An hour later, Anne and the Plantars headed back to their hotel but Marcy did express her apologies towards Anne and the Plantars for how her words and her logic affected them, especially Charlie who appears to be really upset. More so than Anne and the Plantars.
When Anne and the Plantars arrived at the hotel, they made it back to the caravan they had parked nearby while Bessie was showing to be taken care of by some care takers and were worried about each other but also about Charlie.
"I really hope Charlie isn't doing something crazy while grieving." said Anne hopefully.
"The last time he did that. We thought he actually resorted to drinking and he's still a minor." said Hop Pop looking worried yet depressed.
They made it to the door of the caravan and they listened for any source of sound inside by pressing their ears against one of the doors. They heard no sound but they did hear a loud burp yet with the door closed. The burp sounded muffled with the door closed. Anne was the first to grab the doorknob and opened the door.
"Please don't let him be in there drinking alcohol." said Anne hopefully.
They walked in and they saw Charlie was sitting on the couch. He was looking like he had reddened cheeks from the tears while there was two empty buckets of ice cream nearby. Each bucket of ice cream was pink and the buckets read "Rainbow Sherbet" with two words beneath it that read "Without Bugs" and there was two large pie trays that had remains of grounded up strawberries. He probably had two strawberry pies while there was a tow liter bottle of clean drinking water.
They were just as saddened as he felt. They saw him let out another burp but now they they were inside the caravan and in earshot. The burp was louder than ever for them to hear. Charlie looked up and saw them. He shown no reaction to their presence. They all went over to sit with him on the couch. They had really huge tissues at the ready as each one of them used a different one to dry their tears and wipe their faces clean.
"Pigged out on pie and ice cream?" guessed Anne.
Charlie nodded in response.
"Chugged a lot of water down?" guessed Hop Pop.
Charlie would've said something but he only nodded as a response. They were sitting there for a few minutes in silence with depressed faces. Anne tried to look optimistic as she gotten an idea. She pulled them all in a group embrace.
"Hey, guys, come on. It's not like this is goodbye forever." said Anne with a forced smile.
"Wish I could say the same thing about all that food and water. By the way, I got to say something about a bathroom." said Charlie blushing.
"You took a giant dump in our toilet?" said Polly wide eyed.
"Nope. I took a dump in a nearby port-a-john. That's the last time I'm ever using a port-a-john." answered Charlie. "But I'm hoping that Marcy isn't hurt the way I reacted."
Anne placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder to reassure him.
"I know Marcy and the whole time I've known her. She rarely ever got mad. She might've been clumsy and lovably goofy but I never seen her get enraged and she's not the type to hold a grudge." said Anne with a word of comfort. "Besides, I know this is kind of tough for us all. But it's like I just said."
Hop Pop knew that Anne was correct. He shown a determined expression as his sadness faded. He got up from the couch.
"You know what, gang? Anne's right. The least we can do is have a fun last day together. Now come on, let's pick an activity." said Hop Pop looking optimistic.
Hop Pop pulled out a map of Newtopia and spread it on a table as they all got up to look at some of the areas of Newtopia on the map. They looked at some of the places that they could go to for one more day of fun.
"There's the opera house, the coliseum, the aquarium." Hop Pop listed.
Anne suddenly pointed at part of the map that shown the aquarium as she gotten an idea in mind. She pointed straight at the location.
"There's an aquarium? That's perfect. Anytime I was feeling gloomy back home, the aquarium would always make me feel better. There's nothing more peaceful than being surrounded by water and sea creatures." Anne suggested. "You up for it, Charlie?"
Charlie shown his sadness fading as well as he took hold of Anne's hand as if for support which she grasped his hand as well.
"I like the idea. Sure, when ever I felt depressed back at home. I'd ether watch something funny to make me laugh, go to the beach or visit the aquarium." said Charlie in agreement.
"Oh, good thinking, you two." said Hop Pop.
"Works for me." said Polly with a grin.
"Yeah! Let's go have fun and not think about our crippling sadness." Sprig blurted out.
They heard the last part of Sprig's words and shown a brief saddened look as they were knowing that speaking about it or thinking about it was probably not a good idea for their emotional health right now.
Later, at the aquarium
Anne, Charlie and the Plantars arrived at the aquarium while Anne quietly told Charlie about some of the adventures she had with them that occurred before they met him which she shown him pictures of the events on her phone.
"Even though you told me about these wacky adventures once. Still, I can't believe you, Sprig, Polly, Hop Pop and others went through that or actually did some crazy things. It's crazier than when I got the case of the sugar buzz." said Charlie looking amused.
"Speaking of which. What's it like when you get hyper from having sugar or too much sugar?" asked Polly curiously.
"It's like a burst of energy just shocks through your system and you feel like you can run faster, jump higher, talk faster, makes it feel like you can't hold still with all that pent up rush of energy." Charlie described.
