A/N: I think I got caught a cold, it's not the flu or covid, I took a test so I'm in the clear. I'm fully vaxed for both BTW.
Wasn't sure if I was going to get this one out, but I'm feeling a bit better.
Time waited for no woman, and in this case, neither did nightmares. Ever since the Rita Spinner Incident, Anne's nightmares about her friends hadn't lessened. So, instead of dwelling on them, Anne decided to pour her sleepless nights into further online research about portals, along with reading any books she could get her hands on about the subject. The Thai teen was currently sitting up in her bed, with the blanket draped over her head like a cloak while Hop Pop snored away next to her. Anne's eyes were wide and bloodshot, having spent last night and the night before that surfing the web for information. She just might be the first person in the history of the internet to click on every single Doogle search result.
But her research could only go so far, so Anne started posting questions to different online forums about the subject. The serious ones posted some interesting theories, but that's all they were, theories. The others were either trolls or creepy people asking her pics or sending her some not safe for work images of isekai anime. Anne lost track of time when she was like this, she harkened it to Marcy's "Being in the Zone". Anne sighed; there she went again. Every time she thought about her, or Sasha, the nightmares would start up. Honestly, they were steadily growing more frequent as the days went on, but they were getting a little more intense ever since she had her talks with the Waybrights and Wus.
The Waybrights were okay with Anne "regaining her memories", but the Wus were not as accommodating, especially Ling Wu. For now, the Wu family has not made contact with them since that incident at the news station, but Anne knew it was only a matter of time before they took other measures. There was only so long she could play the role of an amnesiac before someone forced her parents to take her to see a shrink. That was the last thing she needed right now, Anne was certain that a therapist would easily tell that she was lying, or hell, they would label her crazy if she even told them one fifth of what really happened. The longer she delayed this, the more inevitable such a scenario was bound to happen, and it would only cause her parents more worry and trouble as they were lying on her behalf.
To a degree they understood her urgency to find a way back to Amphibia, painting it under the guise of wanting to take the Plantars back home and retrieve Marcy and Sasha who were waiting for her and looking for a way back themselves. But all of that was a lie, although she informed them of some of the dangers of Amphibia, she did not tell them about the real danger that was awaiting Earth on the other side of the dimensional divide. If she didn't figure out a way back soon, Earth would be overrun with Andrias and The Night's robot and Fallen armies.
All of this stress and worry was taxing on the young girl, but she decided to channel it into fuel to keep the research going. Besides, who needed sleep anyway?
"Anne, breakfast!" Oum's voice called out.
"Huh?!" Anne snapped out of her work and noticed that the Plantars had already left. "What time is…?" Anne glanced at her computer's clock and shook her head. "Wow…okay, I have been up for a while. I'll just hit send reeaaall–"
"NOW!"
"Yep! Okay, okay!" Anne called out as she quickly changed out of her pajamas into her shirt and jean shorts.
She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal, she was mostly on autopilot at this point, as the two nights worth of no sleep were starting to show. Anne walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. The Plantars were already in there watching the TV show "Primthistle Manor". As soon as Anne sat down, she barely had the energy to eat her cereal as she just stared blankly at the TV, which was normal for some, but this was a different kind of blank stare.
"Whoa, Anne, you don't look so good," said Sprig.
"Yeah, you look beat," Polly added.
"Ugh…I've spent all night researching ways to get you guys home. And possibly the night before that," Anne remarked.
Oum heard what Anne said as she walked into the room and sat on the armrest next to Anne. "You? Researching? Who are you and what have you done with my daughter."
Anne rolled her eyes. "Har! Har! Anyway, I was thinking, what if there's a second Calamity Box here on Earth? It's possible someone may've created one on this side of the universe. So, I mapped out every thrift store in a fifty-mile radius and if we leave right now–!"
"Pass!" Polly interrupted. "'Primthistle Manor' isn't going to binge itself."
"Everyone, quiet! Lord Frankerton's confessing his love for Lady Franklin," Hop Pop announced.
Are…Are you serious right now? I'm too tired to tell the difference, thought Anne.
{My dearest Lady Franklin, I simply cannot contain my passion for you any longer.}
{Oh Lord Frankerton!}
The screen showed the two actors touching their pinkies against each other, with a banner that said, "I say, it's love" hovering over them. Needless to say, the Plantars were moved to tears.
"Amazin'," said Hop Pop.
"I'm shocked!" Polly gasped.
"And it only took three seasons," Sprig remarked.
Anne dragged her hand up her face as she leaned back against the couch. "Seriously, you guys, why does it feel like I'm the only one trying to find a way back to Amphibia?"
Sprig got off the floor and walked up to his surrogate big sister as he said, "Anne, we've all been trying hard to find a way back. But it's okay to take a day off to recharge every now and then."
"But there's no time! You guys know what's at stake here, right?! Come on. Let's get back to researching!" Anne stated.
The TV was suddenly turned off as Oum reentered the living room, she then turned to her daughter and said, "Since you seem to enjoy research so much now, what if you four spend the day at the museum and wrote a report? You have a lot of makeup schoolwork to do."
Anne glanced at the table in the adjacent room which had three of her textbooks and some notes from her teachers on each subject. "Mom, c'mon. I know school's important and all, but what I'm researching right now is way more important than that! And if you think about it, it's technically school related since it involves a lot of science and math and junk."
"Well, maybe doing something else will help you with your other research. Sometimes it helps to distract yourself with another project in order to help you see something you couldn't before because you were too focused," said Oum.
"But…But!"
