Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Yes I, Low Candela, have returned with an entirely new story; one spanning not only the entirety of Ooo, but worlds beyond. For those familiar with my previous writings, note this this will not be in a similar vain. Rather, with this tale I've aimed to create a more... conventional tale of adventure. Despite that, I dearly hope you all find my musings to be of the caliber you've come to expect of me. Updates may be... less than frequent, I make no promises, but rest assured that I fully intend to see this through to the very end. And now, I'm very excited to invite you all into my new world, which I have titled "In Between." And now, let us start the story.
Chapter 1: Not a Good Start
"Jake, will you stop moving around so much! You're gonna get us caught and this isn't the kind of trespassing where they just ask you to leave!" Finn glowered at his brother through the darkness as he whispered harshly his disapproval. "Hey, you know fully well that I have difficulties staying still for such a long time." The yellow dog challenged his brother, but still managed to cease his irritable fidgeting. "Well something tells me you won't have much a problem keeping quiet after these guys find and kill us! So either chill out already or make sure your will's up to date." After his final remark, Finn turned his attention back away from the dog. "Well someone definitely needs to chill, but it sure isn't me." Jake muttered under his breath.
Finn of course still heard but chose to ignore it, instead opting to focus his attention on the situation developing before them. Peering over the pile of crates they had been hiding behind, he peered down from his perch on the balcony over the floor below. The four figures that had previously entered the warehouse still stood grouped together, talking amongst themselves, clearly bored. They spoke low and calmly enough that Finn couldn't really make anything out, but it was evident from the mood that what he was really waiting for had yet to transpire. In the brief respite from his brother's ceaseless interruptions, he thought back to the discussion he had had earlier with Princess Bubblegum…
"… 's of vital importance that you carry out this task as swiftly and as delicately as you possibly… Finn are you even listening?!" Bubblegum cut herself off upon catching Finn, mouth agape and staring at a moth that had entered the room. "Uh huh… uh huh…" He robotically replied. It was evident he had not, in fact, heard anything she had just said. A look of indignation crossed the Princess' face and she let out an annoyed grunt. Taking her extendable pointer in both hands, she bent it near to snapping point, but strayed just shy of breaking the item in half. Instead, she crossed the few steps over to Finn and brought the whip thin metal rod down on the back of his hand. "YOWCH! Uh, uhhh, twelve times fourteen is a hundred-nine!"
At his outburst, the Princess could only pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh. "Finn… first of all, this isn't math class. Secondly, that's not even the right answer to the problem that I didn't ask. And third, I really need you to pay attention, this is serious!" Shocked from his reverie, Finn had little choice but to now give the Princess his undivided attention. "Sure, uh, sorry PB. I'm all ears now."
Bubblegum gave him a weary look, but nevertheless continued on. "Ok, here's the short version. My intel guys caught wind of some sort of shady deal going on where some item of significant, but as of yet unidentified, importance is the point of interest. I want you to find these people, identify the item in question, and arrest them and retrieve the item." Finn flashed her a smile and nodded energetically. "All right, bust the bad guys and grab the loot. Easy"
'Cocky as ever. Well, I guess that's always been for the best with Finn.' At his acceptance of her request, she revealed a grateful smile of her own. "Wunderbar. Here," She handed him an open envelope. "The meeting is supposed to take place in a warehouse right here in the Candy Kingdom. These are all the details we have so far." Finn grabbed the paper and quickly tucked it away. "You can count on me Princess." Thinking their business concluded, Finn turned around towards the exit. As he made his way through the door though, the Princess rushed after him, calling out from the door. "Finn…" Stopping in his tracks, he turned back on his heel. "…Just be careful. There's just been… something bothering me lately. So don't just go barging in head first." He pondered her for just a moment before giving her a parting smile and shrugging her off.
Suddenly an odd noise brought him back to the present. His eyebrows furled as he tried to identify the source, a sort of odd, wet, grinding sound. "What the … Dude! Are you eating?!" Finn zipped around to find Jake chewing away at something. Jake simply looked back like it was the plainest thing ever. "Uhh, yeah man. It's a stakeout, so I've gotta eat steak." Continuing on as if nothing were wrong, Jake carved away another piece of meat and shoveled it into his mouth. Finn could only look on incredulously. "Y… You…"
But before he could erupt in anger, the sound of a door opening quelled his temper, and forced his attention back to the warehouse floor. Finn could only gesture his finger menacingly at Jake before he had to look back over the crates. The side entrance had just been opened, letting more light in and helping to better illuminate the still rather dark building. Two more figures entered Finn's field of vision. They stood in the entrance for several tense seconds. The four figures inside the building had stopped their chatter and were all staring down the newcomers. Eventually the two began to make their way towards the other four. By this point even Jake couldn't help but enter his serious state and had joined Finn in his survey of the scene.
The four figures at the bottom seemed tense, as did one of the new arrivals, but the lost seemed oddly calm. As the six apparently began to converse, each one began to relax almost imperceptibly. Unfortunately for the two heroes, their position, while a great look-out-point, made it quite difficult for them to eavesdrop. "Uhgg, I can't hear dip. What about you, can you make anything out?" Finn asked his companion. "Not really. A few words, but I can't really piece the conversation together." The dog whispered back. Finn glanced in irritation at the dog yet again. "Seriously dude? Aren't your ears supposed to be, like, a thousand times better than mine?" Jake shook his head. "Nah man. You're thinking of my sense of smell. Anyways, does it really even matter? I mean, we're just gonna beat 'em all anyway, right?" Finn looked back down to the floor. The six continued to talk, but little else was happening. "Not until we know that these guys have the thing that we need."
