This chapter took longer than expected to finish, life's been pretty stressful lately and I think I'll take a break from fanfic writing for a bit.

Like chapter 8, this one'll borrow some dialogue from the original series.

Entry 518

Yesterday King Andrias did something SUPER COOL with the music box! He pressed a few buttons and it actually started playing music! The three gems popped out and when it's time to charge them, we'll do the trick again!

Today we're headed to Amygdala Woods in the southwest of Amphibia. Apparently it's got these weird brain mushrooms I wanna check out when we're done.

Anyway, Andrias says this temple is filled with challenges meant to test our smarts. We'll have to complete them to recharge the gem. Sounds a lot like a Zorda dungeon to me!

I know I can prove myself today!

Oh! Karina says we're almost there so I gotta go. Talk to you later, Jo!

Joe Sparrow landed in a clearing surrounded by trees and brain mushrooms in two varieties: green and squishy, & gold and hollow. One of them spontaneously squirted out some purple liquid.

"Freaky," said Sprig.

"I'll be waiting here while you go on your fancy quest," said Karina. "Try not to take too long— I want to be back in Newtopia by sundown."

"You're just jealous because you don't get to go in, aren't you?" said Sasha.

A small blush appeared on the pink newt's face. "Maybe…"

After that, the group hopped off Joe's back.

"I'm so excited for this temple!" said Marcy.

"Me too!" said Anne. "This is gonna be awesome!"

Polly stared at the fly-ridden wooden outhouse the group landed in front of. "I don't get why you're so excited. This isn't impressive at all."

"Polly, I think that's the temple," Sprig turned Polly's body around so she was facing the opposite direction.

"Oh."

There she saw a tall stone pyramid-like structure. It was in remarkably good condition for such an ancient site. There were freely flowing waterfalls around the exterior and only a mild amount of moss.

"It's so beautiful," said Hop Pop. "So beautiful that I just know our financial problems will be over if we charge people money to come here." The old frog ignored the looks everyone was giving him and started walking toward the temple. "Well, you heard the lady. We should get going."

The group walked up some stairs and saw that the temple's entrance was sealed shut by two stone doors.

"This could be a problem," said Sprig.

"Perhaps not," said Grime, pointing to the center of the sealed entrance. "If we stick our swords into this seam here, we may be able to pry the doors open."

"Ooh, good thinking," said Anne.

She, Sasha, and Grime stuck their swords in the small space between the doors and began pulling them backward. After about ten seconds of pulling, the doors finally slid open.

"Wow!" said Marcy. "I wonder if that was the first test of our intelligence!"

"Nah, this place was probably just old and abandoned," said Polly.

Everyone ventured inside and were met with a large, mossy room. They could make out some sculptures and wall carvings, but overall it was too dark to see anything clearly.

"Hmm…" said Sprig. "It's interesting here, but it would be even better if there was a lever to pull." Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a raised floor tile with the royal symbol. "It's no lever, but it'll do." He stepped on the title and watched the magic happen.

Several bioluminescent mushrooms hanging from the walls lit up, making the intricate architecture visible. There were several sculptures of olms, a partially covered mural of three humans fighting some sort of monster on the western wall, several carvings of weird round creatures holding round orbs near the back, and directly ahead there was a mural of a Calamity Gem connected to a Flipwart table, three squares, and what looked like a Rubik's Cube. That wall also had two glowing messages written in the old Amphibian alphabet.

"What's that say, Dad?" asked Sasha.

"I'm not sure," admitted Grime. "That alphabet isn't used much outside of Newtopia. I can't read it that well."

"I can!" said Marcy. "Andrias taught me a few months before our reunion." She walked over to the wall and examined the text. "It says: 'Keeper of the box, one strong of mind, three trials await that will return the stone's shine.'"

"You know, learning a new language at such a young age is very impressive," said Hop Pop. "You're quite intelligent, Marcy."

"Eh, it's not really a language," said Marcy. "It's basically just coded English. All you have to do is remember which symbol is which." She opened up her journal and showed a page with the ciphers.

"You shouldn't sell yourself short," said Grime. "Memorizing those characters at such a young age is remarkable."

"Thanks," said Marcy.

Just then, the wall opened up revealing a deeper chamber inside, filled with several cobwebs and similar architecture to the previous room (like a carving of a frog holding a cube).

"A dead end," said Sprig. "Well, we tried our best and that's what counts." He turned to leave but was stopped by Sasha.

