The Plantar Sisters
By Jawmax
Chapter 1: Back to the Beginning
"Ugh. Where am I?" Anne said waking up. The 23-year-old herpetologist looked around and found herself on a floating island in a sea of stars. "Not again." But as she got up Anne saw she could see through her hand. Her whole body was transparent. "Well, that's not good."
"Anne?" Anne turned to see her friends Sasha and Marcy were here in a similar state. "Anne what is going on. What is this place? And why are we…ghostly?" Sasha asked.
"I know." Marcy said. "I was on my flight back home and then I was here with you two."
"I don't know what happened, but I know where we are. Remember after we beat the Core and I…died?" Anne hesitated. "This is where I was before I came back."
"So, were dead? This is the afterlife?" Marcy asked.
"No! No! No! We can't be… There're still things I have to do!" Sasha panicked.
"This isn't exactly the afterlife. The last time I was here I was solid. Not like this. Something is wrong." Anne said before turning to a small house on the island. "I know you're here! Come on out! Last time you said I had 83 years left!"
The door opened and a small black and white cat came out. "Uh, Anne isn't that you cat Domino?" Sasha asked.
"He only looks like Domino, so we don't go crazy or something. Actually, it's the Guardian of the multiverse. The deity that made the stones in the music box." Anne explained. "Have you dragged me back here to try to get me to take over your job again? Trying to use my friends as leverage?"
"No Anne. I still intend to give you the time and experiences you said you needed to make your decision." The cat said. "But something's happened. Something that has never happened in all my eons as guardian. And I need all your help to find a way to fix it."
"But we're dead!" Marcy said.
"No." The Guardian said shaking its head. "I just saved you from something worse than death. You three are stuck in a state between existence and nonexistence because something has damaged time itself."
"Wait if you really are a god then why do you need our help? We don't even seem to be in a state where we can help anyone." Sasha asked.
"My powers are great but still have some limits. Most of the time I just observe, I can see the whole history of a dimension and most probable futures. Like that if we succeed Anne will pass away six months after you Marcy, and a year after you Sasha."
"So, we all won't make it to the century mark but at least we'll have plenty of time to find love, have kids, grandkids, and great grandkids." Anne said. "What you're saying is you can see what has and could happen, but you can't go back in time and for example prevent Andrias from becoming evil."
"Correct, that is a power that no entity possessed until now. Before this the past was immutable and the only way to go to the future was to wait until it became the present." The Guardian explained as he shifted form into a larger winged cat with the calamity gems for its three eyes. With a glow the starscape parted and shown several colored lines. "This is the state the multiverse is in now. This blue line is the timeline of your world." The Guardian pointed to a blue line with cracks coming from it. On the line burned a silver flame.
"Those are a lot of cracks." Sasha said.
"They appeared when the silver flame did, and your world isn't the only one. This green line is a world you're all familiar with." The guardian pointed to a green line with less cracks.
"Amphibia." The trio said.
"The longer that flame burns the more the cracks spread. No universe totally is isolated from the others. If we don't find a way to reverse this, time for all worlds, all dimensions will be destroyed. Everything would be destroyed." The Guardian looked at the silver flame. "When I look at the flame and try to find its origin or see its future my vision becomes jumbled and unfocused. But I do know that your existences ceasing are the first change I could detect. The answer lays somewhere in your past. The three of you had to have been there together for all of them to have stopped at once. I need you three to focus on the flame, try to remember if you ever seen it before. Those new memories may help my vision clear and find a solution."
"Well, the multiverse is at stake." Marcy said.
"Not to mention our own existence. This ghost business blows." Sasha added.
The three friend held hands as the Guardians' eyes glowed. A window to the past opened as they tried to think if they saw the flame before. "Wait… I think I do remember something." Anne said as the window zoomed in on a school bus.
Children were singing. "…round and round. All through the town."
"Hey I remember this! It was after our very first field trip together!" Sasha said with a smile.
"Oh, right! I haven't thought about that in years! It was to the aquarium when we were six." Marcy reminisced.
"Who would have thought all those years ago I would work in the very same one." Anne smiled.
"There were so many different kinds of fish!" Little Marcy said. "What was your favorite part of the trip Anne?"
