Amphibia: Embrace The Fall

Friend or Foe

It was a little tricky sneaking Andrias past the toads once they returned to the valley, but Sprig, Ivy, and Maddie did manage to make it back to New Wartwood with Andrias undetected. Now came the hard part: convincing the rest of Wartwood to trust Andrias.

"Are you serious right now! We can't trust that guy!" Loggle yelled.

"How do we know he's not going to kill us all in our sleep!?" Toadie called out.

"You're endangering our children by bringing that monster of a newt in here!" Felicia shouted.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!!" Mrs. Croaker yelled. Everyone went silent as their commander explained. "I sent Sprig, Ivy, and Maddie to complete this mission and they succeeded. We now possess the Music Box and have gained a powerful ally."

Most of the frogs still looked skeptical but decided to keep quiet. Mrs. Croaker continued. "Our next order of business is to take back Wartwood. Does anybody have any ideas?"

Wally immediately called out "BOOMSHOOMS?" to which everyone yelled back "NO BOOMSHOOMS!"

Mrs. Croaker sighed. "Any other ideas?" Hop Pop decided to speak up. "What if we used the Music Box to open a portal and leave Amphibia?" Sprig looked at him in shock. "We can't just leave our home like that! What about Anne, we still have to find her! We also have to free Marcy from that Core thingy."

Before Sprig could continue listing off reasons to stay, Andrias spoke. "We can't. I don't have the key to the Music Box, so making portals is impossible." Andrias lowered his head. "I...also know where Anne is. She used her powers to take over the Arctic. From what I can tell she's been quite a merciless ruler for the frogs living there."

Sprig was flabbergasted. Anne would never do something like that. Anne was his best friend, his sister. They were Sprig and Anne, Anne and Sprig, Spranne against the world.

"That can't be true! Anne wouldn't do something so selfish!" Sprig yelled at Andrias as tears began welling up in his eyes. Andrias looked down at him sadly. "I'm not completely sure, but I think that since her powers feed off of negative emotions, Anne's feelings of hurt and betrayal have overpowered her feelings of love and friendship, making her more prone to cruelty and violence." Sprig looked away as he continued fighting back tears.

Boom

Suddenly a loud thud was heard coming from the surface. "What was that?!" Hop Pop shouted over the screams of everyone else.

Boom

"The toads must have found our hiding place! Quick everyone, prepare for battle!" Mrs. Croaker commanded. Everyone ran to the armory. Andrias, not exactly sure what to do, pulled out his flaming sword and readied for battle.

BOOM

"They're almost through!" Stumpy called out. Polly pulled out her mace, excited to finally see some action. Wiping away the last of his tears, Sprig pulled out his slingshot and aimed at the entrance to the underground town.

CRACK

The entrance gave away as two giant sparrows wearing mind-control collars smashed through and flew into New Wartwood. Mrs. Croaker's voice rang out. "FIRE!" Dozens of arrows were shot at the birds but were deflected by the armor they were wearing.

The individuals riding the sparrow jumped down revealing themselves to be Lady Olivia and General Yunan. "King Andrias, Darcy demands that you return the Music Box to them at once." Lady Olivia said.

"Lady Olivia! Yunan! It's us!" Sprig pleaded, but the newts paid him no mind. "You're wasting your breath boy, look!" Hop Pop pointed at the collars on their necks.

Andrias raised his sword. "Why did I ever listen to my frog damn dad."

Olivia and Yunan attacked. Yunan slashed at any frogs that tried to stop her while Olivia swiped away any arrows shot at them with her tail. All the while, the sparrows they flew in on wreaked havoc on the rest of the resistance.

Yunan rushed towards Andrias, forcing him back. "We just need to destroy those collars!" Andrias yelled as he dodged another one of her attacks. Sprig jumped as Olivia tried to swipe him off his feet with her tail. "How? We don't want to hurt them and they're not exactly making it easy."

Hop Pop grunted as he rolled out of the way of one of the sparrows. "Maybe we just knock them out and destroy the collars then." Andrias shook his head. "That's not possible, the collars will keep their bodies active for as long as necessary, even if it kills them."

Yunan swung her blades at Andrias' feet causing him to stumble and fall. Andrias used his tail to push Yunan away as he got up. "We need to protect the Music Box at all costs! Hurting them may be our only option."

Sprig dodged another one of Olivia's punches. "I may have not known them for long, but you did! Some part of you has to care about them!" Andrias glanced at Sprig before turning back to Yunan. "I do care, but if Darcy gets the Music Box, the multiverse is essentially doomed!"

All of a sudden, one of the sparrows slammed into Andrias knocking his flaming sword out of his hands and leaving him dazed. Yunan took the chance to climb onto Andrias' back and hold her blades to his throat. "Give us the Music Box or die."

Out of seemingly nowhere, a rocket-powered hammer was thrown at Yunan, sending her back to the ground. As she got back up, two claws from behind Yunan seized the collar around her neck and crushed it.

Yunan's eyes returned to normal. "What? Where am I?" She turned around to see none other than Captain Grime. "No time to explain! Help us stop your girlfriend and those birds from killing these frogs." Yunan blushed. "She's not my girl-" Grime interrupted her. "Just do it!"

Grime ran at the sparrows terrorizing New Wartwood. As one of them swooped down to attack him, he jumped on top of it and smashed the collar on its neck with his hammer. Grime took the reins and flew towards the other sparrow. As he flew over it, he jumped down onto the bird and smashed its collar as well.

Yunan rushed towards Olivia who was still fighting Sprig. "Hey, kid! Keep her distracted for me will ya!" Sprig nodded. As Olivia threw another punch at Sprig, Yunan came up behind the shorter newt and pulled the collar apart. Olivia's eyes returned to normal as she looked around. "W-What happened?"

Hop Pop yelled out. "We did it!" The citizens of Wartwood cheered.

Grime landed and jumped off the sparrow he was riding. "Well now that that's taken care of, I suppose I better explain myself." Hop Pop looked at him cautiously. "Go on.."

Grime explained. "I'm here to help you frogs take back the valley." Mrs. Croaker stared at him warily. "And why would you want to do that?"

Grime continued. "In my opinion, Sasha has gone too far. I support toads having a better life, but killing so many frogs to do so is just too cruel, even for me."

Grime turned to Andrias. "The last straw was when I overheard her making a deal with that Core-thingy to help invade Earth. It said something about Andrias betraying them so I assume saving his life back there was a good thing."

Wally shouted out from the crowd surrounding Grime. "How do we know that this isn't a trick?" Grime slapped his forehead. "Um hello! I just saved you frogs and stopped Darcy from getting the Music Box."

Satisfied with that explanation, Mrs. Croaker turned toward Olivia and Yunan. "So what about you two, are you willing to help us?" Both newts nodded.

"Alrighty then." Mrs. Croaker raised her sword in the air. "Members of the resistance, new and old, today marks the beginning of our counterattack!"

The battle for Amphibia's soul has begun.