17. Western Side Story

Now ahead on their journey towards Newtopia. Leo, Anne, and the Plantars come across a tiny town, where Hop Pop decides to prove himself a hero.

...

...

The desert was a blank landscape with no in-between, we've been riding along Bessie for the past few days, honestly, I could've done without the hot weather, I never did well in the cold let alone the heat.

Anne was a good enough companion to spend a prolonged amount of time with, especially considering the cramped spaces of the f'wagon. To note, the name came from the oldest among us Hop Pop.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't see a problem with the name, but Anne and Sprig had voiced their concerns so I couldn't argue.

Now and then I wonder how different I am from those two.

Doesn't really matter now, as long as I'm with them all then I don't see why I can't act just a little normal, I do end up tuning out to whatever debacle the two of them get themselves in. I mean just yesterday they got locked in some old ruins-

Leo could only widen his eyes as Sprig jogged his hand, scraping a black line across the page, "Oops...sorry Leo, I was meaning to step on your shoulder," Sprig apologized, guilty stretching his arm out for his fiddle.

"What are you doing anyway, you've been really into that book since we left," Anne questioned, inching next to him trying to catch a glimpse of the book's contents, that was until Leo slapped it shut before her eyes.

"I'm writing...a journal. I thought it would be a nice way to pass time when we're doing nothing but driving through a desert..." He explained, albeit a little sheepishly, wondering what their responses would be.

Anne nodded in acknowledgment not all too fussed over it, she wouldn't say it aloud, but Leo did give off the vibe that he would write a recap of his journey.

Sprig seemed much more interested in what he had written, and Hop Pop, "Really!? Keeping a journal is the best way to remember all the grand adventures you've gone on! I've kept plenty of them myself!" The older frog boasted, the rest glancing to one another.

'Here we go..' Anne thought dryly.

"Have you written about how we all dealt with those toads and destroyed their own tower!" Polly declared grandly, flexing the surprisingly veiny muscles she had, despite being just a tadpole.

Leo noticed Anne tense up slightly at the mention, "Well, one thing. You didn't destroy their tower Anne did, and that's what I'm struggling with, I don't know how to properly write about it. I mean, I'm not a writer, I can barely come up with the right adjectives..."

There was an awful lot to write about, and that was without mentioning Toad Tower. That had been a whole mess, writing in all the needed details would just be a hassle, he'd already said that he wasn't looking to be an author.

Twiddling the pencil in his hands, Leo listened to the enthusiastic yet helpful advice from Hop Pop, not noticing Anne's eyes on him. Sprig finally stepped in, having finished tuning his fiddle, "You knowww, I've actually been writing a song about the battle."

Hop Pop wore a giddy grin over his face, "Oh. Am I in it?"

"Maybeee," Sprig said cheekily, pulling a cute face.

Having fine-tuned the instrument, Sprig hopped back up to his feet his fiddle and bow in hand. Dancing back and forth as his body went along with his own rhythm.

"There was a little frog who stood for revolution. The toads didn't like that, so they tried to execute him. Then along came Leo who stood against the leader, he fought hard but sadly couldn't defeat her. Anne stepped in with rage and toppled down the tower, saving Hop Pop who..."

Hop Pop held his breath, his eyes glittering.

"Mostly hid and cowered!" He finished with a snippy symphony; souring Hop Pop's once bright expression. Leo exhaled lightly; he could take pride in how well he managed to hide his own laughter.

"Anddddd, cowered and cowered and cowered and cowered and cowered and cowered-"

"All right, that's enough," Hop Pop derailed the song, with some protest, "That song was completely unfavorable to all the other stuff I did."

"Eh, that's old news HP, the people want the new and the raw!" Anne pointed out loudly, and Polly agreed next to her.

"And action!" The pollywog bellowed.

Leo sat quietly, once again feeling left out. He was clueless on what kind of input he should make, defend Hop Pop or go along with what the others were saying, it all just made him feel a little lost in the situation.

He could have conversations just fine with them before, but lately, it felt as if he was the odd one out whenever a situation like so would start.

All he could do was listen.

Hop Pop admitted defeat sighing to himself, "Just a couple of days ago, people thought that I was some revolutionary hero..."

