“‘And some others too’?” complained Princess Rainbow. “Your stupid song only sings about you and your stuff!”

“Pfff – I don’t see you making up a full-on team song,” tutted Frog loudly.

He and the Defeat All Foes Team had been walking all afternoon – out of the Swamp of Notable Odour, over the Fountain Mountains and through Dillydally Valley towards the palace.

“That’s because team songs are silly and stupid and— My house!” the princess cried. As they crossed the ridge, the royal palace of Kingdomland came into view. Despite being devastated by the Kroakan invaders, the white-stone citadel remained an imposing sight. It seemed to glow in the mid-morning light.

“I’m going to cuddle my mummy and daddy until they ’splode!” declared Princess Rainbow, as they hurried across the bridge to the makeshift palace gates.

“Cuddles shmuddles! This is champion business,” Frog exclaimed, overtaking the princess and pushing open the gates. He strode inside what remained of a once-great hall. “Three cheers for the Defeat All Foes Team, back from defeating badness! Polished sandwiches and foot rubs all round!”

“Where should Man-Lor take space gobbins?” asked Man-Lor, Kroop and Krud still held firmly under his massive arms.

“To the throne room!” Frog said. “We’ll deliver them straight to the King and Queen – I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces…”

Everyone followed as Frog marched through the hall and into the throne room. Long curtains draped the walls and in the middle of the room, at the top of a grand flight of stairs, were three thrones. Atop their seats sat the Queen of Everything, looking as regal as ever in her golden finery, and her husband the King of Everything, a portly old codger with food in his beard.

“Daddy! Mummy!” squealed Princess Rainbow. She rushed up the steps and hugged them tightly.

“So what have you been doing while we’ve been out catching Kroakans and saving up the world?” scoffed Frog, striking a pose at the foot of the stairs. “Shining up the royal crowns and twiddling your— Wuuh?”

Frog looked down. On the floor was a large pile of grey-black dust. There was another a little further away, and another … a dozen at least, dotted all over the throne room.

“Get the princess out of here, Frog – now,” whispered Kryl, drawing her bow from behind her back.

Frog glanced up to see Princess Rainbow hugging her parents.

“Mummy? Daddy? Why aren’t you hugging back?” said the princess. She looked up at their faces and gasped. Their eyes were pupil-less, and as black as coal.

“Hail, Kroak,” said the King and Queen in unison.

Before Frog knew what was happening, a dozen Kroakans had emerged from behind the curtains. He drew his sword.

“Baa?” bleated Sheriff Explosion.

“It’s an ambush!” cried Kryl. “The prisoners are free!”

“Yoiks!” cried Frog, swinging his sword wildly. “Get behind me! Get—”

Frog felt a blow on the back of the head. His brain rattled in his skull and he saw the floor of the throne room rush up to meet him. He landed with a thud and heard his sword clang to the ground next to him. With his head spinning, Frog tried to trigger his kroak cloak to turn himself invisible when he felt himself hoisted into the air by both arms.

“By the Clenched Fist, hold him!” roared a voice. Frog looked up to see a huge armoured figure step forward. He was the biggest Kroakan in the room, and Frog recognized him immediately.

“General Kurg!” Frog cried. He gave his former general a stern glare.

“Surprised to see me?” growled the general. “I suppose you would be, since you blasted my squadron with thunder and lightning, destroyed my bipods, locked me in a stinking cage and left me in this palace to rot!”

“It was better than you deserved for all your badness!” growled Frog. “Now, let us go or I’ll defeat you to pieces!”

“I’m sorry. Did I not make it clear that I don’t take orders from you any more, O Prince?” sneered the general. “I’ve been given a second chance – and I’m not going to slurm it up. Now surrender!”

“Surrender? Bumdrops to that!” roared Frog. “I’ll punch your face!”

“Look around, Frog … your little rebellion is over,” said General Kurg, gesturing across the room. To his left, Frog saw Kryl, Man-Lor and Sheriff Explosion, surrounded by Kroakan troopers. To his right, the black-eyed King and Queen dragged the princess roughly down the steps of the throne. Then the Queen picked up Frog’s sword and held the blade to Princess Rainbow’s neck.

“Queen, have you all gone loopy-doopy? That’s the princess! Your princess!” Frog cried. “And that’s my invincible sword – give it back!”

“Hail, Kroak,” replied the Queen, her black eyes expressionless and cold.

“What the bumbles?” blurted Frog. He glowered at General Kurg. “What did you do to them?”

“Just a little brain-slaving, O Prince,” explained the general, holding up what looked like a small black pebble. “One of these slave-nodes delivers a concentrated injection of pure loyalty. Instant slave.”

“Mummy? Daddy?” said Princess Rainbow, peering nervously up at the Queen. “Did they slave your brains?”

“Hail, Kroak,” replied her parents in unison.

“And since you were stupid enough to leave our equipment lying around the palace, we had sufficient nodes to set up this nifty little ambush,” continued General Kurg, drawing a sunder-gun. “And enough weapons to reduce the rest of the natives to dust.”

Frog glanced down at the dust piles on the floor. “Y-you slayed the royal army … Captain Camperlash … all of them!”

“Every last insignificant life form!” replied the general. “And if you and your friends want to avoid a similar fate, you’ll do exactly as you’re told.”

“Argh! I’ll defeat the boots off you! I’ll defeat you into soup!” roared Frog. “I’ll defeat you and undefeat you so I can defeat you again! I’ll—”

“Moons of Moonos! I forgot how much you talk, Frog,” grunted General Kurg. He dragged the sentries, Krud and Kroop, from under Man-Lor’s arms and dangled them in the air. “You two! Arm up and bring the prisoners – we meet at the rendezvous point in twenty krons! Let’s move out, by Kroakas!”