The atmosphere in Stumpy's diner was one of depression and gloom.

The interior was just fine, Stumpy had kept up the renovations over the past ten years.

No, the sense of gloom came from the kitchen, one that would have attracted goth teens to Stumpy's, sadly all the goths on Wartwood were also foodies, so they went to Thai-Go.

Standing in front of the kitchen was a toad and a newt, both look terrified, it had only been an hour since their boss stumpy had seen the metal box outside, and he had retreated into the kitchen to scream. They had tried talking to him but Stumpy just ignored them,

Their sister had just left to get help, she didn't say who, but they had a hunch.

The front doors opened and in walked their sister followed by the Plantars and Anne.

"Whoa," said Anne, "Is Stumpy fighting something?"

"Only with himself." said Ruby, "Anne, you remember my sisters Sapphire and Emerald."

The toad and the newt nodded towards her politely.

"Yeah, Can we go in?"

Ruby held the door open for Anne in the Plantars, inside Anne could see the small kitchen was clean and that the old frog cook was currently looking in a saucepan screaming at his reflection.

Anne wondered what to do, what was the best way to bring someone out of rage like this, she tried the obvious, a shoulder tap.

The moment her finger touched Stumpy's shoulder a blade came flying towards her, she moved her hand out of the way just in time to avoid losing it.

The cook stopped screaming and looked at Anne, he pulled his cleaver hand away from her

"Anne?" he said confused.

"Hey, Stumpy." she said both terrified and a little happy to see him.

Anne felt her legs being crushed by the Stumpy's hug, "Anne girl it's good to see you again."

Anne hugged him back"You to stumpy, Sorry it's under these conditions."

Stumpy released Anne from the hug, "Eh, don't worry, you're not your mother."

Anne laughed, "Yeah, sorry, I tried talking to her but well she can be kind of stubborn over food."

The old chief rolled his eyes, "I know she's been camping outside this kitchen for the last three days, waiting for me to let her in again."

"What?" said the confused women.

"Your mother, she's been doing her best to try and get into this kitchen, she was her on the first day, but I kicked her out for being too distracting, almost giving me a judgmental look.

Anne looked at him concerned, Stumpy was great chief, why was her mother acting like this?

"We could try talking to her again?" suggested Hop-Pop.

"No," said Anne, shaking her head, "Mom's kind of hard to get rid of when she's set her mind to it."

"So like you then?" laughed Stumpy.

"I wasn't that bad."

"You broke into the kitchen."

"Well lock the doors."

"I literally can't." said Stumpy holding up his prosthetic limbs.

"Hold up, What exactly was she in the kitchen for?" asked Sprig

Stumpy shrugged, she just wanted to come in here, it was after she ate the Basil and Squid I made, she was so determined to come in that I let her, Heck I was hoping I could thank her."

"Really?" Asked Anne.

"Well yeah, if it wasn't for her teaching you everything the restaurant would be closed, I didn't expect all of this."

Anne stood there, did her mother just not like Stumpy's? Ten years ago, she helped Stumpy because of her parents, working in a restaurant no matter where reminded her of home, she was proud that she have helped Stumpy's go from a dive to a 3-star restaurant.

The fact that her mother didn't like it… That just hurt a little.

She felt something on her hand, she looked and saw that Stumpy had his spatula on her hand, "Sorry Anne, I'm sure she's a lovely woman usually but well She's driving me insane."

Anne stood there, ignoring how gross Stumpy's spatula was, she had no idea how to help poor frog, if only there was a way to get through to her mother.

"Have you tried challenging her to a showdown?" suggested Hop-Pop

Stumpy's mood changed, "A showdown?" he said curiously.

"Oh sweet a showdown." said Polly

"What's a showdown?" asked Anne.

"A showdown is where one craftsman challenges another craftsman in town to see who's the best at their job." explained Hop-Pop.

"Whoever wins is considered the best." added Sprig

"Okay," said Anne cautiously, "What's the dark twist?"

Sprig laughed, "The loser is taken to the center of town and forced to wear a jester outfit."

"Then they're forced to sing at the top of their lungs, about how they're bad at their job," said Hop-Pop.

"After that they're pelted with rotten food and thrown into the Snail pen and forced to roll in the dung before being exiled from town." said Polly concluding the explanation.

Anne was horrified at this, "Oh Frog we can't let that happen to-"

"At least that's what we used to do, Now we just make them wear a dunce cap with the letter L on it." said Hop-Pop disappointed.

Anne stood there relieved, "Oh wow, those old Wartwood ways are kind of hardcore."

