Disclaimer: Amphibia is owned by Matt Brady and Disney. This is a fan-based story purely for fun.

Chapter 20:

The Source of Madness and Fear

The giant, two-legged aquatic monster, last thought to be an impressive statue to be displayed for all tourists to see, turned out to be well and alive. It made its presence known by smashing its way inside of the room where everyone is and shook off the wax that kept it still for too long, roaring out as a way to relish its long-awaited freedom.

The Plantar family and the museum personnel all moved back as much as they could to avoid getting into close contact with the giant monstrosity. It was all they could do, as it was blocking their only exit.

"Dear frog, it's huge!" yelled the frightened Hop Pop as he pointed at the monster. "What in the name of Heaven is that creature?!"

"Guys, I think this is the Gill-Behemoth!" Sprig said once he recognized what they were dealing with.

"Gill-Behemoth?" Anne said while turning her head towards the boy, followed by everyone else in the group.

"It's in Maddie's list!" he explained. "Its scale is one of the ingredients that we need for the cure to turn me back to normal!"

"Seriously?! You're telling me that we have to fight this guy to get the ingredient?!"

"Well, yeah! Not only that, but this monster is supposedly one-of-a-kind! Its scale might help out a lot in making the cure! We won't get another chance like this if we just run away from it!"

The boy took a step forward while rolling an invisible long sleeve up, fully intent on taking on the Gill-Behemoth for what it has.

ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRR!

The giant sea creature let out another ferocious cry towards the ceiling that can be heard within the vicinity of the town. A single step from its gigantic foot was enough to shake the floor, terrorizing the smaller people in the process.

"… On second thought," spoke the frightened boy. "Maddie's list mentioned other creatures that we can go after for their scale. Maybe that's the better option. Right?"

"I'm with you there." Anne said.

"Me too." Hop Pop nodded.

"Yeah, not gonna lie, seeing it moving around and being alive and all actually makes it worse." Polly admitted. "Let's just get outta here!"

"But how can we do that? That beast is blocking our only way out of this room!" Hop Pop pointed out. "At this point, we have no choice but to fight it!"

"You won't have to." Gwendy spoke, as she took a few steps towards the huge monster. "You guys got dragged into this mess because of Stan. The last thing we want is to have you get pulled into this even further."

"You got a plan or something?" Sprig asked.

"I'll just have to grab that thing's attention just enough so you guys can slip by without it noticing."

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Anne asked with concern shown on her face.

"Well, how else are you guys gonna run away from here?" Gwendy replied. "Besides, if we let this guy be, not only is it gonna smash the museum into pieces, it's gonna rampage the whole town in the process. No way am I letting that happen."

"So you intent on battling this monster by yourself?!" Hop Pop shouted.

"Ok, girl! I know you're cool and all, but you're crazy!" Polly exclaimed. "That thing looks like it can squash you into mush before you can even put a finger on it! Aren't you even a bit scared?!"

"Well, kinda." Gwendy shrugged. "But believe it or not, I've dealt with chumps like this before. Maybe not as big, but they were just as dangerous, at least, from the looks of things. Just give me to right tool for the job and I can handle it no problem."

The Plantars all looked at each other with uncertainty. Leaving the tall girl alone with that huge behemoth would leave a sour taste in their mouths. However, she made it sound like she could take down that monster with all of her limbs intact. They wondered if it was even good idea.

"How are you so certain that you can escape this fight alive?" Hop Pop asked.

"Easy." Gwendy grinned confidently and pointed her thumb at herself. "It's cause I'm a flipping Corduroy!"

While her answer did not provide much, somehow, her declaration managed to sway the Plantar family into leaving things to her without any more fuss. It was almost like the energy behind her words were enough to sooth out their fears, even if it's for a bit. Was it because of her cool personality?

Regardless, they all nodded in agreement to her plan.

"Frog Soos," Gwendy spoke to the large frog who shifted his full attention to her. "You should go with them and take Stan with you. Right now, getting him out of danger takes top priority."

"You sure, Gwendy?" Frog Soos asked.

"Pretty sure." Gwendy nodded. "Don't worry about me. Worry about Stan first."

"Okay, dude! You got it! But I'm coming back as soon as everyone else's safe!" Frog Soos turned his head towards the eyepatch-wearing frog. "Come on, Mr. Ponds-"

However, he found that there was no one standing from where he was looking.

"Mr. Ponds?"

He looked around within the group to see if Stan was somewhere around there. The others also gave a look-around once they realized that the Curator was not where he was supposed to be.

"Hey!" Polly shouted as she pointed towards the direction of where the monster was standing. "What's that guy doing over there?"

Everyone all looked at where the purple tadpole was pointing and saw that Stan was standing dangerously close to the Gill-Behemoth. It turned out that he had not moved from the spot when the monster smashed its way into the room.

"AHHH! Mr. Ponds?!" Frog Soos screamed in panic, slapping his cheeks with both hands.

"Stan, what the heck!" Gwendy yelled in disbelief.

"Hey! You're supposed to be a statue back there! How did you manage to move around with all that wax on you?!" Stan shouted while shaking his fist up at the beast. "I swear, that cheap wax machine isn't doing its job right! When I'm done with you, I'm gonna sue the guy who sold me that piece of junk!"

