Anne and the Plantars were in mother and father bear mode when they tried to get Charlie to wake up or to come out of his daze. They had him siting up straight saw a blank expression in his eyes. They tried to get his attention by talking to him, making some sounds or even gently shaking him.
"Charlie, come on, snap out of it." said Sprig.
"Does this kid have some sort of medical condition?" asked the Curator.
"Not really, no." answered Hop Pop.
The Curator gotten an idea as he gotten out a bottle of water and walked over towards Charlie. He twisted the lid and opened the bottle, than he gave it a powerful thrust forwards and a few handfuls of water splashed in the human's face. Charlie shook all over and shook his head, shaking off the water like a dog.
"Well that was rude." groaned Polly.
"Hey, it woke him up, didn't it?" said the Curator with a laugh.
Anne and the Plantars pulled Charlie up on his feet as he awoke. His vision got clearer as he saw the Curator standing in front of them. Charlie saw the old male frog with the eye patch and cane and his heart raced from fright.
"Ready for a tour, kiddo?" asked the Curator.
"Anne, kare o watashi kara tōzakete." said Charlie with a hiccup.
Anne could see the fear in Charlie's eyes and so did the Plantars.
"Charlie, would you feel better if you held my hand?" Anne suggested.
"Hai,-sō shimasu." answered Charlie.
"Is stretch okay? Can you understand a word I'm saying?" the Curator said slowly.
"My boy speaks English, dude. I think he's just recovering from that scary prank you pulled earlier." said Anne.
"What ever you say, doll face." said the Curator. "But enough chitchat. Walk with me."
Anne took hold of Charlie's hand and gave him a reassuring look which calmed him enough to walk with them. They followed the Curator as he was leading them on a tour of the museum.
The Curator led them on the tour and the first wax figure he shown them was a two-headed love dove bird which was so big that it was a good seven feet tall. The next figure he shown them was a huge preying mantis that wore a bugball jersey and had the ball underneath one of it's bug like hands.
As the Curator shown them around more. He informed them to look around other places in the museum if they choose to. Charlie was still looking at the Curator and the aged male frog could tell he was looking at him. Since he couldn't see Anne or Charlie's faces with Anne's hood covering up her head and face and Charlie's hat covering his face, he could see their eyes a little.
"Hey lady, why is your boy staring at me? He's been staring me the whole time." said the Curator. "Is he afraid of these wax figures? No worries, they're fake. A fake wax figure can't hurt anyone. Unless scaring people is considered hurting people."
When the Curator was about to approach Charlie, that's when Charlie's fear intensified with a wide eyed expression. Charlie hidden behind Anne in fear, shaking from the sight of the Curator. The Curator stopped, looking clueless. He suspected Charlie was afraid of him because of the prank he pulled.
"Kiddo, that prank I pulled earlier, don't take it personally. I do that with everyone that comes for tours here." reassured the Curator.
"Charlie, if anyone or anything tries to hurt you, you got me, Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop to keep you safe from harm. It's alright." reassured Anne.
Charlie was only a little reassured. The Curator walked off to let them take a look around on their own. But when Polly looked at one of the wax figures, she saw it had more than two eyes and two eyes looked down at her which caused Polly to scream and hop over to Hop Pop.
"Its eyes. They're watching me." said Polly terrified.
"Well, I had enough." said Hop Pop alarmed.
"Yep, me too." said Sprig.
"Anne, this place is freaking us out. We're gonna wait outside." said Hop Pop. "Anne, you and Charlie keep an eye out for the Curator, I think he scares Charlie."
"You got it." said Anne holding onto Charlie's hand. "See you guys later?"
As the Plantars went to wait outside. Anne and Charlie saw another room nearby with a sign above it that read "Artifacts" which had some odd and weird objects in there with some of them having a glass shield over some of them. But the two humans looked to see what looked like a green CD player with headphones. The words "Skip Man" were on the front of it in white lettering. They walked over to get a closer look at it and were wide eyed with interest at the object. Anne was the first to pick it up from where it laid on.
