture really was, she held the sword up near her face so that she could investigate it. But when she saw her reflection, two cold blue eyes stared back at her.

She had faced her true form many times in the mirror before. She had needed a moment to get used to it, but never before had the sight unsettled her. For as long as she had known about it, she had always marveled at her frightening stature, her deathly pale complexion, and those sharp predatory eyes that had made many amphibians stumble backwards in fear.

It wasn’t even her monster face she was looking at and yet she flinched away from the sight. She wasn’t even sure what it was, but something about it made her not want to see it. Grime misinterpreted her reaction, though.

“What is it? Is it too heavy for one hand? Not the right balance? Too soon with your recent injury? You don’t like it?! Arg, dang it! I didn’t get a gift receipt!” Remembering her godfather was there, Sasha gave her head a light shake to clear it.

“No, no, that’s not it. It’s just… what if Anne was right back there? What if… I am a horrible person?” Grime was actually taken aback by that. As far as he was concerned, Sasha had given the Wartwood Creature more than enough chances to join her. Even when he personally thought it was a lost cause to try again! She could have enjoyed a life of luxury, fighting side by side with one of the strongest lieutenants and future queens he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was actually slightly angry that she had made his goddaughter doubt herself like this.

“Who cares what she thinks?!”

“For once I actually do!” This made Grime shut his jaw, staring dumbstruck at the pink toad.

“I tried everything! I tried being a stern alpha. I tried being a kind alpha. I tried a little bit of both. I tried proving I could provide and listen, then I tried rewarding them when they did something good and punishing them if they stepped out of line. I tried to do everything as right as I could and still neither of them would follow me! Anne didn’t grow to respect me even after a show of strength AND I offered so many things to her and those frogs of hers, and-” Sasha looked up at Grime, who instantly noticed the despair growing in her eyes.

“Did you see the way Mar-mar looked at me? Like she was expecting me to attack her instead of keeping her safe. Like it would be safer to stand behind someone physically weaker than me. And… I did let my anger get the better of me back there, so maybe she wasn’t wrong.” She cautiously turned the blade so she could see her own reflection again. She could see the tears shining just at the edge of her eyelids, so she fought them back. It was still a pathetic, ugly sight. But somehow, it was better than the blue quilled monster she thought she caught a glimpse of before.

“There’s only three of us. And if two out of three don’t respond well to my approach, well… maybe I’m the problem? What if I’m the one that’s not behaving like we’re supposed to and they’re instinctively repulsed by that? What if I’m the deviant between us?” When her eyes met Grime’s, he could actually feel the pain radiating from her.

“What if I’m broken?” She choked out. Grime felt sorrow for his godchild, but also fear. She might have drawn Barrel’s hammer and most toads might see her as queen already, but he knew for a fact that not everyone was leaping to be ruled by what was essentially a ‘beast in pretty armor’. He had decided not to tell her until after the invasion was over, lest it would distract her and make things more stressful for her than it needed to be. But if she showed any weakness now, if she looked scatterbrained or she faltered, those restless few would use it against her. He needed her to be resolute and focused right now.

But he wasn’t about to force it from her. As good as his Sasha was at tricks and manipulation, it would just exhaust her to keep it up all the time. He let out a sigh, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Look, once you’re pulling the strings here you’ll be able to do whatever you want. Get whatever you ask for, make the rules, you can even choose how prisoners are treated. You can give your fellow creatures as dingy or as nice of a cell as you wish. You could even have them roam around the castle under the watchful eyes of any soldier of your choice if you think that’s for the best. Mar-mar seems smart and timid, you can approach her first and try to talk so you can figure things out. Maybe she might know the key to learning what your kind looks for in an alpha.

“And even though I personally think she’s a lost cause, maybe you might get through to Anne once she sees you have Mar-mar’s vote of confidence.” Grime felt some relief as Sasha seemed to listen to him, some life returning to her eyes as she thought over his words. Now to give her the right motivation.

“But to get that, you need to lead this revolution to success. And for that, I need you to focus right now. We are counting on you; everyone is looking at you to lead us to victory. But ya know what? Why don’t you take your true form and help me redecorate this place? Take your mind off it for the moment and make sure everyone who sees you knows what you truly are!” Hearing his speech, Sasha felt a level of confidence in her godfather that she’d only ever felt a couple of times in her life. He was right!

