The atmosphere in the space between the two restaurants was a mix of Fear, excitement and dread.

Anne looked at the smile on her mother's face and was forced to face the reality that her mother had planned this from the start, this really was some sort of plan against stumpy.

She started to wondered if her mother was secretly some sort of super villain, like teenage her had suspected.

Stumpy to his credit nodded, "Fine, We'll settle this in two hours" he turned around and headed back to the restaurant

Anne ran to her mother, "Mom, This is insane, Just take the van back."

She watched her mother's back "Anne I can't, I have to prove something."

"What? What do you have to prove, Stumpy's like the nicest guy, He…"

"Anne, please, I just need to do this." said her mother, a hint of hurt in her voice.

Anne just stood there looking at her, There was something more going on here.

"Mom, whatever's wrong, I can't let you just hurt my friend, please."

Her mom just stood there her back turned to her.

"I'm sorry Anne, but I have to do this."

Anne stood there, "Okay,"

She turned around, She hated to say this, but she had to, "I'm going to help Stumpy."

Her mother still didn't move, "Okay."

Anne stood there for a second, and sighed, she walked to Stumpy's, holding back her tears.

Oum stood there looking at the van, trying to stop herself from crying, she knew this wasn't the best decision, but she needed to do this, she'd explain everything after it was over.

She thought back to three days ago when she swallowed that basil and kraken, she knew how she was acting was stupid.

She sighed, There was no way out of this.

"Mrs Boonchuy?" said a voice next behind her.

Oum took a breath and composed herself., she just needed to pretend for a bit longer.

She turned to see Max and Nicole standing there, she smiled, "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" asked Max.

"I'm fine," could you do me a favor? Tell my husband and the kitchen staff to take a break, I need to talk to them."

Max nodded and ran off, Nicole followed.

Oum watched and smiled, they reminded her of Anne when she was younger, when she had been so willing to help out at the restaurant.

It was funny, she remembered a time when she was so worried about being a mother she snuck to the restaurant at night to start cooking, thankfully Bee had followed her and helped her.

She had loved to bring Anne into the restaurant, It had been hard trying to keep her entertained, but they managed, in time, it was to Oum's pride that Anne said at four years old she wanted to own her own restaurant, of course that changed.

When she was seven Oum had decided to let Anne help out in the restaurant, she asked her to take orders, she did enjoy the tips, but she always wanted to move up to cooking.

At seven Anne said she wanted to be a Professional tennis player, Oum was still proud of her, though she did hope for something more stable, like a doctor, but another part, wanted her to take over the restaurant.

On her high school graduation Anne told her that she wanted to go into Hepatology, Oum had been proud, but secretly she had hoped her daughter would have chosen to run the restaurant.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, Why was she doing this, couldn't she just swallow her pride for a second?

She sighed and walked to the van, she could back away from this now.

When she opened the van door, and saw Nicole and Max standing by talking to Marcy and Lucian, he husband was behind them looking at her worried.

She smiled, "Okay everybody, Listen up."

Nicole and Lucian were paying full attention to her, Max was looking at her more bemused than anything, Marcy was sitting down looking tired, he husband was sitting next to Marcy, Oum smiled at a familiar image of him trying to cheer up her human counterpart

"We're in the middle of a showdown,"

The looks on the children changed, Max's became a face of confusion., Lucian and Nicole shared looks of shock, Marcy was instantly removed from her confused and was now terrified.

"If any of you want to leave you can, I won't think any less of you."

The children looked at each other, she expected them to go home, she didn't want them to suffer, she had read about the showdown during a quick trip to the farm two days ago, and it had seemed pretty dangerous, she wouldn't force these kids into it.

All of a sudden Nicole jumped on the counter and grabbed a rolling pin, she pounded in on her stubbly little arm.

"Okay, I know that none of us signed on for this, Heck, one of us doesn't want to be here," as she said that she pointed the rolling pin at Marcy, who shrugged in response.

"True."

"But I, for one, know this team is better than that, Lucian, we know you're brave enough to face this challenge."

"YEAH" shouted Lucian.

Nicole pointed the rolling pin at Marcy again, "Marcy we all know you're too stubborn to quit anything."