The Gill-Behemoth looked down at the fez-wearing frog. Its eyes twitched with rage, when it recognized him as the one responsible for its waxy imprisonment. With another feral screech, it raised its foot up, then quickly brought it down towards him.

Before Stan could make a move, he was suddenly tackled from behind at the last second and was sent crashing a few feet forward.

He groaned as he lifted his head up from the floor. He turned his head back to look at the person responsible for pushing him out of nowhere and who was still on his back.

"Are you okay, Mr. Ponds?" Frog Soos asked his boss, raising his head up to look at him.

"Frog Soos?! What do you think you're doing?!" Stan yelled.

"Saving you from being crushed to death, obviously!"

"I didn't need your help, you big lump of waste!"

While the two of them were having a small spat with one another, the Gill-Behemoth turned its enormous head and gazed down at them. Growling in anger, it once again raised its foot up and aimed it at them, determined to squash its captor as revenge.

Before it could bring its foot down, it was hit on the side of its head by a small wooden object. Moving its eyes towards that direction, it came across a tall frog holding a picture frame in her hands.

"HEY! Over here, big guy!" Gwendy shouted as she threw the picture frame at the beast, hitting one of its tiny arms. She then picked up another frame from the floor and tossed it the same way, this time striking the monster in-between the eyes.

The Gill-Behemoth growled once more, irritated by Gwendy just enough to shift its rage from its captor to her. Distracting it was exactly what she was counting on.

"Stan! Soos! Get outta here now!"

"You got it, Gwendy!" Frog Soos said as he stood up from the floor, effortlessly picked up Stan and put him over his shoulder before running for the exit.

"Put me down, Soos! I said put me down!" Stan demanded as he struggled to push himself free from his handyman's hold.

"I think that's our cue to leave too! Let's go, everyone!" Hop Pop shouted after finding the opportunity to do so.

Both he and Sprig lifted up the frozen Anne from opposite ends and ran towards the exit alongside Polly.

However, their path was suddenly blocked by the Gill-Behemoth bringing its large foot down in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. They all looked up to the sight of its large face aiming down at them, as its hot breath was blowing over where they were standing. They all froze in fear before the huge beast.

Then, yet another picture frame struck the beast on the leg, leading to it raising its head up to cross gaze with the long-haired frog once more.

"Hey, where are you looking at?! I'm right here!" Gwendy taunted it, trying to keep its attention on her.

The Gill-Behemoth let out another terrifying roar, as it began to walk over the Plantar family and towards Gwendy.

"Now's your chance! Move it!" Gwendy told the family, pointing her finger at the exit.

The Plantars nodded, as they quickly resumed their run for the exit, eventually escaping the room altogether.

Once she made sure that the Plantars, Frog Soos and Stan left the room, she turned her full attention towards the approaching creature, stepping back a bit in an attempt to gain some distance between her and it.

In the process of moving back, she felt her heel hitting an object. When she turned her head around, she came across her hatchet on the floor that she lost when Stan disarmed her a while ago. She then picked up the hatchet, twirled it around, then firmly held it in her hand, as she prepared herself to face the giant monster head-on.

"Ok, tough guy! It's just you and me now! So bring it!"

The Plantars managed to escape the Curiosity Hut without any further obstructions. It was still very early in the morning when they existed the museum, as evident of the moon still up in the night sky, but it was slowly approaching the horizon.

They ran quite a distance away from the building before stopping to catch their breaths.

"Hah…! Everyone still here?" Hop Pop panted, looking back towards his grandchildren while lowering the nearly-petrified human girl down on his end.

"Right here!" Polly replied while raising her hand.

"Same! And Anne is still safe and sound with us!" Sprig said while looking down at his best friend to see if she was still alright.

"Thank goodness…!" Hop Pop said as he sat down on the ground. "What a harrowing experience, that was…"

"No kidding." The orange-haired boy said as he lowered Anne down on his end as well before putting his hand over his black eye.

"Geez…! I didn't think that things would go this bad." Anne said in a remorseful tone. "I'm really sorry about all of this, guys…"

"Didn't we already say that we forgive you back there? Don't worry about it!" Polly reassured her.

Sprig took the time to look around themselves and found that something was amiss.

"Hey, I don't see Frog Soos and the Curator anywhere around here." he noted. "What about you guys?"

The others looked around themselves and found no trace of the two people.

"Hmm… You're right, boy. I don't see them either." Hop Pop confirmed the boy's suspicions, as do Anne and Polly. "Well, they were the first ones to escape the beast first, and carrying Anne around did slowed us down a bit, but they couldn't have disappeared that quickly. Right?"

"Why are we standing around here, wondering where they are?" Polly asked. "Let's just get outta town and get a move on already! I've just about had it with this place!"

ROOOOOOOAAAAAARR!

The family got startled by the Gill-Behemoth's roar coming from inside the hut, prompting them to look back at the building. As they thought about the huge monster that they had just escaped from, their minds then shifted towards Gwendy, thinking about how she was alone in fighting the beast by herself.

"Guys," Anne was the first one to speak. "I'm not so sure if I want to leave things as they are now."

