"Sprig what were you thinking?!" yelled Anne at the pink frog.
"I was trying to get your mom to like me," said Sprig, "I wanted to make sure the catering delivery went smooth."
"Okay, but you just disappeared! We had no idea where you were!" exclaimed Anne.
"You made Anne worry about you!" said Oum coming up to Sprig with a scowl on her face, "I worried about you too, how dare you make us worry like that!
"Yeah dude!" said Anne joining in, "we already have enough to worry about, I don't want to add you missing to that. Why did you sneak into that delivery guy's car?
"So I could help deliver that big catering order," said Sprig, "and hey it went great, so you're welcome."
Both Anne and Oum slapped their faces in frustration.
"That's not the point dude," continued Anne, "you can't just hop into a stranger's car, humans are all different, what if this one wanted to kidnap you and sell you to the zoo!"
"Oh well it wasn't a stranger," said Sprig, "it's that nice driver guy who picked us up when we first arrived in your world." Sprig pointed outside the restaurant to where Bee was talking with the driver. Anne looked and saw it was indeed the same one from before.
"Oh…" said Anne breathing a sigh of relief as she realized Sprig was in no danger, "but even still dude, please don't do that in the future."
"I can see why you are worried for them," said Oum putting a hand on Anne's shoulder, "they really good at getting into trouble."
"But Mrs. B, the catering order went well," said Sprig, "we had to drive really far, but we got the food there on time!"
"You're still gonna get an earful for this…" began Mrs. Boonchuy, "…wait why are you smiling?"
Sprig looked at Mrs. Boonchuy his eyes beginning to water, "you're scolding me….which means….WE'RE FAMILY!"
Sprig made another noise before jumping up into Oum's arms hugging her tightly, which confused her.
"What is this about?" asked Oum confused.
"This is why I wanted to help you so much!" cried Sprig tears in his eyes, "I don't want to just be a guest to you Mrs. B. I want to be family!"
Anne looked over at Sprig finally understanding why he had gone to so much effort to help the family. She came over to the frog and pulled him off her mother hugging him.
"Listen Sprig, I appreciate what you tried to do," said Anne, "sometimes I forget what happened to your parents and how that must make you feel."
Oum looked curiously at Anne and Sprig. Anne looked back at her mother her face falling.
"Listen, mom," she began, "Sprig lost his parents when he was really young. I don't think I've told you that yet."
"I never really knew my mom," said Sprig, "Anne talked about you so much when she was in Amphibia, I figured you must be an amazing mom!"
Oum continued to look at Sprig absorbing what he had said, any anger she was feeling towards Sprig quickly fading.
"I'm sorry this is my fault," said Anne speaking up, "Sprig wanted to do something to impress you, I should have realized this was because he misses his mom so much."
"I really am sorry Mrs. Boonchuy," began Sprig, "If there's anything I can do-"
Sprig didn't get to finish his sentence as Oum came forward hugging both Sprig and her daughter, tears forming in her eyes…
Outside the restaurant, Mr. Boonchuy was speaking to the Lyft Driver
"I'm really sorry that Sprig snuck into your car and went off with you like that," he said.
"Oh it's not a problem," said The Lyft Driver, "he uh was a bit excitable at first. Hopping around the car and pressing a bunch of different buttons wanting to know what each one of them did. Almost swerved into oncoming traffic once or twice."
Bee's face fell upon hearing that, "please tell me you didn't get in an accident."
"Oh no, of course not," said the Lyft Driver, "though there were a few near misses, and yeah it was a little touch and go at first. But once Sprig calmed down we were fine."
"How did you get him to calm down?" asked Bee.
"Oh I put on some music," answered the Lyft Driver, "and hey the kid likes my music so, I guess he's alright. But yeah no worries we made the delivery on time.
"So it went okay," asked Bee, "that's the first time we had an order that big here at the restaurant."
"It went well, personally I think a lot of the guests at that party had already started drinking by the time I got there, so I hope they saved room for dinner," answered the Lyft Driver with a laugh, "I got the order there on time and dropped off the food and all the other fixings. If it tastes as good as it smells I'm thinking they'll love it."
"Well of course they will," said Bee, "Boonchuy family recipes are the best!"
Oum came outside to join her husband, "Again so sorry if Sprig gave you any problems."
"No, not at all," said the Lyft Driver, "he knew that this catering order was important to you and wanted to help. I have to say it's been a while since I've gotten a large order like this through Grubhub."
"Yes, well it's very expensive too," said Bee, "they charge a lot for a driver. I would have done it myself, but I didn't feel like driving all the way out to the valley."
The Lyft Driver laughed at that, "ha, well I don't blame you for that."
"Thank you for bringing Sprig back to us," said Oum, "I just talked with him and I think I realize why he's been acting this way."
"You're welcome," said the Lyft Driver, he thought for a minute before continuing, "you know when it comes to Grubhub they charge you a lot and don't really pay me a lot, but really the only reason we need them is to find each other. I think it might be more profitable for both of us if the next time you had a catering order you needed delivered you just called me directly. As long as I have enough notice I could make arrangements to take it for you and you could pay me directly."
Oum and Bee looked at each other as they considered that.
"So in the end it all worked out," said Bee, as the Boonchuys and Sprig arrived back home, and walked in through the door. Hop-pop and Polly came forward to greet them.
"Though after all this stress I think I need to relax with some video games," continued Bee, "I just got that new controller the other day. Now I can finally try it out!"
"Yep I helped to deliver that order, and because of that the Boonchuys now have a new delivery person. Which means I'm now officially part of the family!" said Sprig triumphantly. Anne let out a sigh at this.
"He seems like a nice person, I don't know how many large catering orders we might need him for though," said Oum to her husband, "oh you know in addition to doing catering orders for us, maybe we can have him go shopping when we run out of things at the restaurant. I think he's a local to this area, so he should know his way around."
"I'm just glad we found Sprig," said Anne a little exasperated, "I was so worried that he had disappeared and we'd never see him again."
"Sprig you can't be running off like that!" said Hop-pop.
"I know, I know, I just wanted to help the Boonchuys ensure that their first major catering order was a success," said Sprig.
"I still can't believe the guy who came to deliver that order was that same guy who picked us up when we first got here," said Anne, "Is it just me or does it seem like we're running into him a lot lately?"