Marcy looked at her newt friend, "That's not something to be proud-"

"AND MAX…" she said pointing towards the young human,

"Yes?"

Nicole stood there pointing the rolling pin at him for a few seconds before shrugging, "You're only in it for the money, so think of how much money you'll make during the showdown."

Max nodded, "I do like money."

"If we all work together we can crush Stumpy into the ground, we're the greatest temporary Thai food restaurant in Amphibia, we can do this."

Everyone in the van cheer, Oum watched as they got back to work, she turned to Nicole, "That was…amazing?"

Nicole stood tall and beamed "Yeah," her composure left her quickly,

"Please don't tell Stumpy what I said, I have to work with him next week."

Oum laughed, "Sure."

"Anything I can do?" said a voice from the front of the van.

Oum walked to the driving seat and saw Dr. Jan sitting there.

She had nothing but positive feelings towards the museum curator, she had stuck with Anne when she had returned from Amphibia, and had guided her into becoming a Herpetologist

"What are you doing here?" asked Oum confused.

"Oh, just hiding from Terri, they're acting weird."

"How, weird?"

Dr Jan pointed out Terri who was busing looking for their wife.

Oum gasped, "what on…"

Jan sighed, "I don't know, they've been acting weird, They want to go on this dangerous camping trip, I'm worried she's trying to impress me."

Oum laughed, "Reminds me of Bee."

"Really?"

"He once tried to grow a Mohawk to impress me, and I was too embarrassed to say anything."

"Ohhh."

"Trust me you should to do them, Tell them how you feel, trust me, it's better than lying."

Dr. Jan sighed, "You're probably right."

All of a sudden Bee walked up to them, "Hey, Honey? Remember how that story really went?"

Oum tried to stop him, but it was too late, the phone was in Dr. Jan's hands, The woman was laughing.

The image it displayed showed a younger Oum, with a pink Mohawk, sticking her tongue out.

Dr. Jan laughed, "Wait that's you. Why did you say it was Bee?"

"Because that was a great look on me."

Bee, now laughed, "Nice try honey."

Oum smiled, it might have been only for a second, but her mind was off how bad the showdown might go down for her.

Anne closed the door behind her and sighed, she looked at Stumpy, the Spring sisters and the Plantars.

"Okay, so we're going to war with my mother, and I have to be honest we might be in over our heads here."

"Then why did you say that we should do this." said Emerald.

"I thought that she'd see sense." said Anne shrugging.

"You mean you thought the person you got your stubbornness from would just give up?" said Hop-Pop

"So I'm an optimist, sue me" said Anne throwing her arms up.

"What are we going to do then?" said Stumpy."

Anne looked at him and shrugged, "We're going to have to win this then, everyone meet me in the kitchen."

"We don't work for Stumpy," said Hop-Pop.

"Okay, everyone who works for Stumpy meet me in the kitchen, I'll see you guys later."

"We're rooting for you Anne," said Sprig.

"Take your mom down," said Polly.

The Plantars left, the Sprig sisters head to the kitchen to prepare.

Only Stumpy was left, he stood there looked at Anne worried.

"Anne, are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

The human woman nodded, "Yeah, I mean she's acting insane, we need to stop her."

"I know, but I don't want to cause problems between you two." said the chief worried

Anne shook her head, "Nope, I'm in, but thanks for asking."

The cook nodded, "Okay, We're going to have to make something good to beat her."

"Do you have anything flashy, not Kraken flashy, just normal flashy."

The front door slammed open standing there was a muscular dull frog with a beard, his arms were covered with tattoo's, his beard full of bones, he wore a vest and somehow an Australian outback hat.

"Soggy Joe?" said Anne, "Were you listening?"

Joe shook his head, "No, I always do that when I enter a building."

"Oh…Well can you help us please?"

Joe let out a laugh, a laugh then went on and on, Both Stumpy and Anne looked at him worried, eventually he stopped, "Sure what do you need?"

"We need something that will beat my mom in the contest, you got anything?"

"DO I!" said Joe, he pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket and showed it placed it on a table.

Anne and Stumpy walked to the table, the paper had a picture of a large egg on it."

"This is the egg of the Valley Death Viper, if prepared correctly it tastes delicious."

