Here we are, the start of the Funny Valentine arc, and as I said before, I'm a little hesitant in writing it as I don't want it to be drawn out and make the story boring. What are your thoughts and what can I change to make this chapter better if needed?

Johan stared at himself in the mirror, checking himself and the gunblade he had in its scabbard. He heard the floorboard creak behind him. "SNEAK ATTACK!"

"MUDA!"

POW!

"Ouch! I hate it that you catch on, JoJo!" Ivy's Invisible Touch deactivated, making her visible again.

"Edera, how many times do I have to tell you?" asked Johan with a wag of his finger. "It's not a sneak attack if you shout it out."

Ivy dusted herself off and said, "So, are you getting ready for whatever's in the temple?"

"You bet. Anne told me Marcy's going to be arriving at the Plantars' soon, so I'm going to head there."

Ivy grumbled, "Hmm. I wish I could go with you, but I've gotta help Mom with the lunch rush. Sooo unfair."

Johan chuckled and patted her head. "How about I bring back a souvenir? It's not gonna be a sunshell, but..."

"Hey, whatever you bring, I'll take." Then she hugged him. "Please, be careful and take care of Sprig, okay?"

"I promise, I will do both," he said, hugging her back. They broke apart and he went down the stairs to find Felicia and Sylvia. They both hugged him, wished him luck and sent him on his way.

When Johan arrived at the Plantars', the first thing he noticed was something in the sky moving toward him. It was a giant sparrow! Quickly, he took out his gunblade and fired, but the bird dodged. "Hey! Watch where you're shooting!"

Johan's eyes widened when he heard that voice. "M-Marcy?"

The sparrow landed next to the farmhouse, shaking the ground. He got a good look at it: the sparrow was red and white in color and wore a feathered helmet and breastplate and on its back was a pile of books.

Anne and the Plantars came out of the house and when they saw the sparrow, Hop Pop let out a scream. "A monster bird, ridden by a pile of books! Wait, huh?"

"Uh, Hopediah," said Johan. "I think Marcy turned herself into a sparrow."

Marcy's voice giggled. "JoJo, I didn't get turned into a sparrow!" She popped out of the pile of books and exclaimed, "I'm RIDING the sparrow! Hiya, Plantar family!" And then she lost her balance and fell off the sparrow's back. She quickly got back up and said, "Big news, everyone. I finished my preparations for the-" She stopped when she saw the Plantars' farmhouse. "Whaa...Is this your house? Oh, it's so rustic and cute. When was it built? Third century? No. No, no, no. Second. Yes, of course. Okay, when it was af-"

Anne and Johan cleared their throats loudly. "Marbles. Big news?" asked Anne. Johan remembered when Anne and Sasha told him of Marcy's "In The Zone" moments and how she tuned out everything else, distracting herself.

Marcy snapped out of it and said, "Oh, right. I finished my prep and we're ready for the first temple!"

"No way! Awesome!"

"I just need to see the music box. Then it's go-time, gang." She began punching the air in excitement. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah-ya!" She stopped when she saw everyone staring at her.

Johan coughed, "Sciocca."

Blushing, Marcy said, "Sorry, sorry. Long flight. A lot of pent-up energy. Anyway, music box."

"Good thing she didn't show up a few days ago, am I right?" said Sprig. Anne, Johan, and Hop Pop went pale. Them finding out about the latter's deceit was still fresh in their minds.

Polly slapped Sprig for his insensitivity. "You need to stop."

Anne took the music box out of her backpack and handed it to Marcy. "Here you go."

Marcy cracked her knuckles. "Okay, if my studies are correct, then..." She pressed her finger on all three gems...but nothing happened. "Huh?"

"Is something supposed to happen?" asked Johan.

"I...I don't understand!" Marcy said. "It's supposed to pop out the gems when I pressed the right combination!" She frantically inspected the box, shaking it, poking it, prodding it. "It has to work! It has to!"

