For many teenagers walking down the L.A streets during the early morning hours would be something to be avoided, there were dangers at this time of the night.
Muggers, Murders and more could be lurking around the darkness.
For Anne Boonchuy none of the threats that roamed the streets were nothing she couldn't handle, hear she was walking down a street wearing her normal clothes covered by an apron.
Her mind briefly flashed back to what happened at the restaurant a few hours ago.
It had started when he had entered the restaurant, a young man carrying an expensive phone, she had instantly seen him as someone who would give a large tip, however when he had started to ask questions she had grown suspicious.
Stuff about what she had been up to lately, questions about the fight in the sky, about what she would do in that situation.
When she told her parents she was shocked to discover that they had dealt with him before, he was a reporter who had harassed her mother on the street back when she had vanished, faked orders to get information from them, accused them of being responsible for her disappearance.
For the first time in ages, she felt angry. She grabbed a pot of water and walked to him, she had thrown it on him.
She still remembered the scream of fear from the man, for a brief moment she thought she had hurt him, she turned to her parents to see the look of shock on their faces.
Without even thinking of it she just ran from the restaurant, she had been stupid, that guy was probably going to write an article about how crazy she is, and how her parents were dreadful, she knew it was stupid, but she had to do it, she wanted to make that jerk suffer, but she had seen just how worried her parents were.
It had been five hours since she had left, she knew she was going to be in trouble, her parents loved her but after what she had done… they'd probably have some words for her.
The cheerful music filled the street, Anne turned to see the ice cream van moving closer to her, it stopped the moment it was parallel with her, the window rolled down, Mr. X was sitting there glaring at her.
"Get in."
Anne stood there for a second, "Have you come to arrest me?"
"If we arrest people for throwing room temperature water on jerks, our prisons would be even more crowded."
Anne turned and kept walking.
She heard the van door open and close.
"What do you think this is going to accomplish?"
"Maybe I just want to go for a walk."
"You mean at night, in the scary parts of town?"
"I dealt with worse," she muttered.
Mr. X was now following her to her annoyance.
"Right, you told me you don't have powers anymore, I don't buy you taking on a gang."
The girl kept walking, ignoring the agent following her.
"Kid, I've been covering up what happened, I Don't need you messing it up by drawing attention to yourself."
Snorting, Anne kept walking
"Okay," said Mr. X, sounding tired, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." replied Anne.
"Really, walking the late streets at night is a sign that everything's okay."
"Well, maybe my problem isn't just something I can talk about?"
"Why not?"
"Because You wouldn't understand."
The footsteps being Anne stopped, good he had stopped now she-
"Something happened back there, didn't it."
Anne turned around, her face contorted in a snarl, "It's none of your business."
Mr. X stopped walking, if he had been shocked by Anne's reaction, his face didn't show it.
"Well, Now I know something bad happened."
"Why don't you go bother someone else, like an actual criminal," she spat out. "Stop messing with me and my family."
"Your family begged me to find," said X smoothly, "Believe it or not but a teenage girl walking the streets of L.A is usually something that worries people.,"
Anne froze, she closed her eyes, "How worried are they?"
"Terrified," said the government agent gently.
'Stupid' she thought, she sat down on the pavement and rubbed her eyes, tears started to come quickly.
"How am I going to do this?"
"Go back home? Pretty easily, your parents love you and-"
"No," said shot back, "Not that, Everything, How the hell do I live after…" she paused, she quietly sobbed again.
The next thing she knew, Mr. X slipped something onto her shoulder, she opened her eyes to see he had placed his purple jacket on her shoulders.
"Go on then."
"Go on what?"
"Tell me what happened? I'm willing to listen and not tell your parents."
Anne looked at him, "Do you actually care?"
"Believe it or not, yes, You look like you need someone to talk to."
The Teenage girl looked at him for a second and sighed, "I can't go back to this."
"Go back to what?"
"Go back to normal… It's never going to just be normal, I'm going to be thinking of Sprig and the others and What happens if I just always expect an adventure, What happens if another jerk tries to go after my parents again, How can I go back to life."
The agent sat there and gave a soft laugh, "Sounds like the time I died."
Anne blinked and looked at Mr. X. She had not expected him to say, "What?"
"Bullet to the chest in Texas, some drug dealers were making a big sale when my partner and I took down and found them, shots were fired, and I went down."
