Sorry for the little delays because I was helping my family to clean up the garage to make way for something big. So anyway, I know that Marcy is not interested to Suspicious Island because she's more of a fantasy-adventure RPG fan and that's when I decided to have her show her games to the Plantars. Now without further ado... please enjoy!
Marcy and the Frogs
Chapter 9: Taking Charge
During that time in the afternoon, Sprig and Polly were busy playing baseball game on Marcy's phone after her permission while she's busy working on the farm. They became obsessed with playin games since they got bored, but the only problem thing is when they played too much, it'll waste the phone's battery. Too bad that they don't have electrical power in their world.
"Come on, Sprig! Batter up already!" said Polly when sitting on Sprig's head.
"I'm trying!" replied Sprig.
"Well, don't try it, do it!"
When the door opens, Marcy and Hop Pop walks back inside after all the farming that they've been doing outside. Seems that Marcy is getting more used to farming as Hop Pop is more pleased with her.
"Whoo! Working on the farm is pretty upbeat." said Marcy after wiping off the sweat on her head.
"Well, back in my old days, my grandfather is showing me how to do farming properly." Hop Pop recalls from the past.
"He seems like a good person."
"Thank you, Marcy. I'd really appreciated that you've helped me."
"No problem."
While he went to the kitchen to get some cool drinks, Marcy approached to Sprig and Polly after sitting on the couch.
"Hey, guys. Feeling more comfortable?" Marcy asked.
"So far, so good." replied Sprig while focusing on the phone.
"This game looks pretty good." Polly lamented.
"Is there anything else you like to play besides playing baseball?" Marcy asked again.
"Nope!"
Then suddenly, a warning sign pops up saying that the battery percentage only has twenty making them look confused, but Marcy forgot to realize that they're wasting phone battery.
"Uh, is this supposed to happen?" Sprig asked.
"Oh, shoot. I almost forgot." Marcy takes the phone from Sprig when she switched apps to setting to turn on low battery mode.
"Hey, what gives?!" Polly exclaimed.
"Sorry, guys. You have to be more careful when my phone is running out of battery." Marcy apologize.
"What's a battery?"
"A battery is a device that has great ability to power a variety of devices, including the remote control, tape recorder, and even electronic toys."
"Battery runs power, eh? Does that involves mechanism?" Polly raise her eyebrows.
"Well, I'm not sure if you have something like robots, but like I said. If my phone dies, then I won't be able to figured out how to charge the battery if there's no power here."
"Well, that sucks. I wish there's something else we can play rather than being bored." said Sprig.
Then it hit her. She forms her smiles that she forgot to mentioned about this. Well, besides just her phone.
"But we do! Wait right here!"
Marcy opens the hatch to the basement as the farm loving girl sped downstairs to get something. Sprig and Polly were confused at first, but until Marcy comes back up with her game switch with four controllers after setting them down on the coffee table.
"What is that?" Polly curious.
"It's a videogame. From my world, it was design for everyone to play games from the arcade, then at home where you can hooked up in TV, and then couple of years later, they decide to make the portable gaming console without connecting to TV." Marcy explains.
"Oooh." Sprig and Polly admires with their eyes sparkles.
"I know, right. When I was little, I used to play with my first portable gaming console called 3DS until I was adopted, then my dad bought this GameCube where I can play all the time."
"That looks fun! I could do this forever!" Sprig smiles after he picks up one of the remote.
"Well this is just a taste! What I really want you guys to play is the greatest JRPG of all time!" Marcy pulls something when presenting her favorite videogame, Vagabondia Chronicles, REMASTERED X-2.
"Whoa!" Sprig and Polly were amazed.
"Behold, my faithful friends. This game has become a franchise since its initial release. Sequels, prequels, remasters… it was even remade into a first-person shooter!"
We cut to a flashback back on Earth where it shows Marcy is playing a bit that's called Vagabondia FPS as the girl shudders as the screen turns out to be a first-person shooter that kills a giant spider and some hornets until the flashback ends.
"It was awful." Marcy shudders. "But this is the original game, ported to my favorite gaming system of all time!"
"So, what does it do?" Sprig curious.
"Watch and learn." replied Marcy when she turns it on, the intro screen is loaded until the titular vagabonds appeared on screen, looking out at them with simple charming looping animations. "So these are the Vagabonds, we each get to control one! Except for him, he's the villain."
"Cool!" Polly impressed.
