SWITCHING UP THE ROYALTIES
"I wonder what's inside it, Cake?" Fionna asked, looking at the box in Prince Gumball's hands with raging curiosity.
Cake shrugged. "How should I know, Sister?" Though she said the words in an offhand tone, she also kept her eyes on the box.
"Open it, Gumball," Cake suggested.
Prince Gumball was still staring at the box in his hands; it seemed he hadn't moved for a solid ten minutes, more or less, since finding it at the castle gates and picking it up. "I'm...not sure, Cake. What if this is another one of Ice Queen's tricks?"
"Scared, aren't you, Bubba?" Marshall Lee taunted with a sneer, five feet above Prince Gumball.
"No way," Prince Gumball snapped, glaring at Marshall Lee.
Flame Prince was a few inches away from Prince Gumball; he didn't do so much as pay attention or join either side of the bickering royalties. He did glance once at Prince Gumball, then at Marshall Lee, then shrugged with a muttered, "Just hope they're not talking about me."
Soon, the suspense was killing Fionna and Cake. Cake, who kept her eyes on the box the whole time, now had her lips pressed in a tight line; Fionna gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into tight fists.
"If you won't open it, Gumball," Fionna began in a strained and wary voice, "I can open it for you."
"No, I got it," Gumball said quickly. He stared at the box just once more for one second with cautious eyes then finally moved his hands to open it.
Neither Fionna nor Cake moved. They stood where they were, ignoring the urge to get a closer look at the box's contents. Marshall Lee floated closer, and even Flame Prince walked two inches near.
The moment Prince Gumball took the lid off the box...
"Huh?" Prince Gumball stared blankly at the object he took out from the box. "It's...a flower?"
Fionna moaned. "Aww. And here I thought it would be something cool..."
Prince Gumball stared at the flower he was holding, looking thoroughly confused. "You don't think...someone would send me a flower, do you? I...don't understand..."
"I think someone's you've got a secret admirer, Gumball," Cake said matter-of-factly.
Marshall Lee made a sound that clearly sounded like a disagreement.
Flame Prince, on the other hand, seemed to be in complete agreement with Cake's theory; he looked at her from the corner of his eye and nodded once.
"The Ice Queen?" Fionna guessed.
Cake shook her head. "I don't think so. Well, sure, that hag's been trying to get her hands on the prince, but why bother with flowers?"
While Fionna and Cake were deep in thought, debating on who'd actually sent the Prince a flower, the three royalties—the two princes and the king, as a matter of fact—looked at the flower, trying to decipher the meaning behind the whole gesture of having it sent to Prince Gumball's castle. The flower itself looked magnificent, but there was something about it that was sinister as well...
Suddenly, the flower's petals fell out and it gave off a strange, pink-hued smoke that practically covered up Prince Gumball, Flame Prince, and Marshall Lee; it happened all so quickly that none of them had time to realize what was going on and hold their breaths. All three coughed from the smell (which, by the way, wasn't stink—the scent was strong and potentially sickening) and when the two girls looked at them they couldn't see any of their faces due to the thickness of the smoke.
"What the—" Fionna gasped.
Cake hissed with shock, her tail frizzing out.
The smoke vanished before Fionna could move a step or spring into action, and the coughing stopped as well. Below, Prince Gumball no longer held the flower; it was below his feet, and it had somehow turned to ashes.
Fionna's eyes widened. What had that been all about?
"Fionna? Is that you down there—Ouch! My head just hit the ceiling!" Prince Gumball hissed in pain.
Fionna looked up immediately, and felt even more confused. Because she was sure she wasn't imagining Gumball's voice—so sure she heard it from above.
But instead of expecting to see Prince Gumball himself (which was partly the reason behind some of her confusion—how in the world did Gumball get up?!), she saw Marshall Lee, eyes closed, caressing his head with a grimace.
Fionna just couldn't make it add up.
"I...thought I heard PG's voice...?" Fionna breathed, her head starting to spin.
She looked around and finally saw Prince Gumball staring at the wall, but his expression was very unlike him; he looked like he wanted to destroy something, like he was enraged from what had just happened—which was weird because PG was never really a volatile person.
Her eyes then shifted to the Flame Prince, who looked calm and level...and also eyeing Cake with a smirk. Fionna shook her head—Flame Prince never wore that expression before.
It only made her all the more surprised when FP sneaked toward Cake, who was totally distracted as she scrutinized the flower (well, the ashes of the flower, clearly), and gave off a noise that clearly sounded like a snarl. Though it didn't make Fionna jerk with shock, it was enough to get Cake screaming.
"Strange, Flame Prince doesn't normally act like that...," Fionna muttered.
"FP, what'd you do that for?!" Cake demanded angrily after she recovered from her shock.
Flame Prince gave a blank look. "Huh? What do you mean, 'FP'?"
