Chapter 2: Homecoming
For the most part, Wartwood was just like they left it. There were a few more buildings, a few expanded fields, but Wartwood was, inherently, much as it always had been. Even when it changed, it stayed the same.
One thing that had changed was the statue that stood in the town square. It had once been the so-called "town-founder" whose name had been lost to history, and who probably had usurped the real town founders' (a frog couple named Leif and Twig) place in history. In his place stood a monument to the strange beast from another world whose arrival had changed the course of Amphibian history forever. She stood, cheerful yet determined, sword thrust out, the long-gone Calamity Box clutched in her righ hand.
"Hi, sis," Sprig said. "You wouldn't believe the stuff I've seen on the new continent. It's like nothing else on the planet." He rubbed his arm. "I wish you could be there, you know. I know you're back on Earth, living your best life, but… I miss you. Even if sometimes I forget little things… like which shoe you were missing." He glanced at the statue. "Somehow, I think Loggle got it wrong."
"Uh, Sprig?" interrupted Ivy, squeezing his elbow. "I know this is important, and any other time I'd be telling you to take all the time you need, but we're cutting it close here, and we've still got a lot of people to see before…"
"Oh, right! Guess what, Anne! I'm gonna be a dad! Which means you're gonna be an aunt!"
"Oh, come on… you're telling her before me?" A purple teenage frog tackled him. "You should know better than that, Sprig!"
"Polly? I thought you'd still be at school!"
"Newtopia U's temporarily closed due to a weevil infestation. So, you got me all week, bro. So what's this about you being a dad? I call fun aunt!"
"It's true," admitted Ivy. "These babies are about to drop. And mom would kill me if her grandkids hatched too far away for her to spoil them rotten."
"Well, Grandma Syl, and Frobo are back at the house. And if you wanna see Hop-Pop, I think he's over at the new ampitheater working on his latest project…"
"Here's a skull now. This skull has lain in the earth three and twenty years."
"Whose was it?"
"A whoreson mad fellow's it was, whose do you think it was?"
"A pestilence on 'im for a mad rogue! 'e poured a flagon of bog-grog on me 'ead once. This same skull sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester!"
"This?"
"E'en that."
Francois held up the prop skull dramatically, pausing, before he lowered it again. "Line?"
"Oh, for frog's sake…" groaned Hop Pop. "We open in a week!"
"It's just… what's my motivation?"
"Come on… this is Act Five, you should know this by now! You're Froglet, Prince of Fenmark, out to avenge your father's murder! It's one of the classics of literature!"
"…but I thought… you wrote it?"
"…oh… right… right… yes, that's right, I wrote it. I meant, it's a future classic of literature. Because the themes are so timeless. I mean, it's not like I, heh heh, took a play from Earth, changed some of the names, and passed it off as my own work, I wouldn't do that, heh heh, why am I still talking?" He tugged at his ascot nervously. "I mean, even if I did, which I didn't, hypothetically, isn't adapting as much of a creative process as-"
"Hop Pop!"
"OH THANK FROG. Keep studying your lines, Francois. Wally, excellent as always."
"Oi! I've found me true calling!"
Hop Pop turned to face his grandchildren. "Sprig! Ivy! You're conveniently back!" Hopefully, any questions would be forgotten now.
"We had to come back early so… I can lay my eggs in the family ancestral mud pit."
Hop Pop gasped. "You mean… I'M GONNA BE A HOP… POP-POP?" Despite his hip protesting, he risked a hop for joy. "You know who would be going crazy right now?"
"Anne?"
"I was going to say your parents, but her too. But yes… I'm sure they would all be overjoyed to see the family continue to grow. Well. I say, once you get your eggs settled, I'm getting' the whole town together, 'cause this calls for a big celebration!
"Gosh, you really don't have to-"
"Tough tacos, Sprig!" declared Polly. "We are gonna PARTY DOWN! Hold on, I gotta go tell Frobo he's an uncle!"
Earth, Los Angeles
Aquarium of the Pacific
Ten years. It was hard to believe sometimes. It felt like another life, sometimes.