"So, if we win this game, do they get to leave this soul prison?" Sprig asked.
"(chuckled) No, they aren't real Sprig, they're like storybook characters." Marcy chuckles while shaking her head.
"Who's the big fury one?" Polly points her flipper..
"That's Toma, he's a big sweetheart." Marcy responds.
"And what's he holding, a club?"
"Oh, that's a gun..."
"What's a gun?"
"It's like a crossbow that uses explosions instead of a bow string to shoot things." Marcy shrugged.
"Sold! Dibs on Toma!" Poll chimes when picks up the second controller and selects the big fury one.
"Who's that?" Sprig asked, looking at the woman on the far left.
"That's Elowen, she's an enchantress, she acts standoffish but she really cares about everyone. She's really smart and can cast magic." Marcy smiles.
"As long as she doesn't do curse, I'm in!" Sprig select the enchantress.
That leaves Marcy to select her favorite protagonist is a little boy with anime hair and a bright pink sword. They can only play as three main characters.
"Then I can play as Petyr, the heart of the party, who urges them all to become heroes." said Marcy.
Hop Pop approach to the kids after getting himself cold water, but looked skeptical at the portable game console.
"What's all this about if I may ask?" said Hop Pop.
"Marcy is showing us how to play videogames." Sprig responded with his smiley face.
"They've got weapons!" Polly chimes.
The eldest frog blinked his eyes twice before he speaks.
"So, let me get this straight. You're all playing as... jobless homeless folk? For fun?"
"I wouldn't say jobless, but Petyr helped an innocent who was wanted by an evil baron, and as a result, his home was destroyed." The she realized that she's spoiling it. "Sorry, spoiler alert. Wanna play games?"
"Naw. Whatever you kids are playing, I'll have the opportunity is to work on my modeled ship. You kids have fun now." said Hop Pop as he went to his office.
That only leaves three kids in the living room.
"Guess I never asked, but do you two want to play?" Marcy asked hopefully.
"Are you kidding! Adventures?! Saving the world?! I'm totally on board!" Sprig excited with his grin.
"What are we waiting for! I wanna shoot somebody!" Polly demanded.
"Alright, I have to warn you though, we only have so much time to finish it before the battery runs out. I know it's your first time, but we'll need to focus if we want to finish. So, let's get it started." said Marcy.
"Yeah!"
And so, the game has just started.
Later that night, it's has been like six hours when it's almost time for bed, but they're still playing videogames as they tried to win the game by defeating this villain. Marcy was doing her swordfight, Sprig is conjuring magic, and Polly keeps shooting when they're in the semi-boss mode. They had gotten pretty far, only one more boss before the final dungeon.
"Come on, baby! Give me fire power!" said Sprig pressing controllers.
"Eat dirt, you dirtbag!" Polly taunted.
"This is it, guys. One more round and we'll beat the final boss in no time!" Marcy grins at the screen.
Just then when Hop Pop comes out from his office, but he looks more surprised that they've been playing for hours.
"How long have you three been playing?" Hop Pop asked when concerned.
"Six hours." Marcy answered.
"Six hours?! It's almost past your bedtime."
Marcy got herself attention to him, but both Sprig and Polly looked complained.
"Bedtime?! But we haven't eat dinner yet!" Polly whines.
"Yes, you did! You kids were gluing on that that dang picture box!" replied Hop Pop.
"But the dungeon!" Sprig whines.
"Well, that will all have to wait. You can finish your hobo tomorrow."
Then the siblings groaned with defeat. Marcy saves the game before she turns it off into rest mode and then yawns. Playing videogames was pretty exhausted. Don't you think?
"He's right, guys. We should probably get some rest. We'll finished this up in the morning." said Marcy.
"Okay." said Sprig when he looks very tired.
"I thought so. Now, off to your bed, kids." Hop Pop picks up Polly in his arm
Sprig got off from the couch as he walk upstairs to his room for bed followed by Hop Pop carrying sleeping pollywog. Marcy is putting away her portable gaming device and walks downstairs to the basement.
"Goodnight, fellas!"
"Goodnight, Marcy." replied Hop Pop.
Then she closes the trap door behind her, then changed into her pajamas, and then went to her bed to get some sleep. However when she goes to sleep, a little message appeared on the screen.
The next morning, Marcy woke up from her bed and then change her clothes to get ready for the next day. When she walks back upstairs with her game switch by opening the hatch door, but what she didn't expected to see Sprig and Polly that got up way early before her.