The young toad reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the berries that she’d snatched from the Plantar farm while the frogs weren’t looking. Or maybe some of them had seen her, but they were okay with her grabbing a couple. So long as she didn’t try to make off with an entire bush, right? She popped the berry into her mouth and allowed herself to transform. She got up from her seat and held her new sword for a few moments before fastening it to her belt, opposite to her older one.

The two of them began to wander around, looking for something quick and easy to vandalize. It wasn’t hard to find what they were looking for as they came across an ugly old tapestry that depicted Andrias peacefully holding a bunch of newts. Seeing as the setting was a calm meadow with a rainbow above him, it was clearly meant to demonstrate his benevolence. As far as the pair saw, it was about as tacky as it could get!

“Y-y-y-yikes. This thing’s gotta go.” Grime instructed, making Sasha smile at how casually he said it. Together, the two of them grabbed the thing and pulled it down. Neither of them expected to see anything behind it, so when a painting was revealed, the two were surprised! The tapestry covering something up wouldn’t have been all that shocking though, if it weren’t for what was depicted!

In the center was a silhouette of Andrias, holding the music box with a bunch of lines of energy coming off of it like lightning bolts! Directly below him was a myriad of bones including the skulls of frogs, toads, and newts and to the sides of that were a bunch of creatures that neither of the vandalizers had ever seen before! But that wasn’t all, as directly above him there were three figures also silhouetted, but in the same colours as the gems on the music box. There was what appeared to be a flame directly above the blue one, but they were all surrounded by a bunch of ominous orange eyes.

The two began to wonder what the heck they were really looking at! They kept looking over it, trying to make sense of whatever it was. Eventually Sasha was the one to break the silence

“Woah. Is that the king? With the music box? A-and… at the top… a-are those-?” She had a hard time finishing her sentence because she’d never seen anything that looked like her species depicted anywhere unless it was direct art of herself! But this depiction was clearly far older than she was, so there was no way it was about her! Still, why would her kind appear in this painting if they were aliens from another dimension? Grime seemed to be more focused on the ‘king’ part, though.

“If it is, it’s a really good thing we stopped him.” Sasha had to agree! Not only was the system all messed up, but the king was definitively bad?! They didn’t have time to fully process what all this meant, though, because they suddenly heard a loud crash coming from outside! When they ran to see what was going on, they were shocked to see two young frogs of opposite colours closing the gate together!

“Are you serious? They escaped?!”

“And if they shut the gate, our army will be trapped outside. The king will regain control of the city!” Knowing that he was genuinely bad news now, the two of them began to fear what would happen if he did.

“Come on!” Sasha yelled as she ran back into the castle a little bit. They didn’t have time to run all the way through the castle, down the streets, and around to the gate, so they’d have to jump out the window! Her true form was pretty horrible at jumping, but she knew that Grime could throw her pretty far, so she just grabbed onto him as he handled most of the distance! He took a running start and leapt out of the window, soaring through the air and using his claws to grab hold of the wall when he got there! Once he stopped sliding, he held out one of his hands, which Sasha climbed on top of so that he could toss her the rest of the distance upwards!

He actually managed to throw her high enough that she was able to land with a bit of a flip. The second that she did, both frogs immediately got hostile with the pink one pulling out his slingshot and the blue one grabbing a berry from inside her cloak! She immediately ate it and grabbed her sword from her belt mid-transformation. Seeing how clearly hostile the two were, but knowing what she did about the king, Sasha put her hands up to show that she wasn’t holding either of her weapons.

“Woah! I don’t wanna fight. See?” There was a crunching sound off to the side and when they looked, they could see Grime making his way up the wall by digging his claws in wherever he could find a soft spot. Just because they don’t have cling pads doesn’t mean a determined toad can’t climb a wall.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got him.” Sprig announced, hopping down and leaving the two monsters alone to do whatever they were going to do! Sasha finally took a pleading tone, which she almost never did in the first place!

“Anne, I need you to listen to me. There’s something wrong with Andrias! We shou-” The Wartwood Creature cut her off, anger lacing her voice.

“You expect me to believe you? After all the lying, manipulating, and threatening you’ve done? Sorry, Sasha, but you’re out of chances!” Upon hearing that, The Monster of the Tower realized that the only way she was going to get the other alpha to listen to her long enough was to use force. She hadn't wanted to do this, remembering how the fight on top of the tower turned out, but it was her only option. She drew both of her swords at once.

