Been meaning to finish this for months.
Inspired by the beginning of Iron Hans, one of my favorite stories.
Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. belong to Hanna-Barbera
Once upon a time, there was a powerful royal family, consisting of a king, his wife and their young son. They were good people, intelligent and helpful, as such, their kingdom prospered and all was good in the world.
But because of this, no one had expected any danger at all.
The queen, once a peasant woman, still fond of the old simple ways, would go out and help her people as best she could. Dressed in the simplest clothes she had, tying her long Titian hair into a loose side ponytail, she was ready to go out and do some good. Her husband didn't mind as long as she was careful and didn't get too far away.
She was a beloved queen. And the king and their son wanted to show it to her, so they had it all planned out: a kingdom wide celebration.
But, on that fateful day, while helping some poor family, there was a run-in with a small group of giants with iron-like skin. They naturally did not believe that the queen was a queen, thanks to her appearance at the time and even then, why would they care? She was just some lowly human, no different any other. And so, they did what giants do best.
And there were no survivors.
To say, that the king and prince were devastated was an understatement.
The king threw himself in his work, trying to keep his people safe from hurt and made it an effort to drive all the giants away from his land. He even passed some laws, which caused him and his son to not see eye to eye.
Yes, their relationship had slowly became more and more strained. It didn't help that the prince had his mother's blue eyes.
Nobody knew who was the giant who did the deed, but the king wanted a scapegoat. So he would send his hunters to try and capture one to keep in a cage. Against all odds, they actually succeeded.
People all over the kingdom came to watch the spectacle of the hunters bringing in that giant... from a safe distance. Not that it mattered, the giant was knocked out cold. Whoever managed to do that deserved a raise. The king smiled as he could finally avenge his wife despite this giant being too short to be the giant that killed her. The young prince had been watching the whole thing from his bedroom window and he was beyond disgusted by his father's behavior. He simply glared at the scene down below and walked away, already planning on doing something about this.
Several nights later, the giant sat alone in his cage, unable to sleep. The cage was enchanted so that he couldn't use his strength or any of his other strange powers to escape. And it wasn't like there would be anyone who willing to unlock the door for him unless they wanted the death penalty. He sighed, knowing that this wasn't fair, but what could he do? The king just won't listen to him.
"What a mess," he said.
Suddenly, a voice called out, "Wow! You're really short for a giant!" The giant looked down and to his surprise, he saw a young redheaded boy wearing a red and white tunic with blue tights and cape. The giant knew that this was this kingdom's young prince. He blinked at him in confusion.
"What?" the prince casually shrugged, "You are!"
"I-I'm a runt," he admitted.
That got the boy's attention. "Didn't think even giants could produce runts," he commented, with the audacity to smirk, eyebrow raised at the captive.
"Very funny."
The boy shrugged as he looked over the giant in the cage. He definitely had the typical metal-like skin of all giants and anyone with eyes could see that he really was smaller than average. He wore a dark green tunic with what looked to be a red family crest on the chest, purple tights and long matching cape, all somewhat ragged from both travel and being tortured. Behind a simple black mask, he had the brightest blue eyes the prince ever seen. He knew that bright eye color was a sign of mastery of all sorts of strange magics and giants were masters in that regard. Seems even a runt could be powerful, even if the cage's enchantments prevent him from using it.
"Why are you here, young prince?" the giant asked. "Come to gawk the caged 'murderer' or are you here to torture?"
To the giant's surprise, the boy scoffed, crossing his arms, "Anyone with half a brain could tell you that you didn't kill my mom. I don't understand why Father-," Had their relationship really deteriorated to the point where he won't call his father 'Dad' and he had to spit out 'Father'? "-Keeps using you a scapegoat!" It was no real secret that the prince had a distaste of injustice. Looking around, incase he accidently caught someone's attention from his outburst, he steeled himself, "Look, I wanna avenge my mom."
The giant just stared blankly at the boy. Ignoring how his determined eyes burned with righteous fury, the boy was just a boy. "Oh?" he raised an eyebrow, "And how do you suppose you do that?"
"You could train me."
If he wanted to, he would have laughed so hard, but instead he asked, "What?"
"Look, giants have long memories, like they could never forget a face, right?" At the giant's nod, the prince continued, "And I got most of my looks from my mom. I'll bet that by the time I meet him, you'd already trained me to be the ultimate giant slaying machine."
"Seriously?" he asked, "You expect me to train you on how to slay my own people. And that's not even getting into you somehow expect to find your mother's murderer in your lifetime."
"What can I say?" the boy shrugged, "I like a challenge."
"Even if I wanted to, how do you suppose I train you while I'm still stuck in this cage? Even with all the enchantments, I still know that the king keeps the key on his person at all times and that's not getting into death penalty you would face if you freed me."
Somehow, he was unsurprised when the boy smirked, asking, "Who said anything about keys?" He took out a small device that he been working on since the moment he saw the giant being taken into the kingdom, aimed it at the lock, completely obliterating it.
The prince opened the door, smiling, "Guess I'll die."
Sighing, the giant knew that the boy wasn't going to give up, so he walked out of the cage, feeling his full powers return to him. "Alright, you win," he told him.
"Alright!"
"You have a ring on you, right?"
"Yeah, but it's a blank."
"Hold it out," he said. After the prince did so, the giant enchanted it. He then explained, "Now if we are separated, you can summon me and I'll come straight back to you." He shrugged, crossing his arm, "Somebody's got to keep you from getting killed."
"Awesome," the prince cried out. "Oh wait, we forget to introduce ourselves," the boy grinned, confidently, "They call me Buzz."
The giant nodded, "Adam Frankenstein Jr."
"Adam Frankenstein Jr?" Buzz asked, confused as if the name was weird to him for some reason.
"I'll have you know that the Frankenstein name was once a proud virtuous line of-"
"Once?" Buzz interrupted, raising an eyebrow.
Deadpan, he asked, "Can't I have a moment?" Sighing, he put Buzz on his shoulder, to which he said, "Thanks, Frankie!" Frankie didn't know how to react, nobody had ever given him a nickname before. At least, never given a positive one. Perhaps it'll help motive him in keeping Buzz while they make their way in the world.
Personally, Frankie's just glad he could finally leave this accursed castle. And so they left into the night.
The next morning, the whole castle was in a uproar. Nobody could find Buzz. It was getting really worrying as servants tore the castle apart, trying to find the boy.
Suddenly, the king had an idea. Clutching his key, he ran to where he kept the giant, only to find an empty cage with the door open.
Normally, I dislike the idea of Buzz and his dad not building Frankie, but here it works. And normally in my fairy tale AUs, I wouldn't portray Buzz as a prince because I found the idea to weird, but here it worked.
To be honest, I can only see the beginning and end of Iron Hans happening to Buzz. I refuse to have Buzz end up with golden hair.
See ya later, dudes.