Anne looked at Stumpy and nodded, "You think we can do this?"

Stumpy was unsure, but he knew that Anne seemed confident, Maybe they could do this.

"Joe, get us that egg."

Joe stood there, "Actually I came here for lunch, So…"

"Oh yeah," said Anne realizing that this was a restaurant, "What can we get you?"

"Something large, Those grieving families really tire a guy out.

Max and Nicole were currently sitting outside the van, Mrs Boonchuy had to close the van, so they could set the stage for the contest, in turn she had given the group a half hour off.

"And that's three hundred coppers." said Max.

"Nice," said Nicole, "I've got six hundred."

"Woah," said Max impressed, "how do you do it?"

"Eh, I'm cute, I jutht need to add a lithp, and then I'm rolling in dough."

Max laughed, "Have you tried large eyes, that works on earth."

"Eh, That works, but It's a little cliché."

Max faked offense, "Well I never, that's always worked for me."

"Not for much longer, you're not getting any cuter."

Max laughed, "Well sorry, but soon you're going to be a snake with legs."

Nicole glared at him, "You know that's the most racist thing you can say to a newt."

The look on MAx's face was one of fear, "Oh, I… Well… I…"

Nicole laughed, "Ha, you should see the look on your face."

Shocked turned to relief, "Ha, Ha," said Max.

Nicole looked at her bag of tips, "Man what kind of dress am I going to get."

"Dress?" asked Max, "You wear clothes?"

Nicole laughed, "Soon, in about a year, I'm going to become a snake with legs and… Well going to have to start wearing clothes soon, "

"... you know I've been ignoring you're always naked, bringing attention to it makes it weird."

"Not for long, so what do you think I should get?"

Max didn't need a second to say it, "Cowboy hat."

Nicole laughed, "Ha… What's a cowboy."

Max was about to tell her when he saw someone walk out of Stumpy's

"Hey is that the guy?"

"Yeah," said Nicole, "MRS BOONCHUY, SOGGY JOE JUST LEFT."

The Van's door opened and out rushed Mrs Booncuhy.

"EXCUSE ME SOGGY JOE," she shouted.

Max then turned to Nicole, "Do you think this showdown thing is going to end well?"

Nicole shrugged, "Well ninety-five percent of Wartwood events have a habit of ending peacefully over the past ten years."

"Okay, but this one in particular?"

"Total chaos." said Nicole nonchalantly.

Wartwood would always be a town driven by conflict, the moment someone started to fight the town would be itching to choose sides, from Polly and Sprigs ship wars, to Loggle Vs Wally legal over violin construction, to Felicia and Mr Bakers Knife fight over whose cakes were better, it's probably why they fought so well during the civil War.

Currently, the majority of the town were located in the middle of the square sitting around several tables, in front of them were a stage where two large cooking stations had been quickly constructed, the stations consisted of stoves, Sinks, cutting station, boards, a small waiting station for the servers to wait for food.

The town had spilled views towards both sides, On the side there were the Stumpy supporters, those that shows loyalty to the long time town cook, on the other hand Mrs Boonchuy was the mother of the town's hero, and her food was pretty good, they had accepted pretty quick, so a large number were cheering for her now.

All of a sudden a newt in a purple overcoat walked onto the stage.

"Ladies and Gentle frogs." said the Newt whose name was duckweed, "I hope you're ready for today's contest."

The crowd roared.

"Now you know the rules, Whoever cook the best will be the winner, everyone here gets two meals, and then we tally up the marks of who you preferred."

The crowd roared even louder

"Our first contestant is the hero of town mother, who's captured our heart in one day, MRS BOONCHUY."

Mrs Boonchuy walked to her station and stood behind it, she held up her arms and joined in with the cheering, she was followed by her husband, Max, Nicole, Lucian, and Marcy Yunan.

From the crowd, there were a few who cheer louder than others.

"YOU CAN DO IT MARCY!" shout Marcy Wu.

"DO YOUR BEST DEAR," shouted Lady Olivia.

"OBLITERATE THEM!" shouted Yunan

"DEVASTATE THEM!" shouted Grime

"KILL THEM!" Shouted Sasha.

The group of children nodded, each feeling a bit of pride

After a few minutes the cheering died down.

