Amphibia: Starting Over
Part 1 Chapter 1
Prologue Part I
10 years ago, an event called "Frog-vasion" happened. Some people think it was a hoax, while others were shocked that another dimension exists. One of those believers was 20-year-old, Benjamin Porter. He was a light-skinned, strong but skinny man with a black buzzcut. He wore a blueberry blue t-shirt, grey denim shorts, white socks, and black shoes with grey soles. He was currently on a plane currently on its way back to his home in San Diego after seeing his family in San Francisco. His entire life in San Francisco gave him everything. Great friends, unforgettable memories, everyday living conditions, everything.
Unfortunately, he had to leave it all behind to go to San Diego for college. His family, friends, and everyone was sad to see him go. He felt lonely in college but doing his work and tests was able to distract him from his feelings for the most part. He was able to make a friend or two in college, but that was about it. He decided to pass the time by taking a nap with headphones playing music. It wasn't easy to do since the loud sounds of the plane engine were always louder than everything else going on in the cabin. But after a few minutes, everything would change.
Suddenly, he was awoken when the plane started to hit major turbulence, this startled Benjamin as he was a bit of a nervous flier.
"This is your captain speaking, we just hit some bumpy air. Don't worry, we will be stable once again in a few minutes" said the pilot over the speakers.
Benjamin knew 'bumpy air' really meant turbulence. It was WAY bumpier than what he was used to and suddenly he was panicking because he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of dying painfully. If he got to choose his death, he would have it happen in his sleep. It would happen quietly and painless.
Little did the people in the cabin know the pilot was lying to calm the passengers down. But the people, Benjamin included, wouldn't be fooled for long. Suddenly the plane went down extremely fast and oxygen masks were dropped down above the passengers. The plane was small it could only fit 20 passengers and there were no children on board. But that didn't mean the cabin wasn't panicking.
"What is happening?!"
"I want to live!"
"This is not happening! This is not happening!"
The plane at this point was going down fast and Benjamin was trying to pretend it was all a bad dream but it wasn't working at all as he had never been this scared in his life. The emergency door opened, and someone jumped out of the plane. Benjamin realised that it wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare that was real; a nightmare he couldn't get out of. All he was thinking was if he was going to live or not.
And then, oblivion.
THREE HOURS LATER
"AAH!" Benjamin jolted awake as he was still in his plane seat with his seatbelt. At first, he thought that maybe he was dreaming. But as he looked through his surroundings, he noticed the emergency door was still open and he could hear some crickets as it was nighttime. That's when he realised that whatever happened was real and that his plane had crashed due to pilot error. However, Benjamin was alive, and he was happy to be alive. He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his seat. He looked around and noticed that only one other man was on the plane in the back row. Benjamin went over to the man to see if he was still alive.
"Excuse me, sir?" he asked the man as he shook him.
The man was a Jewish, light-skinned man wearing a shirt with a dark green top half and sleeves, a white bottom half, and long black track pants. He also wore black socks and two different shoes. One is a transgender shoe and the other a pansexual shoe, indicating that it could be his sexuality. His hair meanwhile, was a brown flat top.
The man started to wake up and Benjamin was relieved to see he was alive like him.
"Uh, what happened?" the man asked.
"We crashed and it looks like we are the only ones on the plane at the moment. I don't know where everyone else went but we need to get out of here." Benjamin answered.
The man reacted with wide eyes as he thought he was telling a joke, but the trees he saw through the window told him otherwise.
"What's your name?" asked Benjamin.
"Um… Levi… Levi Fernandez." he answered.
"Okay, Levi, we're going to go outside and see if we can find any help."
"OK"
Benjamin and Levi got each of their luggage and belongings and got out of the crashed plane through the emergency exit door. They found themselves in a forest of some sort with a line of crushed and ruined trees caused by the plane.
"Look! Up there!" Levi pointed to nearby smoke coming from a hilltop.
"There must be someone here!" Benjamin replied.
