First stop, Wally's house.
'Wait, he has a house?' Anne thought.
Her focus went back to the toads as they banged harshly on Wally's door!
"Open up! Tax collectors!" A female toad said.
They knocked down his door, seeing him in the bath.
"Aaah! I'm not decent!" Wally said, covering himself in the bathtub.
"Time to pay up, Frog." Bog, the main toad said.
"What are you on about!?" Wally asked.
"You owe taxes to the tower, it's time to pay." Bog said, "Take his stuff lads."
Anne watched in horror as they began taking his stuff, she may not have been respected by the town, but she didn't like how the toads were acting. When no one was looking, Anne shot a web and pulled back some of Wally's stuff.
"Here, take this." She said, handing him jerky.
"Thank you." He said.
"Come on, Anne!" Bog said.
Anne gave Wally a nod before she went off with the toads as they "collected" more taxes from the rest of Wartwood. Each and every place they ransacked, Anne would grab some of the stuff they took and give it back to frog they belonged too. The Sundews, Mrs. Croaker, Stumpy, everyone.
"Alright, next on the list is... Hopediah Plantar."
Anne stopped in her steps as she turned to Bog, who was holding the list.
"Excuse me?" Anne asked.
"I said Hopediah Plantar is next." Bog said to Anne, holding the list out to her. "It says so right here."
"But that's impossible. I live with the Plantars and I know for certain that Hop Pop does his taxes." Anne said as she took the list to look at it closely.
"How do you know for sure?" Fens asked her.
"He made me watch as he did them." Anne said to her.
She thought back to him doing them.
"And then we add the deductibles, and guess what Anne, you're a deductible!" He said.
Anne webbed her ears shut but could still hear him.
"Kill me."
"Look, Anne, the tower didn't get their taxes and the list has his name on it." Bog said, "Now let's get going to see him."
'Now I KNOW this really is fishy.' Anne thought as Fens took the clipboard back.
They arrived at the farm, and Hop Pop refused to let them in.
"You can't come in, I paid my taxes!" He said.
"The records say otherwise, Plantar! Now let us in or well bust in!" Fens said as she held her mace at the ready.
"There's no need." Bog said, "We'll take the snail."
"No, not Bessie!" Hop Pop said.
Anne watched as they moved towards Bessie. She knew they couldn't take her, so she did the only thing she could do. Bog reached to take Bessie's reign, when something hit his hand. He looked at it, before getting pulled away and hit by Anne's foot. Anne landed and stood up.
"Stay away from that snail."
"Ugh." Bogs grunted as Fens went it help him up.
"Anne, what are you doing?" Fens asked her.
"I'm doing what's right. I don't care what that record says, I KNOW Hop Pop paid his taxes! The same for the rest of Wartwood." Anne said.
"Then why didn't Toad Tower receive them?" Bogs asked her.
"I don't know, but I'm not going to stand here and watch you steal from them!" Anne said.
The other towns folk walked up, hearing the commotion.
'Too many people, I can't use my webs to help.' Anne thought, 'Guess I'll have to rely on the old fashioned way.'
Anne glared at the toads as she bent her knees down, moving her right foot back as she placed her left hand on the ground and held her right arm up at a bend.
"You want to play it that way, huh?" Bog asked, "Take her out."
Fen charged at her, but Anne used her faster reflexes to dodge and then used her super strength to deliver a punch that knocked Fen all the way into the town statue of Toadstool.
"Whose next?" Anne asked.
"Grr! Let's get her, Mire!" Bog said as the helmet wearing toad grunted in agreement!
The two charged at her, but she dodged effortlessly. The town watched her and began to cheer for her. The way Anne moved, it was unlike anything they had seen before but it was almost like she was one of them as she jumped high into the air as the toads followed.
"Rah!" Bog shouted as he swung his mace, missing as Anne dodged and punched in the face!
Anne landed while Bog hit the ground. Her spider Sense went off and she turned around in time to get hit by Mire. She was knocked to the ground and Mire stepped on her head. Bog got up and smiled.
"Well, that was a mistake." He said, raising his mace and slamming it down on Anne's arm.
Anne screamed in pain as her arm was broken and bleeding.
"Hehehehe, now time for the other arm!" Bog said as he moved to Anne's other arm.
Anne was trying to figure out how to stop this, when Sprig came.
"Wait!"
Everyone, toads including, stopped watching as they turned to the young Plantar frog.
"You don't have to do this! I know what happened to the town's taxes!" He said, "Mayor Toadstool stole them!"
Gasps we're heard from everyone as they turned to their "beloved" toad mayor, who was looking a little nervous as he began to sweat a bit.
"Blasphemy! The boy lies!" His assistant, Toadie, shouted to defend the mayor.
"Are they?" Sprig asked.
Everyone met at the statue, where they saw Fen knocked out, laying on a bunch of coins. Anne hit her so hard that she made the evidence burst right out and no one noticed it until now. The town turned to the Mayor.
"Ehehehehehe, well, there's a logical explanation for all of this." Toadstool said as he began to sweat, holding his hands up, "And I will explain that later!"
He began to run away.
"GET HIM!" The towns people rushed after the mayor on an angry mob.
Meanwhile with Anne, she pushed herself off the ground and knocked Mire off to stand up! She clutched her broken and bleeding arm as she glared down to Bog.
"Like I said, Wartwood paid their taxes. Now give everything you took back and get out." Anne said to him as Mire went to help Fen up.
Anne hobbled off with Hop Pop.
"Come on Anne, we should get that arm wrapped up." He said.
"I heal fast." She said.
"You may have powers, but I don't want you to get an infection. We're getting that arm cleaned and wrapped in a cast and that's final."
Anne didn't disagree with him but she really would be fine, she had injuries worse than this before.
'But it feels nice that he worries so much about me.' Anne thought as she left with the Plantars to get her arm treated.
Meanwhile, watching as she left with the frogs, the toads glared at the human as they recalled how they fought with Anne as they began loading up the snails Toadstool hid while unloading the stuff they "collected" from the Wartwood.
'How can she move like that? It's nothing like how the Commander moves.' Fen thought.
Later, After unloading everything, Bog and the toads walked past Anne.
"Creature." Bog said, distain in his voice.
"Leave her alone you toads!" Wally said, "She's braver than any of you!"
The town rallied behind him. The toads loaded their stuff up and left.
"So are we going to tell Captain Grime about this?" Fen asked.
"Oh, we'll tell him, we'll tell him everything."
The leader toad gave a dark smile, hinting that the captain and the commander will have a plan to deal with the strange, powered human.
With the frogs, Wally turned to Anne.
"Three cheers for Anne! The Town Protector!"
"Hip hip! Hurray! Hip hip! Hurray! Hip hip! Hurray!" They cheered as Anne's arm was in a cast, with a sling around her neck.
She finally had the respect of the town.
"Aw, guys." Anne said, "Now who wants to sign my cast."
"I call first!" Sprig shouted!
Anne smiled at the town, so eager to sign the cast of the town hero.
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