Jake scratched the back of his head. "Speaking of which, what exactly are we going through all this trouble for again?" Finn didn't even turn as he replied. "All the info that Bubblegum had is in my pack." Jake glanced at the Green pack that rested on Finn's back. It was larger than the one he had had when they first began their adventures, a necessity as their journeys became more dangerous and, consequently, required more equipment. He did notice a small white slip sticking out from the front most pocket. Delicately sliding it out, he unfolded the paper.
Holding it a certain angle provided just enough light for Jake to read the contents. 'Ok, let's see here. 'From the office of Princess Bubblegum' blah blah blah, 'rogue elements in possession of' blah blah blah, 'may possibly be linked to the occult' blah blah blah, 'object could only be identified as some sort of medal.' "Wait a minute." Jake scrutinized the paper. "That's it? That's all she gave us? We're here to bust these guys over some worthless jewelry?" Finn did have to agree with Jake there; it did seem like an awful lot of trouble for something so seemingly inconsequential. "Well, Bubblegum thought it was important enough to ask us to handle, and that's all that really matters."
"And besides that," Finn continued, "There was definitely something more that she wasn't telling me. She just said she had a… bad feeling. So even if this turns out to be nothing it'll at least help her relax." Jake hummed in understanding. He didn't say anything more, but sidled up beside his brother and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Despite how immaturely he may act, he was always proud of his little brother. At least he knew that, regardless of all other factors, Finn's heart was always in the right place.
Back on the warehouse floor, things seemed to be getting more heated. The whispered voices had been elevated to a dull roar, seemingly in displeasure, and the four original figures gestured in wild and evidently rather upset manners. It was now a little easier for Finn to hear, and though he still couldn't make everything out, he could decipher a few key words, but mostly just expletive-laced statements.
Jake seemed to be having a somewhat easier time reading the language of the situation. The words and phrases he could make out were a bit more relevant to the context of the argument; words like "Cheat", "Gypped", "Price" and so forth. "Well they definitely don't seem happy down there." Finn remarked. "From what I can tell, there having some argument over the price of something." Jake replied. "I guess we at least got the right place then."
After a few more minutes of bickering the elevated tone seemed to die down; the suspect individuals calmed themselves and the warehouse became nearly quiet once again. It seemed a concession of some sort had been reached and Finn guessed the actual transaction would soon take place. Nudging Jake in the side, he told him, "Get ready to flip the switch." His companion responded in the affirmative, "Gotcha."
The group seemed just about ready to conclude their meeting. The dark concealed a lot from Finn, but he was able to clearly make out one of the four original trespassers as he took a fair sized pouch from his satchel. He then reached into the bag and pulled a small object out of it. Whatever it was, it was able to catch enough of the light to glint, Finn guessed it was a coin and the sack was full of similar ones. Apparently satisfied with his counterparts' offer, the man who had come last, and who had remained the calmest throughout the night, pulled something from his own cloak, but Finn couldn't make it out from his angle. He had to assume it was the medal they were after, and that was all the reason they needed to take action.
"Now Jake!" Finn cried out to the Dog. A loud 'thwick' sounded as his brother pulled a lever on the wall behind them. Immediately the whole building was flooded with light, and the two heard several cries of shock from the villains down below. Having been mentally preparing for this moment all night, Finn wasted no time in jumping over the railing on his perch and plummeting to the floor. Normally he'd have no problem making a rough landing like that; unfortunately for him, he failed to take notice of the wooden crate positioned directly below him, so instead of landing on solid ground, his feet hit hollow wood. The box splintered beneath his weight, and the young hero unexpectedly went rocketing backwards towards the floor, landing hard on his back and vacating his chest of air in the process.
As Finn was left gasping on the floor, the six ne'er-do-wells were left wondering what exactly had just happened. They all looked over to where Finn had just crashed, but only stood and watched in bafflement; not even in fear or concern, only in complete confusion. While Finn attempted to reconstitute himself, Jake lowered himself to the ground, much more delicately than the human had. He trotted over to his little brother. "You ok man?" He asked, really more out of politeness than genuine concern; Finn had taken way worse hits than this. "Yeah… I'm cool…" Finn groaned out as he dragged himself to his feet.
The thugs had not grown any less baffled as they watched a child plummet three stories followed by a dog lower himself by his arm like he was made of rubber. "What… What exactly are we supposed to make of all this?" One of them pondered aloud. The one holding the sack of coins responded, "I don't know… Just… Wait and see what they want? I guess." Surprisingly, none of the goons seemed especially worried about the two strangers that had just fallen from the sky, even allowing them to recover while they waited.
Several long seconds passed as Finn begrudgingly lifted his weight up from the ground. Once on his feet, he twisted his torso to both sides and bent himself back slightly, eliciting a few pops from his soon to be much bruised back. He continued on to roll his shoulders and neck a few more times before dusting himself off. With a final snort and a cough, he seemed to be more or less recovered. "All good?" Jake asked once Finn had fully righted himself. "All good." He replied.