The boys started climbing the hill in the hopes that there was another survivor up there. And when they made it up top, there was another man sitting near a campfire to keep warm. This man was an African-American person with maroon-dyed afro hair. He was wearing a white shirt with an unzipped red jacket along with darker red short pants, grey socks, and white shoes. The man was also surprised to see two other guys walking up to him.
"No way, did you guys come from the plane?" the man asked.
"Yes, we did. You?" Benjamin asked back.
"Sort of. I jumped out of the plane to have the best chances of surviving a plane crash. I was hours away from the crash site and noticed a rescue helicopter going above me. I couldn't signal it to come to get me; by the time I made it to the crash site, it was too late. Everyone was gone, I found you two but you were unconscious, and I got zero signal from my phone." the man explained to the boys.
Needless to say, their eyes were wide with shock.
"So, we're stuck here?" Levi asked.
"Unless we are willing to make the long journey back home, yes." the man answered.
Neither of them was happy to hear this but knew that it was true. They were stuck in the woods at night with people they don't even know. That's when Benjamin had an idea.
"Well, if we're going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, we should at least get to know each other. This way we can learn to trust each other whenever one of us is in a pickle."
"That's a good idea." the man said.
Benjamin and Levi sat down near the campfire to get warm.
"I'll start; my name is Charles Hansen, I am 22 years old, and I like all things nature-related".
"I can tell, you were able to start a fire in the woods without burning the entire environment down" Benjamin joked with a smirk, causing Levi and Charles to chuckle a bit.
"That was an alright joke, I am Levi Fernandez, 23 years old, and my shoes represent my pride, see?" said Levi as he showed off his shoes.
"You're pansexual and transgender?" Charles asked.
"That's right."
"Huh, interesting"
"That was a rather weird topic to talk about to people you just met" Ben exclaimed, pointing to himself and Charles, the former having a raised eyebrow while the latter had a curious look.
"Sorry," said Levi.
"Eh, I don't mind, my name is Benjamin Porter, I am 20 years old, and I am in college to get a writing degree of some sort."
"That's cool! I never really went to college. I was quite the slacker in high school." Levi said with a sigh.
"I can relate, I was able to balance my work enough to get into college and I'm able to work hard because of it, but let's just say I preferred the more laid-back life."
The guys chuckled as Charles sat up and went back to the plane.
"Where are you going?" Benjamin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm going to the plane to see if there is still any food in there, like peanuts or packets of chips. We can't keep continuing to know each other on empty stomachs" Charles answered.
"That's a good idea, I'm hungry."
Charles went to the plane, leaving Benjamin and Levi with the campfire. Benjamin let out a big sigh, still shocked that he had managed to survive a plane crash. He never thought his life would turn out this way as he wants to live his life to the fullest.
"Everything okay, Benjamin?" Levi asked.
"If you like, you can call me Ben for short, that's what my friends call me" he responded.
"Okay"
"I don't know Levi, did you ever think that you would sit around a campfire with two random people from a flight that ended in disaster?"
"No, no I didn't. I guess this is something I can knock off my bucket list, huh?"
"You can say that again"
The two chuckled as they waited for Charles. Levi then took his phone out of his pocket and held it up to try and get at least a small signal to call for help. But after a minute, he wasn't getting a single bar.
"Any luck?" Ben asked
"Unfortunately, still no signal" Levi answered with a depressed look.
This caused Ben to give a frustrated sigh as he didn't like the sound of that, rubbing his forehead in stress.
"Can I ask you something, Levi?" Ben asked.
"Sure, Ben, what is it?"
"Do you believe in Frog-vasion?"
"Of course I do, it may have looked and sounded silly, but it was on the news and everything; this 13-year-old girl called Anne Boonchuy got stuck in a world of frogs"
"What are you guys talking about?" Charles asked having returned with some packs of peanuts and potato chips alongside bottles of water.
"Frog-vasion" Ben and Levi answered simultaneously.
"Pfft, you mean the 10-year-old hoax? That's just a conspiracy theory that Boonchuy just managed to start like a meme that for some reason is still relevant"
There was a moment of silence.
