Chapter 3

Frogs at a Con

"Be careful, kids," Mrs. Boonchuy advised as she dropped Anne, Sprig and Polly off in front of the convention center. "My online group said that these conventions can be full of people trying to rip kids off.

Anne, dressed as a certain beloved video game character known for green tunics and floppy green hats, waved her off dismissively. "Mom, if I can handle six months of giant monsters trying to eat me, I can handle a few nerds trying to overcharge for merch. Besides, I have my trusty fairy here to protect me."

"FEAR ME!" declared Polly, brandishing her dagger. "Fairies are the ones that breathe fire, right?"

"Oh, totally," Anne assured.

"And she has the mighty Sergeant Frog!" Sprig added, saluting.

"Mmm… well, I suppose I'm being a bit overprotective, but, can you really blame me? You disappear for six months and I'm just supposed to forget about that?"

Ugh. Mom guilt, Anne thought ruefully. Sure, she could see where she was coming from, but she could take care of herself; heck, she was practically a superhero at this point! Did Batman's mom – okay, bad example, but the point remains… "It's fine. Marcy and I went last year, remember?"

"Yes, but your father was there to watch you two. Would've sent him this year, but last time he bought that giant Boba Fett standee. *sigh* It's… not that I don't know you're growing into a strong young woman, and that you've done some incredible things, but I'd… still feel better with some adult supervision."

"I was thinking of asking Hop-Pop to come, but this didn't seem like his scene." She shrugged. "Would've made a good Yoda, though." She smiled at her mom. "It's going to be okay. I'm just a call away, remember? I'm not going away any time soon." Then again, she hadn't found a way back to Amphibia yet, so it's not like she had any way of doing it. We'll cross that dimensional bridge when we come to it, Anne reminded herself. Till then, it's like you're not lying to your mom!

"All right. Be safe. Check in every hour." Her face took on a serious expression. "I mean it. For every hour you don't check in I will make an embarrassing post on your social media page."

"Y-you wouldn't…" Anne replied, horrified.

"Try me." Her face went back to cordial immediately. "Have fun, kids!"

As she drove off, Polly remarked "Dang, your mama plays hardball."

"Oh yeah. She is not one to cross," confirmed Anne.

"So, what is this thing, anyway?" Sprig asked.

"It's sorta this thing where everyone gets together to let their dork flags fly. It's a celebration of all kinds of stuff like comics, anime, video games, that sorta thing. And practically everyone dresses up. It's kinda like Halloween, except instead of free candy there's overpriced concessions and a chance to maybe meet some semi-famous people." She checked the program on her phone. "Oh, hey, Cassandra Rosemary's here! She's the creator of my favorite cartoon, Crystal Galaxy. C'mon, we have to go meet her!"

"Is that the one where the main character defeats her enemies with music and empathy, instead of the right way?" asked Polly.

"I mean, that's kind of simplifying the complicated emotional themes that run through the show… Look, Crystal went through some major trauma, which I relate to even more now! I have to get her autograph and tell her how she changed my life!"

"Maaaaybe we should work up to that," suggested Sprig. "It'll calm you down and maybe make it less likely that security'll throw you out."

"Oh, c'mon, I don't get that intense…"

"Remember the arcade incident?"

"That was totally justified! I was taking a stand!"

"You couldn't stand so good when they tazed you," reminded Polly.

"It wasn't so bad," rationalized Anne. "Sure, I was smelling colors and tasting sounds for a while, but it all worked itself out."

"Just try to keep it together, Anne," urged Sprig. "Frog, I hate being the responsible one."

"You can be the impulsive one tomorrow," assured Anne. "Okay, let's go get our nerd on!"

The interior of the convention center was huge. Sprig had never seen a place this big, excluding Newtopia Castle, and this one didn't have the downside of being a flying war machine (as far as he knew). It was crammed with humans of all shapes and sizes, most in elaborate costumes like their own, some of them spectacularly elaborate. "Wow…" he marveled.

"Wow, wow, wow!" mimicked Polly, imitating his voice perfectly.

"I'VE EARNED THIS, POLLY!" he snapped back. "Seriously, I didn't know this many humans existed!"

"There are eight billion of us, Sprig," noted Anne.

"I didn't know numbers went that high."

"Well, they do and there are. Look, Hop-Pop's shown me maps of Amphibia and while I'm not exactly sure about the scale, if I had to guess, it's about as big as our smallest continent. So we're talking a much larger scale. Newtopia's your largest city, right? Well, it's tiny in comparison to LA, and Earth has dozens of cities just as big or bigger."

"Wow," Polly said, this time sincerely.

"Yeah. We're dealing with a much larger scale here. So, yeah, this is a lot of people in one place, but that's just not as special here."

"Wartwood must have seemed so… insignificant to you."