Now having reached the point where they had intended to be, the two brothers adopted a much more serious tone. Each turned to the miscreants, arms crossed and in as authoritative a pose as they could manage. The gangsters continued to appear much more confused than intimidated. Finn called out to them, "Ok jerks, by the order of Princess Bubblegum, I'm hereby placing all of you under arrest on several counts of…. Of…." As Finn's train of thought suddenly lost all steam Jake chimed in, "Of carrying out the unlawful sale of illegal items without the proper documentation!" The suspects all remained baffled, and even Finn had to turn to his brother in amazement. "Dang Jake, that was impressively reasoned." Jake flashed his brother a cocky grin, "Hey man, think what you want but I know my legal codes."
By this point the criminals all turned to look at each other, each silently asking if this was just some kind of ridiculous joke. Eventually, one of the original four spoke up. "UghhhhhOk dudes, I don't know who put you up to this but you guys should probably hightail it out of here. We're trying to conduct some pretty serious business here and you're kind of distracting us." Each of the bandits all nodded towards them in agreement.
Now was the heroes turn to look annoyed. Finn threw his arms above his head as he released an agitated grunt while Jake could only put a paw to his face and shake his head. "See man, I told you we should've asked the Princess for uniforms. Or at least a couple of badges or something." Finn very quickly turned to his brother. "As I've told you before, I'm shooting for a symbolic look and to do that we can't be changing our outfits every time we do something heroic!" Jake countered, "But dude, we can't even give anyone a ticket if they don't think we're legit, much less arrest them." To which Finn rationed, "And then that's when we beat them up! Even if we got uniforms or whatever, if we didn't have the fists to back it up they'd be worthless anyway!"
As the two boys bickered, the patience of the thugs began to finally wear thin. The one with the coin pouch, apparently leader of the four buyers, grew a scowl and shouted at the two uninvited guests. "ENOUGH ALREADY!" It certainly worked to grab their attention, as the two immediately stopped fighting and turned to give their full attention to the man. "All right, I think you two have long overstayed your welcome. I don't know if this is supposed to be some kind of a joke or not; but either way, if your two don't leave RIGHT now, things are going to start getting REAL UGLY!"
For the first time Finn and Jake noticed that the light had improved enough to make out some of the men's features. Ironically, the one who had just screamed them down appeared to be some manner of humanoid with a grotesque green face, covered in massive bumps and sores. "Should I go for the obvious insult?" Finn questioned his brother. "I don't even think it's worth it." Jake replied. "So fight then?" Finn asked. "I think fight, yea." Jake shrugged his shoulders.
A smirk crossed each of their lips then. "Take it away, then." Finn let slip to Jake. With no more warning, Jake's shoulder twisted, and his fist grew massive as it rocketed out away from his chest. It collided with the abominable man's face, dead center, with a satisfying 'smack'. The thug was propelled several feet back, landing on the ground and skidding several more before coming to rest, his bag of coins falling beside him and spilling its contents in a rain of metallic 'clinks'. Hard as it was to tell, it was still apparent that already his face had begun to swell already past its original state.
As soon as the room became quiet again, one of the thugs screamed out to the others, "Hey beat the tar out of these guys already!" The remaining bandits, minus the one with the medal, jolted forward in an unorganized frenzy. Two of the original gang went after Finn while the other one and the seller's cohort sprang towards Jake. The two heroes had little choice but to split up and try to take on their respective opponents individually.
As Finn backed away he sized up the combatants. The three remaining buyers had all appeared relatively similar; they were all fairly normal sizes for adults, which is to say still a bit larger than Finn himself, and wore a multitude of leather and cloth articles befitting rogues of their sort. They also all sported hoods, but each appeared to be a fairly standard humanoid with different colored skins.
As they continued to back Finn away from Jake one spoke up. "Hey for what it's worth, we don't feel proud of fighting a kid." The other one immediately chipped in, "Unfortunately for you, that doesn't mean we aren't going to whoop the ever loving crap out of your hide." Finn finally stopped his retreat, and stared down the two assailants. Much to their surprise, yet another grin found its way across his face. "I understand you guys probably won't believe me, but you ARE gonna regret those words."
The two villains shared a brief look of disbelief before rushing forward. The first to reach Finn noticed he was putting his arms up to defend his face, so in lieu of throwing a punch, he speared Finn in the abdomen with his shoulder. For the second time that night, Finn got the wind knocked out of him as his stomach was compressed. The thug didn't stop either, instead lifting Finn slightly up and continuing to carry him back. Two feet backwards, the thug slammed Finn against a large metal shelf. Upon contact, Finn felt the man's shoulder dig into his stomach a second time, and couldn't stifle an agonized cough; he'd effectively had all the air sucked out of him yet again.
While the first thug kept pressed into Finn's gut, the second was hot on his heels. Stopping just behind his friend, the second man reared back his fist before throwing it right at Finn's skull. Even through his addled state, Finn still managed to see the blow coming. He managed to lift his arms up above the man holding him back, and caught the other's hand before it connected. Before the thug could pull back, Finn quickly got a bit of leverage and twisted his hand. A light 'crack' could be heard before the man viciously drew his hand back while crying out in pain. "GAH, MY WRIST!"
