Chapter 7
Skate Frogs
It was the perfect crime.
They had it all planned out. Maggie tells her dads she's spending the night at Anne's, Anne tells her parents she's sleeping over at Maggie's leading to a night of no parental supervision and hijinks galore.
Of course, one of Maggie's dads was fully aware of what was about to happen, seeing as he'd been using Maggie as something of an organic surveillance drone. It's for the best, he continued to assure himself, even though he was growing increasingly unsure of it.
He'd gone into this under the impression that he was guarding against a dangerous incursion from another planet or dimension and to that end, he was ready to do what needed to be done to secure planet and country. He wasn't prepared for the reality that the "invaders" were merely… a family. A frog family, but a family nonetheless. And yet, his position compelled him to continue on this course.
For those reasons, he put up little resistance when Maggie lied to him about her evening plans; after all, in a sense, she would have supervision that night. His, through the surveillance equipment he'd installed in her gear.
After all, he rationalized, these creatures might seem to be two children and an old man, but looks could be deceiving couldn't they? Behind that seemingly harmless front could be a sinister plot to infiltrate human society and take over.
It could happen.
Blissfully unaware of any of this, Maggie skated her way toward the skate park. The sun had long since dipped beneath the skyline, and the gloom of night hung in the sky, kept from drifting any lower by the ever-present streetlights.
Anne and the two frog kids had already arrived at the park by the time Maggie got there (understandably, as they were traveling by scooter). The tadpole, Polly, eagerly rolled over to her and proudly exclaimed "Hey, check it out! Anne kitted me up!"
"Yeah, I had some extra scrunchies that were the perfect size for pads."
"We kinda had to improvise where they went 'cuz I don't really have knees yet, but it's fine. So, who's up for some breaking and entering?"
"Breaking and entering!" echoed Sprig.
"Breaking and entering…" repeated Anne, considerably less enthused.
"Don't worry about it," assured Maggie. "Like I said, I've done this loads of times and nobody's ever caught me. I bet I'm not the only one who does it either. In fact, I'm pretty sure the owner expects it. He doesn't even have security cams."
"That just tells me you've been lucky so far. *groan* I'm starting to regret this whole thing. I was always letting Sasha talk me into pulling these stunts, and all it did was get me into trouble most of the time. I dunno, maybe we should just call this whole thing off…"
"Huh? Were you saying something?" Sprig said from the other side of the fence.
"What? You're already in?"
"Sticky frog fingers," he explained, flexing them. "Easy peasy.
"And I just squeezed under the fence," added Polly.
"You coming or what?" Maggie asked.
And like that, Anne's reticence over falling into old habits was overcome by an even stronger force: FOMO. "Okay… but I'm doing this with style. " Steeling herself, she scaled the ten-foot-high fence with ease, flipping over the top gracefully for a perfect three-point landing on the other side.
"Whoa, nice," Maggie said admiringly.
"I did a lot of climbing in Amphibia," explained Anne. "Mostly to get away from things that could eat me. I got to be real efficient at it. That and the rock wall at the mall…"
"You have got to tell me all that stuff at some point."
"Later. Right now, we have skate lessons to impart on the next generation."
"Teach us, o wise ones," begged Sprig.
"I feel the need to be EXTREME," added Polly.
"Right. So….lets start with the basics," suggested Maggie. "This… is a skateboard."
Sprig gasped. "Of course…"
"Now the first thing you want to do is learn to balance." She set the board down and mounted it. "Balance is probably the most important thing you need to have in mind."
Anne offered her own board to Sprig. "Now you try."
He got on. "Yeah, so I don't see much of a pro- WHOA!" The board began sliding out from under him, only, since Sprig's feet were as sticky as his hands, he went along with it. "Okay… I'm moving… which is good, I think… only, how do I stop?"
"Okay, try turning your whole body to the side," advised Anne.
"Like thi- wah!" The sudden movement cause Sprig to capsize and land on his side. "…and I'm on the ground."
"HA!" laughed Polly.
"It's my first time! I'd like to see you do any better!"
"You're on, bro."
"All right, you ca borrow my board for-" offered Maggie before being cut off.