The Plantars all looked at each other as they considered this.
"Eh it's probably nothing," said Polly.
"I like him, he's pretty cool!" said Sprig, "oh which reminds me Anne do you have a computer?"
"Sure, why do you need one?" asked Anne.
"I need to look up this song we were listening to in his car, he had a really catchy song that I want to hear again," replied Sprig. Anne rolled her eyes but went to go and fetch her computer.
"I can't believe I'm just now showing you the internet," she said as she opened her laptop.
"We've heard about this so-called internet thing for a while now," said Polly, "what exactly is it and how do you use it?"
"Well…." began Anne with a grin, "the internet is many things, but realistically most people use it for….cat videos!" Anne did a quick search and began showing the Plantars many different cat videos. They quickly lost track of time watching them, as Sprig looked out the window he noticed the sun had already set.
"Whoa how long were we watching these for?" he asked suddenly.
Anne looked at the clock on the computer, "it's been about two hours, man you really can lose track of time on the internet."
"Okay, enough cat videos," said Sprig moving to the computer, "I need to look up that song." Sprig typed a few words on his computer looking for the song he had heard in the Lyft Driver's car.
"Oh here it is," said Sprig bringing up the video, the song beginning to play. It started with a very bouncy beat that Sprig immediately bopped his head too.
"Let's go slowly, discouraged,
Distant from other interests
On your favorite weekend ending
This love's for gentlemen only
That's with the fortunate only
No I gotta be someone else
These days it comes it comes it comes
it comes it comes and goes
Lisztomania!
Think less but see it grow
like a riot, like a riot, oh!
I'm not easily offended
It's not hard to let it go
From a mess to the masses"
"Huh this is pretty catchy," said Anne who had started bopping her head along to the melody, "but I have no idea what the lyrics mean."
"Yeah me neither," admitted Sprig, "but hey who cares? I like how it sounds!"
The song continued to play until it was over. When it ended Sprig hit the replay button.
"Hey!" said Polly, suddenly coming over, "you had your turn already. I want to look up something on the internet."
"Fine," grumbled Sprig stopping the song and relinquishing control to Polly.
"What did you wanna look up Polly?" asked Anne.
"I want to know how to fix a robot," she said. Anne and the other Plantars looked at each other as they realized why she wanted this.
"Oh…because of Frobo right?" asked Anne.
"Yeah," said Polly, "we've been on Earth for a while now and well, you're world is pretty advanced Anne. So there's gotta be a way to help him right?"
Anne looked at Polly, "I mean the thing is Frobo is actually a lot more advanced than anything on Earth. I know this place seems pretty far along, but honestly, we don't really have robots like Frobo. Most of the robots we have are just simple machines."
As Anne said this there was a noise and the group turned to see that the litter robot had turned filtering out the mess that Domino had made in it. Domino meowed as it exited the littler box.
The group all quickly turned back, not wanting to think about what had just happened, and Anne again spoke, "I mean I'd really like to help Frobo but fixing him is kind of out of our league."
"Well then let me try it," said Polly, "I know you guys are busy with your own things, so let me be in charge of fixing him."
Anne, Hop-pop, and Sprig all looked at each other, Hop-pop finally speaking, "I'm just not sure that's a good idea, Polly. How would you even know where to start on fixing him?"
"That's why I asked Anne if the internet could teach me," said Polly, "come on Anne, help me out!"
Polly made a pleading look with her eyes, Anne looked into her face and couldn't resist, she turned back to her computer and typed in a few words.
"Well there certainly are a lot of websites and videos about robots," said Anne looking through the search results, "I have no idea where to start with any of this."
"Hey," said Sprig jumping in, "how about Amara? Andrias seemed to know what robots are and he said Amphibia used to be a different place in the past. Newtopia is already a more advanced place than Wartwood, so maybe she knows something?"
"I suppose it's worth a shot," said Anne getting out her phone and texting Luz.
The next day Amara and Luz arrived at Anne's house, all of them congregated in the garage as Amara held Frobo's head looking at it.
"So we were wondering if you knew anything about these robots since you're from Newtopia," asked Anne.
"I'm afraid I don't," replied Amara.
"But Andrias said Newtopia was more technological in the past," began Polly, "plus your city is so much bigger and fancier than any other place in Amphibia."
"We are more advanced," said Amara, "but even so I'd never seen anything like those robots before we fought them in the palace."
"I mean when we were in Newtopia before there were no robots," said Hop-pop.
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Anne, "Polly really misses Frobo though, I guess we thought maybe you'd know some way to fix him."
Amara took another look at the Frobo's head before saying, "well maybe I don't know how to fix him, but I bet I could learn, if you want to give me his head then I'll take it back to Luz's house and see what I can do."
"We have a lot of extra stuff at my place," said Luz, "I'm sure there are enough extra parts that we could cobble together some kind of body for him."
"There's a bunch of junk in my garage too," said Anne, "I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind if you cleared out some of it."
"Great!" said Polly jumping in, "I can stay with Luz for a few days and we can get Frobo back in no time."
Luz and Anne shared a look, Anne spoke up, "Uh I'm not sure that's a good idea, Polly you're kind of young to be learning about robots."
"Anne you know I'm more than a tadpole," protested Polly, "I'm getting older, I have legs! Come one let me try this."
Anne was going to protest some more, but Amara interrupted, "listen Frobo means a lot to her, why don't you give her a chance? I'll be there to watch over her, and so will Luz, we'll make sure she stays out of trouble."
"I'm fine with having Polly over for a few days," said Luz, "and hey with us three girls crashing together maybe we can have some girl time!"
"NO!" shouted Anne and Polly at the same time causing Luz to give them both a weird look.
As Luz, Anne, and Amara unpacked the stuff from Anne's into the garage Luz looked over everything they had.
"Well it looks like junk to me," said Luz, "but here's hoping we can turn this junk into something useful."
"I think that's everything," said Anne taking one more box out of her car and adding it to the garage.
"So you're sure you'll be alright staying at Luz's for a little while?" asked Oum to Polly.
"Yeah, I'll be alright," said Polly.
"Well now all we have to do is learn how to build a robot," said Amara in a flat tone.
"Pssh, that will be the easy part," said Polly, "all we have to do is look it up on the internet."
