Chapter 14
The Triple M
Marcy and Matt were out in the woods studying biology. Marcy was compiling a "plantcyclopedia" and Matt was helping.
"Croc's eye conifer," Marcy examined a plant. "What a find."
"And I once thought this sort of thing was a boring waste of time," Matt remarked.
That's when the two heard screaming.
"That doesn't sound good," the two said in unison.
Marcy brought out her crossbow while Matt got out his spear.
The two went to investigate the scene. They saw a blue frog girl going up against what looked like a tree cursed to life. The frog threw a pouch that seemed to revert the tree back to a normal state.
"No froggin way!" Marcy shouted.
"A magic user, here?" Matt added. He then turned to Marcy. "Okay Mars, be cool. We'll just get out there and introduce ourselves with confidence."
Marcy nodded. "Right."
The two nerds approached the frog witch.
"Hi there," Marcy introduced herself. "I'm Marcy."
"And I'm Matt," Matt added.
The frog was instantly scared by the kids' sudden appearance. She threw a pouch and it landed behind the two. It let out a green flame that narrowly missed them, but knocked them out for a second.
"Whoops," said the frog. "You're Anne's friends, right?"
The kids instantly got up.
"Oh my god!" Matt shouted.
"That was the coolest thing, ever!" Marcy added. "Some kind of low-grade fire curse?"
"I'm impressed you know that," Maddie replied. "Do either of you also have interest in the dark arts?"
"Are you kidding?" Matt replied. "I've read every Harry Potter book twice!"
"I searched all over Newtopia for someone who could teach me," Marcy added. "But magic users are so rare these days."
"No one's ever been interested in magic before," said Maddie. "They usually run away screaming."
"Dudette, we're running towards you," said Matt. "How do you feel about that?"
"Like a beautiful friendship is about to start," Maddie replied. "Wanna help me bring a dead flea back to life?"
Marcy put on her hood to cover her face, while Matt put on an eyepatch to cover his right eye.
"Do we?" they replied.
Unbeknownst to any of them, three blue pollywogs were watching them. They instantly got jealous knowing their sister was going to spend more time with these… creatures.
Some time later, Maddie approached the nerds with a list.
"To bring this flea back to life, we need more ingredients," Maddie explained. "First up, bile of a vomit bird."
The three found this "vomit bird" right as it was about to vomit. Maddie brought out a jar. The bird threw up. Some vomit got in the jar, but most of it covered the three. Maddie and Marcy laughed it off while Matt tried to get the stuff off of him.
"Then some big ol' ticks."
The kids found some ticks on a branch. Marcy shook some off. They got some ticks in the jar, but most of them got on them. They ran around screaming.
"A really rotted corpse."
The kids looked around a graveyard for the perfect corpse. She saw a dead fish surrounded by flies, but it looked like it died very recently. She then found some bones partially dug into the ground. It looked rotted, but it wasn't enough for Maddie. She then found one "corpse" of an orange frog.
"Perfect," said Maddie.
The "corpse", which turned out to be Hop-Pop, was very offended.
"Did you kids just mistake me for a corpse?!" he shouted.
"Of corpse not, Hop-Pop," Marcy replied.
"Get it?" asked Matt.
Hop-Pop did not take kindly to the joke. He threw a shoe at the kids, causing them to run.
"Fresh soil from a graveyard."
The kids went to a nearby graveyard and started digging soil into a bucket. The frogs there were offended with how these random teenagers were invading someone's grave.
"Assorted limbs."
The kids gained some assorted limbs from a praying mantis. They got covered in its blood but it was worth it.
"And lastly, a high-five from your new best buds."
The three naughty necromancers all high-fived.
"You know," Marcy said after the high-five. "I think we should make a team name."
"The Triple M," Matt suggested. "You know, since all our names start with M."
"It's so weird," said Maddie. "I love it."
Now that they got all they needed, the Triple M went to Maddie's house.
"I hope my sisters are asleep," said Maddie. "I don't wanna deal with them right now."
"What's wrong with them?" asked Marcy.
"Long story," Maddie replied. "I used to play with them all the time, especially juggling. I eventually got older. Magic became my passion. My calling. I didn't have time for kid stuff. Since then, they've been so annoying. Frog, I wish they could just grow up!"
"As someone with an annoying twin sister, I relate," said Matt. "But don't you think you should make time for them?"
"No," Maddie replied. "Being a witch is a big responsibility. I have more important things to do other than babysit."
"Well, see you at the sacrificial grove tomorrow," said Marcy. "Can't wait!"
Marcy and Matt ran for the Plantar household.
