Chapter I: Where It All Starts
In the Land of Ooo, there's always time for some adventure, discovery, fun, and so much more for adventurers Finn the Human and Jake the Dog. May it be a short journey across a river or a big rescue mission to save the world from an undead being, Finn and Jake always will find a way to see it through. Being able to defeat the Lich, the brothers-in-arms are now called the "Heroes of Ooo" by the citizens of the Candy Kingdom, and are very well-known across the land for their courage and achievements. But even heroes such as these two would always meet a harder challenge someday, but whatever they are, Finn and Jake will always be ready. But for now, the two decided on visiting somebody dear to the human, Finn: the Flame Princess of the Fire Kingdom.
"Hey, Jake! Come on man!", yelled Finn as he wears his signature bear hat, "You know FP doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"I know, I know, just lemme fix Beemo.", answered Jake, screwing back some screws on Beemo's back as Beemo giggles.
"What'd you do buddy?"
"I patched up something new for Beemo, you'll love it! Hit it Beemo!" Beemo nods and presses a button on his head, shooting a laser-like beam of light at Finn and Jake.
"Whoa! What's that for?", asked Finn.
"It's something made especially for you, buddy. A barrier with a combination of magic and techies so that you won't get hurt if you touch FP! How cool is that?!", Jake replied, shaking an equally happy Finn.
"Haha! You're the best, man! Thanks for helping me out on this one.", Finn replied as he dog piles Jake.
"No problem Finn, you know I'm always here for you. Now let's get going, Flame Princess awaits!"
Then started the journey of the two to the Fire Kingdom.
But, it isn't only the two adventurers who're having a new adventure waiting to be discovered. A young man, age 16 at least, with a ragged cloak, light armor, and a weapon lies down on a volcanic area where nothing survives from its intense heat. As the young man wakes up, shaking his head, he looks around and comments with minimal shock and maximum curiosity,
"Now, the City of Cid didn't look like this when I went to bed... Did some freak accident happen?"
With a new land to explore, the young man, not being affected by the heat, walks around.
"Hm... Volcanoes close up to one space... Might as well take a peek, who knows what kinds of things are in there.", the young man said as he walks towards a place where all the volcanoes meet, a place where beings of fire lived.
As the young man walks towards the circle of volcanoes, he was stunned to see a whole village, no, a tribe, no, a city, no, a kingdom full of beings of fire!
"Wo-ho-hoa, these things are hot... Literally! What is this place? How come I never saw this before?", said the young man, nearing the streets of the kingdom-sized place of living flames.
"Man, I've gotta tell this to everybody! Well, Samantha at least, maybe she'll find this more interesting that the others. Now only if—"
"HEY YOU! YOU WITH BLACK CLOAK! STAND WHERE YOU ARE NOW!", shouted a fire being at the surprised young man.
"Oh come on! Not part two of my life!", the young man said as he readies to sprint, but he was stopped when a wall of fire surrounded him.
"You guys just loooooove making things harder, eh? Well fine then!", shouted the young man as he unsheathes his blade and prepares to go through the wall of fire, but was cut short when someone, a girl's voice, shouted above them.
"Enough! Show me the intruder of which you speak!"
It was the Flame Princess, looking below from her castle.
"Now listen here lady, I'm no intruder. I'm just a normal guy passing by, but since you guys are living fire, I guess I'm no normal guy at all.", the young man said, laughing afterwards.
"Silence!", the Flame Princess said, going down from her castle and standing beside the young man, "What is your name and what is your purpose of going here?"
"With all due respect, I don't even know why I'm here, I was just walking, then bam, a kingdom of fire. As for as to who I am, my name's Masume Kokeunra, a member of the Shadow Clergy.", the young man, now named Masume, said.
A deafening silence hit them, making the situation a bit awkward.
"Somebody take this man to the dungeon, now.", Flame Princess said, breaking the silence.
"H-Hey! You can't do that to me!", shouted Masume, "I barely even know you people and now you're gonna send me to a dungeon?"
"I have no choice, my father would do the same anyway."
"And what about your father?"
"My father is the ruler of all Fire Elementals, and the King of the Fire Kingdom."
"Ooooh, scary, but whatever. I'll go to your stupid dungeon then.", Masume finally agreed and, without anybody to accompany him, went to the dungeon.