"Whoa-oh. That sounds like one crazy time I'd remember forever." said Polly sounding amused. "At least you didn't barf."
"True." Charlie told her.
As they arrived at the aquarium. There was a large gold statue of a fish creature nearby while the building of the aquarium shown to look like a big, tall and wide building with different colored corals around it. There was a tall crab like shell that was part of the entrance with a yellow flag on top of it, flopping in the wind. The tall shell had the word "Aquarium": above the entrance in dark powder blue lettering.
As they entered, there was a lot of people inside and outside of it. There were loads of huge fish tanks that other kids and their families stood nearby, some kids would be placing their hands on the big glass windows, looking at the sea life in amused smiles. Other rooms were seen that had different type of sea creatures.
Charlie seen and heard some young female amphibian teenagers recognizing him as some of them would blush, grin and wave at him while he would grab hold of Anne's hand as if to let them know he's already in a happy relationship while the female teenagers would ether show a sign they understood while some of them just stared at him.
"He may be dating a golden goddess but he's still super cute." said one of the nearby female teenagers.
"Katie! He'll hear you." chuckled one of them.
"Maybe I should tell him how you talk about his muscles and you want to feel them rock hard abs of his." chuckled Katie.
"Oh come on, leave him be. He's having a day with his girl and the family." one of them advised.
"Alright!" said the teenage female amphibians in defeat.
Anne, Charlie and the Plantars were in the river room to see the aquatic lifeforms in the tanks. They were looking at what looked like beavers with bug features. One of them was chewing on a bark of wood, another was using it's tail to slap at some wood as if building a dam or building some form of housing. One of them leaped out of the water and splashed back in.
"Look at the beaver bugs. They're so cute." said Polly adoring them.
"I had no idea you had beavers here." said Charlie looking amazed.
"You never saw a beaver bug before?" asked Hop Pop.
"Since me and Anne are humans and there's probably more creatures in this world we haven't seen or heard of before. It's kind of obvious." Charlie stated.
"Oh right, I forgot." said Hop Pop chuckling.
"What'd I tell you? The perfect place to relax and take our minds off..." Anne started.
They got interrupted when a big river lamprey burst out of the water which it surprised them, causing them to scream in startled shock. The creature let out a loud shriek like roar but went back into the water. They let out a sigh of relief afterwards.
"You guys saw that too?" asked Charlie rhetorically.
"Big time." said the kids in unison.
Hop Pop bent down to look at the eel like creature from the glass and it reminded him of something they went through a while back. He smiled as if remembering something that he could look back on and laugh about.
"Oh, hey. Check it out. It's the same kinda eel that attacked you kids when the basement flooded, remember?" said Hop Pop with a chuckle.
He got up on his feet but the old frog didn't hear the kids laughing but only heard silence.
"Kids?" called Hop Pop.
He turned to see Anne and Sprig looking at a picture of the time Hop Pop mentioned. It was a selfie of Anne and Charlie looking soaking wet while Charlie was also taking a view of it. The three had saddened expressions on their faces.
"I wish I was there to witness that." said Charlie looking depressed.
"I know, Charlie. I wish you could've gotten to experience that time. Those were good times, weren't they Sprig?" said Anne with a sad sigh.
"Yeah, it's too bad that they're over." said Sprig sadly.
Sprig and Charlie felt their emotions taking over them as Sprig;s lips were quivering from a whimper of sadness. Charlie on the other hand was silent as he wished he was there to experience the event, no matter how crazy it probably turned out since he was only told about it by Anne and saw some pictures. Anne saw that Sprig was looking as though he might cry but she shook off her sadness.
"No! No, Sprig. Fight the sadness. Fight it. Come on, buddy. Come here." instructed Anne.
Sprig jumped up into the air and into Anne's arms as she hugged him while Charlie hugged Anne and Sprig to try and fight the sadness or at least to relieve himself of the overwhelming emotions.
"It's gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be fine." said Anne her voice starting to break.
"Senaka o hoji suru koto wa dekimasen." Charlie uttered sadly.
The three kids felt as though they couldn't hold back on their emotions much longer as their lips quivered with a frown. Hop Pop came over to them as he knew it was time to move onto another room or tank of sea life at the aquarium. He began to gently push them along to another room.
"Okay, River Room is a bust. Let's keep moving." instructed Hop Pop.
They headed to another room or another part of the aquarium that looked like the glass windows was surrounding the entire room but not the floor. They saw there was a lot of big and luminous looking jellyfish. Charlie, Sprig and Anne seemed to have calmed a bit but they still had a hint of sadness on their faces.
"Okay, if we're gonna have a sadness-free day, we need to avoid anything that might trigger our very delicate emotional states." Hop Pop pointed out.
They all looked up and saw the big jellyfish which seemed to be helping them feel peacefully consoled. Their saddened faces turned to smiles. Sprig hopped out of Anne's arms and started to walk alongside Anne.
"Actually, this is pretty peaceful." said Anne feeling her spirits lifting.
