Rules and Robots
Leaving Wartwood behind, the Fwagon was now making its way through the mountain pass. It was a narrow road between two walls of solid rock, so small that the Plantars' fwagon barely fit, making Hop Pop drive slowly and cautiously. As Akitsu rested with Amelia on the top of the second fwagon, the girl nervously glared at some small signs they were passing, with the words 'Now leaving the Valley' and 'May Frog help you' written on them.
"That's not very encouraging," the girl commented, the dragonfly buzzing in agreement.
"Did you see that sign?" Sprig said with a voice full of excitement, "We've officially left the Valley. This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to anyone. Are you excited? I'm excited! You all should be more excited!"
Felicia gave a chuckle in amusement from Sprig's reaction, familiar memories rolling back in her mind. When she was a veteran adventurer, there was always newbies in the groups she traveled with, having the same exact reaction the first time they left behind the familiar places and faces they had grown familiar to.
"I am, Spriggy! I really am!" Ivy replied, Maddie giving her a scoffing glance as she did
"I am excited too!" Marcy confessed, to no-one's surprise, "We are leaving the Valley at last, and now we are setting forth to Newtopia! This is going to be the greatest adventure of our lives!"
"Huh, Mar-Mar?" Anne patted her friend on the shoulder, trying to calm her down, "Look, I appreciate you're happy, but maybe…we should keep our expectations in check, don't you agree?"
"Boonchuy's right, Marbles," Sasha quipped while nodding, "It's not like just out of the Valley is going to be a- WHOA!" She said in amazement, her eyes widening as she saw the majestic view just out of the Mountain's path, everyone gasping in turn.
As the fwagon finally came out of the pass and their occupants could finally see Amphibia beyond the Valley, it was much more marvelous and wonderful than any one of them (even Marcy) could have ever imagined. An uninterrupted expanse of open fields and farmlands stretched all the way to the horizon, fed and replenished by the crystalline water of a large river and a lake in the distance, small towns and villages popping all over with green forests of wild flora growing freely. There were giant mushrooms of various colors and dimensions, a hill made of some kind of crystal material, they could even see a large volcano that blew smoke in the horizon.
In short, a sight so beautiful that none of the fwagon's occupants could believe it truly existed.
"Incredible."
"Wonderful!"
"I…it's not bad." Maddie genuinely smiled like a common kid for a brief moment.
"I've never seen such a wonderful landscape before in reality." Marcy gasped, for the first time in a long time the enthusiasm she had felt on the first day they arrived here reappearing, "I feel like all my dreams are coming true!"
"Akitsu, can you believe this is real?"
"Bri-bri!" The dragonfly nodded to her rider and companion, she and the snails were amazed by the sight as well.
"It's-it's so beautiful." Sasha said, her hand moving to her phone as she snapped several photos of the view, Ivy looking with an excited look.
"It's amazing. It's majestic. It's... hurting my eyes." Anne admitted, rubbing them with a heartfelt expression.
"Felicia," Jacob turned to see the teashop owner and former adventurer, Hop Pop and her being the only ones who weren't apparently fazed by the view, "Did you know it would be so beautiful out here?"
"To tell you the truth, I had forgotten." The frog lady replied, "It's true that I used to travel the pass a lot in my youth, but… it's been so long since the last time I have been outside of the Valley. Though I admit it is good to be back."
"It's even better than I could've dreamed!" Sprig said, jumping on Bessie's shell and making a pose, "Full speed ahead, Hop Pop! Keep driving and never look back!"
"Hold on, Sprig. Look back here for a second," His grandfather chastised him, looking at him with a stern look, "I know that you're excited to be out of the Valley for the first time, but just because it's beautiful it doesn't make it any less dangerous."
"Mr. Plantar is right, kids," Felicia nodded, "And I think it is time for us to have a chat…"
(…)
A few minutes later, the humans and their frog families were all gathered inside the fwagon, Hop Pop and Felicia standing up while everyone else was sitting down on the large collapsible table that was for their breakfast, lunch, and dinners for the next two weeks.
"Come on, Hop Pop!" Anne protested, "We have barely left the Valley, and you're back to worrying about us?"
"Actually, this is something we always did when I was adventuring in groups." Felicia replied, Hop Pop standing there motionlessly without saying a word. "Look, kids, I know you're excited for the journey ahead of us, but don't let enthusiasm lower your guard. The world outside the Valley is full of dangers, I know that from personal experience, and I have already seen many newbie adventurers who…" she stopped, her mind bringing back the faces and names of so many comrades who died out of recklessness and not knowing their risks.
"Mom?" Ivy asked, noticing the strange expression on her mother's face, like she was struggling to repel bad memories from her brain, "Are you ok?'"
"Yes, I am!" Felicia nodded, turning to see Hop Pop. "Anyway, I think it would be best to set some basic rules for our journey. First of all-"
Everyone groaned as Felicia spoke the r-word.
"Seriously?"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Bummer!"
"Kids!" Felicia groaned, feeling a deja-vu. Yes, this one as well was a familiar scene, "I know how you're feeling, and I don't want to be the spoil-fun, but-"
"Oh, let them be, Felicia." Hop Pop murmured, "Kids will be kids, after all."
"HUH?!" Everyone else gasped at the same time, looking at him with wide eyes. Hop Pop, the most paranoid, rule-fearing, safety-obsessed frog they've ever known, was now chastising Felicia for saying exactly that? Even the teashop owner and former adventurer was baffled as she heard that.
"I mean, we had so many adventures already…and we always survived," the old frog continued in a meek voice, "Plus, we are twelve, I'm sure we are more than enough to manage whatever danger we may come across."
"That's right!" Jacob piped up, taking advantage of Hop Pop's acceptance to speak as well, "Plus, we are all armed and trained with our weapons. I mean, everyone but you, James." He said, with a voice a little too smug for the British teen's taste.
"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Jacob." the British boy replied with a grumble, "Shouldn't YOU be more worried about your own safety? I saved your life six times this week after all. Seven if we count the time you ended up lost in the rooms under the farm!"
"I told you those passages all look the same!"
"Anyway," Felicia hurried to say, "I think we at least should make some kind of agreement. First, whenever you're exploring somewhere, never go alone. Always in groups of two or three. At minimum."
"That's…reasonable."
"Jacob! Aren't you the one who always said that 'rules are made to be broken'?"
"That totally different, Sash!" The boy replied, "That was before I became an adventurer, hadn't trained with Soggy Joe, and learned valuable lessons about Amphibia's crazy fauna! Going adventuring alone is basically an invitation for any predators hungry enough to attack you from behind the second you're not looking in their direction. In groups, we can watch over and help each other, and if something bad happens, one of us could go and ask for help to the others..."
"Plus, it's better if we are together!" Marcy gleamed up, embracing the boy's suggestion, "And I'm not going anywhere without you, Maddie!"
"I…feel the same, Marcy."
"Sash, don't you want to go places with me?" The young yellow frog asked with an unhappy expression, prompting the human blonde to clarify that.
"Wha- of course I want to go places with you, Ivy!" Sasha replied, looking at Felicia (who gave her a chuckling expression) before continuing, "I just didn't want for our fun to be ruined by a long-list of rules from a giant book!"
Anne didn't reference it, but she did notice that Hop Pop was holding something in his left arm, a large book like the ones her friend was referencing. At first, she believed Hop Pop would show it to them and start to decant several made-up rules for the journey, yet somehow the old frog seemed…reluctant to do so. And why did he keep looking aside, almost as if he feared looking at her eyes?
"These are not rules, they are more like…guidelines." Felicia replied, "You don't have to follow them to the letter, but you should follow their spirit to the best you can."
"Fine, what else?"
"Amelia, since Akitsu is the only one among us who can fly, you two are on watch duty. If you see anything that might be suspicious, report immediately!"
