The next day came along and it was a sunny morning. The flowers were blooming in other areas of Wartwood as it also looked like things for Anne, Charlie and the Plantars were about to enter a busy period. Anne, Charlie and Sprig were sitting somewhere on the roof of the house as they gazed at the surroundings that shown beautiful flowers blooming as it was a sign of spring.
"Spring is finally here." said Sprig with a sigh of relief.
"If this is spring. Allow me to express myself." said Charlie with a grin.
Charlie sucked in a big amount of air and when he let it out was when he let out a beautifully sung operatic singing note that lasted for about ten seconds and stopped. Sprig and Anne were wide eyed with grins.
"Whoa! He's still got it." said Sprig looking thrilled.
"All right, Sprig and my man. New season, new possibilities. we're ready to blossom into our best selves." said Anne looking optimistic.
Both Anne and Charlie raised their hands up and slapped each other a high five out of excitement. They felt a thrill rushing through them like adrenaline. Sprig however looked a bit worried.
"So, you're feeling better about the whole Sasha incident?" asked Sprig looking hesitant. "Because Anne, I know it wasn't easy for you after all that and I know it wasn't any easier for Charlie."
The two human teenagers fell silent at the mentioning of Sasha as both of them remembered their battle against Sasha back at Toad Tower. Anne remembered that it wasn't easy for her even when she stood up to Sasha and it wasn't any easier for Charlie ether since his relationship with Sasha was not any better, despite the fact that he used to date her, was treated horribly by her, got dumped by her for a cruel and selfish reason, still treated him horribly and eventually stood up to her with the help of Anne, the Plantars and residence of Wartwood. The two of them shown a brief grim look on their faces.
"Yep. Totally fine." said Anne and Charlie in unison.
"Oh, cool. 'Cause if I had to fight like that, I'd be devastated. Heck, I'd be upset just hearing someone talk about it." Sprig went on.
"Oh, look. Hop Pop and Polly." Anne and Charlie interrupted.
Hop Pop and Polly were driving what looked like a caravan that was being stirred by Bessie. The caravan appeared to be large enough for all five of them to go on a road trip.
"Yoo-hoo!" called Hop Pop.
Sprig hopped off the roof and landed on the ground without any painful impact. Just as Anne was about to climb down, that was when Charlie stopped her and motioned her to get on his back which she obeyed and as she climbed on Charlie's back, held onto him, than Charlie jumped down from the roof and landed on the ground with his feet without any painful impact. Anne slipped off his back afterwards to stand on her own feet.
"I sometimes forget how strong you are." said Anne blushing.
"The Hulk has nothing on me." said Charlie feeling confident.
Three walked over towards the caravan as Hop Pop literally hopped off the driver's seat with Polly riding on his head.
"Whoa, Hop Pop. What is this thing?" asked Sprig looking interested.
"Impressive, huh? This here's an all-terrain, custom-modeled family wagon. Calling it the fwagon." said Hop Pop with a chuckle.
"Whoa." said Sprig looking thrilled.
"Fwagon? Really?" said Anne not looking amused by the joke.
"Sounds like something my mom, my aunt and the women of the house did once. We once went on a road trip and rented an RV and called it a FRV. A family RV." said Charlie remembering an event from his past.
"And it's cheap too." said Hop Pop.
"The previous owners died in it." said Polly with an evil smile.
Charlie's optimism was short lived at what Polly stated happening to the previous owners of the caravan that stood in front of them.
"Your joking, right?" said Charlie looking fear stricken.
"I'm just messing with ya. The previous owners didn't die in it. But they did die of old age peacefully surrounded by family." said Polly reassuring him.
Charlie let out a sigh of relief as he knew people dying isn't pleasant when they grow old but he knew it was part of life. He was glad that Polly was only joking about the previous owners dying in the caravan of unknown reasons.
"So why do we need a new wagon?" asked Anne curiously.
"Fwagon." chuckled Hop Pop.
"Not calling it that." said Anne not amused.
"I got no comment on that." Charlie stated.
"Well, with the snow melted and the mountain pass open, we can finally travel outside the valley to Newtopia!" said Hop Pop his eyes wide with excitement.