Leo patted his back from his rooftop seating, "Don't worry Hop Pop, you're still a hero. What you did still happened."

"Thanks, Leo, I only wish everyone else still thought that," He replied, a little less somber than before, winding up Bessie's reins as something peered over the dune ahead of them, "Woah, heads up gang. We're about to stop by our first town."

Anne perked up from the relaxed position she'd been in, eyeing the seemingly small town in front of them, she blamed it on perspective, "Bittyburg? Turns out there a worse name for a town..." She commented, getting a light smack on the head.

"Watch what 'town' you're talking about," Hop Pop scolded lightly.

Eyeing the town full of small frogs, he was moderately taller than Sprig, Hop Pop, and obviously Polly, but from the way he was seeing it, the houses themselves were much more shrunken than what he was used to in Amphibia.

That was until he saw the size of Bessie towering over the building.

"Holy heck! It's literally a small town!" Anne expressed, a certain glimmer in her eyes as she admired all the trotting frogs, they were barely up to her ankles.

Crouching down to their level, Leo only saw it fit to politely shake the frogs' hands extending a finger to them, "Nice to meet you...um how does Lil bit sound?" He suggested getting an enthusiastic nod from the presumed frog child.

Anne's eyes were practically the size of golf balls, too high off the searing adrenaline she was feeling from the cluster of tiny frogs, even going so far as to rip the roof off one of the buildings, "Um, Yee-haw!"

They all responded with roars of excitement, running about the bar in a chaotic manner. Leo couldn't lie, the idea of taking one with him and storing it in his pocket did seem interesting, if only he could realize how to pull it off.

"Should you really be ripping roofs off their buildings?" Leo asked, walking up to Anne.

"Well, they didn't really seem to mind. Besides, all you're doing is going around and shaking their hands, just what I'd expect from you," Anne teased, a mocking grin worn over her.

Surprisingly, Leo found himself a little riled up from the comment, usually, he wouldn't get it or just not care, but hearing it from Anne somehow managed to get under his skin, "What's that supposed to mean!?" Leo exclaimed, raising his voice slightly.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," Once again, Anne only replied brashly, only serving to annoy the white-haired boy even more.

Whilst the kids wandered throughout the town, inspecting every small wonder they could find, Hop Pop refilled Bessie's bucket with an assortment of mushrooms and grub, all the food a snail could ever want.

That was until some cries and screams behind him forced him to stop, "What's all the ruckus?" He asked, making it over to the crowd that had formed. Standing before them was a stubby-looking toad, holding a menacing glare over the frogs.

He could only watch as one of them was punted high up the air, "Huh, again with this," The tiny frog didn't even have it in him to yell, he was used to it at this point.

Anne hurried to catch him, tripping over an absentminded Sprig, tumbling both into a large open barrel, "Realistically you should've seen me there-"

"Not the time dude!"

The scarred frog held his hand out, already expecting each of the copper coins from the smaller frogs, stopping at one of the shaking Bitties disgruntled by the disobedience, "S-Sorry Mr. Judro sir, but my son Bailey is v-very sick, and we n-need the money-"

In an instant, Judro tightly squeezed the tiny amphibian shaking him free of all the money he'd been planning on saving.

"Papa!" Bailey whimpered, helplessly reaching out for his father.

Tried as they might, Anne and Sprig couldn't shimmy out of the barrel, stuck without any help, "Alright, that's enough!" Leo rolled up his sleeves, prepared to settle the progressively worsening situation.

Hop Pop didn't let him. Standing much larger than usual, this town needed a hero, and this old codger was going to make sure he still had it, if the kids wanted action, then he'd give it to them.

He'd stood up to toads before, whether it be running for mayor or greedy tax collectors. What more was a money-hungry marauder?

"Hey there fella, just what do you think you're doing to those Bitties!?" Hop Pop demanded, pulling his pants up, making sure to send his message across.

Judro dropped his fist, now raising it to the older frog, "What's it to you, yah codger. You wanna get rough with me? You sure it won't do your back in?"