"Well… I gotta admit it did in the early days, but I kind of grew to appreciate how small and cozy it was. Not the high probability of death, that I never got used to. But I did get to like small town living. It… kinda reminded me of when my family visited Thailand when I was little. My grandma lives in this tiny village that was actually a lot like Wartwood, now that I think about it… Everyone knew everyone else. In a city like this, you could go your entire life and not know even a tiny fraction of the people outside your own neighborhood. So… that was… kinda nice."

The small crew passed a group of people dressed as Klingons having a mock battle. "You never mentioned there'd be MONSTER BATTLES! How can I get in on this?" Polly demanded.

"I think for now it's best you stay on my shoulder so I can pass you off as a prop. Not a lot of perfectly-spherical kids here…"

"But I can totally take those guys," she protested. "Those curved knife-thingies are way impractical…"

"Oh, yeah, you'd kick their butts, I know it," agreed Anne. "Really, this is more for their protection than yours."

"Spoilsport."

"Relax, Polly," Sprig mollified. "There's lots of other things to check out here. Like…" His eyes took in the various tabled full of memorabilia and merchandise. "Stuff. So… much… stuff." He indicated a table full of various video-game-themed plushies. "Some of it's even stuffed! Stuffed stuff!"

"No… way…" Anne's eyes settled on one particular plush, a large, chubby light-brown catlike creature toting a rifle. "It's Nyan-chan-chan!"

"Nyan-what now?" Sprig asked.

"Nyan-Chan-Chan," repeated Anne. "He's the mascot from Vagabondia Chronicles, Marcy's favorite video game. I was gonna try to get her one for her birthday, but I never could find one because they never released the merch outside of Japan, and then, well, all that stuff happened, and now we're separated. But now I've actually managed to find one! Guys, I think this is a really good sign!" She picked the plushie up, spun around, and lifted it skyward.

"Ahem!" the vendor interrupted, tapping a sign that read NO HOMAGING WITH THE MERCHANDISE.

"But I'm totally dressed for it!" Anne complained.

"Yes, well, all the Links do it and I'm tired of it." The vendor grumbled. "Also, while that is an impressively realistic costume," he continued in a pedantic voice, "Keroro Gunsou is green, not pink."

"I though I was Sgt Frog," Sprig replied, confused.

"Sure, if you want to use the translated name," the vendor said disdainfully.

Anne's first urge was to feed the vendor his own neckbeard for trying to gatekeep them, but as Sprig had reminded her, impulses could get her in trouble. "So, how much is it for the plush?"

"Ah, Nyan-Chan-Chan, from Yukanna Bagabonda no Tabinokiroku… or Vagabondia Chronicles, if you're one of those who's only familiar with the localized version… Only about a dozen of these made it to the west. Two hundred and fifty dollars."

"$250? I can't afford that!" Anne declared, aghast. "It'd take months of tips and allowance before I could get that much! C'mon… you gotta cut me a deal here…"

"AHEM." He tapped the sign right below the NO HOMAGING WITH THE MERCHANDISE sign, which read NO HAGGLING. "$250 is the final price. If you do not have it, then I'm afraid we cannot do business, thank yooooou."

"Wanna let me do the negotiating?" asked Polly, fingering her dagger. "You know how persuasive I can be…"

"Hmmm… that toy of your does appear to be very well-made. I'm not certain what kind it is, but perhaps we can arrange a trade…"

"Toy?" asked Polly indignantly.

"Polly is not for sale!" declared Anne, cradling the pollywog protectively. "Let's get out of here."

"*groan* What a jerk," grumbled Anne. "Still, I would've liked to get that plush for Marcy… *sigh* I dunno where I'm gonna find $250 on short notice. I'm gonna go drown my sorrows at the boba stand. C'mon, Sprig… Sprig?"

"Oh, sorry, I was just distracted by that banner over there."

"What banner?" Anne turned to read it. "Crystal Galaxy Trivia contest hosted by Cassandra Rosemary and Zoe Caruthers. Grand prize, $250?"

"Isn't that that cartoon you really like? So you'd probably do really good in a trivia contest?"

"Yeah. That's… awfully convenient."

"Contrived, even!" Sprig added cheerfully. "Oh well, a lucky break's a lucky break, right?"

"True, true." Anne nodded. "Let's do this."

The competition had proved fiercer than Anne anticipated. The other seven contestants had proven every bit as knowledgeable as she was, moreover she was fighting the urge to just go full-on fangirl since not only was Cassandra here, but so was Zoe Caruthers, voice of Crystal Galaxy herself.

Still, Anne held her own as each contestant dropped out, one by one, once they gave wrong answers. Eventually, it all came down to her vs. one of the multiple Deadpools in attendance. In the audience, Sprig gave her a "you got this" thumbs up.

"Ok, next question, for Deadpool…" Zoe began. "In the Christmas special, what gift did Osmium give Crystal?"