As the man shrieked in pain, Finn noticed the pressure keeping him back slacken slightly. The other one was caught completely off guard by his comrade's agonized cry, and couldn't help but let his focus slip. With his bit of leeway, Finn brought his right arm up and slammed his elbow down on the center of the thug's back. The villain released a sharp grunt as his grip totally faltered, and he dropped down to his hands and knees. Intent on keeping his momentum, Finn quickly dropped his arms to grab his downed opponent's shoulders. Lifting him up just ever so slightly, Finn carried his body forward and drove his knee right into his foe's jaw. The force almost lifted the man right off the ground, and he dropped backwards almost immediately, downed and out for the count.
Finn staggered off and away from the remaining thug, needing just a second to catch his breath. His chest was still throbbing, but he saw the other man still clutching his wrist. 'Level playing field now, punk.' At the sight of his fallen friend, the remaining thug's eyes flushed with anger. Backing away a further few steps from Finn, he felt his back hit up against a metal table. Glancing back, he saw it covered with a multitude of clutter, objects and tools. Keeping his bad hand up against his chest, he reached his other hand back and took hold of a mallet, bringing it back up to brandish towards Finn. 'Or… not so much.'
Without much of a thought, the thug rushed forward in desperation. He swing the mallet wildly in front of him, forcing Finn onto the defensive. He was constantly being forced back, forced to duck and weave away from the lethal instrument. After a particularly wide arc, Finn saw an opening and kicked the man in the chest, forcing him to take several steps back but not knocking him down. In the short moment he had, Finn searched around frantically. His eyes landed on a large metal wheel of some sort. It was well rusted and looked to almost be like a shield of some sort, but it didn't have any kind of handle or grip. Gripping it by the edges, Finn braced himself for the next attack.
As the bandit came rushing back forward again, he brought his weapon high above his head and brought it down hard. Finn raised his impromptu shield to block the attack. The thick rubber head of the mallet slammed down on the metal plate, reverberating and shocking Finn, who was thrown on his back by the sheer force. Although the metal protected him from the brunt of the attack, it still badly shocked his arms, and the thin metal edges cut open his palms. The plate itself flew away and clattered off somewhere out of reach.
Finn realized he had no time to recover, as the villain was already gearing up to bring down the hammer one last time. Unable to get up, Finn watched as the crazed man brought his weapon up above his head, and swung it down, releasing it and sending it plummeting towards his own head. Just soon enough, Finn managed to roll over to his side. The mallet missed and collided with the concrete ground, instantly losing its energy and becoming inert. As soon as he heard the crash, Finn twisted his legs, entangling them with his assailant's. He jerked his whole lower body and brought the man crashing down to the floor with him.
The poor guy must have landed on his bad wrist, as he let out a terrible wail that certainly couldn't have been caused by a fall from that height. Finn realized that this would be his best chance to neutralize the threat, and attempted to get back onto his knees. Shakily rising into a crouch, he let himself fall forward just enough to come back into contact with the thug. Wrapping his arms around the man's neck, he caught him in a vicious headlock. While he struggled to choke out pained moans, Finn willed them both forward as fast as he could manage. His intention became savagely evident as he rammed the man's cranium into a solid metal post. Weakened as he was already, the second attacker blacked out instantly.
Having defeated his share of the criminal elements, Finn turned his attention to where Jake had wound up, and was less than thrilled with what he saw.
As Finn moved away to combat his own foes, Jake was likewise gearing up to fight off the gang members. However, unlike his brother Jake had little reason to take these men as a serious threat. After all, while his brother, talented as he was, remained a completely vulnerable individual, he himself possessed nigh unconquerable magic powers. In all truth, Jake could've been cut out to be the greatest hero in Ooo; he was just far, far too lazy and unmotivated to pursue such lofty goals. Yet despite his slacker outlook on life, he was more than happy to use his powers to back up his best buddy.
So while Finn struggled against the two men he'd been matched against, Jake just stood back, casually waiting for his opponents to make a move against him. Unlike the two fighting Finn, Jake's enemies were not prepared to work together. While the one from the original group seemed jittery, either very excited or very fearful, the one associated with the seller seemed far more measured, obviously waiting for the other thug do make the first move.
No one had to wait much longer, as the excitable thug quickly threw himself at Jake. It was very clear the man had zero actual training, just opting to run head first at Jake and hope for the best. It was far too easy for the Dog to just reach his hand out, palming the man's face and halting him right in his tracks. He barely had time to let out a muffled grunt of surprise before Jake's arm started rapidly shooting backwards. Eventually the ride came to an end, and the outlaw's body was crushed against a wall. While Jake retracted his arm the man slumped down to the ground, showing absolutely no signs of recovering any time soon.
Having easily dispatched the first one, Jake turned quite cockily to the last thug. Since he had not been a part of the others' group, he was not wearing the same attire as them. Rather, he himself was sporting an oversized yellow cloak. Jake also noted that he was a fair bit larger than any other person in the room. Even so, he wasn't too worried that this guy would cause him too much trouble.