"Yeah, same here…" Sprig shared her sentiment. "Gwendy said that she can take care of it, but she might just be saying that so that we wouldn't have to get involved even more than we should."

Polly groaned. "I didn't want to grow a conscious now, but I'm with you. I'm still scared for the cool girl back there."

"I understand, kids." Hop Pop nodded in acknowledgment. "But what can we do? If we join in now, we might not contribute much except wasting the chance that Gwendy has painstakingly given us to escape in the first place."

"Well, maybe not you guys, but I think I have a shot at helping her get even with that thing." Anne said. She then attempted to force her body free from the frozen wax, but to no avail. "Grrr! If only I didn't have all this wax on me! This is super frustrating!"

"So we just have to melt the wax off of you, right? Then let's find a torch or anything hot that can do the job!" Polly suggested.

"I'm still concerned about this, but it might be our best chance." Hop Pop said, as he stood up from the ground. "Let's go, everyone! Time is of the essence!"

Hop Pop and Polly both split off to find a torch or anything that they could get their hands on within the area.

Sprig was about to start his search himself, until he suddenly remembered an off-comment info from yesterday that might improve their chances,

"Sprig?" Anne called out to him after noticing that he hadn't left yet. "What's wrong, dude?"

"I just remember something." Sprig replied while looking at the curly-haired girl. "Frog Soos mentioned that the Curator wants to keep dangerous weapons for himself in case of an apocalypse. Maybe he has a stash of weapons somewhere in the museum just for that occasion!"

"Wait, what're you suggesting?"

"If we can find his weapon stash, then we can use it to help Gwendy fend off the Gill-Behemoth!" he explained.

"Huh. Sounds like a plan!" Anne said with a smile. "Let's go find it after I'm finally wax-free!"

Sprig frowned. "But who knows how long until we get the wax melted off of you. It might be already too late when the time comes. So our best bet is to find the weapons and use them against the monster now!"

"Hold on! Sprig, you're not thinking about going back in there alone, are you?" Anne asked, fearful for the boy's safety.

"We don't have a choice! Gwendy needs our help, and there's not a second to lose!"

Sprig then sprinted back towards the Curiosity Hut to begin his search for the Curator's elusive weapon stash.

"Sprig! Wait!" Anne yelled as she tried in vain to move her body to stop her best friend from doing what was practically a suicide mission. The most that she could do is watch him disappear inside of the building. "Dang it! Hop Pop! Polly!"

"What is it, Anne?" Hop Pop came to her side, holding a couple of torches in hand. Polly followed suit, holding three torches in her possession in comparison. "We got the torches! Is Sprig not back yet?"

"Guys! You gotta get me outta here fast!" Anne told them urgently. "Sprig just ran back inside the museum to fight the Gill-Behemoth on his own!"

"SAY WHAT?!"

Frog Soos kicked open and ran past the door before fatigue caught up to him, causing him to drop Stan down to the floor and slightly crouch down to catch his breath.

"Hah… Hah… I think we're in the clear, Mr. Ponds…" the large frog panted.

Stan groaned as he rubbed the sore spot on his head with his hand, while he looked around as he wondered where Frog Soos had taken him. A single glance at his surroundings was enough for him to recognize where they were.

From the triangular positioning of the wooden walls, to the round, stained-glass window centred on one of the two straight walls, and down to the two beds stationed at opposite ends from each other, it was clear as day as to what the room was supposed to be. The only room in the whole hut that Stan dreaded the most.

"Soos, what are you talking about?" Stan said as he glared at his handyman. "This is the attic! The kids' room, to be exact! You just took us directly above where that monster is!"

"Well, I panicked, okay!" Frog Soos shouted after he himself realized where they were. "My head gets all jumbled up when I get scared, and I didn't know where I was going! Doesn't that happen to you too, Mr. Ponds?"

"Even if it did, my first instinct would've been to run out of the building! It takes a real piece of work to think that going to the next room over is gonna make a difference in this situation!"

Stan stood up from the floor, dusted himself off and took another look around the room before he went towards the closet. After opening and entering the closet, he took the time to rummage the place until he managed to pull out a large, empty sack.

"Well, whatever. At least I get another shot at it." he said as he proceeded to grab a few things of interest and put them inside of the sack.

"Mr. Ponds? W-what are doing in here?" Frog Soos asked as he checked up on his boss inside, confused by what he was doing.

"What does it look like?" Stan said without looking back at the large frog, focusing primarily on stuffing his bag. "I'm taking whatever I can get my hands on and get the heck outta here!"

"You're still thinking about leaving the museum?!"

"What, you think the whole 'monster running around the place' was enough to change my mind? Or maybe you think that you figuring out my motive for all of this did the job instead? Like heck it did! I ain't planning on staying here any more than I should!"

Stan exited the closet as soon as he put away everything that he thought he needed in there, pushing Frog Soos aside in the process. He then started to do the same thing with the rest of the room, starting with the bell hanging down from the ceiling.

"B-but Mr. Ponds, think about it for a minute!" Frog Soos implored him. "The Curiosity Hut won't be the same if you leave now! You're the biggest reason why the museum is so magical! We can't afford to lose you like this!"

