Upon the rising night on the outskirts of a town known as Wartwood Swamp, the denizens were akin to what you would call frog people for simplicities in terms of their appearance. The scene turns towards a small diner which seems to be made from a discarded log of enormous proportions with a sign labeling it as Stumpy's Diner. A turquoise-colored frog wearing a hillbilly outfit with an eyepatch covering his left eye walks out of the diner, stretching his back after a good meal as well as a long day of work. "Boy! What a day! I am absolutely ready to hit the shack and catch some flies." The frog shouted aloud as he took in a breath of the swamp air.
Two other frogs chuckled at his wacky antics as they were drinking hard cider and playing a card game with each other. "Well, see ya tomorrow Wally. Don't get eaten on the way home or get lost for that matter." One of the frogs told the hillbilly frog as Wally rolled his right eye in annoyance towards their remark. Though, this didn't stop the pair from laughing at their small joke. Even if it was most likely to happen, Wally ignored their jab and headed off as he leaped towards the nearby forest.
Wally took in the sounds of the woods around him, hearing crickets chirping to the night, owls hooting away, and other sounds that played into the melody of the night among the swamp. Though, from time to time, the frog would throw out his tongue to grab a snack from any insects he could spot. However, Wally felt that someone was watching him as he ventured through the woodlands. He slowly picked up his pace out of fear until he was greeted by a massive web. Within the spider web, were several sets of wildlife trapped by the adhesive strength the webbing possessed. From the little he could tell about the web, Wally knew this wasn't possible by any normal spider as it even held large mantises in place. "What in Mother Nature's Creation!?" The frog proclaimed in fear as he backed up before he bumped into someone, or something, behind him.
Gulping in terror, Wally turned towards the mysterious figure to see a large creature with a brown bush upon its head. Small twigs and branches were spreading from it as he examined the monster before him. It was mostly colored white, black, and pink with its head being a light brown with hungry brown eyes. It also had a small pouch upon its back, but before it could even utter a single word. Wally screamed in fear as he shouted that there was a monster that was gonna eat the town.
The next day, a small Carol-Wagon was arriving in the town as it was being towed by a beetle as two frogs and a young tadpole were aboard it. The driver was an orange elder, evidenced by the white hair on his head as well as the wrinkles across his skin. The two in the back were a magenta-colored frog wearing an explorer's outfit tailored for a teenager and next to him was a young girl with a similar color scheme to the teen. Yet, she had a darker shade of magenta. She even wore a yellow bow upon her forehead as she sat within a wooden barrel filled with water, to help keep her body moisturized within the humid air of the swamp town. As the wagon came to a stop, the elder looked back at the younglings with a small smile. "Ok Sprig and Polly. I want you both to remain in the cart as I attend to some errands. You watch over the wagon while I am gone." The orange frog as Sprig got up with a determined stance and fist into the air.
"You Got It Hoppers! I will protect this wagon with my Life!" The magenta frog shouted with a cocky demeanor as he pounded his chest to sell his claim. Though… Hops was not pleased by this as his face gave off the 'are you serious' vibe as it ended up making Sprig to nervously laugh while sitting back down. "Please don't tell me that you were talking to my sister Polly, pops…" Sprig begged with disbelief.
"It isn't my fault that your little sister has far more responsibility in a single flipper than you do in your entire body, Sprig… Yesterday you almost destroyed my house with your reckless actions with the Fireflies!" The elder frog shouted with some built-up anger. Sprig proceeded to slump back onto the side of the wagon with a small sigh. After calming himself, Hops looked back to the young lad before he continued, "Look until you can prove to me that you can be actually responsible for once. I cannot trust you with stuff like this." He gave a cheerful smile as he got off of the wagon, "Just remain in the cart until I get back. Polly, make sure your brother doesn't do anything stupid while I am gone." Hops told Polly as she saluted Hops with a fierce glare. Though, it didn't help Sprig's self-esteem for a second as he looked at the small steampunk music player he had on hand as he began to listen to the music it had.
Sprig's and Polly's parents had died during one of the many conflicts that were a part of the world they lived in. They were proclaimed to be heroes during the battle as they saved countless with their courage and determination. Thankfully, their grandfather had taken them both in after their death. Yet, Sprig did bond with his mother through the music she would share with him and record onto the player he was given. It would always help him with bringing up his mood when he would listen to the songs. His mother was quite intelligent and would ticker with discarded forms of technology she would find from time to time. The music player was something Sprig treasured since it was having a piece of his mother with him.