"Play time! Play time! Play time! Play time!" Sprig and Polly chanted.
They were admonished by Hop Pop to come have breakfast first, but the both of them ate faster than Marcy had ever seen. She was totally quite surprised.
"Up already?" Marcy asked.
"Yeah! It's game time!" Polly bounced on her brother's head.
"Let's hook up and then we can finish this!" Sprig excited.
"Alright, guys. Let me turn this on first." Marcy chuckled.
After she setup her game switch, but when she turns on, it didn't respond. Then she press the switch again by holding it down, but something was wrong. She shifted her emotions when she realize that the battery must've died. She went a little bit panic, but remains calm. Sprig and Polly looked concerned at first.
"Uh, Marcy?" Sprig asked.
"It's okay. Don't panic. Everything's under control." said Marcy when she looked calm. "Maybe I'll looked into the video I saved about recharging it."
Once she took her phone out, but unfortunately that the screen on her phone was going to turned on, but it says zero percentage for the phone battery and it went out, permanently. No power, no phone. The worst part of her life as Marcy started to freak out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Sprig and Polly flinched from her scream. Hop Pop rushes out from the kitchen.
"What in the frog was goin' on here?!"
Marcy turns her head at him with her horrified expression.
"It's gone. The power is drained." Marcy's face grimacing.
"Huh?" Sprig blinked.
"The battery! It's all gone! My phone and the game switch are dead!"
"What?! You mean that we can't play games?!" Polly exclaimed.
"NOOO!" Sprig yells dramatically. "We were so close to get to the boss mode! The entire world is doomed!"
"We have to do something!" Polly is shaking her brother's shoulders.
"Kids! Calm down! Yellin' won't solved ya problems!" Hop Pop telling the kids to calm down.
"But Hop Pop, Elowen won't ever free her sister! Petyr will never learn that everyone cares for him!" Sprig's begging desperately.
"We'll never get to avenge for the burning of Rel'yh!" Polly added.
Marcy's lips were quivered, forming her sad look. All of her precious memories and games were long gone.
"I'm so sorry, guys. I blew it." Marcy apologize, quietly.
"No, Marcy. We blew it." Sprig corrected her in shamed.
"We?" Hop Pop raised his eyebrows.
"As in, me and Sprig. We used up all of her phone battery for a baseball game." Polly looked heart broken, melting onto the floor.
"Y'all were really invested in this weren't you?"
They can only reply when groaned. Hop Pop's expression softened looking at his grandkids and then he looks at Marcy with her sad look. He knows exactly what he must do.
"Alright, Marcy. What kind of electricity that we need?"
"It's a type of energy like a lightning bolt." Marcy answered.
"Well that sounds dangerous."
"It's not sounds as dangerous. Electricity is to lightning like a stove fire is to a wildfire. Dangerous if your not careful, but can be a very useful tool."
"I think I know where to look and this might help ya."
They all went to his office where his books are and it's a really good thing that she asks for his permission so that she can study about these creatures. When Hop Pop opens up "The Creatures of Amphibia" as he flips through some pages until he reach to the part where it shows a little centapede like creature with bulbous eyes and two sparking antenna.
"I've heard talk of a creature called the Zapapede, that lives deep in the Misty Peaks. It zaps its prey with a small spark of lightnin'. Yeah, it's pretty cool, actually."
"So how far is the Misty Peaks?" Marcy asked.
"It's half a day's travel, but that should be no trouble for this gang. If we're lucky, we should be using Bessie to get us there fast before the sunset."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Marcy went to grab her bag, a shrinking curse, and a few jars for sampling. Once ready she's headed out front, Hop Pop had brought out Bessie. Then the kids climbs onboard and take their seat. Hop Pop took control of the rein to give the snail onward as Bessie lunges forward to the Misty Peaks.
It didn't take much longer until they have arrived, despite for short journey. When Bessie slows down, they jumped off the snail while Hop Pop hitching Bessie to a nearby tree with enough length to graze.
"Well, here we are. Best that we camp here, but we still have plenty of time before night falls." said Hop Pop.
"Okay. Now, which way did we go?" Marcy asked.
"It will give you any directions, but stay close to me. It looks pretty dangerous."
