Chapter 16
Barrel's Warhammer
At the North Toad Tower, a bunch of toad soldiers sat in a meeting room. Among them were the heads of the North, West, and East towers. Captain Aldo, Captain Bufo, and Captain Beatrix.
"So, the disgraced Captain Grime called this meeting?" said Bufo. "Any idea why?"
"Maybe he wants to be surrounded by friends and family when he gets arrested," Beatrix replied. "What do you think, Aldo?"
Aldo sat there motionless.
"Is he asleep or dead?" asked Bufo.
"He definitely smells dead," Beatrix replied.
The two captains laughed at the joke.
Sasha stood behind the stage curtain with Grime, Percy, and Braddock. The four were wearing matching crimson armors with black capes, and red shoulder pads on their right shoulders.
Braddock peaked to see the toads sitting there menacingly.
"Not exactly a welcoming crowd," she said.
"Yeah," Percy added. "Especially Captain Beatrix. What's her problem?"
"Her problem is that she's my sister," Grime replied. "I may have called her a lot of names when we were tadpoles, and she may have been the one to damage my eye."
"Is there a chainsaw in here, because what the…" Beatrix was about to say.
Sasha put a hand on Percy and Braddock's shoulders.
"Alright, enough loser talk," she assured them. "Just remember what we practiced and keep your eye on the prize."
"That reminds me," said Percy. "I made one last touch to our outfits."
Percy grabbed some white paint and painted an eye symbol on their capes and shoulder pads.
"Now we are a team," he said.
"One eye," Grime remarked. "Nice touch."
"Nice one," Sasha added. "Now, let's go impress some toads!"
Thus, the quartet began their presentation. The curtain opened and a light shined on Percy. He did a little dab. The spotlight shifted to Sasha who brought out an easel for her slide presentation. Finally, a light shined on Grime. He swung on a rope onto the stage, and launched Percy into the air. Percy fired a T-Shirt cannon, giving everyone in the audience blue T-Shirts that read "TOADZ RULE!"
"My fellow toads!" Grime announced. "For years, we kept our kingdom's servants in line, but aren't we servants ourselves?"
Sasha turned the page on the easel and revealed a picture depicting a bunch of spears pointing at a cowardly King Andrias.
"I propose a future where we overthrow King Andrias and take our rightful place as rulers of Amphibia!" Grime finished.
Sasha flipped through pages to show a toad head slowly putting on a crown. Afterwards she approached Grime.
"Pss, drop the mic," she whispered into his ear.
"Right," Grime whispered back before dropping the microphone.
The toads in the audience sat in awkward silence.
"You took a big risk coming here to gain support for your rebellion," Bufo eventually said.
"And it paid off," Beatrix added. "We froggin love it!"
The toads in the audience cheered, except for two cloaked figures, who just glared at Grime.
"Nicely done, Grimothy," said Beatrix.
Sasha, Percy, and Braddock turned towards Grime, while he looked away in embarrassment.
"No way," said Sasha. "Your real name is…"
"We're not talking about this!" Grime interrupted.
"Tell us, who's leading this revolution?" asked Bufo.
"Us?" Grime answered, referring to himself, Sasha, Percy, and Braddock.
Beatrix and Bufo whispered to each other. They then turned back to Grime.
"I don't think so," said Bufo. "We love your vision, but no toad is going to follow the command of a fugitive and his hummus."
"Human," Sasha corrected.
"Bufo's right," Beatrix continued. "Just because King Andrias is working with a few hummuses, doesn't mean us toads will go for it. Heck, one of them took my eye out, so how do we know yours won't do the same?"
"Other humans?" asked Sasha. "They must be talking about Anne, Marcy, and Matt. I don't believe it. They're working together without me?"
But Sasha in fact, did believe it. She wasn't exactly the best friend to any of them. Deep down, she knew she didn't deserve them, but she couldn't face the facts. Her sadness shifted to anger.
"Actually, this sounds too risky," said Bufo. "Guards, arrest them."
A couple guards showed up to arrest Sasha and her companions.
