They reached the top of the stairs and saw Marcy was standing near an edge in the room but below it was a colored tile floor. Most of the colored tiles were blue, some were red but very few of them were green. They all were glowing.
"Oh, hey, a dance floor!" said Anne with a smile.
"Not quite. Watch." instructed Marcy.
Marcy had bent down to pick up a palm sized rock from nearby and she tossed it forwards. The rock bounced and rolled over towards a red tile in a bunch of clangs and once it stopped, that's when it stopped on the red tile and the tile lowered down in a mechanical rattle but to their unexpected horror was when they saw a big and tall flame bursting from beneath the tile. It was like seeing someone install a flamethrower trap on the red tile and it reached the ceiling. Everyone was wide eyed when they witnessed it and it eventually stopped seconds later.
"I think the Wu train has is about to go off the tracks." said Charlie wide eyed.
"Woah. Not getting good vibes from this room." said Sprig.
"Welp. Time to turn back. Thanks for playing, everyone!" said Polly looking hesitant.
"Hold on, gang. Look!" Hop Pop pointed out.
They saw more of the ancient text showing up but this time is was on the walls above them which was close to the ceiling. Marcy got out her book and flipped through a couple of pages as she started to write down some notes.
"A dangerous room. What to do? Don't be jealous of my hue." Marcy read out loud.
Everyone but Marcy shown a clueless reaction. Marcy had an idea as she picked up another rock and she tossed it forwards but this time, it landed on a blue tile and once the tile lowered is when they saw a large spiked hammer fall on the blue title is a loud metallic thud and it slowly raised up to the ceiling. They saw the rock that Marcy thrown had been smashed to pieces. Now they were really afraid of taking this challenge on.
"Okay, so pink is death by flame, blue is death by crushing. I'm still not following." Anne started.
They all saw Marcy run forwards and jumped off the ledge they stood from and both Anne and Charlie gasped wide eyed and screamed her name but that's when it was too late for them to do anything. Marcy jumped off the ledge and shot out an arrow that had her crossbow mounted on her wrist which the arrow had a rope attached to the arrow. The arrow struck through a protruding spot of the ceiling and Marcy swung across the to tiled floor and landed on the green tile. It shook for a bit before it too lowered down.
They waited for another trap to be triggered but no trap was activated. They all let out a sigh of relief. Anne and Charlie wiping their foreheads with the back of their hands.
"Ha! Solved it. Okay guys, listen up. Green is the safe color. Get it?" said Marcy.
Everyone but Charlie was stunned by her response which they didn't have any idea what she meant.
"I've heard of people say that green is the color of jealousy or envy in a metaphorically figure of speech. Kind of like when my mom told me about the the saying of the green eyed monster." said Charlie but he suddenly understood something. "Light bulb."
"Don't be jealous of my hue." It's a reference to green, the color of envy. And Charlie's spot on." explained Marcy.
They all suddenly understood as the green tiles were the safe tiles while the blue and red tiles were traps. Hop Pop stood there with his hands to his hips.
"I have a lot of green friends who would find that offensive." said Hop Pop slightly warning her.
"I didn't know it was offensive." Charlie blurted out.
They all looked at Charlie as he blushed and looked as though he was showing fear of someone getting mad at him for saying something veered as prejudice towards any green skinned amphibians.
"Charlie, you didn't know. No one can blame you for not knowing." reassured Hop Pop.
Charlie felt somewhat reassured as he tried not to look at Hop Pop as is nervous to face him.
"Marcy, the door is still closed like the day a parent talks to their teenage children about puberty." said Charlie changing the subject.
"Good point. Why hasn't the door opened then?" asked Polly.
Marcy looked around with her head turning and she looked towards her right and saw another green tile and that's when Charlie also spotted the second green tile. It was further on the left side of the room and closer to the side of the ledge that Anne, Charlie and the Plantars stood on.
"Hey Wu Wu train? Do you see anymore green tiles other than this second one?" asked Charlie.
"Nope, there's just two. Looks like this is a two-person job. Someone go stand on the other green square." instructed Marcy.
They all took a few steps to look where the next green tile was and they all looked hesitant to obey Marcy's instructions.
"Mar-Mar, are you...sure?" said Anne showing some doubts.
"Yeah, how do we know that one isn't some kind of trapdoor?" said Sprig feeling hesitant.
"With spikes in it!" chimed in Polly.
"Not helping, Polly." said Hop Pop in a hushed tone.
"If something goes wrong." warned Charlie.
"Guys, I've done the research. Plus, it's me, remember? I said I won't let you down and I meant it." reassured Marcy. "Now, who wants to hit that button?"
They all stood there in hesitant fear as they were afraid to even try to jump and press the second green tile. One wrong move and one of them would be flatter than a pancake.
"Oh to hell with this." said Charlie under his breath.
"I'll do it!" said Anne, Charlie and Hop Pop in unison.
The three looked at each other as if not expecting the other to volunteer.
"I should probably do it. I'm a little faster and a little more coordinated. I don't know if any of you two are still banged up from the last challenge." said Charlie. "Besides, you guys have done a lot for me."
"Charlie, I know you don't want us getting hurt but I'd rather be the one to do this because I don't want you getting hurt." said Anne worried.
"Anne, Charlie, no. I'll do it. The whole point of this is to get you home alive. I've already had a good life." said Hop Pop about to jump.
"Absolutely not. I'm not letting my girl and the only father figure in my life get hurt during this." said Charlie trying to convince them.
"No, Hop Pop. I'll step on the tile. This is my quest. It's my responsibility. Your responsibility is keeping your family safe, not us." said Anne arguing.
Sprig, Polly and Charlie could tell this argument was about to reopen old wounds. Charlie was breathing in and out to out of slight panic and tried to think of happy thoughts to calm himself which had little affect. Hop Pop turned to the two with a guilty expression.
"I care about both of you two, Anne and Charlie." replied Hop Pop.
"I mean, to an extent, right? You kinda proved that when you buried the music box." argued Anne.
