It was another day in the world of Amphibia, and Anne, Johan and the kids were sitting together on Bessie as Hop Pop drove. Where he was taking them was a place the humans had never been to during their time in the valley. They were driving down a road in the middle of a vast grassy steppe with nothing but a few weeds and some cat tails, much different from the swamps and forests back on Earth. Johan looked to the left and saw the mountains. Even from where he was sitting, they were massive.

"Now, remember, gang," said Johan. "The mountain pass will clear up in one week. Meaning, it's almost time to leave this valley and find Anne and JoJo a way home."

Anne cheered. "Whoo! I love that!"

"Excitement!" shouted Sprig.

"Sights!" exclaimed Polly.

"And you know the best way to start a quest?" asked Hop Pop.

"Danger?" asked Sprig.

"Weapons?" asked Polly.

"Research!" exclaimed Hop Pop happily. Everyone groaned. "Oh, come on, gang. We'll never get Anne home if we get bitten to death by a venomous snake fly." A snake fly flew by. "Or eaten to death by a camouflaged sod skink." A sod skink popped out of the ground and ate the snake fly. "Or crushed to death by a sand liger." A sand liger appeared and dragged the sod skink away.

"Okay, okay, okay. Enough death already," shouted Anne. "Sheesh. I'm beginning to think you guys are obsessed."

"What did you expect, Anne," asked Johan. "This place is full of snakes and birds and killer plants and..."

"I SAID ENOUGH WITH DEATH!"

Bessie stepped in front of an old, small, stone building with a single wooden door. On top of it was a statue of a frog in a robe holding a book. Next to it stood a sign that read "The Historic Wartwood Town Archives".

"The town archives?" Sprig groaned with boredom. "This place is dustier than Dusty's dustbin." He slid out of his sit and fell to the ground.

"Who?" asked Polly.

"Come on. You know Dusty. Local dust merchant. Friendly, always smiling, sells dust."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Right."

"I get this place. It's like a library from my world," said Anne. "Zoobooks and manga, here I come!"

"For once, we are in agreement," said Johan.

"Enough chatter, you four," said Hop Pop as he opened the door. "Time to hit the books."

Anne and Johan hopped off Bessie and Anne picked Polly up. "Wait!" exclaimed Sprig. "Wouldn't we be better off preparing by diving headfirst into deadly situations?"

"Huh. Yeah. Maybe Sprig's right, Hop Pop. Research is overrated," said Anne.

"Overrated, eh?" asked Hop Pop. "How's diving into adventure been working out so far?"

"You want to know what happened all the times you dove headfirst?" Johan asked as he counted with his fingers. "Almost roasted by a fire-breathing star-nosed mole, fell down a steep hill while riding Bessie, and then shat upon by a giant skunk!"

Anne, Sprig, Hop Pop and Polly shuddered at that last one. "I can still smell that skunk juice," said Polly.

"Yeah. Fair enough," said Anne. "Research it is."

"What?" exclaimed Sprig. "You're siding with Hop Pop?"

"As a matter of fact, we are," said Johan. "Face it, kid, there are unknown dangers beyond the mountains and it'll probably be even worse than snakes, birds and bigger bugs. Not to mention, we might run into dangerous Stand users along the way."

"He's right," said Anne. "Who knows what we'll run into out there?" She turned to enter into the archive. However, she didn't duck her head low enough and ended up banging her head on the low door. "Ow." Johan chuckled as he followed after her. Sprig groaned in annoyance before following them in.

Down they all went into the dark underground spiral stairwell, walking past stone walls that were covered in glowing fungi. They then came across a golden metal doorway with a door that looked like it belonged to a vault. Walking through it, Anne and Johan whistled in amazement by what they saw. It was a giant library with two floors lined with shelves full of books, ranging from weapons to dangerous animals, to history and plants. There are also chairs and tables for any visitors to use when reading and researching. On the ceiling was a skylight with a crystal attached to it. It was shining sunlight on a lens above the door they just walked in.

Sprig was still suffering from boredom as he said, "The archives."

"This place seems pretty cool to me," said Johan. "It's even bigger than the library back in dad's villa."

"Sure, it seems cool, until you realize all you do here is read other people's cool adventures."

"Okay, enough prattle," Hop Pop said, putting a stop to Sprig's complaining. "We gotta get a move on before we're locked in here."