"Marcy! Calm down!" Anne grabbed her friend and held her. "Maybe it's supposed to work when we get to the first temple! You did say you know where it is, right?"

This seemed to work as Marcy said, "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Hoo," she exhaled. "Thanks, Anne. You really know how to cheer a girl up. Here, I think you should hold onto this."

She handed the box to Hop Pop, whose hands trembled nervously. "Oh, uh...I better not."

"Hmm?"

"It's nothing!" Anne said as she snatched the box and put it in her backpack. "Don't worry about it!"

"Well, we've got a big journey ahead. I'll explain everything on the way. Come on, Joe." Marcy clapped her hands, but nothing happened. "Joe?" Then she let out a gasp and scolded, "Joe Sparrow!" The sparrow was...well, it looked like he was flirting with Bessie and the strange part was that it seemed to actually be working as the old snail blushed. "Leave that snail alone!" Marcy shouted. Bessie left, still blushing.

Marcy placed her books in the saddle and sat next to them. Then, Anne, Sprig, and Johan joined her and Polly sat in Anne's lap. "Pretty cramped up here, huh," said Anne.

"Yeah, it's not exactly comfortable," said Johan.

"Oh, uh, eh, so where do I sit?" asked Hop Pop nervously.

He regretted saying that as Joe carried him with his feet as he soared through the sky with his riders. Marcy took out a scroll and said, "So, according to my research, these three ancient temples are filled with difficult challenges to keep out the unworthy. All we have to do is complete the challenges, and then we can charge the stones."

"Nifty," said Anne. "So, what kind of challenges we talkin'?"

"This first temple is said to specifically challenge your intelligence. So I'm pretty sure it's full of puzzles. No frog, toad, or newt in history has been able to survive it."

Everyone made scared faces when they heard that. "We're gonna die, aren't we," asked Johan.

"But don't worry, because none of them were Marcy Wu, head of the chess club, master RTS player, straight-A student, except for gym but only because I was reading in class, which only proves my point!"

"That's all great, Marcy, but be careful. When you get this into something, you tend to tune everything else out," said Anne.

"What Anne is trying to say," said Johan. "Is that you have the attention span of a squirrel."

Marcy made an offended look. "Hey! Name one time I got easily distracted!"

"How about three?" challenged Anne. "You caused an ice cream machine to overflow because you were more focused on your video game. Then there was the Peter Pan play, you know, the one where I ended up crashing the audience because you were more focused on playing your video game instead of manning the ropes. And then there was the time you were so focused on playing your game, you didn't even notice the snakes escaped from the zoo! It was all over the news! That was the worst Saturday of my life."

"Starting to see a pattern here," asked Johan.

"That's called being in the zone, JoJo," said Marcy with a nonchalant wave. "It's pretty much my superpower."

Anne sighed. "Okay, okay. Just don't forget about us. This place is gonna be dangerous, and we're here to help."

"Oh, please! Like I could forget you guys. Penny? Sprout?"

"Polly."

"Sprig."

"Look, the point is, I'm not gonna let you guys down."

Down below, Hop Pop said, "You know, I wouldn't mind being let d-AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He let out a scream as Joe suddenly did a nose dive and dropped him safely into a green mushroom shaped like a brain. "I'm upside down."

Joe then landed gently onto the ground and let his riders off. Marcy said, "Welcome to Amygdala Woods, everyone, home to the first temple."

Everyone looked around and saw more of those brain mushrooms, much to their awe. Then Hop Pop called out, "Little help here?"

"Whoa! What are these things?" Sprig asked, poking the mushroom Hop Pop was stuck to.

"Gyromitra esculenta," said Marcy. "Also known as brain mushrooms." She and Sprig pulled Hop Pop free from the mushroom, but he was covered in goo.

"A forest full of brains for the intelligence temple?" said Anne. "Kinda on the nose, don't you think?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely," said Johan. "Say, if we eat these, will it give us super intelligence?"

