Ms Boonchuy turned off the radio. She was excited about a report of a Thai-American teenager, but this talk of mysterious frog-creatures meant this was just another crackpot conspiracy theory not to be taken seriously. She had had enough of those. These days, she hardly bothered listening to the radio. She was getting home from grocery shopping. Before... she kept herself neat and trim by sticking to her traditional Thai diet, but now, she was eating the western instant-noodles diet. The pounds were beginning to sneak up on her. In addition, she went back to smoking, a habit she had quit as soon as she became pregnant with Anne.

She parked the car out front of her house, grabbed her two sacks of groceries, and slowly shuffled to her house. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, when she heard a voice from behind her. "Mom?" It couldn't be. After all these months. Her eyes opened wide, then swelled with tears. She dropped the bag, the groceries spilled out of them, not that that mattered anymore. She spun around, and there she was. She was taller, more gaunt, more wiry, with leaves and twigs in her hair, and some mysterious bronze breastplate, but there she was. With a strength she had not had in months, Ms. Boonchuy sprinted and scooped up her daughter. They both hugged and cried. They were together at last.

"I'm so sorry!" Anne stammered. "That doesn't matter now. What matters is that you are here, safe and sound." After the initial elation wore off, something troubled Ms. Boonchuy. "Where are your friends?" "Well, that's the thing. This is going to sound crazy but..." Anne steeled herself. "They are, and up until recently I was... trapped in another dimension. Please don't send me to the loony bin!" Ms. Boonchuy looked intensely at her daughter. "If that is what you say happened, then that is what I believe happened." "Oh, then I guess that will make this next part easier." She gave a whistle and out from the bushes walked what appeared to Anne's mom to be an older humanoid male frog creature, a adolescent male humanoid frog creature, and a female tadpole the size of a bowling ball. The older frog creature said "Ma'am." Ms. Boonchuy fainted.

Pad thai. Not too spicy. Ms. Boonchuy did not know what the tastes of interdimensional frog-creatures were and best to play it on the safe side. The same reaction to first discovering Anne was missing was to do repetitive behaviors and after a lifetime Ms. Boonchuy could cook pad thai in her sleep and wasn't entirely sure that she hadn't. Anne's return brought relief, but these things brought confusion.

Ms. Boonchuy was not the most scientifically literate woman, but the idea that the universe was well-known brought her a sense of comfort. No more. If there's one alternate universe with frog-people, how many others could there be? What if she fell into one with more humanoid creatures and fell in love with one of them? Why that thought in particular intruded on Ms. Boonchuy she could not explain.

She set the table, gave quick thanks in Thai and instructed her guests to eat, which they did, while she abstained. She knew it was rude to stare after a lifetime of being stared at for her ethnicity but she just couldn't stop gawking at this "Hop Pop" in particular, and he was beginning to notice.

"So... what do you do for a living?" Hop Pop asked. "Software engineer." "Ah. And what is this soft wear?" How to explain this without being condescending? "It is a series of instructions you give to a machine that performs calculations." "Ah..." and he sighed. "Like Frobo." Anne and the frog-people had sad looks on their faces. "Who is this Frobo?" Now it was this Sprig's turn to interject.
"He was this cool robot that we found, or I guess he found us, and we kind of adopted it. He saved our lives!" Wait, robot? Ms. Boonchuy thought that this civilization Anne found herself in was pre industrial revolution. But they had better technology than us? "It's best if you see for yourself." Anne showed her mom footage of Frobo from her phone. Anne's mom became more confused. Apparently she had electricity. But when she saw Frobo, her face instantly lit up.

"This is just like Laputa: Castle in the Sky!" Anne smacked her head. "That's right! I thought Frobo and King Andrias' tech looked so familiar! Ugh, now Mom's gonna have us watch her favorite movie like she did to me a million times growing up!" Mother and daughter began to laugh. This was the perfect thing to welcome back her daughter along with welcoming the new guests.

They finished watching the movie, and Hop Pop had a theory. "This Mr. Miyazaki must have entered our realm and used our tech as inspiration for his movie! Why, if we could somehow get Amphibia to have legal authority here we could sue him!" Everyone looked at Hop Pop with flat faces. "Or maybe, it's just some coincidence."