"I loved the tide pool! You could touch stuff and make splashes!" Little Annie said.
"The sharks were my favorite! Rawr!" Little Sasha roared. Anne, Sasha, and Marcy basked in the purity and innocence of their friendship in those days. But something outside caught Little Sasha's eye. "Ms. Jones! Ms. Jones! What's that?"
It looked like a silver comet flying in the sky very close to the bus. "It's so pretty!" Little Anne awed.
"Make a wish! Make a wish!" Little Marcy said.
"What? But nothing like that happened on that trip." Grown Anne said.
The comet changed its course hitting the front of the bus which slowed to a stop right at an intersection at the foot of a hill. Several of the children were scared but the young trio kept watching the silver light. "Alright everyone out! No running!" Ms. Jones said.
The Driver checked the engine. "What the…? The engine is rusted over!"
The three little girls felt like the silver light was staring at them. "Sasha! Marcy! Anne! Get out of there!" Ms. Jones ordered. The surface of the comet shifted, and the school bus door closed on its own! The light flew to it rusting it shut.
The three young friends were now scared and ran to the back of the bus, but the comet beat them to it a sealed that door too. "Hey! Let us out! Let us out!" Little Sasha said banging the door.
"I wanna go home!" Little Marcy cried.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Little Anne screamed.
It was then a golden comet arrived and slammed into the silver one. The two lights clashed again and again. But as a truck pulled to the top of the hill the silver comet knocked the gold away and flew under the truck making the break lines corrode to nothing. The driver jumped out as his truck crashed into bus with three screaming girls, and then there was silence. The scene shifted to a graveyard, the trio's parents in black crying their eyes out as three small coffins were lowered into the ground. "No! That can't be!" Marcy screamed.
The Guardian closed his eyes. "So that's why you are in that state. The women you've grown into can't exist if you all died when you were six. It also explains the damage to Amphibia's timeline. You didn't live to steal the music box or go to that world."
"But what was that? And what about that gold light?" Sasha asked.
"I still don't know…" The Guardian didn't finish as on the timelines a golden flame rose and went to an undamaged part of earth's timeline, more cracks formed, and the silver flame seemed to have screeched as it went to the gold the two seemed to wrap around each other and leapt to the green timeline. When that happened, more cracks formed on Amphibia, the gold flame disappeared, and the silver diminished to the size of a candle flame. The trio then grew a little more solid. Still ghostly but it was harder to see through them.
"Okay good news we seem to be getting a little better." Anne said. "Bad news the damage to time is getting worse! Guardian, did you learn anything?"
"No." The Guardian moaned. "I couldn't learn anything about that silver light and the same thing happened when I tried the gold." Then the Guardian had a thought. "If they both moved to Amphibia then maybe answer is there. With your existences more stable you still have a connection. Think about Amphibia and try again."
"Now that is no problem." Anne said as they focus on their memories of the world that changed their lives. The window opened to a very familiar town. "Wartwood! It's so great to see it again!"
Anne smiled as her froggy family pulled up to a store. "Alright kids, I'm going to do a little shopping. You watch the cart." Hop Pop said.
"You got it Hop Pop!" Sprig said jumping up. "I'll defend this cart with my liiiiiife!"
"Sprig, I was talking to Polly."
"What? Polly's a baby."
"You're a baby!" Polly said in her bucket.
"Polly's got more responsibility in her little flipper than you do in your entire body!" Hop Pop scolded.
"Ridiculous! What makes you think I'm irresponsible?" Sprig argued.
"Oh gee, let me think…" Hop Pop went on to list several mistakes Sprig made.
"Okay so yesterday was a bad day."
"Hmm Hm." Hop Pop jumped out of the cart. "Polly, make sure Sprig stays in the cart. Well, how do you do Mrs. Johnkins!"
Sprig sighed. "I wish there was a way to prove I'm not such a goof up."
One Eyed Wally came running into the square screaming. "Monster! There's a monster in the woods!"
As Wally ranted. Anne realized what they were seeing. "This must be the day I met the Plantars! That gold light must have restored the timeline somehow!"
"But we're still ghosts and there are still cracks in time." Marcy said. "I got a bad feeling about this."
Waly described what he saw. "It was horrifying! It had a huge head, a weird stubby bump right in middle of its face, and long spindly legs!"