"No buts. You're going. I'm also going to be cleaning the house. There's slime everywhere. And I'm not pointing fingers, but I need you all out of the way."
Upon second glance, Anne did notice a lot of slime on the ceiling, shelves and floors.
Polly turned to the Thai teen and said, "Gross, Anne. Just gross."
If Anne wasn't so tired right now, she'd make a snide remark at Polly, but honestly, she was too tired to argue with her mother, so in the end, Anne relented. But she wasn't going to stop thinking on how to create a portal even while at the museum.
It was an hour drive to the Museum of Natural History. Oum stopped the van at the curb, signaling Anne and Plantars to disembark.
"I'll pick you up at 6:00. Have fun, but also learn," said Oum.
Everyone groaned.
Anne and the Plantars walked up the stone steps and into the museum itself, once inside, the Plantars' eyes widened in awe of what they were seeing. Fossil displays of a tyrannosaurus rex, and a mosasaur overhead. Anne, Hop Pop, and Polly were busy looking at a rex skeleton while Sprig was looking at a display of a raptor.
"Whoa! Looks like you guys used to have a monster problem, too," said Sprig. "What even is this thing?"
"Oh, that? That's a raptor. Scary meat eater, hunts in packs, and always from the sides," said Anne.
"And what about this biggin'?" Hop Pop asked as he pointed to the rex.
"That's a tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the dinosaurs, millions of years ago anyway," Anne answered.
Polly smirked as she said, "Not so kingly now, is he?"
"Heh, yeah, at least until they eventually bring them back from preserved amber mosquitos," Anne commented sleepily.
"What?"
"What?" Anne shook her head. "Uh, c'mon let's keep looking around."
Their next stop was to the planetarium, the inside was dimly let, allowing for the walls to display glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations. There were display cases that showed off moon rocks and replicas of the moon landing. Up above were some glowing recreations of the planets in their solar system. Anne noticed a small blue rock with a note hanging on its cable that read, "Pluto is a planet! Screw you scientific community!" They wandered to a holographic display of the Earth as it spun on its axis, Anne was still too tired to care about the museum, but Polly, Sprig, and Hop Pop were fascinated by the globe.
That is until Hop Pop said, "Wait! You're people think the world is round?"
"Yeah, dude, so are the rest of the planets up there," said Anne tiredly.
Hop Pop looked at the hanging planet displays and realized that they were indeed all round as a ball. "Ah don't believe it. Next, you'll be tellin' me that Amphibia isn't the center of the universe."
Anne decided to just not say anything, she was in no mood to give a lecture or to shatter Hop Pop's world view. At least not today. Anne was starting to doze off, so she reached into her backpack, took out her laptop, and booted it up. She was restarting her research into portals while keeping the Plantars in her sight as they moved onto the ancient civilizations exhibit. Despite what her mother said, this was not the time to be distracted by mundane things like "schoolwork". There was a time and a place for that, and right now was not that time. Actually, it would never be that time, not until The Night and Andrias were defeated, and Marcy and Sasha were back on Earth safe and sound.
Hop Pop strode up next to Anne and commented, "See, we can have a fun one-off just like we did in Amphibia. Anne?" Hop Pop looked up and saw his adopted granddaughter nose deep in her computer. "Anne?!"
"What?!" Anne gasped as she closed the laptop.
"You gotta take a break from all this research!"
"Don't worry, HP, I'm fine. I've got everything under control. Plus…it's better than having to deal with those nightmares…" Anne muttered the last part.
The old frog sighed as he shook his head, he then reached up and patted Anne's right hand with his left. "Anne, burnin' yerself out isn't gonna help us get home to Amphibia."
Anne was about to make a remark, but her attention was grabbed when she spotted something that brought her to almost full alertness. "Amphibia!"
"Yeah, that's what Ah said," Hop Pop replied.
"No! Look!"
Anne pointed towards a vase in a protective case. It looked ancient, probably thousands of years old. But what made the piece of ancient pottery so important was the fact that it showed a picture of, what looked like, a frog appearing out of a swirling vortex before a ship of Nordic Vikings. And floating in front of that frog was none other than the Calamity Box. Anne rushed over to the case and stared at the picture. It was unbelievable, but it was right there, the music box was right there. Which meant that the Calamity Box really was brought to Earth a thousand or so years ago. Sprig and Polly joined Anne and Hop Pop, and they too were amazed by this discovery.
Sprig looked closely at the picture and said, "Call me crazy, but that looks like…"
"One of us," said Polly.
"I don't believe it. Could it be the clue we've been looking for?"
Suddenly Anne froze and tensed up when she felt a hand touch her right shoulder.
"Didn't expect to see frogs in here, eh?" a voice spoke.
Anne yelped as she quickly turned around and saw a woman standing behind her. She was olive skinned and had frizzy black hair. Her gray eyes were hidden behind a pair of red, square shaped glasses. She also wore a pair of leather gloves, a yellow shirt with various fossil pictures, and pair of khaki pants, and a pair of boots.
The Thai teen instinctively put the Plantars behind her as she spluttered, "What?! Frogs?! Huh?!" The woman stared at her blankly, which allowed Anne time to process what she had said. "Oh. You're talking about the pod."
"Sure. What'd you think I was talking about? Anyway. Name's Dr. Jan. I'm a curator here." Dr. Jan zipped over to Hop Pop as she added, "And an avid lover of all things ancient." She winked at Hop Pop before returning to her original spot.
"Why did she wink at me?" Hop Pop asked.
