39. Reunion, part 1

Chapter 39: Reunion, part 1

"So, what's the plan, Commander?"

Sasha gripped her swords tighter as she surveyed the opposition. About two Frobots, though they weren't the regular model; instead of the usual gunmetal grey, they had a metallic red finish, and were armed with flamethrowers. Sasha had dubbed them "Hot Frogs". In the midst of them was a larger model, about ten times the size of the others, round and bulky with a purple casing, sporting two very large canons. It was almost like a tank, and even traveled on treads rather than feet. Clearly the heavy artillery and thus a priority target. She quickly formulated a strategy.

"Wally, Loggle, Mrs. Croaker, Archie, take out the left flank. Felicia, Stumpy, Soggy Joe, Maddie, take the right. The rest of you, take out any stragglers. Grime, Gunther, you're with me on the level boss."

"Ah. 'Gamer' lingo, I get it," Grime acknowledged.

"See? You're learning. Now, I'm thinking we need to take out those cannons. I'll take the left, you take the right, and Gunther…" She nodded to the Southern Tusked Frog, who was already swelling up to his maximum size, "Smash." Gunther grunted in acknowledgement, smiling as he leapt onto the purple Frobot and slammed into it with his full strength, pinning it down for Sasha and Grime to take out its canons.

"Dang. I need to start lifting," commented Loggle as he observed the massive frog in action.

All around them Wartwood's army was dismantling the Hot Frogs. Sasha only took the briefest glance around before focusing on her goal; she knew by now the biggest part of being a commander was having faith that your troops could accomplish their goal without your needing to hold their hands. In an instant, her win heron blades cleaved the left cannon while Grim's hammer crushed the right, all while Gunther tore into the purple robot's chassis and crushed its core.

With the battle over for now, Sasha took a moment to catch her breath. "All right," she said, "time to clean up and get ready for the next attack.

"Uhhh… clean up what, exactly?" asked Wally.

He had a point. Repeated attacks had left Wartwood in… somewhat less than optimal condition. Much of the town was little more than rubble. Attacks were coming too fast to do any sort of meaningful repair work in between.

"Okay… it looks bad," acknowledged Sasha, "but I'm sure if we all work together, we can-"

"Sasha," interrupted Grime, "Think like the tactician you are. This situation is no longer tenable. Wartwood is lost. We must acknowledge that reality and relocate."

"No!" protested Sasha. "I swore that I was going to protect this town whatever it took."

"Oh, pish-tosh", Mrs. Croaker retorted. "Those ain't nothin' but a bunch of buildings. The true heart of Wartwood is the people."

"She's right," added Felicia. I'll miss the tea shop, but I could always rebuild it. I can't rebuild Ivy."

"MOM!" complained Ivy, embarrassed.

Sasha sighed. "Fine. But where are we going to go? Anyone have any ideas?"

Loggle raised his hand. "I dooooo…. What? I really do. I don't contradict myself every time."

"This is astounding," Grime marveled, taking in the elaborate system of tunnels and caverns. "I can't believe all this was under Hopediah Plantar's house! The arsenal alone would've been worth it, but this…"

"Not to mention this cute li'l guy," Maddie added, fondly stroking a grotesque pumpkin creature that seemed like something out of a post-Thanksgiving nightmare. "Who's a good kid? You's a good kid! Yes you is! I'm gonna call you Bela. You like that?" The creature gave the young frog sorceress a loving slobber.

"Ugh… I'm glad you found a friend but… could you please take them somewhere else? They're… hard to look at," dismissed Sasha before turning to Loggle. "How'd you even find this place?"

"Anne, Sprig and Polly discovered the first few chambers a few months back," Loggle explained. "Hopadiah and I explored them a bit further. Well, Hop did, I was just along for the ride because I was glued to his back at the time."

"Weird flex, but okay," replied Sasha. She had questions, but decided not to pursue them for now. "Go on…"

"Anyhoo, we found a hidden door in PolliAnna's chamber that opened into this network of caves…"

"Huh," interjected Grime. "I'd heard of PolliAnna… any warrior worth their slime has… but I'd always assumed she was a toad. You learn something every day."

"All right," Sasha decided. "Everyone, go back up and gather whatever you can carry, and bring it back here."

"I'll stay on lookout," Wally offered. "I've already got everythin' I need… me accordion, me iconic hat, and me bell pepper shaped like Anne's head!" he exclaimed, proudly showing the vegetable off.

"What the… do you aways carry that around?"

"Oi, I could never give up Pepper Anne. She's like one in a million!"

[A.N. Would I really make that contrived a reference?

Yes. Yes I would.]

There are entirely too many strange vegetables around today, thought Sasha. "All right. Barring any further attacks, we'll all meet here in four hours. From now on… this is New Wartwood."

Sasha didn't exactly have many belongings to gather up… her phone, her weapons (the ones she wasn't currently carrying on her person anyway), and a few minor keepsakes.

"We can't forget you, can we," Sasha said to herself, picking up Anne's journal. "Y'know… this is kinda stupid and sappy, and you know that I am totally not like that. But when I'm reading this, it's like you're still here with me."

