It was the next morning and both Anne, Charlie, and the Plantars were in the kitchen as they were eating what looked like chocolate pancakes for breakfast. They all have at least devoured a few of them while Hop Pop was still dishing them out on the table on a big plate.
"Careful Charlie. You might choke if you eat too fast." chuckled Sprig.
Charlie had devoured at least six of them in a short period of time and let out a loud burp that lasted a few seconds. The kids were laughing about the loud burp he let out.
That's when Anne let out a loud burp as well which sounded louder and a bit longer. The kids were laughing as the two human teenagers had a brief burping competition which they found to be rather humorous.
"Anne wins this one." chuckled Charlie.
Anne reached out to pick up what looked like a brown bug that was curled up in a ball like a rollie pollie bug does when curled up like a ball.
"Who knew there was a bug that tastes just like chocolate? Why didn't anyone tell me sooner?" said Anne excitedly.
She placed her hand down on the table in a thud and the bug she had in her hand slipped out of her hand and probably fell to the floor somewhere.
"I too wish I knew this sooner. Soggy Joe told me about it but I actually thought he was joking, especially when he was telling us some jokes about when he was a kid growing up." said Charlie.
"I can't believe he told us how he got his first tattoo." said Sprig munching on some pancakes.
"Hop Pop! You never let us have chocopede pancakes. What's going on?" asked Polly with a raised eyebrow.
Hop Pop walked over to the table with another big plate of the pancakes and placed it on the table. It looked like it was piled high that the stack of pancakes could be as high as Hop Pop is tall.
"I thought you kids deserved a treat after, well..." said Hop Pop with a look of guilt.
"You lied and buried the music box, causing Anne and Charlie to almost leave the family forever?" Sprig blurted out wordlessly.
Anne and Polly gasped with dread. Hop Pop let out a nervous whimper while Charlie clapped his hand to his mouth as if he heard Sprig utter a swear word. Sprig took a few more bites of his pancakes and swallowed as his mouth was half full.
"Mm, boy am I glad Anne and Charlie forgiven you. Some people would carry the scars of that betrayal for life. Not you three, though." said Sprig blurting it out.
Polly gave Sprig a stern look and firmly punched him on the left arm which sent a slight bit of stinging pain to his arm.
"Sprig!" Polly interjected.
"What?" asked Sprig not understanding.
Anne and Pop at first kept their eyes off each other. They both felt awkward about what Sprig just uttered out loud as if it was like kids walking in on their parents making love. Charlie fell silent but felt like he wanted to shed a tear, freak out or he felt like he was going to have a panic attack. He gulped loudly and pulled out a brown paper bag as he began to place his mouth to it and breathed in and out of it as if he was hyperventilating.
"Uh oh." said Sprig realizing what he just did.
"You made this from scratch?" said Charlie in between breaths in the bag.
"Would you believe me if I said I've been up since the crack of dawn, mixing?" asked Hop Pop looking as though he was trying to smile through a painfully awkward moment.
"Hai, I mean yes." said Charlie with a hiccup.
"Me and Charlie snuggled in bed at night!" Anne blurted out loud blushing.
Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a loud bird like shrieking and Hop Pop knew that with the awkwardness being so tense between him and the two humans. He saw an opportunity to cut the tension off for now.
"I'll get it!" said Hop Pop running towards the front door.
"Oh, thank frog." sighed Anne laying back in her seat.
Charlie stopped breathing in and out of the brown paper bag and placed it on the table. Anne took hold of Charlie's hand as the two blushed and both of them understood that Anne didn't mean to blurt out the fact that they've been snuggling each other in bed at night sometimes. Polly had a blushing grin on her face.
"So you two snuggle each other in bed sometimes?" chuckled Polly.
"We weren't naked!" said Anne and Charlie with a hiccup.
"Let's take a look what that sound was." said Charlie changing the subject.