"Yeah." said Sprig in agreement.
"So soothing." Polly chimed in.
"Do they have Megalodons in this world?" asked Charlie curiously.
The Plantars turned to Charlie with curiosity.
"What's a Megalodon?" they asked curiously.
"A Megalodon is an extinct species of shark we used to have in our world. But they only existed back when the dinosaurs ruled the earth. But once the extinction of the dinosaurs came and went, so did the Megalodons. They existed millions of years ago but they were said to be much bigger than the sharks we have today in our world. Paleontologists theorized that maybe some of them evolved into smaller shark species that we have now or some would theorize they really are extinct. But you know how people are. Opinions are like a coin. There's two sides to every opinion." Charlie explained.
The Plantars shown to be intrigued by what Charlie told them but that was also when Hop Pop knew that they probably don't have a Megalodon in their world if they're extinct.
"Interesting creature and information. But if they're extinct in your home world, than it's possible they're extinct in this world too." said Hop Pop pointing out a reality.
"You're right, probably for the best too. People can't co-exist with dinosaurs since that would be too dangerous." said Charlie.
They walked over to a big glass window of a tank that shown some small green fish swimming by. They all let out a sigh of relief. That's when they saw a very huge squid like creature swim by the glass window, it let out a soft, rumbling growl as it passed by. Sprig suddenly remembered something about the huge creature that was obviously a kraken. Charlie was wide eyed at the sight of it.
"Hey, look, a kraken." said Sprig pointing at it.
"Whoa! Scientist back at home would be shocked to their systems if they saw this." said Charlie looking at it.
"It is. Ha! Anne, it's like the one you tried to cook up at Stumpy's." said Polly excited at first but than slowly starting to feel her sadness coming.
"Who knew fish sauce and fear of death went so well together?" said Hop Pop.
They all suddenly let out a sigh and whimper. This was another event that Charlie wished he could've witnessed with Anne and the Plantars as his heart felt like it was fragile is glass. They all immediately embraced each other to console one another, crying out tears as they tried to let it out a little. But Anne tried to brush her feelings off.
"Okay, that's enough. Time to change rooms, everybody." said Anne pulling them to another room.
As they followed Anne into another room. This room looked like it was a bit smaller but it looked like a geology room.
"Oh, cool. A marine geology exhibit. Nothing to remind us of our adventures in here." said Anne through a forced smile.
Even as they entered the room, they started to feel like their amusement was coming back. Sprig looked at what appeared to be larger coral that was probably stronger than any coral could be. They stopped at a stalk that was kind of shaped in an odd object. Most of the coral was looking like trees underwater but this stalk looked different from a lot of the coral.
"Oh, look, that stalk looks exactly like..." Sprig started.
They all blinked as if doing a double take and there was something about this brown stalk that triggered another memory.
"Hop Pop's cane!" they all gasped.
Anne looked at her phone and both her, the Plantars and Charlie saw the picture on her phone that shown Hop Pop with his cane that had him smiling in the picture while he struck a pose.
Anne turned and saw a rock formation that she pointed out to them that reminded them of Domino 2. Sprig turned around to see two other corals that looked like oddly made statues of two heavyset people and Sprig gasped as they remembered they looked like the cannibal couple from that Inn they once had a dangerous night at.
They started to see more coral and rock formations that were reminding them of other adventures they had. There was one that reminded them of the mud men they fought, the grubhog they celebrated from before, the zapapedes that they used to charge both Anne and Charlie's phone, the veggie-robo monster from the time Anne and Charlie were going to help fortify the Plantars house when they started the first day of their journey to Newtopia. They all began to shed tears and their sadness overtook them.
"Who knew coral came in such variety?" said Anne through big eyed sobs.
They embraced each other and let their tears out and were crying from the memories of the adventures they had together, some of them were even from before they met Charlie which he wished he was around to experience with them since he spent the first three in a half months in Amphibia comatose. Others nearby turned to see them sobbing while a thickset male amphibian with purple skin, wearing a blue security uniform came over to them as he appeared to not be cruel but he appeared to be slightly compassionate.
"Excuse me, folks, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. Your misery is scaring the efts." said the male security guard.
They immediately stopped their tears and somehow pulled themselves together enough to stop. They saw he pointed out an adult newt woman wearing a green dress, a brown fedora and a green feather in her hat. She was there with three eft children that appeared to ether be afraid or just affected by their sadness. They got up and when one of the efts started to tear up and briefly cry till the adult newt woman pointed to him with a stern expression.
"Hoop. No emotion." she told him strictly.
Charlie felt a sense of anger rising inside him as he got up on his feet and started to take charge like a military drill sergeant.
"Alright, one, you in the green dress, let the kids express emotion. Bottling them up will lead to health problems so try to be more supportive to them when they grieve. Your their mother, start acting like it because you're the only mother they've got!" Charlie instructed sharply but in a kind manner. "Everyone else in here, as you were! Nothing to see here, go back to having a good time with the ones you love."