“Anne, I can’t let you close that gate.” The brunette stopped what she was doing and straightened her back. Usually she kept slumped over so that she was less intimidating to look at, but now she was standing up to her full height. She tightened her grip on her sword.

“Oh yeah? Just try to stop me!” Anne yelled as she rushed at Sasha, aiming directly for her head! The blonde was dangerous. Given what she'd done that day, she was an actual menace to society! Marcy might want to keep her alive in hopes of rehabilitating her, but she was far beyond that point! Sasha was a lost cause.

Yes, she was the first other member of her species that Anne had ever seen, but she'd proven herself to be the absolute worst of the worst in terms of personality! Heck, they hadn't even known each other for a full day before she tried to murder her whole family in cold blood! Back then, Anne had avoided lethal blows because she didn't want to be responsible for killing the only other member of her species that she'd ever seen.

Now, though, Marcy was a part of her life and she was enough for the brunette. She'd even entertained the idea of Sasha possibly changing for the better at one point, but this whole day's events proved to her that this monster wasn't changing, no matter what! If she didn't euthanize this dangerous animal, then so many more people would suffer and possibly die! This time, she was aiming for the vitals!

However, Sasha blocked her blow with both of her swords and pushed Anne away. The Wartwood Creature didn't give up so easily, though! She immediately got back into the fight with a flip that landed her on her feet. She rushed at the blonde again and aimed for her head with a diagonal slash starting from her lower left side. Sasha managed to make it plink off of her swords so that it just went straight to the other side, but Anne wasn't done yet!

She attempted another head slash by jumping so that she'd be coming from above this time! Her true form might not be all that great at hopping, but damn if she hadn't picked something up from her time as a frog! Of course, Sasha dodged it by ducking underneath and putting some distance in between the two of them, parrying it as well then backing up. Anne just followed it up with an attempted neck stab, which was dodged by Sasha just taking a few steps backwards.

As she lost her momentum, Anne then performed another diagonal slash that got parried immediately. She tried again from the opposite direction, but was met with the exact same results! She then went in for another neck stab, but instead of dodging backwards, Sasha dodged to the side. From there, she tossed the sword that was in her right hand into her left and pressed her body up against Anne's outstretched arms. She then pinned the brunette's arms by snaking her own around hers and holding her firm!

“Anne! Please!” Sasha pleaded as The Wartwood Creature attempted an upwards slash, nearly overpowering The Monster of the Tower! Sasha didn't think it'd be possible, but it seemed extreme anger gave their species some kind of rush that Anne was taking advantage of.

“Too late, Sasha!” She heard before seeing the brunette rear her head back. The blonde prepared for a headbutt, but got kicked in her chest instead! She faked her out! Sasha stumbled back and Anne went in for another head slash, starting from her right side. Bending back in order to dodge it, she readied both of her swords to block the next attack! She crossed the two of them over each other like she had at the beginning of the fight and this time, she was able to throw The Wartwood Creature down so that she landed on her back!

The Monster of the Tower followed that up with a double slash, aiming for Anne's arms and legs. Unlike her counterpart, she wasn't aiming for the vials because she didn't want to outright kill the other! Even if she had to dismember her, it'd be better than either of them ending up dead! After all, once she’d show that painting to her, Anne would no doubt switch sides, right? Or at the very least, she'd stop and listen to reason! But first, she needed to subdue Anne and for that, she might unfortunately need to hurt the girl.

Unfortunately, Anne was able to dodge that by rolling further backwards so that she did a reverse somersault and got back to her feet! Sasha then performed a couple of slash attempts at her arms, but both were parried away before the brunette went back onto the offensive. She immediately went with another head slash and followed it up with a stab when it got blocked again. From there, Sasha hopped backwards a little bit only to have to deal with an attempted chest slash! An upward swing took care of that easily, though.

Once again, Anne attempted another head slice which the blonde dodged by bending backwards. This time, though, she used her unique position to kick up at the brunette's hand and disarm her! Her sword flew out of her hand and off the edge of the wall, loudly clattering to the ground below. Her eyes went wide before anger filled them again and she crouched down. It was the perfect position for a punch, so Sasha raised her swords to block the hit. But instead, Anne fell over to her side and looked almost like she was passing out! This confused the blonde, making her wonder if their species had some sort of limit to their rage-rush thing that she didn't previously know about. But then she didn't actually hit the ground.