As this thought crossed his mind, the larger man suddenly threw away his cloak. With his covering removed, Jake's eyes bulged as he realized how much of an understatement it was to simply call him 'big.' No, something along the lines of 'monstrous' or 'behemoth' would be a far better description for the creature standing before the Canine. Yet another humanoid, this one sported a bright red skin-tone, and looked as though he may as well have been carved from stone. He had a massive barrel chest and arms like train engines. His neck was as thick as a tree trunk. Oddly enough, his face was still covered with a strange burlap-looking mask stretched taught over his face.
Jake could hardly call himself terrified, so much as awed. "Dang, dude! Man what gym do you go to?" The hulking figure said nothing to Jake, only raising its' fists to a fighting stance. "All right well what about supplements? Anything? Protein? Creatine? Fish oil? Seriously dude, I gotta get in on your regiment." It began to make its' way closer towards Jake, who could only sigh in disappointment. "All right then. If you're not even gonna try then I guess we'll get right to the nasty part."
Once more enlarging his fist, Jake reared back and began winding his arm around. Once the giant was within five feet, Jake through a tremendous blow towards him. Totally unexpectedly, his fist was caught on the massive palm of the monster. Before the dog could make any move, he was thrown clear over the head of the mammoth man. He let out a garbled scream as he hurtled through the air before eventually crashing against another metal shelf, and tumbling to the ground with a groan. It was a slow struggle to get to his knees. "Errggg, Glob." Glancing up, he noticed the giant already back in a hostile stance and encroaching on him. "This might not be as fun as I thought."
Finn began running over to where Jake was currently… occupied. "Hey man! Uhh, you handling things okay?" Finn raised an eyebrow as he asked the question. Even so, it was rather obvious that the Dog was in fact NOT in control of the situation, as the giant of a man currently had both hands around Jake's throat and had him well off of the ground. "Gah… ndr… cn…rl" He garbled out through his pinched larynx. "Sure…" The boy said sarcastically. Figuring things would turn out very poorly if he did not act soon, Finn began looking around the immediate vicinity for something that would give him at least a little advantage over the incredibly intimidating threat. An idea started to form as his eyes landed on a length of chain.
Grabbing the chains, Finn positioned himself a few feet behind the monster. 'Throttle my brother, we'll see if you don't like the same treatment.' He began sprinting towards the giant and leapt up onto his back. Before he had a chance to react, Finn had wrapped the chains around his massive neck and was pulling back hard. The beast let out a disgusting snort in clear discomfort, and instantly dropped Jake, coughing and spurting, to the floor. He threw his arms up and reared his head back trying to get some slack, but Finn kept the chains wrapped tightly around him. He tried to reach back to remove Finn, but his arms were simply too big to allow that flexibility. All he could do was buck and snort, throwing his weight around haphazardly in an attempt to throw Finn off.
And Finn certainly wasn't having an easy time either as he was tossed about on the man's back. Still, he managed to hold onto the chains even as the giant thrashed beneath him. The giant man struggled against him for several minutes before he showed any signs of slowing. Eventually, Finn noticed the man's movements slowing, becoming less erratic. The life was slowly being choked out of him and it wouldn't be long before he succumbed to a lack of oxygen.
Jake was slowly beginning to recover from the violence he had just endured, and was back on his feet, coughing and wheezing. He was up in time to see his brother breaking the giant like a horse, the large man slowly stopping, his arms going desperately to his throat, his whole upper body bending forward, close to blacking out completely. Both heroes thought they had the man dead to rights, when he suddenly summoned one last burst of energy. He quickly lurched backwards, backing away as fast as he could manage. Finn didn't have any time to steel himself before he felt his body crash against a wall. His body was completely shocked from the impact and he couldn't stop himself from releasing his hold on the chains.
As Finn dropped behind him, the monstrous man frantically ripped the chains away from his throat and tossed them away. As Finn lay on his side, clutching his back in pain, the giant turned towards him in total fury. 'Oooohh no, this is not good' thought Jake as he watched these events transpire. He realized that they'd never take this guy down if they just kept getting knocked down in succession. They'd both need to get at him in order to neutralize him for good. Still, Jake knew he at least had to distract him now before he really hurt Finn.
"HEY, HEY! Family size, over here!" Jake shouted at the giant to try and grab his attention. He was completely ignored, as the man seemed far more preoccupied with Finn at the moment. Grabbing a hefty piece of scrap metal lying beside him, Jake hurled it at the back of the man's neck. The monster barely flinched as he was struck, yet he still couldn't keep from turning his attention to Jake. "Yeah, that's right dummy. Keep your eyes on me."
The giant began to trudge over towards Jake, and he couldn't decide between feeling relieved and terrified. Picking up speed the closer it got, the monster was right on top of Jake when he raised both arms and swung his hands straight down towards him. Jake quickly stretched his body straight up while thinning himself significantly, in so doing coming through the space between the man's arms. As the giant's massive fists shook the ground with their collision, Jake set about incapacitating him as best he could. Stretching and crisscrossing his body, Jake first captured one of the arms before stretching across the large man's back and wrapped up the second as well. Pulling his body as taught as possible served to bend the man's arms back in a pseudo-nelson, effectively keeping them pinned in place.
