The Cyberkinetic Witch of Amphibia (Updated)

by Madman777

The Core was a vile evil abomination who was hated by virtually everyone. It's most vile act in the series was painfully possessing Marcy Wu and using her as a host. Well this time, it fails. Now Marcy is turned against it and the Core gets more of what it deserves and becomes more demonic in the process. And Marcy Regina Wu gets more of a chance to shine with her friends.

5. Chapter 5

Ch. 4.5 Campfires, Side-quests and Goofing Off

"Oh, the power to be strong

And the wisdom to be wise

All these things will come to you in time

On this journey that you're making

There'll be answers that you'll seek

And it's you who'll climb the mountain

It's you who'll reach the peak"-Son of Man lyrics (Tarzan)

Anne was a constant for Marcy to check on. To her delight, she found the work of one scientist, Dr. Frakes of Frakes Brainasium, who was doing passable work on the portals with a close call that their own first trip to Amphibia had opened a brief portal to in her secret lab.

Her assistant Terri was a better person than her and aided Anne and the Plantars in escaping from her mad boss. Already she had a working portal idea that was calculated to succeed in a month or two.

"Sweet! We might not even need to steal the Box to get her back!"Smarcy said as they copied her files into their own (just in case).

"True. I'm feeling good! Let's have some fun, some work and pleasure!"Marcy grinned brightly

*Campfire Stories-Bring da hammer down!*

"I'd like to know more about Sasha's plans …"Marcy said to Percy and Braddock.

Braddock hesitated"I don't know, Mars … there was a lot of details …"

"No sweat, hang on!"She gave them a special circle device to touch, focused her mind for a second, and put it on the ground.

"We can just see what you saw!"

The first memory played of when they went to the North Tower.

Bufo said," So, the disgraced Captain Grime called this council meeting? Does anyone have any idea why?"

Beatrix joked,"Maybe he wants to be surrounded by friends when he gets arrested. What do you think, Aldo?"

Aldo looked dead. Plants covered his body and a beetle crawled from one eye socket to the other.

Bufo asked a question many wondered long before this,"Uh, is he asleep or dead?"

"Definitely smells dead."Beatrix said. The waiting toads all laughed.

"Not exactly a welcoming crowd,"Braddock said nervously as they peeked out from a curtain.

Percy agreed,"Especially that Captain Beatrix! What's her problem?"

"Her problem is that she's my sister. And I may have teased her quite a bit when we were tadpoles."Grime grumbled.

"Ah sibling rivalry, a tale as old as time!"Marcy said wistfully.

Moments later they did a grand entry and shot t-shirts saying 'Toadz rule!' on them. Marcy rolled her eyes.

Grime did a speech,"My fellow toads. For years, we have kept the kingdom's servants in line. But are we not just servants ourselves? I propose a future where toads overthrow King Andrias, and take our rightful place as rulers of all Amphibia."

"Pst. Drop the mic!"Sasha whispered.

"Oh right!"

The toads loved the idea, but disliked the idea of Grime leading it.

Bufo said,"Yeah, I don't think so. We love your vision, but no toad is going to follow the command of a fugitive and his hummus."

"Humans. We're called 'humans'."Sasha snapped.

"Is it really that hard of a word to remember?"Marcy asked her group. They gave so-so gestures, shrugged or shook their heads.

"I've got it down by now!"April promised her.

Beatrix dropped a bomb for Sasha,"Bufo's right. Just because King Andrias is working with a couple of hummuses doesn't mean us toads will go for it."

Sasha had a negative reaction to this,"Wait, other humans? They must be talking about Anne and Marcy. I don't believe it. They're working together? Without me?" She shook with rage.

"Wow, jealous much?"Marcy said flatly.

She got so mad she went savage on the toads Bufo directed to arrest them. She asked," Listen here, you buffoon! What's it gonna take to prove that you should follow us?"

Aldo raised his body up and spoke in a deep voice,"Barrel's Warhammer."

Bufo said,"Barrel's Hammer? You've finally gone senile, Aldo."

"Yeah, that's a suicide mission."Beatrix agreed.

"It is said that the one who wields this hammer is the true leader of all toads. It is the one thing, the only thing, that will prove we should follow you."

Marcy grew more and more alarmed seeing how much risk she put them all in spite of promising she'd call it off if it got too risky.

One line showed how possessive she was about her friends." No! I can do this! I am not gonna fail! Not while Anne and Marcy are getting by without me!"

"No wonder you left …"Marcy said sadly to the pair.

"Yeah, too much …"Percy said sadly.

"How about before?"Marcy wondered.

She got to watch Sasha's arrival and time with the toad armies, her fight with Anne (worse than she thought) and her brief time as an outlaw, and escaping Yunan (somehow).

*First Temple Excavations*

"Perfect!"Marcy said while overlooking some general new Galaxy War designs and looks for her basic forces.

The Standard Frobots had several Stormtrooper/Clone trooper paint designs and helmet looks among their ranks now, along with TIE pilots. The Magnas were performing splendidly as bodyguards so far.

Naturally, the Droids of the series generated some more ideas. Battle droids had been made. The 1B series were of no use as weak units, so the more formidable 2B models with wrist-cannons were made.

The similar light-blue Aqua droids (AD) with a polygon shaped head and single red eye were ideal for patrolling the swamps, oceans and rivers. They had a fast-swimming mode with propellers, reinforced bulky armor, and a retractable laser cannon on their right arms for ground attacks. and a missile launcher for underwater attacks. They were given a feminine personality with the polite TC-14's voice and courteous behavior off the battlefield.

The iconic Destroidekas were perfect. The 6 ft tall three-legged droids with twin-repleating blasters for arms, personal shield generators, and the ability to roll into a ball for rapid mobility were by far among the most deadly droids in the series. They'd hardly had to add any upgrades at all for their versions except for a back mounted sensor to detect sneak attacks. It helped that the Amphibians had no real concept or use of EMP attacks, one of their shield's few weaknesses.

They were costly and expensive to maintain with the shield technology, so Marcy limited herself to seven of them. Her robot supplies were a bit strained, one reason she was focusing on adding some more living troops to her forces.

The best one, however, was not them, but the Tri-droid, another three-legged droid of 3.6 m height with three red orbs giving them a full omnidirectional view with no blind spots. Three swiveling blasters were mounted below their large orb-shaped head. Much like their counterparts, they were immune to electrical attacks.

"Battle droids! It's an invasion army … that we're using to fight an invasion army of evil droids!"Smarcy declared,"Just like the Rebel Alliance of old, we'll use droids and living rebels alike fighting as friends to end the Evil Empire!"

"You got all this from some story with heroes using mind magic and laser swords and robots in a battle for a whole universe?"Braddock said in disbelief.

"It's cool that these Rebels use their friendship and force powers to take down this evil Empire!"Percy said.

Marcy gasped,"Percy, you are a gift!"

She hugged the confused toad and said,"That gives me a great idea for our next spot to look for more stuff!"

They headed towards the First Temple, the place for Marcy's Stone of Wit. "It's so fitting, I got overconfident and all set to prove I could beat the place no Amphibian had survived trying to get inside I got too in the zone and had to throw the flipwart game, which the place was cheating with anyway, but thankfully the Wit stone also looks for humility. It said 'Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it's more important to win, or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and, honestly, doesn't that make you a winner in the end?' I'm still choosing friends and now I'm all charged up to be like Anne!"

Percy said,"Happy to help on ideas, Mars … but what's the deal with this place again? Besides being the Temple for your stone?"

"You'll see when we get to Amygdala Woods …"She said.

"Remind me what the other two are again?"Braddock said.

"Oh yes, Anne's was at the next one for the Heart Stone at Mt. Mufu. Everything I found on that one was vague, it just said 'heart' a lot. Valeriana from the Bizaare Bazaare guarded the place … she vanished with Anne to somehow do a trial? The other Bazaare guys say she's always been a mystery and much older than she looks, so one of these days I should find her again. She hasn't been around that area last I checked. Thankfully, we now know the Heart Stone looks for empathy and responsibility. Somehow it looks like she didn't charge the Stone all the way and retained enough power to activate her Calamity form. Strength, Sasha's bit, we've already got the stuff from the Third Temple. It is the largest of the Stones …"She leaned closer and said,"If I had to guess, it's not just the stone representing being strong, but has the most raw power in it!"

"So Sasha could be even stronger than anyone on Amphibia? That is so awesome, but so terrifying at the same time!"Percy said, shivering a bit at the thought.

Marcy patted him on the back,"I know, but thankfully, it was a better proving ground area for her than the Warhammer. That Stone looks for both strength and persistence. The final challenge for her was to learn what strength was all about. Anne telling her she believed in her and reminding her that she never gave up was all she needed to get that drive to win it! When Anne gets back, we should see if we can get a bit of her powers!"

"Oh look, it's still intact!"Veronica said as the green fungal area came into view.

Amagydala Woods was a mass of large mushrooms the size of trees. The local fungi were growing brighter and stronger since Marcy's awakening.

It was still relatively untouched by Andrias's forces.

"Oh yes, the name is fitting"Marcy said to Percy and Braddock as they went there,"Amygdala sounds like the part of the brain that controls emotions! It's fitting we have the Gyromitra esculenta, also known as brain mushrooms, around the Wit Stone's Temple!"

"Neat. Do they do anything?"Percy asked.

"Of course, any mushroom does something!"Bomme said.

"Yup, these mushrooms have spores and fluids good for intelligence and more!"Marcy said,"Let's get some samples so we can grow our own!"

Her team did so.

"I can feel them now … smarter than any other fungus or plant around them!"Marcy said.

"I thought a fungus was a plant?"Braddock said in confusion.

-10 minutes later of Marcy explaining-

"Never mind!"Braddock said hollowly.

"Here, just have these informative field guides for future reference!"Smarcy said consolingly, having a Marine pass her a copy.

"Thanks!"The blonde toad said.

They went inside the door. The place opened up for her and offered them no challenges.

"Thank goodness, it got so dangerous last time trying to charge the stone!"Marcy said with relief.

"More than that … it's recognizing you as its master …"Sally said quietly.

She was right. The Flipwart statues, other statues and every defensive area made way for her or started following her.

A few puzzle cubes were offered by the Wart pieces.

Writing appeared on the walls. "So you've opened your mind and a great evil you seek to rid, come in, Wit, and see what treasure inside is hid!"Marcy read.

She was able to open the chambers below.

In caves and vaults below, they found a lot of things. Treasure, mystical chains with a curse on them that couldn't be removed unless the caster did so, ancient weapons, texts and more.

"Ohhhh,"Marcy swiveled her head to several growing crystals in a pile in the last one.

"Something's up with those … I can feel it, my mind knows it!"She gently poked one with her spear and examined it from every angle she could think to make sure it was safe, and they packed them all up.

Bomme and Marcy tested the crystals for danger and could find no dangerous properties, but they could not find what they did yet.

"Great haul, even if those are a bust!"Percy said, holding a scepter in his hands.

"This spot would make a great hidden base!"Vizzini suggested.

"I agree!"Marcy said.

The spot became a second base for them. Anyone or anything else who tried to get too close started getting painful headaches and the normal Frobots short-circuited. They removed the statues of Aldrich and other monarchs and crushed them.

The mushrooms were a useful supply. They made valuable stress-reducing potions, sleep potions and brain healing or enhancing ones. Marcy's stress and intelligence levels were kept stable and improved.

For defending this base and supplementing her own army, another Clash of Cultures-based units were made, the Newtromaton. The Atlantean Automaton from the sixth game she knew so well could repair itself when broken for the first time. The newt-based version worked the same way and had fish-like spines on the tail to match the fin-like crest on the Greek-style helmet and spikes on the metallic version of their sand-dollar shields.

The Frost Knight's weapons got upgraded to be more dangerous, using powers similar to those of elite Death Knights in Warcrafters (not the plague or most graphic ones), healing magic, limited control over the weather, elemental powers, gravity fields, magnetic fields, light and energy-based powers like Anne and Marcy's (specifically telekinesis), some level 0 and 1 Amphibian curses (without ingredients, incantations or other items required) and shadow magic.

The Four Horsemen and Darius got the ultimate buffs to become even more dangerous to the enemy. Darius's Helm could gather strength to unleash stunning waves of energy that incapactitated enemies in front of him and lend his strength to Marcy to make her power greater. The Four Horsemen had strength and power comparable to half of Marcy and Anne's and the unique power of Mechromancy.

They could reform destroyed Frobots with intact parts into new forms that were less machine and more like magic-powered golems. The Soldier, Froglet and Hooded Frobots became Geisters, shambling skeletal Frobots with tattered hoods and cloaks one, a single yellow eye peering out, a hangman's noose around their necks, and wielding their lasers, axes, or shovels and pickaxe in combat or for manual labor.

The exceptional amount of destroyed Royal Guard Frobots, Shield Generator Bots and Construction Bot parts from their first week raiding got reformed into some unique machines. The blue and white Nagataurs had six crustacean legs holding up a slimmer torso with the usual bulky Frobot pauldrons, and a new crablike head with ridges on top, fins on the side, and red eyes. They had two large crab-pincers on their arms and could go underwater or up walls and absorb and release electric attacks.

They were assigned to guard the bases (especially the First Temple), tend Bomme's new Zapapede farm project, especially the First Temple, or accompany the Knights and other CR leaders on missions.

The original Royal Guard Bots stopped being made soon, so only 21 of them were made.

The Cloak-Bots became Flayers and got larger claws, a grey cloak over their bodies, and lost all other abilities except their laser eyes and extendable arms. The Dragonfly drones became fiery blue butterflies with hypnotic effects on living and machine alike and could unleash the fire that could both heal and burn as they wished.

This Mechromancy was limited and could only work on three to five Frobots at a time outside of their territories, but it was worth it.

Veronica's Witty Wraiths of Wrath*

"This is going to be perfect for the magic angle! Don't get me wrong, being a master of science and robots is cool and all, but this … I wanted to be a witch since I got here and learned it was real!"She said to Veronica while they went over the hauls from the First Temple.

"Yeah, they still don't get how much of what you do is which, though … I can help be more obvious!"

"Obvious is hard for magic these days, and always complicated. Any preferences?"Marcy asked her while going over some charms.

"I am so keeping this!"Veronica held up an onyx-black longsword with mystically enhanced durability and slicing. It had proven to be virtually unbreakable and could launch attacks of fire and air from it. Veronica had managed to use her own magic skills to channel spell work with some extra tools and ideas in their arsenal (including a special necklace and a bottomless satchel) and could use it like a witch staff now. She dubbed it the Voidblade for its color and icy cold metal.

"Cool … now we just need a proper look for you! And we have no shortage of ideas!"

"It's still a shame you don't like my sorceress supreme look!"Bernardo called over.

"No thanks … a bit too obvious for my style!"Veronic replied.

A few days later after bonding over some story ideas, Veronica smiled with glee over one look of a fictional group of undead ghosts in cloaks. "I want to use that look!"

Marcy's eyes lit up with equal glee,"Oh, the Ring Wraiths? Go on!"

The next day near the Boiling Bastions, a work detail was going on near the hot steam lake areas.

A fire curse exploded in the top refinery chimney. The building caught fire.

Every Frobot, newt and toad and frog turned to look.

Veronica stood on the cliffs riding a spider steed. She wore a green and black-tinged cloak over her body, black guantlets, and held her new sword in one had. The hood shadowed her face, but her smile and eyes glowed bright red in plain sight with special illusionary effects/

"Flee now or suffer my wrath!"She called down.

"Who are you?"The biggest newt guard asked.

"I am …. The Frog Wraith of the North!"She yelled. She lit a match to light up a mixture in her hands her mother had taught her, some special moss and herbs, and she tossed it on the ground. Pink and blue flames lit up the area.

She stepped off her spider and tossed some curse bags at the decrepit trees near her. They came to life and started coming down to attack with her.

She pointed her sword at the sky and shot a blast of lightning at the sky into the nearest sky. The clouds began to swirl around the area. A tornado formed came down and threw most of the robots and guards around . The buildings and construction gear was torn up with them.

Veronica had a knack for charming and scary girly laughs that made her a more effective witch growing up. She cackled with mad delight as the guards in the air started screaming, a sound that carried around the mountain area. The captive workers stared in horror, especially when a few Nagataurs, Geisters, a gleeful Vicki, and some Flayers came down with her.

Beatrix and some scouts witnessed this from the farther ridges to the East. Her troops' jaws dropped , but Beatrix smiled. "That's adorable!"

Veronica lit the main fortified spot on fire with one swing of her blade.

"Come with me and we'll have some funnnn!"She said to the workers after her soldiers cut them loose. They were impressed but terrified for their lives, and let her know at once.

"Good, I was aiming for that!"She replied.

The guards were left there unconscious (some of them anyway) and reported the story, complete with a picture of Veronica with her 'anime nightmare hooded face' (as Marcy called it) on and holding her sword and the area burning behind her. The 'Frog Wraith of the North' was said to be one of the new rebel leader's top leaders, a 'ghost frog' out to claim vengeance on Andrias's forcesShe was a witch with unknow powers who used monsters and drove her opponents made (which was true) and had the animals and plants as her allies to do her bidding (sort of true), and had a cult of followers to worship her new leader.

"Not true!"Veronica grumbled when she heard that part.

"Maybe we can twist that back on them?"Bomme suggested.

"Yessss …"Veronica smiled wickedly.

A 'Wit Wraith' Squad with similar robes and armor was formed. Vizzini, Riggy, and Bogster were the first to join. Nicky Flappers was next. A large associate of his nicknamed Tats, a former bouncer toad of large height with dark brown skin and many tattoos on his arms and torso (especially the words 'Head and Chin') brough in a former carnie friend of his in the area nicknamed Blind Ivan Webler, who'd lost his right red eye in a scary accident with a witch years ago with red scars over it. Ivan had phrenology style tattoos over his white head and had a knack for chemistry.

"Fascinating … I like it!"He shook Veronica and Marcy's hands. "I'd love to put this madness behind me as soon as possible, it's hard enough to sleep at night here as it is!"

"Tell me about it!"Marcy shivered. He pitied her a lot when he heard about the Core later and offered her some of his grandma's best soup as a cheer-up gift.

Tats also called in two ex-cons he knew: Ghost-Eyes (a massive muscular toad with red skin, a massive beard and pale pupilless eyes) and Killbog (a black frog with sideburns and larger muscles)

Ghost-Eyes, Killbones and Tats accepted jobs with Halley's mercenary operations. They liked the nice girl who gave them great jobs and complimented Ghost Eye's failed philosophy class course. Ghost Eyes also felt bad for her and was mortified that she was haunted by glowing orange eyes and made sure her eyes didn't bother her. One day, he went out of his way to crush several Frobots with Killbones and Tats, robots that had orange eyes (an increasingly common phenomenon) sent to patrol their area.

"No one does that around here!"He screamed at one of them while crushing its head with his bare hands slowly.

"Does what?"Grime asked with honest confusion with Croaker in the distance watching these three brutes go at the robots as they tore into the machines with savage fury.

She shrugged.

Their swords and other weapons were varied, and the 'cult rumor' spread.

"This is … just, wow … I don't know if I should mock her for this or say it's a great idea!"Sasha said with a grin reading over the 'hooded cult' following her fellow rebel's new right-hand frog.

"Nice cloaks at least … and this girl knows how to use terror well!"Maddie said. She kept a copy of that poster in her room and made notes on every magic idea she was hearing about.

*Turkey Shootout*

"Great!"Sasha said, looking through a spyglass at the Misty Peaks,"they're rounding up Zapepedes for their bug minions and for powering their generators!"

The Frobots were using special gloves.

A newt scientist named Alan Galilog was there with his massive green toad bodyguard named Sangfroid and his accountant Sigfrog to supervise this. A dozen newt soldiers were with them.

Bomme snickered with delight several yards away in the other direction and turned to her squad of 10 volunteers (including Gaff, Raynor, Omei, and Oscar), and their newest two Fireteams (that could function as two separate ones) of eight robots: Spartadroids, Spartan Super soldier-based models from the Nimbus games.

The success of the Hunters led to making robotic versions of the Bugger aliens of the Hegemony, insectoid aliens standing at 177.8 cm with two pairs of transparent wings under a beetle-shell covering. These versions made for successful aerial support and workers to gather natural resources in plants like real insects. After this, some of the iconic heroes of the games were made.

The first one had self-regenerating PREFECT-class armor in silver colors. He had a single glowing blue eye in the center of his head. He had extensive force-field projecting abilities that could repel thrown objects and block laser blasts and advanced hacking on a level above a Cloak-bot's.

He was nicknamed Sparks, after 343 Guilty Sparks of the games, whose voice and bizarre behavior he emulated.

Buck, the lighthearted morale booster, ethical and loyal teammate with the best skill in manning heavy guns or was in grey ODST-type Helljumper armor. His armor was resistant to any type of firearm used here or on Earth and could survive impacts the best unscathed. For that reason, he led frontline charges the best.

Scully Johnson or 'Sarge' had a certain whacky drill-sergeant's voice, love of Heavy metal, and sense of humor (guess which one) and a DEADEYE-armor body in U.S. marine colors. His vision could zoom in at over 5 km away.

Jorge was the gentle giant of the group, just like his namesake Jorge-052. In battle he handled rescue and dealt heavy fire to their enemies for rapid takedowns. He stood the tallest at 7'4" and wore a colorful green GUNGNIR-armor design with a GRENADIER helmet model,a yellow chestplate, and mismatched pauldrons of red and green on his shoulders (the right one was bigger). He wielded the heaviest weaponry: a massive heavy machine gun called 'Etilka with live rounds and lasers.

The other four Spartans were feminine.

Linda shared Linda-58's ARGUS design, skill with meditation/focus, and South African voice. Her processers and HUD (Heads-up Display) had advanced observation, situation and threat awareness. She could literally see in all directions around her and in all spectrums of vision. Marcy made her vision capabilities so good she had probability calculating abilities.