"We can't just give up right away," she said. "I'm sure there's something here to do."

"Yeah, let's look for clues," said Marcy.

They searched around the room for a couple of minutes without finding anything until Anne noticed something on the floor: a puzzle cube just like the one in the mural. "Here's something!" she said. She picked up the cube and was immediately surrounded by a green bubble that floated her up to the ceiling.

"Frog help us!" exclaimed Hop Pop. "A cursed cube possessed by evil magic!"

Polly groaned. "Hop Pop, why would it be cursed?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Hop Pop countered.

"Whatever it is, I don't want it anymore!" Anne dropped the cube, which immediately made the bubble disappear and sent her crashing to the ground. "Ow… shouldn't have dropped it…"

Hop Pop helped Anne get back on her feet. "You okay?"

"I think so," said the Thai human.

"Hmm…" Marcy picked up the cube, putting her in a bubble. "It probably works like a Rubik's Cube." She moved one side of the cube, which caused part of the room to spin around and everyone else to spin with it.

"Hey," said Sasha, "can you tell us when you're gonna move before— whoa!"

And the room spun again. Marcy, isolated in her bubble, didn't even realize she was affecting it. She quickly realized that she could also slide the pieces of the cube around in different directions, which caused crushing pillars to rise and fall. Everyone else managed to get out of the way before they were crushed, but it was close.

"Almost there…" Marcy pushed two pieces closer to the center, completing a face-like design on each face of the cube. "Got it!"

The eyes of the design glowed green, and so did the frog carving on the back wall. That wall opened up, revealing a staircase, and everyone else fell to the floor a final time.

"Woo! We did it!" Marcy's bubble safely landed on the floor and she quickly ran up the stairs.

The group slowly got back on their feet.

"She was really into that, wasn't she?" said Polly.

"Mar-Mar can get a little too focused when she's playing a game," said Sasha. "Okay, she actually gets a lot too focused."

"At this rate she'll get us all killed," muttered Grime.

They all followed Marcy up the stairs and found her standing out on a raised platform with colored tiles below. At the other end of the room was a small staircase leading toward a blocked door.

"Ooh, a dance floor!" said Anne. She almost hopped down but Grime stopped her.

"Hold on, we should proceed with caution," he said. He picked up two pebbles and chucked them down to the tiled floor. One settled on a pink title which descended slightly and released a massive burst of flames toward the ceiling. The other one landed on a blue title, causing a heavy spiked block to crush it. "See, caution prevents danger."

"Well, you had the right idea earlier, Sprig," said Polly. "Time to turn back! Thanks for playing, everyone!"

"Hold on, look!" Hop Pop pointed toward some more green Amphibian text appearing on the walls. "What's it say, Marcy?"

"'A dangerous room, what to do? Don't be jealous of my hue.'" Marcy read.

"Who's Hugh?" said Sprig.

"She probably means h-u-e, not a person," said Grime.

Marcy peered down at the tiled floor. "I guess it's talking about those green tiles. There's only two of them."

"So which of us are actually gonna go down there and brave the danger?" said Hop Pop.

"No one." Sprig pulled out his enchanted slingshot and casually fired two pebbles toward the two green tiles. All the floor tiles quickly flashed green and the stone door raised. "That was easy."

"Aww… but I wanted to figure out how to jump down there safely…" said Marcy quietly enough that no one could hear her.

Everyone else began to head toward the doorway, glad that they didn't have to brave the flames and spikes, and Marcy quickly ran to catch up.

"These trials remind me of that puzzle room in the tunnels under the house," said Polly.

"You kids still haven't explained that!" shouted Hop Pop, but yet again he was ignored.

"You know, we're making really good time!" said Marcy. "I bet we'll be done with this temple before we know it!"

One Hour Later

"I think the trial is figuring out how to get out of this hallway," said Polly. She heard Marcy mutter something about "backwards long jumps", but had no idea what that meant.

Suddenly Sprig started jumping in place excitedly. "More writing! More writing!"

Everyone looked up at where he was pointing— there were indeed words up near the ceiling.

"Finally there's something," said Sasha. "I thought I was gonna die of boredom."

"'Few have the brains to make it to this door, but are you wise enough to solve what's in store?'" Marcy read. "You bet we are!"

The group ventured forward and ended up in a room that was seemingly barren except for a single flipwart table with the black pieces already set up.

"That's it? Just flipwart?" Polly complained. "That's not interesting or exciting."

"Yes, but it's considered a test of intelligence," said Grime. "So it's fitting for the final trial."

