Chapter 11:

Rule Breakers

Sprig and Anne were laughing and running through the Ruins of Despair, having successfully tricked Hop Pop into stopping in the middle of the area to allow the two humans to go on a quick bathroom break, or so he was lead to believe. Without their grandfather and his ridiculous road rules chaining them down, at least for a good while, they were free to explore the ruins to their hearts' content.

They eventually stopped at one of the large forts that they chose to go to, standing in front of its mouth-like gate.

"Okay, Sprig." Anne spoke to her friend. "We've got a little bit of time to ourselves before Hop Pop figures out what we're actually doing. So we're gonna have to make every second count."

"You got it, Anne!" Sprig gave her a thumbs-up. "So what should we do first?"

"I've got an idea." she replied. "We should start with taking a few quick selfies in front of this building."

"Sounds like a plan!"

The two humans quickly positioned themselves at the gate, leaning their backs against it. Anne pulled out her smartphone, activated its camera app and aimed it towards both of them, making sure to position it properly so that her and Sprig, as well as a large part of the fort's gate, were within frame.

"Okay! Smile!"

The two humans formed a large grin right before Anne took the shot, with the flash serving as proof of the photo being taken at that very moment.

The brown-haired girl pulled her phone back, as she and the orange-haired boy took a look at the picture.

"Nice, Anne!" Sprig complimented her.

"Appreciate it, buddy!" Anne said. "Let's take another picture. This time, let's go for a cooler look."

As Anne aimed her phone at both of them once more, she adopted a look where she pursed her lips a bit and her free hand formed a pistol pointing at the camera. Sprig followed her lead by pursing his lips as well and crossing his arms over his chest.

They both leaned their backs a bit harder against the gate.

A flash from the camera immediately occurred afterwards, and Anne pulled her phone back once more.

"We're looking pretty sweet here!" Sprig commented on their cool shot.

"You got that right!" Anne concurred. "One more! We're going free-styling for this one!"

"Gotcha!"

For the third shot, Anne stuck her tongue out and was winking at the camera, while her hand formed a peace sign. Sprig's lips formed a wide grin, as he gave the camera two thumbs-up.

They pressed their backs even further against the gate…

FFRRM!

… And from the phone screen, they saw that the gate behind them just slid open.

"… Sprig?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me, or does it look like the door just opened behind us?"

Sprig moved his hand behind him to try and see if he could feel something, but came up with nothing as a result.

"… I checked and yeah, the door really did open behind us."

"Ok, cool. Glad that I wasn't seeing things."

"… We're gonna fall, aren't we?"

"Oh yeah."

Sprig and Anne both screamed as they fell through the opened gate, sliding down the slope leading to the inside of the fort.

Meanwhile, at the fwagon, Hop Pop was waiting impatiently for the two humans to return from their break, as he drummed his fingers against the cushion of the bench. He mentally counted the amount of seconds passed that they've been gone, and he had reached the five-minute mark.

"… Frog dangit!" Hop Pop cursed, having realized that he had been played. "Those no-good, disrespectful little kids… The one time that I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, they went and took advantage of it!"

The roof hatch flipped open, and Polly jumped out from there, letting out a yawn as she had just woke up from her slumber. "Mm… Morning, Hop Pop." she groggily said. She looked at her surroundings and noticed that the fwagon was not moving. "Hey, why did we stop? And where's Anne and Sprig?"

"They're supposed to be back from their bathroom break minutes ago." Hop Pop replied. "But knowing them, they're most likely off exploring the Ruins of Despair despite me warning them against it!"

His response removed all of the grogginess that Polly had from her sleep. "You mean they went on an adventure without me?! While I was asleep?! Curse you, Aoshima!"

"Polly, watch Bessie and the fwagon for me and stay where you are!" Hop Pop ordered, as he jumped off the fwagon with the rule book in hand. "I'm going to find those two and get to the bottom of this!"

"Okay, Hop Pop!"

The elderly frog then marched into the ruins by himself, spouting out curses and mumbling how he was going to give the two humans an earful when he gets his hands on them.

As soon as her grandfather disappeared from her sights, realizing that she was on her own without any supervision, she let out a mischievous smile. She then hopped on top of Bessie's head and whispered into the family snail's ears.

"Hey, Bessie. You wanna drive faster than a june bug can fly?" she asked.

Bessie happily chirped.

"AAAAAAAHHH!"

Sprig and Anne continued to fall down the slope which was taking them further and further down the interior of the ruins. After about half a minute of sliding down, they finally reached an even floor, where they rolled a couple of feet forward before stopping.