Charlie felt like his panic was rising as seeing Anne and Hop Pop arguing and the fact that it looked like they were probably feeling pressure to forgive or to let the problem they all experienced be left reconciled. He wanted to stop them from arguing but he was afraid of whose side to take. He was breathing in and out to try and calm his mind and body.
"Now, hold on. That's unfair." said Hop Pop.
"Sprig, I'm scared of doing something about this." Charlie whispered.
"Listen, Hop Pop, when push came to shove, you made a choice. It's fine. But let's stop pretending me and Charlie are part of the family, okay?" Anne argued as she felt this got awkward.
Hearing this now had Charlie panicking more. He felt like two voices were in his head and one of them told him to defend Anne while the other told him to defend Hop Pop but he couldn't choose between two people he loves.
"Please don't make things worse." Charlie thought to himself.
Hop Pop shown an annoyed expression and his chin swelled up in a loud frog like croak. Marcy was still waiting as she was clueless about what was going on. She saw Anne and Hop Pop arguing and Charlie looking as though he was on the verge of having a stressed-induced panic attack.
"Uh...everything okay over there? Can someone please hit the button?" called Marcy.
Hop Pop turned to get ready to jump.
"Gladly. And a-one and a-two-ahhhh!" Hop Pop groaned.
"Anne wait!" cried Charlie.
Anne had pushed Hop Pop out of her way and jumped forwards to the green tile. Everyone was in panic and warned Anne but as Anne fell and landed on the green tile but she stumbled and to prevent herself from falling, she placed her hands out but accidentally pressed the pink tile that went down.
"Tawagoto!" cried Charlie.
The Plantars gasped and Anne pushed herself off the pink tile and avoided the flames from touching her while she screamed and fell backwards, pressing the blue tile that went under and she quickly crawled away from the blue tile which the chained spikes landed hard on the blue tile which missed her.
"Anne! Ugokanai de!" advised Charlie.
Anne suddenly sat on the green tile while her legs were up with her arms wrapped around her body and she held still. She was tense for a moment as the flames vanished and the chained spikes were pulled up to the ceiling. She uttered a nervous chuckle and gasped when the green tile went down and to everyone's relief. Every tile started to turn into a green light. Every tile was green now while making ringing sounds like a pinball machine. Two torches from the next door lit up and the door to the next room risen up and Marcy got up on her feet.
"Whoo! What did I tell ya? This temple is toast! Consider the stone charged, baby!" cheered Marcy.
"Marcy!" cried Charlie.
Marcy turned to see Charlie who was giving her a cold look. Her excitement was extinguished when she knew that Charlie didn't like how this was putting everyone in possible danger. He jumped forwards and landed on the tile floor as Sprig and Polly followed. Charlie even caught Hop Pop when he jumped down and he helped Anne to her feet. Charlie was trying his best not to get mad at Marcy but seeing that they were almost put in mortal peril was making it hard for him.
"Strike two?" guessed Marcy nervously.
Charlie moved his head to the left which he was pointing at Anne, Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop with a sternly tense expression.
"I'll take that as a yes." guessed Marcy.
"Everyone alright?" called Charlie.
Everyone gave him a thumbs up while Hop Pop hesitantly did so. Charlie sighed and went stoic in the face.
"Okay, lets move on." said Charlie in a deep and low tone. "Marcy, just don't."
Before he could finish his sentence. Marcy already took off through the newly opened door and Charlie groaned.
"Take off running." Charlie finished.
"Dang, girl." said Polly thrilled.
"I think I lost an eyebrow." said Anne excitedly.
"Cool!" said Polly thrilled.
"I'm surprised I didn't wet my pants." said Charlie cooling down.
"I think I did." joked Sprig.
As the kids rushed off after Marcy. Hop Pop followed with an annoyed expression and crossing his arms. They ran down a hallway but stopped at the bottom of another staircase. Marcy gasped in excitement.
"This leads to the top floor. That means there's only one puzzle left. Come on, team!" said Marcy excited.
"Marcy, don't." Charlie stopped.
Marcy ran up the stairs before Charlie could finish his sentence. He groaned in annoyance.
"Run off." Charlie finished. "Marcy is like a little kid in a museum right now. Oh look, there's a skeleton of a T-Rex, momma, can I touch it's boney big leg? Nope, nope, nope!"
They followed Marcy up the stairs while Anne and Hop Pop were again arguing which Charlie felt his anger be replaced by nervousness.
"Anne, I told you I was gonna step on that tile." said Hop Pop annoyed.
"And I told you I didn't want you to." Anne argued.
"Hey, we kinda need to be a team in here so we don't die, so..." Sprig attempted to break up the argument to no avail.
"I don't understand, Anne. I thought you forgave me." argued Hop Pop.
"Yeah? Well, maybe I spoke too soon." said Anne looking a bit more annoyed.
"What do we do, Marcy? This is fun to watch and all, but it could make the last puzzle pretty rough. Also, Anne and Hop Pop's arguing is kind of upsetting Charlie." Polly said looking worried.
"I'm sure they'll work it out by the time we get there." Marcy brushed off while her face was buried in a book.
As Sprig and Polly sensed this was a bad idea. They knew that with Anne and Hop Pop arguing and Charlie being close to a near-breaking point of their arguing while looking like he was stressing and trying not to breakdown, breathing in and out to try and calm himself. They didn't like how this was going.
One Hour Later
Anne and Hop Pop were still arguing but it was starting to get a little aggressive. Anne was being stubborn with a her arms crossed in discontent. Hop Pop was reaching the point where he's beyond annoyed. Charlie was trying to ignore their arguing as he really didn't want to choose whose side he was on. His girl friend or the closest person to a father figure he's got. He was breathing in and out of another brown paper bag to help with the mounting stress.
"So there's nothing I can do to fix this? Not one thing?" asked Hop Pop reaching his breaking point.
"Nothing's coming to mind!" Anne said loudly.
