It had been a month since the Doe's had left

At one point the idea of them vanishing had been Max's greatest wish.

Now a part of him wanted them back.

Not because they were good parent's oh no, it's that living on his own had become difficult.

Before they had left the Doe's still brought him out with them to visit clients, their threat of what would happen to him if he didn't help them was still fresh in his mind, however as time went on he started to pick up on how they manipulated people, charm them, get them to go whatever you wanted.

He started to use them that knowledge in school, he could talk the teachers into letting him off from projects or get him out of detention, he just needed to appear sincere.

He started to pull pranks, at school, at the aquarium, anywhere he could get away with it, the Does didn't really care, they read the letters, told him to knock it off and then concentrate on whom to scam next.

His actions hadn't gone unnoticed, however. Recently his school had sent him to a psychiatrist. Doctor Waybright, who, he had to admit, understood him more than he'd thought she would.

He also had the aquarium, the Does usually took Sundays off from scamming, usually to find other potential victims.

There, for a few hours he'd spend time with the coolest adult he knew, Doctor Anne Boonchuy, he could pretend he wasn't living with criminals and an accessory to a crime.

He still had nightmares about Mrs Grovie, nightmares of her falling down the stairs, nightmares of her broken body sitting in his room, nightmares of her family dragging him away to face justice.

Max tried to ignore them, but they got worse as time went on

It was something he'd have to get use to, he was stuck on this path no matter what.

However, change was just around the corner.

The Doe's potential victims were starting to get wiser, more and more meetings ended with the Doe's being uninvited or dismissed.

The last house they went to Mr Doe had almost gotten into a fist fight with the homeowner, they had barely escaped that one.

Max spent the night terrified the police would burst through the door.

After that the Does had become agitated. Max had overheard discussions over how they needed to leave soon., Max figured they'd bring him with them.

He still didn't know why they had left him here, he woke up one morning to discover that they were gone.

Max had spent the first few hours of their disappearance worried that he was all alone, however after an hour he started to realize something.

They were gone, he didn't have the Does in his life anymore.

Max like all children when given freedom to do whatever he wanted he indulged.

First he ate all the ice cream in the house, then he had brought a few new video games, after that he'd spilled the ice cream on the floor running the carpet.

He had drawn on their fancy paintings, threw Mrs Doe's jewelry down the toilet. He ruined Mr Doe's suits by running them through the dishwasher, he sat on the couch in only his underwear.

It was a good two days.

However, that's when something went wrong.

Eventually Max noticed how the house was a mess.

The Does had hired people to clean up the room however on Monday they didn't arrive, on Tuesday the house was still a mess.

This left Max to clean it.

The house was big and not something a kid could do well on his own.

Whenever one thing was clean something else got dirty, slowly it became a battle to keep the place working.

The first time he had tried cooking he messed up somewhere, he had spent the next day laying in bed groaning.

So he had reported to ordering in take out food nightly. At first, it was nice but after a week he was tired of it, he wanted to eat something fresh, something not processed.

Thankfully the Doe's had left a briefcase full of money, around 100,000 dollars in total, he could live on this for a while.

However, it was only a temporary thing, he'd run out eventually.

And then there were the nights, sometimes he could hear things, there was nothing there really, but he was a young boy stuck in a large house alone, he had no idea what to do if someone burst into the house trying to rob it, or worse.

All of these made Max wish that he wasn't alone.

Sometimes he wondered if he could call the police, just tell them he was alone.

That line of thought ended the very moment he remembered what the police would do if they discover his connection to the Does.

They'd send him to jail.

So he just stayed there growing more scared by the day.

It was just another ordinary day (As ordinary as a day could be when you were a child living in a big mansion on his own) when it got worse

The doorbell rung and Max walked over to the door expecting a small conversation with the delivery driver, something about wasn't he a little young to collect this? Max would convince then it was alright and offer then a bribe to sweeten the deal.

Opening the door Max was surprised to see a man in a leather jacket standing there, he had white skin and a something average frame, he was handsome, strong jaw bone, nice noise, his blue eyes just completed the package.

In one hand he was holding a pizza box, which Max expected.

What Max didn't expect was the baseball bat.

"You the Doe's kid?" he asked casually.

"Um…Yes?"

"Good," the man pushed past Max, and into the living room, he dropped the pizza box on a glass table in the living room.

"Huh," said the man looking around the living room nonplussed, he seemed to be looking around the place expecting more, "I'd have figured the Doe's would have nicer stuff."

