Chapter 12

Sasha's Angels

Anne, Sasha, and Matt stood in the briefing room with Bruce, Heather, Aaron, Croaker, Wally, Loggle, Maddie, and Toadie.

"Listen up," said Sasha. "The Marauders have intercepted our latest shipment of weapons."

"Marauders?" Anne asked, unaware of who these people were.

"A gang of dirty, anarchist amphibians who don't work for Andrias or the rebellion," Sasha explained. "They hijack caravans, raid villages for scraps, and are basically a huge unwashed thorn on my side."

"Can't we just take them down head-on?" asked Matt.

"There are too many of them to do that," Sasha replied. "So we're gonna sneak into the camp and steal our stuff back."

"Awesome!" Loggle cheered.

"Thieving from thieves?" said Maddie.

"I love dramatic irony!" Wally added.

"Croaker, you and your crew come up with a battle strategy," Sasha ordered. "Anne, Matt, and I will grab the gear."

"What about us?" came Heather's voice.

Sasha turned to see her parents were there. Sasha sighed in annoyance. They always insisted they come with her whenever she left the base. It got annoying really quickly.

"Fine, you can come too," she relented.

When it was go time, the group went to the Marauder's base.

Sasha peered inside. When the coast was clear, the others followed.

They quickly hid behind a crate. Sasha quickly spoke in sign language. Bruce and Heather had no idea what she was saying, but they could infer, "Attack", when they saw everyone preparing to attack.

When they were about to attack, Sasha stopped. It was surprisingly quiet. That made her suspicious.

After a few seconds, a bunch of frogs, toads, and newts wearing damaged armor and battle scars came out of the tents.

"We got you," said one of them.

"Head for the rendezvous!" Sasha ordered.

Everyone made a run for it.

Sasha headbutted a toad.

Anne bonked a frog with the hilt of her sword.

Matt stabbed a newt with his spear.

Anne, Sasha, and Matt made it out of the base. They got as far away from the base as possible.

"That was close," Anne sighed. She then noticed that Bruce and Heather were the only other ones that made it back. "Oh no. Where's everybody else?"

Matt took Sasha's binoculars.

"Hey!" Sasha yelled.

Matt ignored her. He looked through the binoculars and saw the others were surrounded.

"The others are caught!" he shouted. "We gotta go back down there!"

"Absolutely not," said Bruce. "It's too risky."

"I agree," said Sasha.

Matt rolled his eyes. Of course she was trying to get rid of his boyfriend.

"We might get captured ourselves," Sasha continued. "And the resistance can't lose its leaders."

"Then what do we do?" asked Matt.

"Croaker's team is pretty tough. They might escape on their own."

"What do we do till then?"

Sasha brought out her swords. "We'll train."

After Anne and Sasha had a few rounds, Matt dueled against Sasha.

"Haven't we waited long enough?" asked Matt. "We have to get down there."

"Come on, Matt," Sasha replied. "It's only been thirty minutes. Give it a little more time."

"Easy for you to say!" Matt shouted as he threw his spear. It narrowly missed Sasha.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. On your left."

The duel carried into the night. Matt got more and more aggressive and impatient as time went by. It was harder for Sasha to block his attacks.

"Matt, I'm telling you, we have to wait," said Sasha.

"Wait?" Matt reacted. "My boyfriend is in trouble, and here we are sparring."

"That's because we can't risk…"

"Getting captured, I know. And I know he's just a soldier to you, but to me, he's everything."

"Matt, it isn't like that."

That's when an explosion came from the base.

"What was that?" asked Matt.

"The signal," Sasha replied. "Come on. It's go time."

Sasha, her parents, Matt, and Anne burst into the base yet again. This time, they saw the marauders had already been defeated.

Matt quickly ran over to Aaron and gave him a quick kiss.

Afterwards, everyone got their stuff and got on a cart.

Loggle pulled the cart while everyone else rode on it.

"Great job guys," Sasha congratulated the frogs. "Savage stuff."

"Thanks, commander," Aaron thanked.

"You were right, Sasha," Matt remarked. "Looks like they could handle themselves." He felt a bit guilty for the way he acted during the spar. "Hey, about what I said back there…"

"It's okay," Sasha interrupted. "But believe me, I do care about these frogs, a lot. I've been through some serious stuff with the people of Wartwood while you and Anne were gone. But being in charge means making tough calls, and sometimes you just need to stop and remember to have faith in the people around you."

Once Sasha was done talking, everyone made it back to base.