The Cyberkinetic Witch of Amphibia

by Madman777

Summary:

The Core was the vilest creature in Amphibia. One of it's worst acts was painfully possessing Marcy Wu and using her as a host. In this timeline, it fails. Marcy gets more time to shine and the Core gets more of what it deserves and becomes more demonic in the process while they build up to an epic showdown.

I really like Marcy, and I really hate the Core and what it did to her. So I throw her a bone and I make the Core suffer even more than it already did canon wise. My own AU take on the final season. Anne and Sasha's stories will continue relatively unchanged for awhile.

I will update and check chapters for details as needed. Apologies in advance, I am currently double-checking to edit bad grammar and add details. Will be awhile before I'm satisfied.

Notes:

This isn't just an AU story, but an expansion of sorts.

For one thing, in the established infinite universe and timeline standards of Amphibia (along with the connected story of Gravity Falls), this sort of thing by definition completely possible. And we barely got to properly touch on the Calamity Powers, even Anne's.

And I'm actually making the Core more of a capable Villain in this story. Think about it. Darcy didn't make much, if any, use of Marcy's wide array of interests and knowledge in trying to invade Earth or take down the Resistance. Quite the opposite. Darcy's only visible major contributions were forcing the Resistance to stop their attack by ambushing their main team after they snuck into the Castle, and then beating Grime and Sasha (with lasting scars) until Sasha took advantage of her getting distracted by Andrias's pending Heel-face turn to sever the Core from Marcy's body.

Marcy by herself made several improvements, experiments and ideas during her time in Newtopia (Journal and show), and tinkered with Frobo. Andrias did most of the heavy lifting on ideas and soldiers, using some info Marcy gave him on Earth military to plan ahead. But he was very lazy on taking Anne out and didn't really take Sasha or the rest as a serious problem.

The Core was most dangerous in its original form, and we don't even know much about the rest of its collective mind. And it's still the bigger threat when Marcy is freed and it unleashes a moon-sized plan with a mutant Drone army that Anne has to sacrifice herself to stop. It led conquests of many worlds over the years, original robot designs (think Andrias's high-tech suits or ancient works on Dawnblood Island)

Every time a main villain in three related Disney universes (Bill, Belos and the Core) tries possessing a child, it only really serves to make them irredeemably loathsome, give the heroes a difficult fight because they don't want to harm them, and never does them long term good. Darcy's existence in show is the longest example, creepily comparable to Bill's enjoyment of pain in Dipper. Sadly, possession was just the tip of the iceberg for poor Hunter. Possessing kids is an overdone cliche that inspires too much creepy fetishes and heartlessness in the fandoms.

Consider this a complicated crossover story. Some other stories are getting brought into this from completely separate stories, and Gravity Falls and Owl House are getting referenced (along with Amphibian universe counterparts like in 'Wax Museum').

Chapter 1: Wit is Unleashed

Summary:

Marcy flips a wart by flipping the script. An alternate timeline where the Power of Wit is unleashed in one of many ways it could be.

I've updated my chapters with more details and better formatting. This is my most ambitious Amphibia project, so I will endeavor to make it count.

Ch. 1 Wit is Unleashed

“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”-Seneca the Younger

               “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”-Leonardo da Vinci

“Reach for the stars, you just might become one!” — Unknown

 

               It had all come undone so tragically for Marcy Regina Wu in Newtopia. Not only had Sasha done her worst scheme yet and Andrias revealing himself to have plans of world conquest and betraying them all, but Marcy had a hidden, awful secret of her own. She had deliberately gotten them stranded there out of desperation and tearfully tried to explain. Her friends were horrified and all looked lost.

               To make it worse, Andrias crushed sweet lovable Frobo, threw Sprig out a window, and stabbed Marcy through her chest as she opened a Portal to Earth.

                Anne and the Plantars were sent to Earth while Sasha and Grime went on the run. Poor Marcy was put into a rejuvenation tank for a sinister purpose.

               You know how this story goes.

               However, while Marcy was setting up the box to transport Anne back home in a desperate attempt to make up for her mistake, her work with the Box let it sense her inner being. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Anne’s powers had just manifested,and Marcy was right now desperately focusing her own deep affection she still had for her friends despite everything and that they still felt in their hearts for her. It went unnoticed by everyone around.

               However, there was a being , more akin to a deity, who did notice. The Guardian of the Multiverse was an entity who watched over the infinite multiverse. It observed this event with its creation, the Calamity Gems. The Gems had been a tragic experiment 10,000 years ago to see if any mortals could handle such unlimited power, and one day take its place. The royals who abused these stones and eventually became the abomination known as the Core had twisted their purpose in every way possible, and tragically no Amphibian hero had done the correct course of action with them either. Thus the necessity of the true bearers of this power who would one day come from a different world to end this abuse of power.

               The multiverse is a complex concept. It not only had different versions of life, such as a world ruled by sentient amphibians as opposed to humans, a realm of demons and witches, dimensions governed entirely by rules of chance or concepts of living as 2^nd-dimensional beongs or other dimensions of perception, but different timelines. The same types of species and worlds, but with differences defined often by a series of choices, or even just one.

               This is just one of endless choices for the story of Amphibia.

               One timeline had already been won for all of the main characters with an eventual successor for the Guardian. Anne willingly took on all the power selflessly to end the Core’s threat as the first person to do so in 10,000 years. The Guardian had plenty of time to think and observe while it waited for that, so it did.

              

               The Guardian felt the connection Marcy Regina Wu made. When she connected with the Gem’s energy, it recognized a quality related to the purpose of why these girls matched the qualities meant for the bearer. For the Gem of Wit, the qualities were meant to reflect both intelligence and humility. Marcy was a highly intelligent savant, mastering a lot of knowledge and facts from both worlds with little effort. She loved learning things, life and her friends.

                However, she was super oblivious, obsessed with her interests, clumsy and poor at social skills. It was her fault they’d gotten trapped on Amphibia.

                In spite of that, when realizing her errors, she showed great humility and strove to make amends for errors of hers. What could’ve been her last potential act and final words had been to think of a plan as quickly as she could to try and save her friends and apologize … that’s who she was at heart, a nice humble genius.

                Ashamed and appalled at her betrayal of her friends and how she was betrayed, she not only saved Sprig’s life right away, but apologized with what she thought were her final words. Her qualities were ideal for humility and intelligence in someone so young, just as Anne had been steadily growing already as a friend and more responsible young woman. That was someone still worthy to hold the power of Wit.

               While the Guardian could act childish and a bit inconsiderate towards mortals, it did understand the nature of the Gems better than anyone else. Focusing on this, it homed in on the poor young girl at this time in her life and took a closer and more personal look at what had happened with the connection to her.

                Thankfully, she was alive, but close to death and her hope for life was now in the hands of a king who was unwillingly handing her off to a living nightmare that was going to … “use” her.

               Anger filled the Guardian. It hated anyone who misused the Stones. The Core was the worst offender in Amphibian history.

 It now had a deeper understanding of Marcy’s pain, one it had seen play out if that possession happened and could’ve ended so much worse than it did. It had ended worse in many timelines or with more pain and scars for everyone.

She’d earned her place as the Stone’s inheritor first and was remorseful and ready to make amends before the Core got to her. That possession set her back months on that and left her trapped in her head without full access to her memories while the Core used her body and mind.

               The Guardian saw a chance to make up for the pain its experiment for a successor, a very selfish experiment, had forced her into. It also saw an opportunity to both thwart her possession from ever happening in the first place and give the other two Stars a better fighting chance at ending this charade in one different form of this timeline with a chance for a less damaging outcome on both worlds. And perhaps … in the future they could be useful for dealing with other messes in the future in the services of the new Guardian.

 

                A latent defense for Marcy was laid in her body, one tied to the Music Box in the event of foreign invasion inside of her.

               After Amphibia was being reduced to a stripped wasteland, Lady Olivia and General Yunan hatched a plan to save Marcy. She was their best chance to thwart Andrias, given her intellect. But they were thwarted.

               Andrias appeared,“Leaving so soon? But we have so much to discuss!”

There really wasn’t much to discuss at all.

               “But how did you …?”Olivia asked in fear.

               “Simple. We've been watching you the whole time.”

His master, the Core, the Night, an unnatural Thing that would not die, a collection of Amphibia’s greatest minds preserved for all eternity in unified consciousness (etc.) crawled out to peer down from the ceiling behind him with seven large orange eyes with lighter orange/white slit pupils. A horrible mechanical screech came out of its unseen mouth.

               “What the heck is that?”Marcy was grabbed on the head by the creature,”AAAHHH! WHOA!”

               “Marcy!”Olivia and Yunan cried out.

               Andrias barely reacted and acted like a curator displaying a national treasure,“Behold! Our ultimate creation. A collection of Amphibia's greatest minds, preserved for all eternity.”

               “What are you doing, Andrias?!”Olivia screamed.

               “Stop it, you maniac!”Yunan demanded.

               He didn’t. “Studying the Moss Man improved our medical technology. But it wasn't until we met the Shadowfish that we truly learn to conquer death. And thus, the Core was born …”

               The Core put her into a fiendish chair composed of cables and metal and restrained her into it.

               “Let me go!”Marcy screamed. The terrified girl was fresh awake from one bad dream that was already devolving into a living nightmare of the worst kind.

               Andrias said,“I wish I could. But my lord craves a Host. And it wanted the best, the smartest, the only one who could beat me at flipwart.”

                Marcy gasped in horror. Olivia blanched … she’d only just said to Yunan that Marcy was the only one who could do that.

Andrias had no words of comfort, only regret,” Honestly, Marcy, I like you. Always have. I begged the Core to consider an alternative Host, but... alas.”

               “What...? What is this? Huh?”She looked up to see a horrible helmet being lowered towards her head.

                Olivia and Yunan watched in fear and horror as that helmet was lowered onto her skull. A surge of energy into her body and the welding like process to her body made her scream in agony as the Core tried to download itself.

               Andrias was unable to make himself watch. He didn’t want to. He liked the cheerful girl who had wowed the entire city with her intellect and love for life and had no desire for her to be reduced to this.

               This time, the story went differently.

               Before the process could be completed, the failsafe planted by the Guardian activated. In another room the Calamity Box glowed.

               The energy surges suddenly and unexpectedly fizzled out.

The Core’s hideous eyes widened in surprise. Yunan and Olivia gasped. Andrias turned to look in astonishment.

               “What’s going on?”Yunan whispered to Olivia.

               “I don’t know …”Olivia whispered back. They glanced at Andrias. He clearly didn’t know what was going on.

 The Core tried continuing, but nothing happened as it jerked its tentacles.

                There was silence for a long moment as it did so. A wisp of green energy rose up from the green Stone to the right of the blue one and flowed down to the basement to go inside Marcy.

               Far away, the ghost of a certain red-eyed newt felt the shift in the Box’s power. She knew the Box better than anyone else in Amphibia.

 After all, she had made this box with these gems for the purpose of unifying the kingdoms of Amphibia a long time ago, only to watch with regret as the rulers of her own people turned it towards ruin and conquest. Since then, she haunted her world as a ghost, unwilling to move on as penance.

However, what she just felt emanating from her handiwork was unprecedented. Valeriana stared at the Castle in the distance. She did not know if this was for better or worse, and that scared her.

No one in Amphibia fully understood just what they were dealing with when it came to the Stones. Not even her.

Marcy (in Ranger garb) had been falling down (literally and figuratively) into a prison inside her own mind as the Core took over.

Inside her head, she stopped falling and hovered in place. She looked up in astonishment as her mind space lit up with glowing neon green energy coming in from the top. That energy poured out like a pool of water below her feet.

She asked cautiously, “What is this?”

However, the color of the bright pool looked familiar,” Hang on … that color … could it be??”

At the First Temple, she called up to Anne and her found family,”Ha! Solved it. Okay guys, listen up. Green is the safe color. Get it?”

“Eh …”They all said skeptically.

She connected the dots for them,“Don't be jealous of my hue." It's a reference to green, the color of envy.”

Before that, at Dawnblood Island, she thought she’d have to think her way past the door, but then it opened for her. Her eyes were glowing with a green light in them. She noticed it in a nearby mirror after she got inside.

“Wow … my eyes changed color …do I have secret magic powers?”She asked while making her way into Dawnblood Castle. She made a note in Jo. That was definitely worth researching to replicate for future use!

 She reached down with her left hand to touch that pool and rubbed a bit of it in her fingers. Her eyes flickered from brown to green.

 The girl smiled and promptly dipped both hands in up to her wrists. The pool sparked and became flames that fused with her. The fire didn’t harm her but made her feel very strong. Strong with cosmic power that had no equal here.

 

Marcy felt that power as her eyes lit up like a lantern, and then her hair grew a bit longer and glowed like a green candle. Her fingers sparked with magical electricity in front of her face.

“YES!”She said with delight. This miracle gave her hope.

 She felt the fear from the parasitic invader of her body as her mental faculties grew stronger.

“No …it can’t be!”Andrias said in shock as blue flames gathered around Anne.

It was her turn now. Marcy looked up to the roof of her thoughts and raised her sparkling hands up. A night sky full of stars was forming up there as her mind lit up with supernatural fire. Numbers, facts and figures swirled in front of her as the power of Wit claimed its chosen champion.

                One by one, the eye holes on the Core’s intended helmet on Marcy opened. But instead of orange, one by one, all ten of its eyes glowed a very bright neon green. That glow started to increase in intensity.

               “Marcy?”Olivia whispered.

               “What is going on?!”Yunan yelled.

               The Core knew that color. Raw fear filled its soul.

               “No …”

               Andrias knew that color. “Not possible …”He breathed. First Anne, and now Marcy?!

              

               One of the many dislikable traits about the Core was the very reason for its existence in the first place. The collection of great minds and rulers had uploaded their minds into this collective existence to gain immortality and continue to rule Amphibia, deluding themselves into thinking that it was for the glory and good of Amphibia since only they were worthy of it and could work better together with all their minds linked. Instead, the whole lot of them were heartless cowards afraid of death and of change and selfish to a childishly insane degree. Eventually they believed they qualified as a deity, but the thing they became was a mechanical devil only fit to be feared and hated.

               When the glow got to a blinding degree and energy started flowing down its own arms  towards it head, the cowardly abomination trembled in all that was left of whatever soul nature was left of its various minds.

                The three living newts backed up to the edge of the room.

 The evil sphere tried frantically to remove the tentacles plugged into Marcy’s body but could not. It was not getting off that easy. The energy it desired to control from the Box coursed into it .

               All the lines and machinery in the room began to glow with this green light. It spread out of the room and throughout the whole Castle. The glowing blue patterns of circuitry on the walls outside shifted to a bright neon green that lit the whole palace up like a lantern and made a faint humming sound.

Frobots, animals, officials, prisoners, soldiers and civilians of all stripes below it and all over Amphibia looked up to gaze in shock at the sight.

The Newtopian citizens and soldiers hadn’t known what to make of the Castle rising up, and they definitely didn’t know what to make of this.

The robots felt a fear of something unknown stir in their processors, something that would mean things for them in the future that their makers had never intended.

               A blonde human girl with a scar on her right cheek  watched with wide eyes from a distant valley next to a disgraced toad soldier holding a famed Warhammer and their stunned Resistance.

               Some roaming newt thieves looked up from a caravan robbery they’d finished in the far East. Their mustachioed leader’s jaw hung open. He’d thought he’d seen everything when  the Castle rose into the air weeks ago.

               Three quarreling analyst’s miles away stopped arguing over an invasion idea they had a deadline to finish and kept quiet as they silently tried to determine the cause of this new phenomenon.

               “Oh frog, what now?”A scarred toad captain in the West complained.

               “Is this another trick?”Her grumpy colleague from the East grumbled from his prison cell. The toads had grumbled about Andrias ‘cheating to win’ for days after their defeat, especially the ones who got caught.

               Prisoners and slave laborers were just as confused and fascinated by the sight as their captors.

               A rich frog with one eye in the fanciest town in Amphibia held onto his teacup at dinner with refined composure, but his face was full of fear.

               Some former Ranger colleagues of Marcy’s down in their cove base in the Southwest stared in fear, worried that this officially signaled the end of their society.

               The one-armed ghost smiled.

               A ghastly mechanical shriek came out of the Core as the energy seared it from the inside and began to build up into an explosion. Cracks formed on its shell as light spilled out and then suddenly released in one massive burst.

               No one or nothing in that room could’ve fully escaped the blast that ensued even if they tried. It wrecked the entire room and halls outside it beyond recognition. The Castle windows shattered and the four rectangular engines at the base let off hot bursts of flame. The ornamental cannon/portal projector at the top of the Castle and the triangular structure at the bottom exploded like fireworks, sparks flying off in multicolored trails.

               The cursed dwelling shook and groaned loudly. It faltered and sank closer to the ground but kept floating with smoke rising off of it. The lights flickered off to conserve power.

               The continent-wide audience said very little or nothing.

               At the source of the explosion, the smoke and dust settled. Rocks and machinery alike were lying around in pieces. Olivia and Yunan lay on the ground barely conscious and burned but still alive and not seriously injured.

               A few minutes later, King Andrias pushed himself up from where he had been blasted painfully into the wall, and part of his flesh torn open, exposing the machinery underneath his skin.

                He deserved that.

               Rubbing his bruised cranium, he peered towards the center of the room and gasped. The Core’s spherical body was shattered, leaving ghastly machinery exposed with white slime and crackling orange sparks coming out of it. Tapping into the link he shared with it on his cracked but still intact crown, he heard nothing. Scans from the Frobots coming into the room revealed the Core still existed on the remaining circuitry left in the Palace but was now in a reboot mode of sorts. Any conscious feelings on its part were now in a withdrawn state of fear and trauma.

               Despite being its accomplice, Andrias didn’t feel sorry for the Core. All his life he had been bullied and pressured into following his family’s dark legacy by his own father and his forbears inside of it. While he had grown into a sadistic shell of his former self, he always resented what they had put him through for a millennium, with no real chance of escaping its influence. He had protested its decisions to first kill Marcy and then use her body, but to little avail. He liked Marcy, the cheerful young human who had made him laugh in genuine heartwarming amusement for the first time since losing his two best friends so long ago.

Then he noticed that she was missing from the room. The accursed chair was in pieces and Marcy was not anywhere to be seen.

               “What just happened?” He mumbled.

               The ghost miles away chuckled with pleasure and said to her pet Leander after he landed on her shoulder,”Wit has awakened. What an unexpected boon.”

               “Unexpected boon!”He squawked.

               She picked her staff up and began walking. “The world is never going to be the same again … I can feel it!”

               Two whole worlds would never be the same again.

               In another part of the castle, two newts stood near the library, wondering what in the world that noise had been. One of them wore a classic scholar’s robe and was there to update the archives while the other was a Castle guard holding a poleaxe.

               “Olms have mercy, are we under attack?! Not even the Castle lifting up out of the ground was that rocky!” The guard grumbled. He desperately wanted a new post.

               The scholar chuckled nervously, “Now calm down, I’m sure that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation! We’ll just have to contact the teams outside, and the King will surely have the situation … under …” he trailed off as he heard footsteps coming and froze when he looked in the appropriate direction, and the soldier also turned to look.

               In the shadows to the left of the door stood an average newt-sized figure leaning on a large pole with steam coming off it. Its glowing green eyes were focused intently on them.

                The newts barely had time to feel a chill go all the way down their spines to the ends of their tails before the figure lunged at them. Seconds later she entered the library pulling the scholar’s robe over her frame and the guard’s belt.

               After browsing the shelves with even quicker observation than usual, she grabbed some informative tomes on a few different subjects and shoved them into a bag which she slung over her shoulder under her new robe. She administered a slight application of a memory wiping potion that had been conveniently in the library as an exhibition to the two unconscious newts so they wouldn’t remember this, bound and gagged them, and shoved them into a closet.

                Then she slipped away into the hallways.

               Marcy’s bedroom was ransacked to reclaim her phone and other stuff, and so was the medical bay.

               A few minutes later, the Frobots started converging towards the Castle from miles around, desperately trying to control the situation. They were blindsided by the fact that they had absolutely no orders coming in and were thus running on basic protocol. This was very much to the advantage of the mysterious  girl, who slipped outside of the Castle and got off of it.

               She flew out the hole at the top at high speed to the currently empty Newtopian University on the main city in its original spot and acquired some valuable alchemical and chemistry supplies. Her analytical gaze settled on a lone Frobot, who stood a mere 10 feet away and was conveniently not close to any of its brethren or looking in her direction. Quietly, she grabbed an electric cable from a nearby lamppost and moved towards the machine with a bit of green energy going down her fingers.

               The Frobot unit never knew what hit as it was stunned by a shock to the back of its head that was directed to its CPU. It was taken out right away and the figure began to use the green energy of her intellect to control the robot.

               She now had a ride to help conserve her energy and avoid attention with easier.

 The Frobot flew off away from the ruined city with a passenger on its back, its red eyes glowing green under a new master.

               The hooded girl looked back at the city fading into the distance behind it, once an inviting paradise of learning and fantasies, now a very potent nightmare and ruin unveiled. She let out a bitter sigh of regret.

               Many miles later, she directed the robot to stop and land just outside a certain rocky mountainous area which had a pass with two alternative routes. But she ignored that and landed at the point where it diverged. Then she made the Frobot shut off. Finally, the figure pulled down the hood of her robe.

               Marcy’s eyes and hair were still glowing with green Calamity energy.

               After the explosion set her free, her brain had gone on autopilot mode. Her own personality was still there but the decisive survival instincts of her empowered intellect had been in charge.

               The power of the Wit Calamity Stone focused on intelligence. At a low level she had used it to plan and execute the best strategy to escape danger and plan a solution in seconds. That instinct was at full power now.

                She had used that to escape quietly and effectively with valuable supplies, including everything of hers from her room and a Laser scythe intended for the Core to use inside her body. Calculating that she was reasonably far away from any observation, she could now focus on her medical issues. She removed the robe for to look at what the explosion had done to her. It wasn’t pretty.

               The cyborg-type body suit she’d been outfitted with to interface with the Core was now burnt on the outside with several gashes. Notably, the orange gem chest piece had exploded and left a hole over her torso near the heart.

 Underneath the suit her arms had singe marks from both the attempted hijacking of her body and the reverse flow of energy. Complicating the issue was the fact that she was dealing with old injuries that hadn’t healed on top of the new ones.

 The armor was still smoking from the aftermath.

               Most haunting of all was the state of her face.

               Running down her forehead and to her eyes were vein-like trails of purplish scars left by the attempt to merge with her mind and the explosive aftermath of the helmet being blown off her head. These newfound scars were glowing just like her eyes and hair.

               Right now, she could tell that the pain and health problems were going to erupt after her power high wore off. She needed to numb the pain and get a temporary medical healing. Unfortunately, she was in no state or position to remove the remains of her armor which were blocking access to her body.

               Fortunately, there was a workable, if drastic, solution in front of her. She leaned down and began to take apart the robot.

               Working fast but carefully, she converted several parts into different things. For her torso she constructed a thin but well wired vest to replace the fried circuits from the Core’s suit for protection and monitoring her vitals. A pair of gauntlets with electric charge pulses and bulky arm coverings served a couple different purposes. Not only did it serve as a weapon with lasers and room for later attachments (like crossbow bolts), but it worked in sync with her new vest to suppress any pain she would feel. The voice chip and onboard files were cannibalized to use for fooling the machines. Slowly she slid this new gear on, and reapplied the cloak, breathing heavily as it began to take effect in an uncomfortable but painless way.

               After that, she took out two of the mixtures she’d swiped from the university. One after the other she downed them. The first would act as an immediate healing agent for her internal injuries. The second would enable her to go on her own for a while without any sustenance, for a week or more. With the immediate problems out of the way, she set off the self-destruct in the Frobot’s torso and picked up her remaining tools and walked off away from the machine and its corrupted city, not even flinching as the explosion rocked the surroundings.

Gradually, the light faded from her eyes and hair, leaving her in her normal state of mind. Her intelligence remained heightened slightly above normal level, but she was otherwise back to normal. Unfortunately, the normal state of being for her was darker than ever.

The poor girl wandered aimlessly into the Dry Swamp area of Amphibia, wandering through the desert inhabited by giant sand worms. While normally this could be a fatal course of action for any biological being to take, she was currently in a state of sustainability that could last a while. One sand worm tried to eat her, and she shot it in the mouth with a rapid laser blast that left it lying dead on the ground without even blinking.

 Of course, the desert heat did not help with her current state of mind. For a good long while she just thought about things.

The long, complicated but loving friendship she had with Anne and Sasha. Despite all its pitfalls she truly cherished her friendship with them more than anything else on Earth. No one else really connected after all with the poor little Taiwanese American nerd, not even her own parents. Bringing up the music box as an idea for Sasha with the long shot (or wishful fantasy??) of an idea to get out of this world, even though it was Sasha’s idea to steal it.

Her dream of a fantasy life came true when she came her. People there liked her and appreciated her genius skills and improvements to help them out. She’d still felt regret for getting her two besties into this since even she could see this world was dangerous and she had no idea where they were. She’d worked hard to find them and get answers on the Music Box. Then she’d met up with them again one after the other, overjoyed. But she felt a growing anxiety and fear of rejection, not helped by certain things she observed and witnessed. Andrias had offered her something too good to be true with the Calamity Box’s powers, a chance to explore and adventure forever with them. But it was too good to be true.

Andrias had played her for a fool and exposed her in front of everyone. Now they hated her, and then she almost died. She got freed briefly only to be haunted by that horrible vision of her two friends saying they hated her and never wanted anything more to do with her, which worked all too well. The last clear memory she had was that thing descending on her with horrible body violating intentions. Sure, she was miraculously free now, but she was scarred inside and out, traumatized, sad and walking alone in the wilderness. You didn’t just walk something like that off.

Why did the universe hate her so much?

She pictured this all vividly as she trudged along in the sand to the point where she was hallucinating this right in front of her. Eventually she started talking aloud to try and dispel it. But it only helped a bit.

“Hehehe … perfect fantasy life … why does it have to be so more complicated than in Creatures and Caverns? … Oh well I guess that’s because I can control it to a degree … plan ahead … strategize … work with a team … but WHEN does that really EVER work out for me with the people I care about? … if I’m so smart why can’t I figure it out? … what did I do wrong with connecting? … did Andrias ever really mean ANY of it? … what now? … perhaps I can go … go … go …”

At this point the tears and pent-up dam of emotions began to pour out slowly but steadily as she continued,” Go where?!! Anne’s back home … who knows where Sash went … and I can’t go back to Newtopia … maybe Wartwood? …. Well, wait wait wait, Anne’s the one who connected, had a wonderful found family, so it’s her they really like … they’d  all probably hate me like she does  now … except Maddie ... but wait, if the control over Amphibia is already this widespread, who knows what’s happened since? If it’s even safe … but what does that l-l-leave me to d-doooo … ARRRRGGGGGHHHH??!!!” She howled with frustration, sank to her knees and shook her free hand at the hot arid sky.

“I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF A FROGGING DESERT WITH A CLOAK, ROBOT-SCAVENGED ARMOR AND A SPEAR AND I FEEL LIKE THE VICTIM OF THE ODDEST SEXUAL ASSAULT IN HISTORY AND I. DON’T. HAVE. ANYONE OR ANYTHING TO WORK WITH AT ALL!!!! Why does everything I try have to end in DISASTER?!?!?!? I … I … just want my friends b-b-back, and I MIGHT HAVE LOST THEM ALL … f-f-foreverrr!!”

The poor girl put her head down and sobbed bitterly at just how wrong everything had gone. The issues with moving, the awful system that was public school, and everything that failed with her friends and Amphibia. She had messed up badly and was at the lowest point of her existence.

Poor Marcy Regina Wu let out a quiet whisper,”I don’t know what to do …”

“You find a starting point of course!” a chipper voice piped up. She looked up and saw a perfect copy of herself in her Newtopian ranger garb, unscarred and intact and still full of life. “Take stock of your surroundings and fight off your opponent with a new plan!”

Whether this was merely a stress and anxiety induced hallucination, a manifestation of her heightened intellect and connection to the Gem of Wit, or both, Marcy never knew. But it turned out to be just what she needed.

She didn’t question it. After all, it was quite tame compared to the other visions. An apparition that could  interact with you in a helpful way was far more wholesome than most people would like to admit. If it worked with Anne, it could work with the weirder Marcy.

The real Marcy wiped her eyes. “What plan and purpose would that be? I’m still very alone out here, very upset and scared, and I may have lost all my friends for good. And now all of Amphibia and Earth could be doomed for conquest and ruin!! How do I work with that?”

Her mirage avatar replied soothingly, “I get that, but … you don’t know for certain that everything’s lost. You don’t know that the situation has gotten to the point of no return. The Core hasn’t won yet. Right now, you have the advantage of being where no one knows where you are, with some convenient survival equipment, Music box powers and gear you weren’t expecting. That’s a start. You’re the smartest person around, and you are free in mind and body to use all that.”

Marcy gasped. That was true. She was free … alive and not trapped by that thing.

Smiling victoriously, the mirage added,”You know Sasha’s tough and still kicking. She’ll find a way to survive. Anna-banana will probably stop at nothing to get the Plantars back home, and save Sasha and you! You know already in your genius mind Anne has always been the heart and soul of our group! I bet neither of them have given up on you! I mean, you haven’t given up on them, right?”

Turning towards her bag, Marcy pulled out her copy of that special BFFs photo all of them treasured and had copies of. Yes, even now she dared to believe in still being friends with Anne and Sasha and becoming a better friend and make up for her mistakes. Conviction began to flood in her heart and it showed on her face.

Grinning wider, the helpful hallucination whispered slyly, “That a girl! Besides, remember why the Lich King lost in ‘War of the Warlocks’?

Her eyes brightening considerably as she turned towards the imagined version of herself, “The heroes had the power of friendship on their side!”

Mirage Marcy snapped her fingers dramatically,” You got it! The last thing you need is to be alone right now! Friends and family are the best cure for recovering from this sort of thing! Isn’t it also a fact that the majority of all these kinds of stories in any mythical, magical, sci-fi or whatever setting … the heroes beat the bad guys only work because of that factor? An optimal victory works best with a team of allies, friends and family to be by your side. So work to get to that to see what you can get, play with what your strengths are as the smartest girl around and get some allies and shelter, any you can find, to back you up! The rest will follow!”

Inspired, Marcy propped herself up with her spear-weapon and expressed gratitude towards this apparition. “Thanks, Other me!”

Waving a hand, Other Marcy replied, “Don’t mention it! Oh, one more thing: you’re in an apocalypse type setting of a real warzone with two worlds and more at stake! I would recommend taking your metaphorical safety gloves off, get ruthless and don’t be too soft!  Balance thought and emotion to be ruthlessly effective! Release that dangerous beast of knowledge you got in you! The sky’s the limit!”

With that her doppelganger of the mind winked at her and faded away.

Glancing once more towards the image of her herself with the best friends of her life, Macy  clenched her fists tight, and wrapped some bandages with salve on her face to ease the wounds.

 She  pulled her hood up and kept walking.

The photo glowed with bright light as she walked along and  looked up to the clear blue sky. A distant bug (or bird?) flew miles high in the distance. This sparked a memory of hers.

“Check it out Marcy, I got this cool present to give to my Mom when I get back!”Anne said to Marcy. A blue butterfly trinket with sparkly stars on it was in her hands.

Mrs. Boonchuy liked tea, antiques and butterflies.

“Sweet, where’d you get it?”Marcy asked. The charming story of a Shopper Derby misadventure stuck in the back of her mind.

A childishly silly but sweet idea based on a childhood show came to mind. In her semi-delirious state, she went with it.

Marcy giggled as flurries of green sparkles rose off her fingers and formed into a trio of sparkling magical live blue butterflies just like that.

She cleared her throat, and sang a little tune,“Butterfly in the Sky. I can go twice as higgghh … Take a look, inside a book…a reading rainbooww …”The trio of butterflies left a trail of rainbows and sparkles in the air as they flew around.

               She giggled and sang a bit more,”I can go anywherreeee …  with friends to know, new ways to grow! Reading rainboowwww!!”

Two of the butterflies settled on her shoulders. The third one flew in glittery circles around her head.

She held her hand out for it to land on and ended on a high note,“A readddinnng rainbowww!!!”

“You know,”Marcy said to the butterfly while she stroked it,”I’ve got powers connected to a magic rainbow portal in a box I first saw in a book! Maybe I CAN be anything and go anywhere with lots of new friends to know and ways to grow!”

She laughed and kept walking, “Oh man, I loved that show growing up! It made reading even more fun! ”

 

Marcy thought with determination,“ Hold on girls! Anne … Sash, I believe in you! I’ll fix my mistake, one way or another! I promise! And Andrias and the Core, for all they did or will do … will pay!”

She checked her new compass and map system on her gauntlets and headed towards Frog Valley.

The Core had sought to thwart the prophecy by manipulating Marcy and her friends away from fulfilling the conditions. Then it wanted to use her body and peerless mind for its own, to harness her capabilities to rule and terrorize the multiverse with. Such a plan could only merit the karma of it all failing and the being in question perishing with its mistakes all coming back to bite it. This time, instead of harnessing her abilities for itself, which it should not and ultimately could not hold on to in the end, her power and brains were now irrevocably turned against it even sooner.

 A girl from a world with a lot more knowledge of various fantasies and fictions and ideas than Amphibia did, a genius that had accumulated knowledge of both worlds, was now empowered and out of its grasp.

The Core’s drawn-out nightmare had only just begun.

For now, it had to face the Power of Wit that had been unleashed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

Chapter 2: Ch. 2 All the Trope knowledge and the Power to Harness it

Summary:

This chapter is meant to set the stage on Marcy's growing army and powers. Call it a foreshadowing of the many, many shoutouts I have planned, which Amphibia already has plenty of anyway.

 

Ch. 2 All the Tropes

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” -Albert Einstein

               “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

               Within mere hours of her newfound clarity for fighting, Marcy began to plan for her next move. She had enough vitality to get through the desert and into more habitable areas. Soon enough, she observed a group of once abandoned factories (23) in part of the “Ruins of Despair”.

               They factories were now active once again and producing Frobots every day. The assembly output was rapid. Scores of Frobots could be assembled in seconds. The number of active units was already rivalling Amphibia’s population. And to invade Earth, they would need millions to have any chance of dealing with Earth’s much bigger population of over seven billion.

               Marcy knew an opportunity was at hand when she saw the factories. These domes were capable of going airborne and fielding robots in the air and firing energy beams from the bottom. Some were already in a fleet ship flying fortress (Skyhoppers) around the Castle, waiting to invade Earth.

               Anne and Sasha couldn’t look out for her now. She needed to be able to defend herself and have protection on hand. The king’s own robots were the perfect start.

               It was simple enough to set up an EMP device into her armor that shut down everything robot or computer related and hack into the nearest inactive Frobot.

               His red eyes turned green.

               “Yo, Joebot, care to help me out?”

               With his aid, she conscripted 30 others to help her out.

              

               Marcy liked robots. She’d instantly loved the gentle giant that was Frobo. Polly’s loyal sidekick had developed a true personality unlike the rest of these relatively mindless drones. Maybe she could help them grow beyond their simple programming and be free and good like him.

               It wasn’t their fault they were made to be tools of oppression. She could give the rest of these ones a chance to be so much more.

               In the closest factory, she came up to the factory’s inactive central computer and hacked into it.

               The computer turned on and went from red to green. “REBOOT COMPLETE. USER OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. WELCOME MASTER MARCY!”

               It gave her a high-five with its four-fingered hand.

               She’d already analyzed Frobo extensively after meeting him. His body was like a swiss-army knife with all kinds of appendages or weapons on hand. His original code was damaged from an incident in these factories where Anne and Sprig had activated one temple and Sprig had jammed a ‘Rules of the Road book’ in a disc slot and had somehow been finished being assembled. This gave him free will at the cost of not knowing what his original program was. He was a blank slate of a robot.

               The Plantars were surprised to hear her findings after she finished studying him for an entire day but were glad there was nothing to worry about with him.

               With her restored Gem power available for her mind and new control with tech with her cybernetic additions, it was child’s play to establish control over two-thirds of the mass of nearby inactive Frobots (over 300). She cheerfully got them to help disassemble and pack up every piece of tech imaginable from over half of the factories and two-thirds of the fully assembled or partially assembled shells of every Frobot model available on hand and schematics for any not present. Ten of the factories were completely taken over by her and levitated up in the air to follow. Her increasingly loyal new minions left with her. The remaining factories in sight and remaining machines were wiped of any memory and blown up.

                The discovery of this never made any difference to their owners, since by that point several other factories had met similar or worse fates.

               She rode inside one of them into Frog Valley.

               Soon enough, Marcy found an ideal base, a long quiet swamp area of comparable size to Wartwood that was already dying due to the increasing attacks and stripping of the land at the Northern edge of Frog Valley. Close but not too close to Wartwood at the Southern half.

               With no inhabitants left nearby, it was tactically the safest place to help Anne’s precious village and the rest.

                With her unrivaled construction skills, ten factories on hand and her helpers, additional structures had been established within twelve hours.

               Her factories were renovated to be in the shape of dice instead of the dome-shaped ones favored by Andrias. She called this the ‘Nervous System’ of her base, and the lead factory, the first one she’d gotten, planted dead in the center was called the Nerve Center. A factory, lab and rec center to do everything important and fun in.

               She  began educating and personalizing the first bits of her army. Slowly but surely her robotic minions, or “ AI pals”, took on a new level of intelligence. Marcy Wu was never quite as good at Anne as getting people, but she was not lacking in compassion. She tenderly and eagerly induced her many valuable insights into their processors and never stopped caring for them. Her efforts paid off and there was never a single unit of her machines that she would look down on or fail to put back together in the event of damage or destruction. They were even more loyal to her for it.

               Her new forces were invaluable in helping her gather more items for her expanding base. Magical items and ingredients and all sorts of native Amphibian ores and other rare substances. Within 48 hours, her operations of her “Cyber Rebel Army” (the CRA) had been established. She set up an ingenious magical illusion of a dead swamp area that would keep out any enemy eyes.

               Now she could upgrade herself and her army to her heart’s content. Her gauntlets could fire lasers, crossbow bolts, grappling hooks, and gas pellets. She could channel thunderstorm levels of electricity from her fingertips. Her body was shielded to be protected from  lasers and immune to electrical attacks.

               Marcy liked the idea of wielding a staff weapon to go with her new witch angle and she had the perfect find to use.

               On her way out of the Castle, she’d found a Laser scythe in part of the basement. It was meant for her use under the Core’s control. She confiscated it along with a few other gizmos.

               The scythe was longer than her body (over 6’5” ft long) and had a spiral-shaped queue on the bottom and a circular blade clamp resembling the Core’s orange eyes at the top. When activated, the clamp created a twin-sided flaming red-yellow scythe blade with the same capabilities as Andrias’s Laser sword.

               That sword could cut through virtually anything solid and caused massive shockwaves when hitting the ground. It had left her with severe internal injuries that took days to stabilize.

She had a new desire to avoid getting hit by that kind of weapon again at all costs. This scythe was made of very durable metal and meant for her, so she decided to use it. She studied the design and specifications, recolored the shaft in green hues, and removed the clamp and queue.

The top and bottom were remodeled into two jade-colored circles with emerald colored gems shaped like the Wit Stone on each end. When activated, two leave-shaped blades of green energy formed. The scythe was now an elegant double-bladed polearm with blades resembling a fictional elvish design from a classic film series about Rings of power.

                This weapon, which she called Wit’s Bite, had the same cutting power as the scythe, the ability to generate shockwaves on the ground or in the air, send electric or Calamity powered volts of energy at enemies, and be directed to fly through the air like a boomerang. It could generate forcefields to redirect acts and could be spun around to increase the area of attack.

                Marcy developed a huge aversion to using tentacles, spherical robots and the color of orange in paint form or artificial light in her designs due to her experience.

               She also decided she would no longer go anywhere without backup and started making elite protectors.

               It took her only a little while to find out what happened to Sasha.

               For a few reasons, she put off immediate contact.

               Sasha was complicated on a good day. On the last day they’d been together … she’d looked so disgusted at her. That was a look she’d seen given to Sasha’s enemies or people she didn’t care for.

               The only thing she’d said in response to Marcy’s secret,”You’ve got to be kidding me.”

               Right now, the way she was acting about Marcy in view of her scouts didn’t endear Marcy to feel hopeful about it. It was best to hold off on that.

               Facing Anne scared her even more.

               “What an amazing adventure. Makes you wish it could last forever, huh?”

               “Hmm, I'm not sure I'd go that far. But yeah,  it was pretty cool.”

               “No, it can't be.

               “I did it for us.”

               “. “ I... I found the box. I had no idea it would actually work, but it did. It sent us to a place where we'd never have to grow apart, where the three of us could friends forever together!”

               “ How could you?! I've been missing my parents, my life!”

               “But look at how much fun we've had. Look at how much you've both grown.  Look at Sprig. . I gave you this, I gave you everything! I just didn't want to be alone.”

               The fear, anger and sadness on her face and the Plantars had been bad enough.

               She’d watched Anne activate her latent powers and go at Andrias. She’d caught Sprig on Joe before he hit the ground and come up with a fast plan to try and get out of there.

 Marcy was able to review the stolen footage from the Castle and Frobots in detail to see what she missed that day from both of them.

Anne had been very relieved Sprig was safe,”Sprig! You're  alive! Oh thank goodness.”

“Marcy caught me just in time! Can you walk?”

Anne looked confused,” Marcy?”

Was Anne surprised Marcy had saved him again or surprised that Marcy had even done it?? The possibility that Anne thought she would just stand by and let Andrias kill them hurt Marcy’s feelings a lot.

               However, Anne still wanted her to come with her,” Marcy, hurry!”

               She looked shocked seeing her friend get stabbed in the back. “MARCY!”

               Sadly, for all she knew, Anne thought her dead.

               How would she ever begin to start talking to her about an experience much worse than that??

               Sasha had tried to help the escape in her own way while Marcy tried to get them home. She told Anne,”Me and Grime will hold him! Just go!”

               Andrias, sadly, knocked them to the side in seconds.

               Sasha looked horrified after he stabbed her and yelled,”Marcy!”

               Just like Anne had. That was the real Anne and Sasha, but …

               “Wait, come back! It's not real! It's- whoa. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. NO!

               “How could you Mar-Mar?”

                “You betrayed us!”

               “I know what I did was super dumb. I'm so sorry!”

               “It’s too late for you, WE want nothing to do with YOU EVER AGAIN!! EEEEVVVVEEEERR!”

               That awful phantom image of them saying that … and then the Core coming to grab her right when they thought they were home free and trying to possess her … that could have been the last time she ever saw their faces. She hated that so much.

               After Andrias had her taken to a rejuvenation tank, Sasha and Grime hid behind a pillar. Grime said,“There's nothing we could do for her. Now let's move before someone-”

               They were already surrounded by Frobots.

               Sasha asked,“So what's the plan, Captain?”

               It was a stupid plan,” I'm gonna have to toss you out the window.”

               “The window?”

               He tossed her out with his tongue and jumped out after her.

               Marcy enhanced the audio to hear what they said. Grime was full of (over)confidence as he yelled,“HAHA! A flawless escape!”

               “Not even close…”Marcy said flatly.

               “And did you have a plan for after you threw us out the window?!”Sasha demanded.

               By sheer luck, Marcy’s faithful bird, Joe Sparrow, swooped in and saved them.

               Andrias saw them from his window and said coldly,”So many loose ends … so little time!”A Frobot came next to him and he said,”Follow them!”

               “Bad luck and good luck in spades …”Marcy grumbled.

               They’d destroyed a single Tank Frobot sent to crush them. But only a few days later, Wartwood was razed to the ground.

               Marcy frowned bitterly watching the footage of several Frobots firing into the town. The rebels who’d faced several robots fearlessly had to take cover while their homes burned. Even Sasha didn’t stand her ground in spite of taking out over 40 Frobots herself. For awhile they were presumed dead, but then reports of further destruction from Frog Valley proved they were still at large as the ‘Resistance’ or ‘Rebellion’. Only Captain Beatrix of the West Tower rivalled them in causing problems.

               But all they could do was cause problems. The Wartwood Resistance used guerilla warfare, ambushes and advantage of the terrain to eliminate robots, assassinate/eliminate targets and destroy factories. In any large conflicts these methods were useful, but not a proper solution to take on a largescale army with weapons and firepower greater than your own. A resistance could oppose an oppressive power, but to take action that mattered, you needed to be able to strike at the source of the enemy to deal a mortal blow. They weren’t capable of that now.

               She’d have to expand on this concept to help them get to that point. In the meantime, she stewed internally thinking over how Sasha had her own problems she and Anne had whitewashed way too many times for their own good.

               Sasha had been a problem on that day before Andrias. Her selfish actions ticked Marcy off the more she thought about it. Sasha did little to help anyone that day. In  many ways she only made it worse.

                Marcy could work on reuniting with her friends later. For now, she could help keep them safe. Her escape had left the Castle inoperable on creating Portals for the time being and she could monitor for more now.

              

               She was outraged to find out that Andrias had started using the Portals to send a Cloak bot after Anne less than 48 hours after she got back to Earth.

               “My plans are in motion. Our forces are growing, and soon we will be ready to invade. Only one remains who could stand between me and my conquest: Anne Boonchuy.”He made a portal and summoned a Cloak-Bot. “She must be eliminated. This is your one objective.”

               The Cloak-Bot laughed and started scanning the energy of Anne’s Heart gem. “This mission requires the utmost discretion. We cannot allow the other world to know of the coming invasion. Make sure no Earthling sees you.”

               Andrias opened a portal and had the audacity to ask,” And one more thing. Would you mind picking me up the latest Cynthia Coven book? Marcy got me hooked and I'm dying to know what happens. And maybe some of those... potato chip things she had.”

               “Eliminate … potato chips?”The robot asked in confusion.

               “Okay, forget the chips. Kill the girl, get the book.” After it went through the Portal, he talked to her unconscious body in that wretched tank.

               “Well, Marcy, your friends are about to be eliminated from the equation. And as for you, my dear... your part is just beginning.”

               If she had any soft spots left for him, they were not enough to care about going soft on him after hearing that. For all his talk of disliking the Core’s Host plan, he kept her in the basement. In plain sight of the Core.

              

              

               Any plans he had otherwise wouldn’t have been better. He’d likely have kept her asleep until he knew Anne and Sasha were dead, and tried his own form of brainwashing to try and keep her obedient and ‘friendly’ with him.

               Anne was a threat while she still had power in her body. The Core would dissect her or worse just to try and get all of it back. The power she and Anne both had could not be siphoned out, so they were high priority orders on them both to be … ‘retrieved or destroyed.’

               Sasha and the Resistance hid out of sight well enough and weren’t a real threat to their power, but they were on a kill list too. Sasha had powers waiting for her in the Box and they didn’t want her to get them either.

               “If you want to cheat and fight dirty; I’m doing the same!”Marcy declared.

               In the 5^th grade, while Anne and Sasha were doing something other than the science work, her science teacher Mr. Simmons said,”Marcy, you’ve got great potential with such genius smarts!”

               “I do? Sometimes I think I’m a bit too imaginative …”      

               “That’s not a limit. The great Albert Einstein said the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. He also said it’s a miracle that curiosity survives formal education …,”He and Marcy chuckled,”And don’t forget, geniuses and people with imagination invented everything we use today!

               In the present day, she looked up some of that up on her phone and pinned a few quotes of Einstein on her wall. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change … Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding … Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them …A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new …We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

               When she’d come here, she talked with Olivia a bit about her world while studying her ‘salamander brains’ with a brain-scanning helmet hooked up to a monitor.

               She stopped after a few minutes when she noticed how lost Olivia looked,“We’re pretty advanced and different, maybe it’s too hard to explain …”

               Olivia kindly said,“Marcy, it was nice of you to try! You’d do great at Newtopia University, I can tell … such a way with words and facts and a certified genius!”

               Marcy could not resist a factoid joke,”I know. Fun fact, one great old thinker back home was called Isaac New-ton! They named a science unit of measuring force after him, the Newton! Amphibia is full of  smart New-tons!”

               Olivia chuckled,”That it is! What did this scientist of yours do to be so great?”

               Marcy drew a picture of the man while answering,“Oh … he was good at math, science, philosophy,alchemist, a polymath. A polymath is someone who knows many subjects, just like me! His greatest claims to fame were studying light and astronomy, his three scientific laws of motion and the law of gravity. Gravity is something every object in the universe has depending on size and distance … it what’s keeping you and me on the ground. ‘What goes up, must come down’, that’s one way he put it.”

               Thankfully, astronomy and basic physics was never a hard subject for most educated Newtopians to grasp. They’d worked out a few of the basic facts, such as the reality of a round world, for themselves by now, unlike most of their less educated neighbors.

Marcy finished her drawing and held it up,”A famous story about him says he realized the key to his best discoveries about gravity when he watched an apple fall from an apple tree.”

               Olivia took the picture. This human holding an apple and looked enthralled.

 “A fruit gave him a genius revelation about the universe? I like him already.”

               Marcy took the helmet off for her so they could eat lunch,“I thought you would. He was shy but nice, like me. I remember a couple lines of his I really liked to help me try and be nicer…’Genius is patience …We build too many walls and not enough bridges.’”

               Her new guardian poured some tea for their,“Very good …bridges are useful. Any fool can build a wall and patience is a virtue.”

               Another quote of Newton went up there with these now:” I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”

               She would not overestimate her ability to calculate the madness of others ever again. However, a legendary filmmaker’s words gave her hope to be put right under it.

               “In a mad world, only the mad are sane.”

               Newton’s summarized three laws of motion were highlighted:

1. An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
2. The change of motion of an object is proportional to the force impressed; and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed
3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

               She needed to find additional opposite reactions to hit this enemy back harder and unbalance their plans whether they were at rest or in motion.

              

 

               Her mind was completely active and she had power to tap into to make it even better. She’d understood how to work the Box well since getting here, and now she could fiddle with her own powers and use her new tech and magic items to help. Her guantlets had special chips in them that could help her activate them at will.

               The Zen proverb:“Be master of mind, rather than mastered by mind” was tacked to her powers list.

               These gems were very powerful. All of them had energy burning like stars of unspeakable power. Those who wielded them could use fly, were superstrong and could use this energy in many ways to shape it as they saw fit.

               Marcy began to embrace every part of it and developed mind-based psychic powers over time, including telepathy, psychic shielding, emotional sensing and precognition. She could use her imagination to do wordless magic of a simple kind.

               She’d always had a good memory for details, but her memory struggled with obliviousness and forgetfulness on certain details, like names of people she’d just met or other things. Her mind began to develop into a selective photographic memory mindset. She could tap into and review old memories visually and had them on video file to review.

               All of this would keep her safe from the Core and fight back.

               In less than a week, she had a growing army of thousands that rivalled any around.

               She needed to be more than just a genius and a Chief Ranger. She needed to be a rebel, a leader, a rogue, a mage all in one and fight a war.

               Flipwart was like her favorite boardgame of chess but harder. She still had her personal chessboard from her backpack. She used it as a visual aid.

               Rudolph Spielman, a chess writer (teacher) had the perfect advice for her to use:“Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”

               Her ancestral homeland of China (that Taiwan was once part of) had the classic book ‘The Art of War’. She pinned some Sun Tsu quotes up to live by.

               “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity …Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate …One may know how to conquer without being able to do it …Opportunities multiply as they are seized …Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

               Yes … this was it. She needed to be very confusing in her new enterprise, to keep enemy and ally alike unaware of her location/ army/capabilities, and never show all her plans or hands to the enemy.

 

               It took her little time to process things on how far to go. The power of Wit had already let her deal with thinking rapidly at the best outcomes for a problem at a temporary minor level. Now she had that power on a constant moderate level to fiddle with. For once she let her emotions boil over.

               “Stop! Andrias, this wasn't the plan. You said no one would get hurt.”

               “I would have said anything if it meant you delivered the Box fully charged. Hate to break it to you, kiddo, but you've been duped.”

               “He promised he'd take us with him to the new worlds, that we could have amazing adventures just like this one, forever and ever.”

               “Let me go!!”

               “I wish I could. But my lord craves a Host. And it wanted the best, the smartest, the only one who could beat me at Flipwart. Honestly, Marcy, I like you. Always have. I begged the Core to consider an alternative Host, but... alas.”

               “Why, indeed? Enough lies, Mar-Mar. If you don't tell them the truth, I will.”

               “ Did it ever occur to you, Anne, Sasha? That one of you knew more than she was letting on? That one of you might have gotten you stranded in Amphibia...on purpose?”

               “Oops! Looks like I spilled the tea, as you kids say.”

               “Now look what you made me do!”

               “Well, that's what you get for pouring your heart out to me over flipwart.”

               “Unacceptable … ”Marcy said. Anger burning hot as a star in her grew. If it all went so badly for her twice because of that one game and was going worse for everyone else … Andrias was not to be trusted or protected anymore at all.

               The Core … she remembered enough of her brief connection to it. She’d also glimpsed, hacked or stolen a few of their files from the Castle before leaving.

               Andrias had discussed her planned possession before Olivia and Yunan broke her out,“Please, my lord. Things are progressing as fast as they--  Yes, I know, but the device hasn't even been tested. Surely we should try it on someone else first? As you wish.”

               The Core was willing to risk her dying or being damaged beyond repair.

               Her love and skill of flipwart was something it used to choose a Host. The whole time she’d been becoming a flipwart champion and then beating Andrias at it, she’d been gaining more interest as a potential choice. This was one way of eliminating her threat as a user of the Wit Stone and gaining a new lease on ‘life’ at the same time.

              

               There was a machine ready for her to be plugged into afterwards, one she’d fried before leaving. The Core would have used it to delete, suppressed or altered memories while getting more settled in her body, while she herself would be imprisoned in her own mind until a fitting time where she could be ‘persuaded’ to merge with the Core’s other minds permanently, preferably after Anne and Sasha were dead.

                The Core would’ve used her body as a vessel while it was planning to invade Earth, take every valuable resource there, wipe out humanity and start doing it everywhere after that. Her face and body would be what everyone saw, including her family, if the Core saw fit to show itself.

               Even worse, if she could not be ‘persuaded’ to join willingly, her personality could be made to fade out of existence while the Core kept her body for itself. In time, who knows what additional ‘improvements’ it would’ve made to her?

               The Core had to be wiped out completely.

               What is a core? Most commonly, a core is the central, basic or most important part of something, from a living being to anything else, even a planet. In machines, it could refer to memory processors. In an apple or other fruits, it was the inedible center.

               “The best AND smartest? I’ll show you that alright! But you won’t get any of me for yourself!”

               Pictures of this monster were pinned to her board under Julius Caesar’s words: The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.

              

              

               For the first time in her life, Marcy Wu felt intense hate. It took very little time to decide she didn’t have to feel bad about that.

                The Core had shattered her innocence by painfully trying to use her body and mind for itself to hurt others. Andrias had manipulated, betrayed her and almost killed her. Thanks to him, she’d almost lost her friends and then herself to a vile thing that would use her to do horrible things to them and entire worlds.

               He’d been using her all along. She found footage from when she sent a message to him about the First Temple.

               Yunan was giving a report,” The political situation is worsening, Your Highness. What started as a small valley riot is quickly becoming something more. Not only that, the toad lords have agreed to meet. This could spell disaster.”

               “How disappointing!”He wasn’t that bothered by the idea.

               “And the traitor, Grime, is still at large and is currently being aided by a--aah!”She ducked under a wasp carrying a letter.

               Andrias laughed with delight,“Why, it's a message from Marcy. Looks like they're making progress. That's enough for now, Yunan. I'll handle the rest.”

               Yunan was confused as he walked off,” Sire?”

               In that secret room of his, he put his crown down on the ground and said,”The prophecy is being undone as we speak, my lord. Soon we will have our revenge.”

               Two large evil orange eyes opened up, followed by more, until thirteen of them glared down at him.

               Marcy was never going to look at orange the same again.

               This was no daydream or fantasy to enjoy or put a positive spin on. She’d almost been a victim of  a creature out of a nightmare that had tried to invade her flesh the moment she saw it. That thing had terrified her from the start, and it scared and enraged her now.

               Maddie Flour, her first and only real Wartwoodian friend, had taught her some magic principles.

               “Thanks for agreeing to teach me a bit, Maddie.”Marcy said while they got the revival spell ready.

               “Don’t mention it … I’m glad someone wants to learn for a change! I had to do a lot of self-studying to get where I am today! You’re not even complaining about the problems getting past level 0!”

               “Trust me, that’s not too hard! Any advanced subject like this, it’s better to get it right than mess it up! The more powerful or complex something is, the more dangerous if you get it wrong! I did some potion mixes in Night Guard training, and this should help me do even better! Do we need any staffs, talismans, charms or whatever to do other magic?”

               Maddie leaned over while chopping some potion bits,”There are some, but they’re not easy to come by and you need to be careful! I’ve got a few, including a talisman that could potentially wipe out all living things in the wrong hands! I lost it briefly recently when some Magpie beetles started digging stuff out of the ground! You don’t mess with that kind of thing!”

               “Got it. Any major rules or codes of magic I should know?”She asked.

               Maddie raised a finger,“For one, cursing someone. Cursing someone is nothing to fool around with. You should only curse someone if they deserve it!”

               Marcy approved,“That’s very responsible of you!”

               Maddie scoffed,”That is why I learned magic! I use it to help people. But everyone just sees my creepy behavior or looks and assumes the worst all the time! Appearances aren’t everything!”

               “I’ll bet it makes it easier to avoid being hassled though?”Marcy asked teasingly.

               Her new best bud giggled,”Totally! No one bullies me around town or doing deliveries!”

 

              

                Marcy was angrier than she’d ever been in her life. The more she processed it, the more furious she got.

 Even before now, she was capable of unleashing violence and fear on those who deserved it. Andrias and the Core deserved it in spades.

               She had a board of objectives, and the two of them were at the top of her list of problems.

               Andrias’s fate was undecided for now. The Core unquestionably had to go for good. She could not sleep at night soundly knowing that thing was out there.

              

              

               For the positives … she had people to save and rescue. Olivia and Yunan were at the top of high-value ones.

               Mere hours after her leg was broken, Olivia took Marcy to see the land. Marcy loved it at once,” What? Holy moly! It's beautiful!”

               Olivia shared the sentiment,“Once, I said on this very same balcony with my mother and had-“

               Unfortunately, Marcy got distracted again,”Whoa? Is that a seagull but also a bug?”

The newt didn’t miss a beat,”-almost the same reaction!

She raised a regal hand over the land,” I'm a descendant of a long line of newts who made a sacred vow to care of this land. The trees, the plants, the animals... All are under our care.”

               Marcy took that seriously and took her hands,” “Lady Olivia, you newts took me in when I landed here, fixed me up,  cared for me. I promise to do my best and look after this place as well!”

               Olivia took her hands and smiled fondly at her, and said, “We’ll be counting on you, Master Marcy!”

               She never stopped calling her that, no matter how many times Marcy annoyed her, caused a scene, missed important details, or had a clumsy accident. Olivia still believed in her after her big mistake and led Yunan into a dragon’s den to rescue her.

               Marcy still remembered the sight of Olivia putting a towel around her and a teacup in her hands and saying,” Marcy, it's Olivia and General Yunan.”

              

 Marcy was going to repay them tenfold for that kindness.

 Olivia was right. The people and land of Amphibia were counting on her. She had an unprecedented chance to do her best, keep that promise and do more.

               Amphibians of all kinds could be rescued and brought to live with her and aid her from the factories or refineries and prisons. Refugees could come and enemies might be persuaded to change sides.

               The great Leonardo Da Vinci once said,” There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.”

She could do that now … show those who didn’t know the whole truth … and whoever would listen could join her to stand together and fight to save the day.

 

               The plants and animals could be saved and regrown and repopulated.

Her best friends could gave a full apology someday and she could make it up to them in every way possible. She put their special BFF picture on the center of the board.

               “Anne, Sasha … I promise, I’ll make it up to you somehow!”She swore.

               It was time for the Leviathans to be repaid many times over for their crimes. For all their vast intelligence and millennia of existence, the Core was rather unimaginative. Sure, they invented things and managed to invade and conquer many other hundreds of worlds, but beyond that? That wretched machine could not move forward and try to adapt, insisting on a narrow form of control and a small-minded focus on conquering and dominating instead of using their collective intellect to expand their civilization into something truly lasting. It was a pathetic waste of their potential. Maybe they’d grown less intelligent and too lazy as a hive mind instead of better over time.

               Marcy Regina Wu was young, creative and always expanding, and she knew ideas about machinery, magic, horror and everything else that the Core didn’t know about or care to use. She had the power of Wit, of the mind, unlocked in her mind, and she could now start to use this peerless level of creativity unchecked.

                

               “When I introduce myself, should I use my full name?”Marcy asked Olivia before her cast came off.

               “We’ll settle with Master Marcy for now. Formal titles and introductions can be complicated. The king for example, is usually content to be called Lord of Amphibia, Peacekeeper of a thousand years and the first of his name.”

               “Ah. I see. I guess my complicated multicultural name would be confusing …”

               “Go on …”Olivia said.

               “Wu is a very common family name in China … it means ‘big/large’, Regina is a Latin name meaning ‘queen’, and Marcy is also of Latin origin … it means ‘Mars, god of war’. Mars was the roman god of war and guardian of agriculture. It’s also the name of another planet near my home called Mars … a red planet, and …”She looked up to the red moon of Amphibia above their heads in the early twilight hours.

               Olivia raised her eyebrows,”How interesting. All that could fit well here. Amphibia is, sadly, no stranger to conflicts. But that’s why we have strong warriors to defend it. There is plenty of farming …”

               She explained the castes to her. Newts were the nobility and legislators. The toads were the soldiers and enforcers of the law (separate from the Newtopian army, but still part of their forces in a separate role). At the bottom in position (and often respect and value) were frogs, the agriculture class.

               Olivia said reaasuringly as Marcy looked concerned about that,“Some of them get testy about that low status …but for the most part, they’re quite content to enjoy such a life. I enjoy the countryside myself, so whenever I travel, I have few problems getting along with them.”

               It was Marcy’s turn to raise an eyebrow,”Your name fits too, then. Olivia means ‘olive tree’. Olive trees are a valuable source of oils that make good food and have branches that are used as a peace offering or represent peace.”

               Olivia was flattered that she said so.

               Right now, Marcy had to unleash her inner warrior side of Mars to bring peace by force and protect the farmers.

               “Friends are proved by adversity indeed … Cicero was right! For them I’ll cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!”Marcy thought while touching the two newt’s pictures.

                She wore new green full-body robes and constructed a mask to cover her scarred face. It was a  blank black surface with no particular features except the eyes glowed a vivid brilliant neon green. The eyes were expressive and could reflect the shape and mood of her real eyes underneath. Under her hood, they were all that was visible. It was the perfect aura of mystery and fear to use in public.

                Some voice processing circuits she’d gathered would disguise her voice wonderfully however she wanted. Slowly she put it on for the first time and gazed out with enhanced vision at the waiting assembly line below and walked over to start her most advanced project yet.

               Next to her a holographic projection of her pre-Core affected self appeared and stood next to her. This bright hologram grinned, “Alright, Mar-Mar, ready to employ your ‘Unleash The Tropes Strategy’?”

               After her desert experience, Marcy realized that she could use an advisor of sorts to aid her as needed counsel. She settled on creating a virtual avatar of her more logical and empathetic traits to do so, although would be increasingly open to future advice from her growing list of allies and friends to avoid past mistakes. A ‘Smart Marcy’ was the first step and her first smart creation she made on the third day.

               She chuckled in a shifting reverb-effect version of her usual voice,” Quite right, SMARCY, it’s time we begin OUR RADICAL NEXT LEVEL EXPERIMENTS. With my past and present knowledge, we can BEGIN AT LAST! Especially with our recent payload and ideas from home to experiment with!”

                

               Her friend and the Plantars were safe, but not out of danger. She’d carefully made an adequately brief link with the Calamity Box and Anne on Earth to forge a subtle link with Earth’s Wi-Fi  on a global scale and downloaded everything on hand in 10 hours. Everything from online tv networks, forums, scholastic ideas, movie downloads, games and more. Her favorite was the list of tropes.

               Ah, tropes. Common mediums and conventions in fiction and real life, any common or recurring theme you could ever hear about that was used more than once. There was even an entire website devoted to this idea with lists from every form of major Earth entertainment and history imaginable. Macy Wu had an encyclopedic mind and could freely access it all fresh now.

               “We’re all set to begin preparing for the counteroffensive to save Earth and Amphibia!”Smarcy said.

               Her collective army of converted and newly created robots stood waiting expectantly behind her,  leaning against the rails, clinging to the chains dangling from the ceiling, standing on the ground floor, or watched from the outside.

They knew this was a big moment for their leader and wanted to see this themselves.

               Marcy pressed a switch,”We’ve done a few mixed ideas ALREADY. It’s time to do the FIRST CLASSIC ROBOT APOCALYPSE MOVIE HOMAGE on our LIST. If we’re risking the end of the world with machines, this is perfect!”

               A certain tune to an old movie trailer played in the air.

               Below, a metallic form was put together on an assembly line. Sparks flew as a skull -like head was welded to perfection, and then arms were screwed in tight by robotic assembly line arms and then welded in place. The right arm experimentally flexed and its robotic eyes dilated into distinctly glowing red pupils.

 The skeletal but bulky machine was scanned and spun around in a ray of energy to make sure everything was in place and then slid further down in front of a  form fitting mold that closed and sealed it inside.

               Nearby, a lid rose with heavy steam off a vat, showing a mercurial and shiny metallic fluid simmering in a vaguely Amphibian/human mold.

In front of Marcy and her holographic doppelganger, a screen popped up with green letters and an option to select.

CYBORG SERIES TISSUE GENERATION

SERIES 800 MODEL 101

----

 

EXPERIMENTAL INTERNAL MICROPROCESSOR ACTIVATION

 MIMETIC ALCHEMICAL POLY ALLOY SOLIDIFICATION

 MOLECULAR DEFAULT SETTING

 SERIES 1OOO

 

CYBERKINETIC SYSTEMS INFILTRATORS READY TO BE COMPLETED AND ACTIVATED

SEQUENCE: INITIATE?

               Marcy pressed ‘initiate’ right away.

SEQUENCE: INITIATED

               Valves on the sides of the first mold doors spun. The device opened and let off massive amounts of steam. The endoskeleton was now encased in a living sheath of genuine flesh with pulsing veins and muscle. It was created through a bizarre process that Marcy herself was never quite able to distinguish between genuine Earth skin growth processes and the life-generating magic she’d picked up.

               Everyone leaned forward to look closer.

The armored titan in the smoke and shadows below clenched its right fist, raised it in front of its chest, and slowly opened its eyes, which glowed red in the dark.

               At the same time in the second vat, sparks surged. The metallic mass of liquid rose into a bipedal Humanoid/Amphibian body standing at attention.

               Smarcy was beside herself with fangirling glee. She bounced in place with glinting emerald stars in her eyes. Many of the robots smiled or gave fist bumps and high-fives to each other. All of them and their two new war machines looked at their leader.

                Marcy grinned maniacally under her mask and activated her powers. That smile appeared on her mask in electric blue colors. Flashes of her glowing Calamity hair appeared underneath her hood and her eyes burned like neon flames as she rubbed her fingers together.

               She cackled like the mad scientist she was and made a promise to the universe.

 “Soon, REAL soon … I’ll be back.”

 

* Oh yes, I went there!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

C'mon, with all the Frobot types available to her and so much potential for a savant like her (empowered no less) how could I pass this up?
The ending construction is a homage to the epic teaser for T2, please check it out, they don't make them like that anymore.

Also, Smarcy is an original idea of mine I had before conceiving this story (the pun is obvious) and I am glad to implement it for the best smart girl in the series!
Edit: I double-checked the video and T-1000 specs to get a proper idea of what the right 'activiation process' would look like.

Chapter 3: Ch. 3 Froginator: Judgement Day from Marnet

Summary:

The epic shoutout to Terminator 1 and 2, and Spiderman as a bonus.

Check the bottom for more info.

Ch. 3 Froginator: Judgment Day from Marnet

“My mission is to protect you.” T-800

“To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, gives in your weakness strength unto your foe.” -William Shakespeare

*Rise of the Marchines*

               The city of West Frogshire near the Fiefdom of Kaeru in the East was a center of Amphibian commerce even before the reemergence of the corrupt government. A sizable habitation with a large mixture of Amphibians that was controlled by an elite aristocracy with ties to Newtopia who kept the system in place. It was not as grand or magnificent as Newtopia itself, but it was more widespread. It still maintained a peaceful aura even with Frobots patrolling the air and a new factory at the edge of town plus a new “database” of files in the record section near the shopping district.

               The police force wore a top-of-the-line outfit not unlike those of Earth, with black-blue suits and shining silver star badges. While newts tended to be the ranking officers and toads the muscle, it was not at all uncommon for the frogs of the town to be included, especially smart and taller ones. So, no one batted an eyelid at the 181 cm tall, lean specimen with pale skin and icy blue eyes and neatly trimmed brown hair walking around, even though no one knew him.

               This mysterious officer of the law stepped up to the information kiosk in the center of the city and calmy asked the lady at the desk in a charming, affable voice, “Excuse me ma’am, could you tell me where I can find Mr. Newtman?”

               The red-skinned newt coughed nervously and replied,” The local tycoon guy who just had a big break with all the new machine orders? Why would you want to know that, Officer …?

               The officer replied calmly, “Static, Officer Frobert Static. I just need to ask him a few questions about a case involving rebels near one of his factories down south.”

               Sighing in relief, the lady told him he was down by the shopping district down that way, but to be careful since the newt in question had a rude temper.

                Frobert smiled and replied,” I wouldn’t worry about that.”

               Elsewhere, a hulking specimen of an orange frog (or toad?) with extremely thick arms and legs and a muscled torso walked in the records area. He wore a rough, biker style outfit with a black leather jacket, black pants, fingerless gloves,boots. This gigantic guy (6’1”) wore a pair of dark shades over his eyes. This edgy fashion sense enhanced the aura of menace he conveyed with the constant lack of emotion on his face.

               This intimidating behemoth stopped a fair distance from the Frobot guarded entrance of the new database that took up the center of one side of the street. None of the residents really understood what that meant but didn’t dare ask.

               Tapping a local shopkeeper with a mustache on the shoulder, he spoke in a deep, Austrian- accented voice,” Tell me, is that place open for access?”

               Trembling at the thug-like brute asking him such a thing, the poor fellow replied,” Oh Frog NO! Nobody gets in there except the guys with business there and their assistants. Doesn’t matter if you wanna rob the place or try and get a job or money, trust me pal, it’s just not worth it with those things guarding it!”

               Praying desperately that this giant would listen, he instead watched as he just glanced over the place from every angle, up and down. Like he was analyzing it. The titanic frog leaned his thick jaw toward the shopkeeper and uttered tree simple but chilling words that were famous in another world:” I’ll be back.”

                He went off. The smaller frog felt a chill go down his spine.

               In the shopping district for W.F., there was a general food gallery for the citizens. A certain enigmatic cop asked around about his quarry and was directed to the backroom of a nearby clothing store. Heading over there, he passed by a tall and threatening looking guy who you’d think would be his enemy.

                They didn’t glance at each other as the slim officer of the law went into the store and the muscular biker-type when somewhere unknown holding a large bag in his right arm singlehandedly.

               In the back rooms, a burly security guard of a toad, Slash, was sitting down and sharpening his knife when he saw the lankly police officer he didn’t know come up to him and ask,” A moment of your time. Could you tell me where Mr. Peter Newtman is?”

               “Who’s asking>? You need more rival names of his to bring in?” the green toad asked. This sort of thing happened a lot, since the local cops only went to his boss for names and knew better than to challenge him on any “suspicious activities” or they could lose their jobs or worse.

               Shaking his head, the tall frog replied with a calm smile,” He has information I need on a case regarding some rebel activity. I must speak with him as soon as possible.”

               Snorting at this “rookie’s” stupidity, Slash replied, “Don’t really work that way, beanpole, you have to wait for him to approve a meeting, not the other way around! A new guy like you didn’t get the memo apparently!”

               The unknown frog’s face started to look more threatening.

               “I must insist, I’m afraid. Take me to Mr. Newtman. NOW.” The tone in his voice was icy cold instead of the rough or boisterous tone any Amphibian was used to hearing from a cop, soldier or thug, but Slash didn’t take it seriously enough. Instead, he got angry and decided that the “occasional disciplinary actions” with certain idiots who sought to challenge the system was in order. Mr. Newtman could sort it all out later anyway.

               “Hehehehe, yeah NO!!” He swung at him, only for the officer to block all 5 successive punches without budging an inch or even flinching in pain, and then Slash swung his knife at him. The pale frog caught it and snapped it in half with his fingers.

               Before the toad could do more than look on in disbelief, he was picked up and thrown straight through the wall behind him. After picking himself up, he  saw this string bean cop walking towards him with the look of a killer.

               Slash got up and started running towards the Plaza, feeling that this was no mere police officer. His boss needed to be warned!

               Outside a nearby café, five inconspicuous figures were huddled around a table, keeping their heads down. They consisted of two young female frogs, one old but tough frog, a buff axolotl, and a teen girl from another world. Everyone was ignoring them, which served their purposes just fine. Ivy Sundew turned her head towards their leader.

               “Sash, why are we waiting here again?”

               The blonde human sighed as she took a cautious sip of tea, adjusted the hood over her head, and replied,” Because while Wally gets our contact Niles, we’re making sure his dirtbag of a boss doesn’t encounter him first.”

               The dirtbag in question was an average sized newt with green skin in a sharp business suit and a look of indifference as he stood nearby with his slightly shorter red frog assistant and a female newt of blue skin who had a large jacket concealing poisoned blades and a ready list of information. Mr. Peter Newtman ran a tight business, and he did it dirty.

               Maddie rolled her yellow eyes,” Wouldn’t just grabbing him make it easier? I could get stuff out of him easily enough.”

               Mrs. Croaker, Sasha’s head of assassinations and intelligence gathering, stirred her tea and replied, “So could I. But his assistant there could make it harder. I don’t want to risk tangling with someone with poison in a public place if I can help it. The whole point of this inside man is to keep a heads up on the Frobot armies coming out from these parts is to avoid drawing too much attention while we plan our own strikes.”

               Maddie quietly conceded the point.

                Ivy grumbled,”I still hate it. There’s a bad lack of action, which is what I like doing on these things!”

               Suddenly, the side entrance to a nearby shop banged open, and the whole plaza turned as Mr. Newtman’s security guard in the area tumbled out and ran towards his boss with an uncharacteristic look of fear on his face and clutching a broken arm.

               “MR. NEWTMAN MR. NEWTMAN IT’S BAD!!!! There’s this crazy cop looking for you! We need to bounce NOW!!” The entire local population blinked at words they never expected to hear.

The Wartwood Rebels exchanged confused looks.

               Mr. Newtman shook his head to clear the confusion and stepped and in a deep baritone voice replied,” Now, Slash, I thought we were clear on how to deal with any problematic situations like this. Just call up chief Swampberg and have him – “

               Slash interrupted,“No no NO that’s not it! He’s not a normal cop! He wouldn’t take no for an answer, shrugged off every punch of mine, snapped my knife in half like a twig, and then threw me through a WALL!!! I don’t want to mess with a guy like that!!!”

               Mr. Newtman frowned at the words and the look of  terror on his tough guard’s face. His assistants began to shift nervously.

Natalie fingered the knives under her coat while the crowd muttered. A Frobot on guard in the street started coming towards him.

               Sasha put one hand warily on her pink sword as the tension built.

               She almost pulled it out as an even bigger toad was thrown through the door Slash came out of several feet in the air and lay on the ground moaning in severe pain.

               The startled observers watched as a tall, lean and pale-skinned frog police officer walked out and turned his head towards his target. His expression was chilling. He wore an intense frown on his face and his icy blue eyes had lethal fury in them.

               Mr. Newtman felt a chill. He’d never been on the receiving end of such a look. None of the locals or Wartwood residents (except Croaker) were familiar with that kind of glare. Sasha, for her part, had never met a cop in her life who looked at anyone like that. It was like something out of a movie.

               Without pause, the cop began striding towards his prey at a fast pace. Newtman began backing away as fast as he could after Frobert pushed one large kiosk stand in his path to the ground with ease.

               The Frobot got in his path and said,”Halt and identi-“

               Jaws dropped as Frobert punched a hole in its face.

                “Get to my top-of-the-line speed beetle NOW!!” Newtmant yelped. They scrambled to get to the nearby black and white bug, with a sleek metallic carriage and sufficient speed. They got on and the red skinned assistant Chauncey quickly started it up with a revving sound and they went down the street.

               But this unknown officer didn’t give up.

                Everybody watched in disbelief and terror as this lean frog started running at impossibly fast speeds after Mr. Newtman, his arms swinging in a perfect rhythm. The look on his face never changed. He never opened his mouth, blinked or even appeared to be exerting himself. He chased them all the way down the lengthy street nonstop and further, leaping right over a stone wall in the way and kept at it.

               No matter which street they took or who was in it, he did not stop. He kept after Newtman, his eyes fixed on him. Nothing could turn Frobert from his mission objective.

 Mr. Newtman in desperation abruptly directed them to drive through a nearby back alley which would lead to outside the walls and had some hurdles which would slow him down. Sure enough, it seemed to work, and Frobert lost sight of his pursuer.

               Just near the starting point of that alley was one of the new terrain altering vehicles, with a heavy shovel and tough tires and engines (on Earth it could be compared to a bulldozer). While the driver was preparing his route for the next “industrialization project on the nearby terrain”, two nearby Frobot sentries turned at the sight of a local cop jumping over the fence and heading towards them. They tried to get him to cease and identify himself, but he didn’t.

The lead one said “Officer failed to identify. Cease and desist or else- “

It was abruptly cut off as the heads of both machines were abruptly impaled by something metallic and sharp. The Frobots tumbled to the ground, twitching furiously in their death throes.

               The poor bearded frog driver of the vehicle was panicking as he heard those sounds and scrambled to the opposite side of his vehicle, hoping not to be noticed and sealing the lock on the driver’s side completely. But then the roof began to buckle with repeated blows and then a large blade sliced through it and a thin opening was pulled open. A vague, puddle-like mass of some silvery metal just …shifted through this hole and coalesced into the shape of a frog police officer wearing round sunglasses over his eyes.

                As the poor terrified frog stared at this impossible sight, the entity turned towards him and with a flat voice and flatter expression told him, “Get out.”

                He couldn’t get out fast enough as he fiddled with the door handle. The liquid terror then started it up and homed in on some radio communications on the console coming through.

               Back at the Plaza, the Resistance members hurried off as the locals buzzed loudly with gossip about this.

 Sasha hissed angrily,” Let’s move it! We need to make sure Wally got Niles outside the city and to avoid any more weird complications like that!”

                Mrs. Croaker mumbled,”Forget weird. That’s pure  insanity.”

               They went into another street, hugging the wall as they noticed that the Frobot guarded office on the other side of the street. Slowly, they inched their way down.

               Business had still not caught on to the hullabaloo a few streets down yet, so everything was still going smoothly. One local mustached frog was on edge, however, and turned at the sound of heavy boots and gasped loudly as he dropped his glass wares he had in hand, which shattered. Naturally everyone turned to look.

               A very tall frog in a thug/biker leather look, walked up with a huge duffel bag roughly half his size. In a perfect and swift movement, he opened it up and pulled out a HUGE gun with a long round barrel and base.

               Sasha realized it resembled a minigun. This one had glowing lights on it and no visible ammunition.

The shade-wearing gunman cocked a switch on the side and got it into a firing position in both of his titanic hands.

               The Frobots got into a firing position, but he stopped at a lengthy distance from them and started firing first. His weapon unleashed a rapid hail of laser blasts at them, tearing them to shreds in seconds. He then turned it onto the building itself and tour through the walls and doors, and every Frobot that came up to retaliate. When no more came and the living employees (who had not been hit on purpose) fled out screaming, he walked calmly into the now burning office with his weapon held with just one hand.

               Every resident of the street ran away screaming or hid inside a building.

               Maddie shook her head to snap out of it and hissed,”That was freaky as anything else, but let’s just keep going!!”

               The rest of the group agreed and ran quickly and quietly out of sight.

               Minutes later, the back door burst open, and the mysterious monster came out with his weapon and a retrieved piece of hardware. He headed over to a crude but very advanced version of an Earth motorcycle waiting there, very bulky and efficient. With his cargo sliding into some adequately sized side bags, from behind his shades a glowing and entirely artificial set of eyes scanned the area to determine his next route. In mere seconds it was clear, and he zoomed off.

               Roughly ten minutes later, the Resistance members were outside the city, having ensured that Wally would get Niles out quietly and carefully. Sasha’s growing irritation skyrocketed internally when she noticed Newtman and his posse screech outside and pause. The frantic newt and the rest got out.

               Newtman let out a hysterical giggle.

               “I don’t know what any of that was about, but we lost him! We’ll head back, get to a safe spot and then put out a bolo for that maniac!”

                He sighed in relief at his luck, only to turn his head at the growing noise of an engine approaching. Everyone followed his gaze to the nearby top of the large city wall.

               The massive metal frame of one of their terrain-pushing machines slammed through the wall, right in his direction. His eyes shrank to pinpricks as he, for once, lost his decorum entirely,”Oh #$%^!!” The dump-truck knock off landed on the ground and kept going towards him.

                Newtman’s ride scrambled off in terror and he could barely get himself to scramble away. By all logic it should have been over when a low sharp rock snagged the underside of the vehicle and flames erupted.

               The newt grumbled about this awful day he was having.

               Slash kept his eyes on the wreck and screamed in terror. Everyone swiveled to see what scared him, and their blood turned to ice.

               The killer frog copper walked out of the flames, perfectly unharmed and wearing a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses that reflected the inferno around him. He strolled towards them as if he did this every day.

               Newtman lost his nerve entirely and scrambled backwards as he fell over until he backed up against a rock. Natalie, in a desperate attempt, came at him with a toxin-laced blade and embedded it in his torso.

               Frobert pulled it out, crushed it in his fingers and threw her next to her boss. Then he stopped in front of them.

               Peter Newtman trembled like a child at this frog who could not possibly be a normal frog looked down at him with no emotion on his face whatsoever. Like he was a bug to squash. “W-w-w-why …w-what are you …??”

His pursuer gave no answer but lunged forward and hit him and Natalie on the heads, knocking them out. He cuffed them and started dragging them off.

               His two remaining employees and their hidden observers watched as he continued to walk with Natalie over his shoulder and Newtman on the ground.

                When he was got 40 yards away, a loud growl of an engine sounded.

               The biker frog from before drove in front of him on a huge motorcycle-like vehicle, roughly twice the size of an average Harley from Earth with all-terrain style wheels.

               The enigmatic cop barely reacted and tossed Newtman at the much larger frog, who caught him effortlessly. They  pulled out ropes from the bike’s side bags and tied up the two newts thoroughly and secured them to the extensive back seat. The cop sat down on the edge of the rear seat in a secure position.

               The frightening pair drove off into the distance without a word.

               Chauncey and Slash couldn’t take it anymore and ran screaming to the city in terror. Ivy stepped out from their hiding spot and exclaimed,” What the frog was that all about?!”

                Sasha muttered, “I don’t know. I just don’t know!”

               Wally and the short black-haired frog Niles finally showed up moments later.” Alright we’re here, don’t know why you lot were so anxious, so we’re all good! … What??” They all glared at him. He slowly took in the wreckage of the truck and the walls, and it was a good while before he or Niles made sense of what they told him they’d witnessed. Niles and his family relocated to a secure location rather than stay here after that.

               Because they avoided this spot for the increased security that followed, it was a while before Sasha’s group learned what happened next.

               Hours later, Newtman and Natalie were unceremoniously woken up with water to the head and tied to a chair. Sputtering indignantly, the newt saw his stalker of a monster cop standing next to a giant-sized frog with orange skin, shades and a wild thug outfit. In front of them was a mysterious figure covered almost entirely with a brown robe now dyed greenish-black and metallic gloves and its face covered by a mask with glowing green eyes and a hood over the rest. It leaned forward and a distorted female voice spoke up.

               “Well well well, looks like my TF-800 and TF-1000 units did their first big missions PERFECTLY! Now I’ve got the big fat catch of the DAY!! This will go a LONG way in doing some DAMAGE to Andrias’s robot armies!!”

She pumped her fist in excitement.

               Mr. Newtman realized that this weird girl was behind his horrible day. He got angry.

               “YOU think that running my business and my LIFE is going to stop anything??! You’re insane!! We are in a new era of ….” He trailed off abruptly when he noticed several Frobots of unorthodox design come up behind his captor, watching him with glowing eyes of different colors. Then he shut up entirely when the cop’s form took on a liquid metal texture and his compatriot took off his shades and his eyes flared a deep crimson red. Their apparent leader in the hood leaned forward and her voice went ominous.

               “New ERA?? Oh please, these FROBOTS are cool and all, but Andrias and the Core have no idea just how much potential there is to be HAD WITH MACHINES!! But I DO, and we’ve already retrieved the drives from your city’s database, and YOU are going to tell me what I want to know, and I’ll spare you any further nightmares for now!” The cop, clearly some machine of a sort he’d never imagined, emphasized her point by morphing his arm into a wickedly sharp blade.

               Natalie spoke up in a desperate attempt to downplay their importance. “Getting the information from there won’t stop production at our new facility, and there’s countless factories all over Amphibia already anyway, what good will it do? Why am I important?”

               The enigmatic figure chuckled and loomed closer,” DON’T deny it, you have more knowledge of your boss’s private files than ANYONE else, not to mention the occasional assassination and different identities in your history, SO, yeah, I count you as a factor to be dealt with. And as far as your factory is concerned, well … its continuing hours of operation are numbered. Now then, back to BUSINESS …” Both newts shivered as Marcy and her army of machines got closer to them.

               Over an hour after the Rebels had vanished and the mysterious kidnapping of Mr. Newtman, the whole city was in an uproar about it. People talked about this unheard-of terror of a madman shooting up a place and a rogue cop with impossible speed. None of the actual cops or the Frobots on hand could find any leads whatsoever. They were so distracted that few people noticed what was going on at the factory at the time.

               An alarm had been triggered and the staff evacuated, leaving only the Frobot guards to maintain the place. Much later, the head of operations, a short but brilliant frog named Dr. Rosanna Kogan, came in and ran a systems check. Nobody, Amphibian or machine, could tell what went wrong, but she finally came upon an alert from the main control room. She went in, followed by some Frobots and a couple flunkies. There were several torn up and burned Frobot shells on the ground and the main screen was flashing a countdown of some sort. She looked closer and then went cold at the last screen message she would ever see.

--10 seconds to factory SELF DESTRUCT --

               “Oh no …”she whispered.

               The entire factory blew up in an epic explosion that lit up the sky for miles and the locals would never forget. Over four miles away, a pink newt of a height of 5’11” and a long thick tail in a factory uniform watched dispassionately at the sight then turned around and walked away. Her  body’s ‘skin’ peeled off, revealing a shiny black chrome endoskeleton of titanium-levels of durability laced with nano-fibers of carbon and titanium and some exotic new mixes of metals and nanotech.

              

The machine kept walking before the ‘skin’ reformed into the appearance of a red and brown-spotted newt with muscular lean arms, a smooth face with vivid green eyes with slit pupils, sharp eyelashes and messy long blond hair that went down her back. Her uniform was a fancy patterned robe with buttons down the middle that doubled as a cloak with a crimson torso and hood, a black robe lower half that went down to cover her feet to the ankles. She wore brown boots and fancy embroidered tan gloves with flowers on them. The look produced a combo of a classic Newtopian elite and a wondering mage perfectly.

               -TN-X mission update: Target was terminated. Cyberkinetic Organism Kristanna returning to Marnet base of operations.

               The attractive newt gave a wide smile of sharp teeth. Her green eyes glowed a brilliant, artificial cyan blue.

               It had been so easy to do that job, and she barely had to use the 37 weapons/tools she had inside her to do it.

*Nightmare firewall*

               Andrias spent hours cleaning up the mess left by Marcy’s escape. Olivia and Yunan were imprisoned and placed in Rejuvenation tanks with mind control collars on. The rubble was cleared away, security placed on every floor and any trace of the accident destroyed.

               He couldn’t find Marcy at all. No trace of was found anywhere in the Castle. Her stuff was all gone and two newts were found unconscious in a closet, tied up and missing their robes and weapons.

               When the Core came back online five days later, it asked,”What happened?! Where’s Marcy?!”

               “I don’t know, my lord, she vanished … do you not know what happened??”

               The Core was too scared to give a full response,“She … something from the Box touched her … her powers … she must be found at once!”

               They found evidence of several destroyed factories, a few bases, and several thousand missing Frobot units. After her mysterious capture of Newtman, they pinpointed  the signal of her systems within six hours.

               The Core would’ve smiled if it had a physical face,“Interesting … Wit has awoken. But now she has stolen own network of robots and computers to serve her. She seeks to undo our control over our own devices … and has left herself vulnerable once again!”

               “What now? Shall I try and connect to her systems?”Andrias asked, his fingers on the controls connected to the Music Box on the pedestal in the Basement.

               “Do it. We mustn’t let her use our own machines and networks against us! If we can infect the entire system and her armor we may be able to retrieve and subdue her under our control!”The Core said.

               He nodded and pressed the button.

               Marcy was all too prepared, with unique magical and sci-fi level firewalls on their Wi-Fi and new Marnet mainframes.

               Flipwart was like chess, only more complex. She’d become a champion and beaten Andrias himself at it. This was like the game now. The pieces were all on the board and she knew who the players and pieces were.

Since her escape, she’d taken to avoiding flipwart for the time being and focusing on some simple chess tactics with her personal chessboard.

When the alert to this attempt on her systems came, she had a plan ready to do a battle equivalent of ‘check’.

               Her Wit powers being active alone were enough to keep her body free of being infected by the Core on a mind-control or even technical level now. She’d added several precautions since to keep it that way for her base.

               Every advanced firewall level of Earth and Amphibia combined with Calamity power and some magic allowed for a unique viral infection that doubled as a curse for events like this.

               She wanted so badly to end the Core right away for good, but it was too embedded in the Castle Systems and had over half a dozen safeguards and had added some new ones. The healing substances and Shadowfish essence that were part of it and several new backup drives alone offered no quick solution. She could settle for a weak spot to knock it down hard for a while, render it terrified, and take advantage to weaken their planned invasion further instead.

               Seeing the alert wasn’t a crisis, but an opportunity. She wasn’t plugged into her network like the Core was, and she focused her Wit powers to keep alert.

              

               “Nice try but no dice! I’M NOT yours to use! Time to MAKE THAT CLEAR!”Marcy said. She nodded at Smarcy.

                Smarcy activated their special firewall defense mechanism. It redirected some of the Music Box’s own controls and power to infect the Core.

               Champion Robby Fischer’s advice came to mind: “Chess is a war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.”

               Her opponents had just left themselves open to do that perfectly.

              

               A warning screen popped up.

“WARNING, THIS SYSTEM IS NOT TO BE OPENED BY UNAUTHORIZED PERSONEL AND EVIL CORES.”

               The Core chuckled,“Oh Marcy, please … we’re not just going to let you play with our toys and walk away!”

               It kept going at it. More signs popped up.

               “YOU WILL REGRET IT! SERIOUSLY, DO YOU WANT TO BE HURT AND TRAUMATIZED FOR THE REST OF YOUR UNNATURAL LIFE?” (That just made the Core madder).

               “OUR DEBUGGERS AND GUARD BYTES HAVE ADDED THIS TO YOUR CYBER CRIMINAL CHARGES LIST AND WILL PUNISH YOU ACCORDINGLY.”

               “YOU’LL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN … EVEN IF YOU’RE ALREADY DEAD!” (The Core wasn’t impressed).

               “TO DEAL WITH THIS MALIGNANT INFECTION, A CORILECTOMY IS RECOMMENDED.”

               “THIS MALWARE WILL BE PURGED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!”

               “IF YOU WANT TO BE KEEP BEING A KNOCK-OFF OCTOPUS, YOU’RE GOING TO BECOME SANNAKAJI!” (That one didn’t make any sense to them at all).

               “ANYONE IN THERE EVER TAKE SHOP CLASS?” (Neither did that one).

               `“SYSTEM ADMIN DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THIS PASSWORD. DEFENSES ARE INITITIATED.”

               “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? DON’T YOU HAVE ENOUGH STUFF OF YOUR OWN?”

               “DO NOT USE ANY CORE OR ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT NEAR THIS SYSTEM!”

               “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, DO NOT BREAK THE MARNET FIREWALL OR GLASS!”

               “THIS SYSTEM IS FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY! TRESPASSERS WILL BE DEALT WITH AND SCARRED FOR LIFE ACCORDINGLY.”

               These played out over and over again for the next 30 seconds as the Core kept hacking away at the digital defenses. It didn’t care. The firewall was weakening, and they could feel it.      

               The Core was already infected and doomed to suffer punishment, but it was making it easier to increase the damaging effect the longer it did this.

               Andrias did not say anything, but his fear grew reading the warning messages. He had a Guard Bot take the Box out to a secure location just in case.

 His heart skipped a beat when a brief beep sounded after the Core finally breached the firewall.

               In the Core’s mind, King Aldrich Leviathan, Andrias’s late father, appeared in their three-story Inner Sanctum library. The Core’s mind was meant to be a place where dreams could come true for those who joined it. All of them had enjoyed endless fantasies over the millennia and the Inner Sanctum was a place they would all gather to read and relax.

               Aldrich resembled his son a lot, but with none of his vitality. He had the same crown and a long white beard and an old face with hidden eyes. He wore a dark tunic with fancy moon patterns on the sleeves and hem and was carrying his trademark weapon that served as a scepter. It was a large double-bladed axe as tall as him with a large spike at the top and an orange eye with a red pupil in the center between the blades.

               The Sanctum had three floors with balconies and railings. Shelves of books lined the walls and alcoves went further back on nooks on the third floor. Two fancy pink and orange mosaics of olms decorated the canopy roofs of the alcoves. Pillars of pink coral held up the second and third story balconies. Poles that had banners with the Newtopian symbols of diamonds, a crescent moon, a cloud and flipper on them hung from the walls. A large fireplace was at the back of the room, with a golden starfish and reef adorning the mantle. A large, cloaked newt statue of gold sat on top of it. A gilded stain-glassed window was behind it and two large rectangular stone pillars with flanked both it and the fireplace, reaching almost all the way up to the ceiling. Golden coral pillars reached halfway up to the top. Two blue toad statues in robes in a pose stood on top of each.

 The Amphibian logo of a flipper hung above the statue’s head on a gold circle. The ceiling had a clear glass sunroof with three chandeliers underneath it. Two staircases went up on the sides of the room to the walls perpendicular to the fireplace. Two golden statues of newts with closed eyes holding backs stood at the edge of the second story balconies near the middle of the room. A long table with chairs was set to the left of the fireplace. Rolling ladders used to get books off the shelves were scattered all around the three floors.

Confused at the disturbance he felt, Aldruch turned to the main hallway arch entrance directly across from the fireplace to see a limp Marcy Wu sitting in the same chair they’d restrained her on in the same outfit to be possessed by them. The chair was positioned directly in front of the arch. Marcy was cuffed to it with their black helmet on her head.

 The lights went out and outside the walls, the sun went away, and lightning and thunder boomed outside the windows.

               Aldrich’s constant frown turned into a scowl,“What is this?!”

               The other Core personalities, the greatest minds of Amphibia and his fellow monarchs, materialized on the main floor and around the second and third story balconies and sections near the fireplace.

               The viral infection to the Core’s circuitry deliberately kept all their minds unfocused and separated during this incident so they couldn’t coordinate or combine themselves into a single consciousness or form.

               The greatest minds included scholars, archivists, inventors, legislators, scientists, mathematicians, mages and professors. Besides them, some great military leaders, knights and aristocrats had distinguished themselves enough to earn a spot in the Hivemind. Most of the scholars and other academics wore orange and brown hooded robes and had light blue or white skin. A few stood out visibly. The Eight, the first ones to create and join it for King Tritones, had special robes in rainbow colors (like the Portal) with golden patterns, gem necklaces, and the highest places of honor among the greatest minds outside of the royal family.

               The ‘genius’ leader of the Eight, Flamel Taricha who’d invented and constructed the first Core shell, had bright orange robes that matched the Core’s eyes and a lengthy white beard. Prospero was an alchemist/magician who’d perfected the memory spells and designs with the hardware. He wore yellow robes and had a brown goatee. Banstan was the member of the Eight who’d been the most trusted advisor of King Tritones. He wore red robes with his hood up. Lady Agate Peatbog was  the researcher for using the Mossmen’s healing essence. She had aquamarine hair and green robes. Callicles was the pragmatic and amoral Chief Court philosopher. He had a bald head and blue robes with a large hood and leather belt that made him resemble a fancy monk. Julianna, the Analyst of the Eight, was a lovely blue newt with a crested tail and red hair wearing violet spangled robes. Zomok was the first court sorcerer for the Leviathans and keeper of ‘repurposed’ (stolen) magical secrets. He wore indigo robes and had a lilac beard that went to his feet.

               Newtricula stuck out among them visibly for two reasons. He wore white robes and looked very unnatural. It was he who studied the Shadowfish for years and used them to succeed in rendering the Core immortal. His groundbreaking researching left him with some side effects of looking pale, transluscent and glowing like the ghostly creatures.

The kings, queens and a few of their consorts and princes/princesses wore their preferred royal attire. The warriors in their ranks had their weapons on hand, if only because they sensed an intruder.

 

               Some of the scholars and monarchs in the Core mind went to look closer.

               Mechanical whirring sounds echoed in the air.

               Two men’s voices spoke. The first was an older, sophisticated man’s voice. The second was young man’s voice.

               “Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift, and you use it for the good of mankind.”

               “These things have turned you into something you’re not … don’t listen to them!”

               Andrias realized that she’d gotten into the Core’s systems instead.

               “My lord, she-“He turned around when something tapped his shoulder.

               The Castle’s mechanical cable arms the Core controlled were moving. The Frobots on the bottom levels with them were destroyed quietly in seconds. Andrias was grabbed and held in place on every limb and his neck.

               He was forced to watch the drama unfold in the Core’s mind with a large video screen above him. They hadn’t even noticed what had happened. He couldn’t move his body and they couldn’t hear him even if he said anything.

               “I couldn’t have miscalculated! It was working, wasn’t it?”The first man asked.

               “Is this some cheap trick to try and mock us about …”Aldrich stopped when he heard footsteps.

              

               “You’re all getting on my nerves!”The man continued.

               Shadows of strange mechanical arms flashed around the room on the ceiling with the lightning.

               The man mused,“That’s right … the only real crime would be to not finish what we started!”

               “Where is this coming from?”A scholar asked.

               The voice mocked the question,“Well, shouldn't you know? Who would know?”

               “It’s coming from her. Very cute!”A knight said disdainfully.

               “Nothing will stand in our way … NOTHING!”

              

               The yell made them jump. A dark chuckle echoed around the room.

               Brecca the Bold was a large king with a long beard in a single braid and a sharp gold Eastern crown around his skull. He reproved the frightened minds,”She’s just playing one of her games with us. Calm down!”

               Andrias noticed the shadow of a man with the four large mechanical arms flash on the ceiling behind them with the next lightning flash.

                “The power of the sun within the palm of my hand!”

              

               A book being slammed shut drew all their attention to the right. There was a purple Wart piece with its head missing on the table next to a book labelled ‘Crime and Punishment.’

               Aldrich reached for the Wart and picked it up.

               The Core’s personalities slowly looked back at Marcy as orange sparks surged from behind her back.

               There’s something …in my head … … voices talking …”

               Aldrich started walking towards Marcy,“Is this voice trick supposed to be clever, Marcy, because it is-“

               “You will listen to me NOW!!!”The man yelled.

               Alrich flinched and stopped in his tracks as more sparks surged from Marcy’s arms and helmet. Ominous mechanical noises started to emit from behind the chair and loud stomping sounds of something heavy walking or crawling across the roof echoed.

               The roof shook with each stomp.

               “Just one more little chore for you. Isn’t that right, Core?”They looked up to a balcony above Marcy on the third floor.

               Doctor Gunther Octavius, aka Doc Ock, stood there. He wore a long brown trench coat, black gloves and mirrored shades. His four signature mechanical arms were extended from his back. They were  at their full extended 13-foot length, lined with skeletal ridges and  tipped with triple claws. Their red camera-lens eyes looked at the Core with predatory intent.

               “Who is that?”Andrias whispered.

The lightning and orange light from the sparks reflected in Ock’s shades. He smiled and waved hello to the stupefied crowd of Amphibia’s greatest minds.

              

               They looked between him and at Marcy on the table. Gunther said, “Relax. She’ll be just fine!”

               Collectively, the Core minds rapidly processed one part of that statement … he said SHE would be fine.

He raised his left hand and beckoned them closer, “Let’s talk!”

                

               Attached to Marcy’s back through the chair were six lengthy black armored tentacles with bumps near the back (two larger and thicker than the other four) with sharp triple claws and red orbs on the tips. They were just like the Core’s tentacles, but even larger.

              

               One of the two largest arms came out and went for Brecca. It hit him right in the face. He went flying into the statue above the fireplace and knocked it backwards into the gilded window behind it. The glass shattered.

               The rest of the arms rose into the air and started targeting them.

               Queen Jocasta was a very regal-looking green queen with beautiful white hair that shone like the stars and a dress with a star-like crown. Some called her the ‘fairest queen of them all’. She screamed as a tentacle looked at her and ran for cover. She was grabbed by the ankle and whirled around in the air screaming.

               An alchemist howled as he was grabbed around the back by a smaller arm and flung across the room.

               A pair of scholars were snatched by the two middle ones and thrown into the roof.

 Three more were grabbed in seconds and held aloft. One tried to bite the claws holding him and was thrown like a bullet across the room and into a second story wall. He made a large crater. The other two got thrown into the wall.

              

               Prospero tried to run but was grabbed on the back of the head by the other big arm and pulled out of sight to be buried in the hallway wall behind Marcy.

The first big arm went at Prince Eadgills next. It slid under the second story railing he was under and grabbed his face. He gave a muffled scream as he tried to pry it off. The arm raised him high into the air and slammed onto the ground room table with several metric tons of force.

“No no noooo!” Flamel screamed as his right arm was seized by another arm. It hoisted him to the ceiling and embedded his arm in the chandelier closest to her chair and electrocuted him painfully. He spasmed and screamed.

A tentacle grabbed one of their ladders and flung it onto General Agleaca (Newtopia’s first female general), Crown Princess Freyja (who’d died before her father, Brecca), and Lord Gillert, crushing them at once.

               Some of the Core’s own cable arms materialized to attack their masters.

               Thirteen greatest minds on the upper floors were shocked in their arms and head by these cables.

 Tacitus, the inventor of modern flipwart, was grabbed by seven of them on his limbs and head and pulled and swung around in many directions in a whirlwind of motions before they dragged the screeching newt behind a pillar.

               The cables swung around, keeping the monarchs on their toes and snaring the occasional greatest mind newt while Marcy and her ‘accomplice’ directed the bulk of their fury on the Leviathans and other prime targets.

              

               The phantom movie villain jumped down into the library and started attacking them methodically with terrifying ferocity.

               The smartest Headmaster of Newtopia University in history, a robed newt with glasses named Albus, turned around just in time to be slammed into a corner of the room by an attack from Ock and be imbedded in the brick walls.

               A great king named Hrothgill had green skin, scars on his forehead, and a gold mural crown resembling Newtopia’s walls. He wielded a laser axe against the cables. Ock hit him along his spine in critical spots by a four-pronged attack after the rogue doctor looked his way and saw him standing there swinging.

               Andrias grimaced hearing the crunch of bone and armor.

               One chemistry scholar threw a potion at his back with no effect. Ock slammed two bookcases into him from his left and right.

               Ock hefted three ladders at five more scholars running around. They lay there motionless under the crushed wood when the dust settled.

               His upper right arm flew at a scholar looking down at him from the second story, grabbed his face, and threw him into a pillar.

 

               One young-looking green queen named Tamora had long yellow hair, a golden crown on her head, and a pinstriped robe.

                She came at Ock with a fierce glare and a flail in hand after that scholar’s back cracked three yards away from her. She was yanked by her tail to be thrown through a table and into a bookshelf by Ock’s lower right arm while he wasn’t even looking. She hit it and two scholars in between her and the wall with a loud bang and cloud of splintered wood.

               He casually smacked another scholar in the right side of his head and sent him flying. Four scholars were sent flying by each arm at once into the rails and fell down to the ground with a thud.

               Grendel, a  famed professor of their ancient languages, was yanked from under a table where he was hiding by Ock’s upper left arm and embedded in the ceiling.

               Queen Gruoch, an elderly purple giant newt with wrinkled skin and puffy fancy white hair who wore armor over a frilled dress, drew a sword and came cautiously towards Ock to attack him.

               Ock yanked a pink coral pillar stone out of place and turned around at fast speed to throw it at her. She barely had time to scream before it hit her right in the face.

               General Botilda screamed with rage and jumped at him from the third floor with a barbed spear in hand. His top right arm caught her and threw her into the right toad statue. She went right through it and was left embedded in the wall.

               A professor of biology named Herpeton jumped on his shoulders and punched him. His arms were grabbed on the wrists by Ock’s two upper arms. Herpeton screamed as they were snapped. Ock threw him over his shoulder onto the second floor.

               Lord Nyrath, a large black newt with obsidian armor, was the only one who got a good blow on him. He punched Ock into the nearby first floor shelves. His upper left arm responded with rage and grabbed him around the neck. Two nearby scholars were grabbed around their faces.

               With a dark scowl, Ock advanced on the group of six greatest minds nearby. They watched in fear as he squeezed slowly on the two whimpering scholar’s heads and snapped Nyrath’s neck with one quick jerk of his arm’s pincers. The weakening scholars and the dead Nyrath were thrown at them. Ock toppled a shelf on them just to make sure they stayed down.

               Praetor Zargos, the fastest newt ( a Kaiser newt) in their ranks from 3,000 years ago, tried to ambush him while he did that with a fast leap. Ock’s top right arm caught him and held him in the air with the top left arm. His lower arms grabbed two scholars and shoved them into the wall.

 He raised his flailing captive and did a very unorthodox backbreaker move by extending his lower right arm below him and slamming Zargos’s back onto it.

               Andrias had to fight back some bile in his throat hearing Zargos’s scream of agony.

               Newtopia’s top three analysts Blair, Bartley and Branson (collectively known as Triple B) were there for invention discussions and helping with Castle repair work. Headmaster Albert of the Nightguards, a few generals and their top officers were visiting to discuss strategy. These top officials and everyone else on the upper floors throughout the Castle (including repair workers and robots) heard the screams echo all over the place. They were either too scared by the sounds and the doors to the bottom floor were locked until this was done.

General Nolan, a tall black newt (almost 7 ft) with white belly patterns and gold/ green armor with sea patterns, was the commander in chief.

Nolan’s best quality as a general was he took his work very seriously. That was one reason he ranked so high. He sprinted for the lower levels with the rest after Zargos screamed.

Flamel’s greatest apprentice, a newt named Composto, picked up a poker near the fire. One of Marcy’s arms flew at him and embedded him face first into the stone wall.

               Miles away, the real Marcy sighed. She had this vicious curse/virus set on an autopilot mode of sorts while she monitored its progress. It was working great, but this wasn’t something to enjoy.

               “They’re already dead and want to wipe out everyone on Earth and all your friends here … remember that.”

              

               Legislator Regin and Princess Skuld were the only two to successfully get out of reach of the attacking tentacles and got in between two bookshelves and held on tightly to the rear parts. However, the roaming arm of Marcy’s that eyed them had a solution. It embedded itself in the wall behind them and pulled, leaving them and the bookcases sprawled on the ground. With rapid speed, the closest one was slammed on them.

               A renowned mage named Gorlois had it worse by being grabbed by being hurled at high speed by that same arm next and getting hurled into the still burning fireplace. It exploded like a bomb when he hit it. The flames grew hotter and burning coals and embers scattered in front of it.

 

               The smartest mathematician in Amphibian history tried counting the number of limbs and attackers or places she could go to from behind a stepladder where she was hiding.

               Nine cables came at her from above. The resulting debris made it impossible to see what happened after she screamed.

               Banstan was grabbed by Marcy’s free arm and slammed face first into three different panels on the roof. He howled in agony as each broke. After the third one shattered, the tentacle slammed his head against a pillar to crush his skull.

               A sorceress in red robes named Igraine, a royal alchemist and a historian grabbed some potions and vials from the shelves to throw at Marcy. One tentacle seized Igriane by the waist and another slammed her two accomplices into the wall.

                Aldrich ran towards the left staircase with his father Teutonic. King Teutonic was a bald fat-faced purple newt his size who wore a frilled collar and fancy arch crown.

Lady Agate was grabbed by the throat as they passed her and thrown into the fireplace.

               Teutonic was yanked from behind by one of Marcy’s arms and was thrown screaming into the Amphibian symbol above the fireplace. His body landed on top of the fireplace mantle.

               Usually, the Core minds could make doors appear in the middle of the room or anywhere around or just make the walls fade. Alrich could not make one appear, no matter how frantically he focused his mind.

               Aldrich looked back and snarled with rage as he saw his father’s body on the mantle. He looked back to Marcy’s restrained body. Her face and helmet were still blank.

               King Leir was a wise-looking green newt with a regal white beard and mustache in orange and yellow robes and a circlet crown of coral on his head. He yelled,”This will not end well for you, hum-“

               One of the free arms grabbed him around the throat and pulled him in the air to join the screaming Jocasta and Igraine.

               A Chief archivist and seer named Algie was seized on his face as he started scrambling up a pillar.

                Sir Birteloch the Green giant ( a green knight of 13 ft in green armor, green hair, etc) got grabbed on the torso by one of the larger arms after he cut through a swath of cables. He grabbed and held tightly onto the pillars nearby as it pulled him towards Marcy.

               Newtricula was grabbed on his head in a death grip by one of her arms from behind a pillar. The claws squeezed over his head so tightly he couldn’t breathe at all. The arm dangled him in the air. All he could do was whimper unheard and beat the metal with his fists.

               The arm pulling Bertiloch pulled a bit tighter and dislodged him. The green giant howled as he was swung in the air.

                King Tritones had orange reptilian-looking eyes, wore furred robes with red lining, and adorned his head with a golden corollaria crown with three gems emulating the Calamity stones. He had the extreme dishonor to be the king who’d approved the Core idea and joined it as the first monarch mind after his death.

               Tritones was grabbed on his face by one of Marcy’s larger two arms as a key target as he dodged three cables. He howled as he was slammed onto the floor and flailed futilely against the death grip on his face.

               The sight of his oldest ancestor in the hivemind and the rest being tormented by their own tentacles while Marcy just sat there was the last straw for Aldrich.

               His rage grew and overrode his fear. This was all her fault!

               He charged his axe up with orange flames and ran at Marcy with two other purple-skinned kings named Findláech and Sigurd.

                Sigurd had balding white hair, gold bracelets, a fancy red tunic and wore a large standard-looking celestial crown. Findláech had long white hair, bangs covering his forehead, fur lined purple robes and wore a very small crown with a red jewel on his head.

               The large arm holding Bertiloch reacted to the approaching threat and buried the knight in the doorway above Marcy’s head. It turned around to look at the trio as they ran towards Marcy.

               The two arms holding Jocasta and Leir coordinated with their larger ‘sibling’ and flung their current victims into a bronze statue on the stairs and the ceiling (respectively) and swiveled to follow its gaze on the three kings.

               They took down the trio after they got halfway across the room.

               The two older kings were struck into the floor with heavy force and buried in the tiles.

               The big arm grabbed Aldrich by the face and raised him into the air. His crown fell off and he screamed like a madman and tried to cut the tentacle with his axe.

               He managed a couple good blows, but then the arm jerked him violently around in the air with the ferocity and speed of a rabid water snake until he dropped his axe.

                Aldrich’s torment didn’t end there. Andrias’s wide eyes closely followed his screaming father getting yanked through a row of second-floor pillars to the left of the fireplace. The pillars and part of the floor collapsed on a dozen scholars and  four consorts below him.

               Newtricula was dropped on the ground after he stopped moving.

               Igraine was thrown into a shelf on the second story. Algie was thrown into the fireplace. Four more scholars were snatched from around the room in less than five seconds and dispatched almost as fast.

               Arbiter Dahaga was grabbed while fleeing and hurled at Griselda the Mage as she started pulling flames from the fireplace into her staff. They were sent flying into a rolling ladder that caught fire and lit the hanging banner just below it.

               A famous clever knight of old called Godric tried to slice through the arm holding Tritones with a shiny blade, only to get electrocuted for his troubles.

 Another knight called Modron briefly hit another arm down to the floor with an insulated axe. A different arm grabbed him as he dared to smile cockily and threw him into the fireplace.

               A smarter knight named Fafnewt got within feet of her chair. One of Marcy’s arms flew at him like a bullet and slammed his head into the ground so hard it left a crater.

               The only one to get closer was a mage named Cato. He was very observant and had possessed powers rivalling Valeriana’s once upon a time. He concentrated and teleported himself in front of her. He raised his staff to curse her, but the arm that Modron hit rose up and seized the back of his head and electrocuted him to death.

               Aldrich was still grappling with the painful death grip on his face after he was pinned against the wall. The claws let go briefly and grabbed his neck instead. He futilely tried to hold onto some tapestries, but they tore loose when the arm started pulling him along the walls.

               King Xiansi was a very large purple and black newt with a rudder-like tail and white eyes. He stood taller and heavier than Andrias and wore a Newtopian symbol-adorned circlet on his large head. He’d enjoyed captive gladiator sports and the screams of torture victims in life.

 Xiansi stood near the foot of the stairs to the left ripping several arm cables from the walls in a savage fury. He set his sights on Marcy when all her arms were occupied. He decided he was going to make her suffer greatly for this with his own hands.

 Rather than bother grabbing him, one of Marcy’s arms tossed the scholar it was holding into the corner and then pierced his back when he got within six feet of her body. The sharp metal went right into his spine and sent high voltage through every neural pathway in his body.

Xiansi screamed at the top of his lungs for half a minute as the electric shocks lit up his body and deliberately inflamed every sense of pain he had by several levels. His ghastly howls drowned out every other noise and went into the iconic ‘Sound of Ultimate suffering’ levels and started sounding like the Core’s mechanical shriek at the climax.

Marcy closed her eyes and looked away from the screen. Her advisor and nearby bodyguards grimaced.

               Everyone in the Castle felt a chill go down their spines to the tip of their tails hearing that awful scream.

Andrias stared in transfixed horror and kept staring after Xiansi stopped screaming and fell dead at Marcy’s feet.

Aldrich frantically hit at the tentacle holding him to try and get free when he saw Xiansi’s smoking form fall dead. It threw him onto the floor and then slammed him into the wall to stun him.

               Several cables took the opportunity to grab half of the remaining greatest minds while they were distracted by this and dragged them inside the walls.

               Lady Sabina, another knight, decided to get drastic. She lit a stack of books on fire with the embers lying around the fireplace and was ready to throw them at the spot near Marcy, but the arm that killed Newtricula grabbed her on the back from behind and sent several hundred volts through her frame, killing her instantly.

               One desperate professor named Molch leaped at Marcy from the second story floor. He was caught by an arm of hers in midair and thrown into a coral pillar.

               A crafty knight called Dagonet and a generic-looking scholar named Nigel dove to the floor to dodge the cables. Dagonet stood up, feeling proud he’d thought to do that. Then a cable from the floor opened a literal trap door nearby and dragged him by the tail into it.

               Nigel heard a snapping sound and looked up. One tentacle had just cracked another scholar’s spine by slamming him against one of the gold poles above the fireplace. That tentacle dropped the body and looked at him. The red orb in the center formed a slit white pupil with veins of some kind pulsing around it while the claws flexed and sparked.

              

               Nigel screamed for a solid seven seconds before the tentacle got him. Andrias got to watch the last two seconds from his perspective on screen as the nightmarish appendage sped at his face.

               Three scholars tried climbing ladders to hide above the shelves on the second floor in desperation. They were plucked one at a time as they reached the tops. The scholars were wrapped up by cables and embedded in the highest shelves of the library.

Julianna was almost at the top of the stairs when a tentacle grabbed her colorful crested tail and pulled her into the air screaming for help.

               Tritones was left with his head embedded in the stone corner to the right of the fireplace.

 

               A purple queen named Urodela in a lily-patterned dress and bronze Polos crown was crushed by the middle chandelier after one of Marcy’s tentacles swiped through the ropes holding it up. That same tentacle grabbed Princess Melusine by her waist as she ran and flung her into the ceiling.

               Morgana, a feared queen with purple skin, glowing yellow eyes, a regal black dress and stunning diadem with gems that matched the Stones in appearance, threw a spear at Marcy and ducked behind cover just in case it didn’t work.

               A tentacle grabbed the spear, snapped it in half, and went after her at once. She was grabbed by the tail and thrown onto the middle of the nearest stone stairs. The stairs and two scholars cracked under her weight as she hit them. Melusine’s body and several bits of rubble collapsed on her seconds later.

                

               King Aeneas, the most aggressive king there, threw a collapsed shelf at her body. A tentacle smashed through it and grabbed his face. His body was still twitching with sparks when it let go six seconds later.

               King Alcibiades, one of their best public speakers and schemers of old, tried to sneak along the walls to go behind Marcy while the arms on the right dealt with Tritones and Aeneas.

               The arm that killed Tritones turned to face his skulking descendant.

               He froze, hoping it didn’t see him. No such luck.

               The arm lunged at him. Alcibiades shrieked before it hit him on his heart and buried him in the wall.

               Andrias wondered if that was deliberately meant to scare him as punishment for stabbing her.

               Andronicus, a large bald green newt with a crown that doubled as a helmet resembling a spiked coral reef, was targeted by that same arm next. It struck him in the back in the same place Andrias had stabbed her and sent him flying into the starfish on the fireplace mantle face first. His face made a loud crack, and he fell down onto the burning cinders below him.

               “Yeah, that was deliberate.”Andrias thought.

              

               Julianna was dragged off screaming into the shadows of the hallway by the tentacle holding her tail, her fingers clawing the ground in vain.

               After killing Zargos, Ock’s arms carried him up to the second floor. He stood and briefly observed Marcy’s carnage impassively but flinched a little when Xiansi started to scream. Seven scholars and a general named Glirastes hiding on that floor saw him and moved from both sides to attack. His arms seized four of them by the head and threw them into the reading statues on both sides of the room. Glirastes got grabbed on his right wrist while the other three scholars got dispatched with quick blows from the other arms that punched them across the room.

               Glirastes tried to pull free, but Ock just seized him on his arms and legs and slammed him into the nearest reading newt statue. His two lower arms gripped the statue and  made it fall down onto a lovely court sorceress in green robes named Huldra standing below him.