"Ow…! That smarts…!" Sprig groaned as he picked himself up on his hands and knees with his eyes shut, rubbing a sore spot on the back of his head. "Are you okay, Anne?"

"Y-yeah, I think so…" He heard Anne replying to him from the front. "Uh… Sprig?"

When he opened his eyes, expecting to see the cold floor underneath him, he was instead met with the sight of his best friend lying on her back below him. From there, he realized that they had fallen into one another when they reached the even floor, and he found himself straddling on top of Anne.

Both of them stared at each other for a short while, as they had difficulty processing the very awkward position that they found themselves in.

"Uh, sorry! Sorry!" Sprig quickly apologized, as he got off of Anne before things became too awkward. "I didn't mean to crash into you like this!"

"It's cool, dude. Don't sweat it." Anne reassured him, as she understood that it was all involuntary on both of their parts.

After Sprig helped Anne by pulling her up from the floor, the two of them looked around the underground interior of the fort, to see what was waiting for them down there. For the first time in their whole lives, or in Anne's case, since she had been in Amphibia, they bared witness to a room that was not like anything that they had seen before.

The room was filled with machines of advanced technology. There were computers located in certain areas. There was a conveyor belt that extended through a large hole leading to a different section of the underground space. Various of similar-looking machines connected by cables were stationed all over the place, with some of them having some sort of rods mounted onto them.

And the most prominent machine of them all was one that is very large compared to everything else. It even resembled a frog, just like with the fort outside. A symbol of a frog's foot can be found on its chest.

Despite its advanced technological designs, it looked like the chamber was ancient and had been out of use for centuries, as evident of plants, roots and moss growing throughout the area, with broken, rusted machine parts laying around the floor, and even the local wildlife taking up territory in some parts of the room.

"What is all of this…?" asked the astonished Sprig.

"I don't know…" Anne replied, sharing the same feeling as her friend. "But this is weird. I thought that you guys are pastoral or whatever. This place has computers, machines and all of that futuristic junk."

"I dunno what any of that means, but you know what I'm gonna do?"

"What?"

The eager, smiling boy raised his hands up and made a grabbing motion with them, his eyes gleaming with wonder. "I'm gonna touch everything!"

He then proceeded to zip from one spot to the next, laughing and touching everything that the room had to offer and appreciating its slick and unfamiliar design and materials. For the first time during the whole trip, he could finally experience the unknown adventure that he was seeking out from the very beginning.

Anne smiled from seeing the orange-haired boy having the time of his life. He desperately needed it. It was a good thing that they came up with an excuse to explore the outside world without their grandfather dictating what they should and should not do.

Then she remembered that they might have been out for too long, more than enough for Hop Pop to realize that something was amiss.

"Sorry, Sprig, but can you hurry up and be done with your touch fest?" she said. "We need to get back before Hop Pop gets suspicious and tries to find us!"

"AAAAAHHH!"

As if on cue, the elderly frog made his appearance by screaming while sliding down the slope leading to the underground chamber before crashing to the floor below.

"… Too late."

Hop Pop groaned as he stood up from the floor after his fall. When his eyes caught the sight of the two humans who both turned to him after his sudden appearance, he was filled with anger.

"I knew that I would find you ungrateful kids in this frog-forsaken place!" he yelled. "Not only did you trick your grandpa with an excuse like 'going peeing like a human would,' but you also broke several rules getting here! Want to know how many? Exactly enough to get yourself killed ten times over!"

"Are you kidding me, Hop Pop?" Sprig said, as he became more and more ticked-off by Hop Pop's insistence in following his rules. "The only thing that is close to killing me with boredom is your stupid rules!"

"And what does that suppose to mean?"

"Take a look around you!" Sprig exclaimed as he spread his arms wide, showing Hop Pop the amazing, futuristic look of the underground chamber. "This place is awesome! This is exactly what this trip desperately needs to make it a memorable experience! If only you didn't enforce your rules to everything and make this trip so forgettable that we had to ask what's the point!"

"You know that I wrote the rules to keep us safe! What you're saying is a bunch of malarkey!" Hop Pop retorted.

"Right back at you, Hop Pop!" Sprig yelled. "Can't you appreciate everything wonderful about this place? The cool atmosphere. The implied historical significance…"

Sprig turned around to look at the large, frog-like machine behind him, and while he was inspecting the machine with his eyes, he became drawn by one part of it that fuelled his curiosity to the fullest.

"… Levers." He let out a sly smile, pointing at the lever located between the eyes of the frog machine.

