Bad Little Girl 3

It's trilogy time! Quick word to the wise- If you haven't read Bad Little Girl 1 and 2, I recommend that you do. The storyline will still make sense if you don't, but there are are a handful of references, character development, plus, 1 + 2 are pretty awesome. Either way, enjoy Bad Little Girl 3!

Marceline was 352 years old and, although it had taken half a decade of searching to put her mind at ease, she had finally finished her mission to annihilate all other vampires. Although Marceline had spared a handful of them because they had had the chance to bond with her before she was able to kill them, Marceline had made them swear not to sire any more vampires, and if they weren't the type to keep their word, then she wouldn't have spared them in the first place.

Now Marceline was on a new crusade. Over a century ago, she had met someone who had changed her life, someone who was loving, sweet, brilliant and so beautiful. Besides Simon, Princess Bubblegum was the closest thing Marceline had ever had to family. She had left Bubblegum to protect her and her kingdom from vampires, but now she was done, she was desperate to see her again.

Nowadays, the world was widely populated by all manner of things that could think and even talk, ranging from squishy blue people to talkative trees. For Marceline, this was a godsend, because otherwise navigating this constantly evolving world would have been virtually impossible. She had flown over two oceans alone on her vampire slaying quest.

After months of fruitless interrogation, Marceline had finally had a breakthrough. A bird she had talked to had heard of a Princess Bubblegum from a friend and that had helped finally push her in the right direction.

Marceline sped through the crystal blue sky, under a wide brimmed sunhat. She was finally getting close, more and more 'people' she spoke to had heard of Bubblegum, and finally, a cloud man had pointed her right towards her Candy Kingdom.

Suddenly, a hand clasped around her wrist. Marceline was made to stop in her tracks and she lurched forwards so far her face was almost exposed to the sun. She spun around, to see a man with grey skin and three wisps of white hair floating behind her, holding her wrist.

"Babe, where are you going?" Asked Marceline's boyfriend, Ash.

Ash was the very first person who ever asked Marceline out on a date. When Marceline was a child, she and Simon had read books in which the characters would go out on dates. Since Marceline had always expected to die without ever meeting another person, she had accepted dates to be something that existed in fiction alone. So when Ash asked her out, she had accepted in a heartbeat, even though her first impression of him hadn't been very good. That had been just over a month ago.

"Dude!" Marceline snapped testily. "Candy Kingdom! Bubblegum! This is all I've talked about for the last week!"

Ash stared at her with one eyebrow raised, like she was an idiot. "No way! Party God's throwing this huge rave in the woods near here! We gotta go to that!"

Marceline was equally gobsmacked by what Ash had said. "Bubblegum is my best friend! And I haven't seen her in over 150 years!"

"150 years!? Babe, there's no way she even remembers you!"

Marceline stared in disbelief. That had really stung. "You know what Ash? Just go to your party. Meet me at Bubblegum's place."

She floated away, but Ash pulled her back by her wrist again.

"No babe, you gotta come! I told a bunch of my friends that I've got a girlfriend and they don't believe me!"

Marceline stared at him, too exasperated for words. Instead, she just wrestled her hand free, and shook her head slowly, with an expression that clearly said, "You're pathetic."

With that, she turned around and flew on. In the stories Marceline had read, the couples always fell in love and lived happily ever after, so when Ash started acting like a jerk to her, she had been genuinely surprised. Sometimes Marceline had read about people in her situation, but Simon had quickly snatched those books away before she got to the end and would suggest a happier one. Clearly, he had grudgingly shared her negative opinion that she would never date.

Marceline wondered if Bubblegum had dated in the past one and a half centuries. The only people she was definitely hanging out with were the Candy People, and they were practically her children, and were made of bits of her old body! Then again, they could have come a long way since then. Either way, Marceline looked forward to hearing PB's opinion on her situation.

Moments later, a towering cream and pink structure crept over the horizon. Marceline gazed at it in silent wonder. As she approached, she realised it was a gigantic citadel. Surrounding the towers, were hundreds of colourful houses, and trees made of candyfloss. A huge, cream wall surrounded them defensively. The wall had a striped pink pattern, like the outside of a cake. Around the citadel, was a moat of red liquid and acres and acres of more candyfloss trees. It was fantastically beautiful, kind of like looking into Bubblegum's mind.

As Marceline approached, she noticed two gigantic gumball machines with arms and legs, and ice cream cone hats, sitting on the wall on each side of the kingdom, blowing giant bubbles. One of them noticed Marceline coming, stood up and stood between her and the Candy Kingdom, moments before she reached it. The gumball machine raised its arm and pointed the palm of its hand, the size of a bus, right at Marceline.

"Halt!" It bellowed, in a deep, robotic voice. "You are not permitted to enter the Candy Kingdom!"

So it really was the Candy Kingdom. Marceline hadn't been 100% sure. It was hard to believe how far Bubblegum had come from a pile of rubble in 150 years. She looked up at the gumball machine.

"I'm Bubblegum's friend!" She insisted. "She's been expecting me for fifteen decades!"

"State your name and title!" The gumball machine demanded.

"Marceline… Vampire Queen…"

The gumball machine's head rattled for a while as it processed Marceline's name. The gumballs bounced back and forth against the glass.

"You do not have an appointment. Leave a telephone number, address and message after the beep, and Princess Bubblegum will contact you at her earliest convenience… Beep."

Marceline stared at the gumball machine silently. What kind of whack job guardians had Bubblegum made? Marceline had found a working cell phone a few years back and seriously considered just doing what the guardian said, but at the end of the day, it wasn't her style.

Marceline smiled slyly at the gumball machine, then shot straight upward. As the Gumball Guardian reached to snatch her out of the air, she made a hairpin turn and dived towards its feet. The Gumball Guardian lurched forwards, after her, and as she swept under its legs, it toppled to the ground with a mighty crash.

Smirking at the flailing, screaming robot behind her, Marceline flew on into the heart of the kingdom.