"Don't make me choose. Don't make me choose. Don't make me choose." Charlie thought to himself as he too was reaching his breaking point.
Sprig was half way through making a comment about the long hallway they walked through till he bumped into Marcy when she stopped. Marcy saw a plaque above the next entrance they approached while Charlie stood next to Marcy and she noticed that he was breathing in and out of a paper bag.
"Charlie?" said Marcy.
"Kami no ainotameni. I can't do it, Marcy." said Charlie shaking.
Marcy was about to ask what it was that's got him so stressed out and on the breaking point till she looked back and saw that Anne and Hop Pop were both still arguing continuously. Marcy was about to say something but Charlie suddenly had enough and growled.
"Everyone shut the hell up!" shouted Charlie. "If I hear one more argument, rude remarks, or any amount of rudeness from anyone in here, I'll!"
Everyone fell silent. Anne and Hop Pop's arguing ceased. Everyone was wide eyed from Charlie shouting which the irate expression on his face left everyone a little afraid of his sudden outburst. He had paused and suddenly changed his expression to shock and let out a breath.
"I'm going to shut up now." said Charlie bewildered.
Marcy cleared her throat and saw the text glow the same green color as she began to translate the text to everyone.
"Few have the brains to make it to this door, but are you wise enough to solve what's in store?" Yep! Let's go." said Marcy walking off.
They all followed Marcy as both Anne and Hop Pop were visibly annoyed with each other right now. They entered another room that wasn't very well lit up but there was a gold light shining on a table nearby that had what looked like a chess board and chess pieces on one of the board's sides. Marcy let out a gasp of excitement from the sight of it.
"I don't believe it! It's flipwart!" said Marcy in excitement.
"What's flipwart?" asked Anne curiously.
"It's a strategy game. It's like chess but to the max." answered Charlie.
Marcy turned her head to Charlie in surprise. Charlie blushed a little when everyone was looking right at him.
"How did you?" asked Anne.
"Captain Grime mentioned it a little when I was in his custody. I never played the game before but I've heard of it." explained Charlie.
"I learned to play in Newtopia. I got so good at it, I even beat King Andrias." said Marcy looking confident.
"Why doesn't that sound comforting." Charlie told himself.
"Impressive. They say King Andrias is one of the best flipwart players around." said Hop Pop looking amazed.
Marcy pulled on a knob that turned out to be a drawer filled with the flipwart pieces. She would start getting them out and started to set them on the board while she excitedly explained a little bit about the board game.
"So, both sides have a wart, right? And they're trying to flip it! Each piece has a different set of abilities. These archers, for example, can only attack in a straight line. Oh, I love this game!" Marcy explained with a grin.
"Careful Wu Wu train. You may be on a roll there but try to keep yourself from falling off the tracks. I may have only been told about the game before but judging from how tough the previous challenges were. I'm pretty sure this game is probably going to be a lot rougher. Since you're the only one whose played or had any experience. I'm kind of afraid to go forwards with this." said Charlie showing visible fright.
Marcy looked at Charlie who was standing near her. She could see the worry in his eyes and she knew that even though she's more brains on many things and doesn't always express emotions that show more heart. She could see that Charlie was afraid to move forwards. She reached out to place her hand on his chest around the location of his heart. This caused Charlie to blush and feel his heart race a little since he didn't expect Marcy to show some compassion.
"Charlie, it's alright. I know how this game works so at least we're not flying blind. Everything is gonna be fine. Sure, the first two challenges were about as rough as mechanical bull riding at full force but I can assure you that everything is gonna be fine." Marcy reassured. "Also, if I get my third strike, promise you won't be too sore?"
Charlie let out a loud hiccup and shook a little in the body. But they were interrupted by Hop Pop when he found a glowing text in the room on one of the walls.
"Hey, Marcy, what does this say?" called Hop Pop.
They all turned to see the ancient text that Hop Pop pointed out while Charlie was hoping that there was some good news in the ancient language.
"Any commander whose wart falls may never set foot inside these temple walls." Looks like you only get one shot at this." said Marcy looking grim than smiled as she cracked her knuckles. "One shot is all I need. But first, to set up the board..."
"If something goes wrong." warned Charlie.
"I'll make sure nothing goes wrong." reassured Marcy.
Charlie wanted to trust Marcy's words but felt as though his heart was too afraid to since the last two challenges were so rough.
"Well, I guess we'll just sit back quietly and watch." said Sprig visibly nervous.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to sit this one out cause these flippas be tired." said Polly raising her hands and arms.
Marcy placed a knight piece on the board and a green light shined around where Polly stood.
"Watch out!" cried Charlie.
Where Polly stood suddenly had the floor piece disappear and she fell through with a loud scream. Anne and the Plantars screamed her name once the floor piece reappeared. A light turned on and they turned to see a giant flipwart board in front of them. The opposing side had black pieces but the side they were on had one white piece.
That's when they saw one of the squares on the board have the piece that Marcy placed on the smaller board and it was Polly who took the form of the knight.
"Polly, are you okay?" asked Sprig panicking.
"Okay? I've got a sword, baby! I'm doing better than all of you." said Polly looking thrilled as she clanked the sword on the shield.
"Marcy, do you think we should stop? This could get dangerous." said Anne wide eyed.
"I'm with Anne." chimed in Charlie.
"We don't have a choice, guys. You wanna get home, right? Then we've gotta play or we'll never recharge the stone." said Marcy looking slightly pressured.
"She has a point." chimed in Hop Pop.
"I didn't ask you, Hop Pop." snapped Anne.
"Could you two stop arguing for five minutes." groaned Charlie.
"Trust me, okay?" asked Marcy.
Charlie let out a growl like a lion.
"I don't trust this temple. And Marcy, I don't want my family or my girl getting hurt." said Charlie crossing his arms.
"Charlie, I know you don't want anyone getting hurt. But even this is bound to have some risks. Trust me on this." Marcy told Charlie.