"Ah, I wouldn't do that," said Marcy. "It may give you super intelligence, but it doesn't last long. Also, it gives you massive headaches for twelve hours."

"Whoo. Dodged a bullet there," said Anne.

"Didn't say there was a temple around here," asked Polly. "I think you way overhyped this place." She pointed to the only frog made structure she could see: a dirt, moldy outhouse.

"No, no, no. That's the..." Marcy's eager smile melted into an expression of pure shock when she gestured to what she thought was the temple, only to see nothing but rubble.

"So, if that pile of rocks is the temple," said Sprig. "Then what's that?" He poked his head into the outhouse, then immediately came back out. "Outhouse. It's an outhouse."

"Uh, Marcy," said Johan, feeling dread build up in his body. "Are you sure we're in the right place? I kinda expected the temple to be a bit more...I don't know, temple-ish?"

"This is the temple," said Marcy, still in shock. "It...it's been destroyed!"

Johan stared, then after a few seconds, which felt like an hour to him, he let out a shocked and horrified, "WHAT?!"

When Anne heard that, her heart almost stopped. "But...we can still find a way to recharge the stone right?" She began to dig frantically in the rubble. "There has to be something that survived here!"

"Anne..."

"A gadget, an ancient AC adaptor!"

"Anne..."

"A CRYSTAL SKULL, A HOLY GRAIL! IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!"

"ANNE!"

"WHAT, MARCY?!"

"IT'S OVER! THE TEMPLE IS DESTROYED! WE HAVE NO WAY OF CHARGING UP THE STONE!" For a moment, Johan swore he saw Marcy's eyes glow green.

Anne stared her friend for a few seconds, then broke down sobbing. "S-So...so this is it? W-We went through all this for nothing?! We...we'll never get home?!"

Marcy held Anne close and cried with her. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean..."

"Wait," said Sprig. "Don't give up hope, guys! We still have two more temples to find! Maybe we can..."

"Sprig, we won't be able to find the other temples unless we charge up the stone first," said Marcy. "And even if we did find them without charging the stone first, it doesn't matter! The box won't work unless all three stones are fully charged!"

"So," said Johan, shaking with despair. "We really are stuck here forever?" Tears started to fall down his face. "We're never going to see our friends and family back on Earth ever again?"

Hop Pop said carefully, "You can stay with us. We'll be your family. Haven't we proven that much to you?"

Johan wiped away his tears and said, "Oh, that's very kind of you, but this could never be like Earth. Our families must have stopped wondering what happened to us by now."

Apparently, what the old frog was the wrong thing to say as Anne's grief turned to anger. "You really think I'm your family, after what you've done, Hop Pop?"

"Huh?"

"Anne?" asked Marcy as her friend stood up and confronted Hop Pop.

"Just quit pretending like you care, Hopediah Plantar! You've always seen me as a threat to Sprig and Polly since day one!"

"Uh-oh," said Sprig, not liking where this was going.

"I care about you too, Anne," said Hop Pop, hurt by what she said.

Anne's hair started to turn blue a little as her voice became agitated, "I mean, to an extent, right? You kinda proved that when you buried the music box."

"Now, hold on. That's unfair."

"Listen, Hop Pop, when push came to shove, you made a choice. It's fine. But let's stop pretending I'm part of the family, okay?"

Hearing this, the old frog got angry. Sprig stepped in between the two of them. "Hey, we kinda need to be a team in here so we don't literally tear each other apart, so..."

Anne and Hop Pop ignored him as the latter said, "I don't understand, Anne. I thought you forgave me."

"Yeah? Well, maybe I spoke too soon."

"Spoke too soon?"

Marcy watched the two of them arguing, becoming more and more agitated as her eyes and hair flickered green. "Stop it..."

"So there's nothing I can do to fix this? Not one thing?"

"Can you fix THIS?!" Anne gestured to the rubble that was once the temple.