The kids got up from the table and walked to the front door as all of them walked outside. Anne and Charlie ducked down went exiting the door and that's when they saw a huge sparrow like bird flying it's way to them. It flew to the ground and landed safely. But this sparrow was large, it resembled the size of the caravan that they used on their journey to Newtopia and back, it had dark orange wings with a lighter white underbelly as well as a grey beak and feet. Across its left eye is a small pink scar possibly received from a fight of currently unknown origin. It worn golden engraved armor with a carved symbol resembling that of Newtopia's flag across the chest as well as a single, green feather protruding from his helmet. Strapped across it's back was a wooden saddle capable of carrying up to four or five individuals with one having the ability to be transported by being held by his feet from the looks of it. This huge bird had a pile of books on it's back which upon seeing this bird filled Hop Pop with panic as he screamed.
"A monster bird, ridden by a pile of books!" screamed Hop Pop. "Wait, huh?"
They got a surprise when a person came out from the pile of books from on top of the large sparrow like bird. It was a girl with short, dark hair. It was Marcy.
"Hiya, Plantar family!" greeted Marcy.
"Marcy!" cried the kids in excitement.
"Oh no, it's a...book! Watch out, it's bookzilla! It'll give us a small paper cut on our fingers!" joked Charlie mimicking Hop Pop's voice as he started to laugh.
Sprig, Polly, Anne and Marcy chuckled at Charlie's joke while Hop Pop blushed and let out a nervous laugh.
"Hop Pop, I'm sorry for making you the butt of that joke and I know that joke was really annoying to you but what you said sounded funny. No one should be fearing books at all. You should know since your an avid reader and learned a lot from it." said Charlie blushing as he spoke in his normal voice.
"You got me there about something." said Hop Pop with a blushing groan.
"And I think karma will come to me for that one." said Charlie.
"I wouldn't say that." replied Hop Pop.
Marcy attempted to get off the huge bird's back but fell as she landed on the ground face first. But she quickly recovered and started picking up more books that fell off the bird's back. Charlie came rushing over to her to assist.
"What did you do? Rob an entire library of a book shelf?" joked Charlie.
"I'll admit, I may have over-packed a little." chuckled Marcy.
Charlie helped Marcy up on her feet and she dusted herself off.
"Strike that last statement." Marcy corrected.
As all the books that was on the huge bird's back fallen off. But that's when Charlie was greeted by the huge bird as this large sparrow like bird was leaning into nuzzle Charlie on his cheeks. It let out a few gentle, happy chirps. Charlie blushed and gave a nervous chuckle while Marcy gave an adored response.
"Awww! Joe likes you." said Marcy in an adored tone.
"Probably from instinct." said Charlie rubbing the bird's head gently. "That, and sometimes when ever I went to the zoo. I would sometimes sing to the birds in the aviary."
"You actually did that?" they all said in unison.
"I dabbled." chuckled Charlie.
Charlie cleared his throat and began to show an example of what he meant as he sang out a song with no music or instruments. He was singing so beautifully that he sounded like he was singing acapella.
"Every little thing that you have said and done. Feels like it's deep within me, ooh, ooh-ooh. Doesn't really matter if you're on the run. It seems like we're meant to be. I don't care who you are. Where you're from. What you did, as long as you love me. Who you are. Where you're from. Don't care what you did. As long as you love me"
After he stopped, the huge bird named Joe blushed and made a loud bird like chirping as he nuzzled Charlie's head while he rubbed Joe's head with one of his hands. They were all surprised that Charlie had Joe so tame just by singing a musical tune with how he had the voice of an angel.
"Wow! Since when did you sing to the birds?" asked Anne wide eyed with a grin.
"Third grade was when I first did that. The birds love acapella pop music." said Charlie.
"And Joe seems to be proof of that. Also, big news, everyone. I finished my preparations for the-Whaa...Is this your house?" said Marcy getting distracted.
She took one look at the Plantar's home and was wide eyed with a sparkle in her eyes. She started to pick up a few books to try and see when the house was built as she flipped through the pages of one book, but dropped it and looked through another.