Charlie saw the look on Marcy's face that looked like she was trying her best to reassure him. Even if he wasn't feeling reassured at all. He knew this was the only way to get both Anne, Marcy, Sasha and himself home. He sighed and gave Marcy a warning look.
"If they get one scratch on them anywhere." warned Charlie.
"What happens when it's strike three?" asked Marcy looking visibly afraid.
Charlie cracked his knuckles loudly.
"I'll let you find out." said Charlie sternly.
"Okay. I hope you know what you're doing." said Anne.
Marcy placed two more pieces on the board. One being a pawn and another probably the knight piece. That's when Hop Pop and Sprig were both transferred to the board like Polly were while screaming as they went there. They reappeared on the board. Hop Pop was close to Polly while Sprig was close to Hop Pop.
"Ooh, I get a scepter." said Hop Pop.
"You're a pawn." chuckled Polly.
"Aw, man." said Sprig sadly.
"Get ready, guys. There's a good chance one of you is next." warned Marcy.
"Hold." Charlie halted her.
Charlie came over to Anne and pulled her in a kiss as the two kissed each other on the lips as if for good luck. They pulled their lips off afterwards.
"Hopefully, it'll be me whose next." said Charlie.
Marcy started to place the rest of the pieces on the board and the pieces shown up on the giant board which filled up the rest of the spots on the board for them all to be on there. Anne opened her eyes and saw that it looked like there were no other pieces left to place on the board.
"Oh, looks like we're not in the game. Well, you guys have fun, I guess." said Anne slightly relieved.
Without warning, the green light formed underneath Anne and she fell through a hole screaming but she reappeared on the board. The only problem was that the game seemed to have a mind of it's own when Anne appeared to be on the opposing side of the board as a knight but instead of being on a horse, she was on a dove like bird. Everyone was in shock.
"Oh come on! This temple has got to be fucking kidding me." said Charlie sharply.
"Wait, what?" said Hop Pop shocked.
"Anne, no!" said Sprig wide eyed.
"Traitor!" cried Polly.
"Polly, my girl probably didn't know. I don't believe this." said a frustrated Charlie.
"No, this is good. I'll just play badly and sabotage the other team. Didn't think of that, did ya, temple?" said Anne with a mischievous grin.
Anne was about to swing her weapon but upon raising it up into the air was when glowing green circles formed around her wrists like wristbands. Anne couldn't move her body and much to their bad luck, same thing happened with Sprig, Hop Pop and Polly as the green circles formed around their wrists. Polly on the other hand couldn't control the arms of the flipwart piece she was.
"Marcy, what is going on?" asked Charlie.
"Well, the game of flipwart when I played against King Andrias didn't involve playing it like this. No one was used as a piece, it was just two people moving the pieces around and the game was like that. But it looks like at this temple, it has the ability to substitute one of us when the opposing side is missing one piece but it's probably binding them so they don't go rogue " explained Marcy.
"So this game can do that, huh? It should've been me out there. Not my girl or my family." said Charlie annoyed.
"Don't worry, everyone. I'll just play well enough so that none of you gets hurt. It'll be like hard mode! Fun!" said Marcy looking excited.
"You wouldn't be saying that if you were the pawn." said Sprig under his breath.
Marcy picked up one of the pieces and one of the pawns next to Sprig moved four spaces ahead. They waited for a response and one of the black pieces that looked like a toad nick with a flail moved forwards but it jumped vertically ahead twice. Once next to the pawn, it raised it's weapon and swung at the pawn with a heavy blow, shattering it to pieces with the head part rolling and stopping near Sprig's feet.
"I don't like this game!" said Sprig horrified.
"Marcy, tell me you have an idea." Charlie hoped.
"Well, strategy games are not like video games or checkers. Such a basic response. This is gonna be easy." said Marcy looking confident.
She moved another piece that looked like a tall rook. It had a green light starting to glow from it's mouth and out blasted a green laser at the night piece which destroyed it to pieces.
"Marcy, if I puke from fear. Try not to get any of it on you. I had ten chocopede pancakes this morning." warned Charlie with a gulp.
"Just think of happy thoughts or think of how many kisses Anne is going to give your face when we win." Marcy advised.
As the game continued and Marcy moved more pieces along with the opposing pieces moving. She moved one piece that had Polly destroy a pawn with one swing of the sword her piece wielded. She moved Sprig to another space which avoided him getting blasted by a rooks laser. Anne's piece moved and she destroyed a knight piece that none of the Plantars occupied.
More pieces moved around and destroyed the opposing pieces. Polly avoided getting hit with a laser. Hop Pop tapped his scepter on another knight piece but he didn't hit it hard yet the knight piece he tapped got demolished completely like a statue that was nothing but rubble.
More pieces got attacked and destroyed but as time went on. Marcy wiped the sweat off her forehead. Anne and the Plantars appeared to have been growing exhausted since the game of flipwart has proven to be quite physically enduring like they were working out at a gym for seven hours with no rest.
"Marcy, I can't take much more of this. Seeing this is killing me inside." said Charlie feeling powerless.
"It looks like it won't be much longer. We look like we're winning. Gotta admit, this temple's good, but not good enough." said Marcy moving one of the rook pieces forwards.
As the rook moved forwards and was about to attack the opposing side's king. It blasted a laser at the king piece. All looked like it was going to be over but the frog on top of the king piece jumped out of the way from the laser and landed back down on it's piece after it stopped. The frog on top of it grinned with a chuckle flung it's tongue out to tease. Than it turned around to slap it's own butt to taunt. Charlie now felt like he was so irate right now that he tried to hold back since he knew he wasn't part of the game and jumping onto the board would prove disastrous. Marcy was appalled by this.
"Huh? What? No! Guys, this thing cheats!" cried Marcy.
Everyone gasped while Charlie looked at Marcy with an angry face.
"Great! This thing can cheat? That's it, Marceline Wu! This is strike three and when this is over, if we're all lucky to get out in one piece. You're bout to get it, young lady!" said Charlie nearly yelling.
"Oh no!" uttered Marcy.