               The greatest robotics inventor of their ranks, a newt named Dumeril, was responsible for much of the Core’s current downloading capabilities. He got a particularly karmic punishment when he got too close to Ock while running past him while he toppled the statue.

               Ock’s top left arm grabbed his chest and held him in the air. His top right arm gripped his head and electrocuted him to death.

               A newt king in diamond-studded armor named Hyegelac stood at the corner of the second floor and saw this. He drew his sword and leaped at him, only for Ock’s top right arm to grab  his tail and dragged him in front of Ock. Ock’s lower left arm extended a sharp spike from its tip and impaled Hyegelac in his heart. Andrias recoiled as Ock snarled in the dying king’s terrified face.

               Ock flung his corpse down on top of a scholar (crushing him), swung over to the fireplace, tore the golden symbol above it off and hurled it like a discus at nine scholars banded together with Prince Faustus and Princess Una in one corner of the room.

               Andrias flinched as it made a loud bang like a gong when hitting them.

               Ock added insult to injury by picking up the still intact  toad statue from the left pillar and hurling it onto Lady Alala across the room.

A gigantic albino newt named King Pericles clutched his feared giant hammer and ran at Ock when he jumped down into the center of the room. The doctor caught the hammer with an arm, yanked it out Pericles’s hands, and swung it into the newt’s chest, head and back in rapid succession.

               “Ohhhhh …”Andrias said, shaking his head minutely,”no one would just get back up from that …”

               Pericles’s son King Medraut came at him from behind. Ock swung the hammer down onto his head when he came within seven feet of him.

               Ock disposed of the large hammer by hurling it at four more targets. Crown Prince Polus (a green newt with a red mustache, vibrant robes  and circlet crown), Callicles, Princess Tayne, and Medraut’s second son Prince Tybalt were hit together and crushed against the wall by the 15 ft weapon.

Two brilliant generals, Selene Nightcrawler and Kavaka the Undefeated, never even got the chance to plan an attack on him. Ock grabbed them both by the head while his two lower arms had their attention and threw them into the fireplace.

               The last king still standing on the ground floor was Uther. He was a purple newt with a radiate crown made of blue coral and red jewels on tip of his long brown hair and a beard that reached his waist.

               He signaled two knights (Viscardus and Lysander) in full armor to come with him to attack Ock while he went after the nearby Lord Caelum and Princess Acrasia.

               Ock wasn’t even fazed after he threw Caelum and Acrasia into the fireplace and turned to see the three newts (two as tall as him and the third over four times his size) come at him with flaming laser poleaxes and a mace.

               His lower pair of arms dealt with the knights. The left arm grabbed Viscardus on his right shoulder and the right grabbed Lysander on the top of his helmet. His upper arms ‘punched’ Uther in his chest and face, leaving him dazed.

               Ock twisted Viscardus’s arm in one quick move, snapping bones and dislocating it entirely. The knight howled in pain and fell to his knees weeping.

                The other arm squeezed Lysander’s helmet. Lysander screamed as the metal and his skull caved in. Ock threw him to the side into a shelf. Viscardus looked up in time to get hit in the face and fall dead.

               Uther didn’t get off easier than them. Ock sneered as Uther shook his head to clear it and got ready to attack him again. He unleashed a brutal beatdown on Uther with all of his tentacles. Uther’s gut, ribs, shoulders and face were hit repeatedly for fifteen seconds.

               Andrias flinched and grimaced for each blow. Uther sank to his knees and fell dead on his bloody and bruised face.

               A general named Algaenon tried to attack him from behind while he was beating Uther to a pulp, but Marcy’s other large arm grabbed him by the head and fried his skull.

 

               Ock spotted Prince Guyon and Domina Duessa  going up the stairs still intact. He grabbed them by the waist and flung them into the fireplace.

               King Megalo wore a simple gold crown that contrasted with his fancy red robes with a frilled collar and a gold chain. His pudgy face had a large black goatee and big eyebrows that covered his bushy eyebrows. He easily looked shifty, one reason he didn’t bother with subtlety much in life. He threw a spear at Ock’s head. Ock’s upper right arm caught it. He rose on his two lower arms and turned to face Megalo on the second floor where he stood next to Princess Scyld.

               The king started to back away. Ock gave a small smile as his two top arms extended their long whip-like internal cables and grabbed the two royals around the waist in a python-like grip. They screamed in fear and tried to fight as he dangled them in the air.

               He threw them into the fire after his lower arms carried him closer to it.

               “What is it with throwing them into the fireplace?”Andrias wondered.

 Queen Lucrezia had lime green skin, sparkling white robes, and a jade flower tiara. She screamed in horror up against the wall as one of Marcy’s arms zoomed by and seized a scholar on the head. The newt was thrown into a beam on the ceiling supporting the glass windows.

Lucrezia ran forward to dodge a cable snaking towards her. The windows above her shattered. She looked up and screamed as the shards fell towards her and four other newts on the floor.

Andrias looked away but couldn’t drown out the slicing and crunching sounds that followed.

Ock covered his body with his arms, shook his head, and went back to work. He climbed back onto the upper stories and took out the lingering minds there.

               Zomok was the last of the Eight to fall. He tried doing some spells from the shadows, but after Andronicus died, the arm that killed him grabbed him by the face and slammed him side to side against two coral pillars until they broke and the balcony above him collapsed and buried him. The four newts standing there on that balcony fell to the ground. One was buried under the rubble. Two scholars tumbled forward and tried to crawl out of sight. Marcy’s arms grabbed them by their tails and chucked into the ceiling corners. The last newt, a favored consort to King Sigurd who wore a yellow dress, stood up slowly and was grabbed on the head by another arm. She was thrown screaming into the fireplace.

               Queen Titania was a green newt with long braided brunette hair, fancy robes of lilac covering elaborate plate armor, and wore a spiked fringe tiara made of blue coral. She’d beaten off several cables in the far corner that had snatched over seven greatest minds in front of her and tossed into the walls or dragged into the walls. They said she’d never lost a fight.

               She looked up just in time to see one of Marcy’s arms come at her. She screamed as she was grabbed on her back and yanked to be hurled into an alcove on the third floor.

               Aldrich was still beating at the death grip around his neck. It stopped moving and just held him there against the wall. His face was bruised and cut up from the ordeal.

               He paused when he realized the screams had died down. He panted and looked around the mental carnage of his own residence. The floor, corners, balconies, stairs and even the ceiling was littered with the dead ‘bodies’ of the other Core minds.

               The last one still moving was the first queen to join the Core, Queen Hecate. She wore a red dress and a gold kokoshnik tiara laid with eight large rubies that matched her dress. She had green skin and flowing blue hair. She was thrown to the ground by Ock while she tried to run to a second story window and jump out. He dropped the other staircase statue on her as she started to get back up. She screamed as it came falling down on her back.

               “What is this trickery!? Who are you!?”Aldrich yelled at the man standing on the upper floor.

               His voice sounded enough like his son to make everyone else in the Castle think it was Andrias.

 Ock chuckled and pointed towards the middle of the room.

              

                Aldrich saw the final intended punishment when he slowly turned to look. Marcy’s helmet turned towards him and ten glowing green eyes opened on it to stare at him.

               “You …”

               She remained silent as two of the smaller tentacles unlocked her from the chair. Her blank expression and silence scared Aldrich as she stood up. Instead of walking, the tentacles carried her through the air to stand in the middle of the Sanctum floor.

               “She saved me for last on purpose,”Aldrich realized. He was the last mind to join the Core and Andrias’s father. Now he was the last one standing in their Inner Sanctum and he was going to die helpless and alone.

               The tentacles picked up his fallen crown and his axe and crushed them.

               Andrias gulped. He was wearing that same crown now.

               “No …”Aldrich whimpered.

              

Aldrich’s amber eyes were wide open. Andrias remembered that his father only opened both eyes that way when things were serious.

But he’d usually just been angry, alarmed or surprised. Aldrich’s very visible eyes were filled with fear.

               Andrias couldn’t bring himself to look away or even close his eyes. He had to watch what she was going to do to his father.

               One by one, Marcy’s five tentacle arms rose into the air above her head to look at Aldrich. The red orbs on the tips shifted to a green color with a single white pupil visible.

               Ock jumped down to stand behind her. Lightning illuminated the library one last time.

               “No … no …no!”

               The last Core mind panicked and got desperate after Ock stood shoulder to shoulder with Marcy.

               “No … stop it, please! Just let me go! You win! I give up!”Aldrich begged his virtual tormentors. Tears poured from his eyes as he cried like a baby.

               That shocked Andrias more than the horror show he’d just witnessed. He had never seen his father cry or beg for anything from anyone in his life.

                Ock Marcy’s eyes (all of them) and her tentacle’s eyes narrowed in anger and turned red. The tentacle holding his neck gripped a little bit tighter.

 Doc Ock shook his head. His tentacles made squealing sounds of displeasure.

              

               The Core hadn’t cared for Marcy’s terror, her injured state, the risk to her life their attempted possession presented, or listened at all to her demands to be let go. They had tried not once but twice now to try and harm her and take control of her. They wouldn’t get any mercy back from her.

              

               Aldrich let out a bloodcurdling scream as Ock Marcy’s five tentacles lunged at his face in unison.

               Andrias got to see a six-way split-screen closeup view of his father’s screaming face from the tentacle’s perspective.

              

               The Core’s eye lights in the room and elsewhere all shut off with a mighty bang after that joint attack hit him.

              

               Blair swallowed and asked Bartley nervously,”Is it over?”

               “Must be …”He replied.

               Marcy started typing.

               Andrias was released by the cables and fell hard to the ground.

                He stood up slowly and looked all around him, expecting another attack. His hands shook with fear and he took slow breaths to keep calm.

                The screens in the room lit back up and he jumped.

He watched closely as a message formed in Marcy’s handwriting on the screen closest to him. “The Core is dead for a week or two … give or take. It was a victim of a horror movie scene and a taste of its own medicine. That’s what it gets for messing with MY firewalls and ignoring warning signs like an idiot! I am not its willing accomplice or a piece of property. One of these days I’ll  make sure your ancestor’s WORST creation and this haunted palace stops existing for good. As for you, Drias … I’m not going to kill you tonight, tomorrow, or even next week. You see, I need to think a long, long time about just what I’m going to do with you. It might come to me in during breakfast tomorrow, or maybe next weekend, or a few months or even years from now. It could be one big thing or a lot of things. I could do it the moment you’re beaten or long after you’re down for the count. Who knows??? In the meantime, why don’t YOU worry about that? You merit a special punishment! Go ahead and try spinning whatever lie you want to explain this … who’s going to believe you about the truth? They’d hate to learn about the dark family secret their crazy king is hiding, wouldn’t they? Be afraid, Andrias. BE VERY AFRAID. You deserve to live in fear of what’s coming to you for lying to me, breaking my heart and then stabbing it in front of my friends, saying any lie you needed to for MONTHS just to get us to do what you want, trying to ‘remove my friends from the equation’ or even considering using me your own sick plans or this sick abomination! YOU HAD THIS AWFUL MONSTER WATCHING ME WHILE I WAS RECOVERING FROM YOUR ATTACK, YOU SICKO!!”

He backed against the wall in fear as two cables picked up his Laser sword hilt.

“We are way past a peaceful resolution! The only one you’ll get is getting locked up someday. If you ever get within one mile of my body with this sword again, I’ll chop your hands and tail off with it! If you try getting into my systems again or harm Olivia and Yunan, the last thing you’ll feel is pain worse than anything you’ve ever felt in your entire life! Your days as Lord of Amphibia are numbered! As a start, here’s a bit of a ‘Core-dump’ to set you back on your evil plans!”

               His sword was broken in half. A robotic male voice said, “FOOTAGE OF THIS EVENT, THE DAY OF THE CALAMITY BOX’S RESTORATION, THE ATTEMPTED POSSESSION OF MARCY WU;PERSONAL INFORMATION ON  MARCY WU OR HER FRIENDS, CONVERSATIONS WITH MARCY, ANNE BOONCHUY AND THE PLANTARS;CORE’S PLANS AND SCHEMATICS TO DOWNLOAD THEMSELVES INTO MARCY OR ANOTHER HOST; FILES ON EARTH INFORMATION, THE WARTWOOD RESISTANCE AND OTHER REBELS; EARTH INVASION PLANS, AND 45% OF CORE MEMORIES FROM THIS PAST YEAR-ALL PERMANENTLY DELETED!”

                The screens, power and lights to the whole floor shut off.

               “I am never going to try that again!”Andrias said shakily. The basement was left in utter darkness. He walked right out of there as fast as he could.

               For the first time since this started, he began to wonder if they would lose. He’d lost to Marcy at flipwart before and he couldn’t hope to beat her at it now. He wasn’t going to be stupid enough to kill or harm her two attempted rescuers in the dungeons.

               Andrias wanted to leave the Castle right now and never come back. But it was too late.

He rubbed his neck where a special device had already been fitted.

               Andrias was trapped here in this place and his role as a tyrant. Marcy was right. No one would believe the truth. They might turn on him or call him mad (again) if he told even half of it.

 At least he could have some peace and quiet for a while.

               “King Andrias … what in olm’s name was that … horrible noise going on down here??”General Nolan asked him when he staggered out to the main floor to see the crowd gathered there.

               He took his time answering,“It was a spell of some kind an enemy witch did. It forced me to listen to the screams of … several dying newts… or the screams of ghosts perhaps. I’ll be fine … but I need some time alone for now to get that off my mind …carry on without me for now!”

               They nodded and let him walk by. They could believe that. Besides the noise they heard, Andrias looked scared. He never looked scared.

               “That was something else …”Andrias said as he lay down on his bed. He didn’t sleep at all that night, but kept eyeing the walls around him.

              

               When the Core rebooted over two weeks later, the Inner Sanctum was still in shambles.

               “This … this must not stand! We need to make sure that never happens again!”Aldrich said. The greatest minds still had scars from their ‘deaths’ they had to focus to remove.

               There was a note on the ground that said in Marcy’s handwriting: “For an ultimate creation, you are one ugly piece of work. Don’t touch me or my stuff or come anywhere near my body ever again or else! Not nice, is it, being yanked around by tentacles or getting shocked? Try again, I’m sure that will go soooooo much better! 🙄”

               The Core glowered and burned the note. “You will pay for that! Forget assimilation … you are going to be erased!”

               Just to make it easier, they suppressed most of that memory in storage. What she’d done in their own head frightened them, especially when they realized she’d erased valuable data and five months of memories without leaving a trace in their systems. The invasion of Earth was effectively crippled for the foreseeable future and their war on Amphibia got many times harder.

               Marcy went from a threat to eliminate or a useful Host to someone they were afraid of. She’d done the impossible and made them experience a temporary form of final death. No one had ever done that before. Their own memories of the girl before this were blurred or completely gone, so this was their last full impression of her.

                To make matters worse, they couldn’t retrieve that lost data and had to start from scratch. They avoided trying to hack into her systems unless they had to.

               Tamora alone was too angry to be scared. Marcy had used a phantom creation to take her out while his back was turned. It was an insult she took very personally.

 She thought on how to deal with this, stroked her blonde hair, and started to smile.

               “So …”The rest turned to her,”Wit is becoming a true queen in her own right … we’ll need to show her how a queen needs to take a good handle on her conquests,”She fiddled a flipwart board on the table in front of her,”what pieces are the most important on the playing field to take out or take for your own to flip the odds in your favor!  What to keep and sacrifice! She wants to play a game on our level and be taken seriously, she’ll get that!”

               They all smiled evil, ghastly smiles. Tamora would know that. She’d done nearly two dozen conquests of her own. She’d been one of the most effective queens of their line and earned her spot among the great 13 monarchs who had the most influence in the Core nowl. She was beautiful and adored by her soldiers with a voice as sweet as honey that could charm them all and inspire them to greatness. She’d gotten many riches and shared the spoils in one of the great peaks of their golden age. Even her untimely death at the height of her regime didn’t deter the rest from following her lead.

               Later that night, Marcy sat down on her bed and rubbed a couple good luck charms she’d made to keep herself lucky.

               “I haven’t been able to sleep in peace since I got free. Tonight didn’t make that easier …”She said to Smarcy.

               “What about your new dreamcatcher necklace?”Smarcy asked.

               “Yeah … I still can’t sleep without nightmares … hold down the fort for me! Wake me if you need me!”Marcy put the beaded necklace on.

               Smarcy smiled,“Of course. Sleep well, you hit them good today!”

               The robots tucked her in, stood guard, and played some soothing music to help her sleep.

 

               The necklace was part tech and part magic. However that night, she would learn, it made her mind get very lucid as a tradeoff.

                When she dozed off, she was awake in her own mind.

               She wore a dark green cloak, a light green tunic, and her hair had grown to shoulder length. It was an ideal fantasy look.

               It was nice. However, that wasn’t enough to make her smile. She stirred a cauldron in front of her. A movie scene with her ‘accomplice’ played out.

               “Doctor Gunther Octavius!”Spider Guy said to the poor doctor before taking his mask off.

               Ock smiled,”Richie Parker … brilliant but lazy.”

               “Look at what’s happening … please, we must destroy it!”His experiment was going worse than last time.

               Gunther’s madness from the evil arms warping his mind was greatly reduced but he wasn’t himself just yet,“I can’t destroy it …I WON’T!”

               His arm grabbed Spider Guy’s neck.

               “Doctor, you once spoke to me about intelligence …that it was a gift to be used for the good of mankind.”

               Gunther’s anger faded and he nodded,”A privilege.”

               “These things have turned you into something you’re not … don’t listen to them!”Parker pleaded.

               Ock was already considering that. But he had one last protest,”It … this was my dream.”

               It had been a good dream to benefit all mankind with unlimited energy. It was a failed dream that had cost him everything good already. It couldn’t work. He already knew it but his rogue arms had blinded him to that.

               Parker knew how he felt. He was a guy who sacrificed everything all the time to help others at great expense to himself,“Sometimes … to do what’s right, we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most … even our dreams.”

               Ock, to his eternal cinematic credit, didn’t argue at all. “You’re right …”

His arms protested out loud and in his head. Gunther insisted,”He’s right!”

               He got angry with them,”No, listen to me now …”

               When they wouldn’t let Richey go, he snarled,”You will listen to me noowww!”

               He forced them to do what he wanted and let go of his friend.

               “I will not die a monster!”He said moments later when destroying his experiment in a final act of sacrifice.

               “Poor doc … he deserved his redemption …”She glanced up at the phantom villain in her head as he appeared. He smiled warmly at her.

She smiled back and said,”I’m glad that new film that came out this summer gave you freedom quicker and a chance to live in a new timeline!!”

               He shook her hand,“Yeah yeah … classic superhero and sci-fi stuff … don’t you go messing with time warps though!”

               She shook her hands in protest,“Good heavens, no! Time travel raises all sorts of questions, problems, paradoxes and can give such headaches in any story! I’ll stick with my new powers and lab to use.”

               Ock said,“Good luck … you have the power of the sun in the palm of your hands, or rather … the power of the sun in the center of your mind! I’d say the Heart and Core of your mind, but … that would be both incorrect and insensitive!”

               They both laughed. Ock faded from existence in her mind to go back to his role of sympathetic tragic villain and redeemed hero in another story.

               “I just hope I don’t abuse my gifts and privilege anymore, and can be willing to-“

               “Mars, do NOT say you’ll have to do another deadly sacrifice or give up your dreams or whatever else you want most! That is so cliché!!”Sasha’s voice said. She looked behind her.

 Two smiling versions of Marcy and Anne stood there in cool quest outfits. The same kind of fantasy the Core would offer her in other life. Anne had longer hair in a ponytail, a sleeveless blue shirt over a grey one, light brown pants and dark boots, and a sword in a blue sheath on her back.

                Sasha looked like her toad army self in armor, but fancier. Her shoulder pauldrons were rounded and had diamond symbols on them. Her armor was now a red and pink dress with two swords at her side. She wore a fancy bronze circlet under her hair that extended into two curled rams horns on the side. It made her look fierce but very cute, something she knew Sasha liked.

              

               She sighed and ignored them at first and stirred a pot in front of her. “Yeah … I know. Practically everything I ever wanted … It’s a dream come true, but fake … maybe this charm isn’t working.”

               Thankfully, these apparitions were from herself and reflecting something else.

               “Oh Mar-Mar,”Dream Anne said, rubbing her shoulder,”we’re desires, not a dream! We’re not real, but we won’t hurt you! We’re part of your mind on a different level!”

               “Yeah, chin up! You had to do a dark thing while facing your biggest enemy and are still feeling alone and afraid, right?”Dream Sasha asked.

               “Yeah …”Marcy said sadly.

               The other Anne hugged her along with Sasha,“We’re just filling in for the real us now! That way you don’t have to keep thinking about how mad they looked! You can see us smiling at you like you all did before! You want that and you know it! You don’t have to give up on your dreams, just adjust them a bit!”

               “Oh, that’s something … I like that!”Marcy said. She tapped her chin,”But you need distinct names to stick out … how about the real Anne and Sash’s middle names? Savisa means ‘strong’ and you’re helping me keep strong. And Sasha-“

               Dream Sasha cut her off,”Don’t call me ‘Elizabeth’, just go with Lizzie. Now, you just do whatever this is, kapeesh?”

               Marcy knew what this was,“This is lucid dreaming … except I’m awake in a dream without dreaming. That could be a lot more flexible than dreaming …”

               Inadvertently she tapped into some precognitive potential the stones had. Inside the cauldron, a vision appeared.

               She stood with Anne and Sasha in space, all three of them sparkling with gem powers, fancy armor and glowing hair. Marcy’s hair was even longer and her face was scar free. Sasha’s Calamity form, one she’d never seen, had flaming pink locks and spiked armor.

                They were hugging and laughing and happy.

               “What the-?”She stared in shock …”Is this some future vision??”

               “Maybe! If it is, you might get something even better with real us someday!”Savisa said.

               Lizzie whistled,“Dang, we look good! That long hair looks awesome! Real anime space goddess mode! It would be a shame for all of us not enjoy that cool look! Make sure the real me gets in on this!”

               Marcy said smugly,”Oh, girls, please, the real Anne and Sasha would enjoy being anime space goddesses with anime powers with me! I won’t have to persuade the real Ane and Sasha that it’s cool! They know it’s cool!”

               The girl and her imaginary friends laughed.

               The next day Marcy decided to start growing her hair out.

              

 

              

              

 

 

              

              

 

 

              

 

 

Notes:

FIrst of all, the in series reference to the films will be "Timeinator", which I swear I heard somewhere in the Gravity Falls community ( a show that arguably shares the same universe/mutiverse).
Anyway, apart from the obvious "Robert Patrick" spin off identity, the TF-800 is "Arnold" and the TS-X is "Kristanna" (the T-X's actress in T3)
I could not resist having a T-X character, the only female Terminatrix (official designation for the T-X and female terminators in general) that most fans know of. Admittedly the movie was not the best, but she was an admittedly terrifyingly effective killing machine and showed some predatory traits. All 3 of them sound the exact same as said actors

 

TF (Terminator - Frog Edition) and TN-X (Terminatrix -Newt Edition), get it?
Kristanna is made to resemble the T-X in green eye color, hair color (her original long hair on arriving, looks better in my opinion) with her robe being a homage to her red/black business suit. I'm making it that Marcy deliberately made her killer lady cyborg deliberately look like a younger, color swapped version of her out of silent admiration as a magic user.
She has all the T-X abilities, magnetic resistance, and a deadly tail. Her weapons are the 26 listed for the T-X, laser-eyes, a Lawgiver MK II (Judge Dredd), a sonic cannon, Plasmacaster (Predator), a Wunderguffe DG-2 (Call of Duty), Morita Mk 2 Scatter rifle (Starship troopers), a BlastTeach E-11 blaster (Star Wars), a J2 Agent pistol (Men in Black), a Zorg ZF-1(Fifth Element style, but smaller and with green camo color), identity throwing disk (Tron) and a phaser (Star Trek).

As for the last scene, it was a risk, but worth it to try. Doc Ock makes a good villain in Spiderman 2, one worth redeeming not once but twice in movies. And it is the first of many times the Core is going to get hurt by her and the rest as a suicidally insane coward who can't take a hint. These creeps deserve the 'Horror Hospital' scene treatment as their first taste at death. If you look closely, you'll notice I had Marcy and the Doc take out the Leviathans personally while the Greatest minds were open season for them and the cables. Ock could lift at least 3 tons with his arms, the Core's own tentacle arms probably more and I doubt any of them in life were that heavy. He took on Spider-man, a guy with inhumanly fast reflexes, and did pretty good. No contest to me.

 

It also gives me a chance to expand on the Core minds besides Aldrich. The number of eyes on it's face/helmet goes from 13, 7, 10 and 9 and dozens more at one point (35?) and an untold number on the moon in the finale. Lore indicates there were 8 minds in the first newts to join. Maybe ruling member of Andrias's family before him joined (even his mother?). Aldrich was shown with 6 other portraits in the Core and the King.. Sigurd, Tamora, Findláech, Gruoch, Teutonic, and Megalo are names I chose for them. (https://amphibia.fandom.com/wiki/Leviathan_family-pictures here for those interested).
Brecca (Beowulf homage for those curious) is the king picture shown in Marcy's Journal.
Some simple odds on around 22 to 24 monarchs for an estimated long life of a few centuries or so for 8 to 9,000 years is what I'm settling on for now.

 

Names of the Leviathans and other Core minds are based off of newt-related names/terms (for example, Tritones is a historical name for newts still used in other languages) or the names of mythical, historical or fictional characters (especially monarchs) with Greek, Norse and English names that are ironic or fitting as 'wise or great' rulers, just like Aldrich and Andrias. Tamora is going to be a Jadis-like character who takes center stage for the Core. I decided the Core could use a Queen character to stand out after Marcy's image of Andrias (and his father by extension) permanently soured.

 

Hopeful final major update: I realized the Core had 6 arms, not 4. *facepalm* I'm so embarrassed. I've adjusted accordingly.
Months later: ... Andddd Marcy was strapped to a chair,not a table. Sorry. Fixed.

Nolan is a shoutout to Nolan North, VA of the Salamandrian General R’Kavaka of TMNT 2012, the CO of Mona Lisa and Commander G'Throkka (who shares Andrias's VA, but is much more of a nice salamander character and ally. Coincidence he got hired?).

Chapter 4: Ch. 4 Troll the bridge, tour the Toad Towers, and do a Scavenger Hunt

Summary:

Oh yes, finally! I get to be more creative! A handful of shoutouts and ideas! Videogames, tv shows and more!

Some characters in the show and Marcy's Journal start to make their reappearance. I'm trying to do my homework right on the landscape and more, but it is hard.

Edit December 2024 note: Sorry, I felt the need to delete/add some characters. Some wouldn't get any focus and some simplification was in order.

Notes:

If anyone has complaints on my shoutouts, speak up, but be polite about it.

Major update: To avoid potential future copyright hassles, I'm greatly reducing songs and song lyrics in this and other fics of mine.

Here's a link to a map of Amphibia from Marcy's Journal as a helpful visual aid. https://www.reddit.com/r/amphibia/comments/zl9vdo/the_land_of_amphibia_map/#lightbox

 

                                 Ch. 4  Troll the bridge, tour the Toad Towers, and do a Scavenger Hunt

“United we stand, now and forever

In truth, divided we fall

Hand upon hand, brother to brother

No one shall be greater than all”-‘United We Stand’ lyrics

“Then make them care. Plant the seed in the middle of town, where everyone can see. Change the way things are. I know it may seem small and insignificant, but it's not about what it is, it's about what it can become. That's not just a seed... any more than you're just a boy.”-The Once-ler

               Marcy’s initial army was complete. Along with some radical ideas like her Timeinator units, she and Smarcy began to improve and expand upon the existing designs within the first couple weeks.

               Marcy went through every Frobot model on the factory production list to do so. Smarcy helped reduce the workload she had to focus on and handled most of the construction.

               The Standard Soldier Frobots were capable of flight with wings and thrusters on their back, limited scanning and tracking, radio dishes in their heads to signal for backup, plasma cannons in their right hands, alternate weapons in their arms such as swords and axes, and deployable cannons and missiles in their backs. Not very intelligent and easily defeated in a serious fight, they were nonetheless not to be taken lightly by most Amphibians and had overwhelmed all opposition in open battle by virtue of sheer numbers.

               Marcy used the many she recruited and ones she destroyed or got fresh parts for to make new designs and improvements.

               A handful of early experiments called Hybrid Frobots (Hybribots) combined destroyed robots with other models to remake them. Nail-G was a Frobot remade with a female personality and green bangs who wore a Hood Bot’s hood and tunic (redyed to a blank green) over a Soldier’s torso with Cloak-Bot arms and legs replacing the limbs, and nail guns attached to her shoulders. Weldo was a Frobot with extendable Froglet arms and legs welded onto his body. He also starting wearing a striped red/white sweater, hat and scarf he found in an empty cottage. Scrap and Heap were two Hood Bots who got extra buzz saws (Scrap) and excavator arms (Heap) added below their regular pair while they carried two mattocks in their hands and wore banged up armor over their torsos. CLU was a Soldier remade with factory assembly line parts to have an onyx chassis with blue eyes and TRON-style glowing lines on his body, laser disk weapons he could launch from his wrists and four high-powered lasers contained in his fingers. FLO was put together with a Royal Guard torso with the lower half replaced with a large lower half balancing on two large double wheels fit for a monster truck and missile launchers in her back. She carried an anchor to swing at her enemies at close range.

               The green Froglet Frobots had decorative tadpole tails stood at the average small frog height. For combat, they jumped high, attacked en masse and had extendable arms they could wrap around enemies. However, they were very fragile. Marcy realized they could be good scouts and base workers. She redesigned several recruited ones in many ways and made her own new design. The Leapers had forest leaf pattern colors on their bodies and were equipped with tasers and small laser blasters in their fingers. They could go underwater, leap over tree tops and use a rolling ball mode to go around. They  carried special binoculars for recon inside a chest compartment.

 The other smallest model, the Butler Frobots, needed no changes apart from some simple offensive gun fingers and extensive etiquette routines. Her head butler she dubbed Lumiere (guess why).

 To support the Butlers as security, a Frobot design called Bouncers were made with extra big arms and lots of guns hidden under their grey/black suits and red ties. Their leader was named Norm.

               For good measure, she made some Frog and Newt maid robots.

               The maids wore full body modest French maid outfits.

               Unable to resist a bit of an upgrade, she gave them some lethal ninja maid vibes. Head maids Fifi (the newt model) and Roberta( the frog model) had black hair, wore sunglasses and carried miniguns, pistols, blades and six other weapons in their limbs. The rest had swords in their arms and Frobot shoulder cannons.

                The cyan-colored Dragonfly drones (DF drones) had red eyes and cybernetic sky-blue wings. They could fly, open their heads to reveal a blaster that fired a powerful yellow laser and send images as scouts for Cloak-Bots (who carried some inside their bodies) and send out tracking signals.

 Marcy modified hers to be indigo colored and spit nets as well as laser blasts out of their mouth blasters, have a chameleon mode to mimic the colors of their surroundings, and take pictures with their eyes. Dubbing them the Dragonfliers, they made good swarm attackers and scouts who kept eyes out all over the Valley with none the wiser.

               Some new models she could make were a nod to Creatures and Caverns. The first was a being called a Mothman. Smarcy took charge of making this design after she proposed it.

               She used the size and shape of a Coastal Kill-a-moth meshed with a humanoid frame and Luna Moth wings and colors to make five cyborgs called Mothras (named after the Godzilla moth kaiju).

               The Mothras had four arms with delicate fingers and two legs with large talons, giant wings with a span of 10 ft, green skin, long spindly antennae and red Kill-a-moth eyes on a smooth face with a small mouth. These lovely cyborgs had short bangs (chin-length), soothing voices, and wore feathery brown cloaks and vests.

               The Mothras had organic regenerative insides, retractable claws that could tear a Frobot open, expert camouflage abilities and night vision. For long-range attacks, they could emit an electrical field that blinded any Core machine near them to their presence, shoot laser eye attacks, and create silk threads to grab people. The assigned leader (or ‘Alpha Mothra’) was named Luna. She had extra-large wings of 12 ft and green hair that went to her shoulders. The rest were named Clementine (ginger hair), Ayla (redhead), Bianca(brunette hair), and Calypso (cyan hair).

               The second and similar creation was meant to have a fearsome effect. The Driders were humanoid spider centaur beings with the upper torso of Deep-elves, and the lower body was the abdomen and legs of a giant spider.

               Her versions were smaller but more dangerous. They stood at a height of 7 ft or higher (depending on how high their legs were raised). They had humanoid torsos (visibly feminine), grey skin and wore diverse armor, for their upper half. Their lower halves had eight large reflective black or chrome spider legs of 7 to 9 ft in length.

                For their faces, she used a smooth chrome design with a LED display black visor that allowed for expressive neon-colored glowing eyes and a mouth.

               They could shoot webs from their hands, regenerate from damage using advanced internal nanites, use a hover flight mode, climb all over the place and do ambushes and recon with ease. Their scanners (complete with x-ray, infrared, EM, and thermal vision) were several times better than the Cloak-Bots, able to scan and identify facts and traits about an enemy or trails they left within seconds.

               For onboard weapons had interchangeable hands (with electroshock abilities) that could go between their normal four-fingers, bladed claws that resembled large knives, office supply tools (scissors/laser pointers/staple gun, etc.) satellite dishes, small gatling guns, submachine guns, nail guns, blowtorches, laser cannons that fired a flat wall of yellow energy in horizontal or vertical attack that could cut through their targets, flares, 200-petawatt triple laser banks, sonic cannons, EMP generators (which they were completely immune to), smoke bomb and sleeping gas canisters, missile launchers, small virus chips good for infecting enemy robots and most factory-level or above computers, automatic rifles with laser and bullet modes, and chainsaws. For external weapons, they wielded sharp swords (flying slash attack capable), shuriken (hira and hiragata shapes) and massive manriki chains. Even without their opponents seeing them, the Driders gave off an electrical aura that caused most Frobots to feel fear in their processors when they were close or heard their voices.

                Vicki, the first one made, was a lead raider and best at ambushes She had bob-cut silver-white hair with a black headband with five yellow glowing eye pieces, yellow eyes, chrome armor and 7 ft legs with TRON-like yellow glowing patterns, a sleeveless blue cut-crop jacket. For a personal weapon, she carried a massive nodachi with a blue blade (78 inches)length. She named it the Burumun (Blue Moon) Blade.

               The second one, Charlotte, was the better fighter, smarter and their best recon/stealth expert. She had long purple with blunt bangs, purple eyes, a grey beanie with a ☢️ adorning it on all sides on her head, black legs of 8 ft, a black hoodie with caution sign sleeves and a  ☠️on the back and the words Укуси меня! (Bite me!) on the front. Her choice of additional weapons were two large jian blades (60 inches). The green glowing one was named Shichisei (Seven Stars) and the blue one with elaborate vine patterns was named Dingyao (Stinging bite). She had a Russian accent and spoke Russian most of the time.

                The two of them were specially made to be advanced combat robots, but they had teenage girl personalities that ruined any chance of them looking completely serious.

                Vicki was playful, teasing and perky (especially in combat). She led raiding parties all over with gymnast-like grace and keen reflexes. Very outgoing, she always voluntarily accompanied Marcy for major missions or trips. Charlotte was silent and ruthless in combat and a nice but shy girl in downtime who supervised recon around Wartwood and the other Valley areas.

                Every construction bot was remodeled to be capable of self-defense while helping to rebuild towns and the environment.

               The Bug Bots, steamroller type robots shaped like stag-beetles, were reinforced and had road-roller modes for making new roads.

               Bulldozer Frobots were extensively modified into other construction vehicle modes (excavators, compactors, demolition, etc).

               A brilliant idea was to use some Bulky Bulldozer and standard Frobot frames to make six Bond Hunters from the Nimbus videogame franchise, one game Sasha had enjoyed playing with her on occasion. The blue-armored giants of sentient orange worm colonies of 12 ft with four flexible spikes on their back who carried shields and assault plasma cannons, and no visible faces that travelled in pairs were a good fit to make robotic heavy units.

               Hers looked the same, except with orange cables for ‘flesh’ instead of worms.

               These cables had colonies of nanobots ‘swimming’ in them that did self-repairs and fought off any mechanical or organic infection. They also had more flexible fingers. Their armor was the thickest she could make and could shrug off most attacks with ease.

               The Tank Frobots were good. The gold/green and silver models had missile launchers in their torsos and hands that could fire Polywog heatseeker missiles (small missiles shaped like polywogs with red eyes). To support themselves, they could deploy massive amounts of Froglets from their backs and shoulders. The bulkier silver ones had mace hand attachments instead of cannons in their arms. Andrias had a smaller gold model serving as heavy guards at the Castle.

 It was a good design, but she wanted to improve on their capabilities and redesign them. They were too rotund, slow and vulnerable to their own missiles or group attacks. Her own forces ambushed and eliminated over a dozen in less than four days.

               The Mechamorpher Cybertron fictional series of transforming vehicle robots also gave her an idea of where to start with them. The Cybertronic live-action film versions had come out over the last decade, and she decided a demolition crew was in order.

               The Wrecker Crew was made using parts of Tank Frobot and construction designs from Earth and Amphibia. All of them had hazard signs and markings on them.

               First was Flail, a 2.5 story tall green robot with two wrecking balls on his arms and two swinging booms with hooks on his back a

               Crusher was 4 Stories tall and painted yellow. He had six arms :two excavator shovels were on the bottom pair, two clawed hands adorned the middle pair, and two circular lifting magnets on the top crane-like arms. He had  steamroller wheel feet that moved much faster than a usual one.

               Loader was red, 2 stories tall, and basically a walking garbage truck. He had a large trash compactor bin on his back and four claw arms.

               Meltdown was a walking Incineration unit standing 3 stories tall in white colors. He moved on tread feet and had large cranes with lifting magnets on his shoulders and two junkyard claw hands. In his torso he had a furnace for melting down parts.

              

               In her first two days around her new base, she captured and recruited two Shield Generator Bots around the defenses of the bases around Lily Paddington. The concept of a forcefield robot was a welcome addition.

She soon had five modified Shield generator Bots positioned around her base’s perimeter and had seven more standing by just in case.

Andrias’s versions had to be plugged in to the buildings they protected with electrical forcefields, could burrow underground, use underground cameras to observe the area, and wielded their large claws for defense and offense.

 Marcy’s improved design didn’t require plugs and weren’t limited to buildings. They had a green color scheme with glowing Amphibian runes on their backs and blue eyes. For additional attacks they could also unleash bolts of energy from the nodules on their backs or trap their opponents in energy bubbles. They were linked to each other and the computer networks for alerts and could combine their energies in a forcefield of electricity and plasma to cover the base entirely for an ideal protection that not even Andrias’s Castle cannon could break through.

No one was going to get in or out unless she wanted them to.

               Fire Frobots, a deadly extermination class, were the first to get a new look after looking up a similar video game unit.

               The Cloak-Bots were perfect as the deadliest and stealthiest model they had. They had a camouflage mode, laser eyes, hacking, multipurpose claws, several weapons, stored Dragonfly drones, advanced sensors that could detect Calamity energy, a self-destruct bomb capable of levelling half of L.A., and self-repair.

               “It’s the perfect revenge on Andrias, to use this model against him!”Marcy said while fiddling with her first redesigns.

               The Judge Frobots did not impress her in purpose or combat. All they were meant for was doing a crooked form of justice on those against Andrias to be punished with death every time. These wig-wearing robots had wooden legs they could shape into tables for them to sit down at while their bodies were condensed into a small spike form with one hand holding a gavel. In combat mode, their tables formed giant wooden legs and they unfolded to a size rivalling Tank Bots with large hands holding massive mallets and their ‘hair’ shot missiles. However, they were less durable than a Tank Bot and their legs and mallets got cut through easily thanks to being made of wood. Marcy had no need or desire to use this form of ‘justice’ on the battlefield, so they were discarded from her factory production lists. Any they destroyed had their parts salvaged and repurposed.

               Another unimpressive model was the Hooded Frobots. These robots wore red hoods and tunics with the Core’s symbol of two black triangles in between an orange diamond that mimicked a crown shape. They wielded simple double-bladed battle axes as their only weapon. They were weaker than Soldier Frobots and were assigned to patrol the woods or accompanying the Judge Frobots as guards and executioners.

               Several that they hacked or produced were made into a slightly better form. They wore black and white cloaks and carried larger battle axes with the blades and handles made entirely of black metal. They were dubbed Battle Axe Frobots, or Battle Axers for short.

              

Their hoods also gave Marcy an idea from Fantasy Galaxy IV for a radical new design to try for the first of her elite bodyguards.

               The game’s Asura warriors, a six-armed summon monster resembling a pale woman wielding blades in each hand, gave birth to the concept of Asurdroids.

                These fearsome fighters consisted of eight female newt-based robots that stood over 5 ft tall with 4 ft tails, smooth faces with glowing mouths, and glowing eyes of many colors. They wore fancy bracers and wore a blue cloak and hood like a Newtopian Ranger over long artificial hair. For each pair of arms from top to bottom the initial arsenal included pairs of three weapons: two swords, two glowing energy whips, and two kanabos. They had immense strength, could channel electricity through their weapons and had moderate elemental power over fire, air, earth and water. They also possessed short-range teleportation (up to 500 yards in visual sight) and could cast illusions and holograms to confuse their opponents.

               Their first one, Araya, was the most acrobatic and best at commanding her elemental powers and weapons simultaneously to unleash great destruction on their enemies. Serious and dedicated, she took her assigned role as leader seriously. She stood at an impressive 5’9” height, had white skin, a white circlet with gold stars on top of her head, intense brown hair, yellow eyes and golden arm bracers with rubies on her arms. Her katanas had star-shaped hilts and rubies in them.

The second one made was Yuriko, who struck the fastest. She always acted calm or polite in how she spoke. She had a knack for morbid observations and enjoyed the insane antics everyone else did around her with endless patience. She stood at a tall height of 6’2”, had shoulder-length black hime-cut hair, dark purple skin, and cerulean blue eyes. She wore a pair of reflective red aviator shades that rested on her forehead half the time, a black pearl necklace, and silver bracers with sapphires. Yuriko was the first to mix it up on the default weapons choice  by choosing to forgo katanas in place of two 38-inch  fancy silver and gold-handled swept hilt rapiers with small red sapphires embedded in the handles.

Her closest friend in their group was named Sydney. Sydney had large yellow eyes,long yellow claws on her fingers, blue and white skin, and white hair that reached her torso and grew along her tail. Her bronze bracers with white pearls and wooden bead necklace didn’t make her stick out any less as the most visually intimidating,  aggressive and tallest at 6’3”. Like Yuriko, she mixed up her arsenal to stand out by wielding two large gold-colored Egyptian khopeshes and large spiked flails in place of the katanas and kanabo.

Spiral, the second in command, was snarky and the best at fighting, teleportation and swordplay. She preferred using swords so much in training she requested early on to only carry katanas for each hand, a request Marcy granted. Her katanas had black hilts but glowed ghostly white. She had long silvery hair, a blue bandana, obsidian bracers with malachite shards, puffy white fur on her boots, ivory white skin and white eyes.

               Kimiko had red hair in pigtails, shamrock green skin, ocean blue eyes, and bracers with sapphire stones. She was the best as using her elemental attacks (especially fire) and one of the nicest ones. The fact that she exclusively used fiery red whips and laughed a lot in battle made for an odd contrast with her perky demeanor but fit with her hobby of anime binge-watching.

Mei was shorter than the rest at 4’10”, had white skin, sky-blue eyes, special square glasses that let her use a virtual library everywhere she went, and black hair tied in a bun with a Chinese hairpin through it. She rivalled Kimiko at controlling her elemental attacks and did better at water. In place of katanas, she carried two Tai Chi swords. She was nice, quiet and one of Marcy’s smartest bodyguards. She served as their science expert.

Amelie had pale blue skin, dark hair in a ponytail, yellow eyes, and grey bracers with diamond-shaped spinel gems on them. She was the quietest but was very dedicated and focused on a mission and did long-range attacks the best. Her swords were fancy 1790 Sabers, she carried two large metal num-chuks in place of kanabos, and her whips tended to have barbs on the tips.  Amelie was the only one to carry a gun as an extra weapon, a purple sniper rifle with laser and bullet mode that usually stayed on her back until she needed to take out targets at long range. She served as the token sniper of the bodyguards and wore red goggles above her eyes with many vision settings.

Hana had back-length brown hair, violet skin, and pink eyes that matched the two ‘whisker’ face paint marks on her face. She was the third fastest after Yuriko and Spiral and did best on defense. Her white bracers had pink diamonds and doubled as laser-equipped wrist blasters that could project semi-transparent forcefields around her or her allies. In addition to her whips and  bracers, she used two extra-large kanabos called tetsubos and her swords were a pair of shirayasa blades. Hana did livestreams of their battles with Mei and enjoyed a hobby of videogames for downtime.

               The Royal Guard Frobots were perfect for adding to basic infantry and guard designs.

               Andrias’s purple/lavender-colored artificial Royal Guard Frobots were rather weak. They had extendable arms with mace hand attachments and  wielded an extendable lily-pad shaped shield and lance. Their defense was better than regular field models, but they wouldn’t last long against the Resistance or other competent opponents. Instead, their concept would go better with her own footsoldiers.

               The classic Clash of Cultures games (she’d played the sixth one at St. James) offered some simple twists on the armor and shields for infantry and defender units.

               The Phalangites, a Greek/Roman infantry unit, got melded into the basic Frobot design to have Greek helmets, Roman Scutum shields, and large Doru spears of 10 ft length. The lead one, Maximus, carried two spears and served as captain of the base guards.

               The basic Royal Guard model was used for the Paladin model. The Paladins used the same extendable arms and shield (in a sand dollar shape and color scheme), had yellow eyes, held 8 ft Noldoli elf spears/glaives or longswords in one hand, and were painted in a new Wit gem color scheme.

               To look cool and confuse everyone else, the Phalangites and Paladins had the phrase ‘For our Friends’ inscribed on their weapons and shields in elvish:

             

               The Compact Archer robots used Compact longbows and crossbows (modern ones from Earth) with armor piercing trick arrows and bolts (stun, explosive, sonic, smoke bomb, knockout gas, tear gas, metal corrosive, bola/net/, acid, target tracking, and flare), wore full body blue cloaks and hoods over their frames and heads and had long grey dreadlocks, red eyes and a female personality. Their leaders Kaina and Echo had purple and blue dreadlocks/eyes and carried sniper rifles.

               Marcy’s plans for her elite bodyguards weren’t limited to one unit. In addition to the Asurdroids, she had three other types made to act as her elite protectors.

                Using General Grief’s battle droid bodyguards from Galaxy Wars for ideas, she remodeled some volunteer damaged Frobots from her first recruits into Magna Guard Droids (or Magnas), skeletal-looking grey-cloaked Frobots with red eyes and various scratch-marks on their double-layered armor from combat and training they wore as ‘badges of honor’.  She gave them a camo green paint coat to be distinct. They  carried tow cables for restraining/ pulling enemies, a built-in cloaking device on the level of a Cloak-Bot’s, and their limbs had a magnetized mode that could let them climb up metal surfaces with ease and pull other robots towards them. For combat they used double-ended electrostaffs of diamond hard and heat-resistant metal capable of withstanding strikes from a Laser sword and delivering very powerful electrical shocks and fire blasts rivalling Force lightning.

There were three of them. They were designated with a number on their torso in order of construction.

               Emperor Palp’s royal guard was perfect for a delightful twist. She made the Crimson/Cyberkinetic Guards (CGs), remodeled Royal Guard Frobots standing at 1.83 m tall and wearing large red cloaks. Their eyes were replaced with black slit-visors. Their torsos had white x-shaped cross belts and enlarged shoulder pauldrons with pink spikes. Instead of the movie Force pikes, she had them carry large white coral shaped Force tridents that could fire stun blasts, levitate opponents and fire powerful electric blasts. They CGs had an improved version of the Cloak-Bot’s cloaking abilities, sound dampening gear to help them walk around extra quietly, a mental network link with each other that let them see what they all saw at once and focus on their own tasks simultaneously, and an internal radar scanning system that could let them fight visually blind against opponents and sense anyone around them for up to 100 yards in any direction. There were four total, with their numbers written on their right shoulders. CG-1 led this unit and oversaw securing meetings and negotiations.

 

               Marcy realized early on advanced robots alone wouldn’t cut it and predicted that the Leviathans would advance their designs and creations to her level with no restraint. Some serious firepower of another kind was in order.

The Asurdroids had combined a bit of magic and technology, but the Frost Knights were her first experiment to try something magic focused on a high level. It took a week and a half to get right. She used every stolen text and magic item on hand, collected magical energy and her full concentration, and new powers to get it right.

               World of the Warlords had a practical class that could weaponize a major weakness of the robots and Amphibians: cold. She took the idea and characters of the Death Knights of the  Obsidian Blade and their subclass of Frost Death Knights and assembled a group of 31 Frost Knights. The endeavor exceeded her expectations.

                The Frost Knights were a form of magical synthetic organisms (like a golem) with genuine souls from another reality. They had flesh and blood and were capable of every basic biological function. They were much more independent than the robots and retained every memory of their lives from their video game universe. At first they were displeased at the idea of their harsh world being a fictional form of entertainment, but they accepted Marcy’s reasoning that their home was one of many of the infinite universes out there (a concept they were familiar with) and not just a game. They also agreed to help her defeat her betrayer and the undead monster out to conquer all other worlds.

 With Marcy’s aid, they made some of their gear to use.

                The Frost Knights wore smooth and bulky dark armor and large shoulder pauldrons with articulated ridges and spikes decorating them. Some wore cloaks and sashes around their shoulders and waists. Glowing icy blue, purple and green eyes peered out from their headgear that covered their faces.

For basic powers, they were incapable of feeling pain and could regenerate and even grow stronger when being hit. Their armor and weapons were infused with shielding, mystical energy and spells she improved for them over time to be increasingly controlled and dangerous. They wielded massive axes, swords, polearms, and  maces. These durable weapons had glowing patterns and fancy mysterious runes adorning them and could fire powerful blasts of energy and ice. With practice, they started using ice to make chains, snowy storms and drain the warmth from the area into themselves for more power. In time, they would upgrade their potential.

Their leader, the ‘Lich Knight’ Darius Migraine, wore a Helm of Subjugation replica just like his former master the Lich King. Marcy remodeled this version to have a round brilliant blue gem on the forehead instead of the kite-shaped one and lack the skull-designs on the forehead spike above it. Besides that, Darius wore his original Darkruned Conqueror’s Plater armor and a black cape. Marcy crafted him a special large War-torn Ashgiver sword model she named Ashwake. This weapon possessed strong fire, light, and ice capabilities and gave Darius even more power.

               Highlord Baldor Foedragon the Immolated, his second in command, wore a dark cape and black Fearwym Battleplate armor and Crown helm. Fire came off of the skulls on his pauldrons and belt. Red cracks with glowing fire and smoke coming out of them covered his chest plate. Baldor wielded his massive Flamemourne Warhammer that was capable of weaponizing lava. He led the top four strongest Knights, the nigh-indestructible Four Horsemen.

               The other three Horsemen were Toras, Sally and Nazgrowl.

 King Toras Trollbane stood nearly 7 ft tall, wore a regal blue cape, and Pale Rider’s Infinite armor. He carried the large two-handed sword Strong’kar, a powerful blade that dealt out massive damage.

High Inquisitor Sally Frostmane had shoulder length white hair that flowed down her back, a blue sash around her midriff, and wore full body black Heroic Juggernaut armor with spiked pauldrons and a smooth Helm with a crest of blue icicle spikes on top and an added crest of diamond snowflakes circling the head like a tiara. Glowing white snow patterns decorated the breast plate and limbs. This durable armor left her protected from every known attack around. She carried a Calamity’s Edge sword with three diamond-shaped gemstones in the hilt that were the color and size of the Calamity Stones. The left and right ones were green and blue and the large one in the middle was pink.

General Nazgrowl was an orc-based Knight who stood taller than the rest at 8 ft. He wore Savage Saronian armor, a  Saltstone style Helm with his black ponytail coming out the back, and carried his trademark single-bladed war axe.

The remainder were a mix of officers and top fighters who deferred to these five.

                Lieutenant Thazarus the Champion had long white hair, a short beard and mustache. He wore a blue cape over blue and black Chosen Dead’s Funerary Plate Armor and with the  Helmet, and dual-wielded his trademark pair of bright blue Endbringer swords.

Fellow Champion General Koliath Deathspinner was an elf Death Knight and Thazarus’s “brother in death”. He wore his spiky armor, very spiky Helmet of Triumph, and a red cape. His Runeblade Bilrost never left his sight.

Siobhan the Banshee Knight was a grumpy elf who handled training and assigning missions as their Mission Specialist. She could conjure a protective energy field that protected others from magical and psychic attacks and unleash a sonic scream as a trump card. She wore a grey cape over silver and gold-lined Elaborate Darkbeach Warfront Alliance plate armor. She carried a double-bladed Nightfall Axe that she had sharpened and polished at least once every week.

               Duchess Mina the Quartermaster was a female elf. Her face was completely covered by a green Voracious Maw Greathelm. A blue cape went down the back of her fancy green Elementine Deadplate armor. She dual-wielded two blue crystalline Soulcutter Mageblades.

Duke Lancaster wore intimidating Bladeoath Harbinger armor with spikes, skeletal rib patterns, a horned Harbinger Greathelm, and carried a massive Pit Glaive that could drain the energy from any enemy it hit.

Enoch Fullman was a human knight with an eyepatch over his right eye. He wore bulky Tier 2 red and spiky Honorbinding Centurion armor with thick spike-studded grieves, pauldrons and Helm. He carried Rivendoom’s Runeblade, a fancy bastard sword with a blue eye at the base. It gave off a constant healing effect to Damian and empowered him to fight faster.

Lord Mez wore red Elite Primal Gladiator’s battlegear, a cape, and carried the iconic Obsidian Blade Greatsword.

Salazar the Horselord wore bony and spiked Lich Lord armor. His green eyes peered out of a grim Crown of the Lich Helm he almost never took off. He also had a red scarf draped around his lower jaw and shoulders. His Scourgespawn Waraxe looked fancy and powerful (it was), but he often did plenty of damage just by using it as a hatchet and boomerang.

Arachni Bloodquester (an elf) wore  black, red and and gold Bloodborne Heritage armor with golden wings adorning her bracers and pauldrons. A lovely red and gold embroider cape went down her back and a Gaze of Despair Helmet with glowing yellow feathers adorned her head. She carried a powerful bright green Timebender model of the famed Flamestrike runeblade that wielded flames that burned like the sun.

Makariya the Cursed was an Exodarian who stood 7’3” ft tall with dark grey skin, digitigrade legs with hooves, large thick horns that stuck out the side of her helmet, and a long 3 ft reptilian tail with golden rings on it.  She wore imposing black and grey Ebony Terror Sentinel armor with spikes and fins adorning the pauldrons and Helm. She carried two weapons. The biggest one was a long black two-handed Plundered Northern King (PNG) Blade that was roughly as tall as herself. The second was the Gavel of the Jailer (GOJ) mace, a skull-headed mace with blue flames and glowing spikes on it. This mace could extend a chain with a spiked tip from its ‘mouth’ and kill most targets with just a single blow. Makariya wielded both of these weapons in one hand easily.

Kadmos was another Exodarian, a Lightforged one. He had pale white skin with glowing glyphs tattoos and stood even taller than Makariya at 7’8” and had a 4 ft tail with bony plates and silver rings on it. Over his body he wore fancy gold and blue Guiding Light Battlegear. Four long white tendrils hung from under his gold and purple Guiding light Greathlem like a beard. He dual-wielded a fancy pair of two-handed swords, a Luminous Daybreak Greatsword and a Luminous Eventide Greatsword.

Anchorite Lonna was also a Lightforged Exodarian. She was the tallest female knight and Mar Guard at 7’4”. She had white skin, a long and ornately decorated 3’2” tail, long white hair going down her back, and short curved horns that protruded from her helmet. Her armor was pretty and intimidating. She wore a full set of a fancy silver and gold Highlord’s Battlplate armor. She carried a golden Selfless Bearer’s Warglaive.

Magister Crystal had the best control over ice and unleashed snowfall over the mountains above their base in less than a day that earned her the nickname ‘Queen of the Ice’. She wore a long blue cape and a blue and silver Heroic Haunted Frostbrood armor with large crystalline spikes and horns on the pauldrons, arms and legs. Two large crystal horns and blue flames rose high on her jagged Helm. She carried a Black Ice Polearm that she used like a staff.

Lord Septimus the Recruiting Officer was a man who wore a blue cloak and the iconic Hallowed Scourgelord plate and Helm on his body. He carried a pair of Gravekeeper swords.

Flightmaster Mariah Doomwing was in charge of flight paths and air traffic around their bases. She wore Necrotic Skeleton plate armor with glowing blue spiked pauldrons and a horned Necrotic Faceguard. Her weapons were two massive Thunderfury blades that could fire blasts of lightning that could jump from one target to the next and summon tornadoes.

               Filmore Kilpatrick wore bulky and spiky Mythic Titan Onslaught Armor. The green light pouring out of the numerous eye holes and openings on his armor made many Amphibians assume right away he was a ghost or robot at first. His Irish accent and deadly Demonshearer sword, with razor edges and segmented red and white colors emblazoned all along it, made them tend to believe it was the latter.

               Stablemistress Imhadria was an elf knight in charge of all livestock in their group and the magical Beastlord ability to communicate and tame beasts with ease. She wore spiky black Valiant Dreadnaught Plate armor with a horned and crested Dreadnaught Greathelm covering her head.  She carried an ornate Soulrend Outrider’s Bow that could shoot normal arrows and energy/ice ones for long-range combat and a two-handed Tormented Mawiron Greatsword for close quarters.

Marcus the Tireless could literally walk for days on end without resting on guard duty or out in the field. He wore Dreadful gladiator’s spiked armor and helmet with a flowing white mane of hair decorating the back and a single horn on top. His weapon was a large blue and black Migraine’s Might mace with six spike flanges of large size adorning the top.

Grand Champion Crocus Banescourge was an orc with a grey beard that poked out from the bottom of the Savage Saronian Skullhelm on his head. He wore Savage Saronian battlegear and carried a large double-bladed and spiked Trollbane Axe.

Arabella Winterfall (an elf) was one of the most cheerful knights. She wore a blue cape and a fancy set of silver Harmonous Forgelite’s Mail armor and Helm with glowing blue feathers protruding off the pauldrons and tassets. She carried a massive Sorrowbane blade taller than she was.

Lieutenant Verona had one of the most terrifying looks. She wore a Mythic Cosmic Monstrosity armor, a Lovecraftian style of partially alive plate armor with mind-enhancing properties. It had two chains dangling from the belt, purple and black kraken tentacles and fins decorating the shoulder pauldrons with moving purple Amphibian-like eyes embedded on the front and back of each one. The helmet had no face or eyeholes, glowing serrated fins on the top, and a purple tentacle ponytail hanging down the back. Purple diamond gemstones decorated slots in the waist, elbows and knees. Verona wielded a 6 ft onyx-colored Dark Blade of the Penitent bastard sword with a cross-shaped hilt and red gems in the handle.

The human knight Caravan Commander Vanessa wore grey Heartflame Sentinel’s armor with robes and dragon-style wing and horn designs on the pauldrons and helm. She carried a Heart-scar Greatsword in her left hand and a Silver Guard Warhammer in the right.

Ravyn Sorrowblade (an elf)was arguably the most intimidating female knight. Her large Gravewhisper Prison blade-a weapon that could ‘consume’ the energy of other weapons- was just as scary looking as the Shadeghast armor with massive spikes on the shoulders and helmet she wore. The fanged faceguard of the Helm was remodeled into a jagged circular opening around the mouth with runes surrounding it. Her amethyst mane of hair flowed down all the way to the top of her back and swung in the wind. She had an aggressive personality and ruthless skill with the blade to match this fearsome look.

 Sylalleas Blizzardwind was an elf knight. She wore black and purple Solar Warden plate armor , complete with gold filagree on the metal, embroidered tassets and a cape with spikes lining it going down to her ankles, and clawed gauntlets. Her white hair stuck out of the angular Moonlight Helm of Justice in a ponytail. Her weapons were a double-bladed Archon’s Glaive she carried in plain sight and two shuriken-like Lunarglaives kept under her cloak.

Lady Grenda the Recruiter wore blue and purple Judgement Paladin armor, a hood and a violet Mask of Penance. Her weapon was an Obsidine Bladespear.

Last, but not least, was the green-haired and raspy-voiced Champion Minerva Ravencry the Gravemaker, the only one to rival the Exodarians and elves in speed and ferocity. She carried the dreaded Shademourne Axe, a glowing blue axe as large as herself that could get stronger from harming enemies and unleash that collected energy in a powerful Chaotic Bane blast on all enemies in a nearby radius. For gear, she wore bulky Saronian war plate armor, a barbarian style Scourge Champion helmet (a large blue gem in the Heart Stone’s shape was on the forehead and two large tusks on each cheekguard), and a skull-adorned belt around her waist.

              

               “It’s good you decided on elite bodyguards. You’ll never be alone or vulnerable on missions without high levels of protection!”Smarcy said as they walked to the center of her base to start planning their first big counteroffensive.

               “Yes, and now … we have living additions!”Marcy looked over their expanding base.

                Survivors from the ruined areas of Frog Valley closer to her were coming in day by day to the strange area after some were picked up and saved from the factories and refineries.

               Nicky Flappers from Lily Paddington, an intelligent and suave green frog with a mustache in a grey suit and fedora, quickly became a valuable assistant.

               He read some figures for her,“Frog Valley had over 22,651 in the last elections. Wartwood has all 88 of their original number with quite a few extras living in the caves under that single farmhouse. Our city is mush, Bogwater is abandoned, and I’m not sure about Swamp Shiro.”

               “Well, yes …your city in our Northern side was the fanciest, houses on top of giant lily pads in a large lake, all cut down, drained and removed of supplies …Bog Bottom’s bayou area to the East got torched. Swamp Shiro has a good castle with lots of mushrooms and farming supplies … last report they barricaded themselves in …check on them later,”She crossed her fingers,”I suppose I’ll clear up shop a bit down by Wartwood and Toad Tower before doing some more raiding!”

               Nicky pointed his cane to the South,“What are your thoughts on the Wartwood Resistance? That troublesome fellow human Miss Waybright is leading them with Captain Grime!”

               “I’m confident that the South of the Valley is in good hands with her! I’ll show you!”

               After confirming Sasha and Wartwood were alive, she’d hacked into Frobot feeds from the first attacks. She pulled them up now.

               The Frobot that had tracked them from the Castle was scanning the Plantar house. It turned around to see Sasha and Grime.

               “It must have tracked us here!”

               “Go for the legs!”Grime yelled.

               Sasha ran forward, dodging its shots and cut its legs off at the knees. It fell over, and Grime leaped up to crush its head.

               The Frobot took the opportunity to pop out its radio dish. “Signal reinforcements …”

               “Yeah, don’t go for the legs first next time unless you want THIS to happen …”Marcy said dryly as she pulled up the next feed.

               Nicky smirked as the next feed from a few hours later showed a Tank Frobot landing at the town gates where Sasha stood in front of the rest.

               Sasha wasn’t even scared. “Only one? Honestly, that doesn't seem that bad.”

               Then it started launching Froglets.

She snarked,“Of course.”

She cut through four of them easily but got wrapped from behind by another one’s arms. They dogpiled her and held her down so the Tank Bot could fire its chest cannon at her.

“Oh no,”She moaned.

               Grime proved his loyalty by coming out of nowhere to deflect the missile it fired.

               “Grimesy!”Sasha said with delight.

               He got sappy while crushing the Froglets,“I got to thinking. Beatrix may have weapons and soldiers, but you know what she doesn't have?  You, Lieutenant.”

               Sasha, to Mars amusement, hugged the annoyed toad,” Grimesy! You big softy.”

               Grime grumbled,” No... get off me!”

              

               “INCREASING DEPLOYMENT!”The Tank-Bot said. It sent out 30 more Froglets.

               Grime grumbled“30 against two, eh?”

               Sasha shared his sentiments,“Hardly a fair fight!”

               Sadie Croaker did a kung-fu yell and did a double downward KO punch on the closest one’s head.

               “Die robot scum!”She yelled while her pet spider Archie barfed some acid onto it, melting the robot. She praised her pet,“Good boy Archie!”

               “What the?”Sasha said in confusion.

               The other townsfolk went to town on the rest.

               “Oi, bugger off!”Wally yelled as he whacked several in the face with his accordion. Maddie cursed several of them with her magic curse bags, turning them into animate objects. Ivy and her mom showed a knack for strong kicks, and Loggle showed a savage knack for tearing eyes out.

               Marcy and her audience laughed.

               Sasha was incredulous. “No way. The townspeople?”

               “By Barrel's belly. They're deadlier than any soldier!”Grime declared.

               The Tank Bot got up to destroy them, but the two fugitives stepped it up.

               “Grime!”Sasha yelled.

               “Way ahead of you!”

               “LOCKING ON!”

               The two Polywog missiles followed the pair.

               “Those blasted things are following us!”Grime hollered.

               “Then let’s lead them in the right direction!”Sasha decided.

               They ran around and jumped over and behind the Tank Bot, which stood stupidly still as its own missiles flew back to hit it.

               The circuits in the Froglets remained active long enough to watch the rest.

               Loggle kept up his newfound habit of ripping their eyes out and screaming with a warcry.

               “I think you’re enjoying this too much!”Mrs. Croaker scolded him.

               “Said the lady who had her spider spit acid on the first one!”Vicki snarked.

               Sasha sheathed her swords and sat down,” Wow... I don't-- I don't know what to say.”

               “You said enough, deary.”Mrs. Croaker said consolingly to her.

               Maddie said brightly,” You may have been a terrible person, Sasha, but you were honest with us when you didn't have to be.”

               Ivy said,” And taking those robots on alone to protect us frogs...”

               “It really is something Anne would've done.”Wally finished.

               Sasha looked more at peace than she’d been in a long time,“Thanks, you guys. You can count on me,”she stood up,” for real this time.”

               The town cheered.

               Croaker asked Sasha,”So what happens now?”

               Sasha clenched her fist,”We start fighting back!”

 The feed ended there.

               Nicky clapped,“Bravo. Your friend is a good leader to rally around.”

               Marcy giggled and her eyes started to burn,“Wartwood is in capable hands with her. We ARE ALSO going to start fighting back … BIG TIME! Maybe I tease them with a hint about their new neighbors before we hit the road AND DO MY VERY LOUD DEBUT!”

               “How generous of you! Should we invite them over for a housewarming party?”Nicky asked her.

He grinned wider when she shook her head.“This is going to be very dramatic, isn’t it?”

               Marcy looked towards the sky,“With me, it usually is!”

              

*Troll on a bridge*

               Croakwater Gulch’s Bridge was over a deep drop into a cold river that while harmless enough, was not something any Amphibia enjoyed swimming in, and that wasn’t even on the minds of the five thugs and their three Wartwood captives as they hustled their captives to rendezvous with the rest and pay off the threatening Frobot armies that a vindictive King was menacing them with.

               The Resistance members, while not that important in the group, seemed like the perfect bribe. And Felicia Sundew had beaten up over half of the initial seven additional mix of Toads and Newts sent to catch them and Toadstool and Mr. Flour insulted them enough to earn their wrath.

                But instead of the subtle and creative rescue Sasha would have done later, the thugs arrived at the long wooden bridge being guarded.

               There was an enigmatic figure in the middle of it wearing a black-green hood and cloak and holding a long green staff in her right hand. She leaned against the rails in boredom.

               The leader of this gang, one  large but lean Newt with grey skin, walked up even as the rest exchanged looks. He was about to speak when the figure straightened up.

               They gasped at the shadowed mask with green glowing eyes. She ignored their alarm and called out in a shifting electronic voice, “Hi there!”

               None of them said a word.

Marcy pointed at them and asked,” Riddle me this, WHAT DOES EVERYONE LACK THESE DAYS BUT NEED?”

               Barnable was in no mood for this,“I don’t care whoever you are, you weirdo, but I suggest you get out of the way or-“

               Marcy cut him off with sparks coming off her fingers. She yelled,”NONONO NAUGHTY NEWT BAD BOY, YOU play my game or MY SQUAD DOES THIS THE TOUGH WAY!”

On both sides of the gulch, several red or other colored eyes of her robots glinted as they emerged or stood in the shadows, training their weapons on him.

“You gonna do the riddle, or are you DO YOU WANNA PLAY ‘SHOOT THE NEWT’??”

               Barnable made the smart choice and asked,“Uuuuh, is it control??”

               “BZZZT, WRONG, IT’S KNOWLEDGE! Nobody knows what’s going on these days, BUT I DO!! I want to improve that around here! Today, all eight of you just have to answer three random questions one at a time or take a trip down … THE DROP OF LOSERS!!!” She did some jazz hands.

               Barnable decided that playing along was better than risking a fight.

               Before his sent his sidekick Newton over, he asked,”Can I at least know who you are if we have to play your game?”

               “If you must know, I am …”She lit her right hand up with green flames,”the CYBERKINETIC WITCH, the genius mistress of all things technology, science and magic-related in AMPHIBIA. I am the Witty leader of the Cyber Rebel Army!”

               “Sasha didn’t mention her!”Felicia whispered to her friends.

               “I thought Captain Beatrix was the only other rebel at large!”Toadstool replied.

               Marcy tapped the bridge,” Today I am also the guest KEEPER OF THIS BRIDGE. If the other side of this bridge you wish to see, you must answer my questions three!!! Let’s begin!!”

                The snobbish Newton went up to her as she sized him up. “Now honestly and truthfully, no threats or rudeness or you lose, soooo … First, WHAT IS YOUR NAME???”

               “Uuuuh, Newton IV.”

               “GOOD!” He jumped at her volume.

               She followed up rapidly with her next one,” What is the ancient capital of the toad Duchy of Snarslburg?”

               For one long moment he stared.

                “Who the FROGGING HECK CARES!!!? Ask me a real question!!” She snapped her fingers and the bridge opened up beneath him and he fell screaming into the water.

               The Amphibians exchanged looks as the witch chuckled.

               “He’ll be fine. Probably wash up a few miles away from these cliffs. NEXXXTTT!!”

               Gasher, the large and scary-looking toad, went next. He considered punching her over the side, but was too scared to try.

               “What is your name?!” Her abrupt question as she pointed at him terrified him so badly, he lost focus entirely for his reply.

               “Uhhh Gashly, Gashman, Glashley, the Gashter, Asher- Barnable, help me out!!”

               Marcy sighed with exasperation and snapped her fingers, and he fell screaming like a little girl. She dryly asked,”What’s life coming to if that question was too hard for a tough guy like him??”

               Barnable snarled as her robotic troops and the Resistance shrugged. He shoved Toadstool to go next,”Fine, ask this idiot next!”

               The mayor shook, but Marcy was less tough on him,”Whaatt’s your name??”

               “ F-f-froderick Toadstool!”

 

                “Gooodd, now what is your best source of income for most folks in Frog Valley?”

                “Uhhh, farming, or at least it was…”He said.

               The witch pointed at his neck”Last one: what is this lilac cravat doing undone around your neck?”

               For one long moment he and the rest waiting behind him stared in confusion at this specific question.

               The witch pressed a bit more in a sassy Southern accent as he glanced down at it,”Speak up now! You’ve got these fancy bling bling rings on yo froggy fingers, but you act so slloopppyyy on this pretty lilac cravat? What’s wrong with you?! Ya ain’t got the sense you was born with! Tryin’ to fake livin’ high with funds so low?? You think it matters what you look like or what you wear with no money to fix all yo problems, does that make you happy now or did it make you happy back then when all of this,”she tugged at the cravat,”wasn’t undonnnne? You goin’ blind or something??”

 

                “Oh dang it, I DON’T KNOWW!!”Toadstool broke down into tears and fell to his knees,”I can’t keep up appearances, ma’am, it’s hard enough maintaining my dang jacket and shoes and valuable bling, even in this roughhousing time of fights for survival with everyone else going wild warrior dress mode, it’s all I gootttt to keep a bit of order in my routine that’s gone to ashessss!! I only know how to solve problems with the economy and some cash!! What am I doing with my life??! I can’t even keep up appearances in these crazy times!”

               Felicia and Mr. Flour rolled their eyes.

                Barnable and his gang were amused. This was more pathetic than they thought he’d do.

               Marcy giggled.

               “There, there, chin up! That’s an honest answer. Don’t overthink it! Here,”She tied it for him and patted his back,”UP you get, keep it tied from now on and try goin’ for a brand-new perspective! Off you go!”

              

               The speechless mayor stood back up and walked over.

                Felicia went next.

                Marcy was very polite to her,”Let’s mix it up a bit. Ma’am, what is your job??”

               “I run a teashop!”

               “Is yellow or green your preferred color to wear, ma’am?”

               Since she had both on, Felicia took a few seconds to consider her answer,” I’d say green, miss.”

               “Yes, it looks good on you! Now tell me, ma’am … is this fashion of doilies acceptable or not for a tea setting??” She pulled out one of the finest set of doilies from an abandoned mansion near Lily Paddington she’d looted.

                Felicia gasped in shock. Barnable’s gang stared longingly at the fine quality cloth.

                Nervous and confused, Felicia gulped and said a moment later,”Very acceptable for any tea setting! This looks very high quality and rare!”

               Marcy nodded, and put them in her hands, “IMPRESSIVE! Here, you keep it and put it to better use. The old owners certainly weren’t at the place I found them at! On you go!”

               Miss Sundew walked over.

                Toadstool whispered,”I feel she’s doing that on purpose, being easy … somehow, on us.”

               “Maybe … I’m not complaining! This is rare quality stuff she just gave me!”Felicia said in awe, holding the blue and white mixed with green colored fancy napkins in her fingers.

               Mr. Flour was shoved forward. Barnable growled,”I’d like to see if you’ll ask him something hard or weird! He barely says a thing!”

               Thankfully, Marcy already had an idea of how to proceed on out of the box thinking with him. Mostly because he was Maddie’s dad.

               ”FAIR ENOUGH, let’s start with this one. What is the worst magical smell around??”

               “Really bad potions that have gone wrong and burn through the carpet!”Maddie’s father droned.

               Marcy kept going for a harder one,”What is the rarest type of fish around here that one can fry and enjoy in either Pan-fried style or Swamp-grill style of cooking meat??”

               “Huh??”Barnable said.

               The bulky blue frog scratched his head in thought for a few seconds,“Ehhh, Albino Spotted Swamp Pike, last I checked.”

               Grinning with eager manic delight behind her mask, Marcy asked him a very easy one,“Last but NOT least, what … is your opinion on Barnable’s taste in food?”

               “What kind of question is that??!”Barnable howled furiously.

                The witch replied,”What part of RANDOM QUESTIONS WAS UNCLEAR?? Wait your turn!!”

                Mr. Flour smirked and answered,”His taste in food is terrible!”

               Marcy snickered hard,“I have no doubt, YOU PASS WITH FLYING COLORS!”

               “Yay!”The baker said in his dull-sounding enthusiasm.

                The Wartwoodians and robots chuckled as the furious newt shook with rage.

               The next toad, Belattrixious, came up, sneering at her. “Soooo  grim looking, what is YOUR favorite pastime?”

               “Carving intricate statues of my greatest opponents of brawls and greatest warriors from the South Tower!” Everyone stared in mute surprise for a moment, even her cohorts and the robots.

                Marcy whistled,”That’s a new one. What is your name?”

               “Bellatrixious!!” Just when she thought she had a chance to get across, Marcy tried one odd one that set her off for some reason.

               ”Whhhatt … is the name of that fashion you’re wearing??”

               “Are you seriously asking me for fashion advice, because it’s a lot better than-Auuhghhh!”She screamed as Marcy snapped as she got too close for her liking.

               Marcy shook her head,”Gee, I thought she’d like that one and answer it right. AH WELL!!”

               Running out of patience, Barnaby sent his most serious member, Gillahad, a grim-looking newt, up next. He faced the Witch with a stone-cold face.

               He was able to answer most of the types of questions she’d been asking so far and not get angry.

               “What is your job?”

                “I am a member of this gang who do deals and business to survive, and that is all I will say!”

               “COOOL, ummm, what is the color of rare paints of the Eastern Toad Tower murals?” Marcy asked meekly.

               Gillahad thought his intense death glare was making this easier on him,”Dark red and yellow glowing paints are the best, followed by haunted blue!”

               Marcy hit him with her favorite surprise question, “Correct, now what … is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

                That threw him for a loop. The Resistance Members (except Mr. Flour) across the bridge and Barnable yelled, “WHAT?!!”

               He did not know the answer and tried hard to wrack his brain for any bird facts,”What do you mean, an unladen swallow that can be ridden like a giant sparrow can be-wait, do you mean Southern Marsh Swallows or an Easter Mountain Swallow or-?”

                Marcy giggled with mad delight and snapped her fingers again

               He fell yelling into the water.

               The robots chuckled as Marcy celebrated. They knew the inside joke to the whole thing. Their leader giggled with delight as she did fist pumps of triumph while jumping up and down. “ YES, YES, YEESSSS, I DID THE FAMOUS SWALLOW MEME!! SCORE!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!”

               Mr. Flour chuckled while his comrades blinked in confusion.

               Marcy beckoned the final guy forward, and Barnable snarled,”You’re going to make me do a harder one than that, aren’t you??!”

               In a very serious voice, she asked him,“Maybe not, tell me this, in your opinion, what is better to help you succeed in life: beauty, brains or brawn,or all three?”

                Barnable gaped at her for a long moment. He dug his own watery drop instead of doing the smart thing,”Oh, you think I’m none of those?? Like you apparently??! Well let me you tell, you stupid ugly-”

               Marcy snapped her fingers right there on the spot after he said that, and he fell howling with rage, and she shook her head, grabbing his purse full of money and papers as he fell with her staff powers and she walked over to the other side and tossed it to Toadstool,”Here, you can keep that!! Jerk really didn’t need to say all that, just answer such a simple question on opinions any honest fool could answer!! That was an easy one!!”

               A Frobot with black spot patterns patted her on the back. She exhaled.

 

               “That cretin is a major idiot, miss! Don’t mind him,”Toadstool said quietly.

 Felicia asked,”Miss Witch lady, what was that all about? Were you really just messing with everyone or just his gang of thugs?? Are you a real rebel like us? Using … robots??”

               The mysterious witch giggled,“Of course I was messing with all of YOU, BUTTT … I was messing with him more! I’m totally a fellow rebel against Andrias! That guy needs to go down! To help me do that, I’m using his own robots and other things with improvements! I make them smarter and COOLER!”

The Magnas and CGs lit their weapons up with electricity behind her to demonstrate.

“But why?”Miss Sundew pressed.

Marcy crossed her arms,”Why not? IT’S WORKING!”

Felicia gave up on trying to argue.

               “Good for you!”Toadstool said approvingly.

               Marcy chuckled and started walking off slowly,“Yeah, I try. Anyways, I was bored, and in the neighborhood, so call it an improvised game to pass the time and say hi to my NEW NEIGHBORS!! Trolling people on a bridge, it’s a funny meta joke for me! Anyways, you guys have fun beating up the bad robots!! See you around!  I’m OFF TO GO SHOPPING and cause trouble for ANDRIAS! It’s a lovely day, there are blue skies and sunshine guaranteed, and WE’RE ALL still alive!!”

               The overcast sky did look clearer, with the sun out and birds flying.

               “Did she do that somehow?”Felicia wondered as Marcy walked off with her Frobots.

                Mr. Flour said,”Maybe she did … Maddie’s gonna love this!”

               They chuckled.

                When they showed up three hours later to the Resistance HQ, Sasha asked,”Why do you have fancy doilies and a bag of stuff you didn’t have before?”

               The three exchanged glances and Felicia took the initiative on starting.

               “Sasha, Grime, did you know there’s a new rebel leader who uses magic AND robots?”She asked.

               Sasha’s jaw dropped.

               “Nooo, we did not … as far as we knew, there was no other leader besides Beatrix,”Grime said slowly.

               Mr. Flour smiled, which surprised his daughters almost as much as his words,“We met the newest one at Croakwater Gulch. A funny girl in a dark green hood and glowing green eyes with some weird-looking robots working for her. She called herself the genius mistress of technology, science and magic in Amphibia, the Cyberkinetic Witch!”

               Their band of rebels found the whole story (what they remembered of it anyways) unbelievable.

                Ivy shook her head,”Trolling people on a bridge, what does that even mean?”

               “Messing with people by getting them to react with tricks or insults, that’s what trolling means,”Sasha said, and rubbed her head, holding the purse they’d been given. “Did this new rebel really ask that last question of what was better, using brains, brawn or beauty?”

               The trio nodded. Sasha thought of Anne and Marcy, their trio of beauty brains or brawn. Anne the beauty was gone and Marcy the brains had gotten stabbed but was still alive and held captive. Or so she thought.

               “Whoever this new rebel witch leader is, I hope she’s not thinking of messing with us or making it harder for us!”Grime said.

               “Drop of losers, and going out shopping to cause trouble for Andrias … I don’t think she is!”Sasha smiled. This new rebel, she already knew this Witch liked her.

               Maggie was  even more delighted. “A witch rebel …”

*Terror on the Toad Towers *

               When going over how to establish herself, Marcy took a hard look at the castes of all 3 main groups. She knew the newts well and could play to their strengths and weaknesses to ruin Andrias’s hold and even get some on her side. She also liked the frogs, but the toads were in a class all their own.

               The Toad Armies had helped enforce law across Amphibia for ages, and had reigned in the four Toad Towers in East, West, North and South of Amphibia as their strongholds. They were feared and hated by many, but respectable enough in their codes and standards to not be irredeemable to her. And now, the remaining Toad Armies not imprisoned or killed were at large enemies of the Core and being hunted and pursued.

`              Smarcy brought them up while planning before they knocked the Core offline,”We’ve taken out most the Reactivated Factories in Frog Valley and have over 10,000 units ready for deployment. The Wrecker Crew is finished and can serve as the planned diversion. Now, for our planned ‘Scavenger hunts’, do you want to focus on the the Toad Armies as allies or enemies? The North Tower was blown up and Aldo with it, so his army is not a factor anymore!”

               Before, Marcy turned to the group here. “ Going outside to all four areas and a trip to Dawnblood Island, let’s look at the local South Tower first! Captain Bog is a real savage brute compared to Grime, and … uuughh, that ex-emissary pal of his who got him the job. Jacinda, I remember her. She didn’t like me for being polite when I met her at the Newtropolitan. Said Olivia was going ‘too soft on this weird girl’ and that my nice attitude would not solve things, only my inventions!”

               “Well, look where that approach got her, roaming around and banished with a pack of bandit toads, that’s where their own life got them! They aren’t around the Valley anymore, but probably out with Beatrix!”Smarcy then pointed at the map,”Our new recruits from Lily Paddington and Bog Bottom reported some hired criminals are near the abandoned South Tower, using it as a temporary spot for moving weapons and stolen property to Newtopian held areas. Over 500 families were wiped out and an estimated 3,000 at the least were sent to work as factory slaves.”

               “Truuuue. I suppose a vivid show of strength and terror is in order on behalf of our new refugees we took in. Since the violent life and stories of terror are what they are used to and respect, I’ll speak that language harshest with them first! We’ll drive them off and loot the Tower and eliminate the competition! That is the kind of INFLUENCE I do not want around here now, it would be best! Ohhh boysss!”The duo turned to their latest fierce robot fighters, modified and upgraded Cloak bots, sitting behind them. Scar, Grid, Celtic and Wolf were their names.

              

               “Time to go hunting!”Smarcy told them. Their eyes glowed brightly.

South:   

               In the areas near the South Toad Tower, four enigmatic figures stalked in the shadows. With wild hair and unfamiliar armor, no one in Amphibia could claim to have seen such a shape before. But some from Earth had, and the toughest Amphibians would soon learn there were more fierce hunters than them. Glowing predatorial eyes homed in on what had been deemed an “acceptable target” for aggressive violence.

               Bazaar Billy, a samurai-like toad who was feared in the Bizaare Bazaar around here, was not happy. Sure, he got to be in charge of the area with the group of recruits here, but it was all because of how it had downhill after that disastrous coup the toad Armies had tried on the King and a bulk had been captured by the Frobots after that.

               He got a lot of good business as an ex-soldier from the East. He had Muscle Matt, a bulky green frog, and Cyclops Bob, another soldier toad with his left eye closed (a red slice over it), and Odd-eyed Sammy, a bearded frog with a cloak and mismatched eyes, and the vendor/thief Marnie, sitting outside the Tower.

               “Just one more week and we can go do business elsewhere!”Billy said.

               Marnie kept looking all around. “I still don’t like being here, those two Frobot squads are late!”

               A guttural tone combined with a mechanically low voice  hissed,” Wrong, veeeerry wrong, Marnie. It was three squads. If it had been two, my brothers and I would have disposed of them much quiiiiiickeeer…”

                A standard Frobot model was dumped out of the treetops above them into their midst and they all jumped, especially Jacinda. Its chassis had been violently ripped open in many parts, with its eyes and arms gouged out and removed. Slowly, the toads turned to look up at the Frobot who’d done so.

                This was no  Newtopian design. The robotic frame was taller than any average Amphibian of any surface kind (and any human as well) with a heavily bulked up armor model based on the Predation movies.

The robot had elaborate fancy shoulder pads and extra layers on the torso and limbs with scale-like patterns and ridges. Net-like cloth hung visibly in the less covered places. No mouth was visible with a mask-like covering over the lower face and perhaps oddest of all, mechanical replicas of shoulder length dreadlocks hung from its skull. They had scanners rivalling the Driders and the ability to detect scents and organic materials of every kind arouns Amphibia.

               “From these unfortunate tools of the … viooollatttIIINNG” many flinched at the venom in that word and how its clawed fingers began to clench,”overlord, we have confirmed some troubling facts. Several villages looted, and entire families killed or worse of all ages, some sent into slavery at your hands. All for funds, lots of blood-money FUUUNNDS, WHICH is why you are now IN my sights! Soooo… who amongst you is going to face the hunter’s honor for battle first??”

               They all exchanged glances, worried. Billy still thought maybe he could slug it out, but he knew in his gut this was no ordinary battle in his favor.

                Bob thought this was some bizarre tactic of a rogue robot and could probably be redirected or stalled.

               “Oh, come now, you really expect any here to buy this attempt at an honorable duel or hunt from machines!? ! Why would a Frobot care to pretend to be moral?” His disdainful frown began to crack when the enigmatic machine looked right at him and then leaped down in front of them and then slowly began to let out an insect like chuckle.

               “Of course, a washout toad from the armies like yooou WOULD say that. Where has that left you, FORMER SERGEANT BOB of the Eastern Tower? Not higher in life, for sure, you or Billy boy from the West one there!”

               “How could you possibly know that about us??”Bob squeaked.

                Scar shook his head.

               “ Never you mind, my BROTHERS and I can weed the guilty out here easily enough and maybe all of you anyways if you push it, since now … YOU ARE OUR PREEEEY!!!” With that, three other monsters revealed themselves. A nearby pond shifted as another hunter-bot uncloaked in view from there. This one (Grid) had even more elaborate black armor with more scaled up markings combined with net-like cuts that had a vivid glowing green color to them with matching green eyes.

                From the tree tops another one with rusty armor and a vivid wavey pattern on its head (Celtic) hung upside down with a Frobot head in his hands and several more mangled remains hanging next to it. Finally, from the other direction came one more: Wolf. His armor was much thinner, and his head and arms had small reptilian-like horns on it and bones of various creatures hanging off it like trophies. Yellow eyes peered out of a head covered with cracks and marks that resembled acid burns.

               Billy thought just maybe he could rally the group to fight hard and get out of this, but Scar began to laugh again. This time his laugh slowly built up from something bestial to a deep-throated chuckle to an increasingly unhinged cackle that sounded like a man’s maniacal laugh.

Scar kept laughing as two large and serrated blades extended from both wrists and dual cannons rotated into place on his shoulders with laser sights that targeted them. A large elaborate spear was hefted by Grid along with a shuriken. Celtic extended even longer single wrist-blades and a huge dagger. Wolf extended blades and flexed a spine-like whip of metal in his fingers.

               Much later, the entire group of 55 hired muscle woke up in a grey dungeon, silent and shaking with bandaged wounds. The toads, frogs and the newts had been thoroughly beaten and had all their supplies taken. The Tower had been looted while they were occupied.

                Fighting back had earned several terrifying punches and cuts and more than one of the most criminal members had been painfully injured.

                All four of the Predbots (their designation) dragged off their victims in their iron strong nets, no matter how much they kicked, flailed, screamed, threatened them or offered money. To add insult to injury, a small metal box was tossed to the ground as they left by their camp, which began to count down with 5 minutes to go. After they were gone, a sizable explosion filled the air.

               The Mothras, Driders and Frost Knights found every other criminal competitor or ex-Bazaar employee currently in the Valley from the shadows.

               The Bazaare had long been managed  by an order of red-cloaked newts called the Red Hours (symbolized by the red hourglass symbol on their backs and charms worn by participants).

                A trio of them were counting the funds and information for their records with ten of their goons in a cave.

               They heard a knock. “Who is it?” The lead Hour said, turning to look.

               A toad with a large helmet on stood still at the entrance. He toppled face forward onto the ground.

               “You dare attack us here!? You will-“The newt’s words were cut off as they were frozen solid in a second.

              

               One of those taken down last was a loosely affiliated assassin and performer, Halley the Whackjob Jester.

               She was a tall (5’7”) and fit acrobatic newt (a marbled salamander kind) with colorful white and black striped skin, a thick and very flexible tail that was just over 4’5” ft long, hypnotic eyes with dark purple sclera and white slit pupils that glowed in the dark, sharp teeth. For clothing she wore a classic red and white harlequin outfit with diamond patterns and bare opposable gripping triple feet like many newts that she trained to be as good as her hands. She had long blonde hair with magenta highlights she wore in pigtails and carried a huge meat-style mallet made of iron that was almost as tall as she was with bumpy tenderizers on one end of the oversized hammerhead and a flat metal sheet on the other . She was so nimble with all five limbs she could wield it in any single one of them while doing stunts with the rest.

               On Marcy’s way out of the Valley, she’d been hired by some old associates to eliminate this threat to their business.

               After being caught in midair while jumping at them from the nearby cliffs, she proved quite friendly.

               “INTERESTING, a newt in a harlequin outfit trying to hit me with a hammer … Is that supposed to be scary and colorful at the same time for dramatic EFFECT? It’s working if that’s your goal!”

               “Why, do ya want advice on how to do it yourself? I’d say you’re winning!”Halley asked dryly while hanging upside down in Marcy’s Wit energy ropes.

               Marcy poked her in the face,“I don’t suppose we could talk about WHY you came at me with a hammer?”

               Halley smirked mockingly,”Ain’t it obvious? I do ‘hit problems with a hammer jobs’ for people who like to have their problems solved by hitting them. Which is just about everyone! Tell you what, ya let me down and don’t hit me and I’ll hit a problem for ya on the house!”

               Marcy tilted her head,“I have a better idea! YOU’LL have to come along for a ride while I inflict TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE on my enemies when I hit them with everything!”

               Halley didn’t bat an eye,“Sounds fun. Can I watch?”

               Marcy and her robot escorts laughed and let her down to have a free meal and ask questions while eating dinner.

               Halley was a roaming jokester from the Teardrop islands who left there desperate to make ends meet for her struggling village. She found work as an acrobat, mercenary and occasional assassin.

               However, she never went after kids, villages or struggling families as her top rule. The moment she found out Marcy was a kid, she decided to help her out.

Hearing a few hints about Marcy’s recent ordeals and seeing her marred face broke Halley’s heart the more she saw.

“So you do this part-time mercenary job to help provide for your family and keep villages, poor families and kids of any age out of it?”Marcy said with interest after they talked about Halley’s job.

The Jersey-accented newt said,“My line of work is rough and dirty, but it’s nothing kids or families should be involved in … the wars around here do enough of that already! No frogging way are you getting more trouble from me. How old are ya again, sweetheart?”.

“Thirteen. I’ll be fourteen in a few months!” Halley twitched. Marcy didn’t notice but kept stirring their meal over the fire.

“It’s great you have that standard in your work! A hitman, or hitgirl, with a heart and moral code is someone I can work with! I need all the folks with standards I can get to fight the evil out to destroy us all!”Marcy said brightly.

               “You’re just a kid yourself, ya know. Thirteen years old … you shouldn’t be dealing with this crap by yourself or be getting hurt by monsters who do things like that to ya…”Halley said quietly.

               Marcy’s face lost all cheer so quickly it scared Halley.

               Marcy pulled her cloak tighter,“Tell that to most of Amphibia, see if they care. Don’t get me wrong, I love this place as it used to be. But Amphibia is dangerous on a good day for young and old alike. The kids here were all fighting for their lives in small ways before, now they’re doing it right by the adults with little protest. I’ve seen Amphibians in Newtopia and outside of it hardly bat an eye at grisly fates or be ready to attack kids younger than me. I get called a beast or animal right away just for being something different. No one asks about that sort of thing first with me. This place is a real loony bin in many ways compared to my home.”

               “Yeahhh, ya got a point …”Halley sighed,”they call me crazy sometimes just for the way I dress or goof around while whacking fools on the job, but the outfit goes with my skin and works for the shows. There’s worse crazy than me in the fanciest castles or humblest barnyards.”

 Marcy snorted,”You have no idea how true that is! The worst lunatics responsible for this whole mess live in the Royal Castle. Besides, it’s only natural for people to look out right away for their own and care for their own kids more. If you have someone or … something … that’s not like you and not from around your area, it’s harder to care or spare the effort to care! You have to earn that to be part of that system of communal love and protection! Look at me … I’m a lifelong klutz of an alien outsider with timid social skills who’s had many close calls with death already. My recent horrible ordeals are no laughing matter … but I can’t just expect that people will care right away … even if I want them to! Right now, I need to survive, get tougher and build up my forces! That’ll help me keep plenty of Amphibians and their kids in need safe, a good thing to do regardless … and I can start building on that again! I just have to earn that community value, build some new stable relationships, and prove I’m worth caring about!”

               “I care! Ya shouldn’t have to prove something like that!”Halley said fiercely.

               Touched, Marcy smiled and walked over to her,“I’m glad you said that. Maybe someone needs to make them care by setting an example … to change how things are and help hearts grow three sizes or bigger. If nobody cares at all, nothing will ever get better. It takes a bit of heart to make change that matters!”She offered her hand to Halley,”Wanna help me do that aggressively and gently for everyone to see, you softie with a big hammer and bigger heart?”

               The colorful newt smiled back and shook it. “Now you’re talkin’ sense!”

               Halley would cultivate a huge disliking for both Andrias and the Core later when she found out more about who hurt this kid.

                A week later her village got airlifted to come live with them.

 

The Diversion:

               Sasha led a scouting team with Grime along the Eastern Frog Mountain ranges that surrounded the Valley.

               Large areas of the edge of the Mold Rot Forest below had been cut down to make room for factories.

               “No good trying down there and-“Sasha paused from her talk hearing a loud crunch and explosions.

               “What is going on?!”Grime yelled.

               Explosions sounded in the distance.

               Then they saw the Wrecker crew ride through and over entire rows of factories and Bugbots. Their arms and limbs were folded or retracted.

               “What are those? Did they go haywire or something?”Loggle asked.

               “Whatever they are, they’re making too much noise, it’s going to draw Andrias down in force!”Sasha yelled.

               However, that was the point of this.

               Scores of Frobots, six Tank Bots and many Fire Frobots were summoned from forest clearing or patrols to come attack.

               Flail did the first jaw-dropping attack. He spun his torso in a full 360 degree spin rapidly with his wrecking ball chains extended. Thirty Frobots and three Tankbots got taken out in 10 seconds.

               Crusher swiped his arms (all of them) straight through several small ones and tore off the head of one Tankbot and broke another one in half when it tried launching Froglets at them.

               Loader headbutted the last Tank Bot with his spiked head, tore the head off and began grabbing Frobots to put in his compactor.

               Meltdown barely had to move. He used his magnet arms to start sucking the flying Frobots to him and began putting them in his furnace along with the ones he grabbed

               “Ok, time to retreat!”Sasha decided after watching this terror of machine-on-machine battle for over five minutes.

               “500 to 700 robots lost …”Andrias rubbed his forehead in annoyance reading the reports on this one battle alone,”and 60 factories … oh Marcy, you’re pulling my battle lines way too easily …”

East:

               The East Tower was located below Mt. Mufu and above Olm Wood Forest. It was also the Toad Tower closest to it’s Southern counterpart. Naturally, it was Marcy’s first stop.

               Captain Bufo’s forces had been hard-pressed to take on the onslaught of the massive armies of Frobots Andrias had unleashed after his capture at Newtopia. Now he and half of his army had been captured and nearly 2,000 were MIA or dead.

               Marcy wasn’t focused on him, but an old friend of hers who’d worked with him  and some extras.

               Her first major toad recruit was a crazed veteran called Ravager the Fixer who’d struck out on his own years ago after getting some knocks to the head too many times. He had greying hair with a beard, small black eyes, and muddy brown skin with a furry vest with trophies of bone necklaces over his neck and belt and a harpoon, net and cutting knife he carried everywhere.

Ravager took little convincing to hire and gave Marcy all she needed to know on major toad information.

               One acquaintance of hers, Bernardo, was the best armorer in Newtopia. He’d designed her Ranger outfit and Anne’s armor look. He and his quiet and efficient assistant Squire Egwellems weren’t that bad at all. Bernardo was passionate about fashion and practicality, and had provided his services in ways that benefited her and Anne both.

               She sent a trick message to him before setting out about getting armor improvements and upgrades for a selection of officers.

               His pet Bay land crab  was pulling his carriage down the road when it came to a stop.

               “What is it now? I don’t do unfashionable tardiness!”He grumbled.

               He opened the door and saw a grinning but scarred Marcy Wu, her mask and hood off, with a very glamourous polearm in hand and strange guantlets, standing in front of it with an army of strange robots and a grinning jester standing next to her.

               “Hi there Bernardo! Care to take a new job with me? It’ll be fancy and fashionable and all the rage!”

               Bernardo didn’t bother reacting with unfashionable fear or anger,“Master Marcy, a few things. First … knock next time. Second, this raises so many questions about your rich knowledge of fashion you hinted at! Third, I hope you didn’t damage the quality outfit I made for you! Fourth, where did you get that fabulous spear and all these delightfully intense armor designs?”

               Marcy smiled a scary grin that sent chills down their spines.

“It’s not me you have to complain about for my Ranger outfit getting ruined, and I’ve got several armor and weapons I can offer you to look at if you come work for me full time!”

               “Is that so? I’d have to see them first,”Bernardo said with practiced indifference.

 Egwellem snickered. He already knew his boss was hooked.

               It took less than five minutes on the way to the East Tower to convince him he’d be better off being her armorer, and even less time to demonstrate that Andrias and the Core were pure evil. He took one look at the drawing and two photos of the Core and said,”Ugghh, whoever designed this horrible crawling machine should be executed!”

               “That’s funny … I’m  pretty sure that guy is one of the minds living inside it!”Marcy said flatly.

               He raised an eyebrow reading what Andrias called it, “Tut-tut, the greatest ancient minds of our civilization decided to cheat death and this is what they came up with? For shame …”

               Eggwellem shivered.

               They perked up seeing the potential for countless new ideas from Marcy’s world and their own to make new armor and designs.

               Bernardo, insisted on making Marcy a new cloak. She let him. Her next one got comfortable cuffs, the original fur lining and fancy Tron-style patterns and reinforced fabric lining. He washed and maintained it for her and got her gauntlets comfortable lining and better ammo cartridges.

              

              

               Marcy’s biggest objective for a rescue on this trip was her old friend and Night Guard colleague Bomme Frite, a newt scientist and former Chief Engineer for them

She’d gone to work for Bufo before she reunited with Anne.  She’d once been a mercenary drop out from Newtopian University who used her work to fund her inventing.

               They’d first met when Bomme was hired to sabotage their work in tracking down the rogue ex-captain Ernst on Dawnblood Island by Ernst.

               She’d flown over in a steampunk flying contraption and dropped bombs that sprouted into vines that restrained the team. Marcy defeated her and got her to talk and sent her to their camp. She’d made them some of her meals as a chef, including a ‘Croak Monsieur’ sandwich. It was made of crusty bread, cow-a-pillar cheese, and mushroom slices.

               Marcy ran a finger along the wrecked flying contraption,“This is pretty impressive. Why do you need to do this job to invent cool things like this? ”

               Bomme sighed and passed her a sandwich,“I wish. Before I did this, I wanted to start my own business. But I exploded one too many projects by accident at Newtopian University. I lost my eye in the last few years doing odd jobs to make ends meet. This lets me protect myself and do work that pays better to stay alive and invent!”

               “You’ve done great with that. I love your steampunk vibes!”Marcy said.

               “My steam-what?”Bomme asked. To her credit, she followed Marcy’s complicated explanation fairly well.

               “If your alien home has that … it must have lots of fun inventions!”Bomme said when she was done.

               Marcy sighed,“Where would I start on that? We might be here all year!”

 

              

               After Marcy tamed Joe Sparrow, she’d left with them and joined as a valuable engineer and chef in the Night Guard before getting transferred East to Captain Bufo’s forces to help with weapons development.

 She’d sent her a note saying thanks for the job and mentioning that a coin salvaged by Marcy was over 1,000 years old, predating Andrias.

              

              

               Now that she knew more about Andrias and was rethinking the old details on Ernst’s mysterious betrayal that was aimed at covering up records of the Calamity Box, she knew that meant Andrias had been behind it. Marcy wanted Bomme at her side again to be safe and help her figure it out with her.

               “She’s also the only FORMER member of the Night Guard who wouldn’t …”She trailed off.

               “She wouldn’t take your incidents, both of them, so personally?”Smarcy said. She knew Marcy had been afraid Sasha and Anne would have the same reactions as her old team in Earnst’s betrayal. It was one key reason she hadn’t told them sooner.

Stony Gulch, where Kettle and Javi had settled, had been destroyed already. If they were still alive was uncertain.

 Femur the quiet and gentle giant had settled down as a shepherd near the Great Bay pasturelands. The area was already burned to the ground and Marcy felt sick to her stomach reading that there were ‘no surviving witnesses or livestock’ to the robot army’s ‘combative advances in the area.’

               She tugged her neck nervously,“Yes … Bufo and his Tower and armies are out of commission. We can her offer all the funds, supplies and inventing she could ever want and figure out that Dawnblood Island mystery together!”

               Within a few days she tracked the diminutive scientist down at a special labor camp where the Olm Wood Forest once stood.

               Bomme, over 50 toad soldiers stationed at the East Tower, a dozen from his ranks attacking the Castle that had almost escaped before getting caught near their own lands and some other Amphibian locals (mostly frogs) were sent to be mining and constructing things. Just in time, since she was due to be executed secretly in a month or less after Marcy’s escape.

              

               The small green newt with spiky green hair, large teeth, and an eyepatch over her right eye, was working on some parts in the labor camp. She was not happy. A month or so ago, the Captain went out to the Toad Summit for a meeting with the other toad lords, and then he got arrested with over half the army doing a crazy rebellion against Andrias. Within hours, she was captured along with most of the remaining East Tower staff by an army of Frobots. Life made no sense anymore.

               She looked up when they heard lasers and explosions in the distance. Bomme smiled. She liked explosions.

               The prisoners and guards did not expect what they saw to be the source.

               Far off in the distance, a group of flying robots called Reaperbots were causing problems

               They were basic Frobot frames remodeled to resemble the ‘boxed crook’ Reaper raiders from the  strategy game Spacecraft.

               They had large jetpacks with designs of jolly rogers on the shoulders and red flight-suit style armor. Their heads now had gasmask helmet faces with red eyes. For weapons they wielded D-8 Cluster explosives and dual laser Scythe pistols          

               A dozen were harassing the area, flying around at faster speeds and control superior to the Frobots guarding the base.

               Already over 50 Frobots lay shattered on the grounds, while these rogue robots lobbed small explosives all over the mining projects and equipment, ruining the labor side of things.

               “Who sent those in??! I demand answers!”The bulky frog warden, one Mire Norton, demanded.

               A Reaper chucked darkly as it threw a bomb at his spot above the prison’s entrance.

               “Fat chance of that, fat boy!”

               “Sir, over there! A hostile force is headed in from the West!”His assistant yelled. Norton saw it, a squad of other unknown Frobots clustered behind a cloaked figure.

               “Get all forces over there at once! There are not getting any of the special prisoners here!”Norton demanded, and over 300 Frobots came to guard the front gate.      

               April (a female toad from the South Tower with a head of middle parted brown hair) joked,”At least he won’t blame us for not meeting quota this time!”

               The prisoners chuckled.

               “Stop this attack at once, rebel scum! Put down your spear and surrender, and you might live after causing this much damage to my camp!”Norton yelled.

              

               Marcy’s spear sprouted two glowing green blades.

               “DON’T make me destroy you, Warden!! You can’t win!!”The figure yelled in a deep female voice.

              

               Marcy pulled out a pair of six-sided white dice with red dots, and shook them in her left hand. They were glowing blue on the dots as she tossed them to the ground.

               A puff of blue sparkling smoke rose into the air. A storm cloud of lightning began to form overhead.

               “Olms above, how is she doing that?”A frog yelled.

               April’s friend Greg turned to Bomme,“Hey Bomme, would you know?”

               “Not my field of expertise, but I’d wager it’s some kind of magic!”Bomme responded. Her voice had an intelligent South African accent.

               The Frobots felt the hostility coming from her actions and took it as reason to respond in force. “OPEN FIRE!”

              

               The lasers they fired en masse at her did no good. She walked forward and spun her spear, blocking their attacks with a mirage-like shield around her body that deflected their shots back into them.

               Sixteen Frobots tried to attack her up close or from the air but got cut in half by her heated spear blades. She sent a shockwave that blew 32 out of the sky in front of her as they gathered to fire at her en masse.

               Within thirty yards, she channeled a massive surge of green energy out of her gauntlets and levitated thirteen Frobots in the air. She swung them at the nearby laser cannon. The cannon exploded.

               Everyone jumped.

               “Definitely magic!”Bomme concluded.

               The rogue robots behind her took out any who tried to go call for help.

               Bomme glanced up and yelled,”Sweet olms below!”

               The other prisoners and the guards looked up and felt very afraid seeing the vortex of fire and lightning overhead swirling and ready to burst.

               What happened next shook them all hard.

The Cyberkinetic Witch pointed at the mass of Frobots still in front of her, and the sky rained fire down on them, frying them with lighting and glowing hail.

               Andre, a large toad with a black barrel helm over his head he rarely took off, shook his head,”First robots and flying castles, whatever happened two weeks ago and now this??”

               “You made your quota today, so extra …”Norton stopped talking to his assembled workers hearing an ominous hum. His staff and prisoners had no words seeing the distant Castle glow like a green lantern and then go off like a firecracker.

               “Put them inside now!”He ordered the Frobots. The prisoners didn’t sleep but talked about what that could mean.

               Only 25 Frobots still stood along with the camp’s Shield Generator Bot standing guard over the main camp power supply station.

               Marcy fired blue lightning out of her fingers. The Frobots got fried to a crisp.

               A Silver Tank Bot flew in from the West on patrol. She focused a beam of telekinetic energy to seize it and swing it into the Generator Bot, exploding them both.

Lazily, she aimed her right gauntlet at the prison gates and fired a modified wrist bow bolt.

               The gates exploded completely.

               “Sergeant, you AND the boys round up these guards for me!”Marcy yelled. The Reaperbots did so, shocking and stunning the warden and his living staff with stun grenades.

               She walked in the smoking ruins of the gates with Halley. After looking around  the prison yard for a few seconds, she spotted her objective.

               “Eenie meenie,MINIE moe!!”She waved a finger lazily in the air.

               Halley snickered and pointed at Bomme,“Catch a Frite by the toe! If she hollers, don’t let her goooo!”

               Bomme swallowed. Everyone else backed away from her.

What did she do to get their attention? Were they old enemies she’d attacked before who were taking advantage of her captivity? Was her life going to keep getting worse??

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as the pair walked up to her. Eleven large Frobots of a bulky design followed them in while her other robots surrounded the place.

               They had an unknown design to the Amphibians. It was the Spacecraft CMC-armored Marines. The iconic Terran (human) unit was simple enough to apply to the standard Frobot chassis. The pauldrons were replaced with smooth ones, their hands fitted with bulky 5-fingered gauntlets, and their heads had enigmatic space-helmets with black or gold visors instead of a face. The rest of the armor looked almost identical to the game Marines and stood at a height of 6’8” ft, and carried various laser/bullet  rifles (most of which resembled C-14 Guass rifles). The C-14’s had bayonets, laser sights and attached grenade launcher barrels on the bottoms in a few cases.

               They had a mix of colors and body art/visor tattoos. A white-colored one had a black visor with an 8-ball picture on it and the words Bite me, and his name, Malkovitch, on his beige-colored chest, two other  Bite me tats on his head, and Mother’s on both of his shoulders.

 A yellow one carrying two Slugthrower pistols had a barcode on his black visor, the Latin Epsilon (Ɛ) and a fiery gear symbol on top of each other in the middle of his chest, and in red letters on both shoulders his assigned name, RICCO, was painted. A black-colored one had his name ‘Jacobs’ in large white letters on the center of his upper torso.

 Two other black colored ones had matching body art tattoos: the words ‘BIG LOAD (from left to right), Pig on the left shoulder, and War on the right. One of them (Hicks) also had a red-colored torso, a black visor with honeycomb patterns, and headlights positioned on his right shoulder. The other one (Hudson) had a barcode painted on top of his helmet and a neon blue Recticle design on his visor

Just behind them, another one (named Drake) with had teal green colors , green Ghost goggles tattooed on his black visor, ammo belts strapped over his torso and held an AGR-14 style rifle.

Bringing up the rear was a contrasting pair. One (Chris) had grey armor with scratches, a gold visor, logos of human skulls with lightning bolts behind them on his pauldrons, and  purple spade and diamond playing card symbols on his torso. The other one (Wallace) had black and white chessboard patterns all over his armor, a gold visor, a grenade barrel attachment on his gun, and red Christmas tree lights draped across his shoulders.

 Marcy dubbed them the Demo Squad.

 The closest three, Tychus, Tosh, and Raynor, were light blue, desert camo, and black. Tychus had a gold visor, the number 435 on his shoulders, and tattoos  on his armor: A  red-hooded newt lady with black goggles sitting and holding a sniper rifle in a spade symbol below the number on his left shoulder, a four-leaf clover on his chest and a skull and crossbones on his chest with the words ‘Eat my lead’ below it. Tally marks (thirteen) were on his left wrist and various Frobot symbols adorned the back of his legs for a ‘kill count’. He carried a heavy ‘chain rifle’ in one or both hands.

Tosh had desert camo colored armor with a black visor, a voodoo doll and necklace of sewer gator teeth hanging around his neck, and glowing red circles on his forearms, Shadowblade symbols on his jest, pulsing power lines down his arms and legs, and the words ‘Irie!!’ and ‘You got Bad Mojo, mon!” on his shoulders. He carried a bulky AGR-28 rifle and a bone-patterned balisong knife tied to his waist.

               Raynor was all-black, except for his gold visor with an anime skull on it. His right shoulder pauldron had a coiled snake skeleton tattoo on the front. His weapon was a massive HEV Commando rifle.

               Marcy stopped right in front of Bomme … and held her hand out in front of her.

                

               “Hi THERE!”

 Bomme knew that greeting. She slowly shook the offered hand.

“Hi there! My name’s Marcy! What’s your name? Is that a real flying machine? Are you a pirate?? Is that why you wear an eyepatch?”The strange-looking Ranger said to Bomme as she lay on the floor groaning and was trapped by the other three. This girl was smiling at her while the three newts looked ready to kill her.

She squinted at the mysterious lady. Could it be?

Halley smiled charmingly and swung her mallet over her shoulders,“Lovely spot you folks got here … but terrible interior design!”

               “Forget that! Who are you?! What are you?!”Greg yelled

               Marcy snapped her fingers and their chains all fell off,“I am the Cyberkinetic Witch, the newly debuted Witty Rebel Mistress of all Technology, Science and Magic, a fast-rising major enemy of Andrias, the supreme genius overlord of creativity with a cool mixed army, and SO ON! This is my friend Halley, the Whackjob Jester who takes jobs to solve problems by hitting them! Tell you what, BEFORE WE EXCHANGE LIFE STORIES, you are ALL free! I would be honored if you would join us!!”

               No one said anything.

               Bomme kept looking her over. This girl was the same size, and her right gauntlet had a bolt-firing attachment on it …

               “You can go back to our camp and wait until we’re done. Afterwards, you can leave with us. Maybe you could even join the Night Guard as an engineer!”Marcy told Bomme after she finished disarming the traps.

               “I might like that … good luck with Ernst!”

               The strange lady crouched in front of Bomme, who was only half her height,“I say, Miss Frite, you don’t look so good  … that transfer to the East Tower isn’t working out for YOUR CAREER, is it?”

               “Is that you, Marcy?”Bomme asked.

               The toad soldiers raised their eyebrows. They’d heard stories about that human girl living in Newtopia from Bomme (or Sasha in April and Greg’s case). Funny and bizarre stories.

               “Clumsiest girl I ever knew … but a real sweetheart!”Sasha said while showing her BFF photo at lunch one day.

               “And she’s smart?”Percy asked.

               Sasha grinned,“Oh yeah … a bonified genius! If she were here, I bet she could redesign the Tower with extra moats and catapults in a week!”

               “Girl’s a total wierdo, but a nice one! A proper genius too! I’ve never had anyone talk about inventing with me so well … and she got excited when I made a vine monster by accident!”Bomme said while adjusting the catapults in front of Bufo one day.

               “I heard Grime’s got his own hummus …she can’t be half as nice as this one if she’s working with him!”He said.

               “Human … it’s human,”Bomme grumbled. Of course, the toads wouldn’t get it as quick. Marcy was lucky she didn’t wind up with them. Most toads were very rough and simple (stupid even) in language and culture at the best of times.

               Still, hearing that part intrigued her,“Another one, eh? Marcy did say she had two best friends …”

               Marcy vibrated with glee and took off her mask.

               She grinned with delight as Bomme’s face lit up, and asked,”Did you miss me, Bommey?”

              

               The ecstatic newt hugged her at once,“It is you!”

               The other prisoners smiled. It was the happiest sight they’d seen in a while.

               “Wanna leave this dump and hang out with me again?”Marcy asked.

               “Yes please!”Bomme wailed.

              

Ravager and some other Amphibian recruits came up to help explain it to the now freed prisoners.

               Five Medics (also a Spacecraft unit) came in to tend to their injuries. They had white and red armor similar to the marines, helmets with black visors, a large shield on their right arm, syringes on the left arms and beams in their hands that could help heal on the cellular level in minutes. Another model, the Medivac Pilots, had blast shield scanners/targeting systems over their faces

               The prisoners all accepted the offer to follow Marcy, but they had questions.

               “No worries, I got answers!”She said.     

               On the way back to their temporary base of operations in the area, Marcy and Smarcy filled them in on the details about the Core and Andrias.

               The pictures and explanations of the Core had understandably skeptical reactions, so she played the clip of Andrias kneeling down in front of it she’d recovered first. No one doubted her after that. She also played Andrias’s speech about conquering all words and laughing maniacally before he blew up the North Tower in front of her, Sasha and Grime. They had no trouble believing that.

               “So that’s why he did that!”April growled.

               Greg shook his head,“I know we were invading, but still!”

               “Andrias is crazier than I thought … and his family was even worse!”Andre said scornfully as they processed that.

               Bomme shuddered while looking at the Core pictures“Oh sweet Olms, that Core thing is horrifying. That is so awful you had to deal with that thing up close, Marcy!”

               “Thanks …”Marcy mumbled. She pulled her cloak tighter. Andre and April patted her on the back.

               Halley’s mind had horrible thoughts of rage towards these top two ‘targets’ (she referred to them as such from that day on) now that she knew what Marcy had endured (more or less).

               Marcy tried to stay positive,”No one knew about that horrible thing or Andrias’s crazy plans until it was too late, but now we have a chance to fight back better! I left it temporarily dead after it tried to get into my base systems last week and am taking advantage to do some damage all around for a week. Some of my old adventures is a good place to start finding out more!”

               She had a copy of one scroll she’d retrieved back then and reconstructed from memory and translated.

               Bomme read it,“’The Three will come, it is only a question of when and how. Their coming will shake the foundations of this land and let us begin anew. Praise be to the three. Their choice shall reveal salvation or, indeed, punishment. But beware… dark forces will destroy our history and try to confuse our saviors when they arrive. Mother has foreseen it …’ Odd, but promising.”

              

 

               “Should we go to spring Captain Bufo loose?”Medog (a toad soldier in samurai armor) asked.

               Smarcy advised against it,”His prison is in a more restricted and guarded area far from here. They’ll double down hard on his prisons and other ones after this.  Besides that, Captain Bufo lives by a very strict code of honor and image. He might take it the wrong way if we do. Am I wrong?”

               “Yeah, true …”Sergeant Omei, a female horned toad with dreadlocks, admitted. She shook Marcy’s hand,”Still,we owe you for this!”

               “Yeah … thanks, really!”Greg said. The toads all agreed.

               Marcy smiled,“Don’t mention it, guys! For right now,as far as our options go, we can build up our strength and give Beatrix the chance to rally the other free toad soldiers in her army and strike hard on her own. Maybe we can pass her info on Bufo’s prison spot so she can bust him out later. However, as incentive to hang out with me until he’s free and we can form a proper alliance … would you all like to raid your old Tower with me and get dibs on everything old AND new in it?”

                The liberated toad soldiers grinned with savage delight.

               The East Tower resembled a large pagoda and had a clear view of Kaeru, the ocean and the looming Mt. Mufu.

               Marcy shook her head seeing the spot where the Second Temple was. She’d have to revisit it later.

               Anne’s quest had been a big mystery with the mysterious and powerful guardian Valeriana.

               General Gavin, a handsome and very arrogant red newt with well-groomed black hair and thick green armor similar to Yunan’s (but thicker) had taken charge of it. Sir Gawayne, a knight in full armor, aided him along with a garrison of 100 soldiers and double that number of Frobots.

               Marcy ingeniously sent Kristanna in disguise hours ahead of her arrival. She infected 70% of the Frobots over to their control using her nanotech touch and left explosives by the two Shield Generators bots and three Laser Cannons.

               “Sir! A rebel witch of some kind is down below with an army of robots and toads outside the gates!”Captain Yin told Gavin at noon the next day.