"Oh, it's so rustic and cute. When was it built? Third century? No. No, no, no. Second. Yes, of course. Okay, when it was af-"
"Hey, hey! Marbles. Big news?" Anne interrupted while snapping her fingers twice.
"And the Wu train has left the station. Woo woo." said Charlie mimicking the sounds of a train horn.
"Oh, right. I finished my prep and we're ready for the first temple!" said Marcy excited.
"No way! Awesome!" said Anne giving Marcy a high five.
"I just need to see the music box. Then it's go-time, gang." said Marcy.
Marcy had did a series of punches in the air in excitement but Charlie raised his hand up and got her attention.
"Give me your best shot, right here." Charlie instructed.
Marcy smiled and gave Charlie's raised out hand a firm punch but upon doing so was when she shook her hand. She felt a slight sting of pain on her hand as she did so. Charlie put his hand down.
"Yow! Have you been lifting weights? Wow, you're strong." said Marcy with a grin.
"I learned martial arts from my uncle." said Charlie with a confident grin.
"Sorry about the weird moment there. Long flight. A lot of pent-up energy. Anyway, music box." said Marcy holding her hand out.
Anne squat down to rummage inside her pink backpack while she would be looking for the Calamity Box.
"Good thing she didn't show up a few days ago, am I right?" Sprig whispered.
"You need to stop." warned Polly.
Anne pulled the box out of her bag and stood up to give it to Marcy. She cracked her knuckles and took the box in her hands. She gazed at it as if thinking hard.
"Okay, if my studies are correct, then..." Marcy began.
She pushed what appeared to be three unknown buttons on the box from both sides and on the front of it. The wind up key to the box began to move on it's own and briefly placed a soft yet relaxing tune for about five seconds and mechanical whirs wear heard as the three gems were ejected out from the top of the box as Marcy took one of them out. After she did so was when the other two gems lowered back inside of the box.
"Whoa!" everyone but Marcy said.
"There you go, bud." said Marcy.
Marcy held the box out for Hop Pop to take but he didn't even touch it. He was showing hesitancy as he remembered the events from the other day still made him believe he shouldn't hold onto the box as he still felt a tinge of guilt from lying to Anne and Charlie.
"Oh, uh...I better not." said Hop Pop looking nervous.
Marcy raised an eyebrow in confused curiosity but than Anne took the box out of her hands as if to avoid any questions as she placed the box back in her bag. She zipped it back up and put her arms through the loops.
"It's nothing! Don't worry about it." said Anne quickly.
Marcy placed the gem in a pouch compartment in her bag.
"Well, we've got a big journey ahead. I'll explain everything on the way. Come on, Joe. Joe?" Marcy called.
Marcy clapped her hands to get Joe's attention but when she turned to get his attention. She gasped at what she saw as the huge bird wasn't looking but was dancing in front of Bessie.
"Joe Sparrow!" said Marcy sternly.
They saw the huge male bird was dancing and showing off to Bessie while chirping as it would move it's huge wings around, did a few squats with it's legs and flirtatiously raised his eyebrows at Bessie. This caused the huge snail to blush let out a few chirps. That's when Charlie started to laugh. Marcy rushed over to Joe to break up the situation.
"Big birdie getting flirty." teased Anne and Charlie in a sing song voice.
"Leave that snail alone!" Marcy commanded.
Bessie let out an embarrassed chirp as she slid away back to the barn house probably. That's when they saw a huge wooden saddle on top of Joe's back which that's when the kids made their way to climb up on the huge bird's back but Charlie offered to assist.
"Watch this!" called Charlie.
They all saw Charlie run towards Joe at top speed and he pushed off the ground in a powerful jump that launched him up so high into the air that he gently landed on top of Joe's back and he was the first up there. Marcy was wide eyed at the sight of it.
"I forgot how high he can jump." said an amazed Marcy.