"Don't you dare!" Hop Pop warned him. "Rule number 68: 'Never, ever pull a lever!'"

The annoyed Sprig threw a fierce glare at his grandfather. "Hop Pop… You know how much I love pulling levers."

"That's why I wrote it. Because no good will come from your lever-pulling tendencies." Hop Pop glared back.

That was the last straw for Sprig.

"… I'm gonna pull it." The boy began to climb up the frog machine.

"I'm warning you, boy! Don't you pull that lever!"

"I'm gonna pull the lever." The boy stood up next to the lever after his climb.

"Sprig," The worried Anne spoke. "Hate to be a downer after everything we've gone through, but maybe he has a point with this one. Can you not pull the lever this time?"

"I'ma do it." The boy placed his hand on the lever, fully intending to pull it down.

"If you dare to pull even an inch of that lever," Hop Pop warned him for the last time. "You're going to be in so much-!"

Sprig pulled the lever down.

Anne and Hop Pop quickly protected themselves with the arms and the rule book respectively from whatever might come in their way as a result.

However, they soon lowered their guard when they realized nothing happened, after a moment had passed.

Sprig looked around himself to see if anything had changed when he pulled the lever. So far, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. So in his own conclusion, the lever did not trigger anything life-threatening. And it was a good opportunity for him to rub it in Hop Pop's face.

"Well, look at that. I broke rule number 68, and we're all still alive." Sprig smugly said, as he hopped off the frog machine to rejoin Anne and Hop Pop on the floor. "See? I told you that your rules are stupid. Not to mention unnecessary."

"You think that you can get off that easy just because that lever happened to not do a dang thing?" Hop Pop angrily said. "You wouldn't be smiling if it happened otherwise!"

"Whatever. The point is, you're completely wrong about everything, Hop Pop." The orange-haired boy bent down to confront his grandfather face-to-face, taking advantage of his taller human form to make himself seem superior while the smug look on his face still remained. "Maybe it's time for you to start thinking where you went wrong instead of scolding me just because I happened to prove you wro-"

"Guys?" Anne interrupted him, as she pointed at the face of the frog machine. "The lever just went inside of the machine."

Both Sprig and Hop Pop looked at what the human girl was pointing and noticed that the lever had disappeared.

As soon as they took notice of that, the room around them began to shake and illuminate in a blue light. Specifically, the eyes and the frog foot symbol of the large machine began to glow, as do the circular symbols surrounding it and some of the other machines. The illuminated chamber also revealed that there were windows along the walls, showing a hallway where the rest of the conveyor belt can be found, alongside many other machinery.

Steam came out from the back of the large machine's head, as it opened its mouth to reveal a large computer behind it, with the screen showing various schematics.

"Start-up engaged." A robotic, female voice was heard all around the chamber, surprising everyone.

"Whoa! The building can talk!" Sprig exclaimed, at first showing amazement at discovering something new and unbelievable, before he immediately dropped it when he considered the implications. "Um… Starting to have a bad feeling about this, though."

"Assembly line activated. Routine protocols engaged."

"Assembly line?" Anne repeated the robotic voice's words.

She then noticed that the conveyor belt had began to move, and through the windows around them, she saw that objects had been placed on the conveyor belt and moved along the path, where various machinery worked on the each individual material once it entered their work section.

"Guys, I think this is a factory." Anne said, full recognizing the chamber to be the case. "But what the heck is it making?"

"Wow! It is mighty impressive." Hop Pop said, as he watched the machine doing its work.

"Additional materials required." announced the voice. "Please place them on the glowing access point."

"Glowing access point?" Sprig repeated its words. "Huh. I wonder what that is."

"Uh… Sprig?" Anne pointed at what was below him.

When he followed where she was pointing, he noticed that a blue circle was glowing beneath his feet. Suddenly, metal binds captured his feet, preventing him from moving from that spot.

"Wait, what's going on?" Sprig asked worryingly.

Before he could get an answer, the floor below him immediately dropped down, pulling him along as he yelped.

"Sprig!" Anne and Hop Pop shouted his name. The hole where the boy disappeared into closed up before the two of them could even make a move.

A moment later, Sprig popped out in the assembly line chamber with the conveyor belt and other machinery. He was then being moved along the belt's path through the hallway, his feet still bound by the metal binds.

"Uh, guys? A little bit of help, please?" Sprig said as he tried to pull his feet from the binds to no avail. "I don't like where this is going!"

"What did I tell you!" Hop Pop shouted with vindication. "I said that you wouldn't be smiling if anything happened, and this is exactly the kind of situation that you're in!"