“Huh?” From behind her, Sasha could feel something tugging on her cape and next thing she knew, Anne was flipping over her head, bringing said cape around to blind her! She felt it tighten and suddenly all of her vision was completely cut off! She stumbled back a bit, trying to get a hold on the situation, but on the outside, Anne was pulling her fist back. And with a sucker punch that carried all of her anger and frustration, she hit Sasha in the face so hard that The Monster of the Tower fell to the ground! After panting for a bit, she turned back to the wheel that controlled the gate and resumed closing it.

At the same time, Grime was climbing up the guard tower bit by bit. It'd take him far less time if he had the cling pads of a frog, but as it was, he made do. He looked up in order to check his progress, but was momentarily blinded by the sunlight that peeked over the ledge. Once he put his hand up in order to shade his working eye, he almost wished he hadn't.

“Heads up!” The pink frog child was falling directly towards him! The toad didn't have enough time to move out of the way before the weight of the kid collided with his face and loosened his grip enough that the two of them went tumbling down together! They bounced and rolled across a few rooftops with Grime trying to pull his head in as much as possible in order to avoid injury. Eventually they skidded to a halt on another rooftop, the kid having been thrown off of Grime’s face to skid a little farther. From there, the toad got up and readied Barrel's hammer.

“I almost feel bad about this, little frog.”

“Uh oh.” Sprig barely managed to hop out of the way of Grime's downward swing. The frog's eyes widened as the hit actually smashed some of the rooftop tiles because that meant that the toad very much intended to kill him! But it didn't stop there because Grime came back swinging even harder! Sprig's low, distance focused hop was enough to get him out of the way and onto Grime’s other side.

From there, an upwards swing of the hammer would have connected if it weren't for another distance hop. Knowing that he couldn't keep hopping low, Grime predicted that he would switch things up and do so a little higher up, so he jabbed into where he predicted the boy would be. He was mostly correct in his position, but he was just a little off with his timing. The frog did a little flip while on his way down, letting it continue into a roll once he hit the ground. It ended in him being behind Grime and in prime position to ready his slingshot!

“Ha ha! Too slow, toad!” He taunted while firing a rock at the back of the toad's head! Unfortunately, doing so only served to make Grime angry enough to throw a hidden dagger at the boy! His only real way to dodge that was to roll onto his back and lift his legs into the air. It came at him too quickly to do anything else! A shadow loomed overtop of Sprig and as he looked up, he saw the menacing face of the former captain of the Southern Toad Tower.

“You never stood a cha-OOH!!” Regardless of how menacing he was, Sprig found the courage to fire a rock into the mass of green that glowed above him “My one good eye!” Grime yelled out while Sprig silently hopped out of the way of the toad’s random, violent swings.

“Where- where are you, you little- you’ll pay for this!” Grime stuttered as he continued to swing. But the next thing he knew, there was a sudden massive pressure on his ankle that caused him to stumble back and lose his grip on the hammer. When it came down, it hit him right in the face!

He was dazed from this blow, barely able to remain conscious. Just before the hammer was lifted off of him, he felt some small weight on his chest. He then opened his eye and looked to see the small frog actually lifting Barrel's hammer above his head!

“But you’re just… a little frog.”

“Guess I’m not so little after aLLLLL” The end of his last word shifted in pitch to nearly be a scream. He wasn’t holding the hammer correctly and therefore lost his balance! But when he started leaning back a little bit, fire erupted from the back of the hammer and the force started making it spin around with the boy still attached! It took a while for the hammer to shake the young frog off, but once it had, it fell and landed right on Grime’s head once again. The toad groaned as he passed out completely.

The hammer had flung Sprig off of the rooftop and onto the wall of a nearby house. Once he had his bearings again, he looked back to see Grime’s unconscious form lying next to his weapon! He approached cautiously, just to make sure he wasn’t being tricked, but with the way he was breathing, it quickly became clear that the boy had won! He stepped up onto Grime’s chest and looked out over the area. When he saw that the gate was actually closing, he knew that his big sister had won her own fight! And finally the gate closed with only one individual soldier actually getting through.

“Woo! First one through!” He shouted, not realizing that he’d just been cut off from the rest of his army. As it was, Frobo reached over and hit him on the head hard enough to knock him out immediately.