"Well, if you and Gwendy weren't such snooping, pieces of filth and just do your jobs, maybe I wouldn't have to ditch it in the first place!" Stan argued. "I could've become the most powerful man in the world if things went exactly as it should, if you and that dumb, backwater family hadn't ruin it for me! Now I have to start over from scratch!"

"Is it really what you care about the most? To go big with your business all over the land? I thought you're doing all of this because you're jealous of your brother-"

"Would you just SHUT UP ALREADY?!" Stan yelled as he finally turned towards Frog Soos, glaring intensively at him. "My brother or any of my family don't matter anymore! If I say that I want the Curiosity Hut to be the global sensation, then it's all for the sake of it! Who cares about them anyway?! They all left me behind in the end!"

"Well, okay, I won't lie and say that I get the whole spiel with you and your family." Frog Soos said. "But what about Flipper and Schmabel? You can't say that they abandoned you too! Not after everything you dudes have been through!"

"What does it matter?! Ford got them to hate me at the end of it!"

"How do you know that? Where's your proof that they hated you?"

"Is your head on straight?! If you had just look at them with Ford, you'd get the idea already!"

"Dude, forget about Ford already! This is Flipper and Schmabel that we're talking about! They'll never hate you!"

"You gotta cut it out with all the self-licking habit, Soos!"

"Come on, dude! How're you so sure that the twins don't like you anymore?!"

"BECAUSE WHO WANTS TO LOVE A BIG, FAT SCREWUP WHO DESTROYS HIS FAMILY?! LET ALONE A GUY WHO CROSSED THE LINE AGES AGO?!"

…

…

…

There was a brief moment of silence between Stan and Frog Soos, with the latter staring at the former with a look of shock on his face. At that moment, the Curator realized what had just said, adopting a shocked expression himself.

When the room shook as a result of the Gill-Behemoth still rampaging down below, Stan quickly turned away from Frog Soos, flustered.

"Dang it! Look what you made me do!" Stan blamed the handyman for the slip of the tongue. "Got me to say stuff that shouldn't matter anymore. All you need to know is that I'm done with this place already. I ain't coming back here no more!"

With his declaration, Stan grabbed the fez on his head and threw it away. The fez bounced a couple of times on the floor before rolling away until it hit Frog Soos' feet.

The large frog looked down at the discarded hat, as several thoughts went through his head surrounding his boss' true motives.

"If you care about the museum so much, why don't you become the Curator, huh?" Stan joked in a mean-spirited way, looking back at Frog Soos for a brief moment before he continued to stuff his sack.

Frog Soos continued to stare down at the hat for a short moment, before he proceeded to pick it up in his hand. He then spent another, precious moment to inspect and admire the fez that his boss used to so proudly wear as the host and owner of the Curiosity Hut.

"… Maybe I will." Frog Soos said.

Stan once again stopped what he was doing and looked back at Frog Soos, somewhat surprised by what he had just said.

"I still don't get the whole family stuff with you, and maybe I never will, but if you think you're the only one with family issues, what about me and my dad who never came back home even once to see me? That's not pretty fair, right?"

Stan did not say anything, but there was a very brief moment where his facial expression changed, as if he was reminded of how Frog Soos had a deadbeat father who was absent in most of his life.

"You know what I think?" Frog Soos continued. "I think Flipper and Schmabel still love you, Mr. Ponds. Even when it looked like they were having a lot more fun with your bro, nothing beats what you dudes had the whole summer. Like when you sang together up on the rooftop to scare away the shroomheads when they invaded town that one night. Oh, and when you gave up the mayor electoral race to save the twins from falling to their doom."

Frog Soos chuckled as he reminisced all of the adventures that happened with Stan and the twins, some of them he had partaken in alongside Gwendy. When he looked up to Stan to see his reaction, he was disappointed to see that he still had a stone-cold expression on his face.

"The thing is, I don't think there's anything that could change the twins' minds about you. Not your bro, not anyone. Especially not you." he said. "And I'll prove it to you the next time they visit Stony Gulch."

"What makes you think that they'll ever come back here?" Stan asked, skeptical of the idea. "And even if they do, you think they'll stick around once they find out what I did to the place?"

"I dunno." Frog Soos admitted his uncertainty. "But I got this gut feeling that they're gonna come back, and if or when they do, I want them to see the museum as it was when they left it, before the whole monster statue business. If you won't stick around to take care of it, then I will."

The large frog then removed his cap from his head with one hand, then put on the fez with the other, symbolizing his willingness to inherit the ownership from his boss.

"… And it'll be my first order of business as the new Curator of the Curiosity Hut, the new Mr. Oddity." he finished.

"Hah! You've gotta be kidding me!" Stan scoffed, amused by the idea of Frog Soos becoming the new owner. "You won't even last a day as the Curator! And that's assuming this place is still standing even after that monster's attack! You don't know what you're doing!"

"Maybe not. But I'll figure something out." Frog Soos replied. "Just like how I figured out how to be a handyman without you showing me the ropes when you first hired me. As a little kid, too!"

The room shook once more.

"Oh! Speaking of which, I gotta go help Gwendy! She's a big part of this too, just like you and me! It won't be the same if anything happens to either her or the museum!"

Frog Soos ran towards the door, intending on going back downstairs to give his fellow coworker a hand. But after he opened the door and had one foot out of the room, he stopped.

