It had been a year since it had happened. The Lich had let loose a viral monstrosity that could have wiped out all of Ooh. But it didn't wipe them out. Instead of doing what the Lich intended it to do, it mutated, changing anything it came in contact with into something horrible, deformed, kind of like a zombie. And there was supposedly "no cure". But me and Peppermint Dr., no longer a Butler, what with Peebles eaten away by the virus, a dark form of candy now, were going to find one. And we were so close… but I was about to have a nasty shock.

I pushed my glasses farther onto my face, since they were slipping, and I sighed. Technically, I didn't need glasses, but they had belonged to the princess and gave me some form of solace. I chewed the inside of my mouth, growling a bit. The formula we were trying on the candy zombie mice wasn't working. I checked off the ones that had died, but one of them caught my eye. It wasn't so...deformed. It's candy wasn't so... malformed, as it was hot. It's skin wasn't so black, even so in spots that were ... candy-colored. And it was doing… well, regular mice stuff. Things that an Infected wouldn't do, like walking around the cage in confusion. I shined a light in its eyes, and it shrunk back, its retinas reacting slightly to the light.

"Good, good… eye-to-light reaction is repairing, reaction time is good… and aggression levels are lowering. Not to mention that the deformity and discoloration of the skin is disappearing as well..." I murmured. I opened the cage door, humming softly. It squeaked, and pointed to the name sign. I looked, and smiled.

"Well, hello, there, Science." I said, smiling more kindly. It had been a very long time since I had seen Princess Bubblegum's former rat, and… sort of my thunder-stealer. He had gotten the credit for saving the Candy Kingdom from the second wave of accidental zombies.I chuckled, remembering how it had all gone down, and picked him up gingerly. It squeaked, and licked my hand gently as one would touch a porcupine.

"How are youso passive right now? This makes no sense... I'll have to do some more testing." I said softly. I set the rat onto the table, watching it skirt around skittishly on the flat, slick surface. It sniffed the air, twitching its little button nose, and I watched in wonder as it skittered back to its cage and waited in front of it. I walked over to Dr. Peppermint, and tugged on his shirt.

"Doctor. One of the subjects is positive." I said, my face a bright wave of wonder and accomplishment. He whirled around, and looked at the calm, semi-deformed rat near the open cage.

"By Glob, Dr. Finn, you've done it! But…how?!" He stammered. I shrugged, chuckling a bit.

"All I did was add five to the quadrilateral effect of... hmm, I'll have to go over my notes again, I don't have it all memorized. I do know that all I had to do to finish it was put some of the Salve in the cure. It seemed to work. It was almost too simple to see, but I managed." I said. After everything had happened, I had immersed myself in science, so I could cure the populace and make everything right in the world again. As far as I knew, me and Butler were the only ones not affected by the Virus.

"Though I don't know why the Salve would have an effect on the patients, it doesn't have any special properties that we're aware of..." I murmured. I walked back over to the table, gathering my notes across the mess of stains and papers. Science nudged me as he walked past me, sniffling near the vials.

"A-amazing! Doctor, i think we may have a start to the cure!" Dr. Peppermint shouted happily. It was just then that Science chose to nibble on the hem of my shirt, whining softly.

"Oh. You must be hungry, I'm sorry, little guy…" I said softly. It nodded, and a spark of anger went through its filmed-over eyes. It bit my finger, and I jerked back a little, holding it in my mouth.

"Ow! Glob, Science, I could have just given you some candy!" It sheepishly looked away, the moment passing.I realized my mistake; it wasn't completely cured. I narrowed my eyes and face-palmed myself, aware of the consequences of my actions. It had bit me, which in turn had done what I had been trying to cure and prevent this entire time. Infect me with the Daerus. We called it that since it deformed the body into a demon-like structure.

"Oh, grib-grob…" I hissed, trying to keep a scowl off of my face. Sometimes, in times of extreme stress, I tended to get unnecessarily angry. I had narrowed it down to a teenager thing.