“Alright! Let’s go again!” Polly shouted. As silly as it was for her to ask such a thing, Yunan couldn’t help but smile at the tadpole. Despite the species difference, she remembered being just like this child when she was that age. She was about to say something to her when a nearby manhole cover popped out of its socket! Yunan readied herself for another fight, thinking that maybe some toads had gotten in through the sewers, but once she saw what actually came out, she was overjoyed!

Three figures came out of the sewer and each one was a definitive friend! Marcy, Lady Olivia, and Hop Pop all came out, looking proud of themselves. Even though the king wasn’t with them, their overall attitudes made it obvious that they’d succeeded in their own mission! She was so relieved at seeing the two most important people in her life safe and sound, that she barely even noticed the older frog calling out to his granddaughter.

“Polly!”

“Hop Pop, you made it!” The pollywog called back. Seeing the two of them reunite, Yunan figured it’d be best for her to just leave them to their little reunion. Instead, she turned to the other two newts to ask them not only about their conditions, but also the king’s whereabouts. Thankfully, Marcy beat her to it by answering the latter question before it was even asked.

“My dad’s taking a different route because he couldn’t fit through this one. It’ll take him a little while longer, though, soooo…” She cleared her throat and cupped her hands around her mouth “ROYAL NEWT GUARD!! My father has been freed, so now I order you all to fight back!” As expected, every guard within hearing range of the princess performed exactly as ordered! Then, seeing their fellow guards finally fighting back, those who were out of the initial hearing range followed suit.

During all of that, Anne looked over the wall of the tower to check on her family. Upon seeing all of the victories everywhere, she turned to Sasha with a smirk.

“End of the line, Sasha!” Said blonde monster crawled her way to the edge that Anne was looking out over and finally managed to remove her cloak, revealing a bruised cheek.

“Oh no.” She whispered out, voice filled with dread. But before she could do anything, she felt her wrists being grabbed and pulled behind her back! She tried to struggle against the hold, but for some reason, her muscles didn’t seem to be responding properly! All she could do was kick at her captor and turn her head to see a pair of furious brown eyes glaring back at her. Her struggles attracted the attention of some of the newt guards, who approached the two creatures with caution.

After circling around them for a few moments, they got out some ropes and jumped at them! Next thing they knew, both of them were tied up separately and being cautiously pulled away from each other. Anne remained calm once she saw that Sasha was completely bound, even though she herself was tied up. She knew that once Marcy saw her like that, she’d be untied. Sasha, on the other hand, struggled so much that she nearly bit one of the guards! She was knocked out for her trouble.

The remaining guards all looked between each other for a few moments before turning to Anne. The differences between the two of them were incredibly stark and if it weren’t for the fact that she was so calm now, the newts probably would have knocked Anne out as well! They whispered amongst themselves, wondering what to do, but not coming to any solid conclusions. Thankfully, Anne saw her chance when one of the guards approached her with a tilted head.

“The- The Newtopian Book Beast?”

“Not quite.” Anne answered, purposely putting as much lightness in her tone as possible. This didn’t stop the newts from jumping back in surprise when they realized she could talk, though! Although the brunette was used to that sort of reaction by this point, so she simply continued.

“The Newtopian Book Beast has black hair, right? But yes, we’re the same species as her. For the record, Sasha over there actually caused this whole rebellion and I was the one that stopped her. The king and the princess both know about us and they can confirm what I’m saying if you don’t believe me.” The guards all paused for a few minutes before the same one from before reapproached and spoke to The Wartwood Creature.

“W-well… I did see the two of you fighting, so… as long as you don’t try to bite, then we can take you to one of them without needing to knock you out.”

“Oh trust me, I learned the hard way a long time ago that I do NOT want any slime coat in my mouth. I’d never bite anyone!”

“I… I don’t think I want to know how you found that out, but… okay, then.” From there, two newts got to dragging Sasha’s unconscious form while three of them gently picked up Anne and carried her. The one nearest to her head seemed to be the most scared of her, but so long as she kept calm, everything would be okay. It was a good thing the princess was still near the bottom of the guard tower, though, because this meant Anne didn’t have to stay tied up for long! As soon as Marcy saw them like that, she flinched and commanded the guards.

“Oh! Oh my gosh, untie the brunette one immediately, please! I know she looks like a horrifying monster, but she’s a hero! An ugly, ugly, ugly hero!” Anne gave Marcy a look. Sure, their species was indeed pretty hideous, but that didn’t mean she liked being called ‘ugly’ right to her face! And on top of that, the princess was secretly the same species, so she was one to talk! Of course, The Wartwood Creature didn’t voice those thoughts, knowing that Marcy had a very important reputation to uphold, but that didn’t stop her from thinking them.