The bands on Anne's wrists lit up and her piece moved forwards to where Hop Pop stood.
"Hop Pop, look out!" shouted Anne.
Anne couldn't control her body movements and when she was forced to raise her weapon up. Hop Pop screamed and used his scepter to shield himself, only for Anne's weapon to slice through the scepter, missing him. But unfortunately, Anne was forced to attack Hop Pop with her weapon, even if she tried to stop herself, the game forcefully controlled her movements and her weapon struck Hop Pop three times but it didn't cut him, it only hit him like he was being beat up with a baseball bat. This caused his cheeks to swell up.
"Man, what a day." groaned Hop Pop.
"Hop Pop! Marcy, do something!" cried Sprig.
Marcy wasn't listening as she was too in the zone while Charlie even tried to get her attention but she still ignored everyone around her.
"Alright, so what if it cheats? Still not enough to beat me." said Marcy annoyed.
Marcy tried moving Hop Pop away from the piece Anne was part of but it kept following him around on the board like Anne was forced to chase him around like an aggressive game of tag that involved weapons and not using their hands to tap someone.
"I still have way more pieces. If I can just attack from a different angle, I should be fine." said Marcy with a nervous chuckle.
"Marcy, this isn't worth it! We might as well forfeit." Charlie begged.
"I know I can beat this but I don't know if this will let anyone forfeit." argued Marcy nervously.
Charlie was appalled by this as he felt like he wanted to pull Marcy aside and slap her but he couldn't bear to do that. He tried to fight the urge to though. He found it hard to watch what was unfolding in front of him. Hop Pop screamed as he got hit on the head by Anne's weapon, causing him to shake his head once the weapon pulled away from him.
"Oh, I bet you're loving this, ain't ya?" said Hop Pop sarcastically.
"What? No! I might be mad at you, but I don't wanna hurt you!" said Anne struggling not to move.
"Well, you're already hurtin' me. Every time you remind me of the mistakes I made, every time you rub it in my face that I let you and Charlie down. Charlie's afraid of me again, he's too afraid to side with ether of us because he doesn't want to hurt us, he's stressing about it and yet I know he probably wants to unload. I mean, what's it gonna take for you two to let this go?" ranted Hop Pop.
Charlie started to feel tears welling up in his eyes as he now knew that Hop Pop was aware of why he struggled not to choose sides and how he didn't want to hurt any of them if he did choose a side since he couldn't bear to choose.
"Hop Pop, I... I..." Anne stuttered.
"Just tell me and I'll do it. Anything!" cried Hop Pop.
"Don't make me choose between you two! I can't hurt my girl or my OtÅsan!" cried Charlie.
Anne looked at Hop Pop and struggled to think of what Hop Pop could do for her to forgive him while she saw Charlie in tears because he didn't want to choose sides in fear of hurting the other's feelings. She had tears starting to leak out of her eyes too.
"I don't know!" cried Anne loudly that it sent an echo.
Marcy was about to move another piece but stopped. She looked up and saw that Charlie was in tears, in emotional distress. She saw that he needed Anne to comfort him or even Hop Pop to console him. She looked at Anne and saw what she was doing had put everyone around her in danger.
"I just need time. Look, I want things to go back to the way they were. But-but-" Anne said as her eyes shown more tears leaking out of her eyes.
Hop Pop could see that both Anne and Charlie were in emotional pain.
"I'm sorry, Anne. And I'm sorry Charlie. You two take all the time you need. Maybe it's enough to admit we still got issues, instead of pretending they don't exist." Hop Pop told her apologetically. "And Charlie, I know you don't want to choose sides because you're afraid of hurting one of us. I get it. But truth is, you don't have to choose sides. We won't force ya. It's gonna be alright. If we have issues, we can work them out, but I understand you two need time. I'm not gonna force ya and neither will Anne."
"Charlie, Hop Pop's right! We don't want you to be forced to choose sides because we know you don't want to hurt any of us. I get it. We understand why you didn't want to get involved when we were too busy arguing and fighting. That put pressure on you and that wasn't fair of us to put that on. I'm still your soul sister and you're still my soul brother. No one will make you suffer a punishment if you chose a side or if you chose no sides at all. We still love you, even if you prefer not to choose sides. We understand you don't want to us anyone you love." said Anne reassuring Charlie.
Charlie looked at Anne through his tears. What he heard Anne and Hop Pop tell each other and what they told him felt like a big relief. The emotional distress he was under had vanished as he saw that they were not mad at each other anymore but Hop Pop understands Anne needs time to herself and that they both understood they put Charlie under pressure and knew that he too needed time or the very least to know that they all can really reconcile and not force Charlie to choose sides.
"Hop Pop, what you suggested, I think that'd be good. I'd hug you except, you know, magical restraints." said Anne. "That, and I think if Charlie ran towards us on the board, this temple might retaliate."
Marcy was seeing the emotional distress everyone around her was in. Seeing Sprig sobbing as he got emotional over one of the destroyed pawns as he felt like he could relate to the piece. Polly was screaming as if trying to scare off one of the opposing pieces and she saw Charlie was in tears and needed Anne or Hop Pop to console him immediately. She saw they all needed consoling but the situation they're in is preventing them from doing that.
"What am I doing?" said Marcy coming to her senses.
Anne had her magical restraints force her to get ready to swing her weapon up to attack Hop Pop once more. Hop Pop screamed in terror and that's when Marcy knew what she had to do.
"Marcy! Do something right now!" cried Charlie.
"No! Hop Pop, Anne! Who cares about this stupid game? I forfeit!" cried Marcy.
Marcy knocked her own king piece in hopes to save Anne and the Plantars or at least to prevent them from being forced to hurt one another or to prevent any of them from getting hurt for that matter. But she saw that wasn't working as Anne was struggling to prevent herself from hurting Hop Pop.
"It's not working! Maybe I have to flip the big wart too. Charlie, we're going in!" cried Marcy.