"We have to get back to the restaurant," said Oum, "Anne has been doing a great job helping out."
"Thanks, mom," said Anne, she turned to look at Luz, Amara, and Polly, "well have fun, you guys. Good luck!"
"Oum before you go I have something for you," called Camila from the door. Oum got out of the car and walked into the house. Anne watched as her mom left, leaving her alone with Luz, and she decided to take advantage of that fact.
"Oh hey I almost forgot something," said Anne in a flirty voice, coming up to Luz.
"What did you forget?" asked Luz.
"This," said Anne leaning and giving her a kiss on the cheek, Luz let out a surprised noise.
"See ya around," said Anne as she walked back to the car giving Luz a coy smile. Luz returned the smile and brought her hand up to her cheek where Anne had kissed her. Right as Anne walked away her mother emerged from the house carrying a small Tupperware in her hands.
"I made those maduros, especially for you Oum," said Camila, "let me know what you think."
The girls settled into Luz's room and Luz opened up her laptop.
"Okay let's have a look here," said Luz, she typed in robots in the search bar on her computer. Many different results came up, the girls looking through a lot of the sites. Slowly but surely Amara, Polly, and Luz filtered out the more useful sites and started to get an idea of what would be needed to rebuild Frobo.
"Okay, I think we've got a good sample size to work with," said Amara, "now all we need is some sort of tutorial to put it all together.
"Well how about this series of videos?" said Polly, she hopped over to the laptop and moved the mouse to the video, "I.T. gals, just two girlfriends who really love robots."
"Cool," said Luz, "let's have a look." Polly clicked on the video. The video started with what looked like a toy panda trying to do a dance before falling flat on its face. As it did, the camera pulled back and one of the girls began to speak. She looked to be of Asian descent with pink streaks in her hair and what looked like goggles on her head. She also had a blue bandage on her cheek.
"Just goes to show," began the girl, "anyone can make and maintain a robot if you have the will, the know-how…
"…and our step-to-step tutorial," said the other girl pointing up to a playlist that appeared on the video. This girl was also wearing goggles and was of African American descent.
"And remember," said the two girls together, "if it doesn't compute, it's time to reboot." Just as they finished talking the toy panda erupted into flames, causing both girls to let out a scream.
"Well I hope that panda on fire was just for comedic effect," said Luz.
"I think it was," said Amara, she clicked over on the playlist to see more, "looks like quite a few videos here. This may take a while, but it seems like as good as any place to start."
"Luz," called her mother knocking on the door, "it's time for you to start your online courses."
Luz glanced at the time on her laptop and realized her mother was right, "okay mom."
"What's going on?" asked Polly.
"Oh mom signed me up for a few educational courses online," answered Luz, "so I can keep up with school work. I did the same thing for a bit when I got expelled form my old school."
"You got expelled!?" said Amara in surprise, "how have I never heard that story."
"What does expelled mean?" asked Polly. Luz and Amara turning towards her.
"It means I got kicked out of my school," said Luz.
"School…" began Polly, "oh that's that thing Anne talks about a lot isn't it."
Luz and Amara looked at each other before Amara responded, "right sometimes I forget that the only real institution for learning is in Newtopia. You guys really don't have schools out in your towns do you?"
Polly shook her head.
"So there really is only one college in all of Amphibia?" asked Luz.
"Yeah, that's it," said Amara, "most newts who attend receive some form of private education beforehand. I was actually getting ready to take my entrance exam to attend before I ended up here."
"Aren't you only fifteen?" asked Luz.
"Yeah, but there's no age requirement to go to Newtopia University," answered Amara, "you just have to pass the exam and the interview to be let in. Is there an age requirement for university in the human world?"
"Kind of," replied Luz, "there are stories of young people getting into college, but most humans have to be eighteen to attend."
"Wow, that's interesting," said Amara, "I mean Bella is seventeen and she's already finished. Though I guess it makes sense since we don't really have a formal education system like you do here in the human world. People just apply when they feel they're ready."
"Like that thing that happened with Sprig when we were in Newtopia," said Polly jumping in.
"Oh yeah, that thing you told us about," said Luz, "but anyway I'm afraid I need the computer in order to do my classes. Mom said it's best if we keep the fact that Anne and I are home on the down-low for now."
"Did she say why?" asked Amara.
"I think it's cause we don't want the other parents to know. If they did then they'd probably get the authorities involved" said Luz, "and if that happens, then they'd start asking a bunch of questions we wouldn't be able to answer. Plus we don't want them finding out about you or the Planatars. In any case I need the laptop to do my online lessons."
"Wait, what about Frobo?" asked Polly desperately.
Luz thought for a moment before handing Polly her phone, "here, you can still watch the videos on here, the screen is just smaller. Why don't you and Amara go to the garage and see what you can do? I'll join after I'm done with my classes."
With that Polly and Amara headed into the garage, before they watched the videos Polly and Amara both changed clothes. Polly put on some overalls, a new shirt, a hat, and some tough work boots. Amara also donned some work shoes, as well as some jeans, and thick gloves, she made sure to tie her hair back so It wouldn't get in the way. Once they were ready Polly hit play on the I.T. gals playlist and the two got to work.
Over the next few days, Amara and Polly spent a good chunk of time working on Frobo. They had cobbled a body together for him out of many spare parts. His main body was built out of a washing machine, his arms were made of some air vent hoses. While his legs were long metal tubes that had been welded together. Amara and Polly had followed the advice of the IT gals and progress was going smoothly.
"Hand me that crescent wrench," asked Polly from inside the washing machine, Amara complied and gave the wrench to Polly, she tightened a few of the loose bolts inside.
"Here give me a hand with these wires," said Amara who was up by Frobo's head trying to connect it to the body.
"I think the shoulders need some adjusting," said Polly, crawling out of the chest.
"Let me take a look," said Amara coming over to the shoulders, "yeah you're right, let's work on those next."
"Oh check it out I found some stickers," said Polly, "we got to add those onto him and give him a bit of personality."
"Yeah good idea Polly," said Amara, "oh I like that rainbow one! Let's use that one!"
The two finished up their work on Frobo and stepped back to take a look, both seemed satisfied with what they had built. Luz had finished her lesson so she and Camila came over to join them.
