Tower buddies: chapter 3
Chapter 3: marcy's great escape
Sasha was feeling down.
She wasn't allowed to see anne. She wanted to go visit her, but grime forbade it. And she HAD to stay on grime's good side, otherwise anne and marcy could get hurt.
She took a deep breath, and walked into grime's office.
"Yes?" Asked grime.
"Hey, grime. I wanted to know if i could visit anne?"
Grime stared at her. "Sasha, we talked about it. At least marcy is intelligent. Boonchuy only holds you back."
"But I don't see why visiting her is ba-"
"Trust my judgement, sasha, grime said, his temper wavering for a second. "I have been in this job much longer than you."
Sasha sighed. "Ok," she said, and left.
Grime smiled. He genuinely cared for sasha, but he could see that this friend was hindering her true potential. Also, he couldn't let Sasha see her… not after what they had been doing…
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Anne was tired, alone, and hurt.
Ever since sasha had stopped seeing her, the toads stopped being even relatively nice. For the past 6 months, she had been 'tested', to put it nicely. 'Experimented on' would be a better term. She had been given various poisons to see their effects on her, and then only given antidotes when on the brink of death. She had been vivisected (thankfully asleep) and somehow had not picked up any sort of infection. But the stitches on her chest reminded her of the experience. The only thing keeping her sane was knowing marcy had a plan.
She heard a buzz. She walked to the corner of her room to the small hole where she hid her phone. It was a call from marcy.
"…hello?"
"At precisely seven-fifteen, ask to use the toilet. Be in there by seven-twenty and drink from the toilet. Remain there for a following two minutes. You will recieve further instructions from there."
Anne grimaced. "Drink from the toilet?"
Nothing. Trust marcy to come up with an insane plan like this.
Down in the basement, marcy chuckled.
"Oh, it's all coming together." She smiled, and pulled a lever, which started to inflate a large hot air balloon.
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"Now, kids, this plan has been a lot of work, and if you kids come back in pieces, your parents are gonna kill me," hop pop said. "But i really do need the help, and no other adult would risk their lives for a gangly creature they never met."
"You got it, hop-pop!" Said sprig.
"I'm just here for the pain," said polly.
"I must say, a creature from another world entices me," mumbled maddie.
"Let's do this!" Shouted ivy.
Hop-pop smiled.
Oh, they were frogged, that's for sure.
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It was ten past seven.
Anne was sweating. What was marcy planning? Was sasha gonna be ok with this? Time on her phone was moving uncomfortably fast. It was already seven twelve.
At seven fourteen, one of the guards left the room. Was this why marcy had chosen seven-fifteen?
Seven fifteen had come. And so the plan began.
"Hey, can i… go to the toilet?"
The toad grunted. "You know what, just go by yourself. I'm too tired for this."
He unlocked the door. Wow, did marcy know that this specific toad was a slacker, and was alone? Gee, she was good.
As she ran to the bathroom, the hallways seemed empty. Huh. Gee, this was some good timing.
She entered the bathroom at seven nineteen, and looked at the toilet. A dirty brown… ugh. "Marcy… why?"
And as soon as it turned seven twenty, the toilet water emptied and a new purple liquid poured in. She looked at the liquid and suddenly, a small piece of paper was hurled out. "Put this in your mouth and Pour this potion all over the floor."
She did as it was asked, and as soon as she did, marcy hopped out. "Why? Because i'm a genius!" She said.
"Marcy!" Anne shouted.
"Anne! I haven't see you in, well, 8 months. How's it been?"
Anne winced. "Bad. I'll explain later," she said, looking at marcy's concerned face. "But… how did you do that?"
"Well!" Said marcy, her face lighting up, "i did two big things recently. For one, i completely revamped the sewage system, and i may have added a secret control panel in my secret room that allows me to move liquids around the building."
Anne gawked. "I'm sorry- secret room?"
Marcy grinned. "I have a lot to explain. But, the second thing: i've been studying alchemy! And i may have invented a potion or two of my own. One of my faivorites is this one," she pointed at the purple puddle at the floor, "i call it portal juice! Spill some on two surfaces and you can teleport between them! Thus, me being here. Now, jump in!" She said, tossing herself into the puddle and dissapearing. Anne took a deep breath, and jumped into the puddle.
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Sasha had enough. She was going to see anne, and wasn't hearing anything otherwise.
"I'm going in to speak with anne," sasha said to a toad outside of the cells.
"But grime says you aren't allowed-"
"I'm going in to speak with anne," she repeated.
The toad gulped and let her in.
"Anne? I'm sorry for not visiting. I admit, I've been a coward and a bad friend. I want to say-"
And she stopped, because anne wasn't there.