Dr. Jan walked over to the pod that contained the vase as she said, "So staring at this pod, eh? Interesting, isn't it?" Dr. Jan reached out and dragged Anne next to her as she explained the vase. "The frog here was depicted in a very unconventional fashion. Bipedal. Oh! It must've been some kind of deity. Which makes this all the more interesting as there are hardly any frog centric or frog shaped gods or goddesses among the pantheon of Nordic deities."
Anne gulped as she said, "Huh. You don't say."
"Maybe it's a frog-shaped alien, right? From another dimension?" Dr. Jan proposed.
The Plantars, and even Anne, were now even more nervous due to Dr. Jan's astute observation.
Dr. Jan chuckled a little as she said, "Sorry, sorry. I'm really into cryptids. You know, UFOs, and stuff." Dr. Jan showed off her two flying saucer earrings. "Anyway, you got any other questions?"
Sprig stepped up and asked, "Do you know anything about portals to–?"
Anne quickly clasped her hand over Sprig's mouth as she quickly stated, "Nope, not at all! Actually, I hate history and museums! Yuck!"
"Aww, that's too bad. And kind of insulting," said Dr. Jan with a happy tone. As Dr. Jan prepared to leave, she added, "Well, if you change your mind, just holler, 'Dr. Jan!' And I'll fly in like an information superhero!"
An awkward silence fell upon the room.
"Uh…Dr. Jan, away!"
The Plantars and Anne watched as Dr. Jan left the room. Now that they were alone, Sprig removed Anne's hand from his mouth and asked, "Hey! Why did you blow her off? Maybe she knows something.'
"What? Come on, dude. We don't know anything about that lady. How do we know we can trust her. Especially when there's someone else trying to come after me, well, Amp, but same difference," said Anne.
"You got a point, but still," Polly commented.
"That thing's our first real clue, Anne. We can't just let it get away from us," said Hop Pop.
"Agreed, we can't just drop it. What if there's a map painted on the bottom to another Calamity Box? Or a secret code that only shows up under black light?" Anne theorized.
"Well, if you don't wanna ask that Dr. Jan for help, what are we gonna do then? Rob the museum?" Hop Pop asked.
An almost manic grin appeared on Anne's face.
"Anne?"
"I still can't believe we're robbin' the museum!" Hop Pop complained.
"Shh! Hop Pop!" Anne hissed.
When they returned home, Anne went to work creating a plan rob the museum. She went through several iterations of her plan with the Plantars, some which involved Anne transforming and breaking into the museum as Amp. But thankfully Sprig convinced her not to, as it would ruin her reputation as a hero. So, forty minutes later, they came up with a plan that didn't involve ruining Anne's hero status, and hopefully would not get them all caught.
"Anne?" Oum called out as she stuck her head into Anne's room. "You guys okay in here?"
"All good! Just finishing up that report!" Anne lied.
"Don't believe you, but okay," said Oum with a suspicious tone in her voice.
They waited until the older Thai woman slipped out and closed the door behind her, releasing a collective sigh of relief from the Plantars.
"I think she bought it," said Polly.
Sprig looked over to Anne, who had somehow fallen asleep while sitting on her knees. "Anne!"
"Huh! Where was I?" Anne asked.
"Anne, for Frog's sake, at least get some rest before we do somethin' dangerous like this. You're too tired to be makin' up plans and pullin' off heists," said Hop Pop with concern.
"I got this, HP. I just dozed off for a sec, it's nothing. Besides, we did way more dangerous stuff in Amphibia, both non-Kamen Rider related and related," Anne countered. "Plus, at least nothing's going to spit acid or try to eviscerate us."
"That you know of," Polly pointed out.
Anne rolled her eyes and walked over to her closet as she took out some black clothing. "C'mon, guys. If you don't break a few rules for this, how are we ever gonna get back?"
The Plantars seemed skeptical about this, well, Hop Pop and Sprig did. They could see that Anne was running on fumes right now, and probably not thinking clearly about this. But, then again, that artifact has been the only solid clue to the Calamity Box and Amphibia they've had in the past few days since they arrived. And Anne's slight paranoia about not trusting Dr. Jan was kind of warranted, especially after what happened with Rita Spinner, and that kid who turned into lava spitting dinosaur. There did seem to be a third-party lurking in the shadows somewhere, so perhaps Anne was correct in choosing these methods.
"Okay, Anne, what's the plan?" Sprig asked.
"Simple enough." Anne sat down on the floor and pointed at the museum map where she wrote down notes. "Hop Pop will distract the security guards, and provided that there aren't that many, Polly will be up next. I noticed a vent at the entrance, I need you to go in through there and unlock the door. Afterwards, once we're inside, Sprig, I need you to take out all the cameras in the area as quickly as possible," said Anne.
"Just like I did back at the news station, got it."
"And if all goes well, we'll be walking out of that museum with a vase and some information on how to get back to Amphibia. And then –!" Anne faceplanted onto the floor.
Polly walked up to Anne and rolled her over onto her back as she lightly snored. The little pollywog raised her right flipper and slapped Anne across the cheek as she exclaimed, "Anne! Wake up!"
Anne jolted forward; eyes wide open as she looked around. "I'm awake! I'm awake! I'm good! I'm A-ok!"
This won't end well, the Plantars thought in unison.
Night eventually fell upon the City of Angels, and Anne was ready to enact her plan. She waited until her parents were asleep, it took waiting until one in the morning, but now she was sure that they weren't going to wake up any time soon. During those hours, Anne went over her plan from top to bottom, planning contingencies in her head just in case they did set off an alarm, or if an unaccounted guard was, well, guarding the area. Unfortunately, this meant for the last six hours Anne still hadn't gotten any sleep. Now she was on three days with no sleep, and right now the only thing keeping her from keeling over was the adrenaline.