"Leave this one to me," said Marcy.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Anne. "You're not really a chess person."

"True, but I am I'm a flipwart champion!" Marcy replied. There was a brief pause. "Well I only actually played once, but I beat Andrias which was apparently a really big achievement since he never loses. Except once. Against me!"

Hop Pop noticed some more glowing writing off on the side wall. "Hey Marcy, what does this say?"

Marcy looked over and read the wall. "'Any commander whose wart falls may never again set foot inside these temple walls.' I guess we're not allowed to lose." She opened a drawer and pulled out a white swordsfrog, placing it on the board.

Without any warning, Polly fell through the floor screaming, and suddenly a giant flipwart board appeared in the room. Polly rose from the floor, trapped in a large swordsfrog figure.

"Polly! Are you okay!" shouted Sprig.

"Okay? I've got a sword, baby!" Polly waved the piece's stone sword around.

"Should we do this?" said Anne, concerned. "This could get dangerous."

"Trust me, I can win this," said Marcy. "Also, it's probably too late to back out now." She placed a small frog priest piece on the small board, and Hop Pop fell through the floor and reappeared just like Polly did.

"Ooh, I get a scepter!" said the old frog.

Marcy then quickly placed the rest of the pieces down. Grime fell and reappeared as a mace wielder while Sprig fell and reappeared as a spear carrier in front. All of the other white pieces appeared normally.

Polly pointed at her brother. "Haha, you're a pawn!"

Sprig lowered his head. "Oh man…"

Meanwhile, Anne and Sasha glanced at each other and shrugged.

"I guess we're not in the game," said Anne.

"Yep, they can have some fun, I guess," Sasha replied.

However, the two human girls didn't notice that the black side was missing two pieces. Anne and Sasha realized their error when they too fell through the floor and reappeared as a heron rider and archer, respectively.

"We shouldn't have said anything," Sasha grumbled.

"Traitors!" yelled Polly from across the board.

"No wait, this humans vs. amphibians thing is good," said Anne. "Me and Sash can play badly on purpose so Marcy will win for sure!" Right after she said that, green glowing cuffs appeared on her wrists, locking her in place. "Okay, I can't movie."

The green cuffs quickly appeared on the wrists of everyone else except Marcy. They all tried to move but couldn't.

Marcy wasn't deterred. "Alright, game. I see you wanna play on hard mode." She clapped her hands and laughed. "Fun!" She then made her first move, sending a spear carrier a few spaces forward. The corresponding giant stone piece moved as well.

"You got this, bud," said Sprig to his fellow pawn.

Once the spear carrier was in place, a mace wielder from the other side hopped over and smashed it to pieces.

Sprig gulped. "Oh boy."

"Ooh, this game is gonna be easy." Marcy moved one of her archers forward which fired a laser, obliterating the mace wielder.

"What!? Lasers!?" exclaimed Anne.

And that's how the game went on: numerous pieces were destroyed by both sides, sometimes by the standalone pieces, but more often by the ones that had people in them. Luckily, no one managed to take significant damage but they definitely got banged up a bit. The only one who was actually enjoying the violence was Polly, but even she got worn by the game eventually.

"This is so fun!" said Marcy, oblivious to the extent of the destruction.

After a half hour, it looked like she was going to win. The only pieces left on the black side of the board were Anne, Sasha, and the wart.

"This temple's good, but not good enough." Marcy slid an archer piece right in front of the opposing wart. "Gotcha! We win!"

The large archer fired its laser, ready to destroy the wart. But instead of being blown to pieces, the large wart simply jumped over the laser and chuckled.

"What!? This thing cheats!" exclaimed Marcy.

"That's it! I've had enough of this!" Sasha began concentrating, building up strength.

"Sasha… maybe you shouldn't break the game," said Grime.

"I'm not gonna let it kill me!" Her eyes glowed pink and she burst free from her restraints, her piece crumbling to dust in the process.

Immediately, alarms started blaring and two of the large archers began firing lasers toward Sasha, who deflected them with her sword.

Grime sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Marcy nervously looked at her board, sweat pooling on her forehead. "Hold on, I can still win… the game's distracted now, yeah. I can just come at the wart from another angle. I have to do this!" She grabbed Hop Pop's piece and moved it closer to the other side of the board.

"Oh, come on!" shouted the old frog. "I don't wanna die by laser!"