"Ah," sasha said, knowing exactly what anne was probably doing.
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Anne stood up.
"Welcome," marcy said, "to my not evil lair!"
"…marcy, how did you build this in SECRET?"
"Well, i invented something to dig the area for me!" She said, holding up a curse. "Anyway, that should be the least of your worries," and she pulled back a curtain, revealing a hot air balloon.
"…marcy, you realise we need open air to use this hot air balloon?"
"Yes!" She grinned. "And that's another use for this!" She held the vacuum grenade curse again and threw it at the wall. A circle of moonlight came in. She threw another, then another, and another.
"Good thing this was built on a cliff," marcy said. "Otherwise i would have had to use the ceiling!"
"Wow," anne said. You really did think this through."
Suddenly a knock was heard from the normal room. "Hey marcy? Can i come in?" It was sasha.
Marcy was panicked. "Anne, get the balloon ready! I'll try stall!" She handed a fire potion to anne and a bunch of other stuff that seemed to just be packing.
Marcy concealed the secret room with a curtain before sasha came in.
"Marcy, we have a problem," sasha said, walking in. "Anne is missing."
"Oh no!" Marcy sweated. "Where's she gone?"
Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Marcy, i just said she's missi-"
A toad ran in. "Commander, we found something strange in the third floor bathroom!"
Sasha ran up to see what it was.
Marcy ran back to the secret room. "Anne, we gotta go NOW!"
"On it!" Anne said. "Buut… where does this go?" She gestured to the fire potion.
Marcy slapped her hand on her forehead. "Just gimme it."
Marcy was just about done with fixing the potion onto the basket, when a hand came through the puddle on the floor. Then a head. Sasha's head.
"Frog! I forgot to clean up the portal-puddle!"
Sasha didn't look angry… just hurt.
"You guys are leaving?"
"Yeah, sorry sash. You can stay here if you want or you can go with us. Just don't stop us," anne said, lighting the potion. The balloon began to lift and marcy directed it through the giant hole in the wall.
Suddenly toads jumped through the puddle. "They're getting away!"
Sasha didn't do anything; she just stared. Anne didn't know what to feel.
"Sasha, we're still friends! We'll find you! And we'll fix this mess!"
They saw sasha's face lift slightly, just like their balloon.
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The duo of anne and marcy were lifting. They were free for the first time in 8 months. But where would they go?
Just then, Anne saw something that sent a shiver down her spine. She saw a familiar frog family driving to toad tower, toward certain death. Anne put together that they were coming for her… but they would find nobody.
"Marcy." She pointed to the frog family. Marcy looked down, and Anne said, "those frogs are trying to save me. I can't let them just go to the tower, to their deaths."
"B-but we have to stay-"
"Marcy," anne said. "This is something i have to do. If I don't find you, I'll be in a place called wartwood."
Marcy looked at her, and simply nodded. "I'll find you." She threw a teleportation potion on the floor of the basket, and one down to the ground.
"Follow your heart."
And anne jumped through.
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"Nearly there, kids!" Hop pop said.
"No need!"
Hop pop was startled and stopped bessie, to the familiar girl who had saved his family.
"A-anne?" Sprig said. "I thought you were in the tower!"
"I was!" Said anne. "But me and my friend made an escape plan!" She looked back up to see the tiniest face of marcy in the balloon, smiling at her. She threw down a book.
"Oh, cool! My grimoire!" Said maddie.
She looked inside. "Dear 'maddie', thank you for this grimoire. I'm sorry it was wrongfully taken from you and i hope it ends up back in your hands. I have placed recipes of my own potions in the back for you as a thank you.
-marcy wu."
Sprig looked at it. "So your friend was marcy! Oh, that fits!"
"So, what now?" Asked polly.
Hop pop smiled at Anne. "Well, i did say you're welcome anytime."
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Sasha had to do something, to make things right.
She sped off to wartwood, searching for a certain house. The plantar household.
After about forty minutes of running, she got there to see the lights on. A figure walked out of the front door… it was Anne.
They had a few seconds of eye contact, before they came to a mutual understanding. They both smiled and Sasha left.
She reported back to toad tower with no sightings of the fugitive in wartwood.
(We'll meet again by vera lynn starts playing)
(Cuts to sasha looking off into the distance, from the top of toad tower)
We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
(Cuts to marcy, looking into the distance from her balloon)
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
'Til the blue skies chase those dark clouds far away
And I will just say hello
To the folks that you know
Tell them you won't be long
They'll be happy to know
That as I saw you go
You were singing this song
We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
And I will just say hello
To the folks that you know
Tell them you won't be long
They'll be happy to know
That as I saw you go
You were singing this song
(Cuts to anne sitting on a bench outside the plantar household)
We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day