A little while later, the bird landed outside the Plantar family home.
"And she's still standing. Just like I said." Hop Pop said.
"Yeah, I guess you were right about that tulip guy." Anne said with a small smile.
"Of course, I was, he's the go to guy for this."
"I like tulips." Chuck said, coming back with some groceries in his hand.
"Chuck! Just the frog I wanted to see. Nice job housesitting for us." Hop Pop said as everyone got off Joe Sparrow.
"I grew tulips." He said.
To make his point, Chuck pointed to some freshly grown tulips he planted near the door just to make the farm look a bit better. Marcy seemed to like this as she flew down and transformed back to normal before them.
"Tulips, one of my favorites!" She said, taking a gentle sniff, "Such a wonderful smell."
"Yeah, Chuck grows the best tulips in town." Polly said, hopping next to Marcy.
"Speaking of wown, I'm going to go check on the town." Anne said, "After that we can take a look at that thing Hop Pop was talking about."
"Wait, let me come with you!" Marcy said excitedly.
"Why?" Anne asked.
"I want to see Wartwood with my own eyes. See how much it's changed from what o read in the books from Newtopia." Marcy said with a smile. "Plus, I want to see all the friends you've made here."
"Uh, they're a little... wary to outsiders." Anne said.
"Oh I'm sure it'll be fine. You've told them about me and…..HER, right? So they should know I'm nicer." Marcy said with a smile.
"Yeah but still, Sasha left a very bad impression." Anne said, "Just... try and keep the questions to a minimum."
"Okay, I promise. Not too many questions." Marcy said, zipping her lips.
Anne nodded to her and began walking into town as the Eagle Guard followed her. When the towns folk saw Anne, they greeted her.
"Anne! You're back!"
"Great to see you!"
"How was Newtopia?"
It was obvious to Marcy that Anne was very liked by the townspeople, like a local celebrity. Even had a statue of herself and her wolf form on display in the center of town!
'Oh my god, that is so cool!' Marcy thought, taking out her phone and taking a photo of it.
"Yeah, that was because I held off a bunch of Tax Collectors." Anne said, "Got my arm broken that day."
"Oh yeah, you told me about that." Marcy said, hissing at the memory.
"Say, who's this Anne?" Ivy asked, pointing at Marcy as everyone looked to her.
"Everyone, this is my other human friend, Marcy." Anne said.
"She's been in Newtopia the entire time." Anne said.
The townsfolk looked a little wary.
"Is she like the bear girl who is with the toads?" Wally asked, narrowing his eye at Marcy in suspension.
"No, Marcy is NOTHING like Sasha." Anne said firmly.
"For one, my spirit animal is not as monstrous as a bear. Instead it's majestic and cool." Marcy quickly added, "And I can fly."
To show her point, Marcy transformed into her eagle spirit animal and flew into the air!
"CAW!" Marcy let out.
'Please don't get eaten.' Anne thought.
Everyone looked up to her in awe, surprised by this transformation as it was completely different from what they've seen before. There was some talk of her.
"What is she?"
"She's kind of cool."
"Her spirits animal is so small but I feel intimidated."
Marcy flew down and landed on Anne's shoulder.
"If you have any questions on what she is, Marcy is a golden eagle." Anne said, "The smartest eagle of the eagle family. Which fits, because she is the smartest person I know."
"Hey! Wood and stone carving takes a lot of smarts." Loggle said, crossing his arms. "Remember who made your statue?"
"I never said it didn't." Anne said, "I'm just saying, she is literally the smartest person I've ever met. She's literally solved severe problems in Newtopia, when most newts couldn't even begin to come up with solutions."
"Caw!" Marcy cawed in agreement, smiling as an eagle.
Marcy flew to the ground and shifted back.
"Tada! And if that's not enough, I helped the Plantars with all of your gifts and they should be arriving by this evening!" Marcy said with a smile.
There was murmurs of approval.
"Hmm, alright but we're gonna keep an eye on you just to be safe." Toadstool said.
"Agreed, sir." Toadie said with a nod.
"Okay, come on Marcy." Anne said, "Let me show you the rest of the town."