"I…guess I can do that?" The samurai girl responded.
"As for our magical duo," the veteran adventurer once again turned her attention to Maddie and Marcy, "while I don't know the exact details of spell-making, I'd strongly suggest for you to limit using the cauldron when the fwagon is not moving."
"Huh, can't we make it so it's safe when we are moving on smooth roads?" Marcy raised her hand, "We will be taking all possible precautions, and we would risk losing much needed time if we could do that only while stopped."
"Also, we don't know where we might have the time to make new spells." Maddie nodded, "It would be a good idea to have a good supply for emergencies."
"Works for me, I trust your expertise. Everyone else, Mr. Plantar and I are now going back to lead the fwagon. So be good kids, don't drink or eat anything you've not checked for safety, don't go rushing away without telling us, don't make messes and especially don't shout!" The yellow frog said while she and Hop Pop walked outside, closing the hatch behind them.
"This stinks!" Sprig protested, as soon as he was sure Felicia couldn't hear him anymore, "We are finally going on the greatest adventure of our life, and we still have to deal with boring rules!"
"Well, mom said they weren't rules in and of themselves" Ivy specified, before grumbling as well, "Still not fair!"
"She is worried for our well-being, and she is a veteran adventurer." Jacob replied, "Maybe we should trust her for being more knowledgeable about what kinds of dangers may lurk outside better than we do? So far, she's the only one of us who ever left the Valley before,"
"And these are guidelines, much more flexible than simple rules!" James pointed out, "That means she's getting much laxer on us than we feared."
"I know, it's just…" Anne said, bad memories of the past coming back at her, "My dad was the same way back home. One time we drove to the Grand Canyon and didn't stop once."
"My dad was completely the opposite," Marcy responded, "When we went to Disneyland, he and mom stopped every twenty miles."
"Hey, Jacob, do you remember when d- when uncle brought us on that trip all over the Western Coast?" Amelia piped out. "When we stopped at Gravity Falls?"
"You mean the place where they had that place called Mystery Shack, and there was that creepy guy in a tuxedo and wearing a fez?" Jacob grumbled, remembering that really weird experience, "I still don't know if he was legitimately sinister, or was just playing the part for money." Though I would say the latter.
"Mystery Shack?" Ivy asked, "Jacob, what was that?"
"Just some bizarre tourist trap that dad insisted on making us visit while we were there. Kind of like an old-style house converted into a museum, full of old stuff and creepy things that tourists go to watch. And, somehow, true taxidermies of fake monsters too? It was really that weird."
"Taxi-what?" Polly asked.
"Taxidermies," Marcy explained, "Basically, the body of an animal stuffed or mounted for the purpose of displaying. Just imagine someone taking large bugs, removing their exoskeletons and stuffing their bodies on some kind of mount to make them look like they're still alive."
Ivy, Polly, Sprig and even Maddie shivered as they heard that explanation. Would they risk something like this, if they went to the humans' world?
"Well," Sprig said, trying to banish those thoughts from his mind, "I am sure we are going to see even weirder things on our Journey. And that's not even including Newtopia, our final destination!"
"Newtopia, here we come!"
"Hey!" The voice of Felicia resounded from above, "What did I say about not shouting?"
"Oh?" Amelia said with a teasing voice, everyone noticing her lips twitching into a malicious smirk, "Well guys, do you know what would make this ride go a lot quicker and is not forbidden?"
"What?"
"A song!" Amelia announced, jumping on the table, and beginning to sing the cheerful enthusiastic rhythm of a song she heard once in a movie about a bard and a thief going on an adventure on their own, in a quest for a city made of gold.
"Hey-"
Fruitlessly, Sasha tried to stop her, as soon the notes began to catch everyone's attention, Polly being the first to join her, quickly followed, one by one, by everyone else.
"Look out Amphibia, here we come, Brave, intrepid and then some. Pioneers of maximum audacity whose resumes. Show that we are just the team, to live where others merely dream. Building up a head of steam… on the trail we blaze!"
(…)
The fwagon was now moving down a road covered in both sides with heavy vegetation, Sasha, Jacob, and Anne walking slowly in front of the snails and cutting a path with their weapons, Ivy and Sprig looking outside from the side windows while Amelia, Akitsu and Marcy laid on the vehicle's roof, the latter taking notes in her journal while Amelia snapped photos of the nature around them. Suddenly, a disgusting worm-like creature with a lamprey mouth emerged from the bushes and tried to attack Maddie, clashing violently on the window's glass as the spellcaster frog turned around and, with quick movement of her hands, opened the window and ripped one of the creature's teeth for her potions, the ugly beast running back to its hideout as she 'cried'.
"Changing legend into fact
We shall ride into history.
Turning myth into truth
We shall surely gaze
On the sweet unfolding
Of an antique mystery
All will be revealed
On the trail we blaze…"
The group was now once again traveling through some large farmland area, Hop Pop driving and Felicia checking their position with James' compass while Sasha, Anne, Ivy, and Polly sunbathed behind them, all wearing dark sunglasses. Suddenly, a shadow passed over them, Sasha moving her sunglasses only to see Akitsu flying all over them, Amelia waving her hand before dropping some green, slimy moss onto them, the girls screaming as the disgusting substance splashed onto them before running to grab their weapons, Amelia and Akitsu speeding away to avoid reprisals.
"Paradise is close at hand
Shangri-la the promised land
Seventh heaven on demand
Quite unusual nowadays
Virgin vistas, undefiled
Minds and bodies running wild
In the man behold the child
On the trail we blaze."
The fwagon was now stopping in front of a large junction, Felicia and Hop Pop trying to discuss which path they were supposed to take, to the boredom of the children. Jacob and James stood silent for a couple of seconds before jumping out, HP and Felicia not noticing them as the boys walked over a small hill among the two paths and whistled at them, Jacob pointing with his hammer to the right. There was a flash-forward then, the fwagon being shown travelling on a makeshift bridge made with a large trunk tree in front of a majestic-looking waterfall with multi-colored and a rainbow arching over it. Sprig and Polly looked in wonder, the girls seized the chance for a group selfie, Jacob made his own photo and James took a sample of the waterfall's water, using it to make himself a tea in the fwagon's kitchen area.
"The trail we blaze
Is a road uncharted
Through terra incognita to a golden shrine
No place for the traveler
To be faint-hearted
We are part of the sumptuous grand design."
It was now pouring hard, the fwagon having stopped on one side of the road to provide cover for the snails and Akitsu while, inside, the frog and humans reunited around the table were going to have dinner, Anne and Felicia bringing a well-done roast of mantises with a side of mushrooms. Before they could start eating it, however, Marcy realized with horror that the pot Anne had used to cook was the same cauldron she and Maddie had used before, rushing to stop her friend before some kind of soup blobs emerged from it, the family grabbing whatever weapons they could find to defend themselves.
"Changing legend into fact
We shall ride into history
Turning myth into truth
We shall surely gaze on the sweet unfolding
Of an antique mystery
All will be revealed
On the trail we blaze!"
Amelia was flying on Akitsu, the large white dragonfly buzzing excitedly as they kept moving forward, the red light of the twilight setting on their left, giving the landscape around them a rare cremation worthy of a painting.
"On the trail we blaze…" The girl sang one last time, taking a deep breath of the fresh air.
"Mr. Plantar, can I be earnest with you?" Felicia said, nudging the old frog's shoulder, Hop Pop blinking for a second before realizing she was looking at him.
"Huh? O-of course Mrs. Sundew! What do you want to ask me?"
"I am curious as to why the most rule-abiding frog in Wartwood suddenly decided to leave his own grandchildren with no basic supervision for all this trip! Not saying that you should oppress them with rules, but I have the impression you're scared to stop them!"
