It was break time at the Tea Shoppe. Johan, Ivy, Felicia and Sylvia gathered in the break room to watch one of Johan's movies on his phone. The one they were watching now was "The Hobbit".

"So they don't really have dwarves, elves and dragons on Earth?" asked Felicia.

"No," said Johan.

"Oh, thank Olms."

"But there were vampires, though."

Ivy jumped onto his lap and said, "Really?" Then she asked, "Wait. How do I know you're not pulling my leg?"

"Nope. They did existed. They're all dead now, though."

"How convenient. Where's your proof?"

Johan reached into his wallet and showed the photos inside. He pointed to the one of DIO Brando. "My grandfather was a vampire."

"Wait, does this mean YOU'RE a vampire?!"

"No, no, no! Vampires aren't born naturally! They have to be made. Take Dio for instance. Originally a scornful child of a petty thief in Victoria Era England, after poisoning his own father, he was adopted by George Joestar and made it his goal to utterly ruin George's son Jonathan's life in order to become the estate's sole inheritor. When that plan failed, Dio found a way to become a vampire and planned to take over the world for himself; however, a daring battle with Jonathan ended with him left as disembodied head. Sometime later, Dio made his return on a passenger ship when he turned most of the passengers into monsters and announced he would take Jonathan's body for his own and managed to deliver a fatal blow to his foe, though Jonathan used the last of his strength to ensure Dio would not be able to escape as the ship exploded and sunk to the bottom of the sea."

"What happened next?" asked Ivy.

"In turns out, DIO kept his promise on replacing Jonathan's head with his own. A hundred years later, he rose up from the depths of the sea in order to resume his goal. He was killed by my cousin Jotaro Kujo before he could resume his evil ways...but not before he conceived my father."

Felicia stared at the picture for a while before she said, "Wait. Wouldn't that make you Jonathan's grandson? It was DIO's head on Jonathan's body."

Johan shrugged his shoulders. "Eh. Kinda bit of both." He put the photo away.

"I still think it's a bunch of BS," said Ivy.

"Ivy, language!"

"What? He expects me to believe all that? At least Stands can be explained but vampires?"

Johan chuckled. "Sasha said the exact same thing when I told her, Anne and Marcy that story. She laughed right in my face and said unless I had real proof, my story had no legs to stand on."

"So, where is the proof?" asked Ivy. "How did DIO become a vampire?"

Before he could answer, he heard an alarm go off outside. "What's that?"

It looked like everyone in Wartwood was in the town's square. Johan found Anne and asked, "What's going on?"

"Heck if I know. Sprig started shouting something about impending doom and started doing...that." She pointed to Sprig, who was making a "Whoop-whoop-whoop!" sound.

Finally he stopped and said, "Everyone! Listen up! Today is the third morning in a row! Where the temperature dipped below the frog line!" He held up a thermometer to show the temperature dropping. "Which means... Hiber Day is almost upon us!"

"Hiber Day?" asked Anne.

"Once a year, the temperature drops so low, that it sends everyone into instant hibernation!" explained Hop Pop. "And when we thaw, we feel refreshed, rejuvenated, virile!"

"Hey, that's pretty cool."

"Well, it's not. Every year, one townsperson disappears, never to be seen again."

"I knew there was some death thing bound to happen," said Johan.

"This is serious, JoJo," said Felicia. "Look around you."

Anne and Johan looked around to see loved ones hugging each other and saying goodbye. Or rather "possible goodbye". Even Ram Bamboo and Joan Jett were seen hugging each other. Johan and Anne stared at the sad and frightened faces of the people until they felt someone hugging them. Johan looked down and saw Ivy hugging him. "Possible goodbye, JoJo."

"Possible goodbye, JoJo," Felicia and Sylvia said as they hugged him.

"Possible goodbye, Anne," the Plantars said as they hugged Anne.

Something snapped in Johan's mind. "BASTA!"

"Uh, you have to say possible goodbye, JoJo," said Sylvia. "It's tradition."

"No one is dying under my watch! In case you've forgotten, you have two warm-blooded creatures! Me and Anne!"

"That's gross, JoJo," said Ivy.

"It means we won't freeze," said Anne. "We can be your protector!" She placed her foot by the town founder's statue and proclaimed heroically, "And under our watch, no one will disappear again!" She raised her hand dramatically...and accidentally slammed it on the statue. "Ow."

"What she said," said Johan.

Everyone cheered and chanted, "JoAnne! JoAnne! JoAnne! JoAnne!"