A little while later, just outside the walls of the Fire Kingdom, Finn was preparing himself on how to greet Flame Princess.
"So... Uh... How'd it go Jake?", Finn asked after rehearsing for the 10th time.
"Not too shabby, now come on! I don't want FP to go out and burn another kingdom.", Jake replied, worrying about Flame Princess' reaction to their tardiness.
"Halt. Who goes there?", the guards ask the duo.
"I'm Finn, and this is Jake. We're friends with Flame Princess."
"Ah, the princess' personal guests, come in, come in. She just finished her task of imprisoning an intruder."
"An intruder?", as Finn finished his sentence, and explosion came from the Fire Kingdom's Castle, causing panic to all the citizens of the kingdom.
"What was that?!", Finn worriedly asked, as he thought that Flame Princess might be in danger.
"That must be the prisoner!", the guard shouted.
Worried, Finn and Jake ran inside the kingdom, looking for anything or anyonewho could have caused the explosion. While looking around, the castle suddenly lit up with flames and a number of fire elementals were blasted out of it, shortly after that, Finn and Jake heard a voice.
"Finn! Jake!", a voice among the running crowd shouted, it was Flame Princess.
"Flame Princess! Are you alright?", Finn asked her, she nodded in return and said,
"This new prisoner we got destroyed the whole dungeon, now all of the kingdom's criminals are loose, I managed to knock some of them down, but most of them are scattered around in the castle. I need you two to hunt the one who caused this while I go get the ones who got in the castle."
"You got it FP! Jake, let's go get this good-for-nothing sucker!", Finn said as he and Jake run towards the main explosion.
While all this was happening, some kind of commotion happened at the heart of the explosion.
"Hey! I destroyed the wall just for me, punk! Get back in there!", Masume, the one who caused the dungeon's destruction, said as he threw one of the criminals back in their cells.
After throwing in the criminal inside, Masume proceeds on looking on the hole he just created.
"I wasn't expecting for that to happen...", Masume sighed as he pondered on where to go afterwards.
While pondering, Finn and Jake arrive at the scene, with Jake shouting,
"Hey you! You with the black cloak! Stop where you are! NOW!", Jake said as he stretched towards Masume.
"Come on people! You can't just call me 'guy in a black cloak'! It's annoying! Especially when I get to hear it every single day!"
Masume said as he pushed Jake back with a shadow wall.
"Gotcha!", Finn said as he suddenly appeared below Masume and prepares to execute an upward slash.
But as Finn was about to hit Masume, he suddenly vanished, leaving Finn shocked and ticked.
"That was nice, kid. But you have to do better than that to lay a finger on me.", Masume said as he reappeared just behind Finn.
"Why you...!", and the battle between human, magical dog, and myth started.
Slash right here, boom right there, punch right here, disappear right there. The battle was repetitive and fast, Finn and Jake can't think straight from Masume's mid-fight insults.
"Ugh! Jake! Can't you get this guy to shut his mouth?", Finn annoyingly said.
Jake didn't get to reply, instead, Finn saw him tied into a knot.
"Jake! What happened to you?", Finn said, running towards his friend.
"Sorry Finn, tried to chase him all around the place.", Jake replied
"Hahaha!", Masume laughed at the scenery, "Well, I had fun with you two but I need to go now, besides, you got other problems to deal with.", Masume said as he pointed at the dungeon. A horde of criminals were trying to break for it, running away from their jails.
"Finn, he's right. The thieves are escaping, we need to deal with them now!", Jake warned Finn, trying to un-knot himself.
"But Jake, this guy's the real problem!", Finn replied, glaring at Masume. "I was just here to visit Flame Princess in peace, and you have to ruin EVERYTHING!", Finn said as he angrily throws Blood Sword towards Masume.
"Well, it ain't MY fault!", Masume replied, catching the sword with shadows and used it to keep the criminals from escaping the dungeon. "Now's not the time to get all angry on me. I know you guys have a good reason to, but you have to set it aside from now!", Masume said as he throws the Blood Sword at Finn's feet and kept the thieves inside.
"Listen to him, Finn! He's not all bad, he's even helping us!", Jake, who finally freed himself, said as he kept punching the thieves so that they can't fight back.