She stopped and sighed. "I screwed up. I… I lost Wartwood." She shook her head. "Yeah, I know, I know, as long as the people are all right, that's what really matters, but still.. I… I feel like I've failed you. The one thing I wanted was to have Wartwood here for you when you finally got back, but I couldn't even do that, could I."

She paused. There was still plenty of time before she had to meet up back at the rendezvous point, and she was pretty much done packing. She could fit in one entry, right? They'd always brought her comfort before. She flipped to a random page. And began.

Oh, no. Oh, no no no.

This one. Of all the possible entries she could have picked, at this of all possible times, it had to be this one. The night everything changed.

She took a deep breath. "There has to be a reason I wound up on this page. Maybe… there's a lesson I need to learn?" Breathe. Again. "C'mon, Sasha… you already know how this ends. It can't be harder a second time. Can it?"

Steeling herself, she began…

OMG, I can't believe this is happening!

So, last time I wrote, it was just as the Frog of the Year party was winding down. Toadie came by to tell me a friend of mine was here to see me… which made no sense, because all my friends here were already at the party, and all the others would be back on Earth, right? Sure, I kinda thought at first that maybe Sasha and Marcy had been zapped here with me, but as the months went on and there was no sign of them, I pretty much abandoned that thought.

Well, turns out I was wrong, 'cause standing right there was Sasha herself, big as life and dressed like she just stepped off the set of some sort of epic gladiator movie. I knew that she had probably gone through some stuff, but so had I and right then I didn't care because she was here and I was here and we were here and if I didn't glomp her immediately there was a chance I was going to explode.

It was only after that I noticed she hadn't come alone. Surrounding her was an entire platoon of toad soldiers. She didn't look like she was a prisoner either, so that could only mean she'd bene living and working with them the entire time. Now… as I've already written, my first experience with toads wasn't exactly positive. In fact, they'd basically been a bunch of bullies straight off a playgroud somewhere, except they were packing deady weapons to back up their bluster. I've met other toads since then, like the guards that tried to stop us from robbing that train, and they seemed all right, like they were just trying to do their jobs, but it's hard to shake first impressions.

But maybe that's just what they were… impressions… after all, if Sasha'd been living with them, she probably knew them way better than I did. I mean… this was Sasha. Sasha! If she was okay with them, they must be okay? Besides… if she had any sway with these guys, it wouldn't help to have the resources of Toad Tower available to help find Marcy. Because if Sasha's here, then she must be, too. Who knows, maybe Sasha already found her! She did always have it together a lot more than I did…

But while I knew Sasha, the only thing Wartwood knew was that toads were here – lots of 'em – and it was time to panic. When the Plantars showed up to ask me what was going on, I had to let them know that everything was fine, so I introduced them to Sasha, making it clear that she was my best friend and that I vouched for her. The meeting… was a bit chilly. Polly seemed okay enough with her, and weirdly enough she seemed to have already heard of HP (though he did run for mayor that one time, and that probably made whatever passes for the news). But when I introduced Sprig, it was like a switch went off… a cold switch. She gave him this stare that could freeze lava. Did… she think I replaced her? That's impossible! Sure, Sprig is basically the brother I never had, but he doesn't have nearly the history with me that she has. He could never replace her.

Well, just like I thought, the toads weren't here to invade. Sasha'd never let them do that. Instead, the head toad, Captain Grime steps up and invites the whole town to a banquet to celebrate our reunion. Now… Grime instantly gave me bad vibes. Dude looks like he's carved out of granite. He's got a scar that goes down the right side of his face straight through his eye and his lips, the kind of scar you only see on the bad guys. But that's me again, judging by appearances, and I'm supposed to know better than that by now. Again, he's with Sasha! If she says he's okay, he must be! She'd never le to me!

Sasha slammed the journal closed. "Ugh, Anne, you are not making this easy."

Anne had trusted her… completely and fully. And she had betrayed that trust again and again. She knew all that. So why continue? Was this some sort of bizarre penance for her? The literary equivalent of Sister Prudence making her say ten Hail Marys that time she was caught cutting fifth period to go hang at the mall?

This was enough, right? Besides, she probably had to make the rendezvous right now.

Sasha checked her phone.

The rendezvous was still three hours away.

Of course. She didn't know what she was expecting. It didn't take that long to read an entry, did it?

C'mon, Sasha… you've faced way worse than this.

She reopened the journal…

A.N.: Who's that girl? What's her name? Is she cool? Is she lame? Oh you're talkin' bout what'shername…

So, I figured I'd do something special for the season finale, so we're getting a look at the fall of Wartwood and the rise of New Wartwood. Plus, I've been wanting to do that Hulk joke with Gunther since "In Between", so I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to.

The Frobotank is partially based on Blastoise, and partially based on the Indian Purple Frog. Look 'im up, he's a chonky boi.

Schweenieboy: Regarding…?

Snake screamer: That's partially why she's doing this, yes, but she's also hoping maybe she'll get some sort of insight on whether she's doing the right thing by abandoning Wartwood for the caves.

Jose: That's kinda the theme here, isn't it?

Team Gophers: I think there's a lot more to her characterization than just what's spelled out. You can see all through 3A that, when she's alone, she looks very troubled.

Next: Part 2