The townspeople were disgusted by the description. "We better catch this beast before it hurts somebody!" Mayor Toadstool said. "Because for Mayor Toadstool, your safety comes first!"
"It's the responsible thing to do!" Wally said.
Spig had a surprised look on his face. "Polly that description, it sounds like the monster is…"
"But they know the rules." Polly whispered.
"I just had a great idea. Whichever one it is I'm going to bring her home and prove I'm responsible!"
"Stop right there! I know you're worried but Hop Pop said that you had to stay in the cart." Polly said right before she flexed. "You know you can't take me!"
"But…" Then Sprig had an idea. "Look Polly, candy." Sprig dropped the bug candies.
"Bribe accepted!" Polly began to eat the candy.
"Let the rescue begin!" Sprig said as he hopped into the woods.
"Don't die!" Polly yelled.
"This so great. I get to relive that wonderful moment when Sprig and I first met!" Anne said.
"Uh, Anne did you find what Sprig and Polly were saying a little bit weird?" Sasha asked. "Something's off."
Sprig searched the woods and found a footprint in the shape of a bare human foot. "Seems like she should be somewhere around here. If I wait here, she should…" Then Sprig was caught in a snare.
The grass behind him rustled and out of it stepped a 13-year-old Anne. But something was different. Instead of her school uniform she was barefoot in a purple patchwork dress. "Sprig! What are you doing here? I needed that trap to catch something to eat!"
The adult Anne was very confused. "Wait, how I could I already know Sprig? This should be when we first met!"
"Anne what are you doing off the farm? Hop Pop is going to blow his top! Heh, I made a rhyme." Spring said as Anne cut him down. "Wally saw you! The whole town will be up in arms!"
"I'm where I belong! Out of that place and with the rest of the ugly monsters!" the teen said with tears in her eyes. "Wally" proves my point! He ran off screaming as soon as he saw me!"
"Anne, you're not ugly, just…different." Then a screech echoed in the woods.
"It's coming back! Run!" Anne picked up the pink frog and slid under an old log. A large red mantis walked by, and the pair breathed a sigh of relief.
"You saved me! See Anne? You're not a monster! You're hero!" Sprig cheered.
"An ugly, ugly, ugly, hero maybe." Anne moaned. Her older self was feeling sorry for her. "Look at me. I don't even have slime. I'm disgusting!" Her stomach growled. "I haven't had anything to eat since dinner, and I haven't found anything worth eating."
"You just need to know where to look." Sprig peeled back some bark revealing lots of different kinds of bugs.
"Thanks Sprig!" the teen Anne began eating the bugs.
"Hey, save some for me!" Sprig said.
"This doesn't make any sense!" adult Anne said. "It took me months to get used to eating bugs. But she's eating them up like they're pizza!"
"So now that you've had something to eat. Why did you run away?" Spring asked teen Anne.
"I couldn't take it anymore!" teen Anne screamed. "Every day either hiding in the basement or staying in the back fields out of sight of the road! You, Polly, and Hop Pop wouldn't understand!"
"Wait a minute." Marcy said. "Her clothes, already knowing the Plantars, she has no problem eating insects, and the way she talked about her looks. Anne, I think this version of you was raised in Amphibia!"
"But how?" Adult Anne asked.
Back in Wartwood the townspeople were getting riled up. "When I say kill, you say it. Kill…"
"…it!"
"Kill…"
"…it!"
"Another day another mob." Hop Pop said as he got into the wagon. "Come on kids. Time to… What the…?"
Polly was in a stupor. "I don't have a candy problem! You have a candy problem!"
"Polly! Where's Sprig?"
"Oh, Wally said he saw a monster. A familiar sounding "monster". Then Sprig said something, something, rescue. Something, something woods."
"Oh, if your boy went into the woods, he's as good as eaten. That beast will devour everything in its path." Wally said.
"Not on my watch! Hang in there boy! Hop Pop's coming!" Hop Pop grabbed Polly and leapt over the mob who were following him. Hop Pop was pleased with his acting and whispered to Polly. "I bet it's Anne. She always was the rebellious one! I just hope we can figure a way out of this mess and her sisters have the sense to stay home and not go looking for her."