When Anne heard that, she asked nervously, "Uh...what?"

Hop Pop pointed to the crystal shining the beam of sunlight on the lens above the door. "The door to this place is set on a sunlight timer. It opens when the sun rises and deadlocks when the sun sets."

"That is some steampunk-y nonsense right there."

"So, we'll be stuck in here all night," said Johan. "Buono a sapersi."

Walking up to a fireplace, the group saw a painting of an old frog, the same one that matched the statue outside. On the mantel was a metal plaque under it, which read, "Mycroft Newtback, archives founder. This structure, originally Newtback's home, was turned into the public archives after he died violently attempting to travel beyond the valley." A shiver ran down everyone's spine when Anne read that.

"Okaaay, let's split up and hit the books," said Johan. Everyone agreed and went off to different sections of the library.

Hop Pop came across a book titled "Only Nature Facts". "Fair. Well, now. Hold on." The two books that caught his attention were titled "Older Than The Old Ways, Volumes 1 and 2". "Now this I gotta read." He took them off the shelf and looked for a place to read.

Polly came across the "History of Weapons, A - X" section of the library. "Hot mama."

Johan was sitting comfortably in a chair, reading a book about Stands. "'During the second dynasty of the Leviathan family, a meteor crashed into a village in the north. A group of scientists hired by the king of Newtopia studied the meteor, only for them along with the villagers to succumb to an illness not found in the medical record. Despite extensive research, the scientists were unable to determine the alien virus' purpose outside the total elimination of amphibian life. Akin to the theory of evolution, it was discovered that certain people possessed a quality that would enable them to survive when exposed to the virus, as well as grant them supernatural abilities, known as Stands.'"

Johan paused in his reading. "Hmm. That sounds just like what happened on Earth." He went back to reading, "'Unfortunately, before anymore experiments could be conducted, the second king of Newtopia declared the research to be too dangerous, so the meteor was taken into the castle to be destroyed. Those involved in the project mysteriously disappeared. Despite this, the first generation of Stand users were born across Amphibia, a result of those exposed to the meteor passing on their genes to the next generations.'" He resumed reading the book, which contained information of every Stand user on record at the time.

He suddenly felt a presence. He turned to his left to see Sprig grinning at him. "What do you want?"

"Wouldn't you rather fight these Stand users instead of reading about them?"

"Sprig, go read a book to cure yourself of your terminal case of boredom."

"Oh, come on, JoJo!"

"MUDA!"

POW!

Sprig was sent flying into a bookshelf. "Mmm..." he whined as he slunk off.

Anne sat in a chair, reading a book about the local flora and fauna of Amphibia. She cringed when she saw a diagram of a frog getting his eye bitten by a mutant Venus flytrap. Sprig made a hand puppet and placed it on her book. "Hi, Anne. What ya doing?" he asked in a weird voice.

Anne pushed him away. "Get out of here, man."

"Oh, come on." There was a moment's silence. Then Sprig poked his head out from behind the chair. "Anne."

Anne was starting to lose her patience. "Yeah, Sprig?"

"Wouldn't it be better if we found some plants to fight?"

"Nope." She shoved a book titled "Snakes That Eat You" in his arms. "Here, see if you can find a way to survive a tiger viper attack."

Sprig threw the book into a wall and groaned in boredom. "Stupid books. Stupid learning. Don't they want a real adventure?" It was then he saw the door mechanism and he got an idea.

Hours passed. Johan had fallen asleep with a stack of books next to him. Anne shook him awake. "JoJo."

He awoke with a snort and muttered, "Anna?"

"It's Anne, remember?"

He got up and stretched. "Anna means Anne in Italian." He yawned and asked, "What time is it?"

"Lunch time," said Hop Pop. "We were in here for a long time."

"I learned so much about your terrifying world," said Anne.

"Did you guys know that there are 60 weapons in the Morningstar family?" asked Polly.

They were about to leave when they saw a problem. "The door's shut," Hop Pop said with a gasp. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He saw the problem. "The lens is missing!"

"What? Who would trap us in here?"

"Ahem." Everyone turned to see Sprig doing a dramatic pose under a mushroom lamp. "Maybe somebody is trying to prepare us by forcing us to dive in." He paused, then said, "Me! I did it."