Thankfully the newts around them listened without complaint once they were told to untie Anne. They looked cautious of her, but she figured that would fade with enough time. As it was, she approached Marcy with confidence. The only thing that stopped the guards from jumping in to keep her away from their princess was the fact that said princess was holding out her hand for Anne to take! The only other time this had happened was when she was about to transform, so the brunette began to wonder if she was going to blow her own cover right then and there! Thankfully, though, it seemed Marcy had something else in mind. 

“If I say that you’re a hero and parade you around as such, then maybe people won’t be as afraid of you anymore. Maybe they’ll even stop saying bad things about my true form.” She whispered into Anne’s ear. Hearing this simple plan, she allowed herself to be dragged around by the increasingly excited princess! Once Macry gave instructions for the guards to take Sasha to the castle, they were off! Most people looked at Anne with fear, but after recognizing that she was holding the hand of the frogging princess , most of them were willing to get a little closer out of curiosity.

Knowing from experience that amphibians were more comfortable when she relaxed her shoulders and avoided prolonged eye contact, she did just that. Then with Marcy consistently telling more and more people about the good deeds she did that day, she was able to see more people relaxing a little bit. She didn’t know any of these people and she had no real reason to want to impress any of them, but doing so still felt good!

Eventually, though, she actually did recognize a small group of newts. Particularly their bright orange leader, who she remembered from the time she was at the library with Marcy! They were staring at her in absolute awe, so she wondered if they recognized her and made the connection? If they had, then they weren’t saying anything about it. She was forced to suppress some laughter when she saw that Sprig and Polly had finally caught up with the two of them and Sprig seemed to want to mess with those small-time bullies.

“Heh, remember us? How we ‘entered the beast’s den’? And my sister said that we’ve got another one back home?” The orange newt did a double take at the pink frog, but overall was too stunned with Anne’s existence to say anything snarky. Instead, he just stuttered. 

“Wha- y-yeah, I remember you and what you said. You called it the… umm…”

“The Wartwood Creature. And there she is, in all her glory!” He motioned to his big sister before running up to join her. All she was doing was smiling and occasionally waving to people while letting Marcy drag her around by the hand! It seemed as though the group of bullies were way too focused on Anne and the presence of the princess to recognize that said princess was the very same newt they'd tried to bully that day in the library!

When Sprig got up to Anne, he simply hopped up onto her shoulders, much to the shock of all onlookers. Anne stumbled a little bit at the new and sudden weight, but she caught herself pretty quickly. The young frog ruffled her large, brown mane like he was petting an animal, which earned him an incredulous look. He ignored it for the most part and when Anne saw that him doing that made some more surrounding newts relax, she just shrugged and let it happen. She even picked up Polly in her free hand in order to show off how gentle she could be!

While all of this was happening, Anne finally noticed the route that Marcy was taking her along was actually the quickest way to the palace! When the place came into view, she saw the king looking out over one of the balconies. He was clearly scanning the city in hopes of finding them and when he did, he leaned out to acknowledge them. Anne squeezed Marcy’s hand just a little bit tighter to get her attention and once she had it, she motioned her head in the king’s direction.

Immediately, Marcy smiled wider than Anne had ever seen her do and wave to her dad. Once the crowd followed her gaze and saw who she was waving to, there was a mass amount of shock and awe! Despite how benevolent and friendly the king could be, he was usually far too busy to speak to commoners on a regular basis. Most of the people in the crowd had never even seen him in person before! This was practically an overload for most of the people!

And yet, there it all was for everyone to see! The king eventually turned and went back inside the castle, leaving the princess to her devices. It wasn’t long before the group actually found themselves at the castle and the ever-growing crowd of curious onlookers was forced to disperse! By this point, Anne was beginning to memorize the route to the throne room, so Marcy finally let go of her hand and the two of them walked the rest of the way together, meeting up with the rest of their group along the way!

When they actually got to the throne room, they found the place completely empty! Apparently his majesty needed to take care of something and would return shortly. Given everything that had just happened, it made perfect sense for there to be an issue in need of resolving. In the meantime, Marcy asked that Sasha and Grime both be brought in and have their hands tied so that they could be there for whatever was going to happen next. She may be a dangerous monster, but Marcy still felt that Sasha had the right to see whatever was within the music box’s reach!