Max stood there confused about what was happening who was this man?

"This all your work?" the man asked quizzically while pointing at the expensive art piece of a war world two general which now had a crudely drawn mustache on it,

"Um…no?"

The man snorted, "Cute, I'm Eddie Sanchez."

"Um…nice to meet you?" said Max growing more confused by the second.

"I'm here to see my friends the Doe's, I haven't heard from them in a month and well I'm starting to get the feeling they've skipped town."

Max swallowed, was this guy from the police? It so did he know about Mrs Grovie?

"Yeah," said Max "I know they left me here too."

Eddie looked at for a moment he looked annoyed but sighed and shook his head, "Man I didn't know they that bad."

"You think they're bad?"

"Of course," said the man plopping himself down on the couch, "I mean what kind of jerks leave a kid here alone, with massive debts."

"Debts?" said Max confused.

"Yes, Debts." replied Eddie shaking his head, leaning closer to Max "See your parents owe me money."

"For what?"

"Well I just so happen to be in the keeping people quiet business, Someone has a problem with the Doe's they come to me and I keep them quiet."

"H…How?" asked Max, growing more worried about why Eddie was here.

"See I just so happen to find said crybaby on the street or in their home or, I don't find their kids school and take a photo of them."

"And then?"

"Well I remind them that they usually have nice lives and as much as losing the money is annoying, at least they have other important things, like their health or family, and how cruel the world can be," Eddie said casually.

Max swallowed, "That sounds…" he paused looking for the right words, something that would not get him punched in the face.

"Awesome," said Eddie chuckling before going silent again, "So what are we going to do about the Doe's debts?"

Max stood there, he tried to control his panic.

"Well, I guess you'd need to find them?"

Eddie let out a depressed sigh, "See that's the problem, I just cannot find them, I've tried calling them, I've searched half the state, you're the last contact they had, so-"

The man leaned forward looking at Max, and spoke softly. "Where the hell are they?"

"I… don't kno-"

In a flash Eddie stood up and smashed the pizza with his baseball bat, the table beneath shattered, sending glass cheese and tomato sauce everywhere.

Max tried to run Eddie grabbed him by the neck, he turned Max around and forced him to look at the remain of the table and the pizza.

"That" he said gesturing towards the remains with his bat, "is going to be your face, if you don't give me a better answer."

Max was terrified, this man was going to hurt him, he said the first thing he could say.

"The Does left some money behind," he shot out.

Eddie turned him around and stared at him, Max could see there was joy in his eyes.

"You should have started with that," said Eddie joyfully, "Where?"

"Upstairs."

A minute later Eddie was looking at the briefcase full of money, he gave a disappointed sigh, "This isn't worth a tenth of how much I'm owed."

He turned around and looked at Max sighing disjointedly, "This won't do at all, there's barely a fraction of what they owe me.

"Oh," said Max worried, *so what's going to happen now?"

"Well, looks like I have to get rid of a witness."

Eddie raised his baseball bat, Max closed his eyes and threw out his arms, "WAIT I CAN GET YOU THE MONEY!"

Max felt a hand land on his shoulder, Max opened his eyes to see Eddie standing there, that hyena smile plastered on his face, "Interesting, How?"

"The Does have online accounts, they'll have money somewhere here or in the house somewhere, I'll get it just… give me some time."

Eddie looked at him for a second he put his hand on his chin, taking a thinking pose, "Hmm, a week."

"What?"

"One week to get the money, if you get it, you're free, if not…well, you saw the table"

Max nodded meekly, "Okay."

Eddie started to walk to the door, "I'm going to be nice, I'll leave you some of the money, you need to eat, you should probably get a new pizza."

Max watched as Eddie left the room, he followed as he saw him walk down the stairs and to the entrance. Before the man left he turned, "Oh and by the way, if you think of leaving town, I'll do something so horrible that even True Crime Podcasters won't even touch it."

The young boy stood there, his eyes wide, unable to move.

"You got that?" snapped Eddie.

"Y…Yes."

"Good, see you next week."

With that Eddie left.

The very next thing Max did was to run to the Doe's room and looked for anything valuable, bank information, cash, any jewelry he hadn't flushed down the toilet.

There was nothing, Max spent the entire night looking for anything, he used the Doe's PC hoping to find some sort of information that could help him, anything to save his life.

As it turns out the Doe's had wiped the computer clean, there were no passwords left around, he had no idea where the Doe's kept their money at all.