Charlie reached out his hand to pull one of them up. Marcy tossed up four books into the air and Charlie caught each one of them as he placed them somewhere on the saddle. He than reached out to take hold of someone's hand to pull them up.
"This way up." said Charlie.
Charlie first took hold of Marcy's hand and pulled her up with ease as he shown he was really strong to pull her up. Than he pulled up Anne, than Sprig and Polly. They all sat up on the saddle but when sitting down it felt like they all barely could fit on there. Sprig put his legs up to try and fit himself on there as best as possible.
"Charlie sure has gotten stronger. It's as if he's from universe six." said Marcy taking notice.
"Pretty cramped up here, huh?" said Anne.
"Like trying to fit a ten pound bowling ball into a tea cup." Charlie commented.
"Oh, uh, eh, so where do I sit?" asked Hop Pop looking nervous.
Charlie instantly had an idea in mind as he held out his hand.
"Grab on." instructed Charlie.
Hop Pop opened his mouth launched his huge frog like tongue up and wrapped it around Charlie's hand and wrist. He retracted it to pull himself up like someone pulling him up from a rope he held onto. He made it up there and pulled his huge tongue back in his mouth.
"That tickled my arm." giggled Charlie blushing.
Charlie opened up his bag and pointed for Hop Pop to jump in. Hop Pop was a bit skeptical about going inside his bag as he suspected he wouldn't fit in there. He attempted to go inside his bag and surprisingly enough, he managed to barely fit in his bag when the zipper was pulled up which Charlie made sure it was completely closed as he left a small hole of the zipper open so Hop Pop could at least breathe.
"No offense Charlie but your bag smells like cologne in here." said Hop Pop.
"That would be air freshener." Charlie replied.
Joe flapped his wings powerfully and his wings took up to the air and flying high into air. It was like flying on an airplane as they were up high and sitting on the seat they sat on. Charlie kept a good hold on his bag while he was trying to remain calm as he was appearing to be a bit nervous about flying.
They flew over miles of land really fast as minutes ticked by while Marcy pulled out a scroll from her bag while she started to explain what she knew or learned about the first temple they're headed to which what she was telling them had them feeling a bit worried.
"You okay Charlie?" asked Anne.
Charlie wrapped an arm around her to hold onto Anne and she could tell that Charlie was nervous or afraid of flying up so high, especially on a huge sparrow like bird like Joe. She wrapped an arm around him and held him closely to take his mind off the fear of heights or flying apparently.
"Charlie, everything is going to be just fine." reassured Anne.
Her words of consolation had a little affect on Charlie but he kept close to her.
"So, according to my research, these three ancient temple are filled with difficult challenges to keep out the unworthy. All we have to do is complete the challenges, and then we can charge the stone." explained Marcy.
"Nifty. So, what kind of challenges we talkin'?" asked Anne curiously.
"This first temple is said to specifically challenge your intelligence. So I'm pretty sure it's full of puzzles." Marcy continued as she suddenly had a scary expression. "No frog, toad or newt in history has been able to survive it."
They looked at Marcy with hesitancy at her words. Challenges that are for your intelligence? No other frog, toad or newt in history has ever survived the attempts? That wasn't much of a comforting thought them.
"But don't worry, because none of them were Marcy Wu, head of the chess club, master RTS player, straight-A student, except for gym but only because I was reading in class, which only proves my point!" ranted Marcy.
"Slow the Wu train down." Charlie chimed in.
"That's all great, Marcy, but be careful. When you get this into something, you tend to tune everything else out." said Anne showing worry.
Anne started to remember and remind Marcy of some times that she got into something and tuned everything out around her. Anne explained about the time Marcy got too into a handheld game while they were at a frozen yogurt shop and she had her hand on a lever and she had it flipped down while Anne was trying to get attention and prevent a mess from being created but the frozen yogurt got all over the machine and overflowed onto the floor.
