Under Red Sky

Chapter Two: Thinking With Portals

A/N- This is going slow. Pace is about to get crazy fast. Expect sword fights and death, and some romantic intrigue. Also cool penguins and awkward jokes.

-/

Two heroes sit calmly in a tree house. Outside, the sun shines brightly.

One hero- the human boy, with a cap on his head and a twinkle in his eye- leans back into his chair and sighs. He buries his face into its cool fabric. "Hey, Jake?" he asks, hesitantly.

Jake- the dog- shifts in his own chair for a moment before replying. "Yeah?"

"You don't think that Flame Princess is angry at me…do you?"

Jake shrugs, unconcerned. "Eh. Not more than she usually is, dude." From outside of their tree house, an animal bleats dully. Finn looks up towards the open window.

"What is that?" he asks.

Jake sighs and gets up. His legs transform into long, spindly appendages, and he quickly stretches over to the window.

It's quiet for a moment.

Finally, Jake speaks. "Dude, it's Lemon Camel!"

"Lemon Camel?" Finn asks, disbelieving. "You mean Earl of Lemongrab's Lemon Camel?" He stands up, and goes over to the window. He stands on his tiptoes and peers outside. Sure enough, Lemon Camel is standing outside, balefully making sounds.

"The one, the only, dude." Jake looks to Finn. "Why's Lemon Camel here?"

Finn bites his lip and scrunches up his face in thought

"I dunno, dude," he says finally. "A bunch of people and animals and junk have been stepping in our turf. I dunno, dude," he says again.

Jake frowns and stretches around the room. "Something's fishy," he says. Then, as an afterthought- "We should probably tell Lemongrab."

Finn groans.

-/

Princess Bubblegum sighs, and presses her hands to her face in frustration.

-/

"I don't even know, tee-pee," Lumpy Space Princess says dramatically, flopping her hands out to demonstrate. She's in Turtle Princess' library- the two are sitting at a table, drinking tea. Well, Turtle Princess is, in any case- LSP is too busy talking to imbibe the beverage.

"I don't, EVEN know." With that proclamation, the purple cloud-ish princess sighs and leans back in her wood-backed chair. Turtle Princess nods sympathetically, pushing up her drooping crown with the palm of her hand.

"I'm sorry, giiirl," she says. "I don't know why there are holes opening in your kingdom. I've never read about anything like that happening!"

Lumpy Space Princess sighs and pouts, crossing her arms childishly. "Well. It's, like, annoying. Lumpy Space has more holes than, like, Swiss cheese!"

Turtle Princess smiles encouragingly. "Nice use of simile, giirrrl."

-/

The vampire queen sits in the clearing in the bright of day, her wide umbrella just barely shielding her from the sun.

The tree in front of her has a gaping hole in its trunk, swirling with black and purples. She strides carefully to the tree, and places her hand in its hole.

A hand reaches out and grasps hers. The hand is an ashen gray, and it matches her skin tone perfectly.

With a little difficulty, she manages to pull a teenage boy from the portal. He pops out with a little resistance, but manages to stay on his feet upon withdrawal; he stands, shakily, then steadily on the forest ground. He looks up and meets the vampire queen's eyes.

"Oh." He looks amused. "Hey, Marceline." He's clad in flannel and dark jeans; the two, standing apart from each other, look like a bizarre mirror trick. They're identical, besides their genders and attire. The boy's toting a plain black umbrella, which is shielding him from the harsh sunlight.

"Hey, Marshall," she says. Her bass guitar is strapped firmly to her back. "Wanted to ask how things were. In your world."

Marshall sighs. "I was literally about to open the portal. I wanted to ask if things were the same here as they were in my universe."

Marceline frowns. Something makes a sound in the woods and the two's necks snap in the sound's direction; their movements are in unison, both moving in the same disjointed, paranoid way.

It turns out to be a squirrel. Marceline sighs in relief and bunches her hair with her free hand. "We really need to find a new rendezvous point." She tries to wipe away her nervous expression and replaces it with a shaky smile. "So, what were you saying about things being the same in Ooo as they are in Aaa?"

Marshall blinks hard before crossing one arm across his chest; the other holds his umbrella steadily. "Nevermind," he says, turning his head away. "It's stupid, okay?"

Marceline grins wickedly. "Liar," she says. "The only time I ever break eye contact is when I'm lying." Marceline places her gray hand on her hip firmly. "How's it going in Aaa?"

"It's…" Marshall sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Lame. So lame. Lame like…" He trails off, and then picks his speech up again a moment later. "Fionna doesn't talk to me anymore. She's too busy talking to Flame Prince." He says the name like a dirty word and makes a funny hissing face. "It just, I dunno." He picks at the hem of his shirt self-consciously.

"Just feels like…your 'friends' don't have time for you?" There's a hint of bitterness in Marceline's voice, but it mostly just sounds depressed.