It was all gone, the money was all gone, the Does had left him here to Eddie's wrath alone.

He was dead, there was no way he could get out of this.

With no hope left Max closed his eyes and screamed.

"Okay I have to on my leg for one minute?" said Percy.

"Yes honey, you can do it for two minutes if you want to get more points, at least that's what it says on the challenge card."

Marcy kept looking at the front door, she wanted to run through it and find her human counterpart, her mother or Anne and tell them what happened.

Next to her sat an excited Lucian, "You can do it dad," cheered the toad boy

Instead, she was sitting down on the Vor's coach, waiting for her mother to come back, on the opposite side sat Lucian's mother, his father was currently standing on his left leg wobbling.

Between the four was a board game, one with various little metal shapes.

Marcy didn't care for the game, she needed to find someone and tell them the truth of what happened back at the sanctuary.

She had been trying to think of an escape plan but nothing came to mind, the Vors just had her playing this boring board game, Marcy wasn't paying attention to the game's name, but it seemed to be something where you drew a card and had to do some sort of challenge, the Vors had said it helped young toads follow order for when they joined the army.

Percy fell on the ground and looked at Lucian, "How long was that?"

"Fifty-eight seconds dad, too bad."

"Aww nuts." replied the grown toad annoyed.

"Okay, it's Marcy's turn" said Lucian excitedly.

Marcy sighed and picked up a blue card, as she turned it over, Lucian hit her hand the card slipped out of her hand and landed on the floor.

"What the heck Lucian?" said Marcy annoyed, first she was trapped in this house and now her best friend was hitting her,

"Oh, Sorry Marcy," replied the toad boy, "I'll get it for you."

Lucian knelt down and then returned to the chair with a Red card in his hand, he handed it to her.

The frog girl looked at the card then back at the ground, there was the blue card she had drawn, she read the card.

A smile appeared on her face.

"Okay, It says, for the next five minutes two people I choose had to close their eyes and scream as loudly as possible while covering their ears."

Percy and Braddock looked at each other, "Is that really one of the challenges?" asked Braddock.

"Yep, It's written here," She flipped the card over where the challenge was written the way she had said it only with a few more spelling errors, and written in crayon.

The Vors took the card and looked at it, "Okay so who do you-"

"You two." Marcy shot out, "I want you two to do it."

The two adult toads looked at each other, then shrugged, they covered their eyes, their eyes and screamed,

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Lucian and Marcy stood up and rushed to the door, opening they started to run.

She turned to Lucian, "Good job."

"You're welcome, I've always wanted to use that card."

A few minutes later they were standing outside the town hall which had been damaged, there was a sizeable hole in the east wall.

She couldn't spot any of the humans or anyone in authority to tell, she turned to Lucian, "Where could they be?" she said worried.

"I don't know but-"

"MARCY! LUCIAN!"

The Frog and Toad turned to see a small Newt come running up, she had gotten rid of her hat from earlier.

"Nicole," Said Marcy shocked, she rushed over to the Newt girl, "Is everything okay?"

"No, the town's damaged and Mrs Croakers in the hospital."

Lucian gasped, Marcy looked at Nicole worried, "What about Max?"

"I didn't see it, but he took the blame for everything, Montgomery blamed him for everything."

Marcy's stomach dropped, "What? Why would he- we have to tell someone the truth."

"What truth?" said a slimy voice from behind them.

Marcy turned to see Montgomery standing there, a smug smile on his face, behind him were the two toads from earlier.

"What have you done?" growled Marcy.

Lucian and Nicole glared at the newt.

"Oh, I just got rid of a dangerous human who caused all of this," he said gesturing around the town, "I think if anything that makes me a hero."

Something had clicked in Marcy, she still remembered the slap from earlier but now something else had taken hold of her, this obnoxious bully had been making her and her friends lives terrible for years, and now he was trying to make himself look like a hero, after what he had done?

"No," she muttered, "You're an arrogant, spiteful little bully who makes others suffer, You are the most detestable thing in all of Amphibia."

The newt scowled, He roughly grabbed her by the arm. "You List-"

Marcy headbutted him,

Montgomery hit the floor groaning, before he could get up, Marcy jumped on him, She raised her fist, the newt boy covered his face, Marcy enjoyed the catharsis as her fist hit his lip.

"Please Don't-" he pleaded

The two toads starts to walk to them.