"We only changed it three weeks ago." said Polly matter-of-factly.

Stumpy looked had his spatula underneath his chin, then waved his hands dismissing the idea. No I can't do this, It could hurt Anne's mother."

Anne looked at Stumpy and the looked out the window, the line was getting longer, if her mother stayed here any longer…

"Do it!" said Anne

"What?" said everyone in the kitchen.

Anne herself was a little shocked by what she said however right now, But there was one thing that kept coming back to her.

Anne Plantar.

It had only lasted just a day, but that time when Anne thought she needed to change to make it in this town, when she was scared, when a bully had tried to convince the town she was a monster.

The Plantars had stood by her but also Stumpy.

It was a sign that maybe she wasn't alone as she thought, He had been with her then she had to be with him now.

"Listen I love her, but this isn't right, I'm not about to let Stumpy suffer."

The old chief looked at her a smile appearing on his large lips.

"You're right Anne. Ruby, get the battle flag we're going to war."

All the amphibians in the room let out a war cry, Anne tried to join in with them, hers was more of an odd scream, but it meant she was with them.

…

If you were to tell ten-year-old Janice Jan that in twenty-six years she'd be talking to a group of talking frogs about earth history she would have said "You're using time travel for this? Don't you have wars to stop?"

The second thing would be, "Well obviously."

To explain the odd creature known as Janice Jan we need to go back in time to her local library.

Inspired by the greatest dinosaur theme park movie ever she had borrowed every single dinosaur book there, even the one with hard words.

That's when she discovered the coolest thing ever.

Dinosaurs weren't dead.

Of sure the big impressive ones were dead, and thank goodness for that, But Sharks, Crocodiles, certain birds, They were still alive.

Okay when she was older she knew technically that was wrong but still.

That's when her loved for terrible lizards crossed over to her love of Cryptozoology, Skunk Apes, the Hide behind, The Loveland frog, (Ironically)

She read all those books in a month, so she headed to the internet, and discovered more and more things about the world. Gargoyles, Anthromorpihc ducks, Ghosts, Robot invasions, Dragons, Interdimensional princesses, Super villains and the weirdness of the town called Gravity Falls.

There was so much in the world and people just didn't seem to care.

The girl become a woman and that woman eventually before curator of the Los Angles History museum.

It was there she was proven right.

The world was so much bigger, in a few months she had become an ally to three aliens from another world, and their human friend.

After a series of events which involved the end of the world, the frogs were gone, a part of Jan was disappointed, she wanted to go and see their planet for herself.

However, whatever disappointment Jane felt didn't last, There was a teenage girl who had lost her family, and Jan knew she had to help.

She had pointed Anne in the right direction in life, Herpetology.

Now thanks to her spouse determination Dr. Jan was talking to a small army of frogs, answering their questions about earth. She couldn't help but smile.

That smile changed the moment she saw something more shocking than any cryptid.

Terri.

Jan watched her spouse standing there wearing black jeans, A black shirt that showed off her midriff, the words Nasty newt written on it, and their hair was pink.

"Terri bear?" said Dr Jan confused.

"Hey babe." said Terri.

Babe, did the person she loved most in the world call her babe? That was kind of shocking, though not unwelcome.

The frogs who had been moments ago looking at Jan were now looking at Terri.

"Woah," said Loggle.

"Isn't that the person who made us hate her earlier." said a Realistic looking frog.

"Yeah but she's changed herself to fit in with us, I approve." said Old Lady Croaker

All the frogs looked at her with amazement.

Jan was just confused.

She watched as Terri walked looking so cool towards the table, they sat down and placed an arm over her shoulder, they then looked at the crowd

"So who wants to learn about quantum mechanics?"

Everyone raised their hands.

Jan sat there looking at them, confused by what was happening, Terri was able to answer all their questions with a cool air about them, they were able to explain why two things could not exist in the same place, at the same time, how the stone's power seemed to boost the power of the portal but never truly open it.

"So clearly the portal was being kept closed by some sort of science junk that it would be way too hard to explain, but somehow we were able to deal with that and now, you get to spend time with me and my awesome wife."

That was a lie, Terri had no idea how the portal was being kept open, the last few nights Jan had to remind them to go to sleep and then ban them from using their tablet in bed, anything to get them to sleep.

That was what this trip was about, to get them away from the unsolvable problem that was this portal.

But the mystical junk thing was the part that bothered her.

Terri loved to talk about physics, when they started they just couldn't stop, that's how passionate they were.

Jan loved that.

This Terri she seemed dismissive of her own subject.