"One other thing," he spoke. "About Flipper and Schmabel… They still love and support each other, even after they fought over a bunch of stuff. Some of them you think could've ruin their bond, but they didn't. I think it has to do with them being twins."

He turned his head to look at his boss once again, adopting a sympathetic look on his face.

"Maybe it's the same deal with you and your own twin. You don't actually hate your bro. You just don't know how to talk things through with him. And he probably doesn't hate you too."

Stan stayed silent, opting to simply glare at the large frog instead.

"Then again, what do I know? I'm an only child in my family." Frog Soos shrugged. "I guess I'll chalk it up as just a gut feeling. A good one, I bet."

After he said his peace, he quickly left the attic to join the fight downstairs, leaving Stan alone in what used to be Flipper and Schmabel's room.

Stan stared at the door where Frog Soos disappeared from for a short while, before scoffing and resumed his looting activity.

"Tch! That braindead, oversized lump of junk…" he muttered under his breath. "Just because he's wearing my hat, he acts all high and mighty around here? A bunch of mindless spit, I tell ya…"

He spent a little over a minute putting away objects in his bag until he found that he had obtained everything that he thought he needed in the room. Just when he was about to go to the next room, with what little time he had left, he remembered that there was one other item in there that he nearly overlooked.

He went over to the bed on the right of the room, crouched down and slipped his hand underneath it, trying to grab whatever was under there.

"Come on, dang it…! I'm sure I put away a stash of copper under here somewhere." he said to himself. "Unless that stupid kid found and stole it while they were staying here…"

After blindly reaching his hand around the underside of the bed, he felt his hand finally hitting something.

"Aha!"

With a smirk, he had his hand grab the object and reeled it back in. He looked down at what he seized, expecting a bag of copper.

Instead, he was surprised to see that, in his hand, it was a rather colourful book, filled with stickers all around the front and back cover.

In fact, it was Schmabel's scrapbook.

"What the heck is this doing here?" Stan asked himself, confused by the presence of such a book. "Did that kid forgot it or something?"

He found it hard to believe that such a high-spirited girl like her could have forgotten such an important book full of memories. He wanted to think that her experience in Stony Gulch was so terrible that it was the only explanation as to why she left it behind. Then again, if he knew the little girl well, it was definitely not the case.

When he found himself pondering about it unnecessarily, he thought about putting back where he found it, or even throwing it out the window, since it belonged to one half of the pair of ungrateful brats. However, even as he tried to get the urge to do so, he found himself unable to.

Instead, out of senseless curiosity, he opted to take a look at it himself. See what was on Schmabel's mind.

He sat down on the bed and laid the book on his lap before opening it.

Skimming through the pages, it was pretty much what he had expected from a positively energetic girl like Schmabel. They were filled to the brim with not only stickers, but several pictures taken at various points during last summer, with written words associated to each one representing the girl's thoughts.

Some of them were very typical, like the picture of Schmabel and her friends hanging out, with her writing 'GIRL TIME' or 'ME AND MY BESTIES' or something of the like.

A few of them were taken at points that he was not sure when and how the kid had to the time to take them, such as when they were being chased by a group of giant fireants while fleeing on a cart inside of a mine. He had his eyes on the kids almost the whole time, and setting up a camera takes time. What kind of witchcraft was that?

And nearly half of the book was filled with pictures of her cute and beloved grubhog, Paddles. If he remembered correctly, Schmabel found that grubhog at a fair one day, and she loved him so much that she wanted to keep him as a pet. Of course, Stan was against the idea, finding it a waste of space, but by some dumb luck, he came around to him after they had experienced a life-threatening situation together.

But not all of the pages were happy memories. They were a couple that showed that Schmabel was miserable in some aspects.

For example, she went on a quest to find love, and she found several people that she deemed suitable, based on their looks. But things never worked out with all of them. Some of them were not what they seemed to be, as they turned out to be jerks, creeps, psychotic, or all of the above. Some did not even know that she existed. And the biggest gut punch was that the one person that she had the biggest chemistry out of all of them was married off to someone else. It was clear as day that the pages dedicated to finding love were depressing as heck, with pictures of each of her love interests being crossed out, and there were noticeable dried drop of tears on them.

And a page near the end of the book was simply a picture of Flipper and Schmabel together, but a crack was drawn between them, and the only word written on it was 'Why?' He remembered that Schmabel had some kind of crisis caused by her realizing that Flipper and her were gonna split, because Flipper went and decided that he was going to travel the world. She was an outright wreck for a few days, and it took the twins talking things out together for a long time for her to be back to her usual, joyful self.

Of course, her despondent phase would not have happened if Ford did not put the idea in the boy's head in the first place…

Stan frowned and shook his head, as if he was brought back to reality.

"What in the world am I doing?" he asked himself. "Why am I being nostalgic all of the sudden? It doesn't matter what she thought back then. She hates my guts and that's it…"

He thought about tossing the book aside at last, but since he was nearly at the end of it, he might as well finish looking over the whole thing, regardless of how pointless it would be.

But as he flipped to the last page, something fell off from the book.

"Huh? What's this?"