Cake blanched, not because it seemed as if FP were feigning memory loss, but because his voice didn't belong to him at all. The voice belonged to…
"Hold on," Cake said in a stressed tone, her tail frizzing out again. "What is wrong with this scene?! Nothing here is making any sense!"
"Ugh, you're right," Fionna agreed, rubbing her forehead as if to wipe off the headache caused by all the confusion.
The three boys somehow reacted to Cake's outburst in a way. Prince Gumball tore his eyes away from the wall. Marshall Lee opened his eyes. Flame Prince looked away from Cake and looked around him.
It was a second of dead silence. And then…
All three gasped and shouted at the same time:
"You're ME!"
"I can't BELIEVE I'm YOU!"
"NO WAY!"
Prince Gumball shouted, "What are you doing in my body, you impostor!" (Fionna and Cake recoiled at the sound of Flame Prince's voice in PG's body.) He then swayed his arm forward as if he was going to hurl something at Flame Prince, but there was nothing. He then looked at his own hands in horror. Then he sniffed himself then his face screwed a little. "Why…do I smell like gum…?"
"Hey, I don't like that look on your face!" Prince Gumball bellowed. The girls looked up (and flinched) to hear PG's voice in Marshall Lee's body. "Do you have a problem with the way I smell?!"
"Bubba, I can't believe you're in my body." Marshall Lee's voice was full of disdain. The two followed his voice and gaped when they saw that it had come from Flame Prince's body. He looked up at Marshall Lee (well, PG in Marshall Lee's body, rather), his face a fierce scowl.
"What's happening here?!" Fionna retched.
"Girl, looks to me like those three switched bodies," Cake said, her voice certain. "Look, PG's in Marshall Lee's body; Marshall Lee's in Flame Prince's body; Flame Prince's—"
"—in Prince Gumball's body…?" Fionna finished in a tiny voice, though her face relaxed, now that all the confusion was cleared up.
"Maybe that flower has something to do with it," Cake said. "It's a spell of some sort!"
"Oh no!" PG (in Marshall Lee's body) facepalmed himself. "I'm supposed to be in Cinnamon Bun's place—I promised her I'd show up tonight! I can't go looking like this!"
"Hmm." Marshall Lee (in FP's body) looked at the castle doors. He walked toward them and opened the doors, then—tentatively—he stretched his hand out to the sun. "Huh, I'm not blistered!" His face stretched into a huge grin. He then ran outside, shouting with joy. "This ROCKS!"
"Marshall Lee!" PG angrily bellowed; he tried to float a little lower (with very little success) and chased the vampire king, who was outside enjoying himself. He failed at first—he ended up bumping the wall above the double doors—but he managed to go lower and got out, only to get burned by the sun. He hissed at the pain.
Marshall Lee jeered. "Now you know what it's like to be me, Bubba!"
PG growled. "Watch it, Marshall!"
"Catch me if you can," he taunted further, snickering at PG's discomfort at his body. He didn't seem afflicted by the prince's threat at all. "If you can go outside!"
"Just you wait! This isn't something to enjoy, Marshall! Just wait…till I find a hat…or umbrella…or something!"
Marshall Lee stuck his tongue out at Prince Gumball, then ran off.
Fionna and Cake looked after him with a grimace.
"Well, at least someone seems to be enjoying himself," Cake commented.
"That impostor took off with my body!" Flame Prince (in PG's body, of course!) growled, shaking his fists angrily, then he sighed. "I just hope he doesn't try to soak himself in the water…."
"Flame Prince!" Prince Gumball called. He tried to get his feet on the floor, but wound up with his face flat to the floor instead. "Thank goodness this floor is heavily carpeted," he muttered to himself.
"What do you want, Gumball?" Flame Prince asked, though his tone was not generous; it was most likely due to the irritation of Marshall Lee being in his body.
"If we're gonna be stuck like this for the day, can you go to Cinnamon Bun's house in my stead? Please?" He sighed. "I'm not going to show up at her place when I'm in Marshall Lee's body."
FP brooded over it for a moment, and then:
"Sure, I guess. It'll be nice if I get to see more places and people outside the Fire Kingdom…."
PG breathed, "Thanks, Flame Prince. Just don't tell her who you really are, though. Make her think you're me."
"What do I have to do?"
While PG was explaining to FP about the events that were likely to take place when visiting Cinnamon Bun's house, Fionna and Cake were busy with their own discussions. Cake held the ashes of the flower. "If we're gonna save them, how do you think we'll know how to reverse the spell?"
"Let's ask the one who gave this flower in the first place," Fionna suggested.
"Good thinking, girl," Cake said, then grimaced. "If we knew where he or she is!"
"Well," Fionna hedged. "There wasn't much except the flower and the box…." Then the two exchanged a wide-eyed look and said in unison, "The box, of course!"