               Gavin glared at the green hooded enigma looking up at him with a horde of ‘corrupted’ robots and vagabond Amphibian rebels behind her. “Unless you came to surrender, don’t expect me to thank you for waiting politely at my tower!”

               The toads glowered at him.

                Marcy rubbed her fingers absentmindedly and said,”Maybe you should. How about this, I ask you a riddle and you answer it WITHOUT help or trying to cheat your way out of it, and I MIGHT leave and come back tomorrow. If you guess wrong, YOU surrender this place to me and GET TO WALK BACK HOME!”

               “Sounds more than fair to me. An easy guessing game, winner takes all and nobody gets hurt!”Halley commented while inspecting her fingers.

               Gavin and his troops were too speechless at her gall. Marcy said quizzically,”Here WE GO! Riddle me this: I never was, am always to be; everyone's looking, but no one sees me. What am I?”

               Gavin gave Gawayne a meaningful look.

               “Send word to the king, we’ll have the entire army down on her in half an hour!”Gawayne told Yin quietly. Yin nodded and went to do so.

               Marcy knew they tried that,”You just cheated. That means you AUTOMATICALLY lose WITH NO BENEFITS!”

               She snapped her fingers.

               The cannons and their shield protectors blew up.

               Over 100 Frobots turned on their own kind and allies and fired at them.

               “What did you do?!”Gavin howled down at her.

               Kristanna went into action on the top floor, shifting from her disguise as a simple guard into her robotic look. She fired her M41 Pulse Rifle and Rapid Cluster Gun (stun blasts and sleepdart ammunition). All 30 newts hit the ground.

               Back in her usual look, she waved down to Marcy from the window.

               “The Tower is ours!”She called down.

               “Piece of Cake!”Marcy said to the toads

               “Nice!”Greg said. They all clapped.

               “What was the answer to the riddle?”Bomme asked as they went inside.

               “The answer is tomorrow!”

               “Ohhhh!”Bomme, Halley, April, Omei and Andre said. Half of the others didn’t get it but were content.

               Andre, a sergeant who’d been left in charge of the place at the time, took lead in doing inventory with Marcy.

               The prisoners in the dungeons were liberated and added to her army. A few interesting ones stood out.

                Gaff the Collector was a middle-aged toad with brown skin, white eyes and black sideburns. He was a bounty hunter who liked taking a single trophy from every hunt, including a multitude of weapons and armor he used. He’d rubbed the newts the wrong way when they came through his area by the coast and thrown him in jail.

               Kane was a large toad with red skin and ridged skin with yellow eyes who’d fought as a gladiator and did bounty hunting for whoever hired. He loved ambushing opponents from high altitudes and jumping down on them. He’d had his arms blown off by a Frobot while on a trip when the factories were activated.

               Marcy offered him cyborg arm replacements. He enjoyed the clawed fingers, stun capabilities and superstrength, and was deadlier than ever.

               Oscar Glass was a glassfrog with very transparent skin that showed his organs and bones … he’d been teased and called a monster for years because of it. He wore a heavy coat on and did work as a chemist. He’d annoyed Bufo with some explosions in his private home in the Olm Woods Forest and had been arrested before the toad summit.

               He was delighted with the equipment and job Marcy offered him and joined Bomme as an assistant. He wore a white and black bodysuit of armor in combat outside the labs with wrist lasers.

              

               While they ate dinner there before leaving, Marcy said,“That leaves the North and West Tower areas before we head to the Dawnblood Islands. We’ll get what we can from the North Tower rubble and leave Beatrix’s area alone as a sign of respect. She’s still at the top of the threat list to Newtopia along with the Wartwood Resistance and me.”

               Bomme looked at the list,“Hang on, you’re at the very top of this, and this list isn’t even public knowledge!”

               Marcy smiled mockingly,”Not yet! Knowledge is power! I hold all the cards on that as a threat and we have a decent window of opportunity to make them more reasons to fear us!”

               “How much should we leave for them here?”Ravager asked.

               Their new leader giggled,”Another riddle for ya: Invisible to those unfit for their roles, Or so the story amusingly unfolds. A garment that’s not, for the bold …”she paused for effect as hey looked annoyed or confused,”The answer to that riddle is … Nothing! We leave nothing here and our evil emperor will have no new clothes to wear!”

               “Ha ha, original! His clothes suck anyway!”April said.

               “Like we’d want to leave them anything anyway!”Omei snickered.

                The East Tower was stripped of everything by the time they were done and walking out that night.

North:

               The North areas of Amphibia was mostly made up of large mountains and harsh lowland environments. The volcano of Death’s Eye Mountain and the Blood Swamps and Outskirts around it at the top were the most dismal areas

               The North Tower was where the possibly deceased toad Lord Captain Aldo had resided. The vines covering his body had grown from where he sat. Andrias had demonstrated a laser blast on the North Tower moments after activating the Box to control his armies and the Castle.

               There wasn’t anything valuable for Marcy to work with on that front, but she went to the North to see what followers she could find and what damage she could do to this major area of mining.

               The Third Temple under the volcanic Death’s Eye Mountain was untouched except for some nearby Frobots trying to mine the mineral rich area. A force of HERCs and Frobots destroyed them and the Drill Frobots (Frillers) digging there and went inside the temple. The heavy weapons (and some heavier ones in hidden caches), construction and magical devices powering the place were retrieved. The means used to create the Gravity-force wielding Stone Monster guardian were now hers to try.

               A very lucky find she didn’t see coming was running into Sasha’s old friend Sasha and Braddock on the road when entering the area near there.

               “Hi there!”The pair jumped seeing Marcy standing with Ravager, Halley, several robots and other Amphibians.

               Halley smirked widely when she noticed Percy’s jester hat,”You do shows, buddy?”

               “Ehhh … sure?”Percy answered nervously.

               April said,”Hold up, Mars, these two were at the toad summit with your old pal Sasha!”

               The two toads gasped.

               “You’re Marcy, the super genius clumsy human BFF of hers in that photo?”Braddock said

               “Yup …”They weren’t hard on her at all hearing the basic facts of her ordeal. She liked these two sweet toads and took pity on them while they swapped stories over the campfire

               “Wanna hang with me?”She asked the pair quietly with her mask off, “Help me try and fix this and make it right? I won’t make you … you can be entertainment if you prefer and not do anything you don’t want!”

               “Sure … we could use some happier stuff!”Percy shook her hand.

               “Let me worry about Sasha … I’m still working that out for myself!”Marcy said, very tired.

               Braddock snickered,”Yeah, she’s like that …”

               One stop was the prison of Torpor Heights built into a mountainside near the Amphibian Arctic. In it were kept  some old enemies of Newtopia, Frosch and Kaeru were locked up. It was not a very warm environment, which made it harder for both the prisoners and guards to keep their strength up.

               It was understaffed at the moment. A sizable amount of Frobots were supplementing the regular wardens.

               “Trust me … we might find some good muscle here for a price or motive, someone you can use!”Halley said to Marcy as they looked down at the mountainside jail.

               It took only five minutes to eliminate the guards.

               There were only fifteen prisoners left. Sorting them out one at a time got a total of seven they could use while the rest were set free or added to their own prisoner list for further evaluation.

               The two most surprising but valuable finds were Coatl and Lonnie.

               Coatl was a tall albino axolotl just under 6 ft tall with wiry limbs and glowing bandages covering most of his skin that he didn’t let anyone touch. You couldn’t tell he was an axolotl underneath it. His external gills had long been cut off and he had burns from some past ordeal he never talked about. He wore large rose-tinted glasses over his eyes.

 He was a part-time assassin known as the Killer Lightbug who’d haunted Mold Rot Forest for nearly 10 years and had a huge loathing of Newtopia and the nobles around the area. He’d wielded a lengthy flail tipped with a weighted ball that resembled a chigiriki (a Japanese flail) and a black iron boarding axe with brutal skill on many high-ranking targets or those who provoked him. He kept to himself otherwise and stayed out of larger conflicts. His defeat came a few years ago when he brought down a squadron of toads on him while he was sleeping once after he cracked the skull of a Frosch knight who insisted on challenging him to a duel.

“Promising … bring him out!”Marcy said.

Charlotte and the CGs led him into to the warden’s office she’d commandeered. His bandages were dirty and his jumpsuit somehow spotless.

“Your name … is Marcy Wu?”He asked in a flat monotone of a voice after sitting down. If any of this bothered him, it didn’t show. His mind was quite relaxed and non-hostile.

“So far so good. Let’s test him.”

“Yes, Mr. Coatl. I read that you are quite the analytical fighter … what you can guess about me?”

“Scarring, burns and odd prosthetics or extra armor … covering recent traumatic injuries, no doubt. Wielding electrical equipment and undefined magical skills, and against the Newtopians, and your  unusual bodyguards here claimed that you are a member of a a species from another world, which fits your appearance. Judging by the additional fact that my jailers are indisposed thanks to you, am I correct in stating you are at odds against the Newtopians?”

“All the way to the top, or … I should say, the top alone gets all my attention!”

He smiled, something he hadn’t done in years. “Ah, the King? Your ambition as an enemy of the realm is impressive, young lady!”

She smiled back and leaned forward,“The King and … his predecessors. Do you believe in ghosts?”

“Define ‘ghost’ …”His eyebrows rose seeing the picture of the Core she handed him.

“Interesting … some kind of machine with many eyes … one that’s not like the ones going around outside … and it’s … in the Castle? Is it ancient?”

He whistled seeing the list of kings ‘living inside’ this ‘ultimate creation’ of the Leviathans, “That’s a ghost alright … a lot of ghosts, a monster and an ancient machine rolled into one!”

Pleased he was interested, she asked“What’s your enmity against Newtopia?”

“I lost most of everything over the years thanks to the corruption in that city … they wouldn’t leave any minor detail alone once it got personal. Andrias was always way too sly for such a jovial newt, but sinister in some circles and now this …no wonder he employs the Rangers and now machines. I gather you want to hire me, yes?”

She smiled kindly and offered her hand, the first person to do so either of those things without ill intent for him in years,“I’m dealing with uncivilized threats in an age of chaos that could end this world and more … some mercenary recruitment with guys like you could help me stop the corruption down to the ‘Core’ to be removed even better. Do you want to be hired and set free?”

He shook her hand“I’ve got nothing better to do, and this … this is an opportunity to engage my faculties again to the fullest. I love doing that. I just can’t stand being bored for too long at all. It’s maddening.”

“I know what that feels like!”Marcy said.

               Lonnie, better known as the Ironhide Bane, was a large toad … very large at 10 ft. He’d had one natural growth spurt and claimed to have had two unnatural ones in his life.

 The giant toad had intense black eyes (all black) and grey corded skin,was very quiet and never used any weapon except his fists and all-black armor he rarely took off until he got caught. His dark past was a relative mystery to most … but he’d taken to wearing his spiked black suit of armor and struck out on his own, not caring for most toad codes except single combat. He took the idea of fighting only those worth fighting to an extreme. He’d served as a bouncer, mercenary and assassin on several tough targets.

               How he got caught was also a mystery, even to him, but it involved some magic curse and gas from someone in a hood. He suspected it was a Night Guard.

               “You’re a former Chief Ranger?”He said to Marcy after he came into the room. She used her best lie-detecting powers and equipment. Neither of these two top prisoners were being dishonest.

               “Yes … if that bothers you, I won’t judge …”

               “No … you weren’t that Ranger, kid … but,”He offered his grey hand to her,”if you help me find that out and …”he smirked,”have me around when you meet Beatrix or Bufo … I could offer you my services.”

               “Why’s that?”

               “Let’s just say I have history with those two jokers. I might want to slug some answers out of them.”

               “Maybe I should be worried, but they might like that, so ok!”They shook on it.

               He got his black armor from the impound and put it back on.

               Coatl got his old weapons and a trench coat.

               A tall lean frog of age 16 around Marcy’s height named Veronica, who had pale green skin, stringy brown dreadlocks that reached below her neck, and crimson red eyes sat down near her home.

She lived in Mucklehead Marsh, an area of villages (around 3,000 residents before this) in a perpetually foggy area near the Boiling Bastions. Some said that marsh was haunted.

               The locals struggled to make ends meet before and kept to themselves, considered cursed or dangerous with the eerie appearance the village guardians tended to have. Veronica’s late mother had been one, and her daughter knew some magic and sword fighting from her. She’d made a decent living doing that with good skill and using exotic recipes and ideas to make good curse mixes.

               But their villages had been razed to the ground in Andrias’s army marching through in one raid. It was too much for her and the rest.

               While Halley led a team to raid three vaults and outposts below the Boiling Bastions, capturing over 50 officials and several soldiers along with the loot, Marcy went to see this spot.

               She saw Veronica and smiled.

               “HI THERE!”The mechanical sounding voice made Veronica react in alarm and she threw an acid curse bomb at the sound.

               Marcy evaporated it with a blast of fire, and whistled,”Dang, girl, AN ACID CURSE? That is so dark and excessive, but SOOO effective!”

               “Who the frogging heck are you? Some kind of robot like those things working for Newtopia?”Veronica asked. Her raspy sassy voice delighted Marcy..

               “I am the Cyberkinetic Witch, the NUMBER 1 public enemy of Newtopia, mistress of magic and all things tech and science related, and I use that all sooo much better than them!”The hooded figure wore a mask with green glowing eyes, metal fingers and the coolest spear Veronica had ever seen.

               “Oh yeah?”Veronica said testily.

                Marcy pointed to the distance. Veronica gaped at the sight of a cackling Bomme leading two Fryerbats and four Maraudbots in dealing explosive and flame actions on an entire fleeing squad of Frobots who were being chased by small bug-like drones.

               The Fryerbats were several pounds heavier, stood at 7’0.5” and were reinforced with more armor than their original Fire Frobot design . These flamethrower types looked less like them  and more like the SpaceCraft 2 version Marcy based them after: the Firebat unit.

               Instead of a circular flamethrower on one arm, they wielded much heavier dual-pointed flamethrowers on both arms above their fingers. Their elaborate spacesuit style armor had bright red paint with yellow and white symbols of flames and hazard signs painted on them.

                As a welcome similar addition, there was the artillery supplement of seven renditions of the similar Marauder grenade unit Marcy had made: the Maraudbots. They were the same height and painted black with grenade launcher arms and a heavy supply tank on their backs and white skulls and crossbones on their large shoulder pads.

                Bomme loved these two types and had her own personal squad.

               “It’s about to get HEAVY!”The Maraudbot Bomme was riding yelled.

               “It’s been heavy and will be heavy, crush them all and bring them to me for parts!”Bomme yelled.

               “You said the word. Let’s do this!”The Fryerbat lead unit agreed in the gravelliest voice Veronica had ever heard from someone not a toad. The massive flamethrower bots torched the closest ones while the Maraudbots blew the rest in only 6 seconds.

               “How the … you …?”Veronica said.

               Marcy giggled and gestured at her to follow.

              

               She gathered up some of the other villagers. Others included the deformed but slippery Riggelloto, Bogster (a quiet giant frog who looked like a cross between Soggy Joe and Dave the taxi driver in hair/beard and build) and the balding Vizzini who lived by himself as an archivist and fisherman.

               “What say you all come and join me down South? As a favor to you … I’ll get any of your stuff back that’s left and blow up the biggest base Andrias has around!”

               “That would be interesting … go on!”Bogster said.

              

               The next day, the main base of the area for the Core, a fort/factory called NS-4 (Northern Station 4) was still being manned and producing more Frobots for the army with the ores of the mountains nearby and every other resource being added.

               “We need to take the systems down to render it inoperable!”Bomme said to Marcy.

               “I think we can arrange that!”She sent her advisor into their systems, who proceeded to do it in a funny way.

               Smarcy started playing a Techno beat

               Marcy narrated for the confused Veronica and her fellow refugees,”This song is a TECHNO beat, a style of electronic music that focuses more on rhythm than words. With FOUR ON THE FLOOR BEATS, this is perfect for club dancing and … MAKING ROBOTS DANCE!”

               Bomme, Braddock and Percy snickered as the angry owners and soldiers there yelled in alarm and anger. Marcy snapped her fingers and said,”Now, LET’S crank it up!”

 

               To the further irritation and then alarm of those running the place, the lights all over started to do disco lights displays. Then the robots and assembly line parts started dancing and shooting each other and the place up with lasers and other weapons.

               NS-4 blew up.

               Any surviving Frobots (just 10) came towards them, still dancing with Smarcy coming out of their light displays above them in disco get up with glow sticks spinning in her fingers.

              

               Veronica howled with laughter. “That’s rich!! I love it!”

               What was left of Mucklehead Marsh were delighted to find half of their town’s remaining goods (and more than double that) from three vaults of Andrias’s that her other soldiers raided.

               Their last big job in the Northern regions was looting the rubble and underground caverns of the North Tower. The armory and treasure vaults still had many intact weapons and valuables.

               “Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me Aldo’s fort was the one to blow … he was already a plant-zombie something …”Andre commented as he carried a treasure chest out,”Bufo and the rest loved to joke about that …”

               “Yeah, that he was possibly asleep or dead already and smelled like it … and it was either those plants growing around him keeping his body alive or something …”Greg agreed.

               “Heh … well, he went out with a bang instead of a whimper …”Lonnie smirked,”you know …”he pointed at the tapestries and battle ledgers,”this would be good leverage if they ever complain.”

               “What’s the price?”Marcy asked dryly.

               “Simple, they fight me for the best stuff or pay their weight in gold!”

               The other toads found that hilarious.

               Riding with Marcy, Veronica chatted her up and was surprised at her passion for magic and other odd things.

               “You could be the first lieutenant of my forces if you want!”Marcy offered.

               “Wow … no one’s ever said I could do that … where this last stop or two before we get back to your base?”

               “Oh that …”They turned to look at the approaching coasts,” a stop nearby the last Toad tower standing unchallenged and a haunted island of sorts … one haunted by the oldest legacy of a hidden nightmare around here!”

               Veronica said at once, “This I have to see!”

West:

               Captain Beatrix was grinning a ferocious grin with more bloodlust than usual. While she was the toughest toad in Amphibia by common knowledge (even Grimothy acknowledged it), even she had to admit that fighting this new tech-level war was getting on her nerves. The failed rebellion had cost them a lot of troops.

               The Barony of Frosch on its isolated peninsula in the Northwest corner of Amphibia had a large amount of frogs and toads living there. They looked to her for protection, which she begrudgingly provided.

                Therefore, she felt totally justified in attacking the second biggest mining plant/factory in her Western territory on the Southeastern areas just across the Anura River in an area called Quaken Canyon. Her best and/or most bloodthirsty troops were behind her, including some fresh meat like Bogs, Fern and Mire from the South Army.

               She easily hefted two axes looking down at the sentries patrolling the edge of the very large building with Frobots. There was enough for her to have plenty to smash and enjoy herself. This walled canyon area was ideal for an ambush.

               The Frobots turned their red eyes and cannon arms, getting ready to fight as the toads began to charge. But then they turned almost automatically to a signal alert and focused on something else. Indignant, Beatrix turned and blinked.

Three bizarre Frobots stood on the edge of the top of the canyon. CLU was standing to the right of a Frobot named Sludge. His yellow eyes peered out from a jacket of vines draped over him like an Earth commando soldier in the forest. Tychus stood on his left.

                And in front of them stood a smaller figure whose body was entirely hidden by a black/green robe as it peered down with glowing blank green eyes from within a hood. It leaned on a strange metal staff with round circles

               “Oh DEAR, complications, what to do, what to DO??” The distorted voice was unmistakably female, and Beatrix knew who this was. Some crazy new rebel who was running around lately with her own Frobot army, though no one knew how or why.

               “I heard some nutjob rebel was using Frobots of her own, but I got to say, those designs are whack! What’s your name anyway? Behave and I might even let you walk away from MY fight on my turf!”

               A mechanical sigh came out. “Captain, I’m focusing on TITLES, not names. FOR NOW, you can call me … THE CYBERKINETIC WITCH!!! The ultimate Mistress of Tech, Science and Magic in Amphibia and WITTIEST REBEL around!”

               Some of the toads were already buying it, but Beatrix wasn’t.

               “Are those words? How are you a witch?”

               Marcy groaned.

               “Uuuugghhh, most of AMPHIBIA knows nothing about magic, not much about science and NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT TECHNOLOGY. Let me make it VERY SIMPLE for YA… I can control science and magic!”

Her fingers sparked with neon flames,” If you’re thinking of fighting me, DON’T. You should be GLAD you’re not MY TARGET today because it could get … MESSY. I’ve already wiped the floor with other toads, Amphibians and Frobots ALL AROUND!! I even got free souvenirs from the other Toad Towers!!”

               “The East Tower has nice tables and a lovely view of the ocean!”Tychus added.

               Most of the toads snarled when they heard her mention the Towers.

               “Are you saying you think we’re weak and can do whatever you want in our areas and Towers?”Beatrix asked. She gave her best ‘I can kill you’ look to Marcy.

               Marcy chuckled,”Awww, the toughest toad in Amphibia is worried about looking WEAK? That’s adorable! You aren’t weak or stupid, Captain, far from it. And neither am I! I know you guys work, the savage warriors of Amphibia who are all about being strong. You’ve got bigger problems about what everyone ELSE thinks about you. You are the ONLY toad lord with a functioning army and forts to hold down! I know ALL about your ambitious rebellion to overthrow Andrias and establish a toad regime. So tired of being servants keeping the other servants in line, so you decided to take your, AHEM,”she used air quote fingers” rightful place as the rulers of Amphibia.’”

               Tychus drawled,”Simple … so painfully simple but so passionate and inspiring for a revolution I would weep tears of joy if I had real eyes and then die laughing at you.”

               CLU and Sludge chuckled

               Beatrix’s temper rose rapidly as Marcy kept criticizing their plan.

               “A simple plan with a straightforward approach that was … workable, but it was ALSO an epic failure. The toad armies united with tens of thousands of TOADS ready to fight . The leaders got inside the Castle-one holding Barrel’s Warhammer- and your soldiers got inside the city, but …the entire attacking army lost hard against the King’s hidden army of Frobots in less than an HOUR!!  Big Old Bufo’s all locked up with several thousand lackeys. You weren’t there, LUCKY LADY! Your little brother fled for his life, left the rest behind and is fighting WILD style down South. At least you have his short-lived replacement, the very hotheaded ex-bandit and tax collector Bog ,right there to keep you company.”

Bog sweated as everyone looked at him.

”But that’s still only two out of three at best since the North Tower and the possibly already dead Captain Aldo got BLOWN UP in just one shot! To the REST of Amphibia, the reputation of the TOAD ARMIES is down the drain and NOT worth taking seriously. ”

               Marcy shook her head as they got madder,”Shame really, ALL that hard work of centuries holding down the forts and bringing the hurt down on Amphibia’s enemies ruined on one bad day! There was no mighty toad army left to bother me or Andrias in any of your other three FORMER territories or the Towers. They were all under new management or wrecked! Andrias himself doesn’t think you’re a real threat to him anymore.”

               Tychus added,“If you ever were to begin with. He weren’t bothered none by your ‘angry servant’ union meeting with cheap t-shirts, surly staff, and ideas for customized armor with the slogan ‘toad up’ and … duck logos on the back!”

 He cracked up,”I can’t fully blame you for that design, it fits! You had to ‘duck and cover’ later!!”

                Marcy rolled her eyes as her three soldier robots laughed hysterically.

               “Don’t look at me! I told Troy that customized armor design of his was stupid!”Omei said angrily to a smirking Bomme as the assorted frogs/newts laughed a couple miles away next to their annoyed toad allies.

               “I know … so did I, but they wanted to focus on armor AGAIN instead of weapons!”Bomme said.

               “Oh boy, I’m gonna enjoy our jokes about this from now on!”Halley said with glee.

               “I was never going to wear that dumb design!”Andre said flatly.

               “I liked it …”Greg mumbled in embarrassment.

               “So did most of us that day…”April sighed.

               “Look on the bright side, it wasn’t YOUR idea!”Veronica teased the embarrassed toad soldiers who had liked it or weren’t aware of that.

              

               The angry toads pointed their bows and pilfered laser guns at Tychus.

               He wasn’t bothered at all,“Oh please, unless you quacks are better at shooting then ducking, don’t embarrass yourselves more! I know how to ‘jump and duck’ better.”

                Beatrix considered threatening this witch with disembowelment and the robots with being burnt to pieces. But she was cut off when the masked girl glanced at her metal gauntlet which was beeping, “We could do DUCK jokes all day, I’m sure, but we’re not here for that!! CAPTAIN Beatrix, look on the BRIGHT side! You can always get back up and hit ‘em harder! Show them all, take back what’s yours, and prove that backstabbing jerk Andrias wrong! That’s what I’m doing!”

               She gave a thumbs up to a nonplussed Beatrix,”You’re still the toughest toad in Amphibia, the only Captain still standing who kept her head clear and still had an army, weapons and fortifications within hours of that defeat!! Not rushing in blindly with the rest was a GOOD CALL! ALL OF THAT is something to be proud of! No one else in Amphibia can say they did as well!! YOU GO, GIRL!!”

               The toads didn’t know what to make of her. First, she taunted them and now she was encouraging them and complimenting them??

               “Uh, thanks?”Beatrix said after an awkward pause.

               Even Tychus threw in his support,“Besides … you’re better than the poser trying to rule over all worlds using his Magic Box and cheap armies … what you need is to kick this revolution into Overdrive!”

               Marcy spread her hands invitingly,“ If you like, for practice, there’s a sizable squad of FROBOTS that has just been summoned as reinforcements for these guys, WHY not take them out instead? I’m just here to loot this one place of all its ORE and best parts and then CRUSH IT!! Anything else around here is all yours to pummel and take back! I’ll head back to my area and leave you to do what you want here and stay out of your way with respect as a fellow rebel against Andrias! Win-win, right?”

               Beatrix was amused,“ That’s a generous offer. I’m tempted to accept. This place is an eyesore that I won’t miss! But you really think you and your minions there can do all that?”

               The girl waved it off.

               “Truth be TOLD, I’ve got more soldiers of my own to choose from … plenty right here already.”Four Hunters, three Asurdroids, several Marines and Maraudbots came to the edge of the canyon.

               “It’s literally shooting fish in a barrel at this point! I was just weighing my options first. How best to do the biggest smash and grab and look totally awesome while doing it. You know, the usual … decisions, decisions!! Would just tipping the building over be boring or should we do a ‘hit the guard in the head’ contest with prizes??”

               Beatrix and her troops snickered. The Frobots pointed their lasers at her but held fire.

               Marcy leaned over and said,” I’VE already decided, but just to be nice to you, I gotta ask: Any of you toads scared of giant WORMS?”

               Of all the odd, crazy or stupid-sounding questions Beatrix had heard over the years, that was a first. Every soldier with her had no real response to that, and chuckled, stared blankly, exchanged looks or just shook their heads no.

               Beatrix rolled her eyes,”I don’t like fighting them, but they don’t scare me. Why?”

               “Let’s just say I’ve got a lot more than Frog-based robots with me, because …I will now,” there was a long dramatic pause as the toads and opposing Frobots waited with increasing anticipation,”… RELEASE THE DRILLER!!!”

               “The ‘Driller’??” Several toads said in confusion. They had yet to see anything called that.

               The Frobots assumed she meant the Drill Frobots used for mining.

               She’d found a better idea from the Cybertronic films and had it finished while she set out on her trip. It had come tunneling on its test run through the Ruins of Despair already.

                 Seconds later the ground began to rumble. The Frobot guards scanned frantically and then heads turned when loud sounds came from the other side of the plant and then a metallic sound like spinning metal wheels came out as a large shape came rumbling through the ground near it, tearing through the earth.

               Marcy elbowed her camouflaged robot subordinate and said eagerly,” Yo, Corporal Sludge, care to say Shockwave’s ONE-LINER for me?”

               Sludge raised his arms and spoke in a distorted and bestial robotic voice : “DRILLER-BOT IS THIRSTY”.

               Beatrix began to feel just a bit nervous.

               The robotic sentries themselves looked afraid. And for good reason, since a massive metallic mass of cables and exposed machine parts came twisting through the ground around the corner. Every Frobot on the outside came around and began firing at it with the factory’s automated cannons when it got in front. But that did nothing whatsoever to stop it. They kept firing as it rose up and faced them.

               A gigantic metal body of a mass of machine parts, several hundred meters long,  with twisted and extendable cables all over its mass, and four tentacle-like arms in front of the head with huge double buzz-saw tips with extendable claws to grip with.

                Contorting a flexible frame that had large blades sticking out of it, it faced them with a huge eyeless head that had a circular mouth ringed with saw-like sharp teeth inside.

                With frighteningly rapid speed, it shifted its head to focus on the factory entrance where a dozen Frobots were clustered.

               It let out a chilling mechanical roar. The blades flared up on its body like predatorial spines, its mouth began to rotate, and the buzz saw arms spun around. It lunged into the building.

               Every toad present felt a chill go down their spines. Many yelled or screamed.

               Beatrix said nothing and slowly backed away.

               That … thing tore through the place. They saw Frobots get snatched by its “arms’ as they tried to fight or run and got pulled back inside.

               A  Frobot flew above to try and send a signal with its radio dish,”Signalling Newtopia about top-level threat!“

               Marcy blocked the signal and directed the Driller to attack that Frobot.

               One arm reached up and grabbed it by the head and pulled it down into the swirling vortex of bladed teeth.

               “All units head for-“A Frobot on the rear exit was snagged by a cable limb from the lower body of the Driller. It tried to hold onto the rails, but the cable started cracking its chassis and it was pulled in after the torso crunched like an eggshell.

               Seconds later a different Frobot flew out and landed on the ground. Only its top half was intact.

               Beatrix and Bog swallowed.

               It dug into the building and consumed everything worth having inside and no security system lasted more than 5 seconds when it got close to them. Finally, it wrapped its twisted frame around the foundations like a giant python and squeezed.

                Metal and stone snapped like a spine and the building collapsed.

               The Driller chased the few sentries left who were now fleeing. Beatrix shivered as the last two were seized and pulled into that awful mouth.

               The Cyberkinetic Witch glanced sideways as CG-3 and Magna 1 came walking up from the East.

 CG-3 had a fried robot head in his free hand. Magna 1 spoke after they got to the edge.

               “REINFORCEMENTS ARE ON THE WAY FROM THEIR NEAREST BASE, BOSS. ETA 3.5 MINUTES. YOUR ORDERS?”

               Marcy shrugged and said, “It’s all good, Magna 1, the good CAPTAIN’S forces can have their fun, let’s BOUNCE!” She hopped on the giant worm’s head as it rose up to their level with her robot followers and she waved goodbye,”You TOADS have fun NOW. Byyyyeeee!!” They were off as it rode through the sand like it was water.

               For several seconds, no one said anything. Beatrix loved a good fight, and she was the best at it among the Toad Armies. But even she didn’t think she could fight that. She shook her head and quietly gestured at her troops  to follow her to confront the patrol. It was cathartic and epic, but still seemed tame to what had just been unleashed on that factory back there.

               On the bright side, she had a blast crushing even more of them and over ten different spots like  that over the next week.

               She kept notes on every report she heard of this new rebel afterwards. It impressed her and concerned her.

               “She practically took over half of Frog Valley and looted the South Tower … in less than a month … and she raided Bufo’s place and the North Tower’s rubble with no one stopping her. Just like she said she did. They’re calling her the most wanted criminal in Amphibia who could destroy everything!”Bog said. He was very afraid. That was his old territory she was lurking in.

               “Yeah, Grimothy and Sasha are there … and they don’t even know that yet … I’ll send ‘em a message!”Beatrix said.

               She didn’t want them unaware of the risk. This witch had done more damage than all of their efforts combined in a week travelling to all their old territories. Their scouts reported the Driller had started consuming several factories in the old Ruins of Despair area just outside the Valley exit days earlier. None were left by the time it was done.

*Dawnblood Islands*

               The Dawnblood Islands were covered with rocks that were all blood red, the trees were barren, and the local millipedes were snake-like. The Painkillerpillars had saliva with useful painkilling saliva that could mess with your head. Marcy harvested them and the other wildlife to take back with her.

The Castle on the largest island of the three (Rising Bloodflow) was gothic, ancient and broken down. Most people only came for the Gumdrop Gulch tourist spot on the coast, and not to see the Castle.

               Dawnblood Castle still remained derelict in spite of the reactivation. The laser cannons barely moved and Smarcy shut them down. There were only six Frobots stumbling around, poorly made, up top.

               Darius and Araya lead a force to crush the factories and fortified spots around Amygdala Woods and the Caerillain Coasts as a way to keep the enemy occupied while they did so.

               She said to Bomme,“It’s fitting … last time we were here, there were illusions and my eyes glowed green to open a secret passage … green magic I wanted to research along with spontaneous eye color change … and now-“

               “You have that and can do more!”Bomme finished.

               Once again, Marcy made her way to the secret passage and opened it up with her presence. This time, they were thorough with no opposition from a rogue Ranger or worse.

               In the caverns and walls, the old inscriptions and texts were still there. They took photos of it all.

               Veronica asked Marcy about this monster as their party went down,“The Core … who calls it that?”

               “Andrias did … “She replayed his words.,”Behold, our ultimate creation. A collection of Amphibia's greatest minds, preserved for all eternity … Studying the Moss Man improved our medical technology. But it wasn't until we met the Shadowfish that we truly learn to conquer death. And thus, the Core was born.”

               “There were clues here before … let’s see if we could find more!”Bomme lit some torches and they went in further.

               Marcy’s Wit powers and new robots helped their teams find more caves and vaults all around the Castle filled with crates of treasure, including those same coins.

               One big find was a carving of eight newts arranged in a circle connected to a great orange eye. That same symbol had been in the basement at the time it tried to possess her, but Olivia and Yunan hadn’t understood it.

               Marcy and the rest began collecting this, taking pictures and reading notes.

               “It started with eight of their greatest minds. The top smartest newts working for King Tritones, using the technology with experiments of Mossman and Shadowfish essence like Andrias said, were the first ones to merge into the completed machine. Over the centuries every ruler joined along with some of their other best minds to form a unified consciousness, all the way up to the last king…Aldrich,”Marcy read off one lineage name from an official history book,”Andrias’s father. Dozens of minds supporting the Leviathans in their greatest creation for all time.”

               Bomme was not pleased to read the rest,”Some great creation! They consider themselves to be considered an immortal god transcending death and using all their knowledge and power together in harmony.”

               “That’s a stupid design to look great with …”Coatl said scornfully.

               “That’s what I said!”Bernardo agreed.

               “Why look so creepy about that idea or be so desperate with an idea to stay alive, after all this time?”Percy said, shaking in fear

               Smarcy sighed“You hold onto something for too long, you don’t want to lose it. And when you start going farther and farther on something, it’s hard to stop … wait, what’s this?”

               There was a damaged paper with some burns around the edges.

               Marcy picked it up shone a light on it to reveal hidden ink in Newtopian script. “The feared ‘Olm Prophecy’ … ohhh yes! This must be the prophecy Andrias and the Core fear!”

She recited it:

Three stars burning bright

Come from beyond to expel the Night

Should they fight or embrace the fall

Their choice will determine the fate of all.

               “The Night … like the name Night Guard. These powers. Stars … this is all some kind of destiny!”Marcy said. But then she got anxious,“That means … I can’t end that threat on my own! We need all three of us to decide.”

               “You sound reluctant, Marcy …”Braddock said.

               “Ehhh, maybe … if I could deal with the Core on my own, it’d be enough so Anne and Sasha-“

               Smarcy cut her off,“Marcy, stop that! How many times do we have to go through this? You don’t have to spare them everything or deal with this alone! We’ve all suffered because of that thing, but none more than you!”

               “I know! Don’t push me on this!”Marcy growled.

               “You’re still afraid of it, aren't you?”Halley said. They looked at her. She looked quite serious, “I don’t like this thing, and using a girl like you to cling to life like that forcefully only makes me dislike it more. That is not right at all. It needs to go down, but you shouldn’t face it alone.”

               “That’s worth fighting to the last for!”Andre said.

               “Yeah … this is a good cause, we’re with you, to save our world and yours and everyone!”Ravager said firmly. Everyone there agreed.

               “I got a riddle for you, Marbles …”Smarcy smiled smugly at her wary boss,” What falls, but does not break, and what breaks but does not fall?”

               Marcy smiled,“Night falls and Day breaks!”

               “Finally, an optimistic riddle that means something important!”Bomme joked.

               On the way back, Veronica was flattered to learn Marcy had another creepy frog pal in magic.

               “Maddie has a good code for using magic to help people and not abusing it. You should only curse someone if they deserve it … and we had such fun joking about magic and other things!”Marcy said.

               “I like her already!”Veronica decided.

               “The stones …”Marcy reflected on what each temple looked for when they’d gone to them,”my stone of Wit looks for intelligence and humility … check. Anne’s stone of Heart looks for empathy and responsibility … big check. Sasha’s stone of strength …looks for strength and persistence … also check. And ... if these stones wield so much power to be compared to stars …”She grinned manically,”oh boy. If we get this right … the three of us could be like a trio of anime space goddesses facing a demonic horror from below! I’m going to enjoy this alottt!!”

               “This will be so much fun!”Vicki said with equal glee.

               “Whoo!”Greg yelled.

               “That sounds totally epic and terrifying at the same time … ah well, what else is new?”Percy said.

               “A worthy fight!”Darius said. The other Frost Knights got even more interested in this new war for reality they were fighting.

               They took every bit of treasure, info, and the best advanced or ancient technology there for themselves with no obvious trace of them being there left. To make it harder on the Core to find out, the doors and openings were locked and welded shut from the inside.

               The six days out travelling had been well spent. Three Tower and former toad territories successfully raided, over 15 to 18,000 Frobots taken out in battle or at their bases, several dozen factories and fortifications destroyed, over 1,000 prisoners captured and close to 8,000 Amphibians liberated/recruited from all over the areas. The refineries alone were a fertile area for gaining willing followers.

              

*Wartwood Resistance Lair-NOT AN OBJECTIVE*

               Soggy Joe came in with Wally,”Good news, gang, we got over 40 supplies and the latest info!”

               “There’s even some wanted posters!”Wally said.

               “Oh good,”Sasha smirked with pride seeing her face, Grime’s, Beatrix’s and her best operatives (Croaker, Maddie, Loggle) with ‘Wanted dead or alive’ pictures. Then she frowned seeing the new girl on the block.

               “Hey, it’s that weirdo witch rebel you guys saw. How’d she get that high on the threat list??”

The ‘Amphibia public enemy Number 1’ wanted poster had a picture of that same mystery from the bridge, the Cyberkinetic Witch.

               “An entire city or valley of your choice as a reward to capture her or provide info on her base … an extremely dangerous criminal who could destroy Amphibia. Do not approach unless you’re willing to risk your life or worse? What did she do??”Loggle said in disbelief.

               Grime read off the list of charges,“Let’s see. Mass destruction of Amphibian property and inflicting casualties in the thousands on the soldiers in the areas of Frog Valley, Mold Rot Forest, the Caerillian Coasts, the Royal Castle, and every single area the rebellious former Toad lords held except the Barony of Frosch; using stolen Newtopian war machines in acts of terror; springing dangerous prisoners loose to hire as bloodthirsty killers; enlisting renegade rebels and traitors to add to her forces; grand larceny of weapons, money, supplies and private property; abduction and suspected murder of several citizens, soldiers and leaders-“

               His mismatched eyes widened in horror.

”She captured the entire garrison, prisoners and supplies of the captured East Toad Tower and looted the lingering valuables and weapons from the rubble and underground caverns of the destroyed North Toad Tower!? You cannot be serious!!”

               “She did what?!?”The Resistance yelled in shock.

 

               Grime took a breath to compose himself and glanced at the last part. He lost it,”THIS TOP MENACE LOOTED THE ABANDONED SOUTH TOAD TOWER, ELIMINATED RIVAL CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD LEADERS AND MEMBERS OF THE BIZAARE BAZAAR NIGHT MARKET, AND NOW RULES THE REBEL HOTBED FROG VALLEY UNCONTESTED!?!”

               The letter he got from Beatrix (lengthier than her usual ones) minutes later was too much for him. His sister was concerned … for him! She knew about Marcy’s rampages she’d witnessed or heard of, and thought they were in over their heads since a more dangerous rebel was living near them. She’d met this girl and teased him that this rebel and one of her robots mocked his ‘dumb toad revolution speech’ and praised her as the only Captain who’d come out on top of all this with an army and fortifications that day while he had none of that.

 Grime fainted before he could finish it.

               “I’m tempted to be jealous …”Sasha said.

               “You’re totally jealous!”Ivy teased her.

               “Maybe …”Sasha smirked and poked the senseless Grime with her foot,”I never made Grimesy faint.”

               They all laughed. That was priceless.

               Beatrix and her troops laughed hysterically when she read Sasha’s return message telling her that they didn’t need to worry and that her brother fainted in shock from reading her letter.

               “Forget being worried about him! This is even better!”She said.

               Sasha and Grime kept an eye out for her even more but could not find a single clue. They started keeping an entire section of research on Marcy’s alter ego in their strategy room.

*Final Scene- Bomme and the Marcy’s go Subdigital mode*

               “This is perfect …”Bomme said, rubbing her hands eagerly at the new labs and factories, 10 of them, for her to work with at the main base.

               “I know, right? All the tech to invent things with you could want as my chief Science Officer, while Andrias is stuck with the Core and Triple B!”

               The pair laughed hard at the idea. The quarrelsome trio and a monster robot didn’t compare.

               Two vehicles put down for development from Spacecraft were a big success a few weeks later.

               Siege tanks made peerless defensive and offensive siege units. The Cyclones, fitted with lasers and missile launchers, drove around at rapid speed while firing at air and ground targets alike with deadly accuracy.

               HERC minerbots had heavy yellow/grey armor that was immune to acid, other chemicals and most explosive force. They carried drills with grappling hooks and welding guns as weapons and tools and served as Marcy’s self-defense worthy miner units to do work in the Frog Mountains surrounding the Valley for ores.

               The only aircraft for now was the Medivac Dropship with cloaking added to be both transport and medical aid for those being rescued.  A special model of Medic Bots, Medivackers, was made for piloting and crewing them. They had blast shield scanners/targeting systems over their faces, checkered yellow and white patterns on their armor, and dual shields mounted on their waists.

              

               “Hmmm … if only we had a cool theme song for our labs that fit …”Marcy said.

               Smarcy had an idea while speed-searching for a few ideas,“There was an old retro tv show that might work … from the early 2000s called Codes of Lyoko …”

               Marcy was entranced reading this,”The word is a version of the word ‘Ryoko’ in Japanese that means ‘to travel’. Which is what some teens around my own age do in a virtual reality world called Lyoko with an evil virus using an eye symbol that resembled the Toad Army’s logo … and the song is called ‘World with no danger …’ play it.”

               The theme song for the show played out, showing these kids fighting monsters in Lyoko and real life.

Here we are, going far, to save all that we love

If we give all we've got we will make it through

Here we are, like a star, shining bright on your world today…

Make evil go away …

               “OMG THAT IS SO COOL! Marcy yelled.

               The original French lyrics and the show in general interested them a lot.

               They made the English versions their lab theme song and the French version a ringtone.

              

 

 

 

              

               The bullseye-like Eye of XANADU Symbol appealed to them. It looked similar to Sasha’s toad army symbol, a single white eye with one dot in the middle and two lines on opposite ends.

               Percy, who’d designed that, pointed that out,”Check it out! It’s like my design I did for Sasha!”

               “Maybe we can use that!”Marcy said thoughtfully. Percy came up with a design for their own use.

               This one was white and had three colored lines in the shape of starlight rays coming out of the bottom (from left to right green, blue, pink) without the original line at the top. They dubbed this symbol the Lyogo.

 Many of their robots and the armor their soldiers wore had this symbol on their pauldrons or chest plates.

               The Siege tanks from Spacecraft made peerless defensive and offensive siege units.

               Some HERC minerbots (welding suit armored guys) with heavy armor, carrying drills with grappling hooks and welding guns as weapons and tools, were made to start as Marcy’s self-defense worthy miner and constructions units to do work in the factories and mine in the Frog Mountains surrounding the Valley for ores.

               She and Marcy invented some Krabbots (Krabbs) and Manta Razers (or Mantas) that were based on two digital Lyoko monsters.

               The Krabbs were almost the same as their digital counterparts. Seven ft tall, red, four giant legs, lasers fired from their triple eyes, and they could crawl upside down and up walls. They made them completely waterproof and able to go underwater.

               The Mantas could hover, fly and swim underwater at high speed. Their lasers from the ‘snout’ could now also be fired with explosive force from their tails. They could manufacture and release homing mines shaped like little skull mushrooms from a line of ‘gill’ openings on their underbelly at the front (instead of the underbelly ‘hatch’ the show ones had). The mines could float or fly towards their targets and explode, releasing shockwaves that reached up to 10 ft.

               Most of the other show monsters hit too close to home (especially the Megatanks, Spectres, and Meduse) or were too silly-looking, redundant or weak.

               One of XANADU’S robots used in a planned robot army made in Siberia to take over the world (but never got the chance to be deployed against mankind) was useful for a simple new Frobot model, the Siber-Bots. They stood 6 ft tall, had two sets of triple red eyes on their heads, a Lyogo on their chest plates, antenna with radio systems, and a laser cannon in their left hand. They were not much tougher than a Soldier Frobot and couldn’t fly, but had better aim and scanning systems.

               Their hauls from the Third temple and Dawnblood Castle aided in creating the next three.

                A major artillery unit they added were the Volcashells, a video-game only monster. The bipedal and clunk robot had a turtle-like shell, and a hatch of a mouth that could shoot lava and fire attacks. They could act like catapults from a distance.

                The red and blue Labsturs (redubbed Labstars), large lobster-like robots from the sequel 5^th season with red and blue cannon claws (Vibe claws) that could fire energy and sonic blasts, were even better.

               A single video-game boss unit called the Ice Spider in stage 2 mode was made with improvements. The 14 ft (?) tall four-legged being with a round central body could fire triple rows of ice-blue lasers from the front parts of its legs, along with ice orbs and explosive orbs of energy from the large eye on its head which could cover itself with the ice-like eyelid around it. It had shield generators that could cover the area below it or for 4 ft in front of it. There were smaller or hidden eyes and sensors on its legs and central orb body that could see in all directions, all spectrums of vison and sense vibrations underground.

                It was mostly used as a base guardian.

                The best idea was the final additions to the Mar Guards using the personalities and skills of the Lyoko Defenders (minus Belpois) with a bit of editing to create the very advanced Subdigitoids.

               Marcy used heavily modified Cloak-bot bodies of a smaller size with humanoid dimensions, synthetic insides and humanoid features (smooth and the barest hint of a nose visible at close range).

               The first two were Ulrich Sterns and Odd Robia.  

Ulrich stood at a short height of 4' 8", wore his original outfit of samurai style gi robes in yellow and brown colors, had white skin and red eyes, and wore a yellow headband with a Lyogo in the middle of it. He was the fastest runner on land with a Super Sprint power that could let him run across water and up vertical surfaces, a Danger sense that let him react to attacks at high speed, the ability to cloak (he alone had this) and wielded two katanas that could fire green energy beams.

Odd was … odd. He matched Sterns in height and his body had blue skin with yellow eyes covered by a purple body suit with glowing yellow patterns. His gauntlets had retractable claws and he had a purple cat tail and lilac cat face paint tattoos on his grinning face. His blonde hair stuck up with purple highlights. He rode a highspeed hoverboard he could hang upside down from with ease. For powers, he could summon lilac colored energy shields twice as good as a Shield Bot’s, shot damaging and modifiable arrowhead projectiles from his wrists (three at a time on both hand) that could home in on targets, and climb up and down walls with his hands and feet.

              

               For the girls, Marcy used the characters of Yumi Ishiyama and Aelita Schaeffer and the extra edition of Maya Stones.

Yumi was 5’5” with shoulder-length chin bangs of dark hair. She had purple skin, violet eyes, and wore her season 4 kunoichi-style outfit: a burgundy and magenta catsuit with daisy flower designs around the waist. Marcy made her daisy adorned shoulder pauldrons a bit bigger, roughly a third of the size of Sasha’s former toad army armor.

Aelita stood at 4’9”, wore a mix of her season 4 and 5 pink/white/grey outfits, had lilac skin with her signature pink cheek marks and white eyes, and had small grey pauldrons with pink Lyogos on them.

 Maya, the extra addition, had a personality similar to Anne and Aelita’s (nice with a bit of mischievous and moody). She stood at 5’2”, had shoulder length azure hair, indigo skin, Uranian blue eyes and was dressed in a lapis-lazuli colored version of Yumi’s outfit crossed with light plate armor on her torso, arms and legs. In place of flowers or Lyogos, her outfit had lily pads on the chest, waist and shoulders.

                One thing all three could do was summon versions of Maya’s glowing angel wings (larger ones with a wingspan of 10 ft tip to tip) if they needed to fly and get somewhere fast. Yumi’s wings were maroon, Aelita’s were her original pink, and Maya’s were sky blue.

                Yumi knew Ninjutsu/Penkat Silcat/Jujutsu/Kung fu, and she mastered five more martial arts in the coming months. She wielded a pair of glowing tessen fans she could summon with a flick of her wrists. They could deflect lasers and swords with ease and cut through almost anything when she threw them like boomerangs.

               The gravity force abilities from the Second Temple allowed Marcy to give Yumi strong Telekinesis (or ‘Teek’) powers tougher than her original level. She could use her mind to levitate or repel several objects, people/robots and even buildings at a time with or without her hands free. It gave off a glowing red and white aura effect and was limited by line of sight only. As a bonus she could use it to direct her fans at targets with greater accuracy.

               Aelita was a genius at tech and math who could implant codes into electronics to deactivate or reactivate them to do their bidding and could sing alluring tunes that had a hypnotic and paralyzing siren effect on robot and living alike. From her hands she could create pink orbs of electrical energy that could take down all current Frobot models (even Cloak-bots or Tank bots) in one shot. For defense, she could form this energy into powerful forcefields able to withstand every standard or heavy weapon fielded by Andrias’s army.

Aelita was programmed with knowledge of Ninjutsu, Tae Kwon Do, Muay-Thai, Silat, and Boxing fighting styles. She took lessons from the rest to gain practical experience.

Her unique powerset let her fire sharp or explosive shards of energy from her wings called Sub Shards. They could explode if she wished. She could also unleash sonic blasts (she dubbed this attack Soundbytez) from her hands that could overload most Frobot’s circuitry even if it didn’t destroy them.

               Last but not least was Willie Dunbar, the tallest one at a height of 5’8”.  Will’s season 4  outfit (minus the corset) was pitch black, lined with glowing red stripe patterns on the biceps and legs, thick boots, and a chest plate with a white Lyogo on it. His wrists had spiked greaves, and a mop of spiky black hair covered his head. A pair of glowing green eyes peered out.

               He was the heaviest hitter among the boys who wielded a large black Zweihander of 6 ft in length with a white glowing Lyogo orb in the middle and green root-like growths decorating it.

               The sword could send blasts and energy slices of energy and absorb attacks (even magical ones.

Besides his weapon and considerable skill, Will possessed his very powerful and versatile power called ‘Super Smoke’. Marcy replicated and expanded on it using  nanobot tech and some potent magic energy. He could fire black clouds of smoke from his palms that could knock out living enemies instantly and infect other machines to be hacked or destroyed from the inside (the clouds glowed acidic green when infecting machines).

 Concentrating hard enough, he could levitate himself or others with this power, break down into a cloud of the smoke and fly at high speed through the air and reform into a solid shape. Thanks to this powerset, he was incapable of being tossed to his doom and virtually indestructible. In the rare event he got damaged, he could reform from these nanite smoke particles if hit by massive firepower or be summoned back to life using the connection to Marcy’s powers like the rest.

              

                All six Subdigitoids were added to Marcy’s roster of Mar Guards along with a surprising final edition.

               Vicki requested that she and Charlotte join the Mar Guards. Besides the fact that Vicki thought hanging out with Marcy on missions was fun, the two had more than enough skill and success from the recent missions to qualify.

Marcy was so flattered at the idea she said yes right away.

This force of 54 elite protectors always had members on hand in the shadows or by her side to keep her safe.

The Mar Guards had unparalleled authority over her robot armies and living soldiers, were completely cut off from any connection to the Core’s robotics networks and could only answer completely to Marcy.

She had plans in the future to include Anne and Sasha for their services after they allied and ensured they all had a bit of Calamity power.

               The Mothras served as aerial escorts for trips and her personal attendants with the maids in her quarters.

               Since magic could also make magical creations or transfigure things, Marcy decided to test her growing grasp of wordless magic with her Calamity powers to experiment a bit.

               The dangerous Shambling Mounds from C&C were mimicked in the Shambler monsters she created for the purpose of lurking in the restored swamps and bogs around their base as plant guards. They were basically walking mounds of algae, slime and plant life with a face of vines around their ‘heads’ that writhed like a mass of snakes. They could lurk under the water or in the trees or ground and control the plant life around them.

               The pretty Woodland Warders, enchanted guardians of elven areas, were added as tall Amphibian/humanoid shaped bushes with thick leaves and flowers covering their branchy limbs and vine-like growths that had thorns on them. Green eyes peered out from a head of leafy hair that covered a feminine newt-like face. They could use their thorn-covered vines to defend themselves and induce temporary sleep on living opponents, but Marcy mostly used them to tend to the growing gardens and farms she made.

               “Olivia will love you girls!”She said while trimming a fruit tree with one.

               “Of course … you’re using your green thumbs well!”The Warder said in her flute-like voice.

               Six days later, Marcy decided to try an idea to encourage everyone here and at least one other spot.

               She chose Ribbitvale, the fanciest and richest town in Amphibia. It was the closest major city to Frog Valley, and the hometown of Wally Ribbiton of Wartwood. He was the son of Wigbert Ribbiton, the owner of Ribbiton Estate and Ribbiton’s Ribbon (which made the finest web crusty floss for flippers in Amphibia).

               That was one surprising detail that delighted Marcy to learn when researching all available family of the Resistance. It was also a place Anne mentioned she and the Plantars had visited on their way to Newtopia, close to where she’d done repair work on the Saint’s Lake Bridge and a perfect high-class place with many connections to show what she was all about.

               As a perfect bonus, a force of over 5,000 robots was gathered there while en route to the Valley.

               “This is going to be a happy work environment …”Veronica said fondly while she watched the monitors while Bomme and Marcy got ready to unleash their song and dance attack.

              

               “This is going to be good!”Braddock rubbed her hands eagerly. She’d enjoyed so many cool songs here already, and now Marcy was going to try something that would do Anne and Sasha proud on presentation.

               Marcy looked at their BFF photo before they started and said,“Oh Anne, I’m thinking of you! All our cool dance parties and pranks and defeating evil with a good soundtrack and smiling … This song from your playlist… I’m playing it for you and everybody else!”

               The fancy town was still intact and mostly untouched, but the Sheep-fly fields around it were gone and the foliage decayed or burned up. Factories, towers and robots outside the city were toxifying the land while others patrolled the city. Andrias had a special design for most of the Frobots assigned there: they had gold or silver paint or amor attachments and carried fancy gold-colored tridents and longswords with flipper-shaped hilts. The citizens there didn’t feel flattered at the ‘Gilded Frobots’ being present to help their town keep looking fancy.

 

               Smarcy appeared in midair in a look she dubbed Daft M ( a Daft Punks look with the helmet, spiky blue anime hair going down her hair and a green and black suit/jacket with a Lyogo on the shoulders and gloves) and started one of Anne’s favorite songs (‘Holidays’ by SMTOWN).

Ho-ho-holiday, ho-ho-holiday, hee

Ho-ho-holiday, ho-ho-holiday

I’m feeling good, 이 날을 기다려왔어

처음 만난 그 순간처럼 다시 만난 너와 나

The Frobots and citizens swiveled to look.

               Bomme (with goggles on) rode in on a Krabbot first with hordes of other Krabbots, her Maraudbot and Fryerbat squad, some Compact Archers, and other Krabbots, and some of the Mar Guards (the Strifebots, Sterns, Asurdroids, CGs, Magnas) following her.

               All the Frobots in the city swarmed out to attack with the rest outside.

               Bomme casually snapped her fingers on her ride and flung a handful of vine bombs that exploded into her tendrils on the largest factories and construction bots. Her soldiers fired and sliced into the ground forces with chaotic but controlled precision.

               Marcy flew down out of the sun for the first chorus on the back of a Manta using green energy straps to keep her feet in place and stay balanced. Her spear was on her back. Her mask was off for once.

               Her hair, eyes, and face were glowing in enhanced neon green Wit mode to disguise her human face . Only her smile, glowing white like diamonds, was visible.

                Swarms of other Mantas, the Driders, Odd, Will (also on a Manta),Maya, Yumi, Aelita, and several Reaperbots followed her in the air.

 

                For an opening salvo, she conjured and threw a gigantic glowing green dice with both hands at high speed that bounced around like a pinball on the Tank Bots, Bug Bots and Frobots. It bounced around, hitting all of them down with blows to the head. A Shield Generator Bot caught it in the clawed arms, the forcefield shielding it. Marcy smiled wider and pointed at it with both index fingers. The dice sent a surge of power into the Bot that made it send green lasers out the spikes on its back, destroying the laser cannon and factory it was protecting before it exploded.

               She waved at the gawking citizens and gave dual peace signs before she did a barrel role through an attacking swarm of Dragonfly drones and left them exploding with an electrical shock wave that was so fast it was hard to see.

               The Reaperbots, Driders and Odd took out a row of factories, drones and Frobots in a dive run.

               Smarcy danced and did her thing, lighting the air around her up with psychedelic colors and keeping the song louder than the battle. She jammed any signals to Andrias and hacked three laser cannons on road checkpoints and made them destroy each other.

               Wigbert Ribbiton and Crumpet walked up to the walls to watch.

               “Is that a stingray she’s riding?”Crumpet asked.

               Wigbert squinted,“Not quite … I’ve never seen one that color!”

               His brothers Henry(an ex-military frog in in uniform with a long green head and white mustache), Bingam ( a tired-looking balding blue frog), his brother in-law Eli (a short fat frog with a scarf) and their wives and many kids followed them up first.

               Before the first chorus was over, all  inhabitants were watching from the walls. The K-pop  song made no sense to them at all, lyrics or sound wise (except for the repeated word ‘Holiday).

At the same time, it appealed to them.

               “What does she hope to accomplish with this? She’s the most wanted criminal in Amphibia!” Henry asked.

                His friend Colonel Bogdon, a large toad with a top hat, adjusted his monocle,”Whoever this rebel is … she’s sending a message and doing damage to Andrias at the same time. We’re the witnesses to spread it.”

               “She is winning this easily!”Eli conceded.

               “It’s not just another battle for her. That song, it’s a gift of sorts …”Wigbert said, watching closely. He was fighting back a smile.

               “A song about holidays, if I’m not mistaken!”Crumpet said. He was unconsciously tapping his feet to it.

               “That’s the one word I’m catching!”Henry conceded.

               “Very … dramatic and graceful …”Miss Palmer (a young frog with a pink frog and wig) said.

               “Not enough, here come the reinforcements …”Bingam said sadly. He pointed at the mass swarm of hundreds of Frobots flying in from the West.

Baby Baby 난 멈추지 않아 계속 달려갈래

Rhythm 을 따라 기분을 내봐 Shake your body

뜨거워진 이 무대 위에서 같이 놀아볼래

복잡한 건 지우고 모든 걸 내게 맡겨

               Marcy spared them a brief glance, shrugged, and held her right wrist up and fired a special arrow towards them.

               It combusted in their midst and let out a shockwave that made their internal hardware explode.

               The Ribbitvalian’s jaws hit the ground.

               Undeterred, Marcy and her steed focused on the area here and dropped mines that blew up three shield generator bots and six Tank bots in just four seconds. She high-fived Bomme upside down in the air seconds later and unleashed several volts of lightning that fried three squads of Frobots above her.

 

               For the closing chorus of the song, her steed hovered in placed while she took her hood off. Her hair was glowing, three times its usual length and burning like a swaying green bonfire.

 

               The sight was entrancing to the Ribbitvalians. It was so bright but not blinding to look at. They couldn’t turn away.

               Marcy did a formal curtsy with her legs, cloak and hands just like Olivia had taught her many times. Then she cracked her knuckles, lit green fires to swirl around her and danced with skilled dance moves of k-pop, shoulder pops, Batusi, pop and lock, head bangs, disco freestyle, arm waves and rolling her hands like she’d seen Anne do many times, smiling and shining like a radiant star in the sky. The sun and blue sky looked even brighter behind her.

 

 

               While she danced, she formed the flames with her mind into the words- “Well met, Ribbitvale! I’m a witty poppin' lockin' fresh don't stoppin' hip-hop B-girl having a blast doing this renovation Andrias did NOT approve of! It’s too quiet and depressing around here! Please keep being the fanciest town in Amphibia and enjoy this cool action scene with a soundtrack and a breath of fresh unpolluted air to add some sugar and spice into your lives!! Hop to the beat or just enjoy your wonderful tea while I shimmy and shake on this beautiful day!! Give me a tax-free smile from a safe distance!!”

               This original greeting/advertisement flashed in the air in blue, pink and green colors.

                To make it even better, she formed a massive 😁 emoji above these words. A 🫶hand emoji was underneath the words, and a ✨(in all three Stone colors) was above the smile. To the left of the words a 🦚hovered, and to their right a 🎶 shook in tune along with the song.

             All this flashed above her like a neon sign while she danced.

               The display of words and symbols stayed there for a full 10 minutes.

               A gigantic blue, red and orange explosion of parts, remaining Frobots, laser parts and Boomshroom crates went off below her in large blasts and rose to form mushroom clouds.

               The reason for that was Smarcy (her helmet faceplate displaying a😆 ) spinning in a rapid circle below her, firing blue lasers out of her ‘hands’ that were coming out of two small circular devices hovering in the air masked by her hologram.

Ho-Ho-Holiday Ho-Ho-Holiday

Ho-Ho-Holiday It's a Holiday Yeah

               Marcy held her hands and face up to the sky at the end of the song and laughed with delight, looking as happy as a girl could be while saving the day and wrecking an army of evil robots to a soundtrack.

               Wigbert smiled within seconds of seeing the curtsy and greeting line and started to laugh reading the rest of it. So did his family, Crumpet and the entire town. They applauded when the song was over.

               It was the loudest disturbance in their quiet respectable area they’d ever seen. It made very little sense and was very unnatural. It was pure madness mixed with pure chaos. It was catchy, silly, whacky, hopeful and not bothering or harming them at all. This was meant to cheer them up and give them hope for something better. A Star danced in front of them, letting her rays burn bright with the sun overhead to drive away the Night from their lives a bit.

               It worked.

               Bomme clapped and gave a thumbs up along with the rest of their forces on the ground or air.

               Their forces watching back at base laughed, cheered and clapped in delight.

               “Amazing!”Percy yelled.

               “Whoo-hoo!”Braddock jumped and cheered.

               “That a girl!”Halley shouted with pride.

               “Way to go, Mars, you did it!”Veronica said. She was going to accept that offer of being her lieutenant as soon as she got back.

               A certain ghost nearby laughed her undead head off.

               Smarcy thought with relief,“This is perfect for her optimism to reach its peak … along with everyone else’s!”

               Marcy held her hands and face up to the sky at the end of the song and laughed with delight, looking as happy as a girl could be while saving the day and wrecking an army of evil robots to a soundtrack.

               She gave a theatrical bow and said,”Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a wonderful audience! The best one I’ve had yet! You are properly fancy! This poster did not exaggerate!”

               She waved a damaged town poster in hand that said, “We spare no expenses on being properly fancy! That’s why we’re the best at it!”

               They laughed some more and waved as she flew off after winking at them.

              

               There was no way this was going to stay quiet. Every legitimate business contact of Ribbitvale, all the way to the Newtopians themselves, heard rumors before (and even after) they were ordered to not say a word.

               “That was a good one!”Henry chuckled.

               “ I like her … she wants a happy ending with a song!”Crumpet said.

                Wigbert tapped his chin,“Same, she reminds me of a certain friend of my son’s who visited a while back and made a less noisy impact with a game of Beast Polo and kept talking about weird things from another world … things like those words!”

 

               His friends and family agreed. They could see the resemblance.

               The entire Newtopian operation around Ribbitvale was destroyed.

               Andrias heard of it two days later when scouts investigated.

               “No good … she’s got Miss Frite with her … we’ll have to press harder on her forces and send a force to reclaim Ribbitvale … no one must hear of this.”

               He recovered an intact Frobot head and got to watch the first part of the attack. It amused him.

               “Showoff!”

He took his crown off and went into his private room, conveniently burned away of any Core circuits, and added this to a growing collection of things he was collecting about what she was doing all over the place.

               He used the Box to send a Drone to Earth, only for a few minutes, to download their internet for their own servers, and had it come back.

               The next day he managed to find out what their new logos and ‘monster robot’ designs were about by looking them up and laughed for a whole minute.

               “I must use some of this … it’s only fitting she has proper monsters from this to fight!”

               He was enjoying this … fighting her. It was almost like matching wits in a game against her again. Even if he didn’t win … he was going to enjoy this.

              

               “I think we could use a train … for outside travel purposes …”Bomme suggested on the way back.

               “Hmmm, and one that could do all-terrain … go on!”Marcy said.

               The Portal alert concerned them, and after confirming their wasn’t a robot after Anne, they realized Andrias now had some information.

               “Welp, looks like we can expect a counterattack. Let’s get ready for the next level!”Marcy told her expanded army.

*Veronica sounds like Cree Summers. Think Cree/Abigail from KND or Miranda from ‘As Told By Ginger’.

              

 

              

 

 

 

Notes:

Yumi's season 4 design looked cool, so I made her design that way. Odd's Evolution costume and extra arrows (plus his brief Homing arrow upgrade) are my favorite design of his (his season 4 look was stupid, especially the ears), and Ulrich in original outfit and full power (2 swords and temporary energy upgrades) rival Aelita and William as the most powerful.
William's character has always been my favorite (powers, voice and more), and Cloud Strife's Buster sword inspired his (in Final Fantasy) so the Fantasy Galaxy geek Marcy would like that immediately. They have the same voices as their English VA.
Edit: Maya Stones is an OC member to balance the gender ratio since Laura didn't join and turned traitor (Sasha is later going to hate her when reviewing the show a lot as a manipulative blonde worse than her) and Eva Skinner became a member only in novel form. Eva's sonic powers and the Subdigitals band and Aelita's mother Anthea's hairstyle gave me some ideas. Maya was Aelita's name that Jeremie assigned her since she didn't know her real name at first and Stones was her fake last name, so they're using both for the new girl. />
For the sake of this story, Lyoko had an extra season of Evolution (let's pretend it was a bit better written) to officially wrap up the cliffhanger, Laura (and the Ninjas) got temporarily possessed, and some additional monsters seen in concept art (the Labsturs, Tripods, Liefwalkr-I'm not joking, they actually had that) were in it and will be used.

Vicki, Charlotte are based on V, Doll, Uzi and Nfrom Murder Drones. Vicki is like V, but nicer and chipper like N. . Charlotte is scary, dark and moody and speaks Russian like Doll, a rock/punk girl with a soft side like Uzi, and very caring and white-haired like N. Marcy has not watched Murder Drones (it hasn't come out yet in her timeline :P), I'm just using their characters for visual, vocal (they sound just like V and Doll) and character comparison.

The Frost Knight's are the anti-heroic Knights of the Ebon Blade (renamed Obsidian in this) of Warcraft with gear and story up to Shadowlands(since Amphibia took place in 2019-2020). Darius and Baldor (Darion and Bolvar) are a mix between each other in their roles the highest ranking Death Knights and temporary replacement for Arthas. Darius is the Lich King/Knight in this ... I think it suits him since he founded the Ebon Blade and Bolvar barely got any time to shine in battle ( I do like him and his hammer thought). Also, Mograine-Migraine, get it? (You'd think being a Death Knight gets you major migraines for obvious reasons).
Verana/Verona just so happens to be the first distinct undead Void elf and a friend to Alleria? Sold! Magister Crystallyn/Crystal is a Void Elf Frost mage and likely candidate for Bolvar's new generation of DK's, so I'm adding her. The same goes for Kadmos, Vanessa, Lonna, aka Vindicator Caedum, Caravan Commander Veronica and Anchorite Lanna, a human paladin and two Lightforged Draenei who potentially died on Island Expeditions and Kul Tiras. The new DK were gathered from graves all over by the Horsemen during the Fourth War, so they'd fit for new DK candidates. Draenei will be called Exodarians and Forsaken Forgotten, etc.
I liked Arthas's Helmet of Domination and the Ashbringer sword, so I included them. Bolvar's hammer is unnamed, so I used one fan idea of Flamemourne for it. I used various design references and skins of Death Knight weapons and armor/helm designs. Feel free to look up the slightly altered names if you wish.

The Asurdroids took their names from Final Fantasy, TMNT (Sydney/Quarry)One Piece (Nico Robin's VA), Xiaolin Showdown (Kimiko), X-men (Spiral), and four Overwatch characters.

Bomme's name is Dutch, so I decided she should sound South African. Halley is basically a nicer Harley Quinn.

Starcraft has Tosh, Tychus and Raynor, three fan favorite rebels. The other Marines are based on the Amerigo demolition crew (the last one was possibly a ghost or bomb tech, so along with Tosh I gave him the Marine look) and the two Marines in the trenches in Brood War's intro. Apart from Malkovitch and Jacobs, I used names of Aliens marines for the rest of the Amerigo crew.

I could not resist the idea of Veronica having an adorably sassy/raspy voice with a good laugh that would work for a witch and Cree Summers fits the bill perfectly.

Chapter 5: Ch. 4.5 Campfires, Side-quests and Goofing Off

Summary:

Secure in her new role with a growing army, Marcy begins expanding in a more relaxing way.

Even more shoutouts and some old faces. Plenty of minor ones from the show show up and some territories on the map expanded on.

Notes:

If anyone asks, I chose the name Nimbus because it's a synonym for Halo.

Update: I'm not planning to make it too easy by letting the rebels have all the cool stuff, I promise. Marcy's getting them up to snuff because she knows it's going to get harder soon and can't mass produce everything on a grand scale or get too cocky with her enemies.

 

Ch. 4.5 Campfires, Side-quests and Goofing Off

“Oh, the power to be strong

And the wisdom to be wise

All these things will come to you in time

On this journey that you're making

There'll be answers that you'll seek

And it's you who'll climb the mountain

It's you who'll reach the peak”-Son of Man lyrics (Tarzan)

               Anne was a constant for Marcy to check on. To her delight, she found the work of one scientist, Dr. Frakes of Frakes Brainasium, who was doing passable work on the portals with a close call that their own first trip to Amphibia had opened a brief portal to in her secret lab.

               Her assistant Terri was a better person than her and aided Anne and the Plantars in escaping from her mad boss. Already she had a working portal idea that was calculated to succeed in a month or two.

               “Sweet! We might not even need to steal the Box to get her back!”Smarcy said as they copied her files into their own (just in case).

               “True. I’m feeling good! Let’s have some fun, some work and pleasure!”Marcy grinned brightly

 

*Campfire Stories-Bring da hammer down!*

               “I’d like to know more about Sasha’s plans …”Marcy said to Percy and Braddock.

               Braddock hesitated“I don’t know, Mars … there was a lot of details …”

               “No sweat, hang on!”She gave them a special circle device to touch, focused her mind for a second, and put it on the ground.

               “We can just  see what you saw!”

               The first memory played of when they went to the North Tower.

               Bufo said,” So, the disgraced Captain Grime called this council meeting? Does anyone have any idea why?”

               Beatrix joked,“Maybe he wants to be surrounded by friends when he gets arrested. What do you think, Aldo?”

               Aldo looked dead. Plants covered his body and a beetle crawled from one eye socket to the other.

               Bufo asked a question many wondered long before this,“Uh, is he asleep or dead?”

               “Definitely smells dead.”Beatrix said. The waiting toads all laughed.

               “Not exactly a welcoming crowd,”Braddock said nervously as they peeked out from a curtain.

               Percy agreed,“Especially that Captain Beatrix! What's her problem?”

               “Her problem is that she's my sister. And I may have teased her quite a bit when we were tadpoles.”Grime grumbled.

               “Sibling rivalry, a tale as old as time!”Marcy said wistfully.

               Moments later they did a grand entry and shot t-shirts saying ‘Toadz rule!’ on them. Marcy rolled her eyes.

               Grime did a speech,“My fellow toads. For years, we have kept the kingdom's servants in line. But are we not just servants ourselves? I propose a future where toads overthrow King Andrias, and take our rightful place as rulers of all Amphibia.”

               “Pst. Drop the mic!”Sasha whispered.

               “Oh right!”

               The toads loved the idea but disliked the idea of Grime leading it.

               “So tell us, tell us, who's leading this revolution?”

               “I was thinking … us?”

               Bufo said,“Yeah, I don't think so. We love your vision, but no toad is going to follow the command of a fugitive and his hummus.”

               “Humans. We’re called 'humans'!”Sasha snapped.

               “Is it really that hard of a word to remember?”Marcy asked her group. They gave so-so gestures, shrugged or shook their heads.

               “I’ve got it down by now!”April promised her.

               Beatrix dropped a bomb for Sasha,“Bufo's right. Just because King Andrias is working with a couple of hummuses doesn't mean us toads will go for it.”

               Sasha had a negative reaction to this,”Wait, other humans? They must be talking about Anne and Marcy. I don't believe it. They're working together? Without me?”

               “Jealous much?”Marcy said flatly.

               She got so mad about his she went savage on the toads Bufo directed to arrest them. She asked,” Listen here, you buffoon! What's it gonna take to prove that you should follow us?”

               Aldo raised his body up and spoke in a deep voice,”Barrel’s Warhammer.”

               Bufo said,“Barrel's Hammer? You've finally gone senile, Aldo.”

               “Yeah, that's a suicide mission.”Beatrix agreed.

               Aldo was insistent,“It is said that the one who wields this hammer is the true leader of all toads. It is the one thing, the only thing, that will prove we should follow you.”

               Sasha didn’t hesitate,” Great! Done! You'll have it in your Crypt-keeper hands by morning.”

               Bufo’s warning was the first bad sign,“No toad has ever gone after the hammer and made it back alive. This I've gotta see.”

               The Legend of the Warhammer the three toads told Sasha intrigued Marcy and the Frost Knights a lot, but Marcy was alarmed seeing how much risk Sasha put them all in spite of promising she’d call it off if it got too risky.

               The Narwhal worm guarding the Hammer embedded in its head nearly killed them more than once and destroyed their boat, but she didn’t call it off.

               One line showed how possessive she was about her friends when even Grime tried to talk her out of it.

               “It's no use. Sasha, we've got to get out of here or we'll all die.”

Insane and obsessed, she yelled,” No! I can do this! I am not gonna fail! Not while Anne and Marcy are getting by without me!”

Her latent Star powers helped her pull the Hammer out and save the day, but at the cost of ramming into the Tower and driving Percy and Braddock away as her friends.

               “No wonder you left … that was nuts!”Marcy said sadly to the pair.

               “Yeah, too much …”Percy said sadly.

               “How about before? The fight Anne mentioned”Smarcy wondered.

               They got to watch Sasha’s arrival, toad army feats, time as an outlaw and more

               Her fight with Anne was worse than she thought.

               After she had all of Wartwood ready to die, Sprig showed why she disliked him so much by hitting her in the face with a slime attack.

               “What the heck?!”She yelled.

               “For someone who's Anne's best friend, you sure don't know her very well. She's brave! She's smart! And most of all, she's not gonna be pushed around by a bully like you!”

               Sasha wiped her face and came at him,”I think I've had enough of you, squeaky toy.”

               Anne did a brave thing by drawing a sword to block the attack.

               “Anne, what are you doing!?!”

               She looked just as angry as that day at Newtopia,“Something I should have done a long time ago: Standing up TO YOU!”

               Grime earned some bad points for making it worse,” This should be fun. My friends! Instead of a messy free-for-all, I have a splendid idea. How about we settle this the toad-fashioned way? Trial by combat! If your champion wins, you all go home, no harm, no foul. But if our champion wins, well...”

               He cheated when Anne won (cutting Sasha’s cheek in the process). The Mar Guards added that to their list of reasons to school him later.

`             

               Marcy got to see some of Sasha’s thoughts on her. “Is Anne your only best friend?”Braddock asked one day.

               “No … there’s Marcy!”Marcy’s heart soared seeing Sasha smile fondly while showing their photo,”Total nerd, and I mean more than most of you nerds … Mar-Mar is the smartest girl I ever met. I don’t think there’s a single school subject she couldn’t ace in no time … except gym class!”

               “It’s true!”Marcy admitted.

               “Such a klutz, too! She’s always stumbling around with her head in the clouds or a book, or a game, and nearly running into some catastrophe! Anne kept an eye on her all the time to make sure she didn’t hurt herself too bad …”Sasha sighed,”If she’s here without either of us to keep an eye on her … I don’t want to think about how bad it could get.”

               “It didn’t get harder than falling down 200 flights of stairs, Sash, don’t beat yourself up!”Marcy said. The two toads and the rest chuckled.

               However, she got cross when a few of the other toads showed Sasha’s plans after retrieving the Hammer.

               “Ok, so I’ll find my two friends and sweet talk them into leading me and Grime into Newtopia. If Mar-Mar’s so tight with the king himself, that’s even better. I could get her to lead me right into the Palace. We can take Andrias down and let the rest of you guys in the gates after forcing them to open them!”Sasha said to the three Captains.

               “Is that a good idea? I thought you said this other friend of yours is a genius?”Troy said.

               Sasha smirked mockingly,“Oh, Marcy? She’s a genius, but super oblivious! She’ll never see it coming!”

Marcy glowered.

               “Don’t mind them!”April said soothingly.

               “I know … but I’m bringing this up to her AND Anne later! Let’s see what she has to say after that!”Marcy grumbled.

              

*First Temple Excavations and Upgrades*

               Andrias took Marcy’s new threat level seriously and started fielding more of his tougher designs around the Valley to keep the rebels busy while he started upgrading to compensate. The Fire Frobots and Tank Bots were seen more often.

               The Tank Frobots got two new color schemes/models: White and Black. The White ones had their hand cannons modified to shoot powerful laser blasts and they had long serrated claws resembling claws for fingers. The Black ones had the same claw type and had a large missile pod they could deploy from their back to fire up to eleven missiles at once in crouch mode.

               The Bulldozer bots got a new model: Crusher. Their front blades got reinforced with spikes and they had two extra arms folded by their sides. When attacked, they could deploy them decked out with miniguns. Their front arms could unfold and separate the blade into two parts to allow for two extra arms tipped with the two halves as weapons up front. Already, construction work up North was resuming with minimal sabotage.

 Stealth and subtlety were areas Andrias had neglected on the battlefield at large. To remedy this, Cloak-Bots and Dragonfly drones were deployed to stalk and observe the Valley (with little to no success).

               Andrias wasn’t offended when he realized his new Royal Guard robots were ineffective as elite protection after Marcy’s raid crushed over 150 of them he sent out to guard certain spots. Instead, they were redubbed Lancer Frobots and shifted roles to be deployed as foot soldiers in bulk with the rest of his troops while he started making more a more capable elite protection force of his own.

               Triple B even contributed by making a new bug drone. The Cicadas of Amphibia were the size of sheep and generally avoided fights unless engaged since they ate plants. The Cicada Drones (Cicadrones for short) were colored black and red bug eyes. Their cybernetic orange wings allowed for high-speed flight and helped channel a sonar and radio wave attack that disrupted electrical signals. The lower-level Core and CRA robots were vulnerable to this attack. Their exoskeletons were more durable than most drones, and their forelimbs were tipped with sharp claws they could swipe at their enemies with at close range. Missiles in their abdomens and laser eyes made for good long-range attacks.

               They’d harassed the Valley effectively since being deployed. Sasha narrowly avoided getting blown up by two of them.

               Marcy was already expanding on simple army forces of her own, of course.

               “Perfect!”She said while overlooking some general new Galaxy War designs and looks for her basic forces.

               The Standard Frobots had several Stormtrooper/Clone trooper paint designs and helmet looks among their ranks now, along with DIE (Dual Ion Engine) pilots. The Magnas and CGs had performed splendidly as bodyguards and the rest did their jobs well.

              

               Naturally, the Droids of the series generated some more ideas. Battle droids had been made. The 1B series were of no use as weak units, so the more formidable 2B models with dual wrist-blasters on both arms were made. Their small ‘heads’ on their torsos were adjusted to look mor Amphibian with red eyes matching a Frobot’s. They could fly and do basic hand-to-hand combat.

               The similar light-blue Aqua droids (AD), 2.83 m tall with a polygon shaped head and single red eye were ideal for patrolling the swamps, oceans and rivers. They had a fast-swimming mode with propellers, reinforced bulky armor, and a retractable laser cannon on their right arms for ground attacks. and a missile launcher for underwater attacks. She added aquatic ‘hair’ that resembled pink glowing jellyfish oral arms (six) that emitted sonic fields underwater for sonar attacks/sensing. They were given a feminine personality with the polite TC-14’s voice and courteous behavior off the battlefield.

               The iconic Destroidekas were perfect for her army. The 6 ft tall three-legged droids  with twin-repleating blasters for arms, personal shield generators, and the ability to roll into a ball for rapid mobility were by far among the most deadly droids in the series. They’d hardly had to add any upgrades at all for their versions except for a back mounted sensor to detect sneak attacks. It helped that the Amphibians had no real concept or use of EMP attacks, one of their shield’s few weaknesses.

               They were costly and expensive to maintain with the shield technology, so Marcy limited herself to seven of. Her robot them supplies were a bit strained, one reason she was focusing on adding some more living troops to her forces.

               The best one, however, was not them, but the Tri-droid, another three-legged droid of 3.6 m height with three red orbs giving them a full omnidirectional view with no blind spots. Three swiveling blasters were mounted below their large orb-shaped head. Much like their counterparts, they were immune to electrical attacks.

               “Battle droids! It’s an invasion army … that we’re using to fight an invasion army of evil droids!”Smarcy declared,”Just like the Rebel Alliance of old, we’ll use droids and living rebels alike fighting as friends to end the Evil Empire!”

               “You got all this from some story with heroes using mind magic and laser swords and robots in a battle for a whole universe?”Braddock said in disbelief.

“It’s cool that these Rebels use their friendship and force powers to take down this evil Empire!”Percy said.

               Marcy gasped,”Percy, you are a gift!”

               She hugged the confused toad and said,”That gives me a great idea for our next spot to look for more stuff!”

               They headed towards the First Temple, the place for Marcy’s Stone of Wit.  “It’s so fitting, I got overconfident and all set to prove I could beat the place no Amphibian had survived trying to get inside I got too in the zone and had to throw the flipwart game, which the place was cheating with anyway, but thankfully the Wit stone also looks for humility. It said ‘Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it's more important to win, or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and, honestly, doesn't that make you a winner in the end?’ I’m still choosing friends and now I’m all charged up to be like Anne!”

               Percy said,”Happy to help on ideas, Mars … but what’s the deal with this place again? Besides being the Temple for your stone?”

               “You’ll see when we get to Amygdala Woods …”She said.

               “Remind me what the other two are again?”Braddock said.

               “Oh yes, Anne’s was at the next one for the Heart Stone at Mt. Mufu. Everything I found on that one was vague, it just said ‘heart’ a lot. Valeriana from the Bizaare Bazaare guarded the place … she vanished with Anne to somehow do a trial?? The other Bazaar guys say she’s always been a mystery and much older than she looks, so one of these days I should find her again. She hasn’t been around that area last I checked. Thankfully, we now know the Heart Stone looks for empathy and responsibility. Somehow it looks like she didn’t charge the Stone all the way and retained enough power to activate her Calamity form. Strength, Sasha’s bit, we’ve already got the stuff from the Third Temple. It is the largest of the Stones …”She leaned closer and said,”If I had to guess, it’s not just the stone representing being strong, but has the most raw power in it!”

               “So Sasha could be even stronger than anyone on Amphibia? That is so awesome, but so terrifying at the same time!”Percy said. He and Braddock shivered at the thought.

               Marcy patted him on the back,”I know, but thankfully, it was a better proving ground area for her than the Warhammer. That Stone looks for both strength and persistence. The final challenge for her was to learn what strength was all about. Anne telling her she believed in her and reminding her that she never gave up was all she needed to get that drive to win it! When Anne gets back, we should see if we can get a bit of her powers!”

“Oh look, it’s still intact!”Veronica said as the green fungal area came into view.

               Amagydala Woods was a mass of large mushrooms the size of trees. The local fungi were growing brighter and stronger since Marcy’s awakening.

               It was still relatively untouched by Andrias’s forces.

               “Amagala Woods … that’s what it’s called?”Percy said.

               “The name is Amygdala Woods,”Marcy corrected him gently as they went inside the forest of large fungi,” It’s made up of large Gyromitra esculenta, aka brain mushrooms. Amygdala sounds like the parts of the brain, the Amygdalae, that define and control emotions! It’s fitting we have those around Wit Stone’s Temple!”

               “Neat. Do the mushrooms do anything?”Percy asked.

               “Of course, any mushroom does something!”Bomme said.

               Marcy started harvesting one,“Yup. For example, Ptitikós Agaricus, aka Boomshrooms, were bred over the centuries from a toxic kind found in caves. Their cousin species, the Stinkshrooms, make great lethal repellant. These mushrooms have spores and fluids good for the cerebellum! Let’s get some samples so we can grow our own!”

               Her team did so.

               “I can feel them now … smarter than any other fungus or plant around them!”Marcy said.

               “I thought a fungus was a plant?”Braddock said in confusion.

               -10 minutes of Marcy and Aelita explaining later-

               “Never mind!”Braddock said hollowly.

               “Here, just have these informative field guides for future reference!”Smarcy said consolingly. Yumi passed her a copy.

               “Thanks!”The blonde toad said.

               They went inside the door. The place opened up for her and offered them no challenges.

               “Thank goodness, it got so dangerous last time trying to charge the stone!”Marcy said with relief.

               “More than that … it’s recognizing you as its master …”Lonna said quietly.

               She was right. The Flipwart statues, other statues and every defensive area made way for her or started following her.

               A few puzzle cubes were offered by the Wart pieces.

               Writing appeared on the walls. “So you’ve opened your mind and a great evil you seek to rid, come in, Wit, and see what treasure inside is hid!”Marcy read.

               She was able to open the chambers below.

               In caves and vaults below, they found a lot of things. Treasure, mystical chains with a curse on them that couldn’t be removed unless the caster did so, charms, special gems, ancient weapons, texts and more.

               “Ohhhh,”Marcy swiveled her head to several growing crystals in a pile in the last one.

               “Something’s up with those … I can feel it, my mind knows it!”She gently poked one with her spear and examined it from every angle she could think to make sure it was safe, and they packed them all up.

               Bomme and Marcy tested the crystals for danger and could find no dangerous properties. The crystals had psychic properties that could reveal the thoughts of those holding them and act as shields against psychic attacks. They started using them for special ingredients in potions and defensive charms and armor implements.

               “Great haul!”Percy said, holding a scepter in his hands.

               “This spot would make a great hidden base!”Vizzini suggested.

               “I agree!”Marcy said.

               The spot became a second base for them. Using the Temple’s powers, some magic and working portal experiments, they arranged it so that they could teleport from a special chamber underground to the Nerve Center and vice versa.

 Anyone or anything else who tried to get too close to the Temple grounds started getting painful headaches and the normal Frobots short-circuited. The flipwart statues were named Flip Guardians and assigned as permanent guards on the inside.  The CRA removed the statues of Aldrich and the other monarchs, along with any other monument to the Leviathans, and crushed them.

               The mushrooms of Amagdyla Woods were a useful supply. They made valuable stress-reducing potions, sleep potions and brain healing or enhancing ones. Marcy’s stress and intelligence levels were kept stable and improved.

               To expand on her own army, another Clash of Cultures-based units was created here: the Newtromaton. The Atlantean Automaton from the sixth game she knew so well could repair itself when broken for the first time. The newt-based version worked the same way and had fish-like spines on the tail to match the fin-like crest on the Greek-style helmet and spikes on the metallic version of their sand-dollar shields.

               The Frost Knight’s weapons and amor got upgraded to be more dangerous and virtually unbreakable, using powers similar to their original levels. They agreed not to use the plague-inducing ones or more graphic ideas. But they still had a wide array of healing magic, limited control over the weather, elemental powers, gravity fields, magnetic fields, light and energy-based powers like Anne and Marcy’s (specifically telekinesis) and shadow magic. Best of all, they could use Frostflames, combining fire and ice to burn and freeze in equal measures, an elemental attack unparalleled in Marcy’s army.

               It helped that there were some gems with powers and properties useful to apply to the idea of equipping their weapons and armor with these gems for extra powers. Gems that gave off force fields, added an additional element to control, increased their power, absorbed power, etc. The most valuable find was a green gem with corrosive energy inside it that could eat away at the strongest metals and through force fields. After testing these ‘Caustic’ gems on some Shield Bot shields, they adopted it for use on heavy targets that could otherwise not be damaged easily. The ‘Corroding Blast’ would be one of the Frost Knight’s best trump cards in days to come.

               The Four Horsemen and Darius got their weapons infused with Calamity energy to make them a threat to the Core’s essence.

Darius’s Helm of Subjugation was renamed the Helm of Cognition. It gave off a powerful psionic aura that could incapacitate enemies in front of him and dispelled the effects of brainwashing from the Mindshrooms. It could also be used to lend his strength to Marcy to make her power greater. The Four Horsemen had strength and power comparable to half of Marcy and Anne’s.

Salazar had enough resources to work with to begin recreating his dreaded mounts for the Frost Knights: the Acheron Chargers. These horses were black Pegasi with glowing legs, blue eyes, ghostly manes, and large retractable wings glowing with blue fire. Their bodies and heads were covered with spiked barding armor and cloth. It took him awhile, but he managed it.

Darius rode a mare named Idylla with extra-large wings and blue armor. Bolvar’s stallion Makhaira wore red, Nazgrim’s stallion Legionnaire wore black, Toras’s mare Keres wore pale green, and Sally’s mare Rhiannon wore vivid white. Salazar’s horse Eclipsa was an all-black mare with a shadowy mane and smoking red eyes. The other knight’s chargers wore simple black or grey armor.

Thazarus, Crystal, Mez, Ravyn, Crocus, Sylalleas, Marcus, Filmore, Enoch, Kadmos and Minerva’s mares were named (in order) Dusky, Sable, Yara, Onyx, Midnight, Flurry, Blaire, Esperanza, Ariadne, Calantha and Flicka. Siobhan, Imhadria, Mariah, Septimus, Koliath, Grenda, Lancaster, Arabella, Makariya, Verona, Lonna, Grenda, Vanessa and Arachni’s stallions were named Blaze, Comet, Skyfury, Farul, Redmist, Hidalgo, Wildheart, Beowulf,  Altair, Cassius, Psyche, Zethus, Oda and Solstice.

Marcy added the unique power of Mechromancy to her power set and theirs.

 This power could reform their own damaged or destroyed robots back together to a limited degree and also form destroyed enemy Frobots with intact parts into new forms that were less machine and more like magic-powered golems. The Soldier, Hood and Froglet Frobots became Geisters, shambling skeletal Frobots with tattered hoods and cloaks one, a single yellow eye peering out, a hangman’s noose around their necks, and wielding their lasers, axes, shovels and pickaxe in combat or for manual labor.

Lancer and Gilded Frobots were remade into Crypt Bots. They carried purple tridents and scythes for weapons that could fire explosive blasts. For defense, they carried shields shaped like coffin lids that were impervious to lasers and fire. Their chassis’s were remodeled into fireproof grey and gold knight armor with Frog-mouth helmet heads. Some were stationed to guard the Temple and other main bases every day and night.

The Fire Frobots were reformed into red and black floating robots with no legs, large hands with four clawed fingers, and Jack-o-lantern style heads with flames coming off at all times. Marcy called them Jack-a-Bots. They could breathe fire and wield whips and swords made of fire.

The exceptional amount of destroyed Lancer Frobots, Shield Generator Bots and Construction Bot parts from their first week raiding got reformed into some unique machines. Marcy had the idea to use their bodies to house accumulated factory computer AIs that were reset as blank slates or some of her own. Her first ten factory computers volunteered to go first

 The resulting blue and white Nagataurs were moderately intelligent and very obedient to any order. They had six crustacean legs holding up a slimmer torso with the usual bulky Frobot pauldrons, four arms, and a new crablike head with ridges on top, fins on the side, and red eyes. They had two large crab-pincers on their upper arms with massive strength and four-digit webbed fingers on the lower pair. They could travel underwater or up walls, had an immunity to nanites/magic/ electricity, intuitive understanding of the machinery around them, a mental connection to the Marnet systems, telekinetic power over water, sonic devices in their skulls that allowed them to release sonic scream attacks that could do massive damage to the surroudings or channel hypnotically entrancing sounds that scrambled the audio sensors of robots and dazed living enemies.

The first Nagataur, the Nerve Center’s original computer, was named Amy. The other first ten (in order) were Sigourney, Helen, Gladys, Lorelei, Fiona, Ellen, Majell, Sarah, and Cameron.

 

They were assigned to guard the bases (especially the First Temple), instruct newly made or converted robots in their training and (re)programming, tend to factories and other structures, monitor Bomme’s new Zapapede farm project, or accompany Marcy and other CR leaders as escorts (especially near the water).

 The Cloak-Bots became Flayers and got larger claws, a grey cloak over their bodies, and lost all other abilities except their cloaking, laser eyes and extendable arms. The Dragonfly drones became Wispflies, fiery blue butterflies with hypnotic effects on living and machine alike. They could unleash mystical fire from their bodies that could heal and burn as they wished.

This Mechromancy was limited and could only work on three to five robots at a time outside of their territories, but it was worth it.

Aelita had a Creativity power added, like her original Lyoko one, that let her shift the surroundings in a 20 m radius. If she focused while sitting on the ground, she could use a clairvoyance ability (like Second Vision) to see long distances away or sense approaching enemies

Yumi could now summon a white and pink bo staff that was harder than diamonds. The staff could deflect lasers and absorb kinetic force from blows she could release back at targets. Her Teek power’s level, speed and range was doubled and could now repel enemies with great force if they get too close if she wished.

 Odd’s hoverboard was reinforced and could be controlled by him mentally when he wasn’t on it. He got enhanced reflexes after he, Magna 2 and 4, and Hana got taken down and temporarily destroyed in an ambush by the Valley entrance.

 Ulrich got his original Triplet ability, allowing him to create two energy copies of himself that could do attacks but got destroyed with one blow.

His Katanas and Will’s Zweihander were upgraded to the same level of durability as the Frost Knight’s weapons. Sterns and Dunbar could now run/ fly faster than the speed of sound if they wished. The girls could all break the sound barrier with increased flying speed.

Maya gained the power to clap her hands together and unleash a sonic boom attack she called ‘Concordoom’. Even better, she finally got unique weapons: Two foot sky blue Tuning Forks capable of muting sound around her, sending out soundwaves, and firing powerful sonic blasts and unleashing shockwaves when struck against.

The CGs had a paralysis device added that could let them paralyze a target with a touch for 24 hours. The Magnas could now use their magnetic fields to levitate and damage the circuitry and memory banks of computers and opponents at close range.

 The Hunters could now ‘eat’ nanobots and other enemy machinery to get stronger and absorb information.

 

The Driders got an internal cloaking device that rendered them invisible to Andrias’s sensors completely and some additional weapons: a ‘sick as frog railgun’ capable of blasting through solid steel and triple-layered metal doors (they tested it on the Castle gates from long range, much to Andrias’s annoyance), a quantum zero-point energy beam capable of levitating targets or objects of limited size (up to two at a time), and an Active Denial System (ADS) Heat Ray gun.

The Asurdroids had master levels of control over their elemental powers and intimate  understanding of how each one worked. They could now teleport over 50 miles on their own or more with aid from each other or Marcy. They could carry their weapons in dimensional storage areas in their cloaks that literally let them pull their gear out of thin air. Even better, Marcy honed their arms and legs to focus their attacks and movement at a speed so fast at once that only a being with artificial, superhuman/Amphibian, or Calamity level abilities could hope to keep up with them.

Two new plant guardians were created. The Woodwalkers were Ent-like beings: Walking tree giants with massive strength and durability. They could stand rooted in place and just rest in the sun or walk for miles at a time around the forests.

The Vinesnappers were the more vicious breed. The large Giant Venus flytraps of Amphibia had been used by the toads and others to feed execution victims to since they were mildly more manageable than Carnivorous tomato plants. Marcy created a monster plant more dangerous than both. The Vinesnappers had a single green lidless eye for a head, lengthy vine tendrils flowing around them in the air like snakes and two large snapping fly-trap hands on stalk arms.

               Marcy directed them to lurk around Amygdala Woods or patrol the forests of Northern Frog Valley. The Warders got assistance from both to keep the gardens safe and (to everyone else’s shock) they grew several tomato plants that didn’t eat them on sight, but acted like tame monster pets and let them pick tomatoes from their bases. Pizza and other tomato sauce uses ensued.

               Bomme made two new idea of her own: The Shroom Bots and Clockwar Frobots.

               The Shroom Bots were remodeled Lancers with white eyes, Boomshroom blue-colored bodies and white skull patterns decorating their pauldrons. In place of lasers, their extra bulky hands had ports in them connected to two tanks inside their bodies. These tanks had broken down extracts of Boomshrooms and Brain Mushrooms that provided the fuel and gas to fire explosive blue blasts of energy or a colorless knockout gas.

 The Clockwars were bronze-colored Frobots that ran on clockwork type gear inside. Their design had extra bulky pauldrons and guantlets. For defense, they had laser eyes, cases of Bomme’s vine bombs to fire through ports in their hands, extendable blades in their wrists. It made them immune to electric attacks and their armor was reinforced to be extra-laser proof. The only downside was they needed an hour to rewind and a bit of extra maintenance, but the tradeoff was worth it. Their main attack was a signal jammer held in their chest connected to radio dishes in their arms and backs that could jam electronic signals.

               “Real Steampunk, Bommey! I love it!”Marcy said.

               “I try!”Bomme replied.

               With Clockwars stationed at all their bases or in army groups, they could block radio signals from Andrias’s robots as they saw fit. Soon it became very hard for Andrias to recover visuals from any battle unless they wanted him to see it, and the robots had a harder time summoning reinforcements inside the Valley.

*Veronica’s Witty Wraiths of Wrath*

               “This is going to be perfect for expanding on the magic angle for everyone else! Don’t get me wrong, being a master of science and robots is cool and all, but this … I wanted to be a witch since I got here and learned it was real!”She said to Veronica while they went over the hauls from the First Temple.

               “Yeah, they still don’t get how much of what you do is which, though … I can help it be more obvious!”

               Marcy looked over some charms,“Obvious is hard for magic these days, and always complicated. Any preferences?”

               “For starters, I am so keeping this!”Veronica held up an onyx-black longsword with mystically enhanced durability and slicing. It had proven to be virtually unbreakable and could launch attacks of fire and air from it. Veronica had managed to use her own magic skills to channel spell work with some extra tools and ideas in their arsenal (including a special necklace and a bottomless satchel) and could use it like a witch staff now. She dubbed it the Voidblade for its color and icy cold metal.

               “Cool … now we just need a proper look for you! And we have no shortage of ideas!”

               “It’s still a shame you don’t like my sorceress supreme look!”Bernardo called over.

               “No thanks …it’s nice but a bit too obvious for my style!”Veronic replied.

               A few days later after bonding over some story ideas, Veronica smiled with glee over one look of  a fictional group of undead ghosts in cloaks. “I want to use that look!”

               Marcy’s eyes lit up with equal glee,“Oh, the Ring Wraiths? Go on!”

               The next day near the Boiling Bastions, a work detail was going on near the hot steam lake areas.

               A fire curse exploded in the top refinery chimney. The building caught fire.

               Every Frobot, newt and toad and frog turned to look.

               Veronica stood on the cliffs riding a spider steed. She wore a green and black-tinged cloak over her body, black guantlets, and held her new sword in one had. The hood shadowed her face, but her smile and eyes glowed bright red in plain sight with special illusionary effects/

               “Flee now or suffer my wrath!”She called down.

               “Who are you?”The biggest newt guard asked.

               “I am …. The Frog Wraith of the North!”She yelled. She lit a match to light up a mixture in her hands her mother had taught her, some special moss and herbs, and she tossed it on the ground. Pink and blue flames lit up the area.

She stepped off her spider and  tossed some curse bags at the decrepit trees near her. They came to life and started coming down to attack with her.

               She pointed her sword at the sky and shot a blast of lightning at the sky into the nearest sky. The clouds began to swirl around the area. A tornado formed came down and threw most of the robots and guards around . The buildings and construction gear was torn up with them.

               Veronica had a knack for charming and scary girly laughs that made her a more effective witch growing up. She cackled with mad delight as the guards in the air started screaming, a sound that carried around the mountain area. The captive workers stared in horror, especially when a few Nagataurs, Geisters, a gleeful Vicki, and some Flayers came down with her.

               Beatrix and some scouts witnessed this from the farther ridges to the East. Her troops’ jaws dropped , but Beatrix smiled. “That’s adorable!”

               Veronica lit the main fortified spot on fire with one swing of her blade.

               “Come with me and we’ll have some funnnn!”She said to the workers after her soldiers cut them loose. They were impressed but terrified for their lives, and let her know at once.

               “Good, I was aiming for that!”She replied.

               The guards were left there unconscious (some of them anyway) and reported the story, complete with a picture of Veronica with her ‘anime nightmare hooded face’ (as Marcy called it) on and holding her sword and the area burning behind her. The ‘Frog Wraith of the North’ was said to be one of the new rebel leader’s top leaders, a ‘ghost frog’ out to claim vengeance on Andrias’s forcesShe was a witch with unknow powers who used monsters and drove her opponents made (which was true) and had the animals and plants as her allies to do her bidding (sort of true), and had a cult of followers to worship her new leader.

               “Not true!”Veronica grumbled when she heard that part.

               “Maybe we can twist that back on them?”Bomme suggested.

               “Yessss … we need more robes!”Veronica smiled wickedly. Bernardo nodded at Egwellem, who went speeding off to get some more cloth.

               A ‘Wit Wraith’ Squad with similar robes and armor was formed. Vizzini, Riggy, and Bogster were the first to join. Nicky Flappers was next. A large associate of his nicknamed Tats, a former bouncer toad of large height with dark brown skin and many tattoos on his arms and torso (especially the words ‘Head and Chin’) brough in a former carnie friend of his in the area  nicknamed Blind Ivan Webler, who’d lost his right red eye in a scary accident with a witch years ago with red scars over it. Ivan had phrenology style tattoos over his white head and had a knack for chemistry.

              

               “Fascinating … I like it!”He shook Veronica and Marcy’s hands. “I’d love to put this madness behind me as soon as possible, it’s hard enough to sleep at night here as it is!”

               “Tell me about it!”Marcy shivered. He pitied her a lot when he heard about the Core in detail later and offered her some of his grandma’s best soup as a cheer-up gift.

               Their swords and other weapons were varied, and the ‘cult rumor’ spread.

               “This is … just, wow … I don’t know if I should mock her for this or say it’s a great idea!”Sasha said while reading over the ‘hooded cult’ following her fellow rebel’s new right-hand frog.

               “Nice cloaks at least … and this girl knows how to use terror well!”Maddie said. She kept a copy of that poster in her room and made notes on every magic idea she was hearing about.

               Tats also called in two ex-cons he knew: Ghost-Eyes (a massive muscular toad with red skin, a massive beard and pale pupilless eyes) and Killbog (a black frog with sideburns and larger muscles)

Ghost-Eyes, Killbones and Tats accepted jobs as part of Halley’s mercenary operations. They liked the nice girl who gave them great jobs and complimented Ghost Eye’s failed philosophy class course. Ghost Eyes was mortified that she was haunted by glowing orange eyes and made sure his white glowing eyes didn’t bother her. One day, the trio went out of his way to crush several Frobots that had orange eyes (an increasingly common phenomenon) sent to patrol their area.

               “No one does that around here!”He screamed at one of them while crushing its head with his bare hands slowly.

               Grime and Croaker stood in the distance watching these three brutes go at the robots as they tore into the machines with savage fury.

               “No one does what?”Grime asked Croaker.

               She shrugged.

*Peak Shootout*

               “Great!”Sasha said, looking through a spyglass at the Misty Peaks,”they’re rounding up Zapepedes for their bug minions and for powering their generators!”

               The Frobots were using special gloves.

               A newt scientist named Alan Galilog was there with his massive green toad bodyguard named Sangfroid and his accountant Sigfrog to supervise this. A dozen newt soldiers were with them.

               Bomme snickered with delight several yards away in the other direction and turned to her squad of 10 volunteers (including Gaff, Raynor, Omei, and Oscar), and their  newest two Fireteams (that could function as two separate ones) of eight robots: Spartadroids, Spartan Super soldier-based models from the Nimbus games.

               The success of the Hunters led to making robotic versions of the Bugger aliens of the Hegemony, insectoid aliens standing at 177.8 cm with two pairs of transparent wings under a beetle-shell covering. These versions made for successful aerial support and workers to gather natural resources in plants like real insects. After this, some of the iconic heroes of the games were made.

               The first one had self-regenerating PREFECT-class armor in silver colors. He had a single glowing blue eye in the center of his head. He had extensive force-field projecting abilities that could repel thrown objects and block laser blasts and advanced hacking on a level above a Cloak-bot’s.

                He was nicknamed Sparks, after 343 Guilty Sparks of the games, whose voice and bizarre behavior he emulated.

               Buck, the lighthearted morale booster, ethical and loyal teammate with the best skill in manning heavy guns, had a chassis of grey ODST-type Helljumper armor. His armor was resistant to any type of firearm used here or on Earth and could survive impacts the best unscathed. For that reason, he led frontline charges the best.

               Scully Johnson or ‘Sarge’ had a certain whacky drill-sergeant’s voice, love of Heavy metal, and sense of humor (guess which one) and a DEADEYE-armor body in U.S. marine colors. His vision could zoom in at over 5 km away.

               Jorge was the gentle giant of the group, just like his namesake Jorge-052. In battle he handled rescue and dealt heavy fire to their enemies for rapid takedowns. He stood the tallest at 7’4” and wore a colorful green GUNGNIR-armor design with a GRENADIER helmet model,a yellow chestplate, and mismatched pauldrons of red and green on his shoulders (the right one was bigger). He wielded the heaviest weaponry: a massive heavy machine gun called ‘Etilka with live rounds and lasers.

               The other four Spartans were feminine.

               Linda shared Linda-58’s ARGUS design, skill with meditation/focus, and South African voice. Her processers and HUD (Heads-up Display) had advanced observation, situation and threat awareness. She could literally see in all directions around her and in all spectrums of vision. Marcy made her vision capabilities so good she had probability calculating abilities.

               Lucy was the shortest at 5’10”. She was also the quietest, only speaking when spoken to or when needed in short sentences (much like Lucy B-91). Linda and Jorge kept her close. Her design was grey ATHLON armor with a red visor and PULS armor skin white paint patterns on it. Far from being the weakest, she was the fastest runner, a very good shot, skilled at martial arts, and had the second toughest chassis after Buck.

              

               Spartan Vale was a character Marcy could relate to from one recent game. She was smart, curious and good with alien languages, and had asked endless questions as a child. Growing up, she’d become a surprisingly good soldier.

               The red and gold COPPERHEAD-class model Spartabot had Vale’s name, personality and voice. She was immune to any chemical attacks, adaptable to any terrain, and had cloaking capabilities as a bonus.

               Melanie was her most enthusiastic and perky one. She was made in a purple and silver TECHNICAN-class armor form. Her visor glowed purple and purple Override armor patterns covered the shining silver chassis.

 This armor in lore was meant to allow the wearer to function as a mobile diagnostics center that  could curate and process vast amounts of data and scan living things. Melanie could do all that and had the same force-field abilities as Sparks and access to info on every weapon or tech on file available to master it or counter it. She shared the VA name and personality of the perky and combat-happy monitor 031 Exhilarant Witness from Nimbus 5, a fan favorite character of the game.

              

               Like a Spartan these bots were over 6-ft tall (nearly 7), had an energy shield protection layer and advanced targeting systems in their HUD displays. For the sake of resources, Marcy was limiting use of those and other radical inventions.

 

               They’d made Extractor Railguns from the 4^th game that fired powerful blasts of energy. The Covenant’s Beam rifles, S2S99 Sniper Rifles ( with actual ammo and laser modes) and some other laser rifles were in play.

               “Light ‘em up?”Sarge asked.

               Bomme rubbed her hands with glee,”Yes, Sarge! Yumi’s ground-level team will nab the three supervisors and their living guards. For the rest, pick your targets, fire at will!”

               Shots rang out. A Frobot near the ledge was  hit in the head first.

               “What in Olm’s name is going on here?!”Galilog yelled.

               His robot troops near the mountain were picked apart unit by unit. One ledge was blown from under twenty and they fell into the Zapapedes and were fried instantly.

               “Who’s shooting?!”Sasha demanded. None of them could tell in the fog.

               “Retreat!”Sangfroid yelled.

               A spinning and glowing fan cut through ten Frobots (in the head), all the spears and guns in hand and landed in the hands of Yumi. She stood there with Will.

               “Not so fast! No more hopping, just stopping!”She said in her snarky teen girl’s voice.

               Odd flew in upside down on his hoverboard along with two Reapers and grabbed Galilog,  Sigfrog and the newt sergeant and carried them off screaming.

               “Ninja girls in cute outfits with shoulders like mine, emo edgelords with very big swords, and guys flying on hoverboards ? Really?”Sasha groaned.

               Sangfroid growled and ran at Yumi. She got into a relaxed karate stance and did an epic three-move takedown.

               She did a roundhouse kick to his gut, a jab to his right arm, and a chop to his neck. The large toad, over 7 ft tall, fell down senseless.

 Will ran straight at the closest seven Frobots and spun around with his large sword and bisected all of them. He beheaded three more and kicked a fourth in the gut, denting it hard enough to shut it off. He turned to the rest, held his hands out and let out a Super Smoke cloud that swarmed over them. The dozen soldiers fell unconscious in seconds being hit by it. The remaining 40 Frobots spasmed and exploded when it got inside them.

              

               Yumi levitated the toad with her Teek powers. She and Will tied the newts up in a group and levitated them off the ground behind them.

               “That saves time on our plan to do an avalanche on them, at least!”Sadie said.

               “Yeahhhh …”Sasha conceded,”and that takedown the ninja girl did was cool!”

               “You could do that easy though!”Maddie teased her.

               “True!”Their leader said.

*This place is about to blow*

               “My new Bomme squad is ready!”Bomme said.

               For her own lab security and attack ‘Bomme squad’, Bomme took four Spartabots (Melanie, Sparks, Vale, and Buck), four Fryerbats and four Maraudbots apiece to be upgraded to an elite version, the Cerberus Scorchers (Cerbescorchers) and Anvil Securities special units. The triple-nozzle flamethrowers and claw-like grenade-launcher grips with extra firepower and durability were perfect for scare factor and more damage. They both got Juggernaut forcefields around their fuel tanks and auto-loaders to prevent their arsenal from being targeted and blowing up. The Cerbescorchers had extra fiery tattoo paint around their weapons, torsos and shoulders, and the AS Maraudbots had hazard signs and anvil symbols on their pauldrons and grenade launchers.

               Twelve elite Marines  provided long range and basic artillery for them. They had the War Pig design with the smaller and more robotic helmet look with a glowing blue visor design, bulkier armor and a height of 7’2”.

 Sergeant ‘Trailblazer’ Miles the Fryerbat was first in line for command after the Spartans.

                

               The fact that the game had elite and mercenary versions and alternate ‘skin’ looks was too much for the mercenary inventory to resist. Her personal Siege Tank got the Siegebreaker look.

               Some of their Siege tanks, Hercs, Reapers and Maraudbots got the Ujima Protectorate skin look, with white/grey colors, sleeker/reinforced designs and more upgraded performances for their weapons. The Maraudbots in particular got advanced laser targeting systems that almost never missed.

Many Fryerbats, Medics and Marines got the Dominion Covert Ops skin as well with black reinforced armor, glowing blue Tron-like lines on their armor, the glowing jolly roger of a green skull with a sword and gun, and advanced weapon. The Marines got laser-targeting C-14 Rifles and grenade launcher attachments. The Fryerbats got the Dominion elite Promethean Company’s look (almost identical to the Cerbescorchers in shape and size) with triple nozzles, heat-seeking rocket launcher additions on each wrist, increased resistance to explosions and Juggernaut fields. For the Medics, the addition of an advanced robotic syringe limbs on the back and nonlethal stun grenades and flares made them the best healers in Marcy’s ranks.

Their lead Medic Skibi had the Raynor’s Raider blue armor color scheme, nanobot supplies for robot ‘treatment’, four additional robotic limbs (like insect legs) on her back with additional syringes filled with rejuvenation fluids and Marcy’s best healing potions. She also had forcefield abilities and internal compartments filled with antibiotics and counters to every known infection on hand.

               The Widow Mine robots (half as tall as the Marines) all got Covert Ops design with blue eyes and angular additions on their legs. They burrowed and used Cloak-Bot camo tech to remain out of sight. In addition to lock-on target missiles, they had high-powered lasers and stun shots. They made for a perfect hidden defense security. Barely any of Andrias’s many, many scouting parties to their area got past them at all.

 

               “What say we roast some Mindshroom areas and raid some factories?”The Science officer asked.

               “Of course, it’s the holiday blowout!”Marcy suggested.

               Braddock was confused,“Blowout? How is it a-oh, I get it!”

               Production for the invasion went down by 10% before the end of the week.

 

              

              

*Hitmen Free-for-all *

               Olaf, a former Townie Bugball player for Toadstool, came to Marcy’s base and had some alarming news.

               “A hit frog … he came to my area near Shiro Swamp last week and killed Frog Jordan and Lydia! I barely escaped with my life … I had to fake being dead in a bog nearby to get out!”The nose-pierced toad had a new eyepatch on and bandages over his fingers and ribs.

               “Why was there a hit on you?”Marcy asked.

               “I’m not sure, but … I heard a rumor or two on my way here there were hits put out on old associates of the Wartwood Resistance. We were close with Mayor Toadstool as his Bugball team players … You were the only one I could think of to come to!”

               “You’ll be safe here … leave the assassins to me. Now tell me what you know and start with the one who attacked you!”

 

               Sasha was furious on her way back from a mission with Loggle, Maddie, Toadie, Wally and Felicia. The Marauders had robbed an entire caravan of supplies she’s been expecting and she’d had to fight off twice as many Frobots.

               “Could these be any more infuriating?!”She snarled.

               “We’re still alive, it’s something!”Loggle said.

               “I know, I know …”

               Lasher, a giant green frog of 7’6” ft with red eyes, vine tattoos on his bare chest and the words ‘HIT’ and ‘LASH’ on his knuckles, was a feared mercenary who was very good at using his tongue for a ‘lash attack’ that could break bones and necks and pull foes to him to be broken in his superstrong arms.

               He’d been sent a job to take out this human Resistance leader, a job offered by some hooded newts called the Order of Red Hours.

               “We’ve lost many in our market operations to the Cyberkinetic Witch, and the king himself wants to clean up shop in this Valley!”The leader said.

               “You’ve done good on your targets near Shiro Swamp already! Take her out as quickly and efficiently as you can!”Another one said.

               “Done!”Lasher said.

               The only one they were worried about was Croaker, and they sent six after her while she and Stumpy were dismantling a nearby factory at the same time. Two were unlucky enough to meet her and died. The other four got frozen solid by the Frost Knights before even coming close.

               Lasher sat down on the road out of sight in the bushes eyeing Sasha.

               However, Marcy’s alpha Mothra Luna was in the trees behind him.

               Lasher stood up and crept closer as Sasha turned away to do a peptalk speech.

               As he opened his mouth to do a ‘Lash attack’, Luna shot her Silk threads at him.

               Sasha and her commando squad turned in fright hearing him scream. The giant frog was being dragged back with webs to a red-eyed moth … thing in the shadows of a tree.

               Luna got him webbed up and flew off.

               “Was that a kill-a-moth eating a new victim?”Wally asked.

               “Nope, that thing had arms and the wings looked … bigger!”Maddie said.

               “The wings were glowing a bit … green!”Sasha said.          

               A couple days later, a veteran hitfrog of a similar kind named Gloss Creamback, a fixer certain powerful families employed, came with a large bristly toad named Mucker to take a hit out on Grime.

               Gloss looked deceptively harmless with a safari style hat and a cane in hand. But he used the darts in it with great aim.

               Grime had just crushed three dozen Frobots with eight of the Resistance by his side.

               His back was turned to the pair standing next to a bush.

               Gloss smiled and raised his cane up to fire.

               Weighted chains wrapped around his arms and Mucker’s legs.

               Gloss turned to look up at whoever was doing this … and screamed.

               Grime glanced over and watched in disbelief as a fancy dressed frog and large toad in furry barbarian gear were dragged screaming into the shadows behind them … where a pair of glowing angry purple eyes were waiting.

               A Red Hour named Boggin was riding a beetle carriage out of the Valley when Calypso swooped down and carried him off screaming into the night sky. His drivers assumed he was eaten and rode off … only to get jumped by several Leapers.

               Lord Quagmire of the Newtopian Emissaries was nervous being sent to meet with a messenger of the Red Hours in an auction house near Ribbitvale and ask for some associates to hire. He walked in and saw the crowd of mixed Amphibians bidding on some goods, which included some captives to sell off to factories.

               The auctioneer, a grim frog named Froglo, was raising the gavel when a strand of webbing caught his gavel.

               He and the crowd looked up to see Vicki on the roof. She had the shaking messenger, a frog named Quinley, against the roof in webs.

               “Boo!”She said.

               They screamed and tried to run or attack her. She giggled and landed on the ground, rounding up all 50 of the attendees and Froglo’s staff and associates easily. The place was surrounded by Camo Bots, so they couldn’t escape.

               Glade, a toad with a spiked helmet and centipede tattoos on his left arm, came perilously close to killing Ivy while she did a good job taking down some Frobots near the destroyed Dandelion Inne with a group led by her mother. He set a boomshroom trap near the supplies they were supposed to be taking and waited.

               Ivy stomped on the head of the last robot and came into the rope trap he laid down seeing a shiny sword on the ground and got pulled up into the air.

               Glade smiled as she flailed from his hiding spot. He heard a twig snap and turned around to see Amy glaring at him. She grabbed him with a claw around his throat before he could make a sound and hauled him off after quietly removing the supplies from the nearby shed before it exploded

               “Young lady, what is this?”Felicia said crossly when the other frogs gathering around Ivy, still hanging upside down after the shed blew up.

               “I don’t know!”She protested.

               A group of road raiders on fast snails known for speedy driving along the Ruins of Despair routes rode towards Sasha and a few others on Bessie one day. Will and Ulrich appeared in their path at superfast speeds. They futilely tried to stop and avoid a crash as Will fired his smoke at them. They and their steeds fell unconscious.

