Word soon spread of Johan's declaration of war on Blue Oyster Cult and needless to say, the people were split. Some thought he was brave but foolish, others thought he was stupid, while others just thought of themselves and how they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire. For Johan, this was part of starting La Passione della Rana. His father taught him that when starting an operation, you have to learn when it was time to build, when it was time to watch, and when it was time to act. Just going out guns blazing would be suicide and get your partner and innocent people caught in the crossfire.

As for progress about Blue Oyster Cult, Ram Bamboo hadn't cracked under the pressure of community service. It seemed that collecting spider eggs was nothing compared to whatever the gang did to her. To be honest, it was starting to make him a bit apprehensive. So, to pass the time, he helped around Felicia's Tea Shoppe with Ivy, listening to his music playlist and watching Suspicion Island on his phone. Anne got him hooked on the show when he first came to America and even though it was a bit random for his taste, there was a sort of mind-numbing enjoyment to it.

Then, on the fourth day, a breakthrough. Sheriff Leatherleaf came into the tea shoppe during tea time and called out, "JoJo."

"Oop. I gotta take this. Enjoy your dung beetle crumpets, Mrs. Croaker," he said to the old frog who just nodded her head.

Oh, yeah. There was the issue with food. Since these frogs lived on an all bug diet, Johan quickly had to learn how to eat without vomiting when he realized his food was still moving.

"What do you want, Sheriff?" asked Johan as he met him outside.

"It's Ram Bamboo. She's ready to talk," he said. "But only to you."

"Why just me?"

"Don't know. Wouldn't say."

"I'll be right outside if she gives you trouble," said Leatherleaf as he led Johan to the interrogation room.

"Thanks." Johan entered the room and found Ram Bamboo sitting in a chair, covered in spider bites. He pulled up another chair and sat in front of the frog girl. "So, how are you?"

"Why did you spare me," she asked, looking down at the floor. "I stole all that stuff."

"I thought you deserved a second chance. My father told me that people like you, the desolate, alone, no-where-to-go kind, they deserve a second chance in life, a chance of redemption."

"Your father sounds like a nice man."

"He is when he isn't running Passione. But, that's a story for another time. Tell me, why did you want to call me?"

"I feel like you're the only person I can share this information with, Johan Shiobana." She suddenly began to gag and cough.

He did not like where this was going. "Are you... Oh, God, please tell me you're not gonna..."

"BLEUGH!"

"Oh! That's disgusting! Do it in a doggy bag at least!" Then he saw what was in the pile of half digested bugs: a small leather bag. "What's that?"

"Open it."

"Mmmm," Johan whined. He reluctantly picked the bag up and opened it. Inside were a bunch small, round blue balls. "Are these pearls?"

"Not really, though you are spot on the nose. Kind of," Ram Bamboo said. "It's called Blue Pearl. It's Blue Oyster Cult's number one product."

"Product?" Johan picked up one of the pearls. "Wait, are these...drugs?" He recalled what his father told him about the one of the reasons why Buccellati defected against the previous boss of Passione, he sold drugs to children. "Wait, if this is their number one product, why are you stealing for them?"

"It's just a side project. Anyway, the reason why your precious tea is so hard to come by is because Blue Oyster Cult uses it as one of the ingredients to make these pearls. They sell this stuff by the pound all over Amphibia from here to Newtopia. You want to take out BOC, you need to destroy the farm where they produce their product."

"So, where is the farm?"

"I don't know. They kept me out of the loop on purpose to not get me mixed up with their stuff. They didn't tell me any..." Then her eyes widened. "Oh frog, I'm an idiot. I totally forgot about him."

"What?"

"One of BOC's salesmen is a street musician named Dendrobatidae. He makes a living writing songs and playing at shows, but his side business is selling Blue Pearls to people who win backstage passes. He mentioned that the farm is near a swamp, near Toad Tower."

Johan held up a map. "Mark the location. And if I find out you're lying, spider bites are going to be the least of your worries."

"Would I lie about this?"

Johan got up to her and pressed his fingers on her wrist. "You know, when a person lies, their body changes. They start to perspire and their pulse increases. It's like a form of panic. And since frogs don't sweat...yes, your pulse is steady." He stood up. "Just making sure."