"Babe?" said a voice that knocked Jane out of her funk.

Jan turned to see Terri sitting there, a smile that looked cool on their face, Jan blushed, it was pretty cool actually, the Amphibians had walked away, they were alone.

"Where did everyone go?"

"We just finished talking, so you want to go somewhere?"

Jan smiled, as much as she had enjoyed her conversations with the wartwoodians, but really she just wanted to spend time with Terri

"I was thinking you know what the best thing we could do?"

"I know exactly what"

"On three then" said Jan

"Visiting the Library."

"Extreme camping."

Both of them looked at each other confused.

"What?" said Jan.

"Why the library?" said Terri, with what sounded like disgust in their voice.

"Well yeah, We can get right into researching Amphibian history and go home with a treasure trove of knowledge."

Terri looked at her annoyed, Jan felt embarrassed for that, a feeling Terri never really gave her.

"Really?"

"It could be fun, I mean… It might help out with the portal."

"Didn't you want to come here to get away from that stuff?"

Jan felt even more embarrassed, "Well Yeah but…"

"So why not just do something different for once, We read stuff all the time, don't you want to live? "They pulled out a leaflet from their jeans, on it read Mystery danger tours with Scroggy Joe, Survival rates now 60 percent.

Jan looked at it and tried to smile, "I mean that sounds kind of fun."

"Great," said Terri, "Joe says the closest tour he can give us is one tomorrow, something about informing the families of the last tour"

"Oh." said Jan started to get more worried.

"But we'll make it the two of us, it'll be like that trip you took with Anne to Thailand."

"Yeah, but that had stuff like first aid, and a destination which wasn't probably going to kill us."

"Oh where's your sense of adventure, heck think of the things we can do there, we can hunt our own food, Face danger, get romantic?" Terri said that last one with a purr.

Jan looked around confused, "Ummm… Oh, I think Boonchuys wants to talk to me, I'll be right back."

The ex-archeologist ran away from her spouse.

"Huh, She must really be hungry."

…

Marcy Yunan was standing in the kitchen, chopping what had to be her sixteenth carrot.

She hated this job, she hated that she was in a hot room, she hated that she was trapped here.

"Wow, Lucian," said Mr Boonchuy, "You're good at this."

"Eh, I've been cooking for Captain Grime for years, this is noting, I know my way around the chopping board."

She really hated that her best friend was better at this than her.

The thing that really annoyed her was that Max was out there making serious money. She had wanted to do serving not working in this hellish kitchen.

"Can I take a break yet?"

"You've only been working for twenty minutes." said Mr Boonchuy who went back to stirring a pot of curry.

Marcy sighed, she looked down, dejected she noticed that her new lime green shirt and shorts were covered in vegetable juice, Big Marcy had suggested wearing them just in case she had to run away from monsters in the future, part of her enjoyed the look of shock that Lucian had when she took the bottom of her dress and threw to the sky, His face was so red.

However, her desire to work as a server was denied, instead she had given the job to Max so she and Lucian were to work in the kitchen.

Kitchen work was hard, she had to keep an eye on everything, make sure she was cutting things fast enough, making sure her cutting surface was clean, make sure she cut the right things, off the vegetable, leave no roots.

She promised to never say anything rude about the kitchen staff again.

"สาวกบกลับไปตัด" said Mrs Boonchuy, Marcy had no idea what it meant, but she got back to praying for something to destroy all of Amphibia so that she could be free, she picked up a knife and started to chop an onion.

"You know your cutting it wrong you need to do it bear claw style." whispered Lucian.

"I'll give you bear claw style," muttered Marcy.

"Well, sorry." said Lucian bitterly.

Mercy sighed, "Sorry, I'm just annoyed, I wanted to be a server."

"Why?"

"Because they get tips."

Lucian just looked at her annoyed, "Wow, must suck, if only you had rich parents."

"It's not for me, you jerk," said Marcy, "It's for Nicole."

Lucian looked at her, "What? Why?"

"Well you know she's getting taller right?"

Lucian looked at her for a second then gasped, "Oh Frog."

"Yeah, its-"

"She's going to be taller than me," said Lucian terrified.

"No you idiot," said Marcy, "Her DOD's coming up."

Lucian gasped again, "The DOD."

DOD stood for Day Of Dressing, it was a big day for young Amphibians, the day they got their first proper set of clothing, it was a sign of leaving childhood and starting to become an adult

Take for example Polly Plantars.

Using a connection from Olivia, Bernardo had been called for willing to make her the greatest dress of all time.

She had asked for a pair of overalls.