"Ha! Polly don't need no board." She tucked in her limbs and rolled up into a ball, revving up for speed before launching herself at the nearest ramp.
"Whoa," marveled Maggie. "You sure she's not part hedgehog?"
"I don't get that reference at all," replied Sprig. He attempted to right himself, only to lose his balance and fall over again. "This doesn't seem to be working…"
"Hey, I fell a bunch too when I was getting started. Don't let it get you down. You never did back in Amphibia."
"Yeah, but we're not in Amphibia. Back there I was good at stuff."
"Because you were doing it all your life! You just need to keep at it. Now, c'mon… let's see you get up."
Sprig did so, wobbling again, but this time Anne caught him. "No shame in a little help," she said. "Now… find a stable footing…"
"All right… " Sprig shifted his body ever so slightly until he was finally stable. "Yes! I am standing! …okay, so now what."
"Now, you propel yourself forward with one foot while keeping the other on the board…."
"Right…"
"There! You're doing good. Now, when you've built up enough speed, put both feet on the board…"
"Okay… yes! I'm doing it! Oh my frog I' doing t and I'm heading for the fence and I don't have any idea how to change direction…"
"Right, lesson two! Turn by shifting your body. Not as hard as before, just sorta lean into it… Yeah! You got it!"
"Yeah! I got it!" Sprig echoed, skidding to a stop and falling over.
"…I think we should work on stopping next."
"Good call," Sprig agreed, giving a thumbs up.
Once the basics were mastered, Anne and Maggie moved on the teaching Sprig some simple tricks like kickflips and ollies. Sprig proved to be a quick study, and soon was adding his own spin on tricks by creating his own, the Tongue-Stand. Polly, meanwhile continued to cut out the middlefrog and use her own body to pull off some pretty impressive aerial stunts.
Anne and Maggie were so intent watching the two show off that they didn't notice that three new guests had shown up in the skate park, not until they made themselves known.
"*whistle* Yo! Clear out!" their leader demanded. "We got a reservation."
Anne and Maggie turned to face the intruder, someone they'd had dealings with fairly recently. Danica was flanked by two kids Anne didn't recognize; probably her new sidekicks from whatever school she was going to now. Maggie eyed Danica defiantly. "Funny, I didn't see your name on the official register."
"Yeah!" added Anne. "We broke in first, so deal with it!"
Danica finally registered who she was talking to. "Are you kidding me? You two? Kinda surprised ol' Chew Toy's up to something this bold without her protector…"
"Hey," Anne interrupted. "I thought I made it clear. I do not need Sasha to protect me anymore." Danica was clearly feeling bolder now that she had some backup. Now it was up to Anne to make it clear that she still wouldn't back down. Besides, it wasn't like either of them was in the right here, so Anne had the advantage of the ancient law of "dibs". "So how about you drop the whole aggro act and back off. Plenty of park here, so if you just stay out our way everything's fine."
Danica chuckled. "I don't know if you noticed, but you're outnumbered here." Which was true from her point of view. She hadn't seen Sprig and Polly yet. Sprig had hidden at the bottom of the ramp pit as soon as he'd heard a stranger. And as for Polly… well, Polly was about to make her presence known.
"Seriously Danica, we really don't have to do this. Just take the other side of the-"
"Shut it, O'Riley!" demanded Danica, still smarting from backing down at the movie theater and determined to bluster her way to domination here. "I'm giving you to the count of three to get out of here. One… two…"
"INCOMING!" a round, purple object shouted as it hurtled its way at the bully trio, rebounding off a startled Danica, knocking her on her rear, and rebounding to be caught by Anne. "Oh, hey," she said, "you didn't tell me there'd be more peeps coming."
"Like, what the heck is that?" one of Danica's stooges, a tough-looking girl with a purple undercut asked.
"I'm Polly," the tadpole replied. "Remember that name," she added fiercely.
"I think the cat's out of the bag…" Maggie remarked nervously.
"You brought Domino?" asked Sprig. "And she escaped? We'd better get looking for her!"