Marcy looked at them and growled, the two toads stepped back a little seemingly terrified to the small frog,

She turned back to Montgomery and growled, in response the Newt boy screamed

"SHUT UP!" shouted Marcy

The newt whimpered, "Please I-"

"You're going to tell everyone what happened, and if you don't I'll-"

"What's happening?" said a voice from behind Marcy, the girl turned to see Anne, Sprig and Polly standing there with her mother.

"Marcy, How could you," said her mother, "I taught you to punch better than that."

Anne looked at the stone head of her younger self, when she had first found out that the town had made her a statue she felt proud, the town had loved her that much, a part of her wanted to be furious for it being destroyed, just a victim of Max's prank.

However, her discussion with Sasha reminded her of that girl she had been before she had come to Amphibia, someone caught in a bad situation, a place where everyone was against her, only alive because of the kindness of one family who had no reason to take her in.

Despite that though, they stuck by her, even when she almost got them killed, heck she stuck by them.

What kind of parents would have left a boy alone for over a week though?

Her parents worked in a restaurant, and even they made sure she wasn't alone.

For all Anne knew she, Sasha, and the Plantars might have been the only adults in Max's life who cared.

She picked up her statue's head, she wondered what she would think of all this, The girl who she was when she first came to Amphibia would have sided with Max probably, she'd be upset at the damage but also willing to defend him, The Anne who had saved Amphibia would have been angry, but she'd also offer him the chance to redeem himself.

Anne closed her eyes, maybe she had been harsh, but Max had caused a lot of harm, he couldn't come back here.

She sighed.

"Are you trying to be like that play guy?"

Anne jumped and turned to see Polly and Sprig standing there looking at her oddly.

"What play guy?" asked Anne

"You know that play guy, the one who just killed a guy, removed his skin and was now gloating at him," said Polly

Anne looked at her, "Polly…That's not what happened in Hamlet."

"Really? What did then?"

Anne stood there for a few seconds, She had no idea what happened in that play either. "I honestly don't know, but your version is wrong."

"It's more awesome though," murmured the teenage frog.

"Are you okay Anne?" said Sprig.

"Yeah just… did we ever do something like this?" she said gesturing around the town.

"You mean apart from the fire, Your party, the various monsters we might have brought to the town?" said Sprig.

"Don't forget the destruction Marcy and Sasha brought." added Polly, "Heck that's ignoring my personal wave of chaos."

Anne sighed and placed the head on the ground, "Yeah we did a lot of damage." she muttered.

"What's this about Anne?" asked Sprig.

"Max, maybe I was a little too harsh on him back at the farm."

"What did you say?" asked Polly, "What threats did you make?"

"None, I just… I said he was the worst thing to happen to this town, and I didn't want anything to do with him."

Polly face fell instantly, "Wow, that was…"

"You haven't been that angry since the Toad rebellion."

"Yeah, I hated Sasha so much that day," she said, She remembered how angry she was at the blonde, how she had betrayed her, how she had tried controlling her again, she still remembered the dark joy she felt when she had beaten her that day, it had led to Andrias getting the box, and almost destroying the world.

A year returning to earth she had apologized to Sasha however the blonde refused to hear it, claiming that after she had done Anne had good reasons to not listen to her, it had been something that that made Sasha really question her own behavior.

Marcy's betrayal followed, if Sasha was the one she hated, Marcy was the one she pitted.

She was just so broken Anne couldn't even process the hatred, after reading her journal, she felt guilty of what not understanding her friend better.

Even before those betrayals there was Hop-Pop, she remembered just how angry she was at his lies, how he was willing to let her be stuck on earth forever, even when he told her the truth she held on to that anger the next day, and yet when she told him how confused she was he just accepted it in grace.

She had forgiven all three of them, Why couldn't she do it for Max.

Maybe it was the fact that she had just come back, or perhaps the fact that he had pulled a stupid prank which had gotten someone hurt.

"I've made a mess of this." she moaned to herself.

"Eh you'll fix it," said Polly.

"Remember why we made you frog of the year?" added Sprig.

Anne smiled, "I guess I've got to progress a little bit more."

Before anyone could react there was a scream.

Without any hesitation Anne started to run in the direction of the scream, worried that something bad might have happened to someone in town, maybe a wall had fallen on someone or another kill-a-moth was attacking.

As she and the Plantars ran they spotted a blonde figure running ahead of them, in seconds they reached up with her.

"Yunan?"

"I heard the scream, I figured that someone might be in danger…or there's a fight, I want some of that action."