               Cyrano de Bogerac was a newt with a curly mustache, musketeer hat, and red cape who was on Newtopia’s payroll as a fixer. He had six cloaked apprentices who followed him to kill Grime and bring his head back as a trophy.

               They saw him enter an empty house and followed him in … only to find Yuriko standing there. She’d used her illusion powers to trick them.

               “En garde …”She said coldly as she drew her own rapiers.

               “Take this machine down at once!”Cyrano yelled.

               She spun the right blade in skilled piercing blows to take down five and then impaled the last one in front of her in less than seven seconds.

               Cyrano stared in shock as they hit the floor dead. He backed towards the door as the terrifying robot newt moved towards him with quiet composure.

               He barely made it three feet out the door before she took him down.

               Galdino was a travelling bounty hunter frog who wore a blue vest and red bow tie. He used barrels full of Amber tree sap to cover his targets and trap them. The ones marked for death got covered entirely into Amber fossils and put in his ‘art collection’.

               The frog fossilized three of Ivy’s paternal relatives in one spot and two of Toadie’s old classmates. He was enjoying a ride to Ribbitvale in a carriage when the vehicle stopped.

               “What’s the big idea, I paid you to be-“His voice trailed off as he saw the Demo Squad pointing their rifles at him and his driver. The driver got a new job with them as soon as he learned what his client was guilty of, but Galdino got put on ice and all his ‘art’ confiscated.

               Karlo was a grey tree frog who could blend into his surroundings. However, some Siber-Bots found him right away when he was sent to observe Sasha on a journey. Thankfully for him, Marcy wasn’t too mad at him for spying and offered him a new job if he told her where his contractor was.

               Thanks to that, a Newtopian base was captured and two more mercenaries were caught. Tonks, a large Barking tree frog with pink hair, had burrowed into the mud to start killing refugees on their way to either Valley rebel group. Some Geisters and HERCs forced her out and caught her. Acris, a Southern cricket frog Toadie’s size, could jump higher than any frog in town. He ran for it after trying to set fire to Wartwood swamp and got three miles away before the Reapers caught him in midleap in the air.

              

               ‘Punctual’ Paula was a very slim frog with purple skin and black eyes. She used needles of cacti, blowfish, metal and all kinds of others to impale her targets with extreme prejudice. After killing the alleged Plantar cousin Stanley to get more potential info on their relatives, she was walking into a café.

               “How many points do you have?”Grenda asked her from a nearby table. She and the patrons and staff jumped. They hadn’t seen her there.

               Paula threw a dozen poisoned needles at her and ran out the door. Grenda ignored the needles and lazily caught her with a shadowy tendril and dragged her back inside and put ice chains on her body.

               In the desert regions near the now abandoned town of Bittyburg, some toads of the Gosa tribe, a small black toad kind who came from the Dry Swamp mountains, came in to hear a job offer from a Red Hour.

               Instead, these turbaned toads and a few others watched as Gaff shot him in the back with a tranquilizer and come up to cuff him. They were so impressed they followed him back for a job.

               Briar and Iris Bogwater had run a daycare center at Bogbarrow Tower near Bogwater Canyon. They’d retired and handed it off to the very temporary owner Tritonio Espada. The Bogwaters were killed in their sleep by Kent, a well-dressed frog in a black suit and glasses with a knack for hypnotism and using his finger claw gloves.

               He confiscated the tower for use as a base for Andrias. Five squads of Frobots and 24 foot soldiers arrived.

               The door banged down and Toras stalked in.

               “This tower is ours now!”He said.

               Ten minutes later, only six foot soldiers were still alive as he led them out in ice chains while the tower was littered with the bodies of his defeated enemies.

               Kevin was a brown frog using the recent siege gauntlets on the market. His two partners Shelly and Sonny wore recent gear. Shelley wore crane style wings and a bicorn hat that let her fly and hid her poison darts well. Kevin’s cousin Sonny enjoyed the mantis style armor for creeping people out and cutting them up a lot.

               They’d burned down a dozen villages above the Valley for a contract recently to force the inhabitants to come out and surrender to be taken away for factory work.

               “Easy money, guys … just gotta hit those woods over there with one good shot and light them up!”Kevin said while near the edge of Wartwood Swamp.

               An axe came spinning out of nowhere and cut the tree branch they were perched on.

               They fell screaming and landed in a heap. They looked up to see Salazar glowering at them from atop his horse.

               A group of toads wearing extra durable Scarab beetle armor went to go try and eliminate Croaker at a meeting.

               They ran into Filmore standing in the road, who spun his blade and cut them down in seconds.

               Eberwet, a small orange frog with a large mane of brown hair, rode his large millipede onto the cliffs above the South Valley and caused an avalanche where the Resistance was supposed to be meeting.

               He was laughing on the way back but then Hana shot him off his ride.

               A large frog named Jonathan was about the size and strength of Dave the Taxi driver, but with purple skin and all of his violet hair done in braids. He had a heavy spear he tipped with Boomshroom and readied it to throw at Sasha riding by with her team to go on a scout and destroy mission.

               Yumi’s fans soared through the spear as he raised it and cut it in half. He blinked as the explosive tip fell at his feet.

               He thought he was going to die, but Yumi levitated him in the air towards her just in time to avoid the explosion.

               “What was that?”Loggle asked.

               “Someone probably got careless with a Boomshroom!”Croaker guessed.

               The most dangerous attempt made was when Andrias hired a few reclusive magic experts, Andrian Vernwart, Eda Clawhorner and Vitimir, to try and curse Marcy, Maddie and Sasha. Marcy caught wind of their first attempts to attack her , which didn’t work, and sent Sally to take them down at their place miles away.

               “Fools, you will pay the price for abusing magic and attacking my leader!”She yelled before freezing them solid. Their supplies were all confiscated.

               Terra Snapnewt, a creepy old lady good with plants, tried using deadly mushrooms and mutated tomato creations to ambush them from the fields. Marcy was so annoyed she sent her Vinesnappers and Shamblers to swallow her whole before destroying her creations. A Vinesnapper spat her back out in front of a livid Marcy.

               A bounty hunter named Flora Dispora, a purple frog with short brown bangs and glasses who liked to ride scary beasts into battle and use curses and a whip, was caught trying to kill an old friend of Bomme’s by her Bomme Squad.

               At the Ribbiton Estate, a very close call happened. Pierre the Killer Joker was a slim but tall frog wore a frilled suit, top hat, and scientist’s goggles over his pale face and purple hair. He was a feared menace who rarely came out of hiding in his hidden lair in a cave under the Olm woods. But when he did, people died. He used a special glider to fly around and chemicals of poisonous gas and acidic slimes that came to life briefly to dissolve evidence and release more gas. A mysterious frog, he’d been suspected of dozens of village massacres during the Sand Wars and never left any witnesses. But plenty heard his laugh after witnessing the carnage left behind.

               He was sent to take out Wally’s family at night after wiping out a troublesome band of robbers and a village holding some of Croaker’s old colleagues on the East Coasts.

               Mariah intercepted him on Skyfury as he flew there laughing after a warmup practice on a caravan of three families. He was frozen solid and hauled back.

               Slough Moe ( a joke nickname he cultivated to deceive people) was a gnarly blue newt with a fast punch and knack for knifework (especially on the knees, another way he liked to make a joke about being slow).

                Moe was all set to enjoy collecting on the reward for killing eight of Croaker’s current contacts in her intelligence network when he ran into Sparks, who took him down in two seconds.

               Lucy and Buck took down six others before they could get the rest.

               Gizzardborne, a disgraced knight, killed Bog Bottom’s chief archivist Shermie to get Valley records. He sent them to Andrias and tried another job. He almost succeeded in causing an avalanche to stall and then ambush Grime on the way back from a mission. But Vale punched him into the mountain instead and broke his arms and sword.

               Marcy sent HERCs to retrieve all of Wartwood’s Historic Town Archive records and books after that.

               Moro and Goro, two tree toad siblings, hid at the top of some tall trees to ambush a crowd of over 30 Resistance members near Bog Bottom.

               Amelie shot them out of the trees in two quick shots from her rifle.

               Caltrop Calhoun, a yellow frog in trapper garb, specialized in ambushing people’s rides. He laid out some carefully hidden caltrops (his signature tool) in the path Bessie was taking one day.

               He waited along with two dozen Frobots.

               Suddenly the Frobots got shot in the head by plasma blasts. Calhoun tried to run only to get wrapped up in a net. He screamed as Grid walked towards him with his blades out.

 

               Edinbog was a darwin frog, a species that resembled leaves. He thought for sure he could stay hidden. But the CGS found him in less than ten minutes after they checked the tip that someone was ready to spy on Sasha’s travel routes and report back.

               A hairy ‘horror’ frog named Knuckey was contemplating a job in a tavern as a Red Hour spoke to some of them. His body had unusual hair along his back and legs and the feared ability to grow claws through his fingers. Many frogs avoided his kind like the plague, so most of his roaming family found work as bodyguards or assassins.

               Maya blew the door down, knocked her target out and stunned the rest with painful sonic waves from her Tuning Forks. Knuckey watched in morbid fascination.

               “Where’d ya get those loud things?”He asked in curiosity when she was done.

               Maya grinned and said,”Help me cart these punks back to base, and I’ll tell you!”
              

               He did so and got a new job offer and place to stay, the first long-term one he’d had in years.

               However, a distant cousin named Laurel sliced up a dozen frogs from Bogwater Canyon and captured two more to be tortured. Imhadria shot her leg and then froze her in one quick combo of bow and spear. Maya blew up the walls of the fort she sold the captives to and the Compact archers riddled the torturers there with arrows and bullets.

               Javier, a hidden salamander newt with extra teeth on the roof of his jaw, was in the middle of painfully torturing two clerks of Bog Bottom by biting them painfully for his partner Dak (a fire salamander newt) so they’d tell them about the two weeks Sasha had spent there. Lucy and Buck burst in and beat them senseless with their bare hands.

               Fribbles, a small orange frog with glasses who worked as a creepy apothecary, tried poisoning Wartwood’s water supplies with cursed potions and toxins.

               In his tent after leaving his dirty work behind, he looked up and saw the Wit Wraiths enter his tent. He screamed like a girl as a cross Veronica (angry from cleaning his work up) threw a curse in his face.

               A more visible incident happened the day after the Hours were eliminated in front of the Resistance. Near the South Tower, some mercenaries (30 mixed ones) were gathered with a force of Frobots (standard, Hooded, and two black Tank Bots). The lead mercenary was a massive frog named Grath of 18 ft. With him stood his shorter cousin Avalo (16’6”), a blue giant frog with a horned Viking helmet and big cyan beard and head of hair. The Bay hound brothers (three newts of 8 ft height with pale skin and brown patterns and all sorts of tattoos) were there hefting massive flails.

               “Yeah, this will be a pickle! We can’t get past them!”Sasha grumbled from her spot in the trees.

               “We can distract them for now!”Grime decided.

               However, the presence of two Cloak-Bots as an additional ambush made Marcy decide to intervene first.

               The force at the Tower turned their heads to see two Tri-droids stalking past in the distance.

               “That’s a new one …”Toadie muttered as he took notes.

               “Whacky design. Looks like it’ll topple right over!”Grime said.

               “Good thing, since they’re headed near our spot!”Maddie said. She held her curse bags ready.

               However, the Frobots heading over to investigate didn’t get far behind them before both reacted.

               Their rear rapid-fire cannons targeted their opponents and took all twenty of them down in just ten seconds. Without losing stride they rotated their guns to fire in sequence at the main group’s position and took out one Tank Bot with a shot to the head. It collapsed on two dozen other robots.

               Half of the grunts and the Bay pack bros tried to run for cover.

               The Cloak-Bots landed in pieces after getting hit from behind yards in front of Sasha’s group.

               She turned to see Tychus standing near a fallen tree with a smoking Chain gun.

               “Not so tough when your trump card’s down, are ya?”The Marine said.

               He opened fire on the mass of Frobots who turned to aim at him.

               The rapid-fire hail of lasers tore through them easily.

               CG-2 and Sydney led some Siber-Bots, Camo Bots (CBs) and various remodeled Frobots to take out the remainder.

 The Camo Bots were an early idea based on Frobo’s design. They wore sniper jacket camouflage coverings of vines and leaves like Earth soldiers often used, had neon green eyes, and had swiss army knife style body compartment tools and weapons like Frobo and stretchable arms.

               CG-2 levitated Grath with his trident and swung him into the Bay bros, knocking them out painfully.

               Sydney was the big surprise. She leaped into their midst and flicked her glowing blue whips out on her middle pair of hands.

               She swung them like a ribbon dancer in twirls that cut through sixteen Hood Bots coming at her. She leaped up and spun around like a ribbon dancer and cracked the whips in the face of one Tank Bot. It exploded at once.

               Sydney landed and turned around at lightning speed to punch the massive Avalo in the gut with her upper right fist as he leaped at her from behind and sent him flying into a nearby rock.

The Camo Bots and Soldier Bots  crushed the remaining robots. The last Tank Bot got dogpiled and torn apart.

               Tychus chuckled and sighed contentedly as he went to pick up the nearest Cloak-Bot’s torso,”Ah, that’s the stuff … Let’s group them up in the Tower, tie ‘em up, get their gear in crates, and then head back to base!”

               That was a bit too much for the former Tower resident.

               “What do you bucket of bolts think you’re doing over there?!”Grime yelled.

               Sasha elbowed him in the side. She didn’t want these robots to attack them if she could help it.

               Tychus just glanced back at their hiding spot and shook his head,”What a dumb question … even for a talking bush! We’re eliminating threats to Frog Valley in record time. You’re welcome.”

               “This mechanical freak is in for a violent disassembly later when I get my hands on it! ”Grime hissed. He wasn’t nearly as quiet as he thought.

The Marine scoffed and turned around to keep walking,”That’s rich … the short toad thinks he won’t wind up like a scattered jigsaw puzzle if he tries to pick another fight he can’t win!”

               “I’ll show you a jig-ohhh,”Grime rubbed his stomach where Sasha hit him.

Tychus flippantly insulted Grime more,”Why am I even bothering answering that dumb shrub? Waste of time doing that. We’re not here to beat around the grumpy little bushes or bark up the wrong trees but nip problems in the bud! If I wanted garden-variety conversations, I’d have volunteered for sentry work! Oh yeah, you can really stop and smell the roses doing that job! Why can’t I see some pretty flower girls with sharp deadly thorns or hear some songbirds out here with sugar, spice and everything nice instead of screaming Grime-berry bushes??”

               The rebel machines and even a few of their conscious prisoners chuckled.

               “IT’S NOT SPRING YET … POOR US! INSTEAD OF SONGBIRDS, WE’RE STUCK LISTENING TO AUTUMN SEASON GROUCHY SHORT SHRUBS THAT SOUND LIKE CRAZY HAS-BEEN TOAD LORDS ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS! A SONGBIRD IN HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE GRIME-BERRY BUSH!”A Camo-Bot called while he took out some parts from a Tank Bot.

               “He’s all bark and no bite. Ignore him!”Sydney said.

               “Yeah, stand up or shut up, ya loser bush boy!”A techno-themed Frobot named RDJ yelled.

              

               Grime snarled. The Resistance (especially their ‘sharp flower girls/songbirds’) fought not to laugh.

              

               CG-2 ended the Grime roast fest with a roast of his own “Enough of that now. Little bushes have feelings too. Leave the poor shrub alone so it can bloom and grow, do some bushwhacking to be taken more seriously, and get a date with the local vines that give great hugs and singing and hammer-swinging lessons! It’s a simple choice of Sydney or the Bush for us!’

               “GO SYDNEY!”A Siber-Bot said. The other robots cheered for the Asurdroid.

               “Awww, thanks guys! That means so much to me!!”Sydney said with two hands to her cheeks and another waving it off.

               “Can I pick Sydney too? I don’t like Grime berries, they taste awful!”One cheeky prisoner asked as he was led away.

               “Why you-!!“Sasha covered Grime’s mouth.

               She was fighting hard not to laugh herself. “Let it go!”She said.

               He kept quiet until they got back to their base and said,”First of all, I am NOT a bush!”

               Sasha gave up and started laughing with the rest of them.

               “It’s not funny!”He snapped.

               Halley found two assassins who’d killed Gertrude (owner of the Under the Town Log) and ten of Grime and Bog’s old soldiers of the South Army still at large. Thwack and Stomp were two large toads who wore hoods and thwomp-like block armor with spikes on their shoulders, fronts and backs. They preferred to do a combo move of crushing their opponents in between them or a nasty ‘Squash drop!’ from above.

               “Oh boyysss!”She said in the bar they were in. They looked up in time to get knocked right in the fast with her mallet. She hauled the two senseless lugs out and no one was stupid enough to challenge her.

               Arnold went to a Truck stop diner after tracking down a lead on a gang of beetle-riders called the Savage Ones who’d killed off some trucker associates of Soggy Joe and the bartender of that diner (one the Plantars had gone to) and found the gang of nearly two dozen thugs lounging in the place.

               “Are you the Savage Ones?”He asked blandly.

               “Why, you wanna join up?”The leader, a toad named Ripper, asked.

               “No!”Arnold pulled out two Plasma-watt rifles and tore into them. Half died and the other half got taken back.

               Oscar did Bomme proud tracking Delilah, a cursed grey newt with gargoyle like wings, claws and an unfortunate appetite for eating her kills, when she was sent to kill Toadie while he was on lookout duty. Oscar hit her in midair with his wrist-lasers in stun mode and brought her back.

               A large group of the Red Hours and their loyal Bazaar associates (50 total) went inside a cave to meet.

               They felt a cold breeze enter the cavern. They saw Sylalleas appear near the torches on the wall. She snuffed them out with her fingers and the room went dark before she knocked them into oblivion.

               At the same time, leading six Red Hours saw Frobert come up to them in their base in an empty house.

               “Could you tell me …have you seen these boys?”He held up a photo of four of their late targets.

               They panicked and tried to attack, but he wiped the floor with them and they were taken captive.

               Ghost Eyes, Killbones and Tats burst into a hideout where the last four of them were and strong-armed them and the dozen thugs into being hauled back.

               A few other assassins had already been sent out by them and Andrias, but they were caught.

               Another assassin of theirs, a poison dart frog (one a handful of frog types with very toxic mucus) named Meya Hops, was waiting in a swamp for Sasha to come by on her way back to Wartwood.

               She turned when the water shifted next to her. Meya barely had time to scream before a Shambler wrapped her in its vines and carried her off.

               Rango the Boulder-frog, a grim-faced and muscular green frog with a cowboy hat, loved to toss large boulders at his foes. He was sent to ambush Croaker and Sasha from a cliffside while they were driving to the Valley entrance one day.

               Seven minutes before they arrived, Kimiko came behind him and shocked him unconscious with her whips.

               Farrag the Poisoner, a silent black newt with amber eyes, eliminated two villages Sasha saved in her fights against Andrias and the staff of Amphibia’s Best Diner.

               He was wiping his vials and needles off when he saw Minerva coming towards him. He snarled and pointed his smoking cleavers with acidic poison at her.

               Not impressed, she pulled her axe off her back and cut through his blades and wrists in two swift strokes.

               For the first time in years, Farrag cried. He kept crying until he got frozen solid seconds later and then kept crying when he got unfrozen in the prison infirmary.

               The Skinner, a used frogskin seller/acupuncturist and part-time mercenary, was delivered a few captives from the Dry Swamp that the Plantars had encountered to be tortured and then stuffed and mounted.

               The Magnas burst into his lair just in time to painfully shock him and free his five captives.

               Lady Ellie Marsh, or ‘Madame Vicious’ was an aristocratic part-time killer who wore an opera style mask, gilded armor and wielded two rapiers and daggers in the field. She was sent to track down associates of Hopediah and Felica.

               Felicia’s fighting mentors, two rare tea suppliers living near Loggington, and six of Hop Pop’s old friends and business contacts were killed by her.

               After one of those jobs, Lady Marsh strolled back into her mansion near Olm Cove bay just South of Olm Woods, and took her mask off and saw Mina sitting at the dining table.

               “Who do you think you are?!”The newt yelled.

               “I’m a Duchess, a quartermaster … and a knight!”Mina answered.She pulled her Soulmage cutters out.

               “Is that so?”Marsh hissed. She drew her rapiers.

               The swordfight lasted two minutes and resulted in one frozen newt, several confiscated Marsh heirlooms and all of her other property, and one destroyed mansion.

               Kristanna cemented her growing status as Marcy’s deadliest infiltrator robot by taking on two big targets. Stolz was a big horned frog with a large mouth, red and green veiny skin, and a height of 15’3” and a vicious bite. Phil the Bruiser at 11’8” ft, wore simple vambraces over his bulky arms and a wrestler mask over his lilac locks. The pair were out celebrating crushing one of Croaker’s contacts and some of Halley’s at a trading outpost.

               “Excuse me?”Kristanna said. The pair looked up from their table.

               “Could you smile for me?”She asked coyly. They did and stood up, thinking they had a new client or someone to play/flirt with.

               Instead, she smiled sharpy and morphed her left arm into ZF-1 mode and secretly got her Identity disc ready in her tail.

               The ZF-1’s arrow launcher opened and hit Stolz in the face and chest with ten tranquilizer darts.

               He howled with rage and ran at her. She stepped to the side and he collapsed on his face, out cold for three days. With a spin she threw the disc from her tail and everyone in the underground bar was knocked out cold when it zoomed around the room like a boomerang.

               Shea and Cassie, Jacinda’s former pair of bodyguard sisters with red skin and brown stripes, had quit after the toad rebellion. Because Jacinda was now in cahoots with Beatrix, they were targeted while travelling to a decent Newtopian work camp to the East.

               Stickly Ango, a brown frog of some kind who wore cactus-themed armor and several throwing knives, tried to attack their camp and wipe them all out along with Rana the Poison Gripper toad.

               Spiral appeared in midair while Rana charged like a maniac and proceeded to cut her killer hands off. The newts and axolotls watched in astonishment as she deflected every spike and blade Stickly threw at them and then took him out with one slice across his gut that was enough to incapacitate him.

               “Soooo …”Spiral said with a scary smile to the 120-plus Newtopians,”care to follow me before more come to kill these two?”

               Cassie and Shea (blonde and brunette respectively) swallowed as everyone glared at them.

               However, they were glad to see Marcy.

               “You saved our lives and want us to stay with you? Of course!”Cassie said. Shea nodded and gave the girl a hug when she offered one.

               She gave them green versions of their old armor (minus the helmets) and let them do basic guard and escort duty.

Captain Greenbeard, a toad leader of some actors near the Caerillian coast, had another trio of killers sent after him and his associates and the crew of the Green Lady.

               The surly toad looked up to see the Mash Hammer Brothers, two armored frogs who threw pick-axes and hammers at targets, and Sonora, a poisonous desert-dwelling toad who could spit some internal poison as a weapon, land painfully in front of them.

               “Our boss would like a word with you all …”Gaff said, leaning on his best rifle next to Kane from the roof he’d thrown them from,”or you could keep messing with these punks who want you all dead.”

               The trio were taken in custody and Greenbeard had a surprising reunion with Marcy.

               “I’ll be scuppered and keelhauled, lassie, you did that for us?”Greenbeard hugged her.

               “It’s no problem!”She said.

               The failed attempts to kill the Wartwood Resistance started spreading word of the underworld’s budding new job opportunities for and against Marcy. Some did the smart thing and sought to offer their services.

               Domona, a toxic newt lady with black skin, blue hair, and green gloves over her hands, led a small group called the Toxic Hands: Amphibians with a toxic or venomous quality who had little chance for other jobs after hard lives. One day she witnessed Coatl take down two rivals, Mazame the Poisonous newt widower and Bogmeyer the Mire Terror, in a pub near Kaeru.

               He wasted no time, but just asked if they were those names and pulled his flail out and took them out with a blow to the head.

               “If you don’t mind me asking, who do you work for?”She asked with a smile as he started to drag them out.

               “Why?”He asked blandly.

               “I might want a job with someone who hires a skilled guy like you!”She said flirtatiously. Coatl rolled his eyes but took her along for an offer. He would end up dating her eventually.

               “Oh mmyyyy, the No. 1 rebel of Amphibia?! This is splendid! My dear Marcy, do you take assassin groups for hire?”Domona said with glee when sitting across from her and Halley. When the pair’s smiles grew in response to that question, her own grew even wider.

               Her group got the best lodgings they’d had in years. She pointed Marcy in the direction of a group of slave merchants along the Coasts.

               The Predbots hunted them down easily and brought them back. They learned quickly that Marcy loathed slavery and got in worse trouble trying to offer her free ‘merchandise.’

               Some rival guilds, the Mucus slingers and Killer Slimes, were hired to ambush at least 30 of the Resistance on a mission. Araya and Raynor led a force to brutally crush them before that could happen.

               Phyllo Batson, a short yellow poison dart hitfrog, was the first solo mercenary to come looking for a job on his own.

               “Seriously, Miss Wu, your reputation has earned you both a high price on your head and some who want to take any you offer with such a wider market!”He said while eating lunch in front of her.

               “Alright, tell me what you know of the competition first!”She said. He delivered in spades.

               He called in a friend of his, Emily Swallowtail, a yellow frog with lengthy purple hair, a red spotted leotard, furry boots and yellow skin. She was a curse victim with massive blue swallowtail butterfly wings ( a wingspan nearly twice her 5’” height, black antenna, a puffy brown mane around her neck, and red insectoid eyes. Her tongue has also mutated into a butterfly’s proboscis. Her voracious appetite for nectar and honey after she was cursed on her cousin’s wedding day led her to turn to theft and mercenary work.

               She came in with her friend Summer Shards, a newt with blue crystal skin and glowing red veins and eyes, an even worse curse victim from that party. One-eyed Jack, a cowboy outlaw toad with an eyepatch and a deadly lasso, followed.

               “So you want a job in my army of mismatched monsters, robots and Amphibians? Say no more … all monsters and oddballs welcome! Here!”Marcy offered Emily a jar of honey.

               “You are nice!”Emily said before slurping it down contentedly.

               The first big find Phyllo offered to track down was one close to home for Newtopia and Grime. Grime had once been famous as an employed Colosseum gladiator, their fiercest fighter until he joined the army after he won enough battles to earn some major acclaim and money.

               The gladiators were a mix of employed or forced servitude as punishment. Grime had been a bit of both.

               Tony the striped Savage newt was an ex-gladiator along with Xever the venomous biting toad, Ellen the hard-headed newt boxer,  and Tom the red-eyed frog. They were working a mercenary outfit up North along with some others and ex-prisoners as a job offer. Clancy, a brown newt standing a head above Yunan, supervised them.

               Tony (an old drinking buddy of Grime’s) was a large striped yellow/black newt (tiger salamander kind) of 9 ft with an orange beard who had a love of meat and was suffering a long sentence in the colosseum for his family’s ill reputation and crimes of raiding and cannibalism (especially his father Tyler).

 He had excellent combat skills and healing for any damaged limb. Tony was a charming fellow in spite of his love of battle and morbid sense of humor.

Tom, a green treefrog with hypnotic red-flashing eyes, had a large orange afro, a bold baritone (and good singing voice) and was very hard to hit.

 Ellen was a Crocodile newt with bumpy black skin, a wide angular head, and black orbs of eyes with white slit pupils. She wore her stringy brown hair in dreadlocks and was the toughest female gladiator everyone else avoided for her angry temper when she was alone. She looked up to Tony like a father and didn’t act up when he was around.

               The other members of their ranks were a mix.

               Bobbin, a large horned green frog with a big head and heavy body like a sumo wrestler’s who rivalled Tony in size, was even more feared as a gladiator who would swallow his enemies whole if he was very hungry.

 Erik the Bumblebee Slayer was a large poison dart frog with vivid yellow and black skin. He wore straps over his hands to fight along with a tough leathery coat and terrified most opponents from getting too close in fear of touching his poisonous skin. Grime had lost three times to him in his last year.

 Katelyn was a black swordtail newt of Marcy’s height (5’7”) with long aquamarine hair but (like most females of her kind) had a tail longer than the rest of her body. The tail of 6’9” and her high reflexes made her the Tail-thrashing female champion of the Colosseum and Ellen’s most promising new rival in the last two years she’d been there to work off a tax-debt for her bankrupt middleclass family. Her deal was now moot since the war started and she was stuck there.

               The top Amphibian prison in the outer areas of the Great Bay, Croakatraz, had sent some of their medium-security prisoners to work with them.

                Lee was a red axolotl who loved setting fire to things a lot.

 Wilson was a large green toad with a bowl haircut known as the Snitch Strangler, who’d terrorized the Southern Coasts for five years as a hired killer to silence those informing on the now extinct La Bayou family of criminal aristocrats or anyone who pissed him off.

 Rachel, aka Diamondback, was a purple-haired and purple-bodied newt with diamond-shaped patterns on her back and did work as a skilled knife-thrower assassin before getting locked up in Croakatraz.

               They’d taken out ten hot spots of rebellious activity around the East Coast so far.

               Tony sighed as his  drank some booze one day next to the Boiling Basin after a long day with Tom, Ellen, and Lee (who they took a liking to along with Rachel) and said,”Oh yes, so tiring … and let’s be honest, the good king knows we’re expendable and doesn’t care if we last a month, much less a year?”

               “Your point? Since when did he ever?”Ellen said.

               “I’m just saying, it’s going to be a short-life of enjoying such freedom and fun at this rate!”Tony said.

               He heard Bobbin howl with pain. They turned to see him fly through the air and land with a black eye and bleeding fingers four yards away.

               They didn’t like Bobbin (few did) but it alarmed them to see that happen.

               Lonnie walked over from the edge of their camp, rolling his shoulders,”Greatest gladiator my foot!”

               “You! Surrender now or-“Clancy was cut off with a dart to the neck and fell down.

               Wilson tried to strangle him and got his arms and four ribs broken in seconds. Xever charged at him and was tased by a disguised Kristanna (in a hooded newt look like Clancy’s other guards). The Predbots sent a low-level electric charge through the bog water two-thirds of the group were standing on. Only Rachel, Erik, Katelyn and four others were left standing besides the quartet still at their table.

               “Anyone else?”Kristanna asked, smiling darkly as her eyes glowed.

               “Madam … I should hate to look that foolish,”Tony said winningly (his friends and the rest rolled their eyes),”perhaps we can discuss this rationally?”

               The eleven boxed crooks and gladiators still standing were all recruited into Marcy’s ranks within the day.

               The Marauders were also analyzed as a threat. Marcy didn’t like them at all,“Anarchists punks who raid caravans and villages for scraps and supplies, pillage forts for weapons, don’t work for anyone but enjoy causing problems … especially for Sasha …”

               Their leader was identified as former Wartwood resident Barry the Candyman.

               Smarcy shook her head at the sight their scouts were picking up,,“Oh wow, a former Wartwood resident is leading a group causing Sasha problems! What are the odds?”

               “Since he’s a resident of the town, maybe it would be proper to let him be dealt with by them, but for now … we can keep him in line!”Marcy decided.

               Barry was enjoying a drink of stolen bog juice. Marcy did a spell and it exploded in his hands.

               “What the-?!”He snapped.

               Marcy knew she was going to enjoy antagonizing him a lot. Every time he and his gang made it hard on Sasha, she would do something big or subtle to irritate him or make it harder on him. They also kept them from doing any major harm to the refugees.

The next day, his partner in crime Brian was headed back to their base with a fresh pile of weapons and abandoned robot scraps from a battle.

               They were going to rendezvous with a pair of poison dart frog mercenaries, Adella Bates (black and yellow-spotted skin) and Sipal Azure (blue and black-spotted skin) who had goods from their latest job.

               Brian was all set to head over to the pair waiting by the side of the road when suddenly they were yanked into the trees screaming by webs on their backs.

               “Uhhhh, hang on,”The high-pitched toad said to the stunned Marauders with him,”their kind don’t die easy, I’ll bet they just need to grip that bug and-“

               The pair landed on the ground wrapped up in webs and chains from head to toe. A large … monster of some kind landed next to them.

               Vicki turned to look at the speechless anarchists and smiled her best scary smile.

               “Well, well, well, what do have here? Dinner and desert?”

               “Hey, we’re not your food, you abomi-“The newt next to Brian had her mouth webbed shut instantly.

               “Hushh, I wasn’t talking about youuu!”She came closer with her nodachi in one hand and wicked long claws extended on the other.

               They were left webbed to their carts two minutes later while Vicki took their three top finds along with her captives. Catching the pair who’d helped capture three whole villages and over 700 Frog Valley residents on the run for their lives and had killed 50 leaders, strong fighters or weakest members among them was a good find. Ruining the Marauder’s easy trip back to their base was the cherry on top.

               It took them three hours to get free.

*Sarge Rocks and Sparks fly*

               Bufo was grouchy, missing a leg and had broken arms, but he was alive.

               He insisted on accompanying Beatrix on a scouting mission to the destroyed area of Loggington after she sprung him and several others. “I want to see more of this rebel that gave you the info to bust me out in action!”

               “Yeah, just wait, it’s never predictable!”She said.

               “Entertaining, weird and terrifying!”Fen said chipperly.

               Sarge, Sparks and a handful of frogs from down South were held captive in a circle of toads, Frobots and newts.

               Captain Jerry, a large toad around Bufo’s height with a large bumpy head and ridges, brown and black skin patterns, and a large mace, was satisfied after getting a message.

               “Oh good, these two freaky machines will be shut off and sent in for analysis and we can send these rebels in for execution for high-treason after they spill their guts on where that freak of nature leader of theirs is!”

               “Oh, I know you did not just say that!”Sarge said.

               Corporal Rico, a colorful yellow toad, hit his head,”Shut up, scrap head!”

               “How rude. Such a vulgar salientin!”Sparks said.

               “Are you calling me Sally!?”Rico snapped.

               “No, that’s your baby sister’s name, fool!”Sarge droned.

               The eavesdropping toads snickered.

               “Shut up or I spit some venom and melt your head!”Rico warned him.

               Sparks didn’t stop,“Personal experience? This explains much. A toxic approach in this toxic wasteland. No wonder this brute is doomed to a most unfortunate life and death in battle or captivity!”

               “Enough! Take these two over there and take them apart!”Jerry said.

               Rico directed five Frobots to haul Sparks up first.

               “Wow, I knew you were a wuss! Can’t do any heavy lifting, gotta have your tin-cans do it on light-bulb there, Sally boy!”Sarge said.

               Rico spat on Sarge with a full layer of venom. Smoke rose.

               “Good, now you will all keep quiet or the next-GYEAAAAHHH!”Rico howled as he was punched high into the air by a still unharmed and free Sarge.

               Sparks trapped his robot guards in his Constraint beams and fired his Electrolaser beams into them from his hands. Jerry’s largest soldier, an axolotl named Carl, and five toads were levitated and swung into the sides of buildings and knocked out. Sparks shocked another toad named Pex (the size of Bufo) unconscious painfully when he touched his back.

               “Don’t do it, you’ll regret-!”Jerry tried to stop Sarge as he pulled out a pulse grenade from his hidden compartments. Sarge tossed it over his shoulder and blew up the nearest factory.

               “Yeah, no, YOU regret everything! You regret picking a fight against me,”A Frobot was broken in two by one punch,”YOU REGRET COMING HERE,”Sarge punched two large axolotl guards taller than him in the face,”you regret being in a fight you’re worth *censored string of words*,”Jerry and the rebel toad’s jaws dropped (at the language and him swatting six Frobots and toads a piece aside with his bare hands)”you definitely regret we just blew up your flabby, raggedy half*censored*pillow fort,”Sparks fired his optic laser beams and electrolaser on every single robot near him, including the Cloak Bot that had ambushed their position, and kept going on the nearest two buildings,”you’ll regret saying all that about me and our crew when I,”He broke the arms of his most competent soldier, a large black newt called Winston, who screamed in agony as he twisted them (Bufo and Bogs winced),”haul your big fat butt back to OUR jail, where you’re gonna work or I’ll break your legs and make ya walk all the way back for wiping out a village with kids last month, and you’ll definitellllyy …”He jumped onto the backpedaling toad,”regret having Sally-boy spit his nasty guts on me! ‘Cause now, you gonna spill you guts, all of y’all maggots, after I beat your butt-ugly face black and blue!”

               “No!”Jerry squeaked. He was headbutted once, losing some teeth, and then punched in the gut and torso three times. He fell down moaning in pain.

               Sparks stepped on a dazed Rico lying facedown and tased him unconscious.

               Sarge turned to his soldiers and said,”That shut that fool up! Any questions, soldiers!?”

               “Nope, not at all Sarge! Dumb punks were asking for that!” Corporal Carol, a pink frog with brown hair and a combat helmet on, said. All seven frogs stood up, their chains and ropes long cut.

               “Good, just like we planned! Now … let’s enjoy ourselves and blow this popsicle stand, soldiers!”

               The team laid boomshrooms and charges around the other buildings, and blew the whole place sky high before hauling off their injured captives in glowing cuffs.

               “Oh, I AM a genius!”Sparks giggled,”this was within a 100% mission parameter success margin! Our Monitoring Leaders will be pleased!”

               “Uh-huh, sure ya are! Don’t get cocky, Light-bulb! You only think this looks squeaky clean!”Sarge grumbled, wiping his armor off with a rag Carol gave him.

               Sparks kept going, much to their frog soldier’s amusement,“Oh, Sergeant, you can’t imagine how exciting this is! Our Reclamation of Amphibia has begun! How unfortunate for our rival constructs and the virulent infestation in their Core that will consume all! To think, they would destroy all that is valuable on this world and every other world?? I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."

               Sarge and his team chuckled. His goofy eccentricities aside, Sparks was alright. And he was 100% right about their enemy.

               “What was that babble all about??”Bufo wondered.

               “Ya got me!”Beatrix said, rubbing her forehead,”but let’s raid this spot and the nearest ones for smashing and grabbing!”

               Andrias’s constant migraine spiked seeing that he’d lost 30% of the areas between the Eastern Tower and Northern Tower areas in just three days.

              

              

* Cirque De Loons*

               Gerald Dugille led his caravan of Dugille’s Circus across the plains near the Emerald Coast districts by the Great Bay.

              

               The grey walleyed and grim-looking frog had a black beard, ringmaster outfit and was a master of rope tricks, hypnosis, stage magic, and escapology. He had led his odd family of ‘Circus freaks’ for years.

               Cree was an acrobatic albino newt with long red hair, snake-like yellow eyes, a yellow and blue striped leotard and freaky contortionist abilities.

               Lillian was one of the oddest. She was a runaway from Newtopian aristocracy who’d found a bizarre sorcerer in her childhood to teach her some tricks. He used a bizarre tattoo curse on the many ones she applied all over her body (all kinds of animals, Amphibians, stars and more) so that they could come alive and off her body as magical attacks. She struck out on her own after he refused to undo it and got himself fed to a flytrap by an angry mob. Now she was the “Magical tattooed lady’ act for their circus, doing ballroom dances that ‘had stories and magic shows’ come to life before their eyes.

                She stood a few inches taller than Felicia with vivid pink hair and wore a fancy frilled red dress and boots and covered her hands with vine-patterned gloves. The gloves were to hide the most dangerous tattoos she could use: a slaughtersnake and scorpelio. Others included the flying eyeball on her left shoulder, the pirates with axes on her thighs, giant wasps on her right shoulder, and giant millipede on her tail. She still managed to be the most high-society member of the group with a British accent and good knowledge of every custom and enjoyed tea every day.

                Her best friend and husband Barney was a blue newt with mystical blue eye tattoos (at least 57) all over his body. He wore a white turban and robes, did fancy card tricks, played the flute for his wife’s dances, tag-teamed with Gerald for announcing, and claimed his eyes let him see in multiple dimensions and more. No one could ever prove or disprove this, but he was a good husband and skilled medic when they needed it.

               Wild Wilma Fletcher the Hairy Beast lady was an average-sized frog in a red and white-checkered robe and wore a pearl necklace. The rest of her body was covered in a puffy tangerine coat of hair/fur that never went away for long no matter how many times she cut it. Her flowing mane of wavy hair on her head was the only part she let grow longer than a few inches, and it went all the way to her knees.

 She was their chef and grumpy attraction holding a club who acted like she was mindless (never longer than two minutes) before yelling at her impressive volume or gave ‘uncivilized answers’ to audience questions. The rural or rough areas loved that a lot. Her girly and snarky voice threw them off a lot.

               It was still hard for most to guess she was only 18 in spite of that.

               She changed her origin story every time she was asked. One day she’d say it was a childhood curse, another day she had a ‘condition’, another she’d caught some strange disease. She’d met Gerald at age 11 looking like that, so even he had no solid answers.

               The Grady Twins, Zack and Cole Grady, wore fancy tuxedoes with black bowties, white gloves and shiny shoes. These identical pale blue frogs with middle parted brown hair looked quite normal, but they gave off a creepy vibe.

               It didn’t help that they spoke in unison or finished each other’s sentences in creepy monotones with glazed looks. But they were good friends with Barney and Lilian, who enjoyed using them to spook anyone who harassed them on their dates at town stops.

They made for good announcers and cue card holders and had an uncanny knack for moving around quickly in seconds. Their Funhouse Mirror Scare show never failed to make someone scream for the shows.

 

               The cursed siblings Janelle and Leroy Lagoon were even worse off than them. The blue-skinned and green haired Janelle resembled a harpy with gigantic blue-white wings for arms (which she could use just as well as fingers), tail feathers, yellow hawk eyes and large bird talons for legs.

               Leroy looked like a manticore with golden fur, purple cat eyes, and a large black scorpion tail. They’d been cursed by an evil mage terrorizing their village at years ago and been driven off in fear. Now they did juggling, knife-throwing, legit fire breathing (Leroy)and flying shows with Vlad the Four-Armed toad beastmaster.

               He was very nice to them, so they never held his title or being his ‘ Lagoon monster beasts’ against him.

               Stacy the snake-charmer was a recent addition. She was a 17-year old purple newt with long black bangs and a blue bow on top of it and a teal wrap shirt with long baggy sleeves. From  her waist down she had a white snake tail with a purple underbelly that added at least 6 to 7 ft of length to her frame, and her arms were long white and purple snake heads of vipers with emerald reptilian eyes and poisonous fangs. She had matching green eyes, fangs and a forked tongue to match them.

 The poisonous bites she could give were fatal in ten minutes to half an hour. Her scales merged with her natural healing metabolism for vast regenerative abilities that let her regrow her tail or arms if cut off in minutes (that had only happened three times so far) and virtually immune to poisons. Her ‘snakehead arms’ were sentient, which was the weirdest part. Nicknamed Addyson (left) and Gretchen (right) after her two best friends she’d lost years ago, they were very sentimental towards her. She could understand them and other snakes. After a few months getting used to this, she had a symbiotic bond with them and could control other snakes.

In contrast to the Lagoon siblings, Stacy had no good answer for how she woke up at age 13 turning slowly into a snake girl one day, since she’d accidentally ticked off a dozen people in the lower parts of Newtopia the day before while in a hurry and knocking stuff over in a market area with all sorts of wares. However, she got out of dodge as soon as a monster-hunting mob formed and had met the Twins on a walk two years ago after surviving on her own for a while in the swamps.

               Now she was Wilma’s best friend and did ‘snake charmer’ dances and acrobatics as part of Vlad’s show or doing scary dances with Lilian. It helped that she had hypnotic yellow eyes and singing she used to leave the audiences entranced or have the dangerous local snakes dance with her. She was a very good singer and a very nice girl at heart. Wilma was unusually delicate with her and beat the crap out of anyone who tried to seriously plan to hurt her as an ‘exotic or feared predator that would eat them all’.

               Stacy preferred spicy dishes, live fish and millipedes anyway.

                Pinhead Larry was a large pink toad with pins and needles stuck all over his body. He had no sense of pain and acted as scary muscle and boxing champ with Frezzik, a gigantic green frog over 7 ft tall with fuzzy brown hair and a grey tunic and brown shorts.

               Frezzik was a sweetheart and they all liked him. He was nice even to their grouchiest member. Irwin was a large wrestler newt with an unusual scaly skin condition that made him resemble a sewer gator.

               Mimi the Mime frog(age 11) had frizzy green hair, large blue eyes with slit pupils, and wore typical whiteface mime face paint and diamond marks over her eyes. For clothes, she wore a purple beret, a black and white striped shirt, a red ascot and black pants.

                She was mute. Her throat and lungs had suffered permanent damage as an orphaned tadpole from poor living conditions and untreated sickness at age 4. The lack of speech and assumption she was deaf as well got her thrown out of the orphanage a year later. She was actually quite smart for her age and survived all the way to her frog stage on her own and picked up a knack for charades as a way to communicate/perform or distract people when she wasn’t staying out of sight to scrounge.

 Gerald had been the first to bother to try and see what the illiterate girl (at age 7) was trying to say with her charades on the street when he passed by while doing a show. He figured quickly she understood him fine and asked,”Do you want to see my show?”

She nodded and enjoyed it so much he let her travel for that year with the group. Mimi tried a mime act to make herself stand out visibly more when Cree told her about it.

“That’s a mime … some people call me a mime’s cousin … I know I’m a pale terrifying beauty, but really?”Cree grumbled. She smiled when Mimi kept watching the mime across the street at the Circus meeting convention,”If you’re interested, go ask him for some pointers.”

Jean-Luc found her charming and gave her a week of lessons and a new outfit.

“Cute!”Cree said when Mimi showed her the new look. “I’m guessing you want your own act?”

 By that point, she was already family to them. From that day on, Cree told everyone she was her sister. They looked enough alike in colors that many thought she meant biological sisters even though they were different kinds of Amphibians.

 She knew sign language and her letters now and took many educational lessons from Lilian and Barney. She acted as Cree’s silent crowd prompter and occasional partner in acrobatics and did solo mime acts outside of the tent. Everyone looked out for her as the kid of the group.

               It was her lucky day in many ways when she went out of their campsite one night to dump some scraps out and saw Granulosa the rough Mountain slayer, a grey newt with rough skin, a colorful belly, and a poisonous bite.

               He was silent and deadly and preferred not to leave any witnesses. He’d just been hired anonymously by Andrias to leave Snarlsburg’s Earl Willibad and several warchiefs dead. He’d succeeded and was headed North for more targets.

              

               Mimi dropped the trash. He turned and saw her.

               “How unfortunate …”He growled, stalking towards her. She gasped, making no noise.” It’ll be quick at least!”

               Halley and Marcy were nearby doing an inspection of the area and saw their campsite.

               Halley sprang into action seeing the young frog in danger.

               Grunulosa fell down unconscious after she hit him in the head with her mallet.

               “Hiya munchkin! Ya ok?”Halley asked her. Mimi nodded.

               Marcy came up and said,”Hi there! Are you lost?”

               Mimi shook and did a few sign language gestures. To her shock, Marcy signed back: “Is your family nearby?”

               Mimi led them to her campsite.

               She tugged at Cree’s sleeve.

               “What’s up, kiddo?”Cree asked.

               “Everyone, look who saved me from a killer ruffian!”Mimi signed and pointed. They gasped at the sight of Marcy and Halley standing yards away with half of the Mar Guards. Enoch held Grunulosa by the neck with his body chained up in ice.

               “Thanks for saving her, Miss Cyberkinetic Witch … did I get that right?”Gerald asked nervously. He eyed the Mar Guards standing behind her with fear.

               Marcy made it too easy to not be afraid by just being herself.

               “Circus people, SO COOL! Is that a real whip? Do you have RINGS OF FIRE?! Are you actual twins!? Can you swallow fire or swords!? Do you do stunts walking across ropes over canyons!?””Marcy yelled in rapid-fire question mode while bouncing in delight.

               Halley and the Mar Guards snickered.

               Gerald’s jaw hung open in shock.

               “That’s a first!”Irwin grumbled.

               Marcy complimented him first, to his surprise“A gator man, far out and radical! You must be the king of the swamps in water combat!”

               “Oh uh, well yes marm, I do good in wrestlin’ matches for shows there and what not …”He stammered.

               “Would you fine show folks … like to take a job and place to stay from me?”Marcy asked.

               “That’s nice …. But why would the most wanted rebel in Amphibia care for Circus Freaks like us?”Janelle asked.

               Marcy took her mask off, and winked.”Lady, please … I’m freakier than all of you on this world!”

               The dropped jaws of the rest made Irwin, the Twins, Janelle, Mimi, Leroy, Cree and Frezzik laugh hard.

               They accepted and got to know her over the next few days. Mimi, to her delight, got a portable whitebeard, eraser and marker to write stuff with on the spot. Her knack for diverse handwriting was a constant.

               “Wow …”Wilma said while looking at the Core photos,”is my hair gonna be a problem for you?”

               “No, that’s glowing fake orange of a neon orange! You’re more like a tangerine natural hue!”Marcy said anxiously.

               “Thanks kid! I am a lovely natural at this …not like this fake poser!”Wilma said, patting her hair proudly.

               A proposed show experiment happened at the labor camps near the Emerald Coast, known for the quality of gems there.

               Gertie the Gnatcho vendor  was a Newtopian axolotl who had met Anne and Marcy before. She was doing food work there. Young Efty was unhappily assisting  Romi (a blue newt) and her daughter Kari nearby. Ming (a small purple newt with a Chinese style hat) and her five quintuplet kids did work going into the small spaces and crevices.

               A blue axolotl named Jerry mixed his spices for lunch with a grim scowl. Max and his team of Igor Parade float and musicians didn’t look any happier. They knew they wouldn’t be celebrating any parades anytime soon back home. They and some like Mittle the tour bus guide knew that were effectively long out of a job.

              

              

               Elderly Doris shared Marcy’s love of puzzles, but was not happy doing codes and assembly work there. Agatha Ladler, a shorter old green newt with round glasses she’d just gotten replaced after a loud whackjob hit them off her, stood next to her. Herman the mailnewt (a short green newt with a cap and brown satchel) who’d also been whacked over by that human tourist swinging her tail around (guess who) took mail and schedules all around as needed.

               Getwin the ‘Tails R us’ worker handled temporary ‘replacements’ for those who lost theirs temporarily in injuries these days. “This is not what I meant for the business!”He grumbled while hanging the best ones up on a cart outside.

               “Me neither!”Craig (a buck-toothed green newt who worked as a shopkeeper for arts and crafts) called over as he sorted the best containers for swamp-cleaning duty.

               Marcy wanted to help at least some of them get out, and wanted to test how they might view her. She decided to try amusing them in plain sight in spite of being a most wanted fugitive.

               As a start, the laser cannon and the head of the lead Frobot sentry exploded into confetti.

               The Newtopians swiveled to look.

               A bunch of Circus Freaks were doing acrobatics over the nearby walls, opening doors randomly for bizarre ambushes and taking out every guard on the towers.

               The lead one got a pie thrown in his face from Cree while she lazily bounced on some dock poles in the water.

                An oddball robot on a skateboard flew in her circles making mocking faces at the robots and shooting them with colorful Laser arrows. A bored ninja robot tossed her fans to knock out ten of them in a row while taking a magazine from a rack and going over to where Lilian and Hopper were checking the newest tea selection.

              

               Barney waved his hands like a conductor from the spot closest to them. The sewers blew in six spots, drenching most of the garrison in the nearby barracks and short-circuiting several other robots. Dunbar and Ulrich leaped on the back of a Tank Bot and blinded it with their swords and made it stagger into the water.

              

               Gerald’s work was a bit more creative. A screaming newt cleric had his stuff lifted in the air behind him by invisible ropes. He turned around and got even madder. Then the cleric was lifted out of sight.

              

               The cause of all this?

               The most wanted enemy, the scary ‘cyborg witch’ they were warned would destroy them all, was acting like a total goofball by doing a silly dance with a grinning frog mime girl in between a Tank Frobot and a local Judge Frobot in combat mode on top of a cliff. Thanks to Aelita, the two large robots were ignoring them and furiously slapping each other in the face with their large hands. The digital princess waved her hands at the angry titans like  conductor and danced in the air above them.

              

A catchy song played for them to hear the whole time.

               None of the Newtopians said a word, but just stared, glanced aside at each other, and then back at the loony show in town. A few rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren’t dreaming or hallucinating this.

              

It’s a dream, It’s a scene, and it’s all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

It’s an all-night party that we're getting into

If you think it’s all over, then the joke is on you

It’s a dream, It’s a scene, and it’s all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

 

               The two large Frobots tripped and fell over the edge at the end of the song.

               The rebel and her loony circus friends took a bow and vanished with puffs of smoke.

               Gertie rolled her eyes.

“You started the show too late! I want my money back!”She called out mockingly.

               A bag full of coins with a 😉face note on it landed in front of her.

               “I walked into that one!”Gertie griped. The other Newtopians howled with laughter and clapped.

*A Caravan and a Captain*

               Veronica brought in news for the perfect raid targe“General Sierra of the Southern Legions is leading a caravan across the barren Dark Woods area. Tribute, prisoners, and supplies are among the things being transported.”

               “Good, this caravan is perfect for us to grab! We’ll take every captive and supply for ourselves and the Southern Newtopian legions will lose its leading commander!”Marcy said.

              

              

               The twenty wagons, 300 prisoners of toads and frogs who were being led (including Renee Frodgers and some of her criminal caravan associates), 500 soldiers and robots were promising.

               Marcy had compared Newtopia to a Roman city from AD 150, a year when they were around the peak of their civilization. Their military worked on a similar system for ranks and organization.

               Most of the foot soldiers wore green robes and brown tunics and carried round shields resembling sand dollars and the usual tridents with spiked pink seashells. Melee-focused warriors wore brown chest plates with brown pauldrons. The Royal guards and elite divisions wore full knight armor with blue capes and wielded poleaxes and swords.  Emissary guards like Shea and Cassie wore purple robes over their front, silver shell pauldrons, greaves, and barrel-visor helms with a fin on top and carried simple spears.

               The Elite commandos wore red shirts with black epaulettes, white tights, black boots, and large silver helmets with the Newtopian foot symbol.

               A new outfit had been coming out recently that replaced the previous footsolider look. Brown armor, pauldrons and skullcaps with a single horn on them, and the Core’s symbol on the chest.

               There was also a mix of colorful armor of silver, iron and other tough metals with Newtopian designs of shells and marine life for weapons and armor.

               General Yunan wore her own silver amor with green colors, pauldrons of a snailshell design, and her special gauntlets with extendable wristblades.

               “Sooo cool, you’re like Wolverine!”Marcy said to her once when she demonstrated.

               “Is that an insult, human?”Yunan said warily.

               “No no, he’s this classic edgy superhero,”She drew a picture,”with a skeleton covered in unbreakable metal and claws he can pop out. He always says ‘I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice.’ He’s a good guy but … he’s very lethal about it.”

               “Sick! That’s what I do most of the time!”Yunan said with delight as she looked the gruff man with savage triple claws on his hands.

               She scolded a nervous Marcy,“Oh human, stop looking so worried! I do hard missions on enemies for the King because someone needs to! It’s rough around here. The toads do that sort of thing all the time and plenty of people outside the city act much more savage … but you don’t have to do that!”

               Yunan was a loner in the ranks at age 28, but she was the only top general she could trust. Marcy wanted her to be a leader in her growing army when she was free if she was willing.

               When reviewing Amphibian castes and species, she’d learned there was discrimination quickly. Doctor Rosa handled Marcy’s questions well.

               “I don’t get it … you’ve got tech like my phone,”she gestured at the health monitor,”what’s so weird about it?”

               Rosa smiled as she took another picture with it,”Master Marcy, this ‘magic portrait painter’-er, phone- is a novelty we don’t have. Our civilization is the most advanced in Amphibia, it’s true … but I’m reliably told we’re stuck on moving any further than progress we made a long time ago.”

               “Oh … still cool that your Salamander civilization is this advanced!”

               Rosa sighed,“Master Marcy … do me a favor, don’t use the word ‘salamander’ around the city! To newts, it’s considered highly offensive!”

               That surprised Marcy,“Why’s that? Back home, newts are a large part of the salamander family of Amphibians! King Andrias even shares his name with a species of giant salamanders, the Andrias genus. They’re the largest ones on Earth! It fits him, since he’s the biggest guy here!”

               Rosa put her finger together solemnly,”That is an interesting detail, and I understand your confusion. Technically, some folks come from lines of salamander families or call themselves that outside the city. But to us, the word evokes the image of a vicious and wild nature. Most of the more civilized Newtopians avoid that image.”

               “Ohhh, I think I get it! Most other salamanders roam around more, have a more voracious appetite and are nocturnal. Newts do more stuff in the daytime and settle down more!”

               Rosa looked skeptical but accepted that reasoning. Marcy then asked,”One other thing I just remembered … back home a lot of newt types have very toxic mucus on the skin and poisonous bites compared to other salamanders! Is that a big problem here?”

               The doctor thought for a moment,”You do get a fair amount of that, but that’s not unheard of in the frogs or toads either! Most prefer to use that on wild animals trying to eat them. The most toxic ones manage even if it gets some people on guard.”

Marcy’s current company and quarry involved some prime examples of this.

               Halley and a few of the other newts admitted to being capable of mild or severe forms of toxic excretions on their skin and/or being notoriously indigestible.

 She and Marcy assigned a new recruit named Gabby to track down their first major target down South.

  Gabby was a bright orange eastern newt with red spots and brown hair from the army at her own height. Her family branch of newts had very deadly toxins in their skin that could kill in hours if untreated and very strong regeneration abilities greater than most newts, most of whom could regrown lost tails or even limbs if injured or cut off. These newts could regenerate damaged bones or organs.

               This made them and other toxic newts feared to most Amphibians but highly valued as soldiers. Many were in the military. Gabby’s family also had great tracking skills and the ability to home in on locations or beings they knew of.

               She was a prodigy and junior member of the army who made a great tracker scout. Knocked out at a base Marcy raided to the East of Frog Valley, she’d been one of a dozen soldiers from her base to be talked in just a day into joining Marcy.

               Bernardo even gave her one of his cool armor looks. She wore the moth outfit (minus the moth helmet) and had gloves covering her hands, special red goggles and armor over her tail.

               Gabby was able to track down Sierra easily.

               “There!”She pointed to the caravan the next day.

              

               In the lead wagon sat Arthur Calitron, a brown newt in red robes who ran supplies for the Newtopian Military.

The orange female newt General Sierra sat in the next one wearing fancy gold-painted armor with blue paint and spiral shell pauldrons. She was from a family of newts with the deadliest toxins of all kinds in their skin and had earned her way as a strict and even harsh general who nonetheless did her job well without being too harsh on her own soldiers. Her enemies got very limited chances.

Her two best Captains accompanied her.

               Captain Dan handled covering the front on foot. He was a large yellow crested newt with a spiky seam (crest) on his back and large fin-like tail. He wore spiky black armor and his blue hair in a mohawk. He annoyed Sierra and his fellow Captain present, Zel Brooks, a lot as a hopeless flirt, but was very loyal to Sierra and Newtopia.

               Captain Zel Brooks was a tall (6’0”) newt of a blue-spotted salamander kind, 24 years old and the most capable officer Sierra had in her legion.

 Her dark blue skin had cyan spots. She had a lean but muscular build, webbed feet and fingers, a long thick tail (thicker than her other limbs) of nearly 7 ft, a mouth of sharp teeth, green and black striped eyes and a flowing mane of black hair down to her back. She handled the rear on foot. She wore new thick blue armor with large shoulder pauldron’s identical in shape and size to a Frobot’s (complete with the three studs) and heavy gauntlets.

               For weapons, her gauntlets had reinforced knuckles with extendable spikes, her belt had stiletto-shaped throwing spikes, and  her favorite weapon was  a blue rune-covered spatha-like sword (ancient Roman two-edged blade) of 4 ft in length made of the toughest meta.

 None of those compared to her tail. It was her pride and joy, her best feature (in her mind and several admirers) and her best weapon. It could secrete a highly potent toxin if she wished and have saved her life dozens of times from dangerous predators when she was a dirt-poor eft growing up in the Emerald Coasts. As a teen and adult she’d beaten many opponents in front of her and behind her with her tail and other limbs multitasking. Zel had even earned tail fighter championships at the Military Academy four times.

               A cloud of dust blew in a miniature twister in front of them from out of nowhere.

               “What is this, I don’t-“Arthur yelled

               Gerald and Cree yanked him inside his wagon and gagged him.

                Marcy appeared several yards in front of the caravan with Percy, Halley and Braddock after the dust faded.

               “Get her!!”Sierra yelled.

               Marcy held up her left hand. “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!”

The soldiers (even the robots) paused in mid-step. Zel crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Sierra and Dan frowned.

The officers were well aware of this top threat. Seeing her in person didn’t make her any less confusing.

               “How in the world did this freak of nature pull that off?!”Dan yelled when the Cyberkinetic Witch’s wanted poster came off.

               “I’m impressed …She raided the old Toad towers, broke into several prisons or factories, and crushed that many enemies in just a week? Must be someone special …”Zel smiled derisively,”but she better not let this self-proclaimed title of ‘ultimate mistress of magic, science and technology in Amphibia’ get to her head or she’ll go down harder!”

               “Yunan would see that as a challenge, and look what happened to her in this menace’s first attack …”Sierra said.

               Lady Olivia and the ‘human’ Master Marcy had gone missing along with her in that. Three of Newtopia’s finest assets gone in one big explosion.

               Marcy waved her hands like a theatre actor,“A riddle for you … just so you know what I’m NOT here for … If you speak its name, you break it. What is it?”

               “Silence! I did not-“

               Marcy cut Sierra off with a delighted chuckle,”GOOD, goooddd … you got it right! That’s what I’M here to break … SILENCE!! IT’S TOO QUIET AROUND HERE! I’m here to break up this boring wagon PARTY with lots of noise!!”

               The prisoners and a few soldiers (including Zel) laughed. Sierra was stunned and then angry. “Enough fooling around, get her!”

               The Mar Guards and some additional robots (mostly Trooper Bots and Reapers) dropped out of the air or emerged from behind her and began tearing through the robots and newt soldiers.

               Halley whacked a Frobot’s head off with casual ease, sending it flying all the way to the rear of the caravan.

               Zel grinned”Sweet, we get some action!”

               Renee smiled with delight as this feared rebel put on a show while defeating an entire convoy.

               Gerald’s Circus freaks took over every wagon one at a time while Sierra tried to direct efforts at eliminating Marcy.

              

'

               Marcy casually rolled a blue die on the ground towards Dan as he hefted his gigantic mace in hands and clashed with Dunbar.

              

               It exploded into a blue cloud of knockout gas that left him and 30 soldiers unconscious.

               In spite of the situation, Zel snickered.

               Yumi’s fans cut through the tridents, polearms and swords of the minor soldiers with ease.

              

               Sierra had a pair of laser spears and throwing discs in her hand. She threw six of these at Marcy, who blocked them easily with an energy shield.

               Lancaster aimed his spear at her. It glowed and she was frozen solid in a block of ice.

               Veronica took the rear, coming up with her Wit Wraith Squad and volunteer fighters.

 

               Marcy tossed a die into the air that combusted. Images of a phoenix and flaming dragon appeared in the air in green fire. They launched at the Tank Frobot and squad of reinforcements in the air and destroyed them.

               Zel was grabbed and restrained by Riggy and Bogster after she tore through two-thirds of their first wave of minor Frobots singlehandedly. Riggy’s new mystical chains wrapped around her torso and tail. Bogster aimed his massive sword at her throat and she stopped moving.

              

 

 

               Renee and the other prisoners clapped at the end.

               “Would you all LIKE to join my Rebel forces?”Marcy asked them.

               “After such a fine show and rescue? I’m offended you have to ask!”Renee said.

               Wendy Corduroy, a tall (5’8’) lime green frog with very long red hair that went past her hips, a green flannel shirt and lumberjack height, was very impressed. “Cool trick, girl! Can you do more of that and give me an axe?”

               She was tossed one at once,”Sweet!”

               She and most of the other frogs had been lumberjacks and farmers in the Dark Woods until recently.

               Her best friend Tambry, a black-skinned frog with purple hair and pink highlights, said,”Yeah yeah … I’d prefer something more venomous.”

               “I can ARRANGE THAT!”Marcy said.

               The next day Tammy swooned seeing the Barbarian style black armor from Newtopia with poison barbs on it that Bernardo had. She wore it on missions while working next to Wendy.

               Zel was the only conscious officer of their captives. Rather than get angry, she kept quiet and took stock of her situation.

               She smiled toothily when Marcy took her mask off. The hair was longer and the face scarred, but she knew that face.

“Master Marcy, that figures!”

Marcy turned in surprise,”Captain Brooks, is it? I don’t think we’ve met …”

               Zel barely paid attention while her unit was passing through the city, but the newly repaired downtown bridge had been done so by some weird girl. She wasn’t an Amphibian but was something called a ‘human being’?”

               The girl tried to do a speech in front of the crowd for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

               She said,”I’m so much!” Then she froze up and ran off the stage.

 Lady Olivia sighed and walked after her. King Andrias and most of the crowd just laughed

               Zel chuckled and said to a nearby local guard. “Shy thing, isn’t she?”

               “Skilled though … she heard this famous bridge was falling apart and hired a crack team of several artisans and 10,000 laborers to patch it up with her design in just a few days way ahead of schedule … That’s why they’re naming it the Marcy Wu bridge in her honor! I hear she’s some major genius of some kind … that’s one reason she’s living at the Castle!”The guard said.

               Less than two weeks later, she heard from a grunt,”That human girl Master Marcy joined the Night Guards!”

               “She did what?”Zel said in disbelief. The Night Guards did the most risky and secret missions in defense of the City. She’d be jealous of them if she didn’t prefer open field work herself. But this human had joined in less than a month?

               There were stories of her doing missions with the Night Guards and making even more improvements to the city.

               Weeks later, Zel watched her in Night Guard gear flying on her new tamed bird flying over the Great Bay while she was heading towards a port city on her own. “Whoooohooo, Joe Sparrow! With you, I can go everywhere at high terminal velocitttttyyy! Let’s try MACH 5!”

               Zel shook her head. First she joined the Night Guard impossibly fast, and now she had a pet bird to ride?

               “I heard there’s a new advisor for the king!”A noble said at a pub in a Bay city one day. Zel glanced aside while drinking her favorite brew.

               “Is it some new noble who made it big?”His wife asked.

               “No, that genius human, Master Marcy!”

               Zel rolled her eyes. Politics were so biased.

Zel hoped her next words would throw her off,”Most of the kingdom knows about you, and I saw you run away from a speech you were supposed to give at that bridge you fixed.“

She wasn’t disappointed when Marcy blushed in embarrassment.

“I heard plenty more about that weird human girl who lived in Newtopia after that. You become a Night Guard, fixed all sorts of things in Newtopia, and got a fancy statue as an honor. And now … what, you’ve gone wild as a magic cyborg using our machines and every yahoo to make trouble for all of Amphibia? What’s wrong with you??”

               Marcy had the CGs bring her over to sit down in front of her, “It’s complicated. This ambush is nothing personal, Captain Brooks, and I’m not gonna do horrible things to you or your troops here, I promise!”

               Zel chuckled,“Please, Marcy, you going rogue is personal to the kingdom, but when it comes to this sort of thing, it’s war! Everything’s personal to someone, but when you fight, a soldier needs to be ready for the worst from an enemy. That’s what being in battle means and what we signed up for! At least I crushed half of your robots!”

               Veronica crossed her arms,”True … you took out the most we’ve seen any single opponent do yet!”

               Zel was very pleased to hear that.

               Marcy was delighted to see how pleasant this was going,”Oh good, I don’t have to worry with angry shouting and vows of vengeance for once. In fact …”She smiled brightly,” for a grand prize of being a good sport and great fighter who just set a record of takedowns on our easily repaired troops, I think I’ll offer you a better job in MY army!”          

               Zel thought,”Oh, that’s adorable!”

               “From you? I’m touched, but human, please …you’re not that good! I don’t plan on committing treason over something like that. You’re still threatening my home, remember?”

               Marcy could work with that,“Is that so? I can work with that. I’m not really in this to bring down all of Amphibian society or even Newtopia … just the very top!”

Zel’s eyes narrowed,”That’s was this is all about? Are you trying to take Andrias’s place?”

The soldiers and their captives listened intently.

Marcy rolled her eyes,”Captain, puh-lease, this whole thing started after someone ELSE tried that and he went crazy. I’m focusing on taking him down. Everyone will be better off, trust me!”

“Of course you’d say that!”One soldier called over.

Marcy smiled mockingly,“Oh? How’s this whole thing been working out for you? All hard work and no pay!”

Zel wasn’t impressed,”War isn’t supposed to be easy, human!”

“She’s reminding me of Yoohoo already!”Marcy thought.

Marcy decided to try a starting point to get her interested in talking more later,” Tell you what. Do you have any major friends or people you admire you’d like to avoid getting hurt?”

Zel smiled sharply,”Let me guess, you want them to convince me to join after you sweet talk them into it?”

Marcy giggled,”Oh Captain, that won’t be too hard! I’ve already got top spots reserved for Lady Olivia and General Yunan.”

               “That figures … she didn’t hurt the idiot after all. Yunan hung out with her a few times, and Lady Olivia practically doted on her! Maybe I can get some answers!”Zel thought.

               Zel sighed,”I heard Yunan hung out with you, but good luck with that … she’s a maniac loner and the chief general working directly for the king. Crazy, but loyal. Last I heard, she and Olivia vanished after you did.”

               Marcy tilted her head,“They certainly did vanish. I’m guessing you know her?”

               “Yeah … she’s had it hard making friends for ages. Her dad abandoned his comrades as a knight and they all died.  She was a senior in my first year at the Academy and beat me at sparring every single time! Still … she wasn’t a snob like most of them. Only made fun of me for losing to her, and appreciated that I never mocked her for the Longclaw family legacy that was forever ruined. Plenty others did and she went wild on them.”

               Marcy clapped with delight,”Great! How’d you like to help me save your old senior classmate from Andrias’s prison?”

               Zel blinked and said,“Say what?”

               The rest of her troops were just as confused.

               Marcy frowned and pointed towards the distant floating Castle far to the North,”Oh yes … if you want to talk about betrayals … I am not happy with Andrias. That backstabbing creep  crossed so many lines with me!”

               Zel sat grumpily by her campfire on the Caerillian Coast. It was bad enough they were being ordered South to deal with every insurgent or whoever that got caught in the crossfire of a war she still didn’t know the reasons for. All she heard was it involved an invasion and the toad lords going rogue for whatever reason. But now everywhere looked like a toxic pit, even Newtopia itself.

               She looked up hearing screams and her jaw dropped when the Royal Castle (somehow flying) several miles away flashed a bright green that lit up the night sky and the top and bottom parts of it exploded. Zel could’ve sworn some green blur flew out the top moments later.

               “How unfortunate!”Sierra said when they got more information. “Lady Olivia and General Yunan have gone missing in that explosion … the king’s put out an alert to watch for mysterious acts of unknown terror in light of this unexpected incursion …”

               “Who could pull that off?”Zel wondered. Stories and rumors spread, but none of them added up to anything.

               A couple weeks later, she was Sierra’s only aide to accompany her for a meeting at the Castle.

               “I know you find these boring, but there have been some concerning developments. You’re the only captain I have who will understand that adequately!”Sierra said as they went there.

               The developments were interesting alright. Andrias was busy for the next few hours on private business downstairs, but he’d delegated Headmaster Albert of the Night Guards to handle it until he finished.

               “Why does the king want the army to be on the lookout?”Nolan asked Albert.

               “There haven’t been any major losses in our forces, but there have been some unsettling developments. Scores of outposts, a couple of our new flying fortresses, and several factories in the deserts and around Frog Valley have been destroyed, and over 10,000 of our new war machines have lost contact. An unusual report just came in from West Frogschire today. A rogue cop and some thug in a jacket apprehended a businessman, terrorized the city and blew up his factory somehow …”Albert didn’t look like he could believe the bizarre incident reports in front of them either,”but thankfully that is the only incident from today. The king wants us to be vigil-“

               The sudden sound of glass breaking and a lady screaming interrupted his speech.

               Every officer or soldier, analyst or repair worker in the room stopped what they were doing. They heard several more screams and bangs echoing loudly from the bowels of the Castle … a place King Andrias had restricted for himself.

               They ran down the nearest basement door. None of them could open it. The screams grew louder and they heard sounds of bones breaking, explosions, stone and metal crunching and electric sparks in the air.

               A few ghastly screams made their hearts plummet and tails want to curl up around them protectively.

               Nolan was considering taking his sword to the door when the sounds died down. Then a voice yelled, “What is this trickery!? Who are you!?””

               “Was that Andrias?”One soldier wondered.

               The voice started to beg, something Andrias wasn’t known for,“No … no …no! No … stop it, please! Just let me go! You win! I give up!”

               Their eyes widened. Andrias had never begged for mercy in all his long years as king.

The haunting scream and loud bang that shook the floor seconds later made them jump.

               For a few long minutes after the final loud scream echoed, some of them worried Andrias was dead. But he came out alive.

“ “It was a spell of some kind … forcing me to listen to the screams of … several dying newts… or the screams of ghosts perhaps. I’ll be fine … but I need some time alone for now to get that off my mind …carry on without me for now … “

Zel didn’t blame her king for looking afraid. Whatever he’d witnessed sounded unnatural. She was never an expert in that field.

Andrias ignored their stares on the back of his head and kept looking at the walls around him in fear.

               “If he really heard ghosts screaming … that must have been some spell …”Zel said to Sierra.

               “One reason I don’t like witches!”The general scowled.

               “What are you talking about?? Why would he hurt you? I thought the king liked you a lot? He endorsed a new statue they put up in your honor and made you his new trusted advisor!”Zel said. The idea that Andrias would hurt Marcy … it made no sense. Marcy had done so much for the city and him. He’d even let her sign her name on decrees.

               The soldiers felt the same.

“Yeah, you’re the Night Guard Chief ranger who fixed the city and did several odd jobs to help keep us all safe or improve things. You lived at the Castle with Andrias and everyone said you were practically royalty!”One called over.

               Marcy snarled venomously and clenched her fists, which sparked. That was a first …Marcy never looked mad the few times Zel and the other soldiers saw her. This … this was intense anger.

               Her voice dripped with intense hatred that sent a chill down the Amphibian’s spines,“In his own twisted way, Andrias does like me! But that means a lot less to me after he nearly killed me with his own hands!”

              

She undid enough of her cloak to show her beeping chest monitor,”I don’t just wear this gear to look awesome! I’m lucky to be alive now! And that’s not the worst thing I endured in his wretched Castle!”

              

               “What happened? Most of us don’t know what went down that day …”Zel said gently.

               “ I really want you and the rest of your soldiers still standing to join me now, Captain. I won’t take no for an answer… you’re all too good for him!”Marcy said grimly.

Marcy unlocked Zel’s restraints, stunning her even more than the rest, and beckoned her and the rest over to a nearby rock so she could draw a diorama for them and show it.

After explaining what the Music Box was and admitting it was mainly her fault her friends got trapped here with her after finding it back at her home world, she took a deep breath.

“That was a selfish mistake I fully intend to make right. Now, at first, I spent a lot of time trying to find information about the Box, something he supposedly didn’t know much about. But we found a secret library in the Castle and there was this book …”

A video played of the time Andrias said to her and a different human with a mop of hair,“According to this book, it's a magical artifact that is thousands of years old. Apparently, my ancestors used it to visit entirely different worlds. They were peaceful explorers, scientists, if you will. These three Stones are the key to getting it working again. They need to be recharged.”

“Recharged? How?”Anne asked.

“The book mentions three different temples, each channeling a different kind of energy. And once the stones are recharged...”

Anne was delighted,“We'll have a way home?!”

Marcy gripped Zel’s shoulder in a tight grip, making her wince.

“I did even MORE research just for that, and we went to all three Temples for each Stone, did every last dangerous task required…”Marcy’s eyes twitched murderously,”anddd he sold me the idea that I could go with him when he using the Box to do all sorts of adventures with my best friends. We could  explore all sorts of new worlds together, just like his wretched glorious ancestors,”Zel shrank  back at the hatred leaking into her voice,”and then we went straight to this mess, his REAL plan, after the toad rebellion was doomed!”

The next video showed Anne handing the box to Andrias in his throne room,” Alright, big guy. Send us home.”

Andrias did not,”In good time, my dear. But first, I'm gonna 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. It cost us everything and after a thousand years, no one even remembers our legacy. But now, at long last, the Box is back. And with its power, Newtopia will be returned to glory!”

“Oh, well, that's nice!”The elderly frog said.

Anne wasn’t happy but nervous. She said,”Something’s wrong here.”

 Andrias, with a sinister gleam in his eyes, revealed the big twist,”For you see, my ancestors weren't frail explorers, they were glorious conquerors!”

He activated the Box on a pedestal, starting the mass activation of robots and the Castle rising up.

“That’s why he did all this…?”Wendy mumbled in disbelief.

It didn’t end there. His new robot soldiers surrounded Anne, Anne’s frog friends, Marcy, Olivia, Yunan, and the wanted toad army rebels Sasha Waybright and Grime. He said,”I'm sorry, Anne. But I'm afraid you and your friends can't go home just yet. Wouldn't want you telling anyone about the coming invasion.”

“What?”Anne said in shock.

He stood in front of the charged Box and smiled wickedly,“Now that I have the Box back, I can finish the work my ancestors started. From this Castle, I will not only rule over this world, but all worlds!”

Their king cackled in front of his shocked captives and allies.

“No! You'll never get away with this!”Anne declared.

“Anne's right. We'll stop you!” Sasha said.

Andrias, the guy who never looked so menacing to them in their lives, frowned with a hateful glare and said icily,” Stop me? I can see a demonstration of my power is in order.”

He hit a few buttons on the Box and said,”BEHOLD!”

The ornamental Castle Spire morphed into a giant pistol and obliterated the North Toad Tower in the distance in one shot.

They knew the North Tower’s destruction had been sudden, but that happened in seconds.

None of the soldiers could believe it … that wasn’t the king they knew. But this was what was happening right now all over the land.

Marcy fast-forwarded to his mockery of her trust in him.

“Andrias, this wasn't the plan. You said no one would get hurt!”She pleaded while standing between him and the rest of them.

He looked so smug and indifferent as he mocked her for that trust,“I would have said anything if it meant you delivered the Box fully charged. Hate to break it to you, kiddo, but you've been duped.”

 Then she sped up to when Anne was glowing with blue hair and powers a lot like hers. However, she ran out of power.

“I have to admit, even I'm surprised. Somehow you still got the gift, kid. Which means,”Andrias raised his sword to kill Anne,” I can't let you live.”

To his surprise, the Castle powered down. “What?”

“Please work, please work,”Marcy mumbled while fiddling with the Box to make a Portal.

“Quick,  into the portal everyone, hurry!”

Sasha and Captain Grime held him off briefly, but when the Portal formed, Andrias panicked.

“The Box!”He yelled. He effortlessly swatted Grime and Sasha aside with his fist and tail and ran at her.

“Marcy, hurry!”Anne said after she got in the portal with the three frogs.

“I just need to…”Marcy gasped and looked down with dread to see his massive sword ( a laser one, no less) impaled right through the chest near her heart.

“Now look what you’ve made me do!”Andrias said stonily.

He blamed her, or her friend (or both) for making him stab a tiny girl through the back with a sword larger than her body.

Marcy paused it there, unwilling to go further.

“I still have internal scarring from that!”She said hoarsely.

“You poor kid …”Renee said. Even for a hardened outlaw like her, that was too much. The soldiers all looked shocked or disgusted, especially Zel.

Marcy leaned into Zel’s face and asked quietly, “Well? I think it’s very clear why I’m mad at him now. Besides that, he wants to invade my home, conquer it and likely wipe my people out! My home world of Earth never did anything to Amphibia to warrant such an attack. I’m sure most of you here would agree that’s about as low as you can sink! I can see it in your eyes that you agree! Shall I go on to the worst part, Captain? You wanna know why my face looks like this and how Andrias ticked me off enough to do all this … why I will kill him painfully if I have to, and burn that Castle to ashes someday? I haven’t even told you what happened the night I escaped!”

“Yes … tell me,”Zel said numbly.

In another video, Yunan was waiting outside Andrias’s room when Lady Olivia walked up,“Oh, hey. The King summoned you too? Do you know what this is about?”

“No, and it's been weeks since the Plantars and Anne disappeared and we haven't heard a peep from him since,”she approached the door,” I wonder what's keeping him.”

They opened the door a crack. Andrias was talking to the air,” Please, my lord. Things are progressing as fast as they—‘ Yes, I know, but the device hasn't even been tested. Surely we should try it on someone else first?” After an awkard beat of silence, he sighed,”As you wish.”

The unsettled pair closed the door and backed up. Yunan said,” Well, that was freaky.”

Andrias opened the door and said cheerfully,” Aaaah! You two. Come in, Come in.” He pulled open the curtains of his room,” Good news! You're both promoted.”

He turned to Olivia,” Olivia,  you will now oversee the construction of our refineries. It's time to sap this pitiful mud bowl of all its remaining resources.”

“Mudbowl?!”Wendy growled. The frogs and newts alike grumbled.

Zel didn’t blame Olivia for looking cross. She was impressed Yunan didn’t look happy as he pointed at her,” And Yunan, we're gonna need frogs to work in these factories, so go round up some villagers.”

He came closer to them. “And if anyone resists...”they gulped,” give them a stern talking to.”

Olivia was relieved,“Oh …”

So was Yunan,” Not too bad.”

Andrias crushed that hope,” Just kidding! Terminate them! All right now, get to it! I have business to attend to.”

The pair prostrated themselves until he left the room.

Marcy smiled adoringly as Olivia got angry,” That does it! I made a sacred vow to protect this land, and I cannot continue to stand idly by while King Andrias destroys it.”

Zel smirked as Yunan acted like she’d said something scandalous,” Lady Olivia!”Olivia gasped,” If you're going to talk treason...,”she took her off hastily to a dark corridor,” I insist that you do it in private!”

The Amphibians chuckled.

Yunan sighed“You're dang right he's gone too far and based on whatever we just witnessed, Andrias is losing it. I for one, will not serve a mad king.”

Olivia looked out the window,” Agreed. But we can't take him down alone. We need someone clever, someone who understands strategy, someone like... Marcy Wu.”

Yunan dismissed the idea at first,“The human? Absolutely not. In case you haven't noticed, they're all scheming backstabbers.”

Marcy rolled her eyes when Zel and the rest looked at her.

Olivia wouldn’t here more of that,” I trust Marcy. Besides, she's the only one who's ever defeated King Andrias at Flipwart. If anyone can out-think him, it's her.”

Yunan laughed while scratching her nose,” I'm plenty smart!”

Her wrist blades came out, but she managed to dodge,”Whooa! Did you see that? I nearly took my head off!”

She conceded,” OK, maybe we do need Marcy.”

“Why am I not surprised?”Zel muttered.

Olivia was used to this. “Glad to hear it.”

Yunan even knew where to start,”But she's being held under the Castle. No one is allowed down there.

She whispered,”There's even a rumor she's being guarded by a horrible monster.”

Olivia teased her,”A monster? Don't tell me the great General Yunan is scared of some ridiculous rumor.”

Yunan knew she was goading her and didn’t care,” I  see what you're doing and it's working. Lead the way, milady.”

Marcy stopped smiling and paused again. ”That monster was real alright!”

She snapped her fingers and used photos to show the rest.

               The Core was much worse than anything they thought she meant by a monster. A giant, ugly orange-eyed monster with the minds of every dead king and queen and several ‘greatest minds’ of Amphibia living inside of it. Even worse, this horror that Andrias served had tried to use Marcy as a new living host body for itself that day… and it was only due to the magic in that Box somehow returning to her body and causing that mysterious explosion that she was free now.

               Marcy glanced at the alarmed soldiers and pointed at their chests,“Explains a lot, don’t it? That new symbol with an orange and black crown,”more than half of them ripped it off,” how Andrias got all these things in the first place … and why he’s doing it!”

She looked at a visibly disgusted Zel,” That abomination must die for good somehow, someday, and Andrias needs to go down at minimum! He made every citizen of Newtopia leave the city and left it to rot. All that matters to him right now is the plans for glorious conquest. He’s ruining your world just he so can invade MY world. This ruined part of the Dark Forest, once the biggest forest in the South, is just one example! Do you want to join my side now or keep being disposable lackeys to the crazy family of tyrants in that floating rock?”

 

               Zel looked at the Castle and shook her head,“Wow …just wow …that’s just wrong!”

She faced Marcy,” Alright, I’m in! You got yourself a new Captain! Let’s save Yunan, Olivia and our world from this madness! I did NOT sign up to serve for this!”

               Her other soldiers nodded and murmured agreement.

               Marcy’s smile was so beatific it cheered them up. She snapped their chains off.

“That warms my heart to hear you all say that! Let’s save the day together!”

She faced Zel and grasped her right hand with her own,”Captain Brooks, I ‘ve been wanting a competent military officer to help me lead my growing army for a while now. You are a perfect choice to offer that job too. You can be in charge of any soldiers of any kind I take in who want to join! Heck, you can be my lead army commander in general! When we can, I promise I’ll get you an official promotion to general! What do you say?”

“Deal!”Zel said.

Over 200 of the other soldiers joined the day after.

“Oohhh,I like her already! I’ve got a good feeling this is the start of a beautiful friendship!”Marcy told Yumi.

Yumi replied,”Mars, you love making friends in general and the power of friendship to beat evil … why so serious on another one this quickly?”

“Come on, Yumi, she likes me, I can tell …and she remembered my name! And … if she did go to military school with Yoohoo, we can hear embarrassing stories or good ones to help me know her better!”

“An ulterior motive for making friends … for shame, Marbles! Being the mercenary type is my shtick! ”Halley said dryly.

“I can hear you clowns, you know!”Zel said from behind them. Marcy squeaked.

“If you want embarrassing stories about her, just ask me!”The amused Captain said.

               They swapped several on the way to Frog Valley.

               Zel was amused to hear how Yunan met her,“My psycho senior classmate signed your cast, sailed on a fake pirate ship, and is even worse at remembering your name than you are at hers? I’ll be darned!”

               “Yeah, she’s awfully intense … even after we learned Greenbeard and his troupe were actors, she threw them overboard and I had to save them. I was worried about making her angry for awhile, but she never got too mad with me …I’d hate to have her get mad now,”Marcy fingered her chest.

               Zel said,”Marcy, Yunan may be a psychopathic brute, but I never saw her go wild on people she liked if she could help it.”

               Marcy leaned forward,”Was she doing her intro thing in school?”

               Zel grinned,”Where do I start?”

               Zel stirred her soup in the canteen. The door banged open and Yunan Longclaw burst in.

               “Oh, what’s for lunch?”

               “Who’s asking?”The bored cook muttered without turning his head.

               “I am Cadet Yunan, Destroyer of the Bay platoons, Ruler of the Dorms, and the greatest Senior Cadet in the great Newtopian Academy!”

               The cook blinked and said,”The greatest senior cadet is ten minutes late to lunch.”

               Zel and several other newts in the room snickered. Yunan scowled and fingered a knife.

That night when they got back to the Nerve Center, she went to Marcy’s room with her and insisted,”Kid … I need you to be upfront with me and tell me the rest.”

She took Marcy’s secret shame and guilt well enough.

“That was selfish alright … very selfish, but not many people try to fix that so quickly …and that doesn’t justify our king using you to make it worse for everyone!”She said quietly as Marcy sobbed quietly.

“Thanks … I try … I gotta fix this …I need that thing … I need to-“

Zel sighed and wiped her eyes with her tail for her. “I get it … you need to make it up to your friends and kill the monster.”

“I’ve already done it once … sort of … just before I started raiding at large!”

               Zel put that together with the mysterious incident that scared Andrias,”Was that where all the screaming came from that day? How did you do that?”

               Marcy did one better and showed her the whole thing.

The ‘Ock virus curse’ alarmed Zel, but at the same time impressed her. “You used a curse to infect their own mind and make them die … again …and make that thing and the king afraid of you at the same time? Now that … is thinking like a good soldier! When you fight a monster, go for the weak spots!”

“Yeah …the Core makes me angrier than I’ve ever been at anything. I get ruthless because of it …and that worries me.”

Zel snorted,“Of course, you don’t just let something like that slide! There’s no shame in reacting that way or killing a monster that evil. Speaking of which … any lingering problems about being touched I should be worried about?”

“My bodyguards I made are to keep that from happening, “She faltered when Zel frowned,”oh, you mean on a personal level?? I don’t use these,”she handed over a list of ‘Core traits’” for powers or designs on my machines … and I’m not keen on having any glowing swords like his near me again … I’m still getting over not jumping every time I touch a loose cable …”

Zel didn’t judge her for that,“I don’t blame you …when I was your age I almost got eaten by a large snake …I survived, but it was close. I never wanted to be weak …being a tough soldier helps me feel safe.”

 Marcy asked,”Speaking of touch, are you annoyed by hugs?”

“No … my tail and arms are great at that … even if that’s reserved for special people …”Zel smiled a little,”do tail hugs bother you?”

“Try me!”Marcy said.

Zel gently wrapped her thick tail around Marcy’s waist without trapping her arms. Marcy felt it and rubbed some of the mucus in her fingers and smelled it,”Hmmm, very strong … such an interesting smell for a-“

She was yanked in the air in front of Zel’s face,”Don’t talk about how my tail smells! That’s so rude!”

Marcy broke into a long laugh and hugged her around the waist. “Sorry, Zelly, it’s a very lovely tail! I’ll treat it just as nice as the rest of you!”

Zel blushed purple. She hugged her tighter with her tail and arms,“Oh fine … I’ll have to educate you on that sort of thing …”

 

Marcy was already becoming the closest younger friend Zel ever had. It took no time to decide the girl needed help coming out of her shell.

“Why are you so shy? You looked ready to faint that time at the bridge,”Zel asked her at breakfast.

 

Marcy hesitantly answered,“I know that was embarrassing at the bridge … I meant to say ‘I’m honored, thank you so much!’ but I couldn’t even get that right! Can you blame me for running off?”

Zel grinned like a shark,”Wouldn’t that have been easy to say a second time right there?”

Marcy scowled,”It’s not that easy! I’m not good with crowds or socializing. It’s hard just looking people in the eye, and I get scared at the very thought of public speaking. Andrias razzed me so hard for that and said I should stick to public works instead of speaking!”

Zel pointed out,”Considering what he’s done, should you keep listening to him?”

The large soldier ruffled the annoyed girl’s head,“Marcy …being a competent leader involves speaking to groups. I don’t like it either, but sometimes you have to suck it up and do it. Between you and me, I hate parade events and ceremonies … they take too long.”

Marcy could relate, “I could always memorize the whole ceremony outline in seconds for those … and I had my game systems to occupy my time there anyways …”

“Has she done it as our leader?”Zel asked Smars, who nodded.

“Why are you so interested?”Marcy demanded.

Zel said,“I’m trying to help you feel more confident on addressing your weak areas. Can you promise me you’ll let me help with that?”

Marcy nodded.

Pleased, Zel critiqued her previous team-bonding ideas,“Now, first things …doing game campaigns is NOT the way to bond with your teammates! You know that now, right?”

“I’m considering videogames and movies instead as a suggestion, does that help?”Marcy timidly asked.

Zel almost objected, but a few of these concepts interested her. However, she didn’t approve of Marcy’s depression habit of playing every roleplay game or digital game on her phone at nighttime.

“You need rest, not to play games to cope!”She said firmly the first time she saw that.

“It’s harder to rest these days …”Marcy mumbled.

Zel sat on her bed,“Fine, tell me more about yourself instead!”

She was amused at learning why she joined the Night Guard,”A way to look for your friends is one thing, but … their cloaks and gear also looked cool? That’s it?”

Marcy huffed,”They took on the most difficult missions in Amphibia, that IS cool! And …I know my game ideas are mostly fictional,”Zel crossed her arms,”but I’ve sucked at physical school activities for a long time! But newts are the like the Cephalons, a race from one of my games! I decided to  try roleplaying as a rogue-a resourceful and sneaky warrior-and an artificer-someone who crafts things-and …”she smiled brightly,”it worked. Finally I had a way to relate to physical activities! After I passed the test to join them, I really got into it!”

Zel leaned closer,“What was this exam?”

Marcy’s eyes sparkled,“Have you ever heard of the Giant golden Crabs?”

Zel nodded.

“To be able to join, were supposed to get one of their eggs!”

She enjoyed seeing Zel’s jaw drop and went on,”I asked about the crabs. They spit acid up to 500 ft away, very tough carapace, their pincers go through iron like scissors on paper, etc. Not adviasable to take head on. So instead I researched a bit first and spent a few days searching for one. Three times my height, they’re active 9 am to noon, ate and foraged from noon to 2 pm and then slept. But the area it lived near had geysers that went off every ten minutes. I counted a few at 10:24 am, 10:34 am, and so on. I dug a tunnel to divert the geysers to its cave while it was sleeping …and it went into a defensive hibernation state for a few days! And that’s not even the best part!”

“What was the best part?”

Marcy giggled,“I brought the egg back and learned the test was supposed to see how new recruits dealt with impossible scenarios! I was the first one to actually succeed!”

Zel was impressed, but she asked her,”Could you handle dealing with an impossible situation you can’t win?”

Marcy nodded,”A bit … I’d like to not focus too much on winning. I do get a bit too competitive on that … ”

She told Zel more about her two friends and their mixed adventures.

Zel could see why she liked Anne, but she had reservations about Sasha.

“That terrorist coup she pulled …what complaints did she have about Newtopia or Andrias?”

Marcy groaned,“I’m not sure! Nothing I can see for certain in the Castle footage or available memories shows anything obvious except her being angry about her and Grime being hunted down for the South Tower incident and seeing an opportunity to grab power! She certainly never asked me about Andrias and she sent me right to the dungeons with Anne after Anne said they were through! At any rate, why would I help her hurt Newtopia? I owed you all for taking me in! I’d been protecting and serving Amphibia there and up to that point,”she sighed,”Andrias was a close friend, just like her!”

Zel patted her on the back,”That’s on them, not you!”

 

 

In a couple days, Marcy and Bomme got her a private group of elite robots to serve as her personal squadron (dubbed the Z-Platoon) that answered to her and made sure her orders were relayed to the other machines in the field. Four of the Spartabots (Jorge, Sarge, Linda, and Lucy)Tychus, Skibi, and Raynor were first as skilled fighters/specialists and had the most authority. The rest were the Predbots  for stealth ops and for field work: seven Newtromatons and the other Hunters; a fireteam of Special Op Marines, seven Protectorate skin Maraudbots, HERCS and Reapers; and a Baker’s dozen of Promethean Fryerbats.

Captain (sort of) HM Murdock (a Reaper who loved doing aerial combats and stunts a bit too much), Staff Sargeant B.A. Barracus (a Maraudbot) and Sergeant Gui Morris (a Fryerbat) had priority ranking in the field.

Gabby and Andre were assigned as personal Captains to her along with these robots to give proper orders to the Amphibians. Sarge and Linda (to her delight) helped her in drills and training.

*Snarlsburg Smorgasbord*

               The Toad Duchy of Snarlsburg had long been the dominant province of the Southern tip of Amphibia. It was the only major settlement in the area that survived any of the constant wars.

 The Snarlguard army served the House of Snarl, a long line of dukes and duchesses who had conquered the area and crushed many pirates and rebels over the ages.

                Howl Tower stood as tall as the Toad Towers. It was adorned with spikes and chimneys on the top and allowed the residents to overlook their territory for miles. Snarslburg consisted of marshes and wetlands covered with wigwams and houses and coastal docks for fishing and travel to nearby Kho Ghop Island. The Amphibians on the Coasts generally answered to them. The toads who ruled here tended to be more sophisticated and less impulsive than the rest and avoided the squabbles of the toad lords most of the time.. They rarely needed help to defend themselves from the various pirates and hordes wandering around.

 

               Officially they were allies of the Toad army and many Snarslburgians served in their ranks, but they hadn’t gone to the Toad Summit or been involved in their rebellion.

               It made no difference to Andrias, who was sweeping all of Amphibia for resources and slave workers. They’d been conquered in less than a week. Duke Rhaebo Snarl, his wife Duchess Ansonia, and his top commander Wilhelm had been executed as an example while over half the Snarlguardians were sent to jail or to factory work with 30,000 of the frog serfs there.

               Thane Willibad attempted to form a rebellion force with the clan chiefs but he and the rest were all dead now.

               Rhaebo’s son Earl Anton Snarl ( a beige toad of nearly 7 ft with brown sideburns and glowing violet eyes), his armory expert Brigitte ( an orphaned newt with yellow skin and brown hair who stood taller than Yunan), and veteran Snarlsguard fighter Darin the Overwatcher (an even taller toad at nearly 8 ft, grey skin, a red burn scar over his left eye from a fight at the Blood Swamps in his youth, long white hair and a beard) were imprisoned in Howl Tower’s dungeons with twenty others.

Lt. Colonel Tam, a large newt standing 8’6” with ridged brown skin who was in charge there, found it amusing to make them howl if they caused problems.

What happened to him next ensured he never did that again.

Zel wasn’t just a good fighter but a skilled tactician.

The only real reason she hadn’t risen higher yet was she wasn’t that ambitious, had a very low-class background with no real money to her name (and several relatives who’d died in the Sand Wars) and skipped special ceremonies for the army half the time in favor of going on missions or exercising.

One day in the Nerve Center, she said,“We should take all of the South! It’s ripe for the taking!”

Marcy had Amy put up a 3D map in the air“I’ve been thinking the same thing lately! The lands below the Valley are the hardest for Andrias to manage!”

Zel traced her fingers along the Valley’s image thoughtfully,“Having the Valley as our central base is a good call! The mountains alone make it impractical to bring many soldiers into, even with the Frobots being capable of flight. It’s position is a natural obstacle blocking the rest of the South from a direct path from Newtopia. There are only two ways around that. The longest is to go along the Great Bay Coasts. Those already belong to Newtopian control, but we already have a great foothold in that area at the First Temple. The Nightguard base at Cragmarrow Cove is already vulnerable to imminent attack and they don’t even realize it yet. To go around the other way, the Eastern edge of the Valley, the Dry Swamp and wild Dark Woods areas have to be travelled in. It’s not an easy path even with the forests decimated. Any traveler there will welcome the sight of their only decent stronghold .”

Marcy saw where she was going with this,”You mean Snarlsburg, correct?”

Zel tapped the spot,”Snarlsburg is the second most fortified port city in Amphibia after Newtopia and the only major settlement down there! The remaining leaders and locals should be easily persuaded to ally with us. Once that spot is secured, the South of Amphibia will be as good as ours!”

               Marcy liked it, “I have no objections. It’s like slicing the lily pad shape of Amphibian in two, one for each side to hold. Andrias doesn’t even get the full half of his side because of the OTHER angry toads on the upper left corner here. Tactical advantages aside, the whole area has become a toxic sewer pit. No forests or anything green is growing for over 200 miles and it’s got over 35% of current factory and refinery operations running! We take all that out and Andrias is guaranteed to start losing ground all over Amphibia!”

               On their way over, Zel warned her,“Colonel Tam is very serious, no-nonsense and loves to use booby traps! He’s rigged the entire area with spike pits, bombs and more! We can’t afford to fool around with him!”

               “Good thing we have long range AND air covered!”Marcy said.

               Zel smirked,”Exactly … in fact … I have an idea.”

               Marcy liked it so much she let Zel take full reign on this one.

               Tam was woken up in the evening by a barrage of sounds.

               “What is going on?!”He demanded.

               “Sir, flying stingrays are dropping bombs!”

               “ Flying Stingrays??”Tam said flatly. He went to the window and frowned seeing the Mantas flying over the swamps and dropping their small skull-shaped mines blowing up factories, Frobots and every industrial structure.

               The Krabbs were walking expertly closer to the Tower through the water over every mine, trap or obstacle.

               “That’s a crab species I’m not familiar with!”Tam said.

               “I’ll say, four legs and no claws!”Captain Bingum said.

               Tam directed his troops,“Let’s concentrate here to drive them off! Activate the upgraded Bastille layers of this keep!”

               Every window sealed shut with iron shutters, the walls were reinforced with a shell of extra armor, and lasers and missile launchers came out of the tower. Two scanners and several cameras kept them informed.

              

               “Good, trapped in a ready-made cage!”Zel said with glee from a distance.

               “Keep their attention on the water!”She ordered a nearby AD. It signaled its brethren in the ocean waters. They stuck their heads and cannons out of the water and fired powerful shots that shook the metal walls with every hit.

               “Who’s firing?!”Tam demanded.

               “Unknown sir, it’s coming from the ocean!”Bingum answered.

               “It must be pirates or some other criminal insurgents!”Tam concluded.

               The prisoners heard the noise and were very irritated.

               “I’m trying to sleep and now this?”Anton growled in the cells.

               “I was having a bad dream anyway!”His chief guard Ralf grumbled.

               “At least for once, your grace, it’s not your problem that the Tower’s being attacked?”Brigitte offered from two cells down.

               Her toad friends laughed.

               Anton made them laugh more by saying,”Yes, for once I can let someone else handle that!”

               “Very good, lass!”Darin slapped her on the back.

               Zel pointed at the six Volcashells and two Labstars. “Go hot and then loud!”

               The Volcashells opened their hatch-like mouths and spat out large balls of magma.

               “What the-?!”Tam snarled at the balls of fire coming through the air. Howling Tower was hit for half a minute with superheated force that melted most of their outer shell of defense and all their weaponry.

               The Krabbs were firing lasers at the walls surrounding the base of the tower by now. The Frobots were being overrun easily.

               “Send word to the King! And get ready for a tough fight inside!”Tam ordered his men and the scores of Frobots, three Cloakbots and Fire Frobots waiting inside. The flamethrower units had been very useful in ambushing the Snarlguardians inside their halls and caverns and leaving their places torched.

               However, the Labstars ruined his plan to have a fight inside at all.

               The massive red and blue bipedal lobsters aimed their Vibe claws and unleashed a massive sonic blast.

               The living newts clutched their heads in pain and howled. The Frobots clutched their heads and short-circuited. The Frobot sending the message only got to the part about how they were under attack before his head and radio dish exploded.

               Down below, Anton and the rest winced and covered their heads. It hurt even if they were spared the worst of it.

               Thirty seconds later, the garrison was fried or unconscious.

               Marcy and Zel marched into the cell areas with the CGs and three Frost Knights (Darius, Mina, and Nazgrowl).

               “Hi there! I’m the Cyberkinetic Witch, the ultimate Mistress of science, magic, and technology in AMPHIBIA!! You’re the PROPER Snarslburgian residents, correct? His Grace Earl Anton Snarl and his remaining loyal subjects in this fine TOWER??” Marcy said chipperly to Anton and his 22 followers. She even offering her hand to shake through the bars at the nearest cell, which held Darin, Brigitte and four others.

               Darin chuckled and shook it,“The most wanted rebel in Amphibia … normally I’d say this was an insult, but now … I’d say it’s an honor! Was that you who did the attack outside?”

               Marcy nodded,“YES SIR! MY top commander here just recaptured your Tower! I MUST SAY, looks like you have a bad uninvited guest problem!”

               “I know … what’s it to you? We heard you helped yourself to the Toad lord’s Towers.”Anton said heatedly.

               “Not quite. The South Tower went LITERALLY downhill before this whole thing … I MIGHT fix it someday and add a drawbridge and HANGING gardens. You really must give me opinions on this design.”She held a drawing of it up to the incredulous Anton.

The Snarlsburgians blinked as she started rambling.

               “The East Tower was QUITE nice, even if I literally just had to deal with one grumpy general squatting there who couldn’t answer a simple riddle with stakes … so tacky. The toad soldiers there loved me helping them get their stuff back. IT’S still standing … don’t know if Captain Bufo will appreciate that AFTER I had dinner at his table and didn’t share any of my cool recipes with him. It’s NOT my fault he failed on OFFENSE on the field and lost his army and base in one day. The North Tower was just rubble to route through, and Beatrix still has hers …”she leaned closer and said,”DO TELL, is Howl TOWER more of a howling mad place, howls with the wind in those chimneys, or just a pun on snarl?”

               Anton groaned,”“Why don’t you just take it for yourself and figure it out? That’s what you’re here for, right?”

               “No …”Zel had CG-3 unlock his cage door,”You’re free! My leader wants to offer our aid in reclaiming your lands from Andrias, free sanctuary in our territories, and a spot in our armies as equal and respected allies. Together, we can retake all of the Southern coasts with us and destroy Andrias’s tainted regime before he ruins Amphibia for good!”

               The other cages were unlocked one after the other.

               Anton stood up,”I am tempted to consider this already, but why?”

               Marcy said evenly,”Care to discuss it over dinner? MY TREAT?? Do you all like …Smorgasbords?”

               “What are those? Sounds fancy!”Brigitte said. Like most Snarlsburgians, she sounded Norse/Germanic.

               Minutes later, they got it. They had a fancy dinner in the dining hall while Marcy filled them in.

               “Ohh it’s a buffet of hot and cold dishes! Nice!”The newt said, munching some hot Swedish meatballs.

               Marcy’s real name and face intrigued them.

               Anton was familiar with her reputation,“Ah the … human, was it?”Marcy beamed and nodded,”the one living at Newtopia. This explains a bit of the mystery.”

               “Your grace, I’m just getting started!”She paused and took a deep breath,”I do hope I’m not ruining any etiquette rules here. Lady Olivia taught me enough for Newtopian circles …”

               Anton and the older residents grinned,”I know that lady, a very nice newt. Polite to a fault.”

               “Perfect. She is one of two officials held captive for going against her king!”

               “His own advisor?”Brigitte asked skeptically.

               “It’s complicated … one reason being her family’s sacred oath to protect Amphibia and all its living things …”Marcy pointed flatly out the window,”and Andrias obviously doesn’t give two coppers worth about things like that!”

               “His own jailers here don’t seem to know why that is!”Ralf said.

               Darin crossed his arms and looked sternly at the few former toad army  soldiers present,”Can you and your new leader tell us about what happened? His grace wasn’t interested in attending the toad summit, and then we heard the fugitive toad lord Grime led the most humiliatingly quick defeat in recent history trying to rebel against the kingdom? Right before an army of machines comes out of nowhere and wages war against every area unprovoked?”

               “Heh heh, long story!”Medog said anxiously.

               “We can show you everything!”Zel assured them.

               The Snarlsburgians were not that impressed at the speech for inspiring the revolution, or that Sasha had gotten the famed Barrel’s Warhammer and led them to their defeat. The reveal of Andrias’s plans and the Core scared and appalled them.

               Darin found the Core’s very existence an affront to nature,”Glorious conquerors or warriors should rest in peace instead of dishonoring their name as an abomination clinging to life in such a form!”

               Anton said to Marcy midway through the meal,“I accept your offer. Andrias has destroyed our Duchy in all but name. I never did any harm to his kingdom and now he dragged us into a thousand year old scheme? This mad plan of his and that monstrosity he serves will leave us all corpses and the entire land reduced to a lifeless shell.”

               Marcy shook his hand,“Excellent! Let’s put a stop to it!”

               He frowned at the information about Marcy’s fellow Valley rebel neighbors, “This Wartwood Resistance is versatile but far too limited in scope. Miss Waybright is a capable young fighter who could continue to make up for her selfish ambitions like you are. Captain Grime, however, has not earned our respect by humbling himself this way. He cost every toad province and the rest of Amphibia dearly for this plan to seize power for himself. He and your friend still have no real idea of what they’re getting into and could not hope to take the fight to the king and his beast master with a single village of untrained fighters and win!”

               Marcy accepted that critique of the Resistance,“I know. I’m doing them a favor by letting them focus more on the Valley while I go around the rest of Amphibia to gather more allies for a better army. When the time comes, we’ll discuss details with them. Sasha will understand, I’m sure. Now … “she gestured to the walls,”your Tower is a nice place and well built. I could use or improve it in many ways, but what do you want to do with it? It’s your home after all!”

               Anton looked it over,”For now … we must destroy it!”

               His subjects gasped.

               “I know, it’s not an easy decision, but a force of over 30,000 machines is headed this way. It’s too hard a spot to defend for now and it would be easier for Andrias to assume the place was destroyed entirely along with his puppets here in an attack then to make it plain what Lady Wu accomplished here today. We can take everything of value and rebuild it later! I’d rather see it in pieces than in the hands of Andrias again!”

               They blew the Tower down to the ground and took Tam and his soldiers captive.

               “You can be my lead toad commander and main leader in the Southern areas,  or even just call yourself a respected ally! Whatever you prefer!”Marcy suggested to Anton as they walked away.

               Anton chuckled, running a finger down his recovered battle axe with dual blades and vine patterns on it.

               “You’re too kind, young lady. I like the sound of all those ideas, but we’ll have to work on the details later …,”Anton smiled one of his intimidating smiles at her,”but first, you do realize you are now in effect the uncontested Queen of Southern Amphibia?”

               “Queen of the South!? New title, yayyyy!”Smarcy said with joy.

               “Oh, come on! We did NOT come here to make me a monarch! Are you trying to make me sound greedy and power mad?!”Marcy yelled. Everyone laughed.

               “It’s a high compliment, actually!”Anton said. He enjoyed seeing her face go red.

               Darin tried to make her feel better,“You’re working to bring down a tyrant and  are making an army to save the world. Why not be called a queen? It’s an honor!”

               Marcy almost ran off in embarrassment again, only to have Zel hold her in place.

               “She’s shy in front of crowds! We’re working on that!”Zel said.

               “Zelly! Don’t say that!”Marcy whined.

               Zel didn’t back down,“Marcy,  you’re getting good at being an effective presence in battle and a good speaker with a powerful army. This is just another way to make that side of you grow!”

               ”Fine, you win! I’m the new Queen of the South! Just don’t make me wear a crown or call me Empress of the Swamps!”Marcy grumbled.

              

               “Of course not, that comes later!”Halley joked. She kept smirking when Marcy swatted her shoulder.

               Smarcy asked her,“Why are you so upset? I thought you liked being treated like a queen in Newtopia?”

               Marcy glowered,”There’s a difference! I liked enjoying the delights of the Castle, but I wasn’t actually a queen! I …”She swallowed,”Andrias and I were getting along and he … he even let me write new decrees and laws …”

               Zel sighed,”Marcy, it’s not a bad thing to enjoy that. You’re not living large while everyone else is suffering but standing up for them! Think about it this way … as a new Queen of these parts, we’ll officially have grown from a Rebel movement into an opposing regime. We can use that kind of authority to offer sanctuary to dissenters and keep out anyone working for Andrias.”

               “You can do it!”Nicky encouraged her.

               “Ok …”Marcy took a deep breath,”I’ll be a queen and do my best to be a good one!”

              

               Anton helped set up an ambush between the Dark Forest and Snarlsburg for the approaching Frobot army. The increased force of angry rebels destroyed the tens of thousands of machines sent to eliminate them.

               Coatl went the nearby Growl Port while they did that.

               He strolled up to three armed knights with his hands behind his head at the harbor, whipped out his flail and swung it into the closest one on the head with a loud crack. After throwing his axe into the nearest Frobot’s head, he beat the other two knights and four Frobots present up with his flail.

               Another knight came at from behind with a sword. He jumped over the sword using one foot and kicked him in his faceguard. Still in the air, he grabbed the newt’s sword with his free hand and threw it into the head of another Frobot firing at him.

               A toad guard shot his tongue at him and snared his flail wielding hand. Coatl yanked the toad towards him and did an epic uppercut with his other hand that sent him flying several yards away.

               Two toads who resembled Fen and Mire (girl toad with dreads and a guy with a helmet) leaped at him from both sides at high speed for an attempted body slam move.

               He dodged at the last second and let them collide.

               They stood up in rage but got two rapid chops to the throat that left them gasping for air. He slammed them face first onto a nearby rock and they stopped moving.

               He took two daggers from the dreadlocked toad’s belt, and used one on three newts and a toad who charged at him. He threw the dagger into the leg of the largest newt in an unarmored newt, swung his flail into the closet newt, jumped over the toad as he swung a poisoned axe at him, pulled the knife out of the newt on his knees, cut him on an exposed part of the spine, and tossed it into the toad’s chest as he turned around. The  last two newts got their wrists cut and a flail to the face.

               Just to spite the axe-wielding toad, he picked up his axe and tossed it into another Frobot’s chest.

               A muscular axolotl pointed a laser rifle at him and fired.

               The assassin used a handful of dust from the ground to create a smokescreen for just two seconds.

               The gunman saw a shadow in the air. Coatl gripped his arms tightly and three seconds later he fell into a painful unconscious state.

               Coatl picked the laser rifle up and fired into a dozen approaching Frobots and six other guards with great accuracy until it overheated.

               He retrieved his axe and beheaded two Frobots and cut down three newts at the knees.

When Coatl saw the final guard willing to attack him, a  large toad (6’5”) with huge muscles, coming at him with a club, he put his weapons down and took him down with his bare hands for some fisticuffs practice.

               It was amazingly quick without any fancy tricks. In ten seconds, Coatl disarmed the toad with a chop to his wrist, punched his left cheek and knocked a tooth loose, hit him on both sides of his head with his palms to discombobulate him, blocked his counterstrike with his right arm, hit his ribs with his left fist (with audible cracking), blocked his left arm, dealt him two rapid punches to his left and right jaw (dislocating it entirely) and then kicked his gut. The toad fell down on his back whimpering in pain. The spectacle left the harbor residents and captive workers there (most of them toads and frogs) speechless

              

 The remaining guards (only eight) threw down their weapons and surrendered when they saw some Camo Bots coming out of the nearby swamps to back him up.

               Kho Gop Island was the furthest island down South. It had a small force present which Araya defeated.

               The CRA sprang open three prisons and fourteen factory locations to recruit some more of Anton’s people or the nearby locals working as slaves. Every factory was destroyed or repurposed and all enemies captured or destroyed.

Marcy’s new title as Queen of the South spread out rapidly.

Andrias was delighted,”Not ‘Queen of Amphibia’ level, but close!”

               The Wartwood Resistance was having another meeting in their strategy room when they heard.

               “Andrias has troops marching towards Kaeru, and our attack on his laser cannons on the Eastern Misty Peaks riled him up good,”Sasha said,”and his forces have the strongest front here in the North.”

               Grime said,“Hold up. He has a massive presence below the Valley. Don’t forget that. The mountains keep them out from trying an instant attack on us at least.”

               Toadie and Duckweed came in with the latest news. The small frog cleared his throat,”Actually no, Commander … he doesn’t have forces below the Valley at anymore at all!”

               “What happened?”Croaker asked.

               Duckweed laid the reports down,“Our spies just received word that Andrias’s forces and buildings at Snarslburg, even Howl Tower, were conquered and destroyed by the Cyberkinetic Witch.”

               Grime was spooked.

               Sasha frowned as she read off the information,”A mysterious raid of aquatic monsters under the command of the Cyberkinetic Witch levelled the fortifications around Snarlsburg’s Howl Tower. After capturing the Tower and freeing the prisoners, it was destroyed. No known survivors of Andrias’s soldiers who were guarding it. General Sierra went MIA after heading towards the Caerillian Coast in a caravan. Andrias’s forces on the Southern Coast have been completely defeated. Amphibia’s worst criminal has the support of the House of Snarl in conscripting any lingering warriors and residents of Snarlsburg into her army along with several suspected Newtopian soldiers. She now rules the area as the Queen of the South!”

               “She destroyed Snarlsburg …what was left of it … and rules the Southern areas of Amphibia now. They already think she rules the Valley … and now she’s the Queen of the South??”Grime said in despair.

               Sasha rolled her eyes,”Good Lord, Grimesy, don’t be so jealous! I know you told me Snarlsburg was the most efficient toad stronghold below the Valley once, but that’s hardly relevant now! She did us a favor doing that! Less trouble below us! In fact …”She smiled coldly,”I have an idea to build on this!”

               Avalanches fell down on dozens of patrols and factories in the surrounding mountains for weeks and four caravans moving goods around the Peak of Health and the mountain passes were raided and destroyed. The supplies were all theirs.

*The Stones*

               Zel had worked out Marcy’s strengths as a fighter by now. She had good eyes and great aim and preferred to avoid close quarters combat.

               “I won’t ask you to try swords,”She said while doing staff training,”but close-quarters defense is a must!”

               Marcy spun her stick around and almost got a blow in,“I know …why do you think I’m trying to cover all my bases?”

               Zel swept her off her feet with her tail. “You can’t do that with a snap of your fingers! Speaking of which,”she picked her up and blindfolded her,”let’s work on that new sixth sense of yours!”

               After four hours, she’d progressed good in using her Wit psychic senses to dodge most of the rocks Zel tossed at her.

               “That is a useful trick. Can all the Stones do that?”Zel asked Marcy at lunch afterwards.

               Marcy started drawing a diagram,“Good question! Let’s recap a bit … every Stone wields similar energy with common properties of supernatural energy! Anne can likely do most of what I can. What’s unique about her … let’s see … Heart Stone is empathic, emotion focused. Someone with great charisma and people skills, like Anne … you could call it a literally magnetic personality. Look at her, her hair’s acted unnaturally magnetic to draw gunk and plants to it … her Calamity hair is actually a mini-forest,”the table snickered,”and the way her limited powers act, it’s like a battery. She gets tired out after using it, but her emotional state is what triggers it and can make it stronger! I’d also wager it insulates her … the Second Temple’s chill wasn’t bothering her a lot when we went there!”

               She pointed to herself,“Mine, well, all our powers require concentrating to really use properly, but … since I am a genius, it fits that mine are mind-oriented- I’m certain there’s a probability-or luck-effect that’s worked for and against me in various ways. Surviving, even barely, things that should’ve killed me and still managing to give myself and everyone else a chance …”she grimaced,”and processing things at a higher speed for solutions in seconds. I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of psionic mind powers you see in fiction …telekinesis, empathic senses, mind-reading, psychic, blah blah. I think creativity with it is also my thing …”she made a glowing die appear and started shaping it,”if I concentrate hard enough, I can make these appear and make them do all sorts of things. I was able to use this to help reshape my new spear and so on!”

She tapped the Pink Stone’s picture,“ Last but not least, the poor underused Strength Stone … it’s got to be the largest for a reason. A larger gem logically means it holds more energy. The Third Temple was in a volcano, which is where diamonds-the hardest of gemstones-are formed. And some visions I’ve had of her Calamity form show her hair on fire,”she displayed it,”so if energy is a theme, her powers could be like the fire of a sun incarnate. One thing about suns, the larger they are,”she smirked,”the more worlds revolve around them!”

“That figures!”Zel snarked.

“This old inscription I found said this …”

“The three stones of power – we thought they were a gift, but they are more likely a curse. One was found in each of the three lands, and great wars were waged by nations hoping to possess all three. These great stones would make nearby crops grow better. They could heal wounds and cure the disease of those who touched them. Most of all though, they could destroy the foes of those who wielded them.”           

“Anne and I have done a bit of all that …imagine all three combined!”Marcy said.