Sprig's eyes widened with excitement as if he had a sugar rush but both Anne and Charlie was clueless to this place that is named Newtopia.
"Oh, my frog! We're going to Newtopia?" said Sprig excited.
"What's in Newtopia?" asked Anne.
"I can make a few guesses but I could be wrong." Charlie chimed in.
"I'll explain it to ya." said Hop Pop.
They all followed Hop Pop into the caravan as the inside of the caravan looked like something Anne and Charlie expected to see from entering an RV. It contained rooms, windows, and the Plantar emblem seen hung on a branch protruding from the back of the wagon. On the front, it possesses a green seat where the driver sits to control and steer Bessie or which ever huge snail is pulling it along. It had a set of two big wooden doors situated on the back with silver engravings and a sign above it with "Pondskipper" being displayed. There were two main doors on either side of the wagon which feature a small carving of Hop Pop and is kept lit by a translucent metal globe which contain fireflies to provide light. Glowing red mushrooms serve as taillights and placed in between them is a wooden barrel. On the front, a few plants are located under a window surrounded by two yellow bio-luminescent mushrooms. It surprisingly had plenty of space for them all, enough beds for each one of them, a dining table and booth seats at the table.
"Whoa, this is some nice digs." said Charlie with a look of amazement.
They walked over towards the dining table to sit down as Hop Pop placed a map on the table that shown the entire map of Amphibia. Hop Pop pointed to the center of the map that shown what looked like a castle or fortress where he pointed at.
"It's the beating heart of Amphibia. A bustling metropolis full of ancient knowledge, run by the wisest of newts. If anyone can help you two get home, it's them!" explained Hop Pop.
The old male frog pulled out what looked tan sheet of paper that had the printed drawing of a newt wearing a green robe with a hood covering over it's head with some writing that looked to be information about what the newts of Newtopia do or what they're known for. Sprig and Polly looked at it with wide eyes of mesmerization.
"So mystical.." said Sprig.
"Newtopia? I heard they got a royal ruler there like a king or queen. At least that's what those toad soldiers told me about." Charlie chimed in.
"What did they tell you about Newtopia?" asked Hop Pop curiously.
"Not much, they told me the kingdom had a ruler like a world leader and that the kingdom is corrupt and they would throw people in a cell just for speaking ill of the crown." said Charlie blushing as he felt stupid for admitting it. "But I'll bet what them toad assholes told me was another lie,"
There was a pause and everyone was surprised that Charlie let another swear word slip by accident. They knew he was working on using less swear words but it's still a challenge for him.
"I'm sorry." said Charlie apologetically.
"Sometimes it just slips but if your around young kids, probably best not to use those words around them." Hop Pop kindly advised.
"I'll keep that in mind." said Charlie relieved.
"I can't believe it. You mean this could actually be our ticket home? Not only that, but maybe out on the road we'll find Marcy." said Anne holding a photo of her, Sasha and Marcy for a minute to take a look.
"You betcha." said Hop Pop with a grin.
"Marcy?" Charlie said with a hiccup.
They all turned to see that Charlie was looking as though he was worried about seeing Marcy let alone mentioning her.
"Do you have a problem with Marcy?" asked Anne looking concerned.
Charlie went silent for a moment as images in his head starting to bubble up in his mind as they were memories from years back with his interactions with Marcy.
Flashback
The first memory shown that Marcy and Charlie were eleven and Marcy was looking like she was going to show a nervous Charlie how to ride a bike.
"M-m-m-marcy? Are you sure this is a g-g-g-good idea?" Charlie stuttered fearfully.
"You got your helmet, wrist guards, knee and elbow pads. You'll be safe as long as you listen to me and pay attention to where you're going. Think of it being as easy as tying your shoes." said Marcy looking optimistic. "Or think of something that encourages and motivates you."
Charlie shown he was imagining Anne was there to encourage him as he placed his feet on the pedals and he slowly began to pedal and steer his way forwards on the bike. He wasn't falling and he felt a sense of optimism.
"I think I'm doing it!" said Charlie his fear fading.
"Watch out for the!" Marcy began.