"Wow, it took a while, but I think he looks great," said Amara.
"You guys did great!" said Luz looking at their work.
"Is that what he looked like before he fell apart?" asked Camila.
"Well not quite," said Luz, "his body was a lot sleeker, and uh…futuristic but I think Polly and Amara did great with what they had to work with."
"Yeah, those girls really know what they're talking about," said Polly, she turned to Amara, "hey thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it."
"Honestly I think you could've done it by yourself," said Amara, "you're pretty smart for a frog."
The air in the room suddenly became uncomfortable as Polly, Camila, and Luz all turned to look at Amara, their faces forming into a frown. It took a few seconds for Amara to realize what she had said.
"Oh…uh sorry I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly, "you really are smart Polly."
Polly didn't say anything and continued to look at Amara with a frown. Amara came up to her.
"Listen I'm still learning," she said in a tender voice, "sometimes I fall back into old habits, but I mean it when I say you're smart, I may have just phrased it poorly."
Polly continued to stare at Amara, not saying anything, though she did eventually speak, "hey thanks Amara, it's cool, I know what you were trying to say. I had fun working on him with you."
"Me too," said Amara, "I guess let's try turning him on."
Polly pulled out a small remote with a red button and pressed it, only for nothing to happen.
"Aww, dangit! What went wrong?" said Polly. Amara went over to Frobo and began tinkering with him trying to figure out what was wrong.
"This thing is from the frog world right?" asked Camila, "maybe the parts you used from here aren't compatible with it."
"Are we sure Frobo is still in there?" asked Luz, "I hope his personality wasn't removed when Andrias destroyed him."
Amara came back over to Polly, "Anything?" asked Polly.
"I can't find any sort of problem," she said, "all the wires look good, there doesn't seem to be anything damaged, and there aren't any fried circuits."
"Hmmm, there must be something we're not thinking of," said Polly.
"Well, whatever it is, why don't we take a break and we can figure it out later," suggested Camila, "dinner is almost ready." She ushered the kids out of the garage and to the dining room.
After dinner, the group congregated back in Luz's room trying to think what they could do to finish fixing Frobo. They quickly looked through the I.T. gals videos to see if they had missed anything, but couldn't find that they had. Though as they were looking through the videos they saw that girls had a Vroom where you could contact them directly. They decided to give it a shot, though Polly had them move the laptop to the garage so the IT gals would be able to see Frobo. Luz had Polly and Amara change into their human disguises before starting the Vroom call. They only had to wait a few seconds before the gals answered.
"Hello," said Ally in a friendly voice.
"How's it going?" added Jess.
"Uh hi, my name's Polly, really big fan," said Polly.
"And I'm Amara," said Amara, "long story short, we're having a bit of a robotics issue-"
"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Ally.
"Is that a robot?" asked Jess.
"He's beautiful!" said Ally coming closer to the camera so she could get a better look at Frobo. Though as she did this the cute panda toy appeared in front of the camera making an angry growl.
"Out of the way Panda-tron!" said Ally pushing the toy out of frame.
"Tell us everything!" said Jess in an excited voice.
Amara took over, explaining what happened, "he had a bit of an accident. Polly and I think we've done a good job repairing him, but he isn't powering on."
"Well what are you using as a power source?" asked Ally.
"We just took some batteries out of this TV remote," said Polly holding up the remote.
"Oh no, that will never be enough," said Ally.
"You could try a battery module with a compatible connector and corresponding voltage," suggested Jess. As she said this Ally was busy typing on her phone trying to find an example of what she was talking about.
"Like the kind, they put in those creepy animatronic children's toys," said Ally holding up her phone to show Polly what she meant.
"Hmm, do we have one of those in all that junk we brought from Anne's house?" asked Polly.
"I don't know, we'll have to check," said Amara.
"Oh but even if you do find one, I wouldn't turn him on in your garage," said Ally.
"Yeah you'd need to be in a big space like a warehouse with a lot of fire extinguishers," said Jess, "that thing looks like it's capable of a lot of output."
"Are there any other recommendations you have?" asked Amara.
"Well if you like we could help you find a place, it would take a few weeks but then we could also be there to help you in case you have any other problems when he boots up," said Jess.
"Hmmm okay that sounds good," said Amara, "thanks for your help!"
"But why can't we turn him on now?!" asked Polly. The girls had gone back to Luz's room after rummaging around in the garage and not finding the part they needed.
"Well for one, we don't have one of those battery things that the I.T. gals told us about," said Amara, "and for two you heard what they said, we need a large space and the proper set-up to do it the right way."
"But they said it would take weeks for them to get that warehouse thing together," complained Polly.
"Yeah, but if we take a bit of time now it might be worth it if it means we'll be able to bring back Frobo for real," said Luz.
"This stinks!" said Polly, "I've had to wait so long already to fix him, and now I have to wait even longer."
"Polly, I know you want to see Frobo but remember you're still young, I'm sure Ally and Jess know what they're talking about," said Luz.
The mention of her being young triggered something in Polly, she looked back at Luz suddenly feeling anger.
"Oh is that what this is about then?" said Polly to Luz, "you still think I'm too young to be able to do this right."
"What?! No," said Luz defensively, "that has nothing to do with this."
"Polly, we're trying to do this the safe way," said Amara, "you need to understand that."
Polly glared at Amara, "oh are you saying I don't understand it because I'm a frog," she said in an accusing manner. Amara flinched at that.
"No, come on that's not what I mean," replied Amara trying to recover.
"Isn't it?" said Polly, tears forming in her eyes.
"Polly," said Luz coming over to her.
"No!" yelled Polly, "leave me alone!" She left the room leaving Amara and Luz alone, both feeling terrible about what happened.
Polly ran back to the garage and dug through the trash again, but she still couldn't find the battery pack the gals had said she needed. Polly kept digging through the junk but still couldn't find one. Eventually, she had to face the fact that the battery pack she needed to power Frobo wasn't here.
After a few minutes, Luz and Amara came into the garage looking for her.
"Polly you in here?" called Luz. Polly didn't reply as she didn't want to be found.
"Polly we'd like to talk to you," said Amara. Polly still didn't respond.
"If you're mad at me I understand that," continued Amara, "but will you at least let me know that you're okay."