She snuck out of her room with the Plantars in tow. Together they stealthily made it out of the house and to the right side of the domicile where Anne carefully hid her bike under the guise of taking out the trash. She did in fact take out the trash, but she did that, too. Once Anne mounted her bike, the Plantars hopped on, and Anne sped away down the road. She tapped into her superspeed to accelerate her peddling and reaction speed, allowing her to quickly traverse the city. Thanks to her mode of transportation being a bike, Anne could go places that their family van could not, so it shaved off a good thirty minutes from the normally hour-long trip by taking shortcuts through alleys and crossing through some streets.
When they arrived, the group dismounted the bike and prepared to move out. For this mission, Anne was dressed in a dark-violet shirt with tattered sleeves and a cat skull on the front. She wore black cargo pants and boots, her pink backpack for some reason, and a black beanie cap that smothered most of her afro hair. Sprig had a black hoodie on that had the word, "P. A. I. N." spelled out on the front, Hop Pop also wore a black hoodie, but it had no markings on it. And Polly's hoodie was cut off, making it look like she was wearing a cloak rather than a hoodie.
The four of them hid behind the brick wall in front of the museum, and it was there that they noticed the two, armed, security guards. They seemed to be shooting the breeze, which was understandable considering how long they were probably out there. Anne wasn't sure if they were the only two guards here, it would be kind of dumb if they were, considering that there's some artifacts inside that would be worth some serious money to certain people.
Worst case scenario, if there are others, I'll just have to use my lightning and knock them out, thought Anne.
"HP," said Anne.
"On it!" Hop Pop replied.
Anne reached into her backpack and took out his distraction costume, which looked similar to a costume from that hit Broadway musical, "Katz". Once dressed up, Hop Pop made his way towards them, down on all fours just like a cat. Anne could clearly see that Hop Pop had been studying Domino's movements as he got the walk down perfectly.
"So, I'm wondering, how did those bones get underground in the first place?" said the female guard.
"Meow!" the two guards stared at Hop Pop, dumbfounded. "I'm a cat!"
Hop Pop playfully pawed at the female guard's shoe before just straight up yanking it off her foot and running away with it.
"Hey, my shoe!" the female guard exclaimed.
"After that fabulous cat," said the male guard.
Once the guards were gone, Anne, Sprig, and Polly rushed towards the entrance. Anne looked up and spotted the vent, just as she remembered. "Okay, Polly, you're up!"
Anne flattened her hands has Polly hopped onto them. The Thai teen launched Polly into the air, where the pollywog managed to grab onto the grate and kick it open. Anne and Sprig watched as Polly entered the vent and waited for the baby frog to do her thing. It took about two to three minutes of waiting before the front door opened and revealed Polly as she said, "S'up, fools?"
Now that they had gained entry, the trio snuck in, being careful to avoid being seen by the cameras. Polly was small, so the camera's more than likely weren't able to catch her movements, if they did, she'd probably appear as a black shadow. But her and Sprig were a different story.
"Sprig, take out the cameras," said Anne.
Sprig nodded and began crawling on the walls to avoid being seen directly. Once he was in range of the first one, Sprig launched his tongue and quickly smashed. Sprig kept hopping and crawling through the room, taking out one camera after the other until all the cameras in the main lobby were completely broken. Sprig eventually came down from the ceiling after checking that all the cameras were smashed, and that's when Hop Pop entered through the lobby.
"Those guards got tired of chasin' me and stopped at a coffee shop! We got a good twenty minutes," said Hop Pop.
"Nicely done. Now, all we need to do is…is…" Anne faceplanted again.
"Oh Frog, not again," said Sprig.
"I'm on it." Polly walked up to Anne and smacked her upside the head. "Hey, Anne! Not a good time for a nap!"
Anne snapped awake. "Right! Sorry! Let's do this!"
The Plantars were growing increasingly worried about Anne's state of being, this was the second time Anne passed out, she really was pushing herself too much.
Anne felt like crud, she was so tired. She wished she could've turned her bike into Machine Stormer 2, but the lightning wheels would've made them stand out. Tapping into her civilian form powers was not a good idea, as it only seemed to make her more exhausted. But she had to persevere, they were so close to their goal.
The group made it to the entrance of the exhibit room where the vase was being kept. Inside were a few more cameras, but in addition there was also a laser grid alarm system. One touch and the entire museum would be put on alert.
"Whoa, that's a lot of lasers," said Anne tiredly.
"Want me to take care of the camera's again?" Sprig asked.
"No, can't risk you tripping an alarm…I'll do it."
Anne took note of the cameras that were in the room, five in total. The Thai teen took a deep breath and concentrated. Her eyes began to glow blue as electrical sparks danced on her fingertips. Anne took aim with her right finger and began shooting small bolts of lightning from it, since the lightning bolts had no substance to them the alarms didn't sound off whenever they passed through the beams. One after the other, Anne shorted them out, until all five were down. Anne released her power, but when she did, she felt lightheaded and almost stumbled forward into the beams.
Thankfully, Sprig and Hop Pop were able to use their tongues, wrapping them around Anne's wrists, and quickly pulled her back where she landed on her rump.
"Thanks for that, but now we got to get through those lasers," said Anne.
"Don't worry," Polly cracked her neck/head, "I got this."