Marcy nodded. Then they're headed up through the narrow paths of the mountains. Hop Pop and Sprig took the lead with Marcy close behind. Polly sat bundled in Marcy's sweatshirt cloak like a papoose.
She spent most of her attention on the ground to avoid tumbling or falling off. The mist is pretty thick that they couldn't see. After about twenty minutes of exploring dead ends, a rickety wooden bridge emerged from the mist. They looked down and sees a zapapedle curled around it, resting peacefully. As it stirred to look at them, its little antenna let out a current of electricity.
"Whoa. It's like Pokémon game." Marcy surprised.
"A what?" Sprig asked.
"It's a videogame that they were from Japan. There's also a short name for Pocket Monsters."
"You put monsters in your pocket?" Polly asked when confused.
"No. It's... you know what. I'll explain later."
"So, should we just throw or something?" Sprig asked.
"No, I have a better idea." Marcy took out her shrinking potion from her bag, much to their curiosity. "If I could use this potion to shrink the zapapede, I'll just scooped up, and then bring it home with us. So we don't have to come back here whenever my batteries runs low."
"Are you sure this is a good idea? Using potions?" Hop Pop looks concerned.
"I carefully practicing by shrinking one of the tomato that we might need for more sauce."
"Okay, but what if we can help?" Sprig suggested.
"He's right, kiddo. We Plantars have to stick together. No matter what." Hop Pop agrees.
Marcy can understand that teamwork is the most important thing to do. What really reminds her back from home, she used to work together with her adoptive family and her older brother. She forms her smile and nodded.
"Alright. Here's what were gonna do. Sprig, use your slingshot to aim carefully at the zapapede and hit it with the curse. Hop Pop, think you can scoop it up with the jar?"
Marcy hands over an empty jar to Hop Pop when he formed his smile.
"Can do." Hop Pop responds.
"Happy to help." Sprig smiles when he took his slingshot out.
"And Polly?" Marcy looks back at her.
"Yeah?" Polly asked.
"Watch my back."
"You got it!"
Then Marcy looked dubiously at the rickety old bridge. She breathes in and out, knowing that it's a risky mission. Hop Pop carefully stepped across the old bridge while holding onto the jar. She looked so nervous if anything goes wrong, but everything looked pretty well. The zapapedle woke up and got a little testy when Hop Pop got too close.
"Easy there." Hop Pop said it calmly.
She hands over the potion to Sprig and aims carefully at the zapapedle.
"Mind your aim." Polly whispered.
As they zapapedle was districted, Sprig fires his slingshot as the potion hits on the electric insect and then shrinks down to a size of a fist until Hop Pop scoop it up in a jar.
"I got it!" Hop Pop smiles.
"Woo!" Sprig cheers.
"Nice swift, Hop Pop!" Marcy gives him a high fives.
With a success, it's like catching pocket creature, but in a different way. Hop Pop returned with his proud look.
"Welp, back in my youth. I used to catch be a bug catcher. Like my father and his father before him."
Without a warning, Marcy looked at the zapapedle that looked less than pleased with it's change in circumstance. It scrambled up the side, getting ever closer to the top. She changed her emotions into fear.
"Hop Pop! Your hand-"
But it was too late when an electric current went out across the antenna and the copper lid of the car attracted it with no difficulty. A charge, massive despite the zapapedle's size, zapped Hop Pop quite badly as he yells.
"HOP POP!" The kids cried in unison.
When it finally stopped, Hop Pop wobbled on his feet, body smoking and charred. Marcy rushed forward to grab the jar while Sprig helped his grandfather stay on his feet.
"That's..." Hop Pop coughed, letting out a puff of black smoke. "a quite change."
"Are you okay?" Marcy asked when she's worried.
"Not to worry, kiddo. I'll live." replied Hop Pop.
She sighs in relief. Then she looks through the jar when a zapapedle looked at her with annoyed eyes, then leaned up, and started to let out a chittering screech. Marcy forms her smiles that retrieving the insect was a big sucess.
"Mission accomplish, guys! Now let's head back and recharge the game and my phone." said Marcy.
"Uh, hate to ruin the moment, but we got company." Polly points her flipper from Marcy's hoodie.
They looked down to see what's going, but what they didn't expect to see coming out from the heavy fog below, silhouettes of dozens of zapapedles started to crawl up towards them. They looked shocked that they're crawling towards them.
"Wuh-oh! Time to go!" Marcy puts away the jar inside of her bag and picks up Hop Pop.