Lucy was the shortest at 5'10". She was also the quietest, only speaking when spoken to or when needed in short sentences (much like Lucy B-91). Linda and Jorge kept her close. Her design was grey ATHLON armor with a red visor and PULS armor skin white paint patterns on it. Far from being the weakest, she was the fastest runner, a very good shot, skilled at martial arts, and had the second toughest chassis after Buck.

Spartan Vale was a character Marcy could relate to from one recent game. She was smart, curious and good with alien languages, and had asked endless questions as a child. Growing up, she'd become a surprisingly good soldier.

The red and gold COPPERHEAD-class model Spartabot had Vale's name,personality and voice. She was immune to any chemical attacks, adaptable to any terrain, and had cloaking capabilities as a bonus.

Melanie was her most enthusiastic and perky one. She was made in a purple and silver TECHNICAN-class armor form. Her visor glowed purple and purple Override armor patterns covered the shining silver chassis.

This armor in lore was meant to allow the wearer to function as a mobile diagnostics center that could curate and process vast amounts of data and scan living things. Melanie could do all that and had the same force-field abilities as Sparks and access to info on every weapon or tech on file available to master it or counter it. She shared the VA name and personality of the perky and combat-happy monitor 031 Exhilarant Witness from Nimbus 5, a fan favorite character of the game.

Like a Spartan these bots were over 6-ft tall (nearly 7), had an energy shield protection layer and advanced targeting systems in their HUD displays. For the sake of resources, Marcy was limiting use of those and other radical inventions.

They'd made Extractor Railguns from the 4th game that fired powerful blasts of energy. The Covenant's Beam rifles, S2S99 Sniper Rifles ( with actual ammo and laser modes) and some other laser rifles were in play.

"Light 'em up?"Sarge asked.

"Yup, Sarge we shall!"Bomme said with glee from their spots above them and out of sight,"Our aerial squad will get the three supervisors and their living guards. For the rest, pick your targets, fire at will!"

Shots rang out. A Frobot near the ledge was hit in the head first.

"What in Olm's name is going on here?!"Galilog yelled.

His robot troops near the mountain were picked apart unit by unit. One ledge was blown from under twenty and they fell into the zapapedes and were fried instantly.

"Who's shooting?!"Sasha wondered, unable to see past the fog.

"Retreat!"Sangfroid yelled.

A spinning and glowing fan cut through ten Frobots (in the head), all the spears and guns in hand and landed in the hands of Marcy's lead Kawaiinichi, Yumi. She stood there with Dunbar.

"Not so fast! No more hopping, just stopping!"She said in her snarky teen girl's voice.

Odd flew in upside down on his hoverboard along with two Buggers and grabbed Galilog, Sigfrog and the newt sergeant and carried them off screaming.

"Giant bugs, ninja girls in cute outfits with shoulders like mine, emo edgelords with very big swords, and guys flying on hoverboards ? Really?"Sasha groaned.

Sangfroid growled and ran at Yumi. She got into a relaxed karate stance and did an epic three-move takedown.

She did a roundhouse kick to his gut, a jab to his right arm, and a chop to his neck. The large toad, over 7 ft tall, fell down senseless.

Dunbar ran straight at the closest seven Frobots and spun around with his large sword and bisected all of them. He beheaded three more and kicked a fourth in the gut, denting it hard enough to shut it off. He turned to the rest, held his hands out and let out a Super Smoke cloud that swarmed over themk. The dozen soldiers fell unconscious in seconds being hit by it. The remaining 40 Frobots spasmed and exploded when it got inside them.

Yumi levitated the toad with her Teek powers and the Strifebots tied the newts up in a group and dragged them off behind them.

"That saves time on our plan to do an avalanche on them, at least!"Sadie said.

"Yeahhhh …"Sasha conceded,"and that takedown the ninja girl did was cool!"

"You could do that easy though!"Maddie teased her.

"True!"Their leader said.

*Campfire Songs-Blow*

"My new Bomme squad is ready!"Bomme said.

For her own lab security and attack 'Bomme squad', Bomme took six Fryerbats and six Maraudbots apiece to be upgraded to an elite version, the Cerberus Scorchers (Cerbescorchers) and Anvil Securities special units. The triple-nozzle flamethrowers and claw-like grenade-launcher grips with extra firepower and durability were perfect for scare factor and more damage. They both got Juggernaut forcefields around their fuel tanks and auto-loaders to prevent their arsenal from being targeted and blowing up. The Cerbescorchers had extra fiery tattoo paint around their weapons, torsos and shoulders, and the AS Maraudbots had hazard signs and anvil symbols on their pauldrons and grenade launchers.

Sergeant 'Trailblazer' Miles the Fryerbat was appointed Bomme Squad leader.

Twelve elite Marines provided long range and basic artillery for them. They had the War Pig design with the smaller and more robotic helmet look with a glowing blue visor design, bulkier armor and a height of 7'2".

The fact that the game had elite and mercenary versions and alternate 'skin' looks was too much for the mercenary inventory to resist. Her personal Siege Tank got the Siegebreaker look.

Some of their Siege tanks, Hercs, Reapers and Maraudbots got the Ujima Protectorate skin look, with white/grey colors, sleeker/reinforced designs and more upgraded performances for their weapons. The Maraudbots in particular got advanced laser targeting systems that almost never missed.

Many Fryerbats, Medics and Marines got the Dominion Covert Ops skin as well with black reinforced armor, glowing blue Tron-like lines on their armor, the glowing jolly roger of a green skull with a sword and gun, and advanced weapon. The Marines got laser-targeting C-14 Rifles and grenade launcher attachments. The Fryerbats got the Dominion elite Promethean Company's look (almost identical to the Devil Dogs in shape and size) with triple nozzles, heat-seeking rocket launcher additions on each wrist, increased resistance to explosions and Juggernaut fields. For the Medics, the addition of a advanced robotic syringe limbs on the back and nonlethal stun grenades and flares made them the best healers in Marcy's ranks.

Their lead Medic Skibi had the Raynor's Raider blue armor color scheme, nanobot supplies for robot 'treatment', four additional robotic limbs (like insect legs) on her back with additional syringes filled with rejuvenation fluids and Marcy's best healing potions. She also had forcefield abilities and internal compartments filled with antibiotics and counters to every known infection on hand.

The Widow Mine robots (half as tall as the Marines) all got Covert Ops design with blue eyes and angular additions on their legs. They burrowed and used Cloak-Bot camo tech to remain out of sight. In addition to lock-on target missiles, they had high-powered lasers and stun shots. They made for a perfect hidden defense security. Barely any of Andrias's many, many scouting parties to their area got past them at all.

"What say we roast some Mindshroom areas and raid some factories?"The Science officer asked.

"Of course, we should do a fitting song for another blowout!"Marcy suggested.

"To enjoy blowing up some factories?"Braddock said nervously.

"Watch, we can make it fun!"Marcy winked.

"Go Kasha!"Smarcy yelled.

It was impossible to resist dancing along with the pair as they blew up factories along the Southern Coasts and in view of Wartwood, Ribbitvale, and the Castle. The explosions were timed in sync with the chorus.

Dance!

Back door cracked, we don't need a key

We get in for free

No VIP sleaze

Drink that Kool-Aid, follow my lead

Now you're one of us

You're coming with me

It's time to kill the lights and shut the DJ down

This place about to

Tonight we're taking over, no one's getting out

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to

Now what? (What?)

We're taking control

We get what we want

We do what you don't

Dirt and glitter cover the floor

We're pretty and sick

We're young, and we're bored (ha!)

It's time to lose your mind and let the crazy out

This place about to

Tonight we're taking names, 'cause we don't mess around

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to

Go-go-go, go insane, go insane

Throw some glitter, make it rain on 'em

Let me see them hands

Let me, let me see them hands

Go insane, go insane

Throw some glitter, make it rain on 'em

Let me see them hands

Let me, let me see them hands (c'mon)

We are taking over (oh-oh-oh)

(This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh)

Get used to it, okay? (Blow-oh-oh-oh)

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to blow-oh-oh-oh

Blow-oh-oh-oh

This place about to

*Pranking Mr. X and inducing Core Migraines*

Marcy took notes on Terri's research and made experimental Portal machines. For now she held off on portals but used them to keep an eye on Earth with a connection to the internet.

Mr. X was monitoring them and their friends Dr. Jan and Terri. She saw a chance to do a prank.

Mr. X really wasn't a bad guy. He was doing his job and looking out Earth in the interests of thwarting alien invasions. They were facing an alien invasion, so she would help him out more on that and mess with him a bit.

Smarcy took a form she dubbed 'Mal-Mar', similar to Cortana from Nimbus with blue numbers and colors.

She and Marcy proceeded to dance to an old theme song with a digital montage of memories playing around them.

It had two awesome effects. The Core got an actual migraine from the distorted words and effect she sent their way.

Mr. X looked very confused and then embarrassed in his van as his phone (on the other side of the vehicle) played the song in hearing range at full volume front of his men and Jenny, who raised their eyebrows in disbelief.

I'm never that far

No matter where you are

Believe it

We can make it come true

We'll do it our way

No matter what they say

'Cause no one's gonna do it for you-ooh-ooh, yeah

But I-I-I-I, I'll never say never

As long as we keep it together-er-er-oh

If you're living a dream

And you know what I mean

Then you can't let 'em change your mind

It's the life that we choose

And we still break the rules

But it's all gonna be just fine

And what we'll all need is just to make believe

Yeah, everything begins when you do

Just gotta let go

'Cause you're original

And no one else can do it like you-ooh-ooh, yeah

But I-I-I-I, I'll never say never,

As long as we keep it together-er-er-oh

If you're living a dream

And you know what I mean

Then you can't let 'em change your mind

It's the life that we choose

And we still break the rules

But it's all gonna be just fine (just fine)

Yeah, we're all gonna be just fine

Just fine

And if you're just misunderstood

Just take your life with the good or bad

It's the times we've had

Yeah, we're free

If you're living a dream

And you know what I mean

Then you can't let 'em change your mind

It's the life that we choose

And we still break the rules

But it's all gonna be just fine

Just fine

If you're living a dream

And you know what I mean

Then you can't let 'em change your mind

It's the life that we choose

And we still break the rules

But it's all gonna be just fine (just fine)

Yeah, we're all gonna be just fine

You and me, we're gonna be just fine

Hummmmmmm

"That's not on my ringtone list!"He said heatedly as he went over to look at it. He smiled viciously,"Oh no, an unknown number, ohhhh you will pay for this unfunny attempt to scam me and use funny songs, honey!"

Jenny and their goons laughed. They'd heard weirder from him.

So did Marcy and Smarcy in their HQ. They high-fived and played another to mess with Anne a little. Anne's phone played a certain song while she ate noodles at home with the Plantars and her parents.

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh)

Whatever happened to predictability.

The milkman, the paperboy, evening tv?

How did I get to living here?

Somebody tell me please!

This old world's confusing me.

With clouds as mean as you've ever seen

Ain't a bird who knows your tune.

Then a little voice inside you Whispers,

Kid don't sell your dreams, so soon

Everywhere you look, everywhere you go

There's a heart (There's a heart), a hand to hold onto.

Everywhere you look, everywhere you go

There's a place, of Somebody who needs you

Everywhere you look.

When you're lost out there and you're all alone,

A light is waiting to carry you home.

Everywhere you look.

Everywhere you look.

(Chip-a-dee-ba-ba-dow)

"Interesting song choice …"Oum said. Bee tried not to laugh as Anne grumbled and examined her phone.

"Who messed with my phone and put that on my playlist?!"She demanded.

"Mr. Z from the Zombie division? Really?"Mr. X said flatly a few minutes later after 'tracing the call'.

Assassin Open Season*

Olaf, a former Townie Bugball player for Toadstool, came to Marcy's base and had some alarming news.

"A hit frog … he came to my area near Shiro Swamp last week and killed Frog Jordan and Lydia! I barely escaped with my life … I had to fake being dead in a bog nearby to get out!"The nose-pierced toad had a new eyepatch on and bandages over his fingers and ribs.

"Why was there a hit on you?"Marcy asked.

"I'm not sure, but … I heard a rumor or two on my way here there were hits put out on old associates of the Wartwood Resistance. We were close with Mayor Toadstool as his Bugball team players … You were the only one I could think of to come to!"

"You'll be safe here … leave the assassins to me. Now tell me what you know and start with the one who attacked you!"

Sasha was furious on her way back from a mission with Loggle, Maddie, Toadie, Wally and Felicia. The Marauders had robbed an entire caravan of supplies she's been expecting and she'd had to fight off twice as many Frobots.

"Could these be any more infuriating?!"She snarled.

"We're still alive, it's something!"Loggle said.

"I know, I know …"

Lasher, a giant green frog of 8 ft with red eyes, vine tattoos on his bare chest and the words 'HIT' and 'LASH' on his knuckles, was a feared mercenary who was very good at using his tongue for a 'lash attack' that could break bones and necks and pull foes to him to be broken in his superstrong arms.

He'd been sent a job to take out this human Resistance leader, a job offered by some hooded newts called the Order of Red Hours.

"We've lost many in our market operations to the Cyberkinetic Witch, and the king himself wants to clean up shop in this Valley!"The leader said.

"You've done good on your targets near Shiro Swamp already! Take her out as quickly and efficiently as you can!"Another one said.

"Done!"Lasher said.

The only one they were worried about was Croaker, and they sent six after her while she and Stumpy were dismantling a nearby factory at the same time. Two were unlucky enough to meet her and died. The other four got frozen solid by the Frost Knights before even coming close.

Lasher sat down on the road out of sight in the bushes eyeing Sasha.

However, Marcy's alpha Mothra Luna was in the trees behind him.

Lasher stood up and crept closer as she turned away to do a peptalk speech.

As he opened his mouth to do a 'Lash attack' Luna shot her Silk threads out of her hands.

Sasha and her commando squad turned in fright hearing him scream. The giant frog was being dragged back with webs to a red-eyed moth … thing in the shadows of a tree.

Luna got him webbed up and flew off.

"Was that a kill-a-moth eating a new victim?"Wally asked.

"Nope, that thing had arms and the wings looked … bigger!"Maddie said.

"The wings were glowing a bit … green!"Sasha said.

A couple days later, a veteran hitfrog of a similar kind named Gloss Creamback, a fixer certain powerful families employed, came with a large bristly toad named Mucker to take a hit out on Grime.

Gloss looked deceptively harmless with a safari style hat and a cane in hand. But he used the darts in it with great aim.

Grime had just crushed three dozen Frobots with eight of the Resistance by his side.

The pair in the distance didn't even catch his eye.

Gloss smiled and raised his cane up to fire.

Weighted chains wrapped around his arms and Mucker's legs.

Gloss turned to look up at whoever was doing this … and screamed.

Grime glanced over and watched in disbelief as a fancy dressed frog and large toad in furry barbarian gear were dragged screaming into the shadows behind them … where a pair of glowing angry yellow eyes were waiting.

Charlotte brought the pair back without anyone else the wiser.

The most dangerous attempt made was when Andrias hired a few reclusive magic experts, Andrian Vernwart, Eda Clawhorner and Vitimir, to try and curse Marcy, Maddie and Sasha. Marcy caught wind of their first attempts on her, which didn't work and sent Sally to their place miles away.

"Fools, you will pay the price for abusing magic and attacking my leader!"She yelled before freezing them solid. Their supplies were all confiscated.

Terra Snapnewt, a creepy old lady good with plants, tried using deadly mushrooms and mutated tomato creations to ambush them from the fields. Marcy was so annoyed she sent her Vinesnappers and Shamblers to eat both her creations and her whole, and then spit her back out in front of her so she could be interrogated and then put in jail.

A bounty hunter named Flora Dispora, a purple frog with short brown bangs and glasses who liked to ride scary beasts into battle and use a whip, was caught trying to kill an old friend of Bomme's by her Bomme Squad.

At the Ribbiton Estate, a very close call happened. Pierre the Killer Joker was a slim but tall frog wore a frilled suit, top hat, and scientist's goggles over his pale face and purple hair. He was a feared menace who rarely came out of hiding in his hidden lair in a cave under the Olm woods. But when he did, people died. He used a special glider to fly around and chemicals of poisonous gas and acidic slimes that came to life briefly to dissolve evidence and release more gas. A mysterious frog, he'd been suspected of dozens of village massacres during the Sand Wars and never left any witnesses. But plenty heard his laugh after witnessing the carnage left behind.

He was sent to take out Wally's family at night after wiping out a troublesome band of robbers and a village holding some of Croaker's old colleagues on the East Coasts.

Syllaleas, however, intercepted him on her Charger as he flew there laughing from a warmup practice on a caravan of three families below him. He was frozen solid and hauled back.

A more visible incident happened the next day. Near the South Tower, some mercenaries (30 mixed ones) were gathered with a force of Frobots (standard, Hooded, and two black Tank Bots). The lead mercenary was a massive frog named Grath of 18 ft. With him stood his shorter cousin Avalo (16'6"), a blue giant frog with a horned Viking helmet and big cyan beard and head of hair. The Bay hound brothers (three newts of 8 ft height with pale skin and brown patterns and all sorts of tattoos) were there hefting massive flails.

"Yeah, this will be a pickle! We can't get past them!"Sasha grumbled from her spot in the trees.

"We can distract them for now!"Grime decided.

However, the presence of two Cloak-Bots as an additional ambush made Marcy decide to intervene.

The force at the Tower turned their heads to see two Tri-droids stalking past in the distance.

"That's a new one …"Toadie muttered as he took notes.

"Whacky design. Looks like it'll topple right over!"Grime said.

"Good thing, since they're headed near our spot!"Maddie said. She held her curse bags ready.

However, the Frobots heading over to investigate didn't get far behind them before both reacted.

Their rear rapid-fire cannons targeted their opponents and took all twenty of them down in just ten seconds. Without losing stride they fired at the main group's position and took out one Tank Bot with a shot to the head. It collapsed on two dozen other robots.

Half of the grunts and the Bay pack bros tried to run for cover.

The Cloak-Bots landed in pieces after getting hit from behind yards in front of Sasha's group.

She turned to see Tychus standing near a fallen tree with a smoking Chain gun.

"Not so tough when your trump card's down, are ya?"The Marine said.

He opened fire on the mass of Frobots who turned to aim at him.

The rapid-fire hail of lasers tore through them easily.

CG-2 and Sydney led some Camo Bots (CBs) and remodeled Frobots take out the remainder. The Camo Bots were an early idea based on Frobo's design. They wore sniper jacket camouflage coverings of vines and leaves like Earth soldiers often used, had neon green eyes, and had swiss army knife style body compartment tools and weapons like Frobo and stretchable arms.

CG-2 levitated Grath with his trident and swung him into the Bay bros, knocking them out painfully.

Sydney was the big surprise. She leaped into their midst and flicked her glowing blue whips out on her middle pair of hands.

She swung them like a ribbon dancer in twirls that cut through sixteen Hood Bots coming at her. She leaped up and spun around like a ribbon dancer and cracked the whips in the face of one Tank Bot. It exploded at once.

Sydney landed and turned around at lightning speed to punch the massive Avalo in the gut with her upper right fist as he tried to smash her and sent him flying into a nearby rock.

The Camo Bots crushed the remaining robots. The last Tank Bot got two chain balls to the head and one to the torso.

Tychus chuckled and sighed contentedly as he walked towards his buddies,"Ah, that's the stuff … Let's group them up in the Tower, tie 'em up and then head out!"

That was a bit too much for the former Tower resident.

"What do you bucket of bolts think you're doing over there?!"Grime yelled.

Sasha elbowed him sharply. She didn't want these robots to attack them if she could help it.

Tychus just glanced back at their hiding spot and shook his head,"What a dumb question … even for a talking bush! We're here to kick butt and chew bubblegum!"He kept walking,"Why am I even bothering answering that dumb shrub? We're not here to beat around the grumpy little bushes or bark up the wrong trees but nip problems in the bud! If I wanted garden-variety conversations, I'd have volunteered for sentry work! Oh yeah, you can really stop and smell the roses doing that job! Why can't I see some pretty flower girls with sharp deadly thorns or hear some songbirds out here with sugar, spice and everything nice instead of screaming Grime-berry bushes?"

The rebel machines and even a few of their conscious prisoners chuckled. They knew it was Grime and decided to mess with him a bit further.

"IT'S NOT SPRING YET … POOR US! INSTEAD OF SONGBIRDS, WE'RE STUCK LISTENING TO AUTUMN SEASON GROUCHY SHORT SHRUBS THAT SOUND LIKE CRAZY AND SHORTER HAS-BEEN TOAD LORDS ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS! A SONGBIRD IN HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE GRIME-BERRY BUSH!"A Camo-Bot called while he took out some parts from a Tank Bot.

"Yeah, stand up or shut up, ya loser bush boy!"A techno-themed robot with a DJ helmet and 'dreads' said.

Grime snarled. The Resistance (especially their 'sharp flower girls/songbirds') fought not to laugh.

CG-2 said even more patronizingly, "Now, now, little bushes have feelings too … leave the poor shrubbery alone so it can bloom and grow, do some bushwhacking to be taken more seriously, and get a date with the local vines that give great hugs and singing and hammer-swinging lessons! It's a simple choice of Sydney or the Bush for us! We pick Sydney!"

"Awww, thanks guys! That means so much to me!"Sydney said with a very girly voice (more than usual) and two hands to her cheeks.

"Can I pick Sydney too? I don't like Grime berries, they taste awful!"One cheeky prisoner asked as he was led away.

"Why you-!"Sasha covered Grime's mouth.

She was fighting hard not to laugh herself. "Let it go!"She said.

He kept quiet until they got back to their base and said,"First of all, I am NOT a bush!"

Sasha gave up and started laughing with the rest of them.

"It's not funny!"He snapped.

Halley found two assassins who'd killed Gertrude (owner of the Under the Town Log) and ten of Grime and Bog's old soldiers of the South Army still at large. Thwack and Stomp were two large toads who wore hoods and thwomp-like block armor with spikes on their shoulders, fronts and backs. They preferred to do a combo move of crushing their opponents in between them or a nasty 'Squash drop!' from above.