"What really?"
"Yeah, Hell I was actually dead for five minutes, When I woke up the first thing my partner did was propose to me."
Anne's eyes widened. Did you say yes?"
"Let the music play. "
"What?" asked the teenager, confused.
"I was full of painkillers, the world didn't make sense."
"Oh," Replied Anne.
"When I could start talking again, I said yes, we got married, and I went back to work. The end, not let's get you back home."
"What?"
"You heard me, story's over."
"But that's it, you have a happy ending and then just move on."
"Exactly, now do the same, I do not like standing on the street this late."
"But that's impossible, You can't just move on that easily, you almost died?"
"Yeah, almost, then I got married to the greatest man on the planet and moved on, that's life."
"No you can't, It's just-"
"What bad things are you going through right now?"
Anne stood there, "Huh?"
"What problems do you have in your life right now?"
"I left Amphibia."
"To come to a much safer earth."
"I miss my family."
"You have family here, and I'm guessing the frogs you love wouldn't want you to suffer like this."
"I… have to go to school."
"Yeah, it sucks, but we all have to do it."
"My friend here on earth, who's going through some problems, won't accept my help."
"So," said the government agent, "it's her problem, let her deal with it."
"Marcy's moving."
"Use the phone, The internet, anything, just talk to her."
"I… I… I don't know if I should be happy."
There it was, the question that was bothering her, after all she had gone through, and this was it, this was her happy ending, to live a normal life."
Mr. X looked at her for a minute, then smiled.
"And that's it, that's your problem, you're worried about being happy."
"But I-"
"Anne, listen," said Mr. X softly, "After all you've gone through, you deserve happiness, there's nothing wrong with that.
"But what happens if I waste it, what if I-"
"You're thirteen, you've got time to waste," said the F.B.I. agent, now let's go."
Anne stood there for a second, It couldn't be that easy, could it, just give it time?
"Now come on, it's late, I'm missing a night of TV for this."
Mr. X turned and walked back to the Ice cream truck, which by some miracle hadn't been stripped for parts.
Anne stood there, and closed her eyes, maybe this emptiness would be a part of her for some time. But she wasn't going to give up yet.
She was going to take that chance.
Taking a step, Anne Boonchuy walked towards the future.
…
The Goodwill store had a decent supply of clothing, somehow they were all the appropriate size for three visiting Amphibians, Max stood there waiting for them to come out of the changing rooms, he had already paid for his friends clothes already.
He looked around the store, at the various objects that might have been once loved, but now given away. At the counter an old woman was sleeping, Max had left some money on the counter, it was covered in dirt from the swamp he almost drowned in, but it should still be good.
The sound of rustling curtains alerted him that his friends were changed.
Marcy was wearing a pink jacket with a green skirt, she was wearing some size 3 crocks, to hide her face she wore a pink scarf.
Lucian was wearing a black jacket and a facemask, with yellow shorts, on his fear were two large purple boots.
Nicole was wearing a onesie of a cute monster, a frown was on her face.
"Why do I have to wear this?"
"Because it's easier to pass you off as an ugly baby," said Max
The young Newt snorted, "I'm not a baby."
"Hey, there's a pacifier attached to your arm," said Lucian lifting it up and placing it in Nicole mouth, she glared at him, planing thoughts of murder.
"How do I look, Max," said Marcy awkwardly.
Max looked at her and shrugged, "You look okay."
The frog girl smiled at him, Max shock his head, girls were just weird.
"What about me?" said Lucian, "I found this jacket because it reminds me of Sasha's and these boots are perfect protection just in case someone wants to stomp on my feet."
"Do you expect anyone to try and stamp your feet?" asked Marcy
"No," said Luicain, shaking his head, "but you never know."
"Okay then," said Max, walking towards the door, "Let's start the tour."
He opened the door and was immediately hit by the California heat, he looked down the block and saw a food truck, he smiled, "Come on," he gestured to his friends.
A few moments they were in front of the van, on the side of was a sign saying Frida Taco's
"This is Frida's" said Max celebrational tone, "They serve the best tacos in this city."
"Ooh," said his friends.
"What's a taco?" said Nicole.
"Mexican food," replied Max.
"Is it like a nacho?" replied Marcy.
"No-wait, you guys have nachos?"
"Yeah," said Lucian, "Is that weird?"