One would expect Bernardo, to turn her down, to laugh at her, clothes for the common Amphibia could not be for the like of a world-famous armorer.

Instead, took her growth estimates and left.

One week later Polly had been given overalls that were easy to clean, fire-resistant, and most important comfortable.

Before then Polly had complained about this, a day when she'd be forced to wear clothes, worse a dress.

In her new overalls however, she felt something different, she looked in the mirror and liked what she saw.

It reminded her of what Anne said before the third temple.

Sprig and Hop-Pop still remembered the threats she gave on that day, if they ever told anyone how much she cried.

There were similar cases all around Amphibia, where one could choose their own personality, Marcy Yunan choose to dress like her mother Lady Olivia to symbolize her desire to make the world a better place by peace, General Yunan was proud of her decision.

Lucian had chosen armor similar to Grimes, the toad army might be disbanded for a new army made up of all Amphibians, but his belief in the old stories of Toad heroes and of the Trio inspired him to wear clothes based on them, even if his parents suggest him to wear lighter clothes.

The day of dressing was not just a moment of growth, but the chance for a young Amphibian to start expressing themselves, Money not with standing.

"It was a big day for me, and it was a big day for you, Everyone deserves that day, We're her friends we have to help her."

All of a sudden the van's door opened, and Nicole jumped in. "Guys you got those thirty-six Thai Green curries made yet?"

"Nope," said Lucian.

"Well hurry, up." said Max sticking his head in, "Me and Nicole can't be the only ones working here.

Marcy glared at him, but Nicole laughed, "Yeah, Max and I are the real dream team."

Lucian sensing his best friend's angry glare at the two, he laughed nervously, "Ha, ha nice one guys, they're on their way."

"Come on Nicole," said Max smugly, "We've got to work unlike these two lazy bones."

The door closed, Marcy glared at it, "Who over the age of five says lazy bones."

Lucian then clicked his fingers, "Hey, why don't you ask him to share with Nicole?"

Marcy laughed, "Ha, yeah expect a guy who made money off Hop-Pop to give money away?"

Lucian sighed "Who was the first person who wanted to help him, when he wanted to tell the others."

"Oh, I admit he came to his senses, but it was after I made him feel guilty., He not as cool as you think Lucian."

"Didn't you say the same about your namesake?"

Marcy blushed, "Big Marcy's cool thought, she was the one who helped me choose my new wardrobe."

I'm just saying you could be wrong about him as well."

Marcy as about to counter that point by pointing out that Max had been using Lucian however That's when there was a coughing noise from behind Marcy.

"Children? Have we stopped working for today?" said the smiling Mrs Boonchuy.

"Ummm No?" said Marcy

"Well then, กลับไปทำงาน" she shouted.

The two frogs looked at her confused.

"That means get back to work."

"Ooooh" said the two, understanding dawning upon them, before the fright took over, they were back to chopping vegetables.

…

Nicole had been working in and around the town for three years now, One day she just saw a job available at the wood carves, and decided to go in or it, Loggle at first humored her, when he saw that she could handle a knife really well, he hired her on the spot.

She might have been happy working at Loggles but a day later Felicia needed help, so she applied there, and then Mr Baker needed another assistant, then Mayor Toadie needed a P.A.

Eventually, she had worked for at least every single person in town.

The town just accepted it, maybe it was because of who she was, but they just enjoyed having the kid around, even if her schedule was a little weird, changing employers once a day.

It was one of the many reasons Nicole loved this town, they seemed to be willing to welcome her to this town and let her help out in any way possible.

It's also why she had enjoyed helping Max. He had been doing a good job taking orders and carrying the food to the table.

However, she could tell it was because he just wanted the money, she was okay with that not everyone had to work for the same reasons she did.

Nicole was in the middle of taking an order when there was a loud trumpet burst.

Nicole and Max turned to see Stumpy carrying a large trumpet, with Anne and the Plantars behind him, he was carrying roses, Marcy's heart filled with dread.

Max walked up to her, "What's with the brass section."

"Oh, Poop, It's showdown."

"OUM BOONCHUY." shouted Stumpy.

The door Van's back door opened and Mrs Boonchuy stepped out.

"What's all this commotion." she said with a hint of irritation in her voice.

Stumpy walked towards her, he tripped the trumpet and offered the roses out to her.

"These are for you." he said

Oum blushed, "Oh, um thank you but… I'm happily married."

"No, this is not a romantic gesture this is a declaration of war!"

…

Anne looked at her mother hoping that things would be fine that she'd just back down and let this happen.

Then her mother smiled.