Everyone in the room were wide eyed at Charlie taking command which they all immediately understood he was trying to get them to go about their day and have fun and not be bothered by their emotional breakdown. They immediately gave a salute and cried "Yes Sir!" and went back to keeping to themselves while they understood Charlie wasn't trying to be mean. The newt lady in green seemed to be surprised by Charlie's words and she seemed to immediately change her disposition and pulled the three eft children and saw that even though they were affected by the sight of sadness, she knew that Charlie was right and she pulled the three children in to hug them and consoled them. Charlie's words actually worked but he turned back to Anne and the Plantars as they five of them were still feeling some sadness as Anne realized her idea of a day of fun was probably not working out like they've expected.
"Sorry, guys. Looks like my grand plan for a sadness-free day at the aquarium is a total bust." said Anne realizing it.
"It happens to the best of us Anne. Some ideas don't always work out and I should know." said Charlie showing his support.
The security guard could see that Anne, Charlie and the Plantars meant well and that he couldn't bear to see them feeling blue as compassion overtook him.
"Well, If you folks are feeling blue, you could try the Stingray Stage Show. Always cheers me up." suggest the guard kindly.
The idea seemed to interest them as Anne and Charlie do remember some stage shows they saw long before they met each other which they remembered it always uplifted everyone's spirits.
"Ooh, a stage show? Those are the best." said Anne with excitement but than her excitement turned to vigilance. "Wait. Did we have any run-ins with stingrays? Anything even slightly resembling a stingray?"
They all took a minute to think and they had no recollection of stingrays whatsoever. They all shook their heads and stated they had no recollection of them.
"The closest thing to a run-in with a stingray I had was watching them on documentaries or reading a few books about them." Charlie stated.
Charlie turned to the guard which he unexpectedly pulled in an embrace which the guard was surprised by this but he figured that Charlie was showing he was grateful for the idea he suggested to them.
"I knew there was compassion underneath your tough guy appearance." Charlie told him.
"I may be a security guard but I see you and your group are good people. That, and it comes with being in a relationship with a girl friend." said the guard blushing.
As Charlie released his arms from him. He winked at the guard.
"Hold her close to you." Charlie advised.
"Then let's go." said Anne in excitement.
They all let out an excited "Whoo! and when Anne, Charlie, Sprig, Hop Pop and Polly were about to head to the stage show. The guard instructed them the show was the other way and they went into the direction that he shown them.
The Stage Show
They arrived at the stage show the guard suggested. There was a huge stadium of amphibians there but even as Anne, Charlie, Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop were getting seated in a spot that had room for them to sit in on of them rows of seats. Many of the amphibians there were seeing Charlie, the male human that others apparently talked so much about. Some of the females that were ether teenagers or adults waved at him while he let out a hiccup and nervously waved back but than paid attention to the stage show that was taking place.
The crowd was cheering as they saw an adult female newt with a light shade of pink skin, long blonde hair in a ponytail as she wore a lime green swimsuit. There was a huge pool in front of the crowd as this blonde haired newt female was riding on a butter yellow colored surf board as if surfing a wave while two huge stingrays went back and forth between jumping out and landing in the water till they stopped and the blonde haired newt jumped and landed on the dock that led out to the front of the stage steps.
"All right, give it up for our stingrays, Sugar Ray and Billy Ray." the female newt spoke through a microphone pinned to her.
Everyone cheered and Charlie immediately recognized the names of the stingrays.
"Just like the singers." said Charlie with a grin.
Both Anne and Charlie gave each other a fist bump about it.
"Pound it!" the two humans said in unison.
"And now for the main event, I'll need a volunteer." said the female newt looking cheerful.
Sprig immediately felt his excitement overcoming him as he raised his hand, already volunteering.
"Oh, oh, me, me." called Sprig excitedly.
She saw Sprig but she also saw Charlie as she was blushing at the sight of Charlie. But she was being mature about this as she saw that Charlie wasn't volunteering and saw Sprig was willing to be the volunteer.
"You, the pink frog over there! Come on down." she called.
As Sprig hopped his way down there. Anne pulled out her phone to record this as Charlie did the same while the crowd cheered and whistled for him. As Sprig stood next to the newt lady. She greeted him with a hug as she appeared to be friendly and good with children.
"What's your name, and where are you from?" asked the newt woman.
"Sprig Plantar from Wartwood." Sprig told her.
"Wartwood represent!" called Polly happily.
She led Sprig to the edge of the walk way and placed what looked like a pale purple fish in his hands which the fish was close to being being as him.
"Well, Sprig Plantar, all you gotta do is put this fish in your hands and hold it out over the tank." instructed the newt lady.
"And the stingray will jump out and eat it?" guessed Sprig.
"Usually." she told him.
That's when the newt woman turned to the audience.
"But we have a very special guest today. Everyone put your hands together for Wanda the Water Snake." called the newt lady.