"Hop Pop, you sure you don't want me to help?" Leo asked, a tad worried for his caretaker, he had learned not to speak aloud, but there was no denying that Hop Pop's fighting days were well behind him.

"I'll be fine Leo. If he's so concerned about the health of my back, I'll just knock him down on his," Stretching his fingers, Hop Pop lowly croaked slapping his enlarged throat right in Judro's face, stumbling him backward.

"Ah, wait sto-" Croaking once more, Hop Pop knocked him further out the town, doing so until the crooked thief was down on his knees, covered in dirt.

"You'll pay for this Hopediah Plantar!" Judro declared harshly, scattering back up on his feet, not caring how much of a coward he looked like, he knew just who was going to sort this.

"No one's paying you nothing! Not anymore!"

From behind him, there was an array of cheers and shouts, with one of the Bitties, the youngest of them all Bailey attached himself to his leg, "You saved us, mister! Three cheers for Hopediah Plantar!"

Just like that, the whole town was cheering for him, all in celebration of their first victory, for once they hadn't had all their money stolen.

Hop Pop felt a sense of pride surging through his chest, he'd stepped in and managed to do something about it. Suddenly, he felt something tapping his shoulder, "You did good Hop Pop, no offense but I wasn't sure you'd actually be able to pull it off," Leo admitted, a little embarrassed with the fact.

"Don't worry about it, neither did I to be honest.."

Having been helped out the barrel from Polly, Anne and Sprig regrouped with the two of them, "Wow, what'd we miss?"

Leo was just as shocked to see Hop Pop, now lying on a cushioned pillow recounting his apparent 'battle' with the tax-collecting toads that had arrived at Plantar farm.

"Then, I told those toads to stick it, whilst grabbing my pitchfork, which I used to send them packing!" Hop Pop said, albeit more dramatically. It had thoroughly enthralled all the Bitties though.

"So, he's just lying? We're just gonna let him get away with it?" Leo asked, unknowingly dense on the topic.

"Yeah, I agree with Leo here. He's going a little far on the details," Polly said, nodding alongside him.

"C'mon Leo, just let him have this. He did a heroic thing; I think he can afford to skimp out on what really happens, they all seem to love it. In my world, we call this, marketing!" Anne explained, jazzing her hands back and forth as if trying to sell the idea to them.

"I guess so, might not want to let it go to his head though," Sprig added.

"Right, by the way, should we be worried about what that Judro guy said? He sounds like the kind of frog to go pleading for help..." Leo said, leaning his hand against his cheek.

"Wouldn't have happened if you just stepped in," Anne teased again, snickering to herself.

Leo jerked up with irritation once more, his twitching left eye going unnoticed, "Well, you are right. There's no harm in letting him have his fun for now."

Turns out, there was some harm.

Despite being offered drinks from the small-town frogs, and being treated fairly lavishly, the kids were feeling slightly worried on just how far Hop Pop was going with his stories. To the point that it was hard to believe that the Bitties were hanging off his every word.

"And just like that, I stood of the edge of the building and kicked Toad Tower in half! Toppling the rest of the toads and Captain Grime off it in one fell swoop!" Hop Pop finally finished his tale, now up on his feet, throwing his fist up in the air.

Anne slurped on the juice she'd been offered, humming in delight, it must have been Bittyburg's main attraction, what other reason would anyone have to visit, their supplies weren't exactly fitted for full-sized frogs.

She was now growing just as worried as Leo, as well as bored. It had been an excruciating three hours of listening to Hop Pop's...they were honestly fanfictions at this point.

"That story was incredible, Mr. Hopediah! We're so glad that we have someone to protect us from the Hasselback Gang, they won't stand a chance against you!" Bailey announced a joyous, yet naïve look on his face.

You could swear that a record scratch played, "Wait, I'm sorry Bailey. Did you say, gang?"

Right on cue, a shadow overcast the tiny town, "HOPEDIAH PLANTAR!" A familiar, scraggily voice yelled.

Losing all confidence, Hop Pop shakily turned his head to the group. There he spotted a group of differentiated villainous stereotypes.