"FINE! If that's what it takes to earn your forgiveness, I'll fix this temple brick by brick!" Hop Pop went over to a piece of rubble and tried to pick it up.

"Stop it..." muttered Marcy.

"Hop Pop, no," shouted Polly. "Your back!"

"You don't have to go through with this," said Johan. "I already forgave you when I forced you to go on a hitman mission with me!"

"I said stop it," Marcy said, her voice raising as her hair and eyes flickered from black to green to black again.

"Well, apparently, that's not good enough for her, JoJo," Hop Pop said, snapping his head toward Anne. Suddenly, his grip on the rubble slipped and it landed on his foot. He let out a yell of pain and fell on his back, clutching his foot in pain.

"Hop Pop!" Anne, Sprig, and Polly raced to him, but he instead glared at Anne. "Oh, I bet you're loving this, ain't ya?" he asked her.

"What? No! I might be mad at you, but I don't wanna see you hurt!"

"Well, you're already hurtin' me. Every time you remind me of the mistakes I made, every time you rub it in my face that I let you down. I mean, what's it gonna take for you to let this go?"

"Hop Pop, I... I..."

"Just tell me and I'll do it. Anything!"

"I don't know!" Anne's response echoed throughout the forest, stunning everyone. "I just need time. Look, I want things to go back to the way they were. But...but..." She sobbed.

"Anne..." said Johan. "You and Hop Pop have been bottling this up for a while now, haven't you?" Anne didn't respond.

Hop Pop put a hand on her shoulder and said gently, "I'm sorry, Anne. You take all the time you need. Maybe it's enough to admit we still got issues, instead of pretending they don't exist."

"I think that'd be good," Anne said with a sniffle.

The sound of Marcy's crying made everyone turn to look at her. "This is my fault...I didn't mean for this to happen..."

"Marcy," said Anne.

"I did this to us!" It was then everyone noticed Marcy's hair and eyes turn from black to green. "I didn't want us to be apart! I just...just...AAAAAHHHHHH!" She let out a scream as a column of green energy shot out of her as she screamed. She looked at her hands, noticing the energy. "Wha...huh?"

"Hey, didn't we see this before?" asked Sprig.

"Yeah," said Johan, shocked. "Back at Toad Tower."

Marcy looked like she was having a panic attack. "What's happening to me?" She held out her hand and a beam of energy shot out of her palm and into a mountain, making a perfect circular hole. "Aaah!" She curled into a ball, trembling.

"We gotta help her," shouted Johan.

"But how?" asked Polly.

Anne, not saying a word, approached Marcy. Her hair and eyes suddenly turned a shining blue. She noticed this and complained, "Oh, come on! I've been trying to figure out how to go blue mode for months! How come it's happening now!" Then she remembered, "No. Focus on cheering up Marcy." She approached the trembling girl, who looked up at her and gasped.

"A...Anne...how are you...?"

"Don't know. I've been trying to figure out for months. Let's get on back track, though. Marcy, whatever's happening right now, we'll get through this together. Like always."

"No! It's my fault! Everyone's separated, everyone's fighting, everyone's blaming each other! I just wanted to go an adventure together, but now..." Marcy broke down sobbing and hid her face in her hands. "We're never going to be together. Sasha's not here, you're fighting with Hop Pop..."

Anne grabbed her hands and looked straight into her eyes. "I get it. I mean, it took a long time for me and Hop Pop to reconcile. I don't know about Sasha until we find her, but we'll get through this together. We always do."

Marcy sniffed and said, "Really?"

"Yeah. Starting with this whole glowy thing we've got going on. Does this remind you of something?"

Marcy looked at the energy and said, "You're right! It's like Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball! In fact, I bet that after it wears off, we'll both be..." Her and Anne's eyes and hair returned to normal and they both collapsed from exhaustion.

Later, everyone sat on a rock, trying to comprehend what had happened. "So my hunch was right," said Johan.