"Johan Shiobana?" Johan stopped halfway through the door and looked over his shoulder. "Thanks. And...I'd like to hear your father's story."

"Any time."

"Dendrobatidae?" asked Felicia when Johan and Leatherleaf returned to the Tea Shoppe. "I used to have a poster of him hanging on my wall when I was younger. To think he's involved in BOC's drug trade."

"No surprise, really. That's the life of a musician," said Johan. "Drugs, alcohol and sex."

"So, what are we going to do about the farm?" asked Leatherleaf. "The toads are in charge of the taxes here in Wartwood and are buddies with the mayor. If they find out a bunch of frogs are invading their turf, they might do something...unpleasant."

Johan thought it over then he recalled, "Didn't Ram Bamboo have a bunch of toad armor with her in that stash of hers?"

"Yeah..." Then Leatherleaf immediately realized what he was planning. "Oh, no! No, no, no, no!"

"It's not that hard," Johan insisted. "If we make it look like a bunch of toads bombarded BOC's farm after one too many grogs, BOC won't think to turn in our direction. Now all we need is some boom. Felicia, that's where you come in. We need The Rose to grow us some boom shrooms. Lots and lots of boom shrooms."

"That'll take a lot of energy out of me. Why don't we just buy as many as we can while I grow the rest?"

Johan thought it over. "Well, I guess Hopediah won't mind if we borrow a couple hundred coppers... Or two hundred. Now all we have to do is fly over the farm. If only we had a helicopter."

"What's a helicopter?" asked Leatherleaf.

"It's a flying machine, to put it in layman's terms."

Leatherleaf just laughed. "A flying machine. Imagine that!"

Johan stared out the window. "What to do..." Just then a swam of dragonflies flew by, one of them carrying a screaming frog in its mouth. Johan's eyes lit up and a wide smile slowly formed on his face. "I know what we need."

"This is insane, JoJo!" Leatherleaf screamed as he, Johan and Felicia rode on the backs of dragonflies across the sky toward the farm.

"But it is working," Johan laughed. "Hi yo, Silverfish! Away!" Imagine the surprise on BOC's faces when they saw three toads riding on the backs of dragonflies dive bombing toward them...and then dropping bombs on their farm. "We're about to meet some resistance, Sheriff. Think you can cover us?"

"Well, I'll try," he said as Good Bad Ugly appeared. "I need to get a bit closer!"

"Don't worry, I'll cover you," said Felicia as The Rose appeared and guarded him with tree branches as thick as iron, blocking BOC's barrage of bullets. Meanwhile, Johan dropped more boom shrooms on the farm. "Hey, JoJo! Keep the emperor's jade oolong crops in tact if you can! I want to use those in the Tea Shoppe!"

"I'll try not to, but considering tea leaves are flammable, don't get your expectations high," Johan said as he flew down and dropped another boom shroom on another piece of equipment. "Looks like business is booming, literally!" Something hit him in the face. "Ow! Did The Rose just slap me?!"

"Yes, because that was just awful," deadpanned Felicia.

"Hey, I like to hear YOU make a good pun under pressure!"

A few more explosions later, the trio managed to destroy all the equipment. Then Leatherleaf saw a few BOC trying to flee into their snail-driven wagons. "Don't let them escape! They'll alert their bosses!"

"I know," said Johan as he flew over their vehicles and dropped the last three boom shrooms on them, resulting in three separate tremendous explosions. "Told you it would work out in the end," as the tree of them flew back toward Wartwood.

"You know they're going to retaliate, right?" asked Felicia.

"Not if we kill their leader."

"Which we know nothing about," pointed out Leatherleaf.

"What about that musician guy Ram Bamboo talked about? Dend...something, something?"

"Dendrobatidae. And who knows where he is? He's a high profile musician and song writer it's not like he's going to show up at our doorstep."

Johan paused for thought. "You may be right. This may take a while."

Sasha watched as her Stand Slash used its sword to pick at the locks of her cuffs and the door. She was just about to escape when a green slimy hand came around the corner and pinned her to the wall. "Hello, Grime," she deadpanned.