I put the rat back into its cage, put some candy pellets in there, and watched it nibble on the candy. It was eating, which was a good sign.

As soon as I looked at the bite on my finger, I realized that it was… gone. All that was left was a tiny angry scar. I wrapped my hand with a bandage, and started to scribble notes on how it affected humans on my research pad. It was interesting, how I was one of the most interesting species among the many hundreds in Ooo, and there was little to no information about me or my possible brothers and sisters.

"I'm going to see if i can perfect the formula. I don't think it worked all the way."

Dr. Peppermint looked my way and nodded, shrugging his shoulders, as if to say, 'Do whatever, you were the one who made the breakthrough.' He walked over to the table I was just at, grabbing the formula recreation I had made and swirling it around.

5 days later

I ran over to Dr. Peppermint, holding Science in my bandaged hand.

"I did it! I cured him!" I yelled. He whirled around, looking at the fully cured rat.

"My Glob, you did do it! We-we can save the Candy People, and everyone!" We danced around for a little bit, Science joining in for a little bit, doing a happy little jig in my hands. I teetered a bit, and steadied myself on the corner of the desk. Dr. Peppermint noticed, and looked at my hand. I was surprised he hadn't noticed all this time. It was quite obvious, the way my hand's reaction time had slowed with the rest of my body.

"Finn? Did it bite you before you cured it?"
"Well… it was when I made the breakthrough. It was a tiny bite, and i don't think it did anything, so…" I said tentatively. He sighed, picking up the rat from my hands and putting a tiny lab coat around it.

"Finn, give me your hand. I want to see it." He reached for my hand, and I backed away.

"No way, man, I'm fine! Let's just get rid of the Zombies at the door. 'Kay?" I said nervously, frowning at my sudden evasiveness. That was another thing I would have to put down, the retraction from the cured or non-infected populace. He sighed, grabbing the dart gun.

"Fine. Whatever you say."

After everyone was cured, at least the ones that were at the door, we told them to stay in the room as we secured other places for them to stay. There were 14 Candy People in total. Not enough to rebuild. I frowned, returning to my desk, answering questions that the cured had about what was going on periodically. It sort of went like this:

Them: "What happened?"

Me: "You got sick."

Them: "Did we do anything bad?"

Me: "No."

I still wasn't feeling good as I checked myself for any other bites. My symptoms now included blurriness around the edges of my vision, evasiveness, and sudden bouts of anger. I had to be very careful with how I went on. But I didn't care. I would do whatever it took.

"Pep, I need a dart. I see Jake down there." I said, looking out the window at the hand stretching towards us. It had turned into a claw, the rest of his body black and malformed. From what I could see, his canines were massive, and the drool that escaped from his now-pointed snout seemed to have an acid-like affect on whatever it touched.

He nodded, handing me the dart gun. I aimed, teetered a bit, and shot. It hit him in the neck, and he immediately regressed back to mortal form; He curled up on the ground as his body immediately cured itself and reformed in the position and form that it's original was in, his black fur turning orange. He looked around at the zombies now starting to chase him and screamed, then stretched his way to the window I was at. He grabbed my shirt, pulling himself up, and I watched as he checked himself. I had recently adopted the philosiphy 'Check yourself before you wreck yourself', and found it ironic that he had too. He hugged me, tight enough to squeeze the air out of my lungs, and sat on a nearby chair.

"Dude! What the glob was going on down there?!"

"Zombies, idiot, zombies."

(Just a note: It came to my attention that some of the characters have Russian-sounding names, or did in their previous lives. (Ex: Simon Petrikov). So for noting's sake, they all speak Russian. If a character comes in with a different language, it's because of that.)

Thank you to those who have reviewed this story, TheFlameRose and Rivira! You guys are a great help! Keep watching for more chapters~ I might not be as active, since I'm using the library's computers.

Ciauo~