Weapons of war.
chapter 1: a sudden introduction.
The midday sun shone warm over all the kingdoms of Ooo, reflecting off the ponds and rivers and casting dancing shadows in the leaves of the forest. The small creatures flitting through the brush making their typical sounds, children laughing and dancing in the warm weather. Even the ice king is taking it easy today, taking an unusual day off from his typical role of mischief maker to bask in the sun that warmed his kingdom to just inches below freezing. Currently he was lounging in a beach chair wearing a bathing suit that could honestly make a statistical majority of censors wet themselves in terror, sipping on a iced tea provided by Gunther.
"*sigh* this is the life, isn't it buddy?"
the penguin made a few barking sounds that, though unintelligible to most listeners and fiction readers, seemed to make perfect sense to the crazy wizard.
"heh, no kidding. the only thing missing is a couple of friends or maybe a princess to - sweet gravy what's that?" the wizards usual obsessive train of thought was suddenly derailed as the sun suddenly dims. The wizard lifts off his sunglasses to stare at the sight before him.
"... uh, Gunther, are you seeing what I'm seeing, or are my crazy wizard eyes acting up on me again?"
Gunther nods affirmatively with a rather nervous squack.
"this probably isn't good." he replies as he turns around to head back inside. "I should probably take a closer look."
Behind him, Gunther stands rooted to the spot, staring at the black smoke rising in a vast cloud, large enough to dim the bright sunlight.
smoke that was coming from the direction of the Candy Kingdom.
"I hope everyone's alright..."
It was perhaps ironic that the thought that was going through Bonnibel Bubblegum's mind at that pointwas the thought that she really would rather be kidnapped by the ice king than be where she was at the moment. Of course at that point she would probably not have to worry about the embarrassment that a thought like that, as they all were probably going to die horribly in a few minutes anyway.
She probably should have seen this coming. in the last few months, attacks by the various villains vexing the kingdoms of Ooo have been increasing in viciousness and vigour, however each attack has been rebuffed in typical fashion by the kingdom's resident heroes, Jake and Finn. looking over the ruined battlefield that used to be the palace grounds, her eyes sought her two guardians, only to find them right in the thick of it. Jake and Finn were standing their ground before the tower doors, back to back surrounded by at least a dozen whywolves, along with several other creatures of evil origins. the chances of all these creatures banding together was infentesimal, or so she and the other royals had assumed over the years. there was too much infighting between the different factions to allow that, they assumed.
"no chance in the night-o-sphere they said" she grumbled to noone in particular as she tossed a piece of rubble over the balcony onto the head of an unsuspecting whywolf, knocking him out cold.
"nice shot PB!" Jake cried as he swung a comically oversized right hook at a pair of beasts, sending them across the lawn.
"yeah, mind sending a bit of that rocky love my way?" hollered Finn as he liberated a whywolf of his clawing arm. jokers to the last those two, the princess thought. her bemusement turned to horror though, as he saw Finn take another hit, this time to his sword arm. Jake had him in his arms and over the fray before his sword hit the grass, backing the two of them up against the doors. in a defensive position. as the beasts closed in on the wounded heroes, the princess was torn from the fight by a scream beside her, and turned to find peppermint butler suspended by his leg from the claw of another one of the beasts, his battle cries and sword swings rather innefective as the beast held him out at arms length, a throaty chuckle escaping from his mouth. No sooner had this happened though, than the beast put an end to his struggles, dashing him against the wall and deftly tossing him over the balcony to the grounds below. Inwardly, the princess cried out for the loss of such a dear comrade and friend, but outwardly she schooled her features and turned to face the killer in front of her. Over the last months, a rather exubherant Finn had taken time to teach her some level of self defense, and she now hoped that it was enough to at least buy her some time against the beast advancing in front of her.
draw, slice, cut back, slide away, repeat. Her thin rapier wasnt enough to actually defeat a beast like this, but it was enough to keep him at arms length, and for now that was the best she can do.
"Come on, princess, this fight is useless, and you know it" the beast taunted, taking a swing that she just barely rolled away from. "It would be so much easier if you just gave in. Your armies are gone, and your hero cannot help you now."
"I will not yield to you, and I will not lose!" the princess cried, ducking under another swing and slicing across the wolf's belly, causing him to grunt in pain. The momentary respite was not enough however, as the beast stepped forward and swiped out, knocking the sword out of her hand and sent it spinning away, only to be buried in a wall across the courtyard.
"Enough of this you prissy royal." he growled, backhanding the young woman and knocking her to the ground.
"PRINCESS, NO!"
Finn and Jake had the unfortunate pleasure of having an excellent observation point for the scuffle on the balcony, while being entirely unable to assist, as they both were rather distracted by their own fights. When he saw the princess take the blow, he saw red.