Charlie unfortunately crashed the bike into what looked a nearby pole that had the red octagon above it which was one of the road signs. This caused him fall off the bike by rolling forwards and landing on his back, knocking the breath out of him. Marcy shown a pained expression and groan.
"Stop sign." Marcy finished.
Marcy ran over to him to check if he was alright or if anything was broken.
"You alright?" asked Marcy.
"Ride's over." choked Charlie.
Marcy pulled him up to his feet and pulled him towards a different direction as if about to try a new challenge for him.
Another memory that came up in his mind was what looked like Marcy was taking Charlie to a gym as Charlie had a helmet on and boxing gloves. They were facing a punching bag that hung from the ceiling. This shown both Marcy and Charlie when they were probably twelve.
"Is this a good idea?" asked Charlie looking unsure.
"You may know martial arts but you got to stand up for yourself when it comes to dealing with bullies. Now give it a punch or two." instructed Marcy. "Don't hold back. Free the beast!"
Charlie raised one of his gloved hands and gave the hanging punching bag a hit. He felt a thrill rising inside him and gave it another hit and another. He tried to give it rapid punches but the next punch he gave it had him stop as he looked like he was about to do a victory dance but it was cut short when the punching bag slammed into his face, knocking him over to the floor. Marcy gave a pained expression from the sight of it.
"Ouch! Someone get an ice pack over here!" Marcy called.
"Who Dat, Who Dere?" said Charlie looking dizzy.
Another memory came to Charlie's mind and it looked like they were around age nine as it looked like Charlie had some bruises and red marks on him while Marcy and what looked like a man in a uniform was tending to him as the uniformed man placed an ice pack on his head while Charlie held it to the side of his face.
"So what happened that got your friend looking like he survived a beat down?" asked the man as he had an Indian accent.
"I thought he could gain some confidence by playing at the batting cages but he got hit with a couple of the baseballs." Marcy answered.
"Maybe the batting cages here are not the best idea for that but perhaps something less brutal." the man suggested.
"Ā Okāsan." said Charlie in a groan.
"Sorry Charlie." said Marcy apologetically.
Flashback Ends
"No, it's just I haven't seen or spoke to her since the day we got transported to Amphibia and years back, well, she had some methods of her own to encourage me to gain some confidence that were not my first choice." said Charlie hesitantly. "Even though her heart was in the right place."
"Well, I'll admit, Marcy's methods are usually in the right place but they did sometimes have the opposite result." said Anne showing she could relate and understand.
Anne took Charlie by the hand and pulled him in for a hug as her arms wrapped around him and Charlie smiled as if the hug from her was lifting his spirits on a rainy day.
"Well, now that we know what the plan is. Pack your things, kids. We leave tonight." Hop Pop instructed.
"Whoo-hoo." they all cheered.
That's when Anne pulled Charlie in for a surprise kiss to his lips as she let out a kissing sound that sounded like a moan or a humming as she held him there in a kiss and eventually pulled her lips off him in a loud pop. She grinned with a giggle while Charlie blushed and felt excitement rushing through him like the sugar from candy when experiencing a sugar rush. They all walked out of the caravan as the kids were feeling excited. Sprig and Polly were the first to hop out of the caravan.
"We're going to Newtopia!" said Sprig and Polly in excited unison.
"Say, Anne and Charlie, since you two don't have a lot to pack, could you give Chuck the spare key when he swings by?" asked Hop Pop.
He pulled out a gold key and handed it to Anne while she looked like she had a lapse in memory on Chuck.
"Who's Chuck?" asked Anne cluelessly.
"We played bugball together." said Sprig.
"He took part in the martial arts tournament on our team." said Charlie.
"He grows tulips." Polly chimed in.
Anne had a moment of silence and groaned sadly.
"Nope, not ringing a bell. Why does he need a key?" asked Anne curiously.
"Actually, I too would like to know. Is he house-sitting while we're out?" asked Charlie.
"Actually yes. Because I hired him to protect the house from all the things waiting to destroy it." answered Hop Pop.