"Hop Pop, now's not the time to rub it in his face!" Anne said.

"She's got a point!" Sprig anxiously agreed. "I-I'm looking at what's waiting for me over there and, uh… It's not looking good!"

Along the belt's path, there was a pair of mechanical arms with some sort of cannon mounted on top of them aiming at whatever comes within their sights. Seeing the cannon-looking machines was worrying enough, but what alarmed the boy the most was what was waiting for him far along the path:

A large device that crushes anything that stood in its path.

"Don't worry, Sprig! We're getting you outta here!" Anne shouted. "Hop Pop, you go and get to him! I'll get to the computer up there and shut this whole thing down!"

"Do you know how to work this contraption?" Hop Pop asked.

"Nope." she replied with blunt honesty. "But if it's anything like surfing through the web or play video games, turning the factory off should be a snap! … I think."

"That's not reassuring to hear."

"Let's just go already!"

Both Anne and Hop Pop split up to perform their respective task, the former getting to the computer on top of the large frog machine, and the latter getting to his grandson by entering the assembly line chamber through the entryway.

Sprig, meanwhile, was still trying to liberate his feet from the metal binds. But no matter how much he tried to pull, the binds never budged an inch. And he was not keen on pulling even harder and risking tearing his ankles in the process.

"Grrr! Let go of my feet already, you stupid thing!" he shouted.

His focus on trying to free himself got interrupted when the conveyor belt suddenly stopped. Wondering why it stopped, he looked around to see that he was standing within the cannon-like machines' sight, their nozzles aiming at the boy.

He tried to protect himself by holding his arms up, expecting something painful like lava or acid shooting from the cannons. However, he was caught by surprise when the machines instead shot jets of water, soaking him from head to toe on all sides.

After a few seconds, the machines stopped spraying him with water, giving him time to wipe his face with his hands and spit out some of the water that went in his mouth.

"Pew… Okay, that wasn't so bad." Sprig said, relieved that what he had just experienced was harmless.

As if to toy with him, the machines resumed their act of shooting water at him, this time directly in his face.

"Hang on, Sprig!" Hop Pop shouted from way behind the boy, as he hopped across the conveyor belt and leaping as far as his old legs could take him. "Hop Pop is coming for you!"

Back in the main chamber, Anne managed to climb up the frog machine and found herself standing in front of the large computer.

"Okay, Anne!" she began to psych herself up, stretching her fingers out as she prepared to tackle the computer. "Time to show them your internet web surfing ski…"

She trailed off the moment that she looked down at the keyboard panel.

The panel contained several, unlabelled buttons each serving different functions, a few circular meters which calculated something, and the keys, the basic aspects of a keyboard, each had symbols that seemed ancient and foreign to the human girl.

"… You know, in hindsight, I probably should've expected this." she noted.

"If you wish to cancel the operation, please insert new disk." instructed the computer voice.

A slot located below the screen opened up, as if it was waiting for a disk to be inserted inside, just as the computer said.

"Disk? What the heck is a disk?!" The perplexed Anne asked both the computer and herself, having been born in an age where digital media became the norm.

Meanwhile, back in the assembly line chamber, the water pistol machines ceased their function after several sessions of soaking the boy with water.

Sprig spat out more water from his mouth, as he wiped his face off for the umpteenth time. "Okay… It stopped being fun after a while…"

Just when he was expecting no more surprises, the panel beneath him suddenly flipped forward, bringing his back against it. Another set of metal binds seized his wrists. Then the panel spun itself around with the screaming boy still bound to it, presumably to dry him off. Once the panel stopped, it reinstalled itself to the conveyor belt before the belt's movement resumed, leaving the boy with his senses scrambled while staring at the ceiling.

"Urgh…! I think I'm gonna barf…!" he moaned.

"Sprig!"

Hop Pop managed to reach the boy, landing next to his lying body.

"Hop Pop!" Sprig exclaimed, relieved to see his grandfather coming for his aid. "Oh man, I'm glad that you got here just in time! Can you get these things off of me?"

"In a second, boy!" Hop Pop said, crossing his arms as he stared down at his grandson with a look on his face that spelled 'I told your so.' "See the kind of mess that you put yourself in? This is why we follow the rules!"

"Is this really the time to be talking about this?!" Sprig shouted, straining against the binds on his hands and feet.

"I warned you that no good will come from your lever-pulling tendencies, hence why I wrote rule number 68 in this dang book in the first place! Here's hoping that this whole thing serves as a wake-up call for your rebellious attitude, otherwise you and I are going to be spending a whole day talking about the importance of following the-!"

