The next morning found the band of heroes making last-minute preparations for their departure. They packed bags full of food and equipment for their journey.

"Guys, should I bring a yoyo or Gunter's favorite movie?" The Ice King asked, carrying a pink yoyo and a copy of Heat Signature.

"Ice King, can't you bring something useful?" Jake asked, "Here, take Finn's crossbow."

The Ice King grudgingly accepted the weapon and placed it in his pack.

"Okay everyone, are you ready?" Princess Bubblegum picked up her pack and motioned towards the door.

"Just a tiny bit farther…" Flame Princess attempted to push a box of charcoal into her already stretched pack. Jake stretched over and helped her push it in.

"There!" she pulled the zipper shut and slung the bag over her back. "Let's go!"

"Are we there yet?"

"Ice King, we've only been walking for 10 minutes. Besides, you can fly, can't you?" Princess Bubblegum replied, exasperated.

"Oh yeah, right… I forgot about that." The Ice King flew ahead slightly and turned around.

"Are we there yet?"

"ICE KING!" the group yelled in unison.

2 hours later…

"PB, how far have we gone?" Finn asked.

"About 10 miles."

"Do we even know where this tactistation is?" Marceline wondered.

"Well, first it's tactician, and no, I don't. I'm just going to where I saw him last, past Mount Cragdor." PB replied.

"This could take forever!" The Ice King flopped onto his penguin. "Gunter, carry me."

"Wenk." The penguin fell forwards and pulled himself out from under the Ice King.

"I wish there was some way to go faster…" Flame Princess said as she walked near the front of the group.

"Wait! I have an idea! I'll just stretch really big and carry you all!" Jake grew to 10 times his normal size. "The Jakemobile is leaving the station! All aboard!"

The group climbed on to his back and sat down as he ran off.

They reached the Mount Cragdor as the sun set and began to set up camp after a friendly welcome from Keyper and Mannish man, who gave them some spaghetti for their trip. The group settled down around the campfire lit by Flame Princess and began cooking the spaghetti. They then distributed portions to each member of the group.

"Mmm…Good!" Finn said, taking an excessively large bite of the spaghetti.

"I thought your favorite food was meatloaf?" said Jake, taking a bite of his as well.

"That doesn't mean I can't enjoy some spaghetti!"

"Er…How are you supposed to eat this stuff?" Flame Princess said, attempting to scoop it with a fork and having the spaghetti fall off.

"You've never had spaghetti?" replied Finn.

"Fire elementals eat coal, normally."

"Oh, yeah. Like Flambo." Finn took his fork and twirled it in the spaghetti. "Like this!"

"Oh." Flame Princess mimicked his actions and succeeded in taking a bite. "Good!"

Princess Bubblegum had taken out some sort of scanner and was pointing it at the ground and at various hills nearby and the mountain.

"What are you doing PB?" Marceline asked.

"I'm scanning for his house. It's underground. But my Radioquanticandometer is being blocked by all this rock and I don't remember where it is."

"I can help with that!" Flame Princess stood up. "I'll use my heat sense!"

She spun around several times and a wave of heat flew out from her.

"Wow. There's a lot of stuff around here. There are two caves in the area, one over under the rock on that hill, and one hidden in the undergrowth over there." She pointed to a small forest behind them."

"Okay, let's split up. Me, Ice King, and Bubblegum can take the one in the hill. Finn, you, Jake, and FP can take the one in the undergrowth." Marceline said, pulling her axe-bass from her pack.

"Hey Jake, what time is it?" Finn said as he, FP, and Jake ran towards the forest.

"Adventure time!"

"Geez, it's dark in here." PB said, raising her flashlight.

"Yeah. Hey, wait, here's a light switch!" Ice King said, flipping the switch.

"Wait! Ice King, nooo!" The floor fell out from under them, and they fell down a slippery dark chute.

"Aha! Here we are!" Finn cut his way through the undergrowth revealing the mouth of the cave. "Let's go!" he jumped through the hole and into the cave.

"Looks safe! Come on down!" Flame Princess jumped down followed by Jake. The cave appeared to go on for awhile, first down and then to the side. The walls were smooth and rounded, and the floor was covered with small stones.

"This doesn't look like someone's house…and it's making me feel uneasy. Finn, we should get out of here…" Jake said nervously.

"Come on, Jake, his house probably begins farther down. Besides, we can always go back out the way we came in." Finn replied, pointing towards the hole they came in.

Suddenly, the cave shook with a low grinding noise, and the light shining from the hole began to get smaller and smaller.

"The hole is closing! Jake, stretch us back up now!" Finn yelled.

Jake grabbed Finn but winced and dropped Flame Princess as she inadvertently burned him.

"No!"

The hole was covered in a layer of rock and the cave was thrown into darkness save for Flame Princess.

"What are we going to do now?"

Marceline shot out of the chute into a clean, well-lit room, landing on the floor. PB and Ice King flew out behind her, landing next to her. She stood up and flew over to the chute, looking back up. A faint light glowed in the distance.

"You were right, Ice King, it was a light switch. Only it also activated a trapdoor!

"Hey, it's not my fault. Who puts a trapdoor activated by a light switch anyway? Well, actually, I have one of those too, but…" The Ice King trailed off as the door opened. An old, bald man with a unkempt beard stepped into the room carrying some sort of laser.

"Drop your weapons!"

Marceline put down her axe-bass.

"You too, with the crown!"

The Ice King sighed, carefully taking off the crown and putting it on the floor.