"JoAnne?" asked Anne.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one who told them that," said Johan.

Sprig placed Polly on her head and said, "Wow! You've gone from town beasts to town protectors. Big fan of that narrative."

"Ditto," said Ivy. "I mean, you always were the boss, JoJo, but now people trust you!"

"Hey, how come YOU get to be the boss," asked Anne.

"Not important," said Johan.

"All right. Hiber Day isn't till tomorrow," said Hop Pop. "So, everybody meet back here tonight. Then Anne and JoJo can guard all of us."

"We're gonna live!" exclaimed Wally.

"Thank goodness Anne and JoJo are here," said Ivy.

"I'm gonna burn my will," said a female villager.

As the villagers headed home, Hop Pop and Felicia talked with Anne and JoJo respectively. "Anne, are you sure about this? Looking after the whole town's a lot of responsibility."

"Yeah, JoJo. I mean, two people taking care of an entire town might be too much."

"Are you kidding? I've totally got this. I feel like my time here has all been leading up to this moment. It's like fate and karma combined into one. Like kate or fartma.

"Please don't say those again, Anne," said Johan. "That was terrible."

"And I agree. But anyway, all my senses feel heightened. It's like the whole world has slowed down, and I'm totally aware of everything all around me. You ever feel like that, guys?" She was met with no response. "Guys?"

"Uh, Anne?" Everyone was already frozen in blocks of ice.

"This can't be good."

Literally a second later, the whole town was blanketed in snow. "Looks like Hiber Day came early this year," said Johan.

"This is bad! Everybody is all over the place by now. How am I gonna get them back to-?" She lifted Sprig's ice block with surprising ease. "Oh. Oh, wow. This is very light."

"Either that, or you're stronger than you think," said Johan as he picked up Ivy's ice block.

It didn't take long for Anne and Johan, both now garbed in winter clothing, to gather everyone up in one big pile. "Okay, I just did a head count. Everyone's here," said Johan.

"Heh, that was surprisingly easy," said Anne. Then she did a dab pose. "Town protector. Yea-yuh!"

"Don't do that again."

Anne ignored him. "And now all I have to do is watch 'em." She and Johan sat down on a log and watched. And watched. And watched. And watched.

"Are you getting bored too?" asked Johan.

"Yep. And a bored protector is a bad protector."

"Well, there's not much we can do."

"JoJo, we literally have the whole town to ourselves," Anne said with a sly grin. "Why don't we have some fun?"

"I don't know."

"Come on! They're all asleep anyway. What they don't know won't hurt them."

Johan looked at the blocks of ice. "Well, there is something we can do with them."

The two of them stacked the ice blocks on top of each other and played Jenga with them. So far, the stack hadn't fallen yet. Then Johan took one block out and the whole thing started to topple over.

They used Sadie Croaker and Wally's blocks as snowboards and rode them down a hill.

They used the blocks to make snow forts and had a snowball fight.

They went snow bowling, using a snowball as the bowling ball and the ice blocks as pins.

Anne and Johan laughed. "You were right, Anne. That is fun!" He exhaled and stood up. "But fun's over. Let's do a headcount."

"Agreed." Anne looked around and gathered the ice blocks. "We got Tom, Soggy Joe, Jill, Cashmere the Soft. Hop Pop, check. Polly, check. Sprig, check."

"Wally, Mayor Toadstool, Felicia, Ivy, Syl..." Johan stopped and his heart skipped a beat. "IVY'S GONE!"

"WHAT?!"

The two of them looked around frantically, but they could not find her ice block anywhere. Johan fell to his knees and began hyperventilating. "No, no, no, no, no, no! This is all my fault! I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of her."

"No, it's my fault," said Anne. "If I hadn't goaded you into going off-duty, this wouldn't have happened."

"You know what? Let's say it's both our faults and go find Ivy. But how do we find her?"

"Why don't we follow the tracks?" Anne pointed to the footprints in the snow leading away from the village and into the snow.

"Oh."

The two humans followed the tracks into the forest to the mouth of a spooky cave. "Of course," muttered Johan.

They walked into the cave, which was covered in ice crystals and frog skeletons. "This is the part where you say, 'You know, no matter how long I'm in this world, I'll never get used to the piles of bones just lying around.'"

"You know, no matter how long I'm in this world, I'll never get used to the piles of bones just lying around. STOP DOING THAT, JOJO!"