Hop Pop looked at Ms. Boonchuy. "I never did thank you for that pad thai. Your daughter isn't as good as you but she's no slouch!" Anne stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, if it won't be too big a bother, we'll just stay out in the backyard." Anne's mom had an emotion on her face that was a cross between anger and hurt. She knelt to get at Hop Pop's level and put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen. I fed you once. You fed my daughter countless times. You let her sleep in your house all those times. As long as you are in this dimension you are welcome to sleep in this house and eat my food for as long as you wish!" Ms. Boonchuy hugged Hop Pop. "M-ma'am, c-can't... breathe..."

They were interrupted by a loud knocking at the door. "Who could it be at this hour?" Sprig wondered aloud. Anne's mom had the answer. "Oh no! I forgot to call the police! Someone must have seen you and the Plantars here! Quickly, hide, and I will stall them!" The lot began to sink into the couch cushions while looking at the door when Ms. Boonchuy opened it up and who stepped in the door but Sasha.

Sasha was out of breath. "No time! Marcy alive! Sent to this dimension! Kill you!" she pointed at Anne before passing out muttering "reprogrammed... reprogrammed... reprogrammed..."

"Hey there. Look at this asian cutie. She looks like she's going to the ren fair. Why are you in such a hurry? Oh don't worry, we just want your money. Aw, look at that, she grabbed my arm. You think you've got a chance? Oh hey, she's pretty strong, could I have some help here guys? Why is her eye glowing? Why is her chest glowing? You win, just go! Uncle! Uncle UNCLE!"

Sasha greedily devoured what was left of the pad thai along with a second batch. She insisted they turn to a particular local news station. The pretty asian reporter read off the following report. "Three local teenagers have been left in a local trauma center, after an altercation with what they describe as a single teenaged girl, with superhuman strength. We will now bring you to a press conference with the Lieutenant of the precinct."

A fat middle-aged, bald white man smoking a cigarette appeared behind a podium. A reporter asked him a question. "Sir, do you belief that this assault has anything to do with the report of a teenage girl and some frog-people?" "Yeah. There's some people going through hysterics and the media is sensationalizing things." "Then what is your explanation for what happened?" The lieutenant held his hands up in incredulity. "The simplest one! These guys got jumped by a rival gang, there was some kind of turf war, and their explanation was based on this kooky report of a teenage girl and amphibians!" "Sir, I thought that there really weren't any gangs in Los Angeles anymore!" "Okay, that does it, I'm done answering questions!" Anne's phone had been ringing with non-stop notifications she had missed in Amphibia throughout dinner but she just now got a new one.

Mar-Mar:

I'm sure you've heard by now.

Meet me where all this began.

Smashing phone.

Marcy walked to where she teleported her friends away. She loved Anne. No, that wasn't strong enough. She was in love with Anne. She was in love with Sasha. She could not decide between the two. Even if she could, she would not dare ask either of them out for fear of upsetting their friendship. It was all she had. She got good grades, but not because she cared or tried. Her parents had a cold, distant relationship with her, and with each other. She did not know what her parents would think if they knew that she liked girls, but given that they were generally traditionalist in their thinking, it probably would not be well. Boys liked her. But only because she was cute and asian. And even if their love was genuine, Marcy would not be able to reciprocate.
Not that any of that mattered now. She was alive. But part of being alive meant she wore a protoype suit meant to keep amphibians alive in the dry Earth atmosphere. Only this one was meant to keep her torso from falling apart. Gruesome. While she was in a coma, King Andrias was able to enter and program her mind. She was still her, and yet, not so. There was a part of her who was her, yet wasn't her. She could not disobey King Andrias' directions, but she could interpret them. Primary target: Anne Boonchuy. Secondary target: Sasha Waybright. Tertiary target: classified. The only way to make their chances of survival as high as possible was to simply offer them a fair fight. Not that that was likely to keep them alive anyhow.

"Give me a cigarette!" Sasha demanded from a man two heads taller and easily twice her weight, who hastily complied, lighting it. Sasha and Sprig were on a subway taking them to the baseball field where the three girls were teleported to Amphibia. Sprig didn't know why the group split up this way exactly, only that Anne and Sasha exchanged knowing glances. Sprig was curious what that item Sasha was puffing into her mouth was, but that would have to wait.
"You okay, Sasha?" Sasha smirked. "After everything I put you through, you care about my feelings? You're sweet." Sasha gave Sprig a gentle noogie. Sprig blushed. "It's about Anne and Marcy isn't it?" Sasha's face fell. "Who else could it be about?" Sprig stared at Sasha with huge puppy-dog, or rather frog eyes, demanding more information.