Looking at the object that fell off and picking it up in his hand, he discovered that it was some kind of a letter. Inspecting the letter allowed him to find out that it was addressed to him. He did not even have to look at the sender's name to know who wrote it, due to the sheer amount of hearts and stars drawn on it.

Shmabel must have written it before she left town.

Even as he racked his head as to why she would bother writing a letter to him in the first place, he already found himself opening it and reading its contents. Perhaps it contained her last thoughts about him.

Dear Frunkle Stan,

HI FRUNKLE STAN! It's me! Your favourite sweater-knitting, love-sharing, cute bundle of joy of a niece in the whole wide world! And I'm giving you one last dose of my special Schmabel goodness in this letter right here, detailing all of my thoughts and feelings! And I'm gonna write lots in it, or at least until I get sugar-crash at some point!

You might be thinking 'why bother writing this letter instead of saying it to my face?' Well, I really did wanna talk to you face-to-face, but, well… You weren't really yourself for the last couple of days, so I couldn't find an opening to do so. So writing a letter to you is my safest bet! And I hope that you find it before Flipper and I leave town to go back home to make it extra emotional!

Ok, I'm gonna crank down the energy just a bit so I can tell you everything without going off the rails. And believe me, I'm trying to fight off the sugar rush just so I don't mess things up here!

Without further ado…

Frunkle Stan… This summer was the best one that Flipper and I had in our whole lives. We've made friends with a lot of folks, like Gwendy and Frog Soos, and met a bunch of great people too. We went through lots of adventures and mysteries together. Lots of memories too. I had a lot of ups and downs, and even though I was super sad at some point, here and there, it's ok because everybody helped me get over it.

And you know what's the huge thing to take from all of this? We got to know you, Frunkle Stan. All the times we shared, and the wacky shenanigans we've gone through, and even the times where we helped you with your schemes and stuff. All of this just make me think that you're the greatest great frog uncle that we ever have. I'm really, really happy that we got to know you this whole summer. And nothing is gonna change that.

I know that you and your brother aren't in best terms right now, and I still don't know why. You kept telling us that your brother is a backstabbing jerk, and the most that Frog Uncle Ford could tell us is that you ruined an incredible opportunity for the family. I might not know the whole story, but don't you think it's time to make up and hug out already? I get the feeling that you two don't actually hate each other, but you're all caught up by what happened in the past. Maybe it's time to start focusing on the present, so that you two can be best friends again. Just like me and Flipper!

Anyway, the important thing is… No matter what anyone says about you, no matter you did in the past that makes people hate you, and that led to where you are now… I know, from the bottom of my heart, that nothing's gonna change the fact that you're my favourite Frunkle Stan. And believe me, I'm really good at figuring out people! … Sometimes.

Whoop! I'm feeling the sugar-crash now! Talk to you later, Frunkle Stan!

Your favourite niece in the whole world,

Schmabel

As Stan finished reading Schmabel's letter, he looked back at the scrapbook on his lap and saw the last page that the letter fell from.

It was the first group picture of the whole gang together. Him, Flipper, Schmabel, Frog Soos, and Gwendy, all smiling at the camera as the picture was taken. A huge heart was drawn around the picture, and the words that Schmabel had written about it was 'THE GREATEST GANG IN THE WHOLE WORLD', accompanied by stars and hearts.

Stan let out a bitter chuckle, as he gripped hard into the letter in his hands.

"Dumb kiddo… Acting like she knows everything about me…" he said. "She wouldn't be saying that if she knew how much I screwed up everything…"

In spite of his chastising his niece for being clueless, it did not change the fact that her letter proved the opposite of what he believed for nearly a year about the twins: Schmabel still loved him. And by extension, maybe Flipper did not hate his guts as well. For once, Frog Soos was onto something.

But… That was nearly a year ago. Things may easily change between then and now. Perhaps they might have learned the true story behind his estrangement from the rest of the family and they would truly cut ties with him. Ford would definitely make sure of that…

Ford…

Stan sighed and moved a hand over his face, as he was forced to remember everything that led to where he is now.

When they were kids, he and Ford were similar to Flipper and Schmabel in a way. He was the cool, tough twin out of the two who does not hesitate to go down and dirty when the situation calls for it. Ford was the smartest and the nerdiest of them, with a fascination for mysteries and anything strange. They always had each other's back, with Stan protecting Ford from anything that would push the latter down, and Ford in turn helping Stan to move on up in the world.

They once shared a dream to sail beyond the land of Amphibia to discover the unknown, where untold riches and mysteries awaited. They even built a boat over the years in preparation for that fateful day. Whenever the two of them were together, nothing could stand in their way.

But as they grew up, and Ford became more intelligent, it did not take long before he was scouted out by the scholars from the most prestige school in Newtopia. They heard so much about his achievements that they were willing to send an admission team to evaluate him and the project that he was working on at that time. If he succeeded in impressing them, he would be accepted into the school and moved to Newtopia.

But that would meant that Stan would be left behind to fend for himself. Without Ford, Stan could barely scrap by. And that scared him.

Even as he tried to convince himself that it probably would never happen, Ford proved to him that he was willing to attend the biggest school in all of the land to pursue his aspirations. Like their dream of sailing the world was never a thing for him.