"Hop Pop, get me outta here before we get crushed by that huge thing over there!" the boy cried as he pointed with his face the large device coming in their way.

Hop Pop turned his head and saw for himself the machine that Sprig was talking about, stomping down in full force against the conveyor belt in a repeated fashion. With the situation looking very dire, he decided to save his scolding for later and to focus on freeing his grandson.

"Right! I'm on it!" he said as he got down on his knees and began to fiddle with one of metal binds on Sprig's wrists. "D'oh…! How do you open up this blasted thing?"

Back to Anne and her struggle against the computer and its complex controls…

"Okay… Calm down and think this through, Anne…" The brown-haired girl took a deep breath. "Remember how Marcy does it when she programmed stuff in her computer… Try and copy her ways and everything should be fine… I hope."

She looked down at the control panel once more. After a few seconds of mentally encouraging herself, she placed her hands on the keyboard and pressed a series of keys out of random. Afterwards, the moment she thought that she might have done it…

"Security violation detected." said the computer, as the screen flashed red.

The frog machine suddenly shook for an instance, and a giant pair of robotic arms rose up from each side. Its glowing, red eyes glared down at the intruder standing in front of its face, after she failed to try to infiltrate its system.

"Oh geez."

The giant machine slammed its hands down in an attempt to flatten the human girl. Anne quickly dodged out of the way of its attack. It lifted its hands up and proceeded to perform the same attack as before, and just like last time, Anne managed to evade it.

When its initial attempt failed, a giant circular saw held by a robotic arm emerged out from the slot between the giant machine's eyes, spinning dangerously as it was raised up before diving down towards Anne.

"Whoa!" Anne narrowly avoided the saw by jumping to the side. "Who the heck programmed this deathtrap in the first place?! All of this because I got it wrong just once?!"

Meanwhile, Hop Pop was still working on undoing the binds on Sprig's wrists. Since his hands failed to do the job, he resorted to bashing his rule book against the binds, hoping to damage them just enough to break them open.

"I think you're gonna end up breaking my hands before you can break these things, Hop Pop!" shouted the worried Sprig.

"Hang on just a little longer, boy!" Hop Pop said, as he slammed his book against the metal bind once more. "I think I almost got it!"

As he raised the book once more for another go at breaking the binds, a shadow suddenly loomed over the two of them. Sprig looked up in horror, while Hop Pop raised his head up and was met with the sight of the flat bottom of the crushing machine above their heads.

The device dropped itself down towards the boy and the elderly man, as the latter screamed, and the former could only watch helplessly.

… For a split second, sparks of electricity suddenly formed around Sprig's wrists. The metal binds snapped open as a result.

Quickly realizing that his hands were free, Sprig immediately sat up and stopped the flattening machine's descent by pressing his hands up against it.

Hop Pop looked at the boy with shock, as he did not realize that he was that close to breaking Sprig's hands free. However, he remembered that he only worked on one metal bind, and not the other. So how come both binds had opened up?

He was taken out of his thoughts when he saw that Sprig was struggling against the crushing device, his body slowly lowering under its artificial force. The elderly frog lend him a hand by pushing his arms against the machine alongside him, hoping that their combined strength would be enough to stop it completely.

It turned out not to be the case. The flattening machine's power proved to be too much for both Sprig and Hop Pop to handle. They found themselves slowly being pushed down by the machine, and no amount of power that they could muster could turn the tide.

"I… I can't… keep this up…!" Sprig groaned.

"ANNE!" Hop Pop screamed the human girl's name.

After dodging another saw attack, Anne quickly turned to where Sprig and Hop Pop were and looked in horror at the sight of them slowly being crushed.

"SPRIG! HOP POP!"

Left with very little time left to save them, Anne charged back towards the control panel, slipping and sliding past the frog machine's hands and saw as they came in her way. As soon as she reached the board, she pressed several keys and buttons in panic in attempt to find whatever to stop the whole operation.

"Insert disk."

"Come on! Don't give me that crud!" Anne yelled as she kept typing away on the keyboard. "Sprig and Hop Pop's lives are on the line! Just stop!"

"Insert disk. Insert disk. Insert disk."

Anne's stress reached the breaking point, from the combination of seeing Sprig and Hop Pop just seconds away from becoming pancakes, and the computer repeating the same instructions over and over.

"RAAAAAAAHHH!" she screamed, pulling out her tennis racket in her hands. "SCREW THIS!"

