His webbed, powerful feet hit the roof as he ran from his pursuers. Around him were his two brothers and his sister, running as well. They had been running nearly all night from an untiring group of foes. Since they had found their freedom in San Maria, they had fought many enemies. From the Bay City Bandits to petty criminals, they had started to do what they were born to do: Fight. Though originally they were to be obedient soldiers, now they fought for the innocents of the city. They weren't going to stop doing that. It was their identity. The first one they had ever chosen for themselves.
They only had to survive the night.
The scraping of the metal legs behind Mozart told him he couldn't stop. Not now. They were still coming. The drones the Integrated Dimension Research Group sent after them all the times before were stupid. Nothing more than simple hunter-seekers that would attack when they saw Art and his siblings. They were easy to trick. They were easy to fight. They were easy to destroy. In the months since their escape from the research think tank's clutches they had fought and eluded plenty of them.
But these ones were different. They didn't stop. They didn't give the frogs any time to catch their breath. Clara figured it out easy enough. The IDRG had figured out how to track their DNA. The frogs stood little chance to escape them.
The tripod-like robots didn't stand much taller than three feet, with the three, spider-like legs taking up most of that height. They moved like crabs, scuttling along the ground with speeds that were hard to believe. Another appendage came off the back of the metallic, triangular body. This one, however, pointed up, like a scorpion's tail. On it was some sort of energy weapon that caused some sort of temporary paralysis, as displayed by Ludwig's right arm, that currently hung limply at his side as the frogs ran from their pursuers.
"You getting any feeling back in that?" Art asked his brother, hoping the strongest of them would be back in the fight soon.
"We need to tear these things apart!""Starting to get better," the big bullfrog grumbled.
"Can feel some pins and needles in it, but I still need some more time.""No, what we need is to shut these damn things down!" Clara protested as the four of them clambered up the side of a building. Art stayed at the tail of the group to ensure Ludwig got up the fire escape in time. He wasn't the best climber on a good day. Losing the use of his arm wasn't going to help.
"We need to go back to IDRG and destroy their ability to track us!""Oh, yea," Bach replied sarcastically,
"just wander up to the place we escaped from, the place where all the robots are coming from, find the control hub for these, and spend however long it takes to hack them. Yea, great plan!""Well do you have a better idea!?" Clara yelled defensively.
"We can't stop, we can't go home, we can't rest while these things are on our tail, and I don't know any other way to get them off it."Mozart had thought the same thing, but didn't want to say it. The hunters were coming from there, and the scientists in the think tank had probably found a way to code the frogs' DNA into the machines' homing systems. That meant there was no escape. They'd come as long as they had the DNA to track. They were going to have to go to IDRG sooner or later, he had just hoped it would have been later.
Before he could agree with Clara's assessment the pack of four Hunters that were chasing them managed to cut them off. Two of the pack must have broken off and rushed in front of them while the frogs were bickering between each other. Art cursed himself for not noticing. He was supposed to be their leader and he was distracted by a petty back-and-forth.
One fired a shot from its tail towards Bach, who managed to leap out of the way. Before it could find another target, Mozart was on it. He grabbed the tail, and using his strength ripped it off. The robot convulsed and fell to the roof. Art scooped the body up and used it as a shield as its partner fired a shot of its own towards the blue frog. The beam deflected off the metal of the fallen Hunter, which was then flung by the frog at the functioning robot. The two metal constructs smashed into one another, wrecking both.
Art turned to find the other two Hunters closing in. Before they could get in range, however, Clara came at them from the side. She slid under a shot from the closest one's weapon and kicks it into the air. As it tumbled around, it's snatched by Ludwig's good arm, which slams it into its partner.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," Bach smiled.
"Now we only have to do that a hundred or so more times, knowing the resources IDRG has.""No," Art had made his decision.
"Clara's right.""I am?" she was surprised. The two of them butted heads more than Art liked. She was the smartest of the four when it came to science and technology. Of that he had no doubt. But he was the strategist, and she rarely respected that. It led to too many fights. But this time she was right.
"Yea," he nodded back at her.
"We're going to lose if we keep running and fighting. They only way we come out of this alive is to go to IDRG and get our data out of their mainframes.""Just in time," Ludwig chuckled deeply, rotating the previously paralyzed arm.
"Look like I'm good to go.""Oh terrific," Bach rolled his eyes.