Adult Anne was freaking out. "Sisters? But I'm an only child! How screwed up is this timeline?"
Teen Anne and Sprig sat around some roots and mushrooms they gathered. "So how did you sneak out without anyone noticing?" Sprig asked.
"You had a bad day yesterday remember?" Teen Anne said.
Sprig thought back to last night. "Sprig! What did I tell you about leaving the lights on?!" Hop Pop yelled as giant fireflies shook the house.
"I used the commotion to put some pillows in my bed, with the mop as my hair and went out. Everyone thought I was asleep, so no one noticed. Not even our sisters. So, what are you doing out here anyway?"
"Rescuing you and proving I'm responsible!" Sprig cheered.
A familiar sounding voice interrupted them. "You? Responsible? After all the times we had to finish your chores for you Sprig?"
"No way!" Sasha said. It was her teenage self in a pink patchwork dress like Anne's.
"Okay Anne, you've had your fun. Now let's go home before Hop Pop gets back or we all be on dung duty for six months!" Teen Sasha said.
"Sasha if you're here then where…" teen Anne asked.
The someone stumbled through the bushes. "I'm okay!" Teen Marcy said as she dusted her green patchwork dress off and looked around. "This is so amazing! It's just like Hop Pop's books said! Oh! Yellow millipede! My favorite!" she slurped it up like a spaghetti noodle.
"Me too?" Adult Marcy gasped.
"We can snack later Marcy!" teen Sasha moaned. "Right now, we all need to get back to the farm before someone sees us!"
"Uh actually, Wally already saw Anne. The town should have formed a mob by now." Sprig said.
"Great! You really did this time Anne!" Sasha growled.
"You can go back if you want Sasha, but we can't hide forever!" Anne snapped. "Look how big we've already gotten! The rules aren't going to help much longer if we grow too big to fit in the house! But all you care about is doing whatever Hop Pop says!"
"Guys please! You know I hate it when you fight!" Marcy pleaded. "And we don't know if we'll get that big!"
Sasha ignored Marcy's pleas. "It's my job to take care of you! We can talk about this later. But we are going home now! END OF DISCUSSION!"
"I hate seeing myself pick on you guys to get my way again but… I was a rule breaker not a rule enforcer. This timeline is messed up." Adult Sasha said.
"There they are! My Frog, there are three of them!" Wally said. The crowd jumped on the girls and tied them up.
"No, you got it all wrong!" Sprig said. "Leave my sisters alone!"
"Let me out!" Anne yelled as he eyes flashed blue. She slipped out of the by moving fast enough that they broke.
"Wait, I couldn't use those powers until much later!" ghost Anne said.
"Enough!" Sasha roared as her red flashed red. With great strength she stood up pulling the stakes out of the ground.
"How?" ghost Sasha asked.
"45-degree angle…arch of the trajectory… give it a charge." Marcy picked up a small rock as her eyes flashed green. Green electricity surrounded the stone and with her thumb and finger flung it bouncing off a tree and cutting her rope.
"No way!" ghost Marcy gasped.
"Girls! Are you okay?" Hop Pop asked.
"Just tired." Anne panted.
Then a mantis screeched and came out of the woods. "Hurry! Everyone Mantis formation!" Toadstool ordered. The frogs formed a pyramid slightly taller than the mantis which ran away.
The frogs cheered. "We scared it off!" Hop Pop said.
Then the larger red mantis came down from the trees. "No, that scared it off." Polly said.
"Yeah, that makes more sense."
As the mantis began chasing the towns people Toadstool asked. "You creatures have powers, don't you? Use them!"
"Can't…now." Anne said.
"Once… a…day." Sasha explained.
"Need…rest." Marcy moaned.
Sprig then said. "I'll distract that thing! You three get out of here!" He fired his slingshot at the mantis angering it.
It was about to slice him in two when Anne blocked it. "Do something!"
"Oh, right here we go!" Sprig wrapped the rope around the beast and pulled but it wasn't enough.
Anne pulled too but she was too weak from using her powers. "We got your back sis!" Sasha said as she and Marcy grabbed the rope.
"And pull!" Marcy ordered. They pulled together tightening the rope making the mantis fall knocking it out.
"It's down!" the mayor said.
"We did it!" the four cheered.