"Wait, don't tell me you guys are believers," he said pointing at them both.
"Is that a bad thing?" Ben asked.
"Not at all, I just find the whole story stupid as hell, I mean, a giant anthropomorphic newt causing an invasion on our precious planet? Give me a break!" Charles exclaimed as he passed the food over to the others.
The three boys ate the food that Charles had been able to find which was mainly squished from the crash. After about 30 minutes of getting to know each other, Benjamin felt comfort. Meeting Charles and Levi were starting to become a silver lining to this accident and in a strange way, he was happy that they crashed. He then yawned while stretching his arms.
"We should probably get some sleep. If we're going to find a way back to civilisation, we need to be well rested"
"Good idea, I assume we're sleeping inside the plane?" Levi asked.
"Yep, it'll protect us"
Charles put out the campfire as the boys stood up and walked back to the plane. They went inside and stood back on their reclined seats. They pushed the buttons on each of their armrests to make their chairs go back and Ben even found blankets for each of them to use.
"You know, I just realised something, how come no one else bothered to check if we were okay?" Ben asked the others.
"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think they may have thought we were dead. It may sound silly, but it's a possibility" Levi answered as he was scared to admit what he just suspected.
The thought also scared Ben, though he didn't share that fear.
"Can I tell you guys something I never told anyone?" Charles asked.
That question got the others' attention as Ben got out of his seat, turned on his phone's flashlight and walked over to Charles while Levi stayed put as he was just across from Charles.
"Are you sure you want to tell us?" Ben asked back.
"Positive. I trust you guys a bunch and since I was a loner before now, I feel confident and rather scared, but I just want to get this off my chest to someone"
Ben then sat down at the aisle and replied: "I trust you, too. You can tell me anything".
"Same here" Levi reassured.
Naturally, Charles smiled as he was glad that people around him trusted him despite only being a few hours.
"Thanks, you two, alright, here goes nothing… If we were believed to be dead, I would be happy" he said which surprised both Ben and Levi.
"How come?" Levi asked.
"Back home, I was being chased by someone I pissed off. Apparently, I convinced this girl to move abroad to get away from her psychopath boyfriend and when he found out what I did afterwards, he tried to break into my apartment and kill me. I was able to escape but he still killed my dog and got away before the police showed up, but he left a note, saying he'll be back when I least expect it"
After that explanation, Ben and Levi were speechless. Their jaws were open and their eyes were wide. Levi, who was looking up the entire time, turned his head to face Charles.
"That sounds like quite the trauma" Levi responded with worry.
"It was. This all happened a month ago, and I was on that plane to San Diego to run away from it all, and start over, though I never expected to start over like this."
Ben looked at Charles with sympathy and told him: "Thank you for telling us, you made the right decision by trying to get away from it all, even if it didn't turn out exactly as planned. Now try to get some sleep, okay?"
"Okay" Charles then said with a smile.
Ben then stood back up and walked to a nearby chair to sleep on. It was certainly quite the story. As he began to drift off, he realised that his family doesn't know if he survived or not. And since their phones weren't getting any signals, he couldn't let them know. He was scared of what the future looked like, but there was one thing he did know: he had new friends to help him along the way.
After having breakfast, which was basically more packets of the food they had last night, they grabbed their luggage and began their long journey. The journey lasted at least a week. By day, they faced many challenges with navigating heights, identifying potentially poisonous plants and fighting off bugs and other creatures. And at night, they would find cover to set camp, where they still had to deal with the issues they dealt with in the daytime.
However, at the end of that week, something happened.
The sun was starting to set. The boys were running low on food and water, their phones were flat, and their clothes were really dirty and wet as they couldn't change into anything else for fear of something jumping on them. Charles was leading the walk while Ben and Levi were trudging with tiredness.
"I'm not sure… how much longer… I can last, but I must… keep trying" Levi said with pants as he was tired for every night was a rough sleep. If it wasn't for Charles' camping skills, he would've gone crazy.
"We must be getting close by now, right? It's been a week. Why did 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' make this sound easy?" Ben asked no one.