"Huh?" Marcy looked out at the big board and saw just what had been happening. She saw the fear in everyone's eyes. She saw Sasha dodging lasers, scrambling to the exit. She saw Anne being forced to attack Polly and Hop Pop. She saw Sprig cradling the very first piece that was destroyed.

"He had a family!" Sprig cried.

"Did… I do this?" Marcy stared for a few more seconds but eventually gained on a determined look. "Well I'm not doing it any more! I quit!" She took her own wart piece and knocked it over. Unfortunately that didn't stop the chaos. Marcy panicked, having no idea what to do until she saw the big wart on her side smirking. "Of course!"

Marcy stopped and concentrated for a few seconds like Sasha had earlier. Once her eyes glowed green, she quickly flew toward the big wart, and caught it as it tried to jump out of the way. She then tossed it to the ground and it exploded in a flash of light. The remaining pieces quickly disintegrated and everyone's restraints were released. Marcy and Sasha eased out of their powers, and everyone gathered in the center of the big board.

"I'm so sorry, everyone," said Marcy. "I should've realized you were in danger way sooner." She began crying a little. "I can't believe it— I've been away from my parents for so long but I still feel like I have to prove myself and my worth."

Everyone leaned in and gave Marcy a big group hug.

"Aw, Mar-Mar…" said Sasha softly. "We forgive you."

"Yeah, let's blame the game instead!" said Sprig. "It's a ding-dang cheat!"

"You're still very intelligent," said Grime. "Never think you aren't."

"Thank you so much." Marcy wiped her tears away and suddenly her attention was on something else in the room. "Oh look, arrows!"

Indeed, a bunch of green arrows appeared on the floor and walls, pointing toward the way they came.

"I guess the temple wants us to leave now," said Hop Pop.

Sasha loudly groaned. "Ugh, now we have to walk back through that stupid hallway!"

Yet Another Hour Later

"So that was it for this quest, right?" said Sprig as they walked down the stairs out of the temple. "We're banned forever?"

"It might just be me who's banned," said Marcy. "I'm sure you guys can beat the temple without me."

"Hey guys, the failure arrows want us to keep going this way." Polly pointed to where the arrows continued into the woods.

"We might as well follow them," said Hop Pop.

The group of seven followed the remaining arrows, which led to…

"The outhouse?" said Sprig. "I guess there's a final surprise in there. Alright, let's go."

"I'm not going in there!" Sasha protested. "There could be old diarrhea or something!"

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Sprig opened the door.

Everyone gasped when they saw what was inside: neon green diagrams similar to the iconography inside the temple.

"I knew it!" exclaimed Polly. "The outhouse is the temple!"

Everyone, even Sasha, slowly ventured inside. Marcy crouched down and reached for the hole I've back.

"Uh, I wouldn't recommend touching that," said Hop Pop.

As soon as Marcy made contact with the stone fixture, the outhouse shook a little, a pedestal rose up, and writing appeared on the back wall. She began reading. "'Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it's more important to win, or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and honestly, doesn't that make you a winner in the end?'" She gasped. "Of course… if you're truly smart, then you'll know to give up when you can't win. That was the real trial all along."

She pulled the music box out of her backpack, did the trick Andrias showed her yesterday, and placed her gem in the slot on the pedestal. It and Marcy's eyes glowed bright green, but the glow in Marcy's eyes slowly diminished until they were simply brown again. The gem flashed brightly, releasing a burst of energy that made everyone's hair stand on end, and then it was green once again. For one final surprise, it shot out a laser that went out past the group, into the forest.

"It's probably leading to the next temple," said Marcy. Then she yawned, suddenly feeling tired and a little loopy. She nearly fell down onto the floor but Sasha and Grime caught her. Meanwhile, Anne took the gem and put it back in the music box.

"Alright, let's get back to George Sparrow," said Grime.

"No… his name's Joe… and we gotta see the mushrooms…" Marcy mumbled as they hoisted her onto Joe. Everyone else got on after her

"You're too tired to study anything right now," said Hop Pop.

"We can come back here tomorrow if you want," said Karina. "You didn't spend as long in there as I thought you might, so consider that a reward."

Marcy smiled. "Thanks…"

Entry 519

Good News: We charged the stone!

Bad News: I got too focused on the flipwart game :(

Good News: No one got hurt too bad :)

I'm pretty tired, gonna go to sleep now, will write more tomorrow.

Zzzzz…

The trio didn't get tired when drained of gem power in canon, but a combination of the energy being in their systems for longer and their younger ages means they'd probably be tired here.