Marcy took hold of Charlie's hand and rushed the two of them forwards while Charlie was afraid to do this but he knew that Marcy had an idea to save Anne and the Plantars. The two jumped forwards and landed on the board. But when they landed on the board was when a siren was going off along with a red light flashing in the room.
They saw that their own king piece turned to face them with a hostile expression while the rook pieces slid over to protect it and both of them started to fire red lasers at Charlie and Marcy, they dodged the lasers and Charlie quickly picked up Marcy as they ran over to Sprig's side to hide. Sprig used his shield to deflect and block one of the lasers.
"What the heck's going on?" cried Sprig in a panic.
"I'm trying to throw this game, but it won't let me! I need your help." said Marcy.
"Help you? How?" asked Sprig.
"Enough of this shit!" shouted Charlie.
Before anyone could do anything at all. Charlie got up and ran towards the king piece but Marcy saw him running faster than he should ever run while his hair and eyes turned gold. He let out a battlecry so loud that he let out a loud, lion like roar and jumped up into the air.
"Game over, motherfucker!" shouted Charlie.
Charlie had given the stone frog on the chess piece a hard punch which sent the white frog piece flying across the board. It landed near the small staircase that was shown at the front of the board. It was stuck on the floor like a turtle on it's back while making pig like squeals, than it exploded into pieces, completely destroyed.
"Temple! You better let us go because we forfeit! If you don't, I'm going to blow this temple sky high to kingdom come and I'll take you with me!" Charlie threatened.
They all heard the temple make a loud gulping sound as if the temple was afraid of suffering Charlie's punishment. That's when all the flipwart pieces dissolved and were turning into sand which vanished into the floor. Anne and the Plantars were free from the restraints and the pieces they had on them dissolved as well while Anne fell to the floor.
Marcy sat down on the floor with her hands covering her eyes and her legs were up. She was remorseful at what she had done to everyone during the entire trip through the temple. They all took a minute to catch their breath and they looked at Marcy as they rushed to her side. Anne placed a hand on her back to console her.
"Marcy, I don't understand." said Anne confused.
"Yeah, why'd you throw the game?" asked Hop Pop curiously.
"I know why." said Charlie.
"Because it wasn't worth you guys getting hurt. I got so caught up in proving I was smart enough to win, I couldn't see what I was about to lose." answered Marcy. "That, and it looks like I'm on strike three with Charlie."
Charlie let out a growl like a lion as a response with anger.
"Well, in your defense, that game was a ding dang cheat!" said Sprig annoyed by the game.
"No joke." said Charlie under his breath.
"Yeah! I still think you're pretty smart. A little obsessive, though." said Polly reassuring her.
"Thanks, Sprig, Polly." said Marcy feeling better.
They all were interrupted by a green light. They saw a green arrow pointing to the exit but than more and more green arrows kept appearing to point where the exit was. Even going up the stars and pointing at the exit itself. There was a green message that appeared in English this time that read "Don't let the girl's boyfriend hurt me. He scares me" while Charlie saw that the temple was referring to him and Anne. Marcy got up with an annoyed expression as everyone else got up on their feet.
"I got it, temple. I wasn't smart enough to win, but I can find the exit, okay?" said an annoyed Marcy.
As they walked forwards. That was when they stopped as they saw Hop Pop had knelt down in pain, he felt like he couldn't walk on his own since one of his ankles or legs was feeling an aching pain from the rough challenges they all endured. Anne knelt down to offer him a lift on her back.
"Need a ride, old-timer?" asked Anne kindly.
"I'm not that old. But, yes, thank you." said Hop Pop becoming submissive.
He hopped up on Anne's back and hung onto her while she carried him off on her back. They all walked out of the temple after being shown a series of glowing green arrows that shown them the way. There were a couple of times when the temple shown a red arrow with the message reading "Wrong Way" and when they went the right way was when they saw a glowing green fist giving them the thumbs up.
They finally reached the exit and walked down the stairs. They were finally outside the temple and it was dark outside. They stopped at the foot of the staircase while Charlie's hair and eyes changed back to their normal color and Charlie stopped five feet in front of them while he let out a loud, realistic roar of a lion this time as they all saw that he was letting out any bit of rage he had pent up inside him.
"Do you think he's still mad at me?" asked Marcy nervously.
Charlie turned around to face them and he shot Marcy a look of anger as he popped his neck twice. They were wide eyed at the sight of his expression.
"I think your about to get it, Marcy." said Anne nervously.
"Oh, you're about to get it, alright! Marceline Wu!" said Charlie sharply.
Charlie began to pace back and forth as he would start to rant about what went on during the entire events of the temple which he had this directed at Marcy was afraid to speak a little bit.
"I've warned you multiple times, you ignored my warnings, you zoned out on the challenges to prove you're smarter than a stone building death trap that has a mind of it's own, you disregard our well-being, you put us in danger because your stubborn pride had gotten the better of you, you had no prior knowledge that the temple could cheat and use my girl as a spare piece of the opposing side while you didn't know that it would use Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop as spare pieces on the side we were on. You almost got us killed, three times, you ignored us during the challenges when we were in distress, you ran off when I told you not to. One of us nearly shits our pants from fear in the situation." Charlie ranted. "You know what's next, young lady!"
"I'm bout to get it." guessed Marcy with a gulp.
Charlie walked up to them and his irate expression slowly turned to a grim like remorseful face. He let out a sigh and shook his head.
"I can't do it." Charlie uttered his voice now calm. "One, I can't think of a punishment for you, Marcy. I'm not your dad. Also, I really didn't want to choose sides between Anne and Hop Pop. I really didn't want to be forced to choose between my girl or Hop Pop. Guys, please don't make me choose between you. I can't do that and risk hurting the only father figure I've got when my real dad wasn't there for me or my girl friend whose been a better girl friend to me than my first. I just can't do that."
They all could see that Charlie went from ranting while being angry to grim while hesitantly remorseful. They all could understand that even though he was angry to the point of an angry outburst when Anne and Hop Pop were arguing and from Marcy tuning everything out and her pride got in the way. They saw he really wanted to unload on them or just unload his emotions to let them out but knew he didn't want to do that to them.