Sasha sighed. "I just remember finding out that Anne and Mar were doing well together without me. I was so mad. And I didn't know why! But I know now. You have a crush on anybody, Sprig?" "Yeah, I have a crush on a girl back home." "Do you have a crush on anyone else?" "Well, no." "Cuz that's the thing. I have a crush on Anne. And I have a crush on Marcy. I want both of them all to myself and nothing made me more angry than the thought of them being together without me." Sasha took a huge puff and looked down. "I'm just so... so... greedy."

"Well, maybe not." Sasha looked at him quizzically. "Maybe you just have so much love to give!" Sasha's face was completely flat. "That is... the single... corniest thing I've ever heard." She paused. "I... love it!" She hugged Sprig. Neither noticed that an angry blonde teenager and excitable frog-kid made every passenger in their car clear out.

Subject Sasha acquired. Secondary target. Subject Sprig acquired. Non-target, combatant. "Where is Anne?" Marcy asked Sasha. They were at the field where they had teleported to Amphibia. "Oh, she's coming here with backup!" Indeed, Anne approached with Hop Pop, Polly, Ms Boonchuy, and... Mr. and Mrs. Wu.

Subject Father acquired. Non-target, non-combatant. Subject Mother acquired. Non-target, non-combatant. Marcy pointed her arrow at Anne's neck."Stay out of this, Mom, and Dad. This is between me and Anne." Mr. Wu piped up. "Young lady! I am not about to let you throw away your future to kill your friend!" Anne gave him a stern grimace. "Uh, I mean, your mother and I are very sorry for attempting to move you away from Sasha and Anne!" Mr. Wu held up Marcy's childhood teddy bear. "Remember this?" Marcy shot an arrow through it, and quickly reloaded. Marcy's mom began. "We knew that you loved them and we wanted to move you away thinking maybe that would get you interested in boys. That was wrong. We are sorry." That broke through Andrias' programming.

"They knew? And that's why they were moving?" Marcy's programming was unable to decipher this information and threw itself into loop upon loop upon loop. Marcy's stone-cold face began to twitch. "And what's more... Anne knows?" Anne walked up to Marcy's wrist-bow and placed a hand on it. Marcy had not yet fired. "Dude, I know how you feel about Sasha and me. And we feel... well... basically the same way you do. And we know you were brainwashed by King Andrias as you were in that coma. All you have to do is just put down your arm and we'll figure this out. We can betogether forever." Anne twisted Marcy's face to meet her own. "I love you. We love you."

Half of Marcy's face twitched as if she was having a stroke. "Anne... I cannot stop Andrias' programming." Marcy looked like she was about to cry. "But the thing is... I can interpret his programming as I see fit." Tertiary target: self, status: acquired. "Goodbye, Anne." Marcy turned her face to Sasha and gave a sad smile. "Goodbye, Sasha. You two can finally be together." Marcy held her wrist-bow to her own neck and loosed an arrow.

What happened next happened within the span of a second, but time seemed to slow down. First, Sasha's power of strength activated. Instinctively, she knew how to harness this for the sake of speed. Instantly she wrenched the bow away from Marcy's head just soon enough that the arrow left the tiniest of scars but was otherwise harmless. Anne glowed her blue. She slowly walked to Marcy, grabbed her face, turned it, and planted a kiss.

Now it was Marcy's turn. She glowed green, her mind powers activating. Now she had her own programming to counter-act King Andrias' and exorcise it like the virus it was. Unseen to the others was a struggle that lasted only a moment but for Marcy felt like an eternity. Finally, King Andrias' program exited her body in a purple mist that disappeared with a shriek.

"And you won't make fun of me for having a teddy bear at this age?" Marcy and Sasha were lying in Anne's bed. Marcy was hugging her teddy bear, now patched up from the arrow Marcy shot through it. "Oh, Marcy. If anyone makes fun of you for any reason I will kill them." "And you don't think I'm a freak because of my eye or my scars?" "No, Marcy I still think you're very cute." Marcy buried her head in Sasha's chest. "I'm sorry." "Are you really going to apologize to me for the rest of our lives?" Marcy nodded. Sasha rubbed her head. "Then I guess I'm just going to have to keep forgiving you for the rest of our lives."

Anne climbed into her now-crowded bed. The three fell asleep. They would soon have to cross into Amphibia to depose of King Andrias once and for all. But for now, everything was perfect.