"That's better. What do you want?" The man said irritably.

"Um…we're looking for a guy called the tactician and we thought he might live here."

"The Tactician? I haven't heard that title for a long, long time…"

"I used to know him. I thought he was dead." PB asked.

"Oh, he's not dead. Not yet."

"You know him?"

"But of course I know him! He's me!" The man said, bursting into laughter. Marceline paused for a second; thinking back to the conversation, then began laughing too.

"Oh, that was a good one!" Marceline laughed.

"What exactly is so funny?" PB asked, bemused and a little angry.

"Ah, it was before your time. A real classic though. I'm surprised you don't remember it, Simon." The man answered, peering at the Ice King.

"Do I know you?" The Ice King asked curiously.

"We traveled together, me, you, and Marceline. I guess the crown really wiped your memories. I was just Mark back then, that was before I was known as the Tactician. Pretty stupid title anyway, I preferred Mark. But on to a more serious note, why are you here?"

"The Shadow King is rising. We need your help to defeat him. In addition, we have seen signs that the Lich may be helping him." Princess Bubblegum asked.

"What kind of signs?" The Tactician (or Mark, as he would prefer to be called) asked, his face suddenly becoming grim.

"Our friend Finn was possessed by the Lich and barely managed to throw him off. Finn fought the Lich twice before, both times with almost dire consequences."

"Is he a hero?" Mark (or the Tactician, as he would prefer not to be called) reached into his pack and grabbed around for something.

"Well, yeah, I guess. He thinks of himself as one." Marceline scratched her head. "I mean, he's not really like Billy, but he has helped a lot of people…"

"Marceline! Of course he's a hero! He's saved Ooo three times!" Princess Bubblegum exclaimed.

"Ok! Ok! No need to get so defensive about your knight, Bonnibel…" Marceline laughed, turning back towards Mark.

"So where is he now?" Mark said, finally pulling out some sort of hologram device from his pack.

"Oh, him, his dog, and his girlfriend are in a cave we thought might be your home in the undergrowth in the forest."

Mark's face drained of color. "This is not good. We have to go there immediately."

"What's wrong with the cave?" Princess Bubblegum asked worriedly.

"It's not a cave. It's a dungeon designed to trap and kill people!"

Dungeon Crawl
It's the greatest crawl of all
No crawl's too small
For a Dungeon Crawl

"Finn, can you please stop singing that song?" Jake said irritably. "You only know like eight lines and it doesn't even make sense."

"I can't help it man. This is what you do in dungeons."

"But this isn't a dungeon! It's just a cave!" Jake yelled.

"Are you sure it's not a dungeon? There are some bones and things…Oh! Look! A gauntlet!" Flame Princess reached down and put on the metal glove. "Don't you find gauntlets in dungeons?"

"Yes, but you find them in other places too!" Jake sighed, exasperated.

"Whatevs. I think it's a dungeon." Finn replied.

The three continued walking for a bit, until suddenly Finn, who was at the front, stopped. "Ssh! Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"Who dares enter my dungeon?" A booming voice echoed through the caves. The three quickly hid behind a rock.

"I told you it was a dungeon!" Finn whispered.

"Ah, so it is you, Frank the Human…and I see you have Jack the Log and Fame Princess with you…"

"Dang it! Not this guy again!" Finn whispered, rather loudly.

"How did he almost know my name?" FP asked quietly.

"I have approximate knowledge of many things, including the conversation you are having at the moment."

"Finn! How do we defeat this guy?" Jake stretched his hand into a fist. "Punch him?"

"No…what made him go away last time...dogs? He's afraid of dogs!"

"He thinks I'm a log though…"

"Just scare him!"

Jake grew 4 times his normal size and jumped from behind the rock barking.

"What? A barking log? This makes no sense! I will defeat you, strange yellow barking log!" The demon cat leapt forwards, scratching at Jake. Finn jumped from behind the rock, drawing his demon-blood sword as Flame Princess summoned a fireball.

"This is for trying to eat my eyes! Finn jumped forwards, slashing the demon cat across the face. The cat slapped him away with his tail and pushed Jake backwards into a stalagmite, then suddenly backed away.

"Dog! You're not a log! You're a dog!" The demon cat ran off.

"Jake! Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" He shrunk down to his normal size. "Let's keep on searching for an exit."

Soon, they came upon a split in the tunnel. One branch went to the right and slightly up, while the other continued downward.

"Jake, can you smell which way we should go?" Finn asked.

Jake sniffed at the ground a couple times.

"The upper path smells more like aboveground."

"Let's go!" The three ran down the tunnel, but stopped suddenly as the tunnel turned into a dead end.

"Jake, I thought this would lead us back up!"

"It should have! Maybe there was a cave-in or something." He punched the rock and winced as the rock failed to move.

"Ouch!"

"Wait! Guys, look!" Flame Princess pointed to where Jake had punched. A square of rock was sliding into the cave wall, a strange rune glowing blue on it. The rock steadily slid in, then stopped.

"Huh. I wonder what that-"

Everything went black and silent.

Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger there! Normally I avoid this, but I don't have a lot of time and wanted to update today. A clarification: I'm using a third person omniscient style of writing, which means I will switch between character's POVs. I can tell you who's POV it is for each section if you want me to, but I haven't yet. I've heard this a million times, but I just want to say: SCIK's stories are amazingly awesomely amazing, if you want some amazingness to read.

Oh yeah, extra points if you can tell me what the Tactician (I mean Mark) is referencing when he first is introduced to them.