Grime, a large toad who was blind in one eye and wearing bronze armor, sneered at her as his Stand pinned her down. "Trying to escape again, Sasha? What is this, the fortieth time?"

"Forty-one."

"You're not getting away, girl. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"And how many times do I have to tell you, you won't keep me here forever? I will make my escape."

Grime just laughed. "I doubt it."

Just then, a young toad wearing the same bronze armor as Grime entered the prison cell. "Uh, Captain?"

"What do you want, Percy?" demanded Grime.

"You got a visiter."

"Tell them to kiss off. I'm busy."

"This really can't wait," said Samandarin as he came in with Bufo who kicked Percy in the gut and sent him flying into a wall.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Grime. "Get out of my tower!"

"We will, as soon as we inflict some punishment on you."

"Punishment?"

"It seems your soldiers thought it was a good idea to raze my farm to the ground."

Grime growled, "What are you talking about?"

Smandarin replied, unintimidated whatsoever, "You heard me. What's left of my men saw three of your soldiers flying on dragonflies dropping boom shrooms on the farm."

"Dragonflies? You know very well that we don't have any of those."

"I know."

"Y-You know? Then why the heck are you here?"

Bufo grabbed Grime by the throat and slammed him into a wall. "Because this happened under your watch, Captain." Suddenly, he heard something sizzling. He craned his head slightly to see Grime's Stand grabbing onto his arm, causing steam to emanate from it. The Stand resembled a squat green toad with steaming slime oozing off of it. Bufo smirked as he drew his hand back and looked at the burn marks on his arm. "You summoned Toxic Avenger already? Did I strike a nerve?"

"Grrrrr..."

"Bufo, be civil," Samandarin chided. "Grime, I'll need a list of Stand Users in Wartwood. I assume that fat mayor gave you one?"

"Why would you need it?"

"Because the ones who destroyed my farm had Stands and I know for a fact that you're the only toad here who's a Stand User." A scratching sound made Samandarin look over Grime's shoulder and at the cell, but the armored toad held up the list before he could get a good look. He took the list and read it over. "I see. Looks like we now know who's watching over Ram Bamboo. Dendrobatidae..." The musician looked up from the book he was reading. "...go get me Ram Bamboo and kill anyone who tries to stop you. And if you fail me, Bufo will eat you alive. Does this sound fair?"

"Uh..."

"Excellent. Let's be on our way." Samandarin paused.

Dendrobatidae could only weep as he was led out by the two BOC leaders. Percy poked his head out from the barrel he was hiding in and asked, "Are they gone? They scare me."

Grime let out an exhale of relief. Sasha crawled out from the bench and asked, "Who were those guys?"

"Blue Oyster Cult," responded Grime. "A ruthless gang of blue pearl runners. Trust me when I say this Sasha, if you can't beat me, you sure as muck can't beat their boss."

Sasha made a scoff. "Sounds like they're Wartwood's problem now, wherever that is."

"Yeah. Pray for them."

Ram Bamboo stepped out of the interrogation room and walked out of the sheriff's office. "SNEAK ATTACK!" Ram Bamboo let out a scream of surprise when someone tackled her. "Hi."

Ram Bamboo craned her head back to see Ivy sitting on top of her. "Oh. You're Johan Shiobana's friend."

"JoJo?" asked Ivy as she got off the older frog girl. "Yep. Whacha doin'?"

"I had to get out of that office. It's so stuffy in there and boring."

"Wait, how did you get out?" Green Onions appeared behind Ram Bamboo. "Oh. That's obvious."

"What are you doing?" Ram Bamboo asked.

"Just making sure you're not getting in trouble again," Ivy said with her hands on her hips. "Can't have you going around stealing everyone's stuff."

"It's fine," Ram Bamboo said, looking down. "I'm done with that."

"Oh. Well, do you wanna... you know... hang out?"

"You sure about that? I mean, I've been getting suspicious glares from the folks around here. Can't say I blame them. I stole their possessions and left them on the side of roads stark naked."

"Ah, everyone gives new people suspicious glares all the time. We have a motto. 'Slow to accept, even slower to respect.' It's actually our motto."

"That is rather...disturbing. So, what exactly do you do around here for fun?"

Ivy smiled. "Let me show you."