*Spider Sensation.*

               Vicki and Charlotte were in charge of monitoring the Resistance up close the most. While the rest of their forces skirted the edges of Wartwood in plain sight, they went all over the area out of sight or just at the edge of what the Wartwoodians could see.

               The Resistance was painfully aware of them. They’d witnessed a few abductions and several terrifying takedowns in their presence. Destroyed robots were left hanging in webs or vines all over the place. The fact that the Frobots themselves were scared of them convinced many of the frogs the Driders were a form of monster Marcy had created.

               The two ambush experts found that hilarious and messed with them a lot.

               The only Resistance inhabitants who were aware of the Driders up close were the ones that couldn’t communicate properly about it … the animals. Joe Sparrow had eyed Vicki while out flying for practice one day and followed her.

               He landed and stared her down. To his surprise, Vicki gushed and said,”Ohhh, you are so biggg and pretty! Mar-Mar was not kidding!”

               Joe’s eyes widened. He got closer and nudged the robot, who quietly whispered what was up with his missing owner.

               “Now the boss needs to keep it on the low for now. Can you keep a lid on it, Joe? Me and Charlotte are keeping an eye on Sash and the rest for her.”

               He nodded.

               The next time, he, Bessie and Microangelo encountered her and Charlotte at the barn. Archie crawled in a moment later.

               The two Driders doted on them.

               One time, Vicki saw them grazing or lounging about in the field outside the house and decided to entertain them a bit and cheer Mar-Mar up later from her accumulating stress.

               Hop Pop’s rival of a neighbor, Monroe, was on guard duty by the door, but he’d fallen asleep while the rest were out on a mission. A few of the other Resistance members were near the entrance and Grime was downstairs, so there was no real worry.

               Vicki landed on the roof of the house, winked at the staring pets, and she started singing a little tune.

“Look at what's around here

I can't believe it myself

Suddenly I'm up on top of the house

Should it be somebody else??

               Bessie shook her head when Microangelo looked at her in confusion.

               Vicki hovered and went in a circle around the house

Believe me or not

I'm walkin' on air

It feels so high and so free

Cryin’ out with webs and great hair

What could it be?

Believe it or not, it's just me!

               She landed and scratched Joe and Archie’s heads.

 

It may be a new day

But you’re fresh out of Boonchuy Bluueee

               Bessie groaned as the other livestock giggled.

Let’s get to breaking that spell they’re

And make all those wishes come true!”

               Vicki cracked her fingers and got to work setting up a few things.

               “Whether they believe it or not, it’s just meeeee!”She finished.

               Sasha came back with her ten-frog team 40 minutes later.

               Vicki and her animal friends watched from the barn doors.

               “’Sup, Monroooee…”She trailed off.

               “Uh …Monroe?”Toadie said quietly, tugging at his sleeve.

               “I WON THE LOTTERY, GET ME SOME-”He caught himself,”Sorry, commander, got a bit tired. No trouble to report … what?”

               She pointed at his side.

               An obscure magazine from the East with a cover label of ‘How to survive your post-midlife crisis in the midst of uncivilized Amphibians!’ was on the small table next to him.

               He blanched,”Oh frog. I do not know where that came from, I swear!”

               Inside, Grime shook his head when he heard about it,“Monroe, I can condone some light reading to stave off boredom, but I don’t recall this being among the materials we’ve had for recreational use!”

               Monroe scowled when he noted a new poster on the wall. “Oh really, commander, then what’s with your new unapproved idea?”

               “What?”Grime said.

               The mayor pointed and the crowd gasped. There was a poster of Grime pointing forward with his right hand. The words said,”I WANT YOU! JOIN THE RESISTANCE!”

               “Commander, you know I don’t do such things without your approval!”Grime protested to a livid Sasha.

               Toadstool threw a tantrum a minute later … because his inventory of money and papers had been rearranged and put in backwards order and mixed with his lunch and Wally’s underwear (that he’d left out to dry outside after washing it).

               “WALLY, WHY IS THE TOWN’S MANIFESTO AND A BOX OF GOLD COPPERS SITTING ON TOP OF YOUR DIRTY FROG JOHNS AND THE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S BINGO SCORECARDS!?”

               The rest of the Resistance just stared in silence for a long moment as they tried to process that statement.

               “What a bizarre complaint! Did the police win the bingo?”Vicki said in mock surprise to her giggling animal audience.

*All-Terrain with a Train*

               With two dozen factories and plenty of spare parts and unique resources, Bomme’s idea for a peerless locomotive was finished before long.

               “Fascinating and great job, Bommey. The Amphibiexpress locomotive is looking good!”Marcy said to her when the engine stood completed in front of the Nerve Center.

               Bomme looked just as gleeful,“I know, right! Amphibian and Earth locomotive designs combined with our antigravity rods, reinforced iron, a heavier framework, energy shielding … When it’s done, this train will be an unstoppable all-terrain vehicle, as long as nothing gets in our way!”

               Marcy snorted,“Even without our supreme design skills, nothing gets in front of a moving train and walks it off… it’s something you can’t hope to stop normally!”

               They stood in front of it the next day to start it up. Bomme wiped a happy tear looking at the large locomotive engine labeled 888 on the front. “A 4-8-4, South African Class 25, condensed steam boilers with alternate fuel options, brakes of every kind, special metals and shielding to be 5 times as hard as diamond and immune to every conceivable attack, go through any kind of terrain as needed, and the lucky triple 8 number and good luck charm foundations in its framework! Can we take it for a test drive?”

               “I’m offended you have to ask!”Marcy said.

               “I’ve never ridden a train …count me in!”Zel said.

               Marcy and Bomme drove it with Oscar for a test run to the Eastern Frog Mountains

 Zel, the Circus and a dozen other volunteers rode in the passenger cars while the Driders, CGs and Subdigitoids stood guard all around the trio inside and outside the cab. Yumi and Dunbar lay on the cab floor the whole time with shades on.

               The train successfully went over a swamp, defied gravity to go upside down, ran over enemy robots and two factories near Bog Bottom, and started going up the mountains … all without a track.

              

               Marcy pulled the whistle as they neared the peaks,”I’ve always wanted to do that!”

               The cab trio and their bodyguards whooped while riding down the slope.

               Bomme jumped up and down,“Success! Just wait until we start using this for freight and passengers!”

              

*Nerd Improv Comedy Night *

               Malcolm Parsecs (Malc) was a very neurotic newt analyst with pale skin and glasses. His slightly less neurotic colleagues were Daphne Barfield and Vinnie Balthazar.

               Daphne had short brown bangs, large square glasses and red skin. Vinnie had frizzy hair and wore shades.

                The three were considered effective but unlucky and annoying and had been been assigned to work along the roads to Newtopia and had been captured by Mary easily after she started terrorizing the old route.

               She was nice however, and it only took two days for her to offer them a new job.

               They got new outfits. Daphne got to wear a white tie-dyed robe of red and blue swirls. Vinnie got a red and yellow tracksuit with sneakers. Malcolm wore a blue wizard robe with lightning bolts and a VR Style helmet that let him multitask and see in different spectrums since he liked the idea of being a ‘science wizard’.

               Marcy found their insane banter hilarious and thought of a good use for it.

              

               “Maybe you guys could make a good joke out of them trying to eavesdrop on us and die of laughter!”She suggested.

               “Indeed Master Marcy, we shall seize these enemies and leave them choking out of breath from laughing with my laugh gas supply!”Malcolm said.

               Daphne sighed,”Not literally, doofus!”

               “Darn, I could have tested that!”Malc pounded his fists.

               “I dub thee DMV, the Department of Maniacal Vibes!”Marcy said.

               Triple B was paying a visit to the Night Guards base.

               “Among other things,”Blair said,”we’re testing some new special sound equipment! King Andrias wants us to test it and … he suggested we could find our public enemy No. 1!”

               Headmaster Albert crossed his arms,”That would be quite the feat. We can’t find a trace of her at all!”

               The ensuing radio drama was priceless.

               Marcy and crew watched in studio audience mode on ‘mute’ mode (DMV and Triple B couldn’t hear them).

               Vinnie cleared his throat as they sat down,”First order of business, this is the Department of Motivational Velocity for Amphibia. Our simple but very effective code-names are V, M and D!”

               “We are to be known as DMV!”Daphne said.

               Malcom complained, “I still say we should be MVD or MDV!”

               “M, please, we agreed, just because you’re the moderator of our discussions doesn’t mean you go first!”Daphne warned him.

               “Besides, it’s in alphabetical order, something you like!”Vinnie reminded him.

               “Yes, you’re right. Very acceptable. Alright, our first order of business as the DMV is to work on for our SIS projects!”Malc said,”also did you bring the snacks?”

               “Here …”Daphne offered him some honey-glazed bread.

               Malc greeted the food,“Oh hello Honeybuns!”

               “Should we let you have privacy with your special morsel?”Daphne joked.

               “Of course not! Why would you want to ruin this special moment??”

               Marcy and co were laughing hard in the background.

              

               “Hold up, why are we calling this project SIS?”Vinnie asked.

               “Superior Intelligence Sector, duh! We’re less obvious that way!”Malc said.

               “That’s not the problem!”Daphne groaned.

               “It’s still better than any dumb name or plan our inferior opposition comes up with! I mean, please, what, they have a ‘Frobot Mass Production’ plan, a Factory plan with very ugly pollution that is not doing their skin any favors-“

               Daphne got very snarky,“Of course, and they don’t value skin cream sales! I forgot! I must file a complaint with the Amphibian Cream for Newts Emporium! ACNE is such a valuable venture!”

               “Thank you for that, D, now, where was I? Oh yes, and they totally ruined the University’s chance to redevelop the Swamp Hole resorts for studying the biology department! And ruined the University. The Anarchists, Imperialists and Triple B Brothers are going to run anything smart into the ground!”

               “Those B-Rank snobs with B-letter names are brothers? Makes sense, they fight a lot …”Vinnie said.

               “WE ARE NOT BROTHERS!”Triple B yelled.

               “Could’ve fooled me!”Ryan snarked.

               Malc grinned, and said,“Siblings fight a lot, it’s natural to establish dominance. It’s a battle they haven’t settled, I hear-“Triple B growled,”ohh something fun now! My archenemy Wollowartz and a target codenamed ‘Khan’ are on our agenda of enemies to crush!”

               “Why Wollowartz again? I get he’s a wallowing Wuss of a whiny whackjob who isn’t fit to wear a robe, much less a wizard’s hat, but why go whammy on him?”Vinnie’s alliterative question had a moment of awkward silence.

               “Oh please, V, your odd knack for wordplay aside, let’s focus on his threat, he is the inferior target who must be exposed. His master’s degree in engineering was a waste and he’s not even doing anything useful with it! No sense of innovating on valuable vehicles on the treads he spent 6 months on that stupid contest vehicle of his while I created a valuable type of fertilizer to increase fruit production! If that mad toad in a tacky jacket hadn’t stolen it hunger would’ve gone down by 40%!”

               Marcy held up a sign that said: Talk to me later!

               Encouraged, Malc kept going,”Besides that, he’s a very creepy flirt who every lady there hated!”

               “True, don’t get me started on him!”Daphne sighed.

               “See, I am vindicated! And he’s near our target, the ferocious ‘Khan’ … but we need to be discreet with him. Acting lessons for espionage are on the agenda … a hard order!”

               “Why is that? I always said you were a class act fit to bring down a house, which you have!”Vinnie said.

               “Very funny, house walls or lab walls being easily destroyable are a sad fact of life! I’m hardly to blame for the mad hullabaloo of hicks and has-beens making it worse!”

               “Uh-huh, that’s what not what the Crypt keeper said last year!”Daphne retorted.

               “DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME! HE IS ON MY SHUN LIST! Moving on … why is this lifeform called a bad class of being?”

               “Because he acted up in class, duh!”Branston banged his head on the table at Vinnie’s words.

               “Nooo, it refers to WHAT he is!”Malc said very condescendingly.

               Daphne supported Vinnie,“How is that wrong at all? Bad people who act up in classes are legion!”

               “Yes, and professors suffer dearly for it. Poor them …aha, here it is: a bad class of being, a member of a Gestalt model of higher thought, perhaps a Universal thought or incomplete Group think for perfect symbiosis with our environment. Is this metaphorical, reflecting a  hegemony style of leadership or a representative of a vision of superior beings trying to be better at everything with superior ambition that has grown too ambitious?”

               “If this superior guy IS better at everything, why doesn’t he prove it to everyone without being so slick, vague and creepy about it?”Vinnie snarked.

               He gave a thumbs up to a touched Marcy.

               “Exactly. Now to fool this fiend, what should I say if we did go to their areas?”

               Halley held up the next sign.

               Daphne smirked and said it first,”Here it is: We are going to the labs for a shift!”

               Malcolm proved he couldn’t even sound normal for that. He cleared his throat,”We are going to the labs for a shift!”

               The serious way he said could not be taken seriously.

               “I’m totally sold! Next!”Vinnie droned.

               Malc was eager for this part,”This part of the agenda I like. We must practice ‘screaming the name’ of our nemesis to the sky in event of possible defeat or humiliation. Such a valid response!”

               “This I have to hear, if it’s as good as I think this says! Please do the honors, M!”Daphne rubbed her fingers together.

               Malc obliged. He took a deep breath and yelled to the sky,”KHAAAAAANNNNNN!”

               Triple B’s jaws hung open in disbelief.

               Albert snickered.

               “Oh Captain, my DMV team captain, I am in awe!”Daphne clapped.

               Vinnie nodded,“Yeah man, we’re going to lay a sick beatdown on Wollowartz and face the Wrath of Khan! Wow, I feel so good we should have snacks! Oh hang on, I need some peaches.”

               One hit Malc in the head from the crowd.

               Vinnie picked it up,“Score!”

               “Where did that peach come from?”

               “Someone just threw it you!”

               “Yes, but who?”

               “I don’t know.”

               “But where did it come from?”

               “Someone just threw it at you!”

               “Who?!”

               “How should I know?”

               “Is that even important?”Daphne cut in.

               “We can’t have paradoxical peaches just attacking me out of the blue!”

               She sighed,”How could peaches attack you? Unless their pits are evolving …let me check our field guide!”

               “D, please, peaches are not fit for eco-warfare, they’d be too sweet and easily devoured by the native superior omnivores and wild herbivores!”

               Vinnie liked that idea,“There’s an idea. Sweet peach bodyguards to be sweet and pack a tangy punch and guard your revolutionary ideas! That’ll show them all!”

               “Are you crazy?! I would not want peaches guarding my caravans or gardens, they couldn’t dress the part and would complain about their tendency to bruise easily!”

               “Tomatoes then?”

               “I don’t even like tomatoes, and they’re savages already!”

               Daphne stood up and said,”That reminds me, I need to get our lemonade we got from EVIL, the Every Villain is Lemons division of the Newtopian front near Snarlsburg.”

               Malc was outraged.”That’s what they were doing?! How evil of them!”

               “Exactly! Let’s go enjoy their sour work for the sweet good of Amphibia!”Daphne winked at a delighted Marcy. They walked offstage.

               Marcy finally collapsed laughing. “Perfect, absolutely perfect!”

               “So I do qualify for chief of improv and directions on field and lab work, Master Marcy?”Malcolm asked.

               “Indeed, but not unsupervised! I’ve learned extreme intelligence needs assistance to keep steady!”

               “And no doing things without authorization! “Zel added.

               Triple B was very exasperated.

“All that babble and no location!”Branson grumbled.

               “They just said they got it near Snarlsburg!”Blair said.

               Bartley shook his head,”But that’s not where they are. Obviously in the suspected area of Frog Valley.”

               “That’s where we started off, doofus!”Blair snapped.

              

*Call a Plumber *

               Perhaps the silliest tactic used was when she went through the sewer lines near Saint’s Lake. The bridge was heavily guarded, and she wanted to do a path around the security there for a supply run.

               Marcy and her Predboats and Mar Guards went through the sewer lines around the factory plants there in cloaked mode. Along the way she snagged any living samples of wildlife still around the toxified area.

               Security was on alert, so to distract everyone, she sent a brief e-bug to every Frobot’s radio signal.

               Super Wario’s ‘Overworld’ theme played.

               “What in the blazes?”A wagon driver asked. Amphibian and Frobot stared alike in bewilderment. A handful of Frobots had an existential crisis.

               “They should call a plumber! Too bad I’M NOT AVAILABLE!”Marcy said smugly as they got away unnoticed.

               Except for the song and leaving the bridge inoperable for a week that is.

              

               “Cheeky girl …”Andrias said when the song and the signal from the last Frobot faded.

               The Core glowered from the walls,“Oh yes … Wit is embracing her new nature very well. Trying to be witty while using her brains against us! Andrias, these improvements and ideas to supplement our forces are promising … we’re impressed. You did well in our absence to try and make up for our losses she incurred.”

               Andrias frowned,“Of course … if Marcy wants to be more creative, I needed to take notes and counter her own strategies.”

               “Oh yes … these will do excellent for our invasion plans. You must be excited to finally invade Earth soon!”

               “Yes …”He looked away,”I’ve thought of nothing else for 1,000 years.”

               It was a half-truth. It was the only thing he had to look forward to … the only thing he could enjoy as something the Core wanted.

               “Son … your first invasion is always the hardest, but it’s worth every effort!”Aldrich’s voice said.

               Andrias glared at the floor. He was very glad Marcy was not part of the Core.

               “Our losses are a minor setback. We’ve thought a bit ahead. The moon is having 25% of our factory operations moved there now! We’ll have some of our old projects restarted and some old war machines available soon …”a tentacle unveiled a sight he hadn’t seen in ages,”your suit is ready for battle and we thought you’d like some copies made!”

               Andrias was giddy to see his cool dinosaur armor, but he focused on the second part,”Who else could wear these?”

               The Core corrected,”They are robotic copies of your armor. Just as dangerous but answering only to our family … Wit won’t be able to control these. Also, she may be able to notice when we go to Earth, but …she has yet to learn how complex going to other dimensions can be! We can start some exploring for useful bases, alternate resources she’ll have no answer for or even some of our old colonies in this realm!”

               Andrias said,”That sounds like a solid plan.”

               He turned to look out the window.

               The Core wasn’t pleased to see how indifferent he looked.

                

               “Marcy is only fit for the same fate at Heart at this point as a danger to our operations! You know this is the end of your hopes for keeping her, don’t you?”

               “I know …”Andrias said tonelessly. He didn’t care at this point.

*Disorder in the Court*

               Hours after the plumbing debacle, the most unusual broadcast happened.

               Chet Flotsam, a handsome newt with well-done hair and a shiny smile, was doing daily announcements for one camp of a handful of Newtopian aristocrats and businessmen.

               Among them was Lady Doreen Ambyasta. She had been a regular aristocrat patron of  the Newtropolitan, a fancy club, with a fancy blonde beehive hairstyle (with ribbons in it), fuschia skin, and a fancy green dress. She was an old classmate of Olivia’s and a good friend of hers. Her family estate involved merchant work in pearls and other Great Bay sea products for architecture and decoration along with the algae farming. It had gone downhill since the war.

               She sat next to Lady Grey Fisher of the Croaket Loch of the Caerillian Coasts. Fischer had peach skin and short frizzy red hair done in bunches on her side. Her large 10-gallon blue and purple hat matched her dress. She loved the hat, even if it got knocked off by accident a lot.

               Count Rodrick Bunson was an elderly newt with orange skin, grey skin and small mustache, and he wore a fancy suit, green bowtie and large top hat. He ran a successful banking firm with ties to Ribbitvale.

              

               Miss Shoobie Straps (another patron of the Newtropolitan)  had white curled hair, a raspy voice, wore a fedora with a feather, a tight tunic with a fancy blue cravat. She ran a thriving shoe business. Her young cousin Mark Caberet (with a very slick sideways hairdo and a diamond-studded poncho) enjoyed success with Bugcoin and other monetary ventures.

               Isaac Stafford and his fiancée Lauren Willow were biologists and explorers. Isaac had orange skin, glasses and short bangs and wore a large black and white robe with white spots on the top half. Lauren had mauve purple skin, black hair in a long braid,and a large cowboy hat with a  feather on it. She wore a burgundy cloak and a purple robe with diamond stud shapes at the hem.

               Angela and Jack Fetcher were another happy young couple of wealthy university graduates doing work in the field of geological digs. Angela was a palamate newt with a finned tail with brown spots, orange skin and white hair that matched her blouse and the daisy on her sunhat. Jack had green spotted skin, a striped green shirt and trousers, and a Beatles style bangs haircut of dark hair.

               Doctor Rosa was one of the best doctors in Newtopia. She had short blonde hair, light purple skin and a lilac underbelly, round mirrored aviator shades she almost never took off, and a pink and white collared doctor’s outfit. Marcy had been intrigued to notice her rouge lipstick and had wondered out loud while writing in Jo what they used. Rosa mentioned the mall to her and she found several later to examine under a microscope.

               After the city and her hospital along with it was ruined, she’d been trying to help the health of many and got increasingly glum.

               Misty Holiday was a popular singer at the Newtropolitan. She had red skin, curly brown hair, a white suit with a bowtie, and a matching flapper hat with a flower/snail ornament on the left side.

               Alfred Bowie owned a trucking firm and his wife Cindy had plantations in her family near Ribbitvale once. He was a short red newt with a long face and a suit, while she was average height had tan skin and brown hair, a green dress and tiara.

               Duke Bunston Potts was another old classmate of Olivia’s, along with his wife Maria. He had a middlepart hairdo and a suit. Maria wore a fancy red and pink dress that clashed wonderfully with her hot pink skin. Her white wide hat with a feather completed the look of a refined lady.

               Flipwart championship contests Asa ( a green newt with yellow eyes and glasses), Joan Wartzkin ( a purple newt with shoulder bangs, a red shirt, tight pants and heels) and Vincent ( a light green newt with a blue shirt) were also there with the Newtopian University students and staff, including Headmaster Herringbone.

               In another area for lower class citizens doing factory and security work, Priscilla Paddock and her daughter Pearl were on lunch break.

               The Cart Smash and Mash Derby champion wasn’t in a good mood even if she’d earned chief security rank with Roger the Newtopian security chief’s approval. The orange newt (who wore a blue cloak with a badge on his shoulder) and his subordinates Ferris (the laziest guard), his pals Cameron, Jeffrey, Broderick, Matt, and a dozen others were at the bottom of Newtopian authority and hadn’t gotten any higher. They and one of the military newnjas (a subset of the army with black armor and turbans over their faces who kept an eye out in the cities or did stealth missions), a short red axolotl with green eyes named Alan assigned there didn’t like it there either.

               Her fellow Derby racers sat around. Trevor (a massive scary guy with glowing orange eyes and fangs) and his pal Reggie ( a scary newt with a long neck, slim body and stringy hair), Gillo Crossbones ( a newt with crosshair-shaped eyes) and his sister Piper (she had a mohawk and carried an axe), Aria Rubble ( a green newt with shoulder bangs and bone hair accessories), and Hagar (her small friend with a large Viking helmet with horns), Totaka ( a Yoshi-like newt) and his friend Mogura (a small pink newt in a parka with a mallet for a weapon), Kreka ( a dark green newt with a spiked Ottoman helmet and pualdrons) and her son Ruga (same helmet, narrow yellow eyes and dark orange skin), her rival Attila ( a lilac newt with a beard and scars all over his limbs) and his wife Helga (a lilac axolotl with a thick tail), Harold Wailer( a blue crested newt with pink crests down his back and head and a punk look) and his girlfriend Trixie Bruiser ( a short but buff red newt with a ‘cart spear’ and a thick tail), and Travis Shack, the Derby announcer who wore a cowboy hat.

               Marcy had mingled with crowds at the Newtropolitan more than once and had been to the malls in Newtopia plenty.

               Olivia watched with a patient smile as Marcy looked gleeful at all the stuff around.

               Some of the Shopper Derby veterans, a violent event she didn’t care for, looked amused as she bounced around asking questions about the items.

               “I take it you had one of these back home?”Olivia asked.

               “Anne and Sashy practically lived at the mall, Milady, of course I love that you have one!”She tripped over a clothing rack, got right back up saying, “I’m ok!”

               “You dropped this!”A large scarred newt with red skin said, holding her journal out to her.

               “Aww thanks, ma’am, you and your lovely daughter have a nice day!”Marcy said.

               “Heh …”Priscilla muttered,”First time someone called me ma’am so quick …”

              

               To their surprise, in both areas, the mandatory video screens which Andrias used for announcements turned on.

               In Ribbitvale, Sasha had snuck in with Wally and Grime to see his father. He was going over details as their richest ally when a similar screen outside Ribbiton estate turned on.

               Tritionio Espada, longtime outlaw and leader of the new Merry Band gang of newt thieves and raiders, were passing by in the distance.

               Friar Turbid, a pink bald newt in a monk’s robe, noticed and tapped his leader’s shoulder.

They all turned to watch.

               The video showed an empty building. A Judge Bot in table mode sat down with two dozen Hooded Frobots. Three Amphibians sat before it. Two criminals in chains sat on the right.

A blue newt with icy blue eyes, a buzzcut, a parka and thick boots looked bored as he sat there. The gruff toad next to him with goggles on his forehead, a thick brown coat and flame-resistant gloves was scowling.

               The obese frog on the left side looked exasperated. He had a fancy suit, a top hat, and a mop of brown hair.

               “Is that Mycroft Wyatt? Shame, that chap is quite the orator at debate clubs and lectures, how did he get involved in whatever this is?”Wigbert said.

               “Lenny Wordswart and Ricky Rollings …a famous outlaw duo … they got caught! Ah well, less competition for me!”Tritonio said.

               “A frogging trial show … now they think we need to watch this crud!”Priscilla grumbled.

               “There’s literally nothing useful to this!”Roger said wearily.

               Rosa, Doreen, Herringborne, and more than half of their fellow rich newts in the room glared. They found this a bad mockery of justice. The Judge Bots were the only Frobots to regularly speak in complete sentences, and even their refined British accents didn’t make this whole thing sound terrible.

               The judge banged his gavel,“NOW, WE SHALL BEGIN THIS TRIAL! MYCROFT WYATT, STAND UP AND COME TO THE DOCK OR PAY THE PRICE FOR THE CRIME OF REFUSING MY DECREES! YOUR EXPERTISE AND WITNESS CREDIBILITY WILL BE ALL THAT’S NEEDED OF YOU!!”

               Mycroft did so,sighed and adjusted his collar,”For goodness’s sakes, I’m an expert historian, part-time advice columnist, and expert at debate clubs! I wasn’t at the scene of their crime, and don’t want to add this to my resume after this war is over!”

               “SILENCE, MISTER WYATT, THIS IS A SIMPLE CIVIC DUTY! PROCEED TO THE TABLE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AS THE EXPERT WITNESS!”The Judge bot said,”NOW RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND, TAKE OFF YOUR HAT, PLACE YOUR LEFT HAND THERE, AND RECITE OUR CHARTER!”

               “I’m sorry, what? “Mycroft asked.

               “RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND, PLACE YOUR LEFT HAND HERE, AND TAKE OFF YOUR HAT! WHAT’S SO HARD ABOUT THAT?”

              

               Mycroft looked around.

 “Place my left hand where?”

               “THERE, ON THAT BOOK!”

               “What book??”Mycroft demanded. Lenny and Rick shrugged when he looked at them.

               “THE BOOK OF JUDGEMENT FOR WORLD DOMINATION IN FRONT OF YOU!”The judge’s eyes flickered briefly.

               “It’s malfunctioning …”Sasha said to Wigbert.

               “Obviously …what does it expect to sound like saying such nonsense?”The rich frog said.

               Mycroft knew when to humor a maniac. ”Very well …”

He put his left hand on a nearby sheet of paper with his hat off.

               “DO YOU SWEAR TO TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH, THE CONVENIENT TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT OUR TRUTH?”

               “Which truth?”Mycroft asked. He was fighting the urge to smile.

               “THE MOST CONVENIENT ONE FOR US-THE ONE FOR YOU-THE 5-STAR REVIEW TRUTH WITH AN OPTIONAL TIP!”

               “I swear to tell the 5-star review truth with no tip!”Mycroft said with a straight face. The two criminals grinned.

               Rosa leaned back in her chair and started to smile. She had a good idea of who was behind this.

               “Never mind. This might be fun!”Priscilla said. Her friends chuckled.

               “UNACCEPTABLE-SUSTAINED, BRING IN THE CAGE!”

               The empty cage sat there in the corner. “DONE ALREADY, ORDER IS ESTABLISHED, NOW DESCRIBE THE RAVISHING OF THE RELICS WITH THE LIST PROVIDED!”

               Sasha relaxed and smiled with anticipation,“It’s been too long having dinner without a show!”

               Mycroft looked over the descriptive sheet the Hooded Frobot handed it to him. His intelligent English voice went very deadpan reading what he was given, “Yes, your honor, the relics were quite ravished. The casualties were: several dozen tomes on municipal history, records sealed for the provincial governors, a dozen forbidden tomes on unimaginable torture and punishment, the usual imaginable tortures and punishment-the worst of which was disqualified singing and expired cooking, followed by disembowelment and flytrap cultivation with live zombies and overrated mayors. Also missing were Royal Leviathan seals and a dozen dust-coated signet rings used in long-forgotten conflicts that the Peacekeeper of a thousand years would rather not talk about! The centuries-old preserved skeleton of a famed Cursed Amphibian was also missing. Apart from graverobbing this poor soul who never had a proper burial and allegedly claiming their contractor wanted to study and bury him properly, these shameless hoodlums caused a real hullabaloo taking archeological finds over 2,000 years old at most, and did not use the clearly marked exits or make a proper dramatic exit through the wall or front door but went quietly out the back door! This was after using the windows as an uncool entrance without a license and skipping the important meals of lunch and breakfast to do this! That sets the worst example of all since bad decisions come from avoiding daily nutrition.”

               Lenny and Rick snickered.

               Priscilla and Tritonio’s groups found that very amusing. They’d all heard worse charges in their own brushes with law enforcement (or working with it the guard’s or Alan’s case) and bad Derby events.

               “Skipping meals, clearly marked exits and uncool entrances!”Kreka snickered,”Oh you wish that was the bad example here!”

               “Someone is messing with this trial just to embarrass Andrias!”Doreen said with exasperation.

               “I ain’t complaining!”Shoobie cackled.

               “Neither am I!”Doreen said.

               “I needed a break anyway!”Chet said.

               Mycroft rolled his eyes and kept reading when the Hood Bot elbowed him.

“Oh yes, and the … Oh no, the tapestries,”he got very sarcastic,”were either left hanging in suspense or in tatters in the display case of the revered Hangtoad’s outfits and prized axes. These axes and intimidating hood and vests were not to be worn at parties but at serious and dramatic executions the bloodthirsty savage peasants of old enjoyed way too much. They have been kept in valued pristine fresh-kill and menacing outfit condition. The collection of boots earned for each hung victim were left in the Shoeboxes of Shame. The feared noose of the Deadly Knots for the horribly naughty was not left hanging from the Gallows of Despair where it belongs but was taken to be put to good noose once again instead of letting  his majesty and authorized tourists enjoy all the gallows humor … “

He gave a brief side-glance to the closest Hooded Frobot,”This explains so much about that job.”

“Tell me about it!”Lenny mumbled loudly.

Wigbert and Wally pounded the table with mirth.

The historian smiled as he kept reading,“These heinous hoods of horror and axes of anguish were not left untouched by these hoodlums for privileged Highland North lords of war, love, and bards to view at discount prices or for free but taken and put in with the Croaked Choir outfits in the same box that was recovered in the mail 30 miles away and then lost again. They didn’t even leave the Suit of armor for Baccarata the Bog Bashing beauty of the Swamp Sedation Wars or Sergei the Voluminous’s armor and Hammer of Doom alone when they pilfered the Hall of Invincible warrior’s armor, taking these defenseless things for themselves. An outrageous crime of pilfering  attire of invincible ages  past in this faster and less invincible age of cutting loose while wearing tight metal and loose clothing!”

Rosa smiled but kept quiet while most of her fellow patrons were laughing.

Mycroft paused to think,”This robot isn’t reacting to any of this as embarrassing … what is going on?”

He shook his head to snap out of it. However, he almost groaned seeing the next part and went from using a sarcastic tone to blatantly mocking,” The more dangerous book tomes of hand-to-hand combat, records of Swamp folk dancing champions, and broken talismans were pilfered, pillaged and plundered with unforgivable damage to the locked drawers and nearby flipwart boards that were … flipped over,”the frog rubbed his forehead in exasperation and carried on,” The suspected motive was to use a combination of reinforced athletic gear, forbidden magic and swamp dancing abilities to start a crime ring underworld takeover.”

“I don’t buy that malarkey!”Tritonio said.

Lenny shook his head minutely when Mycroft glanced his way.

The bemused historian smirked as he read the last part,”They took several keys: the keys to several chests full of treasure, fine linen, outdated clothes that already went out of style, the extinct Runecrafter guild’s vaults, and five very useless ‘Keys to the City’ awards and three very useful skeleton keys that worked on every major bank in Amphiba and one skeleton key actually made out of bones that belonged to a feared warlord named Skelebill that allegedly opens the Hall of the Loot of Dreadful Conquests that were very dreadful … for those being conquered, that is. Very interesting. Lastly, they purloined an archive of royal family recipes that used to be all the rage in the best of times was stolen in this era, the worst of times, instead of letting these delicious dish ideas fade into obscurity.”

               “Best trial ever!”Attila declared

               “THEIR GUILT IS ESTABLISHED. BACK TO YOUR SEAT! NOW, LEONARD WORDSWART AND RICK ROLLINGS, STEP FORWARD!”

              

               The two destructive thieves stood up. They remembered the strange note from their contractor they’d been slipped in their prison cart that said,“You guys stall as hilariously as you can at the trial and you’ll be out free soon! I’ll make it easier for you to do so!”

               So far, that was exactly what was happening.

               “MISTER ROLLINGS, YOU COME TO THE STAND FIRST!”

               After he sat down, the Judge Bot said,” YOU ARE ACCUSED OF DOZENS OF ACCOUNTS OF ARSON, PRISON BREAKS, THEFTS, RESISTING ARRESTS, INJURING OFFICERS OF THE LAW, PRISON GUARDS, INSTIGATING 8 BAR FIGHTS AND LASTLY SETTING FIRE TO THE LEVIATHAN VAULTS WHILE MAKING OFF WITH RARE TREASURES AND RECORDS! WHAT WAS YOUR REASON?”

               Rick gave a very good reason, “Your honor, please, I rarely instigated the bar fights. I just ended them. And I doubt King Andrias minds that another building he’s not even using got set on fire. He’s set so many things on fire these days, it’s like he’s got a thing with fire …”he frowned,” even more than me? Hang on, is he stealing my gimmick as an even worse arsonist? I might take that personally.”

               Sasha and Tritonio snickered.

               “SILENCE! YOU DO NOT GET TO SLANDER HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS!! YOU ARE HERE TO BE PUNISHED! YOUR PRIOR RECORD OF ESCAPES IS GOING TO ENSURE A MORE RADDDICAALLL SOLUTION! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF, YOU SHAMELESS SCORCHER OF LIFE AND TAKER OF TREASURES!!”

               The increasingly hammy judge’s behavior got a raised eyebrow from the audience, defendants and witness.

               “Like I said, we set the building on fire …and took treasures. And it was … epic?”

               “EPIC IS NOT THE WORD TO DESCRIBE IT! YOU UNLEASHED 1^ST TO 3^RD DEGREE BURNS ON BUILDINGS INSTEAD OF PEOPLE, WHICH IS NOT THE PROPER WAY TO-“The Judge paused, as if hearing himself, and shook his head,”NEVER MIND. DID YOUR CONTRACTOR HAVE A NAME?”

               Rick took a deep breath and said,”Yes, the note said ‘Hu.’”

               “I’M ASKING YOU WHO?”

               “That’s what I just said, hu did it!”

               “NO, YOU DID IT!! NOW WHO TOLD YOU TO DO IT!?”

               “Oh brother …”Sasha was familiar with this joke.

               “That’s right! Whoever they are, Hu’s the best!”

               “THE BEST AT WHAT!?”

               “I don’t know … doesn’t everyone need to be the best at something??”

               “YES, NOW TELL ME HOW!”

               Rick did his boldest comeback yet,”I can’t tell you how to be the best judge!”

               “YOU CERTAINLY CANNOT, LAW SCHOOL IS HARD WORK-MY DEGREE IS FAKE AND A WASTE OF TALENT-AND YOU ARE NOT THE BEST AT YOUR ILLEGAL CAREER!”

               The arsonist said flippantly, “I already told you Hu’s the best!”

               The Judge exploded in a rant,“THIS IS ABOUT THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY! WE HAVE THE WHERE AND WHEN, BUT NOT THE WHY, WHO’S IDEA THIS WAS FIRST,”Sasha bit her lip to keep quiet,” OR WHAT FIENDISHLY GOOD LAWYER IS PREPARING YOUR CRIMINALLY OFFENSIVE DEFENSE!”

               Rick looked unnaturally relaxed when he answered that part,”Hu, the alias of who did it, told us to be as neatly offensive as possible on the job. Why that is, who can say?”

               Rosa chuckled quietly.

               “ YOU ARE DOOMED TO BE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SUCH UNPROFESSIONALLY OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR. YOUR COMPANION WILL GO NEXT TO TELL ME WHO BEFORE YOUR SUMMARY EXECUTION!”

               Rick smirked,“How does that work anyway? Do you summarize the execution? Can you keep it short??”

               “ORDER!! TO THE DUNGEON-I MEAN DOCK-WITH YOU! LEONARD WORDSWART, STEP FORWARD!!”

               It was just as well Lenny was doing the last bit, since his self-control was the best.

               “LEONARD WORDSWART, YOU ARE BY ALL ACCOUNTS THE BRAINS OF THIS CRIMINAL DUO OF ROBBERIES AND AN ESCAPE ARTIST WHO HAS NO RESPECT FOR A LOCKED DOOR! YOU REFUSED TO NAME YOUR CONTRACTOR FOR ROBBING THE LV BLIND! DID THEY COMPENSATE YOU WELL FOR DOING SUCH UNRESTRAINED LARCENY?”

               Anyone who’d ever met Lenny knew he almost always sounded sarcastic. This time was no different.

               “On the contrary, your honor, we showed great restraint and weren’t nearly as offensive or destructive as possible! The floors had terrible mold rot, so we showed great restraint where we walked and dusted a shelf as a courtesy. Rick resisted criticizing the art styles of offensive imagery, and I resisted the impulse to steal the very expensive silver ashtrays on a decorative table that was a priceless antique. Our card games would look so much better if we took those things, but that would be too hard to carry out! Also, smoking is bad for your health! Thankfully, the warning signs around the jars and vases on the wall were most informative. They said,‘Beware, these must be handled with care’. I’m also aware from previous experiences that it is easy to get hands caught in such things and some of the nobles of the past had a knack for booby-trapping such things! You’ll never look at an antique flower vase the same way again. Besides, a few of those looked like replicas or worthless knockoffs, so they got left there. Let the record reflect that there was no sign on the door saying:‘DO NOT STEAL’ or ‘TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED’, just some faded one that said:‘Levi…Val …do not touch’. Unless some girls named Levi or Val were living nearby, who I did NOT touch, someone should fix that sign.”

               “You cheeky scoundrel!”Sasha wagged a finger at him.

               “THAT WAS NOT NEARLY ENOUGH RESTRAINT!”

Mycroft covered his mouth and Ricky inhaled sharply. Lenny raised his eyebrows.

              

               The helium-gas voice effect on the robot judge worked like a charm.

               “Success!”Malc said from his keyboard.

               “Raise the pitch higher!”Vinnie said.

               Daphne adjusted the knobs.

               ”IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SHOCK-THERAPY-TORTURE OF THE MOST ARCHAIC SORT-ANSWER NOW TO CLEAR THE RECORD AND AVOID MAKING IT WORSE!!”

               The Newtopians at both spots laughed hysterically or tried hard not to. Wigbert and his three guests laughed hard. So did the other Ribbitvalians nearby.

               Tritonio and his outlaw band howled with laughter.

              
               “That is shocking alright … could you repeat that? I didn’t quite make that out!”Lenny asked.

               The judge lost it. “UNNNAAAAACCCEPPPPPPTTTTAAAABBBBLLLLEEEEE!! YOU WILL ADRESS THIS COURT AS YOUR HONOR, AND NOT INSULT MY HONORABLE RECORD! YOU HAVE INSULTED OUR HONOR AND YOUR DEBTS MUST BE PAID IN BLOOD! NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION!! WAS THIS YOUR PLAN?!”

               Lenny took a deep breath to compose himself and handled the question thoroughly, “Your honor, I apologize. Plans are a complicated thing. I am the master of plans and subverting plans. There are a few simple rules to remember about plans. For a job, you make a plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to fail and throw away the plan. I value floor plans, contingency plans, retirement plans  and party planning as an underappreciated part of life. For society, expect that for the leaders, everything good and bad is going according to plan, no matter how terrible that plan is … and they don’t panic when it’s all part of that plan. This is all going according to plan for some people. Plans come apart or work to someone else’s plan to take advantage of. The king’s plans were nice and jolly, now they are very, very dreary and chaotic.”

               “HIS PLANS ARE ELEGANT AND FOOLPROOF! WHAT WAS YOURS?!”

Lenny smiled a pure *&^%-eating grin,”Nothing special. I just planned to take advantage of this unexpected job opportunity with less cost and risk than usual to me, Rick, or the usual panicking pedestrians and underpaid security guards. Our formidable archenemies among the Newtopian Mall Security and Jeweler Unions are taking a much-needed break!”

               The Derby veterans and security guards lost it and fell over crying with mirth.

               Mycroft hit his chest to keep calm. Rick was crying tears of laughter.

               “THE CHOPPING BLOCK IS TOO GOOD FOR YOU, WORDSWART!”

               Lenny was glad to hear that,”That’s a relief, I won’t have to face my greatest weaknesses: small knives better used on vegetables for cooking instead of amateur muggings and unwashed axes with bloodstains. That festival argument with that one toad over how good fresh blood off the axe smells as a condiment ruined chili dishes for me! Let the record reflect my humble opinion that this job of ours is not worth such fuss. My plans do include melodramatic desires like  world domination, conquests, or kickstarting wars for profit and expansion that ruins the value of the monetary system. I leave that in Andrias’s very large hands!”

               Tritonio, Turbid and Little Louise fell flat on their backs from laughing so hard.

               “Perfect!”Grime said with delight.

               “Ohh boy, he’s lucky Andrias isn’t there right now!”Joan whispered to Vince, who was crying tears of laughter.

               The robot’s voice got even higher,“INDEED YOU SHALL, CRIMINAL! HOWEVER, YOU DECLINED TO NAME YOUR CONTRACTOR UPON CAPTURE, SAYING IT WAS A HIGHER POWER OR PRICE THAN ANY YOU’D RESPECT FROM THE KING OR OTHERWISE! PLEASE CLARIFY FOR THE RECORD!”

               The criminal master of sarcasm could not pass this opportunity up.

               Lenny said very calmly and seriously,”Oh yes, the one who hired us was definitely a higher power. The results of that are making everything in this room go higher! We’re talking high notes, high pitch, high tide, high spirits, high production rates,high stakes, high values, high volume, high profile, and no doubt my respect is going higher still for those at great heights in high society except for his high-ness while I’m paying a high price for this highly offensive crime we did at high noon! No lows today, only highs!”

               Rick lowered his face onto the table to hide the obvious laughter he couldn’t keep down anymore.

               “Dude, please, don’t make it too funny!”Sasha begged him as she held her chest.

               Mycroft held his breath very hard to not laugh. Then the ‘verdict’ was announced, and he lost it.

               “YOU SHALL PAY A VERY HIGH PRICE, WORDSWART! YOU SHALL BE EXECUTED, BEATEN, PUT IN THE STOCKS, FLOGGED, PUT ON THE RACK, RAKED OVER HOT COALS, MADE TO HAUL BRICKS FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!! FROG WILLING, YOU WILL BE FLOGGED SOME MORE, BOILED IN EXPIRED VEGETABLE OIL THAT SHOULD’VE BEEN SERVED TO THE PEOPLE, SHOT BY FIRING SQUAD AT POINT BLANK RANGE, DRAWN AND QUARTERED, STUFFED, AND THEN HUNG ON DISPLAY AS AN EXAMPLE AND THEN FINALLY BEHEADED! AND- WHAT IS SO FUNNY, MR WYATTTT!??”

               “Please don’t make me answer that!”Mycroft begged from the floor where he was pounding the floor.

               “Don’t take it personally, your honor. I’ve never been so thrilled to be threatened with so many executions and other punishments in that particular order from a judge with a terrific soprano!”Lenny said brightly.

               “ORDER, ORDER IN THIS COURT! THAT IS IT, NO MORE DELAYS! MISTER WORDSWART YOUR WORDS ARE WORTHLESS, AND SO IS YOUR LIFE!”The judge and his guards were blissfully unaware of how ridiculous his voice sounded.

               They never would know since they were hit by darts through the windows that made their heads explode.

               Marcy walked in with Hana, Mei, Yuriko, Odd, Sterns, and the Magnas after making a cool entrance through the wall. She cackled with delight,”Court is adjourned, overruled and overthrown! GOOD JOB GUYS! Told ya I’d make it worth your while! No GAG ORDERS REQUIRED!!”

               Rosa leaned closer. The way she talked … it sounded a bit like …

               “Ah, so you’re our mysterious contractor. I can’t say I’m surprised! Who else could pull this kind of off?”Lenny said dryly as the Asurdroids broke their chains and helped Mycroft to his feet.

               Marcy jabbed a finger in her chest“BELIEVE IT, buddy! I’m the FROGGING Queen of the SOUTH, not the Queen of NO IMAGINATION!”

               Wigbert clapped slowly. Sasha grinned.

Rick asked,”Let me guess, that was to make the king look worse and see if we’d do good under pressure?”

               Marcy gave a so-so gesture,”A bit. Also, I was OBLIGED to do that!”

               She waited for a few seconds before answering their expectant looks,”You left your climbing gear behind, so you got a SUSPENDED SENTENCE while this terrible judge was punished for forgetting to wear his law suit!”

               “Come on, girl!”Sasha groaned.

The witch giggled as the two thieves and Mycroft rolled their eyes,”Just kidding! Mostly, it was so my TECH DEPARMENT GUYS could experiment a bit with their stuff, use the court jokes we CAME up with, and make you guys and all of us laugh! Totally worth it!!”

“Thanks for keeping it brief! Who knows many jokes I’d have to improvise to help keep it going?”Lenny said as they headed outside.

               “For a top troublemaker, she’s pretty funny!”Priscilla admitted.

               “I’ll say!”Trixie agreed,”That was original!”

`              “That made today … interesting!”Lauren said to her fiancee. He wiped his glasses off and nodded.

               “Rosa, you look cheerful!”Doreen mentioned.

               “Yes, that was … original,”The smiling doctor replied. That girl … reminded her of Master Marcy. Marcy had been rumored to be in critical medical condition after this horrid war started. Only authorized staff were approved to go near the Castle where she was rumored to be, and then …

               “What is going on?!” A nurse yelled.

               Rosa looked outside and saw the flying Castle light up green, make some humming sound, and then explode at the top, bottom and middle with a display of fireworks. She took her shades off to watch the whole thing.

               Lady Olivia, General Yunan and Master Marcy were missing. .

               The lower classes didn’t take it better.

               “I don’t get what’s going on anymore!”Priscilla said to her on a visit to their camp later that week. Pearl had clung to her the whole time and didn’t sleep that night at all.

               Tritonio was in a good mood as the Merry Band settled around a campfire,”Ohhh, so original, I love it! This rebel witch is very bold!”

               “That was good!”A green newt in a hood named Alvin agreed.

               “Should we hire her if you ever get caught?”Jojo Potato asked Tritonio.

               “Please, Jojo I’ll bet she’d do it for free just to hire me!”The scoundrel said.

               The two thieves were hired for their group and so was Mycroft, who got to bring his family to her base to be safe. He wasn’t too bothered by being brought into the whole mess since nothing bad happened to him.

               The fact that Marcy had broadcast this to at least two locations amused the trio even more.

               “Oh good, free advertising!”Rick said eagerly.

               “That was a fun day!”Sasha said as she headed back.

               “Oh boy, whatever she did to that robot was flippin’ crazy, and I love it!”Wally said.

               Grime sighed,” I never saw a trial I enjoyed more!”

               “So you like her now too?”Sasha teased him.

               “I never said I hated her!”Grime retorted.             

               “What was the point of that again?”Zel asked Marcy while they celebrated with milkshakes.

               “For one, so no one takes this bad idea of justice seriously anymore, two, it was fun, three, we succeeded in entertaining two Newtopian areas and Ribbitvale with the Resistance visiting … and they liked it. Four … I think we all needed some morale boosting.”

               Zel sighed contentedly and sipped her drink,“You succeeded … those Judge Bots are stupid and a waste of time. Why would you need the table leg function or a judge robot at all when you could use that for something more efficient?”

               “Andy’s a showoff and a bit too … official about his ideas,”Smarcy said.

               “Officially stupid!”Bomme quipped.

 

*Alien Invasions*

               “You know, Marcy,”Anton said when many of them were eating one evening around the campfire,”in spite of your admitted shortcomings, you do your people justice on trying to make a good first impression.”

               Marcy sighed,“I appreciate that, your grace. First contact between other races and worlds in general is always an issue that needs to be handled wisely! Considering my world is the latest target for the evil overlord’s long line of alien invasions …”she chuckled,”oh boy, so many alien tropes and stereotypes, I don’t know where we’d begin!”

               “This happens a lot with your kind?”Zel asked skeptically.

               “Meh, actual alien invasions or visits in real life are the subject of many conspiracy theories. Who knows how many have come to our world or what could happen someday … Stories about visitors from other worlds are one of our favorites to enjoy! And hostile alien invasions,”She smiled almost mockingly as Smarcy conjured several movie posters of aliens of many kinds invading Earth,”are an endlessly classic movie and game trope!”

               The sheer number of pictures surprised them. Bomme, the most informed on such things as her science pal and fellow geek, chuckled. “Is that one reason you like being the nice alien visitor here?

               Marcy giggled,“ Bommey, please, alien invasions aren’t just entertaining to watch or use in videogames or movies as the bad guys, they’re a whole subject all on their own! The concept alone is diverse. For example, many of these aliens are invading Earth or other worlds for various reasons. They want to subjugate Earth as a new province in their galactic empires, they want to enslave mankind as a labor force, they want to destroy all life or just humans or whoever, sometimes they see us as the greatest threat to their existence or have some ancient grudge,”the Amphibians remembered Andrias’s words about revenge,”or they want a new homeworld, blah blah blah. Our leaders on Earth like to avoid the worst of wars these days since we’ve had far too much practice fighting each other like you guys have down and invented deadly weapons that could assure mutual destruction at worst. Ideally, they would try to avoid war when they see the giant flying saucers or whatever kind of spaceship arrives and have peace with the ‘first contact’. Good first impressions are always key when you meet! However, we all know that’s not going to be the case here at all. The Core sees my kind as an inferior race worth exterminating and my larger planet’s mass of resources as a perfect goldmine of resources to kickstart a new golden age and then keep going to another one.  An estimated 10,000 years or so of that Box being around and hundreds to thousands of worlds conquered by Andrias’s ancestors … I’m tempted to use the Horde of Alien Locusts trope as an example for them.”

               “Locusts …  like the insect pests?”Malc asked.

               “Exactly! Locusts attack in a swarm, eating every plant around them before they go back to a manageable population size. They’re a common plague we’re used to on Earth, but an intelligent alien horde of them are so much worse. Let’s do a movie clip example!”She glanced at Smarcy, who pulled a clip from the film ID.

               “For context, in this movie, an alien race in very big spaceships has arrived and in just two days has started wiping out human civilization all over Earth with ships that can blow up entire cities in one shot! The humans don’t know why they’re doing this and they have a new prisoner in Area 51, a military base in our home country of America! The US President, the leader, takes a trip downstairs to see this alien pilot!”Smarcy said before hitting play.

               The president of the U.S. (Marcy’s home) walked in with some of his military staff and security.

               “Doctor Brack?”Major Baldwin (the soldier in charge) called into a sealed room with glass and fog in it. A white-haired man with glasses was slammed against the glass, a sight which made the Amphibians jump.

               “Release mmmeeeee …”He slurred out, his voice echoing over the speaker

               “Open the door!”Baldwin said.

               “No, wait!”General Gray said.

               Brackish had a slimy tentacle around his neck. The fog cleared to show a trashed lab. A creepy looking alien with tentacles swarming around it’s head and a cut open suit of some kind of shell jumped down.

               It had no mouth and had a large angular head with creepy blank white eyes. It was using the man as a puppet to speak. “Release me NOWWW!”

               The President decided to try diplomacy,”I know there is much we can learn from each other if a truce can be negotiated? Can there be peace between our peoples?”

               The alien didn’t care to bother,”Peaceeee? Nooo peace.”

               The humans in the film looked less uncomfortable about the idea than the ‘aliens’ watching this. President Whitling sighed and glanced at Gray, who just raised an eyebrow. He expected nothing less at this point.

               “What do you want us to do?”Whitling asked. He wanted to know why these aliens were exterminating them for no reason and if they wanted from them.

               “Die … DIIEEEEEEEE!”The alien said with no hesitation. It started using its mind powers to attack him next.

               “Is that glass bulletproof?”Gray asked Major Baldwin.

               “No sir!”

They shot the glass down and hit the alien.

               While Baldwin went to stand over the alien’s body, Whitling stood up and said grimly,”His thoughts … I saw what their plans are! They’re like locusts! They move from planet to planet, their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource and wiped out all life, they move on to another … and we're next!"

               Baldwin shot the alien at point-blank range in the face three times to make sure it was dead.

               “Nuke ‘em … let’s nuke these bastards!”The President growled.

               Marcy’s friends all knew what nukes where by now. Bombs as effective as a Cloak-bot’s self-destruct that could lay entire cities bigger than Newtopia to waste.

               “See?”Marcy asked quietly.

               “Can’t blame your leader for such a decision! He tried for peace even when they were burning his cities to the ground, and that was all that was offered,”Anton said gravely.

               “Yeah, poor guy tried! Now keep in mind, these aliens are like the Core as a whole- a hivemind of bugs who share thoughts- so that soldier spoke for the rest. Such callous disregard for life from invaders like them only makes it easier to respond in kind until your enemy is wiped out! Thankfully, for our situation, I know Andrias and the Core don’t speak for all of Amphibia!”

               “Of course not! That army of robots, a war over the whole country and some vague invasion of another world planned … that was nothing we saw coming or preferred to get involved in!”Zel said. She clenched her fists,”And the only living things brought back from these conquests are plants, treasures and valuable native animals. The Core and its armies are the locusts of our world who eat other worlds and those of us who say no!”

               Bomme put a chart up nearby,”Their invasion plans and full control of Amphiba are postponed indefinitely at the rate we’re going! The initial invasion plans have been sabotaged and we’ve cut off 30% of their major fuel supplies for their mobile fortresses and larger factory productions lines! They still have some million robots being made, but for now, the fight stays here!”

               “Better to fight the areas you know than what you don’t!”Andre said approvingly.

               “How did they even capture an alien like that?”Daphne asked.

               The two Marcys grinned. “That is a funny story!’Marcy answered.

               They showed it of course.

               Captain Hill, a jet pilot, tricked the alien pilot into crashing after ejecting himself out of his plane in a canyon and causing the force-field alien ship to crash into the walls. It landed on the ground and smoked. He landed with his parachute and collapsed on the ground.

               “Son of a *&^%$@ …”He growled seeing the ship nearby and screamed at it. Zel chuckled.

               “THAT’S RIGHT, THAT IS RIGHT, OH GET OFF ME-“He unhooked his parachute,”THAT IS WHAT YOU GET, HA HA HA! LOOK AT YOU NOW, YO SHIP’S ALL BANGED UP! WHO’S THE MAN, HUH!? ME, THAT’S WHO!!! JUST WAIT TIL I GET ME ANOTHER PLANE! I AM LINING ALL Y’ALL FRIENDS UP RIGHT BESIDE YOU IN A ROW!”

Hill climbed on the ship and said,”Where ya at? Come on!”

               Hill pulled the cockpit open and grimaced seeing the wriggling tentacles. The alien pilot (covered in its creepy armor) shrieked and stood up. He punched it in the head right away, knocking it out.

               “Welcome to Earth!”He growled. Sitting down on the ship, he lit a victory cigar and remarked to his new prisoner,”Now that’s what I call a close encounter!”

               “ I know what that’s like, Captain Hill!”Marcy said sympathetically. Everyone laughed.

               For a bonus, Smarcy showed Hill dragging the alien through the desert.

               “You know, this was supposed to be my holiday weekend off, but nooooo,”He griped to his captive, “instead, you got me dragging yo heavy &^% through this burning desert in the middle of Summer, with yo dreadlocks hanging out of the back of MY parachute! You just had to come down here with the attitude, acting all big and bad …”

Hill stopped walking when he noticed something and screamed,”AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT AWFUL SMELL!?”

               He howled and kicked the still unconscious alien in its armored head a few times and yelled,”I COULD’VE GONE TO A BARBECUE!!”

               The Amphibians laughed hysterically.

               He resumed pulling it and being snarky,”But it’s alright … I ain’t mad, that is alllrightttt …”

               “Poor Captain Hill is very relatable, yes?”Smarcy asked when that was done.

               “Totally, I was finishing my new science project when the war broke out!”Malc said.

               “I was enjoying a day on the beach when the Castle rose and robots started attacking the islands in hours!”Halley grumbled.

               Veronica snorted,“It was a bad day for me already, but it got worse thanks to that! Still, I know how that guy feels!”

               “I’d just put in a request for vacation time off!”Vinnie said.

               “So did I!”Gabby, Daphne and a few other newts said.

               Bomme snorted,”I wanted to redesign my flying machine and look for a new house outside the East Tower.”

               Gerald crossed his arms,”We were going to head up to Kaeru for a show tour …then we saw the robots and reversed course.”

               “I was going to enjoy waiting for the victorious reports of the Castle raid if it worked and open that casket of Bog ale! The whole stock got lost in the attacks later!”Andre said.

               Anton grumbled,”I was hoping to reinforce the Howl Tower walls and address some minor insurgencies at worst the next week!”

               “I was exercising and looking forward to an easy tour of duty around the Coasts or against the toad armies if they did make trouble and then a worse fight comes up out of nowhere!”Zel said, before turning aside to her toad subordinates from the East,”No offense!”

               “None taken,Commander. I’d have preferred that kind of fight too!”Medog said. They all laughed harder.

               “Let’s have a barbecue!”Darin suggested. They did and it was delicious.

*Green, Green Sass*

               For Zel’s  first side mission with Marcy, they went to the Teardrop Islands, an archipelago to the West of Kaeru.

               “Why do you want to go here for a test mission for me? The relocation of Newtopian treasures after the city was vacated is one thing to grab for valuables, but why bother taking me?”Zel asked.

               “Simple, Zelly, we’re gonna have some fun around Halley’s old area and have an easy bonding exercise with a soundtrack so you don’t feel left out! I wanna see if you can loosen up!”

               “Oh great, you’re trying to play around with me a bit, aren’t you?”Zel groaned.

               “Lighten up, I’m playing around with our enemies AND WANT YOU to play with me!”Marcy said.

               “You’ll have fun! Consider it a workout!”Halley added.

               Veronica and Vizzini led teams to raid the other spots and recruit any remaining villagers to their cause.

               Marcy’s team got into position around Duct Island’s main fort, Vastus Bastion, a three story bastion fortress with four corners with turrets and one large belltower in the center overlooking a cliff. Captain Perry had a mixed garrison of regular army newts, some knights, and other Amphibians along with some Frobots to guard the place.

                She signaled Smars to start a number when her main team had snuck into the rafters of the place.

               “What’s the significance of this one?”Renee asked Bomme while watching at their base.

               “Apparently …”Bomme snickered,”this is a funny song called ‘Green, Green Grass’, released a little while ago by cool singer Jim Ezra. It involves a robbery,celebrating life, very cheerful and good for stress-relief. She thought it was fitting while we pulled one over on Andrias and had some fun. I’m not complaining. It helps her keep happy and these are usually very entertaining.”

               “Promising!”Renee rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

               “Oh good, more buffoonery!”Anton said wearily.

               “You’ll get used to it!”Omei said.

               “I think it’s charming!”Darin said.

               The lights inside the fort’s main entrance swirled like a stage, confusing Perry the newt captain guarding it.

               Smarcy donned Marcy’s ‘Red Moth gang’ pirate look and danced behind the fort.

               Zel watched with skepticism from within the ceiling above the control room as Marcy sowed some havoc and goofed off. Three Oddballs hit every Frobot on the corners of the roof with shock arrows that shorted them out.

               Janelle flew down and grabbed the lead sentry out of the belltower in her talons. Emily followed to land there and start pulling the Newtopian flag down.

 Gabby swooped into the Southeast turret and took out the trio of robots there out. Wendy, Gaff and Vlad climbed up with grappling hooks and did the same for the other turrets.

               Halley yanked the living soldiers near the front door (all four of them up) by her tail out of sight.

               Lenny and Ricky got to work opening the door quietly while Dunbar and Sterns wrecked the robots near them with ease.

Throw a party, throw a party, yeah

Throw a party

 

Well, she moves like lightning and she counts to three

And she turns out all the lights and says she's coming for me

Now put your hands up, this is a heist

And there's no one in here living gonna make it out alive

              

               Marcy jumped down to land in the center of the foyer and began dancing up towards the vault in ‘Uptowner Funk’ style while the Twins, Tambry(in armor),Stacy, Leroy, Gerald, Summer, Lillian, Mimi,Tom, Wilma, Barney, Melanie, Greenbeard, three members of his troupe, Percy, and Braddock followed along behind her.

               Bomme, Renee and the other CRA mission control staff bobbed their heads and waved their hands along while watching.

               “This invasion will not be tolerated, take her-“The knight in charge of the foyer was cut off when Vicki yanked him screaming up into the ceiling along with his two largest guards with some webs.

               Five more met the same fate when they ran screaming towards the exits or tried hitting the alarms.

               Macro, a large frog standing over 12 ft tall, cracked his knuckles and stood up from the table he’d been playing cards. Kimiko hit him on the top of his head with her kanabos. He fell down and broke the chair underneath him.

               Jack casually snagged the bottle of swamp beer from the table and drank it as he walked by and used his lasso on the bulky toad charging at him.

                Anton started to smile.

               None of the lasers, arrows or any other projectiles fired scored a single hit on the dancing invaders. Melanie’s force-fields deflected everything.

               Irwin, Cree, Andre, Larry, Rachel, Frezzik and a dozen Mar Guards dispatched the Frobots and soldiers from behind while they tried.

              

              

 

We go together, Adam and Eve

But the girl is so much more than just another apple thief

Yeah, she's a genius (genius), watch and learn

How she sets the world on fire just to watch the sucker burn

               Nessie, the fort secretary, asked skeptically,“What is this musical anarchy supposed to mean, this isn’t a food storage area or-“

               She was interrupted by Charlotte yanking her out of sight with a web.

               Zel snickered and pocketed her keys when Charlotte passed her towards her unconscious.

               The female axolotl lieutenant in blue robes went to make a call in a different. Tambry punched her in the back of her head. She shook her hand in pain after the soldier collapsed unconscious.

“Ouch … that’s harder than it looks!”

               Wilma patted her on the back, handed her a club, and gestured at her to follow her and Stacy to the next room. They knocked out several more foot soldiers with greater ease.

               A certain hammer-wielding legendary toad danced along in another realm. A small red frog next to him rubbed her forehead in annoyance.

               “Apple thieves … why? Isn’t being a decent box thief enough?”She grumbled.

               Marcy blew the roof off the place (literally blew the roof right above her off) as she did some disco finger moves.

               She did Bus Stop moves under the blue, blue sky as she made her way into the center of the place.

               Mimi held a sign up in front of a dozen foot soldiers coming their way that said: Please surrender or you’ll have to be painfully shocked with attacks that leave headaches for hours!

               The Magnas and CG’s surrounding them with crackling weapons convinced them to throw their weapons down and put their hands up in seconds.

               They were lucky and got to witness the oddest defeat of a fortress they’d ever heard of with no injuries whatsoever.

               Vicki stuck her head through a ceiling panel and tapped two knights on the shoulder on the other side of the door in front of Marcy. They looked up. She knocked their heads together and they fell senseless to the ground.

               She hummed and bobbed her head to the tune while unlocking the door with their keys. A Frobot who tried to fire at her got whacked in the face with the fundo tip of her chain she lazily swung with one hand. It flew back into two others right behind it and crushed them.

               Marcy tripped over the doorframe doing a backwards Running Man and fell on her back with her mask knocked off.

               She got right back up and gave a thumbs up, a radiant smile and her catchphrase ‘I’m OK!!’ in the air above her with glowing words to her concerned crew.

               Tony and Bomme cackled at HQ.

                “That a girl! Get right back up and don’t break stride!”Renee said approvingly.

               She put a pair of sunglasses on and starting gliding on air (literally) the rest of the way to the vault door using her powers.

 The sight of her snapping her fingers and doing a shoulder roll while moving backwards in midair stupefied the guards (living and robot alike) charging in to defend the vault from the rear.

              

 A large newt with a paddle tail snapped out of it and yelled,”Don’t just stand there, sho-GAAAAHH!!!“

               He was interrupted by Yumi’s fan hitting him in the gut and knocking him into the vault door. He would never want to mention that again out of embarrassment. His troops reacted appropriately enough (two-thirds at least).

               The Twins noticed a Frobot and a burly toad guard in a viking helmet stalking towards Lilian as she noticed some sugar cubes on a nearby table (her favorite tea sweetener) and went to get them. With practiced casual ease, they ‘directed’ the robot and guard into two separate closets and came out seconds later. The closets had a traumatized and handcuffed guard and a blue-screening Frobot inside them.

               Lilian put the cubes into a box she kept for such things, nodded with satisfaction, and stepped with refined grace over the door and followed Marcy with graceful shoulder pops and smooth ballroom sliding.

               The Twins brushed their shoulders, tightened their gloves back into place, high-fived, put on shades they pulled from somewhere, followed Lilian and kept dancing in funk style with ridiculously serious expressions.

               Cree rolled her eyes watching that and didn’t even react when a spiky-armored frog lady her own size came at her with two knives. With casual indifference, she twisted her arms back at impossible angles and flipped her attacker into the same closet as the toad.

Throw a party (hey!, throw a party, yeah

Throw a party (whoo) on the day that I die

Throw a party (hey), throw a party, babe

Throw a party on the day that I die

               Vicki picked off two dozen Frobots coming at Marcy in the air or ground while walking upside down. She did arm waves and basic popping and locking, 360-degree spins, and casual beheading/web shooting combo moves.

               “Let’s just get out of here!”One knight whispered to three others. They nodded and ran right into Frezzik and Irwin, who knocked them out at once with piledrivers and chokeslam wrestling moves.

               Rachel stepped through the door, raised an eyebrow at the odd sight, and threw a knife without looking to the far right. The large, tattooed toad running in with a cannon blinked as his trousers fell down after his rope belt was cut. He dropped the cannon in embarrassment and moved to pull them back up.

Frezzik knocked him out in pity with a slap to his head and frowned at the Diamondback assassin.

               Rachel sighed and cartwheeled forward, throwing three more pairs of blades to impale Frobots by the far door in the head. There was just no real appreciation for her less lethal throws.

               Anton gave in and started laughing.

               “What sort of tomfoolery is going on here?!”Perry screamed.

               Zel pulled her sword out. “I take it all back. This IS fun!”

               She jumped down from the rafters into the control room and engaged Perry in swordplay, dancing and fighting at once while all 20 of his guards in the top room came at her. Charlotte followed seconds later to tear open the 20-plus robots who came in from next door when they heard him yell.

They were defeated in less than half a minute. DMV and Stacy came down after she had won the fight. They unlocked everything.

 

               The top floor of security swarmed onto the roof to try and capture Emily as she took the flag down. Only one, a newt with a trident, got close. She yanked the spear and tossed him screaming over the side of the roof.

The rest had to deal with the other five attackers up there.

               Three newts and a toad tried to tackle Gabby. They wound up stunned and moaning in paralyzed pain in six seconds.

               Janelle slammed two bulky axolotls’ heads together with her talons.

               Gaff dispatched twelve robots lazily while leaning against the wall with rapid shots from a laser pistol.

               Halley swayed side to side on the roof, dodging blows from a large, lip-pierced toad guard named Snicket wielding a flail. She did a backflip, and her tail whipped him in the face.

               She balanced on her tail and spun in a circle, whacking five attacking Frobots in the face with her mallet.

               The guard barely had time to recover  from her previous blow before she kicked him in the face to K.O. him.

               A massive female frog named Blyth (11 ft tall) with pink hair in braids hefted a barrel of the base’s drinks at her. Halley ducked. Two newts and three frogs were knocked over the side of the wall by it instead. Wendy came at her from the right, caught her right wrist, and flipped her into the nearest turret wall hard enough to knock her out.

               Limminy, a frog as big as Vlad, attacked him with a massive spear. Vlad disarmed him and put him in a submission hold.

              

 

 

               The garrison was captured, and the robots were all destroyed.

               The only thing left was for Marcy’s group all over to do: dance.

               The audience at HQ; Marcy’s main group in front of the opening vault doors; Smarcy and the rooftop crew; Zel’s group in the Control room, and several more average Frobots and pirates outside the front gates with getaway vehicles danced and clapped their hands to the ending in funk and disco style.

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

               Marcy landed clumsily on her feet after jumping down from her air dancing and casually used her powers to summon a green apple from a fruit bowl near the door while she looked over all the tons of treasure ripe for the taking. She bit into it and smiled as she picked up a necklace of sparkling Thai-quality rubies.

               The box-thief apple-loving frog pulled her hair.

 

              

               They made off with several thousand tons of stolen goods in a single day at that place and the other caches throughout the archipelago, took the guards and officials captive, and picked up the lingering 3,000 remaining villagers and some fishermen to save and recruit.

               They’d robbed the entire archipelago blind of anything valuable.

              

               Andrias was too distracted by dealing with the fallout from a raid by Beatrix on his army near Stony Gulch and Sasha taking out 10 factory areas near Wartwood in raids to notice the lack of contact from the place. The incident went largely unnoticed by his forces.

               The forts, vaults and other storage areas were burned down while green, green grass flourished around the islands.

               Marcy was setting Andrias’s world on fire just to watch the sucker burn.

               The toad asked his best friend,“What’s the problem? You nipped some apples from the kitchen for Drias plenty of times-“

               “OH HUSH!”The apple/ Calamity Box thief pounded the cackling legendary toad on the head.

              

 

 

              

 

Notes:

The only real hitch to this is that George Ezra's song 'Green Green Grass' didn't come out until 2022. However, that is the year the show ended and he did think up the idea in 2018 ( a year before the main storyline and Andrias's tyranny in 2019), so for our purposes, he came out with it in 2019 in this universe.

Zel is like Mona Lisa in TMNT 2012, and will be a big sister figure to Marcy, slightly younger than Yunan (who probably sucked at anything that required memorizing in class) and someone to fill the sibling void she's never had.

I used every visual aid I could find on Newtopian military types and armor, and will try to find more soon.

Wilma and Stacy are like Candace and Stacy from Phineas and Ferb. Stacy's VA voiced Karai in TMNT, the one who becomes a mutant snake. Consider this that Karai with Stacy's personality.
Gerald sounds and acts a bit like Caine from the Amazing Digital Circus. I intend to show more of that in future chapters.

Three guesses as to who Malcolm is based on.

More than a few of these characters have counterparts in Gravity Falls or Owl House.

Update: I could not resist the 'sick as frog (Hell) railgun' reference as an upgrade for the Driders. Quantum (zero point energy) is an Incredibles reference, and considering how many other times in Amphibia we see characters use powers or beams more deadly than that, I wouldn't call it overkill.
\....

Chapter 6: Ch. 4.75 The Chief Ranger's Fury

Summary:

Andrias and the Core start to upgrade and play very dirty, so Marcy hits them where it hurts. The Night Guard is properly introduced and is claimed by Marcy.

For anyone who protests that the Resistance never got lethal, nice try. Croaker was head of assassinations and Grime and Sasha are hardly one to shy away from going lethal if they have to. I don't blame them. It's a war they're fighting for their very survival. Who knows how bad it got while Anne while was still on Earth?

 

Ch. 4.75  The Chief Ranger’s Fury

“It was all personal to me!”-Bryan Mills

“ ’I know you're angry-’ ‘Oh, no, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade.’”-Scarlet Witch and Bruce Banner

               In spite of their success, all was not well for the Rebellion. And Marcy knew it.

               “Our scouts have seen some distressing new devastation in the North and Western areas!”Zel told her in the final days of November.

               Aldo’s lingering soldiers (Including 300 who had managed to escape in the confusion Marcy caused) and several hundred volunteer toads (2,000 total) had been marching to join with Beatrix.

               Their scouts caught footage of the whole ambush.

               Hugo, one of Aldo’s best lieutenants, didn’t surrender when 70 Frobots surrounded him.

               A larger one, a new machine approached from the nearby mountainsides.

               It resembled a large newt in armor and had a crescent-shaped head with axolotl-like membranes on the side. The small red eyes peered down at the amassed toads.

               “Come down and fight! We aren’t going to prison!”Hugo yelled. The toads held stolen rifles and bombs at the ready.

               The robot still said nothing but flew into the air.

               It glowed all over with orange and red power lines. The red dots on its tail glowed and holes on its shoulders opened.

               Marcy and her lieutenants watched in stunned silence as lasers emerged from the tail and directed themselves down at the toads in the shape of olms.

               The toads screamed as they were torn open or blown up by the plasma. A dozen red-eyed missiles were launched at the fleeing survivors.

               In less than two minutes, they were all dead.

               “Unexpected … very unexpected. Keep watching!”Zel directed Vale’s scout team.

               “Hmm, analysis indicates this is not newer technology, but old! It matches schematics and records from Dawnblood Island. This look and powers are almost identical to an ancient suit of advanced exoskeleton armor being made before Andrias took the throne! It’s called the Dyoplosaurus. Reinforced armor rivalling our best, strength levels of several hundred tons, giant Laser swords similar to Andrias’s, large banks of many missile kinds in the shoulders-including heat seekers, naturally-advanced scanners, flamethrowers in the left hand, laser ports in the palms of each hand … and we witnessed their unique attack of explosive plasma being fired from the tail in the shape of olms that can be directed at a target!”Smarcy said.

               “Ohhh so they can go Retro, which IS better! Who knew?”Marcy mocked them. She pinned their picture to the ‘threat board’ and wrote the word ‘Plasmoids’ underneath it.

              

               “Yeah yeah … I guess they decided they couldn’t keep wasting low-level mooks on you and the rest!”Bomme said. She checked her screens,”Unfortunately, they didn’t stop there. A new electrical generator type, the Megawatts, has been made. They finished that water robot project of theirs, the Scylloid.”

               Smarcy smirked,“Oh yes, the six-headed sea-monster and game unit Scylla from Clash of Cultures … tough, and with triple reinforced teeth and armor, but not invincible! The Megawatts are a creative tactic. They can generate electricity, absorb it and weaponize it in high-level voltage attacks! I see that there are at least two new big units. A Giant Golden Crab Bot as large as the real thing, and even more dangerous!”

               Marcy read over the description“ Gold paint, laser eyes, and acid spit, an even harder carapace, and claws that can cut through metal and fire explosive blasts of energy … I’d be more impressed by this Crab Bot if I wasn’t the first Ranger to beat that impossible test against a living one. We’ll dub that the Cancer Bot.”

               “Like the Zodiac sign. Good choice!”Odd said.

               Bomme wasn’t done,“Yeah, but what about this one? They made a new Tank Bot model and used it along with the Cancer Bots to destroy a third of our bases along the Dark Woods coast!”

               This one had over 100 eyes- glowing orange ones- all over it that could fire powerful laser blasts and see in all directions.

               Marcy rubbed her forehead,“Ugggh, that figures! As if we didn’t have enough problems with eyes already! There’s a creature called the Hecto Eyes in Final Fantasy with that many eyes that have powers. And in Greek mythology, there was a hundred-eyed giant called Argos whose eyes never fully slept. Even while he slept, his eyes kept watch. We’ll call those Hectabots!”

               Zel said,“Good news, we destroyed the attacking ones down South already. But in other bad news,Stony Gulch’s population has been confirmed wiped out, along with Loggington and a dozen settlements near Olm Wood Forest. The staff for the Archives of Antiquities, the Emerald Coast Public Library & Archive, all of Newtopia’s other  libraries and other known archivists and historians from Ribbitvale and Kaeru have been arrested.”

               That alarmed and angered Marcy. Stony Gulch was where Javi and Kettle had settled after leaving. The town had long been destroyed, but she held out hope she could find and save them. That hope was now gone.

               Veronica tapped her chin,“The archives … they don’t know we went to Dawnblood Castle. They must be trying to cut you off from finding out anymore Core or other major Newtopian history secrets.”

               Marcy glowered,“Yesss … Ernst burned down all the major stuff from the city! There’s no need to let them know we found out plenty already! Anything else?”

               “Oh yes, one new model for their Royal Guard class of robots … I’m calling them Solarites!”Bomme said.

               “I see … like the old Castle knights, but yellow and orange. They’re solar powered and capable of unleashing solar energy blasts and lasers from their hands and spears, and emitting heat to melt ice from their armor! Clever, but … not clever enough!”Marcy said.

               “We don’t need to freeze them to destroy them!”Ravyn said.

               “There’s one last thing. Some scout abomination of theirs has been sweeping the area near our hidden base at Amagdyla Woods and our troops near Snarlsburg, young Marcy!”Darin said.

               The view of the large creature (too monstrous to just be a robot) made her grimace. It was a hovering being with large fins, dangling tentacles, pincers and a slug-like face with fangs and glowing antennae for eyes. All over its body were large glowing orange eyes that resembled the Core’s … eyes that could see through any camouflage, all visible spectrums and underground, for an estimated 8 km.

               “Hmmm, a cyborg biological monstrosity, similar to the Zerg Overseer in Spacecraft … we’ll call it a Coreseer. Tell you all what! Business as usual on raids and missions continues. And also … we’ll plan another paralyzing attack on the Core!”

               “How?”Anton asked.

               “Simple, it’s new pet is going to keep prying a bit too close to my Temple base. I’ll spring a trap to go right for the head!”She said

              

               “Ahhh … the beast tries to bite you, and you hit it when it gets too close … clever!”Darin said.

               Marcy winked at him,“ But I won’t hog all the fun! You get to take the Militants and kill the other Coreseer down South!”

               The silver-bearded toad chuckled,”Will do!”

               His silver armor had been reinforced and his large, studded Maul-style war hammer reinforced. Brigitte carried a large Chain on a ball weapon from Dawnblood Castle that could follow her instructions to swing where it wanted she dubbed Swishbreak.

               The game Battlehammer 40,000 had drawn her attention not long after they acquired the First Temple. Two new mechanical units were constructed.

               The Aegis Militants (Militants) had the same design as the Aegis-armor Grey knight space marines and a similar function: to protect themselves and others from psychic/corrupting/infectious attacks near them. Their only weapon was a simple pulse cannon in their hands.

               The Gorgon soldiers were fierce and intimidating, just like their game counterparts. They had a dual-barrel laser gun for their left hand(with a laser pointer), and carried a thunder hammer in their right that unleashed concussive and destructive force only when hitting their targets. Not a single Frobot unit made so far could withstand just one good hit.

              

 

               Looking back at the map, she said,”A rescue of the archivists and librarians is in order, along and with massive retaliation! Zel, you get to organize a counteroffensive! And also … send a hunt out for some of their brains, muscle and more ruthless leaders! And …”her eyes glowed,”let’s test their retro robot’s limits!”

*An axe to grind*

               Warze Island was at the bottom of the Anura River leading into the Great Bay. Usually it served as a ferry point to get from Frosch to the mainland of Amphibia, but Andrias’s forces had captured it and using it as a spot for their ongoing siege on Beatrix.

               She glowered from the swamp hiding spot in the Crypsis Glades dotting the peninsula as she looked through her spyglass.

               “Great, there’s a whole big number coming across that woodbridge they put there, and now some big freak just arrived that blew up the last of Aldo’s guys in the Blood Swamp is landing?!”

               The Plasmoid had been sent there in the hopes of eliminating the last pest in the North.

               The Frobots looked invigorated. Lancers, Soldiers, Hoods, Fire, and a few Tank Bots were ready. A force of 174 foot soldiers were there to aid them and there were over 200 waiting to cross on the other side with more robots. The Frill riders, a group of hooded Amphibians riding dangerous speedy and carnivorous Frilled lizards were waiting at the back. Lahmi the Giant, a big fat brown goliath frog over 15 ft tall, was riding a collared Island crab and leading some spotted bush frogs who lived close to the Outkirts who’d taken the job offer to wipe out Beatrix in return for getting dibs on her territory.

               However, their attack never happened because it was interrupted.

               The unfamiliar sound of a horse whinnying loudly filled the air.

               The toad army and their enemies turned to look in confusion.

               On a nearby hill by the distant shore, three knights sat on unnatural horses that looked even more unnatural in this world.

               Lancaster was in front, followed closely by Crocus and Salazar.

               Marshall Blightly, the sickly yellow-colored newt in charge, snarled,”The CRA? Where did they come from?!”

               “What are those freaks doing here?”Bogs asked Beatrix angrily.

               “I don’t know … but this better not be a pity move!”She grumbled.

               Lancaster held his Pit Glave in hand and raised it. Several hundred robots and some Amphibians in cloaks and light armor appeared behind him on foot.

               The Compact Archers, led by Echo, and several newts and frogs in brown and green cloaks were holding longbows and crossbows. Some Geisters holding damaged Lancer shields and spears along with some Phalangites stood next to them. Two Clockwars and some Flayers were hidden among their ranks.

               “That’s it? I thought she could do more than that!”Bufo said in surprise.

               A nearby Black Frobot on shore got into crouch mode and readied its missile bank. It fired a dozen at the hill.

               Lancaster swung his Glaive forward. A wave of blue energy went up and hit the missiles. They exploded with a loud bang.

               Salazar reared his arm back and threw his glistening axe. It spun forward and impaled the Tank Bot in the forehead. It fell over.

               Lancaster turned his glowing eyes towards the island. The Amphibians and even the robots felt a chill go through them as he pointed his weapon at them. The archers all raised their bows, just waiting for the signal.

               “C-c-call for help!”Blightly yelled at a nearby Frobot.

               The radio dish went out. “Signaling … signaling … cannot reach the nearest base!”

               Blightly and his fellow living soldiers began to sweat as they realized they were alone.

               Lancaster yelled,”Fire!”

The swarm of arrows flew.

               They landed in two areas. On the new bridge where several Frobots and construction vehicles were still crossing, and in the small fort where their army was clustered.

               Each arrow was either tipped with an armor-piercing tip or an explosive one.

               The bridge blew up in six parts, and scores of Frobots and Amphibians got taken out. A few Fire Frobots exploded and did damage to their allies. The other arrows hit scores of targets and took them down. Only the Lancers, Tank Bots and Plasmoids weathered it good. The Lancers formed shield walls over their living comrades. The Frilled Riders took shelter in the trees and only two riders and their steeds got hit.

               “Don’t just stand there, let’s do something!”A toad named Crud yelled to his comrades still on the shore. The Amphibians and robots (mostly Lancers, Soldiers and Froglets) charged with a roar of fury.

               The Phalangites and Geisters got into a pike formation at the bottom of the hill at a signal from Salazar.

               Darius nodded at Echo, who calmly said,”Reload!”

               The archers reloaded and waited until she said “FIRE!”

               Over 200 of their swarming attackers fell dead with arrows, including Crud. The rest charged into the pike formation and met a fierce wall of spears. Dozens were impaled or shoved off. The Flayers leaped over the shoulders of their comrades and started engaging in deadly close combat.

              

               Crocus and Lancaster got off their steeds, handed the reigns to two newts, and walked down the hill. Salazar urged his steed forward and rode towards his first kill of the battle.

               The Frilled Riders went charging at rapid speed across the damaged bridge as sound as their leader, Captain Lowe, recovered his wits. The Plasmoid quietly directed the still standing Tank Bots to take positions near the bridge, release their Froglets and get into firing mode. The three Silver ones were directed to go at Salazar.

               Salazar rode at high speed towards the fallen Tank Bot. He reached it and pulled his axe out. Some Lancers and toads with spears surrounded him.

               He glanced down as one jabbed his horse in the side. He cut the offending Lancer’s head off and pulled six of his attackers closer with Deathgrip, a shadow-based attack that let him pull opponents towards him. When they got close, he swung and they fell with cut chests and missing heads.

               The rest tried to back up and he froze them.

               Salazar was by far the most jaded and amoral of the Frost Knights. It showed as he eyed the charging Frilled Riders and three Silver Tank Bots landing near him with interest. He picked up a toad’s spear, tested the weight, and threw it at high speed towards the foremost rider. The bullfrog fell screaming off his lizard into the river.

               His axe glowed and unleashed a Merciless Winter attack.

               Shards of ice flew out in a breath of cold wind. The Tank Bots and two dozen Frill Riders and their steeds got impaled and fell into the water.

               The Horselord glanced back at Echo and jerked his head. She quietly raised her rifle and directed her archers to redirect their aim at the crossing cavalry.

               Echo shot Corporal Mucusa’s ride out from under her and sent her into the river. Several more got hit by arrows, including Lowe. 55 survived and ran through the shallow water towards Salazar.

He threw his axe forward. It spun around like a boomerang and dismounted/killed all but ten of them. He froze the river in front of him for nine yards along with the remaining Frill Riders and 30 Hoods trying to come towards him and caught his axe as it spun back towards him.

               Lahmi rode his steed through the water. The island crab was unbothered by the arrows and got within 20 yards of Salazar.

               Salazar laughed and cut the legs of the crab. It stumbled and dropped Lahmi in front of Salazar, who cut him down as he stood back up.

               A few Frobots flew out of range and signaled for help.

               Colonel Moor, a large green axolotl with a mustache and a red coat on and over 100 warriors behind him riding spiders and beetles, arrived on the nearby shore with Lancers, Hoods, and airborne Frobots behind them. His best riders wore Scarab armor. Captain Inez, a blue-robed axolotl, rode a large millipede. Ten heavily armored newts had siege gauntlets on.

 Loka the Lunatic, a tiger salamander newt of 11 ft with a scar over his right eye and barbarian style armor on, sat on a large Rhino beetle. He was feared among soldiers for doing destructive charges through barricades and enemy troops. Crazy Cayman, a 10 ft cane toad mercenary on their payroll, was the only one willing to sit near him riding a collared Giant centipede.

               Moor saw Blightly waving a signal flag frantically on shore and pointing at their attackers as they made mincemeat out of them.

               Moor grumbled and gestured at his aide to blow a horn. The Plasmoid directed the Tank Bots to fire at the field.

               The rockets and some Plasma Olms hit the field and took out most of their allies and field=bound enemies alike.

               However, the three knights (and one horse) and the Flayers still stood upright.

               Salazar chuckled and held his left hand up to fire Shadow Bolts that struck the Tank Bot’s heads. The robot’s skulls exploded and they fell over. He cast a blast of blue energy over the island and it froze the ground between it and Frosch solid.

               He beckoned towards the island.

               “He wants to fight that thing …I’m impressed!”Bufo said.

               Beatrix grinned,’Not just that … he gave us a way to the island and wants us to take it!”

               Bufo cackled and stood up,”Let’s do it … we can take it back while they handle the other shore!”

               The toads cheered and rose up to charge to Warze.

               The Plasmoid ignored that and flew into the air.

               “Kill them all!”Moor yelled.

               Crocus brandished his axe and did something odd … he let out a loud roar.

               Every toad present stopped what they were doing and stared for a moment. They were no strangers to growls or roars, but this knight had outdone them in sheer volume.

               The enemy paused for just a second. Loka rolled his eyes and pressed his beetle forward.

               Crocus glanced up at the Plasmoid and saw it charging its tail again. He growled and raised his fanglike axe.   

A  Frostflame Orb zoomed towards the Plasmoid. It unleashed a blast of cold and hot fire at the Imperial guard. The Plasmoid was blown back by the force and left severely burned.

               Echo directed the archers to fire at their oncoming enemies once more.

               Scores of the Amphibian calvary got the worst of it again.

               Lancaster casually walked towards Moor as the axolotl charged right at him. Then he swung at fast speed right as he got close and cut him down from the spider he was on.

               The Colonel barely had time to look up before he was impaled. Lancaster tore into the enemies around him with a speed and frenzy that terrified them. Cayman cut four Flayers and three of their own Hood Bots in half while running over ten Lancers to come his way. Lancaster beheaded him in one swift stroke when he rushed by.

 Inez rode at faster speed on her mount than most and shot arrows from her wrist crossbow into five Archers. Echo shot her dead when she was readying to hit a newt soldier of theirs next.

The siege gauntlet newts fired a handful of fiery rocks that forced a third of the archers to take cover, but Echo directed 20 of hers to aim and take them down.

               Crocus ran at high speed, bellowing and raring to fight. The Flayers followed him as he crushed Moor’s Scarab guard as they tried to down him.

               Loka grinned and threw a barbed spear at him. Crocus swatted it aside and sent a spike of ice flying his way. Loka ducked just in time. Angry he shot a crossbow on his wrist at Crocus. The paralytic bolt hit Crocus in the shoulder.

               The Orc wasn’t impressed and cut his way through six other riders and 20 Hoods.

               “Don’t ignore me … I hate that!”Loka said.

               Crocus slammed Trollbane down and sent a ripple of fire that blew up the ground and scores of Frobots around him.

               Loka charged towards the smoke. Crocus leaped out and cut his steed’s neck. The beetle fell.

               Crocus was about to go for Loka as he hit the ground but then he heard missiles flying his way. He saw the Plasmoid, smoking but intact, flying towards him with a laser sword in hand and its left hand pointing its flamethrower port at him.

               “Good, let’s finish this!”The Champion growled eagerly.

               Loka stood up, and hefted another spear up and threw it into Crocus’s back.

               The Orc snarled but did not turn around.

               “Don’t ignore me, you-GAHHHH!”Loka howled as a Flayer zapped him with its laser eyes. That one and two others leaped at him and started tearing into him for attacking their leader from behind.

               Crocus didn’t bother watching that but focused on the Plasmoid. Corroding blast was one ability Marcy wanted to test on these elite machines.

               His axe was equipped with one of the Caustic gems they’d found at their Temple to do so.

               Crocus focused and fired. The Plasmoid was hit on its extra reinforced chest plate. The green energy festered and boiled and burned away the covering and exposed some vital circuits.

               The Plasmoid was alarmed and tried to flee. Crocus was able to pull it back towards him after it flew away at sonic speed thanks to the trace of his powers on it.

               He raised his axe and cut into the core of its torso. It lay destroyed under him.

               Many Frobots came to reinforce the garrison at Warze 30 minutes later, but by the time they got there, Blightly and his troops were dead and the CRA had left the shore after destroying their enemies there.

 The toads gladly took the newcomers on and destroyed them over the next few hours.

               A few scouts went to investigate when incomplete reports kept coming in.

               The bridge was destroyed and the shore, shallows of the river and the island were littered with corpses and destroyed Frobots. Arrows, ice and spears were stuck in many. Almost all of them were affiliated with Andrias, and only a handful with Beatrix or the CRA.

               Blightly’s body and six others hung from gibbets on the island as a warning. The Plasmoid lay in a burning heap on the shore.

               Several Frilled Riders and their steeds floated into the Great Bay.

               Lori shook her head as she lead a team to recover the arrow-riddled bodies,”What did these guys get themselves into?”

               A frog fisherman hauled Lowe’s body up with a hook

               “They’re floatin’ down from  the rogue Captain Beatrix’s territory, ain’t they?”The brown-skinned frog captain said grimly.

               There was fresh smoke rising from the Northwest. With toads, that could mean bad news in many ways.

              

              

              

              

*No scraps for you!*

 For some time, the anarchist gang known as the Marauders had been laying waste to the surroundings with no thought for whatever harm they caused. Caravans had been hijacked, villages were raided, captives sold off or killed, and they terrorized anyone and anything that stood in their way.

               Sasha hated them a lot for being a major thorn in her side.

               Today was a recurring type of mission where they would raid a village for scraps, such as food, information, and supplies of any kind. Outside of one village some miles out of Frog Valley, the accountant turned psychopathic giant toad named Brian was threatening the mayor of said village for the full load of food he had.

               “Seriously, give me EVERYTHING or I will drink your blood!” the high-pitched creep yelled. His fellow anarchists (twenty of them) grinned suggestively behind him.

               The  poor timid yellow frog insisted,”This is all the food we have, and everything else is-“

               The female newt of the group snorted and held a blade to his throat,” Nice try, we know there was a shipment of weapons and metal parts that just got dropped off here, so SPILL!”

               He shocked them all by saying,” Beggin’ yer pardon, miss, but some raggedy and downrigh’ creepy-looking frogs showed up back where the stuff was dropped off a while ago! Didn’t say nuthin’, just started picking through it. Real big ones too!”

               He pointed over his shoulder to where the location was a ways outside the village.

               That was a first, even the Wartwood Resistance had yet to beat them to the punch on their various heists and jobs. After a few seconds of shock, a toad wearing a helmet snarled and said, “Let’s teach them not to mess with our score!” They all yelled in anger and went over there.

               Sure enough, in a rocky clearing there were four bulky figures rummaging around in the various boxes. While the dusty background in the hot sun made it a bit hard to tell, from their turned backs they looked like vagabond wanderers. Rough torn clothes such as pants, jackets and military outfits (some otherworldly looking hint-hint) were loosely but firmly draped over them, and their differing skin colors looked pale and … dead. But they didn’t see them clearly enough to get the full picture, especially since they were bent over at the moment.

               Brian got within 50 yards and called out,”Hey! You scavenging creeps get lost or we’ll tear you up for the birds to eat! And they get REAL hungry these days!”

               The Marauders were used to fear and anger, but they did not get that.

               For a long moment, the “scavengers” ignored them.

                Brian yelled,”I MEAN IT, WE’LL-“

               The closest one, a bald and grey one stood up and turned around. The other three slowly followed. They made a groaning mechanical sound as they did.

               The Marauders were afraid of what they saw.

               These … were NOT frogs.

                Their clothes had a few tears in them displayed exposed mechanical parts and whatever skin they wore was … fake. It was lifeless, artificial and was torn to various degrees, especially on the heads. One had green faded skin that only just covered its skull to resemble a true frog. The farthest (and biggest) one resembled a less overweight and fat green/brown Horned Bull Frogs’ head (horns and all), but the lower jaw was exposed, showing mechanical jaws. Another had red skin with torn cheeks. But the grey one was the worst. Only a few pale loose shreds of “skin” hung on its skull-like head. They  looked at the Marauders with vivid glowing red eyes as they moved to face them with bulky robotic forms.

               The Marauders had faced Frobots before, but not like these. The visible parts of their metallic heads resembled skulls of dead frogs. What was visible through their clothing looked bone-like as well. None of the King’s robots looked so … creepy.

               That was what Marcy intended when making the TF-600s. “Zombie robots!”She said to Bomme as they fitted them days before.

               “I get it!”Bomme said. She adjusted the minigun settings for better accuracy.

               Another newt tried to look braver than he felt. “Hehehe, new robot models, eh?! Well, we’ve seen w-worse!! So don’t think …” He shut up when the robots began striding towards them and raised their arms. Three of them had miniguns (bullet and laser-mode) attached to their right arms. The red-skinned one pulled out a pair of sizable plasma-based versions of Earth assault rifles.

               Within seconds they began firing rapid bursts of lasers and bullets at them,deliberately targeting the ground at their feet.

                The anarchists had enough. This just wasn’t worth it. Not even pausing to get their original cargo of food, they ran past the village and into the surrounding woods. The machines then went back to their task.

               Sasha Waybright was just outside in another part of the woods and ranting.

               “Stupid creepy punks keep making my job harder! It’s bad enough we have to deal with Andrias destroying everything, but these anarchists just do it for sport!”

                Maddie patted her on the back,”There will be a day of reckoning! I’m very sure of it!”

                Of course, even she couldn’t have predicted the sight of the Marauders bursting into a nearby clearing and collapsed, out of breath and terrified. For several long seconds, Sasha and her five-man band just stared.

                Mrs. Croaker snarked,” What happened to spook you rascals that bad?”

               Brian gritted his teeth and got up, livid, and snarled,”Oh bite me you old crone! Like you have any better chance against THOSE!”

                Before they could ask what he meant, a nearby lizard skull was loudly squashed under a heavy boot and they all turned to look at the mechanical servo sounds that followed. Brian flinched and so did the Resistance.

               Another TF-600 stood there. A combat harness loosely hung over an exposed metal torso wearing a loose aviator coat, baggy trousers, and leather gloves. But its head was … grimly unique. Pale brown flesh that was torn around the center of the face, showing metallic teeth, nasal openings and red eyes in a vivid impression of a skull with torn flesh around the center of it. A military style headband was wrapped around the top of its head. Looking down from a nearby rock, it leveled its minigun at them.

                Brian and the other Marauders fled screaming as it fired at them.

               For a long moment after it finished, the Resistance didn’t move and stiffened as the red mechanical eyes looked at them. It just stood there and waited. Finally, Sasha had enough and pointed her swords at it.

               “Don’t just stand there, come fight me or get lost! I won’t let you hurt any of my friends, got THAT!!??” For a few more seconds, nothing happened.

               The robot just raised its left hand, waved, and walked off towards its comrades.

               The Resistance interviewed and gave aid to the shaken townsfolk. Relief abounded as none of the food had been taken or anything else essential. The mysterious robots hadn’t even entered the village but went for the weapons and metal scrap outside.

               Carefully, Sasha’s team and the bolder townsfolk watched from behind the houses as all the rogue machines began to walk off into the distance.

                Four of them carried large boxes with their free hands and the last pushed the rest on a hovering metal platform with both hands.

               Loggle pondered,”They must be more new freaky robots working for the Cyberkinetic Witch!”

               Sasha said fiercely,”One of these days, I’m going to find that girl and get some answers … I don’t like being messed with!”

               “You said she was someone who liked you! And this isn’t a loss for us!”Maddie reminded her.

               “Yeah, but being vague for too long ruins the good mood!”Sasha said.

               The TF-600’S lumbered on and out of sight.

*A Terror to the Night *

               Marcy had a brief freak out when she learned a Coreseer was en route towards  Wartwood.

               “No no nooooo!! It could see them!”She said. Linda, the nearest sniper to them, was dispatched at once.

               Sasha looked up from inside the house windows after Felicia spotted it on watch.

               “That thing … whatever it is … it’s gotta be some new spy robot. Stay inside for now!”She ordered them. She and six others (Grime, Maddie, Loggle, Toadie, Ivy and Toadstool) kept careful watch from out of sight behind the windows using mirrors and a spyglass.

               Unfortunately, the spotter unit observed their entire underground base with its special eyes. It slowly drifted far to the West over the trees in the distance, acting like it didn’t notice them for the next few minutes.

               Linda wasted no time when she got close enough. With one shot she hit it right through the center of its body. It fell dead to the ground.

               “Who did that?”Grime hissed.

               The Spartabot radioed her boss.“My apologies, Marcy … I’ve eliminated their scout but based on the flying pattern it was doing, the Coreseer was within range of 4 to 6 km, more than enough to use its advanced optic sensors to see their underground base!”

               Marcy was incensed.“Urrrghh, it had enough time, five minutes at most, to see their hidden base! That’s it, I am knocking them back down another level!” She stood and ordered Linda,”Burn its corpse and go on a snipe hunt for ANY other Frobots of theirs in the immediate area! I’ll deal with the other one near me to make sure the Core never wants to send one of those near me or them again!”

               “Affirmitive!”Linda said.

               The Resistance saw the corpse burning three miles away minutes later.

              

               “Going for the other one now?”Halley asked grimly.

               “Yes!”Marcy stood up and walked with her above ground to where they were at the First Temple now. 

               The Core had admitted to Andrias after it recovered from its Ock Curse ordeal,”We have grown … overconfident and stagnant!”

               He raised his eyebrows.

                The Core elaborated,“Our armies are still far superior to Earth’s but we need to take it to the next level to regain control, defeat the Stars, and conquer more serious threats! Luckily, some simple reproduction of technology Wit does not know of or can’t use should do for now while we upgrade the rest using your new approach! We’ll have an elite force and guard for our family!”

               The Coreseer idea delighted it the most. After testing it to find a gang of toads and frogs hiding underground near the Boiling Bastions, they sent one to Wartwood and found the Resistance’s base.

               “Ah, so our little runaways hid underground after I defeated them and burned their town down! Leif left more things hidden there than I thought. How nice … that won’t save you now!”Andrias said mockingly.

               The other one near Amygdala Woods had found enough evidence to confirm Marcy had forces by the First Temple.

               “Excellent, we’ll have control of the Valley soon! As for With, Her Stone powers are giving off a field by the temple at this moment! Her forces down South are ripe to be captured with every stronghold around Snarlsburg and the underground tunnels she’s made in the Dark Woods areas!”The Core said to Andrias.

               “Yes, my lord, I’ll send some of our finest robots down there right away!”

              

               Marcy sat in the hall of the First Temple.

               “Invading army inbound on the Eastern forest borders!”Smars said.

               Darius sent Verona, Makariya and Sylalleas out to deal with them.

A Plasmoid approached the edge of the woods with several Flame Frobots, Tanks, Solarites, Lancers and Soldiers backing it up.

“Fascinating work! Even if the composition escapes me!”Bernardo said while reviewing the Frost Knight’s gear with them as they worked on it at their new forge in the First Temple.

“Of course it does! There are many powerful metals on Azeloth, and the Death Knights use some of the best. Saronion ore is a cursed metal formed from the blood of the Elder god Yggr-Saron,”he and Egwellems leaned back nervously as she got hammy,”the Lucid Dream incarnate, the Monster within your nightmares, the Devil of a thousand faces, the Beast of a thousand jaws, End of Hope, That Which Must Never be Named, the GOD OF DEATH!!!”

“Interesting …”Bernardo said after an awkward moment of silence.

She resumed explaining the metal,”This metal would drive most living folk mad just being near it, but it has valuable properties that make great weapons and armor. Elementine is a virtually indestructible and incredibly rare metal!”

“Oooo!”Egwellems said.

“There’s a few others, but perhaps the most valuable is Azalite, said to be made from the living essence of Azaloth’s heart, or core-ugghh,”she rolled her eyes,”this priceless crystalline substance could give special abilities, especially ones that increased ones mental faculties. You can see visions, understand things you never could before, touch the fabric of reality itself, and so on.”

Bernardo took note of one design using that,“I see …I confess, I thought you used Lieutenant Verona’s unique living armor here for more personal reasons!”

Marcy smiled vindictively,”Not quite. That design is  technically alive to a degree, but it bonds to the user. Only she is in control of every part of it, including the eyes. This spooky look evokes the Elder god’s terrifying image. It was one way to help start conquering my trauma. Thankfully, the tentacles are more for decoration and the eyes are quite similar to many natural eyes around here in a different color. But the Core now has to see that it’s not the only one who can use eyes that see through walls and people in the dark.”

A Plasmoid approached the edge of the woods with several Flame Frobots, Tanks, Solarites and Soldiers backing it up.

               “Destroy these woods!”The Plasmoid directed the Flame Frobots. They started torching the area.

               Several knives emerged from the woods to impale their faces. Three got hit in the tanks and exploded, taking two dozen Soldiers and three Solarites with them.

               Syllaleas appeared in a whirl of shadow several yards away. Makariya’s shadowed figure was seen coming from further down the road behind her.

               “Oh dear, it’s those strange ice-breathing monsters of hers!”Andrias said dully. They’d wrecked great havoc around her initial rampages and they were frustratingly difficult to find information on. None of his forces had ever come back intact from an engagement with them, but he knew they were behind the alarmingly high number of robots going missing after entering the various Frog Mountain passes.

               “Purge them!”The Core ordered the Plasmoid.

               The Plasmoid drew its Laser sword in the right hand and sent flames out of its flamethrower port on the left to light the ground by them.

               Sylalleas conjured a Vengeance Avatar, a trick she;d learned long ago, that formed into a shadowy replica of herself and zoomed forward. It carved through several Frobots and Solarites that attacked it and slashed the Plasmoid through its chest.

               To Andrias’s shock, the Plasmoid fell to its knees in pain.

               The Core twitched as the mystical attack reverbated and inflicted pain on it. The Core minds momentarily glowed in their Sanctum and their scars from their last ‘death’ showed on their bodies.

               The VA impaled its spectral glaive in the Plasmoid’s face and it fell backwards.

               Makaaria hefted her GOJ mace out in her left hand and dropped the chain out. She swung it around and sent blue flames that disintegrated several Solarites and Frobots.

               Verona came out from the trees and took out several robots that tried to flee. Her armor’s eyes were closed for the moment.

               The trio walked up to the Plasmoid. Sylalleas impaled its face and it started to burn up as blue and green flames covered it.

               “Take a closer look at them from behind!””Andrias ordered the Coreseer.

               Andrias gulped as eyes opened on Verona’s shoulders and stared right back at the Coreseer and him. He somehow knew that terrifying glare could see him.

               So did the Core. Verona held a hand up towards the Coreseer and it froze in place.

               “Perfect. Hold it there, Arabella! Guys, help me out!”Marcy said to Darius and the Horsemen.

               “Why do you want a copy of that accursed Helm here?”Darius asked Marcy indignantly. The Knights frowned at the Helm of Subjugation replica being made in the corner.

               “One, it’s a very iconic and cool helmet. The Crown of Free Wills replacement was a nice concept but a lame design. Millions of people have already outvoted you on that,”She ignored their unimpressed stares,”Two, it doesn’t work the same as the original. The Helm you know and fear used Subjugation to bend another’s will and control the Scourge Death Legions …and its pieces were used to help make the Crown of Willfulness to have the opposite effect.

Baldor crossed his arms,”Go on.”

“Here, in Amphibia, we have this form of mind control,”she tapped a Mindshroom collar on the table,”the Mens Agaric, or Mindshroom, an uncommon mushroom. These collars they make uses its enzymes to  force the wildlife and even the citizens to do their bidding when worn. The spores will grow on bare skin when exposed and bending the host flesh to a sentient presence that resides inside the fungus itself … simply put, the mushrooms themselves appear to be self-aware to a degree.”

Baldor incinerated the collar.

“We can destroy their spore and collar production sites all we want, but that won’t solve that problem. They can grow those all over. The Core, our biggest threat, already has powerful mind control powers at close range using technology. Their collective consciousness makes them formidable. If they improve on that … my Wit powers alone won’t cut it. This Helm ,”she smiled,”I’m thinking, when we get the chance, we could empower it with mystical psionic energy that can disrupt their control over anything at close range. I won’t force the issue, but as you can see here …”she showed the image of Andrias and the Core,”they already have their own sinister crowns and evil eyes that are out to devour and control all life on other worlds. The Lich King’s helmet won’t be what people fear here. I’m making it not as a crown, but a helmet for a Lich Knight. Personally,”she pointed at the picture of the Core’s attempted ‘Host Crown’ helmet with the gill-like formations on top and the many Leviathan’s portraits,”I’m not feeling that fond about the coral, gill or traditional crowns right now,”she rubbed her forehead,”and everytime I’ve tried putting a helmet on myself…it gives me panic attacks or flashbacks to that awful helmet frying my head.”

“I see …”Darius picked the Helm up and stared thoughtfully at it.

“I’m redesigning it a little. That should help avoid the Lich King vibes a little bit …”Marcy added.

Later at the First Temple, Marcy succeeded. Mina had a special forge area to use, and their armor was just as good or better than before. The Temple was able to channel mystical and mental energy from all around through it … something that empower Marcy and the Frost Knight’s gear.

This made the Helm more powerful when it was adjusted to the Temple’s setting.

Marcy was delighted and had an idea,“Excellent, I’ll dub it the ‘Helm of Cognition’, since cognition means everything involved in knowing things!”

 

               The Temple glowed in every single crystal, torch or piece of tech present as Wit used her power.

               The Coreseer shivered and was forced to send the brainwaves to its master.

               The Core started to shake.

               “You just can’t learn, can you? I told you to stay away from me! This is going to hurt a lot!”Marcy’s voice echoed.

               “My lord?”Andrias asked its eyes twitched.

               The Coreseer exploded.

               “I have no mouth, and I must scream …”A said man’s voice said. That is exactly what this being without a physical mouth did. It screamed inside and outside.

               Inside their mind, Aldrich got targeted first. He screamed as his worst pains near death were relived and his image of a body was warped and shifted into something unrecognizable. The rest shivered as they felt an icy chill wrack their very being. The last thousand years of their life was scrambled temporarily and put out of order. None of their minds were sure who was who at all.

               The Core’s limbs convulsed as its mind lost all contact with reality.

As a bonus, the eight Frobots in the room with Andrias were targeted by Darius. Their eyes turned green as they fell under his control. The closest one shot Andrias twice in the back.

               He howled in agony but kept on his feet. He snarled and turned around to punch it into the wall. Another one deployed its shoulder cannons to hit his tail with very painful shots. Andrias drew his sword and went wild on them.

               He received twelve more painful shots to his tail, gut and one glancing shot on his chin. The last one used dual axe arms on his foot and got stomped into pieces by him in a mad fury

               Andrias limped out of the room.

               Why was the Core still trying so hard to get too close to her?

               “Did I ever really understand how the Core operates? Did father while he was alive?”He muttered.

               The Core had glared at him when he first met it. He never knew why as a child … he’d disappointed his ancestors somehow.

               “Did it work?”He asked hours after his father died and the Core was lying …’asleep’ next to his father’s body.

               “Yesss …”He shook hearing his father’s voice come out of it inside his crown,”now son, my ancestors and I …we’ll help you do it right. You’re never alone, remember?”

               “Never alone …”The irony of that phrase stuck with him over the centuries. He might have preferred that. It was no wonder he never made any real friends after his best ones were long dead and his dead family haunted his family home.

               He came back an hour later to find the Core lying on the ground and staring straight ahead with a distant look. It took two days to fully recover. It deleted all memory of the experience rather than keep it.

               In the meantime, he witnessed ruthless takedowns of his forces.

               “Frost Knights, go out and ride! Unleash your fury along the Great Bay! Bring me Admiral Torosa and capture all in Croakatraz,”Marcy directed her knights.

               “It will be done, Lady Marcy!”Darius assured her.

               “Make them hurt!”Zel said. He shook her hand and walked out to stand before the others.

               “We ride forth!”He ordered his assembled knights. They saddled up and went out.

*Ride of the Knights*

               Torosa was the highest-ranking officer in Amphibia’s limited naval power. The toxic newt had a long list of horror stories of cruel prisoner treatment long before this and had an increasingly high amount of people being sent to work in the outer waters. His base was in Fort Stellagama in the middle of the Great Bay.

               Darius led a small army personally to crush Croakatraz and two legions of Frobots defending it and the surrounding areas. The prison had been drained of several dangerous prisoners who’d been sent to fight the toads or Marcy or been executed. Only about 30 remained, and there were plans to relocate several important new ones there.

               The entire place was overrun by Nagataurs and Geisters crawling out of the water and into the windows, the Gorgons breaking down the gates, and the Frost Knights raining fire and ice down on them. Darius broke the place in half after emptying it.

               No one on the mainland took notice at the time because of what Darius sent the Horsemen to do.

               The emptied city of Newtopia was secure with several Skyhoppers above it. The Core’s banners flew on top of the walls and the gates. Their were massive constructions of factories and refineries all around the abandoned city and several companies of Frobots waiting to march out to war. A Plasmoid was outside with 300 Frobots on the beach.

But that all ended when the Four Horsemen and four other Frost Knights rode out of the sky on their Chargers.

               Nazgrowl landed first and charged straight at the mass of enemies and went right for the Plasmoid. He ignored every shot or hit directed at him and lifted the Imperial guard and seven other Frobots near him in the air with his Strangulation power and beheaded the massive elite machine with one stroke. Bored, he flattened the Frobots and Amphibian soldiers near him.

               Baldor jumped off his horse and landed on top of the city gates. Andrias grit his teeth as Baldor sent lava flying into the empty spot where the Castle had once sat.

The stone melted and started to burn, leaving the Castle without a good mooring spot to return to. Baldor sent a wave of fire out from his right hand that torched the Frobots inside the city and the nearest refineries.

 He held Flamemourne upright and pounded its handle on the wall. The gates shook and fell off their hinges. Baldor levitated the two broken doors into the air. He hurled them into two Skydroppers. The floating structures crashed. A newly arrived Plasmoid was buried under the second one.

Baldor took a defensive stance as the enemy turned towards him and their now flaming city. When over 300 enemies in the air and ground were in front of him, he unleashed a wave of fire that disintegrated them. The Plasmoid climbed out of the smoking rubble and charged at him with its sword. He blocked his sword with his hammer and engaged in intense close combat with it on top of the gates. He scored a hit on its chest and then spun in a complete circle to slam his weapon into its lower torso.

Andrias almost threw a fit as the Plasmoid was sent flying with such force that it went flying at high speed into a mountain peak over two miles away. The mountain and its body cracked.

               Sally landed on the North Shore and held her sword up in both hands.

She ignored the Hectabot that targeted her with 60 lasers at once. Her Juggernaut armor remained intact and she remained standing. She closed her eyes and bright light started to shine out of her blade.

A Sacred Wrath attack was unleashed at the Hectabot. All 100 eyes glowed like a burning lantern as it screamed and combusted. The flames from the explosion didn’t stop there, but kept jumping to every other robot nearby. It didn’t stop until every single one on the North shore was gone.

               Toras took the South shore and calmly strode towards the large force there. He swung Strong’kar through over 50 Lancers and two dozen Solarites. A whirlwind of blade and fury was unleashed on the hundreds who came at him. None lasted long against him.

               The last Plasmoid in the immediate area flew at high speed towards him with its sword and got its arms and head  cut off … all in less than five seconds.

 

              

               Toras pointed Strong’kar towards the site of major factories and best refineries on a nearby mountainside. Six Shield Generator Bots had fields up protecting Laser Cannons and the biggest buildings along with ten Skyhoppers, three approaching Tank Bots and a Hectabot with hordes of Dragonfly Drones in the air to back them up.

               Wisps of green and blue flames in the shape of ghostly faces flew out and swarmed into every single Shield Generator Bot, Skyhoppper, the Hectabot and Tank Bots. They blew up and disintegrated to ashes.

 The waiting hordes of Geisters, Crypt-Bots and Flayers behind the hills swarmed in to crush every single machine in the buildings they’d been protecting. They marched into Newtopia when that was done and began looting the place of anything valuable left at all.

Baldor picked a Core banner from the walls and held it over the flames to burn.

               On the off chance this would make them more terrified of her than him, Andrias played footage of this to every work camp, prison camps military base (including the Night Guard’s base at Cragmarrow Cove) and living area for the relocated Newtopians along the Great Bay coastal areas in the North and South.

               So far, the show was having the desired effect. His subjects, soldiers, enemies and captives were terrified seeing this power that defied anything they knew or understood.

               Beatrix and her soldiers got to watch from an area they were spying on.

               “This beats watching any fighting matches around here!”Fen said.

               While the Horsemen decimated the shore, the other four knights landed their Chargers on the water and rode out into the Bay.

              

After the beaches were taken,  all attention turned to them. Machine and Amphibian alike watched in awe as Thazarus, Ravyn, Koliath, and Minerva’s steeds charged across the water and left a trail of ice covering the water in their wake.

               A massive Cancer Bot (25 ft tall) rose out of their water to block their way, followed by a Scylloid and Hectabot in the air. These robots had done massive damage to some of their forces by Amygdala and Snarlsburg, so they were a good first line of defense in the Bay. Hordes of Drones were launched by Tank Bots to attack them in the air along with scores of Frobots.

               Thazarus pulled out his blades to deflect the acid shot at him. He sped up and dodged the lasers and claws. With two consecutive dual strokes, he cut the robot’s front legs and then its belly. It fell into the water and combusted.

               Albert and at least half of the Night Guards thought about the one Ranger who’d bested a living Giant Golden crab.

               “I’m flattered you want to join the Night Guard, Master Marcy,”Albert said to the ‘human girl’,”but you’d have to past the test like anyone else!”

               “What is it?”

               “The Giant golden crab that lives in these parts … you’ll have to retrieve an egg from one!”

               `”Sounds fun!”She said.

               “No, it’s dangerous!”Alastar grumbled. “That crab’s got acid spit that can hit ya from 500 yards and melt any Amphibia it hits into a puddle, large claws that can cut through iron like scissors on paper, and it lives out of sight in this area!”

               Marcy took notes,“Yes, yes, that’s dangerous. What else?”

               Alastor was impressed by her persistent questions. She asked him and the others about the crab and other facts about the local wildlife. Although very clumsy, the human was a good student and impressed them by inventing a bomb potion with Sandweed and ground Whalebone in a 2:1 ratio recipe.

A few days later, on her own, she came back with the egg.

“Ta-dah!” She held it up with a bright smile in front of the speechless Night Guards.

               Albert took a few moments to respond. “No one has ever successfully brought back one of those … that test is designed to see how recruits deal with failure in an impossible situation …”

               “Does that mean I failed?!”Marcy yelped.

 The Rangers laughed as Albert facepalmed.

               She became a Ranger with flying colors and was giddy with delight getting the Chief Ranger position.

               “She did that, did she?”Andrias said with amusement when Albert reported the story to him.

               “You said she was smart … I’ve never seen anyone that smart!”Albert said.

               “Neither have I!”Andrias said. He was the oldest newt around, alive long before Albert’s great grandfather, so that was saying something.

               Minerva was delighted to see the Scylloid stretch its six heads at her. She swung her axe in a circle over her head and cut through each one with swift strokes.

              

               Two silver Tank Bots came at her from above and swiped at her head. She cut their forearms off and then dealt quick slashes to their torsos that sent them into the ocean.

               Giggling like a loon, she used her axe on several dozen Froglets that tried to dogpile her. Most of them got cut in half or beheaded.

               “Nice swing!”Priscilla said enviously. Every Derby vet or guard near her nodded.

               Koliath swung Bilrost in the Hectabot’s direction as it fired at Thazarus. A spike of ice hit from behind and threw it into his path. He bisected it in midair.

              

               Ravyn was thrilled when a mutated and gigantic Kraken rose out of the water in front of her and was all set to grab her and Minerva. She smiled with manic glee, stood up on her horse’s back, grasped Gravewhisper with both hands, and jumped several meters high.

She soared through a swarm of Dragonfly and Cicada drones coming at her and took them all out with one swing of her blade. She kept going down at the Kraken and cut through eight arms in two strokes before landing on its head and impaling it.

 Before the Kraken finished falling dead in the water, she whistled and ran to jump and land on Onyx as she flew to her mistress.