"What's that?" Levi asked.
"It's a book I like. It has this goal of reaching a location and they walk a month there"
"A month?!"
"Yep"
"We've been walking a week and it already feels like an eternity"
"Tell me about it"
"GUYS! LOOK!" Charles shouted with excitement. He pointed his direction at what looked to be a wall with a grey door.
"No. Fucking. Way." Ben said with an excited look.
"If someone made this, then we must have made it!" Levi exclaimed. The three strangers turned friends laughed in excitement and shared a group hug while jumping at the same time. They were starting to doubt if they could even find a way back home, but now they're back. The boys stopped hugging each other and Levi asked: "Is the door locked?"
Ben tested the door handle and to their surprise, it wasn't.
"It's not. We can go in. Maybe there's someone who can help us" Ben answered.
He knocked on the door and waited for about a minute but no one answered.
"Maybe no one's home?"
"If so then why leave their door unlocked?" Levi asked.
"Even weirder is, why have a home in the middle of nowhere?" Charles asked.
"Either way, we have to make camp somewhere so let's go inside and we'll be out by dawn" Ben suggested. Charles and Levi nodded in agreement, and they opened the door.
The boys entered what looked like a big lab, with white grey-ish walls, a hard black floor and a white roof. The walls had blue counters with all sorts of science supplies such as flasks, bunsen burners, and generators. In the middle of the room was a machine with four podiums.
"What is this place?" Charles asked.
"Looks like a lab of some sort." Ben guessed.
They looked around the lab and Charles turned on the lights. Afterwards, he noticed a laptop on the counter. He opened it which strangely didn't have a password. Ben and Levi then noticed the machine in the middle of the lab.
"What the heck is this?" Ben asked.
"I'm not sure, but maybe we shouldn't mess with it at the moment, it looks complicated" Levi responded with uncertainty.
"Yeah, that's a good idea."
Suddenly, Charles was starting to shake uncontrollably as if he saw a ghost. He suddenly dropped down, only for Ben and Levi to catch him before he hit the floor hard.
"Woah, Woah, Charles, are you okay? What's happening?" Levi asked as he and Ben were very worried about him.
"L-L-Look at t-the-s-s-s-screen" Charles responded with stutters all over his vocabulary. Ben and Levi then went over to the laptop and what they saw was unreal. Charles used the laptop to search for the plane crash to see what he could find and get the truth about what happened. But it was what was currently on the screen that caused him to almost faint.
It was a news article talking about the accident and that the people that survived were rescued by helicopters that flew to them. However, the title of the story was what caused Ben to cover his mouth in horror and tears and Levi to almost scream at the top of his lungs.
"PLANE ACCIDENT RESULTS IN THREE DEATHS OF PASSENGERS"
As they scrolled down the article, they found a TV news report attached to the article. They didn't want to click on it, but they had to. They clicked on it and the video played.
"Reporter: A flight making its way to San Diego from San Francisco has crashed in the jungle following pilot error. There were two pilots and twenty passengers and after a rescue team arrived, the pilots then gave confirmation on the survivors"
"Interviewed Pilot 1: We had twenty passengers on the flight and things were going smoothly in the air until my co-pilot failed to identify how high we were in the air. We got too high at one point and he tried to get lower but he went too fast and suddenly he lost control and I couldn't stop it"
"Interviewed Pilot 2: When we crashed, we quickly made sure everyone was alive and unfortunately, there were three men who weren't responding even when we shook them rapidly. We did research and we are sad to confirm that Benjamin Porter, Charles Hansen, and Levi Fernandez, didn't survive the accident. I want to apologise to the victim's family, friends, and loved ones. I never meant to cause this and it was all an accident"
And just like that, Ben and Levi were speechless. The world believed they were dead, they actually tried to see if they were still alive, and they just left them behind where they didn't even realise that if they tried harder, they would've been back in their lives by now.
Charles then said with a disturbed look on his face: "They left us behind. They. Left. Us. Behind. I thought I'd be happy but suddenly I felt like I committed murder. THEY LEFT US TO DIE!"