It didn't take much to convince the guards to hand the one hammer and two swords over to Frobo. After all, they had a LOT of clean-up to do and having someone else taking care of that part made things much easier for the rest of them. Conveniently enough, Sasha and Grime both woke up before the king returned. The newts surrounding them were very much ready to mess them up if they tried anything, so as soon as they realized where they were, they simply went silent. They were permitted to stand up, but nothing else! All they could do was stand by the throne and wait for the very king they'd just tried to usurp to return.

The moment that he walked into the room, Sasha could tell something was wrong! Mostly because the first thing he did was shoo all of the extra guards out of the room in order to have some privacy with the lot of them. When Sasha’s and Grime’s presence was brought up, he insisted that because their hands were literally tied and their weapons confiscated, he could handle anything they'd try. And the worst part was that he was completely right! When he spoke, Sasha nearly shook out of sheer dread.

“Okay, now that that’s all settled, let’s do this! Let’s finally get some proper answers about you three!” Marcy smiled as she grabbed the music box that was sitting where Sasha had left it. And for the first time since standing up, Sasha actually tried to take action! Except this time, through words rather than violence.

“Mar-mar, please! Don’t give it to him!” She was about to explain more, but General Yunan shut her up by placing her tail in front of her mouth!

“Silence!” She commanded. Marcy stared at Sasha for a few moments before narrowing her eyes and turning back to the king. Finally, she placed the music box into his waiting hand!

“Here you go, dad !” She emphasized the last word specifically to inform Sasha of exactly where she made her big mistake. But it didn't stop there! Marcy had told her dad through a letter that Sasha didn’t know who she really was. And so, the king smiled and played along.

“Why thank you, Marcy . I couldn’t have asked for a better daughter .” The two of them purposefully looked straight at Sasha and waited for the reveal to sink in. And once she finally had her full realization, her heart sank in absolute terror! She looked over at Anne, wondering if she knew about the connection and given the smug look on her face, it became obvious that she had! In fact, all of the Plantars seemed to know about it! That was why they were so angry with her! In overtaking the king, she actively endangered the family of one of her own species!

On top of that, Sasha realized that she really should have figured it out! She knew that the princess was an adopted newt named Marcy, but for some reason she never connected the dots! As shame for not realizing something so obvious creeped up her spine, she looked over to Grime for some sort of comfort. All she saw was the same shock and confusion that she felt, but for some reason, that actually did bring the very comfort she was looking for. At the very least, she wasn’t the only one who had no idea! As she processed this information, Anne’s voice rang out towards the king.

“Alright, big guy! Now let’s get those answers!” King Andrias stood up to his full height and smiled before suddenly going on a speech.

“In good time, my dear. But first, I’m going to let you all in on a little secret. There was a time when Newtopia was truly great, but that greatness was stolen from us. Centuries of prosperity, brought to an end because of me! I was weak, trusting those who said they were my friends, and because of that the music box was taken under my watch.

“And by the time we retrieved it, all of its power was gone and it was nothing more than a hunk of metal with three useless, little grey rocks in it. And after a thousand years, no one even remembers our legacy! But now, at long last, the box has its full power back and with said power, Newtopia will be returned to glory!” Hearing this, Hop Pop cheerfully spoke up.

“Oh, well that’s nice.” Even though he appeared to be rather oblivious, Anne’s suspiciousness began to rise.

“Something’s wrong, here.” She murmured to herself. However, she was ignored as Andrias continued.

“For you see, my ancestors weren’t frail explorers. They were glorious conquerors!” He shouted, stepping on a switch and making a pedestal rise up from the floor. He immediately placed the music box on top of it and some streams of multicoloured light started to bleed down from it. Next thing everyone knew, all of the windows in the room shattered and the building shook! Everyone felt a pressure pushing them downwards, almost like the increased gravity from the third temple! It eventually stopped, but as soon as it did, Sprig hopped over to one of the broken windows and looked outside!

“Oh, we are way high up.” He commented. His position wasn’t held for long, though, as he shouted and jumped away because something was coming! Of all the things it could be, no one expected a horde of metal constructs that looked suspiciously like Frobo to come flying in through the broken windows! The only visible differences from Frobo were the colours, with the new ones having a black sheen and red eyes as opposed to Frobo’s respective brown and yellow. The worst part was that, after seeing what Frobo was capable of, they knew exactly what these new metal constructs were as well!