Sprig, Hop Pop, and Anne watched as Polly just walked under the laser grid with no problems whatsoever. Once she was close enough, Polly launched herself at the pod containing the vase. Polly opened her mouth wide as she landed on the glass, and like a buzzsaw, cut a perfect hole in the glass with her teeth, threw down the part she cut off, and reached in to grab the vase. Once she had, Polly hopped on top of the pod and held the vase up in the air victoriously.
"Wow! That was surprisingly easy," Sprig commented.
"This isn't a movie, Sprig. Not everything has a dramatic twist," Anne retorted.
As if fate wanted to prove her wrong, something crashed through the skylight, sending glass shards raining everywhere down below. When that something landed on the floor, Anne recognized it immediately. It was the assassin robot that Andrias had sent after her.
"Not you again!" Anne exclaimed in exasperation.
"What in the Sam Hill is that thing?!" Hop Pop asked.
"That's the robot that Andrias sent after me!"
"Seriously?!" Sprig yelped. "How did it find us?!"
Cloak Bot stood up straight as it sounded off its mocking laughter, however, in so doing, the assassin robot passed through the laser grid, and not a moment after, all the alarms in the museum sounded off. The assassin raised its right claw to swipe at Polly, but the little pollywog managed to jump off the pod at the last second just as Cloak Bot smashed it to pieces. Polly ran to her family where Anne had her backpack opened up. The little pollywog tossed the vase into the backpack at the last second as Anne closed it up and the four of them ran out of the room. As they ran, Cloak Bot fired its laser eye beams at them as it gave chase.
Anne rolled out to the right, leading Cloak Bot away from the Plantars as she sprang to her feet. "Okay, this time around you're scrap metal!" Anne's eyes glowed blue as the MetamorphRing TRI appeared around her waist. "Hen…" Suddenly, the room began to spin as Anne fell to one knee. "Wha-What just happened?"
Cloak Bot gave another mocking chuckle as it readied its eye beams.
"Hey!" Polly's voice shouted.
Cloak Bot had two exclamation points in its eyes as it turned to the sound of the voice. That's when the assassin spotted all three Plantars stacked on top of each other, with Hop Pop carrying them from below, Sprig in the middle donned in medieval knight armor and dual wielding swords, and Polly on top of the helmet twirling around a morning star.
"LEAVE. ANNE. ALONE!" Polly yelled as she tossed the morning star at Cloak Bot.
The assassin easily caught the weapon like a baseball, and with a twist of its body, flung the morning star right back at them. The morning star struck Sprig, thankfully it was the armor that took the majority of the impact, but it still managed to knock all three of them down like bowling pins.
"Hen…" Anne felt the woozy feeling overtake her again, but this time she went down to her hands and knees. "What's going on? Why can't I transform? And why does my head spin every time I try?!"
Cloak Bot returned its attention to Anne as it fired its eyes beams at her. Anne was left with no choice but to run, she kept dodging the lasers as best she could as the beams pierced through several pods containing artifacts from ancient times. She did feel bad about that, she was only here to take one artifact, and eventually, anonymously, return it to the museum once she got what she needed out of it, but now several pieces of priceless artifacts were getting destroyed thanks to her.
C'mon, why won't you work?! Anne thought.
"Hen – ugh!" Anne was hit the dizziness again, causing her to tumble forward until she landed back first into a guillotine.
Cloak Bot snickered menacingly as it turned its left arm into a drill bit and launched its extending arm right at Anne. The Thai teen managed to tap into her superspeed at the last second and managed to dodge the drill as it lodged itself in the wall, right between where the guillotine blade was. Seeing an opportunity, Hop Pop ran for the medieval execution device. Cloak Bot was trying desperately to pull out its drill arm, but it somehow had lodged itself too deep to pull it out in one go.
That allowed Hop Pop to get onto the guillotine as he pulled the rope keeping the blade held in place, yelling, "EAT THE RICH!"
The guillotine blade fell and instantly sliced Cloak Bot's left arm off. The assassin robot screeched horribly as sparks and black oil came spraying out of the severed halves of the arms. Anne quickly grabbed Sprig and tucked him under her arm as all of them got out of the medieval exhibit room.
"Anne, Ah'm not one to tell ya how do yer thing," Hop Pop began.
"Since when?!" Polly retorted.
"But Ah think now would be a good time to transform!" he finished.
"I'm trying! I promise! But every time I do I get really dizzy and tired!" Anne explained.
The four of them stopped for a moment as Anne put Sprig down. The Thai teen deduced that maybe transforming into her Super Form was too much right now. So, maybe her base form was a better solution? Anne concentrated and a moment later, the MetamorphRing TRI shifted to its base form. Anne could already feel the difference upon doing so, but it was a minor difference.
"Okay, henshin!"
A dome of lightning surrounded Anne, and within seconds she was transformed into Kamen Rider Amp. However, upon entering her heroic form, Amp stumbled around until her back hit the wall.
"ANNE!" the Plantars exclaimed in panic.
"Okay…that wasn't as bad…not that that much better either…" Amp managed to get back to her feet as she said, "I don't know if I can beat that thing without my Super Form. I barely managed to fend it off even when I was in Super Form…"
"Well, what else can we do?!" Sprig asked.
Amp looked across the way and that's when she saw the mosasaur skeleton hanging. "I think I have an idea."
The assassin robot walked out of the exhibit room, it then glanced at its severed left arm and grimaced.
"HEY, CAN OPENER, WANNA FIGHT?!"
Cloak Bot heard his target's voice and rushed to the railing. That's when he saw Amp standing in the middle of the rotunda. She had shifted into Spike Form and was wielding the Sting Striker as she twirled it around and took a ready stance.