"Right behind you, Anne!" Marcy said with a smile.
Anne showed Marcy the main area of town. From the town hall to the bakery shop to the farmer's market. Marcy was given a full tour to see every nook and cranny of the town.
"Wow, this small little town is amazing!" Marcy said.
"Even the burned down school?" Anne asked her.
"Aside from that, but still this place is pretty cool! It's had something even Newtopia doesn't have!" Marcy said with a smile before pointing to the bakery. "Like a real spell caster living in the town!"
"Yeah, Maddie is pretty cool... she's also kind of like my doctor."
"Like a witch doctor?" Marcy instantly asked.
"I prefer the term "spell healer.""
Both of them jumped as they saw Maddie standing behind them, holding a bag of groceries from the market.
"Hey, Maddie." Anne said.
"Hello, Anne." Maddie said before looking to Marcy. "You must be Marcy. The eagle girl."
"Yep!" Marcy said.
"Are you like the bear girl?" Maddie asked.
"Maddie!" Anne said.
"Anne." Maddie said.
"I'm not. I'm very nice and I'm very curious. Can you do actual magic?" Marcy asked Maddie.
"You're interested in magic?" Maddie asked.
"Heck yeah!" Marcy said with a rapid nod. "I have ALWAYS been fascinated by magic, even trying to find out if our spirit animals are magic back on Earth! Not even Newtopia has a magic user and to actually see one is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
"Really? Just to see me?" Maddie asked, blushing from the praise.
"Tell me everything about you!" Marcy said.
"But aren't you with Anne right now?" Maddie asked.
"No, we just finished the tour of the town and Marcy can just fly back to the farm." Anne said with a soft smile, "Why don't you show her a little magic and she might show you a little something?"
"Okay, follow me, tweety." Maddie said.
"Eagle but who cares? I'm gonna learn magic!" Marcy said with a smile, following Maddie to her home.
"Ah, well, Marcy made a new friend." Anne said, "And nothing blew up today. I consider that a good thing."
Outside of the town, a metal frog robot was walking, by the rate it's going, it would be there by nightfall. It's reason for coming to Wartwood? Not even the frog robot knew itself. Later that night, it made it into Wartwood. It looked around the town and scanned for anything to catch its attention or to find a purpose for itself. It did find something... a small pink pollywog.
"Aaaah, nothing like a nightly hop to feel at home again." Polly said.
Polly heard something and looked around.
"Huh?" Polly let out before finding a shadow over her, looking up to see something large with glowing eyes standing over her.
"…" the robot said nothing, just scanning Polly with curiosity.
"…Hello!" Polly said without fear, waving to the robot.
The robot cocked its head to the side, and copied the wave gesture.
"He…llo?" The robot copied, a bit confused by this as well.
"Oh, you're so cool!" Polly said, "Hm, maybe Anne knows more about you! Wait right here, okay?"
The robot, though confused, seemed to trust Polly already and nodded to her request to wait for this "Anne". Polly hopped back to town and found Anne.
"Anne!" Polly called out.
"Huh? What's up, Polly?" Anne asked as she turned to her.
"I found something weird and cool and I need you to look at it." Polly said.
"Uh... okay?" Anne said, a little confused.
Polly lead Anne back to where she left the strange yet cool frog robot.
"Here it is." Polly said.
Anne looked at it and gasped. It looked just like the robot from the Ruins factory, only... less dangerous.
"You found this here?" Anne asked.
Polly nodded.
"This is just like when we were at the Ruins of Despair." Anne said, "If it's here... someone must've activated the factory."
Anne was nervous, she could only think of one person that would do that.
"Polly, can you get this... thing to the farm, without causing chaos? I... I need to talk to Marcy about something."
"Okay, I guess I can do that. Come on, buddy. Let's get you somewhere safe." Polly said to the robot.
"Bu…ddy?" The robot said, confused by this word.
"It means "friend." You know what friend means right?" Polly asked the robot.
"Friend? Friend…." The robot said before looking to Polly, smiling with its eyes and nodding. "Friend."