"The Spear of Galthinius," Deadpool answered confidently.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Zoe said. "That's not the answer we were looking for. Link, if you can answer this question, you win."

Anne took a deep breath. "While it's true that Crystal did get the spear in that episode, it wasn't Osmium's gift to her. His actual gift was his song. It just so happened that it contained the right sequence of notes to unlock Galthinius's cave."

"That's correct!" Zoe exclaimed. "You're our winner for today!"

"YES!" Anne shouted, her fist pumping in triumph. "I just have to say that it's a tremendous honor to meet you both and I'm a huge fan and your show taught me lessons that have made a huge difference in helping me face everything life has thrown at me and I don't just mean metaphorically, I mean literally…"

"Um… well, that's… I'm glad my work has had such a positive influence," Cassandra Rosemary said, looking a bit nervous as Anne ran up to claim her prize. As she accepted it and begged Zoe to sign her stomach, Sprig poked her for attention. "Uh, Anne, I'm glad you won, but… have you seen Polly?"

"Polly?" Sure, she's right here on my-" She turned to look at her empty shoulder, a blinking outline of the absent Polly flashing over it subconsciously. "Ohhhh frog, how did I not notice that?" she scolded herself. "How the heck am I gonna find her in this crowd? Hop-Pop's gonna kill me! I would kill me!"

"I don't think Polly's gonna be too hard to find," Sprig assured. "You know how she is… she'll make her presence known. In fact… I think I have a good idea where she might have gone…"

Polly had been on Anne's shoulder at the start of the competition, but she'd very quickly gotten bored and hopped off. For while the tadpole seemed wise beyond her years, she was still essentially a toddler, with the attention span one would expect from one. And while she was all for cheering for her older sister in a competition, the lack of action involved shrank that attention span even further. So, while Anne was absorbed in her contest, she'd departed to seek adventure elsewhere. Fortunately, she remembered a good place to find it…

"Another victory!" declared Kroth, son of Groth (actually Kevin Roth, son of Gary), hulding his bat'leth up high. "Kroth tires of such weak competition. Is there none of you worthy to challenge me?"

"I challenge you!" a squeaky voice answered. Kroth looked around, confused; it didn't seem like anybody had spoken.

"Hey! Down here, ugly!" the voice added. Kroth looked down this time, but all he saw was what appeared to be a childrens' toy… a small, purple ball with a face and stubby limbs, a yellow polka-dot bow on its head.

"What the…?" he asked, dropping character. "Is that one of the new Pokemon? I lost track after Gen 5."

"Maybe," reasoned Rak'tha (actually Kevin's girlfriend Reshma). "I think this may be a custom job. It looks incredibly lifelike, though…" She reached down to poke it.

"Hey!" the toy said, suddenly whipping out a dagger. "No touchin' the merchandise, lady!"

"Whoa," Rak'tha said. "It's even got procedural reaction tech. Whoever made this baby must be a genius!"

"WHO YOU CALLIN' BABY?" the toy said, lunging at the female Klingon cosplayer before a pair of hands caught it.

"There she is," the newcomer, a Southeast-Asian teenage girl dressed as Link said, relieved. "Thanks for finding Polly."

"Oh, is that your toy?" Rak'tha asked. "Where'd you buy her?"

"I didn't. She's one of a kind and you can't get one anywhere. But thanks for finding her," the girl said, spiriting the purple toy away.

"My nephew Matt would've loved one of those," Kroth said sadly. "Oh well…

"Aw, c'mon, Anne! I challenged him, I can't back out now! My street cred will be RUINED!" Polly complained.

"Tough. I told you not to sneak off on your own. Who knows what kind of trouble you can get into in a crowd like this?"

"But the contest was just so boring! You would think someone woulda got stabbed… or even punched! But nooo…"

"Hey, at least we found her pretty quickly. And, bonus, now you have the money to get Marcy that cat-thingy," reminded Sprig.

"That's right! I think that vendor was just over th- Oh, no no no no!" At that very moment, at that very vendor table, someone else was purchasing that very plush. "Maybe if we hurry, we can try to out bid them…" She tried pushing her way through the crowd, but it was too late… the buyer, who appeared to be a girl dressed as some character Anne was unfamiliar with, had concluded her transaction and was walking off. "Aw, man… too late…"

"I'm sorry, Anne," Polly said contritely. "You'd have that thingy if it wasn't for me."

"It's fine, Polly," Anne replied. "I'm probably better off saving the money anyway. Besides, who knows when I'd ever get a chance to give it to her. Or if," she added sadly.

"Hey, you'll see her again," Sprig responded optimistically. "And maybe you won't have a gift for her, but you'll have a funny story about how you almost did, and isn't that just as good? Now, come on… who wants a boba…"

"*sigh* Anne wants a boba…"

"Feeling better now, Anne?" Sprig asked.