She flew up and impaled a Frobot. Gravewhisper defied every known weapon convention when glowing energy formed at the blade’s tip that ‘consumed’ the robot into itself. Ravyn’s mad cackle echoed across the Bay as she unleashed ghostly blasts of ice and spectral energy that destroyed a whole swarm of robots and twelve Skyhoppers coming her way.

“I’ll hold off on reinforcements for now!”Andrias decided. It might scare people too much if these knights kept destroying more of his army while laughing.

Ravyn landed back on the water and came at the fort from the North side while the other three kept coming from the East.

 

               Admiral Torosa looked in disbelief and fear at the video feed of four unnatural knights charging at him in Fort Stellagama far out at in the middle of the Great Bay and tearing through the monsters and robots trying to stop them.

               Two Laser Cannons positioned near the island’s edge fired at Minerva as the closest one. She dodged both blasts and fired a Chaotic Bane blast at the Southern cannon. It exploded along with every guard posted there.

               Koliath swung Bilrost towards the base of the other cannon. Part of it rotted and snapped. It fell over and the Amphibian guards on it fell screaming into the water. The Frobot guards were luckier and rose into the air to take defensive positions.

               “Please tell me the two new Imperial Guards are near!”He said to the Frobot next to him. It nodded.

               Thazarus didn’t lose stride seeing the advanced robots firing masses of olm-shaped lasers at him. His steed went even faster to dodge and he used his  Death-Grip powers to pull his attackers towards him

 

               The Plasmoids slammed into the water after he released them at the last moment . He jumped off his steed and plunged his blades into the Bay waters. The entire ocean around the Fort for two miles was frozen solid.

               The Frost Knight quartet strolled up to the gates. Minerva raised her axe over her head and struck the doors once. They broke open.

               A swarm of Reaperbots, Wispflies and Mantas surrounded the place in the air and destroyed any Frobots left on the outside.

               Every single robot or soldier inside that got in the knight’s way was knocked aside.

               Torosa tried to leap out the window, but was caught by a Reaper. He was thrown back inside and frozen at once by Koliath.

               The fort’s soldiers were led out in chains along with the liberated prisoners.

               “Learn this lesson well, Amphibians! The rule of cowards who oppress the weak and innocent and build their foundation on lies, death and greed can only end in sadness for them and their people!”Baldor said to the freshly liberated captives and captured soldiers on shore.

               Andrias hurriedly switched off the feeds, but the damage was done.

               Sally rode straight to Cragmarrow Cove and lit up her sword with blinding light before taking down every single factory and refinery there. Every machine was destroyed and every prisoner liberated. Their overseers and soldiers were led off in chains or given the chance to follow her along with every free inhabitant in the area.

               The Night Guards stayed inside their hideout until she was gone.

               Imhadria rode her horse right in front of three prison carts transporting some insurgents from the Boiling Bastions toward a nearby forested area for a waiting Judge Bot to execute them.

               She said nothing as the soldiers and robots aimed their weapons at her but just whistled.

               A swarm of flies, centipedes, and other bugs from the nearby undergrowth came crawling and flying out. Some fleas and a nearby Scorpelio came to join from over a nearby hill. The soldiers howled in fear and agony as the insects crawled all over them and started biting and stinging. The robots had it worse and got crawled into and torn apart from the inside out.

               Maya and Hopper took down the Judge Bot and six battalions of Frobots two miles away.

               “Oh, you poor dear …”Imhadria crooned to the injured Scorpelio as it came up holding the senseless major in its claws. The male predator hybrid creature was nursing a bad burn along his belly from three days ago.

               She healed him and scratched his neck, much to the disbelief of the terrified prisoners as they clambered out of their transports. When she named him Deathclaw and made him her pet, everybody tried not to say anything.

               Arachni went into the Boiling Bastions with Enoch. Her Flamestrike sword unleashed a torrent of fire that left every factory and refinery in the area to ashes and heated the boiling lake many times hotter. Enoch took on the robots that survived the heat up close and knocked a third of them into the lake. The smoke rose for miles.

               Filmore broke the door down to one of Triple B’s supply warehouses, marched right in and started destroying the place.

               The analysts didn’t hear about it until the next day because they fled when Grenda rode into their area near Olm’s Wood Forest with an army of Amphibians and robots behind her. The entire lab area was destroyed.

               Mariah was seen dragging Count Omar out from his manor on the Southwest Great Bay area. She put him on her horse and rode off into the desert countries above Frog Valley. Nolan sent a large force of Frobots to retrieve him. Omar was valuable to the war effort since he’d provided a lot of supplies and workers from his estate.

               However, all Mariah had to do was point her Thunderfury blades and zap the first airborne Frobot to attack her. The lightning travelled in an arc and destroyed over 100 enemies. She summoned two twisters that sent the ground ones flying all around.

               In the Outskirts villages of the North, Captain Kurt of the Coastal Musketeers stood with his soldiers and several Frobots. The Coastal Musketeers were a fast-riding group of knights with blue and green attire over grey armor with feathered helmets and two rapiers.

               They’d been assigned to take over the now abandoned Northern area after the inhabitants had been wiped out to gather for a staging area to eliminate Frosch.

               They had a couple Frosch knights and Toad Army soldiers captured recently to be executed.

               Kurt paused mid speech seeing a drifter passing by. It was a tall frog with tattered blue clothes, a dirty brown cloak over his body, black hair and brown skin.

               “Hey you, dirty frog! I’m talking to you!”

               The frog glanced his way.

               “Get over here or else!”Kurt warned him.

               The drifter waited a couple seconds, and then he tossed his cloak off, revealing a minigun style laser gun. He opened fire and took Kurt and four of his Musketeers out in seconds.

               The Frobots did no good returning fire. He advanced and took them out easily. From the nearby water, some Aqua Droids walked out and started using their heavy-duty laser cannon arms to tear into their forces.

               The five captives stared silently as the drifter walked closer, swiveling left and right to take out the panicking Musketeers and robots alike. As he got closer, they saw his eyes glowing red in the dark light.

               “Let’s get out of here!”Remy (a tax collector) whispered to the Frosch knight Tammy.

               She nodded and got a nearby knife to cut their bonds.

               Columbu, the TF-800 model 102, silently watched them go.

               Andrias’s scouts found the wreckage of the destroyed camp and killed/destroyed soldiers lying around.

               Arnold rode up on his bike in front of a tower near Saint’s Lake and fired a rocket launcher at it. It collapsed into the water, halting all traffic there while everyone panicked. Every worker in the area, 425 total, went missing.

               Over a third of Andrias’s army had been obliterated in less than 24 hours.

               To top it all off, Marcy herself entered a group of factories near Swamp Shiro while her forces capturing/freeing every living soldier or captive residing in the ruined town’s recently captured and repurposed Shroom Citadel, led by Colonel Corbulus with a company of Elite commandos and over 100 soldiers.

 She started fiddling with the controls of one computer. Over a third of the factories all over Amphibia were shut down two minutes later.

 Reaperbots left a statue of Andrias looted from Newtopia at the Valley entrance. The head was torn off and laid at its feet. To add insult to injury, the words ‘Traitor, murderer, monster, tyrant’ and more were graffitied all over it.

 

               “I get it, Marcy! You take my attempted murder and betrayal very personally!”Andrias grumbled as he saw images his Frobots broadcast him of the sight.

               “Your majesty, incoming!”A Lancer said.

               “What now? Oh dear …”He groaned. The Driders had attacked a Skyhopper and infected its computers with a virus. After they left, it was zooming towards the Castle walls. It fired its beam and blew holes in the walls.

               Andrias got up and calmly walked away, not missing a step when it was shot down and exploded five seconds later.

               “You guys … you shouldn’t have!”Marcy said in embarrassment when they returned. They’d retrieved her statue from the Marcy Wu Bridge and placed it in front of the Nerve Center.

               “The city is lifeless and didn’t need it Let this it remind you of what you’re fighting for!”Baldor said.

              

*Dropping in Unannounced*

               Every archivist, historian, and librarian from Newtopia (even the University) and other major cities and territories (including Ribbitvale, Frosch, Kaeru, and even some from Frog Valley) was sitting inside a large building in chains. There were nearly 150 there.

               Dr Brody, a nice old newt, sat in front of the crowd and tried to look brave. He had no idea what they had done to deserve getting arrested.

               Outside the building, several Frobots, including the new Solarites and Hood Frobots, stood guard along with a Platinumb.

               The smaller Golden Tank Bots had gotten reinforced gold armor that was highly resistant to blunt force and virtually immune to lasers (to the point where most bounced off of it). For weapons, it had strong laser eyes, enhanced heat seeker missiles in its hands and shoulder cannons, improved targeting systems and sensors, and laser blasters in every single finger on its hands. These 18-ft titans were slow and heavy, but very durable. They were assigned as elite Castle security and field robots.

               Odd met them first while out with the Circus, Hana, Magna 4, and Yumi when they were conducting another caravan raid.

               He was pleasantly surprised to see three of them,“Oh wow, three Oscar awards!! For me?! I’d like to thank the Academy …”

               One blew his board out of the sky and he landed headfirst on the ground.

               The other three Mar Guards and the Circus rolled their eyes.

               “A what award?”Irwin asked Aelita.

               “Tell you later!”She said.

               “Oh come on, I can’t feel my head!”Odd yelled as he got up. He got shot by four lasers in the chest and temporarily destroyed.

               “Odd finally got a Platinum award for his songs!”Yumi drawled.

               When Odd was reconstituted after they crushed the robots and finished the raid, he was not amused.

”More like a Platinumb award!”

               The CRA liked it and dubbed them Platinumbs as an insulting nickname.

               Vale didn’t bother with subtlety. She walked up from a distance with an ARC-920 and fired at the Platinumb’s head. It went down after the shot hit in the eyes.

               She switched to dual wielding a pair of M-25 plasma rifles. Sarge took potshots at the laser cannons with a Spartan laser nearby while Buck and Lucy followed Vale to open fire on the machines surrounding the place from all directions

               The captives couldn’t hear this in the soundproof building as a Judge Frobot came in with several Hood Frobots and Solarites. The robot went into table mode and said,”THIS WILL BE SIMPLE. YOUR GUILT WILL BE DECLARED WITH THE HIGHEST PARTIES HERE AND THEN PUNISHMENT WILL COMMENCE! DR HENRY BRODY, STEP FORWARD!”

               The senior archivist of the Archives of Antiquity stepped up and tried to look brave for the rest.

               However, a certain spider girl dropped behind the judge, and took out her jian swords.

               The Judge bot’s head flew off and landed in front of Brody. He looked up to see Charlotte glaring bloody murder at the Frobots.  

               She landed in the court and cut open all 40 of the Frobots with ease.

               “Нет справедливости лучше слепой справедливости (There is no justice like blind justice)!”She declared. The Drider put her blades up and gently started unlocking Brody’s chains.

               Buck broke open the door seconds later.

               “Thank you for this!”Brody told the sentient machines as they led them off to safety.

               Buck waved off the praise,“All in a day’s work, Mr. Brody!”

*DMV does damage assessment*

               “Master Marcy, do you want my good news, the normal good news, bad news or very bad news?”Malc said while the DMV, Bomme, and a few other thinkers and inventors were fiddling with ideas after their initial counterstrike.

               “Please, let’s get the bad out of the way first!”Marcy said tonelessly.

               “Yes, apparently, in the Core’s desire to outthink and outshine and ruin everything we stand for out of unprofessional jealousy,”They rolled their eyes at his choice of words,”our latest findings indicate they took note of how to make better use of their nanotechnology. Such a fascinating field on its own … the nanobots here could help do self-repair, robotocize objects or infect and control inferior devices, which you have made use of with your application of Spacenet tactics. Their defensive structures, including the Castle,are laced with the things! However, besides that, the files on use in the latest factory schematics show references for imminent upgrades using the study of nanorobotics on your homeworld and at least one fictional series, Spacegate.”

               Marcy groaned,”Of course, the Replinots, an all-consuming race of machines that could make more of themselves nonstop and kept finding resources to keep doing it.”

               Smarcy looked over Malc’s shoulder“Yes, and since any energy or replicating levels like Lyoko aren’t feasible for it, the schematics shown propose for most robot units to use a process in construction , that over the next 10 hours, could have 20 perfect copies of a standard soldier unit.”

               “Oh goodie! So their army isn’t going to run out, even if this plan isn’t finished yet!”Zel snarled.

               “The very bad news, they’ve also dragged out another ancient model of robot, the Frogclops! Taller than a Tank bot, and they have a single large optic with devastating eye beams, large halberds with seismic gravity powers like the Second Temple has, and armor twice as hard as any of their best ones. Still being finished at the moment.”

               “Frogging great, well, what’s the good news?”Bomme asked.

               “The normal good news, our surgical strike is going wonderfully on eliminating major sources of fuel. Every major refinery in the area has been destroyed, and every oil platform around the Southeast Coast has been destroyed.”

               “Keep going!”Marcy said.

               “Indeed!”Malc rubbed his hands with delight and pulled a tarp covered robot out,”We couldn’t just let the Core do all the devastating ideas with swarms of smaller robots! At the very least I didn’t make my idea microscopic!”

               “This ought to be good!”Daphne said flatly.

               “Oh but it is!”He pulled the tarp off to reveal a large bulky Frobot with yellow colors, except for the black ‘gloves’ and ‘boots’ and a thick beekeeper’s hat and net over glowing red eyes. “I give you the Beekeeper! It holds small swarms of bees, hornets and wasps drones of Earth-size inside! It can unleash the swarm to attack en masse and overwhelm opponents and tear entire structures and areas apart, all of them under the control of the main robot here!”

               “Bold … I like it! But let’s do some trial runs before fieldwork! We want to get it right!”Marcy insisted.

               ”I expected nothing less! I have a list of minor targets we can use!”Malc said before he pulled out a map of suggested areas. A dozen refineries, cannons or factory areas to the North of the Valley were marked.

               The nearest gas refinery was first. The robot guards looked up when a frog slave worker looked up and yelled,”WHAT IS THAT!?”

               The odd robot stood yards away. It said,”Release the swarm!”

               Hatches on its arms opened up and the mechanical swarm of stinging bugs poured out, at least 7,000 of them, and flew at the robots.

               The captive frogs, axolotls, and ten newts watched in fear as the machines screamed and panicked as they were stung and ‘eaten alive’ by these killer bugs. The refinery walls were next.

               The Beekeeper walked forward with the DMV and Andre.

               “You poor saps want to be free?”The gruff toad asked. They all nodded and were freed.

               “Success!”Malc declared and high-fived his robot.

               The Beekeeper was added to their unit production line after they tested it on a laser cannon and three factories next.

*Barry faces some real anarchy*

 In the area above the Dry Swamp regions, there was a tense meeting between three groups. The bitter and frustrated survivors of a town called Gullywater that had been destroyed were facing off against a local band formed from other stragglers resorting to a vicious mentality of fending for themselves in a Darwinian fashion, and … the Marauders.

               Their leader, a candy man turned anarchist named Barry, was enjoying toying with the situation way too much.

               While the rival band’s imposing Toad leader was yelling out in forceful tones towards the locals about his “reasonable demands “for splitting the food from the most recent caravan, Barry almost burst out laughing. It had been child’s play for him to get the Hasselback Gang to supply him with details about this shipment (since they were the least favored members of this group of violent survivors). And he had an inside man in both areas who’d arranged this, one scarred and slimy (figuratively more than literally in this case) toad named Klawbite. While any true toad warrior could fight well and be vicious in combat, Klawbite was vicious and opportunistic in the worst possible combinations.

               The red toad with very narrow black eyes and a voice oilier and calmer than Grime’s had once been regarded as a promising recruit in the Toad Armies, maybe even commander someday. But he turned out not only to be a vicious fighter and survivor, but truly treacherous. Many missions had wound up with fellow soldiers mysteriously dead and loot and taxes missing. He weaseled out of every consequence with many subtle excuses and blame-shifting. Eventually, all 4 of the Toad Lords grew tired of him whenever he got shifted to them, ending in duels more than once to discipline him. After a heated argument with Beatrix and her brother which got him a nasty gash on his torso from the Western toad lord, he struck out on his own. As a soldier of fortune, he thrived out here then and now, and led a valued ring of mercenary criminal activities as a leader and dealer in almost everything. It didn’t take much for him to be convinced to ensure this caravan got “sidetracked here” and both groups argued while Barry swooped in to sow chaos and steal the loot for a cut of the profits.

               Barry could not resist chiming in to keep them going for a while longer. “Just remember, it will end much more sweetly if you take my portion into consideration, since I have a big secret key to something around here!” His lackeys chortled. His “key” in the nearby wagon was a cache of gold and blackmail material that he was holding onto for leverage and only his team knew all about that. Both leaders believed him enough to let him be there.

               Suddenly with a burst of energy, the wagon exploded. As everyone jumped, screamed or both, Barry looked behind him and trembled. A huge black mass, somehow having snuck up, emerged. It moved towards them with a combination of creepy servos and a horrifying humming noise. It peered down with a small, barely visible head with white robotic eyes and headlights.

               Its model was a redesign of the Tank Frobot class.

               This one was much less rotund and more streamlined and angular.

               The missiles had been repurposed and expanded to greater effect.

               The internal arsenal of smaller robots (Froglets and Drones) were replaced with cable tendrils and a much more efficient group of additional robots.

               Its limbs were longer and more adaptable to terrain, with two smaller clawed arms attached to its torso. The large head was greatly reduced to a smaller one with piercing white eyes and headlights peering down at them. For main offense, it had highly accurate plasma cannons mounted on each shoulders which almost never missed.

               All of this was on a metal body painted pitch black with Marcy’s ‘company label’ of Cyberkinetic Systems Frarvester (CS-Frarvester) labelled in Green on the right sight of its upper chest. Their Lyogo symbol was on the shoulders.

               For the first time in his life Klawbite felt small, helpless and very afraid.

               Barry was too scared to appreciate the chaotic terror it inspired right there.

               Most of the Amphibians screamed or tried to run.

               A few tried to fight. Barry threw a desperately high-grade fire curse, then a transformation curse, while others threw boomshrooms or spears.

               It ignored them all as this did nothing to it and moved forward with frightening speed, its claw-like hands reaching first towards Klawbite, whose frantic running did him no good as he was grabbed and held aloft screaming, more terrified than ever.

               The Hasselback Gang, the toad leader of the nomadic party, and one hidden smuggler (only 3 people present knew about him) were next, being snatched, held aloft by additional smaller arms. A few hid under rocks, only for cable like arms to come out of its body and pull them out. After a moment, it turned towards a large box like structure nearby and dropped them in it, one by one.

               Barry knew he couldn’t fight this and told the Marauders to grab what they could and hightail it out of here on their rides they’d just stolen.

                But if he thought that was it, he almost squealed as the Frarvester turned its head just as they were almost out of sight.

               Two holes opened in its legs and a pair of smaller machines came out. They looked like some weird vehicle with two wheels.

               These ‘Bike Bots’ were modeled after Earth motorcycles. Vivid red mechanical ‘headlight’ eyes looked out from the front, large miniguns on the side.

               Flame patterns and spikes were there for aesthetic effect.

                Engines revved as they roared after them.

               For five miles they kept pace, dodging and jumping over every obstacle, bump and attack that the Marauders threw at them. Getting closer, they returned fire. Their steeds were scared, injured or knocked over and the Marauders hid behind a rock, ready to fight. But the bike bots just circled their cargo.

                Moments later several darker looking dragonfly drones along with three circular robots that resembled spinning wheels combined with a killer wasp/crab called Aerostats came into view.

               These insectoid machines picked up everything the Marauders had hauled and carried it off into the distance, followed by the bikes.

                Barry had scoffed at the stories of killer robots ruining his minion’s raids before, but this was a slap in the face to his ego.

               The giant titan, aka the “Frarvester” put its bin-like container on its back and let its smaller brethren store the goods inside it and then get back inside their own storage spots and lumbered off. The Gullywater survivors’ band, left untouched by all this for reasons unknown to them, watched as it faded away into the distance.

               “Perhaps … we should seek out this mistress of robots … instead of heading further into wild country …”Mayor Pondskimmer suggested to his townsfolk.

               They began hiking towards Frog Valley.

*Crushing the Commandos*

*At home*

               The Commandos of the Newtopian Army were assembled at a fort near the Northern beaches above the Blood Swamps.

               Colonel  Shang addressed the troops,”General Bosca is leading a mission to Frog Valley to eliminate the No. 2 Rebel of that area, the human Sasha Waybright. Eliminating her and her accomplice the ex-toad lord Grime will give us a foothold against the Cyberkinetic Witch there… I have been charged with addressing the nearby insurgents of the Toad Army remnants … They have been forced underground with artillery. Our job is to establish a foothold in Frosch so the Frobots and our best commandos can go into the tunnels and eliminate them!”

               “Sir, what’s going to get past their outer defenses on the shore and Warze Island? They’ve booby-trapped it good!”One female commando asked.

               “Private, that is easy!”Shang smiled and gestured behind him. Three reinforced and upgraded Tank bots with double missiles and a new mode of drones stored inside stood on the beach below their fort.

               The Hornet drones were red and black robot versions of regular Amphibian Hornets with exoskeletons just as thick and impervious to normal weapons. Their stingers could paralyze or even poison a target and shoot lasers like a Lyoko Hornet. Their lasers could stun, sting or even explode things at different power levels.

 

 Also present were ten companies of regular Frobots and Sentinels (new Melee-level Frobots in silver and blue colors with dual orange energy blade attachments on their wrists) and 30 of the new Megawatt Frobots (blue Frobots with positive and negative battery symbols on their front and backs), ready to be deployed.

               “The heavy robots will clear the way, and these newer electrical ones will shock their outer defenses and underground passageways for several dozen yards at minimum! We’ll have a solid defense line with the rest!”

               Shang frowned when he heard the revving sound of wheels and turned to look. At first glance, the three Cyclones didn’t look like much. They weren’t visually intimidating at all and the missile turret-like design wasn’t familiar to the Amphibians. All they were doing was driving up the beach towards them.

               Then they got close enough to fire. Just six missiles were fired. The Tank bots were hit in the heads and over half of the regular-sized Frobots were blown up on the ground.

               Shang grit his teeth and yelled,”Get those things NOW!”

               The Cyclones circled around an outcropping. The closest one fired another pair of missiles that soared around from the left and right to hit the fort in the windows below the top where they were standing. The entire floor’s windows and two sides blew out.

               “Abandon the fort!”Shang yelled. Every newt still up there jumped off. The fire reached their supplies of boomshrooms at the bottom floor. The entire fort blew up and killed everyone still inside (40 commandos) along with 300 Frobots in standby mode waiting to be deployed.

               More engine sounds emerged. Shang frowned with icy hatred seeing Zel Brooks, the traitorous second-in-command of the Cyberkinetic Witch’s army along with the Frog-Wraith of Terror, riding on the back of a Bike Bot with two others following behind her from the West.

               “Fall back! Alert the king to this while I hold the line!”He told Lieutenant Scamper. The blue newt swallowed and nodded. He led the 70 newts still standing to try and run.

               He sent a message by a carrier wasp and their new radio about their defeat while they ran.

               Zel leaped off and drew her blue sword. She smiled with glee as 20 Sentinels charged at her.

               The Bike bots rode up and strafed the remaining Frobots on the ground.

               She cut through half of the Sentinels in just twelve seconds with her blade and tail spikes.

               A wall of flames emerged in front of the commandos.

               “Where do you think you’re going?”A gravelly voice asked.

               Three Fryerbats stood behind the flames along with Buck.

               “Sorry boys, this is gonna hurt!”He said before tossing a concussion grenade. They were all knocked out.

               “You …”Shang pulled out a poison-tipped dagger and focused on his target,”will die for this, traitor!”

               While the Sentinels distracted Zel, he began to get as close to her as he could.

               Her tail hit the dagger in midair with ease, and she parried the last pair of Sentinel’s blades for four more seconds.

               “Of course …”Shang had a backup and had six throwing stars (acid laced) and a paralyzing iron stiletto in hand.

               Zel ducked her head under a dual swing from the Sentinels and bisected them. She turned around in time to parry all the throwing stars coming at her head and see Shang coming at her at high speed with the stiletto and a spiked knuckleduster in the other.

               She dashed forward.

               Shang landed where she’d been standing. He turned to face her,”Face me instead of blocking or dodging everything!”

               “Too late!”Zel shook her head and sheathed her blade,”I already got you!”

               His eyes widened under his helmet and he looked down in time to see her slice across his torso in two vital areas spout blood. He fell dead.

               “If you hadn’t tried that cowardly sneak attack, I’d have gone easier on you!”Zel said quietly.

               “That takes out the main branch of their commandoes …”Buck informed her,”and not just their second-in-command, but word is, Sasha defeated General Bosca!”

               “Wow …two of our groups eliminated their best elite fighting squad in the armies! All that’s left is the Night Guards!”

               “Marcy’s got special plans for them!”A Fryberbat stated.

               “I know! They could be our greatest success if this country-wide counterattack keeps goes well!”Zel said. They buried Shang and the deceased commandos and took the rest captive.

*In the field*

               Sasha wasn’t happy when the ‘freaky-eyed robot’ marched into her territory and starting shooting laser-eyes all over the place when she was doing a mission on a refinery area to the East. She had to move and think on the run, and then she ran into some prick of a General in a British knockoff look blocking her way.

               Bosca, a brown newt with a mustache, wielded two longswords“You’re not going anywhere!”

               “Who are you? Some parade officer?”Sasha mocked him.

               “I am General Bosca of the Elite Commandos!”He said.

               “Oh good, at least you have some kind of army to be one!”She said. He had ten of his with him in plain sight and eight in the shadow

               He smirked,“Please, human … my whole army would be wasted on fodder like you! But orders are orders!”

               She scowled and gave Grime a meaningful look. He nodded and gave a signal to Croaker. The next ten minutes had Loggle and Toadie do a clever trap that led the Hectabot into a bog where it sank into some quicksand and got shorted out by the mud and water and exploded. Grime, Sasha and Croaker did expert combat on the Commandos, while Maddie proceeded to traumatize/curse/incinerate at least half of them (in no particular order or preference).

               Croaker ended up assassinating eight, and Bosca furiously tried to attack Grime while his back was turned facing his largest soldier to give Sasha a disadvantage.

               She cut him down for that.

               “Messy business … but it’s war! And we took down our biggest heavyweight mecha and a general!”She said to her team as they headed back.

               Croaker had big news to tell when they got back“My contacts told me our neighbor just trashed the army and factories at the abandoned city of Newtopia and captured Admiral Torosa in his ocean fort in the Bay! They set the city on fire! Everyone there’s talking about it.”

               Sasha smiled,”Sweet!”

               “The weird part is my source swore up and down some of those weird knights we’ve heard rumors about did all that. They did some genuine magic stuff, rode across the water on some kind of weird creatures, and froze the Bay solid …”Croaker shook her head,”Crazy magic mumbo jumbo …never makes any sense!”

               Maddie sighed as her neighbors agreed out loud with the statement. Her sisters hugged her consolingly.

               Grime mentioned,“There is bad news about Andrias …their armies are gathering up North to consolidate their power in this region!”

*Things that bump into the Night*

               The Castle repairs were 80% complete. The lower regions still had cracks from the explosion.

               Andrias’s recent defeats in battle had inspired uprisings all over Amphibia. Some headed towards Frosch, others headed down South, and a few just went wherever or got more ambitious.

               One toad named Mucker and a black night frog named Radcliff led a gang of 30 toads and frogs inside. They were clad in dark garb to blend in.

               “This is perfect. We can kill the king, be rid of him, and make off with his family treasure at the same time!”Mucker said to Radcliffe as they waited for the Castle to pass the nearby cliff they were on.

               “Yeah, yeah, I’m still leading four up top through the windows! You better be ready for whatever guards he has down there!”Radcliff said.

               Mucker chuckled,”I’m a toad. We thrive in utter darkness!”

               The frogs were able to grip the Castle with their fingers and get some hooks in. Within ten minutes, they all climbed inside while Radcliffe and his three best climbers followed him up the wall.

               The Core’s legend in Amphibian was an obscure one. The Olms remembered it, and some stories about it were known in Newtopian history, but most of that was lost to public knowledge. The toads still had some legends of it … as a monster even they were wary of.

               After the Music Box was lost, Andrias had his work cut out for him as king. He was clever and managed, but reigning for 1,000 years had gotten him countless enemies. Many fell in battle, and some tried to come into his home and steal his family treasures or kill him. Some of them, especially toads, tried going to the basement to hide out or sneak into the top. The basement was locked and no one but Andrias ever went there, so they assumed it was empty.

               Oh, if only. Instead, they met the sight of orange eyes and tentacles that made them scream in terror before it killed them and disposed of their bodies. Over the centuries, this happened often enough that his warnings about the basement were taken more seriously and it happened less and less. Of course, the Castle was still on the ground back then.

               If Sasha and Grime hadn’t been interrupted in their coup sooner, they would have gone down there to see what goodies Andrias was hoarding in his basement. He wouldn’t have protested. They’d have never come out again.

               Mucker had his guys, including two skilled red-eyed tree frog sisters named Tiana and Trixie, grab the robots from behind to take them out quietly.

               Radcliffe’s sister Zoe said,“I heard the Castle’s been haunted lately.”

               “Yeah, by Andrias and his mess!”A toad named Gullet commented. The pair laughed.

               The Core’s eyes watched furiously from the walls.

               “They will pay with more than their lives for this!”

               Three Cloak-Bots activated and began stalking them in cloak mode.

               A Lancer saw one frog and instead of fighting, turned to run.

               “Chase that down so it doesn’t alert the others!”Muckered ordered his fasted toad Anax and a fast small frog named Litoria. They nodded and hopped and sprinted after it.

               They pinned it two corners later and smashed its head.

               “Nice try!”Anax mocked it. A pair of orange eyes opened up right behind them, lighting up the floor.

               “What the …?”Litoria said. They turned around … and screamed.

               Their comrades heard them scream. The basement stayed very silent except for some beeping machines.

               “Quick, hide!”Zoe hissed.

               They did so, waiting for a few very tense minutes.

               “Ok … Zoe and Gullet take a few guys that way and see if there’s any big rooms or an exit! Peepers,”he ordered their second-fastest frog,”you and the rest follow me!”

               Five toads and a frog followed Zoe and Gullet. The furthest two toads got wrapped completely in cables from the wall and pulled into the shadows. Their friends heard their muffled screams but couldn’t see what happened.

               The frog backed up and a Cloak-Bot pounced on him. They turned to see him screaming as it tore into him. Gullet ran at him but got shot into the wall by a Soldier Frobot rounding the corner.

               Zoe and the rest took it and two more down, but by the time they were done, the Cloak-Bot was dragging the frog’s body off into a dark corridor.

               “Oh no you don’t!”Zoe growled.

               Gullet grabbed her shoulder,”Hold up.”

               “What, you afraid?!”She snapped.

               He gulped,”N-nooo, just … what are we supposed to hit??”

               Zoe sighed,”Hang on … let’s go to the shadows. I’m best at blending in. Ordonnia,”she instructed a girl toad with skull tattoos on her face,”go back to Mucker.”

               Ordonnia nodded. She went up the nearby stairs. However, a few seconds later, she let out a long scream.

               “Oh what now?!”Zoe thought. She stayed pressed against the wall with her three remaining comrades.

               She started to shake when she saw some arms come down, followed by a large round sphere. The arms had tips with red orbs and claws.

               Three orange eyes opened up at the bottom of the sphere. Gullet whimpered. An arm swivelled his way, and a giant eye in the center opened up, followed by nine more above it.

               One tentacle zoomed at Gullet and grabbed his right leg.

               “Let me go, you freak, or-“He was cut off when it grabbed his arms and started to stretch him.

               Zoe and the other two toads backed away slowly as he moaned, and then they bolted as a crack sounded and he howled in pain.

               A cable grabbed each of them and constricted them against the wall.

               The Core reached a tentacle for each head. Zoe’s last sight was seeing a tentacle come at her and then she saw black as it shocked her brain.

               Mucker’s group found their way to the engine room. On the way, a trapdoor opened and five fell into a pit of acid. Trixie was pulled screaming into the ceiling by a Cloak-Bot.

               Tiana was enraged and managed to damage the other one after it shot at Peepers with its laser eyes.

               However, the next moment, they ran into a trap that activated an electric laser grid going from wall to wall. Tiana and a toad were shocked to death.

               Peepers cut the wiring loose and they sprinted.

               They didn’t notice until they got to the engine room that all but four of their group had been snagged by wall cables.

                “What is this place?”Peepers wondered.

               “Wait, where are the rest?!”Mucker howled.

               “I don’t like this …”A toad named Crick growled. He picked up a heavy pipe. “If anyone or anything comes down here, I say we hit this stuff and make it crash!”

               The next second, a giant tentacle grabbed his head and hauled him screaming into the air.

               The intruders looked up and saw the monster whose lair they’d dared disturb. The Night glowered at them with hate.

               Peepers hollered,“Oh my frog, what sort of demon did Andrias-“

               The Core was very, very fed up. It had experienced near-death three times, undergone extreme pain inside and out, and had to deal with more problems. And now these fools had intruded on their lair?? It had even less patience than usual for punishing them.

               The arms grabbed them, fried them, and then arranged their bodies in a room.

              

               They’d been having ideas, awful but effective ideas lately. With no proper Host around, they needed other ways to work outside their usual areas. Eventually, they wanted to make new mobile shells, and they had one ready now, but that wasn’t enough. Some fresh meat, like these rebellious vermin, would do for some experimenting.

               Upstairs, Radcliffe listened to Andrias talking to Triple B near a window.

               “You should like this! We made a new Frobot model. It’s a version of the Standard kind, but …very focused on aerial combat!”Blair said.

               “We call it the Fireflyer!”Bartley said.

               “I can see why!”Andrias said with amusement.

               The one standing in front of him resembled the usual Frobot model with a black torso, but with extra-large wings and thrusters on the back. The head, arms and legs were painted orange and they had black goggle-like eyes resembling a Firefly. It was a response to Marcy’s Reapers who’d done several air-to-air combat battles with Drones and other Frobots with devastating results.

               “Extra missiles in the back, twice the speed and a payload of small spheres in the torso the size of a bugball that explode on impact. We reconfigured the arms to have these two high-powered laser blasters on top of the hands! And as you asked, we gave them a female voice!”Branson said.

               Andrias asked for that because Marcy had been doing that with hers. He wanted to diversify. The Core liked the idea and added that to some of its current projects underway with older invasion models being remade.

               “Orders, my king?”It said in a very sultry voice.

               He chuckled,“Hold off on that, missy. I need to find a target!”

               “Despicable, does this fiend know no shame?”Radcliffe muttered.

               He waited until Triple B went into another room with their robot and Andrias turned his back to check his screens.

               He and the other three climbed onto the roof, and he was reaching for a poisoned dagger when Andrias said,”You know … in the old days, this might be entertainment ...”

               Radcliffe’s heart fell into his stomach when Andrias looked up at him with a murderous glare,”But now … it’s just plain irritating!”

               He snapped his fingers and several new and improved Royal Guards came out. They shot lasers out of their tridents and knocked them to the floor.

               The quartet were held on their knees in front of him. “Thought you sneak up on Old Andrias, didn’t you? Do you have any idea how many people have tried and failed that over the years??”

               “Maybe if you weren’t such a crazed tyrant, that wouldn’t happen!”Radcliffe snapped.

               Andrias sighed. This again. “Always my fault somehow … but,”he pulled an empty sword hilt out,”if you come here trying to kill me, you cannot complain if I respond in kind.”

               “We have friends down below, you can’t fight them all off with an empty hilt!”A frog named Smollet taunted him.

               Andrias smiled darkly,”Oh I know. They’re dead already. But look on the bright side,”they shivered as he lit his laser sword up,”you’re actually getting the easier death!”

               The four of them and one toad from below were left hanging dead along the Newtopian route near Stony Gulch as a warning.

               Radcliff had a sign around his neck saying,“THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO COCKY TOADS AND FROGS WHO THINK THEY CAN TAKE MY HEAD-KING ANDRIAS!”

               Beatrix saw it days later and shook her head. “Not all of them, you sicko.”

               “Oh boys, good news!”Andrias told Triple B two hours later.

               “What?”Blair asked.

               “I have a target in mind for you to test this model on!”He said.

               Mucker and Radcliffe’s campground areas where their families and other fellow rebellious refugees lingered were swarmed by the Fireflyers and destroyed within three hours.

*The Implacable Frog*

Sasha, Grime, and her best commandos were doing some intelligence gathering. Some scientists and nobles were reviewing an astounding victory of hundreds of rebel scum destroyed.

               “I am assured by King Andrias this should help our insurgency problem go back down soon!”General Nolan of the Northern legions said to his audience by Saint’s Lake. All of Ribbitvale, 50 Newtopian nobles, and 300 soldiers were watching his speech.

               Sasha watched through her binoculars from a distance. Three newts were on screen in Loggington’s newly made HQ building.

               “Joining me from their spot at Loggington is Lord Alexander Marcus, a valued pioneer in commerce for the military and Colonel Kunming and his aide Lieutenant Bloodgood!” Marcus was a simple blue newt in a business suit and hat. Kunming was a red and black newt with the same hair and eye color as Yunan. Alice Bloodgood had a crewcut of brown hair and green skin. The two soldiers wore the traditional green field armor.

               “Our king has provided his new Imperial Guards for a successful test,”Marcus pointed behind him. A large newt-shaped robot almost as tall as Andrias (30 ft tall) was there. No one else knew this, but it was a smaller version of his experimental Dyoplaurus exoskeleton armor made ages ago.

               “It was a remarkable success! The late traitor Aldo’s forces and several other insurgents have been completely destroyed! Our victory over the Rebellion is assured within six months at most!”Kunming said. The crowd applauded silently or exchanged looks.

               There were four of the new Imperial Guards outside all over their base along with a squad of upgraded Royal Guard robots in two classes:Centurions (extra fast Lancers in chrome colors that used upgraded spiked lily pad shields, energy-charged orange-bladed poleaxes and tridents that could shoot lasers) and Stasis Guards (these were newt robots in black and red colors, wielded red energy scythes, and could trap enemies in red force fields).

               “Ugh, this just got a lot harder!”Sasha said venomously.

               “Maybe now we call Beatrix for that emergency meeting about an alliance?”Grime asked.

               Before she could answer, Marcy enacted her hidden plan of terrifying retribution.

               Linda, Amelie, Gaff, Raynor, Oscar, Vale, Arnold, Medang, Sarge, Sparks, and Brock were positioned at a long distance with sniper gear. A team of two robot and Amphibian groups stood ready to engage from both sides of the base at Loggington.

               “Heh heh … no!”Sarge said.

               “Let’s recalculate that for him! Commander, just say the word!”Linda said.

               “Fire at will on the most dangerous targets first!”Zel said.

               For 10 seconds, they opened fire with silent sniper shots. All of the Imperial Guards were hit in their crescent heads in the eyes. Thirteen Centurions and four airborne Frobots fell with exploded heads.

               “What is going on out there?!”Nolan demanded.

               “Over there, sir!”Bloodgood pointed to a bunch of ragged-looking frogs/toads (?) walking past obliviously to the Northwest.

               “Get those drifters caught and brought in for questioning! ”Kunming demanded,”Excuse me, General, I’ll call you back in a few minutes!”

               He thought he had the video turned off after hitting the switch, but it wasn’t. The frightened and confused audience got to see the whole thing.

               “This is a restricted area, put your hands up at once!”A Frobot called down from the air.

               The nearest ‘drifter’ looked up. Red eyes peered out from the brown scarf covering his head.

               The other ‘drifters’ shifted, revealing themselves as TF-600s. They hefted their arm-mounted mini-guns and hand-held rifles to open fire on the Frobots above them.

               “This … this can’t be!”Nolan said in disbelief. Over 50 Frobots were mowed down in less than half a minute.

               Jorge came from the Northeast with Tychus and several Amphibians wielding rifles and opened fire on their farthest tower. The guards and Frobots were cut down all around it.

               “Blow the ground out from under their feet at the factories and surrounding fortifications!”Zel directed their artillery.

               The waiting squad of fourteen siege tanks and four Labstars on a ridge of the nearby Eastern cliffs opened fire.

               Apart from the HQ, every single defensive spot, the laser cannons, guard towers and nearby stone fort(with live newts and Frobots alike standing on them) and factories were blown to pieces in massive explosions.

               Captain Sibylla and Lieutenant Dune ( a female firebelly and male smooth newt, respectively) never saw the blasts coming on their spots on the ground before they got hit.

               The Amphibians had never seen such firepower in action and their jaws dropped.

               Sasha was afraid. This had to be that other rebel. Somehow she was using cannons or-

               “Tanks … are those frogging tanks next to giant crabs!?”She demanded.

               The distant view of the machines with gun barrels flashing massive bursts of firepower in timed bursts looked like tanks.

               The nearby Mindshroom factory let out the large colonies (two) of enslaved Barbari-ants. They tunneled rapidly to emerge en masse in front of the Siege tank cliff and out of proper firing position.

 Zel didn’t even bat an eye but yelled,”Light those bugs up!”

               “Light them up??”Several Amphibians said in confusion.

               Miles, Morris and six other Fryerbats walked up to the edge of the cliff.

               “One extra crispy order of bugs coming up!”Miles growled. The gravelly voice was much different than the mechanical voices the Amphibians were used to.

               Of course, that fact was on the back of their minds as the Fryerbat’s flamethrower nozzles let out a brief hiss before unleashing torrents of fire that engulfed the mass of giant ants.

               The flamethrower troops advanced towards the factory, burning every Frobot or ant in their path.

               Morris, the closest Fryerbat to the HQ building, noticed a shed full of boomshrooms below one tower positioned against the mountainside with a Shield Generator Bot buried behind it. He chuckled darkly and fired a rocket at the shed. The tower, at least half the size of the South Tower and a dozen guards on top of it, blew up.

               The Barbari-Ant queen came out seconds later. Morris saw her coming in fury at him torched her easily with one arm. The flames in the air behind him as she shrieked and died illuminated the flame paint, flaming skull and crossbones on his chest, and various body art words on his armor wonderfully as he walked towards Kunming’s position.

Some of the audience quietly read the words on his armor:“It’s a scorcher today!” “FIRE IS AN OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD THESE DAYS!” “Sizzle and Fizzle!” “Too hot to handle??”

Another ant charged furiously at Morris. It exploded in a mass of green guts.

Morris casually wiped the goop of his armor and glanced aside to where Wallace had his smoking rifle still pointed at it. Chris stabbed one of the smaller ants with a bayonet as it tried to crawl out of the ground.

 Malkovitch targeted the other queen as it tried to flee and riddled her large head with bullets until she fell. Rico pumped his pistol ammo into the six ants that tried to attack him while he did so.

Hicks dropped a grenade down a hole. The entire area blew smoke out of every hole for 200 yards.

The hiding Barbari-ants came out screeching. Several grenades from four approaching Maraudbots hit half of them while the Marines shot the rest and the other Fryberbats torched the ones who got away.

              

               A squad of Reapers flew over the farthest guard tower out of tank range. One stuck a Cluster Bomb at the tower’s base. It fell apart after the bottom levels blew out.

               The Volcashells were the last straw when they launched flaming balls of Magma like catapults from behind their larger brethren on the large observation tower overlooking the place from the mountaintops to the South and obliterated it.

               Captain Clancy had no words as unavoidable fiery death came at him. He stood there in frozen horror while the rest tried to run.

               Hudson shot down four Frobots on top of the roof of the HQ building. Morris torched two Frobots and came to stand next to him.

               The TF-600s, the Demo Squad and the Maraudbots joined the pair in looking up at Kunming and his two colleagues from the ground just below them. The flames reflected off their visors and armor.

Up close and with fiery illumination all around, the audience could see the zombie-like appearance of the TF-600s much better. Most shuddered.

“You’ll never make it out of there alive, bud!”Jacobs called up.

               “Sound a retreat!”Kunming said.

               “The Master must be informed!”The Plasmoid said. It walked out the door to go contact the Core. But right outside, out of sight of the main cameras, it saw a frog cop with pale skin and shades.

               Something was off … it could sense no mechanical or biological life-signs at all.

               “You, halt!”It held its right arm to the cops head,”You give no readings at all! What are you? Are you some phantom of Marcy Wu’s?”

               Frobert took off his shades,”Come a bit closer and I’ll tell you!”

               It pinned him to the ground. “Tell me now!”

               Frobert impaled the hands in their laser ports, causing a brief surge of backfiring energy.

               The confused Plasmoid was blinded for four seconds, and held its sparking hands up. It  only just had time to see the froginator point a finger at its face.

               He impaled it right in the left eye. It squirmed and spasmed as it was terminated.

               A self-destruct was initiated. Frobert was aware of it. Quickly, he cut out some circuits from its neck and pocketed them for later.

               In the central hallways of the building, the trio of newts were gathering options as they left

               They turned after hearing footsteps. Frobert walked up to the iron bars at a door to their right.

               “It’s him, that freaky cop who nabbed Newtman!”Maddie said.

               “What’s he doing there!?”Sadie demanded.

               “A cop? Why do they have a lowly frog cop working there?”One snobbish aristocrat asked.

               “I’ll bet he can just break the bars!”Wally said to Loggle.

               The ‘cop’ didn’t unlock or break the bars but kept walking towards them. His body slipped through them like silly putty.

               “Sweet Olms below!”Nolan yelled in horror. The entire audience screamed or stared in jaw-dropping shock.

               “How …what??”Sasha was so lost.

               Frobert began walking towards them with his icy glare in place.

               “Let’s go!”Kunming ordered his subordinate. She nodded and hauled a shaking Marcus with her.

               Kunming covered the rear, holding a laser rifle as he ran backwards.

               He fired burst after burst. It blew holes in Frobert’s body, which the TF-1000 was knocked back or almost knocked over by, but he kept running.

               After ten seconds of this, he launched a metal spike from his right hand into the colonel’s knee.

               The newt howled in misery and fell to the ground.

               The TF-1000 stood over him and absorbed the spike back into his body.

               The holes in his chest sealed as he crushed the rifle under his foot.

               Kunming grabbed a nearby pole and swung it at his head.

               Frobert caught it, yanked it out of his hands, and shook his finger reprovingly at him.

               The colonel barely had time to look annoyed before the android cop whacked him across the head with the pole.

               A few ladies screamed.

               Frobert tossed his unconscious body through the window. Hudson caught him.

               In the elevator at the end of the building, Marcus and Bloodgood had gotten in.

               “Stop him!”Bloodgood ordered three Frobots who came running from the hall to the left.

               Frobert morphed his arms into blades (horrifying the audience even more) and beheaded two of the Frobots with one swing, then he impaled the last one into the wall through the head.

After glaring at the twitching robot as it ‘died’, he walked to the elevator and morphed his arms into crowbars to pull the doors open. He hopped down the shaft.

The fleeing pair below weren’t aware of this as they got out the door and were on their way to the waiting steeds.

               “What do we do, Lieutenant?”Marcus asked Bloodgood.

               “We’ll report this and fight another day! And there will be blood to pay for this!”Alice said angrily.

               They got on top of some giant beetle steeds and prepared to ride off.

               They turned to look when they heard the elevator doors get pried open. Many sensitive Amphibians fainted at the sight of a liquid metal mass in the shape of a frog coming out and running at Marcus. In three seconds Frobert morphed back into his usual look, glaring at his target.

               Marcus screamed like a little girl as he tried to get away from this speedy runner.

                Alice rode alongside and tried to cut the killer enigma’s head off. Frobert ducked and swiped his right arm in sword form along her right shoulder. She fell off and howled in pain, clutching her shoulder.

               Going faster, Frobert caught up to Marcus, leaped into the air and knocked him off to the ground.

                Frobert hoisted him up and carried him off to the waiting crowd of robots and armored Amphibians.

               Alice glared at them. A stray TF-600 glanced at the camera, and the screen shut off.

               Nolan spent the next several hours dealing with the angry, frightened and confused crowd.

               Reports came in that the entire region near Loggington had been razed to the ground, and over 1,000 soldiers were MIA or KIA. The bases at Stony Gulch and the foot of Mt. Mutu had been obliterated with nothing left.

               “If there was any doubt that she’s the ultimate mistress of magic and science before … that’s gone now!”One frog with a top hat said to a newt lady. She nodded.

               Sasha and company left after hearing that.

               “What a horror show!”Ivy said, wiping her brow of sweat.

               “It’s more trouble for Andrias he brought down on himself!”Grime said.

               “What kind of magic was that??”Loggle asked Maddie.

               “That’s no magic I know of!”The witch said.

               Back at the Castle, Alice reported to Andrias.

               “I’m sorry, my lord! I couldn’t obey my superior officer’s orders or bring back Lord Marcus alive! I would do anything to make up for this!”

               “Not your fault, Lieutenant. This rebel menace has cost me many soldiers and machines already in high numbers! I want you to-“He paused, hearing a voice in his head,”Yes, I see … Bloodgood, what would you be willing to do to bring down the Cyberkinetic Witch?”

               “Whatever it takes at this point, sir! She’ll burn down the whole kingdom and take it all for herself if we don’t do something! She captured my commander with that abomination and cost us over 200 soldiers and equipment!”

               Andrias uneasily said,”Very well … Bloodgood, report to the medical bay in the castle. Tomorrow, we’ll see about giving you a special assignment!”

               “Yes, sire! “She said. It was strange, but a welcome honor to get treated here.

               Oh, the irony.

               She woke up restrained to her bed the next day by the wrists.

               “What is going on??”

               Thirteen orange eyes flickered into existence in front of her.

“             “Hello, Alice,”A chorus of voices said.

               Alice felt a chill go down her spine at the machine looking down at her. “What are you?”

               “We are a collection of Amphibia's greatest minds, your rulers of the past and best thinkers of old, uploaded into a unified consciousness . We are the Core, the god of Amphibia that conquered death. We are the ultimate creation and greatest monument to Amphibia’s greatness, a peerless combination of machine and mind who guides our civilization along with Andrias. You are Lieutenant Alice Bloodgood.”

               She trembled. The Core cupped her face with one claw.

“Relax, Lieutenant. You’re not in trouble. Your loyalty to the kingdom and desire to make amends for your recent defeat is admirable. We’d like to help you do that. At this point, we could use willing aid to help us deal with our Number One problem.”

               “Yes …”Alice said slowly, watching as screen images of her life, victories in the past month over rebels, and the infernos ( one left by them, and the wreckage of Loggington’s base) played out on screens around her.

               Tamora’s soft, beautiful hypnotic voice took over, “Unfortunately, Lieutenant, Colonel Kunming’s capture at the hands of this treacherous rebel can only end in his death, torture or betrayal. She has done it many times. As you are now, you cannot hope to face her.”

               Alice glared up with growing hatred at the video of the Cyberkinetic Witch unleashing volts of lightning on her enemies,“Who is she?”

               The Core knew they had her interested,“A problem we wish to solve, along with the other Persistent little pest haunting Frog Valley … Marcy Regina Wu, our runaway human Chief Ranger.”

              

              

              

 

 

 * Terror at a Truck Stop* Two days after the Battle of Loggington, Sasha sat at in the corner table of a Truck Stop diner with Soggy Joe and Grime. It was bigger than the one closer that Joe frequented that he and the Plantars had gone to, twice the size and even more customers doing

 The trucking industry had managed to invest in hauling goods for the king or illegal smuggling heavily, although this meant only the toughest drivers would get the best jobs

                Soggy Joe knew this was a good place to rest while they went to contact another ally in another place, and maybe just relax.

               Sasha chugged some swamp water brew with little enthusiasm while Grime kept a wary eye out. Joe did try to liven the mood,” Oh cheer up, Commander, you’re doing great! It’s gotta be your, what, 15^th time doing a contact mission now? You’ve never slipped up once!”

               The human rebel teen smiled minutely,” Thanks, Joe, but … doesn’t mean I  enjoy this nonstop warrior queen role. I hope Anne’s ok …” Both of the larger Amphibians shared glances and then silently showed their support with a toast.

               “To the Resistance, never giving up, just like you!”Grime said. Joe raised his glass.

               Sasha smiled and clanked her mug against theirs.

               Three minutes later, someone said,“Wow, I like your outfit.” A female voice said.

               They whirled around.

                A tall newt was peering at them with vivid intense green eyes as she got into a seat two tables down. Her red and black outfit gave off mystical vibes with a professional business angle mixed in. Her face looked at them calmly as she folded her gloved hands.  Sasha noticed she had muscular arms and a thick tail.

               “Do I know you?” She asked.

               The newt giggled. “No, but I do like that outfit! Seriously, you pull off the warrior look nice! Never let anyone tell you that you look bad.”

               Sasha  muttered,” Thanks.”

                Grime wondered if this lady worked with Andrias. His commander couldn’t afford to be manipulated.

               “Not to seem rude, miss, but do you want something? These are dangerous times, and we don’t want to hear a business offer or whatever- “he blinked as she leaned forward and shushed him with a finger gesture, wagging it reprovingly.

               “Hush. Making hasty assumptions won’t get you anywhere. My business is mine, and yours is yours., In fact,” she gave a wide toothy smile that sent shivers down their spines,” just to be nice, I’ll make sure it stays that way. First of all, are any of you afraid of saws or anything sharp being used in front of you?”

               Sasha hesitated for several seconds, then said warily,” Noooo??”

                Kristanna sighed, then stood up and said,” I’d rather not ruin your evening. You can leave with your food if you want and avoid the hassle. You don’t need to get involved.”

 She walked over to the front bar part of the Diner, where a huge axolotl and five goons (two toads, frogs and a newt) sat. Her eyes scanned them.

-Target confirmed.

 Benny Ajolot.  Smuggler, mercenary, slaver, suspected murderer and pirate.

 All 5 of his gang present and accounted for.

               Naturally this vague warning did not convince Sasha to leave. Quite the opposite. She got curious. If it came to it, she wasn’t scared of a potential fight. Maybe she could help this lady out.

                

               Kristanna cleared her throat and politely said,” Excuse me, am I addressing a mister Benny Ajolot?”

               The blue-skinned brute turned around, his black eyes and grim mouth scowling down at her with annoyed disdain. “Who’s askin’, and you better tell me quick or else!”

               She didn’t bat an eye. “My identity is not important. My boss knows you had a hand in abducting children from at least three different towns to the West as ‘leverage’ for keeping the residents in line. Now she wants them returned from wherever you took them.”

Lenny and his  thugs exchanged incredulous looks and then laughed. Everyone else looked at the newt like she was crazy.

               “Don’t get involved yet …”Grime muttered to Sasha as she fingered her swords.

               -Peaceful outcome probability down by over 50%.

               Benny glared down at her when he finished laughing.

               “Doll, my job is my business and nobody else’s! Who cares about some whiny brats in this day and age!? Even if I didn’t have a no return policy on my deliveries, what could you possibly offer me??”

               He felt a chill go down his spine when her face went blank and she said,“If you tell me and behave, you and your friends get to walk out of here … alive.”

               -Violent outcome probability now at 95.87%

               “What is this foolish newt doing?!”Grime whispered. She was outnumbered, most of the patrons were bigger and stronger, and saws or blades alone wouldn’t do her much good.

               A brown-skinned frog with a large chin and ballcap said“Now look here, lady, I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t just waltz in and threaten people at this place. This isn’t your fancy living area where you can do whatever you want,“he pointed his glass mug at her,” soyou’d best get out or someone’s gonna -“

               She grabbed the mug with rapid speed and smashed it in his face. He screamed for a few seconds in front of the startled audience. Kristanna grabbed him by the back of his neck and slammed his head into a bowl of soup and left him there. His pal, a toad with a thick white beard, one eye and  vest, came at her with a knife from behind. She caught his hand and crushed his fingers.

               She flipped him onto the ground when he screamed in pain and the bouncer of the place, a large frog with grey skin, a beard and muscles bigger than Joe’s, grabbed her shoulders.

               She hit the bouncer in his neck, then punched him in the jaw twice on both sides. He fell senseless to the ground with broken teeth and a damaged throat.

At the same time, her tail pinned the old toad’s own dagger in his shoulder. He whimpered in agony.

              

A female frog with stringy hair, skull face tattoos, and a feather vest threw a knife into Kristanna’s shoulder. She didn’t even flinch, but pulled it out and flung it at rapid speed into the offending frog’s gut. She fell to the ground holding her own blade in pain … a poisoned one.

               “Anyone else want to be put in their place besides the other bottom feeder trash I’m about to put into the ground?”Kristanna asked blandly.

               Most of the other patrons and the bar staff began to back away.

               Grime held a tight grip on Sasha’s shoulders, afraid for her safety if she got too close. He needn’t have bothered. She was frozen in place.

 

               That was too much for Benny and his gang. He tried to punch her, but she ducked and whirled around and swung her tail into him with heavy force and he slammed into the counter. The first toad Griffin got tripped in the process, while the second, a massive brute named Dread grabbed her neck with his right arm from behind.

               Kristanna rotated her left arm to an unnaturally flexible degree to grab it and then twisted the toad’s much larger arm painfully. Dread screamed loudly, and then even more when he tried yelling out an insult. She broke his arm entirely and then slammed him face first onto the counter.

               The muscular frog named Dolphswung a chair at her. She ducked, grabbed his throat with her tail and hurled him into the far end of the diner. He hit the wall on his spine and didn’t get back up.

               The poisonous frog Maroni tried to grab her face with his killer fingers. She didn’t give him the chance to test that theory but grabbed his neck with her gloved hands and snapped it.

              

               -Highest killers in target group eliminated. Confirmed kills-2, possibly 4

               The newt Glen foolishly tried to stab her from behind, only to face the prospect of death seriously when she broke his knife in her hands.

               Glen was thrown out the Diner window and into a vehicle’s windshield.

               Benny got up and spat blood out of his mouth. He pulled out a large club from his coat and growled,” You’re tough for such a slim thing, I’ll give ya that, but that’s not gonna-“

               Kristanna broke the club in half with one chop of her hand, yanked him down on the ground and pinned him under her foot.

               “Oh please, blondie, YOU THINK THAT SCARES ME??!!”

               Part of her left arm ‘melted’ to reveal metal skin.  A sizeable buzz saw (over 6 inches in diameter) with a lengthy extendable mechanical arm came out and spun with a revving sound.

               That scared him. “GET AWAY FROM ME!!“

               Benny tried to punch her in panic.

               She swung her saw in rapid speed through his wrists. He screamed in agony as his hands were cut off.

               At this point everyone else ran out the door.

               The Resistance Members were scared. Even Grime. But they stayed put.

               Kristanna took no notice and pulled the still conscious Griffin up to her face and hissed,”Maybe you want to tell me the answer to my question?”

               He garbled out a location or two while trembling like a little boy facing a monster. Kristanna knocked him out with a quick whack to the face.

               Benny sobbed and glared at the lady who’d maimed him and was stupid enough to keep talking.

“I’ll kill you for this, you horrible-“Kristanna kicked Benny’s head into the ground with such force Sasha doubted he survived.

He didn’t.

-Amphibian Casualties: 5 dead, 5 heavily injured.

               Kristanna wiped her hands on the counter, brushed her shoulders off, and headed to the door.

She didn’t lose her cool when Sasha stepped in front of her with her swords out before she got there and demanded,” What was that nightmare stunt you just pulled?!”

               Kristanna pulled her hood over her hair,” I needed quick results and those fools insisted on the hard way! What’s your problem? I asked if using sharp things bothered you and said you could leave if you wanted. It’s not my fault you didn’t listen!”

               “But … why??”

The scary newt shrugged,”Commander Waybright, your Resistance is fighting in a war and does assassinations or lethal work if needed! That’s what war involves! It’s no good pretending your own hands are clean! Unless you have a personal stake in the matter, drop it.”

                She knew all along who they were, and they didn’t know who or what she was.

               Kristanna ignored them and walked out. Sasha followed slowly.

               “Are you with that cyborg witch who everyone thinks is running Frog Valley?” Sasha asked as Kristanna looked down the road. A large Bulldozer Frobot, its eyes glowing blue instead of the usual red, lumbered up.

               Kristanna green eyes glowed cyan blue as she turned to look at her. “Of course I am!”

               Sasha couldn’t resist the chance to ask an operative of her fellow leader a few questions,“What’s her deal, anyway? Why does she need to be vague about it all?”

Kristanna raised an eyebrow,”Her deal ... isn’t that obvious? How many times do we need to say this? The Ultimate mistress of science, magic, technology, the Wittiest leader in the Rebellion. We pride ourselves on using everything advanced Andrias does better and like to innovate –“She paused when Sasha frowned,” Hang on, are you … worried or getting clingy over Valley Rebel leader spots? Is this jealousy??”

Sasha said nothing but looked down. Kristanna smiled,”You are! Oh Sasha, Sasha … it’s not a competition on running the Valley or being the bigger girl to save the day! You should know better than that! In fact, you’re my boss’s favorite fellow Rebel leader!”

               “I am, am I?”Sasha said flatly,”Why doesn’t she just tell me to my face or come to my place?”

.              Kristanna hopped on the Bulldozer. “Puh-leaze, be patient! She’s a busy girl who’s got a reservation for quality girl time with you on her schedule down the line! I just told you for her! You’ll get to hang out and do all sorts of fun things later! Quit being such a jealous drama-queen! That’s Grime’s job!”

               “I am NOT a jealous drama-queen!”Grime snapped.

               Joe and Sasha rolled their eyes.

                Kristanna cackled as she rode off, ”Oh, YES you are! So sensitive and needy after losing so badly as a toad lord! And we all know it!”

               “First that freaky cop and tanks and now a … killer cyborg newt?”Sasha said quietly,”What isn’t this witch packing in hidden threats? I swear, the only person around here who could get all that …”

               She asked Marcy at base later,”Can you see if Marcy is the Cyberkinetic Witch or working near her?”

               “Uhh… I already did a spell to confirm she was alive for you, remember?”Sasha nodded,”And …she was the only student of mine in magic. Still … she never got fully past the level 0 training spells.”

               Maddie rubbed some stuff in her fingers and mumbled some incantations while prepping a spell over a pot.”Don’t get me wrong, she got the concept well! You need to get details right or it could go horribly wrong and make a mess! I told her take your time to learn it right and you can be great at this!”

               A minute later, she had the results.

               “Nothing new … except she’s even more alive than before, but … I can’t see anything else. That witch’s power … I can’t sense what kind of power it is at all! It’s beyond mine … Marcy was never beyond my levels.”Maddie said glumly.

               “Well … at least she’s ok. Still, it would’ve made a bit more sense knowing she was involved in all this!”Sasha said.

               Maddie said eagerly,”When we do see her again, she’ll have fun figuring it out with you!”

               “Yeaahhh …”Sasha said sadly.

               “She said I’m a drama queen …”Grime grumbled.

               Sasha snickered,“She’s got you pegged!”

               “NO, SHE DOES NOT!”Grime snapped.

               Sometime later, a large mansion with a darker interior had its doors slammed open and the gang of newts and frogs turned only to see a local newt businessman walk through. Their indignation turned to fear when his flesh and clothes slithered off like water, revealing a robotic frame in a newt-like skeletal model with vivid mechanical blue eyes and a sleek design. Then a liquid metal mass covered its body to form a fancy lady’s appearance.

               They tried to run but failed and the few who fought did no better. The boss tried to protest after revealing where the kids were about it being “nothing personal” against their folks only to shut up far too late when she brought out the saw.

               He let out one final ghastly scream.

               Thankfully, the kids in question were traumatized by their unethical and inappropriate treatment but were still in better shape than their captors as the mysterious robot lady took them home. Marcy Wu had promised the locals she could get their kids back and she MEANT it, or there would be HELL to pay for those responsible.

*The Lost Chief Ranger* Headmaster Albert was loyal to the King. He’d sworn it years ago, earning the lifetime position of leader of the Night Guard, a special task force that did the most dangerous missions in defense of Newtopia.

               The city swarming with Frobots was not to his liking. Neither was the war but he kept his soldiers going, most of them doing stealth missions from their hidden base at Whalehide Caves near Cragmarrow Cove on the Caerillian Coasts, inside of a giant whale’s skeletal remains.

               “Albert, my elite commandos have just been eliminated! You are my last best elite force of royal soldiers remaining!”Andrias said to him four days after Loggington.

               “I’m aware, my liege … what do you wish of me?”Albert asked.

               “First, find me leads on any of the top three Rebellion leaders you can! Contacts, closest outposts, spies, whatever you can! Also, get me the records of every business, legal or otherwise, you can!”Andrias handed him a list.

               Like Andrias, Albert was thinking of Marcy, but for different reasons. He thought she’d be good at this sort of thing.

                Besides Bomme and her late squad of cadets (Javi, Femur, and Kettle), she knew Albert and most of the others. Ryan, a tall bald green axolotl who’d done field work for the Castle guard, had done CRC campaigns with her and Triple B. He’d joined not long after that.

               She’d been given twenty Night Guards to raid the Cult of Olms. Among them were Bonnie, Clive, Blaise, Dawn, Gabe, Bettie, Alastor, Dora, Sard, and Heimdall.

               Bonnie was a large grim green newt with skull and fire tattoos. She’d joined the Night Guard as a way to channel her desire to punch things and not get in trouble. Clive was her yellow and black colored friend with a love of setting things on fire. Blaise was a massive black crested newt (over 10 ft) with white spots and spikes along his body. He flirted a lot with girls on missions. He flirted most of all with Dawn Bishopi, a 15’3” ft tall hellbender-breed newt/salamander.

She had muddy brown skin with red splotches of spots all over her body, a thick rudder-like tail of 8 ft length, large hands almost as big as her head that she wore large brown gloves over with ruby studs near the elbows, and a long yellow scarf. Her face was surprisingly smooth and had small (comparatively)sky blue glowing eyes with lavender eyelashes, a mouth full of sharp and very sparkly teeth, flowing white hair and an alluring contralto voice.

Some called Blaise insane for trying to flirt with her. Dawn was the tallest and scariest girl in the Rangers who wielded a massive longsword almost as tall as herself and had a feared ‘wringer squeeze’ grip that could treat someone like a towel to wring and ‘got quick results’ for interrogations or beatdowns. Dawn had once wiped out an entire fleet of pirates on her own. Her family was one of the most feared and aggressive fighter clans in the Great Bay and Cove dwellers for ages.

 

 

He was nice to her and never overdid it, so she and the rest put up with it.

Her cousin Gabe was even taller at 17’1”. He had reddish skin, thick lips, small black eyes and very big muscles.er at 17’1”. He had reddish skin, a thick blackbeard thick lips, small black eyes and very big muscles.

Bettie was a Northern Slimy salamander type newt with pink hair, black skin, white specks of color along her body, and she stood at 5’11” and had a 3 ft tail. She was one of their best nocturnal operatives and had a good singing voice and liked to play the flute.

               One of the most respected veterans and attractive ladies in the ranks at age 30, she’d laughed hard when Marcy asked if she was the ‘pied piper of the group’ who none could resist in battle or public.

“I’m not that good … usually!”She’d replied.

Alastor was a large black axolotl veteran of over 10 ft in height, a mane of grizzled black hair and missing his left eye. He had a glowing white glass-eye replacement that some said had to be enchanted. If it was, he never told.

Dora Rivularis, a highly toxic red-belly newt, was his protégé. She was just a few inches taller than Marcy and had purple hair and large green eyes. She resented the implications that she joined just because her family had a natural advantage for eliminating targets and got in easily because of that. The truth was more embarrassing. She’d flunked University and broken several valuable treasures in the museums for an internship, so this was her way of restoring dignity for herself and paying off the damage in a job she liked.

 Sardine or ‘Sard’ was a coastal dweller of a ‘lungless newt’ species that could breathe through their skin in water or out of it. He was their best aquatic operative. Heimdall was a middle-aged brown newt with an axe and red beard who loved to fight and party. Some called him the crazy uncle of the group.

               Marcy wanted them taken out as a major threat and brought in. One day opportunity struck.

              

               Albert sent a pair of his top younger recruits to the Algal Bog Trading Posts near Frosch to retrieve a shipment from a merchant named Tyrone Triller.

The taller one  (5’4”) was a female axolotl of a three-year service record named Siredona Roth. She had dark blue skin, purple hair and glowing white eyes. Ignatio Estoque was a pale newt with a mustache, a slice under his left eye, and curly brown hair. He was a respected fencing master of a stellar five-years of missions.

               “Remind me why he needs this?”Siredona asked.

               “Senorita Roth, I’m not sure … I don’t know why anyone would need us to get something from a merchant, especially one with so many contacts all over!”Ignatio replied.

               “Yeah and Algal Bog has good connections to all the best cities already!”Siredona said .

               “Come in!”Tyrone said, sitting at his study after his well-dressed staff let them into the Anura Records hall.

               “How may I be of service to the court of Newtopia?”The soft-spoken yellow frog with glasses, well done black hair and a spotless white business suit with flowers on it asked.

               “Uhhh we were told to ask for this?”Siredona passed over the list.

               “Interesting, such a length of historical texts and records … I assume payment is negotiable?”Tyrone asked.

               “Of course, Senor, but do you have it first of all?”Ignatio asked.

               “Yes, I do … let me see!”He went for his bookcase and safe behind him.

               The window shattered. Veronica, Vizzini and Rigelloto landed in.

               They wore green-black cloaks, black gauntlets, and carried pitch-black mystically enhanced swords called Void swords. In Rigelloto’s case, he had chains strapped to his body in a criss-cross pattern tipped with round weights.

               “What the … security?!”Tyrone called. A larger Wraith, Bogster, burst through the door to his study, all the staff unconscious behind him. He had a massive mattock in hand.

               “Do something!”Tyrone demanded of the Rangers.

               Veronica threw a curse bag at the ground as the two got ready to fight. Mystical gas began to rise. Rigelloto loosed his chains and flung them at Tyrone, imprisoning him in an escapable grip.

               “Let’s get out of here and regroup. We’re not equipped for this!”Siredona said to her partner.

               “Very well!”They leaped up and got out of town.

               Some hidden enemies followed them right back to their base.

              

               Albert and the other Rangers with him were frightened to hear their report back at their base.

               “Unacceptable, these cloaked raiders have interfered with our mission! Dubois!”He turned to one Ranger,”go radio for a backup call of Frobots over there!”

               Dubois, a newt almost as tall as Albert, did so. He went to the corner of their nearby empty spot which was being renovated for new purposes by construction bots with factories, laser cannons and barracks.

               Or so it was when they got there. The buildings were now silent and depowered and not a Frobot in sight.

               “That’s not good … “He stopped when he saw the massive Wreckers looking at him from all direction. He was trapped and he knew it.

              

               “Say,”Dubois looked up to see a smiling frog police officer in front of him,”that’s a nice cloak. ”

               Albert grew impatient and walked to the entrance.

               He saw fire coming from the distance.

              

               “More insurgents, they’ll learn to-“Alber was cut off by the sound of heavy machinery approaching.

               A wrecking ball bashed the door down. Green blasts of explosive plasma tore holes in the wall.

 

                Four Hunters charged in, along with some Gorgons, two Frost Knights and dozens of Reapers in the air, aiming cannons at them. The Reapers tossed some stun grenades down that left them disoriented and stunned.

               Flail and Crusher left the door and wall around it torn open.

              

               Frobert came behind some Marines with his shades on. Lonnie and Coatl flanked him.

               The unnatural cop said politely,“ Headmaster Albert, I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you to come with us!”

               “You invade our base and expect us to come quietly!?”Albert demanded, standing to his full height over the cop.

               Frobert said,”If you insist!”

 Lonnie hit him in the gut with one strong blow, K.O.-ing him.

               His Night Guards were frozen, tied up, blindfolded and/or knocked out. All their supplies were taken.

               Hours later the 50 Night Guard staff present were held in chains in a large room with green and grey walls and torches in the First Temple.

               Buckets of water were thrown on them to revive them.

               “Hmmm, interesting, new faces …and old ones!”A mechanical female voice said.

               The Rangers glanced up  to see their most wanted enemy sitting on a green throne on the other side of the room.

               The Wit Wraiths, assassins, Mar Guards and all kinds of rogue robots surrounded them.

               “ The public enemy No. 1 and leading criminal of stolen technology , the Cyberkinetic witch! Of course you’re behind this cowardly attack on us at a time like this!”Albert snarled.

               The girl sighed,“Headmaster Albert, you wound me … I am the uncontested mistress of Wit who controls TECHNOLOGY, ALL SCIENCE, AND MAGIC ALIKE! I make MY OWN stuff and improve on your stuff! But yeah, I am a proud rebel leader and No. 1 enemy of the king at a time like this when the country is already on fire and going to pieces! It’s a time of war, not peace. What did you expect?? It was going to be a GOOD and FRIENDLY WAR?? There’s no such thing.”

               “You declared war on Andrias and keep stealing from him, making deadly new machines, turning thousands of Amphibians against us and destroying our armies!”Ryan countered.

               The Rebel snorted,”Not that simple, Ryan. His armies were stealing from everyone and destroying much more before I started making waves. You’ve been hiding out in the whale too long to get the facts straight. Now, I’ve defeated you and have all your stuff, true, but I didn’t bring you here just to rub it in and lock you away! In fact, I’d like to offer everyone besides Albert a new job working for me!”

               “Why would we want that from a major threat out to destroy everything we protect and serve?”Alastor asked flatly.

               Marcy giggled.

               “Good question, Mr. Alastor. I have a few simple reasons. Reason number one, you might have standards I can work with!”She gestured to the unconscious Tyrone duct taped to the wall behind her,”FOR EXAMPLE … Mister Triller here is a merchant of many things, including books, every garden supply known to botanists, magic ingredients, odd items and … very free labor of all ages, or in other words …slaves of all ages!”

               It delighted her to see most of them appalled. Her voice went very creepy and mechanical,” Reason number two … you’re defeated, at my mercy, and stuck here until I say otherwise! Resisting me is futile!”

               The number of robots and weapons pointed at them made that clear.

               The rebel stood up,“Reason number three … I’d like to offer the NIGHT GUARDS a PROPER chance to live up to your true potential and stand for something better than what your name represents!”

               “What would you know about what our organization stands for??”Albert challenged her.

               Her eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists. The torches on the wall burst into green flame,“I know all about your group, Al! Even more than YOU! For example, there’s the Chief Ranger’s oath:’I swear to honor the dignity of my station, keep Newtopia and its citizens safe, defend newt, toad, and frog (in that order), and protect my team as my highest responsibility.’”

               “Where did you hear that?! No one outside our ranks hears that oath!!”Albert demanded.

 

               The witch took her mask off. The Night Guards gasped.

               They knew that face. If not personally, by sight and reputation. Siredona and Ignatio had worked with her on separate occasions. All of them had met her on the base, seen her or worked on her raid on the Cult of Olms. Every one of the twenty Rangers she’d been assigned for that raid was present now.

               Marcy Wu, the one and only human Night Guard in history, said“It’s very simple, Headmaster Albert  … I AM a Chief Ranger!”

               “Marcy … what, I don’t understand …”Albert said, his voice cracking. He remembered she’d joined not just because she thought they were cool, but to help look for her friends. She’d found them the last he’d heard …  right before all this started.

               She glared while two Hunters dragged him to sit down on a chair in front of her,” You of all people don’t understand?! Forgive me if I don’t buy that from the leader of Newtopia’s best elite force! If anyone in this room is in on Andrias’s dirtiest secrets, it’s you!”

               “What dirty secret-“Albert shut his mouth quickly when two Magnas lit their staffs up with electricity next to his head.

Marcy’s fists sparked and her voice rose,”Oh you know, like the one where Andrias literally stabbed me through the back  with his gigantic laser sword the same day he started using robot armies to conquer everything!”

               The Night Guards gasped. She frowned harder,” Oh yes, it turns out his ancestors weren’t nice rulers who loved to explore with the Music Box like he told me, but power-hungry maniacs who loved invading other worlds with it and taking all their resources and wiping out the natives with the same robot armies that are back in action! He had this whole evil speech about it the day he started this war.”

               She played video of that speech and the sight of him stabbing her through the back with his sword on the wall behind her.

              

               Marcy’s rage grew at their expressions of disbelief and her fingers sparked,” Weeks later, Lady Olivia and General Yunan tried to help me leave that wretched flying palace, but a vile being living in the Castle basements tried to enslave me mind and body to use as a new skin for it to wear! I got lucky and escaped thanks to some of that Music Box’s power that is rightfully mine to use! Power that chose me! Needless to say, I took all that betrayal, very evil plans, and horrible experimenting on me very personally! I am not happy with him, that abomination living in his Castle, or you, Albert!!”

               Goofy and sweet Marcy, who’d never looked so dangerous to Albert, aimed her staff at him, conjured green ropes of energy and yanked him to sit in front of her.

She bent his face down to look at her while Spiral put all six of her blades at his throat, arms and heart and two Marines aimed their guns at his head.

 She said bluntly,” I couldn’t care less if anyone complains about me waging war on Andrias and wrecking his things and armies! Several thousands have died at his hands already in these last few weeks! He’s adopted a ‘terminate policy’ for anyone who argues with him! Lady Olivia and Yunan are held captive by him now. The only reason he isn’t risking harming them is because I’ve made it clear I can and will end him painfully if he does!”

               That got many of the Rangers to wince.

She pulled Albert closer,”It’s far too late for him to get off easy regardless! Before my forces decimated his armies at Loggington, Andrias wiped out thousands of toads heading West to join their kind and several villagers. Before that he wiped out all three cadets of my old personal squad, the Rangers YOU gave me. Javier and Kettle were wiped out with the rest of Stony Gulch, the place they were living at! Femur’s new home in the pastures by the Great Bay were burned up with no surviving witnesses or livestock!”

That was news to them. Albert looked upset.

Her anger and voice rose,” Before all that, Andrias tried to ‘remove my friends from the equation’ while I was sleeping in a rejuvenation tank near a MONSTER HE HAD GUARDING ME,”sparks flew off her fingers inches from the shaking Headmaster’s face,” and he hasn’t stopped doing ANY OF THAT! My home, Earth, is his next target to drain dry of resources and my people, HUMANS, will be wiped out or possibly enslaved! He won’t stop there. Amphibia is lucky as it is that it’s not yet at the point where some other world decides you need to get wiped out!”

               The room had clips of all this madness of their current history going on around her.

               The Night Guard’s mouths hung open in shock. They had no words.

               Marcy’s eyes glowed with neon fire.”Yeah, that’s how it is! You don’t do all that and expect people to just take it! If Andrias has his way, Amphibia and more worlds will be ruined! It wouldn’t be the first time the Leviathans family has destroyed another world! Don’t expect anything less but retaliation from me, my home or the Amphibians unhappy with the maniacs in charge out to destroy everything we hold dear!!”

               She tapped Albert on his chest,” That’s why you’re here now … you’re too close to Andrias, Headmaster. Maybe you knew these things, or you didn’t. Andrias would have said anything to get us to get that Box charged for this war! He played me and everyone else for chumps, and I nearly died at his hands. I don’t take his words or yours on faith anymore!“

Marcy smiled menacingly as Al squirmed. The room lit up with fire on the walls and the floor hummed with artificial lights. The Rangers were aware of several robots and Amphibians watching them from all over the room and it unnerved them a lot.

”The rest of Newtopia’s armies I can keep crushing, capturing or adding to my own with no major preference, but you guys get special treatment! Newtopia’s elite fighting force, the ones who taught me how to fight, the best of the best … I’m claiming your whole organization for myself! I may have lost my cadet squad, but now I have you guys! I took everything from your secret hideout and everyone there along with it! The rest will be hunted down in less than a week.”

She shook her head as most of them looked around to try and see a way out,” Don’t even think about doing any fancy tricks in this room to escape or trying to take me down!! I could just snap my fingers or let you snap those bonds … and all the other fingers in here could snap you or use you for target practice in less than five seconds! This Temple itself does my bidding and could drop you into chambers where no one can hear you scream! It would be as easy as breaking a toothpick! Am I clear?”

               The captive Rangers nodded. There was no doubt in their minds she meant it.

               “What are you going to do to us?”Albert asked quietly.

               Marcy released him from his energy binds and crossed her arms,”Nothing horrible, I assure you. Still, I don’t think I’ll be letting you out until this over, maybe, since you’re so loyal to Andrias. You did who knows what making the final decisions on open and closed cases that were for the good of Newtopia for years! Bureaucratic and budget reasons were deciding factors … supposedly! I want to see how much was really worth all that red tape! Just like the case you and he told me not to investigate with the late traitor Captain Ernst who led the fake Cult of Olms around burning libraries while being paid by very old rare coins like these by an anonymous benefactor to do so! You got pretty nasty when I wanted to go after him! But I found out the rest and closed the case for you! Guess who that benefactor was who bribed Ernst to do all that? His name starts with An and ends with Drias!”

               Albert leaned back as Tychus shook handful of Dawnblood coins in his large palms close to his face. He’d forgotten about those.

               “Sir, what’s she talking about? Is that true?”Ryan asked quietly. Albert said nothing.

               “Of course … that explains it!”Alastor grumbled,”That whole thing was fishy when we heard about it!”

               “Why would he do that?”Bettie asked Marcy.

               She felt relieved when Marcy smiled like she used to,“Promising! You’re beginning to see the light! For every Ranger here … “She walked over to stand in front of them,”I’ll give you all a chance to see if you want to help your rogue Chief Ranger save this world and mine from the monster called the Night and really live up to your mission of protecting the people of this land! They won’t be the first or last to get a chance.”

She looked towards the room’s entrance and called over,” Right, guys?”

               The former Night Guard Chief Egineer Bomme Frite and their missing armorer Bernardo came out, alarming Albert even more.

                Zel came out next. Blaise almost swooned.

               “Can I hit him?”Bonnie asked furiously.

               “If you let me go first, I’ll slap him!”Dawn offered. Zel chuckled.

               In less than two days, she got them debriefed and processed. Over half of the 50 Night Guards staff were convinced to join easily at once. Most of them were very disillusioned hearing about the Core, aka the ‘Night’, and more of the vile truth about Andrias’s plans and family history. Marcy was offering them a chance to save what was left of Amphibia and their city by her side. Most took it. The twenty who’d fought by her side against the Cult of Olms were the first to say yes after Siredona and Ignatio. The pair were not pleased to learn their last mission involved more ‘information coverups’ for royal family horror stories.

 It went the same with the rest when they were brought in days later.

               Ray, a large Cope’s giant salamander kind of newt (gold and brown spotted skin) of 9’11”, a short black beard and hair and a criss-cross scar over his eyes, was the senior Ranger in the field when the base was raided. He carried a long cane sword and did excellent swordplay and carried a potion mix that levitated anything it touched miles high as an ace-in-the hole. He led the rest back in a hurry hearing about their base falling, but was caught in the ambush waiting.

               The calm and often mellow newt who rarely ever acted surprised or angry took it well enough when Marcy filled him in. He cocked an eyebrow at the Core pictures, “Ah, that’s a real scary critter. Thanks for the new job offer … I’m in.”

               Vivi Meretsegi, his apprentice, was one of the most decent. She was practically royalty with her family connections in the elite aristocracy of the Great Bay families. A fire salamander type newt (yellow spots on black skin) of 5’7” height, light blue hair, a 2 ft tail, and dark purple eyes, Misa preferred using knockout gas bombs, and a pair of flying claw style weapons of strings with sharp round metal discs on the end. She excelled at negotiating and disliked war with a passion and had a stellar record of minimal fatalities in her solo missions.

               “Marcy … promise me you’ll help me save our people and the rest from these monsters, as much as we can!”Vivi said to her when she found out the awful truth, crying tears of rage and pain. She’d lost her family, home and more to the chaos that had ensued in the initial fighting that erupted the day the war started.

               “Of course I will!”Marcy gave her a hug.

               Albert and the ten holdouts were locked up. While the rest talked enough, stayed quiet or acted defiant, he withdrew and stayed quiet.

               The idea of the Core and the attempted possession of Marcy unsettled him when she briefed them. He admitted,”That’s one secret I wouldn’t want to justify … No wonder you’re so angry. I’m sorry. Don’t blame the rest for my decisions or Andrias’s.”

               Marcy didn’t press him, knowing he was being honest. He wasn’t happy about her old cadets dying and supported the rest joining her forces and promised her if she didn’t torture or press him for information, he’d stay put in his cell and behave. “I need to think about all this …”

               “I’ll hold you to that,”She said,”because no one is getting out from under my watch!”

               “I can believe that …”He said. She insisted on a game of flipwart matches to wager his codes to the Night Guard files at least.

               She won and he gave her three, wanting to see if she’d handle the challenge. He was a model prisoner and got plenty of books and other privileges to enjoy, including tv. He enjoyed nature and history documentaries a lot.

              

                

               The Asurdroid’s design and outfits got questions, naturally, since Marcy’s newt robots resembled them.

               “You wanted some Rangers of your own all along, didn’t you?”Ryan teased her.

               Marcy tapped her fingers together,“Yes, I thought of that while making them. Also, the Hood Bots are a waste of both hoods and metal, but the hoods and cloaks gave me an idea for combining Ranger-newt themes with a mystical robot designs. Does it bother you?”

               Alastor picked at Hana’s hem while she held it up for him,”Very presumptuous, kid, but it fits. The Hood Bots are weak. That doesn’t make these robo ladies Rangers, though!”

               Yuriko tried to support him,“Of course not, Mister Alastor. We are not Newtopian Rangers, but artificial specialists in terrifying six-armed combat who can vanish and tear our enemies into many bite-sized pieces with no biting! The elements are at our command and we do literal shock and awe to confuse and dispatch our nefarious enemies!”

               “That still sounds like us, missie!”Alastor said. He cracked a hint of a smile as she looked astonished. The Rangers and Asurdroids chuckled.

               Siredona broached the idea of joining Veronica’s Wraith squad after asking about her cloak-wearing unit and said,”It’s almost like she has her own Rangers …maybe … you should have more!”

               Veronica her scariest grin,”Are you asking? Because I would absolutely take a scary girl like you in!”

               Siredona didn’t bat an eye at the sight and smiled right back.

               She asked Bernardo for modifications to her Ranger outfit and came out with a Wit Wraith version of her outfit (dark green with the usual fur lining ) out to some of her fellow Rangers. “What do you think?”

               A few of them liked the idea and agreed Marcy could use some of their best in this elite fighting group of mystical assassins. She was still one of their own, after all.

               Siredona, Ignatio, Ray, Alastor, Dora, Bonnie, Clive, Dawn, Blaise, and Bettie joined Veronica’s Wit Wraith Squad to make a total of sixteen.

                Siredona became next in command of the Wit Wraiths rapidly with her sharp reflexes, camouflage expertise and calm attitude. She and Dawn also became Veronica’s best friends. Ignatio, Dawn and Alastor also got valuable authority positions in that squad.

               Heimdall, Ryan, Vivi, Gabe, Sard and Dubois and the rest joined Zel’s forces as valued officers and fighters.

               Marcy went out of her way to get their families and friends outside of the camps into their area.

While Loggington was being crushed, she covered the whole area around Shirano Swamp with fog. Shroom Citadel was repaired under this cover and the former residents aided Marcy in getting the place back in shape. The Frost Knights and Wit Wraiths were given this spot as their primary Valley hideout. The many caves under the town and nearby Valley mountainsides were used to grow crops, store things, provide living quarters for those who wished to stay out of sight, and imprison medium to lower maximum-security prisoners.

 The fog stayed in place, and Wispflies floated about to confuse and hypnotize unwary trespassers with their psychedelic fires. Geisters and Flayers accumulated there and lurched about. Any Frobots who dared to intrude there tended not to last more than an hour and no signals ever came back.

A sign was posted saying ‘Keep out unless you’re invited by the Queen of the South, or ye may never leave! Ye have been warned!’

A row of destroyed Frobots hung in the air by nooses from trees behind the sign. Sasha decided not to risk it and forbade her group from going in that area.

               “What about Newtopia itself?”Ryan asked after they’d finished setting up the Night Guard’s old stuff beneath the citadel.

 

               “It’s important on our list, I promise,”Zel said, tapping the map of the old city,”The Castle is mobile and a target with things to recover and then be destroyed at some point. The people are a concern for our objectives to save.  The city had over 400,000 Amphibians living there and they’ve been conscripted into doing work in the army or various forms of support or industrial work.”

               “ I think that’s my next big target, the Castle! To do a bit of raiding and plunder a few things!”Marcy said,”I think we’ll also add a bit of willing manpower from the citizens who’ve been relocated to do work outside the city! Most of them must hate that!”

               “I assure you, Senorita Wu, they do!”Ignatius said solemnly as he polished his blade. “I would like to investigate my old hometown as a start!”

               “Sure, oh hey, another guy who knows that area might help! Hey Frezzik!”

               The large frog came up. His voice was deep, “Heard you like guys who do skill on skill?”

               Ignatius smiled,“Usually …”

               The pair became fast friends and worked together alot. Frezzik cheered him up good and acted as the muscle with Irwin while he did the duels. Vizzini also tagged along as a skilled planner.

*Picking mushrooms in the Dark*

               “Stupid collars!”Aelita grumbled. She and Araya were out hiking in the areas around the top of Mold Rod Forest. They’d gotten close to a cliff after destroying yet another Mindshroom collar factory Andrias had tried to set up near their base in Amagydala Woods.

               “I do wonder where Andrias found such a sinister mushroom!”Araya said.

               Aelita said,“Mushrooms are a complicated form of life, Araya! They grow from spores, grow best in the dark, and spread more spores and decomposition. They can get real grim alone from the psychedelic effects and growth on bodies of other organisms.”

She smiled mischievously,”On Earth, a mushroom deadly to humans is called a ‘toadstool’!”

               “That might explain some of Anne and Marcy’s problems in Wartwood!”Araya joked.

               The two laughed.

               “Hey you!”They saw a crowd of refugee frogs camped out near there. A yellow frog with a prairie hat over his head cleared his throat.

               “My name’s Briar Mallow! You’re with that new queen, right?”He said hesitantly.

               Araya smiled and curtsied,“Well met, Mr. Mallow. We are some of her chief bodyguards and warriors! I am Araya, this is Aelita!”

               Aelita asked kindly,“How are you poor folks doing?

Briar  frowned,”Not too good. Our villages near Undergrowth Hollow got burned up already, and your leader’s war on Andrias cut us off from finding shelter!”

               “I see … please accept our apologies. To ease your burdens, would you like to come down South, join our cause and have a lodging of your choice?”Aelita asked.

               The frogs blinked and exchanged looks. Briar asked, “Are there any perks?”

               “Oh yes, we’ll save this world and all other worlds, and …”Araya pulled out a lengthy list of perks,”there’s all these other perks! You’ll love it!”

               The frogs cheered and followed them off.

               A happy, idyllic farmer with no normal cares below them heard. He scurried off to find his leader.

               “More noise from the surface dwellers!”Horace reported to a small bug once named Jeremy. Now he had a Mindshroom on its head and was named Apothecary Gary.

               Gary pouted,“Oh yes, it’s been getting louder and louder … some of the plants here seem unhappy at the competition. Walking trees and vines came by last week! We’ve gained 40 new members for our family, but that won’t be enough to keep it greener and brighter! Let’s put a guard up!”

               Unfortunately for Gary and his utopian town of Gardenton, that drew the Core’s attention. A Coreseer spotted some of the symbiotically linked frogs under his control keeping watch the far edge of the area below the cliffs it was based in.

               “Perfect! Our new scouts have found low-hanging fruit to pick for our own gardens!”It crooned.

               “Good job people,”Gary said from atop Horace’s head three days later,”the crop rate is up, sixty bushels of wheat and rye, and we’ll weather the colder seasons easily!”

               They heard loud metal footsteps. Some Frobots, Dread Bots and Fire Frobots were coming towards their area.

               “Intruders, stop them!”Gary ordered. The psychically linked villagers got into place quickly. The Frobots just observed them for a moment, and then one torched the nearest flower.

               The frogs wailed.

               The Fire Bots proceeded to torch their sheds and houses.

               “No, NO, YOU CAN’T DO THIS!”Gary shrieked.

               A Dreadbot came up and picked him.

               “Come to me!”Gary yelled. The villagers rose up and came to his aid, but then the Dreadbot screamed.

               They stood rooted in place, shaking with just as much fear as the bug in the robot’s hand.

               “What are you?”Gary whispered.

               “What are we? The real question is what are you?”A chorus of voices called. A smaller version of the Core,  a portable model with six spike-rowed tentacles and extra sharp claws, and all thirteen eyes on it, came crawling into the town square. The Coreling was a mobile unit to act as the Core’s hands and feet while it readied itself for future fights against Marcy. It was less durable, but still very dangerous and could act independently or serve as an extension of the Core.

               Gary had been scared of death before when Hopediah nearly ended him at Wartwood. He’d been scared running for his life in Jeremy’s body and nearly dying in his new home, and he’d been scared ever since the noise above him kept getting louder.  But he felt he was staring into the face of evil itself right now. Thirteen orange eyes with white pupils staring into him. Not at him. He could tell in his spore-laced instincts that somehow it was looking into him.

               It picked him up in one claw,“Oh yes, how fascinating. The Mens Agaric has always been an unpredictably fast-growing species, but you, our dear little deathcap, are a rare find!”

               “You know my kind’s name?”Gary said in disbelief.

               The Coreling laughed a horrible laugh that made his skin crawl and made his devoted followers sink to their knees. The robots seized them and restrained them.

               The Core held it up to its biggest eye,“Know you!? We practically bred you!”

               He frowned,“Who’s ‘we’?”

               The Core spread its other arms out,“We are the Core, a collection of Amphibia’s greatest minds living forever as one. The god of Amphibia!”

               Gary narrowed his eyes in an unimpressed look.“How could you be a god??”

               He shrank back as it proceeded to rant,“How could we not be one!? We built Amphibia’s lands from the ground up long before your kind ever so much as festered in their first caverns! Every city, the father’s forefathers of these servants absorbed into this admirable hive mind you’ve made, everything that grows, everything that moves, everything that makes this world as it is, we made it so! We had power fit for a god, became this, went to every world we could, conquered every enemy and wild beast there was, and brought back what we wanted and destroyed what we didn’t need! You … Gary, was it? Your ‘kind’ was one of many things,”a frilled lizard with a collar on it appeared, making his purple eyes widen in shock,”that helped keep the savage beasts around here in check! You, you overgrown egotistical fungus, belong to us!”

               “No, no, this can’t be! There was another one of my kind!? And you found them first!?”Gary wailed.

               The Core mocked him,“You feel sorrow at this unexpected reunion ? How interesting. Nothing can fill the void for you except your species, can it? Not even these hosts of yours!”

               Gary yelled,“You’re wrong! When I met them, we worked together. They became better farmers, and I didn’t have to make them obey me. They willingly invited me into their lives, and we have a symbiotic bond with each other and the plants here! This place is a paradise we built from the ground up!”

               The Core grew even more amused,”How adorable. You actually care for them! But … they can’t leave you now, can they?”

               Gary looked as his friends/hosts (?) kept reaching for him with pleading hands and glowing eyes while the robots held them back.

               The Core gloated,“You see, we know what a hivemind means better than you! We’ve been in harmonious agreement for millennia! We joined together, the greatest thinkers of old, into one single form to guide Amphibia. A fungus spreads everywhere it can and invades the body of what it grows on, digs deeper, and in time decomposes it. The natural progression of your species life cycle is to infect the mind and dig deeper into the tissue. Flesh and live mushrooms never mix with healthy results. Even now, their senses have been dulled into not caring about their future outside of you or the opinions of others. Give it enough time … soon, only hollow puppets would remain.”

               The Coreling turned around and Gary saw a horrid monster approaching. A horrid mass of bloated purple membranes, fungal growths, and tendrils walking upwright. It had no eyes, but it had a huge mouth full of jagged teeth.

               The Core began lifting Gary towards it,“Don’t worry, Gary …you won’t have to be alone ever again. It’s time for you to be absorbed into a new union with our spore-grown child here! Together, we will make this land grow into a better garden!”

               Gary screamed as he was dropped into that mouth, swallowed and surrounded by darkness. He began to hear dark whispers of a colony mind of spores. It felt like kinship, but it was a warped form of it. And it was the last thing he would ever know as his mind got broken down and absorbed.

               Gardenton was captured and made a new secret base. The Mindshroom samples and other plants were confiscated and shipped back. The grim fate of the inhabitants would not be known for some time …

 

 

              

              

 

 

              

              

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

Notes:

Ryan is the green axolotl from the intro with Triple B and Marcy playing C&C. Probably not a Ranger at that moment, but let's say for the sake of this story he became a new recruit.

The mix of Rangers have ties to Harry Potter and Princess Bride characters along with One Piece ones. Dawn is my favorite idea, a bit of Charlotte Smoothie and the Hellbender salamander species. They're the only major giant salamander species to rival the larger Andrias family, so I included one.

Update: The replicator/nanobot idea was one concept useful for Andrias to start catching up by making his robots faster. Considering the nanobots that could roboticize objects in the Christmas episode and what the Cloak-bots had, it's not that far-fetched to me.

Chapter 7: Ch. 5 Convictions and Chaos

Summary:

Some back and forth victories, gains, and losses (on both sides) for the first week of December in-story.
I do apologize if my edits have been confusing, but I keep finding grammar errors or missed/bad details I want to improve. If that bothers anyone, I haven't heard.
Also, does it count as a crossover if the characters mentioned don't actually appear?? (A few actual Gravity Falls characters are referenced in this)

Notes:

Some more expose on some characters, especially the Frost Knights. Some of their in-game techniques and gem socket ideas are being used in these last few chapters are being used (albeit at a somewhat lesser strength and a few creative new additions). It wouldn't be hard to overwhelm most basic opponents and robots with these skills on a low level.
The new robot ideas are a great combo of ideas Andrias meshed with enemies of Marcy's new guys. The Bailifters are one idea I like as an idea to make the kangaroo court Frobots more menacing. The Just Eleven Jurors of Enies Lobby were the perfect brainwave. Lethal bailiffs with executioner garb and giant chain balls would be something to take more seriously.
Word of warning, I don't intend to go in-depth on all these OCS and minor characters, just get them in there at least.

Ch. 5 Conviction and Chaos

“All I am surrounded by is fear. And dead men.”-Darth Vader

*Sting like the Devil*

               Andrias didn’t worry about the Wartwoodians causing him problems. In fact, he realized that if nothing else, they made for a good testing ground for the newer models. He could antagonize and tire out the smallest rebel force and whittle them down them and wipe them out with just a few.

               The Hornet drones proved the idea worked in just a day.

               Grime and Croaker were leading a team for a sabotage mission while Sasha led some of their commandos on a raid.

               Tuti,was good at hand to hand combat, skilled with nerve pinches and crippling punches. Sherrif Buck Leatherleaf was a good shot with his tongue and spare laser rifles on hand. His deputies, Larry and Troy, were a bit slow but dependable. John DiBoggio, a short chubby bearded green frog, was average on fighting but better than Duckweed, who was there after drawing straws and being forced to come along. Fern was the competent but ditzy hairstylist with deadly scissors.

               The wires and pipelines to a refinery loomed ahead with only ten Frobots guarding it.

               “Excellent, Fern cut the wires while we get the rest!”Grime directed.

               They took down the Frobots and reinforcements with ease for the next three minutes.

               Then the buzzing started.

               “Are those … Hornets?”Grime said in disbelief as five Hornet drones flew over the trees.

               The closest one swung its stinger back and then forward, firing a laser into John, who flew back screaming in pain.

               “More robots, great!”Croaker got into a fighting stance.

               “Take them down!”Grime yelled.

               The Hornets swirled around at high speed and altitudes and fired at the rebels, forcing them to scatter.

               Tuti managed an impressive flip to land on one’s back and hit it in the eyes.

               She jumped off, smiled proudly, then got hit by two painful shots to the back.

               “Oh no you don’t!”Croaker yelled. She tossed a pair of needles into their eyes, killing them at once.

               Grime crushed the final two while Buck and his cops kept a cover fire to keep them occupied.

               “Good job, now let’s get out of here before-GAAAHHHH!”He howled in agony as six more came from behind and hit him.

               He sank to the ground, slipping into painful unconsciousness.

               All of the angry Resistance, except Buck, charged at them in rage. All of the charging rebels except Croaker, Fern and Duckweed got hit.

               Fern used her scissors to cut the wings off of one, but got stung by another.

               Duckweed ran screaming for cover when three came at him.

               Buck shot one down and had to take cover when the rest and a battalion of Frobots coming up returned fire.

               “Retreat! “He shouted.

               “You heard him!”Croaker yelled. The five Resistance members capable of standing dragged the rest off back to Wartwood after she tossed a smokebomb to cover their escape.

               Everyone was alright except Fern and Grime. Fern spent the next two days recovering from the poisonous sting after Maddie gave her an antidote. Grime was unconscious for 29 hours, much to Sasha’s alarm.

               “A few bugs hurt Grimesy that bad? We’ll need to add them to our worst threats to watch out for!”

               When he woke up, he declared,“I have a new favorite thing to hate!”

               Andrias wasn’t done. The Fireflyers dealt a grim blow.

               A caravan was heading their way.

               “Right on time!”Sasha said.

               “What are those?”Stumpy asked.

               They saw three Fireflyers in the sky.

               “Payload drop!”One said. It dropped two bright spheres that fell in between the first two wagons and blew up with a bright flash.

               The Resistance watched in horror as two more were dropped and destroyed the other three wagons. The survivors ran for it and got shot in the back. The Resistance had to run when another dropped more over them. Wally was blown to the ground by the blast.

               A few Marines on patrol shot them down later, but Sasha wasn’t satisfied until she took a laser gun and shot down two more who came by the next day.

 The Water Striders were the living equivalent of jet skis in Amphibia and the perfect animal to combine Lyoko Tarantulas with. The yellow and orange-eyed robot versions of the Striders could zoom across fresh and saltwater surfaces, climb up and down walls, run at high speeds, and their front legs were tipped with laser cannons that fired rapidly with great accuracy and high damage. The middle legs could also go laser mode while they were stationery for extra firpower.

               He tested them first on the coastal defenses near Snarlsburg.

               Four of them began strafing the fortifications on the beach. Brigitte, the closest officer in charge, came to deal with it.

               “Interesting … a challenging bug to fight! I like it!”Brigitte said. She and her team took 20 minutes to deal with them, but it was worth it. She sent a report.

               “They are definitely getting ideas from our monsters!”Yumi said.

               “Brilliant. The Water Striders fit with the Tarantula’s aesthetic perfectly! Their extra cannons and ability to move across water make them a formidable threat!”Bomme said.

They all looked at Odd, who was a key member of the naming committee with Marcy, Smarcy and Bomme.

               “Water Striders that shoot, eh? How about Strideshots?”

               The newly named Strideshots were both a welcome challenge to the stronger Amphibians and robots, but they were a difficult nuisance.

               The Resistance learned even harder later by the Triadoba River. This river circled most of Frog Valley around the South Tower. It started all the way up in Lily Paddington, down through Bog Bottom and ended at Wartwood Swamp.

               Sasha had finished off the biggest refinery alongside the shore to the East before Bog Bottom. A single Strideshot zoomed by.

               “Is that a Water Strider?”Felicia wondered.

               Soggy Joe squinted at it,“No! Wrong exoskeleton and eye color, legs are too thick and the wings are all wrong!”

               “It’s another bug robot. Take it down!”Sasha ordered.

               Croaker threw a small dagger at it.

               The Strideshot looked at them when the blade missed its head. It got into a crouching position several yards away and starting firing at full speed. Croaker got out of the way just in time.

               “Holy frog, duck!”Loggle yelled.

               It took Sasha ten minutes to take it and eight Frobots that came to join it down. Maddie ended up being invaluable by using some Fire curses and a smoke potion.

               More of them zoomed around the river and swamp waters around Wartwood repeatedly for the next two days, forcing them to stay underground. Maddie came through once again by using a curse on a large dead tree that came to life and chased after them.

 The Giant Wasps found near Wartwood were larger than Anne and had sharp stings and bites. The Lyoko monster, the Trisekt, was roughly the same size, had three wings, three legs with scissor-like claws, and could lob mines and lasers. A new Wasp Drone with grey and yellow armor was produced to mimic both.

               These Wasp Drones, dubbed Metaljackets by Odd, had metal hides immune to lasers and most blades. They flew with six wings and only needed two to keep going. They shot lasers out of their stingers and had small razor sharp claws on the tips of their legs and evasive flight patterns programmed into it. It could also plant explosives and use its eyes to fire a special laser with a knockout effect that lasted for 10 hours.

               They secretly tested one on a few of Beatrix’s soldiers on guard duty, allowing for a breach in her fortifications. Then he sent another to attack the Resistance.

               It didn’t matter that the signals and radio-waves of his machines suffered interference whenever they went inside the Valley. All he had to do was give them the general location and orders before sending them in.

               The Metaljacket planted explosives on a bridge between Wartwood and the Valley.

               “Hey ugly!”It turned and saw Sasha standing there with Croaker and most of her best commandos, “put your wings up and bombs away, and I’ll go easy on you!”

               The drone flew up and fired stinger lasers at her.

               She deflected it.

               It dodged all of Croaker and Ivy’s attacks and shot Wally with its eyebeams after he tried grabbing it with his tongue.

               He stumbled and nearly fell off the cliff before falling unconscious.

               Croaker caught him, and then she was knocked out next.

               “STOP IT!”Sasha screamed. She cut the head off.

               They had to retreat and drag their unconscious friends away when a squad of Frobots flew over to attack them. The bridge exploded seconds later.

               A Spacecraft design, the centipede creature called the Desecrator, gave Triple B the idea for a centipede design of their own.

               The Scolodroid (named after Earth’s largest centipede, the Scolopendra gigantea) was 6.5 ft long, had a silvery frame, and two crab claws at the end. It had laser eyes, could tunnel, fire electric shocks able to knock out or kill depending on the setting, crawl up and down trees, and had thick armor. They had swarms of nanites inside them designed to corrode buildings and other robots.

               One of them eroded a dozen of Marcy’s robots and went hunting for the Resistance’s leaders.

               Grime’s continuing bad luck meant he was the first it found.

               After getting back on his feet from the Hornet attack, he’d destroyed three factories, two dozen Frobots and eight Hornets by channeling his rage and strength to good use.

               “Very good, that’s great for today!”He praised his team.

               A pair of red eyes scanned his team from a nearby tree trunk, and zeroed in on Croaker and Loggle as the biggest threats after him.

               The ground cracked open behind Loggle. He was buried headfirst in the ground by a claw.

               Croaker came at it with sharp knives. It coiled in a rapid twist and swatted her in midair with heavy force. She was slammed into a nearby tree hard enough to sprain her aged limbs and incapacitate her.

               The ten frogs on hand charged in rage. It fired lasers at them and sent them scurrying.

               Grime charged at it from the side with his hammer and leaped in the air, ready to crush it in one blow.

               The Scolodroid responded by shocking him in midair.

               He landed, caught by surprise but still standing.

               “Nice try … you won’t bring me down so easily!”He taunted it.

               Unimpressed, it crawled toward him, fired lasers at him, and grabbed his right arm as he swung the Hammer at it. With a twist, his wrist snapped and dropped the Hammer.

               “Garrgghh!”He howled. He was shocked more until he fell unconscious.

               Chuck went for help. Soggy Joe was on duty at base. He tracked Grime and his abductor down  as quick as he could. Wasting no time, he jumped on the bug’s head with all his might and crushed it.

               He dragged Grime back.

               Sasha had her own problems that day. The Core stooped to a new low in tactics.

               A new model of taller Soldier Frobots was made with orange eyes identical to its own. They stood at 6’11”, had the usual lasers and missiles, buzz saws in their extendable arms, and coiled tentacle cables identical to the ones in the Castle they could unleash from compartments in their torso.

               Worst of all, they didn’t say a word. But if you taunted them or destroyed most of their fellow machines, they would start screaming. A hauntingly familiar shriek Marcy knew too well.

               Odd called them ‘Dread Bots’ because of this, and the rest of her group approved the name at once.

               Hordes of them were attacking Marcy’s forces over the Northern Mountains now, but Sasha had to deal with six of them, a battalion of Frobots and three Centurions attacking her and Maddie, Loggle and Ivy and ten others on a patrol.

               The Centurions engaged Sasha. She found them annoying since they put up a harder fight than most machines.

               Her team handled the Frobots fine enough.

               Loggle crushed the head of the first Dread Bot to come near him.

               Maddie noticed the Dread Bots kept staring at Sasha.

               “Hey, don’t ignore us!”She yelled. She hit one with a curse bag, and a toy duck appeared in its place.

               “Yeah, we’re your enemies too!”Ivy yelled. She drop kicked another one in the jaw.

               The other three unleashed their tentacles on her at once and held her in the air.

               “What the frogging heck?!”She yelled.

               Maddie and Loggle went to free her.

               Sasha’s rage spiked and so did her battle frenzy. The last two Centurions got cut through their backs.

               “You’re in for a world of hurt!”She hollered.

The trio of Dread Bots shrieked in response.

               The Resistance stared in appalled silence for a moment.

               “No, just no!”Sasha said. She cut Ivy free and went at them in a frenzy, dodging their tentacles for ten seconds until she got close enough. The last one got a glancing blow on her belly before she impaled it in the face.

               “That’s enough for today …”She decided.

               “Lieutenant, you don’t think … less of me, do you?”Grime asked Sasha while Maddie rubbed some healing balm on his arm.

               She rubbed her bandaged torso,“Of course not …I spent an hour fighting some of those dorky ones with shield and glowing tridents and then some new screaming ones … it wasn’t fun.”

               Toadie said,“Our neighboring rebels have their own problems. Large numbers have been swarming over the mountains at her territory up North, keeping them very busy. I counted a dozen large explosions on the cliffs in the distance while I was on lookout duty earlier.”

               Grime said nothing for a moment. Then he said,”In that case, perhaps I should pass on my congratulations to them.”

               The next day he had the chance to say so in person when they encountered a Frost Knight.

Thazarus was the first one they’d met before. Two days after they made havoc at the Bay, he was seen staring into the Wartwood Cemetery.

“That’s one of those knights that attacked the Great Bay!”Croaker said.

“Is he gonna bring the dead back to life to serve his Queen?”Wally whispered as a crowd gathered to stare.

Maddie was curious to learn more about these rumored magic users.

She called over, “Hey Mister?”

               Thazarus turned. The glowing blue eyes in his helmet made most of them shudder.

               The doleful sounding man said,“Miss Flour, what a delight!”

               “Why are they always so nice to Maddie?”Wally whispered.

               Maddie walked up to him,“Are you one of those knights working for the Cyberkinetic Witch?”

               He bowed politely to the young witch,“Indeed, Miss Flour. I am Lieutenant Thazarus of the Frost Knights!”

               Sasha was skeptical,“Frost Knights? Why go for that name?”

               Thazarus pulled one of his Endbringer blades out, pointed it towards the cemetery wall and unleashed a blast of blue energy. A thick layer of ice was left on the stone wall.

               “Never mind …”Sasha said. The Amphibians backed away in fear.

               Except Maddie and Ivy.

Ivy poked at the ice,“Is that magic?? How does she get robots to do that?”

               “We’re not machines!”Thazarus said.

               “Sir? If yer not a robot, what exactly is yer deal?”Toadstool said.

               Thazarus replied solemnly,”We do what the living cannot, and suffer well!”

               Most of them shuddered at what that implied. He was standing next to a graveyard after all.

               Maddie was frustrated,“Oh, that makes more sense! But I still can’t figure that kind of magic out at all! It’s so out of my league!”

               Thazarus offered her a bag of crushed spell powder,”Miss Flour, don’t be discouraged. If anyone around here could understand such things some day, it’s you!”

               He walked off.

 Maddie grinned and rubbed some of the powder in her fingers.

               Thazarus had volunteered to do patrols around the edges of Wartwood after the attack on the Bay. While Koliath took command of the Northern Valley Mountain patrols and defense, he handled monitoring the Southern regions without intruding on Wartwood Swamp.

               The Wartwoodians kept a wary eye on him as he paced around.

               They watched him from the trees three days later by the Tridabo River West of town.

               A force the size of the massive amount that destroyed their town came flying his way.

               Thazarus drew his large Endbringers out and got into a well-practiced stance.

               The Frobots shot at him. He didn’t even move but stood there, taking the blasts into his blades for half a minute.

               Then he reacted.

               He swung his swords and a fire whirl of glowing blue flames emerged, torching over half of the robots. They exploded or froze (or both).

               The last 20 landed on the ground to dodge it.

               Thazarus ran forward and went to work with his swords with brutal efficiency, cutting their heads and torsos off with swift strokes.

               Only two remained standing 20 seconds later.

               “Retreat!”One said. They took off into the air.

               Thazarus put his swords up and held his hands out.

               Shadows rose from his hands. The Frobots froze in midair with the shadows on their bodies, and flew back to him.

               He held their heads and started to decay their metal skulls with his touch. Their heads crumpled like cans.

 The lingering blue flames froze into elaborate icicles on the ground and Frobot bodies.

               Satisfied, Thazarus dusted his hands off and started walking upriver.

               Grime landed in front of him.

               “Yes, Captain Grime?”

               Grime’s teeth chattered as he forced himself to stand on the frigid ground, “Lieutenant  …whatever you are, however you’re doing this wizardry…do it away from here!”

               Thazarus narrowed his eyes.

 The Frost Knights hadn’t been impressed to learn of Grime’s ruined career or scheme for invading Newtopia. The toad soldiers were touched they said he’d failed them in his first duty as their commander.

 Barrel’s Warhammer didn’t scare them. They’d faced many weapons of equal or greater power many times.

               “Why?”

               “It’s …can’t you see we have it hard enough fighting off robots while the land burns to ashes around us? Your leader may be some enigma with powers she stole or-“Grime shut up when Thazarus drew his left blade out.

               “Don’t be absurd. This is not in sight of Wartwood’s borders. The Valley towns are all in ruins, you can’t do a thing to stop the enemy from coming here, and this victory of mine bothers you? Your words are nothing but wind in the mountains to me. The wind can howl all it wants, but the mountains will not bow to it!”

               Grime was indignant at the implication, “I’m not trying to make anyone bow to me!”

Thazarus wasn’t impressed. “Then stop pouting like a child who can’t have his way!”

               Grime bristled,“I’m risking my neck defending this Valley, but I keep getting assaulted and mocked by your robot soldiers!”

               “Yes, I know. A hazing tactic I do not care to indulge in. However, that wouldn’t be a problem if you quit provoking them so foolishly.”

               Grime looked ready to attack him,”FOOLISH?! THERE’S A TYRANT BURNING AMPHIBIA AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO CALL ME FOOLISH!!”

Thazarus’s eyes let off steam,”You and Commander Waybright tried to make everyone in the land bow to you before Andrias started this, remember?”

Grime and Sasha tensed.

Thazarus slowly stepped towards Grime. The toad  backed up against a nearby rock.

“Oh yes, we heard tales of your selfish grab for power … your pride came before a great fall!”

The toad kept very still as the blade pointed towards his heart, “You may be a famed gladiator and the toad soldier who led the Toad armies wielding that famed Warhammer in your hands, but none of that changes the fact you made a fool of yourself and lost! Arrogant warriors who disgrace themselves like you are far too common. I’ve ended many stronger and smarter than you!”

              

“Do you or your queen have a grievance against us for that day?”Grime asked quietly.

Thazarus put his sword back,”No. But those were not the acts of a hero, but a deceitful villain who abandoned his army and fled here to survive. Quit pretending that you’re a glorious hero of power and authority worth respecting! You lost your Tower, your army and any control over this Valley; and you know it!”

Grime frowned at the ground. Sasha had never seen him look so dejected.

Thazarus surprised her by saying,”However,  when you came here, you started fighting for something better for once in your life, yes?”

               Grime looked back up,“I did …”

               “Good. This is how you can atone for your crimes and be part of the chain we’re forging here. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You, your commander, and myself are not that particular link. It’s not even any of your soldiers standing there. But together,”Thazarus formed a chain of ice in his hands,”that chain holds firm and does not break. My Queen values you and your leader because you took it upon yourselves to protect that small town… one with no strategic value or significance to anyone outside this Valley. And you followed her all the way! That is not weakness nor taking the easy way out.”

               Grime smiled,“I know, I’m very proud of her for that!”

               Sasha blushed.

               Thazarus was amused,”I can see why … she’s got a hidden heart of gold and a will of iron.”

               A few of the others would show up and they started seeing just how diverse they were.

              

               Sasha’s eyes bugged out when she saw Verona walking past the swamp the next day. Her armor was … unique. Shiny black armor that glistened in the sun, tentacles and fins designs, a faceless helmet, and purple slit eyes on her shoulders. The watching Resistance shivered when the eyes blinked.

               Verona had peerless Shadow powers thanks to her Shadow Elf nature, so she wasn’t bothered when her extended vision saw a Cloak-Bot in cloak mode over a mile away. She raised her left hand and used Death-Grip to pull it to her.

               She bisected it with one swing.

               “Whoa!”

               Ivy squeaked in alarm when Verona turned in their direction after she said that.

               “Don’t look so grim … I thought you were fighting for a better future!”

               Her voice echoed with extra layers thanks to her powers and armor.

               Sasha came up to her. “Hi …thanks for that!”

               “You’re welcome … you’d be having an even harder time staying alive with these around, wouldn’t you?”

               Sasha rolled her eyes,”Lady, I’ve survived everything Andrias has thrown at us so far. I think I could manage.”

               “Is that so? Captain Grime has already proven he’s anything but invincible,”Grime sulked,”and you’ve lost twice to a vanished friend and once to Andrias himself in his own halls,”Sasha paled,”so perhaps …”Verona pointed her sword at her,”I should test your skills with a blade, Sasha Waybright, so I can judge what you can manage for myself!”

               “Oh come on, I’m not trying to pick a fight, Miss!”Sasha protested.

               “I am Lieutenant Verona. You didn’t. Consider this free practice! Being overconfident and unprepared before has already cost you dearly … don’t you want to avoid a worse mistake?”

               Sasha drew her Heron blades out and got into a practiced stance. Verona stood still and lazily drew a line in the sand with her sword.

               She waxed poetically,“Lines get drawn to set boundaries, but they’re so easily crossed,”she raised her sword up to block Sasha striking at her,”for better -“she made Sasha back up with jabs,”and worse!”

               Verona chuckled as Sasha did a backflip to land a yard away from her“Very quick … you are formidable indeed!”

She moved so fast no one could track her as she disarmed Sasha with two strokes that sent her swords flying into the air and knocked her on her back.

The Shadow elf pointed her sword at her chest,“But you’re not invincible! Understood?”

               Sasha nodded and let Verona pull her on her feet. Verona handed Sasha’s swords back to her and said,”If you wish to keep advancing your swordplay  someday, ask us. You have more skill than any of the war machines or soldiers I’ve defeated around here … it would be a waste to not improve on that.”

               Sasha said,”Maybe later.”

               Arabella’s armor caught her eye at once. The glowing feathers, the Valkyrie-like helmet and scale-like patterns were regal and intimidating, and so was her sword.