Judro's brother Heathrow, the tough-looking silent type, erupting steam from his throat instead of speaking. The knife obsessed ruth, sharpening her teeth with a small hunting knife. Uncle Talbert, who had a cartoonishly evil mustache, he could spend hours twirling it alone.

Rounding it all out was the biggest of the lot, with her grey hair tied into a bun, wielding a worn-out metal rolling pin, smacking it into her hands. As Judro put it, the matriarch of the entire family, Mama Hasselback.

With nothing but a simple stomp of her rolling pin, she shook the earth underneath her, "So, you're the good-for-nothing frog that kicked my Judro out of town huh? You ain't nothing special."

"Hehe...in what way would you classify kicked out?" Hop Pop meekly responded.

All he got in return was, a pin to the face smacking him to the floor below, "I'll classify it when I throw you outta town with your tail between your legs! You see little froggy, no one messes with me or my gang!"

"Well, he does!" Bailey interrupted, at the perfectly inopportune moment, "He beat up an entire toad army, your nothing!"

Mama Hasselback raised a brow, clearly not buying it, "Really, this frog. C'mon then, let's see what you got."

The woman stood perfectly still without a single worry whilst Hop Pop stood tall and confident, reeling a fist back and bringing it into her chest, only to see that it was ineffective, hurting his hand in the process, leaving it red and swollen.

His bones felt like they'd been crushed to bits, now nothing more than dust, "Hah, as I thought. You were all talk! Giving these Bitties unneeded hope, how stupid of you!"

That was where Leo drew the line, he was all for letting Hop Pop feel like a hero, but at this rate, he'd be nothing but the sand of the desert.

Anne, Sprig, and Polly were swiftly dealt with, stuffed into three conveniently sized barrels, "Uh, crud. This is a little too familiar with Sasha's pranks, now I just feel bad for Mortimer. He didn't deserve this.."

"I dunno, couldn't have been that bad. Not too different from my bucket, really?" Polly deliberated.

Leo shoved Heathrow aside, drawing his katana, and rushed at Mama Hasselback. She did nothing more than raise a brow and get up from her seated position, she countered with the rolling pin, sparks flying as she did.

Without warning, she rammed the pin into his stomach, he was already caught off guard with the toad managing to deflect his attack, "Stay in your lane, monster!" She ordered, laughing as Leo held onto his now-burning stomach.

He wasn't expecting such a rigid old lady to be so quick with her movements. It was no surprise that she ran an entire gang.

"Take a good look Bitties! This is your hero, and these are his lackeys, they couldn't handle me, and they definitely can't handle the rest of us! Your hero is nothing but a story!" Mama snorted at her bellowing laughter, kicking Hop Pop and Leo to the rest of the Hasselbacks.

Bailey turned to the orange frog before he was pulled away, "Is it true Mr. Hopediah?" There were tears in his eyes.

"Yes Bailey, I stood up to some toads. But it was nothing more than bluster.." Hop Pop admitted shamefully.

With that, the Plantars were rolled and dragged away from the town, about to be tied up against whatever the Hasselback's could find to secure them.

None of them felt worse about it than Hop Pop.

What a predicament this was, hung up against a small jail cell, nothing but hard hooks and rope keeping them in place.

Leo was frustrated that he had been stopped in less than a few seconds, one of the few things he had compared to everyone else was his weird hunting instinct, but now just like his fight with Sasha he'd lost.

None of that mattered though, right now the Bitties were being terrorized for all they had, the Hasselback's weren't holding anything back, and there wasn't a sympathetic bone in their body.

"Some Plantar I am, we're always supposed to be honest and yet here I am spreading lies, trying to prove I'm some hero. All for some stupid song.." Hop Pop said, completely dejected.

"Hey. I just wanted to play my fiddle," Sprig interjected, somewhat irritated.

Anne once more pulled on her bindings, "Come on Hop Pop, don't be so hard on yourself. You just got a little carried away, if it makes you feel better, I lie all the time," Anne piped up, clearly not helping.

"But I gave them hope, the idea that I could help them. Now look what's happening," Hop Pop sighed, sagging even further down.

Reaching for a sickle that was hidden underneath the sand, Leo tried his hand at a good pep talk, "Look, Hop Pop you made a mistake that's all. I've made plenty in Amphibia alone, and probably more before I lost my memory, we all have, look at Anne."

