"Gone?! What do you mean, gone?!" Finn exclaimed, his heart pounding.
Jake shook his head. "I just got a call from Peppermint Butler. He sounded really frantic and his words were stumbling all over the place. I finally got the story out of him, but she's gone man. Princess Bubblegum's disappeared."
Without another word, Finn jumped out of his bed and ran toward the bedroom ladder. Jake stretched over to him.
"Wait Finn!" The yellow dog landed in front of the boy, intercepting him before he could reach ladder. "What are you planning to do? Don't go making a fool of yourself! We both know how you get when it comes to Princess Bubblegum, dude!"
Finn colored slightly but still shook his head. "What do you think I'm going to do? I have to find out what happened!" He moved around Jake and slid down the ladder.
"But Finn! Listen to me for a minute!" Jake called down to him.
"I don't have a minute! Princess Bubblegum is in trouble!"
"But dude… I really think you should at change out of your pj's!"
Finn gave no response.
"At least put some pants on!" Jake shouted down the ladder.
"There's no time for pants, man!" Finn yelled. "We gotta go!"
Jake shrugged and slid down after the boy. As a second thought, the dog extended an arm back into the bedroom and grabbed a pair of Finn's typical blue garb. "He'll thank me later," he decided.
"Thank goodness you're here!" Peppermint Butler exclaimed. "Come with me quickly!" The butler jogged down the candy corridors, taking quick turns around the corner. Finn and Jake followed him closely, and soon the trio arrived outside Princess Bubblegum's bedroom.
"Brace yourselves," Peppermint Butler warned and creaked open the door. Finn and Jake stepped into the room.
At first everything seemed to be fairly normal. Nothing appeared to be out of place in the dark shadows of the room. Curtains hung from the walls, waving slightly in the wind. The faint outline of Princess Bubblegum's bed was visible in the center of the room. Peppermint Butler stepped forward and flipped the light switch, illuminating the bedroom in a bright light.
Princess Bubblegum's usually neat bed had its' sheets thrown all over the floor. Some of the blankets had rips in them. The pink mattress was hanging over half of the bed, its corner touching the rug. The carpet itself was shredded, pieces of cloth lying all over the place. The windows dripped with a black liquid and pieces of the wall were cracked as if someone had been shoved against the plaster several times.
"When the Princess didn't come down this morning to check on her experiments, I went to see if she was alright," Peppermint Butler explained. "This is what I found."
Finn was silent.
Jake glanced at the boy. He had a dead serious expression on his face and hands were in tight fists.
"Finn." Jake touched his friend's arm. "Finn, calm down. She's fine. This is Princess Bubblegum we're talking about! Remember when she fought off Ricardio all by herself?"
Finn took a deep breath. "Yeah. I remember." He closed his eyes and took another breath. When he opened his eyes, he seemed calmer. "Okay. Let's look for clues." He and Jake walked forward into the bedroom and began to inspect everything: the curtains, the bed, the claw marks, and most of all, the black goop.
"What on earth is this stuff?" Jake wondered, poking at the strange black goo dripping from the windows. He carefully sniffed the liquid.
"What does it smell like?" Finn asked.
Jake turned to the boy, confusion on his face. "It smells like… nothing. It doesn't have a scent." He put a finger in the goop and put it in his mouth.
"Dude!" Finn exclaimed. "Jake! Don't just lick stuff!"
"What? I'm hungry! I haven't eaten breakfast yet!"
"Come on, man!"
Jake grimaced and spat the liquid out.
Finn frowned. "Um… So what did it taste like?"
The yellow dog raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you try it yourself and find out?"
"Jake! No!"
Jake smiled. "Fine, fine. It tasted just like it smelled; like nothing."
"Oh!"
An exclamation of surprise made everyone turn to the door. In the entryway, a chocolate-candy girl stood with her hands over her mouth. Peppermint Butler quickly stepped in front of her, blocking the ruined room from view.
"W-what-h-ha-?" the chocolate girl stammered.
"This isn't what it looks like," the butler explained calmly. "We are performing an experiment. That is why the room is in the shape it is. You have nothing to worry about. Everything is fine."
"O-okay," was the response. The candy girl peeked around at Finn and Jake. Her brown cheeks reddened slightly and she whispered something to Peppermint Butler. The butler nodded. The chocolate girl walked away and Peppermint Butler closed the door. He turned to Finn and Jake.
"So…?" Finn asked.