In seconds Anne found the source of the scream, that Newt boy who had blamed Max was lying on the ground pinned by frog Marcy.

Anne was shocked, Her Marcy had said that this Marcy was well-behaved.

"What's going on here?" Anne said.

"Marcy, How could you," said her mother, "I taught you to punch better than that."

The Newt boy pushed Marcy off him, "She's crazy I was just walking around town then she just attacked me claiming Max was innocent," he pleaded.

Before Marcy could jump, General Yunan grabbed her, "Marcy is that true?"

"NO," shouted Marcy, "He attacked us first at the sanctuary.

Anne froze, "What?"

"He attacked us, He wanted me to kiss him, Max threw the scent ball at him to get him away from us," said Marcy tears in her eyes.

"LAIR." said Montgomery glaring at her.

"SHE'S TELLING THE TRUTH." shouted Lucian, he lifted his shirt to show the large bruise on this stomach, "Those two big toad boys did this to me.

Anne froze.

Max had been telling the truth, Montgomery had lied.

He had been standing up for his friends, and she had yelled at him.

She looked around the town, certainly he was responsible for all this damage, but that didn't change that she had lashed out at him when he was telling the truth.

"I got to go back," she muttered.

Sprig looked at her confused "Anne Wha-"

She turned to Sprig, "I have to go back now, I have to talk to Max, Do we have a snail or-"

"Hop-Pop went to get Bessie" said Polly, "He'll have to walk by the Tea shoppe,"

Anne turned and ran in the direction of the shop, as she did the rain started to fall, cool droplets of water landed on her skin.

She eventually spotted Hop-Pop walking towards her, carrying some cloaks, the old frog was looking down at the ground.

"HOP-POP," Anne called out.

The eldest Plantar looked at her, despite the disappointment on his face earlier hearing his adoptive granddaughter shot alarmed him.

"Anne, Girl what's-"

"I have to get back to the farm, You were right I shouldn't have lashed out at Max like that I have to talk to him.

The older frog nodded, and handed her Bessie's reigns, Anne took them in hand and was about to climb on the snail, that's when some grabbed on to her leg.

"Wait Anne, Take this." said Hop-Pop, Anne turned to see Hop-Pop was offering her one of the cloaks, she wrapped it around herself. A part of her was surprised it fit, she looked at her frog grandfather.

"Thanks HP" she said smiling.

"Don't mention it now go."

Anne climbed on Bess and called out, "BESSIE THINGS ARE GETTING MESSY."

The next thing Anne knew she was driving at a hundred miles an hour through the town, she dodged frog, debris and more as she drove back to the farm.

She left the town and entered the countryside, ridding Bessie this fast she'd be back in twenty minutes.

After fifteen minutes she was shocked to see a snail shell in the middle of the road, Anne pulled on Bessie's reigns slowing her down.

Getting a better look at the shell she instantly recognized it, "Mirco-Angelo?"

Stopping her snail she jumped off and walked towards the other snail.

That's when she noticed the crack in the shell.

Something had happened to the younger snail, and now he was terrified.

She remembered leaving him at the farm, someone must have taken him, a horrible thought entered her head, maybe they had taken Max.

That's when another idea entered her head, What if Micro-Angelo- wasn't stolen by someone outside the farm.

She remembered a time she got into a fight with her parents over dinner, that had sent her to her room, with all the wisdom of a five-year-old she had snuck out of the house deciding to run away, after twenty minutes of walking however her fears got the best of her, and she rushed back home, her parents were surprised when they saw her standing there crying but instantly hugged when they realized what had happened.

What if Max had done the same?

She turned knelt down to Micro-Angelo's head.

"Where is he boy? Where's Max."

Inside the shell Anne could hear an odd whimpering sound, the snail's eyes poke out from a side of the shell.

"Micro-Angelo he's in trouble, I need your help."

Slowly the Snails poked it's head out of the shell and pointed in the direction of a forest, Anne gulped, Max was in an Amphibian forest, alone meant he was in danger.

She should have gone back to town and gotten help, but Max might be in danger and considering what he had done, there wouldn't be that many Amphibians willing to help him.

Swallowing her fear she turned to Bessie, "I need you to get Micro-Angelo back to the farm."

The older snail just nodded she drove next to Micro-Angelo, the younger snail got closer to her and they both started to slither back to the farm.

Five minutes later Anne was standing just outside the forest, If Max had gone in here he was in danger, there were hundreds of things that could have killed him in there.