The two human teenagers blinked twice at this. Charlie was thinking that he meant protecting the house from a threat that was possibly burglars but since he was in a world that's not like Earth with Anne by her side. He knew that Amphibia was different from Earth.
"Wait! What?" said Anne misunderstanding what was just said.
"You mean like burglars who would try to break into home, right?" guessed Charlie.
"Well, that's one of the of possible dangers. But an empty house is vulnerable, Anne and Charlie. Needs protectin'. Not to mention our crops, the very soul of a farm. Left alone to face wildfires, locusts, tornadoes, flaming locust tornadoes. Anyway, here you go." explained Hop Pop.
Hop Pop handed Anne the key as the two humans were now seeing that what Hop Pop said meant that there was a few risks along the way in the journey.
"Flaming locust tornadoes? That's a thing?" said Charlie surprised. "Zen'nō no Kami!"
"That they are, Charlie." answered Hop Pop.
Both Anne and Charlie were seeing that Hop Pop was telling the truth. This sent a feeling worry to the humans as their excitement felt like it was derailed.
"Didn't realize you guys are risking so much to help us." said Anne looking worried.
"This dude's heart feels a bit heavy right now." Charlie said sadly.
"Eh, he's just being dramatic." said Sprig with a grin.
The two knew that Sprig was trying to take some of the emotional weight off them but that's when they heard a loud whooshing sound as a flaming locust tornado passed by, taking out what looked like a house or building along with it's windmill while a frog was running away from it in the opposite direction as the frog screams in terror.
"Mostly." Sprig corrected himself.
"All right, kids. Time to get packing." said Hop Pop.
As Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly walked inside the house. Both Anne and Charlie felt the same thing the other were feeling. A sense of guilt.
"Anne with the plan. You feeling the same thing I am?" asked Charlie curiously.
"Big time. Starting to feel a little guilty about all this. Well, at least Chuck's gonna handle it. Whoever that is." said Anne with a sense of optimism.
"Should I tell her? Nah, Chuck will be here in a while." Charlie thought to himself.
The two of them heard two loud chirps nearby and they turned to see where the source of the sound was. There, they saw a muscular looking snail driving towards the house with sunglasses on while a thickly muscular, long haired, handsome male frog adult with dark blue hair and light blue skin was on top of the snail's shell, appearing to be the driver as he jumped a hill like it was a skateboard ramp, he went flying and landed with a loud thud onto the ground and the ground shook a little from the impact, causing Anne to tumble but Charlie took hold of her hand to prevent her from falling. Both them of stood up on their feet in front of the handsome, muscular male frog. He even had a beard with the lower front of it in braids. Anne looked at him with wide eyed excitement as if impressed by his appearance like she saw him accomplish a difficult goal.
"Chuck!" said Anne with a grin.
"That's not Chuck but whoa! That jump and landing, that's so gangsta." said Charlie looking thrilled. "You must have a lot of ladies going for you."
"One, thanks for the compliment, young man, and two, he's right. I'm not Chuck. I'm Dave. That's Chuck." Dave spoke in a deep and raspy voice as he pointed to the left.
Dave pointed to a small carriage that was strapped to the snail shell. The word "Taxi" was put on a sign above one of it's windows. The door opened and out came a mint green male frog wearing a straw hat and overalls. It was Chuck.
"I grow tulips." said Chuck.
"Hey there Chuck. Also, Dave, do you need to use the bathroom before you head head off?" said Charlie welcoming Chuck.
"Hello Charlie and Anne." greeted Chuck.
"So far, I think I can use a rest stop to use it." said Dave. "Also, I may get a lot of attention from girls, but I'm actually preferring the company of other men."
As Chuck hopped out of the Taxi passenger's seat and landed on the ground. Dave hopped forwards and landed on Charlie, holding onto his shoulders while he smiled at him.
"Wanna smooch big daddy and be given a rub down?" asked Dave flirting with Charlie.
There was an awkward pause and Charlie blushed while Anne blushed as well but intervened.
"Hey Dave, my boyfriend isn't gay." said Anne her mother bear instincts kicking in.
Dave gave a laugh as he slipped off Charlie's body and landed on the ground on his feet.