"Is that an old Skipman? My parents had one of these. How did they get here?" said the two humans in unison.
The two saw they both said the same thing at the same time and chuckled.
"Jinx." laughed the two humans.
"Hey, Curator. How much is this Skip..." Anne began.
The two turned to see the Curator standing near them which surprised them. Charlie let out a startled scream.
"Fuck! I hate it when you do that! Damn it!" screamed Charlie annoyed.
"Oh? So he does speak English. Ha! Also, is he a bit of a potty mouth? When I was younger, if I used that language, there was a bar of soap in my future." said the Curator.
"To be fair, you startled us a little. You might want to stop doing that because your scaring him." Anne defended.
The Curator shrugged his shoulders and brushed it off. He took the CD player out of Anne's hands and smiled.
"Ah! The Skipman. It can be yours for a million coppers." the Curator laughed.
"Oh. Come on, man. I can't afford that." said Anne annoyed.
"Okay, fine. How about we trade for it then? Got anything rare or vomit-inducing I could display in exchange?" the Curator asked.
Charlie took Anne aside and whispered something in Japanese to her which she whispered back to him to reassure him and Charlie felt like he was safer with Anne around him.
"Does this answer your question." said Anne.
Anne pulled her hood off her head and revealed her face. Charlie removed his hat from his head and shown his face to him as well. The Curator looked at both of them with wide eyed shock as if he saw something that was uglier than anything in his museum.
"Sweet tadpole Mary!" cried the Curator lifting his eye patch up.
"That's right. I'm the ultimate oddity, baby." said Anne proudly. "I'll make you a deal. I'll be your special attraction for one day only."
Charlie's fear was being replaced by worry and concern. He sensed that something wasn't right. He knew that he had no reason to trust this male aged frog.
"Say no more, kid. One day of you in exchange for the Skip thing and everything I know about it. You got a deal." said the Curator holding out his hand.
"Seriously? This is hu-yuge." said Anne shaking his hand. "You won't be disappointed, dude."
"Chottomatte!" Charlie chimed in.
"I've already got some pretty elaborate plans for your exhibit. Come back tonight after closing time and we can discuss." instructed the Curator.
"Elaborate, huh? I like the sound of that. See you later." said Anne looking interested.
"Sore o wasurete!" Charlie chimed in looking like he was about to put his foot down.
"Hey sweetheart, maybe your boyfriend can join in on this. I never had a monkey as part of the museum." said the Curator offering.
Everything went silent as Anne was wide eyed at what he just said and Charlie shot a very irate look at the Curator who was a showing visible fear in his face and eyes.
"What? What did I say?" said the Curator curiously.
"Hey Curator. Do you have a doctor on stand by?" asked Charlie looking angry.
"Well no, why would I need one?" asked the Curator looking nervous.
"Call me a monkey again and you'll need one after I knock your ass out." Charlie threatened. "Anne, we're leaving, now! Forget about what Mini-Me said, he's a fucking creep. We will have no part in this, we're leaving. Curator, you stay away from me, Anne and my family. You call my girl ugly one more time and I'll do more than kick your ass!"
The Curator was wide eyed and his mouth fell open. He felt a sense of fear from Charlie's warning and felt a bit shocked that Charlie cursed him out like that. Charlie turned around to walk out of there with Anne following him as she didn't like what the Curator said about Charlie.
Charlie was the first one to step out of the Curiosity Hut and Anne saw Charlie whispering something to the Plantars and than he stormed off towards the caravan. Anne walked over to the Plantars who looked at Anne, glad the two humans were showing to be alright.
"Anne, Charlie just told us that he wants you, him and the rest of us to stay away from the Curator, saying that he's a...well...lets just say he gave us a really convincing reason." said Hop Pop blushing.
"I think it's possibly because the Curator called Charlie the you know what word?" said Anne.
The Plantars looked a bit dumbfounded at what Anne said. What word was she talking about?
"What word?" asked Polly curiously.
"The M word. You know, that one word that makes him so mad when someone calls him that word." Anne specified.
