Finn awoke lying on the floor in a small, damp cell. The walls were made of solid rock; the prison had been cut out of the stone around it. On the wall there were a series of scars where miners had missed with whatever they were using to excavate the cell. In a corner sat a small cot, barely more than a pile of straw. He sat up rubbing his head, and thought back to what had happened. After the room went black, he had walked around, calling for his friends with no response. After about five minutes, the room became slightly brighter, and a hissing noise came from the walls as a strange gas came from the walls. He had lost consciousness and must have been taken to the cell.
"Jake? FP?" he yelled, trying to find out if they were anywhere nearby.
"Finn! Is that you?" Jake called back. "I'm in the cell next to yours."
"Do you know where Flame Princess is?"
"I'm over here!" Flame Princess called from the cell to Jake's left.
"We thought you were dead! After I accidentally pressed that button, a wall came down and separated us!"
"That explains why the room went black…but how did they get you guys?" Finn asked, sticking his head through the bars to get a better look at the hallway.
"This weird gas came out of the walls, and we fell asleep."
"That's what happened to me too!"
"Prisoners are not allowed to talk!" A tall man walked into the room, with green skin and a long nose. "I created this dungeon to trap the fools seeking to meet with my brother, that stupid Tactician. So tell me, what exactly are you-" He cast a disparaging look at the three cells the prisoners were in "-seeking my brother for?"
"We're trying to def-"
"Finn, no! This guy is evil!" Jake exclaimed, cutting off Finn midsentence.
"Tell me what you are trying to do! Now!" The man picked up a long pole with two prongs at the end and waved it at Finn menacingly and also slightly insanely.
"Never!"
The man aimed the pole at Finn and hit a button. Two bolts of electricity flew out of the pole and hit Finn in the chest.
"Ow!" Finn exclaimed, rubbing the spot where it hit him.
"Give in!"
"Neve-ow!"
This process was repeated many times, until the man had had enough and Finn's shirt had a smoking hole in it.
"Fine. If you won't tell, then I'll resort to other means." He said with a manic grin. "Let's see what water does to this fire elemental, eh?" The man turned a knob on a pipe behind him, and the gushing of water filled the silence.
"Finn? The floor of my cell is being covered with water!" Flame Princess said nervously.
"It'll be fine, FP. I'll figure something out." Finn comforted her as he searched his brain for a solution.
"Finn! It's like an inch deep now." Flame Princess was now panicking as the water began to cover the higher ground she was standing on. She leaped over to the cot, standing on her pillow. She felt a cold, sharp sensation as the edge of one of her feet touched the water.
"Finn!"
"All right! I'll tell you. Just turn off the water."
"Very well." The man turned the knob back to its starting position.
"We're looking for the Tactician because we need his help to defeat the Lich and the Shadow King."
"Thank you. But she'll still die." The man said and then twisted the knob back so the water started flowing again.
"WHAT? You told us you would turn off the water!"
"Of course I did! I'm evil!"
"But-"
"Evil." The man walked out of the door.
"Finn! Do something" Flame Princess was levitating over the water now, but she couldn't fly too much higher or she'd hit the ceiling.
"Jake! Can you make your key-hand?"
"No can do, Finn, my lock's a combination and so is FP's."
"Open my cell then!" Jake stretched his hand and fumbled for the keyhole on Finn's door. Finn leaped out and attempted to turn the knob back.
"I can't turn it, it has a combination lock too!" Finn said frantically, recognizing the small dial next to the knob.
"What kind of guy locks his pipes?" Jake grumbled.
"They've got to have the combination around here somewhere!" He ran down the corridor a bit and found a sign, with some keys hanging at the bottom.
Combination:
If you seek to open the door
Or stop the water's steady pour
Then solve this riddle you must
Or the lock is doomed to rust
The combination is equal to
The sum of two cubes in ways two
"Dang! I'm no good at math!"
"Hurry Finn!" FP called, bending over as she tried to avoid the still rising water and the ceiling.
"Ok, let's see…the sum of two cubes in two different ways…wait…a cube's just an object! How do you add objects? This makes no sense!"
"One thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine…" A faint voice called in the distance.
"What? Jake, did you hear that?"
"Yeah! That sounded like Princess Bubblegum!"
"One thousand, seven hundred and twenty nine…" The voice called, this time louder.
"I think they're getting closer! What did PB say?"
"ONE THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE!"
Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, and the Ice King crashed through the door, riding on some kind of rocket car piloted by Mark (or the Tactician, but I'm just going to call him Mark from now on).
Finn entered the passcode, and with a click, the door opened, letting out a stream of water. Flame Princess flew out immediately afterwards, stressed but no worse for wear. The team quickly opened up Jake's cell.
"How did you know that, PB?" Jake asked as he opened the cell containing their belongings.
"It's a famous number. It's weird how important it is. This guy once thought-"
"You don't need to explain, it's fine." Jake said, turning towards Finn. Princess Bubblegum sighed, nobody ever wanted to hear that story.
"Are you the Tactician?" Finn asked curiously.
"Why can't anybody call me Mark?" Mark replied exasperatedly.
"Wait, are you a human?"
"No, I'm kind of a mutant like the Ice King. I used to be human, but then a radioactive potion that made me lose my human-ness got me. Let that be a lesson to you, boy! Stay away from radioactive stuff!"The man shook his fist at the ceiling.
The team got on the rocket sled and began flying out of the cave. They crashed through the door and weaved through some stalactites.
"We're almost there!" Jake yelled.
As they neared the exit, someone suddenly stepped in front of the rocket sled. Mark pulled the sled to a stop and turned on the headlights.
"Mark Aureus." The tall man stood, blocking their way.
"Brother." Mark replied, glaring at the taller man.
"I am no brother of yours!" The man spat at his feet. "You think I would just let you go?"
"No. But these ones must. This is for the fate of the world. We have to stop the Lich and the Shadow King. Even you must know that."
"There are many things you don't know about me brother. Why would I let you stop the Shadow King? If he comes to rule, I could benefit greatly."
"I see there is not reasoning with you."
"As do I." Mark's brother took the pole he had used to zap Finn earlier and held a button. A nimbus of blue, crackling energy formed around the head of the pole.
"Prepare to die." He released the stream of energy, sending it flying towards the rocket sled, but Ice King blocked it with an ice shield.
"Let's get out of here! Simon, keep blocking their shots!" Mark activated the engines and jetted off.
"What-mon?" The Ice King replied, throwing up another shield.
"Watch out!" Finn blocked a stream of lightning with his sword.
"Ok, I'm activating the emergency engines. Hold on!" The rocket sled accelerated, drawing away from Mark's brother.
"I will get you!" Mark's brother called as they flew away.
They flew the rocket sled about 10 miles away, to a small hill bordering a lake. They landed the sled and got off.
"I'm hungry after all that adventuring. Let's eat lunch!" Jake said, thinking about food as always. They spread out a blanket and got out a pot to heat the spaghetti in.
"Oh great, we don't have any water. Finn, can you get some?" Jake handed him a pair of empty buckets.
"I'll help too, Finn." Flame Princess stood up and grabbed a bucket. The pair walked off towards the lake.
"Why would a fire elemental want to get water?" Mark asked, confused.
"Oh, she's Finn's girlfriend. They probably just want some alone time."Jake replied.
"Are you sure they won't get up to something...you know..."
"Well, they can't do anything other than hug, any more than that and FP will blow a hole to the center of the earth. It was kind of frightening when it first happened, but it saves me a lot of work making sure they don't get into trouble. Besides, Finn's pretty righteous anyway. He'd listen to me."
"Hmm…" Mark stared into the distance, lost in thought. "I'm going to grab something from my lab." He flew off on the rocket sled.
"I wonder what he's up to. Hey, what are you reading, Princess?"
"Oh, I'm reading this paper Mark wrote about the effects of zanoidal ionization on quantum boson tunneling through electron-volt capacitors. It's quite interesting, actually-" Princess Bubblegum stopped, realizing that Jake had fallen asleep.
"Yeesh, that sounds more boring than the Dream Journal of a Boring Man Volume 12" Marceline said. "I'm off to find something more interesting." She flew off into the distance.
"Well, at least Mark will listen to me." PB sighed.
As soon as they were out of earshot from the group, Finn turned to Flame Princess.
"Why are you coming to pick up water? Not that I don't want you to come, but you normally avoid bodies of water."
"I just wanted to say…thanks for saving me."
"It wasn't really me, without PB I couldn't have done it."
"Yeah but if you hadn't given Mark's brother the information, the water would have gotten me." She kissed him on the cheek. " So that's for saving me." Finn blushed. Flame Princess drew back, and then slapped him on the same cheek. "And that's for revealing important information! You knew he was evil, Finn!"