She than explained about the time where Anne, Marcy and Sasha were in a school play where it looked like Sasha was dressed up as a pirate while Anne was dressed in a green outfit and was swinging around by a rope that was suppose to make it appear she was flying as if she was going to do scenes where her character in the play would fly but Marcy got distracted when playing her handheld game backstage. Things went downhill from there as Anne was calling for Marcy to lower her down but the rope snapped and she landed in the audience while the audience would gasp but also help Anne.
She even explained about the time when she was in her bedroom, eating marshmallows from a bag as she listened to the news on a television in her bedroom while a young male adult was broadcasting a news report at the zoo where five hundred snakes have escaped from their location at the zoo and the newsman cut to see what looked like Marcy walking through the snakes that were slithering across the ground that was near the entrance of the zoo and Anne screamed in horror at the screen.
"That was the worst Saturday of my life." said Anne looking annoyed.
"Hearing all that. I know something that could top that." said Charlie blushing.
They listened to Charlie as he explained a few times he experienced something like Anne has told them about. One of them was when Charlie was trying out the space chair ride at the local mall that was something that astronauts used to train people for space missions. He ridden on it and was spun around at a steady speed at first but Marcy was distracted by a book she was reading and she leaned up against the control panel which increased the speed of the ride.
"Marcy! Hit the stop button! Marcy!" screamed Charlie.
One of the people that worked at the mall came rushing to his side and bushed a red button that made the ride come to a stop. That's when Marcy turned to see Charlie being helped off the ride, his body shaking, he appeared dizzy while his legs were wobbling. Marcy blushed as she just realized her mistake that affected poor Charlie.
"Uh oh." said Marcy nervously.
"Marcy, take me home. I don't feel so good." said Charlie dizzily.
Marcy had caught him when he fell and she attempted to rub his stomach to help ease his discomfort while giving him a bottle of water to drink down. After Charlie explained the events. Anne actually saw that Charlie had similar experiences like she did.
"She got you home safely?" asked Anne hopefully.
"Yes, she explained to the ladies of the house everything and she took responsibility. They forgave her. But I did throw up. I shouldn't have had that Calzone." said Charlie sadly.
"That's called being in the zone, guys. It's pretty much my superpower." said Marcy looking confident.
Anne and Charlie sighed.
"Okay, okay. Just don't forget about us. This place is gonna be dangerous, and we're here to help." said Anne. "Also, if anything happens Charlie."
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you guys. Like I could forget you guys. Penny? Sprout?" said Marcy looking at Sprig and Polly.
"Polly." corrected Polly.
"Sprig." corrected Sprig.
"Look, the point is, I'm not gonna let you guys down." said Marcy showing optimism.
The zipper from Charlie's bag opened up a bit wider and Hop Pop poked his head out while taking in a breath of air and letting it out.
"Everything alright in there, Hop Pop?" asked Charlie.
"I actually found a air freshener in there that smells good. Also, speaking of down. Are we there yet?" said Hop Pop.
They immediately got an answer when Joe was descended downwards and flew towards the ground. Hop Pop let out a scream as both him and Charlie held onto each other while everyone else held onto each other as well.
Charlie and Hop Pop were screaming as they looked at the sky, than at each other, and at the quickly approaching speed they were picking up towards the ground. But once Joe was flapping his wings to slow himself down was when Hop Pop fell out of Charlie's bag and he went flying towards a large luminous looking tree and he got stuck to it as if it was sticky like glue. But he was laying on it upside down.
Joe extended one of his wings to the ground so everyone could safely slide down onto the ground which Anne went over to Hop Pop to get him down from the tree he was in but she also knew that Hop Pop looked bewildered from his rough landing since he didn't expect to fall out of Charlie's bag.
"I'm upside down." said Hop Pop.
Anne laughed a little from the sight of Hop Pop.
"I'm so sorry Hop Pop for laughing but what you just said sounded funny. It's like you're telling a joke." laughed Anne.
"Really? What I just said was funny? I wasn't meaning to make a joke." said Hop Pop raising an eyebrow.