As she stepped into the forest she noticed some footprints almost washed away in the rain, thankfully due to her hunter training with the Plantars and her survival courses into the wild she knew how to track.

She started to run, hoping she could find Max quickly.

Max found himself sitting on a hard chair, his hands were tied behind his back, he was still in the Tim Trellers tent, sitting across from him was the cloaked newt.

Max could just make out a smile underneath that hood, whoever this newt was he was happy.

"Tell me, what do you know about Anne Boonchuy?"

He wasn't going to answer the newt, he was angry at Anne, but he wasn't going to give this newt what he wanted.

"Your silence in commendable, but I remember what I did to the last person who tried to protect Anne Boonchuy from me, I beat him petty badly."

That actually did sound pretty worrying, Max thought back to Eddie and his threats, he swallowed.

"I don't know anything about her, she lives at that farm."

"Oh, but she didn't mention me, did she?"

"And you are?"

"Many years ago, I had a dream, to be the first to research the monster that lived in Wartwood."

"There''s a lot of monsters around here, you need to be specific," Max sarcastically responded.

"The hideous creature known as Anne Boonchuy, I tried to explain myself to her but she and that stupid little frog family turned me down."

"Really? Considering this five-star treatment, I can't see why."

If the clocked figure heard him he didn't seem to react"after the town chased my out after she pretended to be a frog, I went after her again, and this time I almost got her, I had to use force of course, the scientific benefits from researching her would be invaluable to us,"

"So what happened?"

"She escaped me," he said quickly, "Then I tried to hold her friend's hostage, she escaped with them, but I still held my hatred for her."

"You should probably learn to more on." replied Max.

"Ha," laughed the newt, "Jokes, the stand move of the desperate.

The cloaked newt walked closer to Max, he stared the boy in the eyes, "Just remember, I don't need you alive, I have dozens of ways of killing you in this tent alone."

"Well I-"

Before Max could finish his cheek exploded in pain, the chair toppled and landed on it's side.

"Not another world." growled the newt, his teeth clenched.

Max swallowed and nodded,

"Anyway, After that I had to lie low for a while, I joined Andrias army during the war, but when that when south I deiced to lie low again, bide my time, to get revenge on her."

"Um…not a joke but she left?"

The figure stood nodded, "Fair, when I discovered that I decided to make my own fortune, I started a new leading a smudging operation."

"Smuggling what?"

"Food, Wine, Robot parts, whatever my clients needed, I made a lot of money from this criminal enterprise, but there was always one thing that I could never let go of, my hatred for her."

"Correct, The way she had disrespected me, the way the world now saw her as her, night after night I remembered how she humiliated me, how she ruined my life, so I vowed to get revenge on her, I found others that would help my cause, others who had been hurt by her and her family, I waited to hear more news of her and then one day I heard she returned."

The newt started to laugh a shrill unpleasant sound, "How I've waited for this day," he said in the peak of ecstasy.

"Who are you?"

"Me, I am the one Anne Boonchuy fears the most, the one who will soon have his revenge, I AM PRO-"

"Are you monologing?" said a gruff male voice from the tents entrance, Max couldn't see who it was but whoever it was had shut the newt up.

"Yes I am, what about it?" said the newt defensively.

"You promised not to do that until we had the humans," said the gruff female voice.

The newt sighed, "Yes I know, this is just practice."

"Fine but just remember don't blow it all on Anne, Also why's the kid on the floor?"

"Oh be made a quip and I just slapped him."

"Harsh," replied the Male voice.

Max felt himself being lifted and being set upright, he could see standing there wearing a nice suit and fez was a frog with a wide smile, something about the way he was looking at Max reminded him of the Doe's.

"So what is this like her kid?" asked the frog.

"Huh," said the newt quietly, "I didn't think of asking."

"I'm not." replied Max.

"So is he hear again?"

"Because those humans stick together," said a voice from the shadows, "she'll come for him."

Tim Treller entered the tent, he looked around and smiled at Max.

"Yeah, but they'll also bring friends and quite frankly," replied the orange frog, "and I don't want to deal with anyone of them."

"What you're afraid of a group of frogs and Toads?" replied a gruff female voice from behind Max.

For his right a large Toad, bigger than Lucian or Grime stepped from behind him, she looked like a Biker grandma.

"No, but the majority of them were able to defeat a super computer and the moon, I'm not going to take them lightly for a second." replied the frog, "Besides, that's nothing considering your phobia of small frogs."