"Up top!" Sprig said stretching his tongue.
The girls tried the same but couldn't reach. "Stupid short tongue." Anne grumbled.
Now that that's settled. "What the heck are we going to do with these things?" Toadstool asked. "Maybe we should run them out town just to be safe. Let them be someone else's problem."
"Yeah! The mob said.
"Of all the ungrateful…!" Sasha fumed.
"Are you kidding me?" Marcy asked.
"Stop! They are not monsters!" Sprig said. "They're just different but they are family! I've known Anne, Sasha, and Marcy my whole life!"
"Well, that settles that." Toadstool said. "The boy is crazy."
"Yeah!" Wally agreed. "What if they go nutty tomorrow and start eating people?"
"Don't worry yourselves silly!" Hop Pop said. "Sprig is telling the truth. I've been keeping an eye on these girls for 13 years and they haven't tried to eat anyone once."
"Wait you've been hiding these things for 13 years?" Toadstool asked.
Hop Pop nodded. "It was the night of that terrible storm…"
The Guardian got to work. "This could be the clue we need." The window shifted to the past, but they could still hear Hop Pop's voice.
"…Birch, Willow, and I were riding home from a trip to pick up new seeds from another town."
Thunder boomed as a wagon with three frogs rode in the rain. "Easy Bessie." Birch said trying to keep the snail calm. He was a purple frog much the same color as Polly. He had a short orange beard and wore overalls.
"Sprig and Polly's parents! I wish we could show this to them." Ghost Anne said.
"What is that light?" Willow asked. She was pink like Sprig and had a yellow dress and had golden blonde hair.
"We saw a golden light in the woods. I wanted to tell my son to ignore it and keep going until we heard something."
"Help us! Someone please!" The voice had an echoing quality to it.
Birch pulled Bessie over and he and his wife ran toward the light. Hop Pop reluctantly followed.
"Birch and Willow were never the types to turn away someone in need."
Inside the light was human man. He wore a long white coat and had golden hair and seemed be hurt. He had a baby carrier strapped to his chest and stood next to a stroller for two. "Please help us. They are all alone in this world." He said as the three babies cried.
"What are you?" Hop Pop asked.
"I never seen anything like the creature wrapped in golden light. But then it handed me a baby."
The golden man put a Thai baby in Hop Pop's arms. "Anne…" the man said he then picked up another baby from the stroller and gave it to Birch. "Sasha…" he then gave the last one to Willow. "…and Marcy."
"He gave us two more and had a single request."
"Please I cannot bring them with me, and I don't have much time." The man flickered. "I need you to care for them for me. My Nemesis will stop at nothing to destroy them!"
Mr. and Mrs. Plantar looked at the three baby girls and instantly fell in love. "That's terrible!" Birch said.
"The poor little things." Willow said on the verge of tears.
"But what are they?" Hop Pop asked.
The man was fading. "I will come back for the girls one day. Please care for them, raise them, protect…them…from…my Nemesis…" he vanished and dropped a music box with three gems drained of their power.
"It's the music box!" ghost Marcy gasped.
"And after that he disappeared."
"Shhhh. Shhh. Don't cry Marcy. Mama has you." Willow said.
"You really want to take them in?" Hop Pop asked as he rocked baby Anne. "We don't know anything about what these girls are or how to take care of them!"
"Pop, they need us." Birch said rocking Sasha.
"The town's not going to understand."
"I know, "Slow to accept, slower to respect" and we don't know what this Nemesis looks like. If we're going to protect them, we'll have to raise them in secret."
"You men need to stop talking and get moving!" Willow scolded. "We need to get these little ones home and out of the rain. Look their shivering!"
"And just like that the Plantar family grew by three. I don't need to tell you folks it continued to grow."
Three years later Birch opened the basement door. "Girls, come meet your new little brother."
The three human girls ran over to their adopted mother's room who held a newborn tadpole. "Anne, Marcy, Sasha, this is Sprig."
"He looks just like you Mama!" Little Anne said.
"He's sooooo cuuuute!" Little Marcy cooed.
"Where are his legs?" Sasha asked.
"And I've been hiding them ever since, raising them as my own grandchildren." Hop Pop said to the crowd.