"Scared?" Hop Pop chuckled, Felicia noticing he was sweating nervously, "W-what do you mean?"
"Guys!" Polly called with an excited smile, looking down from the hatch on the roof. Inside the fwagon, Jacob, Sasha and Felicia were playing cards, with Jacob clearly winning; Marcy, Maddie and James were working on their translation work, while Anne was showing Sprig and Ivy one of her favorite romantic comedy movies from her phone. "You got to see this!"
Intrigued, they put their game and movie on hold and went up to the ladder, popping out their heads to see the fwagon was now standing in front of a set of dunes set up like a racetrack, a large sign just above them.
"Zoom Dunes?" Sprig exclaimed, reading it.
"No Speed limit?!" Ivy gleamed.
Immediately after, almost to emphasize the meaning of such words, three racing snails, all wearing rad colors and big exhaust pipes, zoomed past them, their riders speeding down the track, jumping hills until they reached the finish line with a skidding stop.
"Awesome!" Sprig, Polly and Ivy said at the same time.
"These guys looks cool!" Jacob approved with a grin, accentuating his words with movement of his right fist.
"All right, girls!" Polly looked at Bessie and Liptea, "Let's show the world how fast you can go!"
"Huh?" Felicia grimaced, looking at Hop Pop, "Should we…?"
"Please Hop Pop!" Anne looked at the old frog with an excited smile, begging for his approval. "Can we?"
"Well, it could be a nice idea to try and test how fast we can go if we ever come into contact with bandits," he said, trying to justify his answer, "Plus, as long as we don't lose too much time-"
"You heard him? Full speed ahead!" Polly grinned, without even letting him finish his sentence, "BESSIE, THINGS ARE GETTING MESSY!"
Felicia and Hop Pop had barely the time to hold on the fwagon as the two snails, revving up together, charged forward, the kids cheering in excitement while Hop Pop yelled in fear. "Who in Frog's name taught youthat?!"
"Hey!" Amelia protested, she and Akitsu rushing behind them, "No fair departing abruptly!"
(…)
"Aaaah!" Amelia rushed out of the small bathroom, her face and hair covered with red stingy ants, looking around in total panic for a way to cleanse herself, Felicia turning around to see Jacob attempting not to laugh.
"Ja-cob!" The tea-expert frog called him out, stamping her foot, "What did I tell you about pranking your cousin after dinner?"
"It's the payback for spraying my shorts with itchy berries!"
(…)
"Wow! What is that thing?!" Ivy gasped, looking at the large animal standing a certain distance from the road, the Fwagon stopped as Felicia and Hop Pop were trying to fix a broken wheel.
"It looks like a tick," Marcy murmured, checking the notes in her Journal, "but I've never seen one this big before!"
"That, is an Elephant Tick." Felicia quickly explained, having met plenty in her adventurer days, "Big, powerful, and strong enough to have no natural predators. Usually, they live in herd but young males often wander their own path, looking for others herds to take over or travel with. Don't get too close as young Elephant Ticks males are known to be-"
The wise frog's words however were cut as the teens stampeded toward the beats and started to pet it at once, ignoring the fact that a large wild animal is NOT a puppy.
Especially a young male and very aggressive wild animal
"-extremely aggressive." Felicia groaned as the Elephant kept getting angrier and angrier.
(…)
"What did I tell you about rushing off on wild explorations without even checking what kind of creatures or dangers you may end up facing?!" Felicia yelled as Sasha, Ivy, Sprig and Anne stood in front of her, all of them looking worn down and dirty covered in bugs' guts, the two humans looking like they needed a shower, "Especially you two!" She exclaimed while pointing a finger to Sasha and Ivy "As my daughters I expect some more professionalism and wisdom when you're going adventuring! Why can't you be more like Marcy and Maddie?! I told them to stay inside and not do something crazy and look where they are!" She pointed to where the two should have been, but neither Marbles nor her friend/teacher were anywhere to be seen, "Where are they?!" Felicia groaned, feeling another headache incoming.
"Ahhhh!" The missing spellcasters rushed just outside of the window, as some kind of giant grasshopper ran behind them.
"Mr. Plantar," Felicia asked with a calm voice, hiding the fury of the rightful storm behind it, as she remembered each time the kids had ended up in trouble ever since they started their journey, her overworn nerves now on the brink of breaking down, "is there a reason why you've been uncharacteristically permissive for all this trip? Why are you so reluctant to reign your grandchildren?"
"I'm…I'm not reluctant to lead them! Only, I did it so much already and-"
"Look, Mr. Plant-Hop Pop," The yellow frog continued, tired of dancing around the issue, "I know you, and I've known you for several years already. And I know that you would never allow your kids to be this unruly…unless you have a very good reason for not wanting to rule them. So, I will ask you this only once: is this perhaps related to the Box?"
Hop Pop could barely hold back a wince after hearing that comment. For her part, Felicia's lips twitched in satisfaction: gotcha.
"I…I broke their trust that day." the old frog admitted, unable to keep hiding the utter shame he had been feeling for a long time, "I kept telling myself it was to protect them and my family, that I had to take it and dump it underground so no one would ever find it ever again. If Sasha hadn't caught me that night, I might even have accomplished that, but…" he looked down again, tears falling down his cheeks, "You know, I thought I was ready when I attempted to do that, that even if they had found out what I did I could bear their scorn if it would protect them. But when they did… I have never felt more ashamed and disgusted in myself. It would have been only fair, if they decided to leave and never trust me ever again!"
Felicia rolled her eyes, "Look, Hop Pop, what you did… I won't hide it, it was a complete breach of trust, but I don't fault you for trying to protect your family. Ever since…Sally," she looked aside, a shadow of sadness passing over her face as well, "I've known you've done everything in your power to try and protect your grandchildren, sometimes going 'a bit' overboard, but you let your own fear and paranoia dominate your actions. And paranoia is one of the greatest enemies of reason."
"I realize that now," Hop Pop sighed, "In my desperation to try and protect my family, I ended almost causing the very pain I was so determined to keep happening again. It is my fault that Sasha had left!"
"Sasha didn't leave," Felicia immediately corrected him, "she just decided to move in with me and my daughter and become part of our family. It's not that different from when your daughter gets married and goes on living with her new husband. Plus, she has her own room and personal space now: you had all six of them in your basement."
"Well, I admit it was a bit cramped," Hop Pop replied, somehow regaining a little of his optimism. "To tell the truth, I had a whole book of rules for the trip I would have enforced, if-"
"You mean this one?" Felicia retorted, taking off a large book with the title 'Hop Pop's Rules of the Road' printed on its cover, "I saw you holding it when we went talking with the kids, just after we've left the Valley, though I was a little surprised you didn't bring it up at all."
"You…read it?" Hop Pop gasped, Felicia answering with a nod, "What do you think about it?"
"That you clearly were in one of your worst paranoiac phases when you wrote it," Felicia chuckled, opening it, and scrolling through the text, "About ninety percent of the rules I can see here have good basics and concepts, but keep repeating them over and over, making them redundant. You could have spared a lot of time and paper if you simply generalized them."
"For example?" The farmer frog asked, raising an eyebrow in interest.
"Most of the rules I can see are about summoning dangers," Felicia pointed out, showing him the page describing Rule N.29, "But the real issue is not attracting danger, but to not keep watch over them. When I used to go adventuring, we always had a member of the group keeping watch, everyone having a turn as sentinel in rotation, so if we were threatened by something or someone, we would be informed in time and be prepared. But we already have the best of watchers," she pointed at Akitsu flying all over them, Amelia patrolling over them with an observant expression. "Frog, sometimes I wish we had a flying mount back on my days: it would have made traveling much easier."
