((And now for something completely different… Needed a little "smile" time... let's see how long it lasts :} PS: This is a LONG chapter, the next one is worse! LOL! Enjoy.))
Chapter 10 – BMO's Tale
CHARGING COMPLETE _ BATTERY 100% _ DISCONNECT CHARGER
BMO woke up, her charging cycle was finally finished and once again she was free to run. Standing, she unplugs herself, winds up her cord and stashes it away. She looks around the loft and realizes that no one was upstairs but herself.
"Hello?" She walks toward to ladder down, peering over the edge. It was quiet in the house, where did everyone go? Then she hears typing from below. Ah, someone is still here. Slowly working her way down the ladder, she spots someone in the gloom. One of Jake and Lady's kids, T.V, was sitting at a desk, typing away at a computer. She runs over to the Rainicorn/dog pup, who ignores her, engrossed in whatever he was doing. She waves her arms around, but then spies his tail poking out the edge of the chair. She jumps up and yanks hard on his tail. T.V. starts, pushing back away from the desk, knocking over BMO.
"Ooofff." T.V. looks down at the little computer.
"Oh hey, sorry. Didn't see ya. You shouldn't grab my tail, that hurts, man." BMO, rising to her feet nods. LOG – DON'T PULL T.V.'s TAIL.
"Sorry T.V. Where is everyone?" T.V shrugs, turning back to the computer.
"When I got here, everybody was gone. Figured they be back when they are ready." BMO glowers at the Rainicorn/dog, he was way too laid back, even worse than his father, Jake.
"Did they leave a note?" BMO asks, hoping. T. V. shakes his head, eyes never leaving the monitor. So much for his help. BMO turns and scans the rest of the house. Jake's bag was still in the corner, so there was that. Musing to herself, she starts toward the door.
"Maybe he went home? Jake sounded worried about Finn, perhaps he went left to check on him." Mind made up, BMO sidetracks to the kitchen. There she kicks over the trashcan, crawling inside. Seconds later she emerges holding an empty cardboard tube, giving it a few test swings. Satisfied with her find, she heads toward the door. Leaping up, she grabs the doorknob. Swinging herself around, she manages to pop open the door, drops to the ground and exits.
The world before the adventurer was dangerous and wild. In order to get to her lair, many dangers would need to be tackled, monsters slain and treasures found. BMO, now clad in armor and holding up her trusty sword, heads forth into the wilds. In reality, BMO holds up her cardboard tube and marches off down the path, making her way back to the treehouse, softly humming.
A few hours later, the mighty BMO encounters her first enemy. A large greenish scaled beast rises up in front of the heroine, breathing fire into the sky. With an earth shattering roar, the mighty beast launches itself at BMO. BMO stands her ground, waiting till the last minute to dive to the side, slashing upward with her sword. The first blow was glancing, serving to only annoy the beast further. It rears back up, squaring off against BMO. Back and forth they parry, striking each other with sword and tooth, neither scoring the killing blow. Suddenly BMO spots a weakness in the beast's scaly hide, a section where several scales are missing. Raising her sword, screaming a hearty battle cry, BMO dashes straight at the beast. The monster opens its month, thinking that it can merely just snap up the foolish warrior, but BMO rolls forward, dipping under the snapping jaws. Leaping to her feet, she thrusts up into the scale-free section, plunging her sword deep within the monster. With one last roar, it collapses, defeated. She stands victorious.
In reality, a frog has hopped onto the path BMO was walking down. Raising her cardboard tube, she dances around the creature, lightly tapping it with the tube. After a minute or two of dancing, the frog, clearly confused and tired of this strange creature hitting it, hops over BMO's head back into the trees. BMO dances around, shouting happily and celebrating her conquest. After her dance, she turns back down the path and continues on.
Suddenly before the heroine, a large bridge looms. The boards are rotting and half are missing. From beneath the darkness, several sets of red eyes watch her. Slowly, she starts to cross, but as she gets half way across, a three-headed troll pulls itself up from the darkness below to confront the warrior. She pulls her trusty sword and rushes the monster, who sidesteps her easily. It's weight shakes the bridge, a few of the worse planks break free and plunge into the stormy waters below. BMO spins mid-step, swinging her sword low, clipping the troll on the knees. It screams out in rage and pain, swiping at the woman. It misses and BMO lowers her blade, shoulder tackling the beast. It topples, balance off and crashes thru the planks, falling screaming into the water. BMO quickly leaps aside and races across the collapsing bridge. On the far side, she turns back toward the ruin of the bridge, once again glad the challenge over.