As a last resort, she struck hard against the control panel several times, sending bits and pieces flying in the process. She then shifted her target towards the computer screen, where she gave it the same treatment as with the board. Then she switched back and forth between the two.

"Bzzzt! Error! Error! Bzzzt!"

The broken computer screen started going into a frizz, as smoke and electricity emerged from several busted parts of the computer.

Just as Sprig and Hop Pop were about to collapse under the weight of the flattening machine, the large device stopped moving. And the remaining metal binds unlatched themselves from Sprig's feet.

"Hey! I'm free!" Sprig exclaimed, as he and Hop Pop quickly dropped off the conveyor belt.

"Anne! Sprig's alright over here!" Hop Pop shouted to the Thai-American girl, waving his arms around to have her notice them.

Anne was panting after she bashed her racket against the computer one last time, when Hop Pop called out to her. Gazing over to where the two of them were, Anne was relieved to see both of them safe and sound. "Oh thank frog!"

BOOM!

An explosion occurred in the corner of the main chamber. The whole room started to shake, as smoke and electricity began to form all around it. It seemed that Anne's relentless assault on the computer caused everything to blow up around them.

"Oh boy! Time to go, fam!" Anne said, as she dropped down from the frog machine and ran for the exit.

Sprig and Hop Pop followed suit, running behind the human girl as they fled the exploding factory, dodging past the debris falling from the ceiling.

The trio ran as fast as they could, and before they know it, they managed to get past the the fort's entrance and reached the outside grounds.

Seeing the greenery around them and the Sun still shining down on them, Sprig and Anne both cheered, as they raised their fists up.

"Woo! We did it!" Sprig said.

"Heck yeah, we did!" Anne shouted. "And it was a close call too!"

"What are you kids doing?!" Hop Pop yelled at the two humans, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Did you forget about road rule number 2?! 'Don't celebrate till you're completely out of-!'"

BOOOOOOM!

The fort behind them exploded. The blast wave sent Anne, Sprig and Hop Pop flying away before they fell down on their tails several feet away from the explosion.

"'… danger.'" Hop Pop finished, covered in ash, along with Sprig and Anne.

The trio took a moment to recuperate from that life-threatening experience before they stood up from the ground and turned around to look at what remained of the factory, which became a huge flame that swallowed everything from the inside and out, surrounded by several debris.

"Well," Sprig spoke. "That was a thing."

"Yeah." Anne nodded. "You know, after everything is said and done, I'm still left wondering what that factory was making in the first place."

"I know that feeling. I guess we'll never know, huh?"

"Yep."

The group continued to watch the flames where the fort used to be, the mystery of its true purpose remained unsolved despite their discovery.

Sprig stretched his arms up and dusted off the ash from his skin and clothes, smiling as he felt satisfied with what he had experienced. "Welp! Another day in the life of the Plantars, I guess! Here's hoping that we get to go through something like that the next day!"

"Are… you… SERIOUS?!" Hop Pop suddenly yelled at the boy, startling him. "Did you just forget that you almost got killed in there, Sprig?! All because you went and pulled that lever?!"

"Well, sure, it was pretty scary back there, not gonna lie." Sprig said. "But it's not like we haven't gone through something like that back in the valley."

"Back in the…! This isn't like in the valley!" Hop Pop took a couple step towards the boy, closing the distance as he glared at him. "Back there, you had the advantage of being familiar of the area since you were born! This is a completely new territory! There are new, unfamiliar dangers lurking around every corner!"

"I know, but that's what make this exciting!" Sprig shouted back. "There's a whole new world waiting for us out here! New opportunities to learn! You'd be crazy to think that we should sit out during this whole trip and not get some hands-on experience of what the world has to offer! That's just lame!"

"Of course it's lame! But it also helps with keeping ourselves safe!"

"Are you for real, Hop Pop?! You're just gonna pretend that you didn't feel any thrill back there?!"

"Hey, guys," Anne tried to step in between the two, seeing that their arguments were beginning to escalate. "How about we just calm down for a second and hear each other out in a civilized matter?"

They both ignored the Thai-American girl.

"What the heck is your deal, Hop Pop?!" Sprig asked. "Why are you so obsessed with keeping us safe?! You didn't have that problem back in the valley! So what gives?!"

"I told you already! The outside world is even more dangerous than anything that you have experienced back home!" Hop Pop replied. "How much more can I say to you until it's jammed right into your skull?!"

"We're not stupid kids! We know what we're doing! We can handle any kinds of danger!"

"You don't know what you're saying!"