"There's another one!" Danica's other stooge, a weedy boy with dreadlocks and wraparound shades (at night; clearly, one who committed to his fashion choices), added.
"Oh, right… stay hidden when strangers show up…" he remembered. Anne groaned. Sprig thought quickly on his feet, but his attention span wasn't his strong suit.
"…so, yeah, talking frogs are a thing," Anne explained.
The three bullies stared in shock, trying to process the massive blow to their perception of reality. "This is a prank. That's gotta be it. You guys arranged this whole thing to make us look bad. This is gonna be on the Interne tomorrow and we're gonna look like idiots in front of everyone in school.
"Yeah, that's it," Anne replied sarcastically. "We knew ahead of time that you were going to break in to the skate park tonight, of all nights, so we got here first, put this little boy in an incredibly realistic frog costume and made this equally realistic-looking tadpole robot that acts on its own so we could achieve viral internet stardom. Something you know the two of us, who have never shown that sort of skill before, were able to do. Does that sound about right?"
Danica paused to consider that logic. "Marcy probably could," she rationalized. "And Sasha could mastermind stuff like this in her sleep."
"Marcy and Sasha aren't here," Anne retorted a bit coldly. "And you do not get to talk about them."
Danica was taken aback by Anne's sudden intensity. It had been the same back at the movie theater. Something had clearly happened to Anne during the time she was gone. Something had happened to all of them. Something that only Anne had returned to turn the tale of, or not tell the tale of, as the case appeared to be. She was starting to feel significantly less confident about her strength in numbers.
"…maybe we should go," suggested Purple Undercut. "It's, like, getting kinda late."
The advice sounded sensible to Wraparounds, who was already turning back toward the loose part of the fence. Danica was on the verge of listening as well, but sheer pride was at war with common sense at the moment. She'd already backed down once, a second time would be a serious blow to her ego. "What, you scared? Of Chew Toy?" Danica asked with feigned disdain.
"…should we not be?" asked Wraparounds.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we never met," added Purple Undercut. "Like, we don't know the politics atyour old school?"
"She's nobody, Tish," Danica said. "She was the queen bee's sidekick."
"Yeah, but like, there's talking frogs and stuff and it's getting super-confusing," Tish responded. "So, like, I'm out, okay?"
"Yeah, we're gone," Wraparounds continued.
"Hey! You better not be leaving!" demanded Danica. "I don't care how creepy and weird this is getting, we can still take these tw-"
"Something's not right," Interrupted Anne. She felt it, inside, deep down, in the part of her that was still connected to the Calamity Box. Something was about to happen.
"You trying to distract us, Chew Toy?"
"No. Can you hear that?"
"Oh, what, the cops? You think-"
"No… I hear it too," Maggie interrupted. It was not quite a rumble, not quite a hum, not quite a buzz, and yet somehow it was all three at once. And it was getting louder. By now, Sprig, Polly, Danica, Tish, and Wraparounds (whose name was in fact Manuel) could all hear it.
And in the air above them, something began to spark, as if a ball of lightning was coalescing in the middle of a clear night sky out of nothing. If one squinted, one could see accents of magenta, green and blue (the latter color weaker, but there all the same). It grew larger, seeming to take shame into something large, and vaguely humanoid… or, as it was… herpetoid.
Anne, Sprig and Polly immediately recognized the shape as it descended, and steeled themselves for the coming battle. Maggie and Danica, not knowing what to make of what was happening, simply froze in place. Tish and Manuel, not feeling the least bit brave, simply decided to cut their losses and bolt, only to get themselves caught in the fence trying to squeeze through at the same time, before finally freeing themselves.
"Oh no… I thought we had more time…" Anne muttered to herself worriedly.
"What is that?" asked Maggie as a Frobot… around the same size as Frobo, but with the angry red eyes of those loyal to the King, landed. It seemed to be flickering a bit, as if it wasn't quite fully on this plane yet, but it landed with the sound of a very real impact.
"ALL-HAIL-KING-ANDRAIS-FIRST-OF-HIS-NAME-PEACEKEEPER-OF-A-THOUSAND-YEARS" the robot intoned mindlessly, advancing.