Marcy ran over to Hop Pop to help him out as both Anne and Marcy took hold of his hands and pulled. They struggled a bit as if the tree was so sticky that it was like trying to pull gum out of someone's hair. But with another pull was when they got him free which he nearly fell but they managed prevent him from falling hard.
"You okay Hop Pop?" called Charlie.
"I'm not a fan of flying but I'm alright physically." answered Hop Pop.
"You too, huh? Everytime I was on a plane, one of the ladies of the house would advise me to think of happy thoughts...and to avoid looking out the window." said Charlie.
"Welcome to Amygdala Woods, everyone, home to the first temple." said Marcy.
The woods they were at was filled with what looked like some glowing, luminous plants and some that were sticky like jello since Hop Pop had some of the green slime which Charlie helped clean him off. They saw a taller green glowing tree suddenly make a funny audible sound and light pink juices squirted out of it. They all were looking at their surroundings in amazement.
"Whoa! What are these things?" said Sprig.
Sprig was poking at the small green tree that Hop Pop got freed from when he landed.
"Gyromitra esculenta. Also known as brain mushrooms." explained Marcy and Charlie in unison.
They all looked at Charlie and Marcy as if they didn't expect both of them to answer.
"You read about these plants?" asked Marcy looking intrigued.
"Back in our home world, I read about a few areas of flora and fauna. Here in Amphibia, I may have read a few books about them when ever I was in the personal library back at Toad Tower or when ever I saw a book in Hop Pop's study that looked interesting, even in Newtopia, the library was full of them. Good thing I was able to do speed reading." answered Charlie.
"A forest full of brains for the intelligence temple? Kinda on the nose, don't you think?" said Anne.
"Speaking of temples, I think you way overhyped this place." said Polly pointing.
They all looked where she pointed and saw a wooden outhouse that had flies zooming around it. Charlie suddenly chuckled loudly as he felt like laughing.
"If this is the temple. Than anyone who goes in there is in deep shit." Charlie joked as he burst out loud laughing.
Anne suddenly cracked up laughing with him as they knew that Charlie made a funny. Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop tried to choke their laughter down since Charlie's joke was although a dirty joke but they found it to be hilarious.
"No, no, no. That's the temple." said Marcy pointing.
They turned around and when they saw the temple. They were all wide eyed with a twinkle in their eyes with their mouths falling open. The first temple looked like it was a huge temple made of stone with two waterfalls that had water flowing through two sides that came from two frog like heads and mouths made of stone. There was a staircase as the entire appearance of the temple looked like something out of a Mayan ruins. It had some moss and vegetation growing around it.
Sprig than went over to the outhouse to make sure it was an outhouse as he didn't expect it to be one out in the middle of nowhere since on their travels on the road had forced them to go behind a tree to go pee or poop. He opened the door and took one look inside and saw a stone plate on the floor of it and what looked like a hole in the center. He closed the door after he confirmed it to be an outhouse. They began to walk towards the temple. Going up the staircase as Anne and Charlie briefly looked back at the outhouse and chuckled about the joke he told.
"This makes Kirk Fogg's temple look like a playground." Charlie commented.
They reached the top of the staircase and the entrance doors had a frog's face carved into it with a carving of a brain above it. Two large frogs with an unknown familiar stone were erected on the left and right side.
"All right, guys! Let's do this thing!" said Marcy her voice echoing.
As they were at the entrance of the temple. Three of them went to try and open the door but the three who unknowingly reached for the door stopped as Anne, Charlie and Hop Pop pulled their hands away and looked at each other, feeling the tense awkwardness creeping up on them.
That's when both Anne and Hop Pop were awkwardly offering the other to take the lead but neither of them felt it was polite if one of them went first and kept insisting to let the other take the lead while Charlie was breathing in and out to try and calm himself while Marcy looked on in confusion. Sprig and Polly knew that ever since the events that happened a couple of days ago was leaving them to feel as though there was a strangely awkward strain on them.