It took a minute for them to understand what Anne meant and their expressions shown it once it sunk in.
"Oh!" said the Plantars.
"Also, You won't believe what I found in there. A Skipman." said Anne with an interested expression.
The Plantars looked clueless and they shrugged. Anne knew that they didn't know what a Skipman was.
"Trust me. It's big. And that curator guy's gonna give it to me. All I have to do is be the museum's main attraction for a day." said Anne looking excited.
"No way!" said Sprig and Hop Pop in shock.
"Are you crazy?" said Polly wide eyed.
"Anne, you cannot, by any means, do this." Hop Pop advised.
"But th-this is the first time I've found something from my world. It could explain so much. Even Charlie deserves answers." said Anne looking disappointed.
"I understand that, Anne. But that curator guy is... Well, just look at him." said Hop Pop pointing at the window.
Anne looked and saw the Curator was having an eager yet creepy smile on his face as he was watching them from the window. He pulled the curtains to hide himself but there was two eye holes cut into the curtains that shown his eyes.
"Tell you what, let's sleep on it, come back in the morning, and see if we can get some answers, okay?" Hop Pop suggested.
"Okay. But did you know if Charlie said any reason why he was terrified of the Curator? I think it wasn't the prank that freaked him out." said Anne.
The Plantars paused for a moment and Hop Pop was the one to speak first with a grim face.
"He said he looked like that one old man that assaulted him when he was little. Even though we never saw what this older man looked like, still, Charlie's afraid of the Curator. We think he's afraid the Curator might hurt him and make him relive that painful memory." said Hop Pop sadly. "If we come back to get some answers. It's best if Charlie waits at the fwagon. I don't want Charlie to be anywhere near him if he scares him. Also, I don't want you anywhere near him ether Anne, only be around him if we're with you."
"Okay, you're right. I can wait." said Anne complying.
They nodded and when the Plantars walked towards the caravan. She had a devious grin.
"Until you fall asleep." said Anne under her breath.
Later That Night
It was nightfall and everyone but Anne was asleep inside the caravan. Anne had a devious grin and she was carefully sneaking out of her bed and when something was about to make a noise, she prevented it from happening. She saw that Hop Pop was sleeping with his eyes open, she silently shuddered at the sight of it. But than she heard Charlie talking quietly in his sleep.
"Hang on tight to me, Anne. I'll get us out of here. We'll be web slinging our way out." said Charlie with a grin in his sleep.
Anne grinned and kissed Charlie on his forehead. Charlie blushed and Anne quietly snuck out of the caravan. Once she was out, at a safe distance, she ran towards the Curiosity Hut. But Charlie was suddenly wide awake, he got out of bed and silently snuck out of the caravan as well but he was able to do it in what looked like a graceful dancing motion. He saw Anne running towards the Curiosity Hut when he was outside. He felt a mix of fear and anger.
Charlie followed her without being noticed. The lights at the Curiosity Hut was still on and as Charlie walked inside the creepy museum, he saw Anne and the Curator walking into another room. He saw the room they walked into and he hidden behind the left side of the entrance.
There, he saw that the room had a grandiose stage with two arrows pointing at it, a lit up sign that read "New" above it, lemon yellow lights around the stage shaped like mushrooms and a red X on the center of the stage. He saw Anne walk on the stage and stood on the X. He heard the Curator stating that everything in his museum was real, just frozen in wax. Charlie was shocked but when he saw the Curator pull a tan sheet off something he was hiding. He revealed a machine and it had a lever, he pulled it and a large tube came out from above Anne and trapped her in it.
"Ah, yep. Yeeep. This all tracks." said Anne suddenly realizing something.
"I mean, it's crazy how easy that was. Honestly, I thought I was being way too obvious about it." said the Curator looking surprised that he did this.
Anne suddenly knew that Charlie and the Plantars were right as she saw this was a trap.
"I can't believe this. I'm so stupid." said Anne ashamed of herself.
"Hey, hey. Don't talk about yourself like that. You're probably a very bright young lady who's just having a bad day." the Curator said reassuring her.