Once again, in reality BMO came across a normal looking stone bridge, spanning a barely moving trickle of water that was flowing thru the dried up streambed. She hops across the stone work, swinging her tube sword, taking time to avoid touching any cracks. Finally she makes one final long jump and lands safely the dirt path. She does a cute little dance, shaking her robotic booty. Picking up her humming, she wanders on.
The skies darken, winds rise and whip the surrounding trees into a furor, a mother of all storms was coming. As much as the fearless warrior wants to continue on, nature demands she seek shelter. She spies a dark cave and runs toward to it as the skies open. Shaking off inside, she notices that the floor is littered with old bones and scraps of fur. From the depth of the cave, a growl issues forth. Pulling her sword, BMO waits for whatever foul beast may emerge, hoping that it wasn't too hungry.
From the darkness, four beasts emerge, some sort of four-legged creatures, with long tails and tusks. They spread out, eyeing the intruder within their home. Suddenly one of the monsters lunges forward, swiping at the heroine, who jumps back just in time. The other three beasts, snarling, all leap forward. BMO dives to the side, slashing at the closest beast, knocking it out. The other two land, missing their prey and the fourth one joins them. They stand, lashing their tails, leering at the warrior. Suddenly a loud peal of thunder with lightning crashes down outside, the beasts start, cowering. Finally the injured one regains its feet, then as a group they turn and race out into the storm. BMO sighs, collapsing down. Sometimes not fighting was better than to struggle against greater numbers.
BATTERY LEVEL 50%
BMO laughs, it's power alarm broke the spell and BMO smiles. She actually found a hole in a tree, chasing out several squirrels that had been sleeping there. They ran outside, the last one stood there chattering at her in its language for several second before joining its friends. BMO stares out the opening, watching the rain. Not knowing how long the shower could last, she sets an alarm and goes into POWER SAVING MODE to wait out the storm.
Several hours later, her alarm buzzes, waking her to the weak sun shining outside. Glad it's over, BMO crawls out and starts again toward the treehouse. Behind her, one of the squirrels scurries over and pokes his head in. Standing up, he beckons to the others and they pile back into the hole, muttering under their squirrel breaths.
The heroine watches the hideous imp, hovering above the group of pixies, cackling evilly. The imp has the pixies gathered in a small jar, which it picks up and clips to a long stick. The pixies cry and wail, trapped, doomed to whatever evil deeds the imp has planned for them. BMO can't let this injustice go on. She sneaks after the imp, keeping to the shadows as it heads toward its lair. Suddenly, it spins and points a wicked claw at BMO, launching a lightning bolt at her. BMO dashes forward, drawing her sword to deflect the lightning. The imp cackles, flying higher beyond the reach of the foolish heroine. BMO can't reach the foe, but spies a damaged branch in the trees near the creep. Taking aim, she fires her sword at the monster, who simply floats aside. But as she wasn't aiming for him, the sword continues on to cut thru the wood of the branch, sending it crashing down on the head of the imp. Unconscious and pinned underneath the large chunk of wood, she is free to help the pixies. She opens the jar and they fly out, surrounding her, squeaking in their high pitched voices. BMO can't understand them, but they all fly up as a group to her sword, sticking out of the tree. They draw their wands and using magic, they extract her blade and float it back to her. She bows, thankful for her sword as they wave goodbye.
The flock of butterflies drift off, completely unfazed as the little robot hops and waves her cardboard sword in the air. This quest was becoming majorly epic in nature, she couldn't wait to get home and tell her tale to Finn and Jake. Tucking her sword underneath one arm, she starts off again, picking up her tune. She needs an ballad to accompany her battles, as all good stories work better with music tracks.
Finally rising over the last of the hills, the golden place of the heroine greets her weary soul. Many battles have been fought, monsters slain, innocents saved and she looks forward to rest. The brave warrior approaches her home... and the world snaps back to reality as BMO finds herself standing at the treehouse door, which was open.