"When I called you, did you two come over immediately?" the butler asked.
"Of course!"
Peppermint Butler raised an eyebrow. "I can tell," he stated, examining Finn's unusual pajama outfit. Finn seemed oblivious to the butler's stare.
"Dude," Jake whispered. "I think he wants you to put on your normal clothes. Especially the pants," he added.
Peppermint Butler nodded. "Miss Cocoa agrees."
"O-oh…" Finn smiled sheepishly and turned to Jake. "I think I'll take those clothes you grabbed for me now."
A few minutes later, Finn was searching through the bedroom once again, this time dressed in his usual garb instead of his pajamas. After a few minutes, he threw his hands in the air.
"I don't know what to do! Nothing indicates where Princess Bubblegum could have gone except this weird black goop." Finn poked the liquid tentatively, as if it would come alive and eat his hand. For all the boy knew, it might do just that. "This is weird stuff, man," Finn observed as the goop rippled thickly around his finger.
"I wonder how it connects to PB being gone," Jake pondered.
"Finn, Jake." The two brothers turned around. Peppermint Butler stood behind them, holding a platter of steaming cinnamon buns in his small hands. "Since you obviously came over here as soon as I called, I assume that you haven't eaten yet." The butler held the plate forward. "So I brought you some breakfast."
"Thanks for the offer, but we're good," Finn declined. "We don't want you to go to all the trouble of having to make us something to eat."
"FOOD!" Jake exclaimed, running toward the dish. He grabbed several rolls and shoved them into his mouth. The dog's eyes closed in pleasure. "Oh, man it's so good! I'm starving!"
"Dude!" Finn complained. "You're spilling crumbs all over Princess Bubblegum's carpet!"
"I'm what?" Jake asked, spraying cinnamon specks.
"Dude!" Finn exclaimed.
"Sorry," Jake grinned. "But it's not like her carpet isn't ruined already."
"Jake!"
"It is alright. It shall be cleaned up in a jiffy," Peppermint Butler assured. The butler set the platter on a nearby table and grabbed a nearby broom. He began to sweep all the crumbs into a neat little pile while Jake continued to indulge himself in the cinnamon buns. Finn rolled his eyes and turned back to examine the strange black liquid again when his foot caught on something. The boy paused and looked down. Peppermint Butler noticed his movement.
"What seems to be the matter?" he asked.
Finn hesitated. "I-… don't know."
"What do you mean?"
Without answering, Finn bent down and quietly picked up the object that he had tripped on. He stared at the item wordlessly. The whole room fell silent and even Jake seemed to sense the change in atmosphere. He stopped eating his cinnamon buns and stepped over to Finn.
In the boy's hand was a shimmering golden crown. A red jewel was embedded in its' lengthened crest and its ice metal glistened in the dim morning light. Finn's grip tightened around the circlet.
"Whoa. Hey. Finn, it's okay. We'll find her. This is Princess Bubblegum!" Jake reminded. "She's sure to be fine!"
"I know, Jake," Finn replied quietly. He didn't say any more. Jake glanced worriedly at Peppermint Butler who, in return, stared at the floor.
"Hey, you guys!" An unexpected voice broke the dead silence and everyone looked to the doorway. Cinnamon Bun stood in the entrance, a strange, urgent expression on his sugared face. "Can anyone direct me to the bathroom?" he asked. His eyes fell on Jake's plate of half-eaten cinnamon buns and his brown eyes grew wide. "Hey, what the-? Where did you guys get these little fellas? I didn't know I had relatives around here!" Cinnamon Bun paused. "I wonder if they taste as good as I do?" he wondered and picked a roll up.
"Oookay Cinnamon Bun, let's get you out of here," Jake suggested. He carefully swatted the bun out of Cinnamon Bun's hand before he could eat it and guided the curious candy-being out of the room.
As he was herded out, Cinnamon Bun called back. "Hey! What are you guys doing in Princess Bubblegum's bedroom? Did something happen?"
"Don't worry about it, Cinnamon Bun," Jake assured. "That's our job," he murmured. The yellow dog pushed the candy man out of the room and into the hall. As Jake closed the door behind him, he could hear Cinnamon Bun calling.
"Well, if you won't tell me what's going on, then at least show me where the bathroom is!"
For those of you who might be wondering, this is Flame/Finn. I just had to include how I thought Finn would react to PB disappearing, because he still does care for her in a way. I'll try to have some Flame/Finn in the next chapter though.
Please review!