Wally had a tear in his eye. "What a beautiful story!"
Toadstool was still unmoved. "Have it your way Hopediah Plantar but I don't like it. Alright boys, pack it in!" The mob disbursed.
"Looks like I'm back to causing trouble for the family again." Sprig sighed.
"Trouble? Sprig…" Hop Pop said. "… standing up to that angry mob to help your sisters out was some of the bravest and most responsible stuff I've ever seen!"
"That was pretty cool Sprig." Polly added. "It was also really dumb!"
"Yes, really, really dumb."
Sprig gasped. "You think I'm responsible?"
"Well yes, just this one time."
"Woo-hoo!"
"Don't get carried away…"
"Big win!"
"Hop Pop." Anne said. "I know you've been protecting us our whole lives, but I can't stay here anymore."
"Anne…." her sisters said.
"Hear me out! We're getting older and I want to go out there. Leave the valley, maybe find more of our kind. I mean we don't even know what we are or where we come from! Don't you two want to find more creatures likes us? Maybe find guys of our kind and start families of our own someday?"
"Of course, we want to find others like us Anne." Marcy said.
Sasha had tears in her eyes. "You're not the only one who feels like an outsider in the town you grew up in. But I promised Mom and Dad I'd take care of you guys."
"So, let's go." Anne said. "Let's get a map and find where we come from!"
Hop Pop sighed. "I knew I couldn't protect you forever. Of course, you deserve answers. I guess just didn't want to let you girls go."
"Hop Pop." The girls were all crying.
"But that said a map won't be enough. You wouldn't know this since I sheltered you but this here valley is surrounded by mountains that are impenetrable this time of year." Hop Pop showed a map of Frog Valley.
"It should clear up in a couple of months." Sprig said.
"But until then any of you try to cross those mountains…"
"You. Will. Die." Polly finished.
"Well, this can be a good thing!" Marcy said. "It will give time to get used to outside world, make friends with the townspeople, and get ready for the adventure of our lives!"
"Sound good to me. What do you think Anne?" Sasha asked.
"I've waited 13 years already. Two more months won't kill me." Anne said. "Hop Pop I'm sorry for running away from home."
"I am mad, but it is sort of my fault keeping you locked away." Hop Pop said. "But since the town knows about you, I guess I can try to let you have a little more freedom. But for now, let's go home."
"Hey Sasha, Anne, Marcy, can we play pass the pollywog on the way back home?" Polly asked.
The girls smiled and Sasha said. "Who we to deny our baby sister her favorite game?" She picked Polly up and tossed her to Anne who then threw her to Marcy who struggled to catch her. Polly laughed all the while in enjoy the feeling of flying through the air.
Later that night Hop Pop looked at an old book, the page turned to the entry on the Calamity Box. "I guess I should tell the girls about this too. But I should give them a few days to adjust."
"This is weird. Seeing our lives take a very different turn." ghost Sasha said.
"Huh, Mr. Guardian. Did that help at all?" ghost Marcy asked.
The Guardian nodded. "Yes. At the very least we know we have an ally in the man in the golden light. He obviously went further back in time and took you three as babies and brought the to Amphibia to save your lives. By doing that these versions of you had a longer period to adjust to the power since it grew with you, they may fully get control soon. The man also said he'd return, and his Nemesis is looking for your alternate selves. If we continue to observe these versions of you, we may learn more and find a way restore time."
Ghost Anne held back tears of joy. "So, in a weird way our adventures in Amphibia have started all over again. But this time we're together, so nothing is going to stop them."
13 years ago…
King Andrias rushed into his master's chamber. "My Lord what is this about an…" He saw a human with a black coat and violet hair, his back turned to him, and the Core wrapped in pale silver light. "…intruder."
"King Andrias and the Core." The man spoke with an echoey voice. "A pleasure to meet you both. Big fan."
"What? I have not seen the likes of humans for a thousand years!" Andrieas said.
"Oh, I've evolved way beyond those pathetic lifeforms. I have good news, the chance to break the Olm prophecy is at hand and our interests are in alignment." The man said.
The Cores eyes shifted and focused on this strange being. "What do you want and how will it get us the stones? Speak." The Core demanded.
The silver man turned his head with a wicked smile. "How would you two like to rule over all time?"
