Centuries later and, although the Earth had recovered from the apocalyptic nightmare humanity had subjected it to, becoming a bright tapestry of colour and life in all its forms, for one unfortunate soul, things had only got worse.

After years of resistance to the crown's corruption, the human Simon Petrikov had succumbed to its effects and become the Ice King, the mad ruler of the snowy region known as the Ice Kingdom in the land of Ooo. Now nothing more than an insane wreck of his former noble self, the Ice King spent his days kidnapping the princesses of Ooo to replace his long lost love Betty, and on this particular day the great heroes of the land, Finn the human and Jake the dog, now rushed to confront him yet again.

"Ice King!" Finn roared as he leapt through the triangular main window of the Ice Kingdom's main mountain and the lair of its ruler. "We're coming for you!"

As the bear hatted teenager drew his crimson sword his companion, Jake the yellow dog, came barrelling in after him, cushioning his fall by stretching his feet to the size of dustbin lids then moving to stand by his brother.

"Where is the old man?" he said softly, fists raised, as the two studied the large room carved into the mountain, dominated by a bed covered in tasteless quilts, a large drum kit and an empty cage for princesses.

"Wherever he is, he's gonna pay!" Finn said, gripping his sword. "Kidnapping Flame Princess is just too far man."

"Word." Jake said with a grin, before enlarging his fists to ridiculous proportions. "When we find…"

A second later and the Ice King himself wandered in, pizza box in hand, waving a blue skinned hand at the two heroes.

"Oh hey guys." He said casually. "Sorry I'm late but Gunter took forever to pick up my order…" he added as the small penguin waddled in after him with a dejected look on her face.

He never got any further as a yellow fist slammed into his forehead, knocking him to the floor and sending pizza slices ,and one wailing penguin, in all directions.

"Now just calm down there boys." The old man said with a weak grin as he picked himself back up, but found himself confronted by the angry form of Finn, sword held high.

"What have you done with Flame Princess?!"

The Ice King laughed and shrugged.

"Look man, I didn't kidnap her. What do you take me for?"

The only response from the human was an uppercut that sent the old man sprawling across the room and into the wall, sending a torrent of books from the shelves above crashing down on him.

"Get him!" Jake cheered as he leapt forward and sent a fist toward the Ice King, who dodged it and flew to the other side of the room, using his beard as a strange set of wings.

"Listen to me…" the old man began, but quickly threw up a wall of ice as Finn's crimson sword arced toward him, trapping the blade in a thick blue block. "She came here by her own…"

He ran back as Jake stretched towards him, a frightened look on his pale features as the two heroes advanced on him.

"…free will. I wanted to get to know your new girl Finn. You are my best bosom after all." He said with a grin, before a yellow fist collided with his face and sent him through the air to crash into his drum kit.

Suppressing a laugh, Jake turned to Finn, who was midway through freeing his sword from the ice block.

"Maybe he's telling the truth man?"

Finn frowned.

"Since when did FP ever want anything to do with Ice King? Besides she would probably just melt this whole place down…"

"You tell me." Jake said with a grin. "You're the guy's bosom after all…"

Finn turned to his giggling brother, but his comment was lost as a familiar voice came from the doorway.

"Just what do you think you boys are doing?!"

Instantly Finn turned red with embarrassment as he saw the elegant figure of Flame Princess, her orange hair up and flaming at the tips with a slight hint of anger, a guitar that seemed to be made of obsidian and volcanic rock in hand, glide into the room.

"This just got dramatic…" Jake said softly and took a step backwards.

"Finn, why are you beating up the Ice King?" Flame Princess said sternly, moving to stand in front of him, hands on hips, her guitar left propped up by the door.

"Errm…" the human began, but Jake quickly interrupted, trying to save his brother from a telling off at the hands of his volatile girlfriend.

"Wait so why aren't you melting the place down FP?"

Finn winced at the awkward question but the fire elemental only laughed.

"Oh well that was kind of the Ice King's doing…" and she tapped a small blue amulet pinned to her dress. "Temporary Ice Shield to stop any…accidents."

Finn felt a pang of guilt as he surveyed the trashed room around them, and the beaten and bruised form of the Ice King lying in the remains of his drum kit.

"He was helping you?" he said weakly and Flame Princess nodded slowly.

"I was helping him. He needed someone to teach him guitar and Marceline's visiting her dad in the Nightosphere so I figured I'd give it a shot!"

"Man we're jerks…" the human said with a grimace.

"You're not Finn." Flame Princess said softly. "I should have said something to you when I got his message. Look we can…"

They were interrupted by the old man lying on the floor, who picked himself up, anger flaring in his cold white eyes.

"Hey you guys!" he screeched. "You can't just trash my place like that and get away with it! I did nothing wrong this time trust me! If anything you're the villains here!"

Finn looked down at his feet in shame, noticing Jake shrink himself to the size of a pea and hide behind a well-placed ice stalagmite.

"We…" the human boy began but the Ice Kling cut him off with a raised hand.

"I'm outta here guys until you make it better. I guess Bufo and his friends will make better company than you…violators!" he said before bursting into tears.

Blubbering ridiculously, the frozen monarch grabbed Gunter and was out of the window and away in seconds.

"So are we out of here?" Jake said nonchalantly as he stretched his right leg to the window before he felt Finn's hand on his shoulder and saw the boy looking at him with sad eyes.

"No man." He said with a grim frown. "If we don't help him out, what happens to our alignment! If we're not chaotic good then we must be..." he added with a slight gasp and high pitched screech. "Chaotic neutral!"

Jake sighed. Sometimes his adopted brother could be so melodramatic.

"Hey don't I get a say in this?" Flame Princess said from next to Finn, her arms folded in annoyance.

"Of course, of course!" Jake spluttered, knowing the consequences of making her angry. "So er, I'll try and get that drum kit back up and you and Finn…put those books in order."

Rolling his eyes, the young hero wandered over to the trashed bookshelf and began piling up the old tomes and yellowing manuscripts. But, as he stacked up a first edition 'Art of Fridjitzu', for a second glancing over to Flame Princess carefully rolling up an old map, he saw a small piece of paper slide out from behind the book.

With a soft 'huh' of surprise, Finn picked it up and looked at it. On the aged paper was a single photograph, showing two humans, one a handsome young man in a smart suit and glasses with a bespectacled red headed woman holding his hand.

As a flash of recognition passed through him, Finn sighed deeply and Jake gave him a sympathetic look.

Looking on, Flame Princess turned to the yellow dog.

"What's up with him?" she said with obvious concern.

"It's about the Ice King."

"Why, what did he do to Finn?" Flame Princess replied with a flash of anger, but Jake shook his head as he continued to watch Finn studying the paper.

"A few months ago we found out the Ice King used to be a human until that crown he wears turned him into…well, whatever he is." The yellow dog explained, and watched Flame Princess' face fall.

"So Finn is…?"

"The last human there is, and probably ever will be."

Flame Princess sighed.

"Poor boy…" she said simply, but her eyes showed a deep sadness and empathy for the lonely human.

Finn himself didn't seem to have noticed the two other talking about him but, as they watched in surprise, he stood up and turned to them, a determined look in his eye and a grim smile on his face.

"The Ice King was right. We do need to make it up to him big time. And I know exactly how!" he added excitedly.

Jake and Flame Princess both looked on expectantly as the enthusiastic boy continued.

"There's one thing the Ice King's always wanted, even though he doesn't really know it. And we're going to get him it!"

"So?" Jake said expectantly.

"We're going to cure the Ice King and make him human again!"

Jake grinned.

"So what time would that make it?"

As one the three of them all shouted at once.

"Adventure Time!"