"Oh, thanks. That's actually a really nice thing to say." said Anne feeling a little better.
"Hey. It's what I'm here for. So, as you've probably guessed, you're not just the main attraction tomorrow. You'll be here forever." said the Curator with an evil laugh.
He pulled a lever and the machine was pumping a vat of gold wax through a tube and it was pumping inside the tube Anne was trapped in. Anne screamed as she went to the left side of the tube in an attempt to avoid getting it splashing on her head. It was slowly filling up the tube she was filled in. Charlie felt a sense of rage but a sense of fear at the same time.
"I can't believe what he's doing. What am I suppose to do? I got to save my soul sister but I'm afraid of that old male frog will beat me down with his cane just like that old man when I was little. What am I suppose to do?" said Charlie struggling with his emotions.
As fear was overcoming him. A voice in Charlie's head was speaking to him and he heard Anne's voice in his head.
"Charlie babe, what happened to you when you were little wasn't your fault. That old man had some problems of his own. But you convinced the court to have him sentenced to counseling instead of prison. You shown to be the better man. You haven't seen or heard from him since. He can't hurt you anymore. Just remember, visualize your tormentors. Imagine the Curator is insulting you, do that, visualize and attack. Remember your battling fuel"
Charlie had a stoic expression on his face as he looked towards Anne and the Curator. The tube Anne was in was filling up with more wax that was up to her knees by now. He saw that the Curator was standing nearby eating a can of food, talking to Anne. He visualized that the Curator was insulting and his anger was sky-rocketing rapidly.
"Hey monkey boy, want a banana? Ha, ha, ha, ha. You'll look good on display as my monkey wax figure"
Charlie popped his neck and his knuckles as he was filled with a rage as he walked inside the room. He had his hand on his sword from the handle.
"And Newtopia's got a ton of 'em. That's where I got that, uh, Skip guy you wanted." said the Curator.
"Newtopia. Of course." said Anne looking as though she had realization.
"Say, you want some of this canned meat? It's edible." the Curator offered.
"Sorry, looks like the only thing we got on the menu is deep fried jerkmeat in a suit." came Charlie's voice.
Anne and the Curator looked to see Charlie entered the room. Anne was looking relieved to see him and the Curator stood there frozen as if caught in a lie.
"Uuuummm. This isn't what it looks like?" said the Curator with a nervous chuckle.
"Oh? Well it looks like you're about to freeze my girl friend in wax like your wax figures which are all real and you want my girl friend to be part of them forever and you lied, tricked, swindled and conned a sweet thirteen year old girl. You were never going to give her that Skipman in the first place, you're just using her for your own selfish, greedy, personal gain. Admit it!" said Charlie sharply.
"Who are you? A cop?" said the Curator looking annoyed.
"You wish, motherfucker." said Charlie cracking his knuckles.
The curator grabbed what looked like cane that was shaped like a snake with spikes. Sprig and Hop Pop suddenly shown up and Sprig charged at the Curator but they stopped when they saw that the aged male frog had a cane to arm himself with.
"I ain't going back to frog prison." the Curator yelled. "Get out of my museum, you monkey! Or I'll beat you down with my cane."
At such a fast speed, Charlie drew his sword and made two slashes with it as he placed it back in it's sheath. The Curator saw his cane he held fall to the floor in four small pieces. He looked up at Charlie, looking visibly shaken. The Curator got out his other cane that was the eight ball cane from before.
"I'm not afraid to use this on you and your family. I'll turn you all into wax figures for my museum." the Curator feebly threatened.
He swung his cane towards Charlie and both Sprig and Hop Pop both looked away as they couldn't bear to see Charlie get hurt but they heard no screams of pain coming from him. They looked and they saw Charlie holding onto the cane that the Curator had in his hands. He jerked the cane out of the Curator's hands with his face looking completely stoic.
"Hop Pop, you and Sprig get Anne out." Charlie instructed.