In a way, it had been.
Despite what some would have you believe you do not easily adjust to going back to a mundane life after saving two whole worlds from destruction. There was a lot of therapy involved for all three girls. You see, the average 13-year-old girl should not have to deal with getting displaced from her entire life, spending a month in prison, becoming a child soldier, or leading an underground.
She should not have to deal with being literally stabbed in the back by a trusted friend and mentor and forced to serve as host for a millennia-old gestalt intelligence.
And she certainly should not have to deal with giving her life to save the world, meeting God, and being sent back as a copy of yourself, with the knowledge that at the end of your life, you might ascend to godhood yourself.
Needless to say, the three of them had gone through a lot of therapy to get to a place where they could move on.
"This place… looks… amazing!" squeed Marcy. "Is that a miniature version of the Plantars' house? That is so adorable! And that newt habitat, I swear its laid out exactly like Coral Park!"
"Speaking of looking amazing," Anne remarked. "Long hair looks really good on you, Marcy."
"Oh, well, I kinda figured it was time for a change…" Was that a blush? Was she blushing? What was happening? Probably nothing. Just happy to see her again is all. It's not like this was the first time they'd been together in ten years or anything. And nothing had happened during any of those visits or anything. That was it. Just nostalgia washing over her.
"So…" Sasha interrupted, "Now that we're all together again, it's clear what we need to do. Get married and move in together."
After a beat, all three cracked up. "Sash, I swear you make that same joke every time we get together," noted Marcy.
"And it gets a laugh every time. *chuckle* But, like, really, can you imagine? The three of us living together? We'd kill each other within a week!" She poked Anne. "Between your snoring and her loud chewing…"
"Excuse me, I snore?" Anne replied. "You sound like a cartoon sawmill!"
"Lies! Lies and slander!"
"Do you want me to record you? I'll do it."
Marcy giggled. "Seriously though, Dawn would kill you."
"Nah," Sasha replied. "She'd kill you two."
"Shouldn't you be helping her with her anger issues?" suggested Anne.
"Oh, don't even go there. Girlfriends make terrible patients." Her eyes drifted toward the toad exhibit. "You know… it kinda feels like a dream sometimes, doesn't it."
"I know, right?" Marcy added. "I mean, I know it happened, but the details start to get a little… fuzzy sometimes."
"Would you go back if you could?" asked Anne.
The other two paused. "You know… I haven't really thought about it in a long time," Marcy replied. "I'm pretty happy where I am. Doing something I love."
"What's bringing this on, Boonchuy?" asked Sasha.
"Oh… I don't know," Anne admitted. "I guess… standing here, with the two of you, with all these reminders around." She let out something of a sad chuckle. "I guess… well, the saying would be 'it's like a part of me never left.' But that's wrong. It's more like all of Anne never left. I'm just an Anne that did. Some weird… cosmic echo." She shook her head. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just bumming you out, aren't I. I didn't mean to."
"We're not supposed to get melancholy until after we're drunk," complained Sasha. "But I'll allow it."
"You know, after we got settled again, I used to go to that park all the time. I would just sorta hang around, hoping that maybe… just maybe… like the walls of reality were weak in that particular spot, and I'd just… fall back into Amphibia. I did that for a whole year until I realized it wasn't going to happen. I tried to look up Terri, see if she got the portal working any better, but I could never find her again."
"That Mr. X guy probably made her disappear," remarked Sasha.
"Sashy! Don't say that!"
"No she's probably right. That kind of tech's probably too dangerous to just leave to some grad student." Anne sighed. "Just as well, really. We… I couldn't just live in the past for the rest of my life, right? I owed it to myself to move on with my life. They would want me to. And that Anne that didn't make it back would've wanted me to."
"Yep. That settles it," Sasha grabbed her arm. "C'mon, we're taking this reunion on the road."
"Okay… where?" asked Anne.
"Don't look at me, I haven't lived here in a decade."
"Thai-Go it is." Anne replied.
