There were times Johan thought he had seen everything. This was not one of those times. The last thing he remembered was trying to stop Anne, Marcy and Sasha from making a big mistake and the next thing he knew, Anne opened that damned music box and he found himself in the middle of a town square in an alien world. How did he know it was alien? The people.

They wore agricultural clothes and lived in houses that could have come straight out of the Dark Ages. But what stood out was that they weren't people. Well, not human people anyway. They were frogs. Frogs that walked on two legs. They all stared at him with wide eyes.

"Uh...greetings, I come in peace?" was the only thing Johan could think at the moment.

"MONSTER!" someone shouted.

"Uh-oh."

Johan took off running but didn't get too far before he was blocked by a mob of angry frog people carrying torches and pitchforks. "Where did you get those so fast?!"

"We always keep these around in times like these. Which is a lot," one of the frogs said before he poked Johan with his pitchfork.

"Ow! You could poke someone's eye out with that!"

"Really?"

Johan tried to run in the opposite direction but was blocked by an old frog garbed in a cowboy's clothes with a golden sheriff's badge pinned to his vest. He pointed his gun at the boy said, "Yer not going anywhere."

Before he could run, someone tripped him and the frogs pinned him down and bound him in ropes. "Take your slimy hands off me, you damn, dirty frogs!"

"Hey, I just got out of the shower," a frog wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying an accordion shouted. Then he sniffed his hand and said, "Phew. It's right."

"And we're not slimy," a frog woman said. "We secrete mucus!"

"I don't care - mmf!" Johan's retort was cut off by someone stuffing a gag into his mouth.

"Alrighty," said a voice with a southern accent. It belonged to a fat green toad garbed in fancy clothes and gold rings. "What the hey is all the commotion and..." He stopped when he saw Johan. "What is THAT?! It's hideous!"

That's not nice, Johan thought. You're uglier than these frogs.

"Mayor Toadstool," said the sheriff. "This... thing came out of nowhere. Thankfully, we managed to capture it before it could get away."

"What is it?!" a yellow frog woman with red hair tied in a ponytail (Johan was surprised to see some of these frogs even had hair) and wearing a green dress shouted. "That giant head, those spindly limbs, that face bump!" She pointed to his nose, confusing him.

"It's a monster, that's what it is," an old red frog with graying hairs said. "Plain and simple."

"Think it might make for good eatin'?" asked a hook-handed and peg-legged frog wearing a white chef's hat and dirty white apron. Hearing this, Johan let out a muffled scream.

"Now, now," said Mayor Toadstool. "This is obviously a rare specimen. And every rare specimen deserves the proper respect and dignity."

Several minutes later...

"Come one, come all, take a gander at 'The Thing from a Flash of Light'!" a small green frog with parted hair and wearing a formal suit shouted in a bullhorn.

"Shout louder, Toadie," the mayor said. "This here's a real money maker we found!"

Yep. Things did get worse for Johan. He was placed in a cage in a cart that was being pulled by a snail as big as a small car. "I AM NOT A CARNIVAL SIDESHOW!" he wanted to shout it if weren't for the gag still lodged in his mouth. The frogs gawked and stared at him and little tadpoles threw rocks at him just to get a reaction out of him. This was a nightmare that he had to get out of.

He glanced at Toadie, who was driving the cart with Toadstool and spotted the key dangling from his belt. With his arms and legs bound, he had no choice and he knew they couldn't see his Stand anyway. He concentrated and an apparition appeared behind him. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, white with a golden ladybird beetle on its chest and it had a dark dome on its head so you couldn't see its face, save for a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

Okay, DARE, Johan thought. Just reach out and grab the key.

DARE reached out but before it could grab the key, a small child's voice rang out, "Watch out! It's a Stand User!"

Johan and DARE whipped their heads to the crowd and saw a small yellow frog girl wearing green farmer clothes and a patched green cap looking at him with shock. It was at that moment he realized two things. One, if she could see it, then that meant she was a Stand User as well. And two, Stands existed in this world as well.

"A Stand User?!" exclaimed the mayor. "Everyone stand back! No pun intended."

Screw it. DARE grabbed the key, unlocked the cage and freed Johan from his bonds. He burst out of the cage and jumped into the streets but before he could run, the sheriff stopped him. He pulled out his gun and said, "This is where I come in, then. Good Bad Ugly!" Three small humanoids with bullet-like heads appeared behind him.

"What in Sam Hill is that?" one of them asked in a western accent.

"Some monster," the sheriff said. "Nothin' we can't handle, right boys?"

"Hell, nah!" the three said.

The sheriff popped open his gun. "Let's do it." Good Bad Ugly hopped into the chambers and the sheriff pointed the gun at Johan. "Now, I was willin' to let ya go, sonny, but a Stand User in this town ain't worth the trouble."

"What have I done to deserve this?" Johan asked as DARE put his hand on his shoulder. "You kidnapped me and put me on a side show attraction! All I ever wanted was to figure out where I am and how I got here!"

"Well, since yer gonna die, might as well give you a Wartwood welcome. A welcome to the cemetery!" The sheriff fired his gun three times, but Johan dodged them.

"Nice try." When he saw the sheriff's smirk, he realized he was wrong. At that moment, he heard a whistling sound and turned around to see the three Stands making a sharp turn and fly right toward him. He tried to dodge, but one of them managed to hit DARE in the upper left arm. The damage on DARE reflected onto Johan and his leg began to bleed. "AUGH!" He fell to the ground and put a hand over the wound.