Never he would have thought that they will come a time that the twins would split up. And he never would have thought that it would be that soon. And the worst of all, Ford was completely fine with it.

He could not understand why. They were a dynamic duo since birth. They had each other's backs. Neither of them would be able to survive through life without the other. He understood that. And yet, Ford acted like he did not need him anymore, like he was perfectly willing to ditch him.

In his anger and confusion, Stan inadvertently sabotaged Ford's project. And as a result, Ford was rejected from attending the school.

It did not take long for Ford to figure out Stan's role in this, and once their whole family caught wind of it, they were quick to disown Stan for destroying their once-in-a-lifetime chance at being successful. Even Ford turned his back on him.

In his desire to keep him and Ford together, he ended up becoming the cause of the twins splitting up.

In fact, it was not all that different from Flipper and Schmabel, when the latter became incredibly depressed once the possibility of the two of them splitting up dawned on her. The biggest difference was that the two kids made up, in the end.

Stan looked up and around the room that he was in. Or more specifically, in the building known to the people as the Curiosity Hut.

The museum came to be when Stan was at the end of his rope. He came across Stony Gulch one day and sought out shelter at a seemingly abandoned wooden house. The house had a bunch of assorted items still, and he had the idea of pawning those items off to the local pawnbroker. His mind was so scattered from tiredness and desperation that he thought up the idea of combining two items into one in hopes that they would be worth more than when they were separated.

It did not work out, of course.

But by a stroke of luck, his amalgamation of the objects attracted the attention of the townsfolk who were fascinated by such odd contraption, to the point where they were willing to purchase the strange object off of his hands.

It was then that an opportunity presented itself to him. If those gullible fools were willing to throw money at him, why not capitalize on their intrigue?

And so, he created the Curiosity Hut, born from his efforts of combining several articles into strange oddities whose existence eluded the common folk, and also born from him having to twist a bit of ethical laws and break some rules to make a product worthy for its oddity.

For the first time since he was left alone, Stan was able to form a successful business on his own. If he kept things up, he would be set for life.

And then, he received an unexpected message from his little sister's child, asking him to look after their twin daughter and son for the summer, being Schmabel and Flipper.

Being contacted by a family member was the last thing that he was expecting. How in the world did his little sister's kid managed to find where he was? And more importantly, why did they ask him to take care of their kids? Why not other people, or even Ford?

Did they even know what he did in the past?

Regardless of the reasoning, he wanted to decline their request, as he felt that he no longer wanted to deal with family. Not after they ditched him a long time ago.

But against his better judgement, he found himself agreeing to take care of his great nephew and niece.

When Flipper and Schmabel first came to Stony Gulch, he was not sure what to think of them. He found Flipper to be a nerdy, scrawny little kid who always stuck his nose in books, while Schmabel seemed like a real piece of work, considering the energy that she kept giving out. He thought that he would be annoyed by them for the whole summer.

But as time went by, they somehow became closer and closer to one another. Partly because they were always dragged into some strange adventures and stuff. And partly because they were always trying to help each other's issues in some way.

He thought it impossible, but for the first time in a long while, he finally felt like he had a family. Flipper and Schmabel managed to bring back what he had lost. He was important to them, just as they were important to him. He was truly content with what they had going with them.

And then… Ford suddenly showed up in his life again. He came to Stony Gulch seemingly at the request of Flipper and Schmabel's parents.

Putting aside the fact that it was the first time in a long while that he had seen Ford, his twin brother changed quite a bit. Still a huge nerd as he was when they were young, Ford had become a researcher of all things odd and mysterious in the world. In fact, he had just returned from one of his many expeditions when the twins' parents contacted him.

Admittedly, he was scared when he first saw Ford, unsure what to do and say to him. Was Ford still angry at him for dragging his future into the mud? A grudge can last a long time, after all.

But if he was able to connect with Flipper and Schmabel, perhaps he might be able to reconnect with his twin brother as well, mending their broken bond. He was convinced that it was not too late for them to be a family again.

However… Things did not worked out as he had hoped.

During all of their conversations at the start, Ford kept talking about what he was doing since they split up. He talked about how he attended an unremarkable school where he had to work twice as hard for his efforts to be noticed by the bigwigs, and when he succeeded on that front, he dedicated all of his efforts into researching the oddities that plagued the land. He recounted a few of the expeditions that he went through, elaborating on some that he found most fascinating, and showed him a few artifacts that he deemed most interesting.

He never talked about what happened between them the last time they saw each other, or even reminiscing their time together growing up.

And worst of all, he never bothered to ask Stan how he was doing.

The resentment that Stan had when Ford abandoned him resurfaced itself, leading him to blow up at his brother. Ford responded in kind, finally talking about how Stan tried to ruin his life, and from the looks of things, his own as well. The twin brothers were bickering among themselves, which lasted until Ford left with Flipper and Schmabel.

Ford's reappearance was the catalyst that led Stan to change his approach on how he wanted the museum to go. Jealous of his brother's accomplishments, he sought to one-up him by finding the most oddest creatures that the land had to offer himself, and put them into display for everyone to see. Once he had his hands on wax, he got the idea of using it to freeze the strange creatures solid so that they looked like any ordinary statue, with no one in town all the wiser.