"The kid sure has potential, right?" Hop Pop chuckled, feeling proud of Amelia's accomplishment, "The first person in all of Amphibia to be able to tame a flying creature, and it's a legendary bug to boot! Wait, what about the rest of my rules?"
"Complete paranoia without any connection to reality," Felicia said in brutal honesty. "Seriously, 'Never drive faster than a June bug can fly.' The June bug, Amphibia's slowest flying bug ever?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Hop Pop, a carriage needs to be fast to try to run from ambushes or natural disasters. And you need to do some check-ups to be sure it can travel fast if you need it. We have two snails, that's enough power to drive faster than many carriages normally can, as you remember."
"Then…it ended up being useful that I didn't stop the kids then, huh?" Hop Pop scratched the side of his head with a nervous laugh, "Not going to ask for another ride soon, though."
"Yup, me neither!" Felicia nodded solemnly, "Plus, even in the event we do end up being attacked, we are all trained fighters, you remember? They created a whole militia to protect Wartwood, they fought toads and large bugs together, they've grown a lot since they first arrived. And we are not that defenseless either."
"Well, of course not. You're a veteran adventurer, but-"
"I wasn't referring to myself, Hop Pop," Felicia interrupted him, the old frog realizing she was looking at him, "I told you I was there the day the Herons attacked out town. And while I may have not helped as I wished, I did see you face these beasts head on, and the scars you've left them."
"It still wasn't enough," Hop Pop grumbled, a hint of anger in his voice, "I couldn't save my daughter, nor could I prevent any towns from suffering what happened to us."
"It is still much more than anyone else had ever done. Though, I guess Anne must have made you proud when she saved Sprig and Polly. That's two herons that's not going to hurt anyone else!"
"But they weren't those herons! When I went to check them once again, they…they didn't have the scars. That means that the herons that took my daughter's life are still out here and are still a threat to all Amphibians!" Hop Pop yelled, before calming down, "Look, I…I didn't want to put my kids in danger, if we ever meet those herons again, I'm planning to finish what I've started. Hope you're not going to stop me."
"I have no intention to stop you. Rather, I would help you put them down. For Sally."
"For Sally…" Hop Pop nodded, a bittersweet mix of sadness, anger and determination flowing through his body.
(…)
"You know, sometimes I can't understand Hop Pop," Anne said, playing on her phone, "One second he acts all protective and worried everything you meet may end up killing you, the second after is all mellow and letting you do whatever you want."
"I guess he is still struggling with dealing with his old paranoia, Boonchuy," James replied, raising his eyes from the book he was reading, "I mean, he isn't wrong when he says the world outside the Valley is quite dangerous, yet he hasn't tried to enforce some strange rules once during the trip so far."
"No strange rules?" Sprig protested, he and Ivy busy making a small diary of the adventures they were having together, "What about when he told us not to stop at that diner? It said it was 'Amphibia's Best Diner'! And they have crickets and cream ice cream!"
"Huh, Sprig?" Jacob replied, doing some push-ups on the hard wooden floor, "Though I am still weirded out by that, I think Hop Pop was right on that account. Usually, when someplace claims to be 'the best', it means they are trying to milk whatever fame they may have to make money at the expense of newbie travelers."
"What does that mean?"
"It's like he said, Sprig," Anne quickly nodded, "My parents told me once that some restaurants try to compete not by securing a better service or doing good food, but simply doing some advertising to convince people they're the best diner ever, when in truth you're eating the same dishes you could eat on any other place, but at a higher price! In most of the cases, they try to cover for that by saying some famous dude ate there, hoping to cash back on their fame, but as much frequently… yeah, we could have stopped, but I doubt it would have seriously been 'the best diner in all Amphibia'." Though I felt tempted by it myself.
"Look on the bright side, Sprig," Ivy tried to cheer him up, "We are having all these once-in-a-lifetime experiences, we are living adventures every day and we are having fun! I even got many new bugs for my collection!" She pointed to some jars she had secured in a safe box on the side.
"Huh…yeah," Sprig blushed a little reminding himself of all the 'hunts' she helped her with. And how for every new bug added to her collection, Ivy had thanked him with a kiss on the cheek.
"The world outside of the Valley is so amazing!" Marcy cooed, checking the notes and sketches she had kept adding in her Journal with every new adventure they had, "Maddie, did you think we would have seen so many things in so little time?"
"I guess I didn't?" The blue-skin frog replied as she wrote down the latest results of their spell-making of today, doing the best she could to ignore how lovey-dovey Ivy was getting toward Sprig, "I mean, Dad used to tell me some stories, but-"
"Red alert, kids!" Hop Pop's voice woke up Sasha, the blonde human shaking her head in confusion, "We're coming up on the 'Ruins of Despair'!"
"The what now?" Sasha replied looking outside, quickly imitated by everyone else.
What they saw filled their eyes and minds in amazement.
Stretching for miles on a green and lush plain, filled with giant flowers, large stone-made structures in shape of frogs, two big screws in bronze acting as their 'eyes' while a set of metal gates, in bronze as well, was their 'mouth'. Each ruin seemed to just pop out of the ground and gave off the appearance to have been left untouched for a very long time, at least according to the moss and grass that was literally growing over them.
"Whoa!" Sprig gasped, "Oh, oh, oh. Ivy, do you see them?"
"I see them, Sprig!" The yellow frog replied, "That's soooo cool!"
"These I ought to put on my Journal!" Marcy smiled, her eyes brightening as she started to draw more sketches of the strange ruins in front of them, "They remind me of Hobbiton and the Shire!"
"I…suppose that's an apt description, Mar-Mar." James replied, the British boy feeling an irk as he watched over those strange buildings, feeling like something important he had forgotten was now nagging in the back of his mind. But what?
"That's more like it!" Jacob took off his phone and began taking pictures of the Ruins, "Unknown, mysterious ruins in the middle of nowhere with creepy appearance and vibes? This is so Thunderia!"
"My dad used to tell me about this place," Maddie murmured as her gaze focused on the strange structures all around the road, "He said they are ancient, even more ancient than our oldest families' histories."
"So, what were they?" Sasha asked, somewhat impressed by how cool these things looked, and how much cooler they should have been in the past, "Were they frogs' homes? Did frogs used to live in there?"
"No one knows, Sash!" Hop Pop commented from above, Akitsu lowering in altitude from aside while Amelia couldn't help but snap photos of the place as well, "They've been here long before any written history. They are so ancient than no one even remembers what they were, or why they were built here in the first place."
"Then, how about we solve the mystery ourselves?" Jacob suggested, "Girls, are you in for another dungeon crawling expedition?!"
"I'm in!"
"Frog yes!"
"Huzzah!"
"Sorry but no." Felicia said, shaking her head, "We've lost too much time already, and if we keep stopping everywhere you find something interesting, we'll need years to reach Newtopia. Plus, I know of this place from my adventuring days: many teams or lone scavengers tried to explore the ruins, and all disappeared!"
"Oh, come on!" Sasha protested, turning her gaze toward Hop Pop, "We can do one last stop, can we? Not too long, just to see the place around!"
"Well-" the old frog replied, looking at Felicia nervously, conflicting emotions gathering on his head. On one hand, he wanted to allow them: they already did many things he personally disapproved of, ever since they had left the Valley, and contrary to what he feared, nothing bad had happened to them, or at least not yet. On the other… Felicia did have a point: they'd lost so much time already, and every extra day on the roads heavily weighed on his heart. Moreover, he didn't have to be a complete pushover: sure, he wasn't as strict as he would have been, but he could still say no when the situation looked too dangerous, could he?
Before he could reply, Felicia grabbed his hand, and with eyes filled with disapproval, she shook her head, Hop Pop nodding as his usual deep-grown protectiveness returned.