Polly finally replied, "yeah I'm fine. I just….please leave me alone right now."
Luz and Amara looked at each other, part of them wanted to insist on talking, but they knew Polly was mad at them and decided not to press it.
"We'll be waiting for you in the room Polly," said Luz, "come back when you're ready."
With that the two left, giving Polly the chance to think about what she had said. Almost immediately she began to regret it, but at the same time, she didn't want to admit that she might be wrong. Polly stayed in the garage for a long time.
"Are you sure this was a good idea?" asked Amara as she and Luz sat in the back seat of the car driven by Ally and Jess.
"Of course it is!" said Luz, "just think about it Polly will be so happy when she sees Frobo again that she won't be mad at us anymore."
"I know, but I kinda wish we'd brought her along," said Amara, "I think she would have liked to be here when we reactivate Frobo."
"Well yeah, but things have been rough between us ever since that night," said Luz, "she's barely talked to us since then."
"You're right," agreed Amara, "this will be the perfect way to make it up to her."
"Hey thanks again for arranging this for us," said Luz to Ally, "I know it took a few weeks, but at least this way it will be safer."
"Oh of course no problem," replied Ally, "I am so stoked to see this robot work properly. Can't wait to see what it can do!"
"Too bad that other girl couldn't make it," said Jess, "she seemed really psyched to activate this robot."
"Speaking of which did you see where Polly went?" asked Amara, "I tried looking for her around the house before we left but couldn't find her."
"I'm sure she's avoiding us," began Luz, "I understand, she's still mad for having to wait this long, but don't worry. Once we get him working again she'll be thrilled, I know she'll be."
"So where exactly are we headed?" asked Amara.
"Oh I rented us a space out in Arcadia," said Jess, "it's pretty isolated and far from everything. I also made sure and brought all the right safety equipment."
Jess glanced back at the trailer they were hauling behind them. Frobo was in it, as were a few boxes of things the gals had brought along.
"We aren't far, should be there any minute," said Ally as she turned the car. After a few minutes, the girls arrived at a large warehouse. Ally and Jess got out and opened the large roll-up door. Luz and Amara joined them and helped unload Frobo and the boxes, one box, in particular, felt a little heavy. Once they had everything set up Ally went up to Frobo's head and placed the new battery pack inside him. Jess meanwhile brought out a laptop and plugged it into Frobo running a diagnostic on him.
"Hmmm, this is interesting," said Jess looking at her screen.
"What is it?" asked Amara.
"Did you build this robot from scratch or is it part of a series?" asked Jess.
"Uh I guess he's part of a series," said Amara, "but his original body was destroyed, so we kind of rebuilt him."
"Okay," said Jess as she continued looking at her laptop screen.
"What do you see Jess?" asked Ally coming over.
"A lot of preprogrammed script is running on him," said Jess, "it's full of certain commands and subroutines. I'm not exactly sure what it's trying to accomplish, but I think I can disable them when he turns on. That way we can run a diagnostic on him and make sure he's working properly."
Amara considered this for a second before replying, "yeah that's a good idea, do it."
Jess typed on her keyboard, and after a few minutes, she gave a thumbs up to Ally, who pressed a button on her remote and turned Frobo on.
Close by in the San Gabriel Mountains Cloak-bot had finished running another diagnostic on itself. Its combat systems were functioning well and it had managed to fix most of the damage Anne had inflicted on it at the mall. It had even managed to repair its scanner, though it wasn't at full capacity. The scanner only had a short range and wouldn't be useful outside of that. Still, Cloak-bot turned the scanner on in hopes of finding something and after a few minutes, it did. It picked up the signal of another Amphibian robot, which was odd as it was pretty sure it was the only one on Earth. Cloak-bot zeroed in on the robot's location before leaping into the air and making its way toward it.
As Frobo turned on, electricity crackled inside the warehouse. The girls all looked up at Frobo their mouths agape. Finally, Frobo's eyes lit up but they weren't the familiar yellow color, instead, they were a light blue. It looked around the warehouse in confusion not sure where it was. Frobo attempted to consult its programming to try and figure out what to do but found access to it blocked.
"Start-up engaged," it said in its highly synthesized voice, "Model number F0-R1, factory settings restored."
"It worked!" exclaimed Luz and Amara at the same time.
"System error," said Frobo, "need to make contact with….entity unknown. Error! Invalid command. Attempting to override, error."
"What's going on?" asked Ally to Jess. Jess looked down at her screen trying to make sense of the code she was seeing.
"I think this robot is back to its original setting," she said, "there are background programs running that seem to be trying to get it to execute a command, I don't know what that command is though."
Ally, Luz, and Amara looked back at Frobo concerned.
"What does that mean?" asked Luz.
"It means there's some sort of preloaded commands that this robot, uh Frobo, is trying to do," replied Jess, "I don't know what they are but fortunately I've put a block on them for now."
"Unit must make contact with headquarters," said Frobo, "must achieve higher vantage point, error thrusters not engaging, incapable of flight, must make contact, repeat must make contact."
"Looks like it's trying to go somewhere," said Ally, "that must be something it's programmed to do when it turns on."
"But where is it trying to go?" asked Jess.
"I bet that thing is programmed to fly directly to Andrias so that it can receive further instructions," said Amara to Luz.
"What, no?!" said Luz in frustration, "does that mean the Frobo we know is gone? Is it just another one of those robots we fought in the palace?"
"He's not gone!" yelled a voice. The girls all looked around before they saw one of the cardboard boxes they had brought with them begin to hop and shake all on its own. After a few seconds, it tipped over spilling out its contents, as well as Polly.
"Polly!" exclaimed Luz and Amara.
Polly got up and dusted herself off, "sorry for sneaking along, but I heard what you guys were going to do, and I wanted to be there when you turned Frobo back on."
Polly came over to Frobo, "Frobo it's me, Polly, don't you remember me?"
Frobo looked down at Polly, its eyes still blue, "username not recognized, still unable to contact headquarters, boosters not at full power."
"Please it's me, Polly," said Polly, "I've missed you so much!"
"Username not recognized," repeated Frobo. Polly got closer climbing up onto Frobo getting close to his head and hugging him.