Just like a whale following a trained command, a giant water snake emerged from the water and let out a loud hiss as it did a flip and landed into the water with a loud splash, the water splashed on a few of the audience members. But seeing that snake reminded Anne and Charlie the time each one of them snuck out with Sprig to swim at the lake since the water snake looked identical to the snake they battled. Anne remembered the first encounter when Sprig used pain peppers to cause pain in it's mouth from when it tried to eat him and Charlie remembered the snake when he distracted it and tossed a grenade in it's mouth to drive it away. Both Anne, Charlie and Sprig saw the snake that reminded them of those times as they had a saddened expression in their eyes.
"Well, that's pretty cool... Wait, what's wrong?" said Hop Pop noticing the sad faces the two humans shown.
Anne and Charlie knew that they had to confess to Hop Pop about those two times. Anne and Charlie shown him a picture or two on their phones that they took at the lake.
"It looks exactly like the water snake that almost ate me and Sprig, twice." said Anne looking like she might breakdown. "Even when Charlie went with us."
Hop Pop was surprised to hear this and to see the pictures that shown evidence. Charlie was afraid of upsetting Hop Pop not just because he thinks of him as a father figure but also because he knew that if he found out the truth, he'd possibly lose it.
"What? Twice? When?" asked a shocked Hop Pop.
"That was the day you tried to lock us in the house. Both when you first met me and when we took in Charlie. But Charlie was afraid you'd yell at him." said Anne tears leaking out of her eyes.
Hop Pop was now looking like he was furious.
"I knew it. You two always disobeying and causing trouble but even if Charlie always obeyed, it was because he was afraid of me because he had a fear of old men with canes and had daddy issues." said Hop Pop as he went from furious to saddened in tears. "I guess back than, you were afraid I'd yell at ya."
"That was the day I realized you weren't going to eat us and when Charlie just needed time to get used to us." said Polly sadly tearing up.
The four embraced each other in a hug as they sobbed. The newt woman didn't notice them since she was probably not hearing them and she was distracted. Sprig was looking saddened as well, a frown on his face and his lips nearly quivering. But Charlie looked on at Sprig as he also saw the snake swimming around as if waiting for a command or a signal and Charlie's tears stopped, his mind was now remembering the dangers of the water snake they encountered before and he felt like it was going to be Déjà vu all over again.
"Uh guys. We got a big problem." Charlie warned.
"Now, Wanda will leap up and eat the fish right out of this lucky kiddo's hand. And so long as he doesn't do anything to surprise her, this should be perfectly safe." the newt lady told the crowd.
They stopped crying and their sadness turned to alarm as the water snake was swimming over towards Sprig as he faced the front of the water.
"Oh, no! Sprig's about to..." Anne said in alarm.
"Sprig, back away, now! Modoru hanarete, ima!" cried Charlie sharply.
It was too late. As the water snake charged at Sprig, he dropped the fish and burst into tears as he was bawling. The snake looked at Sprig with surprise as if frightened by his reaction. It dodged him and went back into the water but it's tail slammed most of the dock, destroying most of it which the newt lady was showing fear as it stopped barely where she was standing. The impact sent Sprig flying into the air and landed in the water with a flip.
When Sprig came up from out of the water, he grabbed onto big piece of the dock as it kept him afloat like a surf board. Charlie was the first to charge after him with Anne, Hop Pop and Polly following after him. They made it to the newt lady's side.
"Sprig! Get out of the water, now! Come to me!" Charlie shouted in worry.
"We've gotta get Sprig away from that snake." said Anne.
"Oh, you've got nothing to fear from ol' Wanda. The gal's afraid of her own shadow." the newt woman reassured sweetly.
Everyone but Charlie was relieved to hear this but the newt woman also knew there was some bad news to tell them but she looked like a tinge of fear was in her eyes.
"That's a relief." said Anne, Hop Pop and Polly in unison.
"Oh, no, no, no. It's the rays you should be worried about. Yeah, they love the taste of frog flesh." said the newt lady showing visible fear.
They now were showing panic and alarm. Charlie looked at the newt woman with blonde hair and he was showing a mix of shock, fear and anger.
"They what?" said Charlie sharply. "You know, you should really put a warning sign somewhere about this to all frogs."
"I'm in big trouble, am I?" she said nervously.
"Sukoshi." replied Charlie.
They all looked and saw the two stingrays encircling Sprig like sharks waiting for their prey to show signs of death. They now were getting into battle mode which Charlie ripped off his shirt in a loud "Rip" and everyone could see his upper torso along his this big muscles and his muscular body. The women in the crowd were wide eyed with grins of amazement.
"Those muscles." the female portion of the crowd said in unison.
Charlie ran forwards and jumped into the water in a loud splash while Anne ran to grab hold of two surf boards from a nearby bucket as she jumped forwards, jumped across two big sets of the dock's debris and she tossed one of them over to Sprig.