When he said that, everyone got cross with him. "Dude, have you lost your frog marbles?" shouted Anne. "Put that piece back!"

"Guys, reading these moldy, old books ain't gonna prepare us for squat. What we need is a daring escape from an old, underground library!"

Suddenly, Johan summoned DARE, who proceeded to punch Sprig square in the groin. "MUDA!"

Sprig screamed in agony as his sense of touch and his pain receptor had skyrocketed thanks to DARE's effect. "Why..." he wheezed.

"Because I am not going to be stuck in here all because a stupid, impatient, bored-out-of-his-mind tadpole can't find the time and patience to read! Now give me the lens or I'll rip your legs off and eat them!" Sprig cringed in fear.

"Dude," said Anne, a little freaked out. "Overkill much?"

"What?" asked Johan, shrugging his shoulders. "I wasn't really gonna do it. I just wanted to scare him."

"JoJo's unnecessary threats aside," said Hop Pop. "We really have to go, Sprig. Now put the lens back!"

"Fine. Party poopers." Sprig searched his pockets, but couldn't seem to find it. "Uh, mmm. I know I have it, somewhere." He took a step forward and...

Crack!

Praying to the Olms that it wasn't what he thought it was, Sprig lifted up his foot to reveal that he accidentally stepped on the lens.

"Oh, that's not good," said Polly.

"SPRIG!" Anne and Johan shouted.

"Uh, maybe I can fix it." He gathered all the pieces and put them back together. "Aha! Good as new!" And then he sneezed, causing the shards to fly out of his hand, never to be seen again.

Johan's eye twitched then he grabbed Sprig by the throat. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU SPRIG!"

"No, stop," said Anne. "Don't kill him!"

"Why?"

"BECAUSE I WANT FIRST CRACK AT HIM!"

"GET IN LINE, SISTER," shouted Polly.

"ENOUGH!" shouted Hop Pop, breaking everybody up. "Killing each other ain't fixing any of this."

"So, what do we do?" asked Anne.

"Well, we wait for someone to visit the archives."

"Oh, okay. Well, when was the last time someone came down here?"

Hop Pop took a sheet of paper from his pocket. "Well, I checked the logs, and it says...three years ago."

There was a moment's silence. Then Johan asked, "Nobody knows we're here, do they?" His response was more silence. "We're all gonna die down here."

"Enough of this negativity!" shouted Sprig. He hopped onto a chair and said, "Come on, guys. This is our call to frog-venture right here. Did you forget who we are? This gang has been through a lot. And we're gonna make it through this too! I mean, we better. 'Cause if we don't, we'll be trapped here for weeks. No food, no water. Until they find our dehydrated, mummified bodies clawing at the door." Anne, Hop Pop, Polly and Johan cringed. "Yeah, I probably could have ended that speech earlier."

"Are you kidding me?!" snapped Johan. "We're in this mess because of you! And I guarantee you'll be the first to be eaten when hunger and desperation turns us all into cannibals!"

"Enough!" shouted Anne. "Let's just find a way out."

"Can't you guys use your Ripple to bust out of here?" asked Johan.

"No," said Hop Pop. "Using Ripple in this closed a space will cause the whole roof to collapse on our heads!"

Hearing this, Anne looked up at the skylight. "That's it! I bet we can get out through the skylight! And I know how to get up. Stand back." She walked into the center of the room, looked up at the skylight and inhaled, charging her Ripple. She leaned down then jumped high into the air. Unfortunately, her plan hit a snag when her body got stuck halfway in the skylight. "Oh, yeah. No. Definitely can't fit through."

She turned to her left to see Bessie. "Hey, I see Bessie. Bessie! Bessie, hey girl!" The snail stopped chasing butterflies and looked at her. "Bessie, get help! Get help! Come on, girl!" The snail ignored her and chased after another butterfly. "No! No. No, Bessie. Get- No! Oh, come on. Never mind. Good news, guys. I can see the road from here. One of you can go for help!"

Down below, the frogs cheered. "See guys? How do you feel about diving in now?"

"Sprig, you don't get the right to speak," said Johan.

Suddenly, Anne said, "Um, guys?" She tried to get out, but she couldn't. "I'm stuck!"