"I'M ALL YOURS!" Amp taunted.
The assassin released its black ooze and within seconds transformed into its Fallen Form, with the Spike Form countermeasures activated. The left arm had not been replaced, as the ooze could only work with what was already there. But it didn't matter, Amp was no match for it even with one arm missing. The Fallen Assassin jumped off the second floor and down into the rotunda as it generated an axe blade where its right claw was.
"Let's rumble robot!"
The Fallen Assassin swung with its axe blade, but Amp managed to block it with the Stink Striker. The blow caused a small shockwave to erupt within the rotunda, but Amp managed to hold her ground, but not without some difficulty. Amp and Cloak Bot kept exchanging blows, but with each hit, Amp was feeling more and more fatigued. It was taking all her concentration to just maintain her Rider form.
Cloak Bot slashed horizontally, but Amp managed to duck under the slash and came up on his left side. The robot moved to attack with its arm but forgot that it was missing. Amp's horn crest fanned out as the symbol of Amp appeared in front of her. Pouring what little energy she had left, Amp thrust the Sting Striker forward, releasing a piercing beam of light that struck the left side of Cloak Bot and sent him flying to the other side of the room. Amp fell to her knees as soon as the attack was done, and a second later, the transformation was undone. Anne panted heavily from the strain, her vision was fading in and out of blurry and clear. She briefly looked up and saw the Plantars at the ready, she knew that last attack wasn't enough to put the Fallen Assassin down, but now in her current state, it may drop its guard.
Just as predicted, Cloak Bot broke out of the wall he was thrown into but stopped when he saw Anne no longer in Rider form. His sensors scanned Anne and found that her energy levels were severely low.
{Threat level: Low. Countermeasures no longer required.}
Anne watched as Cloak Bot's Fallen ooze returned it to normal.
Perfect.
Meanwhile, the Plantars were busy with the next part of Anne's plan. Sprig, having procured a dagger from the exhibit room, cut part of the rope that was keeping the mosasaur skeleton in place, leaving just enough to dangle. The pink frog child threw the dagger in Polly's direction. She grabbed between her teeth and slashed at the robe she was close to before lobbing the dagger towards Hop Pop. The elderly frog caught the dagger and slashed his rope next.
Cloak Bot was now walking towards Anne, axe hand at the ready.
Anne looked up at the metal monster and glared at it defiantly.
{Any last words?}
"Yeah. You're history! Caw-caw!" Anne signaled.
Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop jumped into the air and stomped down on the skeleton at the same time. Their combined momentum snapped the ropes and made the entire mosasaur skeleton fall straight down. Anne mustered what strength she had left and dove out of the way, but Cloak Bot wasn't so lucky as the entire thing crashed on top of it, kicking up a cloud of dust upon impact. When the dust finally settled, Anne was still on the ground, but okay. The Plantars crawled down from the ceiling and immediately rushed to Anne's side.
"Anne!" Hop Pop called out.
"Don't worry, guys. We got 'em," said Anne.
However, the fossils burst apart and from them came out Cloak Bot, it's left side was messed up a bit from Amp's earlier attack, which was now exacerbated by having the mosasaur skeleton fall on it, its left eye was shattered, and it was noticeably ticked off. The assassin launched its right arm at Anne, wrapping her up in its coils as it dragged her over to it.
{No, you're history,} said Cloak Bot as its right eye glowed.
"FREEZE!" Suddenly, the doors burst open and there stood Dr. Jan along with the two security guards from earlier. "Put your hands in the…air?"
Cloak Bot's sensors immediately locked onto the security guards and Dr. Jan. {Alert, alert. Do not be seen.}
Taking advantage of this distraction, Anne tapped into her powers once more and sent out an electrical surge that made Cloak Bot let her go. Anne slid down one of the rib bones of the mosasaur and right back to the Plantars. Cloak Bot was left with no other choice but to retreat as it had to follow its directive of remaining undetected by the other humans on Earth. The robot assassin ignited the jets in the soles of its feet and took off through the skylight in the rotunda, fleeing the scene entirely.
Dr. Jan was staring in awe of what she had just witnessed, a robot, a real-life robot. Not just something small or some animatronic creation, but real robot that was acting on its own. But there was much more that was before her, so much more now that she looked back down and saw the same Asian girl from earlier today, along with her three companions who looked like frogs.
"No way…" Dr. Jan muttered under her breath.
Anne wasn't feeling any better than she was a moment ago, but at least the robot was gone now.
"Anne, are ya alright?" Hop Pop asked.
"I've been better, but I'm not hurt," Anne replied.
"Thank Frog, for a moment there things got a little hairy."
Anne finally took notice of the three adults now staring at them and became aware of the fact that her adopted frog family did not have their disguises. "Oh, no! Guys you're disguises!" Anne quickly pulled their hoodies close over their heads in a vain attempt to keep their identities hidden.
"Frog aliens?!" Dr. Jan almost squealed.
"What the heck?" the male security guard exclaimed.
"What's going on here?" the female security guard asked.
Dr. Jan decided to run interference as she stood before the two guards and said, "I-I can't believe I forgot to tell you! Mitchell, Rodney, this has been a terrible misunderstanding." Dr. Jan glanced over her shoulder at Anne and the Plantars as she tried to come up with an excuse on the fly. "These are…performers rehearsing an exciting historical reenactment of some kind! We'll clean his mess up tomorrow. You two can go home. I'll take it from here."
"Whew!" Rodney sighed, "Thank goodness."
"I figured that's what was going on," said Mitchell as she put her weapon away.