"Those three seem a bit off. Did something happen?" asked Marcy.
"Don't ask." said Sprig and Polly in unison.
"Chinmoku!" cried Charlie.
Everyone went silent and the doors suddenly opened on their own. The entrance doors opened like a sliding double doors. They all looked at the inside with wide eyed wonder. The walls had various carvings and moldings of amphibious species, moss and vegetation spread out amongst the walls in various spots and numerous areas that had symbols in the ancient and or modern text of Amphibia.
"Marcy, did anything you've read or researched say anything about something living in here? Remember that sleepover?" asked Charlie.
"Don't worry, it said nothing about something living in here." reassured Marcy.
As they moved forwards. Polly hopped forwards and landed on a square stone with an amphibian foot print on it which started to make a loud rumbling sound and a loud click as she was now afraid that a trap was activated. Charlie saw that with wide eyes and fear flooded his mind.
"It's a trap." said Charlie starting to panic.
Charlie ran to Anne's side, held onto her and shook all over while Anne grabbed hold of him, attempting to console him. He shut his eyes waiting for a trap to be triggered that would harm them. But nothing happened of the sort. He slowly opened his eyes and the room started to show that it was lighting up with more of a series of luminous green mushrooms that served as a source of light to illuminate the entire room.
"That was a close call." said Charlie relieved.
"It's gonna be alright, Charlie." reassured Anne.
"Did I learn an entire dead language just for today? You better believe I did!" said Marcy with a nervous grin. "Now, let's see."
They walked up to a door that was on the other side of the room facing forwards. There was a symbol on the left that looked like a rubik's cube while there was a symbol on the right that looked like three chess boards. There was foreign text on the center of the door. Marcy was reading from a book out loud to them as she was looked up at the text on the door, than back at the book. As she read out loud, the text started to glow the same color as the lights inside.
"Keeper of the box, one strong of mind, three trials await, that will return the stones' shine." Hey, looks like there's three trials, guys." called Marcy.
They heard a rumbling sound again but they looked to see there was another double door opening up in front of them. When the doors fully opened was when they met what looked like a dead end. It was another room but it looked like there was door or any signs or ancient text anywhere beyond those doors that would indicate what they should do next.
"Marcy, did anything about what you've researched say anything about a dead end?" asked Charlie.
"Nothing came up." answered Marcy.
"A dead end." said Sprig forming a smile. "Well, we tried our best and that's what counts."
Sprig was about to turn around and leave but Marcy stopped him before he could make a couple of steps.
"Hey, come on. There's a puzzle here somewhere. Everyone, look for clues." said Marcy walking forwards.
They all walked further and were looking around to see if there was a secret button that would open up a hidden door, they even tried to lightly tap on the walls or the floor or look for anything strange in the room in order to see how they can go beyond the point they've reached.
That's when Anne looked down and saw a golden cube that had numerous symbols all over it and she bent down to pick it up and turned around. Charlie saw what she was carrying.
"Anne, what is that?" asked Charlie.
"Hey, guess who found the puzzle?" called Anne looking confident.
Without warning, that's when Anne was got encompassed in a magnetic green bubble and it floated up near the ceiling of the room. Upon stopping, she was looking like she was upside down in the floating bubble. Everyone looked up in shock.
"Anne, everything alright?" asked Charlie.
"If I hang upside down for too long. I might see my breakfast again." called Anne.
"Frog, help us. A cursed cube possessed by evil magic." gasped Hop Pop.
"No, it's the puzzle! Also, I'm pretty sure that's a magnetic field holding her up." Marcy described.
"Isn't that what I said?" replied Hop Pop.
"Well, whatever it is, all yours, Marbles." said Anne tossing the cube to her.
Marcy caught the cube once Anne tossed it to her. The bubble Anne was in disappeared and she fell but Charlie jumped up high and caught her, than he landed on the floor safely and helped her stand on her feet. Upon Marcy holding the cube, that's when the huge bubble formed around her and she was now floating up into the ceiling.