In the intervening years since his last, and admittedly embarassing, attempt to win PBs heart, and after some surprisingly heartfelt advice from his brother in arms Jake, Finn had decided that he needed to step back from the crush he had for the princess, and the feelings he felt for the Flame Princess solidified the fact in his mind that, though he really did love PB, it wasnt /that/ type of love. Instead, he realized that she represented the best qualities of a sister and best friend all rolled into one nice package. Surprisingly enough, with this revelation in his mind, it became significantly easier to spend time with the princess, even going so far as to invite her on one or two of the less dangerous quests as a "heroine in training," while PB tried (in some cases unsuccessfully) to bring the young human up to speed in his non-hero-related educational pursuits. This sisterly bond, however, certainly didnt inhibit the protective feelings he felt for the soverign of the Candy Kingdom. This strike against the princess frayed his last nerve. It was time to get serious!
In his rage he began to push forward, fighting against the arms now holding down, and twice breaking free and running to the keep doors, only to be stopped when even more obstacles got in his path, held him down. His comic insults now replaced by inarticulate cries of rage as he struggled in vain to get up to the balcony.
The lead whywolf had by this time taken the princess by the neck and had hauled her to her feet. A cruel smile on his face, he lifted her up just slightly, her weight now only being supported by her toes and his huge hand. She refused to cry out, meeting his amused look with a hard stare.
"Interesting, isnt it princess, that after all this time, and after so many battles, that all it took was a single assult to bring your kingdom to its knees. You were ill prepared for this, it seems. And for that..." he smiled as he raised his fist as her eyes widened in fear ".. you will pay the price."
Finn screames in rage, struggling against his holders.
Jake scrambles across the courtyard fighting off the beasts in an attempt to assist Finn.
The princess readies herself for the blow, knowing this is the end of this fight. Her last thoughts are simply "I'm sorry, Jake, Finn... everyone. I've failed..."
*Thunk*
A scream cuts the air. The princess falls to the stone, and blinks. The blow never connected. She looks up to find the beast clutching his arm, a long thin arrow cleanly cut through the forearm, and embedded into the wall. He stumbles back with a howl, clutching his newly injured arm, blood running down the shaft of the arrow. He looks up at the princess and out at his followers.
"who did that?" he demanded, "find them, bring them to me! So help me, I will rip them apart."
Finn was confused as well. Though his work with the sword was his forte, he often used a crossbow to strike at certain beasties, especially before the family demon-blood coated sword became such a staple in his arsenal. That sort of shot was quite difficult even at his range, but he cant see where that shot could have come from except for a tower along the castle... walls...
The shooter lowered his bow and took a flying leap from the wall, coming to a rest on the opposite end of the courtyard. Immediately, the whywolves charged towards his landing point, intending to drag this horrible offence to evil everywhere to some sort of demise. The target of their rage... fiddled with a box on his hip.
*click* - /current track: Bad by Michael Jackson/ "... no"
the whywolves completely abandon Finn, who stands up and turns to face the new player on the field... of battle.
*click* /current track: Always by Erasue/ ".. sweet Glob no"
the whywolves swarm past Jake, who calls out "Hey dude, watch out!"
*click* /current track: Electioneering by Radiohead/ "There we go!"
The figure stood and raised his bow again, quickly notching a single arrow and took aim at the charging horde. A quick release and the front whywolf fell to the ground. Finn was stunned at his speed, and before the whywolves had gotten within reach, he had felled three more. The beasts started to pile upon the stranger, who quickly leaped up over the crowd and landed near the local heroes.
"Hey, kid, you good to go?" Finn could only blink at the stranger for a second, taking in his... well his lack of features. his face was covered by a mask of some kind, a white mask with glowing green eyes and a smirk. He was confused as to what the man meant, until he noticed the sword in his extended hand, PBs rapier. Finn grinned as he took the sword and stood, grimacing a bit as his injured shoulder twinged a bit. He gave the sword a quick test swing, and found he was at least able to fight with it, probably given it was so much lighter than his usual broadsword. He turned back to the stranger, who apparently was waiting for a response, though his face was unchanged, that same smirk in place. Finn stood and turned towards the advancing horde, sword up and ready. Jake stretched up beside his best bud and best brother, and Finn gave him a soft punch in the shoulder.
"Oh yeah, its butt whoopin time."
The tide of battle turned swiftly after that. A newly exhuberant Finn took to laying the smack down on the wolves with extreme prejudice, backed by an equaly impressive Jake. The sword making precision strikes to the closest ones, while Jakes massive blows taking out wide swaths of adversaries, throwing them across the courtyard. Anytime a beast would get a bit too close, a flying arrow would strike down a target, only for its shooter to leap away, leading several of the whywolves on a merry chase across the courtyard. All the while, the smirk never left the mask, and at times the stranger would even be heard singing along to the music coming from the strange box on his waist. Eventually, the three fighters reached the gate again, this time guarded by a whywolf that was rather large, twice as large, in fact, than the ones that were now decorating the lawn. Finn immediately stepped forward to fight the beast, but an arm stopped him.