"No problem, goodnight you two," said Dr. Jan.
"Night, Dr. Jan," said Rodney and Mitchel.
The archeologist waved off the security guards as they walked out of the museum. Honestly, they weren't paid enough to deal with this amount of a hassle.
Dr. Jan turned around and faced the young Thai girl and her froggy companions, but before anything could be said, Anne passed out.
Anne groaned as she slowly opened her eyes and found herself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Anne slowly turned her head to the left and found herself staring at a drawer. She turned her head to the right and that's when she saw all three Plantars smiling in relief that she awoke.
"Hey, Dr. Jan, she's awake!" Sprig exclaimed.
Anne finally recalled what had happened before she passed out, forcing herself to bolt upright, as she took note of where she was. It was an office of some kind, there were shelves filled with books, boxes, and various notes and papers sticking out of them. There were other drawers that were either half opened or closed and marked with note cards. There were posted notes on almost every surface, and there was a UFO model and a moon rock replica on a desk a few feet from her right. Anne looked back behind her and saw that her head had been resting a backpack, being used as a makeshift pillow. The Thai teen turned around and saw Dr. Jan sitting behind her desk as she showed a relieved expression.
"Oh, thank God. I was wondering if I needed to take you to a hospital or not. How are you feelin', kiddo?" Dr. Jan asked.
"Uh…still a bit tired, but…what's going on? Where are we?" Anne asked.
"Why, you're in my office. I wasn't sure if I should take you to a hospital or let you rest up in my office. I went with the option that would cause less trouble for you, hopefully," said Dr. Jan.
Anne put her hand against her head as she said, "Wow, uh, thanks, dude. And I'm sure you're wanting an explanation, right?"
"Oh, I want ALL the details, girl! Robots, frog aliens! This is a dream come true for me! Tell me, tell me!" Dr. Jan insisted.
Anne glanced to her froggy companions, silently asking if it was alright.
"We can't keep doin' this on our own forever, Anne. Maybe it's time we started to trust someone?" Hop Pop suggested.
Anne had to agree. In all honesty she had not been getting far with her own research thus far, perhaps it was time to trust someone else. Dr. Jan had ample time and opportunity to either call the police or take her away to the government or something. But she didn't, instead, the curator took Anne into her office and let her rest.
"Alright…here's the deal."
Anne explained why she broke into the museum, and, consequently, decided to reveal her secret identity as Kamen Rider Amp while she was at it. It took a while, but eventually, Anne gave Dr. Jan the full rundown of what was happening and why she needed to return to Amphibia.
"Wow, Anne, you've been through a lot haven't you. I see why you were in such a rush for answers, but why the heist? Why didn't you just ask me?" Dr. Jan asked.
"Uh…not gonna lie, at the time, it made sense in my head," Anne answered. "But, if I'm being honest, I'm seriously running on empty here."
"She hasn't slept in days," said Sprig.
"Huh, well, maybe that's why you were having problems with your powers earlier?" Dr. Jan suggested. "You've been running yourself ragged and gotten no sleep for, what, three days now?"
"That sounds about right," said Polly.
Dr. Jan got out of her chair and patted Anne on the shoulder. "Girl, you're running yourself into the ground. You won't be able to help anyone if you're so tired that you can't even transform to protect the people you care about. Hmm. Here. Look at this."
Dr. Jan directed Anne and the Plantars to a glass container that had a pile of ash in it, and a plaque that read, "Not-So Clever Girl".
"Back when I was younger, I would stay up for days on a dig. I couldn't go home knowing we were so close. One time I got sloppy with a dynamite charge and, well, this used to be a triceratops…heh-heh." Dr. Jan smiled nervously as she pointed to the pile of ash.
Anne and the Plantars grimaced, now knowing the origins of the ash in the glass.
"I get it. You're telling me if I keep up what I'm doing, I'll eventually do more harm than good," said Anne.
"And not just to the people around you, but to yourself as well," said Dr. Jan.
Anne rubbed her right arm, she understood what Dr. Jan was saying, but it was a bit more complicated than that. However, that was not something she was comfortable discussing with the woman before her.
"Why don't I make you a deal? I'll keep your secret and help you research this artifact if you go home and get some sleep," Dr. Jan proposed.
Anne really didn't have a better counteroffer in mind. "Deal. Thanks, Dr. Jan. Real quick, though. Before we go, do you have a black light?" Anne stared intensely at the vase. "I wanna check and see if this baby has any secret codes on it."
Dr. Jan shook her head and she smiled at the young teen. "Black light? Go sleep. Take a day off. The world will still be spinning tomorrow. I'll drive you home while I'm at it."
Anne nodded and relented to the doctor as she and the Plantars exited the office.
"Still not sold on this whole 'spinnin' globe' theory," Hop Pop commented.
I'll shatter his worldview tomorrow, thought Anne.
Dr. Jan was kind enough to take Anne and Plantars back home in her truck. They picked up her bike and quietly drove up to the front of her house. Once Anne got her bike down, she waved silently to Dr. Jan, who waved back before quietly driving away.
Anne and the Plantars managed to get back inside the house unnoticed, and eventually back into Anne's room. The Thai teen sighed as she began throwing off her clothes, prompting Hop Pop to cover Sprig's eyes and his own. After getting out of her heist outfit, Anne, now in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, sat on the edge of the bed, sighing heavily.
"What's the matter, Anne?" Hop Pop asked.
"Guys…researching wasn't the only reason why I was staying up these last three nights…"
"What's the other reason?" Polly asked.