WARNING - BATTERY LEVEL 25% - RECHARGE OR REPLACE SOON
BMO stares into the lowest level of the treehouse, the treasure room. The guys rarely ever left this door open, afraid of random creatures creeping in or people stealing their hard won treasure.
"Something is wrong." BMO's face flashes a "!?" as she slowly walks inside. The place was quiet, too quiet. The world fades to black and white, BMO is now dressed in duster and bowler hat. She creeps over to an object lying in the middle of the floor. It was Finn's backpack, split open, coins scattered around.
"This is not a good sign. Finn wouldn't leave this lying here." She sneaks over to the ladder and slowly works her way up. On the main floor, she hops out into the living room, holding the cardboard tube, now bent in half, in her little hands like a pistol. She scans the room, noticing that no one was up here, but then spots a piece of paper on the floor. Tip-toeing over to the paper, she nudges it with her foot, then reads the note.
"This is the note Jake and I left for Finn." She looks up the table where Jake had originally placed it. It was possible that a draft could have knocked it to the floor. It was more probable that it was discarded by who ever had read it. Tipping her non-existent hat back, BMO wonders what she should do. Jake was clearly not here, but what about Finn? Had something had happened here, did it involve the guys? Was anyone here?
"Come on BMO, you need to check the place out to make sure no one is here." The words are more to convince herself to do something, as if it was possible for the little robot to have fear, this was pretty close to it. Holding her make believe gun up at the ready, she sneaks forward.
Slowly, the little robot makes her way thru the treehouse. Although she is looking around, she has spent more time darting from shadow to shadow then actively searching. In one hall she does notice that a table has been knocked over, but she also knows that during rough storms, when the tree starts shaking violently, it tended to topple that particular table.
WARNING BATTERY LEVEL 15% - RECHARGE OR REPLACE SOON
"Oh no, time for BMO to get fresh Batteries." She sings, running to the ladder up to Finn and Jake's bedroom. She often stored extra batteries under Finn's bed. Tossing her cardboard tube aside, she starts up the ladder. After several minutes of climbing, she pulls herself up and into the room. Walking forward a few steps, she halts suddenly. The room before her was trashed, more than the normal amount. Littering the floor was broken glass, along with something else. Paint? Cautiously she draws nearer, spotting a heap of blue fabric on the floor. She picks up the edge of the discarded cloth, seeing that it's Finn's shirt, but her attention is drawn to the "paint" stains. They didn't look right. Her memory banks whir in high gear, dumping information on their possible composition and with a sense of dread, she knows what they are.
"OMG, that is blood!" BMO looks around, realizing how much of the material was splattered around. Whatever happened here, wasn't good. Someone was hurt badly. She turns, stumbling, as her foot trips over something within the folds of Finn's shirt. Picking herself up, she approaches the shirt, pulling at the fabric and uncovering a long green object. Finn's cursed Grass sword lays tangled in the shirt.
"What is this doing here? Finn said this couldn't come off!" She starts to process all the information she has gathered so far, trying to draw some conclusion about what may have happened when her internal alarm goes off.
WARNING _ LOW BATTERY - 5%_WARNING
"Epp!" A surprised emoticon flashes across her screen as she scrambles to get to the hidden battery stash. She dives under the bed, to appear a few seconds later, two batteries in her hands. She lines them up on the floor, opens her battery door and pops out the old set. Her screen blanks out and she falls back onto the aligned batteries, the momentum causing them to slam into the battery compartment. After a few seconds of stillness, her screen lightens and she sits up.
What to do? Where is everyone? What has happened? BMO sits there, processing. Finally she hops up, running over to Finn's blade. Although it is oversized for her, she carefully picks it up and makes for the stairs. Dragging the sword with her, she makes her way down the treehouse, finally stopping in the treasure room. Once there she looks around, spotting an area where she can hide both herself and the sword. She runs over, shoves the sword in the space, then runs over to Finn's bag. Grabbing a strap, she drags it across the floor and uses it hide underneath. Someone was bound to turn up, looking for either of the guys. Hopefully they would be able to help as she realizes there was nothing she could do. Rocking gently under the bag, she softly hums to herself, hoping her wait wouldn't be too long.