"Yeah." Marshall Lee kicks at the ground again. "None of the 'friends' I care about, anyways. Just the usual ghouls and creepy undead."

He stops and huffs, yanking his bass tighter onto his shoulder, like some sort of shield. "Plus Ice Queen decided to hit on me a few nights ago." Something glints in his eye- anger, maybe, or misplaced hatred. "Not like she was my mom figure for a few years there or anything."

Marceline bites her lip. Her two fangs protrude. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah, same here, only less hitting-on and more just…" The vampire queen sighs. "Just…he doesn't…remember…anything." Marceline looks at her mirror image, and sees pain reflected back in Marshall's red eyes.

"I don't know," he says. "But who cares. We don't need them."

A show of solidarity. Marceline nods.

"Yeah," she says, steely.

It's quiet for a few moments in the clearing. In the surrounding trees, birds chirp. The sky is a vivid light blue. A cool breeze sways the leaves.

It's deceivingly calm.

Marshall shrugs before sticking his hand in his pocket. The other hand tips his umbrella towards the slowly moving sun. "On the bright side," he says, "I figured out a way to transport more than one person at a time."

"No. No, no way," Marceline says. "My dad will kill me. The, the, oh no, the Cosmic Owl will kill me. This is already bad enough. We're not supposed to be doing this."

"Doing what?" Marshall challenges. His free hand gestures erratically as he speaks. "Exploit the loopholes in our universe so maybe our friends will have a chance?"

Marceline shakes her head. "You don't really think…" she says, but even as she says it she's looking to Marshall Lee with a resigned expression. This discussion has happened many times before, and it always ends the same way.

"Yes, I do," Marshall says. "I think Ooo- and Aaa- they're both…" He pauses and shifts his weight from foot to foot. "They're doomed. The Lich has her-" he steals a glance at Marceline- "or his? sorry- claws in everything."

Marceline says nothing.

"You can't deny it. You're me. Pretty much, anyways. And I can feel her freaking hands all over our world. Mom doesn't even like me going outside our little dominion anymore, because that's, like, one of the few places the Lich doesn't have her grubby fingers stuck into."

Marceline sighs. "Yeah," she relents. "I can feel…his influence everywhere. But that doesn't mean anything bad's gonna happen."

Marshall stares at her blankly.

A few minutes pass before he speaks. "Fine. But I'm bringing Gumball tomorrow."

"No, you aren't," she says, but already he's motioning to leave. His leg slips through the swirling portal first, and he moves to withdraw completely into it when Marceline speaks again. "Why?"

Marshall sighs and pulls his leg back out. "Because even though Princey's a total moron, he's also the smartest guy I know. If I can't figure this out, maybe Gumball can help us…fix it."

Marceline gapes at him. "You seriously think Gumball's not gonna flip out on you for pretty much tearing apart the fabric of our universe? We're talking about Princess Bubblegum's alter-person, here."

Marshall rolls his eyes. "I don't get why you and Bubblegum hate each other so much. That's something a little different between our universes." He looks to Marceline. " Not like I get along with Gumball- no way. But we both…hate the same stuff? Like, the Lich, Flame Prince, etcetera." He pauses before continuing. "And we know that, if push comes to shove, we got each other. But you and this Bubblegum chick?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. You hate each other."

"She's a brat," Marceline says flatly.

Marshall Lee snorts and grins wickedly, fangs flashing from beneath gray-tinged lips. "I doubt it's that black and white, dude." His leg disappears into the portal. "Alright. This time tomorrow."

Marceline sighs and waves. Marshall grins and waves back, body slowly withdrawing into the purple-black of the portal. Finally, all that's visible is his fanged smile, looking like some sort of Chesire Cat grin, before that, too, disappears, and Marceline is left alone.

./

Someone stands guard at a cave. It is a random berry-citizen, purple, the color of concord grapes.

He has been standing guard for three hours when a hooded figure approaches. "Hey," he says, friendly. Then, when the cloaked person advances, getting closer to the cave, "hey," in a more aggressive voice. Then, when the person has all but entered, a spear swings out and stops the figure at its clothed throat.

"You can't go in there," the guard says pointedly. "It's Billy's Cave, bro. Strictly off-limits until the grand opening. You know," he says, spear still pressed against the cloaked figure, "he gave all this stuff to Candy Kingdom. Says he wants it to be a museum. It's gonna be pretty sweet."

The cloaked figure says something.

"What?"

Overwhelming pain floods the guard's head and brings him to his knees. The last thing he hears is the whisper of death, and the last thing he sees are two empty sockets in a rotting face.

./

In another land, a Queen strolls her kingdom.

She takes pause at her river, which is typically frozen. Instead, it has begun to crack; little crevices have dug themselves into the ice, spreading across it's surface.

She 'hmm's, and turns to her penguin. "Well, Gretta," she says, "looks like it's summertime!"

The penguin squawks.

./