"Exactly where I want to go. I'm sure mom and dad are really gonna be happy to see us. I hope dissection doesn't hurt too much."Mozart knew his brother's fear. He knew the reason the youngest of the frogs exuded an air of indifference often. It wasn't that he was aloof, or that he didn't take their situation seriously. It was that Bach used his humor as a defense mechanism and a way to cope. Without it, Bach would despair, and none of them wanted that.
"I'm not going to let them take us again, bro," Art assured his little brother.
"I'll never let one of us be stuck in that place again.""Well?" Lud cracked his knuckles.
"What are we waiting for?"**********
Angel rubbed her tired, dark-brown eyes, pushing her glasses up towards her forehead. She had been here too long, especially considering the fact that this was nothing more than an unpaid internship. Still, working for the IDRG was something she had always dreamed of. Their advancements were legendary, and the chance to play a part in that legacy in the future was intoxicating. But...it was close to midnight, and she couldn't stare at a computer screen any longer, especially considering she had an exam on Monday to study for.
"Okay, Casey," she groaned to her cubemate and pushed herself away from the desk,
"it's time for me to get out of here. Don't stay too much later.""I've just got a few more runs on this program," the boy responded, shaking his blond hair out of his face. "I want to finish it before the weekend."
"Well, technically you've got like twenty minutes before the weekend," Angel chuckled and put her frizzy, brown hair into a ponytail. She patted him on the shoulder,
"Don't work too hard, kid." "Yea, be safe getting home," he responded, not looking up from his screen.
"Will do!"She left the lab where she had been assigned, and walked through the gleaming, prisitine halls of the unclassified areas of the Integrated Dimension Research Group Pyramid. The glistening spire was the highest building in the Bay Cities, acting like a beacon of knowledge that often cut through the city's thick fog. She always loved that mental image. It was here she could escape the ignorance of the world. It was here that she could make sense of a world of gods and monsters.
The security guard at the front door waved good night, and Angel smiled back as the doors opened and the cool, humid night air hit her. San Maria was a lot of things, but the minute you were comfortable the weather would change on you in a second. She liked it. Maybe it was just that she was free of her family here, and not the city itself. But she didn't believe that. There was something about this place. Something that said her destiny was here.
Angel turned down the street and decided to walk to her apartment. It was a nice night, and she needed to stretch her legs after a long day in the lab. It probably wasn't the safest decision, but it was only a few blocks.
She started to doubt her decision when she was about halfway home, however. She had the sneaking suspicion she was being watched. Angel clutched her purse to her more tightly, and started to move faster. She could have sworn she heard footsteps behind her, and she cut down an alleyway she knew was a shortcut.
Looking behind her for a pursuer, she ran directly into something hard...and slimy. When she hit the ground, her glasses fell off her face, and she searched for them blindly.
"Sorry about that," a confident, yet...odd voice said to her.
"We aren't here to hurt you. You need to know that. We just need your badge to get into IDRG.""Why the heck would you need-" as she found her glasses and put them on, she finally got a look at her robber. It stood at about five-and-one-half feet, its yellow eyes shone in the darkness like beacons. Its blue and black skin glistened slightly in the dim light, and its large mouth was almost all she could look at. It was a frog. It was a large, humanoid frog.
"Oh."That's all that could be said, which seemed to confuse the frog.
"That's it? Usually we get a scream or something," another voice said, drawing her attention up to a fire escape where a green frog, smaller than the first, was perched.
"Or people try to kill us. Either way, I appreciate the understated approach.""When you live in a world where people can lift aircraft carriers over their head, I guess giant frogs aren't all that weird," she shrugged and took her badge out and tossed it to the blue one.
"But I can't give you my badge. I love my job, and want to work full time at IDRG someday.""First, that's a bad idea," the blue frog sighed.
"We don't have time for this!" a yellow one appeared and hissed.
"You're right," the blue one agreed.
"Lud?"Suddenly, the footsteps behind her were back, and she turned to find a gigantic bullfrog hovering over her,
"Oh wow. You're big.""Yea," he croaked and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Sorry about this. But...it won't hurt. Or kill you."The blue one approached and reached out with his hand. Before he touched her, he recoiled slightly,
"Before you go to sleep, where do you live? We don't want to leave you on the street."Angel motioned to the apartment building down the street,
"Over there. Third floor. On the corner.""Okay great," the blue on shrugged.
"Have a good nap."With that, his slimy skin brushed against her cheek, and the world went dark.