"Huh?" asked Polly.

"The power of the music box didn't disappear on their own! It moved!"

"Moved?" asked Anne.

"Come on! How else do you explain your blue hair, Marcy's green hair and Sasha's pink hair every time you get super angry?"

"Wait, Sasha has a super hair colored super mode too," asked Marcy.

"We're not calling it that," said Johan. "But yeah, she nearly turned me into Swiss cheese with her Stand and would have killed me if it weren't for Anne."

Anne chuckled nervously. "Yeah, it's not something I try to remember."

"WHAT?! Why didn't you tell me about this," exclaimed Marcy.

"Eh...slipped my mind?"

"Anne, JoJo, Plantars! This is big!" Marcy shouted frantically. "If we knew about this in the first place, Andrias would have known what to do about it!"

"Well, why didn't he?" asked Johan. "Why did nothing in the book he showed us mention anything about powers in the first place?"

"I don't know, maybe something got lost in history or something! I...I...I gotta let Andrias know! Tell him that the temple's destroyed and we have the power of the stones in our bodies!"

"Wait!" shouted Johan. Everyone turned to look at him. "I don't think we should tell him yet."

"What?! Why not?"

"Because...uh..." Johan tried to think of an excuse. He wanted to tell them that he was suspicious of Andrias and he had proof, but he didn't want to bring it up, not yet. "Because we don't need to tell him. Yeah, that's it! Because Anne and I know someone who knows about the gems already!"

"We do?" asked Anne, confused.

"Sure we do! Remember that one-armed newt from the Bizarre Bazaar? She had relics with emblems that looked just like the stones on the music box. I think her name's Valeriana, or something?"

As soon as the memory returned, she said, "Oh, yeah! But, how are we going to find her? It's not like she gave us her email or phone number, which don't exist in this world."

"It's alright. I'll use Passione's assets to find the whereabouts about her location. There's a chance she could come out of hiding and see us first."

"Guys," said Hop Pop. "I think we're forgetting the elephant beetle in the room. How did the temple get destroyed in the first place?"

"I don't know," said Marcy. "According to my research, these temples are supposed to last for millennia!"

Polly looked around and saw something out of the ordinary. "Those crates over there look suspicious." Sitting behind a rock were three empty crates marked with a blue mushroom symbol.

"Boom shrooms!" gasped Anne. "The temple didn't get destroyed on its own! Someone blew it up!"

Johan wiped the dust off the crates. "Judging by the amount of dust on here, it looks like they did it a long time ago. Probably months."

"But who?! Who would want to destroy a piece of ancient Amphibia history?" asked Marcy.

"Fan out," said Johan. "If whoever here was dumb enough to leave behind empty crates, they must have left behind another clue."

Everyone searched the area for clues, only to turn up nothing. Until Sprig shouted, "I got something!" They rushed over to him and saw what he found. In his hand was something small, shiny and made of gold.

"It's a cufflink," said Johan. He took it from Sprig and looked it over. "It's got the manufacturing company's logo inscribed on it." He pocketed it and said, "We just gotta find its owner through the store's records and see if anyone came in with a missing cufflink."

"That could take a long time," complained Anne.

"We'll look at the store's records, see who had gone there in the last few months and narrow it down to anyone who stands out the most."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Marcy. "Do we go look for the owner of the cufflink first, look for Valeriana, or take a break?"

"Break," said Anne and the Plantars.

"Fair enough."

"Yeah, after everything that's happened, we could all use a break," said Johan. "I'll have Passione do a bit of the work for a while before taking over the investigations. In the mean time, who wants to take a nap?"

Marcy thought, I should probably inform Andrias about the current situation.

"The political situation is worsening, Your Highness," said General Yunan as she entered King Andrias' throne room with a bow. "What started as a small valley riot is quickly becoming something more. Gang activity is increasing all over Amphibia by the day. Not only that, the toad lords have agreed to meet. This could spell disaster."