Johan looked up and gasped. "There she is!" Ivy's ice block was attached to the ceiling. "How did she get up there?" The boy got his answer when the ground shook. Something big under the snow slid past them. Then it popped out and let out a roar. "ICE WEASEL!"

The two humans jumped out of the way when the weasel tried to bite them. "That's what's been taking the frogs?" The weasel posed itself for another strike.

Johan took out the sling blade and said, "I'll keep it busy. You go get Ivy."

Anne nodded and used her Ripple to run up the wall and ceiling and tried to reach Ivy. Down below, the ice weasel tried to bite Johan, but he blocked its fangs with the sling blade's handle. Then he tried to slash the weasel's face, only for it to dodge. Then it saw Anne and tried to lunge for her. "Oh, no, you don't!" Johan summoned DARE who proceeded to pummel the weasel.

"MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA!"

The weasel was flung into a wall, causing Anne to lose her balance and fall to the ground. She rolled into another part of the cave and came to a stop. She groaned and stood up and that's when she saw something unexpected. "No. Way."

Johan grabbed the sling blade and was about to impale the weasel when Anne blocked his way. "What are you doing?!"

"Look!" Johan followed Anne's finger and what he saw shocked him. There, hidden away in an alcove, was a nest with three squirming, chittering, pink baby weasels. The mother weasel immediately recovered from Johan's attack and blocked the nest, hissing at the humans in warning.

Johan felt the sling blade slip from his hand as he realized, "Oh, God! I almost killed a mother!"

"You didn't kidnap Ivy just to feed yourself," Anne said in realization. "And if we take her, you'll all starve."

"Hold on," said Johan after recovering from his shock. "As much as I feel bad for this weasel family, we can't just let her take any more frogs!"

Anne thought about it, then an idea popped in her head. "Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Let's just hope they like leftovers." She took out a tray from her back pack and placed in it an omelette she made earlier. Then she pushed the tray in front of the nest. "Come on, come on. Please work." The weasel sniffed it, then immediately grabbed it. "Huh. I guess the power of omelettes is universal."

"Say, do you think I could have one of your omelettes?" Johan asked.

"Maybe later," said Anne. "Let's just get Ivy down and get out of here."

Johan used the sling blade to free Ivy's ice block and the two walked out. As they did, Anne looked back and nodded at the weasel. "Now THAT'S a protector."

Back in Wartwood, Anne and Johan placed Ivy in her place and counted down. "Five, four, three, two, one."

"Thaw, baby, thaw!" shouted Johan.

The clouds parted and the sun shone, melting the ice blocks and freeing the frogs.

"Oh, thank goodness." said Felicia.

"We're all here." said a male frog villager.

"We made it through the freeze." said Hop Pop.

"Yay! I'm alive!" cheered Polly.

"Three cheers for Anne and JoJo, the best town protectors there are!"

"Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!"

Anne and Johan smiled warmly...and then stopped. "Hold on, we don't deserve your cheers," said Johan.

"It's true," said Anne. "I slacked off when I should have been watching you, I convinced JoJo to do the same..."

"And we nearly let Ivy get eaten by a mother ice weasel."

"Wait, WHAT?!" exclaimed Ivy.

"As the boss of Passione," said Johan. "It's my duty to ensure the gang's safety and clearly I failed to do that. I'm sorry. My father would be ashamed of me."

The frogs looked at each other. Then Hop Pop said, "JoJo, you and Anne admitting that means you're more responsible than you think."

Johan's eyes lit up a little. "Really?"

"Yeah, if the two of you hadn't fessed up, we never would have known anything happened." The other frogs agreed with Hop Pop. "You may not be perfect, but you proved that we can depend on you. Your father would be proud of you. And, most importantly, this is the first year no one disappeared."

"All because of you," said Ivy as she held onto Johan.

"Happy Hiber Day, everyone!" cheered Polly.

Anne and Johan blushed. "Aw, thanks you guys," said the former.

"By the way, we're going to have to take safety precautions for the next Hiber Day," said Johan. "We don't want anyone to be taken by ice weasels again."

"Hey Anne," called out Sprig. "You dropped your phone! Ooh, and it looks like you took pictures!"

"SPRIG, NO!"

Sprig saw them and he made an unamused look. "Anne, JoJo, care to explain these?" He showed everyone the pictures and they gave her and JoJo the stink eye.

"Anne, JoJo," said Hop Pop. "Did you use our frozen bodies as bowling pins?"

"Uh..." was all Anne could say.

Johan glared at her. "You took pictures of everything?"

"I can't help it! I'm a selfie girl!"

To Be Continued...