The Owl and the Frog

Chapter 44: Temple Frogs

Okay, things are moving right along. Hope you all are doing well! Wanted to give two shout-outs in this chapter's notes.

Firstly, again to R-Doll (hey, you got three in a row! That's gotta be some kind of record or something.) He drew some more images for me. There's an image of both Cindy and Jesse Bliss, who appear in this chapter, and he drew a nice scene of Luz and Anne in their new outfits for Earth. I really love how Luz's turned out. It looks amazing! Thanks again, R-Doll! I always look forward to what you make!

The second shout-out is to DeviantArt user Gero223. He made a neat little comic series about what might happen when the girls are captured by the Core. Honestly, it's really heavy and emotional. I don't want to say too much about what happens in it, as I think you should read it yourself. He's still working on it, and it's not finished yet, but I am very much looking forward to how it ends. You can find it on his page. Really like what you have there. Thank you very much, Gero223, for this comic!

Other than that, I'm doing okay. I think I'll have this new chapter out before the new episode of The Owl House premieres, so that means there's only going to be one more after this. It's very likely the show will end at some point in this current arc, so we'll see what happens with that.

Now, here we go!

"System processing... Assessing combat capabilities... Major damage still present in 50% of systems. Direct engagement of targets inadvisable."

The Cloakbot finished running a diagnostic on its systems as it slowly continued repairing itself. The process had been much slower than it had hoped, hampered even more by the fact that its energy scanner was damaged and it hadn't found a way to repair it. Occasionally, it snuck down from its hiding place in the mountains to try to scavenge parts for itself in the human city, but it seemed that human technology was not advanced enough to provide it with the repair parts it needed. Its most recent scan advised it against facing Anne directly, as it was worried it wasn't strong enough to kill her. Still, the Cloakbot knew it had to complete its mission and decided to try a different approach. It looked around the mountains it was currently hiding in until it saw a large array of antennae off in the distance.

"Energy sensor unresponsive. Will attempt to hack into local frequencies," it said. With that, it made its way over to the antennas, hoping it would pick up some communication that would lead it to Anne.

"I hereby call this meeting of the school paper to order," said Jesse Bliss to the gathered students in the classroom. There weren't many others—a boy and two girls, one of whom didn't look up from her phone, while the other seemed to only be interested in the snacks that were on the teacher's desk.

"Eh-hum," said Jesse to Desi. "We're starting the meeting."

"Yeah, I know, but let me get a soda and snack first," said Desi, still looking at the snack table, before joining the others sitting down at a desk, loudly sipping her soda.

"Oh, wait, there are snacks?" said Cindy, suddenly getting up from her seat and going over to the snack table.

"Really?! Now you want a snack?" said Jesse to Cindy.

"Yes, actually," replied Cindy in a firm voice, not intimidated by Jesse. She walked over to the table before choosing a snack and returning to her seat, glaring at Jesse.

"So, what's this meeting about?" asked Desi.

"Okay, listen up!" barked Jesse to the other three gathered there. "There are rumors floating around that Luz Noceda and Anne Boonchuy, who were said to have run away together, have finally returned. What do we have on that?"