As both kids ran off where the exits are while she's carrying the eldest frog with Polly sitting on her hoodie until they reached to the bottom where they left Bessie grazing and then climbs up on the saddle as the snail looks curious. When she saw him twitching, trying to get hold of the reins but unable to get a firm grasp on them at all.
"Dang it."
"Those things are getting closer..." Polly warns when the zapapedes were getting closer.
"Hop Pop! Do something!" Sprig went frantic.
"I wish I could, but my nervous system went down." replied Hop Pop, defeated.
"What do you want me to do?! Drive us out?!" Marcy exclaimed.
"I can't... but you can."
"Huh?! Me?!"
Without answering her question, Sprig grabs the reins and hands it to her, desperately.
"You have long arms like no other creature has done this before!" Sprig replies.
"Wh-what do I do?!"
"Bessie! Things are getting messy!" Hop Pop speaks to Bessie as the snail perks up.
"Wait, things are getting mess-WHOA!"
Bessie lunges forward when Marcy nearly falls off as the Taiwanese girl is holding on to the reins so dearly as they made it out from the Misty Peaks just in time before the zapapedes approach. For the first time in her life, Marcy was driving a snail. Well, sort of.
They had arrived back home without too much trouble. Unfortunately when Bessie slows down, Marcy felt a little shaken while the Plantars looked so calm while it last. They move their heads at Marcy when her mouth went dumbfounded.
"You okay, Marcy?" Sprig asked.
"That... was... AWESOME!" Marcy perks up with excitement. "Can we do it again?!"
"Heh, sure thing, Marcy. But for now, let's get some rest." Hop Pop chuckled.
"Well, that was fun." Sprig remarked.
"LET'S GO AGAIN!" Polly chimes.
Later on once they got off from Bessie and walked inside, Marcy took the jar out from her bag and set it down at the coffee table. Then set the game console down at the top of the copper lid and sits down on the couch with the Plantars.
"Alright let's see how this works." said Marcy.
They waited patiently until the bug let out a jolt and then zapped at the copper to charge up the console. Sure enough it was fully charged after just two zaps from the zapapede. Then she switch the console to her phone until it zaps again to charge her phone. Once it stops, she took two of her electronic with her hands as Sprig gently took the phone from her.
"Did it work?" Sprig asked, hopefully.
They waited patiently until her phone were turned on with numbers of percentages.
35% to 56%. 56% to 80%. 80% to 99%! 99% to... to 128%!?
Marcy went baffled like that's not even possible as the percentages kept growing. When it tipped over 400%, she was worried that the phone battery might exploded, but it didn't. Her phone looks very warmed and so does her game. The zapapedle's charge had somehow improved the battery and made it capable of holding more than before.
"Heheheehehee!" Marcy first chuckled, but then started to laugh. "Hahahahahaha!"
"Uh, why is Marcy laughing?" Sprig asked.
Before he could reply, but Marcy gave the two of them a big group hug.
"It worked! It actually worked!" Marcy smiles.
"You mean all your games are okay?" Sprig asked.
"Of course! Thanks to you, we could continue to play the game where we left off!"
"Aw yeah!" Polly bounced up.
"Woohoo!" Sprig cheers.
"Now, hold on there." Hop Pop intervenes. "Let's have a little break for a moment."
"Aw, why not?" Polly complains.
"We haven't eaten all day. Now, who wants supper?"
"For once, I totally agree." Marcy agrees.
"Well, maybe you're right." Sprig took a glance at the zapapede when started to ask his best friend. "So, Marcy. Can you tell me what pocket monsters are?"
"I'm glad you asked. It all started back in 1996..."
And so when Marcy explains the whole game plot, they may have some experience with zapapede, but they sure had the best day ever as they worked together as a team. She has a whole lot of things to explain about her interest.
Well, that's that! It took me a little longer to figured out about the story plot, but some dialogue that I based off of one of the fanfic from other website, "A Witch in Wartwood". I would very like to give credits to the author of the story, Discet and a friend of mine, FlamingChainsaw who's really good at some details.
Just for the reminder that the next chapter will be on hold once again, because this Saturday I'm going my next trip to San Diego with my family to celebrate my big brother's 31st birthday until I got back by Tuesday. For that, I will publish the next chapter where Anne ventures in Newtopia. Have a goodnight and I'll be seeing ya real soon! Stay tuned!
Amphibia (c) Disney