He then grabbed the laptop and threw it across the room in a rage. But what they did not expect is that the laptop went in the middle of the machine, only to disappear. The boys' shocked, furious, and depressed faces switched to confusion in a matter of seconds.
"Where'd the laptop go?" Levi asked.
"I don't know, it just vanished!" Ben replied. Dumbfounded by what just happened.
He then walked towards the machine and reached his hand out. Suddenly, his hand also disappeared and when Ben retracted his arm, it was back.
"I think this is some sort of portal or something around the area of the middle of this machine," he told the others.
"Where does it lead to?" Charles asked, still shaking over their discovery.
At this point, they had to find out. So Ben walked towards the middle of the portal machine and vanished from Charles and Levi's sight.
When Ben came out from the other side, he was amazed by what he saw. He was surrounded by a swamp of some sort in a normal forest. However, there were major differences that let him know it was in fact, an alternate dimension. The sun was rising instead of setting, there were giant dragonflies in the air, and there was even a mushroom the size of a suitcase. Ben was so mesmerised by his surroundings that he had to show them to Charles and Levi.
Ben's head popped out of the invisible portal which freaked Charles and Levi out to the point that they were hugging each other.
"Guys, you've got to see this!" Ben shouted before he went back through the portal.
Hesitantly, Charles and Levi went through the portal as well.
When they stepped through, they were also fascinated and almost forgot about what freaked them out in the first place.
"Woah! This looks amazing!" Charles exclaimed as he thought he was dreaming.
"The multiverse is a concept about which we know a lot more" Levi added.
"Okay, we got the explore!"
"Agreed!"
"Let's do it! Someone leave an indicator on this spot so we know where the portal is" Ben requested.
Turns out Levi had just the thing. He took out his phone which he slightly charged as soon as they entered the lab and opened an offline custom location app and place a point on that location.
"Done!" he exclaimed.
"Alright, let's go!" Ben shouted.
The boys started to explore the new dimension as they saw a lot of fascinating and exotic sights. They passed a lake with a giant lily pad in it, and there were even some pathways that could indicate actual life in the dimension. However, the boys stayed in the forest part as they didn't want to be seen as outsiders.
"Got to say, I'm starting to like this place," Charles told the others.
"Yeah, did you guys ever think that we would ever find ourselves in another universe?" Ben asked.
However, just as Charles and Levi were about to answer Ben, he stepped on a tripwire and suddenly a wooden cage is dropped on the boys.
"Well, that was just stupid," Ben said.
The boys waited for a few minutes before they heard a rustling sound from the bushes. They faced the direction of the bush and what came out of it left them wide-eyed.
Coming out of the bush was a small but tall female anthropomorphic frog. Her skin was yellow with a pale patch underneath her mouth and a darker spot on each of her cheeks. Her hair was orange, long and wild. She was wearing dark grey pants with a rope belt around them and had a turquoise shirt on equipped with a cape held by a red shell tie.
When the frog looked at the three humans, she was in shock and dropped the spear she was holding.
"Uh, guys, what is that?" Charles asked looking freaked out.
"It looks like a frog alien" Ben answered before turning to the frog and telling her: "We come in peace, foreign dimension beings"
"I don't believe it" the female frog spoke which surprised the boys.
"Oh, it can speak perfect English" Ben then said not freaked out by the sight of a frog speaking.
"You're humans!" she then said.
Suddenly, the boys froze. This frog knew what humans were? At that moment, Ben was REALLY curious and only asked one question to the frog.
"You know who we are?"
To Be Continued…
Notes: This was a lot of fun to make and I am really excited to tell you guys what happens next. Please forgive me if you think this story may seem to be moving fast but this is my first fanfic ever so it's not the most surprising to see. I'll be releasing Part II of the Prologue as soon as I finish it so do look forward to it.
Thanks for reading my story and if you like it, please let me know by leaving a review, following it or favourite it to be updated on it. Stay safe during these times, have a good day, and I'll see you in the next chapter.