"Oh boyysss!"She said in the bar they were in. They looked up in time to get knocked right in the fast with her mallet. She hauled the two senseless lugs out and no one was stupid enough to challenge her.

Oscar did Bomme proud tracking Delilah, a cursed grey newt with gargoyle like wings, claws and an unfortunate appetite for eating her kills, when she was sent to kill Toadie while he was on lookout duty. Oscar hit her in midair with his wrist-lasers in stun mode and brought her back.

The Red Hours saw Frobert come up to them at the same time in their base.

"Could you tell me …have you seen these boys?"He held up a photo of four of their late targets.

They panicked and tried to attack, but he wiped the floor with them and they were taken captive.

Ghost Eyes and Tats burst into a hideout where the last four of them where and strong-armed them and the dozen thugs into being hauled back.

A few other assassins had already been sent out by them and Andrias, but they were caught.

Another assassin of theirs, a poison dart frog (one a handful of frog types with very toxic mucus) named Meya Hops, was waiting in a swamp for Sasha to come by on her way back to Wartwood.

She turned when the water shifted next to her. Meya barely had time to scream before a Shambler wrapped her in its vines and carried her off.

Rango the Boulder-frog, a grim-faced and muscular green frog with a cowboy hat, loved to toss large boulders at his foes. He was sent to ambush Croaker and Sasha from a cliffside while they were driving to the Valley entrance one day.

Seven minutes before they arrived, Kimiko came behind him and shocked him unconscious with her whips.

Shea and Cassie, Jacinda's former pair of bodyguard sisters with red skin and brown stripes, had quit after the toad rebellion. Because Jacinda was now in cahoots with Beatrix, they were targeted while after travelling to a decent Newtopian work camp to the East.

Stickly Ango, a brown frog of some kind who wore cactus-themed armor and several throwing knives, tried to attack their camp and wipe them all out along with Rana the Poison Gripper toad.

Spiral appeared in midair while Rana charged like a maniac and proceeded to cut her killer hands off. The newts and axolotls watched in astonishment as she deflected every spike and blade Stickly threw at them and then took him out with one slice across his gut that was enough to incapacitate him.

"Soooo …"Spiral said with a scary smile to the 120-plus Newtopians,"care to follow me before more come to kill these two?"

Cassie and Shea (blonde and brunette respectively) swallowed as everyone glared at them.

However, they were glad to see Marcy.

"You saved our lives and want us to stay with you? Of course!"Cassie said. Shea nodded and gave the girl a hug when she offered one.

She gave them green versions of their old armor (minus the helmets) and let them do basic guard and escort duty.

Captain Greenbeard, a toad leader of some actors near the Caerillian coast, had another trio of killers sent after him and his associates and the crew of the Green Lady.

The surly toad looked up to see the Mash Hammer Brothers, two armored frogs who threw pick-axes and hammers at targets, and Sonora, a poisonous desert-dwelling toad who could spit some internal poison as a weapon, land painfully in front of them.

"Our boss would like a word with you all …"Gaff said, leaning on his best rifle next to Kane from the roof he'd thrown them from,"or you could keep messing with these punks who want you all dead."

The trio were taken in custody and Greenbeard had a surprising reunion with Marcy.

"I'll be scuppered and keelhauled, lassie, you did that for us?"Greenbeard hugged her.

"It's no problem!"She said.

The failed attempts to kill the Wartwood Resistance started spreading word of the underworld's budding new job opportunities for and against Marcy. Some did the smart thing and sought to offer their services.

Domona, a toxic newt lady with black skin, blue hair, and green gloves over her hands, led a small group called the Toxic Hands: Amphibians with a toxic or venomous quality who had little chance for other jobs after hard lives. One day she witnessed Coatl take down two rivals, Mazame the Poisonous newt widower and Bogmeyer the Mire Terror, in a pub near Kaeru.

He wasted no time, but just asked if they were those names and pulled his flail out and took them out with a blow to the head.

"If you don't mind me asking, who do you work for?"She asked with a smile as he started to drag them out.

"Why?"He asked blandly.

"I might want a job with someone who hires a skilled guy like you!"She said flirtatiously. Coatl rolled his eyes but took her along for an offer. He would end up dating her eventually.

"Oh mmyyyy, the No. 1 revel of Amphibia?! My dear Marcy, do you take Assassin's guilds on?"Domona said with glee when sitting across from her and Halley. When the pair's smiles grew in response to that question, her own grew even wider.

Her group got the best lodgings they'd had in years.

Phyllo Batson, a short yellow poison dart hitfrog, was the first solo mercenary to come looking for a job.

"Seriously, Miss Wu, your reputation has earned you both a high price on your head and some who want to take any you offer with such a wider market!"He said while eating lunch in front of her.

"Alright, tell me what you know of the competition first!"She said. He delivered in spades.

He called in a friend of his, Emily Swallowtail, a yellow frog with lengthy purple hair, a red spotted leotard, furry boots and yellow skin. She was a curse victim with massive blue swallowtail butterfly wings ( a wingspan nearly twice her 5'" height, black antenna, a puffy brown mane around her neck, and red insectoid eyes. Her tongue has also mutated into a butterlfy's proboscis. Her voracious appetite for nectar and honey after she was cursed on her cousin's wedding day led her to turn to theft and mercenary work.

She came in with her friend Summer Shards, a newt with blue crystal skin and glowing red veins and eyes, an even worse curse victim from that party. One-eyed Jack, a cowboy outlaw toad with an eyepatch and a deadly lasso, followed.

"So you want a job in my army of mismatched monsters, robots and Amphibians? Say no more … all monsters and oddballs welcome! Here!"Marcy offered Emily a jar of honey.

"You are nice!"Emily said before slurping it down contentedly.

The first big find Phyllo offered to track down was one close to home for Newtopia and Grime. Grime had once been famous as an employed Colosseum gladiator, their fiercest fighter until he joined the army after he won enough battles to earn some major acclaim and money.

The gladiators were a mix of employed or forced servitude as punishment. Grime had been a bit of both.

Tony the striped Savage newt was an ex-gladiator along with Xever the venomous biting toad, Ellen the hard-headed newt boxer, and Tom the red-eyed frog. They were working a mercenary outfit up North along with some others and ex-prisoners as a job offer. Clancy, a brown newt standing a head above Yunan, supervised them.

Tony (an old drinking buddy of Grime's) was a large striped yellow/black newt (tiger salamander kind) of 9 ft with an orange beard who had a love of meat and was suffering a long sentence in the colosseum for his family's ill reputation and crimes of raiding and cannibalism (especially his father Tyler).

He had excellent combat skills and healing for any damaged limb. Tony was a charming fellow in spite of his love of battle and morbid sense of humor.

Tom, a green treefrog with hypnotic red-flashing eyes, had a large orange afro, a bold baritone (and good singing voice) and was very hard to hit.

Ellen wore her brown hair in dreadlocks and was the toughest female gladiator everyone else avoided for her angry temper when she was alone. She looked up to Tony like a father and didn't act up when he was around.

The other members of their ranks were a mix.

Bobbin, a large horned green frog with a big head and heavy body like a sumo wrestler's who rivalled Tony in size, was even more feared as a gladiator who would swallow his enemies whole if he was very hungry. Erik the Bumblebee Slayer was a large poison dart frog with vivid yellow and black skin. He wore straps over his hands to fight along with a tough leathery coat, and terrified most opponents from getting too close in fear of touching his poisonous skin. Grime had lost three times to him in his last year.

Katelyn was a black swordtail newt of Marcy's height (5'7") with long aquamarine hair but (like most females of her kind) a tail longer than the rest of her body. The tail of 6'9" and her high reflexes made her the Tail-thrashing female champion of the Colosseum and Ellen's most promising new rival in the last two years she'd been there to work off a tax-debt for her bankrupt middleclass family. Her deal was now moot since the war started and she was stuck there.

The top Amphibian prison in the outer areas of the Great Bay, Croakatraz, had sent some of their medium-security prisoners to work with them.

Lee was a red axolotl who loved setting fire to things a lot.

Wilson was a large green toad with a bowl haircut known as the Snitch Strangler, who'd terrorized the Southern Coasts for five years as a hired killer to silence those informing on the now extinct La Bayou family of criminal aristocrats or anyone who pissed him off.

Rachel, aka Diamondback, was a purple-haired and purple-bodied newt with diamond-shaped patterns on her back and did work as a skilled knife-thrower assassin before getting locked up in Croakatraz.

They'd taken out 10 spots around Eastern insurgencies so far.

Tony sighed as his drank some booze one day next to the Boiling Basin after a long day with Tom, Ellen, and Lee (who they took a liking to along with Rachel) and said,"Oh yes, so tiring … and let's be honest, the good king knows we're expendable and doesn't care if we last a month, much less a year?"

"Your point? Since when did he ever?"Ellen said.

"I'm just saying, it's going to be a short-life of enjoying such freedom and fun at this rate!"Tony said.

He heard Bobbin howl with pain. They turned to see him fly through the air and land with a black eye and bleeding fingers four yards away.

They didn't like Bobbin (few did) but it alarmed them to see that happen.

Lonnie walked over from the edge of their camp, rolling his shoulders,"Greatest gladiator my foot!"

"You! Surrender now or-"Clancy was cut off with a dart to the neck and fell down.

Wilson tried to strangle him and got his arms and four ribs broken in seconds. Xever charged at him and was tased by a disguised Kristanna (in a hooded newt look like Clancy's other guards). The Predbots sent a low-level electric charge through the bog water two-thirds of the group were standing on. Only Rachel, Erik, Katelyn and four others were left standing besides the quartet still at their table.

"Anyone else?"Kristanna asked, smiling darkly as her eyes glowed.

"Madam … I should hate to look that foolish,"Tony said winningly (his friends and the rest rolled their eyes),"perhaps we can discuss this rationally?"

The eleven boxed crooks and gladiators still standing were all recruited into Marcy's ranks within the day.

The Marauders were also analyzed as a threat. Marcy didn't like them at all,"Anarchists punks who raid caravans and villages for scraps and supplies, pillage forts for weapons, don't work for anyone but enjoy causing problems … especially for Sasha …"

Their leader was identified as former Wartwood resident Barry the Candyman.

Smarcy shook her head at the sight their scouts were picking up,"Oh wow, Maddie beat him once for cursing Anne and Sprig … now he's gone completely bonkers!"

"Since he's a resident of the town, maybe it would be proper to let him be dealt with by them, but … we can keep him in line!"Marcy decided.

Barry was enjoying a drink of stolen bog juice. Marcy did a spell and it exploded in his hands.

"What the-?!"He snapped.

Marcy knew she was going to enjoy antagonizing him a lot. Every time he and his gang made it hard on Sasha, she would do something big or subtle to irritate him or make it harder on him. They also kept them from doing any major harm to the refugees.

The next day, his partner in crime Brian was headed back to their base with a fresh pile of weapons and abandoned robot scraps from a battle.

They were going to rendezvous with a pair of poison dart frog mercenaries, Adella Bates (black and yellow-spotted skin) and Sipal Azure (blue and black-spotted skin) who had goods from their latest job.

Brian was all set to head over to the pair waiting by the side of the road when suddenly they were yanked into the trees screaming by webs on their backs.

"Uhhhh, hang on,"The high-pitched toad said to the stunned Marauders with him,"their kind don't die easy, I'll bet they just need to grip that bug and-"

The pair landed on the ground wrapped up in webs and chains from head to toe. A large … monster of some kind landed next to them.

Vicki turned to look at the speechless anarchists and smiled her best scary smile.

"Well, well, well, what do have here? Dinner and desert?"

"Hey, we're not your food, you abomi-"The newt next to Brian had her mouth webbed shut instantly.

"Hushh, I wasn't talking about youuu!"She came closer with her nodachi in one hand and wicked long claws extended on the other.

They were left webbed to their carts two minutes later while Vicki took their three top finds along with her captives. Catching the pair who'd helped capture three whole villages and over 700 Frog Valley residents on the run for their lives and had killed 50 leaders, strong fighters or weakest members among them was a good find. Ruining the Marauder's easy trip back to their base was the cherry on top.

It took them three hours to get free.

*Sarge Rocks and Sparks fly*

Bufo was grouchy, missing a leg and had broken arms, but he was alive.

He insisted on accompanying Beatrix on a scouting mission to the destroyed area of Loggington after she sprung him and several others. "I want to see more of this rebel that gave you the info to bust me out in action!"

"Yeah, just wait, it's never predictable!"She said.

"Entertaining, weird and terrifying!"Fen said chipperly.

Sarge, Sparks and a handful of frogs from down South were held captive in a circle of toads, Frobots and newts.

Captain Jerry, a large toad around Bufo's height with a large bumpy head and ridges, brown and black skin patterns, and a large mace, was satisfied after getting a message.

"Oh good, these two freaky machines will be shut off and sent in for analysis and we can send these rebels in for execution for high-treason after they spill their guts on where that freak of nature leader of theirs is!"

"Oh, I know you did not just say that!"Sarge said.

Corporal Rico, a colorful yellow toad, hit his head,"Shut up, scrap head!"

"How rude. Such a vulgar salientin!"Sparks said.

"Are you calling me Sally!?"Rico snapped.

"No, that's your baby sister's name, fool!"Sarge droned.

The eavesdropping toads snickered.

"Shut up or I spit some venom and melt your head!"Rico warned him.

Sparks didn't stop,"Personal experience? This explains much. A toxic approach in this toxic wasteland. No wonder this brute is doomed to a most unfortunate life and death in battle or captivity!"

"Enough! Take these two over there and take them apart!"Jerry said.

Rico directed five Frobots to haul Sparks up first.

"Wow, I knew you were a wuss! Can't do any heavy lifting, gotta have your tin-cans do it on light-bulb there, Sally boy!"Sarge said.

Rico spat on Sarge with a full layer of venom. Smoke rose.

"Good, now you will all keep quiet or the next-GYEAAAAHHH!"Rico howled as he was punched high into the air by a still unharmed and free Sarge.

Sparks trapped his robot guards in his Constraint beams and fired his Electrolaser beams into them from his hands. Jerry's largest soldier, an axolotl named Carl, and five toads were levitated and swung into the sides of buildings and knocked out. Sparks shocked another toad named Pex (the size of Bufo) unconscious painfully when he touched his back.

"Don't do it, you'll regret-!"Jerry tried to stop Sarge as he pulled out a pulse grenade from his hidden compartments. Sarge tossed it over his shoulder and blew up the nearest factory.

"Yeah, no, YOU regret everything! You regret picking a fight against me,"A Frobot was broken in two by one punch,"YOU REGRET COMING HERE,"Sarge punched two large axolotl guards taller than him in the face,"you regret being in a fight you're worth *censored string of words,"Jerry and the rebel toad's jaws dropped (at the language and him swatting six Frobots and toads a piece aside with his bare hands)"you definitely regret we just blew up your flabby, raggedy half*censored*pillow fort,"Sparks fired his optic laser beams and electrolaser on every single robot near him, including the Cloak Bot that had ambushed their position, and kept going on the nearest two buildings,"you'll regret saying all that about me and our crew when I,"He broke the arms of his most competent soldier, a large black newt called Winston, who screamed in agony as he twisted them (Bufo and Bogs winced),"haul your big fat butt back to OUR jail, where you're gonna work or I'll break your legs and make ya walk all the way back for wiping out a village with kids last month, and you'll definitellllyy …"He jumped onto the backpedaling toad,"regret having Sally-boy spit his nasty guts on me! 'Cause now, you gonna spill you guts, all of y'all maggots, after I beat your butt-ugly face black and blue!"

"No!"Jerry squeaked. He was headbutted once, losing some teeth, and then punched in the gut and torso three times. He fell down moaning in pain.

Sparks stepped on a dazed Rico lying facedown and tased him unconscious.

Sarge turned to his soldiers and said,"That shut that fool up! Any questions, soldiers!?"

"Nope, not at all Sarge! Dumb punks were asking for that!" Corporal Carol, a pink frog with brown hair and a combat helmet on, said. All seven frogs stood up, their chains and ropes long cut.

"Good, just like we planned! Now … let's enjoy ourselves and blow this popsicle stand, soldiers!"

The team laid boomshrooms and charges around the other buildings, and blew the whole place sky high before hauling off their injured captives in glowing cuffs.

"Oh, I AM a genius!"Sparks giggled,"this was within a 100% mission parameter success margin! Our Monitoring Leaders will be pleased!"

"Uh-huh, sure ya are! Don't get cocky, Light-bulb! You only think this looks squeaky clean!"Sarge grumbled, wiping his armor off with a rag Carol gave him.

Sparks kept going, much to their frog soldier's amusement,"Oh, Sergeant, you can't imagine how exciting this is! Our Reclamation of Amphibia has begun! How unfortunate for our rival constructs and the virulent infestation in their Core that will consume all! To think, they would destroy all that is valuable on this world and every other world? I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."

Sarge and his team chuckled. His goofy eccentricities aside, Sparks was alright and on their side. And 100% right about their enemy.

"What was that babble all about?"Bufo wondered.

"Ya got me!"Beatrix said, rubbing her forehead,"but let's raid this spot and the nearest ones for smashing and grabbing!"

Andrias's constant migraine spiked seeing that he'd lost 30% of the areas between the Eastern Tower and Northern Tower areas in just three days.

*Some Cirque De Loons*

Gerald Dugille led his caravan of Dugille's Circus across the plains near the Emerald Coast districts by the Great Bay.

The grey walleyed and grim-looking frog had a black beard, ringmaster outfit and was a master of rope tricks, hypnosis, stage magic, and escapology. He had led his odd family of 'Circus freaks' for years.

Cree was an acrobatic albino newt with long red hair, snake-like yellow eyes, a yellow and blue striped leotard and freaky contortionist abilities.

Lillian was one of the oddest. She was a runaway from Newtopian aristocracy who'd found a bizarre sorcerer in her childhood to teach her some tricks. He used a bizarre tattoo curse on the many ones she applied all over her body (all kinds of animals, Amphibians, stars and more) so that they could come alive and off her body as magical attacks. She struck out on her own after he refused to undo it and got himself fed to a flytrap by an angry mob. Now she was the "Magical tattooed lady' act for their circus, doing ballroom dances that 'had stories and magic shows' come to life before their eyes.

She stood a few inches taller than Felicia with vivid pink hair and wore a fancy frilled red dress and boots and covered her hands with vine-patterned gloves. The gloves were to hide the most dangerous tattoos she could use: a slaughtersnake and scorpelio. Others included the flying eyeball on her left shoulder, the pirates with axes on her thighs, giant wasps on her right shoulder, and giant millipede on her tail. She still managed to be the most high-society member of the group with a British accent and good knowledge of every custom and enjoyed tea every day.

Her best friend and husband Barney was a blue newt with mystical blue eye tattoos (at least 57) all over his body. He wore a white turban and robes, did fancy card tricks and claimed his eyes let him see in multiple dimensions and more. No one could ever prove or disprove this, but he was a good husband and skilled medic when they needed it.

Wild Wilma Fletcher the Hairy Beast lady was an average-sized frog in a red and white-checkered robe and wore a pearl necklace. The rest of her body was covered in a puffy tangerine coat of hair/fur that never went away for long no matter how many times she cut it. Her flowing mane of wavy hair on her head was the only part she let grow longer than a few inches, and it went all the way to her knees.

She was their chef and grumpy attraction holding a club who acted like she was mindless (never longer than two minutes) before yelling at her impressive volume or gave 'uncivilized answers' to audience questions. The rural or rough areas loved that a lot. Her girly and snarky voice threw them off a lot.

It was still hard for most to guess she was only 18 in spite of that.

She changed her origin story every time she was asked. One day she'd say it was a childhood curse, another day she had a 'condition', another she'd caught some strange disease. She'd met Gerald at age 11 looking like that, so even he had no solid answers.

The Lightbug Twins ( or 'the Twins') Zack and Cole Grady wore fancy tuxedoes with black bowties, white gloves and shiny shoes. These identical pale blue frogs with middle parted brown hair looked quite normal in well-lit conditions, but glowed like fireflies when the lights were low or out. According to them it was a 'condition acquired years ago their family home near Mold Rot Forest by Lichen Pond. They'd gone swimming in the pond at age 13 after some strange toxins started polluting the area and they never recovered fully.

It didn't help that they spoke in unison or finished each other's sentences in creepy monotones with glazed looks. But they were good friends with Barney and Lilian, who enjoyed using them to spook anyone who harassed them on their dates at town stops.

They made for good announcers and cue card holders and had an uncanny knack for moving around quickly in seconds. Their Funhouse Mirror Scare show never failed to make someone scream for the shows.

The cursed siblings Janelle and Leroy Lagoon were even worse off than them. The blue-skinned and green haired Janelle resembled a harpy with gigantic blue-white wings for arms (which she could use just as well as fingers), tail feathers, yellow hawk eyes and large bird talons for legs.

Leroy looked like a manticore with golden fur, purple cat eyes, and a large black scorpion tail. They'd been cursed by an evil mage terrorizing their village at years ago and been driven off in fear. Now they did juggling, knife-throwing, legit fire breathing (Leroy)and flying shows with Vlad the Four-Armed toad beastmaster.

He was very nice to them, so they never held his title or being his ' Lagoon monster beasts' against him.

Stacy the snake-charmer was a recent addition. She was a 17-year old purple newt with long black bangs and a blue bow on top of it and a teal wrap shirt with long baggy sleeves. From her waist down she had a white snake tail that added at least 4 to 6 ft of length to her frame, and her arms were long white and purple snake heads of vipers with yellow eyes and poisonous fangs. She had yellow viper eyes to match and a forked tongue.

The poisonous bites she could give were fatal in four hours if untreated. Her scales merged with her natural healing metabolism for vast regenerative abilities that let her regrow her tail or arms if cut off in minutes (that had only happed three times so far) and virtually immune to poisons. Her 'hands' were somewhat sentient, which was the weirdest part. Nicknamed Addyson (left) and Gretchen (right) after her two best friends she'd lost years ago, they were very sentimental towards her and she could understand them and other snakes. After a few months getting used to them, she had a very symbiotic bond with them and could control other snakes.