              

               Sorrowbane was massive, bound with straps across it in sections. Green gems were embedded in the hiltless handle and two spots further down the blade.

              

               The Resistance watched as she went to the Valley entrance one day to face a force of invading robots. Ten Tank Bots and every kind of basic Frobot soldier model surrounded her.

               Arabella grasped Sorrowbane, lit it up with fire and pointed it to the sky. A fireball flew miles high into the air.

               Amphibians and robots for miles around saw it rise higher and higher, and grow into a huge meteor of flames. It crashed into an entrenchment of Andrias’s troops above the North side of the Valley.

               Back in the Valley, Arabella waited until several Froglets tried to dogpile her and spun in a circle, blowing them back with a force of cutting air and heat.

               She dashed forward and cut through the shields and torsos of 24 Lancer Bots with speed that defied her sword’s size.

               Several Flame Bots sent blasts of heat at her.

               Arabella conjured a protective glacier in front of herself and pointed her sword at the sky.

               Whisps of blue energy rose to soar up into the sky. Up there they started forming an icy dragon

               Arabella pointed at the robots with her left hand.

               Winds of ice swirled out her fingers and  covered the eight Tank Bots heads with blocks of ice. Their processors malfunctioned and they collapsed.

              

               The Frostdrake’s Fury attack finished forming. The elemental Frostdrake flew down and blew frosty breath out of its mouth that covered the robots with a blanket of frost that froze them inside and out.

               The ice dragon faded into icy flurries that floated to the ground.

              

               Arabella noticed the Resistance staring

               “Like what you see?”Arabella called.

               She sounded quite cheerful.

               Sasha walked closer and asked,”How does your queen … make those?”

               Arabella giggled,”You want one, don’t you?”

               “Ehhhh … I don’t know. It’s hard enough doing my own swords properly, and the only magic weapon I know-is that magic?”She glanced at Grime. He eyed the Hammer in his hand and shrugged.

“It’s cool and all, but it wasn’t really my style to hold!”

 

               Arabella walked closer and held her hands out. “Let me see those bird blades of yours!”

               Sasha slowly handed her Heron blades over. The elf examined the hilts, whirled them in circles, and ran her fingers down the blades with ethereal blue flames coating them. The two swords weren’t harmed but glowed for a second.

               “Curious … I shall have to ask our local armorer what the strongest ores around here are used for swords. I’d wager these were made with them.”

               “Which armorer is that?”Grime called over.

               Arabella answered,“The best one in Amphibia!”

               She resumed patrolling.

               “Do you know who that is?”Sasha pressed Grime.

               Grime shook his head,“Sadly no. The best armorers all worked for Newtopia. I wouldn’t be surprised if she found the best they had and recruited them!”

               The question remained on their minds when they saw Septimus next.

               “I love that armor design!”Grime said at once.

               “What’s so-ok, yeah, that is pretty sick!”Sasha said.

               Septimus noticed Felicia shaking nervously, and he promptly went out of his way to say,”Lady Sundew, I apologize if my presence is disturbing your limited tranquility!”

               “Oh my …that’s very kind of you, Mister!”Felicia said. She’d never been called a lady before.

               “Call me Lord Septimus!”He bowed politely to her.

               “Aren’t you a real gentleman! I wouldn’t have pegged you for one that with that getup!”Sasha teased him.

               “Lady Sasha, armor can look as fancy as a diamond or gold ring, but it is useless if it can’t do its job and ensure the warrior can take it off after a battle!”

               “Well said! I’d wager that armor of yours can take many blows!”Grime said.

               “Since you bring that up …”Septimus spread his arms invitingly,”I invite you to take one free swing! Rest assured, I can take it!”

               Grime stared in surprise for a long moment, but decided to try. He  picked up Barrel’s Warhammer and gave one good swing at Septimus’s torso. It knocked the knight off his feet, but it didn’t make a scratch on the Terrorwyrm armor.

               Septimus got back up,“Impressive, that is a quality hammer.”

               “What is that armor made of?”Grime mumbled as Septimus walked off.

               Then they met Filmore.

               He was … colorful.

               His bulky bronze/green armor had green energy glowing out of every hole. His sword’s vivid patterns made Sasha think of blood vessel diagrams. And his Irish accent was very colorful

               “Come 'ere, you wretched iron lunk!”He hollered at a Hectabot when it was walking towards Wartwood.

               It focused all 100 eyes on him and fired nearly half of them at him.

               To their disbelief, the beams had no effect kept running until he got close and sliced down and a shadow tendril went right at its head. He clenched his fist and squeezed. The Hectabot’s head crumpled up.

               He cackled as several nearby Frobots came running and starting carving them up.

               Grime asked him moments later,”Where does your queen get such durable armor?”

               Filmore huffed and said,”Oh, the wee toad is jealous, ain’t he? Wot, ye want some, eh?”

               “Just curious, I-“

               He jumped when Filmore interjected,”I know ye been having a hard life! But that’s wot ye get for-“

He swore the air blue for half a minute.

               “Sir, there are children present!”Toadie protested.

               Filmore rubbed his neck,“Right, my bad! Tell you wot, come here!”

               He helped them gather some fresh battle gear from his foes.

              

               They met Ravyn not long after that. The elf’s spiky armor and her large sword made quite the impression.

               Sasha’s interest was intrigued when she first saw her. She looked at her closely and noted the hints of a feminine body and long amethyst hair pouring down her back.

               “That armor she’s packing is cool!”Sasha said.

               “No argument! “Grime said at once.

               “Is that knight a girl? That armor’s very …intense!”Wally questioned.

               “Trust me on this!”Sasha insisted.

               Ravyn glanced up at four Fireflyers flying by overhead. Instead of ducking for cover like they would, she raised her left hand.

               Using Death-Grip, she pulled them towards her.

               She beheaded two of them in one stroke, froze another one solid with her free hand, and pinned the last one down under her boot.

               “Signal for reinforcements“The Frobot said. She let it do that for five seconds, then pressed her boot down harder. The Frobot’s chassis cracked and it shut down.

               She waited until 40 Frobots and a Platinumb came flying up next.

               Ravyn was pleased to see the harder target coming her way.

               “Good, very good …”

Ravyn’s voice was a sultry contralto.

               “Told you she was a girl!”Sasha said triumphantly to Wally.

               Gravewhisper glowed white on the runes.

 

               She swung it and all but the Platinumb were cut in two and/or frozen and fell with a shattering crash to the ground.

               The Platinumb fired a dozen rockets at her. They failed to hit due to lack of heat and her running towards it.

               She jumped toward its face and impaled it right in the ‘mouth’.

               The Resistance grimaced as she drew her blade out slowly from its twitching head on the ground and wiped the oil stains off on a nearby log.

               Two White Tank Bots came from the North. They deployed their Froglets in the air and crouched down to deploy their back-mounted missile banks.

               Ravyn chuckled as the mass of Froglets landed to surround her.

               She stomped her foot and unleashed Glacier Advance to send a wave of ice spikes to impale the Froglets in front of her. She swung her sword to freeze the rest behind her as they leaped at her. The three who avoided it got bisected immediately.

               The two Tank Bots unleashed another row of Frobots and fired dozens of missiles at her. She used Gorelord’s Grip to send shadowy tendrils out from her body and seize every robot and pull them towards her. She swung her sword to obliterate and consume the missiles.

               The Froglets and Tank Bots were crushed by the shadows and dropped in pieces.

               “Wow …”Sasha said. This chick had beaten over 100 robots in less than a minute.

The knight looked their way. “Come out. I can smell the stench of swamp on you.”

               A few of them sniffed their clothes and skin . Sasha held her hands up and came out,”Just keeping an eye out around here, miss, uh …?”

               Ravyn’s mouth and skin were practically invisible even with no lower mouthguard on her modified helmet, but that didn’t matter since her smile practically glowed.

               “I am Ravyn Sorrowblade!”

               Grime and the rest went,”Oooo!”

               Sasha fought the urge to groan. “You go girl! You certainly made them sad! I love that sword!”

               Gravewhisper looked taller than Jada herself, who stood at 5’10” without the helmet.

               Ravyn’s smile grew and she held the blade out to Sasha,“Yes, it’s two handed for most to be able to just hold it … give it a try!”

               “Why??”Sasha asked. She feared what might happen.

               The knight said with glee,“My friend Arabella tells me you’re curious about our weapons, and I heard you’re a strong little girl who likes to look tough …I want you to show me!”

               Sasha took the large blade and was able to lift it with both hands and then one. Her body felt a charge go down it, but it didn’t hurt. She swore she heard faint whispers from the blade.

               Ravyn was pleased. “ You could make a great war queen someday!”

               “I’m not a war queen! I didn’t ask to be called one like your leader!”Sasha protested.

               Ravyn took her sword back,“Neither did she … the people she liberated called her that first!”

               Sasha shook head,“That’s cool and all, but …I don’t have powers like her!”

               “Not like Anne …”

               Ravyn wanted to groan out loud. Sasha had felt the same kind of power before, and still didn’t see the connection??

She pointed a spiny armored finger at Sasha’s heart,”Sasha Waybright …you may not understand what it means to hold real power at your fingertips … but that doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of it!”

 She left Sasha to chew on that.

Grime admired the way these warriors challenged him and Sasha in ways that dared them to step up and be stronger. It was … refreshingly serious to him.

 So when he saw Lady Grenda fighting some invaders, he headed over to watch at once.

Lady Grenda was tearing up a bunch of Dread Bots in a vicious frenzy. They didn’t slow her down even when attacking her three to four at a time.

She impaled 20 at once with a hail of ice shards to the head and chest.

The only one to get close wrapped its tentacles around her torso. She gripped its limbs and froze solid in one second.

The last two Dread Bots shrieked and fired missiles at her from the air. Grenda deflected the missiles with ease, held her right hand in the air and seized them with her Asphyxiate power. The machines looked like they were choking as they hovered and flailed, unable to make another sound.

“Your vile master earns more pain for itself day by day for such acts!”She said venomously. She swung her Bladespear and beheaded them.

               “Ahem!”Grime said when she was done.

               She turned to face him. He put his hands together,“Pardon me, miss … what’s your name?”

               Grenda’s purple eyes narrowed,“I am Lady Grenda. What do you want, Captain Grime?”

               With Sasha and the rest watching, he said,”Lady Grenda, you may be aware of how dangerous it’s been for us this week, but I’ve heard that your armies have been doing glorious battle on the North Valley and fighting them off hard. I’d like to pass on my thanks and congratulations. It’s only fair of me to say so since you’ve been dealing with the same new monstrous machines Andrias has been unleashing in greater numbers!”

               Grenda stared at him for a long moment. She started cleaning the curved top of her Bladespear with a cloth,”We certainly have been dealing with the new threats from the mad king. I appreciate this courteous gesture of yours and will pass it along. But since when is war ever fair, Captain?”

               He sputtered,“It’s not … I’m just trying to be nice!”

               The knight looked behind him and said,”Wartwood Resistance, this is a glorious day to be remembered in history! This is the day Captain Grime performed a miracle!”

              

 Sasha rolled her eyes as the villagers laughed.

“I’m never going to get respect from any of you, am I?!”Grime yelled.

               Grenda leaned on her spear,”You seek respect a lot, Captain Grime. What DO you want to be respected for? Being an infamously cruel toad captain who lost his army twice, a greedy traitor who tried to seize power, or a rebel fighting to protect a village he once cared nothing for?”

               Grime said nothing, but he looked behind him.

Grenda chuckled, “I see. Tell me, does that Warhammer mean a lot to you?”

               He was surprised she had to ask since they were so well-informed,“Of course it does. Barrel’s Warhammer is a legend to all toads and the best one around here.”

               The knight pointed at it,“A weapon’s legend and prestige is tied to its quality and feats of battle its wielder does. The Legend of Barrel’s Warhammer, as I’ve been told by former soldiers of the toad armies, is an old one. Barrel the Brave was the most renowned of ancient toad warriors who once carried that weapon in the early days of Andrias’s reign. He crushed many enemies with it until he died in battle facing a monster that threatened a helpless village . Whoever wields this weapon is said to be the true leader of all toads.”

               Grime liked where she was going with this,“Yes, all true! You respect that sort of thing, Lady Grenda?”

Grenda smirked under her mask,”I certainly do, but I’m more interested in the story of your quest to retrieve it … a quest that succeeded when Commander Waybright went wild pulling it out of the live Narwhal worm’s skull it was lodged in!”

The Frost Knights had found that very amusing.

               “That’s where you got that thing? From a giant worm’s head?”Ivy asked. The Wartwoodians snickered.

               Grime himself started to laugh,“It wasn’t the most glorious of places to find it, Ivy, but it was a hard battle getting it out! The commander knocked the beast out with a blow to the head after she finally got it free and sent it crashing into the North Tower!”

               Grenda asked sardonically,“Is that its true nature? This Warhammer grants great prestige and power as long as you survive wielding it and constantly use it to pulverize the skulls of your enemies and demolish buildings?”

               The Wartwoodians laughed.

               Grime chuckled and slapped his side,”Maybe so!”

               Barrel groaned in the afterlife as Leif cackled.

               Sasha’s face went red,“That is NOT how it works! And it’s not our fault that’s where it was!”

               “It was your idea to get it, Waybright!”Grenda said.

               “She insisted!”Grime confirmed.

               “Grimesy!”Sasha moaned.

               Grenda snickered,“A glorious leader of all toads you are not, but perhaps what you need is to earn this weapon some new renown by taking down more monsters! Would a hundred-eyed giant be a good start?”

               Grime raised an eyebrow,“I’d like that, but why?”

               Grenda pointed her spear at the sky and fired a blast of blue energy into the air. A Hectabot in the area came zooming towards her.

               Grenda pointed at it,”There’s one!”

               Grime ran at it and took it on single-handedly, dodging the many eye blasts and jumping into position until he was able to attack it from the right angle and deliver a great smack to the Hectabot’s head. He was in such a good mood he whooped when four squad of Frobots came over the hill rise and went at them next. Most of the Resistance joined in, except Sasha and Toadie.

               “Do I need to do that to make my blades be legendary?”Sasha asked moodily.

               “Do you? You’ve done quite a lot with those Heron blades, yes? The first warrior to wield them?”

               Sasha smiled and pulled out her pink one,“Yes … I was given this one first after I saved the South Tower from some Herons ...”

 

*The Star rests *

               Marcy lay down in bed.

               After they recruited the Night Guards, Zel had convinced her to get needed medical treatment to remove the remnants of the suit and implants the Core had put on her and heal the worst of the internal damage.

               “If you’re going to rescue Olivia and Yoohoo from the Castle … you don’t want them to have an advantage like that … or to be injured when Anne gets back, do you?”She asked when Marcy looked terrified at the idea.

               “We’ve got more than enough medical supplies, peerless healers and more to manage it, and plenty of security!”Smarcy added.

               “Ok … fine!”Marcy said.

               It would take five days to get her back on her feet, but worth it. However, the sight of the ghastly festering wound on her chest, the bloodstains (green mixed with red) and circular plug marks and more had made every witness appalled, angry, or both. A few threw up.

               Zel’s rage towards the Leviathans was inflamed many times hotter. She stood guard by Marcy’s room every day while the rest directed the war efforts.

               Her inner wounds, the green ‘blood’ still in her, and lingering ‘internal additions’ were dealt with, but over half of the scars on her skin (including her facial ones) lingered. Sally theorized that they were connected to her initial rebirth as a Calamity Star since they glowed whenever her powers were active.

               Zel went inside her room after the first night was done. Marcy was shaking and her eyes were wide open and strained, one sign she’d had a nightmare.

               She didn’t notice Zel since she was playing her game systems to keep her mind occupied.

 

               “I’m not that good with words, Zelly … sometimes it helps to have someone else say it, or use something else, like music, to express how you feel! For example,”Marcy pointed at her tail,”I’m 75.8% certain your tail is more expressive than your face for when you get angry or excited!”

               Zel flushed but said,”Fine, so my tail is expressive and you’re shy, but you’re still coming with me!”She led Marcy back out to eat dinner with her gang.

Zel had Marcy pegged by now. She really couldn’t be alone. For both motivation and safety, she was better off with people she could trust and believed in her.

 

               “Marcy!”Marcy jumped at the sound of her voice. Zel hit herself hard for startling her and came up delicately and held her gently by the hands,”Sorry. I’ve got to stop startling you like that … are you ok?”

               “Do I have to be?”Marcy asked hollowly.

               Zel frowned,“No! You need to rest, not play games!”

               Marcy started to curl up in fear. Zel crouched down and said gently,“Marcy …come on, I thought you wanted to be honest with me …” she gently took her hands,”you can trust me!”

               Marcy sat up,“I do … I’m … not ok. I can’t sleep. Those new Dreadbots were making a lot of noise before you asked me about this.”

 Zel grit her teeth. That attack had been utterly pointless for Andrias and the Core to try to win anything (they’d crushed the robots in less than ten minutes) but the Dreadbots had spooked Marcy a lot and enraged them all so much they ground the robots to pieces to be melted down entirely.

And now, robots were coming in waves around the mountains, keeping them busy. The Core’s army hadn’t gone down in size but was fielding fresh troops at an alarmingly fast rate.

               “I want to end this, but we have to be cautious and not get too greedy … that’s always a problem with me. I get into winning a battle of wits or a challenge and … sometimes it’s good to be willing to accept winning isn’t everything. That’s how I passed the test at my Temple, but …”her breath hitched,”I can’t lose now. It’s not …”

               Zel hugged her tight with her tail and gently put her console to the side,”Hush. You think too much. You don’t have to win everything here! This isn’t just you fighting to win and survive, but everyone living here! That’s not just your burden to bear!”

               “I’m so sick of life having to get so twisted!”Marcy said.

               Zel rubbed her head,“I know Marcy …so am I! I don’t blame you for having nightmares.”

               “Why are you so nice to me??”Marcy asked.

               “You’re nice to me, and you’re funny and adorable. What’s not to like?”

               “Some people don’t see it that way. You thought I was weird, clumsy and silly before meeting me!”

               Zel snorteed“You are, but that’s not unlikable! You earned that dorky statue fair and square because you did things that helped people!”

               The statue was now sitting outside the Nerve Center after they retrieved it from Newtopia.

               “I didn’t demand that statue get put up, you know! I was… trying to help …”Marcy said.

               “Of course you were, and you did! That’s not a bad thing! Every other statue or monument in the city’s wrecked now, so who cares?”Zel said.

               Marcy frowned,“ Andrias didn’t have to let the city get overgrown with waste and go toxic just because he lifted his Castle out of it.”

               “He’s stupid. Do you want me to stay here so you’ll rest better?”Zel asked.

               Marcy said,”Stay, please …”

               Zel would’ve groaned if any of her old classmates or anyone from her hometown could’ve seen Marcy curled up against her with Zel’s tail still wrapped around her waist like a blanket. But she didn’t let go of her either.

               “You softie!”Halley teased her half an hour later when she walked out and saw Marcy holding on tight to Zel in her sleep.

               “Oh hush!”Zel snapped.

               “Make me! Don’t hurt your baby sister in the process!”Halley taunted.

               “She is NOT my baby sister!”Zel snapped.

               Halley sat across from her and said,”You treat her like one though!”

               Zel lost her anger,”She’s so weak and … hurt under all that power and spunk, it’s hard not to be …”she faltered,”I thought she was some kind of wild freak of nature when I first saw her. Humans look so weird …but she never ever said we’re ugly to her. I asked her …”

               Marcy was offended,“Of course not. Did I ever say that?”

               Zel waved her hand,“I’m just asking … Looking at our so-called Earth ‘brethren’ raises so many questions. It creeps me out that you have smaller Amphibians on Earth that are just dumb animals. Frogs get used for dissection and food dishes, toads and news get used for witch’s potions as ingredients in stories, and all these little Amphibians get kept as pets or lab rats …”

               “That’s common to many animals on Earth! Don’t worry about it! ”Marcy passed her some cookies.

               “Would that be a problem for me or the rest of us if we ever went to Earth? Would they think I’m a stupid animal or there to eat them?”Zel asked.

               “Probably not too much! Amphibians here are smart, wear clothes, communicate, and familiar enough to Earth ideas of life. An alien species that doesn’t look like anything familiar, for example, would get a stronger negative reaction. Besides, Amphibia had an advanced society and technology before we did. Granted, the Music Box was cheating on that a bit,”Zel laughed,”but your ancestors understood what they were doing and you guys learn fast enough. All that’s common ground. The big problem, I think, would be treating each other with respect.”

               Marcy frowned as Zel raised an eyebrow,”Look at me, I’ve been called ugly, deformed, a monster with a bump in my face, and more before someone even gets to know me. I get it, I don’t fit this world’s mold. But the reverse applies for your kind on Earth. To humans, Amphibians are going to look just as ugly and unnatural. I look perfectly normal on Earth, but Amphibians will make them think ‘ big creepy eyes, slimy skin, warts, sticky toes and fingers, long tongues, sharp teeth in big mouths, and an appetite for gross things like live bugs, ewwww!’.”

               “That’s harsh,”Zel said.

               “I know, Zelly. But if you complained about that or other insults, humans could easily deflect by pointing out that your world has invaded and destroyed other worlds for ages and prepared to do so to Earth. Many would say you deserve to be insulted. Invading other worlds and wiping out the population never brings out the best in people.”

               Zel had no response. Marcy hugged her and said,”Oh cheer up. I know better than that! You look good to me. Blue skin, the prettiest tail around,”Zel blushed,”and great hair. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it’s what’s on the inside that counts!”

              

               Halley smiled,,“Yeah, she’s not wrong, people do get nasty about that sort of thing easily. We already have problems insulting each other! One time I asked her why humans don’t have slimy skin …”

               “I’m not trying to be mean. I’m just sayin’, it sounds uncomfortable to be a mammal!”Halley said.

               Marcy did a ‘Pros and Cons’ chart for her.

               “Thanks for that, sweetie, but you’re still missing out!”

               “Maybe I am … I’m very curious what having a tail feels like,”Halley snickered and picked her up with hers to ride on her shoulders,”thanks, but still, mammals do better in some things. Cold weather is easier for us, for example.”

               “Yeah, yeah, you and your knights make that painfully clear!”She high-fived a passing Marcus,”but you’d love to be a slimy acrobat, I can tell!”

               “Sure, Hal, but … on Earth, being called slimy isn’t a compliment. It can mean you’re filthy, dishonest or only pretending to be friendly … and we both know I have bad experience here with that.”

               “Hey hey, don’t let Andy boy ruin a cool word for ya!”Halley scolded her.

               “Fine, let’s make a new slogan: go good on slime or don’t waste our time!”

               “I admire that positivity of hers!”Halley said. She held Marcy’s left hand and stroked it.

Zel rubbed Marcy’s head fondly,”So do I!”

               Marcy stirred and mumbled,”It’s hard being positive and a genius …”

               “Why’s that? You do great at it!”Halley asked.

               “Do you know just how many negative things I observe all the time?! If I bothered dwelling on every obvious problem or bad character trait I can observe in the people around me, the list would never end and I’d never want to socialize again! People judge others for the dumbest of reasons … and I’m dealing with people being very dumb a lot these days!”

               “Trust me, we know! But you can’t cure stupidity!” Zel said.

               “I wish we could focus on common ground more …you know, we have enough in common. Humans are at the top of the food chain because we are persistence hunters. We can outthink, outwait and even outrun a lot of the bigger or deadly animals on our world. It used to be a lot more dangerous, but we survived. Adapting to new areas and challenges helps us overcome the odds. Take you guys! Amphibians back home are much smaller and wild, but to be called an amphibious creature means you could live on land and water, the key parts of life. You guys are just as smart, tall and capable as we are! Amphibia was at a high-tech level of progress before we were! When Andrias said his family were great explorers, that excited me. It’s a classic idea to explore other places, meet new kinds of people and learn all kinds of new things … some sci-fi shows have ships with crews of all kinds of aliens and humans serving side by side,”She trailed off …”shame he was lying. Just imagine how much more creative and beneficial Amphibia could’ve been if they tried more exploring and less conquering?”

               “In my experience, exploring often happens before a fight starts. It’s another way to find out what’s ripe for the taking! Didn’t you say humans do that too?”Zel asked critically.

               Marcy moaned in despair. Zel snickered,”That’s fine, Mars. I’d have believed Andrias if he told me that. That’s the sort of thing he’s encouraged for years! What his family and other conquerors do is stupid and greedy, but it’s just how people are!”

               “I’m not strong enough or smart enough to deal with any of this … why’d I’d ever have to find that stupid Box?”

               Zel wasn’t going to let her start sulking again,”Marcy, that Box was begging to be found by someone. From what you told me, if you’d just seen it and been interested because it was the same Box you saw in that book, you’d have looked at it and showed your friends anyway. Same result. Sasha was interested in stealing and selling it. If not you, someone else. I doubt anyone around was as smart as you …”

               She cupped Marcy’s face,”And you are not weak! You fell down 200 flights of stairs in Newtopia with just a broken leg- something plenty of newts your size wouldn’t have walked off,”Marcy giggled,”and you went to the Night Guard and learned how to fight and levelled up. You survived being impaled by a sword that’s hotter than fire,”she put her fingers on Marcy’s chest,”and recovered quickly enough when you woke up to move about. These new powers only make you more awesome.”

               Marcy sniffed,”Thanks Zelly. I wish we could’ve met sooner …maybe I would’ve had more fun with you outside of the Castle.”

               Zel shook her head,“I don’t know about that. You got close to Lady Olivia and Yoohoo quick enough.”

               “Yeah …,”Marcy held up a picture of Olivia,”she said everyone was counting on me here when I promised to help her out on protecting Amphibia. I’m gonna keep that promise. I want so bad to make this place green and growing again, just how she likes it. She put up with so much for my sake and had to deal with a  king who sucked at behaving himself and now sucks at being a king,”Zel and Halley laughed,”and all the messes and problems when Anne and her new fam came … she never once stayed angry with me or them for long.”

               “So, she’s your found family mom here?”Halley teased her.

               Marcy blushed,”I doubt she’d want to put it that way … but she’s certainly got the patience of a mother.”

               “She’ll be proud of you, I know it! We all are!”Zel said.

               “Thanks, Zelly … you’re the big sister I never had!”Marcy said.

               “I am NOT your big sister!”Zel growled.

               “That’s not an insult …maybe I needed one!”Marcy looked at her family photos,”I spent so many years alone at home. My parents are always busy, and a lot of our talks are about things I’m good at it … school, success, and every bright option I could do as a genius in college …’everyone would take you, Marcy’ …”Marcy groaned,”Sasha’s got several siblings. She doesn’t hate them. In fact, it helped her master taking control in chaotic situations easier! Even Anne got two new ones with the Plantars! Me … I missed out on all that.”

               Zel plucked Marcy out of bed with her tail into her arms,”Let’s do some physical therapy!”

               Halley grinned as they led her off. In her gut, she knew … Zel saw Marcy as family. Marcy already did. In her sleep, she unconsciously relaxed every time Zel touched her.

 Two days later, the three got even closer in a dream experiment.

               “I don’t want you having nightmares, and that charm can’t go on again until tomorrow, so do something else!”Zel said.

               “Hmm, we could do a support group dream! You two could help me relax …”Marcy held their hands and her mind opened.

               They sat in a bar in her mind.

               “Neat! It worked … we could just hang out in dreamland and do things!”Marcy said.

               “Wow …”Halley whistled.

               An hour later, Marcy tried an idea and let their dream forms go ‘human mode’ while she tried an adult ‘newt Marcy’ mode.

               “This is what you feel like?”Zel said in disbelief. She looked at her face with brown skin, green eyes, and a nose. Her tail was gone and it left a huge void in her mind as she looked behind her. Halley made all sorts of faces with her human look and tried some acrobatics. The two tried human food and their food and agreed the taste sensation was different.

               Marcy enjoyed feeling what being an Amphibian felt like temporarily, and she agreed with them that having a tail was awesome.

               “I told you the other Amphibians are just jealous! Those tadpole knockoffs don’t do squat and they never use them for anything!”Zel said as she felt Marcy’s 3 ft green limb.

               “I’m just glad we can try it safely in here!”Marcy frowned,”Whatever ‘merging’ plans the Core had in mind, it’s-“

               Zel started shifting back into her usual look,”No no, don’t go there. The Core ceased to be a real Amphibian a long time ago. Those fools joined their  minds together inside of some creepy shell with tentacles, stopped speaking out loud, hide in the dark and are just interested in eating worlds.”

               “Yeah!”Halley said firmly.

               Marcy reverted back to herself too,”Welp! The three of us, for all we know, are the first from both worlds to know what it feels like to be each other’s species even just a little bit!”

              

              

              

*Next moves*

               Marcy called a meeting after she got back on her feet. “Our first order of business is to resolve the objectives of Newtopian residents and valuables to acquire. Newtopia itself is abandoned and our scouts report Andrias is starting to fortify it.”

               Zel touched the map,”After their recent humiliating defeats, the Castle has been moved farther North and the empty city is a place the Leviathans do not want to be embarrassed at again. So rather than let recent rumors persist that we have the run of the place, they’ll make the empty city into a fortress capable of holding hundreds of thousands of soldiers.”

               Alastor took over,“That won’t be a focus of ours for now, since the people are scattered. Our Wit Wraith Squad just took the Cragspur Isles and the forts there at the top of Cragmarrow Cove’s entrance to the Great Bay. We can move across the Bay easily from the West, head straight to the city areas from right below the Valley foothills up above, or from the desert in the East. In less than a week tops, we can organize an offensive to strike at the Castle to retrieve her ladyship and General Yunan, removing any major leverage the Core has and regaining Newtopia’s most respectable top leaders, and go to major camps and work areas to convince willing citizens to join our cause.”

               Zel smiled,”Luckily, we already have several thousand soldiers and residents from other areas to back us up on this, and these new living conditions and forced labor isn’t making Andrias look any better.”

               Vivi asked Marcy,”Any reason you don’t want or need Sasha or Anne for this?”

               Marcy rubbed her hand along her forehead as they all waited .”My issues with them are one thing, but let’s talk about why it’s not practical. Anne probably would be useful for this if she was here. However, her first impression to Newtopia wasn’t stellar. She made a few friends here and there, sure, that’s Anne for you, but …”Marcy sighed with fond exasperation,”I’ve found reports that she and the Plantars disrupted and disrespected the parade of Igor the Brave, caused a panic with a fire and assaulted city guards and civilians for some reason,”Vivi’s jaw dropped,”and they were banned from the aquarium for causing panic with an incident with their Stingrays, and more. She’s not as popular as me there, but she did try and help stop the toad invasion for them. If she were here, I’d have her along. But she’s not here.”

She frowned while looking at Sasha’s picture,”Now as for Sasha, let’s be real. She’s actively avoided taking charge of an army again because she doesn’t think she merits it. In this case, it’s certainly true. The last thing the people of Newtopia know about her is that she and Grime lead the Toad armies to do an unprovoked invasion of their city right before the Castle rose up and the robots started coming out. Over half of the people believe this was a response of retaliation to such an offense, which is partially true, and for all they knew they died. She and Grime left their defeated  and captured army with no apparent plans to save them, and …”she turned slowly to a few of their toad soldiers present,”forget Newtopia. How did that make you guys feel?”

               April scowled,”Pretty mad … that whole thing was their idea, and we went for it. Thought it would be epic and all, but then the robots came out and we got surrounded. Most of us got locked up and made to do hard labor. The unlucky guys died that day or later. A few times I wondered if those two died in the Castle, and then you tell us they flew away on your bird that saved their lives and have been living free down South? Hard not to be mad at them.”

               Andre said,”Our captain lost everything but his life, and we owe Grime nothing for now.”

               “In other words, Sasha and Grime are liabilities,”Zel concluded,”Their Resistance is surprisingly capable and the towns of Bittyburg and a few residents of Swamp Shiro and Bog Bottom found sanctuary there before we came along. But their reputation outside the Valley carries little weight. They can’t do a third of what we or Beatrix can with our supplies, defenses, troops and ability to travel.”

               “But the final attack requires them both, yes?”Betty said.

               “Do I have to keep explaining this?!”Marcy grumbled.

               “Easy, Marcy, we’ve got new faces and it helps to review!”Aelita said encouragingly.

               Nicky smiled and gave her a teacake to cheer up,“Not to worry, Miss Wu, we all understand very well that you need back up facing the Night!”

               She sighed miserably“Ugh, yes, thank you. For one thing, I am never, EVER going to feel confident going into that wretched rock again. I may be more powerful than ever, but I cannot face the Core alone. It makes me shake just thinking about being anywhere near it again, and … some of my psychic visions or touching its mind recently, reinforced to me how horrible the Core really is. That thing doesn’t just fear death but losing everything its ever had. It will do whatever it takes to beat us and hold onto the Stones … even Anne alone couldn’t beat it. I’m positive. She would give it all she’s got, but her control and skill over her powers is amateur-level and untrained. I have a good grasp of mine, but that’s not enough to guarantee a win. Sasha’s powerless for now. Thankfully, my research indicates that a Star with powers can restore it to the other two. When Anne gets back, we’ll try. Together, can plan on killing the Core for good.”

               Pleased, Nicky circled the Castle on the map,“Excellent. This won’t end their threat, but it will cause great delays to their operations.”

               “Speaking of delays, I had a target in mind …”Zel pointed at the largest bridge in Amphibia,”Saint’s Lake and its bridge is on the direct road from the Valley all along the route to Newtopia. We could slow their advancements to the Valley down a lot by getting rid of it.”

               Nicky clapped,“Excellent idea, Miss Brooks! They’re already they’re dropping like flies anyway trying to fly here as it is!”

               “We can expand on our newly improved transportation services to offer others at the same time,”Dawn said.

               Marcy stroked her chin,”Let’s not just destroy it … we could hold the bridge with some of our best and draw some of his armies there to bleed them out a bit.”

She tapped Mt. Mufu,” Also, I’d like to ensure Andrias isn’t able to claim the Arctic and Second Temple for himself.”

               Darius cleared his throat,”Leave both of these tasks to us, Lady Marcy.”

               Marcy gave a thumbs up,“Of course. Mystical arctic lands and wrecking armies is your area of expertise!”

*Battle of the Bridge*

               Saint’s Lake was a large lake and the bridge that crossed it was nearly two miles wide. Villages and fishing docks surrounded it, and still did (albeit repurposed).

               Traffic across it hadn’t ceased or diminished since the war started, not even with the lake getting contaminated by pollution. Frobots and other soldiers crossed over it all the time.

               One day, two strange beings walked to the edge of the lake.

 Marcus and Minerva had volunteered to blockade the bridge.

               The two knights walked into the lake, unbothered by the toxic water, and reached the bridge pillars. With their hands, they climbed up to the East-facing side and clung to the side.

 They waited until there was a lull in activity and climbed over.

               Minerva and Marcus nodded at each other and started walking towards the North and South ends of the bridge

               A nearby Frobot standing along the side turned and saw Minerva first. It’s radio dish popped out.

               “Signalling all units!”

               She grinned and waited ten seconds before beheading it.

               Heads turned as the Frobots on the bridge reacted and started shooting. Minerva mowed down the sentries with ease. Marcus quietly dispatched the few who attacked him.

               Scores of Frobots approached Minerva by air and on foot. They got cautious as they got closer.

               “Come on, don’t be shy …”Minerva mocked them.

               She let her axe do the talking when they started shooting.

               Marcus made a sport of whacking their own lasers back at them like a baseball or levitating them over the lake and dropping them in.

               Lieutenant Mojo, a green-bearded toad in charge of the nearby garrison, directed the Frobots in the area to go attack while he led his 50 troops to go towards the boats.

               Andrias caught wind of this and pulled up video feed for himself and officers in the Castle (including Nolan and Triple B) to watch.

               “They must be holding it to prepare for a force to head North by land!”He said.

               Nolan turned to a robot and said,”Send all nearest units to that area at once!”

               In Ribbitvale, the Gilded Bots and Lancer Bots assigned to patrol the streets got called to go there. The larger number of Judge Bots and their Hood guards joined in after 100 Frobots were reported destroyed.

               The curious Amphibians of Ribbitvale and the surrounding areas came to the shore and hillside to watch.

               “What are they going to do?”Wigbert wondered. He pulled out his binoculars and set up a chair.

               Sasha was out scouting in the air on Joe Sparrow along with Felicia and Ivy, and she saw the distant flashes of lasers and flew him over to watch just in time for the real fight to begin.

               “We haven’t seen those two Frost Knights yet …”She said.

               Minerva had a brief moment of respite after she bisected the last two Frobots near her.

Marcus had a large number of Sentinels, Hoods, Dreads, Lancers and Grands coming towards him.

               Marcus’s Migraine mace was nearly five feet long and the head’s flanges looked ornate and sharp. But that was far from the most dangerous part of it. This mace wielded double the amount of strength of its wielder, was good at fire and energy attacks, and immune to heat.

               He held it ready in his left hand.

               The Lancers formed a shield wall and the Gilds and Sentinels charged at him.

               Marcus swung his mace to the left and sent fifteen attackers flying off the bridge. He swung to the right and knocked over seventeen more. Twice more he swung as Sentinels and Grands came at him. Same results.

               Finally he swung it forward and broke down the shield wall and 25 Lancers with it.

               Ribbitvale’s elegant Chief Judge Bot came flying over to land in front of him.

               Marcus wasn’t impressed as it swung its extra-large spiked mallet at him. He broke its legs with one swing of Migraine and dropped it on its back.

               “YOU’RE OUT OF OR-“

He swung the mace into its face.

               Two of his lesser Judge subordinates charged in fury and swung at his head. He broke their mallets and their torsos with a mighty pivot swing.

               “Destroy unnatural knight!”

               Marcus eyed the two dozen Fireflyers surrounding him with annoyance. They started firing at him. He was knocked on his knees.

               “Time for Dragon’s Breath!”He thought. He swung Migraine and a flaming image of a dragon appeared. It swirled above him and sent out a breath of fire that scorched the Fireflyers and three dozen Soldiers.

               He stood up to see a Gild coming at him. He reared a fist back and broke the Frobot’s skull. He picked up its sword in his right hand and did rapid dual wielding moves against a group of charging Frobots.

               Slicing a Lancer’s head open with the sword. A sideswipe with Migraine to the head of a Sentinel. Slicing through a Lancer in mace mode in midair.  Slicing off a Dreadbot’s tentacles before they made contact. Migraine crushing a Soldier’s chest. Cutting a Gild’s legs off. Swinging both weapons left and right to dispatch a Lancer apiece. Carving two Hood’s necks open and impaling a third Hood through its Core chest symbol in less than five seconds. Smacking a Soldier to the left with Migraine. Bisecting a Hood with the sword. Breaking a Lancer’s shield with Migraine and knocking it backwards into three others. Cutting the head off a Hood’s axe with the sword and swinging Migraine to hit it and a Dread in the face. Thrusting Migraine into the face of a Lancer after dodging its mace hands. Cutting the arms off a Hood and beheading a Dread in two swift sword strokes. Cutting a lance in half and slamming his mace into the Lancer’s torso. Swinging Migraine down onto the top of a Sentinel’s head. Kicking a Sentinel over the side and throwing the sword into a Dread’s ‘neck’. Cracking a charging Dread’s head with Migraine, followed by a Gild.

Marcus had a brief pause after that. He looked winded as three Centurions ran extra fast at him but he swung Migraine back and then left to smash all three all the way into a rock on the far shore.

 He picked up a stray Gild’s trident and ducked as three Hoods and a Dread encircled him and simultaneously swung at his head. He spun the trident around to strike them in their faces with a loud whack that made the spectators wince.

               A smarter Hood swung its axe down to cut the trident in half. He impaled the jagged half in his hand into its face and seized its axe. He used the axe to cut through three more Hood’s heads and then threw it into the chest of an airborne Soldier to his right.

Marcus picked up one more trident and hurled it into the head of another Centurion running towards him and cleared the area by swinging Migraine to unleash fire on 50 Frobots in his path.

               A Silver Tank Bot landed in front of him with a loud thud. Marcus waited until it swung its left mace at him and stepped to his right. He reared Migraine back and swung it into the torso of the heavy robot. It went flying several hundred feet into the air and crashed through a refinery’s roof. The building crumpled like a paper cup and started to burn.

               “Oh my frog …”Henry whispered.

               Sasha whistled in awe. “Dang, dude!”

               Mojo and his troops reached the bridge pillars by boat and started climbing up.

               He focused on Marcus and signaled some Frobots to land and back them up. He was wearing some bolt gauntlets that fired barbed bolts tipped with acidic poison.

               He fired the first six into Marcus and then yelled,”FIRE!”

               Annoyed, Marcus turned around and faced them. He pulled one spike out and then threw it into the nearest corporal’s gut.

               Mojo snarled and fired three times as many bolts. Marcus activated a forcefield gem in his armor and deflected them. The barbs deflected back into six Frobots, two newts and Moro’s gut.

               He fell gasping in pain. Marcus ran forward at high speed and smashed the rest. He pulled the bolts out and stood atop Moro’s bulky corpse.

               A large number of robots circled the lake to attack the other terror on the bridge while this went down.

               Before they got there, some Dreadbots arrived, followed closely by some Megawatts and Fire Bots.

               The closest Dreadbot screamed.

               Minerva snarled and used Death-Grip to pull it to her. The orange eyes widened as she charged her fingers with Frostflames and sent the fire into its body.

               The Ribbitvalians shuddered as the robot started to squeal like a dying pig as it glowed like a lantern and exploded.

               The rest growled and tried to surround her.

               Six of them wrapped tentacles on her body. Minerva’s eyes flashed and they froze solid.

               Another swiped its saws at her and leaned back as she swung her axe at its chest. When it swung a second time, she leaped in the air and did a dropkick to its face and send the machine falling over the side.

               Minerva used Strangulation on the rest of the Dreadbots, crushing their heads in the air.

               “Sheesh. I’d feel bad for them I didn’t hate those things!”Sasha mumbled.

               The large number of Megawatts charging up their hands didn’t worry Minerva. Instead, she had an idea.

               Shademourne absorbed the voltage from the first attacks. After seven seconds of this, she fired a Chaotic Bane blast not at the nearby electric wielding robots, but a cluster of Fire Frobots behind them. They exploded with a loud bang that shook the bridge and destroyed all but ten of her closest attackers.

Marcus turned around and fired another fire blast at a group of Frobots landing to form an attack wave in the middle of the bridge behind them. At least six Fire Frobots were among them. The resulting explosion rose several meters high

               Miles away, Andrias ordered, “Remove all Fire Frobots from the field.”

               Four Judgebots landed to encircle her and fired wig missiles.

               Minerva spun Shademourne in a circle to deflect the missiles. Two hit the Judges and made them explode.

               She faced the other two as they swung their hammers at her from the left and right. She moved forward minutely and cut their hammers off below the head, then she tripped them with ice under their feet. She cut off their arms and then their terrified heads.

 

              

               A single Platinumb robot and a Hectabot landed 30 yards from her and fired. She took them down one after the other.

               She froze the Hectabot inside a glacier with Shademourne and pointed her free hand at the Platinumb and fired a Death Uncoiled attack.

               Green and dark shadowy energy flew from her hand and made its head and torso explode.

               “I was saaaavvviiing that one!”Minerva sang.

               Some Sentinels, Lancers and Gilds came charging en masse to overwhelm her. To the audience’s shock, she started moving at superhuman speed to carve their arms, heads, weapons and whatever else they had into pieces. In less than half a minute, they all lay destroyed at her feet.

               “Come on, put your backs into it!”She taunted the closest robots.

               A squad of Solarites landed. They melted the frozen Hectabot and a dozen frozen Frobots before firing a wave of fire at her.

               Minerva rolled her eyes, ignored the flames completely, and sent another Chaotic Bane flying forward that left the robots in flaming pieces.

              

              

               She picked up a trident and waited until a Silver Tank Bot arrived and released its Froglet units. She set the trident on fire with blue flames and hurled it into the Tank Bot’s face. It exploded. The Froglets got squashed or treated like soccer balls to kick around.

              

               After several hundred robots had been wrecked, Andrias’s living response teams arrived.

               The Leviathan Zealots had been put together in the aftermath of the attacks on Newtopia and Loggington. Several hundred Amphibians had been calling for blood against Marcy and had jumped at the chance to get even when Andrias offered it. They wore red and gold hoods and armor with the Amphibian symbol on the torso and the Core’s symbol (a black crown with an orange diamond) on their gauntlets and carried a variety of weapons.

               Andrias had sicced them on a few villages around the Boiling Bastions that had revolted and a group travelling towards Snarlsburg by Lichen Pond below Mold Rot Forest already. The Zealots took the strongest ones captive and wiped the rest out.

              

               A force of Leviathan Zealot soldiers (200 total) and several Centurions were led by Captain Xochi, a 16 ft tall axolotl with blue skin, a kanabo club, and a Fu Manchu mustache.

               “Get off our bridge, freak!”He yelled at Minerva.

               “What does that fool think he’s going to accomplish?”Colonel Bogdon asked.

               “The chap doesn’t know what he’s facing … yet!”Bingam suggested dolefully.

               “Make me, lardball!”Minerva taunted Xochi.

               Xochi flicked his wrist and the Zealots fired explosive crossbows at her.

               She tanked them and slammed her axe down. The blow rocked the bridge for 100 yards.

               The Zealots kept steady on their feet.

               The closest ones looked up in time to see her leaping towards them. She cut through a dozen in four seconds.

               A toad shot his tongue out to grab her wrist. She responded by swinging him with it into his buddies.

               Over 20 tried to dogpile her. Over the next ten seconds, she spun Shademourne in a circle, carving through them faster than they could react.

              

               The closest Centurions charged their spears and fired.

               She swung her charged axe and decimated 30 of them with a Chaotic Bane shockwave. Twelve came at her and engaged in close combat. She took them down two to three at a time.

               Xochi lost patience when his troops began to start edging back.

               “No one leaves or else! You two,”He pointed at two toads named Hilda and Heath,”use your chains!”

               The two siblings in studded armor complied. They swung their chains around Minerva’s arms while she was disemboweling three Centurions.

               “Really, chains? That’s so weak!”

               “SILENCE!”Xochi screamed. He struck her in the head with his club.

               Shademourne fell out of Minerva’s hands and her head lowered as the toads held her in place.

               Grinning, Xochi directed two soldiers to go pick up Shademourne.

               Minerva suddenly yanked her arms around with great force. The two toads screamed as they were swung around in a circle and swung into Xochi’s head.

               The axolotl screamed in rage as he was knocked onto his face.

               Minerva lashed the chains around a large tiger salamander lady (10 ft tall) holding a spear and threw her over the side. Hilda and Heath struggled to their feet and got a fist to their faces that broke their skulls.

               The Champion held her right hand out and Shademourne flew back to her.

               She walked towards  Xochi as he started to get back on his feet.

               Minerva swung her axe at his neck as his eyes filled with fear.

               There was a blue flash and slicing sound. Xochi’s head flew off his neck and into the water. His body collapsed at Minerva’s feet.

               Ivy covered her mouth to keep from screaming.

               Minerva stepped over his body and spun her axe in front of his horrified troops.

               She cracked her neck,“You want silence? I’ll make it silent as the grave …”

               Captain Oophaga, a poison dart frog, narrowed her black orb-like eyes and held her hand up to the rest,”Hold …the Imperial Guard approaches!”

               Minerva was delighted to see the Plasmoid coming. It was her first chance to use one of her axe’s deadliest upgrades.

               Shademourne’s shield abilities deflected the plasma olms into the air as she spun it. They exploded and took out many Frobots in the air.

Minerva pointed her axe at the Plasmoid’s head as it landed on the bridge with its Laser sword drawn and unleashed a Corroding blast.

               The acidic energy melted a third of its head. It fell over the edge and sank to the bottom of the lake.

               Minerva looked at the terrified Oophaga and unleashed a Swarming Fog attack.

               A shadowy red mist flew out from her body in a 30-yard radius. Oophaga and every enemy within that radius fell dead to the ground within seconds.

               “Holy crap …”Sasha whispered.

               The remaining Zealots backed up slowly.

               Sir Grekk, a gecko-like knight, arrived and directed a Green Tank Bot to fire at her.

               She formed a shadowy green limb from her shoulder to swat one Polywog missile away and catch the other. It threw the missile towards the Zealots. It exploded and took many of them with it.

              

Grekk directed the Salient squad, a group of twelve toads wearing sallet helmets and full body brown armor, to lead the next chage. This group of elite toad warriors from the coasts were notorious for numbing themselves to pain, going through any obstacle to eliminate a target and carrying acid-laced mattocks, one reason they were valued bodyguards for city officials travelling in dangerous areas.

               Minerva grinned when they charged at her. They cut the Frobots out of their way.

               She stomped her foot and a floor of Glacier Advance spikes rose up to impale them and twice as many Frobots and Zealots. The toads growled under their helmets but shrugged it off.

               The leader jumped at her while his three closest followers charged at her.

               Minerva threw subtlety to the wind and spun around like an icy buzz saw. Shademourne cut through the three on the ground in two seconds, and she swung it up at fast speed to send a ripple of shadowy blue energy to hit the leader in midair and send him flying a mile high.

               The remaining eight went down just as quick. She put a blanket of shadows out and drew the Salients and last six Zealots towards her in the dark grip. She cut them down with slashes to the necks and torso.

               Marcus watched the screaming Salient toad squad leader as he soared screaming and landed 40 yards behind him with a loud crack.

               Grekk threw four explosive vials at Minerva. She shrugged off three and deflected the last one back at him. He jumped to avoid it and landed right in her path.

               She cut him down the second he met her eyes.

               “Why is that other one just standing there??”Ivy asked Sasha.

               “She’s doing just fine without help,”Sasha replied.

               “Sasha!”Felicia tugged her sleeve. A squad of newts were flying in … wearing Heron themed armor with functional. The Heronites used the Heron bird and Heroness flipwart piece theme to fly and use powerful wristbows to harass their enemies from the sky and sharp claws tipping their guantlets.

               Sasha frowned as three of them headed their way. “Go up Joe! You two, get ready!”

               Joe moved too fast for them to target, so they tried flying closer. Sasha was counting on that and had him swoop towards them. She drew her blades and cut through the wings of the first while the Sundews dealt punches to his cohorts. They fell to the ground.

               The other Heronites fared no better against the knights. Marcus parried arrows from six of them with ease and let out a ring of fire that scorched their gear as they got close. They fell screaming into the lake, which made it burn even worse. Two others landed near him and tried to take him down with their claws. He crushed them beneath his mace in seconds. Minerva was annoyed when the leader fired a toxic gas arrow that irritated her eyes. She used Deathgrip to pull him down towards her and cut him down.

               General Broly (newly promoted) led the Wetland Legions up the road towards the bridge from the South after a successful campaign against the Scumslinger Pirates attacking Kaeru’s coast. The pirates had been wiped out and his legion had destroyed over 500 of the Cyberkinetic Witch’s rogue robots thanks to some new gear.

               They heard the screams and sounds of battle from the other end before they got there, but they had their own problems seeing Marcus standing 700 yards away on the bridge with destroyed robots and dead Amphibians lying around him.

               “You will not pass,”He said.

               “You can’t hold this bridge forever!”Broly yelled.

               Marcus said,”I’ll hold it until it’s gone!”

               “Bring it down!”Broly ordered. His troops charged.

               Marcus swung five times and sent dozens of screaming newts flying into the toxified lake.

               Broly shook but grit his teeth and threw an explosive potion in his jacket at Marcus. The knight made no effort to dodge and it exploded on his chest.

               The troops behind Broly cheered but stopped when the smoke cleared.

               Marcus was still standing.            

               “Is that the best you can do? I’m not impressed.”

               “Shoot it down!”Broly ordered.

               Marcus deflected every shot and swung Migraine in a sideways slash to unleash a Pyreblast.

               The large fireball landed ten yards behind Broly and exploded, sending 30 newts and 50 robots flying with burns and knocking the general to his knees.

               While his troops pulled him to safety, a burly axolotl warrior leaped at Marcus from the bridge wall with a club. Marcus swung to his left and sent him flying. A cloaked purple female newt with poisoned daggers got the same treatment trying from his right.

               A dozen archers with crossbows fired poison-tipped bolts at him. Marcus didn’t even slow down but swung Migraine to the ground and sent out a circular shockwave that sent everyone for 40 yards flying through the air. None of them got up from wherever they landed.

               Broly was relieved when he saw a dozen units of a new robot class, the Bailifters, coming from the West. He waved his troops back to hold a defensive position so the robots could advance.

Six apiece headed towards both sides of the bridge. Their Judge stood guard at the North entrance and directed attackers forward.

 

               These 12-foot robots had grey skin, yellow pupilless eyes, and wore black executioner hoods, vests and gloves on their hands. For weapons, they had huge length chains with 7,000 1b iron balls attached at the ends inside their arms they could let out and swing out.

               Andrias had gotten tired of the insults directed at his ‘officers of justice’ and decided they needed better security. The Bailifters had protected four ‘trials’ uninterrupted in trial runs.

               The Bailifters split up to take on both knights. Their Judge stood guard at the North entrance and directed attackers forward.

               Minerva had just frozen a Platinumb on the head and saw six of them approaching.  She smiled when they started swinging their chain balls in the air.

”Interesting!”

               “I wish I could feel that way! We’re gonna be dealing with those later!”Sasha griped.

               “Yeah, she makes it look too easy!”Ivy said moodily.

               Minerva ducked under the first two swings at her head, retaliated with a Frostflame blast to the face of the closet one that made it explode, dodged the three giant balls coming down to crush the spot where she was standing, and reacted with high speed to cut the chain coming at her from another.

               She picked up the severed chain with her left hand and swung it around. Several Hood Bots got crushed and four of the Bailifters got knocked over. Several Froglets in waiting leaped up and got demolished in midair.

               The Platinumb melted the ice off its head with laser vision, turned to target Minerva and got hit with a 7-ton ball to the face. It fell backwards on top of four Lancers.

               “ALERT! ENEMY HAS DEPLOYED WRECKING BALLS!”The dazed machine groaned.

               The Resistance and Ribbitvalians snickered.

               Andrias almost laughed.

               Minerva flung the sphere at the head of the sixth Bailifter. It dodged. However, the chain ball went soaring several feet down the bridge and bulldozed through several Frobots.

 The newly arrived Marshall Mavor jumped off the Green Tank Frobot he was flying on to land on the side.

               He shouted,”Your end is nighhAAYYYEEE!”

               He screamed like a little girl as the wrecking ball sent him crashing into the lake.

               “Other way around, loser!”Sasha drawled.

               A dozen Hood Bots went forward to distract Minerva so the Bailifter could target her unmolested.

               She pointed her hand down and froze the ground for several yards.

               The Hood Bots slid forward. She ducked as the chain ball swung at her head. Ten Hoods got crushed and the other two got bisected after they slid too close to Minerva.

               The Platinumb recovered and stood up. It armed its laser fingers and stepped forward. It spun around on the ice, fired its lasers into the face of the Green Tank Bot and two Lancers, and fell backwards onto a Soldier.

               “ARMOR SYSTEMS INTACT!”

               The Ribbitvalians chuckled quietly.

Minerva dodged three more swings from the chain ball (30 Froglets and 20 Frobots did not) then she tried something crazy.

                Instead of pulling the Bailifter towards her, she used a Reverse Death-Grip to pull herself towards the giant robot.

               Its yellow eyes widened in disbelief as the Frost Knight came zooming at its head. In a panic it swung wildly and hit a flying White Tank Bot to the far left as it approached.

               Minerva punched it in the face and knocked it over. She stood on its chest and hollered,” Try and hit me!”

               The confused Hood Bots and some newly arrived Centurions did so.

               The Centurions took spots on the walls and leaped at her one at a time. She swung her axe into all six of them in the air. She stepped aside as the damaged Bailifter got up and swung wildly as its glitching eyes made it see a blurry image of ally and enemies (?) in a circle.

              

               The Hood Bots and several Lancers near it were sent flying in pieces. The Platinumb got hit in the face (again) and fell backwards (again).

               Sasha smiled viciously,“It is so not the golden boy’s day!”

               A Hectabot landed and charged a dozen eye beams. Minerva got a deviously clever idea as the angry Platinumb shoved itself back upright. She used a low level Deathgrip to pull it forward just a bit right into the path of the Hectabot’s attack. The beams bounced off the reflective golden surface in many directions: back into the Hectabot’s torso, into the Judge Bot’s head, through six Hornets in the sky, tearing a hole in an airborne Black Tank Bot’s gut, and through an entire battalion of Lancers running forward in mace mode. The very (un)lucky Platinumb toppled forward onto its face.

               “LOST BALANCE DOES NOT COMPUTE!”It rumbled.

               Andrias facepalmed.

               Minerva cut off the Bailifter’s left arm when it was swinging upwards. The weapon went soaring into the sky.

               After she cut off its head, she looked to the sky. So did everyone else.

               The frustrated Platinumb propped itself back up on its hands and focused its shoulder cannons on the distracted Frost Knight.

               It was still trying to get a lock on her when the large metal ball landed on its head with a very loud clang. This time it didn’t get back up.

               Sasha and the Sundews broke down laughing.

              

                Marcus didn’t bother taking his time with the other six. They came towards him with their flails spinning. Scores of Dreadbots, Soldiers and drones flew in the air and started firing at him.

               Marcus held his mace in the air and released a Firebolt Barrage.

               Fireballs flew out in a circle around him and incinerated the Bailifters and airborne robots. The flames kept going and torched scores of Lancers and a few Cicadrones in the air above the closest Wetland troops. The Cicadrones exploded and took out 43 of them.

               Fed up, Broly signaled a waiting Tank Frobot to deploy its Froglets and took his new spear, tipped with a chemical guaranteed to terminate robot. He’d already tested it on several Phalangites, Geisters and a Flayer already.

               He waited until Marcus was distracted by the Froglets and then threw the spear into his gut.

               Marcus glanced down and stared … then he started to laugh.

               “So, this is your new toy that’s been troubling my Queen’s machines lately …”He pulled it out and glanced at a second Plasmoid flying towards his position,”thank you for that!”

               He hurled the spear at high speed into the Plasmoid’s face. The Imperial Guard crashed into the lake.

               Broly was aware that there was a severe penalty (usually death or imprisonment) assigned to those who cost Andrias his top robots. He lost his composure and screamed in fury as he charged at Marcus.

              

               The remaining Wetlands Legion’s jaws dropped in horror as their commander flew back dead after getting hit in the face.

               Marcus froze the Tank Bot’s head solid next.

               The furious soldiers charged him. They got hit off the side, into the walls, or onto the ground in the face of the Tireless Knight’s wrath.

               A Captain named Monica screamed,”How dare you!?”

               Marcus ignored her and caught the arm of a 10 ft axolotl with his left hand and shoved him over the side of the bridge.

               He ducked from a swing of an axe arm from a Frobot and swung back, crumpling its chest like tinfoil.

               He staggered back an inch when something impaled him. Marcus looked down and saw Monica’s high quality longsword impaled in his chest.

               “DIE ALREADY!”She screamed.

               Marcus lifted her up with Strangulate and dangled her over the water. In front of her and the rest of the stunned witnesses, he pulled the sword out with one hand, dripping with green glowing ichor of some kind that was melting the blade.

               “Do tell. If that didn’t kill me, what were ya gonna try next?”

               She had no answer, so he just dropped her in the lake and kept swinging. Most of the lingering newts fled at this point.

              

               Ten minutes later, the bridge was littered with dead or injured/damaged bodies of over 5,000 of Andrias’s living and artificial forces. Many others floated in the water, sank to the bottom of the lake or washed up on shore. The toxified water left many of the still living soldiers in need of medical attention. Those still alive made their way towards Ribbitvale.

               The two Frost Knights weren’t even breaking a sweat. After a moment of grim silence, they headed towards the middle of the bridge.

               Marcus picked the dozen bolts in his armor out with bored indifference. Minerva whistled and carried her axe over her shoulders.

They reached the middle of the bridge and leaned on their weapons. They kept that pose even as six Skyhoppers came from the West and launched fresh swarms of Frobots and drones to attack them.

               A sudden wave of fire hit them, and the airborne forts and robots exploded.

               The two knights looked to the South. Everyone followed their gaze to see a third knight approaching the bridge.

               Darius’s sword was still glowing with fire. A massive trail of destroyed robots littered the road to the Valley behind him.

               “That’s gotta be their leader!”Sasha said. It unnerved Felicia to see her smile.

               “Sasha, you shouldn’t enjoy this …”Felicia said.

               “Miss Sundew, relax, we’re their neighbors and allies, remember? Now we know these dangerous knights have a leader of some kind. That cool helmet kind of looks like a crown!”

               “Yeah, it does …”Ivy said.

               The Lich Knight walked towards his subordinates unopposed. Silence filled the air.

               The two knights bowed their heads in respect when he got close. They put their weapons on their backs and went to stand by his side.

               He charged Ashwake with mystical energy and plunged it into stone beneath his feet. The bridge began to crack.

               Saint’s Lake Bridge collapsed. All the moving (or unmoving) robots and Amphibians on it fell  into the lake.

               Sasha smiled with glee,“You gotta admit that was cool!”

 The two frogs nodded.

               The Lich Knight and his two followers walked unharmed out of the rubble. Darius waved his sword at the row of refineries and factories on the Southern beaches, leaving nothing but ashes in his wake as they walked down the road towards the Valley.

               Sasha landed Joe in front of the Plantar house. The townspeople came out.

               “Commander, are you alright? You were gone longer than we thought,”Croaker said.

               “I know, but I just saw an epic fight go down. Andrias won’t be getting troops our way easily anytime soon!”She said.

               Inside the caves, they told the rest all about the attack on the bridge.

               “Those Frost Knights of hers, just three of them…. broke Saint’s Lake Bridge in half after defeating that many?”Loggle said. He was afraid. Most of them were.

               Sasha still wasn’t one of them,“It was a clever move …they crushed two legions of their army and many more robots in front of several witnesses. Andrias has been weakened in image and troop numbers, and he can’t move troops by land in large numbers that way anymore with the bridge out. He’ll have to go around it or stick to the air.”

               Grime was also impressed,“With those powerful knights and the rest of her deadly minions waiting as a threat here, that won’t be a major problem here either …”

               Over 12,000 soldiers and war machines of Andrias’s army were lost day. None of the 200 Zealots survived. The Wetlands Legion was dissolved as a unit after losing its commanding officers and over half its ranks.

All of Amphibia heard about it. Many scorned Andrias for letting three enemies wreck his army so badly, but plenty more were afraid that just three of these feared knights could do that. After this, no one believed any claim from Andrias that the war was going to be over any time soon or that he was guaranteed to win.

               Soon they heard tales of another destructive battle waged up North …

*The Weather outside is Spiteful

               Koliath, Septimus, and Mina went to the Amphibian Arctic alone. The mountain villagers on the distant slopes with lit up cabins had either gone inside the mountains to hide, left for refuge elsewhere, or had disappeared after Loggington had been reduced to rubble up North. But the Newtopian machines hadn’t come there much since the war started anyways.

               Marcy gave them two objectives:

1. Investigate the Mountain for clues or relics.
2. Render the area undesirable to Andrias’s forces.

They rode their skeletal steeds into the wilds around the coldest part of Amphibia. For these knights, it was child’s play. They had been borne of an unnatural force in the North on another world …

“I’m not trying to play around with this power, I swear!”Marcy said to them on their first day awakened here.

 

They listened patiently and took the idea of another universe well enough, but the ‘game’ concept angered and confused them.

 

Thankfully, Marcy’s explanation of this Calamity Box that opened gateways to infinite universes for these greedy Amphibians and her deducting that this meant their world was one of those universes (and not just a fictional game) smoothed that over. It helped that they had prior experience with alternate timelines of their own reality and entities from beyond

 Her reasons for bringing them to serve in her guard were far from selfish. They grew amused as she rapidly thought out loud about where her idea went wrong or if she now had to deal with their undead vengeance for another reckless mistake.

               “Relax, young lady. You desire our aid in fighting this Lich made of tyrants who seek to devour all other realms?”Darius asked.

               “Of course. I had selfish and naively optimistic ideas about exploring worlds with it, but not that! For right now, my powers,”she held her glowing hand up,”are new. I … I really tapped in deep to get your minds/souls/whatever here. I exceeded my expectations again. Sorry. For all I know, the limits on the Calamity Stones are unmeasurable. I really shouldn’t be dealing with this as a kid,”the knights nodded,”but I have to! Not because I want to. I need the best fighters I can get-like you guys- to help me keep the Core at bay. My calculations and predictions,”she pointed at her boards,”tell me that the Leviathans will unleash greater war machines and even monsters to combat the greater threat I already pose. Perhaps they’ll even resort to using threats from other worlds in time. I can’t destroy it by myself, so we’ll have to face those!”

               Nazgrim chuckled and patted the timid girl on the back,”That sounds like a worthy fight.”

               “I’m always game for helping keep nature alive … or undead, whatever!” Imhadria said.

               They knew she took it seriously when they witnessed her unleash a temporary frightening death on the Core and then threatening her betrayer.

“I hate that I have to be extreme, but I hate that awful Thing more!”She said tightly when she saw them staring in concern.

Baldor led her outside for a breath of fresh air,“Of course you do!”

               Being here brought them unexpected blessings. For the first time in ages, they could feel emotions and sensations that had been lost after death.

               “Of course … why would I want it to be harder on you?”Marcy said when they asked her about that.

They appreciated that a lot.

               Later, when they heard about the prophecy, they became even more committed to following her.

               Kadmos told Marcy,“A night without stars is just a black void. People look the stars for guidance! You must learn to shine brighter!”

               “ Care to teach me how?”Marcy asked at once. They taught her all kinds of things and advice. And Marcy ate every lesson up.

              

               Marcy Regina Wu was a silly, bright-eyed girl they would not have judged fit for any of this… but she was a fast learner, good to her troops, and a natural strategist and user of power. She admitted she joked around too much, but it was one way to keep from thinking too hard about her brush with death and getting violated by a being that had wanted to bend her body and then mind to its will.

The knights understood what that felt like all too well. It angered them to see a hivemind of cowards trying to using a child that way.

When everyone started calling her a queen, they swore an oath to help her end this ancient evil legacy.

               Valeriana watched from out of sight as the three enigmas rode into her Temple area. She still had trouble wrapping her tail around this trick of Wit’s.

               “I’ve seen it all and heard it all … or so I keep telling myself, but life surprises me every now and then!”

               “Surprises, we love surprises!”Leander squawked. The knights glanced her way.

               She ducked out of sight until they kept walking. “Very impressive … I’ll have to swap stories and tricks with them someday!”

               Mina ran a hand along the gate and breathed on it. The runes glowed brighter. She entered the arch and headed up the mountain. Her two comrades stayed behind to stand guard.

               Koliath turned around when he heard robots further down the slopes.

               “There’s work to be done … and they will not interfere!”He said. He pointed Bilrost at the ground.

               Large beings of snow with blue eyes and icy figures bristling with shards of ice and sharp blue teeth up, dubbed ‘Frostbiters’ and ‘Shardshooters’ by Marcy.

               “Destroy them to the last!”Koliath ordered them. The seven of each he made lumbered off.

               “Septimus, go check the priestess Valeriana’s lodgings, but do not disturb anything there. Lady Marcy does not wish to offend this guardian if possible.”

               Valeriana chuckled. The girl was still trying to be nice to her. She had been energetically polite when they met.

               “But do you really think you are worthy?”She asked the two humans.

               “Well... Yeah!”

“Totally!”

Wit offered her hand to shake,“Oh,  I'm Marcy, bt-dubs.”

Valeriana had no idea what that phrase meant, but she offered her tail,” Uh... nice to meet you.”

Marcy shook it at once. The girl had adapted well to Newtopian culture.

The girl’s selfish mistakes aside, Valeria hadn’t needed to give Marcy a hard time, since this wasn’t her Temple. She’d ensured Heart survived and kept striving towards her Stone’s traits … Valeriana liked that.

“No sign of her …if she is indeed a remorseful ghost of the soul who made the Box, as the translated relics Lady Marcy found indicate, she could be anywhere.”

Valeriana was impressed and threw the knights a quiet bone. A gust of wind blew a covered area away, an elaborate outcrop carving with buried scrolls, gemstones and artifacts.

Septimus went over to investigate.

Down below, a force of Solarites and Fire Frobots had gathered. The Fire Frobots had been upgraded with dual flamethrowers on both arms and tanks that would explode violently upon being ruptured or attempts to capture them.

The Frostbiters weren’t going to make it easy. They started by throwing boulders down.

Bangs and bouts of flame rose in the ensuing explosions. The Solarites didn’t explode and reacted quicker, but they lost many to the rocks. Two of the Frostbiters went to other areas and sent down avalanches.

Three of them went down and started tearing into the robots up close. They breathed ice and snow at them, tore them in half with frigid strength, and reformed no matter how many times they got melted or shattered. As long as they had ice and snow nearby, they could handle that easily. The knights could reform them in other areas if they wished.

The Shardshooters shot out Titanic-cutting level spears of ice at their quarry from on high and proved very hard to get close too. For any that got shattered, a nearby one could reform the shards into another or absorb them to grow bigger and tougher.

Andrias heard reports of mass casualties in this area before long.

“The Second Temple … how odd. Perhaps Marcy wishes to claim it for herself?”

The Core hated the idea,“Don’t let her. She has her own down South already!”

Extra reinforcements were sent. The attack on the Bridge happened hours later, so they focused on that battle.

Septimus climbed down and started joining in. He used a special spell attack. “Shard Blade Frenzy!”

Two crystalline replicas of his two swords appeared in the air and started stabbing and slashing at the larger robots that had come to surround the mountain.

Mina managed to climb up the mountainside with her bare hands for quite a while, but she got tired of the wait and summoned a blizzard wind to carry her up quicker.

She arrived on the Stone charging area at the top of a massive tower with glowing runes and stones.

“Amazing. The ancient hands that made this tower made a structure that is nigh unreachable by mere mortals!”She closed her eyes and focused on the energy of the place. As she suspected, there were traces of an incomplete process for Anne’s recharging.

She turned when she saw a swarm of flying Drones and robots nearby. To deal with the larger amount forming futher away, she drew her Soulcutters, the most magically attuned weapons in the Frost Knights, and started forming a massive storm overhead.

“The king will feel haunting breath from the North soon!”She declared. She pointed her crystalline blades towards the floating castle miles away.

The blue shards glowed and the storm broiled and swirled. It rushed off, consuming the robots in front of it.

“Over 10,000 troops lost, living and artificial, along with the biggest bridge in Amphibia!”Nolan said angrily.

Andrias was tired of this meeting,“Yes, the casualty reports are still incomplete. I just got a new one. Thanks to this butchery, the Borrowpit Legion is the only legion stationed near there left.”

The officers said nothing. General Garth wasn’t present. He was out leading a campaign around the Olmdrop Coves to the East of the Dry Swamps. The Borrowpit Legion was a mixed group of lower-ranked and troublesome newts and other Amphibians including a higher number of toads than most, but the unit’s odd nature didn’t seem ideal at this time. Garth was offended that had even been a problem in earlier talks, since he’d taken over 300 captive toad soldiers from the failed rebellion as indentured soldiers and had already established a rapport with them.

“Sire where is this weather coming from?”Bartley called.

Andrias looked out the window with indifference, then his eyes widened. The clouds overhead crackled with thunder … green and blue thunder.

 

Rain, hail and lightning poured down on the Castle for ten hours . Scores of robots got hit and destroyed outside the Castle, and the ground flooded below them.

Shadowy whisps of pale green light floated into the Castle walls. The living king and the dead ones in the basement suffered nightmares and heard whispers around the corners for a week.

 

The three knights rode back to the North foot of the Frog mountains, walking right over the lingering forces entrenched there and back to their new home.

The Amphibian Arctic was left haunted by the Frostbiters and Shardshooters. Several Geisters and Wispflies were created to walk around and terrorize the enemy. Imhadria came later to gathered the Wooly mantises and other creatures to come to safety with her.

 Patrols continued to go through there, but Andrias declared the area unfit for use in factories and military occupation.

 Valeriana was pleased. She secretly aided Wit’s servants in battle and started moving the lingering villagers away from the area and started planning on when and how to meet with and mentor the Stars properly.

“A storm sent to terrorize Andrias from the Arctic? That’s a new one …”Bufo said at Beatrix’s table the next day.

“Yo, Jacy, you sure you never heard of this witch before?”Beatrix called over to their resident ex-ambassador.

“No, I have not!”Jacinda grumbled. “I never met such a talented user of magic or an expert anything mechanical in all my days! I’d remember someone like that!”

“I doubt they’d like you anyway! “One toad remarked.

*Watching the Knight*

               General Garth was an Alpine newt with blue and yellow spotted skin and an orange underbelly. His face had large glasses, his brown rugged armor was bulky but simple, and his pike was twice as long as he was at Yunan’s height.

               He was not happy at all with his job. His soldiers, a motley crew of nearly 3,000 Amphibians of many stripes, were even less happy. They wore barbarian or second-hand armor, usually with spikes or leather, and this was in part because the Borrowpit Legion was a volunteer squad for Amphibians to go for and serve a minimum of three years to get out of tax debt, prison time, or just get extra funds to send back home. Some stayed on because they had little place in society, others liked the rough life, and in general the camaraderie was good.

               However, they’d dealt with several pirates and raiders encouraged by the devastation unleashed by the Rebellion and attacking the coastlines. Immense casualties had been suffered fighting a third of the pirates on shore and they’d watched as a Kraken, somehow in league with the Cyberkinetic Witch, ate Captain Scumwhack and his ship as he sailed off cackling. He’d targeted some of her areas for an alleged haul she got off of the Teardrop Islands, and she responded in kind.

               And this current task … galled him. They’d been given some captives from the towns of Guck Grove and Quagmire Center, captured while migrating down South. They hadn’t said anything, but it was suspected they were heading to make contact with the Queen of the South. Gullywater and the former residents of the Waterlogger port on the Great Bay had already made their way there, and Andrias had passed a law ordering the hunting down of traitors who did that.

               The Legion had them assembled in the now thoroughly abandoned Ruins of Despair, which had lost every factory and ten times their number of robots in it in the last month.

               “So, Mister Waterlogger,”He asked the grim-looking yellow frog with a burn over his left eye,”what was your business?”

               The frog said,”There’s no business left, mister … you know that!”

               “Travelling business!”Garth clarified.

               “Finding a new spot!”Waterlogger said cryptically.

               “Look, pal, we can do this all day, but you’re not getting out of it!”Garth growled.

               A group of Hood Bots and a Judge Bot arrived soon to handle them. Also present were two 40-unit squads of Lancer and Gilded Frobots.

               Gizzardo, a grim-looking newt with knobby skin and red eyes, led an elite escort of poison-dart frogs and toxic newts clad in black ninja style robes. The Slinkgarb guild had been donated by a rich family from up North as a valued squad.

               The curious Resistance kept watch from the cliffs by the Valley entrance.

               Gabby watched them closer from a nearby hill with binoculars.

               “Hmm, tricky. We need to pull off this rescue …”She typed a message on her wrist communicator and crawled closer.

               Unbeknownst to her, a Coreseer in the distance had noticed her approach. Andrias decided to dispose of two birds with one stone.

               Sneth Bigclaw, a large black Surinam toad of 9 ft, was a savage leader of a pack of toads from the Olms Forest areas. Their tribes there and the Dark Forest marsh areas had lost many. Their kind bred faster than many other Amphibians, but they were just as mad about the losses as everyone else. They’d raided and destroyed a few caravans in Newtopian areas, and they’d even butchered a few captive newt soldier companies and civilians they found.

However, it started to go downhill for them soon enough. His brother Phlegm and 40 of their clan, along with members of two others, had decided to take advantage of Andrias’s losses and damage to the Castle after Marcy established herself. They’d snuck towards the Castle … and they ran right into the Coreling and several Fire Frobots in the hills below it.

               Phlegm, a toad of 14 ft, had died screaming as the unnatural thing tore into him with his claws. The Fire Frobots torched the ones who ran.

The screams of the dying warriors echoed for miles and nearby newts and frogs shivered and moved on as quickly as they could. Sneth heard and was enraged.

               A while ago, Andrias approached Sneth while he was raiding a patrol near Ribbitvale and told him that Marcy had been responsible for his brother’s blood being spilled by raising a monster to eat his brother alove.

               He contacted him now,”See the pretty newt in a moth costume? Why not grab her, take off her wings and make her sing on where she is? My troops won’t bother you!”

               “Fine!”

               He went with 30 troops, including his best right hand toad Arrabal (a head shorter than him, but twice as bulky) and his cousin Rana, a 12 ft toad with a big mouth, pink skin and white eyes.

               He saw Gabby on the hill, smiled wickedly and jumped at her and punched her in the back. Unlike most toads or frogs, their kind weren’t good at tongue combat.

               Gabby landed on the ground. She moaned and looked over her shoulder to see Sneth sneering down at her,”Now … take me to your leader!”

               Gabby started laughing.

“What is so frogging funny!?”

               Sasha snickered and whispered something to Grime, who rolled his eyes.

               “You will tell me where your leader is, so I can find her and make her pay in full for my brother being eaten alive by the monster she created to eat him and his soldiers alive!”

               “Say what?”Gabby said. The listening audience was also surprised. Marcy didn’t tend to do that in her fights.

               “DID I STUTTER!?”Sneth screamed.

               He suddenly went flying into the nearby rocks face first.

               Jaws dropped seeing Sylalleas standing in the spot where he’d been, her clawed gauntlet in a fist.

               “My queen did not create that monster… the Night did!”She said to his flunkies.

               “How could the Nighttime make a monster?”Gizzardo demanded.

               Syl mused,“How indeed?”

               Rana moved to grab Gabby and held her in a death grip around the neck. “Put down that spear, freak, or she dies!”

               Sylalleas didn’t bat an eye,“As you wish!”

               In one swift throw, her spear went soaring into Rana’s chest. The large toad gasped in shock at the weapon embedded in her chest and keeled over.

               “Holy crap …”Sasha whispered.

               “Run or fall, your choice!”She warned the shocked toads.

               Araball screamed and ran at her in rage. He broke the ground where she was standing.

               She moved at the last second and delivered an epic axe kick to his jaw.

               The 8-foot toad howled in agony. She followed up with several judo kicks to his ribs, groin and sides.

               He stumbled back, moaned and fell on his face.

               “Get her!”Another toad screamed.

               Their speechless audience watched as she made mincemeat out of several average and large toads with ease.

               A dreadlock toad with war paint threw a tomahawk at her face. She caught it, threw it at another’s chest, and vanished in a puff of shadows to reappear and deliver a powerful punch to his face. Another Surinam toad ( a red one of 7’11” height) swung both hands in a skull crushing move at her head. She ducked, pivoted and delivered a series of rapid-fire kicks to his jaw, breaking it and knocking several teeth loose.

               Two toads tried to grab her with their tongues. This was one Amphibian tactic Sylalleas could just not bring herself to admire or tolerate being used on her. She grabbed their tongues and squeezed. Everyone recoiled as the toads screamed.

 She swung them around like flails to knock a dozen others back and then flung them into a nearby factory ruin. They hit the torn metal with a loud crunch.

               The rest encircled her and charged with a howl of rage. She crouched down, and spun.

               Leave-shaped blades of razor-sharp ice went flying in all directions, a version of the famed Fanned knives move the Nightwatcher Star Elves used.

               Every single enemy in her immediate radius fell dead with these blades in them.

               “So cool!”Ivy breathed.

               “I know!”Grime whispered.

               “Now,”She pulled her spear out of Rana’s corpse and faced the rest,”as for you … I’ll be taking these villagers and our young scout with me!”

               “Oh no you don’t!”Gizzardo snapped his fingers and his squad dangled poisoned knives or their uncovered fingers warningly near a hostage apiece.

               Sylalleas stood still and made no move.

               “That’s better, you’d best be-“He stopped talking when she vanished in a whisp of shadow.

               She reappeared behind him and threw a mass of knives at each of his troops in fatal spots before they could react. She did a roundhouse kick to his gut when he turned and he fell moaning.

               “EXECUTE HER!”The Judge ordered. The Frobots ran at her, but she was done taking her time. She took out her Lunarglaives out and threw them.

               They tore through the robots like a flying buzzsaw and landed back in her hands before the Judge hit the ground.

              

 

               She put ice chains on Gizzardo and a few other still living associates of Sneth’s while Enoch and some Flayers came from the distance to assist her.

               Garth knew his troops were about to panic, so he desperately moved towards  Syl and politely asked,”Ma’am, can I ask a favor?”

               She calmly faced him. “Yes, General Garth?”

               He wiped his forehead and said,”Would your leader be open to negotiating? If we went back emptyhanded … I suspect we’d get worse than the boot for this.”

               The tired newt could tell she was smiling under her helmet,”Indeed …free your prisoners first and I’ll grant you that request!”

               The Borrowpit Legion sighed with relief.

               “Astounding! One warrior destroyed those bandits and robots so quickly and gained 200 villagers and possibly a whole legion for her queen as a bonus!”Grime said.

               “Not mad about this one?”Sasha asked. She smiled as he vibrated with badly repressed glee.

               “How could I be mad? That was the best fight I’ve seen with one’s feet and deadly skill with knives in ages!”

               “She’s awesome!”Ivy said with starry eyes.

               Sasha laughed,“Totes … that’s one bad*&^ ninja knight chick …”

               “Syl, you will never be able to say you’re not cool after this!”Marcy said when Sylalleas arrived back with her new prisoners/recruits.

               “Marcy, please … I know my skills as a Nightwatcher are invaluable, but you don’t need to keep heaping praises on me!”Sylalleas protested.

               “Nope, you’re cool and I will not hear you deny that!”Marcy replied. The others agreed and cheered their Nightwatcher on.

               It had been the oddest experience for Syllaleas to watch Marcy get ecstatic to learn that she’d been a member of the Nightwatchers before she was a Death Knight. The Nighwatchers were the best of the best in the Star Elves; a group of wardens, assassins, and bounty hunter elf ladies that everyone knew to fear. Ater her death and resurrection, Sylalleas had been cut off from many of her old skills and people and hadn’t used them that much. But Marcy convinced her this was a new chance to reembrace those skills and hone them to a new level and even made her a fresh set of her sisterhood’s old order.

               “Fitting, isn’t it? Now that you know we face a being called the Night?”She asked Syllaleas as she polished her helmet on the First Temple’s steps.

               “Lady Marcy, for many years I stood guard over monsters like that pathetic creature. It is more like an empty void than a being reflecting the night sky my people know and love!  Of course I feel it fits now. You need those more aware, adept at moving in the shadows, warriors who strike at the … oh, you want me to be that don’t you?”

               “ Of course I do! My very own Nightwatcher …friend!”Marcy said.

               Sylalleas cracked a small smile,” You’ve earned our loyalty and friendship already, little Star.”

               Marcy wanted to make sure,“Have I?? This isn’t just …bribery, desperation, or pity on your part?”

               The elf took Marcy’s hands and made her eyes glow green,“You’ve gotten powers that would surpass many I’ve fought alongside and strive constantly to become a being of intelligence and humility like your Stone of Wit wants you to be. I’m proud to help your flame shine brighter in the skies like any star should!”

              

              

*The Candyman Can’t* Dry Swamp was open season on anyone owning it or not.

               Resources were almost nonexistent, and dangerous sandworms roamed the area. Outlaws roamed through all the time now. Andrias’s forces passed through all the time on patrol, but didn’t commit much when they lost over 700 robots to various mishaps besides the many others lost to Marcy near the area. No factories or bases existed within thirty miles of the edges of the desert.

               While the Frost Knights wreaked havoc, Marcy made her move to save some more lives there.

               Since Bomme’s train Engine 888 was all set for passenger work, Marcy set about recruiting most of the inhabitants in the three major populated areas there.

               The Driller was sent on another attack run near the wrecked areas of Bittyburg and Mossflower to draw any attention its way. Every factory and Frobot was consumed.

               Stonewell was the first stop. Coincidentally, that was one of two places Barry had his first close encounters with her there.

               “So, she’s the one mucking up our delicious anarchy!”He growled.

               “Careful boss. She is the most dangerous criminal in Amphibia!”Brian cautioned. They’d had several unnerving encounters with her warriors that always ended in defeat.

               “Oh I know! But I’m very unforgiving, so I’m gonna spoil whatever she’s doing with these suckers!”

               “Hey, Sweetheart,”He called out as Marcy stood there with Bomme, Zel, Oscar, Mimi, Gerald, her top eight Wit Wraiths, and Halley,”why so … bitter-looking?”

               “Huh?”Marcy asked.

               Her Mar Guards were out of sight on the roofs and ready to shock him into next week, but he didn’t know that.

               “Can’t you tell?”He giggled, twirling a lollipop in his fingers,”you look so unappetizing like that, and it’s scaring them!”

               The mayor she’d been negotiating with shrugged as she glanced at him.

               “Let me guess, you’re an expert on being sour AND bitter as a candyman out of a job?”

               “Hardly. I’ve got a major racket going now. I think I’ll try and sweeten the deal here!”

               Her green eyes narrowed,“What is YOUR deal anyway? What do you get out of this?”

               Barry grinned and spun a lollipop in his fingers,”Oh that, when this war started … I realized, this world has finally gone insane and is ending!”

               “And what, you’re going to eat candy and sing merry tunes ABOUT ANARCHY while the world burns? You’re more pathetic than I thought!”Marcy said flatly.

               Barry glowered,”Oh please, this world’s ending and you’re not making it stop but get even worse! At least I’m enjoying it either way! I’ve got a sweet tooth for anarchy, and so do my guys!”

               “Yeah, I used to be a tax accountant, day in and day out crunching numbers on the clock. Now I drink the blood of my enemies and eat dessert for breakfast!”Brian said.

               “Good for you. Bad diet choices and YOUR SQUEAKY VOICE obviously make you a very SCARY anarchist!”

Brian glowered.

Marcy raised a finger, “Keep in mind, there’s one thing about anarchy: It doesn’t discriminate on who gets the short end of the stick. YOU wanna play that game … you invoke the LAW OF THE FISHES!”

               The Marauders laughed hysterically. Barry wagged a finger at her,“You’re making that up, sweet cheeks!”

               Marcy chuckled darkly and went deep voice mode, putting them on guard at once,“No I’m not. The law of the FISHES is an old idea about how when disorder, or CHAOS if you will, reigns, the strong will dominate and devour the weak. In other words, the big fish eat the little fish. But under the protection of a strong POWER, the weak will resist the strong. And you … BARRY BOY, you look like a small but very round pink fish in a tiny pond to me right now, JUST WAITING to be spread out like berry JAM on a sandwich!”

               The residents of Stonewell cracked up.

Barry’s face went from purple to cherry red and he shook with psychotic rage. She’d just called him a fat fish waiting to be eaten. No one had ever called him such a thing to his face and gotten away with it.

              

               The other Marauders were torn between laughing at her bold insult or staring in disbelief.

               Barry screamed,“How dare you!? Are you threatening to kill me??!”

               “Pretty much … if you’re stupid enough to push it!”Bomme said. He gulped as Marcy’s fingers crackled with energy and her bodyguards came out onto the rooftops to point weapons at him.

               She tossed a pair of blue and pink dice in her fingers that glowed,“I’d RUN if I were you!”

               He did so.

               Stonewell joined Marcy’s Rebellion less than an hour later.

               Barry was dead set on getting something from this trip.

               “Oh shucks, let’s try Baby Town, the kids and their parents there will fall for me easier!”He said.

               “Ok …”Brian said nervously.

               Baby Town was a town which had an unusually high amount of babies of all kinds of Amphibians. Some said it was a blessing on the town or a magic spring there in the desert, but whatever the reason, it was a highly populated town of over 6,000 with large families.

               Marcy wasn’t going to let all these kids get hurt on her watch.

               Barry only got to the gates before Marcy walked out and said,”Hey kids, who wants candy?!”

               The legions of kids cheered.

               Barry lost it and ran at her with a psychotic howl of rage.

               “OH NO YOU DON’T!”

               He tossed a curse at her, which she disintegrated easily.

               “Hey, quiet down, we’re going to eat candy!”A tadpole named Charlie said.

               “Yeah!”His friends called.

“SHUT UP, BRATS, OR ELSE!”Barry howled.

That terrible decision earned him the wrath of that dangerously protective species everyone should fear: mothers. Baby Town had lots of those, and they were even more protective of their kids than most. The local police were terrified of scaring one of the kids for risk of incurring their wrath.

               Even Marcy winced seeing him get beat up by them. It would take him four weeks to fully recover. She decided not to let him roam loose anymore.

               “Take this bad candy man away, BOYS!”She directed some Siber-Bots. They respectfully walked around the angry mothers and handcuffed him with shackles all over.

               After Barry was dragged off moaning in pain by her guards, Marcy was thanked by the mayor.

               “Thanks, Miss Wu,”Josie Paddler said to an unmasked Marcy.

               “Of course, Mrs. Paddler, I wasn’t gonna let him be near all the little kids!”She said.

               That town followed her lead and joined her forces for protection in light of the destruction being unleashed in other areas. Bitty Burg’s surviving population had already fled to Wartwood after their towns were wrecked by the armies advancing in other Desert regions.

               That was two down, one to go.

               Banksville was a painfully obvious spot to rob a bank. They had a town slogan of ‘we have money’.

               The Plantars had stopped Renee Frodgers and her band of outlaw performers from robbing it months ago.

               Now, with even less protection and the law system going to pieces, the money there was ripe for the taking.

               The remaining Marauders planned to go into the bank from the rear.

               But several Newtromatons and Paladins with close quarters weapons came out of nowhere and surrounded them.

Amelie and Sydney appeared in their midst and beat them up. The Marauders were all taken captive.

               “Curse you, Cyber witch!”Brian howled as they were hauled off to be locked up in the Amphibiexpress’s rear car.

               “WELP, I’m pretty sure those guys have an undying hatred OF ME. How about you guys?”Marcy asked the town’s bedraggled police chief.

               “No no, we’re grateful, Miss Wu!”He clapped his hands and they began loading the goods from the bank and everything else onto her waiting all-terrain train,”that’s the fourth group to try that, along with the Frobot Squads and more, we won’t last if we stay here!”

               “Of course, let’s get all this somewhere safe!”Bomme said. They began heading off in her new Amphibexpress locomotive that was letting them travel the area faster.

               The Dry Swamp was one of their proudest achievements. They’d recruited all three major settlements (and several wanderers) into their ranks to be safe.

               Tritonio Espada and his Merry Band were at a loss seeing the lengthy passenger and cargo train passing through the desert after they’d just robbed a different train and cache blind.

               A frog with a white beard and straw hat holding a banjo sat on the top of the middle car with Marcy and, five of her Frobots. Boogie Radley, a vagrant and ex-con, didn’t like large crowds, talking a lot or the police.

               Marcy kept him company without chatting him up for now.

               He strummed absentmindedly. She tapped her knees and feet in rhythm. Struck with inspiration, she pulled out the music sheet for ‘Cripple Creek’ and her new violin.

               Radley raised his bushy eyebrows, reviewed the notes, and started playing. She joined in, playing her violin in a fiddle-style.

               A giant sandworm erupted from the ground and launched itself at her (again) halfway through and she shot it in the face with a laser blast from her wrist (again). Radley cackled and they started over.    

 

              

               “Heh …”Tritonio could not keep a smile off his face,”the new Queen is having herself a merry time on a train … I like it! I must get a score- I mean ride- on that train someday myself!”

               His Merry Band chuckled.

              

*Research and Philanthropy*

               “Remind me why you’ve set up a bank account on your world?”Zel said to Marcy as she used her interdimensional link to Earth to multitask on accounts and research.

               “Simple, Zelly! I’m preparing for when I go home!”Marcy’s smile faltered as she tapped her family photos,”I intend to make it up to my folks and everyone else, and …let’s be real, plenty of people could and would get nasty about my mistakes…having a growing backup account of money for emergencies, damage payoffs or other needs is essential!”

               Zel patted her on the back,”I know people can get ugly, but don’t get paranoid yet. This is a handy idea regardless of that! You got quite the haul already!”

               “It was easy winning some online contests, lotteries, well-placed stock options and a few other legitimate get-rich quick methods! I’m already well on my to becoming a multi-billionaire! And I can spare a fair bit just to be nice,”She donated a few million to charities of many kinds and set up a few projects,”My teachers have said I could cure cancer or world hunger … we can get started on that!”

               “Just in time for the holiday season!”Smarcy said.

               “Yes … also, I want to do some more research on interdimensional stuff! Dr. Jan’s museum information is one thing, but …”she pulled up some obscure files,”this is far from the only kind known on Earth! Terri theorized that the Box is used by the Leviathans to pinpoint locations in an infinite universe of endless possibilities of other worlds. Mr. Fiddleford McGucket of McGucket Labs in Oregon has submitted several genius level designs and patents to the US Government over the past seven years … and he’s friends with Stanford Pines, a mysterious man with sketchy files of a portal design and criminal history in Gravity Falls, Oregon! A bit encrypted, but …”she hit a button.

               Smarcy whistled,“Fascinating … Mr. Pines was a traveler of dimensions for years! He and McGucket share notes on the nature of the multiverse!”

               “The what?”Bomme and Zel asked.

               “Like I just said, here’s many different dimensions of reality … like Amphibia and Earth, the story universes I got some of our ideas from, or the many worlds the Core has conquered!”

               “I see … go on!”Veronica said.

               “Yes yes … Mr. Pines has been to dimensions of chance, a finger dimension, a Nightmare realm, and alternate versions of Earth! Ooooh, that means there’s other timelines of Amphibia too!”

               “I don’t follow that part!”Zel said after a moment of silence.

               “An alternate timeline … it’s where your life and mine could’ve gone differently just a little bit or a lot … and our whole lives went in different directions than they are now. Say, one where Andrias never went evil, one where Sasha took over Amphibia, and so on.”

               “Whoa … that’s awesome! I have both eyes or a rich career in some worlds!”Bomme whistled.

               “Indeed … I think I’ll borrow these boys notes on portals and interdimensional physics along with Terri’s … just in case we need them!”Marcy hit download.

               Zel clapped,“Good call! A backup in case the Box is out of reach can’t hurt.”

 

 

              

*Of Crabs and Kings *

               If there was any figure who invited anger out of Marcy’s army besides her the most, it was Zel.

               The top brass in Andrias’s army and many of the upper crust viewed her as a traitor of the highest order, responsible for costing them thousands of troops, her own commanding officer and control of the South by switching sides with over half of their troops down there and ‘selling them out’ and leading Marcy’s forces in open battle to crush her former kingdom’s forces.

               Andrias was able to use that to galvanize his soldiers and gain a swell of willing fighters, but he also had to deal with the fallout.

               Nolan asked him,”Our biggest rebel threats are one thing. I’ve had my hands full dealing with Beatrix and other toad insurgents in the North and West since this started. She’s manageable even if I’ve suffered heavy losses just sending troops around the lava ponds and swamps around Aldo’s former territory, and the human girl’s small rebellion was never large scope enough to cause a major problem, but now all three of them are running circles around us. Could you at least take down one of their major commanders?”

               Andrias smiled,“Nolan, I can assure you, Captain Grime has been injured but escaped death recently a few times in my recent battle tests of newer robots. His ragtag town bandits won’t be a threat at all for long against us now. Beatrix will fight until Death’s Eye Mountain or herself blow up, I’m sure … as for the Cyberkinetic Witch, I may have something in mind to eliminate one of her best.”

               A large robot came out. It was grey and green, stood at 14 ft tall, with four large spider legs and two lengthy arms tipped with scissor-like crab claws. Its insectoid head was elongated and had sharp mandibles around a circular mouth and four yellow eyes.

               Nolan circled it, “Impressive … who came up with this?”

               “It’s an old design, actually. My ancestors used it in long-gone times as a durable combat machine. It has special durable armor that lets it absorb the force of attacks, store it and then unleash them back at an enemy in a destructive blast. It’s also conveniently immune to electrical attacks and can go underwater, something most of our robots struggle with. The only new feature is an additional weapon: electric energy nets that shock on contact. No creature short of an Island Crab could hope to match it in strength right away. This robot is good at stealth tactics, mission-focused, and can also track a target … let’s assign it one, shall we?”

               He put up a picture of Zel Brooks,”She was recently spotted leading an excursion near the Boiling Bastions … a good chance to target her, if nothing else. Robot, Commander Zel Brooks of the Cyber Rebel Army is your target. ”

               “Target accepted!”It said in an insectile voice.

               “Don’t stop until she is dead or caught! If you catch her, bring her back at once!”Andrias ordered it.

               Zel was en route to meet with Marcy after crushing a force at Rockbottom lake near Stony Gulch. The lake was thoroughly deserted after the town and factories near it had been destroyed.

               The robot zoomed it with telescopic infrared vision on her from the nearby cliffs. Zel was walking along the shores towards the direction of the Boiling Bastions with two of the CG’s, Sterns, and her Z-Crew.

               “Target found…

               Options: Capture or kill?

               She was too far away for a reliable shot with the energy net, so it opted for a blast.

               Andrias didn’t realize that Marcy kept some of her best robots spread out to protect not just her, but her top officers and friends. The CGs were among the best at detecting incoming attacks thanks to their radar.

               CG-3 tackled Zel just in time.

               “What was that for?!”Zel yelled. CG-3 pointed at the spot where she just stood.

               CG-4 pinpointed their attacker,”Commander, look on the cliffs!”

               They saw the large shape in the shadows, with small glowing yellow eyes.

               “Get it!”Zel yelled.

               Her troops opened fire while the three Mar Guards took position near her.

               The robot leaped down, showing its crablike form in more detail. It fired rapid shots, taking down eight Marines and two Maraudbots at once.

               The Demo Squad directed the rest to take cover.

               The robot shrugged off several bullets as it crawled towards Zel.

               Sterns zoomed at it and went for the legs, slicing at the joints.

               It fell forward.

               -Power levels up by 20%

               The legs were still operational, and its torso was unbothered. It caught a Marine and Paladin in each claw and crushed them.

               Chris hit in the face with a grenade, blowing it on its back.

               -Power up by 50%.

               Target inbound from 30 degrees to the right.

               “You picked the wrong day to try and off me, crawler boy!”She yelled.

               The head rotated and fired a blast she dodged.

               The robot stood up, visibly glowing.

               “Commander Zel Brooks …eliminate!”

               “Oh goodie, I’ve got a hit on my head!”Zel said sarcastically.

               A boulder hit the robot at high speed from the side.

               “Commander, think of the bright side. You are dangerous and have earned a threat level high enough to warrant such an attack,”CG-3 said while keeping his Force trident pointed at the enemy.

               Zel kept her eyes on it,“I know, we’ll celebrate later, because  that still wasn’t enough to keep it down!”

               -Power now at 120% capacity

               The insectoid machine zoomed at her at high speed and grabbed her in one claw.

               She punched it one eye. It grabbed her right arm and squeezed.

               “Owwww!”

               “Not so fast, ugly!”Sterns yelled. He launched at its face and stabbed it right in the eye.

               It squealed and backed up.

               “Oppppticssss d-d-damaged. Rerrrrooutting powerrrr …”

               “Good job Sterns!”Zel said as CG-4 and Malkovitch helped her to her feet. She stared at the robot and said,”Find me a soft spot, somebody!”

               “The eyes and back of the neck are weak points,”CG-3 noted.

               Drake noted,“That armor’s reinforced, Commander. From the looks of it, it’s not getting weaker from getting hit!”

               Curious, Sterns fired an Energy beam at its chest.

               It didn’t even flinch, but stood there.

               “Attack force absorbed!”It said.

               “Oh heck no!”ZeL groaned.

               “Target locked!”It fired the energy net out of its head next.

               They dodged. The net sparking angered Zel.

               She made a throat slash gesture to her troops and pointed at its head.

               They nodded.

               She held her sword in her good arm and leaped in its path.

               The beam began to charge in its mouth.

               “Super Sprint!”

               Sterns cut it on the back of the neck with one big slash.

               The CGs fired stun blasts at the spot.

               It staggered forward, dazed and sparking on the head a bit.

               The two HERCs on hand wrapped their grappling hooks around its legs and made it fall down.

               The three Mar Guards came up and hit the neck four more times apiece.

               Zel jumped on its head and stabbed it in the eyes with her blade, driving it in deep.

               The robot twitched in death throes. Zel kept her blade in until her troops pried the head off. The body sparked and combusted, leaving behind a shattered shell and a burned out head.

               “Haul the torso remains and the head back with us!”Zel directed them. The HERCS took the pieces apart and spread them out for transport.

               “Fascinating, this is a NEW design I don’t know!”Marcy said a while later when Zel showed her.

               “Fascinating and a pain!”Zel grumbled as Sally healed her arm and Skibi wrapped a bandage around it for her.

               “I KNOW, Zelly, I know. Good job on handling that. Now what do we call it?”

               “It’s some kind of …spider crab thing!”Maya said.

               “Really?! I swear, tentacled beings and crabs, two THINGS they know I’ve had to face! Fine, we have a CANCER BOT, let’s try something else mythological or crab-related!”

              

               Smarcy found one creature called the Zaratan from Arabic lore, a monstrous crab that had a shell resembling an island and was often mistaken for one, fleeing when it felt fire on its back. In modern times people mistakenly called it a turtle.

               Bomme smiled thoughtfully,“I like that one! This big crab …and it takes tons of hits and hits back harder …

               “The Zaraton!”She and Marcy yelled in unison.

               Smarcy clapped and said,“Adding it to the list of threats now!”

              

               Miles away, Andrias was having a meeting with major Generals Noland, Thrak,Talis and several dozen other top brass.

               His royal knights were present as well.

               Gobain the Enduring was a middle-aged ensatina salamander newt (brown and orange stripes) with a grey beard grey armor. He had his assembled company: Garret, a black and white spotted Northern slimy salamander newt with vision problems; Jessa, a yellow newt with blue hair and a paddle tail; Sogramor, a brown newt with red eyes; Edward, a teal newt with combed black hair and a trim mustache; Camille, a long-toed salamander newt with indigo hair;  Palamades, a stoic palmate newt; Kelly, a red salamander newt with auburn hair and a spunky spirit that Garrett had a crush on (she was the first girl to be nice to him); Thaddeus, a quiet crocodile newt; Tara; a fiery red-headed long tailed salamander newt with a tail nearly 7 ft long; and Savoy, a seal salamander newt. They were among the most successful or dedicated knights around. Palamedes, Tara, and Sava had distinct Coral knight armor, armor awarded to those who won their first battles in coastal/sea missions around the bay. Available in many colors, it had coral reef crests and spikes along the pauldrons, tail coverings and helmets. The Reef swords they carried were blue sabers with coral-reef shaped hilts.

 Sir Trenton and Lady Hida, along with some lingering members of the royal castle guards, stood there with them.

               “Thank you for coming. The North Tower and Newtopia are undergoing reconstruction as new fortifications for our armies and Frosch is completely cut off for the moment. Over a dozen pirate crews and renegade toad hordes coming out from the Northwest have been taken care of. 1300 of these troublemakers are now serving as laborers and our military production Unfortunately, our success is mixed with loss! General Bosca of the Commandos perished in battle against the rebel Sasha Waybright and his right-hand newt Colonel Shang is suspected dead. Admiral Torosa was captured in plain sight, General Broly died facing the Magic Knights of the Cyberkinetic Witch along with half of his legion, and two bases with the Emerald Musketeers and the three Field Marshals running them near Froscha were wiped out completely with every soldier there by Beatrix. The Borrowpit Legion and a quarter of our other forces have recently defected, our garrison at the East Tower was wiped out by a rogue knight in her employ yesterday, and I have also confirmed my suspicions that the Night Guards were all captured at their own hidden base!”

               The officers frowned darkly.

“Sire …what do you intend to do about these insurgents? We still don’t know who the Cyberkinetic Witch really is. Do you know?”Nolan asked testily.

               “I suppose that’s an issue to address … the public has all sorts of theories about her. Her real name is a mystery since she’s made sure her information I had was wiped clean and she erased her original home … this girl was working as a valued new assistant for my advisor, Lady Oliva, on recommendation from General Yunan and the Night Guards. She had good skills and brains as a graduate of the University. For a few weeks, she did good … until that incident a month ago when she made this Castle explode with heavy damage and got away after trying to tamper with the Music Box! Master Marcy, Lady Oliva and General Yunan were casualties of this disaster.”

               “That’s how she did that?”Rivula asked in disbelief. The incident had spread alarm for hours and had been hushed immediately afterwards.

               “Of course! What she was thinking, I don’t know, but it injured me gravely and set us back hard. She lost her mind and blames me for her injuries. Now she seeks to get her revenge … on me!”Andrias tried to sound like the idea was ridiculous.

               Because it was.

               Branson said,“Sire, we just got word. Our long-range drone spy has footage of her near the Southern edge of the Boiling Bastions. It looks like she’s meeting with some runaway workers.”

               “Show it!”Andrias ordered him.

               It was the first time many had gotten a good look at her … or her forces for that matter. Zel (still alive), her ‘cult’ (now at sixteen members), the rogue Circus who’d done  major damage to his caravans over the past few weeks, and her unique robotic bodyguards. It alarmed him to see the entire number of Asurdroids and Frost Knights/

The Driders were undetectable by their screens and were standing at the back next to the CGs.

               A group of frogs and toads in ragged clothes and cloaks in front of her. A frog with brown hair and red eyes named Nancy cleared her throat,”Your majesty … if that’s what you wanna be called …”

               “Just call me M for now! Since I’m a mystery!”Marcy suggested.

               Nancy chuckled,”Sure, why not? M, you said we should just go down South with you! I appreciate the offer-I really do- but if you’re so tough, why not just end the king right now? We lost everything thanks to him!”

               The crowd grumbled.

               Marcy waved her hands placatingly,“I know you’re VERY CROSS with the evil power-hungry maniac … so am I! It’s one thing to crush his minions, another thing to take him head on! His own armies are still larger and he’s one slippery big boy with tricks up his sleeves. He just sent a big spider crab robot to TRY AND KILL my commander before we got here!”

Zel nodded and rubbed her bandaged arm. Nolan and Andrias exchanged looks.

“The stakes are high and getting higher, it’s true. But mark my words, when the dust settles, Andrias will be lucky if HE’S still got his treacherous backstabbing hands, let alone his head, attached to his body!! I made SURE he knows to be afraid of making me too angry … or else! His ugly pet eldritch abomination haunting the bowels of the Castle isn’t even going to be BLINKING when I’m done with it!”Marcy rubbed her chest.

 Andrias looked away from the screen.

               The Core was livid. “Pet eldritch abomination?!”

               “The king has pet abominations? I thought he just used krakens to dispose of pirate invaders!”A farmer named Leroy said.

               “That wasn’t MY idea!”Andrias groaned.

Nolan was skeptical. It sounded like something Andrias would approve of.

               Marcy snickered,”That might have been better. INSTEAD, this abomination is sooo much worse. Some crazy idiots who had nothing better to do with their lives said a long time ago, ‘Let’s make a giant black fat marble, give it kraken arms, add some claws to the TIPS, and some creepy orange eyes full of EVIL! Even better, let’s have it screech like a dying heron from a mouthless face even a diseased Grubhog’s MOMMA couldn’t love,”The Eight idiots glared from inside their ‘face’,”and we’ll GIVE IT REGULAR MEALS of extra brains for an unbalanced diet to make it keep growing smarter and fatter! The royal family will keep it in on a leash in their dusty basement to guard their evil heirlooms and live a VERY UNHAPPY life. Oh yes, it’s perfect, OUR ULTIMATE HORRIBLE ABOMINATION … it’s aliveeee, alivveeee!’ It’s so awful-”she handed a sheet of paper to Odd,”that seeing these details about its nature up close makes intelligent robots like mine feel pain.”

               Odd glanced at the paper indifferently,” Oh come on now, my queen, it can’t be that ba-OHHH, MY EYES, WHYYYY??!! THIS IS AN OFFENSE AGAINST EVERY DECENT STANDARD OF PROGRAMMING CONTAINED IN MY GLORIOUS CICRUITS!! MY JOYFUL EXISTENCE  IS ALREADY RUINED THANKS TO SEEING THIS HORRIBLE ABOMINATION! WHAT POINT IS THERE TO LIFE NO-O-OWWWW??!!”

               He fell on the ground holding his eyes in ‘pain’. The frogs stared in bewilderment.

               “See? My colleague is questioning the meaning of life thanks a terrible idea thought up by crazy idiots who should’ve been executed on the spot for it!”Aelita said.

               Bartley chuckled,”She expects us to believe that?”

               “Yeah, King Andrias wouldn’t hire idiots who’d do something that stupid!”Blair said.

 Andrias smiled. He certainly hadn’t.

               “I am not a crazy idiot, it wasn’t stupid, we’re not fat, and I didn’t say that when we finished our shell!”Flamel yelled.

               “How dare they! We worked hard on this!”Newtricula said

*Many eons ago*

               “It’s working, it’s working … our shell, the ultimate creation to cheat death and carry us and our rulers on for eternity, it’s coming to life! We shall be a god, a thing to defy death and rule for all eternity!”Flamel cackled with delight as the Core shell read ‘operational and waiting for mind uploads.

               “It will risk hurting our minds and intellectual capacity, but is worth the risk!”Newtricula agreed.

               “King Tritones requested we make it resemble his glory … some gills on the top for a natural crown would help!”Julianna suggested.

               “Indeed. And I’ve already made plans to model the optical parts resemble his own enchantingly intense eyes!”Flamel said. He rubbed his hands together. Best idea ever!

*Back in the crazy present*

               “Great, so he’s evil and has bad house pets. What else could go wrong?”Nancy grumbled.

               Marcy decided to go hardball on insulting the Leviathans.

               “Everything could. The world could be ending … in fact, let me borrow something from a Good Book I know of to TESTIFY to how EVIL the king and his family are,”Marcy raised her hands and quoted a legit Bible verse.

”Let that NIGHT be solitary and NOT worthy of praise. Let them who curse it curse the day, who are ready to raise up … A LEVIATHAN!”

               The refugees’ jaws dropped open. The CRA troops smiled approvingly.

               The newts in the Castle slowly looked in fear towards their king.

               Andrias startled snarling.

               “You will pay dearly for that, Wit!”Jocasta said venomously. The Leviathans in the Core scared the other minds with the collective rage they felt.

               The newts in the room with Andrias were afraid. That look in their king’s eyes looked … murderous. If they could’ve seen the Core’s eyes full of ungodly hate below them, they would’ve run for the hills.

               “Did you just curse his family name as pure evil?”Jimmy asked incredulously.

              

               Marcy crossed her arms,”Pretty much … that family has been BEGGING to get called that for AGES. Andrias Leviathan is Lord of Amphibia,  Peacekeeper of a thousand years, and the first of his name. That’s the COMMON knowledge about him. The UNCOMMON knowledge is that he’s the last  of a long line of long forgotten maniacs, monsters, conquerors, and psychopaths that developed an extreme god complex … which means they got as full of themselves as you can get! Is it any wonder he’s the only one left?”

               Andrias shook with rage as Marcy kept going,” He’s a lazy big guy who smiles and acts like a child while hiding a dark side that could eat you alive. The word ‘Leviathan’ is already associated with chaos, large things, corrupt regimes, DEMONS, and GIGANTIC sea monsters that could swallow you up and end the world. I’d say the whole royal family took that VERY literally! Just look around you!”

The refugees swallowed as she continued,”Andrias Leviathan the First has become Andrias THE WORST! I watched this FRIENDLESS tyrant ensure he remains friendless, ruin his Peacekeeper record in just one day! He played literal games that started this mess, blamed everyone but himself for what his own hands have done, said whatever he needed to say to get people to dance to his tune, and gloated like a total psycho about how glorious he thought conquering things would be for Amphibia when he started this! Oh yes, Andrias, it’s looks glorious alright … NOT!!!”

The refugees and eavesdroppers jumped at her volume.

She pointed at the Castle and said,”Just look, the crazy LIZARD is so full of it his first GREAT idea was to make his family’s stupid brick OUTHOUSE fly!”

               Andrias scowled so fiercely everyone in the room backed away from him. The Core shook with hate in the basement. It was one thing to call a newt a salamander, but even more insulting to call them a lizard … along with all that other stuff.

              

               Jimmy laughed nervously,“Wow, you really do have it out for him!”

“Of course I do … he asked for it. You start a war; you WILL get insulted by SOMEBODY. All Andrias has accomplished is surrounding himself with destruction and dead people. If WE win, we can rebuild and do something MEANINGFUL with our lives. If you come with me, you can stay as safe as possible from him in my territory.”

               “Can you guarantee that?”A frog named Richie asked.

               Marcy giggled like a loon, “Certainly! Besides my growing army everyone knows can go toe to toe with his, he can’t come too close to my areas. As Queen of the South, I’m banning him from my territories as of today. He’d better listen or else … I could kill him WITH THE POWER OF MY MIND!”

               “Really?”Nancy said skeptically.

               Marcy put her index finger against the left side of her head and made a distant flying robot explode.

               “Oooohhhh!”The crowd said in awe.

               “That’s original!”Tara whispered to Savoy.

               “Can she really do that? To a person??”Blair asked nervously.

               “Of course not. We’d be dead by now!”Bartley argued.

               “You might not be. You’re not worth it!”Branson grumbled.

               Andrias groaned,“Boys, she can’t do that to a person!”

               Yuriko pushed her red sunglasses up and scrutinized the Castle,”For his own good, his majesty should avoid risking that. The nasty mess his exploded skull would leave on the Castle walls and foyer would be a very undignified death. They’ll call him the Peacekeeper of a thousand years whose mind went to a thousand pieces!”

               Most of the Amphibians shivered.

               “That lady robot makes a valid point, sire! ”Bartley said.

 Andrias chuckled nervously.

“I’ll move the Castle a bit to the West … just in case!”

He put one hand on the Box and steered the Castle slowly towards the Northwest.

               “Let’s start inventing brain protecting headgear!”Blair whispered to his two colleagues.

              

               “Even if she couldn’t do that, that dishonorable wretch would have to get past all of us first … “Nazgrowl said.

 Verona, Kadmos, Crocus, Makariya, Marcus, and Minerva happened to be standing to the far left. The six knights glanced towards the direction of the eavesdropping robot. Makariya, Minerva, and Kadmos rubbed fingers along their weapons thoughtfully. Crocus and Marcus cracked their necks and Verona’s pauldron eyes dilated.

               The newts and the Core shivered. None of them wanted to face those knights personally if they could avoid it. Their recent rampages had earned them the reputation of no single Amphibian being able to stand up to them and live to tell about it.

The burning gazes looking their way right now gave off the intense impression that there were a thousand horrors waiting behind their eyes… atrocities that they could feel echoing just faintly out of sight …

 

               “That’s sounds like a good defense, mister! I’m sold!”Richie said.

              

               Zel took over,”Glad to hear it. Right now, a definitive end to this struggle isn’t in sight. So relocating you folks to ensure your safety,”she smiled kindly at a tadpole near her,”is our current priority! That will make ending Andrias’s tyranny  easier!”

               Nancy shrugged,”Sure, why not?”

               Odd said,“Great, we can hang, rest and get ready to fight in the Amphibian Calamity War!”

               “I’m not calling this war that!”Andrias grumbled.

               “That’s what you’re worried about?”Thrax said in annoyance.

               An interior designer named Shelly was surprised, “That’s what he’s doing? I thought he was just mad the toads  ruined his Castle decorations our taxes have paid for with their failed invasion of Newtopia and decided he needed to put his foot down to crush their uncivilized style, do countrywide redecorating, put the Royal house out of the reach of further vandalism, and do some oppressive redecorating all over!”

               Nancy groaned. Shelly was decoration-obsessed even at the worst of times.

               Marcy’s gang (even the knights) and most of the refugees started to break down into badly repressed laughter. Andrias himself started to chuckle. Triple B, Thrax, and half of the knights and soldiers present snickered. Nolan gave a rare smile. Quite a few of the Core minds themselves found that funny.

               “That hasn’t been necessary in a long time!”Sigurd said.

               “Perhaps it is now …”Tamora said.

               “You cannot be serious …”Talis said incredulously.

               Marcy tried hard to remain composed,”Ma’am, there was definitely VANDALISM of Castle decorations that day from a certain pair of unwanted houseguests. But all his damaging ‘redecorating’ aside,”Zel coughed hard,”if Andrias usually reacted THAT badly to damage of Castle property or vandalism …I’M confident this would’ve happened a long time ago!”

               “ Don’t get me started on the tapestry maintenance and constant damage to the flags!”Andrias said. A few of the Castle staff grumbled. Those were a constant issue.

               A middle-aged frog named Tobias grumbled,”I didn’t pay years of taxes to support his Castle going airborne and making OTHER flying buildings the rest of us don’t get to enjoy while our property values and homes go up in ashes!”

               Will said,“ How dare this fiend make flying houses with cannons perfect for home defense and not share any of them? This is unforgivable!”

               Marcy finally cracked and howled with laughter.

               “It’s not funny! It’s an outrage he did all this without asking us first! He gives civilized Amphibians a bad name!”Tobias snapped. The crowd laughed harder.

               Andrias wagged a finger at Tobias,“Don’t be jealous!”

               Ulrich snarked,“I’m sure he’s not civilized if he can’t bother asking if its ok to raze the countryside first … that’s just common courtesy.”

               “Yes, shame on Andrias for such impertinence. Then again, he’s never been much for etiquette …”Zel said flatly.

               Andrias smiled unashamedly as his officers frowned at him.

               Marcy could not resist another joke at Andrias’s expense,“Guys, forget thinking Andrias is cool, courteous or good at decorating! He’s not! LOOK AT NEWTOPIA, he left it a sloppy mess! This landscape is a gardener’s worst nightmare, and he’s jealous that my robots are cooler than his! The only thing he can do better is ENJOY that lovely view with window seats!”

               “That is so not true!”Andrias griped.

               “Yeah right!”His servants and the Core thought.

              

Nancy rolled her eyes. “ I can see that.”

               “ALRIGHT, come on, GUYS!”Marcy led them off through the wastelands.

               “Sire, what do you want to do to stop this madness of hers from spreading?”Nolan asked when the feed was closed.

               “I need to act soon, that’s for sure. We can’t let her start selling flying houses with cannons!”Andrias said after half a minute of silence. Nolan facepalmed while the rest stared at him or covered their mouths to avoid laughing.

               “Oh, for the love of Sanctum, Wit’s still being a bad influence on him!”Aldrich groaned.

               “You wish that was the case …”Alcibiades retorted.

               “Another reason to end that line of thinking in his life!”Tamora said decisively.

               “Why would that be a problem, sire??”Branson asked Andrias warily.

               Andrias smirked,“The view is to die for, but I can’t just let everyone have the perfect home defense system!”

               He relished watching his servants look at him like he’d lost his mind.

His ancestors who’d already ensured he had lost his mind ground their collective mental teeth.

“I had to ask,”Branson moaned.

               Garrett and Trenton coughed hard to avoid laughing.

               Andrias switched topics,“Now, Gobain, I believe you were interested in leading a counteroffensive?”