"We can't do that," the old frog finally announced, his voice once again stern and rule-abiding, thought he tried to mellow it down, "as Felicia clearly stated, we are already behind on our journey's schedule, and while I wouldn't be too opposed for you to have fun, we can't afford to make yet another stop just to explore some scary place with unknown dangers."
"Ugh!" Sasha grimaced, "I thought you were cool now, dude!"
"We're not against you exploring this place, we're just saying we can't do that today!" Felicia admonished her, "Look, should we pass here again in the future, you'll have a chance to do it."
Miffed, the kids closed the top door and went back inside, some visibly more irritated by Hop Pop's betrayal than others.
"Just when I was starting to accept that old people could be cool too!" Sasha lamented, fuming in irritation, "I guess it didn't take much for them to show their true colors."
"This place is the coolest thing I've ever seen." Sprig lamented, for once agreeing with the blonde human's affirmation, "If we don't get out and at least explore it a little, I'll regret it for the rest of my life!"
"Same here!" Ivy commented.
"Look, I don't care if Hop Pop and Felicia will get angry at us," Anne nodded, "We need to check this place out!"
"I guess I'm coming as well," James sighed in acceptance. Someone had to watch over them after all; plus, those ruins intrigued him as well.
"I'm with you, but… how can we leave the fwagon without any of them noticing?" Jacob raised an eyebrow, "We are going a bit too fast to jump out like in one of those detective movies."
"Maybe we have an idea…" Maddie smirked mischievously, Marcy nodding as she walked to the trapdoor and gently knocked on it, before peeking,
"What is it now, Marcy?"
"Hey, Hop Pop, Felicia," the dark-haired nerd said with a worried voice, "if we can't explore the ruins, can we at least decelerate the fwagon's speed for a moment? Maddie and I would like to work on some spells of ours, and it would be safer if we slow down, just a little bit."
"You can't wait for us to reach our rest stop to do magic, can't you?" Felicia rolled her eyes, "Fine. Traveling slowly is still better than stopping completely."
"And we'll reduce the risk of damaging the fwagon!" Hop Pop approved, holding the reins and making Bessie and Liptea lose their speed to a slower pace.
That was what the kids were waiting for.
As soon as they slowed down, Jacob moved to the very end of the two-carriages fwagon and quietly opened the back door, holding one sash in his hands while Sasha held the other, the humans and their friends quickly exited the fwagon and rushed over the fence and toward the strange mysterious ruins.
"This was your plan?" Sprig said in a confused tone, before smiling, "Maddie, you are a devious one!"
"Marbles, I am quite surprised." Sasha commented, feeling impressed by her friend's thinking and actions, "To think you would do something like that…"
"There, you see what you have done, Sash?" Anne pouted, fake-reprimanding her, "You've corrupted my Mar-Mar!"
"Hey, I helped!" Jacob replied in protest, only for James to look behind to the still moving fwagon, neither Felicia nor Hop Pop apparently having noticed the kids were no longer there.
"Huh, guys? Shouldn't we worry that they…won't notice that we're gone? What if they leave, and we can't find them anymore?"
"Yeah, I guess it is best to do this quickly, don't you agree?" Anne took out her phone as the group reached one of their structures, stopping right in front of its mouth/ metal gate, "We do some small exploring, we take a couple of photos, and we get back on the fwagon before they notice we are missing. First thing, SELFIE!"
Everyone posed for the picture, but just as Jacob leaned against the door, it slid suddenly open, making the boy falling inside together with Sprig (who was sitting on his shoulder) and Marcy (who tried to stop them from falling, only to be pulled down by his weight), the trio sliding through some kind of smooth, wet passageway, pipes and overgrown mushrooms coming out of the walls, the rest of their friends rushing behind them.
Finally, the three of them came to a stop as the slide finished, Jacob grumbling as he struggled to got back on his feet.
"Marcy, Sprig, are you ok guys?"
"Yes, I'm fine," the young frog groaned, laying still, as the boy went to assist Marcy.
"I'm…good. I guess falling so many times already- WHOA!" The girl gasped, her eyes widening in wonder as she and Jacob came to realize what kind of places they've fallen into.
"Marcy, Jacob, Sprig!" Sasha's voice announced the arrival of the rest of them, "Are you ok? Did you br-wow!" The blonde human shut up as wonder took over her mind, and so did everyone else.
The chamber they were in now was massive, filled with what could only be described as advanced technology. Extremely advanced technology, years ahead of a medieval-like world of Amphibia. In the middle of the room, a giant frog-shaped computer; to the right, what looked like giant servers and a conveyor belt leading to somewhere else; to the left, another large electronic component somewhat resembling a power-production device. Everything inside the room looked abandoned and forgotten, covered by moss and small plants, the roots of a large tree creeping down from a crack on the ceiling, bugs and small critters having taken residence among the dormant machinery.
And yet, the light glowing from several electronics foretold that the whole structure was in stand-by, currently inactive but ready to be used again with the right inputs.
"By the frog!" Maddie said in shock, her mind unable to understand what she was seeing with her own eyes, "What are these things?"
"It can't be…" Anne murmured, "Are those computers? I thought you guys were like pastoral or whatever."
The shock was palpable, among all humans. While they did know what computers and other electronic devices were, finding advanced technology in Amphibia was something none of them expected to do.
"No way!" Sasha took a step forward and touched one of the 'servers', almost to be sure she was seeing right, "You have working tech here in Amphibia?"
"Huh, Sash, do you know what these things are?" Ivy asked, unsure of her adoptive sister's reaction.
"Damn right we know, Ivy," Jacob spoke in wonder, taking off his phone and snapping new photos of the abandoned tech around them, "These are computers and servers, technology! Things you were not supposed to have, at least not before an Industrial Revolution!"
"This is so awesome!" Marcy squealed in happiness, starting to move around in a hyperactive and over-enthusiast frenzy. Her hands moving quickly as she kept adding notes and sketches in her Journal, even taking out her phone to snap photos of the most interesting elements in the room. Of course, Maddie was rushing along, to assist her and to avoid tripping once again, "A hyper-advanced ancient lost civilizations, eons before? Maybe an ancient species who went extinct millions of years ago? Or maybe were they Amphibian as well? Did some kind of apocalypse happen? Amphibians had to rebuild their whole civilization from the ground up? Or-"
"I'm... going… to touch everything!" Sprig jumped up in excitement, before jumping around and starting to touch everything he could get his hands on, James looked at him in amusement as he reminded him of a small child checking his gifts on Christmas morning.
"We did a good thing," the British boy said, his friends and companion starting to explore the mysterious technology as well…
(…)
"-you know? I am positively impressed that the kids are behaving in there," Hop Pop said, noticing the strange absence of moaning and complaining coming from inside the fwagon, "I was expecting much more resistance from them."
"I guess they're still a bit touchy because we have refused to stop," Felicia chuckled, "Now they are sulking a bit, but I'm sure they'll have forgotten the whole issue by tomorrow."
"It's just…I'm still feeling guilty for that. Are you sure we couldn't have stopped?"
"Mr. Plantar, you know how late we are on our schedule. One more stop, and we'd probably be forced to travel all night to make due to Newtopia. And…" she pointed to a large sign depicting another restaurant, a bit far from the road, with a simpler presentation, "I do remember that place. I guarantee we will be able to get a good meal for a very low price!"
"Great! Polly, go tell the others we can stop for a good meal! I guess they do deserve a reward for behaving so far!"
"Trust me, Mr. Plantar, we just needed to assert our authority, so now we don't have to play harsh anymore. A velvet glove on an iron fist, that's the approach to use."
"Huh, guys?" Polly replied, looking down from the trapdoor and realizing why the fwagon had been silent so far, "I'm the only one here. The fwagon is empty."
"Say what?!" Hop Pop and Felicia gasped at the same time, before rushing to check with their own eyes, Liptea and Bessie stopping as the drama unfolded behind them.