"There's no escaping, boy! Once Good Bad Ugly locks onto a target, it won't stop until all three hit ya!"

On cue, the remaining two bullets flew down at Johan, but DARE swatted them aside like they were bugs. The sheriff grunted as he felt the pain from the attack reflect back on him. Johan stood back up and charged at the sheriff. He could hear the remaining two stands flying straight toward him. He had one shot. He reared his fist back and yelled "MUDA!" before he punched the sheriff right in the gut.

Someone in the crowd just laughed. "Call that a punch?"

But the sheriff dropped to his knees and began panting heavily. "What in tarnation? There's no way that weak little punch could have done that!"

"That's the ability of DARE," explained Johan. "He can enhance and dull each of the five senses so long as he touches someone. For example, I was able to dodge your Good Bad Ugly because he enhanced my hearing. I could literally hear them coming a mile away. Right now, that pain you're feeling is the result of DARE enhancing your sense of touch, sending your pain receptors into overdrive."

"But that doesn't make sense! You didn't touch me!"

"I didn't. Luckily for me, your Stand did the job for me." The sheriff realized what happened. "See, I trained with a Stand User with abilities similar to yours, Sheriff. The trick is to get close enough to punch the hell out of 'em!"

DARE materialized and proceeded to rapidly punch the sheriff. "MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"

The sheriff landed on his back. Suddenly, a vine wrapped around DARE's neck and hoisted him up in the air. Johan felt his throat tighten and he struggled to breathe. He looked around and saw the yellow frog woman from before and then he saw her Stand. It had a vaguely female humanoid form with a pale body, green hands and feet and grass growing out of its head. "Did you think Sheriff Leatherleaf was the only Stand User round here?" she asked. "The Rose!" The stand threw small seeds into the ground, growing grass blades that shot out of the ground and flung at the boy.

Johan gasped and had DARE rip the vine off, freeing him. DARE then blocked the grass with his arms, resulting in him getting cut. This also resulted in Johan's arms getting cut as well. "Not good," he said.

"The Rose has power over all things vegetation," the frog woman said. "It's a pity you're in the middle of a swamp!" The Rose placed more seeds around Johan and cattails burst out from the ground and began slapping him all over, making him yelp.

"Stop! Ow! Stop it! Ow! Stronzo! Ouch! Arrabbiato!" Johan made a break for it, only to feel an extreme pain in his right foot. He fell to the ground and looked down at his bloody heel.

Sheriff Leatherleaf blew smoke out of his gun barrel as Ugly returned to him. "Like I said, boy. Yer not going anywhere. Nice distraction, Miss Sundew."

Miss Sundew chuckled. "Thank you, Sheriff."

Leatherleaf then let out a grunt and fell onto his knees. "Damn it. That kid sure doesn't pack a punch, but my pain receptors made me think he did. The shock alone probably woulda killed me."

Johan struggled to get back up. This isn't good. I'm backed into a corner by two Stand Users, one mid-range and the other long-range. I need a teammate for this sort of situation. O almeno un miracolo. At that moment someone screamed out loud as the ground began to shake. "I didn't expect one so soon."

The other frog people screamed and took off running into their houses. Johan saw the reason why. A giant scorpion as big as a one story house crawled toward out of the forest surrounding the village and snapped its claws at the trio. "Uh, whose Stand is that?"

"That's not a Stand," said the sheriff as Good Bad Ugly materialized behind him. "It's real!"

"Go," said Miss Sundew to Johan. "We'll take it from here."

"Uh, look," said Johan. "I know we started off on the wrong foot, but..."

"This is an amphibian problem, and you're not an amphibian! The Rose!" Miss Sundew's stand materialized and threw seeds into the ground. Vine creepers popped out and wrapped around the scorpion's tail and claws. Sheriff Leatherleaf summoned Good Bad Ugly and fired them at its legs, sending it to the ground.

"Wow," Johan said as the two Stands disappeared. "That was..." Leatherleaf pointed his gun at him. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, son, but you have to leave."

"I... What?"

"No, I'm afraid he's right," said the Mayor as he and the rest of Wartwood came out of hiding. Johan noticed that they were already relighting the torches and sharpening their pitchforks. "It's bad enough you're some ugly...thing. But a Stand User too?"

Johan wasn't really paying attention to what the Mayor was saying anymore. Instead, he was focusing on the fallen scorpion as it started to writhe around on the ground.

"Verily I say this to thee-"

"Mayor?"

"What?"

"Is that supposed to happen?" Johan pointed to the scorpion as something huge and white burst out of its back and let out a loud screech.

"Holy frog, it molted!" someone from the mob screamed.

"And it's angry!" another shouted.

"Run for your lives!"

"Well," Johan said as the scorpion headed toward him. "This is one way to start the day." DARE appeared behind him and was about to punch the scorpion when a loud scream caught his attention. The young frog girl from before was on the ground, pinned under a piece of the molted shell.

"IVY!" Miss Sundew screamed. "MY BABY!"

"MOM!"

Johan shook his head. "I'm not a frog, and I don't care. I won't stand by to watch a kid get hurt!"

To Be Continued...

Stand: DARE

User: Johan Shiobana

Power: B

Speed: A

Range: D

Durability: B

Precision: C

Potential: B

Ability: When touching a person, animal or Stand, DARE can either heighten or dull the five senses. For example, if it heightens the sense of touch, the pain receptors will be sent into overdrive and if it dulls the sense of sight, the victim will become blind. The dome helmet contains a secret ability.