"Charlie, we're sorry. Even though me and Hop Pop still got some issues since Hop Pop made a mistake out of fear for the safety of Sprig and Polly, and for the safety of you and me. I know he didn't want us being put in danger and hidden the box and lied because he was afraid that the box would lead us all in mortal peril since he felt guilty about a couple of losses in the family, which I can understand that losing members of a family to a passing will leave a scar or two on anyone and the pain of that hurts more than being given a booster shot, especially when the needle stings. But we understand that you didn't want to choose sides because you didn't want to risk hurting anyone. We shouldn't have put that pressure on you." Anne explained. "Which I know Hop Pop never meant to hurt anyone when he did what he did out of panic. He wanted us all safe."
"I'm sorry too. I know that there's also same issues between you and me as well, Charlie. I put that same pressure on you and that wasn't right. I do understand you didn't want to hurt any of us if you chose a side or chose neither side. Which I actually believe that's sweet of you to do. Trying not to hurt the one true love or this old frog. Despite the pressure we put on you, we saw you handled it with your best, even if you did have an outburst which you probably needed to unload some of that pressure. Our arguing was probably getting annoying. I know it wasn't easy for you to be the mature one but also if you have any issues with me about what happened before, I'd understand you need time like Anne but don't bottle it up. You need to let it out. But we apologize for putting the said pressure on you." Hop Pop apologized.
Hearing this, even for a second time. This had Charlie feeling as though a big amount of weight has been lifted off his back. He let out a sigh of relief.
"Also, I'm sorry for everything I put you guys through. Everything Charlie told me when I got reprimanded. I'm sorry for putting you all in danger when my pride got the better of me. everything Charlie said that I did or said, I'm guilty of it all and I'm sorry. But if something like this happens again and I'm the guilty one, than you guys have my permission to stop me. But if you have to stop me, try not to do it so hard. I'll admit, I was a little afraid when Charlie told me on my third strike that I was gonna get it." Marcy apologized as well.
"It's alright Marcy." said Anne forgiving her.
They all responded and let Marcy know she's been forgiven which she felt a lot better for it.
"Charlie, where did you get this three strikes system?" asked Marcy curiously.
Charlie was silent for a moment and his face became stoic. They knew that with his face becoming stoic more often. He was ether serious about something, mad about something or about to tell them something that is going to be scary.
"The ladies of the house. They sometimes chaperoned at a few events that me and a class I was in would be at. When ever there was one or more kids being too rowdy or if they kept doing something they shouldn't. The first strike was a heads up, strike two was a final warning, strike three was when they're about to get it and one of them would often say that if they get their third strike, they're gonna get it. On strike three, they ether had them sit out for a few minutes, made them clean up a big mess or they called their parents. Everytime they were close to their third strike." Charlie revealed.
Charlie shown them an example when he mimicked a Hispanic woman's voice and he sure knew how to mimic that voice perfectly.
"Boy, if you get your third strike! You gon get it! No estoy bromeando contigo!" Charlie mimicked the voice of a Hispanic woman.
They were wide eyed at how perfect he mimicked a Hispanic woman's voice along with the mannerisms.
"Wow!" said Marcy.
"You know Spanish?" asked Anne.
"Nope, I only know a few words in Spanish but not enough to be fluent. But out every lady of the house. The ones that you don't want to anger when someone was messing with me big time is my mom, or Kagura, Sonya or Imani. Especially Kagura. Last time someone gave me a hard time was a teacher who crossed the line and Kagura was like a hand grenade and went off on him. Long story short, this teacher got multiple complaints from other kids parents and he was given the boot. Kagura was the one to make it the final straw with him." Charlie revealed.
"Yikes! When they're in mama bear mode. There's no stopping them." Hop Pop commented.
Charlie nodded and everyone knew that everytime he talked about his mom, his aunt or the other women of the house. They knew there was quite a lot of interesting stories. To Anne, it was like sharing past experiences. They all lowered their heads and sighed.
"Guess we won't be charging the stone today, huh?" said Anne.
"No. And since I lost, I'm not allowed back in the temple. You guys will have to try it all again without me." said Marcy sadly.
"It's alright Marcy. Besides, cheaters are often not as smart as they claim to be. You didn't cheat but the temple did. Also, sorry I terrified you a few times when I got hostile." Charlie apologized.
"We'll manage, dude. Somehow." said Anne patting her on the back.
"Hey, guys. The failure arrow wants us to keep going this way." Polly pointed out.
They looked where Polly was pointing and they saw the green arrows pointing to a direction for them to follow. They thought the arrows were going to stop and only point to where the exit was or which path is the right one to take to find the exit. But they saw more arrows pointing in a direction that was outside of the temple. Marcy was still saddened about losing because she felt like the temple was smarter than her while she also felt saddened about putting her friends in danger or emotional distress.
"I'll go forwards first. You guys follow me in case we run into anything dangerous." Charlie advised.
Charlie got out his sword as they followed the arrows. Charlie took the lead while he remained vigilant. They figured that Charlie should lead since he was probably faster than them and probably better in battle than they are. They followed the arrows and stopped when they looked up and saw the outhouse.
"If the temple thinks we need to use the toilet. We all kind of went before we came here." said Anne.
Charlie walked over to the outhouse and opened the door while everyone followed. They saw the inside of the outhouse was lit up with green inscriptions all over the inside and the spot on the floor that they thought was a toilet had a glowing green frog carving above it.
"No. It can't be. Guys, this is where we charge the stone!" said Marcy surprised.
"But we failed!" said Hop Pop in disbelief.
They walked inside and this time it was Marcy who led the way. Marcy got on her knees and dusted off the stone platform as if trying to see if there was anymore ancient text being hidden from any dirt.
"Uh, I wouldn't recommend touching that." advised Hop Pop.