The Biker Toad glared at him, "You weren't almost ripped apart by those bitties."

Max looked at them, were they all after Anne?

"What are you here for Tim?" snapped the newt.

"I'm rallying the troops, and I want you to be there."

"Okay, leave this to me guys. I know how to work a crowd," said the orange frog pridefully.

"No, I need all of you, A lot of the toads and newts in the crowd hold a grudge on them for removing the Caste system, they won't just listen to frogs."

"So how did they listen to you?" asked Max.

"Their bigotry ends with money," replied Tim.

The newt and toad sighed, "Fine," he said walking towards the door.

"Hold up," said the Toad, She pulled out a knife from her and turned to Max she smiled a large terrifying smile, Max could see something in her teeth, was she going to kill him then eat him?

Instead of plunging the knife into Max the toad used it to pick the food out of her teeth.

She looked at Max again, "Is there anything there?"

Max shook his head, "No."

"Good," with that the toad then threw the dagger which embedded itself on the ground, "Let's go."

The four criminals left, leaving Max alone.

He took one look at the knife and started to lean left then right, the chair started to wobble from side to side, after the sixth lean to the right the chair tipped over and hit the floor.

Using his legs he started to scoot himself towards the knife, in a few seconds he reached it, however a new problem appeared, with his hands tied behind the chair he'd have to cut himself free without seeing the knife.

He positioned the chair, so the knife was directly behind his hands, Max placed his hands on the blade and started to cut.

After three minutes he felt the rope loosen, he was about to celebrate.

That's when he felt the blade cut into his flesh, he bit his lip, the rope Slackened, standing up he took a look at his wound, it wasn't deep, but there was still blood pouring from it.

He ripped a strip of cloth from the lower part of his cloak and wrapped it around his hand, it stemmed the blood, Max just had to hope it didn't get infected.

Walking slowly towards the tent's entrance he peered out. The camp seemed empty, everyone must have been out at the meeting.

Max could hear shouting from a distance, he couldn't make out the words, but he heard the occasional cheer.

They could be back any second, Max started walking hoping to avoid any trouble, as he walked he looked around at all the various animal, the weapons, the traps.

Now he knew that they were going to be used to capture humans, he started to grow afraid of them.

He was halfway to the entrance when he finally could make out the Cloaked figure's voice.

"... they shall pay for what they've done to this world, We know how to trap them, soon the human who ruined this world shall be brought her and executed, made to pay for all they did to this town."

The crowd roared.

He continued to walk, he could just see the entrance ahead, he passed the two posts and he was safe.

Walking towards a tree he sighed, he rested his head against it.

He was so tired right now, after everything he just wanted to be safe.

But where was that place now, he needed to get to Swamp Shiro, to safety, anywhere.

He just needed another second to rest.

Trying to stay strong was hard right now, but it was getting harder, he had fought with his friends, he had destroyed the town, he hurt an old frog, Micro-Angelo, Anne had yelled at him.

That was just this morning in the past hour he had been attacked by a monster and then taken prisoner and slapped, he closed his eyes, this was what he was running away from, why couldn't he safe?

He fought back the tears in his eyes, he looked up, no this wasn't the end, he'd get to safety soon.

Any hope he had was dashed by the sound of a thud just to the right of his head.

He jumped back and saw that an arrow was embedded into the tree, he turned, standing there behind him was Tim Treller, a crossbow in his arms, he lowered it

"Well, this is interesting," Treller then grabbed a horn attached to his best, Max froze he was going to call the others, they were going to hunt him.

"Please," Max said his voice trembling, "Please I just don't want to be here, just let me go."

Tim gave a mock sympathetic look, "Poor kid, I'd let you got, but I've taken a lot of money for this job. Start running…"

Max ran, he heard the horn behind him, followed by a cry, "THE HUMANS ESCAPED! GET HIM!"

The boy ran, he heard the noise of an army of Amphibians chasing him, he dashed past trees as thunder rumbled above him, he kept looking at the shadows terrified that something was hiding in them, just waiting to pounce out and kill him, with every lightning flash, he thought he could see something hiding in the trees, Frogs, Toads, Newts Those cat monsters, the Doe's, Eddie, anything evil that he had seen in his short life, just waiting to kill.

The yelling just got closer as he ran, he closed his eyes, he didn't care if he couldn't see where he was going, he just wanted to be away from this.