"The nightmares…" Anne placed her hands against her head as she explained, "I haven't been waking up screaming like last time, but they're still there. And every time I sleep, my mind either replays that last moment before we were all sent to Earth, or it's a full-blown nightmare about Sasha and Marcy dying, or coming back from the dead to punish me for leaving them behind…"
Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly glanced at each other with concern from hearing Anne's troubles.
"Anne, why didn't you tell us you were still having nightmares?" Sprig asked as he hopped onto the bed and stood next to her.
"Because…Because it's my problem…! And…I don't know…" Anne started to sniffle as she thought more about it. "I'm just scared…and worried…I don't know if Sasha's still alive, and I know what happened to Marcy…I…I…I can't admit it, I can't admit that she might be dead…I can't, I have to believe she's alive somehow! Otherwise…Otherwise I don't know if I can hold it together…"
"Anne…" Hop Pop whispered.
"I hate lying to my folks, I hate lying to the Waybrights and Wus, but if I told them the truth, that they're daughters might be dead, it'll kill them! And me…? What makes me so special that I survived all of that? All three of us are Kamen Riders, all three of us have been friends since we were little, it's like fate or something! You can't just tell me that with all this stuff happening around the three of us, and at the end, only I make it out of this whole crazy situation?! I won't accept that! I can't accept!" Anne exclaimed. "But…I just…I'm so worried for them…I miss them…even after everything that's happened, I miss Sasha and Marcy…"
Hop Pop looked at his grandchildren, and they seemed to be on the same page. "Anne, lie down now, child."
Anne didn't argue with Hop Pop as she laid her body down on the bed. Sprig snuggled up on Anne's right side, while Hop Pop lied on her left side. Polly perched herself just above Anne's afro hair and snuggled in.
"Ah know we can't do much for those nightmares," said Hop Pop.
"But, maybe having us nearby like this will help you not to have them as much?" Sprig suggested.
"So long as I'm here, I'll give your nightmares a nightmare!" Polly declared.
Anne sniffled again and smiled at her adopted frog family. No matter what happened, she could always count on them to help her out. "Thank you, all of you."
The Thai teen finally fell asleep, and when she dreamed, it was not the stuff of nightmares. Instead, it was a peaceful dream, a dream where she was back on the Plantar family farm, helping her froggy family with the harvest. Hop Pop was rocking back and forth in his chair with Sylvia Sundew right next to him. Sprig and Polly were helping with the harvest. A much older Anne wiped the sweat off her brow as she looked up and saw Marcy flying in on Joe Sparrow. Garbed in an official looking attire, having become the ambassador between Amphibia and Earth. And towards the road she saw Sasha, strolling up to the fence in her ceremonial armor, having been appointed Knight status among the Amphibians. The dream continued and showed all three girls joining up at the fence, where Anne kissed each of them on the lips, with Sasha and Marcy kissing each other afterwards. That night, Anne slept peacefully for the first time in three days.
Dr. Jan arrived at the museum early that morning, she needed to come up with an excuse for the damage that was done during the battle between Anne and the robot. Honestly, she had no idea how to explain all that damage, it was going to take some incredible mental gymnastics to spin this into something resembling reasonable. Dr. Jan steeled herself and walked through the front doors of the museum, however, when she got inside, everything was okay. The mosasaur skeleton was already hanging from the ceiling again, the pods that contained the artifacts that were broken were fixed and back in place. Dr. Jan quickly went to the exhibit room where the vase was and found that the pod was fixed back up.
"Whaaaaaaaaat…?"
"Hello there."
"Gah!" Dr. Jan jumped forward and quickly turned around. That's when she saw an Asian man in an all-white suit, and a young woman standing next to him. "Uh, who are you?"
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said.
"Uh. No, problem. And you are?" Dr. Jan asked.
"My name is Takeru. I'm with the museum's insurance agency," said Takeru. "And this is my assistant, Elanor."
"Elanor" nodded her head towards Dr. Jan.
"Oh, I see. Well, then, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation concerning all the damage!"
Takeru raised his hand as he said, "No need, we got all the information we needed. Seems those actors were a little overzealous in their methods. Thankfully we were able to restore most of what was destroyed, but we could not locate one of the items that was in that pod."
"Oh, that's with me! I have it my office! I found it last night and took it to my office. Miraculously, it wasn't damaged," said Dr. Jan.
"Ah, good. Well, that's one less thing to worry about. We're going to do one last sweep of the premises and then we'll be on our way," said Takeru.
"Sure, go right on ahead! I'll be in my office if you need me!"
Dr. Jan quickly left them alone as she hurried back to her office.
"Sir, are you sure you don't want me poking around in her mind?" Cassandra asked.
"No, we'll soon have all we need. But first off…" Keisuke and Cassandra walked over to the medieval exhibit room, and there they found the severed arm of the robot they saw battling Amp. Keisuke picked up the severed arm and grinned. "This technology is very interesting. I want to see what else it's capable of."
While that was going on, Dr. Jan returned to her office and breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully that was the end of any questions or potential mishaps. Dr. Jan sat behind her desk and began logging into her work computer. She started going through some of her emails but paused when she looked at the vase still on her desk. Anne's question about the black light kept nagging in the back of her head.
"Oh, what the heck."
Dr. Jan shut off the lights in the office and pulled out a black light flashlight. The archeologist carefully shined the light over the vase as she scanned every inch. However, Dr. Jan stopped and gasped.
"No friggin' way!" Dr. Jan exclaimed.
The black light revealed ancient Amphibian runes, a secret code, just like Anne had suspected.