"Dang kids never listen …" Hop Pop grumbled, as he jumped down the fwagon and detached Bessie from the reins, "Polly, Mrs. Sundew and I are going to look out for them. Don't do anything till we get back!"
"I hope Ivy and Sasha are okay…because they surely won't be anymore when I'm going to catch them!"
Felicia and Hop Pop jumped on Bessie's back and rushed to retrace the path, as a familiar white dragonfly and their raiders landed back on the fwagon.
"They noticed it," Amelia said with a smug tone, "I was starting to worry."
"I guess you knew?"
"From the very moment I saw them leave from the backdoor, Petunia," the human girl chuckled, the tadpole countering with an irked look as Amelia used her second name, "I'd give their plan a fifty-fifty chance, but they did fell for it."
"So, while they go search for them, what do we do?"
Amelia smirked, an evil idea forming in her mind…
(…)
"Let's take this too!" Jacob said, dropping yet another mysterious and shiny piece of hardware into his backpack, "Frog, I can't wait to see what this stuff is for!"
"Huh, Jacob," the only other human male in the ruins raised one of his eyebrows, "are you sure about what you're doing? Maybe it's just me but, so far, it looks like you're scavenging everything you can from this place."
"Trust me, I have a plan!" the boy in a horned hat replied with a laugh, too enthusiastic about his findings, "I'm taking everything that looks in decent condition, so later I can try to see if I can make them work again, or alternatively, resell them!"
You seriously think anyone in a Middle-Age world would be interested in technological gizmos, James rolled his eyes, moreover, ancient gizmos that may as well not work anymore due to weariness?
Still, the fact they were in an actual hyper-advanced hub of lost technology thrilled him as well, "It's a good idea, but maybe, it would be better to look out for something that can help us understand how this tech works?"
"Good idea! Look if there is a manual, or something?"
James got up from where he was sitting, searching around while Sprig, Ivy, and everyone else kept exploring. Marcy was now looking at the inside of one of those machines while she tried to explain to Maddie the key difference between technology and magic. Where could they find a manual? Or even some instructions, maybe-
The boy stopped, his left boot hitting something on the ground, the silver-haired human kneeling down to see it was a bunch of metallic plaques with sentences written in Ancient Amphibian on them. The same language that Hop Pop's family book was written in, and that Marcy had so painstakingly decoded in the months they were trapped inside the Valley.
"Maybe I've found something!" James exclaimed, making a sign for Jacob to come and see, "This looks like Ancient Amphibian. Still, we don't know what may be written on them, could be some breakthrough discovery or just a grocery list, but…"
"It doesn't matter, get in!" Jacob replied, taking the plaques and placing them too in his backpack. "Let's take everything we can carry with us, I'm sure we can translate these later."
"Sash, Anna-Banana, can you believe this?!" Marcy squealed for the -nth time since they entered the place, her pitch even growing an octave higher, "This must be the greatest discovery ever made in all of Amphibia's history!"
"That's the point, Mar-Mar!" The blonde human replied, with a worried tone, "None of this makes sense! For the past few months, we saw that Amphibia is a classic fantasy world like one of your games, but now it turns out they used to have advanced technology? How did they lose all of this? Why did no one remember it?!"
"You think that this may connected to…you-know-who?" Anne piped in, referencing Aiden with the same nickname that Marcy knew it referenced another dangerous person from her favorite book series.
Yet, before Marcy or anyone else could elaborate on that point, they heard the sound of someone else sliding down the same passageway they came from, turning head just in time to see Hop Pop and Felicia drop in, the old frog landing on his back while Felicia managed to stay on her feet.
"Ivy Hibiscus Matcha Sundew and Sasha Waybright Plantar Sundew!" Felicia roared in anger, "You're in big trouble, young ladies!"
"Do you realize how many rules you just broke?" Hop Pop added, visibly upset as well, "I was trying to play nice, but this is too much!"
"Ugh, forget about those rules!" Sprig challenged him, spreading his arm out, "Look at this place instead!"
"Check what we've found, mom!" Ivy came in his support, "These ruins have everything! Cool atmosphere, unknown devices, implied historical significance-"
Sprig looked just above him, noticing something neither he nor anyone else had noticed before. A large, visible lever.
"Levers," he smiled, mimicking the movement to pull it.
"Don't you dare!" Hop Pop yelled, trying to dissuade him, "Rule number 68: 'Never, ever pull a lever'!"
The wrong choice of words and the worst possible moment, as Anne and the others realized as Sprig took Hop Pop's words as a challenge, jumping on the lever and using his own weight to activate it.
"No!" The humans and their friends gasped at once, bracing themselves for the consequences. They had known Sprig and his lever-pulling stunt long enough to know that every time Sprig pulled a lever, something bad was bound to happen.
This time, however, nothing.
"Well, look at that," Sprig rubbed on his smugness, "I just broke rule 68, and we're all still- Whoa!" He yelled, as suddenly the lever retracted into the machine, dropping him on the ground.
Immediately after, the lines on the floor started glowing in a bright, blue color, the various machinery and tech powering up.
"What the…"
"No way!" Sasha gasped, cutting James' sentence in the middle, "It's still working?!"
"Huh?" Maddie took a step back to Marcy, as the wall she was lining to suddenly revealed itself to be a roller shutter as it opened, revealing another, longer conveyor belt that ran all around the perimeter of the room, a thick glass dividing the two spaces while still allowing them to see. "This was…unexpected."
And then, the machine behind Sprig opened, revealing a keyboard and computer screen lightening up, data and numbers appearing on the blue screen.
"START-UP ENGAGED."
"Start-up?" Felicia said in a defensive mode, unsure of what that meant.
"Frog! Anne, you were right!" Jacob gasped, as he started to record what was happening on his phone, "It is a computer!"
"The building can talk?" Sprig gleamed up, only to retreat cautiously from the machine, "Not sure how I feel about that."
"Sprig, what have you done?" Ivy gasped, unable to comprehend what was going on.
"ASSEMBLY LINE ACTIVATED. ROUTINE PROTOCOLS ENGAGED."
"Assembly line?" Anne repeated in a puzzled tone.
"Routine protocols?" Sasha echoed her.
The girls turned around as they heard a mechanical sound, and noticed the conveyor belt behind the glass as it started rolling, carrying large components in front of machines stationed on both sides, at every machine the belt stopping to give them the time to work on the components.
"Guys, I think this is a factory!" Anne announced, as she realized the belt and the machines were a fully automated assembly line, "But what the heck is it making?"
"I have no idea, Anne!" James replied, his eyes widened as he too started to record the strange process.
"Huh, Sash?" Ivy asked, pulling her adoptive sister's arm, "What is a factory?"
"A place where newly minted goods are produced, either by machine or manual assembly." The blonde human replied, yet unable to look away from the assembling in front of her. "We have many of these in our world, but…I never guessed we would find one in there!"
"This…this is beyond any magic I have ever known!" Maddie gasped, pushing her face on the glass, "Yet, I feel no magical vibes coming from it!"
"Wow. It's mighty impressive." Hop Pop admitted, a spectacle like he had never seen unfolding before his eyes.
"I have never seen anymething like this, in all my travels," Felicia nodded, all the anger she had felt before momentarily forgotten.
"ADDITIONAL MATERIALS REQUIRED." The factory's AI spoke again, "PLEASE PLACE THEM ON THE GLOWING ACCESS POINT."
"Glowing what now?" Hop Pop asked, before realizing the spot where he and Felicia were standing started to glow even brighter, and a split second later, restraints laced onto their feet, "Help! It's got me!"
"Hey!" Felicia desperately tried to get free, only for the floor to sink and close above them.
"Hop Pop!"
"Felicia!"
"MOM!"