"I mean a little, you guys have a frog Mexico, do you?"
"No," said Lucian, what's a Mexico?"
"A foreign country where Nachos come from," said Max, confused.
"Us having the same food isn't weird," said Marcy, "The weird thing is you speak Amphibian."
"Well I…" Max's eyes widened, she raised a point, he then shock his head deciding not to deal with such an extensional crisis,"We can talk about that later. Until then, I present you Frida Tacos."
Max turned from his friends presenting gesture with his arms trying to hype up the slightly worn down van, standing in the open hatch was a woman with light skin, she smiled when she saw Max.
"Hey Maxie, it's been ages."
"Hi Frida," said Max smiling, "Three of the usual please?"
"Okay, With Hot sauce or the good stuff."
"Just Three regulars and one basic hot, please," said Max.
"Wait," said Lucian staring at Max, "What do you mean the regular?"
"It's the medium hot sauce, Not the strong stuff."
The toad boy scoffed, "Please, We've grown up using Plantar's pain peppers, We can handle a little hot sauce."
Max looked at them and shrugged.
"Okay then, Frida, give them the Diablo sauce."
The Older woman looked at them then smiled, a devious gleamed danced in her eyes.
A few minutes later the four children had their tacos, "Thanks Frida," said Max
"Don't worry about it, You and your short friends enjoy."
The three Amphibians bit into their tacos.
Everything for fine for a few seconds.
Then Lucian's face turned red, Nicole mouth opened a wave of flames escaped her mouth, Marcy…just stood there and looked at her taco.
"Eh, not that bad."
Max took a bite of his and was surprised to see that it was the one he ordered, he looked at the disguised frog girl in surprise, she had a tolerance for spicy food alright.
Lucian and Nicole ran towards the van and looked at Frida with piteous eyes, "Please, Miss, Water anything," begged Nicole.
Frida laughed and threw the two Amphibians a bottle of berry blast, The two swallowed the contents of the bottles.
"Hey guys," said Max snickering, "Too hot?"
They turned and froze, their eyes widened.
"Um, Max?" asked Nicole, "When did your skin turn red?"
Max looked down at his skin, it was the same shade of brown as before, "What do you mean red?"
"It's turned a bright red, and you also have horns now, what the heck?"
Their human friend looked at them confused, "What?"
"No, you can't have our souls," said Nicole offended.
Max was worried, something was going on with his friends, he turned to Marcy to see she was now drinking a bottle of berry blast.
"Do you know what's up with them?"
Marcy looked at him for a second and then shrugged, "No, I have no idea, Kamen Bad boy."
"No me neither, I think they've gone… What did you call me?"
"Kamen bad boy, Now stop talking, we need to defeat the monster sent by the evil queen Cheryl?"
Max stood there and looked at Marcy, she was messing with him?
"Okay, Marcy, what do I look like right now?"
"Well, you're wearing a leather jacket, jeans and a domino mask, and I'm wearing a camo suit with a skirt attached."
"Huh," laughed Frida looking at him, "she's like that old anime character from Pretty Solider Serene."
"What that old anime she likes?" asked Max confused.
"It's not that old it's- only thirty-five years old," said Frida, coming to the depressing realization that shows from her childhood were now in the double digits but also probably having a midlife crisis by now.
Max looked at her, "Was there something in that drink?" he asked
"No, maybe they had an allergic reaction to it."
Max eyes widened, "Oh crud," he muttered, turning to Lucian he snatched the bottle out of his hand.
"HEY, THAT HAD MY SOUL IN IT!" shouted the annoyed toad, Max didn't bother to correct him that a few minutes ago the toad had claimed the soul belonged to him.
"Berry Blast," Max whispered to himself, that's when he remembered the quick story Anne told him last night.
The reason I acted weird was because I drank some special tea, No it's drugs just regular tea, Amphibians suffer the same thing if they drink berry blast."
"Okay," said Max, "Looks like I have to keep an eye on my friends until they…"
"They've gone," said Frida casually.
Max looked behind to see his friends had indeed vanished.
"Crap," he muttered, Now he had to track them down.
"Oh, by the way, Max, Someone was asking about you."
Max froze, "Who?"
"I didn't get his name," said Frida, tapping her chin with her finger, "But he had a leather jacket and when he left in his car, I saw a baseball bat in the back of the window, looked like a guy who was trying to hard to be tough."