Sasha's anger got the better of her. She charged towards the guards and headbutted one down. She grabbed his spear and quickly dealt with the other one.
"Listen here, assholes!" she yelled at the captains. "What's it gonna take to prove that you should follow us?"
To everyone's surprise, Aldo twitched. She stood up a bit.
"Barrel's Warhammer," he answered.
"You've gone senile, Aldo," said Bufo.
"That's a suicide mission," Beatrix added.
Aldo moved his hand up and continued speaking. "It is said that the one who wields this hammer is the true leader of all toads. It's the only thing that will prove we should follow you."
"Done!" Sasha yelled. "We'll have it by morning."
Percy and Braddock hugged each other, scared.
"No toad has ever gone after the hammer and made it back alive," Bufo remarked. "This I must see."
Later, Sasha and her companions got on a small boat and sailed for the location of Barrel's Warhammer.
"So what's this hammer and why are you so scared of it?" asked Sasha.
"It's the weapon of the legendary Barrel the Brave," Percy explained.
"Barrel gave his life defending a village from a terrifying beast," Braddock continued.
"Legend has it that the same beast guards this hammer to this very day," Percy finished as he and Braddock hugged each other.
Sasha saw how scared they were. She didn't want to hurt them, so she came up with an idea.
"Listen," she said. "If things get too wild, give me a signal and I'll call this whole thing off."
"What kind of signal?" asked Percy.
"How about this?" Sasha suggested. "Do your best kawaii pose. It's something we do for photos in my world. Like this."
Sasha twirled, made the peace sign with both her hands, and she winked.
"What's a photo?" asked Braddock.
"Just try it," Sasha replied, getting a little impatient.
Percy and Braddock did their best poses similar to Sasha's.
The three laughed together.
"Don't giggle!" Grime shouted. "We're here."
The group reached land.
"Thanks for that Sasha," Percy told Sasha. "I feel better already."
"My pleasure," Sasha replied, smiling a bit. "Just remember, strike a pose, and we'll leave."
The group followed the map Aldo gave them. They walked on for a bit.
"This is insane!" Grime yelled. "Even if it does exist, we'll never find it."
"Found it," Percy said right after.
Low and behold, the hammer was right in front of them.
"I can't believe it," said Grime. "Our ticket to revolution!"
"And no beast in sight," Percy added. "Can life actually be this easy for a change?"
Grime tried lifting the hammer, but it did not budge.
"Alright, gang," said Sasha. "On three. One, two, THREE!"
The quartet all tried pulling the hammer at once. It budged. That's when they all heard a roar. Sasha and Grime pulled out their swords.
"Look alive people," said Grime. "Who knows where this beast will…"
Before Grime could finish his sentence, the ground moved. They all slid into the water. They swam back onto the boat. They were standing on the beast all along, and they just woke it up. The beast let out a screech. Sasha covered her ears while Grime laughed maniacally.
"What a great way to go!" Grime shouted as he pulled out his sword.
Sasha saw Percy and Braddock do their kawaii poses. Sasha then turned and saw the hammer right on top of the beast. Once again, she let her wants get the better of her.
"Sorry, guys," she said. "But we're way too close to bail out now. Grime, steer us closer."
Grime did as he was told. He moved the boat closer to the beast. Sasha hit the beast with her sword. It had no effect, but it got the beast's attention.
When the time was right, everyone jumped onto the beast. They tried pulling the hammer off of him, but it wouldn't budge.
"This thing's never coming loose!" Sasha yelled.
Sasha knew what she had to do. She threw off her cape and ran towards the front of the beast. She summoned a rope and grabbed the beast's horn with it, steering it back to the tower.
"What do you think you're doing?" asked Grime.
"What does it look like?" Sasha replied. "I'm getting the warhammer back to the tower."
Grime grinned. "You're insane and I love it!"
Percy and Braddock held on for dear life.
"Sasha, please stop!" Percy yelled.
"But we're almost there!" Sasha retorted.
"We're coming up too fast!" Grime shouted. "We're gonna crash! Go left!"