"Come on Frobo! I know you're in there somewhere," said Polly beginning to tear up, one of her tears fell from her eyes onto Frobo. It fell between his head part and inside into his circuits, traveling down a wire and finally hitting his core. As that happened a series of memories began to play for Frobo
"My name's Pooolllyyyy," said Polly stretching out her name and pointing to herself. Again the robot kept staring at her though finally, it made a sound.
"Polly," it said in a heavily synthesized voice, pointing to Polly.
"Whoa it can speak?" said Luz in amazement.
"Yes that's it!" said Polly in delight, "my name is Polly, what's yours?" she asked pointing to the robot. The robot didn't answer instead the eyes in its head transformed into question marks.
"Can we keep him please?" begged Polly doing her best to make her eyes big, "he said my name, and we had fun playing with him out in the woods. I promise to take care of him!"
"I don't know," began Hop-pop, "I mean it did trash the farm. Can it do anything useful?"
"Show 'em Frobo!" said Polly.
With that Frobo took a look out at the farm it had destroyed, it marched towards the farm and began to repair the fence and fix the damage it had done. It then transformed one of its hands into a hoe and began tilling the soil. Then it dropped seeds into the ground that it had tilled. Finally, it spread water over the seeds it had planted causing the vegetables to instantly grow. With that Frobo spread its arms wide in a flourish!
"Welcome to the family!" said Hop-pop with eyes wide, "this will make farming so much easier!"
Polly got launched toward the King, and Andrias made a move to smash her with his foot, though he was stopped as a pair of robotic arms wrapped around him. Frobo was doing his best to hold Andrias back and protect Polly.
"Polly I will save you," said Frobo in his synthesized voice.
Andrias got frustrated and turned around, "Oh look at that one of my robots, must be defective!" As he said this he used his fist to smash Frobo apart in one strike! His head rolled away from his body towards the rest of the group.
"Frobo!" exclaimed Polly, she looked up at Andrias, "you monster!"
As it recalled those memories its eyes changed from their blue color back to the familiar yellow!
"Po-Polly!" it finally said.
"Frobo, you're back! Yay!" said Polly hugging him even tighter. Luz and Amara looked with a smile on their faces. The I.T. gals also smiled.
Polly jumped off Frobo and turned towards Amara and Luz, "hey so listen uh….I might have overreacted the other day when I yelled at you guys. I overheard you plan this whole thing, how you were going to reactivate Frobo as a surprise for me and I….listen I'm sorry for what I said."
Polly didn't have a chance to say anything else as Amara and Luz came up to her, both giving her a hug. Polly hugged them back her eyes tearing up. After a bit, the three separated.
"Thank you so much for doing this!" said Polly to Amara and Luz.
"You're welcome Polly!" said Luz, "I'm sorry if I made you feel as though you weren't capable.
"I'm sorry if it sounded like I thought you were dumb just because you're a frog," said Amara
"We just wanted to bring Frobo back the right way," said Luz, "who knows what would have happened if we hadn't?"
Right as she said this there was a loud crash and something broke through the roof of the warehouse. The girls all turned around and saw the Cloak-bot standing there, an evil grin on its face.
"Not you again!" yelled Luz, fear filling her mind as she knew Anne wasn't there with them.
"Whoa another robot!" exclaimed Ally.
"It looks so cool! Check out those long claws, I bet they could cut through anything," said Jess, it slowly dawned on her what she had said, and as the robot turned to look at her with its large red eyes, her expression changed to one of fear.
"RUN!" screamed Luz and Amara.
Jess and Ally ran putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the robot. Cloak-bot ignored them and turned towards Luz, Amara, and Polly. Its eyes narrowed on Luz as one of the targets it was supposed to destroy. Cloak bot lunged towards her slashing at her with its claws. Luz ducked out of the way and began fleeing from Cloak-bot. Amara stepped forward and used her tail to strike it, but the blow barely did anything as Cloak-bot simply pushed her aside. Polly grabbed onto Cloak-bot and tried punching it to get it to stop, but she had no effect on it. The Cloak-bot grabbed her and threw her off straight into Frobo.
Luz kept running making her way toward the IT gals.
"That thing is trying to kill you!" yelled Jess.
"Yeah I know," said Luz looking frantically behind her, "anything you can think of to stop it?"
"Maybe a virus?" suggested Jess, "but we'd need to program one right here on the spot."
"No prob," called Ally, "I can do it I just need time." Jess looked over at Ally before closing her laptop and tossing it over to her. Ally grabbed the laptop and retreated to a corner of the warehouse, she began frantically typing. Meanwhile, Luz and Jess split up to try and distract the robot. Jess reached into her pocket pulling out a small robot.
"Go Panda-tron! Save us!" said Jess throwing the small panda toy at Cloakbot. The panda landed on Cloak-bot's eyes, preventing it from seeing. The Panda began biting it, though it barely phased it. Cloak-bot brought up his hand and smashed the robot, it was at that point that it burst into flames, though this didn't seem to slow the robot down at all.
While all this was happening Frobo had caught Polly, she looked up into the robot's eyes.
"Frobo you have to help us! We need you buddy!" said Polly. Frobo looked from between her and the Cloak-bot, it then put Polly into its chest compartment before charging at Cloak-bot.
The Cloak-bot swung its arm at Luz again, but she once again managed to dodge. Luz looked over at a pile of junk and picked up a pipe, she turned around and ran at Cloak bot striking him with the pipe. The blow staggered the robot, but it quickly recovered and swiped at Luz again knocking the pipe out of her hand. It was about to strike her again when it was hit in the back by a laser. Cloak-bot turned around and saw Frobo starring it down
"Error! You are malfunctioning! You require maintenance! " said Cloak-bot in its synthesized voice, "you are an Amphibian robot, programmed for battle! You must obey King Andrias! You must help me eliminate these targets!"
"I am Frobo! I will protect Polly and her friends!" said Frobo launching another laser at Cloak-bot, the laser struck Cloak-bot knocking him down.
"Maintenance on this unit not possible," said Cloak-bot getting back up, "defective unit must be destroyed!"