Eddie, he was looking for him now.
"When was this?"
"A few days ago, he hasn't been back since."
Max swallowed he was in danger, not just him, his friends too.
"Thanks Frida," he muttered before running off to search for his friends.
…
Anne clamped her hands to her ears, trying to block out the sound, it was loud she could feel it in her bones, she turned to see the rest of her friends and family doing the same, he looked for the source, there was no sign of it.
That's when she saw Grime and Sasha come running up the street, she was covering her ears too, Sasha started yelling, but Anne was unable to hear her.
That's when the noise stopped.
Silence was a blessing, for a few seconds they didn't say anything, as if to enjoy the lack of noise.
"What the hell was that?" asked Sasha annoyed.
"I have no idea, could it be some sort of monster?" replied Anne.
"None I've ever heard of," said Hop-Pop, "Maybe we should get back to the house."
Anne nodded, "Okay, I-"
"Wait are we just ignoring what Anne just said because of a strange noise?"
"Sprig," said Ivy, "this isn't the time for this, We need to-"
That's when a one eyed frog came running up, "INVISIBLE MONSTER!"
The group looked at Wally, the majority of them were confused, But the Plantars, Grime, Anne and Sasha knew what he meant instantly
"Wally," what did you see?"
The blue frog stopped running and looked at them, "Well nothing it's invisible you see, seeing anything would be-"
"No, I don't mean like that, I mean how did you know it was invisible?"
"Well something landed near Sasha street, something landed and left a small crater, I have no idea what it is."
"Sasha gets a street named after her?" asked Anne, confused.
"You've got a statue in the middle of town, don't complain," said Sasha.
"Good point, let's go."
Jess handed Issac to Terri, "Could you look after him? I think Anne's going to need us to help.
Terri awkwardly nodded, "Okay, But this is the only time. When I quiet Frakes I quit working with kids."
The group followed Wally through the streets, surrounded by Amphibians looking confused about the sonic attach, in time they were joined by Duckweed, Felicia and Miss Croaker."
"Because when I said you're going to work off your debt to the town, I mean it," said croaker in a threatening tone.
In seconds, they arrived at an empty street, not one was about the only thing that Anne could see was an alley, and the remains of a few crates scattered about.
"You sure this is the right place?"
"Yeah, look at the ground," said Wally, pointing at two large footprints on the ground.
Anne, the Plantars and Sasha looked at each other worried, memories of their conflicts with the robots returned.
"Okay, We have a problem," said Sasha who turned to Polly, "Is there any chance there's any Cloakbots are still around?"
The young mechanic stood there, "Possibly, but they'd have to be connected to some sort of network, something still giving them commands, Frobo can you scan the wave lengths for-"
"Started doing it the moment you mentioned network," said the robot, he stood there for a few seconds.
"Anything?" said Hop-Pop.
"There's something," said Frobo, "But I don't know where it's-
The air shimmered and slowly started to shift, in seconds a robot stood there.
Anne's heart jumped to her throat, Sasha's eyes widened, The Plantars and the Boonchuys started to yell.
The Cloakbot raised its claws, about to slash Frobo.
Just as its hands swiped towards the Blue robot, Polly grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the way.
Sasha leaped towards the robotic assassin, just as she was about to hit her opponent it vanished, she landed on the ground.
Anne turned to looked around the street, preparing for the robot to come out of anywhere.
"Keep your guard up, we don't know where this thing might-"
Sasha was interrupted by a yell from the east.
"That's came from the Flour bakery!" said Felicia.
Without a second thought the group started to run in that direction, they had expected to find cloak bot standing there attacking them, however to their surprised it something entirely different.
A large otter was trying to enter the bakery by slamming into the door repeatedly, foam covered its mouth.
"MADDIE!" they yelled, The top window opened, and the white haired witch poked her head out.
"GUYS, COULD YOU DEAL WITH THIS?," yelled Maddie panicked, "I'M FRESH OUT OF CURSES."
"Really?" said Sprig, "I figure you'd have them lying around the place."
"I WORK FOR A LIVING SPRIG, SOME OF US CAN'T JUST TAKE A VACATION TO HANG OUT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND."
Anne took a few steps towards the ferret, rolling up her sleeves she figured she could do this, she had beaten it before she could do it again.
