It's time for another set of drabbles! These ones are a little more interconnected than the ones in previous chapters, and some of them are continuations of drabbles from the last chapter so they might not fully make sense without having read them.

I'm not too satisfied with this chapter overall, but I hope you enjoy regardless.

"Can you help me with my school project, Anne?" asked young Tulip Plantar. "I'm doing a research project on the time of the Calamity War and you can give me some firsthand info the history books don't have."

"Isn't that cheating?" asked Anne.

Tulip shrugged. "Probably, but you'll help me right?" She put on an impressive display of 'puppy eyes'.

Anne tried to resist, but as usual Tulip's adorableness prevailed. "Okay, I'll help you. I don't know how you can still do that— you're the same age I was when I was first here."

"What can I say? I've got charm." Tulip pulled out an electronic note-taking device. "Alright, what's something that happened while you were here that you never told anyone else, or at least not anyone who's alive here today?"

Anne thought for a minute. "Well, I don't think I've mentioned the time I killed a group of cannibal frogs."

Tulip froze. That was absolutely not what she was expecting. "What…?"

"Yeah, there were these horned frogs who owned this inn and they'd eat the people who stayed there," said Anne, oblivious to how disturbed Tulip was. "They almost got me and your great-grandpa and Polly and Hop Pop but we escaped. I spilled a bunch of vinegar and baking soda and that created a big explosion!" Anne waited for Tulip to write everything down. "So was that good?"

Tulip blinked. "Uh… that was definitely not what I expected, but no one else will mention it in their papers… so thank you."

Sasha walked back to her dorm room with groceries in hand. Her roommate Becky wouldn't be back until the end of the day, and Sasha would enjoy her free time.

"Alright, just gotta put this stuff away, then it's six hours of Becky-free study time." Sasha set the bags down on a table and took the soap and toilet paper out so she could put them in the bathroom.

Once she was out of the room, Anne and Marcy invisibly got to work. They traveled back in time 75 years to this moment. They were about to spend the next two weeks making Sasha think she's being haunted by ghosts and they would love every minute of it.

"We're gonna start small," said Anne, "and then we'll work our way up to pandemonium."

"Ooh, this is gonna be so much fun!" said Marcy.

They quickly unpacked Sasha's groceries and left them on the table. Needless to say, the blonde was very confused when she went back to the main room.

"What the…? Becky? Are you here?" There was no response. "This is weird."

Anne and Marcy continued messing with Sasha over the next fourteen days, while also making sure Becky never saw any of their "ghostly" pranks. Sometimes it was simple like changing the TV channel or flickering the lights on and off, and other times the "hauntings" were much more complex, like temporarily inverting all the colors on Sasha's outfits. Throughout the whole process, Sasha never truly got scared, but she sure got paranoid. Way too paranoid, in Becky's opinion.

"Ugh!" said Sasha as she dealt with the latest "haunting". Anne and Marcy watched her text their past selves.

Sashy: THE GHOSTS ARE HERE AGAIN

Anna Banana: Pics or it didn't happen

Sashy: They're invisible I can't take a picture of them

Marmar: Therefore it didn't happen

Sashy: :(

Anna Banana: :)

Marmar: :)

Anne and Marcy silently snickered.

Marcy floated through the cosmos billions of miles away from Earth. It's fun to sometimes get away from all the stress of being a Guardian and just wander through space. On this particular trip, she noticed something very interesting: an old 1970s-era probe.

Marcy gasped. "I've found Voyager 2! Or is this Voyager 1?" She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. Either way, this is so cool! A probe so far from its home planet but it's still chugging along."

Part of her really wanted to snatch the golden record and view the messages on it, but she declined. Instead, she decided to create a message of her own for the few NASA scientists still checking data from probes sent close to two centuries ago. She briefly lit up some stars which would spell letters when fully arranged. When she was done, she briefly reactivated the probe's camera which hadn't been turned on in over 100 years and snapped a picture of her message.

"HELLO NASA SCIENTISTS! MARCY WUZ HERE!"

Marcy chuckled before quickly reverting everything back to the way it was before. "Old, but gold."

"I've read sources that differ on how exactly the music box operated," said Tulip. "Could you shed some light on the truth?"

"That is an excellent question," said Sasha. "And the answer is no, I can't because that thing never worked consistently."

"Interesting." This was not what she thought Sasha would say, but it's still good information for Tulip's report.

"So the first time was when Anne and Marcy and I were in a playground on Earth," said Sasha. "All Anne did was open it and we all got zapped to random locations. And the random part makes sense, but not why we were all sent separately, or why we got powers when using the box any other time didn't do that."

"Gotcha," said Tulip as she took notes.

"And then later at the castle in Newtopia I got real mad that Anne got real mad at me, and I opened the box so I could send her away but literally nothing happened. Anne suggested that the old Guardian stopped it from working there, but I doubt it. They were pretty hands-off. Anyway, later every time someone used it they would touch the gems in a certain way and suddenly there was an instant perfect portal. So basically I'm a little salty that I never figured out how to use it even once." Sasha sighed. "Sorry you had to listen to that tangent. You should ask Marcy for info about the box."