In contrast to the Lagoon siblings, Stacy had no good answer for how she woke up at age 13 turning slowly into a snake girl one day, since she'd accidentally ticked off a dozen people in the lower parts of Newtopia the day before. However, she got out of dodge as soon as a monster-hunting mob formed and had met the Twins on a walk two years ago after surviving on her own for a while in the swamps.

Now she was Wilma's best friend and did 'snake charmer' dances and acrobatics as part of Vlad's show or doing scary dances with Lilian. It helped that she had hypnotic yellow eyes and singing she used to leave the audiences entranced or have the dangerous local snakes dance with her. She was a very good singer and a very nice girl at heart. Wilma was unusually delicate with her and beat the crap out of anyone who tried to seriously plan to hurt her as an 'exotic or feared predator that would eat them all'.

Stacy preferred spicy dishes, live fish and millipedes anyway.

Pinhead Larry was a large pink toad with pins and needles stuck all over his body. He had no sense of pain and acted as scary muscle and boxing champ with Frezzik, a gigantic green frog over 7 ft tall with fuzzy brown hair and a grey tunic and brown shorts.

Frezzik was a sweetheart and they all liked him. He was nice even to their grouchiest member. Irwin was a large wrestler newt with an unusual scaly skin condition that made him resemble a sewer gator.

Mimi the Mime frog(age 11) had fluffy green hair and wore typical whiteface mime makeup, a purple beret, a black jacket, white striped pants and a shirt all the time.

She was mute. Her throat and lungs had suffered permanent damage as an orphaned tadpole from poor living conditions and untreated sicknesses at age 4. The lack of speech and assumption she was deaf as well got her thrown out of the orphanage a year later. She was actually quite smart for her age and survived all the way to her frog stage on her own and picked up a knack for charades as a way to communicate/perform or distract people when she wasn't staying out of sight to scrounge.

Gerald had been the first to bother to try and see what the illiterate girl (at age 7) was trying to say with her charades on the street when he passed by while doing a show. He figured quickly she understood him fine and asked,"Do you want to see my show?"

She nodded and enjoyed it so much he let her travel for that year with the group. Mimi tried a mime act to make herself stand out visibly more when Cree told her about it.

"That's a mime … some people call me a mime's cousin … I know I'm a pale terrifying beauty, but really?"Cree grumbled. She smiled when Mimi kept watching the mime across the street at the Circus meeting convention,"If you're interested, go ask him for some pointers."

Jean-Luc found her charming and gave her a week of lessons and a new outfit.

"Cute!"Cree said when Mimi showed her the new look. "I'm guessing you want your own act?"

By that point, she was already family to them. From that day on, Cree told everyone she was her sister. They looked enough alike in colors that many thought she meant biological sisters even though they were different kinds of Amphibians.

She knew sign language and her letters now and took many educational lessons from Lilian and Barney. She acted as Cree's silent crowd prompter and occasional partner in acrobatics and did solo mime acts outside of the tent. Everyone looked out for her as the kid of the group.

It was her lucky day in many ways when she went out of their campsite one night to dump some scraps out and saw Granulosa the rough Mountain slayer, a grey newt with rough skin, a colorful belly, and a poisonous bite.

He was silent and deadly and preferred not to leave any witnesses. He'd just been hired anonymously by Andrias to leave Snarlsburg's Earl Willibad and several warchiefs dead. He'd succeeded and was headed North for more targets.

Mimi dropped the trash. He turned and saw her.

"How unfortunate …"He growled, stalking towards her. She gasped, making no noise." It'll be quick at least!"

Halley and Marcy were nearby doing an inspection of the area, and saw their campsite.

Halley sprang into action seeing the young frog in danger.

Grunulosa fell down unconscious after she hit him in the head with her mallet.

"Hiya munchkin! Ya ok?"Halley asked her. Mimi nodded.

Marcy came up and said,"Hi there! Are you lost?"

Mimi shook and did a few sign language gestures. To her shock, Marcy signed back: "Is your family nearby?"

Mimi led them to her campsite.

She tugged at Cree's sleeve.

"What's up, kiddo?"Cree asked. Marcy's glee rose hearing Cree's voice … it sounded soft but sassy. She loved learning Cree was indeed very soft, sassy and flexible.

"Everyone, look who saved me from a killer ruffian!"Mimi signed and pointed. They gasped at the sight of Marcy and Halley standing yards away with the Mar Guard. Darius held Grunulosa by the neck with his limbs chained up thoroughly.

"Thanks for saving her, Miss Cyberkinetic Witch … did I get that right?"Gerald asked nervously. He eyed the robots behind her with fear.

Marcy made it too easy to not be afraid by just being herself.

"Circus people, SO COOL! Is that a real whip? Do you have RINGS OF FIRE?! Are you actual twins!? Can you swallow fire or swords!? Do you do stunts walking across ropes over canyons!?""Marcy yelled in rapid-fire question mode while bouncing in delight.

Halley and the robots snickered.

Gerald's jaw hung open in shock.

"Gee, that's a first!"Irwin grumbled.

Marcy complimented him first, to his surprise"A gator man, far out and radical! You must be the king of the swamps in water combat!"

"Oh uh, well yes marm, I do good in wrestlin' matches for shows there and what not …"He stammered.

"Would you fine show folks … like to take a job and place to stay from me?"Marcy asked.

"That's nice …. But why would the most wanted rebel in Amphibia care for Circus Freaks like us?"Janelle asked.

Marcy took her mask off, and winked."Lady, please … you're not the first ones I've taken in, I have an army of robots and other monsters I made at my command, and I'm freakier than all of you on this world!"

The dropped jaws of the rest made Irwin, the Twins, Janelle, Mimi, Leroy, Cree and Frezzik laugh hard.

They accepted and got to know her over the next few days.

"Wow …"Wilma said while looking at the Core photos,"is my hair gonna be a problem for you?"

"No, that's glowing fake orange of a neon orange! You're more like a tangerine natural hue!"Marcy said anxiously.

"Thanks kid! I am a lovely natural at this …not like this fake poser!"Wilma said, patting her hair proudly.

A proposed show experiment happened at the labor camps near the Emerald Coast, known for the quality of gems there.

Gertie the Gnatcho vendor was a Newtopian axolotl who had met Anne and Marcy before. She was doing food work there. Young Efty was unhappily assisting Romi (a blue newt) and her daughter Kari nearby. Ming (a small purple newt with a Chinese style hat) and her five quintuplet kids did work going into the small spaces and crevices.

A blue axolotl named Jerry mixed his spices for lunch with a grim scowl. Max and his team of Igor Parade float and musicians didn't look any happier. They knew they wouldn't be celebrating any parades anytime soon back home. They and some like Mittle the tour bus guide knew that were effectively long out of a job.

Elderly Doris shared Marcy's love of puzzles, but was not happy doing codes and assembly work there. Agatha Ladler, a shorter old green newt with round glasses she'd just gotten replaced after a loud whackjob hit them off her, stood next to her. Herman the mailnewt (a short green newt with a cap and brown satchel) who'd also been whacked over by that human tourist swinging her tail around (guess who) took mail and schedules all around as needed.

Getwin the 'Tails R us' worker handled temporary 'replacements' for those who lost theirs temporarily in injuries these days. "This is not what I meant for the business!"He grumbled while hanging the best ones up on a cart outside.

"Me neither!"Craig (a buck-toothed green newt who worked as a shopkeeper for arts and crafts) called over as he sorted the best containers for swamp-cleaning duty.

Marcy wanted to help at least some of them get out, and wanted to test how they might view her. She decided to try amusing them in plain sight in spite of being a most wanted fugitive.

As a start, the laser cannon and the head of the lead Frobot sentry exploded into confetti.

The Newtopians swiveled to look.

A bunch of Circus Freaks were doing acrobatics over the nearby walls, opening doors randomly for bizarre ambushes and taking out every guard on the towers.

The lead one got a pie thrown in his face from Cree while she lazily bounced on some dock poles in the water.

Colorful 'defective' robots on hoverboards did skater tricks and rode circles on the aerial Frobots and made them crash or shot them down with barely visible arrows.

The sewers blew in six spots, drenching most of the garrison in the nearby barracks and short-circuiting several other robots.

A screaming newt cleric had his stuff lifted in the air behind him by invisible ropes. He turned around and got even madder. Then he was lifted out of sight.

The cause of all this?

The most wanted enemy, the scary 'cyborg witch' they were warned would eat their souls, was acting like a total goofball doing a silly dance with a grinning frog mime girl in between a Tank Frobot in crouching position and the area's Judge Frobot in table mode on top of a cliff. Two large robots that she was making slap each other in the face.

While a catchy song was playing the whole time.

None of the Newtopians said a word, but just stared, glanced aside at each other, and back at the loony show in town.

Can't stop, you know we'll never give it up

People talk but we just don't care

In this life, you know you gotta live it up

So everybody put your hands in the air now

What you get's not what you see

Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

Take the possibility

We're gonna feel it come on dance in together

It's an all night party that we're getting into

If you think it's all over, then the joke is on you

It's a dream, It's a scene, and it's all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

It's an all night party that we're getting into

If you think it's all over, then the joke is on you

It's a dream, It's a scene, and it's all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

So what, you know we never give it up

So everybody put your hands in the air

See upcoming pop shows

Get tickets for your favorite artists

What you get's not what you see

Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

Take the possibility

We're gonna feel it come on dance in together

It's an all night party that we're getting into

If you think it's all over, then the joke is on you

It's a dream, It's a scene, and it's all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

It's an all night party that we're getting into

If you think it's all over, then the joke is on you

It's a dream, It's a scene, and it's all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

We did it, we did it again (Ah oh)

We did it, we did it again (Ah oh)

We did it, we did it again (Ah oh)

We did it, we did it again (Ah oh)

It's an all night party that we're getting into

If you think it's all over, then the joke is on you

It's a dream, It's a scene, and it's all brand new

If you think you can stop it then the joke is on you

The two large Frobots tripped and fell over the edge near the end.

The rebel and her loony circus friends took a bow and vanished with a puff of smoke.

Gertie rolled her eyes, but chuckled. "Great show, but I still want my money back!"She called out mockingly.

A bag full of coins and a face note on it landed in front of her.

"I walked into that one!"Gertie griped as the other Newtopians howled with laughter and clapped.

*Thunderstruck Caravan*

Veronica brought in news for the perfect raid targe"General Sierra of the Southern Legions is leading a caravan across the barren Dark Woods area. Tribute, prisoners, and supplies are among the things being transported."

"Good, this caravan is perfect for us to grab! We'll take every captive and supply for ourselves and the Southern Newtopian legions will lose its leading commander!"Marcy said.

The twenty wagons, 300 prisoners of toads and frogs who were being led (including Renee Frodgers and some of her criminal caravan associates), 500 soldiers and robots were promising.

Marcy had compared Newtopia to a Roman city from AD 150, a year when they were around the peak of their civilization. Their military worked on a similar system for ranks and organization.

Most of the footsoldiers wore green robes and brown tunics and carried round shields resembling sand dollars and the usual tridents with spiked pink seashells. The Royal guards and elite divisions wore full knight armor with blue capes and wielded poleaxes and swords. Emissary guards like Shea and Cassie wore purple robes over their front, silver shell pauldrons, greaves, and barrel-visor helms with a fin on top and carried simple spears.

The Elite commandos wore red shirts with black epaulettes, white tights, black boots, and large silver helmets with the Newtopian foot symbol.

There was also a mix of colorful armor of silver, iron and other tough metals with Newtopian designs of shells and marine life for weapons and armor.

General Yunan wore her own silver amor with green colors, pauldrons of a snailshell design, and her special gauntlets with extendable wristblades.

"Sooo cool, you're like Wolverine!"Marcy said to her once when she demonstrated.

"Is that an insult, human?"Yunan said warily.

"No no, he's this classic edgy superhero,"She drew a picture,"with a skeleton covered in unbreakable metal and claws he can pop out. He always says 'I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice.' He's a good guy but … he's very lethal about it."

"Sick! That's what I do most of the time!"Yunan said with delight as she looked the gruff man with savage triple claws on his hands.

She scolded a nervous Marcy,"Oh human, stop looking so worried! I do hard missions on enemies for the King because someone needs to! It's rough around here. The toads do that sort of thing all the time and plenty of people outside the city act much more savage … but you don't have to do that!"

Yunan was a loner in the ranks at age 25, but she was the only top general she could trust. Marcy wanted her to be a leader in her growing army when she was free if she was willing.

When reviewing Amphibian castes and species, she'd learned there was discrimination quickly. One time when Olivia let her do a brain experiment, she learned of another kind.

"Thanks, Lady Olivia! I promise this won't hurt you … I just wanted this chance to study advanced salamander brains!"

"Master Marcy … do me a favor, don't use the word 'salamander' around the city! To newts, it's considered highly offensive!"Olivia said while the helmet read her brainwaves.

That surprised Marcy,"Why's that? Back home, newts are a large part of the salamander family of Amphibians! King Andrias even shares his name with a species of giant salamanders, the largest ones in the world just like he's the biggest guy here!"

Olivia sighed,"I understand. Technically, some folks come from lines of salamander families or call themselves that outside the city. But to us, the word evokes the image of a vicious nature. Most of the more civilized Newtopians avoid that image."

"Ohhh, I think I get it! Most other salamanders roam around more, have a more voracious appetite and are nocturnal. Newts do more stuff in the daytime and settle down more!"

Olivia looked skeptical but accepted that reasoning. Marcy then asked,"One other thing I just remembered … back home a lot of newt types have very toxic skin and bodies compared to other salamanders! Is that a big problem here?"

The royal advisor admitted,"You get a fair amount of that, but that's not unheard of in the frogs or toads either! The most toxic ones manage even if it gets some people on guard. Only a handful are really toxic!"

Marcy's current quarry involved some prime examples of this.

She had a new recruit, Gabby, a bright orange newt with red spots and brown hair from the army at her own height. Her family branch of newts had very deadly toxins in their skin that could kill in hours if untreated and very strong regeneration abilities greater than most newts, most of whom could regrown lost tails or even limbs if injured or cut off. These newts could regenerate damaged bones or organs.

This made them and other toxic newts feared to most Amphibians but highly valued as soldiers. Many were in the military. Gabby's family also had great tracking skills and the ability to home in on locations or beings they knew of.

She was a prodigy and junior member of the army who made a great tracker scout. Knocked out at a base Marcy raided to the East of Frog Valley, she'd been one of a dozen soldiers from her base to be talked in just a day into joining Marcy.

Bernardo even gave her one of his cool armor looks. She wore the moth outfit (minus the moth helmet) and had gloves covering her hands, special red goggles and armor over her tail.

Gabby was able to track down Sierra easily.

"There!"She pointed to the caravan the next day.

In the lead wagon sat Arnold Calitron, a brown newt in red robes who ran supplies for the Newtopian Military.

The orange female newt General Sierra sat in the next one wearing fancy gold-painted armor with blue paint and spiral shell pauldrons. She was from a family of newts with the deadliest toxins of all kinds in their skin and had earned her way as a strict and even harsh general who nonetheless did her job well without being too harsh on her own soldiers. Her enemies got very limited chances.

Her two best Captains accompanied her.

Captain Dan handled covering the front on foot. He was a large yellow crested newt with a spiky seam (crest) on his back and large fin-like tail. He wore spiky black armor and his blue hair in a mohawk. He annoyed Sierra and his fellow Captain present, Zel Brooks, a lot as a hopeless flirt, but was very loyal to Sierra and Newtopia.

Captain Zel Brooks was a tall (6'0") newt of a blue-spotted salamander kind around Yunan's age.

Her dark blue skin had cyan spots. She had a lean but muscular build, webbed feet and fingers, a long thick tail (thicker than her other limbs) of nearly 7 ft, a mouth of sharp teeth, green and black striped eyes and a flowing mane of black hair down to her back. She handled the rear on foot. She wore new thick blue armor with large shoulder pauldron's identical in shape and size to a Frobot's (complete with the three studs) and heavy gauntlets.

For weapons, her gauntlets had reinforced knuckles with extendable spikes, her belt had stiletto-shaped throwing spikes, and her favorite weapon was a blue rune-covered spatha-like sword (ancient Roman two-edged blade) of 4 ft in length made of the toughest meta.

None of those compared to her tail. It was her pride and joy, her best feature (in her mind and several admirers) and her best weapon. It could secrete a highly potent toxin if she wished and have saved her life dozens of times from dangerous predators when she was a dirt-poor eft growing up in the Emerald Coasts. As a teen and adult she'd beaten many opponents in front of her and behind her with her tail and other limbs multitasking. Zel had even earned tail fighter championships at the Military Academy four times.

A cloud of dust blew in a miniature twister in front of them from out of nowhere.

"What is this, I don't-"Arnold yelled

Gerald and Cree yanked him inside his wagon and gagged him.

Marcy appeared in front of the caravan with Percy, Halley and Braddock after the dust faded.

"Get her!"Sierra yelled.

"HOLD IT!"Marcy yelled, holding her left hand up. The soldiers (even the robots) paused in mid-step, wary of her feared powers.

"How in the world did this freak of nature pull that off?!"Dan yelled when the Cyberkinetic Witch's wanted poster came off.

"I'm impressed …She raided the old Toad towers, broke into several prisons or factories, and crushed that many enemies in just a week? Must be someone special …"Zel smiled derisively,"but she better not let this self-proclaimed title of 'ultimate mistress of magic, science and technology' get to her head or she'll go down harder!"

"Yunan would see that as a challenge, and look what happened to her in her first attack …"Sierra said.

Zel crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Sierra frowned.

Marcy waved her hands like a theatre actor,l"A riddle for you … just so you know what I'm NOT here for … If you speak its name, you break it. What is it?"

"Silence! I did not-"

Marcy cut Sierra off with a delighted chuckle,"GOOD, goooddd … you got it right! That's what I'M here to break … SILENCE! Also, I'm here to break up this boring wagon PARTY with lots of noise and a soundtrack! Cue the music!"

A Cello version of the Rock song 'Thunderstruck' began to play. It started off quite tame, but started playing more rapidly than any normal Cello player would do.

The prisoners (and a few soldiers, including Zel) smiled or laughed as Sierra looked stunned and then irritated at the witch waving her hands like a conductor and her three accomplices bobbing their heads. Her anger grew. "Enough fooling around, get her!"

The Mar Guards and some additional robots (mostly Trooper Bots and Reapers) dropped out of the air or emerged from behind her and began tearing through the robots and newt soldiers.

Halley whacked a Frobot's head off with casual ease, sending it flying all the way to the rear of the caravan.

Zel grinned"Sweet, we get some action!"

Renee and her fellow prisoners watched in amazement. The criminal performer smiled with delight as this feared rebel put on a show while defeating an entire convoy.

Gerald's Circus freaks took over every wagon one at a time while Sierra tried to direct efforts at eliminating Marcy.

'

Marcy casually rolled a blue die on the ground towards Dan as he hefted his gigantic mace in hands and clashed with Dunbar.

It exploded into a blue cloud of knockout gas that left him and 30 soldiers unconscious.

In spite of the situation, Zel snickered.

Maya and Stones threw their fans and cut through the tridents, polearms and swords of the minor soldiers with ease.

Sierra had a pair of laser spears and throwing discs in her hand. She threw six of these at Marcy, who blocked them easily with an energy shield.

The lead Frost Knight aimed his poleaxe at her. It glowed and she was frozen solid in a block of ice.

Veronica took the rear, coming up with her growing Wit Wraith Squad and some

Marcy clapped her hands. Images of a phoenix and flaming dragon appeared in the air in green fire. They launched at the Tank Frobot and squad of reinforcements in the air and exploded.

Zel was grabbed and restrained by Riggy and Bogster after she tore through two-thirds of their first wave of minor Frobots singlehandedly. Riggy's new mystical chains wrapped around her torso and tail. Bogster aimed his massive sword at her throat and she stopped moving.

Renee and the other prisoners clapped at the end.

"Would you all LIKE to join my Rebel group?"Marcy asked them.

"After such a fine show and rescue? I'm offended you have to ask!"Renee said.

Wendy Corduroy, a tall (5'8') lime green frog with very long red hair that went past her hips, a green flannel shirt and lumberjack height, was very impressed. "Cool trick, girl! Can you do more of that and give me an axe?"

She was tossed one at once,"Sweet!"

She and some of the other frogs had been lumberjacks and farmers in the Dark Woods until recently.

Her best friend Tambry, a black-skinned frog with purple hair and pink highlights, said,"Yeah yeah … I'd prefer something more venomous."

The next day she swooned seeing the Barbarian style armor from Newtopia of the Poison Barb armor in black Bernardo had. She wore it on missions with Wendy, who used axes with great skill.

Zel was the only conscious officer of their captives.

She smiled toothily when Marcy took her mask off. The hair was longer and the face scarred, but she knew that face.

"Master Marcy, that figures!"

Zel barely paid attention while her unit was passing by Saint's Lake, but the newly repaired bridge had been done so by some weird girl. She wasn't an Amphibian but was something called a 'human being'?"

The girl tried to do a speech, but was shaking like a leaf and barely got any words out before running offstage. Lady Olivia sighed and walked after her.

Zel snorted. "Shy thing, isn't she?"

"Skilled though … she got a crack team of several artisans and 10,000 laborers to patch it up with her design in just a few days way ahead of schedule … I hear she's some major genius of some kind even King Andrias likes!"A local guard said.

Less than two weeks later, she heard from a grunt,"That human girl Master Marcy joined the Night Guards!"

"That quickly?"Zel said in disbelief. The Night Guards did the most risky and secret missions in defense of the City. She'd be jealous of them if she didn't prefer open field work herself.

Later, Zel watched her in Night Guard gear flying on her new tamed bird flying over the Great Bay while she was heading towards a port city on her own. "Whoooohooo, Joe Sparrow! First week together with me and now we can go everywhere at high terminal velocitttttyyy!"

"Dang it, now I'm jealous! Why can't I fly everywhere that fast? Oh well, more exercise for me while she still looks scrawny as ever!"Zel snarked. First she joined the Night Guard impossibly fast, and now she had a pet bird to ride?