"And it sounds like you don't have a clue about what we want!"

"Guys, seriously!" The worried human girl tried another attempt at easing the tension between the two. "This is getting too much! Just calm down already!"

She was ignored once more.

"I'm going to tell you just this once, Sprig!" Hop Pop said. "If you value your life, you need to follow the rules! It's for your own good!"

"Aaargh! Again with the rules!" Sprig growled. "You care more about your stupid rules than you care about us!"

"I do care more about you kids! I wrote the rules to protect you!"

"Even if it's suffocating for us?!"

"If it means that you'll be safe!"

"Why are you being such a butt about all of this?!"

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO LOSE ANY MORE FAMILY!"

Atmosphere around them became silent.

Sprig and Anne looked at their grandfather with wide, shocked eyes from hearing the true reason behind his over-controlling nature.

Hop Pop lowered his head down and shut his eyes, as tears began to form. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists, as memories of a painful past resurfaced in his mind.

"… Not again… I don't want to outlive my own children ever again…"

The orange-haired boy could only stare at his grandfather. From his outburst, the boy finally realized why Hop Pop was so painstakingly insistent in having them follow his rules, which served to protect them from harm.

It was all because of what happened when he and Polly were very young.

Sprig slowly removed his green hat from his head and looked down upon it for a long while. The hat was significant because it was a gift from his parents. A gift from Hop Pop's children.

The ones that he failed to protect.

Sprig felt ashamed. He was so excited about this trip being the first time that he ever stepped foot outside of the valley, that he had never considered why Hop Pop wrote the rules in the first place. He forgot why Hop Pop was so overprotective of his grandchildren to begin with.

Lifting his gaze up from his hat to his grandfather, the latter was still in an internal struggle with himself. Despite his best efforts to remain strong, a single tear escaped from the corner of the elderly frog's eyes.

"… I'm sorry…" Sprig finally apologized, causing Hop Pop to finally open his eyes to him. "I… I completely forgot about what you've been through back then…"

Taking a few steps forward, the Planter boy pulled his grandfather into a hug. Hop Pop returned the gesture by wrapping his own arms around his grandson.

Anne watched as the two of them settled their differences with a hug. Despite not knowing everything behind Hop Pop's actions, having joined the family for only three months, from what she heard during their heated argument, she had an idea what the reason might be. But out of respect for the family, she decided not pry into it.

Sprig slowly pulled himself away from the hug, as he looked at Hop Pop while crossing gaze with one another. "Hop Pop… I'm not gonna put myself in any more danger." he stated. "From now on, I'll listen to everything you say. I'll follow the rules that you wrote for us."

"Sprig…"

"Same here, Hop Pop." Anne spoke out, taking a step forward. "Now I know that you're doing all of this for our sakes, you won't be hearing any more complaints from me. Rule number 345, right?"

Hop Pop looked at the two humans. He detected no lies or half-truths in their statements. He felt content that they recognized what was at stake and were willing to respect his decisions for the family for the first time during the whole trip.

"Thank you, Sprig, Anne…" he expressed his gratitude to his grandchildren.

For the first time in a long while, he was able to get a child of his to listen to him during an important matter such as that. He was sure that no more danger would befall them from that point forward.

And yet, when he thought back to the past, he was reminded of one other reason why he failed to protect his family.

Pulling out the rule book in his hands, he looked down upon it and began to reflect back on the events that led to their current predicament. After some time passed, he let out a sigh.

"But… I can't ignore that my logic in all of this is flawed."

Anne and Sprig both raised a confused eyebrow and briefly exchanged looks with one another. Another moment of silent fell upon the three of them.

"WOOHOO!"

They all heard the voice belonging to a certain purple tadpole coming from a distance. They all turned their heads to see their family snail and the fwagon moving at high speed across the ruins and leaving trails of fire behind them, with Polly at the reins, having the time of her life.

"Oh yeah! Let's go, Bessie!" Polly shouted, striking the reins to have Bessie run at top speed.

What ensued was a rather impressive display of skill from the family snail, as Bessie ran up to each fort that she came across and performed a series of outstanding tricks in midair before landing back down on the ground with no sign of stopping.

For the last fort, which looked especially large, Polly had Bessie move as fast as she could just before she jumped off the fort at its peak. While in the air, Bessie spun herself around alongside the fwagon behind her and stopping just before they touched the ground, conveniently landing next to Sprig, Anne and Hop Pop.

"Boom, baby!" Polly exclaimed as she struck a pose. She then found the rest of her family standing next to where she landed. "Oh hey, fam! What took you so long?"