That earned him a kick to the shins.

"But those Bitties believed in you, they still do. We can help but even I'm not sure we can all take them on."

"Besides, you said you wanted to be a hero, it's about time you prove it," Leo finished, an unusually sly glint in his eye.

"How though?" Sprig queried, "As you said, we can't beat them in a fight."

It was then that Anne felt a lightbulb go off, before abruptly short-circuiting. They couldn't beat them in direct confrontation, so they'd have to be smarter, "If we can get out of this, then I might just have a plan."

Judro Hasselback considered himself a proud man.

Sure, that might've been him ignoring the several acts of cowardice he committed on the daily, despite trying to wrangle up a town of meniscal frogs, he often found himself run out of town by whatever tourist was happening to pass on by.

At this point, he was wondering if he was cursed to forever disappoint his family.

But now, he'd led them to the biggest pot of loot they'd ever seen. To think, they'd been extorting the Bitties for all they'd all for years now, when they could've robbed them blind and left filthy rich.

They were a small town, but they certainly had their fair amount of riches.

Mama Hasselback was busy tending to herself, relaxed against the same cushion Hop Pop had sat on hours earlier, "That's right Bitties get to work! We'll run you raged while we're stealing your goods!"

Bailey tried to keep up his spirits, playing his flute to his father, only for Heathrow to snatch it from tiny fingers, snapping it into, "Sorry Bitties, but Heathrow doesn't exactly have the delicate touch," Mama Hasselback mocked.

"You know, honestly I'm pretty numb to it at this point," Bailey remarked, devoid of any emotion, "Besides, it doesn't matter Hopediah will come and stop you!"

Mama Hasselback found herself laughing, a child's ignorant stupidity was her best kind of joy, "Don't you get it!? That Hopediah of yours ain't no hero, and neither are the two lanky freaks he's got with him. Real heroes don't exist!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," A southern drawn voice turned Mama's head back to the setting sun, Bailey's eyes were shining with hope, completely starstruck.

"Just what are you doing back here, didn't you get enough? You've already shown how much of a hero you are..."

Hop Pop didn't utter a word, curving the black hat he wore as he eyed the entire Hasselback gang without so much as a glimpse of fear in his eyes, he was looking more determined than he had previously.

"This town never needed a hero, especially not me. They just needed somebody who was willing to stand up to toads like you!"

Clearly not having it, Mama shoved Judro forward ushering with a simple glare what she wanted, "Get over there, you already ran away once," She snipped harshly.

As he did, Hop Pop fired his tongue forward like a whip, landing a devastating blow to Judro's head, knocking him out cold, the rest of his family left nothing but shocked, standing in silence for what felt like hours.

"Get him..." Mama ordered, sending Ruth and Uncle Talberth his way.

They were quickly met with the same fate, two single lashes of his tongue being all that was needed to keel them over, they were beginning to form a pile-up on the ground.

Still, they weren't done just yet, Heathrow steadied himself. Prepared to stand up for his fallen siblings, not noticing the reflective light bouncing off his eye as he rushed ahead, avoiding the orange frog's first assault.

From atop the cliffside, Anne, Leo, Sprig, and Polly laid atop it. The pink frog aimed with his rudimentary slingshot whilst Anne placed the rocks when needed; Leo was prepared to sneak into town, but his job wasn't finished just yet.

"No! Anne, you fired without Hop Pop actually hitting him!" Sprig complained squirming next to his best friend.

"Crud! Hop Pop wasn't supposed to miss!" Anne yelled in irritation to herself.

"It's fine. That's why I'm here right, this is just part of the plan, right?" Leo drew his sword, and began his descent down the cliffside, not staying long enough to hear whatever Anne had to say to his backhanded comment.

Nonetheless, Heathrow went down in a single blow. Not at the cost of Mama taking notice of their little game, eyeing up the steaming rock that was beside her fallen son, "So, that's what you're playing at. Gotta say I'm impressed, smarter than something I'd come up with.." She murmured to herself.