"Marcy, what is that cube?" asked Charlie.
"It's kind of like a rubik's cube. Whoa, this thing's got, like, a zillion permutations. If this temple thinks it can beat me, it's got another thing coming." said Marcy.
Marcy began to move parts of the cube around and she was right about something. It was just like a rubik's cube and it even moved around like one. The room started to rumble and that's when the room would have the walls turn around and alter like they were responding to the cube being moved. The Plantars were able to stick to the walls while Anne slid down the wall but stopped as the Plantar's bodies caught her while Charlie landed on the floor on his feet.
"Damn it, Marcy!" Charlie cursed under his breath.
"Anyone else tasting chocopede pancakes right about now?" said Sprig looking as though he might get nauseous.
"Marcy! Can you at least let us know what you're gonna move before you move it?" said Anne annoyed.
Anne and the Plantars immediately slipped and fell to the floor but Charlie couldn't catch them in time. Marcy seemed to be zoning out as she kept moving more parts of the cube which kept turning and altering the walls of the room. Anne and the Plantars would scream while Charlie would barely be able to land on his feet at times and was barely able to dodge any part of the walls that would have square stones that would poke out from the walls, floor and ceiling.
Hop Pop managed to dodge part of the floor that went up. Sprig ducked when part of the wall nearly hit him. Anne and Polly jumped away from part of the cubed ceiling parts from coming down on them. Charlie was barely able to catch them when ever they fell or was barely able to dodge anything that came at him. But than Marcy somehow got the cube to have all the sides being the right ones and it had a face form on there but the eyes glowed a green light and the door in front of them had it's eyes glowing the same color, finally opening it which shown a staircase.
The bubble Marcy was in floated her down safely to the floor while Anne and the Plantars fell to the floor with some mild bruises. Charlie managed to land on the floor on his feet and turned to Marcy, looking annoyed.
"We did it! One down, two to go." said Marcy looking thrilled.
"Marceline Wu!" cried Charlie sharply.
Marcy looked at Charlie who came over to her with annoyed yet grim face.
"Give me that cube, now." said Charlie trying to remain calm.
Marcy saw he looked like he was trying to suppress his anger and immediately gave him the cube. Once he had it, he turned and tossed the cube across the room where it hit the wall and shattered into pieces with the pieces falling down on the floor in one of the corners of the room. Charlie gave her a cold look which made Marcy know that Charlie wasn't kidding around.
"You got three strikes on you, Marcy. And this is strike one. Before you go rushing off like some five year old on a sugar rush, I'm going to check and see if Anne, Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop are okay." said Charlie in a firm tone.
"Alright." said Marcy nodding.
Charlie stormed off towards Anne and the Plantars and helped them up on their feet.
"Everyone alright?" asked Charlie hopefully.
"A little shook up but we'll live." groaned Anne.
Marcy let out a squeal of excitement and couldn't contain herself any longer and she ran towards the staircase in excitement. Charlie yelled for her to wait up but she was too excited to stop.
"Wow, Anne, you and Charlie weren't kidding about her being in the zone." said Polly bewildered.
"Not to mention she's a tad overconfident." said Hop Pop.
"No joke." said Charlie sarcastically.
"Hard to argue with the results though." said Sprig also bewildered.
"And this is strike one for her. If she reaches strike three." Charlie warned.
"What happens at strike three?" asked Sprig.
Charlie shot a scary yet cold look that sent chills down everyone's spine as he popped his neck twice.
"At strike three. Oh, she's gon get it." warned Charlie.
Charlie was the first to walk towards the stairs while Anne and the Plantars followed. As they walked up the stairs. They wondered where Charlie got this three strikes system from. This was the first time they ever heard of him using some method like that. They did wonder what would happen if someone got their third strike but were a little afraid to ask since that cold look and his verbal response shown he was serious about what he said.