"How disappointing," Andrias said sarcastically, clearly not caring.

"And the traitor, Grime, is still at large and is currently being aided by a-aah!" Yunan yelped as a mail bug flew by, nearly hitting her in the head in the process.

It handed Andrias the letter. He opened it and read it. "Why, it's a message from Marcy," he said with a jovial laugh. Then he read more. The smile on his face slowly gave way to a grim look. When he was finished, he ordered Yunan with one word. "Leave."

"Y-Your Highness?"

"Did I stutter, General? Get. Out."

Terrified by the king's sudden change in behavior, Yunan fled the throne room.

Now alone, Andrias approached a statue of the previous king, King Aldrich, and pulled down on its arm, revealing a hidden staircase beneath the pedestal. He walked down the staircase, ignoring the ghostly Shadowfish and entered a dark chamber. He placed his crown on the floor and said, "My Lord, the first temple has been destroyed. There's no way to recharge the box completely anymore."

The whole room shook and a large mechanical sphere that filled the entirety of the ceiling, opened its thirteen glowing orange eyes. The glow revealed the machine was connected to a series of tubes and wires and on the other end of them, sitting in a chair, was what looked like a tall, very well-built man with elegant, relatively feminine facial features, and a light complex. He had long, curly purple hair that reached down to his waist, magenta eyes, and three conical horns on his forehead; the one in the middle was bigger. He was minimally dressed, wearing high boots, forearm guards, a thong, and a flowing loincloth.

The man did not respond to Andrias' presence; in fact, he did not react to anything at all. He just stared out into space with a blank expression, and his mouth was open, letting drool drip down his lips. "It looks like the assimilation process is progressing well," said Diego as he descended the stairs with a smile. "He's not going on another violent rampage like before."

Andrias' fist clenched. He put the crown back on and asked impatiently, "What are you doing here, Captain?"

"Just curious about this letter," said Diego as he held up Marcy's letter. "It looks like somebody is onto us and is helping those humans. I wonder who?"

"You think it's the olms?" asked Andrias.

"Or possibly that one-armed monk. I told you we should have destroyed her when we had the chance." As if responding to Diego, the machine shook like it was angry. "Oh, stop complaining, you bunch of fossils. What have you been doing besides hiding under the castle like cowards?" A metal tentacle shot out of the machine, intending to impale Diego. "Scary Monsters." The Captain's fingers turned into claws and sliced it in half. "And this is why even the greatest minds are no match for the power of a Stand. It's too bad none of your old bodies were ever compatible for one. But you just kept trying and trying, and look where you are now."

The machine rumbled and seemed to shriek with anger. Andrias grabbed his temples and groaned in pain, "Please, stop! I can hear the voices screaming!"

Diego chuckled. "Sorry. I didn't come here to start an argument. I came here wondering if you'd like better results."

Andrias asked after the shrieking stopped, "What results?"

"The one where we may have to use Plan A after all if there is no way to recharge the Calamity Box anymore." Diego gestured to three lethal looking chairs with various pipes and tubes attached to it. "And that's to drain them until they're withered husks before killing them. I just need your permission first."

The machine hissed in acceptance. "Yes," said Andrias. "You have my permission."

"And the Joestar boy?"

The machine shook violently at the mere mention of the name. Andrias groaned in pain again. "You know it doesn't like that name! Not since the assimilation process began!"

"I know. I just like pissing it off. Didn't answer my question, though."

Andrias shouted with anger, "What do you think, Captain?! KILL HIM, AND KILL EVERY FROG IN THE VALLEY IF YOU HAVE TO! BUT WE NEED THE POWER THOSE GIRLS HAVE!"

Diego chuckled. "Heh. Now you're starting to act like a real king. I'm honestly sick of that man-child persona you've got going on."

Andrias exhaled. "What can I say? I do have appearances to keep up."

To be continued ➟