"Hold on," said Johan. He grabbed Sprig and threw him up to Anne's legs. The young frog tried to pull her down, but she let out a scream of pain. "OW! Stop! You're gonna rip me in half!"

"Sorry!" Sprig let go and landed on his feet.

"So, we're all stuck here," said Johan. "And Anne's stuck up there, blocking our only way out. Oh, yeah. We are all gonna die."

Just when Anne thought it couldn't get any worse, she heard a chittering sound. "What's that sound?"

"Uh, it's cicadas coming out to graze," said Sprig. "Which is totally fine. If you just stay super quiet, they should go away."

"Oh, cicadas, like little cute cicadas? Or like-" She looked to her right and saw a cicada as big as a cow eating a bush. "Oh, my God! That's huge!" She soon found herself surrounded by a whole swarm of them. "No!"

"Too late," said Sprig.

"I'm not food! I'm not food! I'm not food!" Anne screamed. The cicadas took one look at her and mistook her hair for another bush and began crawling toward her. "Get me the heck out of here!"

Johan let out a scream. "Is this it?! Is this how my bizarre adventure ends?! Stuck in a dingy old library with no way home?!"

Hearing that, Sprig got another idea. A smart one. "That's it! This building used to be someone's home, which means, there was a bathroom!"

Johan was flabbergasted. "How can you think to go to the crapper at this time?!"

"No, don't you see? There was a bathroom. That also means there were pipes!" Sprig ran and grabbed a set of blueprints for the archive. "Here it is!"

"And look here," said Hop Pop. "This is where the bathroom used to be, behind that bookcase. We just need to break it down!"

"Allow me," said Polly. "Ripple Cutter!" She spat a Ripple-powered ball of spit and destroyed the bookcase next to the fireplace. "WAR CRY!"

"Yes," exclaimed Johan. "Hold on Anne, we're coming for you!"

"HOLD ON?! WHERE AM I GOING TO GO?!" screamed Anne as the cicadas began chewing on her hair. "GET ME OUT NOW!"

Sprig jumped into a pipe and crawled through it.

Meanwhile in the Tea Shoppe, business was going great for Felicia. Speaking of business, she had to do some business of her own, she went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. But then, all of a sudden, she let out a terrified scream and ran out. Sprig chanted, "Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" as he ran out the the tea shoppe.

Back with Anne, she groaned in agony as the cicadas tried pulling at her hair. "Yahoo!" All of a sudden, Sprig came flying out of nowhere and tackled one of the cicadas off Anne. He climbed on top of it and waved at the human. "Help has arrived!"

"Sprig? Wait. How did you get out?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." He kicked the cicada he was on, making it charge into the other cicadas and sent them flying away. "Whoo-hoo! See you later, cicadas!" He blew a raspberry at them.

"Thanks, Sprig. That was a close one," said Anne.

"I'm just glad you're okay."

"Yeah, so am I," said Polly as she arrived with Hop Pop.

"Me too."

Anne looked at them and asked, "Why are you two wet?"

"We couldn't wait," said Polly. "So we took the pipes too."

"I've seen things," Hop Pop said with horror.

"Where's JoJo?" asked Anne.

"I couldn't fit in the pipe," Johan called out. "I'm still down here!"

The frogs let Anne and Johan out and Sprig made a proud smile. "So we did it! We dove into another adventure and escaped! I told you it would work."

"We didn't dive in, you idiot," shouted Johan. "You pushed us in! We almost died because you have the attention span of a cockroach!"

"You're going overboard again," said Anne.

"Yeah, but-" Anne pinched Sprig's mouth shut before he could finish his sentence. "No, Sprig. Listen," she said seriously. "This trip out of the valley, it's more than just another adventure. It's JoJo and I's chance to get home. I can't mess this up. So if that means doing a few things I don't like to help us get ready, well, then..."

She let go of Sprig's mouth and he nodded. "Then that's what we'll do, together."

Johan smiled. "Hey, I'm sorry I called you stupid. You're actually pretty smart when you put your brain to it."

"Group hug!" shouted Sprig as he hugged Anne and Johan.

However, at that moment, the ground underneath Anne, Sprig and Johan caved in and they fell into the archives screaming. Hop Pop and Polly looked down and watched them fall onto the floor.

"We're okay! We landed on JoJo!" Anne called out.

"MY LEGS!"

To Be Continued...