Marcy turned in surprise,"Captain Brooks, is it? I don't think we've met …"

Zel smiled wider,"Most of the kingdom knows about you, and I saw you at your failed speech at Saint's Lake. "She chuckled as Marcy blushed at the memory,"I heard plenty about that weird human girl who lived in Newtopia for a while and hung with the king and General Yunan, then she vanished. And now you've gone wild as magic cyborg using our stuff and every yahoo to make trouble as the biggest headache to the king? What's wrong with you? Did a mission go wrong and get you all messed up like that and make you lose it?"

Marcy had Veronica bring her over to sit down in front of her, "It's complicated. This ambush is nothing personal, Captain Brooks, and I'm not gonna do horrible things to you or your troops here, I promise!"

Zel chuckled,"Please, Marcy, you going rogue is personal to the kingdom, but when it comes to this sort of thing, it's war! Everything's personal to someone, but when you fight, a soldier needs to be ready for the worst from an enemy. That's what being in battle means and what we signed up for. And you're not even being mean about it after you won. Not bad at all … you got the drop on us and beat me. I'm impressed. That hasn't happened in a while! I enjoyed thrashing your robot goons … I beat over half of your weaker ones!"

Veronica snorted,"True … you took out the most we've seen any single opponent do yet!"

Zel was very pleased to hear that.

Marcy was delighted to see how pleasant this was going,"Oh good, I don't have to worry with angry shouting and vows of vengeance for once. In fact …"She smiled brightly," for a grand prize of being a good sport and great fighter who just set a record of takedowns on our easily restored troops, I think I'll offer you a job in MY army!"

Zel thought,"Oh, that's adorable!"

"From you? I'm touched, but human, please …you're not that good! I don't plan on just dishonoring my army and job so easily, no matter how cool you look doing it! I have a kingdom to keep safe, not betray and destroy!"

Marcy saw an opportunity,"Is that so? I can work with that … you have any major friends in the top ranks? I aim to offer General Yunan a top spot when I get the chance …"

"That figures … she didn't hurt the idiot after all. Yunan hung out with her a few times, and Lady Olivia practically doted on her! Maybe I can get some answers!"Zel thought.

Zel sighed,"Good luck with that … she's a maniac loner and the chief general working directly for the king. Last I heard, she's vanished. Total nutjob … she loves the spotlight and is very full of herself! She's crushed or killed so many enemies you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't have a grudge somewhere. She got tired of her own army after the messy Sand Wars and divided her legions up with the others. Great fighter … she beat the major menace and toad warlord Ragnar the Wretched singlehandedly."

"Did you know her?"Marcy asked.

"Yeah … she's had it hard making friends for ages. Her dad abandoned his comrades as a knight and they all died. She was in my year at the Academy and beat me at sparring every single time! Still … she wasn't a snob like most of them. Only made fun of me for losing to her, and appreciated that I never mocked her for the Longclaw family legacy that was forever ruined. Plenty others did and she went wild on them."

Marcy clapped with delight,"Great! How'd you like to help me save Captain Yoohoo from Andrias's prison?"

"Say what?"Zel said.

Marcy frowned and looked towards the North,"Oh yes … if we're talking about taking betrayal personally … I am not happy with the king. First Andrias nearly killed me the day the war started, and then it got worse when Yunan and Lady Olivia tried to help me escape from the Castle!"

"How unfortunate!"Sierra said when they heard more about the mysterious flash of light from the Castle 30 miles away. "Lady Olivia and General Yunan have gone missing in that explosion … the king's put out an alert to watch for mysterious acts of unknown terror in light of this unexpected incursion …"

"Who could pull that off?"Zel wondered.

A couple weeks later, she was Sierra's only tag along for a meeting at the Castle.

"Why does the king want the army to be on the lookout?"Nolan asked Albert.

"There haven't been any major losses, but there have been some developments. Scores of destroyed outposts and factories in the deserts and around Frog Valley, and an unusual report just came in from West Frogschire today. A rogue cop and some thug in a jacket apprehended a businessman, terrorized the city and blew up his factory somehow …"Albert didn't look like he could believe the bizarre incident reports in front of them either,"but thankfully that is the only incident from today-"

Every officer or soldier, analyst or repair worker in the room turned to look at the door when they started hearing screams, crunches and electric shocks echoing loudly from the bowels of the Castle, a place Andrias had restricted for himself.

For a few long minutes after the final loud scream echoed, some of them worried he was dead. But he came out alive … walked off and kept looking at the walls around him in fear.

"What are you talking about? I heard the king liked you a lot?"Zel said. She was shocked at the idea Andrias would try and kill this girl. She'd heard Marcy had improved the city and helped out enough to get her own statue put up.

But she'd still vanished after the war began.

The other few dozen soldiers still awake felt the same.

"Yeah, the Night Guard Chief ranger who fixed the city and did several odd jobs to help keep us all safe or improve things … you lived at the Castle with him and everyone said you were practically royalty!"One called over.

Marcy snarled venomously and clenched her fists, which sparked. That was a first …Marcy never looked mad the few times Zel and the other soldiers saw her. This … this was intense anger.

Her voice dripped with intense hatred that sent a chill down their spines,"Andrias did like me and still does, and I got 'royal treatment' alright…after he almost killed me,"Marcy undid enough of her cloak to show her beeping chest monitor,"I don't just wear this gear for kicks! I'm lucky to be alive now! And that's not the worst thing I endured in his wretched Castle after that being put in a rejuvenation tank!"

"What happened? Most of us don't know what went down that day …"Zel said gently. She, her soldiers and their freed prisoners were afraid of what could be worse than that.

" I really want you to join me now, Captain … you're asking the right questions!"Marcy said grimly.

Marcy unlocked Zel's restraints, stunning her even more than the rest, and beckoned her and the rest over to a nearby rock so she could draw a diorama for them and show it.

After explaining what the Music Box was and admitting it was mainly her fault her friends got trapped here with her after finding it back at her home world (a selfish mistake she intended to make right), she went on.

"Now, at first, he claimed this about the Box to me and my friend Anne…"

A video played of the time Andrias said to her and a different human with a mop of hair,"According to this book, it's a magical artifact that is thousands of years old. Apparently, my ancestors used it to visit entirely different worlds. They were peaceful explorers, scientists, if you will. These three Stones are the key to getting it working again. They need to be recharged."

"Recharged? How?"Anne asked.

"The book mentions three different temples, each channeling a different kind of energy. And once the stones are recharged..."

"We'll have a way home?!"

"We went to all three Temples for each Stone to do that…"Marcy's eyes twitched murderously,"anddd he sold me the idea of using the Box to do all sorts of adventures with my best friends and him to explore all sorts of new worlds together… and then we went straight to this mess after the toad rebellion was doomed!"

The next video showed Anne handing the box to Andrias in his throne room," Alright, big guy. Send us home."

Andrias did not,"In good time, my dear. But first, I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret. There was a time when Newtopia was truly great, but that greatness was stolen from us. Centuries of prosperity brought to an end because of me. I was weak, trusting those who said they were my friends and because of that, the Music Box was taken under my watch. It cost us everything and after a thousand years, no one even remembers our legacy. But now, at long last, the Box is back. And with its power, Newtopia will be returned to glory!"

"Oh, well, that's nice!"The elderly frog said.

Anne wasn't happy but nervous. She said,"Something's wrong here."

Andrias, with a sinister gleam in his eyes, revealed the big twist,"For you see, my ancestors weren't frail explorers, they were glorious conquerors!"

He activated the Box on a pedestal, starting the mass activation of robots and the Castle rising up.

"That's why he did all this…?"Wendy mumbled in disbelief.

It didn't end there. His new robot soldiers surrounded Anne's frog friends and the rebels Sasha and Grime, Marcy, Olivia and Yunan. He said,"I'm sorry, Anne. But I'm afraid you and your friends can't go home just yet. Wouldn't want you telling anyone about the coming invasion."

"What?"Anne said in shock.

He stood in front of the charged Box and smiled wickedly,"Now that I have the Box back, I can finish the work my ancestors started. From this Castle, I will not only rule over this world, but all worlds!"

Their king cackled in front of his shocked captives and allies.

"No! You'll never get away with this!"Anne declared.

"Anne's right. We'll stop you!"The other current top Rebel, Sasha Waybright, said.

Andrias, the guy who never looked so menacing to them in their lives, frowned with a hateful glare and said icily," Stop me? I can see a demonstration of my power is in order,"he hit a few buttons on the Box and said,"BEHOLD!"

The Castle Spire morphed into a giant pistol and obliterated the North Toad Tower in the distance in one shot.

They knew the North Tower's destruction had been sudden, but that happened in seconds.

None of the soldiers could believe it … that wasn't the king they knew. But this was what was happening right now all over the land.

Marcy fast-forwarded to when she was opening a Portal for Anne.

"I have to admit, even I'm surprised. Somehow you still got the gift, kid. Which means,"Andrias raised his sword to kill Anne," I can't let you live."

The Castle powered down. "What?"

"Please work, please work,"Marcy mumbled while fiddling with it to make a Portal.

"Quick, into the portal everyone, hurry!"

"The Box!"He yelled and came at her while she was doing that, swatting Grime and Sasha aside.

"Marcy, hurry!"Anne said after she got in the portal with the three frogs.

"I just need to…"Marcy gasped and looked down with dread to see his massive sword ( a laser one, no less) impaled right through the chest near her heart.

"Now look what you've made me do!"Andrias said stonily.

He blamed her, or her friend (or both) for making him stab a tiny girl through the back with a sword larger than her body.

"You poor kid …"Renee said. Even for a hardened outlaw like her, that was too much.

Marcy paused, not willing to go further just yet or show all of that. She leaned into Zel's face, gripped her shoulders, and asked quietly, "Well? I think it's very clear why I'm mad at him now. He wants to invade my home, conquer it and likely wipe my people out … and he did that to me! My home world of Earth never did anything to Amphibia to warrant such an attack and I'm pretty sure most here would agree what he did, saying anything to get us to prep his multi-world conquest for him and more, is the lowest you can sink! I can see it in your eyes that you agree! Shall I go on to the worst part, Captain? You wanna know why my face looks like this and ticked me off enough to go major rebel mode and kill him painfully if it comes to it and burn that Castle to the ground someday?"

"Yes …"Zel said numbly. She looked close to tears.

The Core was much worse than anything she thought she meant. A giant, ugly creepy thing with glowing orange eyes with the minds of every dead king and queen and several 'greatest minds' of Amphibia that he served lived inside the Castle's basements and had tried to use her as a new living host body for itself against her will weeks later after she recovered a bit … and it was only due to the magic in that Box somehow returning to her body (exploding the monster and a helmet it put on her off ) that she was free now.

"That abomination must die for good somehow, someday, and Andrias needs to go down at minimum! He called Amphibia, YOUR home, a pitiful mudbowl that needed to be drained of its resources for the coming invasion of MY home. This destroyed Dark Forest, once the biggest forest in the South, is just one example! Do you want to join my side now?"Marcy asked tightly.

"Wow …just wow …that's just wrong,"Zel shook her head in disgust at the Core pictures,"alright, I'm in! You got yourself a new Captain! Let's save Yoohoo, Olivia and our world from this madness! I did NOT sign up to serve for this!"

Her other soldiers nodded and murmured agreement.

Marcy's smile was so beatific it cheered them up. She snapped their chains off.

"Good, that's perfect! I could use more volunteers to fight the good fight with me! Captain, I 've been wanting a competent military officer for a while now. This is perfect meeting you here now. You can be in charge of my newt soldiers for now … any of the soldiers I take in who want to join! Heck, you can be my lead army commander for everyone! When we can, I'll get you an official promotion! I promise!"

She offered her hand and they shook on it.

Over 200 of the other soldiers joined the day after.

"Oohhh,I like her already! I've got a good feeling this is the start of a beautiful friendship!"Marcy told Yumi.

Zel was bemused to see Yumi reply dryly,"Mars, you love making friends in general and the power of friendship to beat evil … why so serious on another one this quickly?"

"Come on, she likes me, I can tell …and she remembered my name! And … if she did go to military school with Yoohoo, we can hear embarrassing stories or good ones to help me know her better!"

"An ulterior motive … for shame, Marbles! Being the mercenary type is my shtick! "Halley said dryly.

"I can hear you clowns, you know!"Zel said from behind them. Marcy squeaked.

"Please, if you want embarrassing stories, just ask me!"The amused Captain said.

Marcy heard several and even gave a few of her own.

That night when they got back to the Nerve Center, she went to Marcy's room with her and insisted,"Kid … I need you to be upfront with me and tell me the rest."

She took Marcy's secret shame and guilt well enough.

"That was selfish alright … very selfish, but not many people try to fix that so quickly …and that doesn't justify our king using you to make it worse for you!"She said quietly as Marcy sobbed quietly.

"Thanks … I try … I gotta fix this …I need that thing … I need to-"

Zel sighed and wiped her eyes with her tail for her. "I get it … you need to make it up to your friends and kill the monster."

"I've already done it once … sort of … just before I started raiding at large!"

Zel put that together with the mysterious incident that scared Andrias,"Was that where all the screaming came from that day? How did you do that?"

Marcy did one better and showed her the whole thing.

The 'Ock virus curse' alarmed Zel, but at the same time impressed her. "You used a curse to infect their own mind and make them die … again …and make that thing and the king afraid of you at the same time? Now that … is thinking like a good soldier! When you fight a monster, go for the weak spots!"

"Yeah …the Core makes me angrier than I've ever been at anything …and that worries me sometimes."

Zel snorted,"Of course, you don't just let something like that slide! There's no shame in reacting that way or killing a monster that evil. Speaking of which … any lingering problems about being touched I should be worried about?"

"My bodyguards I made are to keep that from happening,"She faltered when Zel frowned,"oh, you mean on a personal level? I don't use these,"she handed over a list of 'Core traits'" for powers or designs on my machines … and I'm not keen on having any glowing swords like his near me again … I'm still getting over not jumping every time I touch a loose cable …"

"I don't blame you …when I was your age I almost got eaten by a large snake …I survived, but it was close. I never wanted to be weak …being a tough soldier helps me feel safe."

Marcy liked that and asked,"Speaking of touch, are you annoyed by hugs?"

"No … my tail and arms are great at that … even if that's reserved for special people …"Zel smiled a little,"do you want a Zel tail hug or will that bother you?"

"Try me!"Marcy said.

Zel gently wrapped her thick tail around Marcy's waist without trapping her arms. Marcy felt it and rubbed some of the mucus in her fingers and smelled it,"Hmmm, very strong … such an interesting smell for a-"

She was yanked in the air in front of Zel's face,"Don't talk about how my tail smells, that's so rude!"

Marcy broke into a long laugh and hugged her around the waist. "Sorry, Zelly, it's a very lovely tail! I'll treat it just as nice as the rest of you!"

Zel blushed purple for a few seconds, and then gave in and laughed. She hugged her tighter with her tail and arms,"Oh fine … I'll have to educate you on that sort of thing …"

They were already closer than any young friends Zel had ever had before. And she wanted to help Marcy come out of her shell.

"I know that was embarrassing at the bridge …I'm not good at public speaking …even now, wearing the mask makes it easier!"Marcy said to Zel at breakfast when Zel told her where she'd seen her before.

"So you admit you can do it?"Zel pointed out.

The large soldier ruffled the annoyed girl's head,"Marcy …being a rebel leader involves public speaking …I don't like it either … between you and me, I hate parade events and ceremonies … they take too long."

Marcy could relate,"I could always memorize the whole ceremony outline in seconds for those … and I had my game systems to occupy my time there anyways …"

Pleased, Zel critiqued her previous team-bonding ideas,"Now, first things …doing game campaigns is NOT the way to bond with your teammates! You know that now, right?"

"I'm considering videogames and movies instead as a suggestion, does that help?"Marcy timidly asked.

Zel almost objected, but a few of the concepts interested her.

*Snarlsburg Smorgasbord*

The Toad Duchy of Snarlsburg had long been the dominant province of the Southern tip of Amphibia. The Snarlguard army served the House of Snarl, a long line of dukes and duchesses who had conquered the area and crushed many pirates and rebels over the ages.

Howl Tower stood as tall as the Toad Towers, with spikes and chimneys on the top, overlooking the marshes and wetlands covered with wigwams and houses. The toads and frogs for miles answered to them. The toads who ruled here tended to be more sophisticated than most.

Officially they were allies of the Toad army and many served in their ranks, but only a handful had been involved in their plan to overthrow Andrias.

Already they'd been conquered in less than a week. Duke Rhaebo, his wife Duchess Ansonia, and his top commander Baldor had been executed as an example while over half the Snarlguardians were sent to jail or to factory work with 30,000 of the frog serfs there.

Thane Willibad attempted to form a rebellion force with the clan chiefs but he and the rest were all dead now.

Rhaebo's son Earl Anton, his armory expert Brigitte ( a tall newt orphan who lived with them), and veteran Snarlsguard fighter Darin (an even taller toad) were imprisoned in Howl Tower's dungeons with twenty others. Lt. Colonel Tam, a large newt standing 8'6" with ridged brown skin who was in charge there, found it amusing to make them howl if they caused problems.

"You've dominated three Toad towers and left the only isolated one on the Frosch Penninsula alone … let's capture this one! Then the South of Amphibia should be ours uncontested!"Zel suggested when discussing strategies her first day there while they ate lunch.

Zel wasn't just a good fighter but a skilled tactician.

The only real reason she hadn't risen higher yet was she wasn't that ambitious, had a very low-class background with no real money to her name (and several relatives who'd died in the Sand Wars) and skipped special ceremonies for the army half the time in favor of going on missions or exercising.

Marcy approved,"I have no objections. The whole area has become a toxic sewer pit. No forests or anything green is growing for over 200 miles. Besides … we need practice for conducting campaigns with my new Commander!"

"Don't tempt me too much!"Zel said.

On their way over, Zel warned her,"Colonel Tam is very serious, no-nonsense and loves to use booby traps! He's rigged the entire area with spike pits, bombs and more! We can't afford to fool around with him!"

"Good thing we have long range and air covered!"Marcy said.

Zel smirked,"Exactly … in fact … I have an idea."

Marcy liked it so much she let Zel take full reign on this one.

Tam was woken up in the evening by a barrage of sounds.

"What is going on?!"He demanded.

"Sir, strange flying stingrays are dropping bombs!"

" Flying Stingrays?"Tam said flatly. He went to the window and frowned seeing the Mantas flying over the swamps and dropping their small skull-shaped mines blowing up factories, Frobots and every industrial structure.

The Krabbs were walking expertly closer to the Tower through the water over every mine, trap or obstacle.

"That's a crab species I'm not familiar with!"Tam said.

"I'll say, four legs and no claws!"Corporal Bingum said.

Tam directed his troops,"Let's concentrate here to drive them off! Activate the upgraded Bastille layers of this keep!"

Every window sealed shut with iron shutters, the walls were reinforced with a shell of extra armor, and lasers and missile launchers came out of the tower. Two scanners and several cameras kept them informed.

"Good, trapped in a ready-made cage!"Zel said with glee from a distance!

She pointed at the six Volcashells and two Labstars. "Go hot and then loud!"

The Volcashells opened their hatch-like mouths and spat out large balls of magma.

"What the-?!"Tam snarled at the balls of fire coming through the air. Howling Tower was hit for half a minute with superheated force that melted most of their outer shell of defense and all their weaponry.

The Krabs were firing lasers at the walls surrounding the base of the tower by now. The Frobots were being overrun easily.

"Send word to the King! And get ready for a tough fight inside!"Tam ordered his men and the scores of Frobots, three Cloakbots and Fire Frobots waiting inside. The flamethrower units had been very useful in ambushing the Snarlguardians inside their halls and caverns and leaving their places torched.

However, the Labstars ruined his plan to have a fight inside at all.

The massive red and blue bipedal lobsters aimed their Vibe claws and unleashed a massive sonic blast.

The living newts clutched their heads in pain and howled. The Frobots clutched their heads and short-circuited. The Frobot sending the message only got to the part about how they were under attack before his head and radio dish exploded.

Down below, Anton and the rest winced.

Thirty seconds later, the garrison was fried or unconscious.

Marcy and Zel marched into the cell areas with some Strifebots and Frost Knights.

"Your grace, it seems you have some bad houseguests!" Marcy said chipperly to Anton.

"I know … what's it to you? Here to take it for your vacation spot?"Anton said heatedly.

"No …"Zel unlocked his cage,"You're free! My leader wants to offer you sanctuary and a spot in our armies as equal allies to retake all of the Southern coasts with us!"

Darin, a very large toad with blonde hair and a beard, chuckled,"I am tempted already, but why?"

Marcy said evenly,"Care to discuss it over dinner? Do you all like …Smorgasbords?"

"What are those? Sounds fancy!"Brigitte said.

Minutes later, they got it. They had a fancy dinner in the dining hall while Marcy filled them in.

"Ohh a buffet of hot and cold dishes! Nice!"The newt said, munching some hot Swedish meatballs.

"So …"Darin crossed his arms and looked sternly at the few former Toad army soldiers present,"can you and your new leader tell us what happened? His grace wasn't interested in attending the toad summit, and then we heard the fugitive Grime led the most humiliatingly quick defeat in recent history trying to rebel against the kingdom?"

"Heh heh, long story!"Medog said anxiously.

The Snarlsburgians were not that impressed at the speech for inspiring the revolution, or that Sasha had gotten the famed Barrel's Warhammer and led them to their defeat. The reveal of Andrias's plans and the Core scared and appalled them.

Darin found its very existence an affront to nature,"Glorious conquerors or warriors should rest in peace instead of dishonoring their name as an abomination clinging to life in such a form!"

Anton said to Marcy midway through the meal,"I accept your offer. Andrias destroyed our Duchy in all but name. This mad plan of his and that monstrosity he serves will leave us all corpses and the entire land reduced to a lifeless shell."

Marcy shook his hand,"Excellent!"

