Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or Adventure Time.
Chapter 4
Finn's POV
Alex Mercer stood atop the rubble that had buried Flame Princess (Finn just couldn't stop calling her that). He looked down at Finn and Co. and Finn began to panic slightly. With that kind of destruction, FP must be dead, and without medical attention, Marceline would soon bleed to death. Of Finn's four or five best friends, Alex had just killed, (or severely wounded) two of them. Finn gripped his sword, ready to charge.
Then Alex was engulfed in a pillar of white-hot flame.
A thirty-foot column of fire blasted from the rubble, melting it and shooting up through the hole in the roof and into the night sky. Finn turned his eyes away, his eyes and skin stinging from the intense light and heat. When he turned around, Alex was gone.
The pile of rubble had melted into molten rock, leaving a circle of red-hot stone in the middle of the room. All that remained was a black soupy puddle, and the Princess. She stood in the middle on the circle, her face radiating fire, like it always did when she got angry. Slowly, she calmed down, and her face returning to normal. Finn walked up to her.
The red-hot rock seared his shoes, but they still insulated enough to allow him to walk. When he was a few feet from her Finn stopped. He stared at her, trying to think of something to say. He didn't have to wait long.
"I got your message." She said, her voice polite, but still all business. Finn awkwardly tried to think of something to say, so he just said the first thing that came to mind.
"I, um, it's nice to see you." He managed to stutter.
She scowled slightly and shot a glance at the puddle of black slime, ignoring his pathetic attempt at conversation.
"It looks like you DID need my help," she said "so who was that guy? Or do I not want to know?"
Finn quickly filled her in on the events of the past day. Her expression remained neutral throughout the conversation. She didn't ask many questions, except for the obvious, "What were you thinking leading a menace like that back here", and Finn began to feel a bit less anxious. When he was finished Flame Princess (Finn had given up) looked over at the slime again.
"Well, at least he's dead now."
Then the slime lunged for Finn.
Alex's POV
Pain.
That was all he felt.
There was no other sensation, besides pain.
Then he sensed something alive near him,
and he lunged for it.
Finn's POV
The black mass leapt towards Finn, too fast for him to stop. Then, a few inches from his face, it stopped.
It hung in midair, suspended in a large green bubble. A single beam of green light led away from the bubble, and at the end of the beam, PB stood there, aiming a green laser at the slime.
Finn watched as she walked towards the bubble, then placed a small blue cube in front of it. A ray of blue light shot out and kept the green bubble suspended in the air. Then PB put away the ray gun.
"Sorry I left guys," She told them "it's just, when I saw that man overpower Finn, I panicked and ran to my lab. I found this entrapment gun and cube, and thought I could use it to stop him. I guess I had pretty good timing." She looked around a bit. "So is everyone alrigh..." Then her eyes fell upon Marceline.
"Call the doctor!"
A Few Hours Later
Marceline lay in a white hospital bed. She hadn't regained consciousness yet, but the doctor said that she'd gotten medical attention before infection set in, so she should be okay. Still, Finn couldn't help but feel useless.
She was one of his best friends, and she'd almost gotten killed, all because Finn hadn't been strong enough to stop Mercer.
Princess Bubblegum put her hand on his shoulder, and motioned towards her lab. Finn stood from his chair, and followed her.
In her lab Alex sat inside the green bubble, absently tapping the tip of his claw against the side of his prison. He'd reformed hours ago, clothes and all, and immediately began trying to break out of his prison. Then The Princess had said something about force reversal fields, and relative energy conden-whatsit, Finn had no idea what she meant, but Alex had just frowned and sat down. Now, they had to decide what to do with him.
Alex started talking before they could.
"You both know you can't destroy me, and a reverse energy condensation field takes too much energy to keep up indefinitely. So, what are you going to do with me?"
Finn didn't know what to say. He didn't speak science talk, but the gist of what he understood was that they couldn't keep him in that bubble for long. They had to figure something out.
Then the Princess spoke up.
"I have an idea." She said. She walked into her machine closet, and came back with a large metal rod. She walked over to the bubble, and jabbed it through the green bubble. It passed through it with ease, and she stuck it into the back of Alex's neck. He flinched, then gave an indignant scowl. When the Princess pulled the rod back , it left a small metal probe on Alex's skin.
Finn frowned "So what does that do?" He asked. The Princess then produced a small remote control from a pocket on her lab coat. It was short, and had a dial with numbers one through ten around it, and a single red button. She set the dial to four, and pressed the button.
The probe began to spin, burrowing into Alex's skin, which regenerated almost instantly. He gritted his teeth a bit, but didn't seem injured.