"Run," Anne advised Maggie and Danica. "We've dealt with these things before. They're not so tough," she lied. Well, you talk tough, Anne told herself, but you're still out of your depth. A bit of that Calamity power would really come in handy right now. Still she had to make due with what she had at the moment. She got up on her skateboard. "I'll draw its attention! Sprig, do you have your slingshot?"
"Do I have my slingshot," he repeated sardonically. "Like I'd go anywhere without it."
"Try to take out the eyes, hopefully that shuts down its laser." Anne commanded. "Polly! Go for the legs! It looks top-heavy, maybe we can knock it over!"
"You got it, sista!" Polly shouted gleefully, producing her morningstar seemingly out of nowhere and launching herself into battle.
"And what do we do?" asked Maggie.
"I told you two to get out of here!" Anne scolded.
"I'm not leaving you!" Maggie snapped back.
"Danica Gray doesn't run from fights!" added Danica.
Anne groaned. Their refusal to leave her was touching, and kind of surprising in the bully's case, but very inconvenient. "Uh… I dunno… run around and make lots of noise, and throw whatever you can pick up at it! Maybe if we give it lots of targets, we can confuse it or something."
"…works for me," Maggie agreed. "Hey! Big robot! Over here!" she yelled, waving her arms around.
"No! Here!" Danica shouted from behind it, flinging some small rocks. They clattered uselessly against the robot's armored hide, though one seemed to actually pass through. It really isn't fully manifesting, Anne realized. Andrais must not be able to fully use the box. But why?
Me, she realized. I'm still drawing on the Heart Gem's power. As long as I am, he can't use the box to its full potential. That's why he could only send one robot, and why he can't even send it all the way. Look at you, figuring things out! Marcy would be proud.
On the other hand, even if it was sort of flickering in and out of full cohesion, it made a very real impact on the ground, which meant it was still dangerous. And if it figured out that-
The head suddenly swiveled to look directly at her. "ANALYZING-TARGET: HUMAN-ANNE-BOONCHUY. TARGET-CONFIRMED. MISSION-DIRECTIVE: ANNIHILATE."
"Oh, that ain't good," muttered Anne. Andrais had reached the same conclusion that she had… she was the one keeping the box from full power by existing. Obvious solution: Make Anne not exist any more.
Anne liked existing. It was something she was really good at.
The robot's eyes were glowing an even more intense red now. Anne was pretty sure that meant it was charging its laser. Anne was a C+ science student at best, but even she knew that lasers were light, and light was the fastest thing possible. One teenager on a skateboard vs. a robot with laser eyes would be a very uneven contest.
By now, the other humans' distraction efforts were useless; the robot was hyper-focused (Anne refused to use "laser-focused"; she was above such base punnery and also too scared to think of it), but it also meant that Sprig was able to focus long enough to line up the perfect shot at its eyes. The stone struck true, not only cracking one of the robot's eyes but also knocking its aim off just enough that its blast missed Anne and vaporized a nearby palm tree.
"That was way too close," Anne whispered to herself nervously.
"Oh, that is IT!" Polly declared, jumping as high as she could with her stubby legs and swinging her morningstar upward. The robot was briefly knocked off balance.
"Now!" Anne commanded, running up and swinging her backpack at the robot, further unbalancing it. Maggie and Danica followed her lead, doing the same. The robot finally toppled over and landed with a thud.
"YEAH!" Danica cheered. "That's what you GET! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!"
Suddenly, the robot rolled itself into a big metal ball. "Oh, right, they do that," Polly reminded herself.
The robot began to roll around, probably trying to get its bearings, but Anne had no doubt that once it did, it would crush everything… and everyone, in its way. They had nothing left that could stop it, nothing except…
And then it backed up and started rolling directly at Polly. Or… started to. But it was moving impossibly slow… and everything had taken on a blue tint….
Oh.
She launched herself at Polly, easily snatching her out of the way of the metallic juggernaut. Doubling back, she placed herself in its path and braced herself, stopping the ball's forward momentum in its tracks. "Stop." she said quietly, her voice echoing oddly.