That morning, Marcy and Matt decided to pull their own little experiment. They found a yellow daffodil. They put some of Maddie's resurrection potion into some water and then poured the water onto the flower. After a few seconds, the flower sprang to life, grew a face, and started yodeling. The nerds were amazed by this.
"We just did magic," they cheered quietly before getting louder. "We just did magic!"
The two found Maddie and showed the flower to her.
"Check it out," said Marcy. "Our first successful curse. A horrible abomination."
The flower yodeled for a bit.
Matt eventually covered the flower's mouth. "Okay, that's enough." He then turned to Maddie and saw how upset she was. "You okay?"
"I'm so done with my sisters," Maddie replied. "Look what they did to my spellbook."
Marcy and Matt turned and saw that Maddie's spellbook had a ton of scribbles on them.
"Yeesh," said Macy. "They didn' even color inside the lines."
"Whatever," said Maddie. "They won't stop me from reaching level two. Let's get to resurrecting."
The Triple M, now in white lab coats, approached the dead flea. Maddie poured this potion onto the flea. It glowed a purple light, but nothing seemed to happen. The three looked closer and waited. After a few seconds, it twitched.
"It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" Matt shouted overdramatically before calming down. "Or it's a slight breeze."
"We did it," said Maddie. "I'm finally a level two witch!"
That's when they heard a noise. The trio looked up to see a giant pollywog landing in their direction.
"Maddie!" it called out in a low voice.
The trio quickly jumped out of the way. Matt made sure to grab the flea. They narrowly avoided getting crushed.
"Found you!" said the pollywog.
"Wait, Ginger?" said Maddie, shocked.
"You wanted us to grow up!" "Ginger" replied.
Two other big pollywogs appeared.
"So here we are!" said the one on the left.
"Oh no," said Maddie.
"What's going on?" Matt and Marcy asked in unison.
The three pollywogs started hopping around. The Triple M ran to avoid getting crushed.
The trio eventually found a spot to hide. They hid behind a small house.
"This is insane," said Marcy.
"Why would they curse themselves with some half-baked growth spell?" asked Matt.
Maddie made a face as if she realized something.
"Oh no," she said. "It's because I told them to grow up. They only did this to spend more time with me, and it's really bad. They did the spell all wrong."
"How can you tell?" asked Matt.
"Because they're still growing," Maddie explained. "A curse like that should be done already. At this rate, they'll balloon until they explode."
That's when one of the pollywogs popped up and said, "Found you."
The other three popped up and said together, "Now you hide and we seek!" before bouncing away.
The Triple M followed the pollywogs and saw them in the middle of town. They got really big. They weren't bouncing anymore, they were crying.
"We need to do something," said Maddie.
"Come with me," Maddie replied.
Marcy and Matt followed Maddie into the woods.
The Triple M instantly got to work on a new potion. Marcy and Matt gathered ingredients while Maddie stirred them together.
"Alright, we got all the ingredients for the antidote," said Matt.
"Good," Maddie replied. "Make four doses while I calm them down."
"Why four?" asked Marcy.
"Because one of them's for me," Maddie replied.
Maddie poured a growth potion on herself and got big.
After Matt and Marcy finished making the antidotes, they ran to find Maddie. She was juggling the giant pollywogs.
Marcy used her crossbow to fire a rope arrow and grapple onto Maddie's shoulder. Matt activated his powers and flew onto Maddie's shoulder.
"Maddie get ready!" Matt called out.
Maddie nodded.
Marcy and Matt tossed their pouches. One by one, the frogs were shrunk to normal size.
Once they shrunk Maddie, Matt activated his powers again and grabbed Marcy, keeping her from falling. They slowly floated down to the ground.
"Nice job with those antidotes, apprentices," said Maddie.
"What can we say?" Matt replied. "We had a great teacher."
"Maddie, you're the best sister ever!" the pollywogs cheered.
"No, I'm not," Maddie replied. "It's my fault you three almost exploded. I was so caught up with my witch stuff that I forgot that being a good older sister was my responsibility too."
"We forgive you Maddie," the pollywogs assured as they hugged their sister.
"I love you too, you little scamps," Maddie admitted.
Marcy and Matt shed small tears at the scene.
"Now that's magic," they said in unison.
A.N.
This concludes the "Marcy and Matt's adventures in Wartwood" trilogy
This chapter in particular is especially my favorite of the trilogy. "Maddie and Marcy" is definitely one of the best Marcy-centered episodes of the show.
I decided to make the whole, "first successful curse" thing an onscreen thing because of how awesome it would've been to see the reaction. I especially believe Marcy would've reacted the way Luz did when she learned her first glyph.
Anyway, I'll write the next chapter of the Stranger Things rewrite before getting to the Second Temple. See you then.