"Sprig! Hey, buddy, you set 'em up..." called Anne.
Sprig looked up and his tears and sadness quickly changed into excitement as if ready to battle a powerful enemy. He jumped up and caught the other board.
"I'll knock 'em down." said Sprig.
Charlie emerged from the water and for some reason, he was swimming faster than a human should and his hair and eyes were gold as a gold energy was glowing around him. A stingray passed Anne and she used the board she had to toss the creature into the air while Sprig used his board to smack the stingray, it caused the creature to skip across the water like a stone as it uttered shriek like growls and grunts that sounded distinctly bird like.
As it sank into the water, the next stingray swam it's way towards Sprig with it's sharp stinger of a tail raised up. It went down into the water while it would try to use it's sharp stinger to sting Sprig which he dodged it till he was running out of debris to stand on. That's when Charlie swam towards the stingray at immense speed.
"Hey! Over here you oversized sea spades!" shouted Charlie.
The stingray saw Charlie swimming over to it and suddenly the creature shrieked with pain as Charlie kicked it powerfully, knocking it up into the air and falling into the water with a splash. But when it emerged, it tried to go for Sprig once Charlie quickly swam over to Sprig and grabbed a hold of him.
"I gotcha, bro!" said Charlie.
The two looked to see the oncoming stingray and they knew something needed to be done and fast. That's when Anne called for Hop Pop and he launched his extremely long, thick and wide tongue at Anne like a whip and wrapped around her wrist, with all her might, she swung Hop Pop forwards and when the stingray jumped out of the water to attack Sprig and Charlie.
"Dear God!" Charlie said with a dreadfully feared expression.
"Keep away from my kids!" cried Hop Pop.
Hop Pop slammed into the stingray and punched it hard, knocking it away from a distance. It went underwater and Charlie took advantage of the time to toss Sprig over towards the stage as he saw Sprig land on his feet without fail near the newt lady.
"Anne, we gotta get out of the water, now!" cried Charlie.
Charlie swam towards the stage but the that's when the two stingrays jumped out of the water and shrieked loudly as they attempted to attack Charlie and sting him. But Anne had called for Polly who bounced over to her, Anne took hold of her, let her suck in a lot of water into her mouth and she tossed the polliwog into the air as she spat out water from her mouth like a fire hydrant and it hit the stingrays, sending them flying near the edge of the tank but they landed back into the water of the tank. Charlie took the time to swim back over to the stage while Anne, Polly and Hop Pop got out of the water. Charlie climbed out of the water.
"Everyone alright?" asked Charlie hopefully.
"We're good." said Anne and the Plantars in unison.
"Watch out!" cried the female newt.
The two stingrays jumped out of the water and attempted to attack Charlie but he turned to face the creatures. He had one idea in mind to stop the hostile creatures as everyone gasped in horror at what they thought was about to happen. Charlie let out a breath and sucked in a big amount of air and started to sing an operative note loudly but this time, the melody of his opera singing was sweet, soothing and calming which made the stingrays stop and land into the water with a splash. When they emerged, they looked like they were going to attack but Charlie continued with his opera singing as it was showing to soothe and tame the stingrays.
The crowd looked on in amazement. Anne was seeing that Charlie's opera singing was working in calming the two stingrays and she found the melody to be quite beautiful while the Plantars looked on with wide eyed surprise. Charlie was doing opera singing in Japanese which was surprisingly beautiful to the sounds of it. Anne heard him singing in English and it sounded powerfully beautiful but seeing him sing in Japanese through opera was much more of a beautiful sight, even if she wasn't an opera fan.
"Whoa!" the crowd uttered.
The newt female looked on in shock but smiled when she saw Charlie's muscles, blushing deeply.
"I'd ask him to marry me if he was single." said the newt lady under her breath.
"I heard that he's already taken, that's my man." Anne told her.
As the stingrays were calmed by Charlie's beautiful opera singing, they backed off and no longer wanted to attack. They shown what appeared to be happy expressions in their eyes as their hostility had completely disappeared. Charlie than sung a beautiful yet loud high note and held it for a good ten seconds and when he finally stopped. Not only were the stingrays not attacking but they swam away to leave them alone and everyone applauded joyously as Charlie turned to face the crowd. Charlie's eyes and hair turned back to their original color and the gold energy around him disappeared.
"Beautiful music tames the savage beast." cried Charlie victoriously.
As the crowd cheered, that's when Anne came running to Charlie and she pulled him in her arms and planted her soft lips to Charlie's lips in a deep and passionate kiss. Charlie's heart raced and he kissed her back as the crowd let out an adored "Awwww" at the sight of them kissing.
"Looks like there's love at this show between a teen dating couple. That's so beautiful." said the newt lady.
The two humans eventually pulled their lips off each others in a loud pop and Charlie turned to the crowd. He knew he had to say something which Anne knew the look in his eyes.
"Babe, I got to inform the crowd." said Charlie.