"And the hometown favorite, "STUMPY STUMPERSON."

The cheering returned slightly louder than before.

Stumpy ran onto the stage waving his spatula, there was a part of him that know what was at stake, but he couldn't help but smile, people believed in him.

Anne, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald joined him.

"KICK HER BUTT ANNE." shouted Polly.

"YEAH, BUT NOT TOO BADLY." shouted Sprig.

Hop Pop just nodded towards his adoptive granddaughter.

"YOU CAN DO IT RUBY." shouted a familiar Gray toad.

Anne saw the toad and her eyes widened in recognition, she turned to Ruby

"Isn't that…?"

"Tobias, Yes, we're married now." said Ruby slightly blushing.

Anne laughed, it was crazy, Tobias had a crush on her years ago, while she didn't return his feelings she would admit he was a sweet toad boy.

"Now I believe that both of your contestants have brought in special ingredients today."

The crowd cheered again.

Anne and Stumpy looked at each other worried, Anne turned to her mother who had a devilish grin on her face.

Soggy Joe walked out carrying a large green egg covered in black spots.

"The Valley Death Viper egg." said Duckweed with glee, "One of the dangerous beasts in Amphibia yet somehow one of the most delicious.

Soggy Joe then went back and brought out another egg, this one was pink.

"And the Hunting Mountain hawk, a deadly predator, who eggs are just Devine."

The crowd cheered even louder.

Max turned to Nicole, "You're right, total chaos."

"Yep" said Nicole, "I hate being right."

The crowd continued to roar, there was this small feeling that there might be something might go wrong, but they were hoping for that.

Again it should be noted that the average Wartwoodian was crazy.

"AND BEGIN" shouted Duckweed.

Mrs Boonchuy looked at her group and started to point them in direction, "Honey go with Lucian and start getting the vegetables ready, Nicole, Max start taking the orders."

The four ran off to do their job, Nicole Marcy at Mrs Bonochuy, "What about me?" she asked.

"Marcy, you have the most important job of all."

Marcy perked up at that, "Really?"

"Your job," said Mrs Boonchuy excitedly, "is to keep an eye on the egg while it cooks."

There was an awkward silence between the frog and the human.

"This because of the water catching on fire?" said Marcy.

"Yes, It is, you're the second person I know who could do that, even weirder you have the same name."

Marcy looked at her for a second and sighed, she walked over to the egg and watched as it slowly cooked.

Remember "Forty minutes at two hundreds," said Mrs Boonchuy.

Marcy sat on a stall, and watched the egg, after a minute she just realized how bored she was, her mom's and human friend were watching this, She needed to look more impressive.

That's when a thought entered her head, she could make this go faster, she just needed to up the heat, it would be done in ten minutes, she grabbed the dial and turned it up to eight hundred degrees, the grill had been made by manufacturers that had always viewed cooking as something that needed a bit more danger to it

A brief jet of flame flew up from the grill, Nicole just avoided catching alight. The crowd gave an impressed cheer.

The rest of the kitchen staff were too busy to notice. If they weren't, they might have been able to prevent the chaos that was to unfold in ten minutes time.

Anne took one look at the flame and frowned, was her mother trying to burn the town down?

In all fairness she had done it herself…various times, still.

She got back to cooking holding back a scream, she kept an eye on the viper egg, hopefully it would make the best Koah Pad out there.

"Anne, start chopping the vegetables, Ruby, Sapphire, start taking orders, Emerald…"

"Keep an eye on the egg?"

"That's my girl," replied Stumpy.

Anne charged over to her station, she started to chop the onions, it was second instinct to her. She might have gone into zoology, but she never forgot her childhood working in the restaurant.

She remembered the days working alongside her parents making dishes from their homeland, they told her stories of Bangkok.

The nostalgia was hard to ignore, she looked at her mother at the other station, already focused on cooking, she couldn't help but smile.

She kept working not noticing that the egg on the other side was starting to crack

Jan sat at the tables waiting for anyone to come and take her order, when he heard someone sit next to her, "Hey babe."

She shuddered, she turned to see Terri sitting which a grin they'd say was cocky, Jan thought it looked like Terri had gas.