He frowned at the information about Marcy's fellow Valley neighbors,"This Wartwood Resistance is versatile but far too limited in scope. Miss Waybright is a capable young fighter who could continue to make up for her selfish ambitions. Captain Grime, however, has not earned our respect by humbling himself this way. He cost every toad province and the rest of Amphibia dearly for this plan to seize power for himself. He and your friend still have no real idea of what they're getting into and could not hope to take the fight to the king and his beast master with a single village worth of fighters and win!"

Marcy accepted that critique of the Resistance,"I know. I'm doing them a favor by letting them focus more on the Valley while I go around the rest of Amphibia to gather more allies for a better army. When the time comes, we'll discuss details with them. Sasha will understand, I'm sure. Now … "she gestured to the walls,"your Tower is a nice place, but I'll let you decide what we should do with it now!"

Anton looked it over,"For now … we must destroy it!"

His subjects gasped.

"I know, it's not an easy decision, but a force of over 30,000 machines is headed this way. It's too hard a spot to defend for now and it would be easier for Andrias to assume the place was destroyed entirely along with his puppets here in an attack then to make it plain what Lady Wu accomplished here today. We can take everything of value and rebuild it later! I'd rather see it in pieces than in the hands of Andrias again!"

They blew the Tower down to the ground and took Tam and his soldiers captive.

"You can be my lead toad commander and main leader in the Southern areas, or even just call yourself a respected ally!"Marcy suggested to Anton as they walked away.

He chuckled,

"You're too kind, young lady. I like the sound of all those idaeas, but we'll have to work on the details later …,"Anton smiled one of his intimidating smiles at her,"but first, you do realize you are now in effect the uncontested Queen of Southern Amphibia?"

"Queen of the South!? New title, yayyyy!"Smarcy said with joy.

"Oh, come on! I never called myself a queen!"Marcy grumbled in embarrassment. Everyone laughed.

The new title of 'Queen of the South' was spread around.

They sprang open three prisons and fourteen factory locations to recruit some more of Anton's people or the nearby locals working as slaves. The title and her rule over the South spread out rapidly.

The Wartwood Resistance was having another meeting in their strategy room when they heard.

"Andrias has troops marching towards Kaeru, and our attack on his laser cannons on the Eastern Misty Peaks riled him up good,"Sasha said,"and his forces have the strongest front here in the North."

Grime said,"Hold up. He has a massive presence down South of the Valley. Don't forget that. The mountains keep them out from trying an instant attack on us at least."

Toadie and Duckweed came in with the latest news. The small frog said,"Actually no … he doesn't have a big force there anymore at all!"

"What happened?"Croaker asked.

Duckweed laid the reports down,"Our spies just received word. Their forces and buildings at Snarslburg was destroyed, even Howl Tower, by the Cyberkinetic Witch."

Grime was spooked.

Sasha frowned as she read off,"A mysterious raid of aquatic monsters under the command of the Cyberkinetic Witch levelled the fortifications at Snarlsburg's Howl Tower. No survivors known of those guarding it. General Sierra went MIA after heading towards the Caerillian Coast in a caravan. Andrias's forces on the Southern Coast have been completely defeated. Amphibia's worst criminal has conscripted any lingering warriors and residents of Snarlsburg into her army along with several suspected Newtopian soldiers. They have dubbed her the Queen of the South who rules with an iron fist that none challenge!"

"She destroyed Snarlsburg …what was left of it, anyway … and rules the Southern areas of Amphibia now. They already think she rules the Valley … and now she's the Queen of the South?"Grime said in despair.

Sasha rolled her eyes,"Good Lord, Grimesy, don't be so jealous! I know you told me Snarlsburg was the most efficient toad stronghold below the Valley once, but that's hardly relevant now! She did us a favor doing that! Less trouble below us! In fact …"She smiled coldly,"I have an idea to build on this!"

Avalanches fell down on dozens of patrols and factories in the surrounding mountains for weeks and four caravans moving goods around the Peak of Health and the mountain passes were raided and destroyed. The supplies were all theirs.

*Nerd Improv Comedy Night *

Malcolm Parsecs (Malc) was a very neurotic newt analyst with pale skin and glasses. His slightly less neurotic colleagues were Daphne Barfield and Vinnie Balthazar.

Daphne had short brown bangs, large square glasses and red skin. Vinnie had frizzy hair and wore shades.

The three were considered effective but unlucky and annoying and had been been assigned to work along the roads to Newtopia and had been captured by Mary easily after she started terrorizing the old route.

She was nice however, and it only took two days for her to offer them a new job.

They got new outfits. Daphne got to wear a white tie-dyed robe of red and blue swirls. Vinnie got a red and yellow tracksuit with sneakers. Malcolm wore a blue wizard robe with lightning bolts and a VR Style helmet that let him multitask and see in different spectrums since he liked the idea of being a 'science wizard'.

Marcy found their insane banter hilarious and thought of a good use for it.

"Maybe you guys could make a good joke out of them trying to eavesdrop on us and die of laughter!"She suggested.

"Indeed Master Marcy, we shall seize these enemies and leave them choking out of breath from laughing with my laugh gas supply!"Malcolm said.

Daphne sighed,"Not literally, doofus!"

"Darn, I could have tested that!"Malc pounded his fists.

"I dub thee DMV, the Department of Maniacal Vibes!"Marcy said.

Triple B was paying a visit to the Night Guards base.

"Among other things,"Blair said,"we're testing some new special sound equipment! King Andrias wants us to test it and … he suggested we could find our public enemy No. 1!"

Headmaster Albert crossed his arms,"That would be quite the feat. We can't find a trace of her at all!"

The ensuing radio drama was priceless.

Marcy and crew watched in studio audience mode on 'mute' mode (DMV and Triple B couldn't hear them).

Vinnie cleared his throat as they sat down,"First order of business, this is the Department of Motivational Velocity for Amphibia. Our simple but very effective code-names are V, M and D!"

"We are to be known as DMV!"Daphne said.

Malcom complained, "I still say we should be MVD or MDV!"

"M, please, we agreed, just because you're the moderator of our discussions doesn't mean you go first!"Daphne warned him.

"Besides, it's in alphabetical order, something you like!"Vinnie reminded him.

"Yes, you're right. Very acceptable. Alright, our first order of business as the DMV is to work on for our SIS projects!"Malc said,"also did you bring the snacks?"

"Here …"Daphne offered him some honey-glazed bread.

Malc greeted the food,"Oh hello Honeybuns! Mmmm!"

"Should we let you have a separate room with your special morsel?"Daphne joked.

"Of course not, we are all alone here at last! Why would you want to ruin this special moment?"

Marcy and co were laughing hard in the background.

The Night Guards made much louder noise at their base.

"Hold up, why are we calling this project SIS?"Vinnie asked.

"Superior Intelligence Sector, duh! We're less obvious that way!"Malc said.

"That's not the problem!"Daphne groaned.

"It's still better than any dumb name or plan our inferior opposition comes up with! I mean, please, what, they have a 'Frobot Mass Production' plan, a Factory plan with very ugly pollution that is not doing their skin any favors-"

Daphne got very snarky,"Of course, and they don't value skin cream sales! I forgot! I must file a complaint with the Amphibian Cream for Newts Emporium! ACNE is such a valuable venture!"

"Thank you for that, D, now, where was I? Oh yes, and they totally ruined the University's chance to redevelop the Swamp Hole resorts for studying the biology department! And ruined the University. The Anarchists, Imperialists and Triple B Brothers are going to run anything smart into the ground!"

"Those B-Rank snobs with B-letter names are brothers? Makes sense, they fight a lot …"Vinnie said.

"WE ARE NOT BROTHERS!"Triple B yelled.

"Could've fooled me!"Ryan snarked.

Malc grinned, and said,"Siblings fight a lot, it's natural to establish dominance. It's a battle they haven't settled, I hear-"Triple B growled,"ohh something fun now! My archenemy Wollowartz and a target codenamed 'Khan' are on our agenda of enemies to crush!"

"Why Wollowartz again? I get he's a wallowing Wuss of a whiny whackjob who isn't fit to wear a robe, much less a wizard's hat, but why go whammy on him?"Vinnie's alliterative question had a moment of awkward silence.

"Oh please, V, your odd knack for wordplay aside, let's focus on his threat, he is the inferior target who must be exposed. His master's degree in engineering was a waste and he's not even doing anything useful with it! No sense of innovating on valuable vehicles on the treads he spent 6 months on that stupid contest vehicle of his while I created a valuable type of fertilizer to increase fruit production! If that mad toad in a tacky jacket hadn't stolen it hunger would've gone down by 40%!"

Marcy held up a sign that said 'Talk to me later!"

Encouraged, he kept going,"Besides that, he's a very callous and creepy flirt who every lady there hated!"

"True, don't get me started on him!"Daphne sighed.

"See, I am vindicated! And he's near our target, the ferocious 'Khan' … but we need to be discreet with him. Acting lessons for espionage are on the agenda … a hard order!"

"Why is that? I always said you were a class act fit to bring down a house, which you have!"Vinnie said.

"Very funny, house walls or lab walls being easily destroyable are a sad fact of our current level of building! I'm hardly to blame for the mad hullabaloo of hicks and has-beens making it worse!"

"Uh-huh, that's what not what the Crypt keeper said last year!"Daphne retorted.

"DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME! HE IS ON MY SHUN LIST! Moving on … why is this guy called a bad class of being?"

"Because he acted up in class, duh!"Branston banged his head on the table at Vinnie's words.

"Nooo, it refers to WHAT he is!"Malc said very condescendingly.

Daphne supported Vinnie,"How is that wrong at all? Bad people who act up in classes are legion!"

"Yes, and professors suffer dearly for it. Poor them …aha, here it is: a bad class of being, a member of a Gestalt model of higher thought, perhaps a Universal thought or incomplete Group think for perfect symbiosis with our environment. Is this metaphorical, reflecting a hegemony style of leadership or a representative of a vision of superior beings trying to be better at everything with superior ambition that has grown too ambitious?"

"If this superior guy IS better at everything, why doesn't he prove it to everyone without being so slick, vague and creepy about it?"Vinnie snarked.

He gave a thumbs up to a touched Marcy.

"Exactly. Now to fool this fiend, what should I say if we did go to their areas?"

Halley held up the next sign.

Daphne smirked and said it first,"Here it is: We are going to the labs for a shift!"

Malcolm proved he couldn't even sound normal for that. He cleared his throat,"We are going to the labs for a shift!"

The serious way he said that was far too serious to take seriously.

"I'm totally sold! Next!"Vinnie droned.

Malc was eager for this part,"This part of the agenda I like. We must practice 'screaming the name' of our nemesis to the sky in event of possible defeat or humiliation. Such a valid response!"

"This I have to hear, if it's as good as I think this says! Please do the honors, M!"Daphne rubbed her fingers together.

Malc obliged. He took a deep breath and yelled to the sky,"KHAAAAAANNNNNN!"

Triple B's jaws hung open in disbelief.

Albert snickered.

"Oh Captain, my DMV team captain, I am in awe!"Daphne clapped.

Vinnie nodded,"Yeah man, we're going to lay a sick beatdown on Wollowartz and face the Wrath of Khan! Wow, I feel so good we should have snacks! Oh hang on, I need some peaches."

One hit Malc in the head from the crowd.

Vinnie picked it up,"Score!"

"Where did that peach come from?"

"Someone just threw it you!"

"Yes, but who?"

"I don't know."

"But where did it come from?"

"Someone just threw it at you!"

"Who?!"

"How should I know?"

"Is that even important?"Daphne cut in.

"We can't have paradoxical peaches just attacking me out of the blue!"

She sighed,"How could peaches attack you? Unless their pits are evolving …let me check our field guide!"

"D, please, peaches are not fit for eco-warfare, they'd be too sweet and easily devoured by the native superior omnivores and wild herbivores!"

Vinnie liked that idea,"There's an idea. Sweet peach bodyguards to be sweet and pack a tangy punch and guard your revolutionary ideas! That'll show them all!"

"Are you crazy?! I would not want peaches guarding my caravans or gardens, they couldn't dress the part and would complain about their tendency to bruise easily!"

"Tomatoes then?"

"I don't even like tomatoes, and they're savages already!"

Daphne stood up and said,"That reminds me, I need to get our lemonade we got from EVIL, the Every Villain is Lemons division of the Newtopian front near Snarlsburg."

Malc was outraged."That's what they were doing?! I thought they were raising money for bio gel research! How evil of them!"

"Exactly! Let's go enjoy their sour goods for the sweet good of Amphibia!"Daphne winked at a delighted Marcy. They walked offstage.

Marcy finally collapsed laughing. "Perfect, absolutely perfect!"

"So I do qualify for chief of improv and directions on field and lab work, Master Marcy?"Malcolm asked.

"Indeed, but not unsupervised! I've learned extreme intelligence needs assistance to keep steady!"

"And no doing things without authorization! "Zel added.

Triple B was very exasperated.

"All that babble and no location!"Branston grumbled.

"They just said they got it near Snarlsburg!"Blair said.

Bradley shook his head,"But that's not where they are. Obviously in the suspected area of Frog Valley."

"That's where we started off, doofus!"Blair snapped.

*Call a Plumber *

Perhaps the silliest tactic used was when she went through the sewer lines near Saint's Lake. The bridge was heavily guarded, and she wanted to do a path around the security there for a supply run.

Marcy and her Predboats and Mar Guards went through the sewer lines around the factory plants there in cloaked mode. Along the way she snagged any living samples of wildlife still around the toxified area.

Security was on alert, so to distract everyone, she sent a brief e-bug to every Frobot's radio signal.

Super Wario's 'Overworld' theme played.

"What in the blazes?"A wagon driver asked. Amphibian and Frobot stared alike in bewilderment. A handful of Frobots had existential crisises.

"They should call a plumber! Too bad I'M NOT AVAILABLE!"Marcy said smugly as they got away unnoticed.

Except for the song and leaving the bridge inoperable for a week that is.

"Cheeky girl …"Andrias said, smirking at the Castle when the song and the signal from the last Frobot faded. He knew this was another way of mocking them while ruining their operations

"Oh yes … Wit is embracing her powers well … to be witty while using her brains against us!"The Core said, glowering from the walls. "Now Andrias, these improvements and ideas to supplement our forces are promising … we're impressed. You did well in our absence to try and make up for our losses she inflicted in a moment of vulnerability."

"Of course … if Marcy wants to be more creative, I needed to take notes and counter her own strategies,"Andrias said, frowning.

"Oh yes … these will do excellent for our invasion plans. You must be excited to finally invade Earth at long last!"

"Yes …"He looked away,"I've thought of nothing else for 1,000 years."

It was a half-truth. It was the only thing he had to look forward to … the only thing he could enjoy as something the Core wanted.

"Son … your first invasion is always the hardest, but it's worth every effort!"Aldrich's voice said.

Andrias glared at the floor. He was very glad in his heart Marcy was not part of the Core.

"Our losses are a minor setback. We've thought a bit ahead. The moon is having 25% of our operations moved there now … and three of our old conquests have been resettled to use for factories and an old army is on standby!"

"Which one?"Andrias asked.

He whistled seeing the details. 4,000 years ago, Ebony IV had been conquered. The dangerous insectoid hive beings there had given a hard fight. Half were wiped out and the monarch of the time left them in a more monstrous state and an enslaved condition, slumbering beneath the surface.

They were called Hollows, hollow in mind and meant to be filled with their will. The slowest ones were the Lyngbakrs, large combinations of bugs and whales with eyeless gaping jaws of teeth, and six massive fins and claws underneath who carried most of their brethren on top or inside of them. The Claws were crab-like beings with 4 giant pincer-tipped arms on a bipedal torso with 10 legs and an armored head with 6 eyes. The Drakes resembled white insectoid dragons with 6 bat-like wings, glowing red-eyes and massive claws and intense acidic fiery breath. The Queens resembled giant wasps with 12 legs and could spawn parasites and lay eggs.

Their basic soldiers, or Furies, were humanoids of 9 ft with barbed wings, armored exoskeletons, and acidic spit.

"Marcy is only fit for the same fate at Heart at this point as a danger to our operations! You know this is the end of your hopes for keeping her, don't you?"The Core pressed.

"I know …"Andrias said tonelessly. He didn't care at this point.

*Disorder in the Court*

Hours after the plumbing debacle, the most unusual broadcast happened.

Chet Betcher, a handsome newt with well-done hair and a shiny smile, was doing daily announcements for one camp of a handful of Newtopian aristocrats and businessmen.

Among them was Lady Doreen Ambyasta. She had been a regular aristocrat patron of the Newtropolitan, a fancy club, with a fancy blonde beehive hairstyle (with ribbons in it), fuschia skin, and a fancy green dress. She was an old classmate of Olivia's and a good friend of hers. Her family estate involved merchant work in pearls and other Great Bay sea products for architecture and decoration along with the algae farming. It had gone downhill since the war.

She sat next to Lady Grey Fisher of the Croaket Loch of the Caerillian Coasts. Fischer had peach skin and short frizzy red hair done in bunches on her side. Her large 10-gallon blue and purple hat matched her dress. She loved the hat, even if it got knocked off by accident a lot.

Count Rodrick Bunson was an elderly newt with orange skin, grey skin and small mustache, and he wore a fancy suit, green bowtie and large top hat. He ran a successful banking firm with ties to Ribbitvale.

Miss Shoobie Straps (another patron of the Newtropolitan) had white curled hair, a raspy voice, wore a fedora with a feather, a tight tunic with a fancy blue cravat. She ran a thriving shoe business. Her young cousin Mark Caberet (with a very slick sideways hairdo and a diamond-studded poncho) enjoyed success with Bugcoin and other monetary ventures.

Isaac Stafford and his fiancée Lauren Willow were biologists and explorers. Isaac had orange skin, glasses and short bangs and wore a large black and white robe with white spots on the top half. Lauren had mauve purple skin, black hair in a long braid,and a large cowboy hat with a feather on it. She wore a burgundy cloak and a purple robe with diamond stud shapes at the hem.

Angela and Jack Fetcher were another happy young couple of wealthy university graduates doing work in the field of geological digs. Angela was a palamate newt with a finned tail with brown spots, orange skin and white hair that matched her blouse and the daisy on her sunhat. Jack had green spotted skin, a striped green shirt and trousers, and a Beatles style bangs haircut of dark hair.

Misty Holiday was a popular singer at the Newtropolitan. She had red skin, curly brown hair, a white suit with a bowtie, and a matching flapper hat with a flower/snail ornament on the left side.

Alfred Bowie owned a trucking firm and his wife Cindy had plantations in her family near Ribbitvale once. He was a short red newt with a long face and a suit, while she was average height had tan skin and brown hair, a green dress and tiara.

Duke Bunston Potts was another old classmate of Olivia's, along with his wife Maria. He had a middlepart hairdo and a suit. Maria wore a fancy red and pink dress that clashed wonderfully with her hot pink skin. Her white wide hat with a feather completed the look of a refined lady.

Flipwart championship contests Asa ( a green newt with yellow eyes and glasses), Joan Wartzkin ( a purple newt with shoulder bangs, a red shirt, tight pants and heels) and Vincent ( a light green newt with a blue shirt) were also there with the Newtopian University students and staff, including Headmaster Herringbone.

In another area for lower class citizens doing factory and security work, Priscilla Paddock and her daughter Pearl were on lunch break.

The Cart Smash and Mash Derby champion wasn't in a good mood even if she'd earned chief security rank with Roger the Newtopian security chief's approval. The orange newt (who wore a blue cloak with a badge on his shoulder) and his subordinates Ferris (the laziest guard), his pals Cameron, Jeffrey, Broderick, Matt, and a dozen others were at the bottom of Newtopian authority and hadn't gotten any higher. They and one of the military newnjas (a subset of the army with black armor and turbans over their faces who kept an eye out in the cities or did stealth missions), a short red axolotl with green eyes named Alan assigned there didn't like it there either.

Her fellow Derby racers sat around. Trevor (a massive scary guy with glowing orange eyes and fangs) and his pal Reggie ( a scary newt with a long neck, slim body and stringy hair), Gillo Crossbones ( a newt with crosshair-shaped eyes) and his sister Piper (she had a mohawk and carried an axe), Aria Rubble ( a green newt with shoulder bangs and bone hair accessories), and Hagar (her small friend with a large Viking helmet with horns), Totaka ( a Yoshi-like newt) and his friend Mogura (a small pink newt in a parka with a mallet for a weapon), Kreka ( a dark green newt with a spiked Ottoman helmet and pualdrons) and her son Ruga (same helmet, narrow yellow eyes and dark orange skin), her rival Attila ( a lilac newt with a beard and scars all over his limbs) and his wife Helga (a lilac axolotl with a thick tail), Harold Wailer( a blue crested newt with pink crests down his back and head and a punk look) and his girlfriend Trixie Bruiser ( a short but buff red newt with a 'cart spear' and a thick tail), and Travis Shack, the Derby announcer who wore a cowboy hat.

Marcy had mingled with crowds at the Newtropolitan more than once and had been to the malls in Newtopia plenty.

Olivia watched with a patient smile as Marcy looked gleeful at all the stuff around.

Some of the Shopper Derby veterans, a violent event she didn't care for, looked amused as she bounced around asking questions about the items.

"I take it you had one of these back home?"Olivia asked.

"Anne and Sashy practically lived at the mall, Milady, of course I love that you have one!"She tripped over a clothing rack, got right back up saying, "I'm ok!"

"You dropped this!"A large scarred newt with red skin said, holding her journal out to her.

"Aww thanks, ma'am, you and your lovely daughter have a nice day!"Marcy said.

"Heh …"Priscilla muttered,"First time someone called me ma'am so quick …"

To their surprise, in both areas, the mandatory video screens which Andrias used for announcements turned on.

In Ribbitvale, Sasha had snuck in with Wally and Grime to see his father. He was going over details as their richest ally when a similar screen outside Ribbiton estate turned on.

Tritionio Espada, longtime outlaw and leader of the new Merry Band gang of newt thieves and raiders, were passing by in the distance. They turned to watch.

The video showed an empty building. A Judge Bot in table mode sat down with two dozen Hooded Frobots. Three Amphibians sat before it. Two criminals in chains sat on the right.