"And it tickles!" Hop Pop's voice came from within the walls, alongside Felicia's.
"No please, not there!"
The next second, both frogs reappeared behind the glass wall and on the conveyor belt of the assembly line, their feet still laced with restraints.
"See this right here, kids?" Hop Pop glared at them, apparently forgetting to check ahead, "This is why you shouldn't have disobeyed us."
"Come on, I faced worse restraints in my youth!" Felicia grumbled as she tried to get free, only for her adventurer's gadget to break on her hands, "Frog! These restraints are harder than they seems!"
"Hop Pop?" James warned him with a pale face, pointing to something forward on the assembly line. The old frog turned his head, only then noticing the conveyor was bringing him and Felicia toward a vertical line of red lasers.
"Agh!" Hop Pop (who by now, thanks to the kids' movies, knew very well what lasers could do) braced himself, only to realize he was still unharmed after passing them. "That wasn't so bad," he said, before his clothes fell apart and left him in underwear, screaming as he struggled to cover himself, "I'm not beach-ready!"
"No!" Felicia shrieked as well, as the laser did the same to her, leaving her in very light undergarments and with visible embarrassment on her face, "Hey, that was a high-class dress!"
"Mom!" Ivy yelled, desperately trying to break the glass.
"Guys, we need to get them out of this thing!" Sasha spoke, once again her leadership tendency resurfacing, "Boonchuy, Jacob, you're with me: we're going to rescue them!"
"What about me?" Marcy asked, unsure of her role.
"Marcy, you try to shut this madhouse down. You're good with computers, and you're the only one among us who can translate Amphibian runes without notes. Do you think you can reprogram this thing, or at least turn it off?"
"I…I think it can be done!" The dark-haired girl replied, albeit still unsure about her chances of hacking an ancient computer system with an almost-dead language.
"Everyone else, go with Marcy and help her, or try to keep her safe. I don't know what kind of defenses this thing has, but I doubt it would appreciate someone trying to hack it."
"Don't worry, Sash!" James grabbed Marcy by the shoulder, adding emphasis to his own words, "I'll keep Mar-Mar safe!"
"Me too!" Maddie nodded, "I have my spells, and I'm not scared to use them!"
"Good, let's move then!" Jacob roared, moving toward the glass and hitting it with his war hammer, smashing a hole into it large enough for him and the two girls to rush inside. Landing on the same conveyor belt. "We're coming, Hop Pop!"
"Take your time, kids." The old frog replied, enjoying the fact he was being hosed with water, "This ain't half bad."
"Speak for yourself!" Felicia retorted as it was now her turn to be sprayed with the water guns, "I already took my shower this morning!"
Meanwhile Marcy, James, Maddie, Sprig, and Ivy rushed to the computer that controlled the whole structure, the human girl smirking as she realized that the keyboard was completely done with Amphibian runes. So long as she knew what command to implement, she should have been able to write it.
"Ok Marcy, it's all on you now." The British boy said, his face now a mixture of confusion and panic, "What does this thing say?"
"Let's see…" Marcy looked at the console screen in front of her, "System functionality on norm… no, this doesn't help us… assembly line efficiency at twelve percent...wow, this much? And after so many years of abandonment too!"
"Marcy, focus!" Maddie, nervously looking between the console and their friends trying to rescue Hop Pop and Felicia, "Is there anything there to stop this thing?"
"IF YOU WISH TO CANCEL THE OPERATION, PLEASE INSERT NEW DISK." The machine announced, opening a slot for them to place it.
"What in frog's name is a disk?" Sprig yelled, not being able to withstand this stressful situation and being unable to help at the same time.
"That's…a kind of item we used to have in our world," James said, his eyes widening as he tried to look around, "kids, try to look out for something round with a hole in the middle, like a donut. But all flat!"
"A flat donut, a flat donut…" Sprig and Ivy started to look around with no result, finding nothing that matched the descriptions.
"Let's try a different way!" Marcy announced, trying to type one code she learned at Saint James. Yet, as soon as she pressed the first key-
"SECURITY VIOLATION DETECTED." The AI's voice announced as the screen turned red. Before the computer itself opened two mechanical eyes and raised two giant robotic arms into the air, as it tried to stop them. James grabbed one of the hands and, using all the strength he had in his body, stopped it from moving while Maddie grabbed two of her spells and threw it at the other, the metallic hand melting in result.
"Ha ha!" Sprig laughed, before noticing yet another attack coming from above, that being a giant buzzsaw whirring at high speed from the spot where the lever that activated it once stood, "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Sprig!" Ivy jumped and pushed him out of the way to avoid being hit by the buzzsaw, while around them Maddie and James struggled to protect Marcy from all the incoming attacks.
"Marcy, we can't resist for long!" James yelled, still struggling to keep the surviving robotic hand immobilized.
"Sorry, sorry!" The black-haired nerd replied, pressing new keys as she tried to order the weapon defense system to deactivate. However-
"WARNING: MENACE THREAT LEVEL UPGRADED TO LEVEL 3. ACTIVATING PRECAUTIONARY COUNTERMEASURES."
"That doesn't sound promising," Ivy said, as some glowing orbs were released from the roof just above the machine, shooting deadly lasers at her, Maddie, and Sprig. The three frogs now forced to keep moving to avoid being hit.
"Seriously, kids: take your time." Hop Pop said, so far enjoying the ride, "There is nothing-"
However, his behavior did a one-eighty turn when the panel behind him rose and restrained his and Felicia's arms as well. The conveyor belt now taking the two adult frogs toward a large hydraulic crusher.
"I take it back! I was a fool!"
"Stop this thing!"
"Hold on, we are coming!" Sasha yelled as the three of them rushed forward, Jacob and Anne hitting the lasers and destroying the devices, forcing through the water blast and reaching the crusher just a few seconds before the trapped frogs did, the human bracing together as they combined their physical strength to stop the crusher from killing their frog parents.
"Resist, girls!" Jacob said, grinding his teeth, "Frog, this thing is heavy!"
"I know!" Sasha replied as she struggled as well, "But if we let it go, even for a second, it will smash us flat!"
"Mar-Mar!" Anne yelled, hoping to be heard by the others, "How's it going over there?!"
"Not good!" Marcy replied, now struggling to type on the keyboard while avoiding being hit by the lasers or the buzzsaw, "None of the codes I've tried so far works, and we don't have the time to reprogram it!"
"Wait…Hop Pop's book!" Sprig noticed the item laying on the ground, quickly grabbing it and beginning to flip through the pages, "Maybe there is something in here that can help us, This kind of thing worked before!"
"That's a rule book, Sprig!" Sasha yelled, feeling the pressure coming from the crusher becoming more and more powerful, "It's different!"
"INSERT DISK. INSERT DISK. INSERT DISK."
"Marcy, what the frog is a disk?!" Ivy yelled.
"We told you, they're small objects of round shape and with a hole!" The girl replied, "Just something we humans used once to store information!"
"Store information?" Sprig's eyes widened, as he kept looking between the red screen and the book in his hands, "That's it!" He then grabbed Hop Pop's rulebook, and jumping beyond Marcy, shoved it in the slot, the machine quickly devouring it.
And then, error popups appeared on the screen, light turning back blue.
"INSERT- WHAT THE HECK? WHAT THE HECK? WHAT THE HECK? WHAT THE HECK?"
As the computer started to malfunction and crash, the defense mechanism stopped alongside the crushers, while Hop Pop's and Felicia's restraints deactivated.
"We're free!"
"Let's get out of here!" Felicia hurried, noticing that the machineries were beginning to fizzle, the building falling apart around them. Everyone was now running toward the exit at breakneck speed, Jacob, Sasha, and Marcy with their backpacks filled with what they had scavenged on their backs, not stopping until they were all the way up the passageway and out of the factory building.