Even though he had successfully trapped the giant, Jake was still fighting with all his strength to keep him from breaking free. Fortunately, Finn seemed to rapidly be regaining his wits, and was soon enough back to his feet. Spotting his brother, Jake allowed his muscles to relax, disentangling himself from the monster and jumping away mostly unscathed. Now the two brothers were again side by side as the giant man eventually relocated them and readied himself for another confrontation.
As their enemy lumbered towards them Jake spoke up, sounding incredibly worried. "This isn't working dude. Everything we throw at the guy he shrugs off." Panting heavily, Finn's eyes traced up and down the behemoth form. Unfortunately Jake was absolutely right, and the longer he thought on it the more insurmountable an obstacle it seemed. Eyes scanning the room desperately, he began to take much more an interest in their actually setting, the cogs in his head slowly beginning to grind. With a last huff he said back to his brother, "Well… we'll just have to give him something he CAN'T shrug off."
Jake looked at his brother, not quite following what he was suggesting. "You think you can rough him up just a bit more?" Finn asked, still not revealing his actual plan. Still, Jake could tell when Finn was devising something brilliant, so settled to just follow his lead. "What'd you have in mind?" The dog asked. The human shrugged over towards the center of the building. Following his gaze lead to another of the warehouse's massive metal shelves; this one, however, seemed extremely dilapidated, weak, and otherwise hazardous. "Just get him over there and I'll handle the rest." With a nod from his brother, Finn was off into the maze of storage, leaving the Dog to deal with the giant by himself yet again.
He had little warning before the giant came charging towards him. As soon as he was close, the volatile man began taking wild swings at the Dog. Jake, however, had started to grow wise to his opponent's tactics, and did a much better job of stretching and shrinking his body out of harm's way. Once he had a good opening, Jake quickly elongated his body well past the man before bringing himself back to his natural shape, now positioned between the monster and the shelf. He wasted no more time and began running for the spot Finn needed him in, the massive man barging after him.
Having gained a pretty good idea of what Finn was planning, Jake positioned himself right beside the shelf. Seeing the monster encroaching on him with some speed, Jake readied himself. Reaching his arm across his chest, he let his skin stretch down to appear as if he was holding a cape in front of himself. Waving it back and forth, he shouted to the man, "All right let's go! Andele! Andele!" As though entranced, the giant charged towards Jake, intent on finally grinding him to dust. As the massive person charged towards him, Jake kept his composure. Moments before the two would've collided, Jake stepped off to the side, just narrowly avoiding the impact.
The Dog safely out of the way, the giant man found only cold metal at the end of his path. Crashing into the shelf with tremendous force, the impact was directed nearly completely back at himself, and he soon found himself falling flat on his back. However, not all of the energy found its way into the man's body. The shelf, having taken the brunt of the impact, was rocked a few inches back. Easily weighing at least a ton, the shelf was now perched precariously on its edge, tilted away from the one that had just crashed against it.
This was just the moment that Finn had been waiting for. He had positioned himself behind the old shelf and had been waiting for Jake to get the man to crash against it, a feat he had executed perfectly. Now the shelf was rocking back towards Finn, but this was exactly was what he had hoped for. As the shelf reached the apex of its lean, teetering just on the brink of righting itself or crashing down on Finn, he pushed back against it with the full force he could muster. Faced with a weight he had far underestimated, the Human was almost fearful that things would turn out tragically for himself.
But after several tense moments, he could feel the structure begin to sway towards the opposite side. Confidence rising, he pushed harder and harder as the shelf tipped further towards its origin point. Finally the shelf rocked back upright, but did not remain there long as both the momentum and Finn's added force continued to carry it forward. Tipping past the middle point, the shelf was now threatening to collapse on top of the giant, and it showed no signs of stopping.
Feeling it now out of his control, Finn back up from the shelf, not wanting to end up going down with it. He glanced to the side and saw Jake sprint out from the impact zone as well. The giant man, however, had no chance of escaping from the avalanche. The shelf finally came down with a thunderous clap, raising a huge cloud of dust and forcing Finn to turn away for a moment. Once the dust had settled, he allowed himself to check on the damage he'd just done.
Walking over to meet with his brother, his eyes searched for any sign of the man they'd just buried. Unbelievably he could still hear some muffled moans coming from somewhere beneath all of the metal, and perhaps even saw the faintest trace of movement. Placing his hands on his hips, Jake let out a long whistle. "Boy that was intense. That guy is seriously no joke." Finn placed a hand on the top of the Dog's head, helping to prop himself up. "Yeah… But I don't think even he's gonna get up from that."
Jake suddenly began to dart his eyes across the room. "Hey, speaking of severe beat downs wasn't there at least one more guy here?" Finn hummed, and brought up his hand, counting off their fallen foes on his fingers. "Let's see… there were six total… you punched out that first dude… I took down two more… and we got that big guy just now." Jake chimed in, "Oh, and I also took out one more guy, so… yeah, we're short one."
At that moment, a clattering of metal followed by a muffled curse drew their attention towards the center of the building. The last man, the one who had originally intended to sell the medal, was on his knees, frantically digging through a pile of garbage on the floor. Leaning off from Jake, Finn nudged him towards the last criminal. The two were able to get right up behind him before he noticed. "Aha! There you are." He exclaimed, leaning back on his heels and bringing his hand up.