Then an electrical shock coursed through him.
Alex dropped to his hands and knees, immobilized. Then the green bubble dissipated, dropping Alex to the floor.
"WHY YOU LITTLE!"
Alex tried to rush the Princess, but she simply turned the dial to five and continued to hold down the button. Alex stumbled, but continued to advance. With a cold, methodical, and almost ruthless look at him, she slowly turned the dial up. When it got to nine, Alex finally stopped, and fell.
"This remote controls the probe I've planted in your body." The Princess said "Whenever someone presses the button, you will receive a painful electric shock. The higher the dial is set, the stronger it will be."
Finn knew Alex was an enemy, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was wrong.
The Princess continued, "For crimes against my kingdom, and because we can't just lock you up, I hereby sentence you to community service. Until such time as I consider your service to be fulfilled, I will release you into the custody of a parole officer, who will watch until they decide you can be trusted."
Then she turned to Finn.
"Finn The Human, do you accept the responsibility of guarding this criminal, and ensuring that he harms no one else during his periods of parole and community service?"
Finn was a bit surprised. He didn't expect the princess to give parole, and he sure didn't expect her to ask him to handle such a responsibility. Finn didn't really feel this was a good idea, but he didn't have much choice.
"I accept" he told her.
The princess handed him the controller, then passed him an envelope. Finn looked at it, it said: For Finn and Jake only. Finn turned to Alex.
"Okay, we're leaving now. Start moving."
Alex stood up, and walked out of the room, with Finn following.
Alex's POV
Those two adventurers that he'd met were now his parole officers, how ironic. Alex marched along the road, it seemed to go endlessly through a field of green rolling hills. His "wardens" were trailing behind him, arguing about something. They seemed to be reading the contents of that envelope. By stealing a few quick glances at them, he saw there were two pieces of paper.
Suddenly, a large gust of wind blew one of the papers out of the Boy, what was his name? Finn, that's right. It blew a paper out of Finn's hand. It blew by Alex's head, and he reached out and snatched it. After quickly reading it, he let it go. The wind blew it far, far away, and it was gone. That earned him a shock, but it was worth it.
Then, as the sun went down, Alex saw a tree house in the distance. It wasn't just a house in a tree, but a full-sized tree, that was also a house. The two adventurers sped up, and Alex kept in step with them.
They gave him a basic tour of the tree house, then told him he'd be sleeping on the couch. Then they went to bed.
Finn's POV
Finn lay in his bed, thinking over today's events. His thoughts were disturbed by Jake.
"Finn, I still don't think this is a good idea. It feels like we have The Lich himself in our living room. He could bust in here and kill us at any moment."
Finn figured Jake wouldn't let it rest. They had argued about the wisdom of this idea the entire way home. Even if the letter had made a strange kind of sense, it was a crazy idea. Still, he didn't want to disappoint PB.
"Look Jake," Finn said "maybe this is a bad idea. But this could also be good. This guy is crazy strong, he could help us out in dungeons and stuff."
"Whatever man," Jake replied "I'll never convince you."
Finn pulled out the letter and read it over one more time.
Dear Finn and Jake,
Your probably wondering why I'm doing this. Well, Finn heard what was said about how we can't kill this Mercer person, and my kingdom has many enemies, as you are both no doubt aware. I figure that if we can't get rid of Alex, then we could at least use him. If we can get him to work for use, even possibly make an ally out of him, the Candy Kingdom would be all the more safe.
I trust the two of you to keep an eye on him, and make sure he doesn't become a threat again. I'm counting on you two.
PB.
P.S. Until Alex IS an ally, don't let him out of your sight.
Unfortunately, that was where the first page ended, so hopefully the rest wasn't important. Then again, if it wasn't in the main message, it couldn't have been that important.
Elsewhere
The floating page of the letter came to rest at the foot of a large tree. It unfolded itself and lay upon the ground. As it lay there, the contents of the page could be made out.
He can shift the biomass within his body, similar to the way Jake does. If you've left him unsupervised to read this paper, then run, because in the time it would take to read this paper, he will have already removed the probe, and will likely be on his way to KILL YOU!
Alex's POV
Alex stared at the ceiling, staring at the probe in his hand. Such a tiny thing, yet they expected it to control him.
He thought about killing them, but then again, him did try to kill them first. He'd been starving, but their rather, negative reaction to his reappearance was understandable.
Besides, he'd had enough fighting for today.
Alex crushed to probe in his hands, and went to sleep.
Okay there's my fourth chapter. I really would like reviews. I can't help but feel that there's some way to improve this. Also I have no real ideas for a long-term conflict, so suggestions are appreciated.