"Hey there," said Anne holding her hands up, hoping it would stop the monster from attacking her, a part of her knew it wouldn't, but it was worth a chance."
The giant weasel turned to Anne, for a brief moment it showed a sigh of recognition, like it remembered the strange creature that fed it, that saved its babies, just as quickly it was replaced by an animalistic snarl.
Without a warning, it charged at Anne.
She jumped out of its path, it then turned and glared at the group.
"What's it doing?" asked Anne's mother
"It's looking for the weakest member of our group," replied Anne.
"How do you know that?" asked her father, "Your specialty was in Amphibians?"
"I studied a lot," said Anne, "First you want me to study then you question it?"
The weasel didn't pay attention to their argument, it had chosen its target and leapt towards Hop-Pop.
It was the wrong move, the old frog jumped, and the weasel landed on the floor, before it could recover Felicia, Croaker Wally leapt onto its back, they slammed into it and using their combined weight held it there.
"Felicia, Croaker Wally hold it down," said Sasha, "Maddie, hurry up and-"
Something hit the monster, and there was an explosion of glitter and weird tiny laughter.
As the glitter faded, Everyone could see that the Weasel was now hogtied to the ground, beside it were the three frogs who had been on it's back, now equally hogtied.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said a young blue frog sticking her head through the window, "That's the power of blessings."
"LAME," said the voice of Maddie from behind her.
"Well that's over with now back to more pressing matters," said Sprig turning to Anne and glaring," What the heck were you thinking not telling us that-"
Sprigs complaints were cut off by a pair of loud squaks
"THAT CAME FROM STUMPYS" shouted Polly, "LETS GO"
"Oh, come on," muttered Sprig, "Can't I be a little angry at Anne without the universe trying to foil me?"
The group now rushed towards Stumpys, leaving three hog tied frogs.
"So they're just going to leave us here?" asked Croaker.
"Seem so," said Felicia who was currently twisting her hands, there was a pop and her hand went limp, she pulled it through the loop followed by her functional hand, she then took her dislocated hand then popped it back into place.
During all of this Croaker, Wally looked in disgusted awe.
"What? It's not the first time I've had to dislocate my way out of trouble."
…
When the group reached the restaurant, they had to stop and look at the two birds flying above them, combined into some sort of strange dance in the sky.
"Majestic," muttered Mrs Boonchuy.
"Yeah, when they're not trying to kill you," muttered Polly.
As they reached the restaurant they could see frogs running about in terror trying to avoid the pair of birds from devouring them, Stumpys front door was opening he was gesturing the victims into the restaurant, just in front of the store was an overturned cart, there was no sign of whatever has been pulling it.
Sasha took the lead this time, running towards the over turned cart she jumped towards one of the Doves as it briefly separated from its counterpart, and landed on its back.
The creature let out an odd, panicked cry. Instantly it's partner flew to rescue its love, for most seeing the creature flying to rescue would inspire others to root for it.
Love doves had a strange effect on people who had a sense of the romantic in them, one that would cause them to pause in wonder. Of course, the giant birds would take advantage of this and eat the victim.
Grime could be a bit of a romantic, but also had common sense. Using the same overturned cart. He jumped into the sky and kicked the remaining Love dove in the face, it fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Hah, that's what you get for eating my cousin."
The other love dove fell to the ground, after being choked out by Sasha, she turned to her toad captain, "I thought they were killed by a Kill-A-moth?"
"No, that was my cousin Groff, The love doves killed my cousin Sandra,"
"How many cousins do you have?" asked Sprig.
"Fewer now."
With the two doves on the ground, the group gathered round to look at them.
"Two monster attacks in one day?" said Hop-Pop, "It's been a while since that happened."
"What about when Me and Stumpy a few days ago?" said Mrs Boonchuy.
"They came together," responded Polly, "Town records group them as one."
"With that out of the way," said Sprig glaring at Anne, "HOW COU-"
From behind the small frog came a laugh, the air shimmered, and the cloak bot returned, his arm raised to strike, Sprig turned to look at it.
"I'm never going to shout at you, am I?"
…
"Mr. X, are you okay?" said the overly sweet voice from the darkness.
Was this it, had an angel come to take him away? From all of this madness, a part of him hoped it was, he opened his eyes to see Doctor Jan standing in from of him.
"I'm fine," he groaned, "Just a little tired."