Cloak-bot charged straight at Frobo, slashing at him. The claws raked across his body leaving marks on the washing machine unit. Frobo responded by punching Cloak-bot in the face causing pieces to fall off of him. Cloak-bot shot lasers at Frobo knocking him back, Frobo jumped into the air and launched his arm at Cloak-bot wrapping it around him and retracting it back to him. Frobo punched him again sending Cloak-bot flying away. Cloak-bot tried extending its own arms to grab Frobo, and while it managed to grab onto him Frobo activated its jets and flew straight at Cloak-bot slamming him into a wall and causing Cloak-bot to let go of Frobo.
"Way to go Frobo!" called Polly from inside him. Cloak-bot turned around its eyes zeroing in on Polly inside Frobo. It charged back at Frobo and brought the fingers on its hand together into a drill and launched it straight into Frobo's chest trying to hit Polly.
"Ahh!" screamed Polly as she barely dodged the drill. The drill became stuck in Frobo and Cloak-bot began striking Frobo trying to free its hand. Frobo struck back at Cloak-bot and the two robots continued trading blows, Cloak-bot continuing to try and free its hand. After a while Frobo charged up its lasers to a higher setting and blasted Cloak-bots arm, severing it from the hand and causing Cloak-bot to stumble backward.
Cloak-bot let out a horrible electric scream almost as though it felt pain from its arm being severed. Wasting no time Frobo again launched itself at Cloak-bot and began pummeling him. Cloak-bot tried defending itself but the blows came too fast, for a while it looked like Frobo would triumph. But finally, Cloak-bot managed to raise its hand and grab Frobo's arm before it hit him. Frobo tried to power through but Cloak-bot pushed back against him. Finally, it tore Frobo's arm off tossing it away and leaving the robot vulnerable.
The girls all let out a gasp at this! Cloak-bot continued its assault on Frobo transforming its remaining hand into an axe and slicing at Frobo. The slashes came fast and powerful, Frobo tried its best to defend itself but it was clear the battle had turned in Cloak-bots favor. Frobo tried to fight back, but without its arm, it couldn't overcome Cloak-bot.
"Frobo no!" cried Polly still inside the washing machine.
"Polly, hang on. I will protect you!" said Frobo as it turned back to Cloak-bot. Cloak-bot struck Frobo's other arm cutting it off; then it aimed low at its legs removing them and preventing Frobo from moving. Cloak-bot raised his axe one more time and sliced at Frobo's head separating it from its body. With Frobo disabled it turned its attention back to Luz charging towards her. Luz dived out of the way towards the pipe she had used earlier, she quickly picked it up and turned to face Cloak-bot.
Cloak-bot charged at Luz and Luz brought up the pipe to defend herself, Cloak-bot slashed at her with its axe, but Luz stood her ground and fought back. As the two traded blows Jess looked up from the computer, Ally was working on.
"Don't mean to rush you dear, but we really need that virus!" said Jess.
"Hold on I almost have it!" said Ally typing furiously on the computer trying to finish, "I just need a little more time."
Meanwhile, Luz kept fighting Cloak-bot occasionally managing to land a few blows on him, but they weren't enough to do any damage. Cloak-bot's blows began coming faster, but Luz held firm and matched his speed. In an attempt to help, Amara and Jess had stepped forward and began throwing random junk at Cloak-bot trying to distract him and leave Luz alone. Cloak-bot finally turned around and blasted its lasers at them sending them running. As all this was happening Ally furiously worked on the virus
"It's done!" she called, with that, she reached into her backpack and pulled out a USB antenna quickly plugging it in. She typed a few more commands trying to find Cloakbot's wireless signal, once she had that her face formed into a smile and she pressed "Enter" on her computer.
Almost immediately Cloak-bot seized up and sparks flew out from its body. Cloak-bot tried to regain control of its functions but across its eyes, many different error messages flashed before it. The robot struggled against the virus and tried in vain to get control over its movements. It tripped over itself as it tried to make its way toward Luz still trying to kill her, but its movements were slow and clumsy. After falling over a third time, it realized it wouldn't be able to fight in this condition. Gathering up the rest of its strength it jumped through the roof and fled. It tried its best to make its way back to its hiding place in the mountain though it crashed into various buildings and parked cars as it did still struggling against the effects of the virus.
Eventually, it arrived back in the mountains, and as soon as it did, it began to shut down all its programs hoping to be able to purge the virus from its system.
"Shutting down!" exclaimed Cloak-bot, "performing full system reboot. All systems will return back to startup mode."
Back at the warehouse, the girls all let out a sigh of relief at seeing Cloak-bot leave. Amara came over to check on Luz, while Jess came up to Ally to make sure she was okay.
"You sure you're fine," asked Jess with concern.
"I'm okay," replied Ally, "really I'm fine."
"I'm just making sure babe," said Jess, "you were amazing by the way, saving all our lives with that virus."
"See I told you keeping an extra one on standby was a good idea," said Ally in a flirty voice. Jess responded by leaning in and kissing her.
"You alright Luz?" asked Amara helping her up.
"Yeah, a lot better than he's doing I hope," said Luz glancing up at the hole Cloak-bot had left.
"That was awesome how you fought him off with that pipe!" said Amara.
"I'm still not sure how I did that," said Luz, looking down at her hands. Though after a moment she looked over at the remains of Frobo and saw Polly standing there crying. Luz motioned to Amara and the two came over to her.
"Frobo," cried Polly, looking at his severed head, "I just got you back only to lose you again." Luz and Amara came up to Polly putting their hands on her and trying to comfort her. It was only a few seconds later that they heard a familiar voice.
"Po-Polly," said the voice, the eyes in its head lighting up again.
"Frobo!" said Polly, "you big loveable lug! I know we can fix you again! I'll make you an even better body than before, and I'll make sure and do it slow and carefully."
"Wow that thing is really sturdy," said Ally coming up to Frobo's head.
"Very impressive," added Jess.
"Looks like his hard drive is still in one piece at least," said Ally.
"I think we just need to tune the PID controllers," advised Jess.
"Oh yeah, increase his lateral and longitudinal stability," said Polly.
"Hmm," said Ally, "I'm just curious, what was the covariance of the pose estimate coming out of the slam module?"
"Oh I can answer that," said Amara coming up to the girls. The I.T. gals continued to ask questions of Polly and Amara both of them were able to articulate their responses. Luz looked on, feeling a sense of pride at what both amphibians had managed to accomplish with Frobo.
"I know we can build him a better body," said Polly, "we just need the right tools and resources."