It was a huge hit with tourists who were led to the museum out of morbid curiosity, and they threw lots of money in his way to show their appreciation. But at the same time, the local townsfolk became creeped out by how the museum eventually became, opting to steer clear away from it. But how cares what those fools think? Money was all that mattered to him.

And once he had enough, he would expand his business across the region, and once he reached that financial milestone, he would move on to the entire land itself. The Curiosity Hut would be the most famous museum in all of Amphibia, and he would become the most powerful man in the world of business. He was perfectly willing to cross several lines to achieve that goal.

All so that he can rub it in his entire family's face. Especially his backstabbing, insensitive, self-absorbing twin broth-

"… Who am I kidding?" Stan sighed, cutting his thoughts short. "Of course I wasn't trying to prove that I'm better than him…"

He lowered his head down to his open palms, as his true feelings set in. Only he knew the true reason behind his own actions.

The reason why he did all of that, why he made the museum as it was, why he went to all of those lengths to ensure the museum's success… It was never to get back at Ford. Or any of his family.

It was because he was scared. Scared of being considered the weakest member of the family. Of being incapable of surviving without his twin brother's support. Of being unreliable in the minds of his nephew and niece.

Of being the ultimate loser.

That was it. His motives were all born from fear.

Once he came into terms with it, he lifted his head up and adopted a horrified expression on his face.

"Dear frog… What have I become?" he asked himself, becoming fully conscious of his actions. "I turned the museum into a horror house, filled with monsters that could break out at any moment. And I was this close into turning that odd, innocent girl into…"

He wondered what led him to try and turn that freaky girl into the museum's biggest attraction. Was it greed that motivated him? Or perhaps he was jealous of how strong her bond with her family was, despite not being blood-related. He could not remember the exact reason.

Regardless, he almost crossed the one line that he swore never to approach in his entire life.

"… I really am the biggest disappointment in my family…" he said despondently. "No wonder Ford was acting cold towards me… Everything is my fault… No one wants a screwup like me… Not even the kids…"

The room shook violently once again, reminding him that the monster was still making a mess downstairs. However, his desire to escape the museum had diminished. He resigned himself to fall into ruin alongside the whole building, assuming that the Gill-Behemoth manages to destroy the museum in the process.

He had his eyes glued to the floor, unwilling to look away under the weight of his terrible actions…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

He snapped out of his depressive state when he heard something knocking. He turned his head towards the door, wondering if someone was trying to get in.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Then he heard the same sound, except it was never coming from the door at all. Shifting his sight towards the opposite direction, he was met with the sight of a mosquito messenger knocking its head against the glass-stained window.

"What the… What's this thing doing here this late at night?" he asked himself.

The mosquito messenger continued to knock against the window, trying to get itself in.

With a groan, he begrudgingly stood up from the bed and walked towards the window, opening it to allow the mosquito in.

"What do you want, you stupid mosquito?" he asked it in irritation. "I'm not in the mood to deal with whatever your business is with me! If you're one of those trying to get a tip from me, forget about it! My blood ain't yours to feed on all willy nilly!"

The mosquito messenger merely responded by buzzing.

Stan growled, as he had no patience to deal with it. Looking over the mosquito, he noticed that it was holding a letter in its long mouth.

"Grr… Okay, fine! What do you have here?"

Stan snatched the letter from the mosquito's hold and opened it up to read its contents. He assumed that it came from a business associate, since he had several letters coming from a whole bunch of people that he had no interest in partnering with.

But when he read the letter, he widened his eyes in shock, as he learned what the letter was about.

It was then that Stan Ponds had decided his next course of action.

End of Chapter

Hey, everyone. HiddenKurogawa here to talk to you about stuff related to the creation of the latest chapter and other things as well.

First off, I'm really, really, really sorry that it took me this long to write the chapter. I had a huge writer's block these past few months, caused by a few things. The most common cause was that I had a lot of IRL stuff to sort out, so I didn't really had enough free time on my hands. But the biggest one is that, while looking over the Gravity Falls arc, I realized that I hit a roadblock in terms of how I want to present Stan Ponds as an in-depth character. Before I wrote the arc, I already had an idea on how I wanted to portray Stan compared to how he is in the source material. But as I put into words his characterization and motivations, I realized that it wasn't really working as well as I had hoped. So knowing that it wasn't going the way that I want initially, I felt incredibly drained. It was only recently that I started to get back into it, but even then, what I wrote about Stan so far is haphazard at best. Or so I believe, anyway. I hope that I didn't screw up his characterization.

Second, I apologize for the huge amount of exposition that took up more than half of the chapter. I was planning on actually finishing the arc with this chapter, until I notice just how much I wrote it. I thought that it would be better to cut it short and save the rest for later. Again, I'm sorry about the exposition-heavy chapter. But I assure you that the next chapter will be full of action.

Lastly, as I promised to you last chapter, here's the title of the last chapter using the Caesar cipher with a shift of -3 or +23:

Wounded Heart Mended by Wax

As I mentioned before, that's the last time that I'm using ciphers for the chapter titles going forward.

That's all from me. Thank you for waiting patiently for the story to be updated, even when I'm not at my best. As always, feel free to comment, criticize, follow and/or fave this fanfic, though I would appreciate these very much. Until next time.