"Great!" Polly said, hopping away with her new friend.
Anne shifted into her wolf form and ran through the town, looking for Marcy. She occasionally stopped and sniffed the ground, catching the scent of book ink and bird seed. Marcy's signature scent.
'Marcy is definitely going to flip when I tell her this.' Anne thought, gaining her scent before following it to the smell of fresh yeast. 'She must still be with Maddie at her family's bakery.'
Anne ran there, not stopping until she made it. She opened the door and had a panicked look.
"Marcy!" Anne called, "I really, REALLY need to tell you something!"
"Huh?" Marcy and Maddie let out, looking to the door.
"What is it?" Marcy asked.
"Polly... found something." Anne said, "And... I might... I think... I'm afraid Sasha is the one that sent it."
"Sent it? Sent what?" Marcy asked, standing up from the couch.
"Just... follow me!" Anne said.
Anne turned and shifted into a wolf, running off to the Plantar farm as Marcy rushed out the door.
"Wait up!" Marcy said as she quickly transformed into an eagle and flew after Anne!
"I'm coming too!" Maddie said, quickly hopping after them.
She just wanted to see what was going on. Making it back to the farm, Anne shifted back and sniffed around for the robot before finding its scent leading inside.
'Good, Polly is hiding it like I said.' She thought as Marcy and Maddie stopped behind her.
"It's inside." Anne said as Marcy landed and changed back.
"Now... uh... brace yourself."
"Brace ourselves for what?" Maddie asked.
"For this." Anne said, slowly opening the door and revealing Polly in the living room.
With a huge, metallic frog with glowing eyes. Aka, a frog robot. Marcy immediately was amazed by it.
"A ROBOT?!" Marcy shouted as she rushed over the robot, immediately looking it over, "Where did it come from!? How did it get here!? Oh, this is the greatest day ever!"
"I don't know. He just showed up and I kind of liked him." Polly said with a shrug.
"You mean he just walked into town and nobody noticed him?" Maddie asked as she approached the robot. "Does he even have a name?"
"While Anne was gone looking for you, I named him Frobo." Polly said.
"Ah, short for "Frog Robot," right?" Marcy asked, pulling out her notebook and scratching Frobo
"Yep!" Polly said.
"Hmmm, the symbol on his chest. It's for all of Amphibia." Maddie said, noticing the robot's chest plate. "But I've never heard of robots from any history books."
"Do... you think... Sasha sent it?" Anne asked.
"Hmmm, I'm not sure. Do you know where this thing came from?" Marcy asked.
"It came from some old ruins outside of Wartwood, some sort of factory, there was something like this in there but looked far more dangerous." Anne said.
"Hmm, I doubt it, she's not smart enough to build something like this." Marcy said.
"I guess you're right... but something about this does concern me... who else would be accessing those factories?" Anne asked.
"Whoever did, they must not have done a good job at building this." Marcy said, "It's doesn't seem to have complete coding, it's still learning."
Looking at Frobo, everyone but Polly could see that he was copying Polly's movements and habits.
'This is going to be a weird time.'
It got even weirder as Sprig and Hop Pop walked into the room, gazing at Frobo for the first time.
"SWEET MOTHER OF FROG, WHAT IS THAT?!" Hop Pop shouted, pointing to Frobo.
"COOL!" Sprig said with wide eyes.
"Where did this thing come from!?" Hop Pop said.
"We're trying to figure that out." Anne said.
"What does it do?" Spirg asked, moving closer to Frobo.
"Not sure. Marcy says it's still learning and copying Polly." Maddie said to him.
"Hey, Frobo, try this!" Polly said before jumping up and suddenly rolling into a ball, rolling around the room.
"Uh, Polly I don't think-"
And Frobo began to copy it. He jumped up and rolled into a large metal ball, smashing the coffee table before rolling with Polly!
"My table!" Hop Pop shouted.
"Polly, make it stop!" Anne said.
"Lead it outside!" Sprig shouted, pointing to the front door!
"No! Just stop rolling!" Hop Pop shouted.
"This is going to be a long night." Anne said, pinching her nose.
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