"Who-hoo! We did it, fam!"
"Yeah!"
"Hey!" Hop Pop turned toward them with a scolding look, "Let's not celebrate until we are completely out of danger!"
"Come on Hop Pop," Sprig replied, "The danger's clearly-"
At that exact moment, the factory blew up in a massive explosion, sending them flying away and then landing back on the ground, Anne and Sasha's hair smoking, Marcy falling face-first onto the ground as her cape (once again) began to burn, Jacob, James, and everyone else remaining covered with burns and bruises.
"Levers! Am I right?" Sprig joked, trying (and miserably failing) to lighten up the mood.
"Girls, are you alright?" Felicia said in a calm, too calm voice, looking at Sasha and Ivy.
"We are mom."
"Good… because you are in deep trouble!" She yelled all of a sudden, releasing all her pent up anger she had accumulated so far, "Do you have any idea how worried I was, when I found out you had left?!"
"We know, we know," Sprig looked down in shame, as Jacob went to help Marcy, "We should've followed the rules and not ran off exploring without your knowledge."
"YOU THINK?!" Hop Pop yelled, ready to give them the stern talk they surely deserved, "Do you have any idea how much danger you went through just this time? You should have done like Polly and Amelia: we left them to stay and watch over the Fwagon, and-"
"Who-hoo!" The group heard the unmistakable voices of Polly and Amelia and looked up, seeing the samurai girl and the tadpole flying at high speed, doing flips and spins into the air, before landing just beside them!"
"That's what I call 'travel with style'! Banzai!"
"Boom, baby!" Polly nodded with the biggest grin on her face, before the two of them heard Hop Pop fake-coughing, turning around to see the others staring at them, their smiles disappearing instantly.
"Polly blackmailed me!"
"No, it was Amelia that kidnapped me and made me do it!"
"Girls…" Felicia glared at them.
"All right, we are sorry!" Amelia looked away with a sad look, "that's the last time we do something like this, we swear!"
"Yes, us too!" Jacob walked forward with an ashamed expression, scratching the back of his head in genuine regret, "Look, we…it was wrong for us to trick you and run away just to visit that place. We ended up putting everyone at risk, and we almost led you and Felicia to be killed by that assembly line of doom. I know that to apologizing won't solve anything, but…I guess you were right in the end. Rules are supposed to be followed, not broken."
"Yes, us too HP," Anne nodded, joining in, "For the rest of the trip, we will follow all the rules that-"
"FORGET THOSE RULES!" Hop Pop yelled again, "It's you I was worried for! Ever since we have left the Valley, I was scared to the bone that something bad would've happened to you, but I was still feeling guilty for…the last time I tried making a decision on your behalf," he sighed, the humans' eyes widening as they realized he was talking about the Box, "This is why, while I had my rulebook already, I decided not to enforce them. But, as we kept doing unnecessary stops, we accumulated delay upon delay and I knew that, unless we stopped, we would end up running into many unnecessary dangers as well."
Ivy gasped, her eyes turning to her mother, "Mom, did you-"
"Of course, Ivy." The former adventurer said, "Why do you think I kept trying to remind you to behave for all this trip? I wanted to give you the chance to prove you were ready enough to take care of yourselves, even if I didn't want to ruin your fun."
"Frog, I feel ashamed of myself now," Sasha murmured, both her and her frog sister realizing that this was why Felicia didn't consider Ivy to be ready to know the truth before she came to work in her tea shop. Even Maddie couldn't help but feel shame for her actions: her dad allowed her to join Marcy on this trip, and how she reciprocated his trust in her?
"Felicia, we-"
"Not now, Marcy. First, let's go back to the Fwagon, so we can probably discuss what happened today and what we've learned, so we can try to come up with good teaching out of this. Plus, Mr. Plantar and I need a new wardrobe now. Of course, we'll also discuss your punishment later."
"Ok…" Sasha looked down, feeling unable to protest, and rather, ready to accept whatever grounding or similar punishment Felicia would draw upon her.
Later, the gang was all back on the fwagon, Hop Pop driving as before, Akitsu resting on the roof while everyone else was busy eating the packed lunch they've taken at the place Felicia had suggested them. To everyone's surprise, the adults even allowed them to take ice cream.
"How's the crickets and cream ice cream, kids?" Hop Pop asked with curiosity.
"Amazing!"
"So good!
"Wonderful!"
"I have to admit," Maddie said before taking another bite of her cone, "this is good!"
"Mint chocolate cream with crickets is probably my new favorite!" Marcy added, earning an approving look from Amelia.
"Me too, Marbles!"
"I am quite surprised you didn't have trouble with the bug bits," Jacob commented, looking over Sasha and Anne.
"I know," the blonde girl admitted, "there was a time I would have felt disgusted to eat ice cream with bugs, but that time has long gone!" she smiled before taking new bites.
"Hope you're enjoying it, because it will be your last one for a good while!" Hop Pop added, his voice turning stern once again, Anne and everyone else suddenly feeling like it was her last meal.
"We can't deny we didn't deserve our upcoming punishment." the girl said with a sigh before adding with a whisper, "Still, I'm going to miss you, frozen delight!"
"Welp," James murmured, looking at the distance at the ruins they were leaving behind, becoming smaller and smaller in the horizon, "I'm still worried that we didn't find out what that factory was making. You think the others may be the same?"
"Probably," Amelia retorted, "You said that was a factory producing something. Maybe this place once was a large industrial area, making goods for people all over Amphibia."
"But what kind of goods?" Anne grumbled, "we have no idea what it was producing!"
"I know," Marcy sighed, her gaze moving between the ruins far in the horizon and the notes and sketches she had taken in her Journal, "If Amphibia really was much more industrialized and technologically developed in the past, I wonder what happened that make all of it disappear. Still, all those frog images suggest it wasn't another sentient species…maybe the current development of Amphibians is because they ended up facing some kind of apocalypse in the past that forced them to restart from zero, and the memory of the event got lost? Just like in one of those post-apocalyptic works…"
"Who know, we still have too few elements to make solid hypothesis," Jacob pointed out, checking the tech gear and pieces he had taken from the factory, his hands passing over the metallic plaques he had saved, "Maybe once we're able to start translating these ones, we will learn more…"
"Yeah, but still… I feel bad about not knowing!" James stretched a little, "I mean, remains of an advanced civilization, and no records about it whatsoever? That sounds incredibly suspicious." Plus, I can't do anything to shake the feeling that somehow, a forgotten Amphibian society may be more than we know so far.
"Well," Sprig smiled, "I guess we'll never know."
"I won't say that," Felicia replied, "Sure, we have our own journey to do now, but what we've seen today is enough to warrant our attention. Maybe, someday in the future, we can return and do a more through exploration. Only, properly, this time."
"We can?" Ivy gasped, her eyes once again filling with enthusiasm.
"Of course!" The adventurer turned tea-maker replied, "But not right away. We still have a long way to Newtopia. And, thanks to all the stops we did already, we'll have to travel by night as well to make up for the lost progress. Plus, you are still being punished, young ladies, do you understand me?"
"Yes mom," Ivy replied, accepting her fate while still smiling on the inside.
"Come on, Ivy, we have all the time in the world," Maddie tried to cheer her up, "Besides, it's not like those ruins are going to follow up to Newtopia, right?"
Maddie didn't see it, and neither did anyone on the fwagon, but as she spoke those words, something burst out from the rubbles and debris that once made the factory. A large robot of frog appearance, with elongated gray metal arms, large metal pauldrons as shoulders and two brightly glowing optic sensors as its 'eyes'. The robot looked around for a second, before his sensor spotted the figure of the fwagon driving away, the optical zooms bringing him the images of a several creatures on it, and by some 'instinct', started to move to follow it.