Chapter Eight
Piper silently counted to three and then darted into the aisle. She immediately poised for attack but took one look at the demon and froze. "What the hell are you?" Her sisters quickly joined her and gasped in surprise.
The demon was no more than three feet tall, slimy-looking, and various shades green. Its large round eyes were bulging from their sockets and its ears were tiny slits in the sides of its domed head. Its webbed fingers were tipped with sharp pointed nails and its smooth skin seemed to glisten in the dim light. "You will pay for killing my pet," it growled in its deceptively deep voice.
"Such a big voice," Phoebe whispered to her older sister, "for such a little demon."
Piper grinned back. "Reminds me of Mr. Froggie. Remember him, Pheebs?"
"I think Mr. Froggie was bigger," Phoebe giggled.
"Poor Prue," Piper continued, "she cried for two weeks when he disappeared. And then you convinced Grams"
"To get her another one," Phoebe recalled. "Grams was happy because Mr. Froggie II was much cleaner than the original."
"Yeah," Piper agreed, "but he wasn't the same. Besides, Prue was --"
"Eight and that's too old for stuffed animals," Phoebe finished with a grin. A part of her was happily relieved that her double had also experienced Mr. Froggie with Prue.
Paige tried not to feel left out of her sisters' shared memories and instead suggested, "Maybe you should just step on him and save your energy." The demon's growl only sent her into a fit of giggles but she surprisingly found herself thrown back in the air to the far end of the aisle where she hit the side of a crate. Dazed, she lay in a heap at the foot of the stack.
"That's my sister, Frogboy," Piper shouted and immediately blew away the demon's right arm.
"Piper!" Phoebe uttered in concern. She couldn't believe that Piper had only aimed for its arm, not when this Piper was so similar to her own. Her Piper hadn't missed once since first developing that power.
"I know, I know," Piper frowned, "I was aiming for his headPaige, you okay?"
"Don't worry, sweetie," Paige weakly said as she got to her feet and made her way back to her sisters. "You know it takes time to get back into fighting shape after having a baby."
Her short foe instantly grew a new arm and Piper aimed for its head again. "This is the first trouble I've had with my powers since the beginning of my pregnancy."
"It's okay, maybe you were distracted," Phoebe suggested. "Frogboy here isn't exactly the menacing demon we were expecting." She paused a moment and murmured, "I keep thinking I'm forgetting something."
"Like what?" Paige nervously asked. "It's not gonna give us warts is it?"
"Nothing like that." Phoebe rubbed the bandage behind her ear and admitted, "But there is something about this overgrown frog"
"Stop talking," it ordered them indignantly. It waved its webbed hands at them and sent the three witches flying backward into another stack.
"Little frog, big punch," Phoebe groaned when she stirred and carefully untangled herself from her sisters. She then helped pull them into seated positions.
"Start dying!" the demon demanded as it began to wave its hands again.
"After you, Toad," Piper grumbled as she slowly stood and raised her hands. But the demon leaped up high above her head and landed on top of another stack so that her motion merely blew up a few crates. She cursed and turned to Phoebe, "Something you forgot?" Phoebe looked at her sheepishly and Piper rolled her eyes, "Never mind, just get ready."
Phoebe understood her sister's hidden message and stood by Piper's side. "I'm ready."
Piper nodded and called out, "All right, Toad, you wanna play leap-frog? Try this."
The demon leaped up again to avoid her destructive power but was met in mid-air with a blow to its head courtesy of a levitated Phoebe.
As it fell to the ground, Piper blew it up in puddles of goo. "Well, that settles it, this shirt is a lost cause," she muttered at the sight of new green stains.
"I'll buy you a new one. Good job, Sis," Phoebe complimented as she floated down to the floor.
"Back at ya, Sis," Piper replied with a smile. She helped Paige to her feet. "You both okay?"
"As if my head wasn't hurting enough already," Phoebe quietly complained. "Hope you still have some of your potion left. I think we're all gonna need it."
Paige rubbed her left elbow and asked her sisters, "Can we go home now? Demon frog and his demon dog are gone and I've got nothin' but a butt-full of splinters to show for it."
Piper bit back a smile but shook her head with sympathy for her youngest sister. "We still haven't gotten what we came for."
"I was afraid you were gonna say that," Paige sighed. "All right, what's our plan?"
"With Froggie gone, we've lost our lead on the Medallion," Piper realized.
"Maybe we should've tried freezing and questioning him first," Phoebe sighed. She had no intention of leaving before she helped her friend's double and couldn't help but feel that she and her sisters had just wasted valuable time. And that part of her also worried how her double and her own sisters were faring. Had they confronted the same demon with the same results? "An Amphi. I think that Froggie here may have been an Amphi. I vaguely remember a passage in the Book. Limited bursts of power, probably why it needed to hire someone to steal the Medallion for it."
"Well, since we're all still standing here with our powers, I'm guessing the little toad probably had no idea what he was after and no longer had it," Paige mused. "He probably gave it to this Garazan you mentioned the minute he got it."
"Number one," Piper cautioned them, "for all we know, Froggie and his dog came across Kenny by accident and the dog helped simply himself to a meal. We have no proof this Amphi actually stole the Medallion. And, number two, we're still not sure that this Garazan is involved either."
"I am and it did," a new voice replied from behind them, "with some help, of course. And I thank you for taking care of that little loose end for me."
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"Stay down," Cole told Phoebe before he stood in the aisle and confronted the demon. Not the demon he expected to see. "Tell me, Toad, what you're doing here and I'll let you live."
"What?" Piper hissed as she scrambled to her feet.
Phoebe quickly motioned for her sister to get down, "Wait, we don't know anything about this demon. Cole knows what he's doing."