"I gotta say, nothing cheers like boba," Anne replied. "It's just so satisfying when they pop on your tongue…"

"Yeah. What kind of bug lays these, anyway?" Sprig asks.

"I prefer not to think about it. Let's just find a place to sit down."

"Hey, there's one!" Sprig noted, hopping over to the table just as another attendee claimed it. By sheer coincidence it was the same girl who had purchased the Nyan-Chan-chan doll. What are the odds? Anne asked herself. This was the second ridiculously unlikely coincidence today. She was sure that there was no way she'd see the girl again, but here she was, and just maybe, Anne could convince her to sell the plush. Perhaps karma was smiling on her.

"So, hey… is it okay we share this table?" Anne asked.

"Sure, whatever," the girl said, engrossed in her phone.

"Cool, cool," Anne said, sitting down. "So… I see you've got a Nyan-Chan-Chan doll. Must be a big Vagabondia Chronicles fan."

"Well, I don't wanna brag, but I played it in the original Ja-" The girl's eyes widened "Boobchuy?"

Only one person ever called her that. "Maggie, is that you under there?"

"Wh- no. of course not! Ha ha, who's Maggie? I don't know any Maggie…"

"Then how'd you know a derogatory version of my name, hmmmm?"

She huffed. "Okay, fine, you got me! Just… don't tell anyone I go to these kinds of things, okay? It'd be really embarrassing if anyone found out I was into this sort of thing."

The old Anne might have used this opportunity to blackmail Maggie into selling her the plush to keep her from blabbing. The new Anne… well, she wasn't totally above considering it. But the difference between Old Anne and New Anne was that New Anne dismissed the idea pretty quickly. "I'm not gonna tell anyone. Who'd even believe me?"

"Thanks, Boo- Anne," Maggie replied gratefully. She started to get up, paused for a bit. "So, um… this is hard to say… I'm uh… I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you before you, y'know…"

"It's fine," Anne replied. "Don't worry about it."

"Um… what did happen?" Maggie asked. "All anyone knows is that you guys just disappeared one day. There were all sorts of crazy theories about what happened. Vince thought you ran off to Vegas to become showgirls… Cheyenne said that you joined a cult… Lupe said a sewer gator got you. Then six months later the news announces that you were found. Just you. Where were you? And what happened to Sasha and Marcy?"

"It's… a very long story. A very long and crazy story."

"That bad, huh?" Maggie asked sympathetically. It was kind of surreal that the last time she'd seen the girl she was trying to steal her khao niew bing, and now she was just sitting here having a civil conversation with her.

"Not all of it," Anne admitted. "Some pretty good things happened too. But yeah… also some pretty bad things happened and I don't want to dump them on you."

"Yeah, I mean, it's not like we're friends or anything," Maggie replied in a tone of voice that suggested that maybe that was a situation that she wasn't sure she wanted to persist.

"That's a pretty great costume," Anne said, changing the subject. "Who are you supposed to be, anyway?"

"Oh, some character from this old cable sci-fi show, Farscape… I've never actually seen the show, but I saw this character on the cover of one of my dad's old magazines and I fell in love with the design and I just had to dress up as her."

"I didn't know you were into cosplay,"

"Nobody does. It's bad for my rep around school. But it's kinda fun to pretend to be someone else for a while, you know?"

"I… know the feeling," Anne conceded. Well, it wasn't something she felt, specifically, but she definitely knew someone driven by the need to escape from her own identity into a new one of her own creation. "Did you do your makeup, 'cause it looks like a really professional job."

"No, that was my other dad. He's really good with that sort of thing," Maggie admitted. "Speaking of, nice job on your little brother or cousin there. He actually looks like a real frog."

"Yep. 'looks like,'" Sprig said with a smirk.

*ringtone* "Speak of the devil… better check in with pop now."

"Heh. Parents."

"I know, right?" chuckled Maggie.

"…hey, crazy thought… you, uh, wanna hang out sometime?" Anne asked.

"I… guess we could try it," Maggie replied. "I'll see you around, okay?"

"Sure," Anne replied to the departing girl, before facepalming. "Oh, frog, I forgot to see if she'd sell me Nyan-Chan-Chan!"

"Yeah, but you used empathy to turn a bully into a friend," pointed out Sprig. "Just like Crystal Galaxy, but with less singing. And in the end, isn't that a lot better?"

"Well, I don't know if she's a friend yet, but… I guess you're right," Anne conceded.

"I still think violence works better but… I guess I could come around," Polly admitted.

A.N.: So, yeah, probably another thing that won't make it into the real season 3, but… Maggie in da house! I've got some interesting things I want to do with her character, which we'll be getting to in future chapters.

Jose: Yep, a bunch of references here, glad you caught them.

MysteryGirl7Freak: Thanks!

Next: Sasha chapter? Sasha chapter.