All he needed to do was run, just keep running one foot in front of the other until he was free and-

His foot fell through the mud, he almost tripped, but thankfully he was able to find his balance, he tried to move his leg, but it was stuck, after a moment he was able to free himself, he took the next step only for that to get stuck, he kept moving, on the third go his foot was pulled out of his shoe, the other shoe joined its brother join him on the sixth step.

The group was getting closer, Max kept moving on his twelfth step that's when he realized something.

He was up to his legs in the mud.

He was sinking.

This wasn't just mud, he was trapped in a bog.

He kept moving trying to escape anything, but he sank further.

"Well," said a voice from behind him, "This is inconvenient."

Max turned his head and could just see the crowd behind him.

At the head of it was the cloaked figure and Tim Treller, behind them were the large toad woman and the frog in a fez hat.

"Get him out of there, we need him for bait." said the cloaked newt.

Tim looked at the newt annoyed, "No, he's too deep, I'm not risking my men for this."

The newt didn't respond he just turned to the others, "Well?"

"I'm going to agree with Tim," said the frog, "Don't annoy the army of dangerous thugs."

The large toad woman nodded.

"Wait!" said Max, "You're just going to leave me here?"

The cloaked figure turned and looked at him, he shrugged "You know, your right Tim, Last time I had hostages it didn't work out, he's not worth it."

"Glad you agree, now let's get back to camp."

"Shouldn't we finish him off?" said the large toad.

"Nah let him drown," said Tim walking away.

"NO," screamed Max. "PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE!."

They didn't stop they kept walking, as quickly as they had arrived they had gone.

"PLEASE, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!." he called out, but no one was there.

There was only one thing to do, keep walking.

However, the closer he got, the more he sank, he was already up to his stomach.

If he kept moving he could make to the other side of the bog, he could see a tree, its branch sticking out into the bog, just a bit closer and he would reach it.

He was up to his shoulders by the time he was in reach of the branch, a bit by that point he was stuck, his legs were being held by the mud

Using all of his strength he pulled his arms out of the bog, he reached out trying to grab the branch.

It couldn't reach it, he tried and tried just a few more inches, and he would be safe.

He kept sinking.

The next thing he knew the mud was up to his chin.

That's when something snapped.

This was how he was going to die, drowning in a bog, no one would know, and no one would care.

He had been orphaned at a young age, then adopted by two terrible people, helped them hurt others, and now he was going to die alone.

It made sense really, just a sad little life which was going to end, he didn't know his biological parents, the Does had left him alone to face Eddie, and now even those who want him as bait decided he was not worth it.

Maybe they were right, vanishing from either world leaving no real impact would be a fitting end.

His mouth sunk into the bog, the only thing about the bog surface now was his eyes hair and his arm.

Sinking just a little bit further, he closed his eyes, he knew it didn't really matter, the bog was dark, maybe it was just one last bit of cowardice before he left.

He felt the bog cover his head, his ears were covered in mud. He kept his mouth shut.

It was strange accepting the darkness.

That's when something grabbed his arm.

Max briefly through it was another monster, of course he couldn't be lucky enough to just drown something horrible had to rip him apart, did the universe hate him that much?

As he was dragged out he opened his eyes, standing there in front of him, tears in her eyes, was Anne.

He felt his body being lifted out of the bog.

Before he could say anything Anne put her hands on his shoulders, "Are you okay."

Max stood there, he looked at her with a dull look on his face,

"What happened? Why did you run into the forest? Do you know how dangerous this place is? What were you think-"

Max started sobbing, he didn't care anymore, there was no point in caring anymore, he had come here to get away from is life on earth, but he couldn't even make it here.

He didn't belong anywhere, he was just stuck here, alone with no one who cared.

He was utterly alone.

Anne watched as the boy just broke down, it was her fault, questioning him like just after being rescued.

"Max listen to me, what happened, I'm not angry, I-"

But the boy kept crying.

She looked around the area, whatever was happening she needed to get Max to safety.

"Max can you walk?"

The boy didn't respond

Anne sighed, she knelt down, her back to him, "Come on I'll get you back to the farm," she said gently.

The boy held on to her chest, she could feel him crying, he would keep crying for an hour more.

This was her fault, if she had just been smarter or listened to him, if she had actually kept her promise to him.

If only she protected him.

They walked back, the storm kept rumbling.


Indoraptorman101: Well I can say that your wrong with your guesses, however people who have read some of my eariler stories may havea clue to who this mysterious villain actually is.