He tossed the cane behind him and Hop Pop caught it. How did Charlie know that they were behind him when he didn't turn around was something they didn't question. Hop Pop, Sprig and now Polly ran towards the tube and Hop Pop used it to swing at it and the tube shattered, the wax spilling out and Anne was frozen in wax up to her shoulders. Everything from her shoulders up wasn't covered or frozen in wax.
"I'm so glad you guys came to save me." said Anne relieved.
"And just in time." said Hop Pop.
"Stop him! He's a wild animal!" cried the Curator.
They turned to see that Charlie plucked the Curator off the floor when he tried to escape but Charlie plucked him off the floor, carrying him as he got him by the front of his suit. Charlie was grim-faced at the Curator.
"He's mad. Oh he's very mad." the Curator said in a panic.
"Charlie wait! We got Anne, she's alright. You can drop him now." called Hop Pop.
Charlie let out a lion like growl as it sounded like a real lion growling. He ignored Hop Pop.
"What is your name, Curator?" asked Charlie in a firm tone.
"Curator Ponds." the Curator answered shaking.
Charlie shook his head disapprovingly at him.
"What's your real name." said Charlie being more specific.
Charlie popped his neck loud enough for them all to hear. The Curator gulped.
"Stanleap Ponds. That's my real name." said the Curator revealing his real name.
"You tried to hurt my girl and my family. Anne is not ugly. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever met and no other girl can ever compare to her. You have no right to decide what is beauty and what isn't. You little shit!" said Charlie sharply.
Anne smiled, seeing and hearing Charlie stand up to Stanleap Ponds, defending her honor, defending the rest of them and every kind thing he said about her and the Plantars got her to feel like she was a queen, Charlie's queen. She was feeling proud of his words.
"I want you to apologize to me, my family, and my girl. Now." Charlie commanded.
Ponds gulped as he was too afraid to come up with the right words or to say anything at the moment with the intimidating grim look that Charlie was giving him. He could sense that Charlie was so irate that he was on the verge of doing something he'd never thought he had to do. Charlie got impatient.
"SAY IT!" Charlie demanded with a sharp yell.
Ponds shook with fear as he became submissive.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said and done to you, your girls and your family." said Ponds shaking in the body with fear.
Charlie used one of his hands to slap Ponds across the face. He groaned from the painful impact of his hand slapping his wrinkled face.
"No. No you're not. Not yet." said Charlie in a grim tone.
"Charlie wait." called Anne. "He can go to frog prison. We'd be letting him off easy if we roughed him up. Think of it, if he's in prison, he can't do this to anyone no more. He loses and we win."
Charlie looked up at Anne who was showing the expression that had him snap back to reality. His anger was replaced with shock. He looked at Ponds who was cowering. Charlie felt a sense of guilt and realized that hurting Ponds would make him no better than the old man that hurt and traumatized him all them years ago and he remembered that he convinced the court to sentence that man to counseling instead of prison to show some form of mercy. He let out a sigh and dropped the old frog, he landed on the floor on his feet.
"Stanleap Curator Ponds. You're under arrest. Don't move from that spot because I'm faster than I can draw out my sword." warned Charlie.
Charlie dragged Ponds over to the others as he was about to assist Anne and the than they heard a monstrous shriek. They all froze and Ponds looked at them with rage.
"What in Amphibia did you do? When I'm done with ya, I'll-" Stanleap threatened.
They all turned to see that the creatures in the wax museum entered the room and they were not covered or frozen in wax anymore. What Stanleap said about them all being real and not being fake has confirmed that he was telling the truth. Stanleap pulled out another cane as he prepared to fight them.
"Stay back, you filthy animals. You'll never catch me." said Stanleap alarmed.
"Guys, let get the fuck out of here, now!" cried Charlie.
The Plantars obeyed and carried Anne out of the museum while Charlie followed behind but he heard Stanleap was offering them something if they let him go which he took one last look and saw that them creatures were dragging him towards another room that turned out to be the storage room. He was still trying to offer them a cut in on the profits but they were not interested. They dragged him into the darkness of the room and the last creature went inside, closing the door with a sign on the door that read "Keep Out" and he heard Stanleap scream in horror. That's when he saw red liquid leaking from underneath the door.