Sasha tried going left, but the beast didn't move. She lost control of it. She realized what she needed to do.
"The Warhammer!" she shouted. "It's the only weapon big enough to dent this thing's armor!"
Sasha and Grime tried lifting the hammer, but once again, they failed. Grime let go.
"It's no use," he said. "We've gotta get out of here or we'll all die."
Sasha didn't listen. She was desperate to get what she wanted.
"I can do this!" she shouted. "I won't fail, not while Anne, Marcy, and Matt are getting by without me!"
Sasha's eyes flashed purple. She lifted with all her might. The hammer moved more and more until…
Eventually, she finally got the hammer out of its resting place.
Sasha almost gave into the weight, but Grime grabbed the hammer as well. The hammer glowed with purple light. The human and the toad moved forward and hit the beast hard on the head. It knocked the beast out.
The beast slid closer to the tower. Its horn broke the window, getting everyone's attention.
"One Warhammer, as promised," said Sasha, as she dropped the hammer in front of everyone.
Sasha and Grime jumped off the beast. Grime picked up the hammer for everyone to see. The crowd cheered until Aldo raised his hand, silencing everyone.
"We hereby grant you the support of all three towers for your rebellion," he announced.
Sasha punched the air in happiness. Grime approached her.
"Well, lieutenant, I had my doubts, but we did it," said Grime.
"Of course we did," said Sasha. "We're the best team in this or any other world. Right Braddock? Percy?"
Percy and Braddock got off the beast. Sasha saw how hurt they were and how they had trouble standing.
"You two okay?" she asked.
"Okay?" Percy angrily replied. "Sasha, we almost died back there."
"We trusted you," Braddock added. "And you didn't care one bit about us as long as you got what you wanted."
"That's not true," Sasha denied. "Besides, we did it."
"No, you did it," Percy retorted. "Me and Braddock are done with this."
Percy and Braddock walked away.
"Where are you going?" Sasha called out to them. "You're not gonna throw this away. We're so close. I can feel it."
"Goodbye, Sasha," said Percy. "We hope you pull it off. We really do."
Percy and Braddock continued walking away. Sasha tried to go after them. Grime got in front of her.
"Get out of my way, Grime!" Sasha demanded.
"That's enough, Sasha!" Grime yelled, before lowering his voice. "We all have our limits. They finally hit theirs. I know it hurts, but remember. Every dream has its price, and not everyone is willing to pay for it. Now come on, soldier. We've got a world to conquer."
Grime ran to rejoin the others, while Sasha just stood there. She looked away, filled with guilt. She never wanted to hurt Percy or Braddock, but because she was so focused on getting what she wanted, she hurt both of them. After a bit of thinking, she decided that once she fixes things with Anne, Marcy, and Matt it would have all been worth it.
"Goodbye Percy, goodbye Braddock," she simply said, small tears forming around her eyes.
Sasha wiped the tears away and walked off to join the other toads.
The two cloaked figures left the room after Percy and Braddock. The figures approached Percy and Braddock. Percy saw them.
"What do you want?" he asked.
The figures removed their cloaks, revealing themselves to be Dareth and Catherine.
"We have a small… proposition," Catherine explained. "One that you two may find interesting."
In the briefing room of the North Tower, Sasha, Grime, and the captains were formulating a plan on how to get into Newtopia.
"Here's my idea," Sasha suggested. "We find Anne, Marcy, and Matt, and convince them that I turned over a new leaf. They'll let me be part of the group again. "
"That's a good idea, but there's one problem," said Beatrix. "I know this sounds crazy, but the boy has crazy magic. He beat me up with this magic of his and took my eye out, but I survived. I know his attack pattern, so I can deal with him."
Sasha was instantly shocked by that suggestion. She looked away with a bit of sadness. She already felt guilty for hurting Percy and Braddock. She wasn't gonna let anyone else she cared about get hurt.
"Or, I can convince him to rule alongside us," she suggested. "That way we can use his powers to our advantage."
"And what if it doesn't work?" asked Beatrix.
"It will," Sasha replied. "I'll make sure of it."