Ivy and Ram Bamboo climbed up a tree, looking down at a frilled lizard. Using Invisible Touch, Ivy hid herself and jumped onto its back. It bucked and kicked around like an angry bull, trying to kick off what was on it, but it couldn't see.

The girls snickered as they watched Wally play an accordion and singing one of his songs, then Ram Bamboo used Green Onions to create the smell of skunk. Wally took one sniff and took off running screaming like a madman, "Grandma has returned from the grave!"

Sprig was having a burping contest with Polly when he suddenly felt a presence. "Sprig? It's your turn, you know," said Polly.

"I feel danger coming."

"SNEAK ATTACK!" Sprig let out a yell when he felt two pair of hands grab him and pin him to the ground. "IVY!" Ivy laughed as Invisible Touch undid the invisibility on her and Ram Bamboo.

"You were right, Ivy! He is an easy target!"

"Ram Bamboo," exclaimed Polly. "She's at it again!"

Ram Bamboo held her hands up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Polly! Put down that flail!"

"Ivy, what are you doing with her?" asked Sprig.

"It's fine," Ivy insisted. "She's actually quite fun when you get to know her."

"Really? And what's your idea of fun?"

Ram Bamboo saw the bottles of seltzer and had a good idea what Sprig and Polly were doing. "Gimme that," she said, snatching a bottle of seltzer out of Sprig's hand and gulping the whole thing down. Then she let in a big inhale and let out the loudest burp possible, sending out a shockwave that shook the whole town. At that moment, Hop Pop burst out of the house. "Earthquake! Earth-" He stopped when he saw Ram Bamboo. "What are you doing here?"

"Burping contest," she said in a matter of fact tone.

"It's alright, Mr. Plantar," assured Ivy. "She's been with me all day."

"She's a burping champion!" cheered Polly. She jumped into Ram Bamboo's arms and said, "Tonight, I teach you how to spit!"

"Aw, isn't this touching?" Everyone turned to see Dendrobatidae.

"Hey, don't I own one of your albums?" asked Hop Pop.

"Nice to see a fan." The frog turned her attention to the yellow frog girl. "Now, why don't you give us back the money you owe us, Ram Bamboo and come back home."

"Home? You mean that cave under the tree trunk that I had to make on my own? Forget it, get yourself another bag girl, I'm done working with you and Blue Oyster Cult! You kidnapped me and forced me to do your work for you when you found out I had a Stand!"

"Wait, that guy's with Blue Oyster Cult?!" exclaimed Hop Pop. "Kids, get in the house!"

"Very nice advice," Dendrobatidae said. "Now, don't let this get harder than it already is..."

POW! Ivy socked Dendrobatidae in the face. "She said she's not going anywhere!"

The musician got back up and growled. "Okay, have it your way," he said as he started to glow and what looked like an old fashioned record player appeared next to him.

Ram Bamboo, the only one who could see it, widened her eyes widened and shouted, "Cover your ears! Don't listen to the music!"

"Insane Membrane, put the needle on the record!" The record started to play and everyone fell under its spell.

"Ivy? Ivy. IVY!" Ivy awoke with a start and saw Johan and her mother standing over her.

"JoJo? Wha..."

"Why don't you tell me?" he asked. "Felicia and I were looking all over for you, only to find Ram Bamboo missing and you and the Plantars lying on the ground."

"I knew she was trouble," Felicia said.

"No, it wasn't her fault," Ivy insisted. "She didn't run away, she was kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped, by who?"

"Some frog wearing a wool cap!"

"A frog in a wool cap? Wait, Dendrobatidae?" questioned Felicia.

"Yeah! He's a Stand User!"

"No surprise there."

Johan narrowed his eyes. "We're going after him."

"How?" asked Felicia. "We don't know where he could have taken her!"

"Well..." Johan pointed to a set of footprints in the dirt. "There's that."

"Oh, shoot, well that's convenient."

To be continued...

Stand: Insane Membrane

User: Dendrobatidae

Power: E

Speed: D

Range: A

Durability: C

Precision: A

Potential: D

Ability: Casts different illusions for every different genre of music. For example, psychedelic music creates hallucinogenic effects, rock music amplifies anger and classical put people to sleep.