Catching another one of the smoking stones between her fingers, Mama's smile dropped at the sight of the rest of her gang completely disappearing from the spot they'd once been in, she was out of runts to send forward.

"It's just me and you, and I ain't giving you a chance to run," With her final words, Mama brandished her rolling pin once more.

"Don't plan on it. That's not what heroes do!"

Leo stood on the outskirts of the town, dragging the rest of the Hasselback's to a spot that would leave them stranded, "These toads...need to lose some weight."

He'd decided it was best to leave Hop Pop, for now, he would step in to deal with Mama Hasselback properly if the situation did get a little too hairy, but for now, he didn't see the harm in letting him have his own hero moment.

Narrowly avoiding a swing from the toad, Hop Pop whipped his tongue at her stomach, bouncing her back ever so slightly, she had only seen it as an inconvenience, "Heh...nice to see your no longer running you little vermin!"

It would only take a few more near misses before Hop Pop was barrelled into one of the nearby buildings, swirling nausea buzzing around him.

Despite the sorry state he was in, Mama didn't hold back, picking him up by his now loose and scruffy collar, holding him high up in the air, as if he were some sort of prize.

"Let him go, now!" Suddenly, Sprig appeared with Anne and Polly, his slingshot in hand. Anne was the same, holding up a nearby log she'd picked up.

...She'd left her sword in the f'wagon.

"I don't think so! Take another step and I'll drop him so hard that your grandpa will never talk again!" Mama threatened, raising him up with much more of killer intent.

Anne ushered Sprig and Polly back, it was what was best for now.

Bailey, on the other hand, stared up and the beaten and bruised Hop Pop, feeling a seething emotion beginning to build up inside, he'd felt it before. Whenever the Hasselback's come and harassed their town.

But seeing the frog that had given his all to defend them, even though he clearly didn't stand a chance, something sent him over the edge, to the point that he could finally pinpoint how he felt.

He felt enraged, angry at the fact that the Hasselback's had been pushing them around for so long, angry that they felt like they could do whatever they wanted.

Growling as if he were a feral dog, the once small, timid frog grew razor-sharp fangs, snapping towards Mama Hasselback with his glowing orange eyes, his pupils now shrunken and diluted, set directly towards the toad.

Each of the residents of Bittyburg slowly morphed into the same animalistic creatures, lunging animatedly at Mama, who did her best to fend them off, "Wait! Now you listen here Bitties!"

Leo arrived in time to witness the horror of whatever was in front of him. The once harmless frogs that had cheerfully shook his hand to greet him, were now using them to claw and dig deep into the toad, displaying a scene that couldn't quite be put into words.

"What in the hell is going on!" Leo yelled, finding it the only way to convey the multitude of questions he had.

"Oh, it's you, Mr. Leo. After seeing Mr. Hopediah's courageous efforts we realized that if there were no heroes then we'd just have to be our own, hence this," Bailey nonchalantly gestured to the crime scene beside him, "Here's Mr. Hopediah's tooth by the way."

With that, Bailey shifted back to the raging Bitty he was, no longer at the mercy of the Hasselback's if anyone. They were ripping into her with almost no mercy, not showing a sign that they were stopping anytime soon.

"See you around...Lil bit," He shimmied over to a similarly frozen Anne, "We should leave," She stated hastily.

"Agreed."

None of them, not even Sprig spoke a word as they rode out of town, as quickly as Bessie would go. They'd more than done enough for the town, even pushing them to the point that children were massacring toads.

Leo had forgotten his previous worries about not fitting in, a scarring event being enough to quell his fears, he knew they'd be with him even if they weren't always on the same wavelength.

No more songs were written for the entire journey, mostly due to a fiddle that was smashed into pieces.

And Hop Pop found that just fine.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, not anything too special about it, I gave Leo a little something to do but ultimately it was still Hop Pop's. Forgive me for skipping over the episode where Frobo is first teased, there just wasn't much I wanted to do with that chapter, Frobo will still be in the story so don't worry.

The next chapter will most likely be Quarrellers Pass, but I have an interesting switch to do with that chapter, but I think it'll be fun.

I'd appreciate some reviews to know what you guys thought about the chapter, and until the next one, see yah!