"Whoa," she heard Maggie say, but it sounded like it was far away. All that was here now was herself and the robot, which was even now unfolding again. It jumped back, firing its fist at her with the force of a rocket, but from her perspective, it was moving more slowly than the lines at Magic Mountain. She easily sidestepped the fist and in one fluid motion, launched herself into the air. The robot's sensors, already damaged by Sprig's shot, took several moments to lock back on to her, but by then it was too late… she was plummeting back downward fist first, like some sort of vengeful blue comet. The robot's head was crushed into scrap, followed by its upper body, until it collapsed, a useless pile of wreckage.
"Stay… off… Earth," she demanded, shaky now as both the power and the adrenaline rapidly drained from her, and she began toppling forward until Sprig's tongue whipped out to arrest her fall long enough for her to steady herself.
"What the hell was THAT?" asked Danica. "You were all glowy, and your hair turned blue, and I think you grew horns or something…"
"It's… complicated," Anne replied.
Polly slowly approached the wreckage of the robot, asif it could spring back to life at any moment. Suddenly, arcs of pink and green danced over the pile as it faded back out of existence. "Dang it," grumbled Polly. "We could've used this stuff to fix Frobo."
In the distance, the sound of approaching sirens became apparent. "Popo's coming," Maggie noted. "I think it would be a good idea to not be here."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Danica agreed.
"You're… not going to tell anyone about this, are you?" asked Anne nervously.
"I'm no snitch," Danica affirmed. "Besides, nobody'd believe me anyway." The girl departed out the hole in the gate (cut by the laser that had vaporized the palm tree.
"Yeah, I think that's enough for me," Maggie reasoned. "I think it's time for m to go home and coe up with an excuse for why I'm not sleeping over at your house."
"You were allergic to my cat?" suggested Anne.
"That could work. What about you?"
"Eh, I'll think of something."
"Tomorrow, though…. We gotta talk about this," Maggie insisted.
"We will. I promise," Anne agreed. "I'm gonna tell you everything."
Half an hour later, the skate park had been cordoned off by BOEOO agents in the guys of LAPD. Paulsen and Rhodes were in the center, examining the site of the alien incursion.
Aside from cracks and scorch marks, there was no sign that just a little while ago, there had been a violent battle. No trace of the giant robot remained, and the children and creatures fighting it had scattered. And yet… the footage from Maggie's helmet-camera attested that the event had indeed taken place.
"Well, that's it," Rhodes commented. "We finally have the proof we need. Those creatures are a threat. We need to take them and Boonchuy into custody."
"No," Paulsen said.
"What? You saw the footage. You saw that robot. You saw what the Boonchuy girl did to it. She's been altered somehow. She's dangerous."
"Is she?" Paulsen wondered. "From where I was sitting, it looked like she was the one dealing with the actual threat."
"You can't be serious." Rhodes replied incredulously. "Okay, let's say that you're right… that the robot is the threat. Even so… Boonchuy is still a dangerous unknown."
"Possibly," Paulsen conceded. "But take another look at the footage. Take a good look."
"I don't-"
"Boonchuy wasn't just fighting. Every move she made… every tactic… was focused on keeping everyone safe. Whatever power that girl seems to have, she's using it to protect others. That doesn't sound like a threat to me."
Rhodes was forced to concede Paulsen's point. All the evidence was in his favor, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. "Be that as it may… we still need to question the girl."
"Oh, we will," Paulsen agreed. "Because I have a feeling that while Anne and those creatures of hers aren't the threat… they do know that there is a threat out there. And we need to know exactly what it is, so we can be ready for what's coming."
A.N.: Bad idea: writing a chapter about skateboarding when you don't know anything about skateboarding other than hazy memories of Rocket Power. Don't do that, folks.
Anyway, looks like Andrais has managed to get the box to kinda work. What does this mean? Stay tuned! Also, Danica's shaping up to be more than just a one-dimensional bully character. Will she return? Also stay tuned.
Jose: This series isn't necessarily connected to the Weird Sisters universe, though it is set in the same universe as Gravity Falls and possibly The Owl House. Does that mean that some day Anne and Luz will finally get that sleepover? Who knows?
Next: Disclosure.