"Replace little with a lot, and I'd believe you."
The government agent rubbed his eyes, "Listen I don't need this, I've just been tricked into sleeping by a ten-year-old, I can't see how this day can get worse."
For a few minutes the warehouse was quiet, Mr. X looked around the warehouse, confused.
"Um…are you okay?" asked Doctor Jan confused.
"Yeah," said Mr. X looking around, "I just thought… you know something would-"
There was the sound of metal scrunching, The two human looked at the warehouse shutter only to see a large robot standing there the remains of the shutter in its hands, behind it were several over robots, and at the front of them was a small woman with gray hair and a labcaot.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Frakes, I believe that's my portal you're using."
"And there it is," groaned Mr. X placing his face in his hands.
…
Anne grabbed Sprig before the robot struck, as she turned to face it the mechanical assassin vanished again.
"This is starting to get old," said Anne.
"We've got to find a way to stop this going from attacking us," said Grime.
Before they could respond, there was the sound of a large stomp. The group turned expecting to see some sort of giant hell beast there to destroy them, walking towards them was a giant newt wearing a cloak, on his shoulder was a young woman wearing a ranger outfit, on the other shoulder was a tall pink newt wearing armor and a finely dressed blue newt.
"MARCY!" shouted Anne and Sasha.
Andrias stopped in front of them and his smaller passengers dropped off on him, Marcy ran up to her friends.
"Guys, Something bad's happening."
"You mean the monsters are attacking the town?" asked Sasha, "Thanks, we noticed.
"No, It's worse, the Core… They might be still alive."
"What?" said Anne shocked, "How?"
"It might have created back-ups to survive it's attack."
"It might have?" said Sasha skeptically.
Marcy shrugged, "I would make sense, the reason the wildlife been acting up recently, When I made the mind control collars, There was another thing, A signal that could control animals, but it was vulnerable, they must have used it again."
"Why didn't you mention this?" said Grime.
"I didn't know, I just remembered now."
"Marcy," said Sasha, walking towards her, "Are you okay?"
The ranger nodded, "Yeah, it was just a bad memory, One where I hurt two newt friends of mine."
"You're not responsible for what it did," said Lady Olivia, comforting her friend.
The newt didn't notice Marcy tighten her fists, "It doesn't matter, We have bigger problems."
"You mean the invisible robot and Amphibia ancient evil returning isn't enough?" said Hop-Pop, "How bad can it be."
…
From the hill, Hop-Pop noticed the army of monsters moving towards Wartwood, ones he had seen before, from Herons to sandworms, to ones he had only just heard of, like the Brain eating slugs that had destroyed Lilypadington twenty years ago, to the wolfhogs of the south that had destroyed the old toad tower there, almost every single possible threat to Amphibia was coming towards them, heading to them to rip and tear all flesh.
"Okay, yeah, that's worse," Hop-Pop said flatly.
"So the Core's behind this?" asked Sasha.
Marcy nodded, "Yeah, Years ago they had made mind control signal, they changed it to collars, they must be using it now."
"ASSBOT!" said Polly.
The group turned to her confused, "POLLY LANGUAGE."
"No, I mean the assassin robot, They're the one who's making that signal, they're the one who's bringing all these monsters."
"Okay, so find the invisible robot and smash it and things will be fine," said Sasha, "Sounds easy enough for us."
Anne chuckled, "Okay, So what's the plan, Marcy."
"Me, Polly and Frobo, will stay here and try and track where Assbot is."
"It deserves a better name," grumbled Hop-Pop.
"Get help from Jess and Ally," said Anne.
"I'll start evacuating the town," Said Sasha, the old tower might be a safe place to get people to."
"Good, What about me?" asked Anne
"Go to the Portal and tell Mr. X everything."
Anne blinked, "What?"
"We need to warn him and well the earth authorities that the core is back."
"We'll stay," said Mrs Boonchuy, "Sasha's going to need all the help she can get in evacuating the town."
"Me to," added Hop-Pop, "I'll go see Mayor Toadie.
"I'm going with Anne," said Sprig.
Anne looked at the frog standing there, "Sprig, listen I-"
"I'm still angry, but I'm not going to start anything," he said.
The hill was quiet for a second, then Anne nodded, "Okay, let's go."
With that, the three groups departed, little knowing if they had listened harder they would have heard footsteps.