A blue newt with icy blue eyes, a buzzcut, a parka and thick boots looked bored as he sat there. The gruff toad next to him with goggles on his forehead, a thick brown coat and flame-resistant gloves was scowling.

The obese frog on the left side looked exasperated. He had a fancy suit, a top hat, and a mop of brown hair.

"Is that Mycroft Wyatt? Shame, that chap is quite the orator at debate clubs and lectures, how did he get involved in whatever this is?"Wigbert said.

"Lenny Wordswart and Ricky Rollings …a famous outlaw duo … they got caught! Ah well, less competition for me!"Tritonio said.

"A frogging trial show … now they think we need to watch this crud!"Priscilla grumbled.

"There's literally nothing useful to this!"Roger said wearily.

The judge banged his gavel,"NOW, WE SHALL BEGIN THIS TRIAL! MYCROFT WYATT, STAND UP AND COME TO THE DOCK OR PAY THE PRICE FOR THE CRIME OF REFUSING MY DECREES! YOUR EXPERTISE AND WITNESS CREDIBILITY WILL BE ALL THAT'S NEEDED OF YOU!"

Mycroft did so,sighed and adjusted his collar,"For goodness's sakes, I'm an expert historian, part-time advice columnist, and expert at debate clubs! I wasn't at the scene of their crime, and don't want to add this to my resume after this war is over!"

"SILENCE, MISTER WYATT, THIS IS A SIMPLE CIVIC DUTY, PROCEED AND WAIT YOUR TURN TO BE CALLED AS THE EXPERT WITNESS!"The Judge bot said,"NOW RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND, TAKE OFF YOUR HAT, PLACE YOUR LEFT HAND THERE, AND RECITE OUR CHARTER!"

"I'm sorry, what was that? "Mycroft asked.

"RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND, PLACE YOUR LEFT HAND HERE, AND TAKE OFF YOUR HAT! WHAT'S SO HARD ABOUT THAT?"

The two thieves were just as confused as the well-dressed frog historian.

"Place my left hand where?"

"THERE, ON THAT BOOK!"

"What book?"Mycroft said in frustration. Lenny and Rick shrugged when he looked at them.

"THE BOOK OF JUDGEMENT FOR WORLD DOMINATION IN FRONT OF YOU!"The judge's eyes flickered briefly.

"It's malfunctioning …"Sasha said to Wigbert.

"Obviously …what does it expect to sound like using that nonsense?"The rich frog said.

Mycroft knew when to humor a maniac, so he said,"Very well …"

He put his left hand on a nearby sheet of paper with his hat off.

"GOOD, NOW … DO YOU SWEAR TO TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH, THE CONVENIENT TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT OUR TRUTH?"

"Which truth?"Mycroft asked, trying not to smile.

"THE MOST CONVENIENT ONE FOR US-THE ONE FOR YOU-THE 5-STAR REVIEW TRUTH!"

"I swear to tell the 5-star review truth!"Mycroft said with a perfectly straight face. The two criminals snorted.

"Never mind. This might be fun!"Priscilla said. Her friends chuckled.

"UNACCEPTABLE-SUSTAINED, BRING IN THE CAGE!"

The empty cage sat there in the corner. "DONE ALREADY, ORDER IS ESTABLISHED, NOW DESCRIBE THE RAVISHING OF THE RELICS WITH THE LIST PROVIDED!"

Sasha relaxed and smiled with anticipation,"It's been too long having dinner without a show!"

Mycroft looked over the descriptive sheet the Hooded Frobot handed it to him. His intelligent English voice went very deadpan reading what he was given, "Yes, your honor, the relics were quite ravished. The casualties were: several dozen tomes on municipal history, records sealed for the provincial governors, a dozen forbidden tomes on unimaginable torture and punishment, the usual imaginable tortures and punishment-the worst of which was disqualified singing and expired cooking, followed by disembowelment and flytrap cultivation with live zombies and overrated mayors. Also missing were Royal Leviathan seals and a dozen dust-coated signet rings used in long-forgotten conflicts that the Peacekeeper of a thousand years would rather not talk about! The centuries-old preserved skeleton of a famed Cursed Amphibian was also missing. Apart from graverobbing this poor soul who never had a proper burial and allegedly claiming their contractor wanted to study and bury him properly, these shameless hoodlums caused a real hullabaloo taking archeological finds over 2,000 years old at most, and did not use the clearly marked exits or make a proper dramatic exit through the wall or front door but went quietly out the back door! This was after using the windows as an uncool entrance without a license and skipping the important meals of lunch and breakfast to do this! Bad decisions come from avoiding daily nutrition. That sets the worst example of all!"

Lenny and Rick snickered.

Priscilla and Tritonio's groups found that very amusing. They'd all heard worse charges in their own brushes with law enforcement (or working with it the guard's or Alan's case) and bad Derby events.

"Bad nutrition, clearly marked exits and uncool entrances!"Kreka snickered,"Oh you wish that was the bad example here!"

"Someone is messing with this trial just to embarrass Andrias!"Doreen said with exasperation as the Newtopian elites chuckled.

"I ain't complaining!"Shoobie cackled.

"Neither am I!"Doreen said.

Mycroft rolled his eyes and kept reading when the Hood Bot elbowed him.

"Oh yes, and the … Oh no, the tapestries,"he got very sarcastic,"were either left hanging in suspense or in tatters in the display case of the revered Hangtoad's outfits and prized axes. These axes and intimidating hood and vests were not to be worn at parties but at serious and dramatic executions the bloodthirsty savage peasants of old enjoyed way too much. They have been kept in valued pristine fresh-kill and menacing outfit condition. The collection of boots earned for each hung victim were left in the Shoeboxes of Shame. The feared noose of the Deadly Knots for the horribly naughty was not left hanging from the Gallows of Despair where it belongs but was taken to be put to good noose once again instead of letting his majesty and authorized tourists enjoy all the gallows humor … "He snorted,"This explains so much about THAT job."

"Tell me about it!"Lenny mumbled loudly.

Wigbert and Wally pounded the table with mirth.

The historian fought not to smile as he kept reading,"These heinous hoods of horror and axes of anguish were not left untouched by these hoodlums for privileged Highland North lords of war, love, and bards to view at discount prices or for free but taken and put in with the Croaked Choir outfits in the same box that was recovered in the mail 30 miles away and then lost again. They didn't even leave the Suit of armor for Baccarata the Bog Bashing beauty of the Swamp Sedation Wars or Sergei the Voluminous's armor and Hammer of Doom alone when they pilfered the Hall of Invincible warrior's armor, taking these defenseless things for themselves. An outrageous crime of taking terrifying attire of invincible ages in the slightly faster and less invincible age of cutting loose while wearing tight metal and loose clothing!"

He paused to think,"This robot isn't reacting to any of this as embarrassing … what is going on?"

Mr. Wyatt shook his head to snap out of it. He almost groaned seeing the next part and went so from a sarcastic tone to obviously mocking," The more dangerous book tomes of hand-to-hand combat, records of Swamp folk dancing champions, and broken talismans were pilfered, pillaged and plundered with unforgivable damage to the locked drawers and nearby flipwart boards that were … flipped over,"the frog rubbed his forehead in exasperation and carried on," The suspected motive was to use a combination of reinforced athletic gear, forbidden magic and swamp dancing abilities to start a crime ring underworld takeover."

"I don't buy that malarkey!"Tritonio said.

Lenny shook his head minutely when Mycroft glanced his way.

The bemused historian smirked as he read the last part,"They took several keys: the keys to several chests full of treasure, fine linen, outdated clothes that already went out of style, the extinct Runecrafter guild's vaults, and five 'Keys to the City' awards. Lastly, an archive of royal family recipes that used to be all the rage in the best of times was stolen in this era, the worst of times, instead of letting these delicious dish ideas fade into obscurity."

"Best trial ever!"Attila declared

"THEIR GUILT IS ESTABLISHED. BACK TO YOUR SEAT!NOW, LEONARD WORDSWART AND RICK ROLLINGS, STEP FORWARD!"

The two destructive thieves stood up. They remembered the strange note from their contractor they'd been slipped in their prison cart that said,"You guys stall as hilariously as you can at the trial and you'll be out free soon! I'll make it easier for you to do so!"

"MISTER ROLLINGS, YOU COME TO THE STAND FIRST!"

After he sat down, the Judge Bot said," YOU ARE ACCUSED OF DOZENS OF ACCOUNTS OF ARSON, PRISON BREAKS, THEFTS, RESISTING ARRESTS, INJURING OFFICERS OF THE LAW, PRISON GUARDS, INSTIGATING 8 BAR FIGHTS AND LASTLY SETTING FIRE TO THE LEVIATHAN VAULTS WHILE MAKING OFF WITH RARE TREASURES AND RECORDS! WHAT WAS YOUR REASON?"

Rick gave a very good reason, "Your honor, please, I rarely instigated the bar fights. I just ended them. And I doubt King Andrias minds that another building he's not even using got set on fire. He's set so many things on fire these days, it's like he's got a thing with fire … even more than me! Hang on, is he stealing my gimmick as an even worse guy? I might take that personally."

Sasha and Tritonio smirked.

"SILENCE! YOU DO NOT GET TO SLANDER HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS! YOU ARE HERE TO BE PUNISHED! YOU ARE NOT GETTING OFF AT ALL, AND YOUR PRIOR RECORD OF ESCAPES IS GOING TO ENSURE A MORE RADDDICAALLL SOLUTION! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF, YOU SHAMELESS SCORCHER OF LIFE AND TAKER OF TREASURES!"

The increasingly hammy judge's behavior got a raised eyebrow from the audience, defendants and witness.

"Okkk, like I said, we set the building on fire …and took treasures. And it was … epic?"

"EPIC IS NOT THE WORD TO DESCRIBE IT! YOU UNLEASHED 1ST TO 3RD DEGREE BURNS ON BUILDINGS INSTEAD OF PEOPLE, WHICH IS NOT THE PROPER WAY TO-"The Judge paused, as if hearing himself, and shook his head,"NEVER MIND. DID YOUR CONTRACTOR HAVE A NAME?"

Rick took a deep breath and said,"Yes, the note said 'Hu.'"

"I'M ASKING YOU WHO?"

"That's what I just said, hu did it!"

"NO YOU DID IT, NOW WHO TOLD YOU TO DO IT!"

"Oh brother …"Sasha was familiar with this joke.

"That's hu! Whoever they are, Hu's the best!"

"THE BEST AT WHAT!?"

"I don't know … doesn't everyone need to be the best at something?"

"YES, NOW TELL ME HOW!"

Rick did his boldest comeback yet,"I can't tell you how to be the best judge!"

"YOU CERTAINLY CANNOT, LAW SCHOOL IS HARD WORK-MY DEGREE IS FAKE AND A WASTE OF TALENT-AND YOU ARE NOT THE BEST AT YOUR SAD CAREER!"

The arsonist said flippantly, "I already told you Hu's the best!"

The Judge exploded in a rant,"THIS IS ABOUT THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY! WE HAVE THE WHERE AND WHEN, BUT NOT THE WHY, WHO'S IDEA THIS WAS FIRST,"Sasha bit her lip to keep quiet," OR WHAT FIENDISHLY GOOD LAWYER IS PREPARING YOUR CRIMINALLY OFFENSIVE DEFENSE!"

Rick looked unnaturally relaxed when he answered that part,"Hu, the alias of who did it, told us to be as neatly offensive as possible on the job. Why that is, who can say?"

Wyatt chuckled quietly.

" YOU ARE DOOMED TO BE SENTENCED HORRIBLE FOR SUCH UNPROFESSIONALLY OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR. YOUR COMPANION WILL GO NEXT TO TELL ME WHO BEFORE YOUR SUMMARY EXECUTION!"

Rick smirked,"How does that work anyway? Do you summarize the execution?"

"ORDER! TO THE DUNGEON-I MEAN DOCK-WITH YOU! LEONARD WORDSWART, STEP FORWARD!"

It was just as well Lenny was doing the last bit, since his self-control was the best.

"NOW,LEONARD WORDSWART, YOU ARE BY ALL ACCOUNTS THE BRAINS OF THIS CRIMINAL DUO OF ROBBERIES AND AN ESCAPE ARTIST WHO HAS NO RESPECT FOR A LOCKED DOOR! YOU REFUSED TO NAME YOUR CONTRACTOR FOR ROBBING THE LV BLIND! DID THEY MAKE IT YOUR WORTHWHILE FOR DOING SUCH UNRESTRAINED LARCENY?"

Anyone who'd ever met Lenny knew he almost always sounded sarcastic on purpose or otherwise. This time was no different.

"On the contrary, your honor, I showed great restraint and weren't nearly as offensive or destructive as possible! The floors had terrible mold rot, so we showed great restraint where we walked and dusted a shelf as a courtesy. Rick resisted criticizing the art styles of offensive imagery, and I resisted the impulse to steal the very expensive silver ashtrays on a decorative table that was a priceless antique. Our card games would look so much better if we took those things, but that would be too hard to carry out! Also, smoking is bad for your health! Thankfully, the warning signs around the jars and vases on the wall were most informative. They said,'Beware, these must be handled with care'. I'm also aware from previous experiences that it is easy to get hands caught in such things and some of the nobles of the past had a knack for booby-trapping such things! You'll never look at an antique flower vase the same way again. Besides, a few of those looked like replicas or worthless knockoffs, so they got left there. Let the record reflect that there was no sign on the door saying:'DO NOT STEAL' or 'TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED', just some faded one that said:'Levi…Val …do not touch'. Unless some girls named Levi or Val were living nearby, who I did NOT touch, someone should fix that sign."

"You cheeky scoundrel!"Sasha wagged a finger at him.

"NOT NEARLY ENOUGH RESTRAINT!"Mycroft covered his mouth and Ricky inhaled sharply. Lenny raised his eyebrows,"IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SHOCK-THERAPY-TORTURE OF THE MOST ARCHAIC SORT-ANSWER NOW TO CLEAR THE RECORD AND AVOID MAKING IT WORSE!"

The helium-gas voice effect on the robot judge worked like a charm.

"Success!"Malc said from his keyboard.

"Raise it higher!"Vinnie said.

The Newtopians at both spots laughed hysterically or tried hard not to. Wigbert and his three guests laughed hard. So did the other Ribbitvalians nearby.

Tritonio and his outlaw band howled with laughter.

"That is shocking alright … could you repeat that? I didn't quite make that out!"Lenny asked.

The judge lost it,"UNNNAAAAACCCEPPPPPPTTTTAAAABBBBLLLLEEEEE! YOU WILL ADRESS THIS COURT AS YOUR HONOR, AND NOT INSULT MY HONORABLE RECORD! YOU HAVE INSULTED OUR HONOR AND YOUR DEBTS MUST BE PAID IN BLOOD! NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION! WAS THIS YOUR PLAN?!"

Lenny took a deep breath to compose himself and handled the question thoroughly, "Your honor, I apologize. Plans are a complicated thing. I am the master of plans and subverting plans. There are a few simple rules to remember about plans. For a job, you make a plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to fail and throw away the plan. I value floor plans, contingency plans, retirement plans and party planning as an underappreciated part of life. For society, expect that for the leaders, everything good and bad is going according to plan, no matter how terrible that plan is … and they don't panic when it's all part of that plan. This is all going according to plan for some people. Plans come apart or work to someone else's plan to take advantage of. The king's plans were nice and jolly, now they are very, very dreary and chaotic. I planned to take advantage of this in a way that was even more beneficial with less cost and risk than usual to me, Rick, or the usual panicking pedestrians and underpaid security guards. Our formidable archenemies among the Newtopian Mall Security and Jeweler Unions are on vacation. We needed someone to annoy and practice our valuable talents on!"

The Derby veterans and security guards lost it and fell over crying with mirth.

Mycroft hit his chest to keep calm. Rick was crying tears of laughter.

"YOU ARE GRAVELY MISTAKEN TO ASSUME YOUR TALENTS HAVE VALUE TO ANYONE BUT RIFF-RAFF! THE CHOPPING BLOCK IS TOO GOOD FOR YOU!"

Lenny was glad to hear that,"That's a relief, I won't have to face my greatest weaknesses: small knives better used on vegetables for cooking instead of amateur muggings and unwashed axes with bloodstains. That argument with that one toad over how good fresh blood smells ruined that potluck and chili for me! Let the record reflect that in my humble opinion, this job of ours is really not worth such fuss. My plans are not so melodramatic as to desire world domination, conquests, or kickstarting wars for profit and expansion that ruins the value of the monetary system. I leave that in Andrias's very large hands!"

Tritonio and his largest newt Little Louise fell flat on their backs from laughing so hard.

"Perfect!"Grime said with delight.

"Ohh boy, he's lucky Andrias isn't there right now!"Joan whispered to Vince, who was crying tears of laughter.

The robot's voice got even higher,"INDEED YOU SHALL, MISERABLE SCUM! HOWEVER, YOU DECLINED TO NAME YOUR CONTRACTOR UPON CAPTURE, SAYING IT WAS A HIGHER POWER OR PRICE THAN ANY YOU'D RESPECT FROM THE KING OR OTHERWISE! PLEASE CLARIFY FOR THE RECORD!"

The criminal master of sarcasm could not pass this opportunity up.

Lenny said very calmly and seriously,"Oh yes, the one who hired us was definitely a higher power. The results of that are making everything in this room go higher! We're talking high notes, high pitch, high tide, high spirits, high production rates,high stakes, high values, high volume, high profile, and no doubt my respect is going higher still for those at great heights in high society except for his high-ness while I'm paying a high price for this highly offensive crime we did at high noon! No lows today, only highs!"

Rick lowered his face onto the table to hide the obvious laughter he couldn't keep down anymore.

"Dude, please, don't make it too funny!"Sasha begged him as she held her chest.

Mycroft held his breath very hard to not laugh. Then the 'verdict' was announced, and he lost it.

"INDEED, YOU SHALL PAY A HIGH PRICE, WORDSWART, YOU SHALL BE-EXECUTED, BEATEN, PUT IN THE STOCKS, FLOGGED, MADE TO HAUL BRICKS FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE, AND THEN FLOGGED SOME MORE, DRAWN AND QUARTERED, STUFFED, AND THEN HUNG ON DISPLAY AS AN EXAMPLE AND THEN FINALLY BEHEADED! AND- WHAT IS SO FUNNY, MR WYATTTT!?"

"Please don't make me answer that!"Mycroft begged from the floor where he was pounding the floor.

"Don't take it personally, your honor. I've never been so thrilled to be threatened with executions and other punishments in that particular order from a judge with a terrific soprano!"Lenny said brightly.

"ORDER, ORDER IN THIS COURT! THAT IS IT, NO MORE DELAYS! MISTER WORDSWART YOUR WORDS ARE WORTHLESS, AND SO IS YOUR LIFE!"The robot and his guards were blissfully unaware of how ridiculous his voice sounded.

They never would know since the rescue happened in the next second. The robots were hit by darts through the windows that made their heads explode.

Marcy walked in with a few Asurdroids, Odd and Morales, and the Magnas after making a cool entrance through the wall. She cackled with delight,"Court is adjourned, overruled and overthrown! GOOD JOB GUYS! Told ya I'd make it worth your while! No GAG ORDERS REQUIRED!"

"Ah, so you're our mysterious contractor. I can't say I'm surprised!"Lenny said dryly as the Asurdroids broke their chains and helped Mycroft to his feet,"Let me guess, that was to make the king look worse and see if we'd do good under pressure?"

Marcy gave a so-so gesture,"A bit. Also, I was OBLIGED to do that for certain reasons!"

She waited for a few seconds before answering their expectant looks,"You left your climbing gear for going through windows behind, so a higher sentence was in order BEFORE I suspended your sentences and punished this poorly dressed judge for not wearing his law suit!"

"Oh brother!"Sasha groaned at the puns.

The witch giggled as the two thieves and Mycroft rolled their eyes,"Just kidding! Mostly, it was so my TECH DEPARMENT GUYS could experiment a bit with their stuff, use the court jokes my cool bestie Halley and I came up with, and make us all laugh! Worth it! These Judge Frobots are next to useless except for spare parts to me. All they accomplish is to make justice go hopping mad! I flipped the script and made it better to laughing mad while we get hopping! That's entertainment and better justice with appeals, something they lack!"

"Now that makes it all worthwhile. Thanks for keeping it short! Who knows many jokes I'd have to improvise to help keep it going?"Lenny said in 'relief' as they headed outside.

"For a top troublemaker, she's pretty funny!"Priscilla admitted.

"I'll say!"Trixie agreed,"That was original!"

"Well, that made today … interesting!"Lauren said to her fiancee. He wiped his glasses off and nodded.

Tritonio wiped his eyes,"Ohhh, so original, I love it! This rebel witch is very bold!"

"That was good!"A green newt in a hood named Alvin agreed.

"Should we hire her if you ever get caught?"One of his Merry Band, a kid named Jojo Potato, asked.

"Please, Jojo I'll bet she'd do it for free just to hire me!"The scoundrel said.

The two thieves were hired for their group and so was Mycroft, who got to bring his family to her base to be safe. He wasn't too bothered by being brought into the whole mess since nothing bad happened to him.

The fact that Marcy had broadcast this to at least two locations amused the trio even more.

"Oh good, free advertising!"Rick said eagerly.

"That was a fun day!"Sasha said as she headed back.

"Oh boy, whatever she did to that robot was flippin' crazy, and I love it!"Wally said.

Grime sighed,"True, I never saw a trial I enjoyed more!"

"So you like her now too?"Sasha teased him.

"I never said I hated her!"Grime retorted.

"What was the point of that again?"Zel asked Marcy while they celebrated with milkshakes.

"For one, so no one takes this bad idea of justice seriously anymore, two, it was fun, three, we succeeded in entertaining two Newtopian areas and Ribbitvale with the Resistance visiting … and they liked it. Four … I think we all needed some morale boosting."

Zel sighed contentedly and sipped her drink,"You succeeded … those Judge Bots are stupid and a waste of time. Why would you need the table leg function or a judge robot at all when you could use that for something more efficient?"