"Gotcha! I'm only into girls." said Dave with a smile. "You two are lucky to have each other."
As Dave walked off to go use the bathroom. Both Anne and Charlie were surprised but chuckled a bit as they realized that Dave was just kidding around about being into men when he's really heterosexual.
"Dave pulled a joke on us." Charlie chuckled surprised.
"He sure knows how to pull a convincing joke because he had me going for a minute. I actually thought he was going to smooch you on the lips and take you off somewhere to make out and snuggle for a while...because no one messes with my king." said Anne showing a protective nature.
"And no one messes with my queen." said Charlie feeling a protective instinct kicking in.
As the two hugged. That's when Anne turned to Chuck and saw that he was as Sprig and Polly have said. Her memory of Chuck came back to her like a pie getting slapped on her face.
"Oh, yeah. Chuck." said Anne softly.
Chuck at sucked in a big amount of air and spat at a nearby ant hill from the looks of it. A small bit of rumbling came afterwards and a large bug popped out of the ground. This left Chuck terrified at the sight of the bug as it was slightly larger than him, causing him to jump in terror.
"Ahhhh! Tulips!" screamed Chuck.
The big bug had a stinger, crab like pincers and sharp jaws like a soldier ant as he flew towards him, tackling Chuck. They saw this flying bug chasing Chuck around till he ran into a tree. The tree shook a bit but than three more bugs of the same species flew out of the tree, causing Chuck to scream in terror. They attacked poor Chuck as he feebly tried to fend them off. Both Anne and Charlie knew that this wasn't good.
If Chuck wasn't able to fend off these sorts of bugs at their sizes, than how would he be able to keep the Plantar's home safe and disaster proof while they're helping Anne and Charlie get home when they journey to Newtopia.
"No, no! There's no way this guy can handle the job. The house is doomed, and it's all my fault." said Anne disapprovingly till she gotten an idea. "Unless..."
Charlie grabbed hold of his machete as he pulled it out of the sheath as he was ready to help Chuck and attack the big bugs.
"Time to do some pest control." said Charlie.
Both Anne and Charlie charged at the bugs as Anne used a tennis racket to give a few swings and batted the large bugs away like playing a game of tennis, she kicked the last one to get it off Chuck. As the four bugs tried to charge back at them. That's when Charlie used his blade like weapon like a samurai sword and swung it at the four large bugs while screaming "Choppu" each time he swung the blade at the bugs, giving each one two strikes. Than he jumped backwards, landing on his feet and placing his weapon back in the sheath.
The four large bugs than dropped to the ground but each bug's body was sliced into three pieces, killing the four deadly and dangerous bugs.
"Who needs bug spray when you got a machete." said Charlie with a grin. "The samurai from the past has nothing on me."
Both Anne and Charlie went to check on Chuck and they saw he had some swellings on him and that's when Dave came back. Charlie walked over to Dave and chatted with him before he would drive off but Dave did use some ointment to tend to Chuck's swollen areas on his body and laid him down near the house. Dave than went back to the huge snail he rode on but not without jumping up on both Anne and Charlie and giving both of them huge lipped kisses on their cheeks and smiled.
"Good luck with your relationship and future, you two. I may be stoic and serious mostly, but I'm great with kids...and women." said Dave kindly.
Dave rode off on the snail and it drove off the same speak limit that a motorcycle could go for. Both Anne and Charlie blushed from the kiss as they knew Dave was showing compassion and possibly showing fatherly love.
"I think he likes us." said Charlie with a hiccup.
"Okay Charlie, first we need supplies. But they can't just be any supplies. They have to be the best supplies. 'Cause the Plantars are risking everything for us. Their home, their livelihood, their frog-hoppin' future. They've done a whole lot for us and I'm not going to say anything mean but I'm sort of having some doubts about Chuck." said Anne trying not to sound mean.
"I'll admit, I like Chuck as a good friend but this job of his might be a little overboard for the little dude." said Charlie in agreement.
Both of them thought for a moment till an idea came to mind that it was light an actual light turned on in their heads like lights coming back on in a building when the power went down but got restored. They had an idea they both knew was sure to work.
"Light bulb!" they both said in unison.