"I'm sorry, FP. I just…needed to save you and I didn't know any other options. I…I love you, Flame Princess, and if you died I'd probably become as crazy as the Ice King."
Flame Princess laughed at the idea of Finn as the Ice King and then became more serious. "I love you too, Finn." They walked back to the camp holding hands. As they walked over the hilltop, they saw Jake preparing the campfire while PB talked to Mark about something, which must not have been that interesting as Mark appeared to be falling asleep.
"You guys are back!" Jake exclaimed. "Give me the bucket and I'll start the spaghetti."
Finn and FP looked at each other nervously. They had completely forgotten about their task.
"You guys forgot, didn't you?" Jake looked at them, seeing they didn't have their buckets. Jake looked like he was about to lecture them, but was interrupted by Mark, who was using their appearance to get out of his conversation with PB.
"Oh! I have something for you guys!" He said, rummaging through a bag. He pulled out a small spherical machine, about the size of a light bulb. It had a meter on the side reading zero and a surface like that of a golf ball. He set it down in front of them.
"Activate keyboard."
A holographic keyboard and screen were projected out of the ball, and he began typing. The pair stepped back nervously.
"Set target: 10 meters, greatest energy source."
A dish popped out of the top of the ball and focused on Flame Princess.
"Er, what are you doing?" Flame Princess asked nervously.
"Target locked." The ball replied in a expressionless, monotone voice.
"Mark? Seriously, what are you doing?" The man appeared to be tuning them out, focused completely on the sphere in front of him.
"Activate."
"Error. Not in close enough proximity to target." Mark grumbled, picking up the sphere and moving it to Flame Princess's feet. She began to step back, but Mark grabbed her arm, stopping her. Finn drew his sword.
"Seriously, stop."
"Activate."
"Stop! Finn raised his sword and pointed it at Mark, who suddenly realized something had been happening while he was focused on the sphere.
A blue energy field spread over Flame Princess, glowing lightly. She pulled her arm away and backed towards Finn, but the ball extended spider-like legs and followed her. Finn raised his sword, slicing towards the ball, but the sword hit an invisible surface and glanced off.
"Commence matrix repair." The Tactician said, ignoring Finn's sword. "Don't worry, this is to help you guys."
The blue field contracted. Flame Princess felt a strange tickling sensation, which soon stopped, leaving her feeling lighter than ever before. The blue field expanded once more to surround her.
"Activate clear color setting." The field turned clear and disappeared. Finn lowered his sword, but didn't put his sword back into his backpack.
"Dampen all non-hostile energy flow." The field glowed once more, but quickly faded again. The small sphere retracted its legs but maintained the field projector.
"Why do I feel so light and free?" Flame Princess asked, overcome with a strange joy that suffused her body.
"I've stabilized the decay of your core matrix and dampened your energy output to standard survival levels."
"Uh…what?" Finn and Flame Princess looked at him, confused.
Mark sighed. "Princess, your elemental matrix is repaired and you won't burn Finn."
Finn blushed, looking at the ground, but FP acted before him, practically throwing herself into his arms and kissing him. After about 10 seconds, the group began to get a bit uncomfortable and Finn and FP separated.
"Now, before you continue that somewhere else, just a few final things: This is M.A.R.S., which stands for Multifunctional Advanced Robotic Sphere. Just call him Mars though, he likes it better that way. Keep him near you or the dampening will wear off, but as long as you're within about 500 feet it should be fine. He can do a couple of other things than just fix relationship problems, so you may want to ask me later about it. I built him a long time ago to help out in the lab."
The couple nodded mutely, still somewhat in shock. Finn put Mars in his backpack the couple walked off, presumably to try out the new dampener.
"Thanks for making my supervision duties that much harder." Jake said dryly.
Hey! Another day, another update! Did you like my chapter? I just saw Frost and Fire on Netflix (Further portions of this content may be Frost and Fire spoilers), made me feel kind of sad. But Flinn shipping isn't over, or at least that's what SCIK said, so I'll take her word for it. This story will assume that they get back together, although part of me feels Finn was such an idiot he deserves it. But I hope FP gets back together with him in the end. I'm glad you guys like my story, whether you reviewed it or not, but those who did review it, thank you. By showing that you like my story you inspire me as a writer (and adventure time fan). As the Ice King said, "Maybe we can all learn something from these sandwiches..."
See you in a couple of days!