"Naw, hero. This one's mine, Ill move him, you get up that tower, the arrow won't keep that one down for long, and you have a princess to protect."
"But dude, you only got one arrow left!" Finn replied.
"Yeah, bro you sure you-whaaaaa?" Jake turned to the stranger to find that the mask had changed. Gone was the smirk, instead replaced by a rather vicious tooth filled grimace, complete with glowing red eyes. "woah, creepy dude"
The stranger paid him no mind though instead turned his back to the heroes, saying "Arrows aint all I got." shouldering his bow and opening his right hand. Finn had to blink as, out of nowhere, a flame lit in his glove, steadily growing in size to a softball sized flame. Finn could only describe it in one word.
"Math, bro. totally math."
"Hnn."
as Jake guided a still stunned Finn around and towards the doors. He wasn't about to look a gift rainicorn in the mouth, cept maybe his lady. Before hey took off towards the door, he asked "whats your name dude?"
The stranger turned around, the grimace replaced again by the smirk , throwing Jake for a loop again.
"While the mask is on, call me Shade" And with that, he whirled around and pitched the fireball towards the beast, and Jake and Finn hurried up to the balcony where PB was still fighting off the Whywolf leader.
Bonnibel, of course, was having her own fun upstairs already, having realized that as long as the abomination's arm was pinned to the wall, her safety was at least temporarily intact. She was therefore spending copious amounts of energy in distracting the beast from rectifying his current situation. While wary enough to assume his state didnt mean that he couldnt still do her harm while she was within arms reach, she had settled with simply hurling anything nearby that wasnt tied down in his direction. A clumsy method of distraction, she thought, but effective enough given the circumstances, as she hurtled a ceremonial vase in its direction, striking it in the back of the head while it was again attempting to dig out the projectile from its arm.
"You know princess, this is getting really old" the whybeast grunted as he dodged various pieces of shrapnel from the throne room that the princess had decided would be effective at slowing down the beast again.
"I," the princess retorted, throwing another brick "dont care! I dont care if I have to take the castle apart! I wont. let. you win!" though she knew as well has he, that her efforts were a delaying tactic, and nothing more. The whywolf had another trick up his sleeve though.
"They won't be coming, you know. Even if they manage to get past the rest of the pack, they have to face my own brother. Even Billy himself wa-"
"Billlyyyyyy!"
"... was hard pressed to drive back the great one."
The princess did falter at this statement. The tale of Billy versus the great one was legendary, and the crater left by the mighty clash was one of the largest left that wasnt created by a remnant of the great mushroom war. If he was telling the truth...
The moment of hesitation was all that the beast needed as he ripped the arrow out of the wall and his arm with a whine. He then proceeded to turn towards the princess, moving slowly towards her, his ever-wide grin showing even more teeth than before.
"There's nothing you, or your precious hero can do to stop this. The candy kingdom is going to fall, one way-"
he lowers himself into a crouch.
"-or-"
PB backs into a corner of the balcony, eyes wide.
"ANOTHER!"
"NO!"
What Bonnibel had assumed was her demise was suddenly interupted by the cry of a sixteen year old, rather unlikely, hero intercepting a whywolf mid-flight with a shoulder to the midsection. The beast, caught completely off guard, stumbled backwards barely managing to catch himself from tumbling over the balcony, only to face a humorously enlarged hand with its finger prepared to strike.
"Not today it wont" came Jakes voice, and with a simple flick of a human-sized finger, the beast tumbled over the baclony railing into the grounds below.
PB blinked at his hero for a moment, then slowly fell to her knees, leaning back against the palace walls. Finn headed over to the balcony and looked over the edge, and called out "Hey, Shade! Up here! you can head up thewhhaaaa?" His apparent directions were unecessary as the forementioned man had simply leapt up and over the balcony and landed, carrying the whywolf leader in his hand. Upon landing he threw the beast to the stone floor and leaned down to its face, the mask in the same dark snarl Jake had seen earlier. The conversation between the mask and his target was short and to the point.
"You lost here. You werent meant to win."
"You know nothing of what is to come, none of you heroes do-" he was cut off by a swift kick to the ribs.
"See, thats the real trick isn't it. Well guess what, monster? The game has changed. You get to be the one to tell your boss, too. Isnt that exciting? Just the thought of it makes me all tingly inside." Shade then picked up the beast again and walked him over to the balcony edge, hanging him over the railings.