"Calm down, everyone. it's just wax." Stanleap humorously ensured.
Charlie shook his head and ran out of there. When he left the building, he heard a series of loud, monstrous shrieks and a scream. He knew what that meant and shook his head.
Hours Later, Sunrise
Anne, Charlie and the Plantars were sitting on logs around a campfire while the fire was melting the wax off Anne's body. It took a while for Anne to have all the wax completely melted off her body and she was free. Anne looked disappointed.
"I'll never get that Skipman now." said Anne sighing.
Sprig pulled something out from nearby and it was the CD player she mentioned.
"You mean this Skipman?" said Sprig with a grin.
Anne looked at him with an excited sparkle in her eyes and she pulled Sprig over to hug him as she felt grateful that he snatched the CD player for her when they escaped.
"No way! Dude, you're the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh. And the curator said he got this from Newtopia. Which means we're on the right track." said Anne elated.
"You know what else is on the right track? You keeping a low profile and not jumping into things without us." said Hop Pop looking mad.
"I'm tired of facing my fears, Anne." Polly chimed in.
"I know. I know. I shouldn't have gone off on my own. It was reckless. And besides, we work better as a team." said Anne showing she really was sorry for what she did.
They all looked at Anne with an apologetic expression.
"Well, the important thing is, we're all okay. Except for that curator. He's dead." said Hop Pop his anger disappearing.
"Just like Bundy." Charlie chimed in.
They all looked at Charlie and he still had that grim look on his face. They knew that he was probably slowly recovering from the horrifying situation they all experienced and witnessed.
"Whose this Bundy?" asked Hop Pop curiously.
Charlie looked up at them and he had the same expression that they were worried about.
"A criminal back in our world. Let's just say he's way worse and he's been dead for a long time. Don't ask." Charlie advised.
Anne looked towards Charlie and he looked back at her. They all saw that there was a chance of seeing him getting emotional at this point. Charlie almost lost Anne and Anne realized that this was a bigger challenge for him to go through than it was for anyone else.
"Charlie, I'm-" Anne started.
Charlie pulled Anne in his arms without warning. Anne didn't expect him to hug her, she expected him to yell or lecture her but he hugged her instead. Charlie shed a few tears and let out a few heavy sighs. Anne wrapped her hands around him and hugged him back, rubbing his back.
"Anne, don't you ever do that again. Don't scare the hell out of me like that ever again." said Charlie shakily.
"I'm sorry Char Char. Living in this world, I can't promise this won't happen again because I don't know what's coming next. But I'll never do that ever again." said Anne reassuring him.
Charlie revealed his face to her and Anne saw him wiping away a few tears from his face. She leaned in and kissed Charlie on his lips, cheeks and forehead to comfort him which worked. This left him blushing with a grin.
"I'm glad you, Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly came to save me." said Anne.
"No one is taking my soul sister away from me." said Charlie proudly.
Anne pulled him in her arms and hug him again and his face was pressed to her chest, causing him to blush. They all looked on towards another direction as they saw the sun rising.
"I hope you guys can forgive me." said Anne.
They all looked towards Anne.
"Anne, we forgive ya. Just hope your not mad at us." said Hop Pop.
"How can I be mad any of you? You call came to save me." said Anne reassuring them.
They all smiled and felt better knowing that Anne was safe and that all is forgiven. They all looked back at the sun as it risen.
"Onward family. To Newtopia." cheered Sprig.
Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly heard giggling and looked back to catch Anne and Charlie making out when the two human teenagers were thinking they weren't looking. They chuckled and the two humans stopped as both of them blushed, smiled and nervously chuckled.
"Do you two love birds need ten minutes?" joked Polly.
"No!" said Anne and Charlie with a loud hiccup.
They knew that as they continued onward to Newtopia, they not only stopped another bad guy but more importantly. Charlie overcame his greatest fear. He overcame his fear of old men with canes.