Though, despite him getting into the groove of the song playing. The shouts of Wally shatter this peaceful moment as he yelled about some monster that lay within the forest. With this, Sprig had an amazing idea to show his grandfather that he can be responsible as he was ready to help with this monster problem. "Hey, Sprig! Hops said not to leave the wagon!" Polly shouted with a stern tone to his annoyance. "Now sit back down or-" The Young Tadpole declared before Sprig pulled out a leather bag filled with candies with a cocked eyebrow. After a few moments, Polly had decided to change her mind as she took the bribe while turning the other way. As she placed a hard candy into her mouth, Sprig hopped out of the wagon with a smile.
"Hey! I'll deal with this monster! Monster Hunter, Sprig at your service!" The Teen Frog stated with a smirk. "Just point me in the right direction and I'll be right on the case!" He added on as Wally didn't even hesitate to show where it was, as if allowing a youngster to fight a potentially powerful beast was a good idea. With that Sprig hop his way towards the monster's location. As he ventured through the woods, he searched for the perfect song to help set the mood on his music player. Upon landing on the song known as All-Star, performed by a band known as Smash Mouth, Sprig felt like he could conquer this beast and earn the respect from his grandfather he wanted to earn from him.
Sprig then came to the first clue to where this beast was as he saw the massive web that trapped multiple insects in the woodlands. The Teenage Frog took the time to examine the webbing, making sure he didn't touch the web itself. From what he could tell, if Sprig did touch it, there would be a lot of effort to free himself from the web. 'What could make something like this though?' Sprig pondered as he grew curious about what formed this spider web. He could tell that this was somewhat artificial due to how large it was. Though, the webbing was indeed made by something that had spider-like traits as it was definitely no different from a common spider's web formation.
Though upon hearing something approaching, Sprig quickly turned towards the entity without seeing the cord of his wired headset attaching to the web. Yet Sprig was indeed surprised by what he saw. It just seemed to be a late teenage girl, from what he could tell by the appearance and comparing it to other girls he knew within Wartwoods. He could also tell by her appearance, that she was quite athletic by her muscular physique by how her odd costume framed her body. "Are you the monster eating everyone?" Sprig shouted aloud as he readied himself for a fight with a very amateur fighting stance.
Though, the girl just facepalms in frustration while placing her makeshift spear into the ground. "I am just trying to survive after being thrown into this crazy world… I don't plan to eat anything else besides what can be considered to be ACTUAL food." The teen announced as she looked at Sprig with a genuine face about her intention. With that Sprig was a bit confused by all of this before realizing that Wally may have just overreacted from the start. "There was another guy I tried to ask help from, yet he just screamed in terror as he thought I was some monster…" She added on with annoyance from the Hillbilly frog.
After letting out a small chuckle, Sprig said aloud; "Guess I should have figured that out from Wally in the first place…" He then gave the girl a welcoming smile as he set his headset behind his neck. "My name is Sprig by the way." The Magenta frog introduced himself with a small wink.
The Girl laughed a bit at this before she introduced herself. "Anne, also known as the Super Heroine Spider-Girl." Anne added on a pose to show off as the two shared a laugh. Though as this occurs, the sounds of a monstrous roar Bellowed out as a green-colored Mantis sliced at the webbing causing Sprig to panic as Anne fired her web-shooters at the Mantis. Though the Mantis was quick to counter the attack as it roared again making Anne retreat before she realized Sprig was still next to the Monstrous Mantis, trying to retrieve his music player from the webbing that trapped it.
At first, Anne was gonna protest this, yet when she saw how desperate he was to save it. She recognized that the player was too important to the frog to simply leave behind. "Sprig! Get down!" The Super Heroine shouted before she launched herself into the mantis. Sprig did what she warned him to do as he saw how Anne was able to punch the Mantis hard enough to make it crash into a nearby tree, while leaving a massive dent on the insect's exoskeleton armor. Sprig couldn't believe what he saw, since insects like that mantis had tough armor thanks to their exoskeleton. It was believed that a small number of things could lay any lasting damage to them because of how tough they were. Thanks to this, Sprig was given enough time to yank his player from the steel grip of the webbing Anne used.
With that, they made their escape as the Mantis made its recovery and tried to track Sprig as well as Anne both down. Though, they managed to escape the Mantis as it growled in anger before it came across another person. It clearly looked human yet seemed to have the feeling of a being that is undead and ghostly as it examines the mantis before it. The mantis was rendered uneasy by the ghostly being as it saw a black sickle piercing through his right shoulder and the heavy-duty armor it wore. Upon seeming satisfied with the mantis, the Wraith said aloud with the white orbs that were its eyes; "You would do nicely to fill this village with terror." Its voice sounded like it had been burned alive as it raised a hand towards the mantis. With that, a shadowy aura flew off of the Wraith and into the Mantis. Changing the insect into something far more sinister and demonic as the shadow mutated it under the Wraith's control.