"Do what you got to do, soul brotha." said Anne with a grin.
Charlie stepped forwards and stopped. He called for the blonde haired newt woman to come over and she obeyed.
"Ladies and gentle amphibians. What you saw was suppose to be entertainment at first but later turned into a life or death situation. Life and death situation is not entertainment, as for the damages done here. Who ever is in charge of damages and rebuilding, talk to the king about it, he'll at least help in some form." Charlie told them. "Also, I don't know if continuing the show is such a good idea since someone or more almost got hurt or worse. But that's up this newt lady with the long, golden locks. Which she's lucky I'm not screaming at her when the ones I love were in danger from being stung or eaten by the stingrays."
Charlie shown her a stoic expression that shown she is responsible for Sprig's safety when he was out there.
"Would it help if I said I was really sorry that Sprig was put in danger? I'm sorry, truly I am." said the newt lady showing remorse. "We're going to put up warning signs about the stingrays in case frogs ever come to our show or if any of them decide to volunteer again which I'm afraid they might want to steer clear of the stingrays. I'm sorry everyone."
Charlie's stoic expression turned to curiosity. He was glad that this newt lady was letting everyone know this as a warning.
"Ma'am, what's your name?" asked Charlie.
"Holly." the blonde haired newt answered.
"Holly, putting up a warning sign would be a good idea, especially for those who are new to Newtopia. You might want to have opera singers handy to tame and soothe those creatures should they ever attack anyone when something goes wrong." Charlie advised.
"Probably for the best." said Holly in agreement.
Charlie knelt down and whispered something to Holly as he was looking like he was informing her about something for the future. What ever it was he told her left her wide eyed at first but than showing an understanding face after he stopped.
"We'll do that." said Holly with a grin. "Everyone, we're going to have to postpone today's show for now. But good news is everyone gets a refund on their money." said Holly informing them.
The crowd all looked as though this news cushioned any bad news that was told but they all appeared calm and nodded.
"Annie baby, come on, we got to go." Charlie told Anne and the Plantars.
As Anne, Charlie and the Plantars left, at least Holly hugged Sprig and apologized to him which he accepted. As everyone was leaving for today. The purple male security guard escorted everything out while the guard looked like he was going to throw out Anne, Charlie and the Plantars but Charlie informed him on having a talk with the king about the damages and that immediately made the guard forgive them which he apologized for any hostility or rudeness he had shown. Anne, Charlie and the Plantars walked out of the aquarium and were outside.
"Come back again, you lovable scamps." said the guard.
"Charlie, I can't believe your opera singing calmed those stingrays." said Anne looking amazed.
"As I said: Beautiful music tames the savage beast." said Charlie proudly.
"Oh, man. That was classic." said Sprig thrilled.
"We stung those stingrays." said Polly feeling victorious.
"Well, we didn't have a relaxing day at the aquarium." said Anne.
"But now we've got another perfectly us-memory to cherish." said Hop Pop. "Charlie, how did you know that you singing opera would work in taming those stingrays?"
Charlie shown a nervous grin as he knew he had to be truthful to them.
"Actually, I didn't know it would work. I saw it in a movie once but I wasn't expecting it would work." said Charlie being truthful.
"Well, at least it worked." said Sprig.
They all laughed as they knew that this would be another great memory to look back on.
Next Morning
Anne, Charlie, Marcy and the Plantars were outside the hotel. They packed up their bags and placed them inside the caravan. Charlie did most of the heavy lifting since his strength appeared to be without limit from this point. They all had a visibly sad yet longing look in their eyes and on their faces.
"Have a safe trip back, Plantars. Let us know when you get the music box, and we'll send someone to come get it." said Marcy.
"Thank you kindly, Marcy." said Hop Pop.
Anne and Charlie shown some tears welling up in their eyes as the two humans and the Plantars gathered around to give each other a group hug. Knowing this will be a while till they see each other again. Marcy shown a look of guilt as she was seeing how sad Anne and Charlie looked as well as the Plantars.
"Maybe I should let them two go with them." Marcy thought to herself.
"No more tears, y'all. We'll see each other again." said Hop Pop attempting to use consolation with his words.
"Otōsan." Charlie uttered.
"Will we, though? When?" asked Anne hopefully.
"I don't know, but we're family, and family always finds each other." said Hop Pop with a word of comfort.
After they released their arms from each other. They all stood up on their feet. Hop Pop was carrying Polly in his arms. Anne and Sprig face each other as they looked like they had time for one more moment together.
"Spranne against the world!" said Anne and Sprig in unison.
The two did their little handshake they do when ever they uttered that phrase of theirs. Afterwards, they chuckled as they knew it was something that is typically the best thing known about the two.
"Charlie, look after Anne till we meet again?" Sprig advised.
"Always." said Charlie.