The room shook a little which left everyone a little terrified but nothing bad happened to them. They saw a pedestal rise from the circular hole in the center as it made loud, metallic clanging and it went up by about over three feet. Than a above it on the wall had an ancient text glowing in green. Marcy read and translated the texts out loud.
"Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it's more important to win, or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and, honestly, doesn't that make you a winner in the end?" Marcy translated.
"That last bit was oddly casual!" Anne chimed in.
"I kind of feel bad for threatening the temple now. Also, when you guys weren't looking. I gave the temple the finger." Charlie confessed.
"Of course! Why didn't I think of it sooner? The temple wasn't just testing for intelligence. It was also testing for humility!" said Marcy looking like she had an epiphany.
"Well don't give the temple a chance to change it's mind. Charge that bad boy!" said Polly.
Marcy pulled out the gem stone from her bag and placed it on top of the pedestal where there was a gem sized hole. Marcy got up and they saw a green light shine brightly on the gem and loud wind like blows were heard as it was being charged. Marcy's eyes glowed green but the green light in her eyes faded away quickly. The light on the gem got so bright that everyone closed their eyes so it wouldn't blind them. Charlie got out his sunglasses to put on and shield his eyes.
It took a few seconds for the light to fade away completely and the gem that was once grey was now green. Anne, Marcy and Charlie's hair was blown around like wind blew it up to point up.
"We did it?" said Anne.
"Hell yeah we did." said Charlie.
"We did it!" cried Marcy in triumph.
They cheered in victory but the only thing that stopped them was the green gem had glowed brighter and it shot a green light upwards briefly but than a laser from the gem was pointing in a long distance away from the room they were in. Marcy reached out to pick up the gem and she moved it up and down a bit as it made some electronic buzzing sounds as they all looked in the direction where the laser was pointing in. It pointed somewhere in the forest.
"Guys, it's leading us to the next temple!" said Marcy excitedly.
"Thank the lord. Also, hope the temple can forgive me for threatening it." said Charlie hopefully.
They saw where the text was shown on the wall and it shown in English that it read "It's alright, honey. Also, I'm a girl" which this left them surprised. Charlie blushed and took his sunglasses off to put them away.
"I should be able to triangulate its location with a bit of work." said Marcy with an inhale as she placed the gem in her bag. "Whoo! This just keeps getting better!"
"Slow the Wu train down, Marcy. You'll work yourself into a coma. You don't want to be in a coma. Believe me." Charlie warned.
Marcy obeyed as she seemed to be calming herself. They all walked out of the outhouse that was the charging station but Anne groaned in pain when she felt something press on her foot and they both looked down and saw that Hop Pop accidentally stepped on her foot. He immediately removed his foot from her foot.
"Oh, Anne, uh, whoops, I, uh-" Hop Pop started with a guilty look.
"Hop Pop, it's totally fine. It hurt, but I know you didn't mean to, and I want you to know that I'm really not mad about it." said Anne showing she understood.
"Well, thank you, Anne. And I want you to know that I will make an effort to be more careful about where I walk because-" Hop Pop started.
"Hey, uh, can we leave now?" asked Sprig.
"Yeah, this is uncomfortable to watch." said Polly.
"We're working on it!" said Anne and Hop Pop in unison.
"Hey, you guys wanna go straight to the next temple tonight, or take a break first?" asked Marcy.
"Marceline Wu." said Charlie.
"Taking a break it is." said Marcy.
Charlie helped everyone up to the saddle on top of Joe's back and they flew off into the night. Anne had pulled Charlie in her arms and kissed him on his cheeks and it made him smile and blush deeply.
"No offense but look at our hair guys. We look like our hair and a hair blow dryer got in a fight and the hair dryer won." joked Charlie.
They all laughed about Charlie's joke since their hair did look like the wind blew their hair so hard that it stuck that way for a bit.
Meanwhile in Newtopia
Somewhere in the throne room of the Newtopian castle. General Yunan was summoned in the throne room and she bowed to King Andrias.
"The political situation is worsening, Your Highness. What started as a small valley riot is quickly becoming something more. Not only that, the toad lords have agreed to meet. This could spell disaster." Yunan spoke. "Not to mention there's a hu- I mean there's a possibility that there's something else to worry about other than what I've told you. I tried to deal with it but there was some complications."
"How disappointing." said King Andrias looking unfazed.
"And the traitor, Grime, is still at large, what remained of his army has, well, some of them are possibly guilty of attempted sexual assault on the third possible problem at hand, and Grime is currently being aided by a-aah!" paused Yunan.
A yellow and black wasp flew by Yunan and went to King Andrias to drop a letter in his hand. He pulled his glasses out as if to read the letter. He opened it and read it.
"Why, it's a message from Marcy. Looks like they're making progress." said King Andrias looking excited. "That's enough for now, Yunan. I'll handle the rest."
King Andrias got up from his throne and General Yunan turned to the huge male salamander.
"Your Highness, what about the toads that attempted to sexually assault the possible third problem? I don't even know if this third problem is even guilty of anything or not. Some of these toads might be guilty of rape charges against some innocent people." Yunan stated.
"I'll handle everything." King Andrias waved her off.
King Andrias walked down a part of the throne room and stopped at a stone statue of a previous king and grabbed onto a statue arm of a female newt nearby, pushing it up as it made a clicking sound. A secret door opened from the wall and as it fully opened. He walked down the flight of stairs with a glowing blue sea sponge down the flight of stairs.
He made it to the bottom of the stairs into a strange room that wasn't very well lit but there was a light shining on a gold circle in the middle of the room. He knelt down and took his crown off to place it in the center of the circle and started to speak out loud as if talking to someone.
"The prophecy is being undone as we speak, my lord. Soon we will have our revenge." said King Andrias ominously.
The huge salamander had a stoic expression as he spoke to what looked like a big, dark, purple ball but than it looked like the room rumbled and shook a bit as the ball had multiple orange lights appearing on it like eyelids opening up. He was talking to a large multi-eyed creature which the rest of it's appearance was hidden in the shadows.