"You go back to your boss, and tell him that he isnt only dealing with heroes anymore. Bet his reaction will be... exciting. Now get out of my sight." and with that, he simply dropped the beast over the railing. Finn and Jake ran up to see, and found that the wolf was already scrambling across the courtyard, another whywolf slowly staggering in that direction as well. Without a word, Shade raised his bow and took aim, and before Finn could even blink, launched his arrow across the grounds, killing the remaining straggler as his leader continued heading for the exit. Finn could only stand there and look out at the fallen body. Why bust someones chops when they're already running with their tail between their legs (literally in this case)? The thought baffled Finn, and apparently upset Jake, who after recovering from shock immediately called out Shade on his uncool move. However the guy in question had already turned away from the balcony and was heading over to the princess. Finn blinked away his shock, and quickly headed over to see if his sister from another Gumball was alright.
Shade knelt down next to the princess and nudged her from her shocked state. She blinked for a moment, then turned and looked at Shade, saying "I suppose I have you to thank, kind sir, for assisting in the defence of our kingdom today."
Shade simply responded by reaching up to his face, and with a deft motion, pulling off his mask.
"Oh, Bonnie. Only you can go from viking to princess in the blink of an eye, and get both sides so well, might I add.
Finn, inconspicuously looking PB over for any serious injuries, missed the fact that Shade had taken off his mask, but he couldnt miss the changes to her face when Shade spoke. Being a sixteen year old dude, and despite the fact that he had attended (or suffered through, as Jake had so elequently put it) /sensitivity training/ for several weeks by PB and a couple of the other princesses who were rather sick of his thick-headedness, he wasn't quite able to understand all of it though. He saw a look like she was remembering something, then she did remember it, then she totally didnt like what she remembered, then she kinda did, then there was some look that was all like he didnt know, then it was all gone, and all that was left was the look PB used when addressing her subjects. Huh, that was odd.
Suddenly Bubblegum stood up and turned to look out over the balcony. Finn was all confused. What was up with PB?
"I believe I heard you go by the name Shade, correct sir?" she said in a very formal tone. Shade blinked, then sighed a bit, and replied.
"That is correct, milady"
"Then Shade, you are to be commended for your actions today. I must meet with you later to properly recognize your services to this kingdom, but for now, as you may expect, I have many things to attend to. You need a place to stay until such time, I assume?"
"I can stay wherever milady wishes."
"Then you will stay with the knights and heros of our kingdom until a suitable accomodation can be found for you." Upon this, she turned her gaze back to Finn, her usual smile in place for him, which eased his mind just a bit. "Thank you again Finn, Jake, you have saved our kingdom again. May I ask that you escort our guest to your treehouse and allow him to stay with you until such time as we are able to provide him his own residence?"
Jake replied to this "Of course, princess, we'll get him setup right after we help you-"
"No!" the princess replied, a bit too quickly in Finn's estimation. She softened her next words a bit "you have already done more than enough for this kingdom, you two. Let us do the cleanup this time, the two of you take Shade and get some rest."
This time shade spoke up his eyes to the ground. "Milady, I do not wish to be a bother to anyone here, and can stay-"
"I will have nothing of the sort happening here, sir. After all, we do owe you a debt, and I intend to honor it." This time, Shade's sigh was more audible, as he stood up and bowed towards the princess.
"Of course, milady. As you wish." Finn made to interrupt, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder and Shade's small nod. He didnt really want to skip this conversation, but it seemed Shade knew what he was talking about, and he did actually have some quantity of subtlety (however minute it may be) so he held his tounge for now. And with that they turned and headed for the stairwell. As he was leaving, PB called out once more.
"hey Finn!"
"Yeah PB?"
a genuine smile is shared between the two of them.
"Thanks, bro."
"No problem, sis."
And just like that, he was gone. Shade went and collected his pack from where he had left it upon the wall while Finn went and collected his sword. Jake followed along, while eyeing the new player suspiciously. The unmasked shade was certianly less intimidating looking, he thought. Though the smirk was pretty much the same, the lack of glowing eyes definitely helps reduce the creepy factor. But still something didnt quite settle right, and its definitely not the burritos he had for lunch. PB looked like she knew this guy, and even more, that she didnt quite like him. He slays evil, yeah, but why take out the wolf that was running away?
A/N: Know things are slow here, real life totally has been in my way for forever. But now, I finally am taking some well deserved vacation. Actually writing most of this chapter on a plane. The Prodigy Trilogy will totally be continued as well, but this was in my head, and needed to come out before I could do any more writing more on that. Expect updates intermittently on both for a while, with the next two chapters of Prodigy coming this week as well.
This one obviously has an OC, and will totally be Finn/FP. I did like the way the season opener left their odd little relationship at the end, and it gave me some ideas that I totally intend to work into the next couple of chapters. Again, drama will abound, though this time there will be less direct smut and more implied smut I think. Not that youve read any of my smut yet.
Thanks to the listeners, and comment if you hate it, or if you dont!
/EF/