"Hey Terri." said Jan a little bit worried, "Is everything okay."

"Sure it is, I'm just trying something new."

"Oh." said Jan, "How long for."

Terri looked their wife confused, "I don't know why?"

"I mean don't get me wrong I don't dislike what you're doing it's just… you're not acting like you."

Terri scoffed, "What you mean quiet little Terri that nobody cared for."

Jan rubbed her arm, "I cared."

Terri looked at her, a part of them wanted to comfort Jan, she was about to do something however something held them back, something about not backing down.

All of a sudden they heard a small cracking sound.

Terri turned to their wife, "Did you hear that?"

Max and Nicole had taken at least five orders, and were about to take another when all of a sudden a frog walked in, dressed in a green suit, unlike a lot of the other suits in town it was clean, brand new, Nicole gasped the moment she saw him.

"Max do you know who that is?"

Max turned to look at the nicely dressed frog, "A frog in a really nice green suit?"

"That's Chadwick Richenington, one of the-"

"Richest frogs in Amphibia?"

"How do you know?"

Lucky guess, What's he doing here."

"He's a huge foodie and travels to whenever there's a new restaurant opening"

Max nodded "Okay."

"He always gives big tips to any wait staff working for him, I could have the biggest Day of Dressing ever."

"Really?" said Max now interested.

"Yeah, Well I'll go-"

"How about I do it?" interrupted Max.

"Huh?" said Nicole confused.

"I mean you've got enough people to deal with already let me do this one, besides you're just a little newt you might get something wrong."

Nicole looked at him hurt, he was trying to take the money from her? Was Marcy right?

"But…"

"Don't worry I've got this," he said heading towards the rich frog.

Nicole sighed, it really didn't matter she still had the money but was a little hurt that Max would cut her off like that, she thought he was better than that.

She sighed and got back to work taking orders.

Marcy continued to watch the egg, it had been around seven minutes now, it was almost done, she turned to Mrs Bonochuy, "The eggs, almost done, what now."

Mrs Boonchuy who was currently stirring a pot turned to Marcy, "It's only been a few minutes, we should have half an hour left?"

"I know, but I turned up the heat and…"

Mrs Boonchuy ran to the Cooker and turned it down again "NO, You shouldn't do that it, it'll add change it's chemical structure and…"

All of a sudden something burst from the egg.

The head was pink and rather large, its eyes were closed, It made a loud shrieking noise.

Anne was interrupted from the chopping the moment she heard a scream from the over station, she looked up and saw that her mother's egg seemed to have hatched, "What the?"

She ran off the stage and ran to her mother's station, in seconds he was beside her mother, "MOM WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Well Marcy decided to cook the egg at a huge temperature, it seems like it acted like an incubator, and hatched the egg."

Anne just stood there looked at her mother confused, "That's impossible."

"And how would you know?"

Anne just looked at her mother annoyed, "I'm a Zoologist, I know eggs don't work like that."

All of a sudden Stumpy reached the stage, followed by Soggy Joe.

"What's going on?" demanded the frog chief.

"The egg hatched because it was cooked at a high temperature."

Anne was about to say something when Soggy Joe spoke up.

"Of course, let's just hope the other egg doesn't hear this one, the Hawk and Vipers are natural enemies, just the call of the hawk is enough to cause Viper eggs to hatch."

Anne was going to point out how stupid that was, When the other egg hatched as a small head popped out, she sighed, she should have known the wildlife in Amphibia would not respect her field of study.

The head triangular and scaly, which gave a weak little roar at its natural enemy at the other station.

They kept squawking and shrieking at each other, everyone watched and wondered if they should start panicking yet.

"Huh," said Oum disappointed, "I was expecting something dangerous"

"Yeah," said Stumpy, "Like a town rampage or…"

Anne shrugged, "Well, the parents are protective of their young so…"

All of a sudden a giant hawk landed in behind them. Its feathers were dirty, a murderous look in its eyes, it let out a scream.

Then from in front of them a giant snake slither past the building, it was purple, it opened its mouth to reveal that it only had one fang.

Anne looked at Joe and Stumpy frowning, "Okay is it bad that I'm relieved that we're in danger or…"

The monsters charged at each other.