"Yeah, he's screwing us," Paige retorted. "We don't bargain with demons that try to kill us, Phoebe." She and Piper stood but burst into a fit of giggles at their first sight of the demon standing opposite Cole.
At the sound of their laughter, Phoebe stepped into the open and joined her sisters. Her immediate reaction was also to chuckle but the overgrown frog's double row of tiny pointed glistening teeth reminded her it was still a demon and still dangerous, particularly if it owned another Krillik. "Cole?"
"An Amphi," he replied, pleased that at least *she* seemed to care about the possible danger. The question still nagged at him though, had she defended him because of the knowledge he possessed or because of the way she felt about him?
"You know this Frog?" Piper questioned when she finally controlled her laughter. The way they were bulging out of their sockets, she was sure the demon's eyes would burst out from its domed head. Still, she motioned her intent of vanquishing the demon.
"Watch it," Cole warned and deflected her arm. As he expected, the demon leaped up high above their heads to avoid the danger. "Great," he muttered and ignored Piper's surprised reaction and the crates she caused to explode.
"I remember now," Phoebe murmured while she carefully brushed small pieces of wood from her arms and hair. "There's a page about them in the Book. But I got the impression they were supposed to be tiny like regular frogs."
"You might've said something about him leap-frogging," Piper chastised her.
"And you might've let Cole handle it so that you wouldn't waste energy blowing up crates," Phoebe griped.
"Just squash him," Paige ordered when the demon landed back on the floor in front of them. She hated the way Cole was looking gratefully at her sister. And she hated the fact that she knew Phoebe was already falling for him again. "You hit your head too hard this morning and you're not thinking clearly," she warned.
"Don't start," Phoebe cautioned and prayed Paige hadn't figured out her deception. They wouldn't understand her decision to help Cole and she hoped to be gone before they ever found out. "I know what I'm doing," she insisted.
"Less talk, more action," Piper advised when she noticed the demon move its hands. But her warning wasn't in time and the demon's actions sent Piper and her sisters flying backwards into a stack of crates.
Only Cole remained standing, unaffected by the concussive blast. He glanced back at the witches and controlled his relief when he saw Phoebe begin to stir. He turned back to the demon and demanded, "Where is the Medallion?"
"Where is my pet?" it countered. "You destroyed him, I'll tell you nothing of any Medallion."
"That was her doing," Cole offered as he pointed to Piper. "I'm willing to work with you. Tell me what I want to know."
"Bastard!" Paige snapped at him while she helped Piper to a seated position. She glared at her other sister and warned, "If anything happens because of him"
"Cole won't hurt us," Phoebe quietly stated. She wanted so badly to believe her words and stared at Cole for some sort of confirmation.
Cole missed their exchange but, from the furious looks on both Piper and Paige, he guessed Phoebe had shown him some support. He smiled at her tentatively in case it was true but, at the same time, he almost wished she would stick to one extreme. Either hate him or love him because the mixed signals she kept sending his way were driving him crazy. And then he remembered that she wasn't actually his Phoebe and she'd be leaving soon so none of it really mattered.
Phoebe looked back at him in confusion when his smile suddenly turned into a frown. "Cole?"
Before he could answer, Cole heard a croak from the demon and quickly turned back to concentrate solely on the short green figure. "Unless you wish to join your pet, I suggest you answer my question. Where is the Medallion?"
It quivered slightly before the sight of Cole bouncing an energy ball in each hand. "I do not have it," it reluctantly admitted. "I was only paid to retrieve it."
"Garazan has it," Cole realized. "Where is he?"
"I do not know," it replied as its large round eyes nervously blinked. "What about my pet?"
Cole believed it and ordered, "There are a variety of amulets available for your purposes. Go now."
To her disbelief, Cole was letting the demon go. Piper shook her head in renewed anger and quickly stood. "Hey, Frogboy!" she called out. The demon turned and she added, "Try this game." The demon exploded and sprayed gobs of bright green goo over them, primarily Piper. "I loved this shirt," she muttered to herself.
"I'll buy you another," Phoebe hesitantly offered. But Piper's glare indicated there was no appeasing her sister yet.
"You shouldn't have done that," Cole glowered at her as he clenched his hands into fists.
"Yes, she should have," Paige protested as she finally joined Piper. "What the hell were you doing letting it live?"
Cole saw the same question unasked in Phoebe's eyes. And yet, somehow, hers was the only one that seemed open to hearing his explanation. The other two were ready to vanquish him on the spot. "I was thinking," he calmly informed them, "that the Amphi could no longer help us and was defenseless without its Krillik."
"Defenseless?" Paige practically shouted. "I've got a butt-full of splinters to show for his defenselessness."
"Amphis only experience short bursts of power at a time," Phoebe quietly recalled, "I remember now. The Book said it could take months before an Amphi had enough energy to act aggressively again. It couldn't have hurt us again."
Again, Cole felt grateful for her unexpected support. He nodded, "There was no reason to kill it. Without its Krillik, it wouldn't have lasted much longer on its own in the Underworld. I doubt it would have been able to access the amulets it would have needed to survive."
"He could've gotten a new demon dog," Paige snapped again.
"Krilliks don't work that way," Cole growled, "and if you'd listen for once, you might actually learn something."
"Here's what I've learned," Piper interrupted, displeased and disheartened at the sudden rift growing between her and Phoebe, "Frogboy didn't have the Medallion and neither do we."
"Do you really believe it was involved in stealing the Medallion?" Phoebe asked, unsure how badly she was ruining life for her double and completely at a loss for how to fix it. Why did she always hurt the ones she loved?
"Yes, it was," a new voice replied instead, "and I am grateful to you for tying up that little loose end for me."
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