Anne and Charlie hugged Sprig once more as the three hugged each other. Than they released their arms from each other as Sprig joined Hop Pop, Polly and Bessie. Hop Pop gently whipped the reins and Bessie drove forwards into the distance. The three humans waved as they saw them vanish into the distance. Marcy saw how sad Anne and Charlie looked and sighed. She knew that her logic emotionally hurt them, especially Charlie. She knew what she had to do.
"I'm sorry, guys. This just made the most sense." said Marcy feeling guilty.
"We know. We know." said Anne with a sniffle. "Logical thing to do."
Anne and Charlie took hold of each others hands and hung their heads down in sadness. Marcy started to think that her original idea about what she found to be logical was probably not always a good idea in terms of one's emotions or matters of the heart. She knew what she had to do.
"You know, the more I think about it, maybe sending a servant to get the music box isn't such a good idea. We need someone looking after that thing the second Hop Pop gets it back. Someone we trust." said Marcy showing a look of hope.
Anne and Charlie heard her words and turned to face her. Was she saying what they knew she said?
"I'm sure I can handle the preparations here by myself. I'll just come pick you up on the way to the first." Marcy said at the start.
Her words got interrupted when both Anne and Charlie immediately came over to hug her. Feeling like their hearts pounded with excited relief. Marcy was wide eyed as she didn't expect to be hugged but knew that the possibility was hanging around.
"Temple." Marcy finished.
"Thanks, Marcy." said Anne crying happy tears.
"Marcy, you have no idea the miraculous thing you're doing for us both." said Charlie shedding tears.
Marcy patted them both on the back.
"Now go. Follow your heart." Marcy kindly told them.
That's when the two humans took off running after the Plantars, knowing that they can catch up to them if they run.
"Okay, later. Bye." said Anne quickly.
"Here we go!" cried Charlie.
Anne and Charlie ran down one street and another as they passed what looked like the bus stop that they remember meeting Doris at. Doris was there, seeing the two running forwards.
"You go get 'em, you two." Doris cheered.
"See you, Doris." the two humans said in unison.
The two humans passed by the manhole that the alligator once appeared in and as they passed it. The manhole opened with the alligator whooping it up happily. The two passed through a street and two vehicles stopped at a skidding halt. They passed down another path that shown Gertie, Priscilla, Pearl and one of the kids from the arcade stood by. Gertie offered some new gnatchos but the two kids kindly let her know that it'll have to be later when ever they can which Gertie understood they were in a hurry. The four waved at them.
They managed to make it to the gates and luckily for them, it was still opened. They saw the caravan and smiled, they ran after it as they managed to finally catch up to Sprig, Polly, Hop Pop and Bessie.
"Otōsan!" cried Charlie.
The two humans stopped in front of the caravan which caused Hop Pop to make Bessie stopped abruptly. The caravan shook from the unexpected stop.
"What in the... Anne? Charlie?" said Hop Pop surprised.
"We're coming with you to Wartwood." said the two humans happily.
As the two humans ran to the side of the caravan, they climbed up a ladder to get to the front driver's seat to sit with the Plantars. They were happy to know that Anne and Charlie were going with them to Wartwood.
"Yeah! Glad to have you back, you two." said Hop Pop.
"Hop on up here, brother and sister." said Polly joyously.
"Thank frog! I really didn't know how I was gonna make it without you two." said Sprig quickly in excitement.
They all embraced each other in a group hug as Hop Pop signaled Bessie to continue going forwards. Bessie continued moving forwards as they looked like they were riding into the sunrise.
"Now let's go home." said Anne and Charlie in unison.
As they continued. Hop Pop had a question on his mind.
"Hey Charlie, what was that word you kept saying when around me? That word that started with an O?" asked Hop Pop curiously.
"Otōsan." Charlie told him.
"Yeah, that one. What does that word mean when translated?" asked Hop Pop.
Charlie shed one last tear before he answered.
"It means father." answered Charlie.
Hop Pop felt a sense of pride swelling inside him. Charlie calling him his father, even if he used words in English, Japanese or any other foreign language. Hop Pop smiled as him and Charlie were sitting closely to each other.
Back in Newtopia, Marcy was standing there, looking like she missed them already. Without her known at first, that's when King Andrias approached her from behind.
"Always sad to see someone go, isn't it?" came King Andrias voice.
Marcy raised her eyebrows and turned to face the king. He looked like he had an ominous face.
"I have a proposition for you, Marcy, and I think you'll find it very interesting." said King Andrias now showing a smile.
Marcy shown to be a bit nervous which King Andrias could instantly notice.
"Is it normal that I'm kind of afraid?" asked Marcy.
"It's about as normal as married couples kissing each other. But yes, don't be afraid, Marcy. What I'm suggesting is normal and harmless." said King Andrias with a comforting word.
The king knelt down and began to place his face at Marcy's level. He started to whisper something in her ear while he reached out with one hand to place a few large fingers on her shoulder to reassure her which seemed to be working. What he was whispering to her was unknown but mysterious.