“I’m sorry, girls, but I’m afraid I can’t let you make contact with your kind just yet. Wouldn’t want you telling anyone about the coming invasion.” Andrias cut through their thoughts!

“What?!” Was all that Anne could say. Andrias saying that not only confirmed that they were indeed aliens, but that the giant salamander knew more than he was letting on! Heck, he might even know where the three of them originally came from! He took the group’s mostly stunned silence as permission to continue.

“Now that the box finally has power again, I can finish the work my ancestors started. From this castle, I will not only rule over this world, but all worlds!” He finished with some maniacal laughter, which snapped most of the group out of their shocked states!

“NO! You’ll never get away with this!” Anne shouted up at him with Sasha joining in immediately after.

“Anne’s right, we’ll stop you! And then I’ll make sure you never see that box again!”

“Oh, will you now? I can see a demonstration of my power is in order. After all, that’s all you toads understand, isn’t it? Behold!” Andrias boomed while pressing a few buttons on the music box. Sasha was a little surprised that he referred to her as a toad, even though she wasn’t in that form at the moment. Did that mean she really acted more like a toad than her true self still? She didn’t get time to question it any further, though, as some metal was heard shifting above the room!

Next thing they knew, a beam of light shot out from the top of the castle and could be seen from the window. As it travelled through the sky, Sasha’s dread grew even bigger! It was headed for the nearest Toad Tower! There was no way he was about to attack them, right?! But that’s exactly what happened as, once it hit, it exploded in a fiery ball of wrath that obliterated the tower itself! All Sasha could do was gasp in horror while Grime cried out in shock!

“NO!!” There may have been a lot of toads in their invasion army, but there were still a few left at the tower! It was Aldo's tower, so he had stuck behind. Thus him and all of his most personal guards were now dead! Completely destroyed! They knew that Bufo wasn't there because he was leading the army, but they didn't know where Beatrix was! Despite the toad conditioning, Grime still felt horror creep up his spine at the thought of his big sister having died like that! He heard some staggered breathing to his right and looked to see Sasha’s monster eyes wider than he'd ever seen them before.

The girl was in shock at the genocide she had just witnessed. In grand total, there had to be at least fifty toads in that building who were now just plain gone ! She felt sick and weak, but once she saw Andrias' smile, a wave of fury overtook her. So this was what Anne had been feeling just a little bit ago. Knowing that she needed someone to cut her ropes in order to take her anger out on the source, she turned to the other creature.

“Anne! We have to stop him! He’s crazy!” She commanded, hoping her fellow alpha would actually listen this time. Meanwhile Anne was going through her own little crisis. The main difference between them was that she was actually able to put hers into words!

“I don’t believe this. We were so focused on each other, we couldn’t see what was right in front of us!” She started to hyperventilate a bit before her grandpa put his hand on her leg and helped her come to her senses.

“Focus, Anne. If we can get that music box away from him, maybe we’ll stand a fightin’ chance.”

“Right!” She responded, a goal now set in her mind! She drew her sword, but Andrias casually snapped his fingers to get all of the Frobo look-alikes to raise up their arms with an attachment that they all knew could fire miniature versions of what had just obliterated the Toad Tower! They knew that a fight was about to break out between the two groups, but it was stopped before it began by Marcy rushing in between the two parties.

“STOP!!” She yelled at her fellow creatures before turning around to face the king “Dad, this wasn’t the plan! You said we’d basically just pop in and share our wonders with other worlds! Not dominate them!” Everyone else was confused, but Andrias simply answered like he'd been expecting this.

“But that’s exactly what we’re doing. Whether the natives want us to or not!”

“But- but…” The princess took a couple of steps back, giving Anne the opportunity to ask her about what was going on.

“Marcy, what’s he talking about?”

“Yeah, what ‘plan’?” Sasha joined. She didn't care that she probably had no right to ask after what happened earlier, but she couldn't care less at this point. Marcy turned back around to face the two of them as she started nervously talking.

“A few years ago, my dad told me about a prophecy where a great darkness would come to Amphibia and after that was dealt with, we’d be able to share all the great things we have with so many other worlds!”

“A... darkness?”

“The only ‘darkness’ I see is the giant salamander over there!” Anne and Sasha respectively spoke up. The brunette followed up the blonde's words, indicating that she definitely wasn't out of line for protesting this.