               “Yessss, my company and I agreed that taking the fight to the Rebellion where they live would be invaluable …”Gobain said uneasily.

               “I should be able to get you inside the Valley with a sizable force. I want you to do as much damage to the spread-out factories and territories she’s established in the Northern half. Her exact base location is still hidden, but I’ve long confirmed she resides there!”

               Gobain protested“How is that valuable?! I thought you wanted to take the Rebellion down for good, but this could be a total disaster!”

               Andrias put his serious face on,“It is valuable. I take such threats seriously. The only way to eliminate her threats is to take her down, and for that I need an advantage. You’ll be getting adequate support and an escape route, I promise. If nothing else, this attack  will buy General Talis time to establish a defensive position to keep the South on their toes! Talis, you can take a force straight to Kho Ghop Island and establish a force there!”

               “How will you get us to those areas, my lord?”She asked.

               “I have my ways!”Andrias said, glancing at the Music Box.

               “Sir, the Drone Hosts are ready to be tested!”Bradford said.

               Andrias smiled,“Perfect, they should keep the rebels occupied long enough to gather our forces properly.”

               “I know I’m going to regret asking, but do you have abominations in the basement?”Talis asked.

               “No more than I usually do! I thought I moved them out already after the explosions last month. I should check my inventory to make sure they and their insane creators aren’t still lurking there!”He said.

 The Core contemplated how best to punish him.

*Release the Swarm*

               Andrias had enjoyed finding out about the game concept of ‘skins’ and when he learned Spacecraft’s Zerg had a Leviathan Brood skin, it was too good to resist.

               The Leviathan Brood was purple (like himself), had spikes on all its strains, and were known for being chaotic and creeping up on their foes.

               Marcy avoided the Zerg and Khalani aliens for designs for many reasons, so it was only natural he (the alien player) went for them.

               The Egg Host got adapted into a new model of Shield Bot called the Drone Host with purple paint and jagged spikes adorning it. In place of a power line to connect to a building to protect, it could generate a forcefield over itself and go underwater if needed. The main reason was so it could burrow and use the factory of advanced nanobots inside it to start constructing Dragonfly drones, their new Hornet Drones, and an even newer Drone model called Buzz Locusts. It could spawn four of one kind at once below ground, and up to three times that amount in emergencies above ground.

               The Buzz Locusts (or Buzzers) were the same size as Dragonfly drones, and had four barbed wings, a round abdomen the size of a soccer ball, and four red eyes. For weapons, they had two buzz-saw arms folded under their heads and a mouth of sharp teeth that had a small laser in the back.

               One burrowed 20 miles away from Wartwood and the other went into an empty pond 40 miles away from Marcy’s territory. They began to spawn.

               Toadie had secured a wagon of supplies and was taking it back with Toadstool and Wally.

               The first batch of DF drones came at them. Wally beat most of them easily, but then they started swarming around the wagon and firing.

               Toadie made their ride go faster after two shots narrowly missed his head.

               Sasha, Croaker, Loggle and the Sundews were waiting down the road.

               “I told them to be … quiet,”Sasha trailed off seeing them come with the bug robots harassing them,”Ok gang, take these bugs out!”

               They did so, but then another batch came at them two minutes later.

               “Ugh, let’s get out of here!”Ivy said after they squashed them in half a minute.

               Five Hornets came flying up.

               “Oh frog no!”Sasha groaned. These things had proven harder to fight in the air than regular Frobots.

               They rode and fought. Croaker, Archie and Toadie had to take potshots at the agile things for over two miles, taking out three of them.

               At the edge of town, they took cover and Sasha had Toadie go get Grime.

               Grime bought reinforcements of over 30 Resistance members. They came just as five more Hornets and 20 DF’s came up.

               “Oh good, plenty to share!”He said gleefully. Maddie took out over half of them with well-placed throws of curses and acidic potions. Grime smacked four of the Hornets after timing their flying attacks to hit them in the air with his Hammer.

               Then eight Buzzers came up.

               “Uh, what the crud are those things?”Wally said. He smacked one back with his accordion, and they screeched, showing their scary mouths of saw-like teeth.

               “GET AWAY!”He screamed.

               Four leaped at him. Loggle punched them into pieces, only for two to leap on his shoulder and bite him.

               He screamed in pain. Sasha cut those two and the rest into pieces at high speed.

               Ten more came out of the woods, followed by three Hornets.

               “Get ‘em!”Grime yelled. The Hornets caught his eye when they went for the wagon instead.

               “Oh no you don’t!”He yelled. He ran at them and whacked all three down at high speed in the air.

               “Ha, if this all-“A Buzzer landed on his face and he growled like a savage monster while trying to pull it off for half a minute.

               22 more Locusts came out. After the Resistance crushed ten of them, they started getting more dangerous. Wally broke two heads open with his lethal instrument.

               He cackled,“Stupid little bu-“

               A saw cut through his instrument.

               “WHY, YOU LITTLE-“He went savage on the offending Buzzer and the rest.

               “They have saws? Just great …”Stumpy groaned, pulling a sharp blade out to fit into his wrist.

               “Relax Stumpy, we can take ‘em!”Ivy said.

               One of the last three still standing shot her in the hand.

               “Owww!”She howled.

               Felicia crushed that one and the other two in a protective rage.

               Then another batch came up, all of them with buzz saws out.

               “Take them down now!”Sasha ordered.

               Ivy warily kept her focus on the saws and mouths as she kicked and punched them in the head or butt.

               Archie melted many of them, but he was spooked by the sound  they made and he started shooting webs.

               “Good boy, Archie. Let’s trap these ugly critters!”Croaker said. She and her pet started rounding many up with Soggy Joe.

               Grime took it on himself to defend the wagon when a handful of Buzzers kept diverting towards it.

               He did great for four waves, but then two Hornets came and shot him in the back from behind.

               “Urrgggh!”He howled, propping himself up on his weapon. The Buzzers forced him to defend himself with his bare hands.

               Some DF drones took advantage of the distraction to target the wagon and blow it up.

 

               A dozen others were painfully injured with bites or laser burns (including Wally, Croaker, Joe and Duckweed), one of Fern’s best scissors got cut in half, Archie got shot at by a different pair of Hornets and ran for cover (angering Croaker enough to tear the two robots in half with her bare hands), Gunther went rage mode and got several cuts and bites for his trouble, and Toadstool got his coat torn up.

               Sasha had them retreat, and they spent the rest of the day hiding and ambushing any remaining ones and then making their way to their hideout while making sure they weren’t followed. They’d suffered injuries and lost valuable cargo with nothing to show for their efforts. It was a solid defeat for them.

               Thankfully, by this point, Marcy’s group had pinpointed both Drone Hosts after the other one sent waves of all three in higher numbers all over her area. A trio of AD’s went into the pond to take out the one near them and Sparks and Raynor went to get the other.

               “Great, just great …we have our own Zerg robots to deal with now!”Raynor griped.

               “Captain Raynor, please, in the end it’s no major difference whether we deal with menacing hordes of actual bugs or insectoid mechanical swarms. What matters is being able to eliminate them!”Sparks said consolingly. He pointed at the spot and their two Gorgons hit the ground, forcing it to come out.

               It flexed its claws and spawned twelve Buzzers at once.

               “Nice try!”Raynor said. He shot it in the head and Sparks fried the Buzzers.

               “A combo of a Shield Bot and an Egg Host called the Drone Host, using a Leviathan Brood skin and color scheme… it really doesn’t surprise me that Andrias used that,”Marcy said angrily while they reviewed the schematics.

               Zel rubbed her forehead,“Of course not … it matches his color, name and general unpleasant nature. And now with these, he can spawn endless waves of pests to harass us … it won’t be any problem to conduct long distance sieges for them.”

               Andrias had another design he tested, but it wasn’t on them.

               An angry group of newts (eighteen total) gathered to protest Andrias’s poor handling of their society near the Castle. When no one else was around, the lead protestor, Lanz, turned when he heard a rumbling sound.

               He screamed when a segmented tentacle with a triple claw on the tip came out of the ground and dragged him under. Two more came out and grabbed another pair. Within ten seconds, the entire group was dragged underground and never came back up.

               Three Impale Bots emerged. They resembled insects with large crested heads, and had the same Leviathan skin aesthetic and three large spiny tentacles they launched from under ground to attack their enemies.

*The Black Knight of Wartdrop Island*

               Wayne Wartburt, a large Titicaca waterfrog of 10 ft height with flapped and segmented skin, knelt before Marcy,”My lady, I may know of one knight who could seek to join your army!”

               “Oh?”Marcy said, her curiosity peaked. Wayne had been the first of his village on the Southeastern tip of the Frog Mountains near the coasts to seek to join her army when they were conquering the South. He’d become one of Zel’s frog captains in the front lines. He was a nice guy and knew his way around the coasts as a competent fighter.

               “Wartdrop Island had a retired knight living there … Lady Gilsig the Black Knight.”

               Marcy vibrated in place with excitement,”Oooo, a black knight!? The kind of literary stock character who masks their identity or that of their lord by not displaying their coat of arms on their dark armor, the kind of knight who often act as bad guys or sketchy ones?! Does she have a monopoly on that here?!”

               “Ummm …”Wayne turned to Zel.

               Zel sighed,“That’s a yes! Let’s head down there.”

               Wartdrop Island was a small, isolated island off the Southeast coast of Amphibia, only used as a stopping point for travelling ships. It had long been abandoned since the war started, and had few other buildings or features of interest to catch anyone’s notice.

               Gilsig was an odd one. This dusky salamander girl was 5’8”, had pitch-black skin, brown hair, a 4 ft tail, and lantern-like green eyes. Her armor was like her body but shiny like a black pearl. The design was simple and bulky around the gauntlets. She had coral-shaped spikes on her pauldrons.

               She called herself a salamander and didn’t care if that made the newts angry. Her kind were known for being cave and mountain dwellers with aggressive protectiveness, unhingable jaws, and rumors of swallowing their food (some thought that included kids) whole. Their usual dark appearance and black orbs of eyes didn’t help.

               She carried a very unique axe. It was 6’7” ft long and had a coral-like composition. The green blade at the tip faced one side and a spiky crest of spikes adorned the other side. Gilsig called it the Reef Reaper axe, and it was her favorite tool and constant headache.

               Ever since travelling to Newtopia to put her fighting skills and temper to good use, Gilsig had been dissatisfied. She never enjoyed the rules of the military and had an abrasive personality that was unleashed in nonstop mockery and sarcasm. She’d become a knight for solo work and loved the armor options, but then the Sand Wars came. She survived every fight in this war that raged across the desert areas and around the mountains so hard it raised sandstorms, and had done several solo missions and put down the Dust Devils and other insurgents with skill, but while Yunan and other great fighters got applause and medals, she was still the Southern outsider who came to Newtopia dirt-poor and had left a dozen spots in flames retrieving stolen items.

               Near the end of the war, she travelled to a cavernous area just below the Olm Woods Forest. In this cave, she found the Reef Reaper axe among a pile of treasure, glowing green and untarnished. She took it outside along with a couple chests of gold and jewels. The nearby army unit had left already, so she had to trudge on foot. During that time, she found out the axe had mystical properties. It was many times harder than normal blades and could fire caustic blasts of energy that could explode on contact, send shockwaves for up to 50 yards through the ground, and set fires. The axe had an odd effect on her from prolonged exposure, and turned her dark onyx eyes into green reptilian ones, gave her increased vitality and pain tolerance, and made her feel rejuvenated. She still looked as young as Zel in spite of being older than Yunan.

               Gilsig was angered when all the treasure was confiscated when she finally made contact with the army again. She chose the axe as the single item she was allowed to keep. Some people assumed she was cursed. Eventually she had enough and struck out on her own. Wandering around the Southern swamps and Dark Forest, she fought her way past every problem and did odd jobs. She found other newts annoying and judgemental, and started calling herself a salamander just to make them react. Frogs and toads were dumb, predictable or problematic to her when she was minding her own business, etc.

               Eventually, she settled on the relatively quiet lone island of Wartdrop Island, and took various jobs as a mercenary and rogue knight for hire.

               “Helllooo, Miss Gilsig?? Care for a job offer??”Marcy called out on the shore.

               “I don’t think her kind is that easy to just call out and get a response!”Ivan said.

               “My KIND? With your head, pal, that’s saying something!”A very deadpan woman’s voice called out. Ivan jumped and pointed his weapon at the knight standing on the nearby hill leaning on her axe.

               She grinned as weapons were pulled out and aimed at her,”Oooh, I still got it! Never an army I couldn’t rattle up!”

               Marcy started shaking.

“Aw, did I scare the wierdo in the mask?”Gilsig mocked her.

               “Oh … MY GOSH! Is that axe made of CORAL!?”

               Gilsig blinked in astonishment.

               “Huh??”

               Marcy zoomed up and got very close to her body,”Is that armor VINTAGE, what is made of, do you want to swap armor stories?? Is that AXE cursed, are you a bad girl and PROUD of it, or just misunderstood, is-“

               “Uhhh, does she need a treat or do I need to get physical?“Gilsig asked a grinning Zel as Marcy poked her chest.

               “Oh I’m sorry,”Marcy took her mask off and said,”Hi there, my name’s Marcy! I heard you’re called Gilsig the Black Knight! Wanna be my new cool mercenary pal?”

               “What?”Gilsig said quietly.

*30 minutes later*

               “Shut up, big mouthed Yunan got soft towards you?? That’s so funny, but … kinda sweet for a girl like her!”Gilsig said. She sipped the root beer,”This ‘root beer’ is great!”

               “I know right?? This is awesome, you found a legit rare unique item, and went solo …”Marcy said, examining the Reef Reaper axe with her own protected hands.

               “Thanks, you’re the first to believe me on that!”Gilsig said.

               “I’ve made detecting lies an art!”Marcy answered. She frowned and looked towards the distant Castle.

               Gilsig winced,“Yeesh, I don’t blame you! I’d be on edge too if I had a betrayal of trust that bad! This explains everything weird going on lately … and those robots keep causing me problems every other day when they come around.”

               “So what do you say? Wanna join my army, on your terms and a general freelance basis?”Marcy offered her hand.

               Gilsig shook it,”Oh frogging heck, why not?”

               She enjoyed trashing a dozen random Frobot patrols on the way back and soon claimed a Manta as her new steed.

               “So, Gilsie, any choices for yer first pick of jobs?”Halley asked her.

               Gilsig’s idea was outrageously original.

               She went to the East Tower, now staffed with a force of foot soldiers and Captain Maddok, a green newt with a Warrior set of armor.

               Gilsig directly took the route near Wartwood, because she preferred to scope out ‘competition’ for herself.

               She perched in a tree, used her trusty binoculars, and observed them around the Plantar house. She shrugged and started leaping through the trees toward Shiro Swamp.

               Grime noticed her shadows from a distance and narrowed his eyes.

               Gilsig landed on the edge of the swamp.

               “Ok,”she checked her map,”now the next bend to go up is…”

               She heard a loud yell from behind her and ducked.

               Another toad yelling while attacking …why did they always have to do that??

               Grime missed hitting her with his Hammer from the back by a few seconds.

               “Not bad, newt! You have better reflexes than most!”

               She groaned,”Of course … the loser ex-toad Captain!”

               “WHAT!?”Grime shouted.

               “C’mon, Grimothy, not only did you just do the dumb thing by yelling while attacking, but you lost your job, twice, for being stupid!”She mocked him.

               He growled and charged at her, swinging with vicious fury.

               “Oh great, Grimesy found a Newtopian knight coming after us!”Sasha said wearily as she and the rest ran up.

               Gilsig glanced aside to see the group, rolled her eyes and swung her axe to the ground. Grime was airborne from the shockwave and she did a 360 degree spin to hit him in the face with her hard tail.

               He sailed into a tree and fell unconscious.

               Gilsig giggled as a furious Sasha screamed and ran at her. She cartwheeled away and was out of sight soon enough.

               At Shroom Citadel, she stopped for a quick break and told the story. Every rebel there congratulated her.

               Two hours later, she rode her new Manta (named Nicole) to drop into the East Tower.

               “Pal, buddy, where’s the latrine? I’ve got to go!”She asked Maddok and the dozen newts eating dinner with him in the main dining area.

               They just gawked at her. She shrugged and dangled the keys to the prison cells in her hand, winked and walked out of the room.

               “GET HER!”Maddok yelled. The newts charged out.

               Passing Amphibians and robots stared in confusion as they heard shouts and bangs coming from the Tower.

               Ten minutes later, Gilsig walked out to the window with a bound and gagged Maddok in tow and whistled.

               Nicole, a squad of Reapers, and some Siberbots came flying over. She led them inside, and to everyone else’s shock, she made off with the entire garrison (for the second time in this war no less) and the dozen liberated prisoners. Maddock was under her feet as she rode Nicole into the sunset and gave a very mocking goodbye kiss to the speechless Amphibians and Frobots below her.

               “What?”Andrais said flatly when he heard the news.

               “WHATTTTTT!?”Grime screeched in anger when he saw her new wanted poster.

               “That figures!”Sasha moaned.

               Gilsig got plenty of free drinks and several admirers for this when she got back.

               “You’re gonna do great here, Gilsie!”Marcy said.

               “Yeah yeah … we’ll see if you can put up with me first!”Gilsig warned her.

               Marcy waved her hands around her in a circle. Gilsig took in the very bizarre crowd all around and said,”Than again, maybe that won’t be a problem with this lot!”

*The Resistance and  CRA discuss each other*

               “You’ll love this boss … the Resistance is having a discussion about us!!”Vicki informed her.

               “Is that so?”Marcy said. It sparked some discussion at once.

               “If we’re going to ally with them officially soon enough and they’re investigating us, should we discuss their Pros and Cons before that day comes?”Veronica suggested to Marcy.

               Marcy liked that,“That sounds good!”

               The Circus, Wit Wraiths, Halley and her top mercenary friends, Tony’s group, Gilsig, Darin, Brigitte, and a few others congregated in the loungeroom. The Driders, Amy, the Sudigitoids and Mothras stood guard around the room with some Phalangites.

                Marcy started by saying,” Okk, first off, Gilsig, welcome to your first group meeting. Everyone say hi!”

               The group said,“Hi Gilsig!”

               The rogue knight waved from the second row,”Thank you! Don’t crowd me all at once, I’ll deal with you one at a time to see who I’m going to crush first!”

               The crowd laughed.

Marcy waved it off,“Oh Gilsie, you gem! If you’re confused about all the details in this meeting, don’t worry. We got plenty of time to explain more and can always rewatch it.

She flipped a board over with the words,”WARTWOOD RESISTANCE/REBELLION” on it.

“Today we discuss our neighbors and fellow rebels of the Valley. Let’s start with location,”She had Amy display a holographic map of the town and their underground base,”  Wartwood is the smallest town in Frog Valley. This small town is one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, settlements around and surprisingly well built. The entire main town is-sorry, WAS-built on top of a swamp and the designers knew exactly how heavy to make everything. I managed to fix it up, improve it, sink it and rebuild it all in a couple days …so I know the finer details of their own infrastructure better than anyone. However, that is a moot point since the robot armies destroyed the town, fields and wildlife in view for at least 5 miles all around. What matters is the Plantar farm. Conveniently, the house had secret levels of an impressive cavern system already present. It fits, really.”

               “How so?”Gilsig asked.

               “Sasha has made a literal Underground Resistance. Usually, when you call a resistance movement the Underground, it refers to everyone keeping their identities secret out of necessity and meeting out of sight, but they keep their location and organization hidden by literally going … underground!”

               She tapped the holographic house,“Their base escapes most basic Frobot scanners and notice, but …as we know, the Core has upgraded to more advanced scanners,”Smarcy displayed photos of the Coreseers and Hectoids behind her,”and thanks to that, their secret is already out. It couldn’t be relied on forever anyway. The entrance is covered by a stone wall, which wouldn’t hold robots back if they came inside.”

               “And it won’t do good for the new couple to do underground lodgings!”Stacy said. That got an awkward stare,”If Joe Sparrow and Bessie are dating, it’s only fitting the main family rides get free open space. Bessie can graze and Joe can do his daily flying exercises to give you and the Plantars frequent flyer mile trips- “Stacy stopped talking, blinked slowly, and said,”Adyson, why am I talking about this?”

               Adyson said,”We’ve been enjoying a lot of romantic comedy movies lately … that’s my guess!”

               “Too many!”Gretchen grumbled.

               “That’s not a bad thing, girls, let’s keep going!”Wilma said with savage delight.

               “Female gossip about odd couples, this just got realllll scary!”Ray said. No one took him seriously.

               Marcy tried and failed to be the voice of reason.

               “Now, now, Joe Sparrow has been behaving himself, it’s not like Sasha is encouraging him to do excessive bold flirting with Bessie again. She values self-control when it comes to relationships and prioritizing keeping people safe. However, there’s no signs that there’s any strain in their peaceful coexistence, so if they are the newest happy couple -NOW WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THIS?!”Marcy cut herself off in embarrassment.

               “Relax, Mars, it’s adorable how much you look out for your little hatchling in his lovebird phase! That Mom-Mar side is very strong in you! Just be supportive and encouraging while Auntie Sasha does her part!”Halley mocked her.

               “Of course, I’ll be supportive and encouraging for him, but that’s not the point!”Marcy griped.

               Smarcy giggled and said,”I have no reports of their relationship being ‘unstable in the stable’.”

               Marcy gave her a flat look.

               Dawn smirked and suggested,“Perhaps Microangelo could be the ring bearer snail when the fwagon gets ‘hitched’ for the honeymoon?”

               “I’m sure that’ll be nice!”Marcy said in defeat. She could almost picture Hop Pop’s mind shutting down.

               “You need to realize they need to be able take it slow and steady, a concept their high-speed relationship is managing!”Lonnie added.

               “As long as their ‘ship’ gets off the ground, they should be fine!”Coatl said tonelessly.

               “It’s like car meets plane and the plane sweeps the car off her tires and they take off on the runway of love! This could be the start of a whole new race of the union of snail and bird, to rule the land and sky uncontested!”Malc suggested.

               Marcy banged her head on the board.

               “Nice to know that’s what you get out of this!”Bomme drawled.

               “It’s not unlikely,”Daphne said,”But that raises the question for the new snird species to come!”

               “They should be called snarrows, not snirds!”Malc objected.

Vinnie starting singing,‘I believe they can fly, I believe snarrows can touch the sky! I think about it every night and day! They’ll spread their wings and fly away-“

               “STOP JOKING AROUND ABOUT THE JESSIE SHIP AND SNARROW KIDS!! THAT IS THEIR DECISION AND NOT YOURS!!!”Marcy shrieked.

After the laughter went on for a full minute, she rubbed her forehead, “This is what I get for letting you guys watch Space Jammers yesterday and explaining shipping. We’re discussing my bird’s dating life and potential marriage to the Plantar’s snail … and here I was worried we’d have NO crazy social gossip or shipping wars to discuss.”

               Zel scoffed,“With you girls around? No way was that going to happen! “

               Aelita wagged a finger at Marcy,“That sort of thing never dies out! For shame, Marcy, you know better!”

               Marcy rolled her eyes,“Yes, shame on me! What was I thinking?? Let’s get back to the Resistance. I know we talk about Sasha’s personality ups and downs a lot,”everyone groaned or snickered,” so instead let’s focus on what she brings to the table as a leader and fighter. She always likes to take control of a situation or a group and do a good job of it. Which she does. She managed to reorganize the floundering South Tower Toad army into a better and more motivated fighting force,”Percy and Braddock nodded,”survived with just three toads to aid her when she and Grime became fugitives, and came up with a plan to motivate the quarrelsome Toad lords to rally to her cause at the Toad summit, and succeeded in her risky plan to retrieve Barrel’s Warhammer, the weapon that the true ruler of all toads is said to be wielded by. Her devious but effective plan to sneak inside the Castle to get the drop on Andrias and get their armies inside the City was clever, but she didn’t account for a few things that ruined it. Mainly Andrias’s hidden trump cards or the rest of us sabotaging her plans. Even now, she manages to use the diverse talents and skills in Wartwood for effective guerilla warfare.”

               “What about her physical skills and fighting style?”Zel asked expectantly.

               “Oh yes … putting aside that Sash was able to pry the Hammer loose, it also foreshadowed her connection to the Strength Stone, the Stone of Strength and persistence. For years she’s been a dedicated athlete, tai chi practitioner, and acrobatic Cheer captain. Coming here, she’s mastered swordplay with ease and won against Amphibians, robots and even monsters. Her drive to get stronger is reflected by the practice of weighing herself down with heavy armor to make herself tougher, not just protect herself. I’d even say Anne would’ve have done so good against her in a fight if she wasn’t holding back.”

               “Anne still won both times though!”Bomme pointed out.

               Marcy shrugged,“True …Anne is certainly not weak. She is a great athlete and an ace at tennis, which carries over to her newfound swordplay. She knows the Thailand martial art of muay thai. She also has great charisma and inspires people to fight for her in the face of impossible odds. Friend like me, Sasha, new friends, Wartwood, her found family …however, all that lovable Heart vibe of hers aside, she isn’t that focused or great at leading in battle. When she returns, Sasha’s experience and clear-headedness will likely ensure she maintains a dominant role! Together with me, we’ll be-“she got very dramatic and pointed to the sky,”UNSTOPPABLE!”

The group chuckled as she got back down to Amphibia,” The real threat she poses to Andrias, of course, is her awakened Calamity Box powers, a threat he and his dark master feared so much she had to be eliminated all the way on another world.”

               “He could’ve tried a bit better to eliminate both of them if Anne is such a threat to his plans,”Zel said.

               “That’s a major flaw of his, he doesn’t take things seriously enough most of the time…very arrogant!”Smarcy said.

               “They still came too close to ending them for my liking,”Marcy scowled.

               “Speaking of close calls and slip-ups, what about Grime?”Veronica said.

               “Here we go again, it’s ‘Gang up on Grime time’!”Smarcy said sardonically. Marcy sighed as they all laughed. Teasing him and making him look bad was a shared joke many of them did. Her robots had done it to him in person many times.

               “Oh goodie, a topic I’m already experience in!”Gilsig said.

               Siredona smiled wickedly,“Gilsie, you haven’t seen anything yet! He was already looking bad before this, and Sasha knows his attitude needed readjusting! He’s so clingy, moody and needy about needing to be in charge of something! It hurts the little guy’s feelings when he can’t have his army and big Tower and enjoy a good crushing of his enemies for lunch!”

               “Grimothy always did enjoy winning more than anything else about being a gladiator!”Tony said with a reserved smile. The other gladiators snickered.

               “He’s better in the ring than the field!”Bryan said.

               “Is that why he’s such a sourpuss who became the ‘cruellest toad soldier of all time’ and the South Tower captain whose career went South?”Halley asked lazily.

               Rachel crossed her arms,“Are you just saying that because he’s wielding Barrel’s Warhammer and you’re our best hammer wielding fighter?”

               Halley rolled her eyes,“Rachel, gal, puh-leaze, don’t insult me when it comes to bringing ‘da hammer down’. I do just fine at outdoing him on that for years!”She hefted her large mallet up,”Mine’s bigger than his, his peerless Warhammer is shorter than him, and I didn’t have to pull mine out a giant Narwhal worm’s head!”

               Gilsie drawled,“Where do I start on everything to make fun of in that sentence?”

               “When you put it that way, that trip sounds so silly in hindsight!”Percy said. Braddock shrieked with laughter.

               “Ok, let’s put that ‘behind’ us,”Mars said,”and look forward. Let’s go over the rest. Try to be nice about it. Just remember, the farming culture represents the backbone of society. When Sasha and Grime went to them, they proved to be deadlier than any soldier and have kept surviving against Andrias’s machines sent against them!”

               “Those hicks have had it easy … no promises!”Ellen said.

               “I don’t think that’s fair to them …”Marcy said.

               Nicky reminded her,“They still lost their town and have to hide underground. Long-term, they can’t do any real damage by themselves!”

               Alastor said,”I value hit and run tactics as much as any seasoned fighter, but it takes more than that to win a full-scale war. How many of them realize that?”

               “Guysss!”Marcy said irritably.

               Zel snickered and said,“Marcy … I know they’re tougher than they look and are ‘deadlier’ than any soldier … but so are we! They have had it easy, and you know it! ”

She took a softer approach as Marcy clenched her fists,” Some hard truths will  help them to not get overconfident and suffer for it later. They’ve been fighting minor soldiers and average tin can robots guerilla style and let that get to their heads too easily. Look at it this way: you have us to do constructive criticism on them that doesn’t reflect on you!”

               Marcy said,“That’s something …even if this won’t go over well. They might not see it that way. In fact … some of them already have a legit bone to pick over we come across. Yes, we’re more numerous, more informed, stronger and better equipped, but they could do just as well someday. How can you expect someone to play better in a team sport if they don’t get the chance to play?”

               Zel was pleased to hear this“Exactly, and we can tag them in later, but first things first!”

               “Perhaps my serious approach on how to proceed in a potential clash scenario is in order as a start? For the sake of argument and to highlight their weaknesses?”Coatl suggested. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

               “Go on … you never disappoint on that sort of thing! We can use this later to cover weak spots!”Marcy said.

               “In a battle meant to eliminate a group for good, you’d want to go for the top members first … their Resistance formed as a result of one failed attempt to take down their current two leaders. However, I’d go for the secret agent first. Mrs. Croaker might expect my unpredictable tactics and skill. She’s agile for her age and has a loyal pet spider. However, as with any elderly individual, she feels blows more. Deliver blow to the back of the head, inflicting hemorrhaging and cracked skull. Unable to recover in time to survive. Alternative, target arthritic limbs and hunched spine, leaving her permanently incapacitated or worse. Archie the spider, use a special acid-proof net or pest disposal spray to eliminate. With the only comparable operative out of the way, the top two can get my undivided attention as I divide and conquer them. Grime is a veteran gladiator champion, full of guile and wielding his fancy new Hammer, but he is not as agile or clever as Ms. Waybright. He is competent but unsubtle, arrogant and predictable. Sasha is skilled with peerless brute strength, peak human acrobatic abilities,very subtle and clever, but feral and headstrong, overconfident. Let her take charge at coming at me, and then …jump over and use my flail to disarm him of his hammer and trap his dominant arm. Swing him at Waybright, distracting them. Dispose of arms or heads with axe … incapacitated with them intact, preferably,”he added for Marcy’s sake,” Soggy Joe, not prominent in main view as a creepy but skilled outdoors enthusiast and trucker, but with incomparable survivalist skills, knowledge of local flora and fauna, and brutal strength and skill on or off the road. Setting traps won’t work on him and scaring him is futile … go right for the head at once since he knows to wear axe-proof vests.”

               “What does it say  about Soggy Joe that he would be flattered by this?”Bomme said to Oscar. He shrugged.

“Loggle has strong upper body strength, good coordination and skilled hands. If weapons aren’t available… dislocate jaw when he tries to punch me or restrain me. Target throat weakness to cause incapacitating pain. Other options are to go for his goggles and shatter them, aim for the ribs and gut he’s left very exposed and crack them like eggs,”everybody winced,”or break arms on the wrist if he tries to grab me. Tuti, a skilled nerve pincher and part-time bounty hunter, gets special treatment with a Swampfever nerve grip on her limbs … that will leave her paralyzed and incapable of proper movement for 8 months. Mrs. Croaker would never recover from that, Grime would take 6 months, Ms. Waybright, perhaps less or more. Next on the scale, Felicia Sundew, the most agile on her feet and experienced fighter of her family. Same process but target her in midair … many ways I could do that. Her daughter wears armor on her chest, nothing more. Ruins element of surprise by announcing her intentions for everyone to hear. Use her own momentum and preference for using her legs and ambushes against her. Walliam Ribbiton is slippery, very bendable and wiry, but frail and very vulnerable to sneak attacks. Use his literal blind spot or his own weaponized accordion to disarm and incapacitate. Stumpy Stumperson is equipped with every available tool on hand,”he smirked at the pun,” for the job. But he’s slow and missing one leg, and no good at long range … hit quick, hard and long, or leave him with no good leg left to stand on, and he’s down for the count. Tragically, meals will no longer be served diner style in Wartwood.”

Half of them laughed nervously at his dark joke.

“Fern, a skilled hairstylist and scissor-wielding saboteur with a very poor attention span. Will be easily distracted and taken down. Toadstool is a timid politician whose only useful tactic in battle is to use his large hands … just snap them. Toadie’s greatest strength is his agile small size, which is also his greatest weakness… squash him like a bug when you have him trapped,”he hit his hands together, making them wince again,” Miss Flour would require specialty items to deal with her curses or a simple sneak attack. In the event she was present, assign her as a priority target, keep an eye out for her vanishing talents, or have her removed entirely from the battlefield to avoid supernatural complications and carry antidotes, shields or counters to her curses!”

Gilsig whistled in awe. And she’d been worried none of them could do a ruthless suggestion easily.

               Marcy pulled at her cloak nervously, knowing full well he was picturing this in his mind. “Ok, thank you for that, Coatl … luckily, we won’t ever have to do that. Since you brought up their heavy hitters, let’s talk about them.”

               “How many do they have?”Gilsig asked.

Marcy smiled and tapped the board,”Good question, Gilsie. These farmers have some pretty diverse talent in the ranks. First up, their token witch and town bestie Maddie!”

               “Is she the top threat in their ranks or your top favorite?”Veronica teased her.

               Marcy smiled brightly,“Why not both? She’s very interesting, very dangerous in ways no one else in Wartwood is, and our first choice for first contact as my friend and brief magic teacher!”

               “Say no more!”Veronica said.

              

               It relieved her that no one had any major complaints about her best friend from Wartwood.

               “What’s not to appreciate? She’s good at stealth and  has a rare and valued skill even we have trouble learning! None of Andrias’s machines can defend against magic like yours can!”Siredona said.

               Bomme noted,“Except maybe the Plasmoids, but that’s a top level threat anyway. Maddie is skilled with level 2 magic and her limited resources … and already has the highest score of quick robot takedowns for the Resistance and is one of the top 5 most intelligent commandos they have! She also has good reflexes and a good head for tough situations.”

               “Excellent. Speaking of smart guys, their best lookout is the former mayor’s assistant, Toadie McBog III,”Marcy pointed at Toadie’s picture,” Toadie isn’t really a fighter. In fact, he prefers not to be. Can’t blame him. He’s small, shy and not a fan of violence. I can admire that. He’s nice and a loyal friend. However, he is not without rebel value. He’s very dedicated as a lookout, has a good head for details and observation, and no slacker on athletic ability!”

               To her surprise, no one argued. Nicky had a fun idea,”Here’s an idea. In the event of a political campaign, should we recommend Mr. McBog to run as the ‘little guy’ candidate for the suffering frogfolks to rally around? Froderick unfortunately, claimed his position mostly with aid from out-of-town votes with bribery …”

               “I was worried about when we would finally move into the dangerous but familiar Valley gossip area!”Marcy snarked.

               “What was the point of getting votes from the rest of the Valley for a town that size that didn’t even have 5% of the local population??”Malc demanded.

               “Perhaps it was meant to reflect on Valley-wide elections for the other offices?”Smarcy suggested.

               Nicky shook his head.

               Vivi perked up,“Here’s an idea! We’ll take polls to see if the people would approve of endorsing Mr. Mcbog as the ‘loveable little guy’ candidate! A political resurgence for the people of the Valley and a likeable candidate they can rally behind, a competent mayor with good organizational skills who can delegate as needed!”

               Marcy was relieved at this turn of events,“Go for it Vivs! Phew! We already made it past the difficult topic of politics with a stellar idea for reorganizing the political system to be better! Next! Stumpy Stumpson, the cook and owner of Stumpy’s Diner, has been doing good as a specialist with his interchangeable hands that do good for combat, electrical resistance and sabotage!”

               “That’s good and all … but why not make him an official cyborg cook with upgraded hands to do it even better?”Vinnie said.

               Daphne tapped her chin,“He might like that … hands that could do all those functions and more at once, perfect for cooking, missions and finally having fingers again!”

               Marcy nodded,“True! Next up, Leopold Loggle, former metalsmith and woodsmith, now one of Sasha’s best commandos on physical strength next to Dave, Soggy Joe and Gunther. He might enjoy our valued woodwork and metalworking supplies and connections. His new dedication to bodybuilding these days to gain such muscle is admirable!”

               Lonnie chuckled,”Yeah … he’s still an amateur! I’ve got years of that under my belt and several guys his size or bigger who tried to flex on me … they stopped soon enough.”

               “I could just swat him with one tail strike or squeeze him a bit … he’d take weeks to stop cringing!”Dawn said tonelessly.

               “We’ll have to see!”Darin said evenly. He was buffer and a veteran of many battles.

               “It’s fine … I don’t even have to exercise to be among the biggest and strongest. He can do some sparring with me. I’ll show him some good takedown moves!”Frezzki suggested.

 

               “Why’s he a woodsmith now instead of a metalsmith any-ohhhh,”Gilsig winced reading the details on his larynx voice box injury,”yeah, I’d be antsy about doing metalwork again if that happened to me.”

               Mimi wrote,”MAYBE WE CAN FIX THAT FOR HIM?”

               “That’s very thoughtful of you, sweetie!”Halley said fondly.

“Yeah, worry about that later. Now, Mrs. Croaker is their head of assassinations and intelligence gathering. A cute little Froggy Grandma, a former spy and secret agent … perfect for the role. Who knew dairy farmers could be so dangerous?”

“I’ve met a few like that!”Gilsie offered.

“A cover job always makes someone look less dangerous than they really are!”Coatl said.

Marcy cringed,” I don’t think that was a cover job!“

“Marcy, please, you don’t get far in the spy business without being deceptive or convincing as a civilian in disguise for a job … that’s possibly one reason Mrs. Croaker is so alone in life!”He said.

Marcy wasn’t impressed,“I doubt that’s why she lives alone! She is an active community member!”

“Not a very welcoming one. She was pretty grouchy to you for no reason when you just said hi and is one of the worst anti-outsider types living there!”Veronica reminded her.

“She’s the local crazy village grandma who hates kids, uses a cane, needles, and her killer pet spider to sic on unwary visitors who bother her!”Malc said.

Marcy sighed,“If that were true, there’d be more horror stories. Anyways, she is good as a secret agent and their head of intelligence gathering and assassinations for what they have to work with! Info on most threats all over, and apparently eliminating over 50 old enemies and new ones alike for Sasha!”

“That is useful. She’s their most experienced asset. Even more than Grime!”Coatl said.

“Hey, doesn’t she value honesty and loyalty, one reason she’s a lifelong client of the Plantar Stand? A close bond with the Plantars going back to Hop Pop’s father?”Stacy asked.

“Stacy, you genius, thank you!”Marcy said with relief.

Stacy liked that,”I wish my mom could hear that!”

“We know you’re a budding genius, Stace!”Wilma said.

 

Ignatio spoke up”That’s ironic, considering Senior Plantar is pretty dishonest and crooked at his worst. That old farmer acted shifty towards Senorita Boonchuy and his neighbors many times in the last year and hides a dark criminal past most don’t know about! If she wasn’t his loyal neighbor and friend, he’d make a valid target.”

The Bazaar stories/records of his criminal Wrecker years, burying the Box and lying to Anne hung in the air.

 

Marcy groaned,“I’ll have Anne help me deal with THAT headache. Next … oh, how about Wally? He’s handy in battle and packs a mean swing with his accordion …see?”

               His feats with it in the first Wartwood battle against the Froglets did not impress them.

               “That’s it?”Gilsig said in disappointment.

               “Exactly, Gilsig. He just knocked a few of their smallest Frobots off their feet. Big deal!”Darin said.

               Rachel spun one of her knives and said warningly,”If he hits me with that, I’ll wrap it around his neck!”

               “Same!”Six others (including Ellen and Blaise) said.

               “No need for that, just hang him upside down by the feet using the stretchy thing as a rope!”Jack said.

               “I beat a chap at the Colosseum once like that … played a mocking tune while he jumped all over the place … I broke it on his head when it was over! That was a bad day!”Tony said with a heavy sigh.

               “I once took down a guy like him and three other lethal musicians who tried singing a ‘victory battle ballad’ against me out West once. He wouldn’t last two minutes against me!”Gaff said grimly.

               “He’d be lucky if he got caught by Andrias and they didn’t make him eat it!”Zel said.

               “Isn’t he that whacky rich vagrant who was rude about Marcy and Anne in spite of the face he loves to gossip, lives in a garbage hut, panics easily, makes a lot of noise and can’t wash properly?”Ravager asked flatly.

               “I thought he didn’t wash at all?”Gerald said.

               “No, he takes bubble baths in that dirty shack he called a house and in the Town fountain!”Barney countered.

               “That’s even worse! And he could spread a stupid story the more gullible folks would buy too quickly!”Gerald grumbled.

               “If he spreads one of those, we’ll tie him up and do a rain barrel bath beatdown on him!”Phyllo said.

               “I could threaten to ‘get the drop on him’ … that could shut him up!”Kane suggested with a menacing grin.

               Marcy’s heart sank as they speculated more ideas of ‘beating him’.

               “I don’t like being hit with instruments, reminds me of my childhood …”Bogster grumbled,”I’d be tempted to use him as an accordion if he did that to me …”

               “The ‘Squeezebox’ … don’t they call accordions that? I could try to do a move like that on him …”Dawn commented. She looked a bit too thoughtful about the idea.

               “Guys, don’t hate on his instrument!”Halley cut in.

               “I use an accordion. That’s not the problem!”Daphne replied. She played a cheerful tune on hers right away.

               Marcy changed the subject,“Let’s move on. There’s Soggy Joe … a hidden gem of a useful soldier!”

               Zel perked up,“I’ll say. He’s a talented trucker, survivalist, and outdoorsman with no peers in wilderness experience in their ranks. The maniac has little to no real fears, wears an axe-proof vest, has bones in his beard, and didn’t need to upgrade his wardrobe at all! He even does solo missions of scouting and destroying just for the heck of it!”

               “Yeah, and that team-up encounter he had with my  Bomme squad on a mission was hilarious!”Bomme said.

               “What happened with your squad?”Brigitte asked.

               Footage from two weeks ago played out. The Bomme Squad Fryerbats and Marauders were headed towards a Mindshroom factory and refinery spot along the Triadoba River.

               “Hmm, what’s the acceptable extreme setting for roasting this dump?”Miles wondered.

               “Oh, you bots have problems being extreme?!”Joe yelled, popping out of a bush.

               They aimed their weapons at him.

               “Look man, you don’t want to risk getting deep-fried by us, ok? Don’t do that!”

               “I’m riskin’ it all for the Resistance on my wide-range missions into the wild!”He snapped.

               “Ok, that’s cool. Anyway man, we’re here to blow this place to smithereens, burn it ashes to ashes and leave them with nothing but dust to dust to get poetic about!”A Protectorate Maraudbot said.

               Joe smiled with manic delight as he processed that,“Oh … what about those toxic barrels they keep collectin’? You gonna blow ‘em up too?”

               “Probably not, don’t want to risk making the river worse!”Miles said.

               Joe s smiled wickedly,”Say, here’s a thought …”He leaned over and whispered a clever, awful idea of dumping the barrels into a refinery 10 miles away by a nearby rock formation.

               The robots stared and Miles said,”That is so crazy it just might work! Why aren’t you a leading member of your Resistance?”

               Joe just started cackling with a deep mad laugh. The robots started joining in, unnerving every animal and the Frobots nearby who came out to check what the racket was.

               10 minutes later, both areas and all the Frobots were destroyed.

               Gilsig was amused,”He’ll fit right in!”

               “Oh yes you two will get along great!”Brigitte said to an amused Darin.

               “I know, so many hunting stories to swap!”The boisterous toad yelled.

               “Next!”Zel called.

               Smarcy went over the medium backup support,“Sheriff Buck likes maintaining law and order, even if that’s nonexistent these days. A veteran policeman and good shot for his age. He’ll appreciate our help restoring order. Gunther’s ability to go superstrong with rage temporarily has made him a useful ace in the hole for battles close to home. None of the robots have withstood his punches. Tuti is skilled at healing, pressure point and hand to hand combat, which serves her well as a bounty hunter and one of Croaker’s leading sidekicks in her network.”

Marcy had Fifi bring her a tea set while Felicia’s picture went up next,“Another person we should get along great with is Felicia Sundew, owner of Felicia’s Tea Shoppe. She is skilled fighter with travel experience, part-time medic, and top on the list of best potential allies … if only because we can reinvigorate that trade,”Marcy took a sip of jasmine tea from her cup,”and also … it helps that she’s the mother of Ivy, Sprig’s girlfriend and the next best preteen commando after Maddie!”

               “What about Fern? Isn’t she about the same age?”Braddock asked.

               “A few years older, give or take. Fern’s decent with her scissors as a field specialist and saboteur, but she’s a real airhead!”Bomme responded.

               “That’s workable, we just need to have her supervised! Besides, she’ll like the array of top-notch scissors I can offer!”Marcy said confidently.

               “Ivy is good, but … her ambushes need work!”Kane said. Everyone looked at him. He sighed,”Look at her style. She’s got talent at coming down from above, but she keeps yelling ‘ambush’ right before doing one. For an expert like me or someone else dangerous that’s more than enough time to react and turn the tables on her! She’s cocky and not that bright, just like her boyfriend! She’s fallen for distractions trying to clumsily trying to spy on our guys and ‘ambush’ a few Buggers and HERCS because they thought they worked for Andrias at first!”

               That had been embarrassing.

               “Come to think of it … yeah, they’re both reckless, bad at listening, and hopelessly gullible. If they did come here when Anne gets back for an expedition, they might set off the traps other then the Widow Mines and other sentries … or get hopelessly lost in the fogs or tiger pits around the perimeter or wreck the new preserves of saved dangerous insects and Bomme’s new zapapede farm,”Barney said.

               “I’ve got locks on that. They better not break them!”Bomme warned Marcy.

               “Ummm …”Marcy didn’t like where this was going.

               Rachel sharpened a knife and said,“Ivy might learn, but Sprig … the kid’s a good shot and quick on his feet. He could fit right in with their best, but he’s really stupid. He doesn’t take things seriously until it’s too late. At any given moment, he’s got a bad knack for touching things he knows could kill him … always pulling levers or pressing buttons. When he gets back, he’s 10 times more likely to be at risk in this warzone.”

               Malc was even harsher,“On the safer environment of Earth, he’s not stopped. Hijacking a food truck and making it go wild on the streets, pursuing a dangerous Vigilante career, more mall shenanigans, and so on! He’s a liability in the field and drags his own family and Anne into danger on two worlds nonstop!”

               “Do you have problems with Sprig?!”Marcy shouted.

               “Are they wrong? You and Anne have had to save his life multiple times,”Emily said quietly. Marcy clenched her fists and Zel walked up to keep her calm.

               Zel patted her on the back,”Easy, kiddo. He’s loyal and can be relied on to follow Anne all the way on this … I think the problem here is that he’s a very slow learner who toys with danger too carelessly. Does that sound fair?”            

Marcy stumbled for an answer and said,”Look, what counts is that he’s got Anne’s back no matter what, and by extension the rest of Wartwood all of ours! Anyone could be smarter,  or ten times as dangerous as him … I’ve got tons of those, but someone who will take on the world for a friend,”She smiled at a picture of him,”that’s a rare and valuable quality! I was glad to see Anne found such a loyal friend. Forget just being a bestie like me and Sasha… she’s the older sister he never had. I was glad I was getting along so well with him and the rest of her found family! Besides Maddie, I was closest to them most out of Wartwood.”

Alastor cleared his throat,“That’s good, but it won’t do anyone any good if he gets himself or the rest of them into a dangerous situation they can’t handle again. What do you plan to do about that?”

 

Marcy sweated and wrung her hands,”I’ve been dangerously clumsy and oblivious for years and needed Anne’s help just like him. When they get back, we can talk with him or Anne about that … or something! If he still likes me for saving his life, he might want to … ask how both me and him can be … safer?? He had a close shave that day almost as scary as mine. For all I know he has a fear of heights and is scared to death of Andrias now, just like me and the thing with … you know …”

The Core and Andrias’s laser sword pictures she pointed to got a collective grimace.

Coatl spared her further issues on that by cutting in and saying,“Let’s finish up with the others … shall we? How about the rest of the Plantars to wrap it up?”

“The rest?”Marcy said numbly.

Coatl smiled,“Yes, young Polly is remarkably intelligent. She already used your ‘internet’ to research robot construction in hours and is increasingly self-taught on science and other technical fields.”

Marcy’s happy smile returned,“Oh yeah, that is great! She’ll love all this stuff!”

               “She’s cute and fierce with a brand new potential no pollywog’s ever done before!”Halley said.

               “How about Hop Pop?”Percy asked.

               Daphne said,“He’s a wild old farmer who wields garden tools and snail road rage on his enemies, a dedicated grandpa, and a longtime stand owner with a hidden criminal side. All of that makes him the deadliest old man in Wartwood!”

               “Wow, you really respect him!”Gaff said.

               “Yeah, how many farmers can top that?”Vinnie said.

               Marcy was relieved they were done and wiped her brow,“Phew, well that does it for now!”

               “Hold up … I just got word they finished discussing us!”Smarcy said.

               “Oh, did they?”Zel raised her eyebrows.

               “Let’s see it!”Vizzini said.

               “Yeah, let’s see how well or nicely they do with us! It’s only fair!”Braddock said.

               “Sure! I wanna hear this myself!”Marcy said.

               Sasha and Grime walked to the center of the underground auditorium and Sasha began,”Ok, gang, today we discuss our annoyingly mysterious neighbors, the Cyber Rebel Army!”

               Marcy smiled coyly and got very teasing,“Annoyingly mysterious neighbors? Sash, are you saying you want to know your neighbors better?”

               Maddie grinned,“Why would that annoy you? Oh wait, do you want to know about our fellow Valley rebels since their leader says you’re her favorite leader but you’re not already her new best friend and kicking butt with her??”

               Sasha glowered as the rest of her Resistance chuckled“Noooo! We already know we’re her favorite rebel group next to hers … even if she’s playing hard to get-I mean hard to find!”

               Marcy was beside herself (literally and metaphorically) with glee,“Oh my gosh, she is annoyed but can’t resist getting more interested! I must plot the perfect plan to make her hopelessly interested … and she will be ALL OURS!”

              

The CRA snickered.

               “Don’t we discuss our esteemed neighbors all the time whenever they pull off impossible feats of wonder and terrify our mutual enemy?”Toadie said.

               “He IS observant!”Veronica said brightly.

               “Yes, but now she’s even got advertising. I kid you not!”Sasha held up their new recruitment poster: ‘Join the Cyber Rebel Army, where the power of Robot Rebellion and the Frogs of War can be unleashed together! We now offer free dance exercise routines with cool beats and potluck on Wednesdays!”

               “How come we don’t get to have potlucks on Wednesdays!?”Duckweed demanded. The other villagers grumbled with him.

               “We can’t afford to have one, obviously!”Maddie said.

               “I told you that part was pushing it!”Marcy said to Wilma.

               “People enjoy my cooking!! They’re just jealous! I regret nothing!”Wilma said fiercely.

               “They’ll get over it eventually!”Stacy said dismissively. Adyson and Gretchen nodded in approval.

               Sasha tried to appease them with a compliment,“Guys, we already unleashed the Frogs of War first. That’s more than worth a potluck when we can do one!”

               “YEAH, WE’RE THE FROGS OF WAR!”Ivy yelled. Sasha facepalmed as the crowd started cheering. Buck rolled his eyes in the back. Grime chuckled.

               “You certainly are!”Coatl said blandly.

               Marcy fell down laughing.

               “I see why you enjoy messing with these bumpkins!”Gilsig said to the grinning Driders.

Desperate to preserve some sanity, Sasha banged a gavel. Grime stopped laughing after the rest quieted down and said,” Yes, yes, that’s great. Anyways, back to business. She added a useful warning to this advertisement.”

Sasha smiled as she read it,”The Queen of the South has banished Andrias the Worst from Frog Valley and her domain of the South under pain of death. He and his stupid flying brick outhouse,”the Wartwoodians chuckled,”are not to come down South or …”Sasha’s composure began to slip,”she might kill him with the power of her mind!”

“She can do that!?”John Diboggio yelled.

“Astounding!”Duckweed yelled.

“His outhouse still isn’t coming any closer to the Valley, I’d say it’s working!”Grime commented.

“Good for her if she can … I’d like to do that to him!”Sasha said jealously.

Marcy rubbed her hands together sinisterly,”The Force is with you, young Waybright, but you are not a Jedi yet! You have controlled your fear, now release your anger! Only your hatred can destroy him now!”

 The Nerve Center crew snickered.

Zel scolded her,“You’re enjoying this too much!”

Marcy didn’t deny it,” Come on, Zelly. I might as well derive some entertainment out of this as compensation for dealing with all this hard stuff! ”

Zel could accept that ,”Fine, just don’t overdo it!”

“Is that a witch trick, Maddie?”Rosemary asked her sister.

Maddie looked over at Lloyd in the corner and squinted. He screamed in fear and ran out.

She shrugged,”Darn. I guess not!”

Marcy was ecstatic,“The Circle is now complete! When we last met, I was but the learner, now I am the master!”

Zel groaned.

“Easy, Darth Mar! You want to keep the high ground, remember?”Veronica joked.

“Maddie, ask next time before testing if you can kill people with your mind powers!”Sasha scolded Maddie.

 

Everyone near Maddie scooted away in fear.

Sasha put the poster aside and said,”Andrias himself has complicated matters. He finally released an official statement about who she is … which only raises more questions! She was somehow affiliated with Newtopia … a rogue robot that gained sentience and is only pretending to be a cyborg and wants to use her newfound brethren to have robots take over the world …since Andrias is doing such a bad job at it,”Marcy giggled hysterically,”a former University student whose lust for knowledge led her to acquire magical power and she went crazy-he needs to fire his awful teachers if that’s the case,”Maddie cackled”a former analyst for their military who went mad seeing their plans for domination … I feel really bad for her if that was the case. One good theory is she’s a renegade member of the Newtopian Night Guard.”

“I could buy that … those newts are the best specialists who did special missions in defense of the City. It would explain her skills … they haven’t been seen in any area we know of!”Croaker said thoughtfully.

Siredona smiled widely, along with the other Rangers present,”Good job, Mrs. Croaker, that’s a good chunk of the puzzle solved already!”

“The last one is that she was a volunteer for a cyborg experiment of theirs who snapped when it was done and turned on her people and king . Either way, she blames her people and the king most of all for her current problems and is out for revenge … I imagine not getting her story straight is just the latest one!”Grime said.

The Nerve Center audience laughed for a long minute. “Something like that … they got my biography way off with no editor to complain to!”Marcy said.

“Which one is it?”Wally yelled.

“The cyborg one, got to be that, right?”Monroe called.

”Please let it be the university one!”Wartilda said. Everyone looked at her and she sighed,”My daughter Jenny was attending there … she might know if she’s alright …”

“Awww …”The Newtopian residents said.

“Let’s add her to our list of names to find for our upcoming raid on Newtopian areas!”Marcy said with a caring smile.

“Of course …”Zel said.

Grime cleared his throat to get back on subject,” The commander and I have agreed that perhaps going over her known associates could help a bit on figuring out some things … since it would be too risky to go into her territory unannounced and potentially get ambushed or embarrassed again.”

               Bomme’s picture was put up,”A rogue mercenary scientist with one eye was her first major recruit … she could be her supplier of more inventions and deadly mercenary contacts including the few we know of …”

               “Not really, I was always more solo!” Bomme disagreed.

               Halley groaned when the descriptive pictures of their best mercenaries ( a few of them) were put up. She was the ‘jester lady’, Jack was a ‘pirate cowboy’(he liked that), Lonnie was the ‘death knight’, Gilsig was the ‘new Dark Knight’, Rachel was the ‘knife nut’ (Rachel found that amusing), Gaff was the ‘sniper toad’, Kane was the ‘Crawler’, Emily was her ‘mutant moth overlord’.

               “Black Knight, girlie,get it right!”Gilsig said irritably.

               “I’m part butterfly, not moth!”Emily snapped.

               Luna said comfortingly,”There there … they might have you confused with us!”

               “I dunno … do they even know about you guys?”Summer asked.

Luna shrugged and offered them honey-laced smoothies.

“I don’t crawl, I jump!”Kane grumbled.

Lonnie sighed,”Death Knight … that was one guy I beat actually … I never called myself a knight.”

Grime described a few,“She’s covered her bases well with all sorts of talented criminal scum to use weapons and unnatural ideas for the right price. This dark knight …”he scowled,”is the most recent one, a powerful newt who rampaged in the East Tower and left me senseless on my back using a new weapon the Queen of the South gifted her!”

Gilsig scolded him,“Grimothy, please, Mar-Mar doesn’t have a monopoly on every other mystic weapon around here!”

Grime found Halley interesting,”The soldiers are a natural choice. However, her other choices are meant to challenge my image. This jester newt wields a large hammer inferior to mine,”Halley rolled her eyes,”but if this is some attempt to outshine me with her cheap acrobatics and jokes, she’ll learn just how thorough I can be against showy loons!”

“Will ya be sad if I whack that cheeky old pal of yours a good one with my hammer to teach him a lesson?”Halley asked Tony. He chuckled and shook his head.

“Please let us know when, I want to watch you do it!”Rachel said.

               “It’s telling they haven’t noticed me …”Coatl noted.

               “She has Newtopian military on her side … apparently a former Captain named Zel Brooks has become her chief commander,”Zel smiled widely seeing her poster get put up,”and she got heavy anger from them for leading the attacks on Loggington and a mysterious attack that wiped out their Commando divisions.”

              

               “Aw yes, those commandoes …much more formally dressed than ours, but less deadly. We showed them!”Grime said with gleeful snark. The Resistance cheered.

               “Oh brother!”Gabby said.

               “They did take out General Bosca … it’s only fair they get gloating rights!”Zel said.

               “Leading an attack like that was impressive,”Sasha smirked,”she could make a good sparring partner if we ever did team up!”

               “Careful Waybright, you just earned yourself some free sparring time!”Zel said.

               “What about their green hooded cult?”Felicia asked.

               “Cult?? Are they still calling my squad that!”Veronica grumbled.

               “Ah yes, the mysterious edgelords in cloaks … apparently they are her specialists of a mystical kind, good swords, magic powers, and hidden faces …you’d think that would be a cult, but that’s hardly an uncommon fashion choice here … the only major name given there still has no face, but,”Veronica grinned with delight as her ‘Frog-wraith of the North’ poster got put up,”this chick, a feared witch of some kind, is one of her lieutenants. Maddie, in the event of contact, I’m counting on you to be a magic dueler or her instant best friend.”

               “Geesh, you say that like it’s easy …”Maddie grumbled.

               “Is that too hard for you?”Ivy teased her.

               “No, I’m just saying … not all magic users are alike. Appearances aren’t everything, Ivy! It’s cool that they have a frog-wraith witch like that … but I don’t know the important details!”

               Veronica was delighted,“You tell her Maddie!”

               “Speaking of unnatural details … Croaker found out they have a circus in the ranks!”The Circus Freaks eyebrows rose seeing their group picture displayed next.

               “The ringmaster is possibly a hypnotist and escape artist and the rest include some acrobats, knife-throwers and wrestling champions. They even had some odd-looking guys and girls and tamed monsters for muscle or eating their enemies,”Janelle, Wilma, Stacy and Leroy groaned. Vlad patted their backs soothingly,”I’ll bet the guy with the pins in his body is likely a torture and interrogation specialist-“

               “No, I AM NOT!”Larry snapped.

               “We have standards you know, like any decent war criminal!”Gerald said hotly.

               Barney groaned,“Don’t put it that way!”

               “Oh Sash, you can do better on guesses than that!”Marcy said flatly.

               “Fancy twin butlers with a knack for stealth and a refined appearance … not bad, except for the haircut, so last century!”The Twins glanced at each other and then back at Sasha skeptically.

               Lilian frowned when Sasha smiled mockingly at her and Barney’s picture,”A bad girl with tats in a fancy dress who’s married to a fortune teller with extra eyes. How cute. But apparently, they handle difficult situations well, so he … looks out for her.”

               “Very original, not! It’s the other way around most of the time!”Barney grumbled.

               “Sweetie, you do fine when I need you to! Just ignore her!”Lilian said.

               However, it was Mimi who got the worst evaluation.

               Toadie brought her up when Sasha started moving on to the next part,”Hold up, you forgot the mime!”

               “Oh yeah … forgot about that one!”

Mimi pouted at how easily Sasha missed her in the picture.

               Grime dismissed her as important at once,“Please … why would we need to review that little thing? What good is a mime in any of this? A silent but creepy distraction? If I wanted a silent show, I’d watch the gardens grow!”

               Mimi strangled the air. Cree patted her head soothingly.

               Most of the villagers began to chuckle. Wally said,”Too right …ooh wait, maybe the little blighter traps his foes in a box!”

               “She’s a girl, you idiot!”Wilma yelled.

               “You’re not that tall yourself, Ribbiton!”Irwin said.

               Marcy looked angry at the Resistance for the first time since this had started.

               Maddie didn’t laugh or smile.

“Isn’t she a girl?”She pointed out when they stopped laughing.

               “Oh yeah, the hair, face and outfit … totally a girl!”Sasha agreed.

               “Thank you!”Rachel, Marcy, Cree and Barney yelled in unison. Mimi smiled gratefully.

               “It’s not like she SAID that! Girl needs to speak up!”Ivy joked. Maddie and her sisters rolled their eyes.

               “No more silent treatment or charades!”Toadstool agreed.

               “I AM GOING TO KICK their STUPID BUTTs into the roof for that!” Mimi wrote.

               “We’ll get you a box to trap this foolish vagrant in!”The Twins said.

               Maddie shook her head in disapproval. “Appearances aren’t everything, you know! Maybe she saves having conversations for when she’s taking a break from her job!”

        “Thanks, Maddie! I wish!”Mimi wrote.

               “I doubt it …”Grime said.

               “MAKE ME A VOODOO DOLL OF HIM, V!”Mimi demanded.

               “I’m tempted, kid … really! We’ll think of something less dangerous later to punish him with, I promise!”Veronica said.

               Croaker didn’t find this funny either and asked Grime,“What do you have against mimes?”

               Mimi and her family were surprised to hear Croaker stick up for her.

               “Thanks, Mrs. C,”Marcy whispered.

               “Nothing much … but the creepy makeup, the charades act, and making me guess what the act is … it’s not fun for me! There are better acts or jobs for doing quiet things! Right boys?”Grime said, looking towards Toadie and Loggle.

               Toadie (a quiet guy himself) rubbed his head and scooted away from the cackling Toadstool. Loggle rubbed his injured throat self-consciously.

               “Don’t worry boys … we’ll leave you out of any complaints or punishments for this!”Janelle said.

               “Those sort of games must be too hard for him!”Barney taunted him.

               “Grimesy, please, leave the boys alone and go easy on her! If they got caught, she’d have the right to remain silent just like the rest of them and do it best!”Sasha joked.

               “That’s not a right. Silent is how prisoners should always be!”He responded.

The Resistance didn’t laugh at that joke. But the Nerve Center saw red.

Most of them glowered or shook their heads in disgust, but the Circus looked ready to kill him.

Mimi started making gestures of beating his face up, strangling him, and dismembering him. Wilma and Barney put a protective hand on her shoulders.

Stacy and her two snakehead arms started hissing, fangs and all. Gerald started tying a noose. Cree rotated her arms and tail in preparation for a stranglehold. Lilian loosened her gloves. Vlad cracked knuckles on every single hand. Irwin and Leroy bared their teeth. Larry pulled a pin out of his arm and pointed at Grime’s neck. Janelle flexed her talons. The Twins silently started contemplating every terrifying ambush they could unleash on him.

               “If he’d gotten imprisoned and punished for his crimes already, he’d be completely silent by now,”Coatl commented. He and the other former prisoners here didn’t like hearing that.

               “Please, they wouldn’t even bother with a cell at this point!”Gilsig said.

               “Yeah, I’m not going to support that! Especially considering how you and I first met!”Sasha said flatly, which earned her SOME slack.

               “Oh come on, the cell was squalid and poor I admit, but I didn’t make you be quiet-owww!”He rubbed his head after she swatted him,”What, you were all broody and-“

               He shut up when she fingered her silver sword.

               “That’s it … one of these days Grime is getting whacked on the head with my hammer and taught a lesson in manners he won’t forget!”Halley decided.

               “You’d better, or I’ll have words with him first!”Cree said venomously.

               Marcy thought about objecting but couldn’t bring herself to protest.

               “Details are scarce on their Snarlsburg associates,”Darin and Brigitte raised their eyebrows,”but apparently the famed Darin the Overcaster and a newt girl off the chains who fights by his side are doing good work both here and down there while Duke Anton Snarl commands the loyalty of their forces down there. Say what you will, she treats them good!”Grime said.

               “The ‘Overcaster’?? It’s Overwatcher!”Darin grumbled.

               “Yeah, those words aren’t even related!”Stacy agreed.

               “Off the chain … really?”Brigitte said.

               Sasha snorted,”No, I said she’s using chains after the Witch let them be off the chains … get it right! And ‘Overcaster’ … are you sure that’s what this guy’s called?”

               “It’s been awhile! I don’t keep up with all the great toads to come near my level!”

               “Oh that’s adorable! You think you’re at my level at this point?”Darin drawled.

               “Want me to whack him extra for ya?”Halley offered.

               “No, I’ll do that myself …”Darin said.

               “Let’s see, that leaves some reports of gladiators and other strong brutes who get a kick out of working for her … like these guys!”

               “The Screamer Brothers … really?”Ghost Eyes grumbled when the chalk picture of him, Tat and Killbones was tapped by Sasha.

               “We’re not brothers! Do we look related??”Tats snapped. Everyone shrugged or shook their heads.

               Sasha held a hand out to Toadie and frowned when she read the sheet of paper. “Toadie, I thought you said the Archives had enough records to clear up who she could’ve had in the Valley to join her side.”

               “Yes, yes they are,”Nicky said smugly while patting his coat pocket.

               “I’m sorry Sasha! The Archives were completely empty when we went to look,”Toadstool and Duckweed nodded,”and the Valley had over 22,000 people to start with! She had plenty of residents beside our small town to look for if she did get our neighbors to go to her fine establishments!”

               “Very good, Toadie!”Nicky said, clapping slowly.

               “Fine establishments? Just what do you think she has at her place?”Grime said incredulously.

               Toadie’s reply was brilliant,“If she’s the Ultimate Mistress of Science, Technology and Magic, the real question, is what DOESN’T she have at her place?”

               Sasha, Maddie and Stumpy chuckled as Grime and most of Wartwood were speechless for half a minute. Ivy, Felicia, Croaker and Toadstool joined them after a few seconds.

               “You little genius!”Marcy said with pride.

               Ivan clapped slowly,“Give that frog a prize!”

               “Great answer! We’ll have to ask someday! I could use a spa and shower myself!  I know her robots confuse us a lot, but the list of her robots never seems to grow shorter,”the robots chuckled seeing Sasha’s  massive ‘Rogue Robots’ binder,”so we’ll hold off discussing THAT issue. Meeting adjourned!”Sasha said.

               Marcy closed the video and smiled very mischievously,”A spa and shower, huh? Oh Sasha, you might regret how big I’m going to make the building for that!”

               “She won’t!”Bomme said. They all laughed.

*Prank Revenge:

               The next day after breakfast, Grime had some daily agenda notes in hand and he started reading to the crowd,”Alright, the day’s plans are to divide into our usual routines. Training, cooking, hammer time,”eyebrows raised,”lessons in flipping your opponents on their back with ‘Tea-fu’ lessons …I presume Miss Sundew is handling this?”

               “Ummmm …”Felicia didn’t know what to say.

               “We’ll discuss these ‘Tea-fu’ skills of yours later, I’d like to see how tea can be deadly,”Ivy and Sasha snickered as Felicia frowned,”and Wally is on deadly singing duty!”

               “My singing is not deadly!”Wally hollered.

               “You sure about that?”Duckweed asked.

               “These notes must be a bit off … oh, I see the first order of business  is that we need to be as offensive as possible.”

Sasha covered her mouth to keep quiet.

               “Say what??”Wally said.

               “I kid you not, we need to be really offensive towards our enemies, not hold back, keep on the offense but keep up the good work on being so resistant and defensive, and never EVER take the path of Least Resistance!”

               “When have we ever done that?”Grime said after a moment of silence. The Resistance snickered.

               “This makes no sense. Of course we take armor just as seriously as headbands, Maddie isn’t the only one who can pull off a deadly bandana look,”Maddie smiled as her sisters and Ivy next to her cackled with delight,”and … no I am not commissioning a blacksmith guild to make more hammers and teach our junior rebels how to ‘bring the hammer down’ on our enemies better while Sasha uses her swords to serve Frobot fillet for lunch.”

               Sasha decided to hold off intervening just to see what else he’d say.

               “Oh thank frog, something sensible! The newest mission objectives are to take out this Sinister Inland Marsh Production factory, or SIMP factory for short,”Sasha bit her lips,”that is making the robots causing us major headaches lately  by using Marsh Overwhelm Military tactics to overrun our swamp defenses!”

               “They use MOM tactics?”Toadie asked.

Grime sighed,“Don’t look at me, it’s their bad idea! Next, Wartwood is no longer the slowest town around, but the lowest town around … because we’re below ground and that makes us the new downtown district!”

The townsfolk snickered or blinked in confusion.

“This is just silly. Of course, we aren’t prioritizing hopping over tongue tactics and flip-flop combat! And our motto isn’t ‘Resist at all costs’!”

“We should use that,”Sasha said brightly.

He grumbled and looked back at the paper.

“The top recruitment suggestion for bolstering our ranks …”He tried hard to say this seriously,”Loggle, Soggy Joe and Dave are to go out into the roads outside the Valley, tear off their shirts, and start flexing, much to the delight of all the single ladies!”

Loggle blushed, Soggy Joe’s jaw dropped, and Dave rolled his eyes. The whole town roared with laughter.

“No no, we’re not that desperate yet!”Sasha said after she caught her breath.

“Awwww!”Some of the single ladies (including Croaker) said in disappointment.

Grime rubbed his forehead to ease the growing headache, “Onto warnings… be on the lookout for three boobytraps in the forms of holes in the ground in some spot near the fountain called ‘Well -well-well Warthole’ … I’m not familiar with that spot.”

Toadstool giggled.

Grime frowned,”Oh dear, Mrs. Croaker’s intelligence gathering has some unsettling information. Sheriff Leatherleaf needs to check jail records for old mug shots of a sinister ex toad-soldier named Mister Slime who has a beautiful and charming accomplice with a beautiful singing voice named Masha Wayside running a scam operation. These criminals from the North might be planning to lead us into a deadly ambush in the wilderness after infiltrating our Resistance and proving they mean well by offering delicious food and performing hypnotically beautiful musical songs about life that will make us cry tears of joy.”

Buck smiled as Sasha doubled over with repressed laughter,”I promise I’ll be on the lookout for these scoundrels, Commander! Thanks for the heads up, Sadie!”

Croaker played along, “Anytime, sheriff!”

Grime was pleased to hear that,”Thank you. The last thing we need is two dangerous criminals who can pull that off in our midst. I’m sure you all agree!”

The townsfolk nodded as Sasha held her breath to keep her laughter in and made a ‘shhh’ gesture.

“I don’t get it? What’s so funny,”Ivy mumbled. Maddie whispered the answer and she started giggling.

Grime didn’t notice and went back to the notes,”An update about the chains of command: Miss Flour is to get a promotion to Chief Wartwood Warlock.”

Maddie perked up,“Really??”

“Yay!”Her sisters cheered.

“Yes. Also, Stumpy and Mr. Flour are promoted to Food Guild leaders,”The two frogs exchanged looks and shrugged,”the Commander wants all the loud and pretty girls to do cheer squad tryouts,”Sasha shook her head no when they looked at her,”Toadstool is now the town bailiff, “Toadstool spat his drink out,”and we need auditions for someone to lead our new Angry Mob squad and make  use of the pitchforks and torches with our country style anger …”

Grime blinked and scratched his head,”I suppose that’s one way to use those farming tools …”

               “Let me see that!”Sasha said. She rolled her eyes,”Oh Grimesy, somebody pranked you  good. You were to close this funny speech by saying‘ I am Grimothy and I approved this message!’”

               “Who wrote this?!”Grime demanded. None of the laughing crowd fessed up.

               “Do I still get promoted?”Maddie asked.

               “Sure … why not?”Sasha said.

               Two hours later, Grime was walking around. Maddie spotted something on his back first … and she smiled with glee.

               “What’s got you so happy?”Ivy asked in concern when she and the Flour triplets came up. Maddie pointed. The four girls blinked and then started giggling.

               Others followed their gaze and started snickering.

               Grime sat down at the dinner table with Sasha, Croaker and Wally and took a drink.

               “Commander, why didn’t you tell me you’re an open harp?”Sylvie said moments later.

               “Say what?”Grime said incredulously.

               “I think it’s great you enjoy playing the harp to be more open. Would you like some tea?”The elder Sundew said.

               “What in Barrel’s belly are you on about?”He stood up and faced her.

               Sasha and Wally spit out their drinks.

               On his back, a sign was stuck that said, “I’m an Open Harp who wants to get wide open!”

               “Uh Grimesy, hold still,”Sasha got up.

               “Why would I-owwww!”

               The sign stung him when she ripped it off.

               “Who put that there?!”He yelled.

               The laughter behind him increased and he turned to glare.

               “What is so funny?! Do you want me to punish you for laughing at this childish prank!?”

               Sasha rolled his eyes and kicked him in the rear.

               “COMMANDER!? WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?”

               Another sign was below that one:”KICK MY BIG BUTT.”

               “Only I decide on punishing people in a group, and that’s not worth it! Calm down!”Sasha told him when his face went brick red.

               There was still one more that said ‘I want Duckweed to rate my dining habits.”

               “No need, that’s already a one-star review!”Duckweed said flatly. Grime fumed and went to his room.

               The next day a pie exploded in his face at breakfast, then he slipped on some soap bubbles and went flying into a latrine.

*Knightfall*

               “Sir, why are we going down here?”Jessa asked Edward. He was leading her, Palamedes, Sogramoy, and Camille down into the Castle basements.

               “Gobain is in charge of our operation for now, … one me and him are convinced is suicidal, and before I commit to it in three days, I’d like to know … if there’s any truth to this monster story that witch said. Gobain’s curious himself … I think he believes it. He asked around, and there were rumors Master Marcy got heavily injured the day the Castle rose up and was being guarded while she recovered by some horrible monster. The next thing you know, that explosion all of Amphibia witnesses happens, and then … some horrible screams come down from here …”

               “You think there’s something to her claims,”Camille finished.

Edward nodded. He hesitated as they reached the door,”It won’t stop nagging at my mind. Gobain advised me not to look into it, but I don’t want to risk all of us losing our lives for no good reason. If you want to leave now, I won’t stop you.”

“We’re coming too!”Sogramor responded.

               They avoided every Frobot down there with ease and found nothing to indicate suspicious activity. It was quiet … too quiet.

               But then they found two rooms. The first one had an unconscious Alice lying down on it with a helmet on her head, a black bodysuit on her body and plugs on her arms and back. She looked like she was sleeping, since she was unrestrained and had her arms folded.

               The machine next to her said on the screen, “Acolyte Bloodgood’s training and upgrades at 25%.”

               “Upgrades … is this Major Alice Bloodgood? This is where she went after Loggington?!”Sogramor snapped.

               “Shhh, keep your voice down!”Jessa pleaded,”Let’s get out of here and report this to Nolan.”

               “Agreed … he wasn’t happy when she never reported back to him!”Edward said.

               They passed another room, one that made them pause. Inside were two large rejuvenation tanks. These tanks held Lady Olivia and General Yunan. Both were wearing grey bodysuits, glowing orange collars and chips on their limbs and tails, masks over their mouths and plugs and IVs going into their bodies, and (to the knight’s horror) Mindshroom collars on their necks.

               “This … this can’t be …why are they here?! Lady Olivia is Andrias’s advisor and General Yunan here was one of his most trusted generals! Andrias said they … went missing in that explosion …”Palamedes said.

               “Maybe that witch was right about him … either way, we should get out now while we-agggghhh!”Camille screamed.

               They other five knights turned around, swords and poleaxes drawn … and the blood left their faces.

               Camille was being held by the head by some horrible monster … a large black head with thirteen orange eyes and twelve tentacles coming out of its body. The largest eye in the center of its face had a white slit pupil. That eye narrowed at them.

               The Cyberkinetic Witch’s words came back to them:“ His ugly pet abomination in the bowels of the Castle isn’t even going to be blinking when this is over …”

               It looked just like she described it. Big, black, fat, round like a marble, tentacles with sharp tips, and lots of ghostly orange eyes.

               “What are you?!”Edwards yelled.

               One of the largest tentacles grabbed his head. The other knights got grabbed and restrained right away.

               “You thing, I won’t be-“

               The Core screamed, making their blood freeze.

               Jessa threw a dagger into its head in a panic.

               The Core narrowed its eyes and took her in two limbs, and then shocked her long and hard, making her scream for half a minute until she lay dead in its grasp.

               “You … you vile thing, you won’t get away with this!”Edwards warned the Core as it started taking them further into the basement.

               It shoved them into some readymade harnesses of metal with orange plugs in them. Their limbs (even the tails) were wrapped around and held in place against the wall.

               “LET US GO NOW!”Sogramor screamed.

A collection of voices united in one haunting chorus came out of nowhere.

               “Quiet, little knight. We make the rules here! You on the other hand, won’t get away with intruding on our domain!”

               “What are you? What is this …?”Edwards whispered.

Camille whimpered as plugs came out from the walls towards them.

               The horror proceeded to preen and gloat,“We are the Core, an immortal collection of Amphibia's greatest minds unified into one great consciousness.”

               Palamedes alone didn’t react with fear. Knowing he was doomed at this point, he mocked the machine,“That rebel witch was right … the Leviathans truly are an insane family of devils and psychopaths out to destroy everything if they had a mad idiot make something like you!”

               The Core growled and injected the plugs into him first. He and his friends fell into a sleep they would never wake up from.

               An hour later, Andrias came in. The five knights were on a table covered head to toe in bodysuits and helmets that showed no skin whatsoever and lots of plugs going into their bodies. Jessa’s body had plugs going into her skull in ways that a living body could not have endured.

               He sighed. The Core’s increasing fondness of Alice creeped him out, and this was even worse,“What a pity. I’d have warned them off or offered them compensation to just let it go. What are you going to do with them, my lord?”

               “These are not Host material, or anything so useful as dear Alice. Instead, these could be useful for our new Centurions and future stealth robots. Their skills and fighting memories and loyalty to the crown will be downloaded and replicated into them, and the rest deleted. Their bodies will be used for further experimentation … little Alice could use some guards of her own, remade and loyal with no … complications.”

               It jerked Edward’s head with one tentacle.

               “So be it …”He turned to leave.

               The Core called after him,”Andrias, why so glum? This is no setback. We took care of them just like those foolish rebels who snuck in to try and kill you. Such unloyal subjects would be a problem sooner or later. Isn’t that why you had them assigned to a doomed mission?”

               He turned around,“I could care less about those assassins. My mission for the knights wouldn’t necessarily kill them. Even if it did, it would’ve been preferrable to this.”

               The Core glared“Watch yourself. We are all you have. If you could leave here, do you think Wit would welcome you with open arms? You betrayed her, used her, and smiled while she cried and then stabbed her. For someone who likes her enough to keep her away from us, you hurt her much worse than we intended. Our Host idea was many times better than anything you could’ve offered after she woke up from that. She could’ve forgotten about that mistake of yours, become one of us forever, just like you someday … and yet you protested so much against it.”

               “You wanted her dead from the start … but because I worked with her instead, we got the Box charged up and ready for the invasion. The Prophecy itself … it depends on them choosing to fight or embracing the fall. The Host plan involved no choice and would inspire more hostility from Boonchuy.”

               The Core’s eyes widened in surprise.

Andrias smirked“Yes, you didn’t consider that, did you? If Boonchuy came back or fought us in person on Earth, do you think she’d have less reasons to unleash her full power seeing you using her friend’s body as your latest shell?”

               The Core was silent for a moment.

               Andrias looked towards Olivia and Yuna’s cell,“Keeping her as she is was good for negotiating and leverage …not just because I like her. She might have had better answers to her friend’s unexplained powers, and I wouldn’t be missing two of my most respected officials.”

The Core tapped his shoulder warningly,“ These small mercies of yours means nothing. Wit is clever, smart and dangerous … the best mind we’ve seen in our halls since the Box was lost. We can value that, but every friend you’ve ever had, every attachment … that’s what that cost us the Stones in the first place! Don’t expect that from her if we aren’t here to protect you.”

               “Whatever Marcy would do to me if I was at her mercy, it’s more than you’ll ever get,”He said bluntly.

               He didn’t budge when it held a sparking tentacle near his face. “Threaten me or punish me all you want … but I am all YOU have. You’ve gotten Marcy angry enough to attack you with no restraint. Her friends will respond the same way. If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t have enough defenses and forces left to stop her from blowing our home out of the sky. She has gathered thousands of followers who have heard all she knows about you by now …including one of our most accomplished former Captains. You saw how they reacted to her telling them you dwell here. You may be the god of Amphibia, but you are not adored. This is just the latest example of why that is. You’re even eating brains like she claimed!”

               “We’re not … we’re repurposing them … there’s a difference!”The Core said uncomfortably.

               “Keep telling yourself that …”He said dismissively.

               The Core retreated into the shadows while he walked back upstairs into the daylight. He never liked going into the basements before for very long and he avoided it even more now.

               “All Andrias has accomplished is surrounding himself with destruction and dead people.”

 Andrias had been surrounded by dead people his whole life.

               Inside his room, with the crown off, he looked at his flipwart board. He moved a couple pieces on his side and tapped Marcy’s wart on her side.

               “We’re both full of surprises, kiddo …”

He smiled a very melancholy smile.

“ I shouldn’t say this, but I’m looking forward to your next move. Show me another surprise.”

 

*Guardian Pink Angel*

               “Why didn’t we try this sooner?”Grime asked Sasha while they flew on Joe over the Northern Valley.

               “I’ve been busy and we didn’t know if it was safe or not to try this over here!”Sasha snapped. She patted Joe on his neck,”Just keep an eye out, Joe. If we can see anything about our neighbor rebel, we can call it good!”

               The Northern Valley was foggy. Many robots, Amphibians or monsters were seen walking in spots.

               Sasha kept them as high up as she dared to avoid attention.

               “There’s a lot of woods and bogs the farther up it goes, and then it gets very foggy … she must be hiding there. But why hide so much?”Grime said.

               “Who’s asking?”A cheerful girl’s voice asked.

               Sasha and Grime flinched and slowly turned to see Aelita flying neck and neck with Joe. Joe wasn’t bothered, mostly because she was scratching his chin and he knew she was working with Mar-Mar.

               “Don’t do that, lady!”Sasha snapped, fingering her swords.

               “Do what, ask a simple question? You should try it sometime.”

               “More insults, great,”Grime muttered.

               Aelita flew around to hover above him. She wagged a finger at him,”You bring that on yourself! Such a grouch, picking fights for no good reason, and acting like you never made a mistake or that you’re the only one who can pull his weight just because you have a special hammer! How’s that working out for you?”

               “I’m doing my best to fight a war and keep our people safe!”

               “So they’re your people and not your minions? Interesting …”

               Sasha raised her eyebrows as Grime was left speechless. She said,”Girl, from someone good at manipulating people myself, taking teasing or mockery so far on him or the rest of us isn’t going to make you lot sound like anything else but a bunch of stuck ups!”

               “It’s better than just beating him up every time he acts rude or gives a death threat! You would be dead by now if we ever took that seriously.”

Grime looked away.

Satisfied, Aelita pointed at Sasha,”And you, missie, you can be very, very stuck up! You did some very selfish scheming a little while back, and I doubt anyone calls you well-behaved! You’re a bad girl and proud of it, admit it!”

               Grime fought the urge to laugh as Sasha started to get sassy,“Whatever, pinkie! Now quit blocking my flight patterns!”

               Aelita smiled wider and moved a couple inches to the left,“I thought you liked pink?”

               “I do! It’s one of my colors!”

               “Does that mean this is your ‘moping phase’ look?”

               “I AM NOT MOPING!”Sasha yelled.

               Grime and Joe Sparrow chortled. “IT’S NOT FUNNY, GUYS, QUIT LAUGHING!”

Aelita chuckled and held her hands up placatingly,” Cool off, girl! Let’s start over. I’m Aelita.””

The Subdigitoid offered her hands to them. Warily, they shook them and she gently landed and sat down next to them.

               She flicked Grime,“If you want the teasing to die down, you can ask nicely. I heard from the Frost Knights you’ve taken some of their reality checks better. Just try and avoid antagonizing our guys like  a crazy person with a death wish and it should be cool. I’ll pass it along. My boss will do that for you.”

               Sasha said,“That’s great. We can so do that, but can you tell her I’d like some answers on what she’s doing someday? Amphibia’s not getting any safer!”

               “Sure … in fact, I’ll give you one right now. We’re building up our army for a final showdown with our mutual enemy.”

               Sasha smiled viciously,“That is a good idea. Let me know when!”

Aelita crossed her arms,” Speaking of which, our leader is wondering something about you: does leading an army bother you? You avoided the perfect chance to still have one months ago, and by all accounts you are good at that.”

               Sasha’s eyes widened. Grime raised his eyebrows. That was a question he’d been wondering about more than once.

               “I can’t …”

               “Why not? You’re good at taking charge and keeping a cool head! My boss values that because she’s not nearly as good at that by herself.”

               “She has an army of robots and countless Amphibians to back her up! How can I compete with that?”

               “She has a lot of help and magic powers. Before she got rolling, you got the smallest village in this Valley to fight back and haven’t stopped. Sure, your track record’s not perfect, but we know you’re capable of so much more. Forming the Wartwood Resistance was good … but you can’t lead just one small village against an entire army of several thousand or millions and expect to win. Sooner or later, you’d have to step it up.”

               “Commander, all of us have your back on this, no matter what …”Grime said softly.

               Sasha shook,“I know that, I really do! It’s just … the last time, that big mess the two of us made … I can’t tell you everything, Aelita, but … I’m tired of doing schemes and hurting the people I love every time it goes wrong. People I care about got hurt badly the last time I had control like that and almost had more. The answers are out of my reach and for right now, doing what I do now is the best thing I can do to make it right. I know I need to go bigger someday … If my best friend were here … and I hope she will be again someday, she would help me and all our friends take on Andrias no matter what.”

               Aelita smiled, hugged the surprised girl, patted her head and stood up,”That’s precious. Go for it. You’re going to shine like a Star someday.”

               She flew off at high speed.

               Sasha flew back without a word. She lay on her bed the entire night thinking what that meant.

               The next morning she picked at her food. Grime was concerned and sat near her warily, watching for a reaction.

               Then Wally ran in yelling,”There’s a group of robots headed down the road three miles away!”

               Sasha took charge and led them to observe and plan a counterattack.

               A Frobot in front turned around and said to his group,” WARTWOOD RESISTANCE IS NEAR. DESTROY THEM!”

               Sasha snorted. Grime and the frogs bit their lips.

               “THEY ARE OUT OF SIGHT. THIS WILL NOT DO. WE ARE DEADLY MACHINES OF WAR, AND THEY MUST BE DESTROYED.”

               “WHY ARE YOU TALKING SO MUCH, FROBOT 35?”

               “UNKNOWN. MY VOCAL PROCESSORS MUST BE ON HIGH SETTINGS!”

               Laughter broke out.

               “OPEN FIRE!”Another one said. The robots fired, but missed. Partially because their aim was 10% off, and partially because the Resistance ducked out of sight to hide their growing laughter at the helium-like voices coming out of their enemies.

              

               “THEY ARE LAUGHING, MAKE THEM DIE LAUG-“

               Frobot 35’s head exploded.

               The Resistance took them down over the next minute.

               “DROP THAT HAMMER, FR-“

               “SHOOT THEM DOWN, OR-“

               “RADIOING IN, WE-“

               “SWAT ME FLAT OR I WILL KILL-“

               Sasha saw a rock get thrown with a note to it.

               She picked it up and read,”From the CRA, a little hacking side job present our pink guardian angel Aelita did on some fresh robots they made. We hope you had fun making Andrias look stupid with us.”

               Grime called out,”Thank you, Miss Aelita!”

              

              

*One if by Land*

               Gobain stood ready with his remaining company in front of the Castle, along with over 500 troops. It was supposed to be only 400, but several members of the former Castle guards had volunteered to accompany them along with a detachment of Leviathan Order soldiers determined to go.

 

               “Let’s face it, we’ve been replaced at our jobs by robots and everyone knows it. This is something useful at least!”Captain Regulus, former chief Castle guard, told Gobain. His surly fellow Guard officer, a grim newt named Captain Virgo, was there. He quietly intended to execute Marcy or any of her lieutenants if he got the chance. He reasoned he hadn’t been ordered not to. Marshall Homer, a pale Arboreal Salamander newt in an orange and brown foot soldier garb, felt the same way.

Looking behind them, he and several of his comrades could believe this might work. Several thousand robots were waiting to be deployed along side them. One recent addition was the Fume Frobots, an upgraded model of the Fire Frobots in a yellow color design with a pest control gas mask head that had two gas tanks full of toxic gas or sleeping gas that could knockout or kill as intended. Their hands had two nozzles above their fingers that sprayed the gas out like a deadly fog machine.

Telma the Titan frog and Calypto, two giant frogs standing almost 14 to 16 ft, had been hired with their forces of warriors of frogs and toads from the Lichen woodlands below the Boiling Bastions to accompany this. Andrias had promised them first dibs on claiming new territories if they did so.

A hellbender named Corinne, a cousin of Dawn’s, had come. She’d heard of her cousin’s vanishing and rumors of the Night Guards betraying them and wanted to investigate. She had fuschia hair, a wider mouth than even most of her family, and thick muscles and violet coat and furry robes of Wooly mantis fur on her torso.       

               “Yes … we need something, Gobain!”Gobain turned to see Lieutenant Vasily Keyser, a bluish brown Siberian salamander newt in white-robed archer gear. He was one of their best shots and had been called away from his stellar work up North along with recently promoted Captain Onya Fischeri, a Russian clawed salamander newt in white armor. Her red hair and brownish spotted skin didn’t stand out, but like most of her family, her tail was longer than her average body height, coming to nearly 6’5” ft. Her clawed fingers and barbed sword made her a tough opponent. The two of them had Slavic accents and had come from the Amphibian Arctic villages. Like Gobain, they weren’t happy to be here. The war had wrecked their homeland even before Marcy started this, and Onya had taken lessons from Gobain as an eft. She called him her honorary uncle.

               “I’m sorry, Uncle,”She whispered,”Edward wasn’t anywhere I could tell. He might have just missed the message to come on time!”

               “He might be lucky, Onya!”Gobain responded.

               “Don’t be so grim!”They jumped and saw Andrias strolling their way,”this could be fun! A daring adventure, just like the good old days!”

               No one smiled. Voltaire, a dusky salamander newt in charge of the Leviathan Zealot detachment, made an attempt at one, but it didn’t last long.

              

              

               “Now, you know the gist of my plan?”Andrias asked Gobain cheerfully. Gobain hated how he kept acting like this was fun.

               “He’s a lazy big guy who smiles and acts like a child while hiding a dark side that could eat you alive!”

               Gobain shook his head to snap out of it and answered,“Yes, you open a Portal into the Valley above the South Tower, we go in, and General Talis goes via another to Kho Ghop Island in the caverns below the surface to establish a new base there. We are to do as much damage to the Cyberkinetic Witch’s base as possible, call for immediate reinforcements if needed, and not to retreat until we know the location of her main base or herself!”

               Andrias chuckled,“Excellent, and they say old knights and kings can’t keep up! I’ve sent a force to attack her stronghold by the Amagdyla Woods, so she should be too busy to notice or focus her forces on you until it’s too late!”

               He fiddled with the Box and a glowing Portal appeared.

               “What about you, my lord?”Regulus asked.

               “Oh … a little bit of this, and a little bit of that,”Andrias smiled a bit wider, and they gulped as the newly repaired cannon on top of the Castle activated and pointed towards the West,”and a lot of aggressive expansion! I’ve heard quite a few complaints about the toughest toad in Amphibia, haven’t I?”

               The newts and even some of the robots exchanged uncomfortable looks. Beatrix had not held back as much as Marcy in her attacks. Marcy at least had their respect for avoiding attacking cities and civilian areas. She made it clear her policy was targeting military areas and open battlefields.

 Beatrix had no such qualms and had been very vicious in punishing the nearest settlements near Frosch after Andrias made her fend off attackers for weeks. The Krote Islands above them had been boobytrapped so well a Cancer Bot, a dozen ships and more had been lost.

               “Yessss?”Voltaire said slowly. None of them, not even the Zealots, were very fond of that cannon. Andrias on the other hand enjoyed it way too much.

               “This should lower that noise!”Andrias said. He pressed a button and it fired.

               Miles away, Beatrix was resting on the ground with most of her troops. The only ones in the Tower were a sergeant named Hans, a lead Frosch accountant named Froe, and about 60 others.

               They looked up in horror as they heard that familiar death ray and saw the West Tower get blown up.

               “Oh that’s it! We’re going hunting tonight!”Beatrix yelled. Her troops (and even several frogs) gave a roar of approval.

               The Boiling Bastions, the Blood Swamps, and Outskirts would suffer immense damage and casualties for Andrias over the next few days.

               “Good luck!”Andrias said to his anxious army. They stepped through one at a time.

               Gobain hadn’t been to Frog Valley before. Few newts from Newtopia had reason to go there over the years. But he was certain it wasn’t supposed to look like this now.

               The forests above him looked too thick and the bogs looked murky and vibrant. But the wildlife scattered off as soon as they saw them.

               After five minutes of collecting the first wave, Gobain silently gave the order to move forward.

               Andrias had directed some of his other Frobots down to keep the Resistance busy.

               Sasha was very angry when she saw four Strideshots lounging in her swamp, and when she started directing her rebels to start moving into position, she saw five Bailifters and ten Megawatts coming from the other end. The Megawatts started charging up and electrocuting the water, while the Bailifters got their chainballs out.

               “Of course, why not?”She glanced up North and saw smoke rising,”It’s a bad day in the Valley!”

               “Let’s make it bad for everyone then!”Grime decided. He drew his Hammer and she cracked her neck. The rest got ready.

               The Fume Bots sent clouds of toxic gas forward, and the plants shriveled.

               Gobain held his troops back. The Leviathan Order ignored him and pulled out gasmasks they’d gotten from somewhere and kept going forward.

               Their leader, a Dusky salamander named Voltaire, had a poisoned spear ready. Some Shamblers rose from the mire and started towards them, snaring two of his men in their grip. They got impaled and started to shrivel.

               But then the Vinesnappers came out. The giant lovechild of a flytrap and mass of vines took down 100 robots and ate/crushed 10 of the Zealots before they started getting beaten back by the Fire Frobots.

               The heavy artillery chipped in from the back and started firing.

               Several soldiers and some Fire Frobots fell into hidden tiger pit traps, and their comrades had to pull them out. A couple of the Fire Frobots exploded hitting their tanks and took over 50 others with them in the pits.

               Melanie was in charge of the base security that day. Marcy had taken most of her bodyguards and lieutenants to the Temple, so she radioed to let her know.

               “Hmm, clever. However, I won’t come back just yet. I’ll send the Frost Knights to Shroom Citadel. Evacuate all refugees to the bunkers and catacombs and take them down from all angles as best as you can!”Marcy ordered.

               “Will do! How invigorating! Some guerilla terror defense of swamp combat! This is intense!”Melanie cocked her rifle and sent out orders,”Camo Bots, Marines, and Compact Archers, come with me to get into sniper position. Widow Mines, wait until they get 10 miles further to open fire!”

               A red-skinned axolotl of the Zealots was named Chardonnay tossed some volatile potions into a bog when a few Woodwalkers joined the brawl. Some abominable trees and muck formed into Cursed monsters of her own making to start attacking. The Woodwalkers were too distracted dealing with them until they’d gotten surrounded and were burned up with them.

               Melanie ordered some of their foot soldiers to go forward and engage. The Paladins, Phalangites, Siber-Bots, and several Geisters ran forward. Ferocious hand to hand fighting engaged. The Frobots and Newtopians took out most of them, especially since the rogue robots focused more on their mechanical kin.

              

              

               “There!”Kelly drew her sword out of the dead Shambler’s body,”I cannot believe it, but we’re doing it!”

               “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Gil, we got plenty more to go!”Garret warned his friend/crush as he broke a Phalangite’s spear in two.

               “Fire on the Fume Bots first!”Melanie ordered the Widow Mines.

               The Widow Mines rose up and fired their missiles at the gas-spewing robots at the front of the enemy advance. The gas in the air and their tanks exploded with great force.

               “What the-?!”Voltaire yelled. They hadn’t seen those ones before.

               “We knew the witch had to be holding some cards for a terrifying defense back!”Chardonnay reminded him.

               “Can you shoot those?”Garrett asked Vassily.

               “I can try!”He answered.

               He managed to hit two in their large eyes, but then he had to duck as another targeted him with its lasers.

               A Hectabot carved the Widow Mines up after they tore a third of Voltaire’s zealots and 400 robots up with deadly crossfire.

               “This is getting more intense the closer we get to where Lily Paddington used to be!”Gobain said while checking the map.

               Voltaire gave a dark smile,“Agreed! We should let his majesty know!”

               However, at that moment, Melanie distracted them by yelling loudly,”FIRE!”

               Several gunshots and arrows came flying at them from the brush and foliage all over.

               The closest soldiers and Frobots were cut down at once.

               Chardonnay saw her assistant fall with six arrows piercing his armor.

               “Oh no you don’t!”She growled. She dropped another potion in her hand and a fiery blob of acidic fire started burning on her special glove.

               The king really did have all the best recipes locked up. She’d taken many of them. With practiced skill, she tossed it at the nearest trees and they began to burn.

               “Target her!”Melanie ordered her troops.

               Chardonnay chuckled as a dozen robots in hiding got set on fire. But then she got hit with twice as many arrows in her chest as her assistant. She fell backwards looking at them in shock and didn’t notice the bog she’d landed in as her mind went dark.

               “Linda, offer supporting fire from their rear as you see fit!”Melanie called to their senior sniper.

               “Roger, Mels!”Linda responded. She, Jack, Raynor, Gaff, Medog, and a dozen volunteer sharpshooters and ten Marines had taken watch duty in the South Tower and were armed with sniper gear.

               She took aim at the closest problematic officer.

               Captain Bradley was yelling to his fellow officers about torching the Valley to the ground and then finding the survivors later.

               He fell with a shot to the heart the second he turned far enough in her direction.

               Corinne got hit in the ankles two seconds later and fell snarling.

               “That came from behind! Find that shooter!”Voltaire yelled at Vassily and Kelly.

               Raynor waited until he stepped right in front of two Tank Bots back to back and fired.

               The HEV round tore through him and the robots in one shot.

               “Came from above, pal!”Raynor corrected him.

               Gaff hit the lead Hectabot in the head, and Jack and Medog targeted the legs of two others taking positions ready to fire at them.

               The robots toppled and fell right onto Telma and Calypto, crushing them and 50 other enemies.

               Captain Virgo quietly led 20 of his guards and some Solarites towards the South Tower.

               However, the Nagataur Sigourney was stationed there to coordinate with Amy at the Nerve Center.

               “Engaging aquatic chasm defense!”She said. She raised her arms and used her power on the nearby water. Virgo, a very focused newt most of the time, only looked up because he heard his comrades scream. The watery ropes pushed him and the rest into the chasm and they fell to their deaths. The Solarites combusted or sparked to death in the flow.

               Amy mentally contacted their sister Gladys, who was approaching from Bog Bottom, to deal with the Western front. Gladys unleashed a sonic scream that incapacitated all living and nonliving enemies in that area as they carved a burning path that way.

               Gobain won their silent admiration by getting the bulk of their troops under cover and telling Regulus to radio for reinforcements.

               “Hold on, this will take a moment!”He said. The device had gotten jolted by a nearby blast from six Fire Frobots getting hit in the tanks and exploding.

               He was just about to try speaking when a Frobot fell from the air with its head encased in ice.

               “Oh no …”One soldier whispered. They all knew there was only one particular terror that used that attack so well.

               “Look!”Vassily yelled. On the nearby ridge, tall shapes were coming out through the fog.

               The fog cleared to show four of the Frost Knights (Arabella, Arachni, Filmore, and Crocus) looking down at the intruders with steely gazes from an outcrop to their left.

               “Such ferocity … if only it were put to better use!”Arachni said. She pointed Flamestrike at them and smoke rose from the ground. The air grew heavy as the living troops struggled to breathe.

               “YOU, GET THEM!”Homer yelled, livid at the sight of the feared knights who’d torn several dozen forts and countless soldiers (alive or not) down in their path.

               Crocus leaped down and let out a growl a toad would envy. Most of the newts charging at him hesitated, but the maddened Homer just threw his corrosive daggers at him. Crocus deflected the blades with his axe easily and ran forward to cut him down with one swift stroke.

               He glanced up as Savot and Kelly left at him from above and hit them both to the ground.

               “Courageous, but foolish! You cannot win! Yield!”The Champion demanded.

               “Never!”Savot said.

               Garrett shot Crocus in the face desperately with a stray laser gun on the ground.

               The large knight was more amused then angry,”That almost stung more than usual!”

               Lancaster dispatched the six remaining Zealots standing, and Arachni drew 30 robots towards her at once to be destroyed. Arabella walked calmly towards the rest.

               “Andrias, her knights are here!”Regulus said frantically to the radio. He got no audible response.

               The Portal had vanished already, but one final robot was headed their way.

               Regulus perked up hearing the loud clanking sound of something moving fast their way“Oh what did he send? Something with heavy ar-UGGGGH!”

               “What’s got you …”Gobain trailed off from his reprimand when he saw what alarmed Regulus. The Coreling had arrived at the field.

               It held four Archers and two Marines in its grip, and the glaring entity of hate proceeded to make them scream with electric shocks to their CPU’s meant to make them short out painfully.

               The Coreling let out an awful scream that made its living allies shiver.

               It managed to toss around the four knights back and crush every other fighter of Marcy’s present beside them.

               The Frobots were delighted and started advancing.

               “Yesss, we’ll crush the traitor with the master’s champion present!”One Sentinel said.

               That enraged the knights and got them to start hitting back harder when they got back up.

               Arachni raised Flamestrike and sent a wave of mystical flames that singed the Coreling’s arms and made it screech in pain. Crocus punched it into a rock and froze it momentarily.

               Arabella kept two eyes on it and focused the other two on their forces. She used Strangulation on Palamedes, Regulus and Kelly, dangling them in midair and froze half of their ranks (living and AI alike) solid with a wave of Frostflame.

               She pointed her sword at the rest as they struggled to their feet. “You are not going anywhere!”

               The Coreling broker free and charged at her from behind. She spun around and carved a slash right through the lowest eyes.

               It wailed like a dying animal. The Core itself shook miles away.

Filmore pinned a tentacle to the ground with his sword. He and Crocus handled the arms holding them with their undead strength and Arachni blinded it temporarily with a stab to its largest eye.

The Coreling screeched and thrashed two clawed arms at the closest knight (Filmore), but he stood firm while its attacks did no damage whatsoever to his armor.

               Suddenly, the Coreling wailed and clutching its head.

               Sally had arrived on her horse. She had her right hand out and steam came off her fingers as she used a Mindchill attack on its mind. The Core withdrew from it to avoid feeling more pain.

               Nazgrowl came running up as the robots tried to attack his comrade. He levitated over 50 Dread Bots into the air with Strangulate and crushed them to death.

               Grenda and Lancaster calmly walked out of the burning smoke near the destroyed buildings and straight towards Gobain’s huddled group.

               Gobain said,“Fall back and regroup out of-“He was slammed to the ground.

               Two more Frost Knights were behind them.

               “Where do you think you’re going?”Ravyn asked Gobain as she pinned him under her feet. Koliath pointed Bilrost at Garret’s throat warningly. Minerva and Enoch came from their right.

               Three Hectabots flew down to reinforce them.

               Imhadria shot an arrow into their faces at rapid speed.

               “Bring in every reserve!”Regulus yelled into their communicator.

               Over 2,000 extra machines appeared from the sky and swooped down at the Frost Knights. The knights were unfazed and turned to meet this new threat while keeping the soldiers trapped.

               “Enough!”A deep voice proclaimed.

               The other Frost Knights stood on a ridge with their leader. Darius was the one they recognized as the knight who decimated the Caerilian Coasts, destroyed Croakatraz, and broke Saint’s Lake Bridge.

               “This ends … NOW!”The Lich Knight yelled. His voice made machine and newt want to sink to their knees.

               He charged Ashwake with energy that burned like the sun, and swung. The entire mass of remaining Frobots, all 6,000 plus of them, went up in flames.

               Crocus punched the Coreling and it flew to land near his leader. Darius froze its legs to the ground and walked up to it.

               “You … brought this vile thing HERE!?”He yelled. The rage the Lich Knight showed in his voice surprised Gobain’s company and scared the Coreling. It tried desperately to get free.

               Darius stabbed Ashwake into the Coreling’s face. The mystically powered blade seared it with heat that mirrored the Calamity Box’s powers to burn away at the undead essence built into its insides. It screamed an awful scream of pain as it got burnt up.

               Satisfied, Darius left the crumbling remains and stalked towards the living Amphibian soldiers remaining.

               “None of you will leave here alive for this!”He growled.

               “Wait!!! If you duel me, will you spare my troops?”Gobain asked.

               Ravyn curiously looked towards her leader to await his response.

               Darius chuckled,”A duel to spare your troops? How noble! I accept. No tricks … just blade to blade, knight to knight. When you lose, you’ll surrender and those left will be spared to the last! If you don’t fight me honorably or flee, you’ll all be frozen here in place for the next 100 years!”

               “Deal!”Gobain said.

               Ravyn picked him up, handed him his sword and stood aside.

               He faced the tall and frightening knight for a long moment. Then he charged, clashing for half a minute. From the moment they made contact with each other’s blades, Gobain knew he was facing a superior foe. The force behind his arms sent ripples down his bones, and Darius was holding back.

               Darius got bored after he realized this wasn’t going anywhere and swung his blade up, sending Gobain’s sword flying into the air.

               He caught it in his other hand. ”I respect such bravery to face me in a battle you couldn’t win. For that, I will also give you the honor of not being chained! Now, throw down your weapons. Our Queen wishes to see you in person before deciding your fates!”

               The invaders reluctantly did so.

               “Why not just take us to your dungeons?”Regulus called out.

               Enoch put chains of ice around his arms,“Simple, little knight, she wants answers for this unacceptable incursion! Usually we sort out who goes to the dungeons or who doesn’t after a battle!”

               “Pray you don’t have to go there, because you will never escape!”Sylalleas warned them.

               “We lost … and for what?”Kelly grumbled bitterly as they walked into the enemy’s den, surrounded by powerful icy knights and their reinforcements (including some robots they’d ‘revived’ on the spot).

               “We knew it was likely coming in!”Garret said resignedly.

               “We’re still alive! And we’ll know the truth … however worse it is!”Onya said decisively.

               Miles away, Sasha wiped her head,”Whew, that was a workout!”

               She stood on top of a Bailifter’s body. It had taken her the better part of an hour to get into an optimum position to strike at the robots. Buck eliminated two of the Strikers quickly enough when he got a clear shot, but the other two and the Bailifters forced them to duck all around.

               However, the massive flails the headman-like robots wielded gave Sasha an idea when some Frobots and Hornets came their way. The Resistance enjoyed antagonizing the robots with their fastest members to make them swing and miss them and hit their allies instead. Grime took down two of the large robots with one heavy combo in midair. Sasha thought that it was good dodging practice.

               “And it looks like our neighbor won!”Maddie pointed out.

               The noises from up North had died down.

               Sasha grinned and yelled,” Nice try Andrias! The Valley’s still not yours!”

               The Resistance cheered.

               Raynor chuckled when saw them cheering from the South Tower,”Good, everyone’s happy here!”

               “More or less!”Linda said nonchalantly.

               Even Beatrix cheered up after toppling a dozen Drillers mining the areas near Death Eye’s Mountain into the lava. She found a stray recruitment poster for the CRA on the ground and laughed long and hard.

               “Look what the magic goofball’s calling the Castle!”She called out. Her troops laughed and started referring to the Castle as the ‘Outhouse’ from then on. Some wandering toads, including a few large Surinam breed clans of large number, met up and made an alliance with her. They went back underground around Frosch and the nearby mountains. The toads knew the value of underground fighting better than other Amphibians.

               Sally, Sylalleas and Toras arranged their prisoners in rows, made them sit down and unfroze the encased ones to join them.

               To their surprise, Sally healed the worst of their injuries, starting with Corinne’s legs.

Sally warned them,”Prepare yourselves, soldiers … you committed the crime of invading our Valley with intent to destroy and bringing that abomination here. You are not here to make demands but answer questions and make a choice that will decide your punishment or atonement!”

               Gobain steeled himself,“You have another thing coming if you think torture will make us reveal anything.”

               “What makes you THINK we need to torture you to find out everything there IS to know about every single one of you?”The familiar voice of the Cyberkinetic Witch said.

               The captured 350-plus soldiers looked up. She was coming towards them on a floating chair, surrounded by the rest of her Mar Guards, Zel and the Wit Wraiths.

               Grenda and Septimus grabbed Gobain’s arms and made him stand up.

               “You underestimate what I do KNOW or DON’T know! I know you are Sir Gobain the Enduring, veteran of three-score campaigns and more missions than you know how to count, born on a midsummer’s eve, LOVER of fireflies dancing in the twilight and delicious crumbcakes like your dearly departed mother used to make, honorable knight of the Newtopian Order of Triturusian Swords… I could go on. Shall I? It’s been only two days since I blew someone’s mind away by spitting facts WITHOUT spitting.  Or you could start spilling, since I just got back from ONE messy smackdown by my Temple and learned that the West Toad Tower got blown up!”

               None of Gobain’s friends knew all of that about him.

               “What’s this all about … what did Andrias do to set you on this warpath against him?”Gobain asked quietly.

               The terrifying and goofy enigma of a rebel took her mask off and revealed her face.

               “What did big bad old Andrias do to me indeed? That is a story that might break your hearts! He stabbed mine!”Marcy Wu, the missing Human Chief Ranger of the Night Guards, said with a sad smile. Their faces registered varying levels of shock.

               Her hair was longer and her face had scars, but that was the missing human genius they knew.

               She cheerfully asked,“Did you all miss me?”

               Regulus had seen Marcy many times in the Castle. He’d fussed over her knocking several valuable things down (many of which she repaired voluntarily). He howled in despair,“Master Marcy!? I don’t know what’s going on anymore!”

               Marcy leaned forward,“I know, Captain Regulus. I hear that a lot these days! Tell you what … one riddle to give you a clue on why that is, and if you can guess right, we can discuss this over dinner. If not, we can do it outside. Sound fair?”

               Gobain and Regulus exchanged looks and nodded.

               Marcy shuffled a deck of cards in her fingers while asking,“Spoken by many, heard by all, in this art, many fall. What am I?”

               “Lies?”Gobain guessed. Marcy smiled widely and held up two cards. The first was a King playing card with Andrias holding his sword on it and smiling sinisterly. The second was an Ace card with the Core’s picture on it.

               She stood up and said,”Correctamundo! We’ve got a king and a monster selling everyone here lie after lie! No more of that. Let’s get you of the dark and into the light!”

She beckoned her soldiers to bring them inside.

*Two if by Sea*

               “This … I still don’t want to believe this, but it’s right before my eyes.”Gobain said. Two days had gone by since their capture. The revelation of his king’s plans, the Monster living in the Castle (one they’d seen a small replica of in action before their eyes), and a plan to conquer all worlds … it defied any sense of reason.  But it fit the facts and here was what Talis had done. Frobots had fortified Kho Ghop Island and turned it into a small closed off fortress.

               Vassily, Garrett, Tara, Onya, and Savot were at their limit for defending Andrias at this point and easily switched sides.

               Kelly, Regulus and some of the rest were on the fence for now, but were indignant at the futility of the mission Andrias had sent them on and alarmed about the Core, so they asked for time to think about it. They got to stay free at the base with supervision.

               The knights and Castle guards were all horrified that recent reports indicated Edward and their other four missing comrades had gone into the basements where the Core lived and never came out.

               That revelation alone convinced Gobain to take her side at once. Regulus promised her wouldn’t cause problems for him or Marcy.

               “If you can, find out if any more have gone missing,”He requested. A few of his guards and some invading assassins had been unaccounted for in the last month.

               Corinne was happy to reunite with Dawn, and she became a valued combatant for Zel. They sent a message to some of their family, and many went towards Snarlsburg to claim sanctuary.

               “True, my GOOD fellow,”Marcy patted him on the back,”but this is just a minor setback or delay at most …we’ll deal with it after our planned raid on Newtopia next week!”

               The revelation that Marcy wanted to invade the Newtopian regions not to conquer it, but to save two of their most revered officials and as many citizens as she could won the knights and many of them (over 220) over to her side.

               “What about the threat they pose, Milady?” Onya asked her.

               “Not too much of a threat. This is meant to keep us occupied!”Gilsig corrected her.

               “My army is getting refreshed thanks to my NEW recruits and restoration of our robots and plant guardians … so numbers aren’t the problem for US …”

               The Bailifters had been appropriated into their ranks with new blue-colored hoods/gloves and yellow eyes. Odd dubbed them the Jurobots, and they only had twelve of them active at any time to fit with the theme.

               “Neither of you are fighting fair,”Corinne commented. Everyone turned to look at her,”Your machines can be repaired and these two,”she gestured at the two AD’s assigned to her,”tell me you have backups or connections to your computers to restore their minds in the event they get destroyed so they can fight over and over again without fear, and Andrias …”she scowled,”his armies are growing bigger and stronger! Monsters and machines bow to your wills, and your two friends could back that up in time!”

               “Corinne, please … WAR is NEVER fair. Life ISN’T fair, but what I’m doing isn’t about fair, but what’s right! I’m thinking bigger to MAKE it better! Isn’t that enough for you?”

               The fuschia-haired hellbender rolled her eyes and picked Marcy up so she could use her shoulders as a perch to look out from,”Of course it is … I know to how think big! I have to, look at me!”

               The Nagataur known as Helen spoke up,”Alert. General Talis has moved her ship out from the island and captured 100 fishermen from some of our Southeastern ports. It appears she intends to use them as hostages to force their leaders to come and be taken prisoner. ”

               “See, now that’s not thinking big!”Corinne said.

               “She must want to keep their new position secure for as long as possible or plan for future attacs!”Zel suggested.

               Nicky rubbed his chin in thought,“Either that, or she’s going to nab as many as she can and skip straight through a portal with them to Andrias after calling the cheeky chap up!”

              

               “Not on MY WATCH! Send out some MANTAS and go with them. Do NOT fire on them!,”Marcy ordered Araya and Dunbar.

               The two Mar Guards saluted and took off.

               Talis saw them approaching and ordered her ship to go Northeast, planning to lure them to where three Cancer Bots were in range.

               “Oh dear …”Marcy took off her mask to make sure she was seeing the reading’s on Helen’s holo-map correctly,”she’s headed right toward a minefield we set up!”

               “Why would you-“Garrett started.

               “For handling pirates, aquatic beasts with collars, and mechanical terrors that keep coming from the waters!”Darin cut in.

               Garrett blinked and sighed,”I see … yes, that would be a problem.”

               “We can’t radio her … we need to set out!”Zel decided.

               They set out on the Green Lady.

               “Oh my … here comes your queen herself! This is greater than I expected!”Talis said to her captives on deck.

               “You’re not prepared for her!”An old toad named Seabeard warned her.

               “I’m ready to face that possibility!”She replied.

               However, as her ship, the Bay Fury, turned around, it hit one mine.

               “Why that-grab the captives!”She ordered Captain Holly. The blue newt complied and started barking orders.

               “Oh dear … accelerate their rescue!”Marcy ordered Yuriko. Yuriko nodded and she gathered together with the rest of the Asurdroids.

               Araya directed them to land on deck. Mei summoned a pool of water from below deck and Spiral sent a mild current through the water to stun them. They teleported the captives out first.

               Dunbar and Araya and their mounts took out any robots coming their way in the air.

               “Please … save us!”Holly called out pleadingly. She was rescued first, and most of the newt sailors and troops followed her example. A third tried jumping overboard and either ran into dangerous wildlife and got eaten or were fished out alive later.

 

               Talis just stood on the deck of the Bay Fury … and she gave Marcy one last spiteful glare, refusing to budge or call for help as it sank beneath the waves.

               “The captain went down her ship, more or less!”Greenbeard said solemnly.

               “Aye … she did! Let’s head back to port!”Corinne said grimly.

              

               “Any complaints?”Marcy asked Gobain and his remaining best knights after they returned home.

               They shook their heads.

               “She knew what she was getting into … and that was a tactic I’d never approve of!”Gobain said.

               “Let me tag along to get our people out and I’ll fight for you!”Kelly said.

               “If you can get Lady Olivia to verify all this ... I’m in!”Regulus said.

              

              

Notes:

Sylalleas was an opportunity to mesh Watcher/Warden armor and skills with Death Knight ones ... in the story of WOW, plenty Watchers died during Tyrande's betrayal and later facing the Illidari and Burning Legions. Cordana got corrupted/brainwashed (?) and had some of the most destructive versions of their powers. At least a couple Wardens got resurrected to serve Sylvannas, why not say some of the first or later ones to die joined the Ebon Blade?

Mograine's Might mace (Immaculate Might in another model) is too much like Sauron's cool mace in appearance and flame powers to resist using, so why not?

Imagine Arachni sounding like OG Infested Kerrigan, Crystal like Killer Frost from the Flash, Arabella like Ty Lee (Arebia in WOW is shown smiling so I'm having Arabella be perky) Verona like Anodite Gwen, Makariya sounds Eastern European (the Draenei tend to sound that way), Ravyn like Roodaka (Bionicle villain), Salazar like Alarak ( I imagine a smug deep voice to differentiate him from his fellow Dark Riders). Filmore ... I thought an undead Celtish accent ( I can't pin down an Irish location in WOW yet, so I went for Theramore) with a foulmouthed knight to match would be a nice touch.

The Night Elves got renamed to Star Elves for two reasons: One-the Core/Night makes it a bit too close. Two-their racial name Kaldorie means 'Children of the Stars' so it fits. Being a creative linguist is HARD. Tolkien, I envy you so much! Void Elves/Shadow Elves, not much difference.

Gilsig is my attempt at a Black knight mercenary with the voice and mannerisms of Shego. Dunbar's Manta is named Sissi, if anyone asks.
The Zaraton is a homage to Nidhiki, one of my favorite Dark Hunter characters of Bionicle.