The two looked at each other briefly before each loudly cleared their throats. The man shrieked in surprise, and the same metal clattering sound rang out again. He turned his head very slowly, dreading what he would find. Finn and Jake could catch just the barest hint of his eyes peering out from layers of cloth; both of them appeared very tired and very impatient. "All right dude, can we please rap this up already?" Finn said down to the man. "Yeah, we're frickin exhausted here; so just surrender to the law and let's be done with this already." Jake added. The man merely let his hands drop to his sides, staring at the ground. "I was so close…"
It seemed as though the man were on the verge of tears, and neither hero had nearly the patience to sit and wait for him to finish. Grabbing him beneath the arms, Jake grew himself and lifted the man to his feet. "Alright, alright, c'mon dude, no use crying over spilled milk." Keeping the man's arms pinned, he began to lead him towards the exit. "Finn, don't forget to grab that medal thing." He called over his shoulder.
Finn, meanwhile, had remained in the center. "Yeah, just a minute. He dropped the stupid thing in the middle of all this trash." As he bent down to begin rifling through the debris, he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Peering up to a shaded corner of the warehouse, Finn could swear he saw something; a figure, hunched over and seemingly shivering. "Hey Jake!? You sure we got everyone!?" Jake and his charge stopped. "Everyone we saw!" Finn slowly rose to his feet. He was about to make his way over to the shadow when it suddenly moved rapidly, as though rising up very quickly.
Finn immediately stopped in his tracks, sensing something was very wrong. He couldn't quite tell what was happening; it were as though a very strange and ominous presence had just filled the air around him. 'What… What's going on?... What am I seeing here? Is my sight going or…" Finn could swear that the air was beginning to shimmer, like from an intense heat but that was definitely not the reason. He momentarily considered it was his vision blurring, but looking around the room seemed to suggest that the phenomena was focused on that one particular spot.
He was on the verge of walking right into it when the air itself seemed to split. A black void, like an inky window appeared, forcing Finn to take a step back. He realized that whatever had just formed was likely incredibly dangerous, yet he could not manage to pull himself away from the spectacle. He did not notice as the hole gradually began to draw in some of the surrounding debris. He did not notice as the hole began to enlarge, widen and grow taller.
It was not until his brother shouted for him that Finn began to notice the danger. The void was now definitely much bigger than what it had originally been, and he could definitely feel some manner of force pulling him towards the void. He attempted to begin to back away, but only managed a few, very laborious steps; the vacuum force was growing increasingly powerful. He soon found he could no longer pull away any further, and it was taking all his focus just to keep from hurtling into the black hole. Finn was perhaps seconds away from allowing panic to take over before a felt a hand grip him by the back of his shirt. The next thing he knew he was being reeled back in by his brother.
A mild wave of relief hit Finn as he felt his back hit Jake's furry form. But that did little to alleviate his concern of the overall situation. The black hole was growing larger still, and the suction was becoming increasingly overwhelming, strong enough that it was starting to seem like a hurricane had materialized right within the building. "We've got to get out of here!" Finn had to shout to get over the wind. "I'm on top of things!" Jake shouted back.
With one arm safely securing Finn, and the other keeping their prisoner in line, Jake glanced to the other end of the warehouse. The exits were still all open, and it seemed that the vacuum force hadn't grown strong enough to completely uproot most of the large shelves and other heavier equipment. Keeping his two passengers wrapped up tight, he began to stretch several extra appendages out of his back, reaching them back to hook on to whatever they could find. As he began to pull everyone out, the medal's original holder began to thrash violently.
Jake was forced to stop their retreat just to get a better grip on his prisoner, a fact he was not happy about. "Dude are you nuts!? Quit jerking around or you're gonna go straight into that thing!" The man, however, did not cease his struggles. "NO! I won't leave the Medallion! Not when I was so close!" Faced with the man's incessant writhing while simultaneously fighting against the increasingly furious winds, Jake felt his grip begin to slip. He had to make a choice; if he didn't release the criminal they might all wind up hurtling into the void. So he released his grip, sending the man careening toward the hole.
The two heroes watched as the man was sucked into the void, completely swallowed whole as though into the gaping maw of some terrible monster. Awful as it was, they both knew they could not afford to end up like him, and Jake was soon back to dragging them to the exit. By the time they reached the door, the hole had grown to a black sphere encompassing almost half the floor space of the warehouse, and was nearly as tall as the ceiling. The door itself was stuck open, constantly being drawn towards the void. Jake was currently stuck in the door frame, fighting desperately to keep from being sucked back in. With a last burst of effort, he managed the whip his body, flinging Finn out the door first with himself following after, making sure to throw them away from the opening.
The two heroes, now outside and sheltered from the powerful suction of the black whole, allowed themselves a moment to lay limp on the ground, breathing profusely from equal parts relief and exhaustion. Neither felt too comfortable waiting around too long, though, and very shortly thereafter forced themselves to rise once more. Although they were out of immediate danger, the violent sounds still emanating from within the building kept in their minds the still very present danger. "Dude… you think we'd better back up or something?" Jake asked. "Yeah… probably a good idea." The two brothers began to get as far away from the building as they could.