"Andy's a showoff and a bit too … official about his ideas,"Smarcy said.

"Officially stupid!"Bomme quipped.

*Alien Invasions*

"You know, Marcy,"Anton said when many of them were eating one evening around the campfire,"you do your people justice on trying to establish good impressions, whatever your failings."

Marcy sighed,"I appreciate that, your grace. As the token alien from another world, I do believe I can speak for how complicated first contact with another civilizations is in general, for real life and stories! Considering my world is the latest target for the evil overlord's long line of alien invasions …"she chuckled,"oh boy, so many alien tropes and stereotypes, I don't know where we'd begin!"

"This happens a lot with your kind?"Zel asked skeptically.

"Meh, actual alien invasions or visits in real life are the subject of many conspiracy theories. Who knows how many have come to our world or what could happen someday … Stories about visitors from other worlds are one of our favorites to enjoy! And hostile alien invasions,"She smiled almost mockingly as Smarcy conjured several movie posters of aliens of many kinds invading Earth,"are an endlessly classic movie and game trope!"

The sheer number of pictures surprised them. Bomme, the most informed on such things as her science pal and fellow geek, chuckled. "Is that one reason you like being the nice alien visitor here?

Marcy giggled," Bommey, please, alien invasions aren't just entertaining to watch or use in videogames or movies as the bad guys, they're a whole subject all on their own! The concept alone is diverse. For example, many of these aliens are invading Earth or other worlds for various reasons. They want to subjugate Earth as a new province in their galactic empires, they want to enslave mankind as a labor force, they want to destroy all life or just humans or whoever, sometimes they see us as the greatest threat to their existence or have some ancient grudge,"the Amphibians remembered Andrias's words about revenge,"or they want a new homeworld, blah blah blah. Our leaders on Earth like to avoid the worst of wars these days since we've had far too much practice fighting each other like you guys have down and invented deadly weapons that could assure mutual destruction at worst. Ideally, they would try to avoid war when they see the giant flying saucers or whatever kind of spaceship arrives and have peace with the 'first contact'. Good first impressions are always key when you meet! However, we all know that's not going to be the case here at all. The Core sees my kind as an inferior race worth exterminating and my larger planet's mass of resources as a perfect goldmine of resources to kickstart a new golden age and then keep going to another one. An estimated 10,000 years or so of that Box being around and hundreds to thousands of worlds conquered by Andrias's ancestors … I'm tempted to use the Horde of Alien Locusts trope as an example for them."

"Locusts … a swarm of insects? These ones?"Malc had a picture of the grasshopper-like bugs in a group.

"Exactly! Locusts attack in a swarm, eating every plant around them before they go back to a manageable population size. They're a common plague we're used to, but an intelligent alien horde of them… Let's do a movie clip example!"She glanced at Smarcy, who pulled a clip from the film ID.

"For context, in this movie, an alien race in very big spaceships has arrived and in just two days has started wiping out human civilization all over Earth with ships that can blow up entire cities in one shot! The humans don't know why they're doing this and they have a new prisoner in Area 51, a military base in our home country of America! The US President, our leader, takes a trip downstairs to see this alien pilot!"Smarcy said before hitting play.

The president of the U.S. (Marcy's home) walked in with some of his military staff and security.

"Doctor Brack?"Major Baldwin (the soldier in charge) called into a sealed room with glass and fog in it. A white-haired man with glasses was slammed against the glass, a sight which made the Amphibians jump.

"Release mmmeeeee …"He slurred out, his voice echoing over the speaker

"Open the door!"Baldwin said.

"No, wait!"General Gray said.

Brackish had a slimy tentacle around his neck. The fog cleared to show a trashed lab. A creepy looking alien with tentacles swarming around it's head and a cut open suit of some kind of shell jumped down.

It had no mouth and had a large angular head with creepy blank white eyes. It was using the man as a puppet to speak. "Release me NOWWW!"

The President decided to try diplomacy,"I know there is much we can learn from each other if a truce can be negotiated? Can there be peace between our peoples?"

The alien didn't care to bother,"Peaceeee? Nooo peace."

The humans in the film looked less uncomfortable about the idea than the 'aliens' watching this. President Whitling sighed and glanced at Gray, who just raised an eyebrow. He expected nothing less at this point.

"What do you want us to do?"Whitling asked. He wanted to know why these aliens were exterminating them for no reason and if they wanted from them.

"Die … DIIEEEEEEEE!"The alien said with no hesitation. It started using its mind powers to attack him next.

"Is that glass bulletproof?"Gray asked Major Baldwin.

"No sir!"They shot the glass down and hit the alien.

While Baldwin went to stand over the alien's body, Whitling stood up and said grimly,"His thoughts … I saw what their plans are! They're like locusts! They move from planet to planet, their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource and wiped out all life, they move on to another … and we're next!"

Baldwin shot the alien at point-blank range in the face three times to make sure it was dead.

"Nuke 'em, let's nuke these bastards!"The President growled, completely done with negotiating.

Marcy's friends all knew what nukes where by now. Bombs as effective as a Cloak-bot's self-destruct that could lay entire cities bigger than Newtopia to waste.

"See?"Marcy asked quietly.

"Can't blame your leader for such a decision! He tried for peace even under such unprovoked hostility, and that was all that was offered,"Anton said gravely.

"Yeah, poor guy, he tried! Now keep in mind, these aliens are like the Core as a whole, a hivemind of bugs who share thoughts, so that soldier did speak for its kind. Such callous disregard for life from invaders like them only makes it easier to respond in kind until your enemy is wiped out! Thankfully, for our situation, I know Andrias and the Core don't speak for all of Amphibia!"

"Of course not! That army of robots, a war over the whole country and some vague invasion of another world planned … that was nothing we saw coming or preferred to get involved in!"Zel said. She clenched her fists,"And the only living things brought back from these conquests are plants, treasures and valuable native animals like the Mossmen or Shadowfish …the Core and its armies are the locusts of our world who eat other worlds and those of us who say no!"

Bomme put a chart up nearby,"Their invasion plans and full control of Amphiba are postponed indefinitely at the rate we're going! The initial invasion plans have been sabotaged and we've cut off 30% of their major fuel supplies for their mobile fortresses and larger factory productions lines! They still have some million robots being made, but for now, the fight stays here!"

"Better to fight the areas you know than what you don't!"Andre said approvingly.

"How did they even capture an alien like that?"Daphne asked.

The two Marcys grinned. "That is a funny story!'Marcy answered.

They showed it of course.

Captain Hill, a jet pilot, tricked the alien pilot into crashing after ejecting himself out of his plane in a canyon and causing the force-field alien ship to crash into the walls. It landed on the ground and smoked. He landed with his parachute and collapsed on the ground.

"Son of a *&%$ …"He growled seeing the ship nearby and screamed at it. Zel and the rest chuckled seeing him lose it.

"THAT'S RIGHT, THAT IS RIGHT, OH GET OFF ME-"He unhooked his parachute,"THAT IS WHAT YOU GET, HA HA HA! LOOK AT YOU NOW, YO SHIP'S ALL BANGED UP! WHO'S THE MAN, HUH!? ME, THAT'S WHO! JUST WAIT TIL I GET ME ANOTHER PLANE! I AM LINING ALL Y'ALL FRIENDS UP RIGHT BESIDE YOU IN A ROW!"Hill climbed on the ship and said,"Where ya at? Come on!"

Hill pulled the cockpit open and grimaced seeing the wriggling tentacles. The alien pilot (covered in its creepy armor) shrieked and stood up. He punched IT in the head right away, knocking it out.

"Welcome to Earth!"He growled. Sitting down on the ship, he lit a victory cigar and remarked to his new prisoner,"Now that's what I call a close encounter!"

" I know what that's like, Captain Hill!"Marcy said sympathetically. Everyone laughed.

For a bonus, Smarcy showed Hill dragging the alien through the desert.

"You know, this was supposed to be my holiday weekend off, but nooooo,"He griped to his captive, "instead, you got me dragging yo heavy &% through this burning desert in the middle of Summer, with yo dreadlocks hanging out of the back of MY parachute! You just had to come down here with that attitude, acting all big and bad …"

Hill stopped walking and screamed,"AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT AWFUL SMELL!?"

He howled and kicked the still unconscious alien in its armored head a few times and yelled at it,"I COULD'VE GONE TO A BARBECUE!"

The Amphibians laughed hysterically.

He resumed pulling it and got snarky,"But it's alright … I ain't mad, that is alllrightttt …"

"Poor Captain Hill is very relatable, yes?"Smarcy asked when that was done.

"Totally, I was finishing my new science project when the war broke out!"Malc said.

"I was enjoying a day on the beach when the Castle rose and robots started attacking the islands in hours!"Halley grumbled.

Veronica snorted,"It was a bad day for me already, but it got worse thanks to that! Still, I know how that guy feels!"

"I'd just put in a request for vacation time off!"Vinnie said.

"So did I!"Gabby, Daphne and a few other newts said.

Bomme snorted,"I wanted to redesign my flying machine and look for a new house outside the East Tower."

Gerald crossed his arms,"We were going to head up to Kaeru for a show tour …then we saw the robots and reversed course."

"I was going to enjoy waiting for the victorious reports of the Castle raid if it worked and open that casket of Bog ale! The whole stock got lost in the attacks later!"Andre said.

Anton grumbled,"I was hoping to reinforce the Howl Tower walls and address some minor insurgencies at worst the next week!"

"I was exercising and looking forward to an easy tour of duty around the Coasts or against the toad armies if they did make trouble and then a worse fight comes up out of nowhere!"Zel said, before turning aside to her toad subordinates from the East,"No offense!"

"None taken,Commander, I'd have preferred that kind of fight too!"Medog said. They all laughed harder.

"Let's have a barbecue!"Darin suggested. They did and it was delicious.

*Green, Green Sass*

For Zel's first side mission with Marcy, they went to the Teardrop Islands, an archipelago to the West of Kaeru.

"Why do you want to go here for a test mission for me? The relocation of Newtopian treasures after the city was vacated is one thing to grab for valuables, but why bother taking me?"Zel asked.

"Simple, Zelly, we're gonna have some fun around Halley's old area and have an easy bonding exercise with a soundtrack so you don't feel left out! I wanna see if you can loosen up!"

"Oh great, you're trying to play around with me a bit, aren't you?"Zel groaned.

"Lighten up, I'm playing around with our enemies AND WANT you to play with me!"Marcy said.

"You'll have fun! Consider it a workout!"Halley added.

Veronica and Vizzini led teams to raid the other spots and recruit any remaining villagers to their cause.

Marcy's team got into position around Duct Island's main fort, Vastus Bastion, a three story bastion fortress with four corners with turrets and one large belltower in the center overlooking a cliff. Captain Perry had a mixed garrison of regular army newts, some knights, and other Amphibians along with some Frobots to guard the place.

She signaled Smars to start a number when her main team had snuck into the rafters of the place.

"What's the significance of this one?"Renee asked Bomme while watching at their base.

"Apparently …"Bomme snickered,"this is a funny song called 'Green, Green Grass' released not long ago by cool singer Jim Ezra. It involves a robber, and celebrating life, very cheerful and good for stress-relief. She thought it was fitting while we pulled one over on Andrias and had some fun. I'm not complaining. It helps her keep happy and these are usually very entertaining."

"Promising!"Renee rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

"Oh good, more buffoonery!"Anton said wearily.

"You'll get used to it!"Omei said.

"I think it's charming!"Darin said.

The lights inside the fort's main entrance swirled like a stage, confusing Perry the newt captain guarding it.

Smarcy donned Marcy's 'Red Moth gang' pirate look and danced behind the fort.

Zel watched with skepticism from within the ceiling above the control room as Marcy sowed some havoc and goofed off. Three Oddballs hit every Frobot on the corners of the roof with shock arrows that shorted them out.

Janelle flew down and grabbed the lead sentry out of the belltower in her talons. Emily followed to land there and start pulling the Newtopian flag down.

Gabby swooped into the Southeast turret and took out the trio of robots there out. Wendy, Gaff and Vlad climbed up with grappling hooks and did the same for the other turrets.

Halley yanked the living soldiers near the front door (all four of them up) by her tail out of sight.

Lenny and Ricky got to work opening the door quietly while the Strifebots loudly wrecked the robots near them with ease.

Throw a party, throw a party, yeah

Throw a party

Well, she moves like lightning and she counts to three

And she turns out all the lights and says she's coming for me

Now put your hands up, this is a heist

And there's no one in here living gonna make it out alive

Loaded up when the sun goes down, getaway car for two young lovers

Me and the girl, straight out of town, over the hills and undercover

Undercover, undercover

Marcy jumped down to land in the center of the foyer and began dancing up towards the vault in 'Uptowner Funk' style while the Twins, Tambry(in armor),Stacy, Leroy, Gerald, Summer, Lillian, Mimi,Tom, Wilma, Barney, Melanie, Greenbeard, three members of his troupe, Percy, and Braddock followed along behind her.

Bomme, Renee and the other CR mission control staff bobbed their heads and waved their hands along while watching.

"This invasion will not be tolerated, take her-"The knight in charge of the foyer was cut off when Vicki yanked him screaming up into the ceiling along with his two largest guards with some webs.

Five more met the same fate when they ran screaming towards the exits or tried hitting the alarms.

Macro, a large frog standing over 12 ft tall, cracked his knuckles and stood up from the table he'd been playing cards. Kimiko hit him on the top of his head with her kanabos. He fell down and broke the table underneath him.

Jack casually snagged the bottle of swamp beer from the table and drank it as he walked by and used his lasso on the bulky toad charging at him.

Zel and Anton started to smile.

None of the lasers, arrows or any other projectiles fired scored a single hit on the dancing invaders. Melanie's force-fields deflected everything.

Irwin,Cree, Andre, Larry, Rachel, Frezzik and a dozen Mar Guards dispatched the Frobots and soldiers from behind while they tried.

She said, "Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die"

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

We go together, Adam and Eve

But the girl is so much more than just another apple thief

Yeah, she's a genius (genius), watch and learn

How she sets the world on fire just to watch the sucker burn

Nessie, the fort secretary, asked skeptically,"What is this musical anarchy supposed to mean, this isn't a food storage area or-"

She was interrupted by Charlotte yanking her out of sight with a web.

Zel snickered and pocketed her keys when Charlotte passed her towards her unconscious.

The female axolotl lieutenant in blue robes went to make a call in a different. Tambry punched her in the back of her head. She shook her hand in pain after the soldier collapsed unconscious. "Ouch … that's harder than it looks!"

Wilma patted her on the back, handed her a club, and gestured at her to follow her and Stacy to the next room. They knocked out several more foot soldiers with greater ease.

A certain hammer-wielding legendary toad danced along in another realm. A small red frog next to him rubbed her forehead in annoyance.

"Apple thieves … why? Isn't being a decent box thief enough?"She grumbled.

Marcy blew the roof off the place (literally blew the roof right above her off) as she did some disco finger moves.

Loaded up when the sun goes down

Getaway car for two young lovers

Me and the girl, straight out of town

Over the hills and undercover, undercover, undercover

She did Bus Stop moves under the blue, blue sky as she made her way into the center of the place.

Mimi held a sign up in front of a dozen foot soldiers coming their way that said: Please surrender or you'll have to be painfully shocked with attacks that leave headaches for hours!

The Magnas and CG's surrounding them with crackling weapons convinced them to throw their weapons down and put their hands up in seconds.

They were lucky and got to witness the oddest defeat of a fortress they'd ever heard of with no injuries whatsoever.

Vicki stuck her head through a ceiling panel and tapped two knights on the shoulder on the other side of the door in front of Marcy. They looked up. She knocked their heads together and they fell senseless to the ground.

She hummed and bobbed her head to the tune while unlocking the door with their keys. A Frobot who tried to fire at her got whacked in the face with the fundo tip of her chain she lazily swung with one hand. It flew back into two others right behind it and crushed them.

Marcy tripped over the doorframe doing a backwards Running Man and fell on her back with her mask knocked off.

She got right back up and gave a thumbs up, a radiant smile and her catchphrase 'I'm OK!' in the air above her with glowing words to her concerned crew.

Tony and Bomme cackled at HQ.

"That a girl! Get right back up and don't break stride!"Renee said approvingly.

She said, "Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die"

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

She did Glide dancing on air (literally) the rest of the way to the vault door using her flight abilities. The sight stupefied the guards (living and AI alike) coming to defend the vault from the rear.

They gawked until a large newt with a paddle tail snapped,"Don't just stand there, go and SHGAAAAHH-"

He was interrupted by Yumi's fan hitting him in the gut and knocking him into the vault door. He would never want to mention that again out of embarrassment. His troops reacted appropriately enough (two-thirds at least).

The Twins noticed a Frobot and a burly toad guard in a viking helmet stalking towards Lilian as she noticed some sugar cubes on a nearby table (her favorite tea sweetener) and went to get them. With practiced casual ease, they 'directed' the robot and guard into two separate closets and came out seconds later. The closets had a traumatized and handcuffed guard and a blue-screening Frobot inside them.

Lilian put the cubes into a box she kept for such things, nodded with satisfaction, and stepped with refined grace over the door and followed Marcy with graceful shoulder pops and smooth ballroom sliding.

The Twins brushed their shoulders, tightened their gloves back into place, high-fived, put on shades they pulled from somewhere, followed Lilian and kept dancing in funk style with ridiculously serious expressions.

Cree rolled her eyes watching that and didn't even react when hearing a spiky-armored frog lady her own size come at her with two knives. With casual indifference, she twisted her arms back at impossible angles and flipped her attacker into the same closet as the toad.

Vicki picked off two dozen Frobots coming at Marcy in the air or ground while walking upside down and doing arm waves and basic popping and locking, 360-degree spins, and casual robot beheadings/web shooting combo moves.

"Let's just get out of here!"One knight whispered to three others. They nodded and ran right into Frezzik and Irwin, who knocked them out at once with piledrivers and chokeslam wrestling moves.

Rachel stepped through the door, raised an eyebrow at the odd sight, and threw a knife without looking to the far right. The large tattooed toad running in with a cannon blinked as his trousers fell down after his rope belt was cut. He dropped the cannon in embarrassment and moved to pull them back up.

Frezzik knocked him out in pity with a slap to his head and frowned at the Diamondback assassin.

Rachel sighed and cartwheeled forward, throwing three more pairs of blades to impale Frobots by the far door in the head. There was just no real appreciation for her less lethal throws.

Anton gave in and started laughing.

"What sort of tomfoolery is going on here?!"Perry screamed.

Zel chuckled and pulled her sword out. "I take it all back. This IS fun!"

She jumped down from the rafters into the control room and engaged Perry in swordplay, dancing and fighting at once while all 20 of his guards in the top room came at her. Charlotte followed seconds later to tear open the 20-plus robots who came in from next door when they heard him yell.

They were defeated in less than half a minute. DMV and Stacy came down after she had won the fight. They unlocked everything.

The top floor of security swarmed onto the roof to try and capture Emily as she took the flag down. Only one, a newt with a trident, got close. She yanked the spear and tossed him screaming over the side of the roof.

The rest had to deal with the other five attackers up there.

Three newts and a toad tried to tackle Gabby. They wound up stunned and moaning in paralyzed pain in six seconds.

Janelle slammed two bulky axolotls' heads together with her talons.

Gaff dispatched twelve robots lazily while leaning against the wall with rapid shots from a laser pistol.

Halley swayed side to side on the roof, dodging blows from a large, lip-pierced toad guard named Snicket wielding a flail. She did a backflip, and her tail whipped him in the face.

She balanced on her tail and spun in a circle, whacking five attacking Frobots in the face with her mallet.

The guard barely had time to recover from her previous blow before she kicked him in the face to KO him.

A massive female frog named Blyth (11 ft tall) with pink hair in braids hefted a barrel of the base's drinks at her. Halley ducked. Two newts and three frogs were knocked over the side of the wall by it instead. Wendy came at her from the right, caught her right wrist, and flipped her into the nearest turret wall hard enough to knock her out.

Limminy, a frog as big as Vlad, attacked him with a massive spear. Vlad disarmed him and put him in a submission hold.

Throw a party (hey!), throw a party, yeah

Throw a party (whoo) on the day that I die

Throw a party (hey), throw a party, babe

Throw a party on the day that I die

Loaded up when the sun goes down, getaway car for two young lovers

Me and the girl, straight out of town, over the hills and undercover

Undercover, undercover

The garrison was captured, and the robots were all destroyed.

The only thing left was for Marcy's group all over to do: dance.

The audience at HQ; Marcy's main group in front of the opening vault doors; Smarcy and the rooftop crew; Zel's group in the Control room, and several more average Frobots and pirates outside the front gates with getaway vehicles danced and clapped their hands to the ending in funk and disco style.

She said, "Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die"

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

Marcy landed clumsily on her feet after jumping down from her air dancing and casually used her powers to summon a green apple from a fruit bowl near the door while she looked over all the tons of treasure ripe for the taking. She bit into it and smiled with her eyes glinting brighter than the necklace of sparkling Thai-quality rubies in her other hand.

The box-thief apple-loving frog pulled her hair.

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

Green, green grass, blue, blue sky

You better throw a party on the day that I die

They made off with several thousand tons of stolen goods in a single day at that place and the other caches throughout the archipelago, took the guards and officials captive, and picked up the lingering 3,000 remaining villagers and some fishermen to save and recruit.

They'd robbed the entire archipelago blind of anything valuable.

Andrias was too distracted by dealing with the fallout from a raid by Beatrix on his army near Stony Gulch and Sasha taking out 10 factory areas near Wartwood in raids to notice the lack of contact from the place. The incident went largely unnoticed by his forces.

The forts, vaults and other storage areas were burned down while green, green grass flourished around the islands.

Marcy was setting Andrias's world on fire just to watch the sucker burn.

The toad asked his best friend,"What's the problem? You nipped some apples from the kitchen for Drias plenty of times-"

"OH HUSH!"The apple/ Calamity Box thief pounded the cackling legendary toad on the head.