"Polly, didn't I tell you to stay where you are while I'm gone?" Hop Pop asked, reacting in disbelief at the purple tadpole disobeying his orders.

"Uh… I forgot?" Polly offered a flimsy response, shrugging.

Hop Pop grunted and crossed his arms, as he threw a glare in her way.

"… Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" Polly apologized. "That's the last time that I break a rule, I swear!"

Hop Pop was about to give the purple tadpole an earful, but then he remembered his conversation that he just had with Sprig. Glancing at the two humans by his side, he sighed, as he was about to rectify where he might have gone wrong.

"Okay, kids. Gather around for just a bit."

Anne, Sprig and Polly complied, gathering around their grandfather as they prepared to listen to what he had to say.

Hop Pop took a deep breath, recollecting his thoughts before he started to speak about his intent for the family.

"Listen, kids," he started to speak. "You should know by now that the reason why I have so many rules in place for all of us is because I worry that you will end up hurt if things go horribly wrong. All I want for all of us is to be safe and sound, away from whatever danger might lurk around us. Even if it means that this trip ends up being completely uneventful."

He looked down at his rule book once more.

"But… That's no excuse for me to stunt your growth. I know that now."

He lifted his gaze back up to his grandchildren.

"All of you are still young, still full of energy and curiosity. At your age, it's only natural for you to want to discover the wonders of the unknown by yourselves. It feeds the mind. It satisfies the heart. And it builds up the strength. Each of you has the opportunity to go on a journey towards self-fulfilment. I have no right to stop you from doing so. Yet still, I worry that your journey would end abruptly by life's many trials."

"Hop Pop, what are you trying to say?" Anne asked.

"Well, all I'm asking you is this." Hop Pop said. "Sprig, Anne, Polly, if you promise to be responsible for yourselves, and to not carelessly put yourselves in danger that you might not leave unscathed… Then we won't be needing this dang old rule book from now on."

"Hop Pop… I promised." Sprig smiled.

"Ditto." Anne followed suit.

"Yeah, starting to feel like I missed out on a lot of drama." Polly commented. "But whatever. You can count on us, Hop Pop."

"Thank you, kids."

With everything said and done, Hop Pop took one last look at the rule book in his hand. He then tossed it aside to have it joined with some of the rubble that came from the destroyed factory.

"Well then," Hop Pop said. "That's enough adventuring for one day. Let's get back on the road, everyone!"

"You got it!" Anne said. "Actually, I'm starting to get a bit hungry. Got any ideas on what to cook for supper?"

"I have a better idea. How about we stop at the next restaurant that we come across?"

"For real, Hop Pop?" Sprig asked, surprised by his suggestion.

"Yep." Hop Pop confirmed. "For real, boy."

"Does that mean that we can eat ice cream in the fwagon?" Polly asked.

"Hehe! Of course! Let's make this trip a worthwhile experience for the Plantars! No unreasonable rules to be had here!"

The entire family cheered at their new approach to their trip into the unfamiliar world of Amphibia.

"Alright, kids! Time to get a move on!" Hop Pop announced, as he hopped up to the bench on top of the fwagon and took on the reins.

"Finally! We're getting somewhere with this trip!" Polly shouted as she entered the fwagon. "Sorry, Aoshima, but I'm looking forward to this more than my own wild dreams!"

"Well, at least I don't have to drain the batteries of my phone any more than I should." Anne said as she herself stepped inside of the fwagon after Polly. "Not that I need to worry about it, since I still got thousands of percentage of juice left, somehow."

With Hop Pop, Polly and Anne returning to the fwagon, Sprig was the last Plantar left standing outside. Before he could rejoin his family, he turned around and took one last look at the burning remains of the factory.

He thought back to everything that occurred inside. The whole experience was definitely insane, as he had quite a few close calls. If it weren't for Anne and Hop Pop, he was not sure if he would still be standing around as he was currently.

But if there was one thing that he found especially noteworthy about his adventures in there, it would be the moment that he and Hop Pop were about to get crushed by the machine.

Namely, the fact that he saw sparks of electricity around his wrists, which might have been the reason why the metal binds became undone.

At first, he thought that he might be seeing things. However, he remembered that it was not the first time that electric sparks formed in his hands. The first time, he assumed that their battle against the veggie monsters messed with his sights. The second time, however, he was certain that he was in his right mind, and he definitely saw something going on with his hands.

Raising his hand up to his face, there was only one question that lingered in his mind for a good while.

"… Do I have lightning powers…?"

End of Chapter