A mini-argument now took place in Finn's mind. Is he going to go there and help, risking the fact that this stranger might backstab them? Or will he just go on and fight the stranger, leaving Jake with the burden of pushing back the criminals.
"ALRIGHT!", shouted Finn, "I'll deal with these guys first! But we're not finished here, you hear me, you butt!", pointing the Blood Sword towards Masume's direction.
"Loud and clear, captain!", Masume replied jokingly.
After a long time of hitting and pushing back, Masume, Finn, and Jake finally finished their job. At least they thought it was finished, until...
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!", a voice, clearly ticked off, was heard.
"Oh... My... Glob...", Jake said as he witnessed something coming towards their direction with pure rage. "Finn, hang on to me!", Jake ordered Finn then stretched as far as he could reach, just as long as they weren't in the giant thing-a-magic's line of fire.
"Hm...?", a startled Masume stood there, watching as Finn and Jake escape the scene. "Did... I do something?", he said as he turns around and finally sees a very angry Flame Princess dashing towards him.
"... Oh. That's why.", Masume said as his final words before he was hit by Flame Princess.
After a violent bash from Flame Princess, Masume was thrown backwards, skipping like a stone on water on the ground and finally bashing himself through a think wall, collapsing on him.
"Woah FP, that was... Too harsh.", Finn said as he witnessed Flame Princess' attack.
"Too HARSH?! LOOK WHAT THAT IDIOT DO TO MY CASTLE! TO MY KINGDOM!", Flame Princess replied, burning a nearby tree. "WHO WOULDN'T BE ANGRY TO WHAT HE'S DONE?! THE KINGDOM MIGHT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED!
"C-Calm down, FP, I'm sure we can talk this through with him.", Jake nervously said, trying not to touch Flame Princess.
"Okay, I gotta admit, that did kinda hurt...", Masume interrupted as he stands up from the rubble, brushing off any dirt of his already dirty clothes, looking uninjured nor hurt.
"H-How did you...", Flame Princess said in disbelief not believing that Masume survived the attack without a scratch.
Instead of the usual I'll-hit-you-back combo, Masume, instead, showed his gentlemanly side and bowed down to the three and said, "You three are the most challenging set of opponents I've ever fought for 2 months. You have my respect and can order me to do your bidding."
"W-Wha-?", Finn said in confusion.
"W-What's this all about?", Flame Princess asked.
Masume simply laughed and said, "Nah, forget that. It's just my way of stopping a fight between me and somebody. But I say, you three are pretty tough, I like that."
"Who... Are you anyway? And why are you here, huh?", Jake asked Masume.
"My name's Masume Kokuenra, a Shadow Cleric. I don't know how I got here. Last thing I remembered before going to sleep was lying on my bed, then the next thing I know, I woke up in this place, as if I was transported here.", Masume replied without any hint of jokes or puns.
"So... That's that? Well, I can't say I believe you, but I might as well lay off some slack." Flame Princess said.
"You wanna stay here for a while? You could use some bit of rest.", Jake said, putting his arm around Masume.
"Hm?", Masume then proceeded to look around the Fire Kingdom. The only thing that came to his mind was: Fire. "I think I'll have to pass, since, well, I don't really trust the guys here for what I did. I think I'll have to live with you guys.", Masume said. "And by the way, what are your names? It seems that you three know me and I don't know you."
"My name's Finn.", the bear-hat human said.
"I'm Jake.", the unusual yellow dog said.
"And we're the Heroes of Ooo!", the two said in unison.
"Haha, that's nice. How about you?", Masume turned to Flame Princess.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm the Flame Princess of this kingdom. You can just call me 'Flame Princess'.", replied the hot-headed princess.
"Then it's settled.", Masume then said and turned to Finn and Jake. "Hey, sorry about the commotion a while ago, I just didn't know what to do in this world."
"No problem Masume, and besides, the way you held back those criminals, awesome.", Jake said.
"Yeah, it's all cool. At least you told us what happened to you.", Finn said while sheathing his Blood Sword.
After exchanging stories of themselves in Flame Princess' main hall, Finn and Jake set out to return to their homes, bringing Masume along them. As the sun sets, the Shadow Cleric walks on the green fields towards the Heroes' tree house, where his new will be for his remaining days in this world. While walking, the three had the same thing in mind: 'Are there more to discover now that the unimaginable happened?'