"You both seem to know what you're talking about," said Jess.
"Well we watched all of your videos," said Amara, "that's how we learned."
"Wow really," said Ally her eyes lighting up, "I mean we're still a small channel so it's nice to know we have fans like you two."
"And hey if you want help when it comes time to rebuild Frobo we'd be down to help you out!" said Jess.
"Actually, about that," said Luz coming over to the group, "you two seem like pretty smart cookies, do you know anything about….this is gonna sound strange, but hear me out….building a portal to another dimension?"
Ally and Jess looked at each other and then back to Luz.
"I mean that's really high-level math and physics you're talking about," said Jess.
"Right now most things involving teleportation or the like are only theoretical," said Ally.
"Where exactly do you need to build a portal too?" asked Jess.
"To our home," said Amara, she paused for a second before taking off her sunglasses revealing her newt face. The I.T. gals were shocked for a second but didn't seem frightened or scared.
"Amara," said Luz in a serious voice.
"They already saw Frobo and Cloak-bot," said Amara, "and you already asked them about a portal, no point hiding it anymore." Amara turned to Polly who took off her hat and boots revealing herself as a tadpole.
"Whoa, this is….I mean wow!" exclaimed Jess.
"You guys are talking amphibians?" asked Ally coming up to Amara and looking her in the face, "this is so cool!"
"We are," said Polly, "it's a long and complicated story but we come from another world, Frobo and that other robot are also from there."
"We got stuck here on Earth and are trying to find a way back," said Amara, "Luz is trying to help us that's why she asked you about working on a portal."
Polly and Amara launched into a brief explanation of what happened, the whole time the IT gals listened both enraptured by their story, Luz jumped in to provide her own bits. After it was all over the gals promised to help them in any way they could both with rebuilding Frobo and possibly a portal.
"Coming up with a portal design is a bit beyond us," admitted Jess, "that's not really our area of expertise."
"But if you knew someone else who could come up with a design, and was able to, I'm sure we could help you build it," said Ally.
"Great, that's awesome!" said Luz, "I'm sure we'll need your help in the future."
After that, the girls began cleaning up the mess in the warehouse gathering all of Frobo's old parts and getting rid of any leftover junk. They put some of it back into the trailer and some of it they took to a dumpster to throw away. Luz and Jess took one load and had just finished throwing it away when Luz asked her a question.
"Hey so uh….sorry if this is a bit personal, but…you and Ally are together, right?" she asked.
"Oh yeah," replied Jess, after a beat she continued, "you know now that you say that maybe women should stop using the term "girlfriend" when only talking about their friends. Now that we live in an age where gay relationships are more common I can see how it would cause confusion."
"Oh cool," said Luz, "and you are…?"
"I'm Bi," said Jess plainly.
"Yeah me too," said Luz, "although I haven't told my mom yet."
"Oh…I understand," said Jess putting her hand on Luz's shoulder, "it can be scary. I know I was nervous when I came out to my parents."
"How did that go?" asked Luz.
"They were actually cool with it," replied Jess, "they even started flying a pride flag on their house."
"Wow that's amazing!" exclaimed Luz.
"Yeah…. unfortunately it wasn't the same for Ally," said Jess in a sad tone, "her parents were pretty mad, and stopped speaking to her after that."
"Oh…" said Luz hanging her head.
"Aw sorry I didn't mean to get you down," said Jess, "are you super nervous about telling your mom?"
"Well kind of…" began Luz, "but not just her, you see, I have a girlfriend, and we wanted to tell our parents together. I guess I'm also nervous about what they might say."
"It can be tough, I get that," said Jess.
"We've been trying to find the perfect time to tell them, and neither of us seems to be able to feel when that is," said Luz with a sigh.
"You'll figure it out, I know you will, and whatever happens afterward, at least you know you had the courage to do it!" said Jess putting her hand on Luz's shoulder again and giving her a smile. Luz looked into her face and smiled back.
"Hey Katie, how are you doing?" asked another officer as Detective Ventura walked into the station, morning coffee in hand.
"Fine," replied Detective Ventura, giving her co-worker a wave. The past few days had been stressful as she tried to finish work on a homicide case. As she sat down at her workstation she glanced over to a flyer that she had placed there many months ago. The flyer was of two missing girls, their faces smiling in the picture as they looked back at the detective. She let out a sigh at seeing it an immense feeling of regret beginning to course through her body. She knew that missing person cases were hard, both physically and emotionally. Often times the persons in question were never found or if they were it was usually too late and they were only found as corpses. Detective Ventura felt a deep sense of guilt as she looked again at this flyer. This particular case had gone cold for months with no new evidence or leads. She had stopped updating the mothers of the girls out of a sense of guilt that there was nothing to report, though a part of her wondered if she was right to do that.
What happened to you four? asked the Detective to herself, I know this isn't too uncommon, a lot of times in these kinds of cases the trail goes cold and there's nothing you can do to find the truth, but why does this one feel so frustrating? Why are there so many unanswered questions?
Detective Ventura looked between the flyer and her computer and decided that she would devote some of her time today to trying to see if there were any new developments or leads she could look into. She logged into her computer and immediately brought up the search bar on her internet. She typed in "St. James missing girls" to see what she could find.
The first few results didn't turn up anything new, as she scrolled down the page though one link caught her eye.
"Anne Boonchuy and Luz Noceda: The girls who went missing, returned?"
Detective Ventura clicked on the link which took her to a blog by a girl from the school Anne had gone missing from.
"Hello all my lovely followers," began the blog, "I know not many of you saw the old blog post about my theory for why St. James four ran away, but that doesn't matter because now I have another better story regarding them, and I guarantee you are going to want to read this. Why? Because it seems that at least two of them are back! Now I know what you're thinking, "Jesse Bliss, we aren't dumb we're not going to just take your word that they're back. We demand proof!" Which I know….is important. That's why I am giving you the proof that you desire! I have photographic evidence that Anne Boonchuy and Luz Noceda have returned to LA."
Detective Ventura scrolled down the blog post some more finally seeing the pictures that were referenced. It looked to be Anne and Luz in the pictures, though neither of them were facing the camera. Even without being able to see their faces, Detective Ventura was fairly certain it was them. She looked between the photos on the blog and the one she had in her office.
"What the heck?" she said out loud.