The warehouse itself, while located within the Candy Kingdom, was located in the least populace district, which was largely comprised of similar industrial sites. The warehouse itself was settled on fairly large property surrounded by a tall fence, so Finn and Jake were able to put a good deal of distance between themselves and the building. Each were silently praying that the ball would simply stop and vanish at some point. Much to their horror, though, they saw as the orb began to creep out from the roof of the building, engulfing more and more every second. Not five minutes later, the sides of the building had begun to succumb as well as the ball continued to expand.
Anxiety began to well in the two heroes' throats as they began to fear the void was unstoppable. Jake was the first to speak up. "This is not good. If that thing keeps growing like that it could cover the whole neighborhood. Even the whole Kingdom!" Finn felt exactly the same if not more terrified, but he had no comment to make. After all, he had absolutely no clue what he could possibly do to even slow that thing, and he doubted Jake had any better ideas.
Finally, Jake could not take just standing around any further. "Okay dude, we've waited long enough. We have to go alert the Princess; maybe she'll have some way to stop it. Even if she doesn't, she'll still need to evacuate everyone." Jake was ready to get out of dodge, but Finn noticed something, and held up a hand to his companion. "Hang on a sec, dude. That thing hasn't grown for the last few minutes." Finn had felt something was odd, and it was only just now that he realized that no more of the building had been consumed; the void had stopped growing.
Jake, though, still looked far more nervous. "So what? Just because the thing stopped growing doesn't mean…" But he cut off there, and his face crinkled as though he'd just caught a foul scent. "Hey, 'd you feel that?" Finn did not actually notice anything strange, or more so than what had already happened. "No, what?" The boy asked. "I don't know, it kinda felt like…"
Once again Jake was cut off, but this time by a much more noticeable occurrence. Before either could tell what had happened, the massive black sphere began to rapidly shrink back down. They watched as the ball fell behind what remained of the building's structure, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound. It was not long at all before everything was quiet, and the only sounds were of the building settling after the beating it just took.
Finn stood still, just staring at the now eerily calm building which only moments ago housed an incredible vortex of destruction. He was almost afraid that by just going to look he would somehow instigate the void to reappear, but he knew he had no choice in the matter; he had to be sure the Kingdom was safe. As he began to slowly walk back towards the front entrance he felt his brother's hand on his shoulder. "Dude, be extra careful; we still have no idea what that was, or what caused it." Jake said, emphasizing the second part. Finn turned to look briefly before nodding his head and resuming his approach.
Now back at the wall, Finn took a deep breath before peering his head through the door. What he saw was almost unthinkable; the entire interior was disintegrated. Where once there had been a cramped space utterly packed with metal and wood, now there was simply nothing. Finn took a tentative step into the building. When it failed to trigger another armageddon, he took another step further. Now fully inside, he inspected the ground. It appeared totally blackened, as though scorched. He briefly wondered if the black sphere could have been some sort of odd fire spell, but there was no ash on the ground, absolutely no remains whatsoever of the multitude of objects that had been here.
Then he remembered that there hadn't just been inanimate object in here, but six living beings that had been scattered about the grounds. Finn needed only to take a cursory glance to confirm that they were all gone as well; consumed along with everything else. At that thought, Finn couldn't help but feel a sharp sense of failure stab at him. He'd just let six people be destroyed. Sure, they may have been criminals, but they were only black marketers, and Finn certainly had no intention of killing them.
He would've doubtless dwelt longer on the somber topic had something in the building not caught his eye. Upon his initial inspection he had assumed everything to be utterly destroyed. But as he turned his head he caught a glint coming from the center floor. Intrigued, he began to approach the suspect item. Coming upon it, he confirmed that it was, in fact, the medal. At first Finn could only feel confusion. 'What the… This thing was right at the center; how was it the only thing that survived?"
Bending down, he scooped up the trinket to finally get a good look at it. It was pretty much what he had been expecting; small, circular, gold at least in color, and strung with a thin gold chain. Really the only remarkable thing about it seemed to be that it was damaged. A little less than half of the medal seemed missing, as though broken off. What's more, an indentation seemed to suggest it used to hold some stone or ornament that has since been lost. Of course, the possibility existed that it itself was damaged in the black hole, but given the state of everything else around it, it seemed far more likely that it was damaged prior to being caught in the void.
'Well… if nothing else at least I got this thing back.' Finn seemed quite sober as he pocketed the medal. He had plenty to worry about regarding tonight, and the confusion would only grow once he had to figure out how to explain everything to the Princess; that was not a conversation he would be looking forward to. Something certainly seemed troubling about recent events, to say the least. He doubted that the thugs had any more warning to the event than he did, otherwise they would've never been here; but on the other hand the sheer fact that the medal was the only thing unharmed by the black hole had to mean the two were linked in one way or another.
As thoughts and theories pounded in his skull, Finn became acutely aware of how tired he was. It had been a long enough day already. Between waiting around all night and getting in a savage gang fight, the last thing he needed to deal with was some terrible magic or otherwise incomprehensible disaster. Further investigation, Bubblegum, heroics, that could all wait until morning. Right now, he just desperately wanted to pass out. With all energy gone, it was a fight just to get back outside, even without some otherworldly vortex sucking him in. His brother in sight, he called out to him, "C'mon Jake, let's go home. I need about sixteen hours of sleep to deal with everything we had to do tonight."