"It's okay," said Tulip with a smile. "You were helpful!"

"In one corner, standing at 5 feet 9 inches, we have the savior of worlds, the Guardian of the Multiverse, the frog lady: AAAAAAAANNE BOOOOOONCHUY!"

Marcy loved getting hammy with introductions whenever she got the chance.

"And in the other corner, we have… exactly the same!"

Two Annes, two swords, one mind. Who will win? According to Sasha, it'll be neither of them, but she would try anyway.

"You ready to eat your words, Waybright?" asked Anne.

"Not even a little," replied Sasha. "When this is over, you're gonna admit swordfighting yourself is harder than it is with tennis."

The Guardians had gone from a tennis court to a boxing arena. They could've really swordfought anywhere, but chose a boxing ring so Marcy could do her "in one corner" introduction.

"I'm ready to start," said Anne. "Just waiting for you, Mar-Mar."

"Got it," said Marcy. "3, 2, 1, go!"

As soon as Marcy said go, Left Anne ran forward and swung toward her opponent, which Right Anne easily parried. Right Anne moved oh from that parry with a swing of her own which Left Anne. It went on like that for several minutes. Each Anne managed to get a couple of small hits on, but for the most part it was a blocking game. Eventually Anne decided it was time for a break.

"Well, what do you think?" asked Sasha with a smug grin.

Anne sighed and dissipated the duplicate. "I begrudgingly admit that swordfighting myself isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Are you happy?"

"Kind of." Sasha's smug grin was replaced with an embarrassed frown. "I begrudgingly admit that you were a lot better on your first attempt then I was on mine… so I guess we're even."

"Alright," said Anne. "Sparring with you is way more fun anyway."

"Definitely."

After spending twelve years on the reservation list, the Guardians are finally eating at Dsana's Luncheonarium, the most prestigious restaurant in the multiverse. What made it so special is that Dsana and their assistant chefs knew how to cook everything, even things they've never encountered before. Why? It's because the restaurant is on a world called Culinaria, where recipes from all over the multiverse filter into eventually.

"Do you really think this place is worth the hype?" asked Marcy.

"It better be," said Anne. "I didn't wait twelve years just to have meh food."

"It is indeed worth the hype," said a robotic waiter, startling the trio.

"When did you get here!?" demanded Sasha.

"I've always been here." The waiter smiled eerily. "As per your order requests when you checked in, here are Chef Dsana's preparations of your favorite foods." It snapped its fingers and a cart with three plates rolled toward the table. "For Anne, khao niew bing the way your mother made it. For Sasha, orange chicken with fried rice. For Marcy, red velvet cupcakes with ube icing." The waiter uncovered the plates and placed them in front of their recipients as he spoke. "Enjoy."

And with that, the waiter vanished just as quickly as he appeared.

"Everything looks good," said Anne.

Marcy took a bite of a cupcake and her eyes widened. "This truly is food worthy of the gods."

Anne and Sasha gave Marcy an odd look before they began eating.

"I think you might be exaggerating—oh my frog this is the greatest thing I've ever tasted."

"…and it was most likely luck that I managed to work it correctly," said Marcy. "It's not Sasha's fault she didn't get it right."

"That makes sense," said Tulip.

"So, do you have any more questions?" asked Marcy happily.

"Well, those were all the questions for the project," said Tulip. "But there's something important I want your opinion on."

"Oooh…" Marcy was intrigued.

"So there's this joke going around, we'll maybe it's more like one of those 'memes' you mentioned, that Andrias didn't introduce the caste system because his frog and toad friends betrayed him. He did it because they were his girlfriend and boyfriend and the system was his way of dealing with a bad breakup. What do you think?"

"Oh." That was just about the last thing Marcy expected to be asked today. But at the same time, she couldn't deny that it was a good question. Based on her history with Andrias in life and when she encountered him, Leif, and Barrel in the afterlife, she knew they were closer than typical friends. And while they never said they were romantically involved, it certainly seemed like they were.

Did King Andrias invent amphibian prejudice because his girlfriend dumped him?

"Yes," said Marcy, "I completely agree."

The Calamity Trio threw a party to celebrate their latest civilization-saving adventure. They guided the heroes of the noisnemiD drawkcaB defeat the evil forces who plotted to make everything up to the forces of nature move forward. It was one of the most confusing experiences of their lives, but also one of the most fun.

"Damn, that was awesome!" said Anne. "It was almost as fun as the time we went back in time and pranked Sasha!

"Wha…?" Sasha's wives hadn't heard her.

"Yeah, she totally thought we were ghosts," said Marcy.

Anne chuckled. "My favorite part was when we made one sock go missing and she went crazy trying to find it."

Neither Anne nor Marcy noticed Sasha's rage begin to boil, getting ready to erupt in a way it hadn't in over 100 years.

"Oh man, remember when she—"

"THAT WAS YOU!?"