"No offense, but I'm looking for something a little harder than iced tea."
Anne smirked. "I know where mom keeps the wine."
"Thai-Go it is!"
The Amazon
"Yep…" Ally remarked, examining the readout on her scanner. "I'm definitely detecting evidence of a dimensional shift."
"Very similar to the readings taken during Frogvasion, actually," Jess added.
"But why?" asked Terri. "Temples don't usually displace themselves. Not spontaneously."
"I don't know," speculated Ally. "There have been a lot of dimensional incursions in recent years. Gravity Falls, Gravesfield, Echo Cr-"
"We don't. Talk. About. Echo. Creek." snapped Terri. "Ever."
"Sorry," acknowledged Ally. "Point is… maybe the walls between dimensions are weakening, And there are spots like this where things can break through.
"Interesting theory," considered Terri. "Actually, it's a pretty disturbing one. Could you imagine another Frogvasion, or worse, another Weirdmageddon?"
"That's… kinda why we're here, isn't it?" asked Jess. "To prevent stuff like that?"
"You can only prepare for things you know about," Terri replied. "And there's no way of knowing what-"
They were cut off by Pandatron 4.0's siren suddenly going off. "Oh snap. The readings just started going crazy!" Jess warned.
And, as suddenly as it had disappeared, the temple was back. The three scientists found themselves knocked over by the shockwave caused by its sudden displacement of the air it had replaced, but otherwise, nothing but their pride had been harmed.
"Okay, this is starting to bug me," Terri said. "Could you imagine if we were standing where that thing showed up? We'd be squashed flatter than 2-dimensional space!"
"Hey, look at that!" Jess indicated. "There's an open doorway over there. You think anyone got in?"
"There weren't any missing people in the report," Ally replied. "If anyone was in there, it'd probably just be a bunch of monkeys or something."
As if to illustrate her point, a screeching sound came from inside."
"See, what'd I tell-"
"HEY! GET BACK HERE WITH THAT, YOU WEIRD LITTLE MAMMAL!"
A monkey – biology wasn't Terri's forte, but she guessed a capuchin – darted out of the temple, holding what appeared to be a pair of binoculars. More surprising was the creature that followed it… a figure dressed like an explorer, complete with backpack, canteen and pith helmet. But it wasn't their attire or equipment, but the fact that the individual was a giant, pinkish-orange newt.
"Guys!" she yelled. "Stop that-" She cut herself off when she realized she was not addressing who she thought she was. "What the… Are you… humans?"
Terri, Jess and Ally were three of a very small number of humans who would recognize an Amphibian when they saw one… luckily for their guest. "That's right. I'm Dr. Terri Connely. These are my associates, Ally Barrera and Jess Williams."
"Uh… Bella Carbunkle," the newt replied. "So… uh… How'd you get here? There haven't been humans in Amphibia in a decade."
Terri bit her lower lip. "Actually, Bella… you're on Earth."
"Oh. *long beat* I think I'm gonna faint now," she said, keeling over.
"So… which of us is going to explain this to Mr. X?" asked Terri.
"Not it!" the technician couple responded simultaneously.
"…and that's what I get for bringing it up," Terri groaned.
A.N.: So, I was originally going to save the scene with the girls for next chapter, but I figured I'd made you wait long enough.
Guest: As a wise man once said: Don't cry because it's over. Laugh because it happened.
Notthenightslayer: Sorry, can't help it. If someone else wants to run with these ideas, I'm fine with it.
Iron maker2: Yeah, that does clarify things. Actually, I kinda headcanon Sasha and Anne having a bit of a thing in late middle-school/early high school, but it sorta fizzles out because really, how many people are still with the person they were with in eighth grade? And then after that, they sorta drift apart (though never entirely) and have their own lives and things going on… maybe in part because of lingering embarrassment over not working out…
Jose: thanks, as always
Tall T: Thanks, welcome aboard!
Next: The Calamity Trio continue to catch up, but when the opportunity to go on one more adventure comes up, will they all jump at it?
