When Finn finished his story, the courtroom was silent except for the sound of the storm's winds outside. Finn sat down in his chair and looked to Princess Bubblegum, who was taking it all in.

"Well," she said, after clearing her throat. "Magic Man. Is everything you've heard today true?"

"Truer than true," said Magic Man happily.

Princess Bubblegum sighed and rubbed her gummy temples. "All right, I give up. Magic Man, what's your angle?"

Magic Man stopped smiling and looked at her blankly. "Angle?"

"Don't play dumb. If I've learned anything about you after hearing all these stories, it's that you always have an angle. I figured you're probably tired of beating around the bush like this, so why don't you just do whatever it is you're planning and we can get it over with."

Magic Man looked to Finn, who was still glaring at him with his arms crossed. Then he went back to smiling. "Oh, come on, wouldn't doing that spoil the fun?"

"Ugh." Princess Bubblegum facepalmed. "Fine. If there's nothing else to say, then I'll just go ahead and-"

"Stop the trial!" The back doors flew open dramatically. Every head in the room turned to see who was barging in. It was Ephermelda, floating confidently into the room at standing head level.

Magic Man looked around. "Can you see her? Guys? Everyone? Can everyone see this?" He gestured at Ephermelda as she reached him.

"Who are you?" asked Princess Bubblegum.

"Me?" Ephermelda tapped her chest. Then she bowed low, her head past her knees, then her feet, then she tumbled over in the air and came up again, smiling broadly. "I am Ephermelda, third daughter of the Fairy Kingdom."

Magic Man turned to Princess Bubblegum. "So you can see her, right?"

Princess Bubblegum gave Magic Man a strange look.

"Yeah, I was lying the other day," said Ephermelda.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I-uh-oh. I just like messing with peeps sometimes."

Magic Man bit his lip, determined not to say anything and make himself a hypocrite on top of everything else.

"What is your business here, Ephermelda?" asked Princess Bubblegum.

"I'm here on behalf of this Magic Man."

"That's right," said Magic Man. "What happens to her happens to me, so she should have a say in all this."

Princess Bubblegum frowned. "I think it would only count if it were the other way around."

"Wait." Magic Man had to think it through. "Oh. I guess that's true."

"What do you have to say in defense of Magic Man?" Princess Bubblegum asked.

"Well." Ephermelda cleared her throat politely. "I haven't known Magic Man very long, but from what I've seen he's a decent guy. He went all the way to the Ice Kingdom to rescue me from the Ice King's dungeon. Then he turned a library into a bakery so they could eat delicious baked instead of books. We also stole donuts from a witch shaped like a candy cane but wasn't a candy cane."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Jake waved his arms to get attention. "Did you kick her cane and make her fall?"

"Jake!" Princess Bubblegum gave him a 'cut' gesture.

"We'll talk later," Jake whispered loudly.

Back to Ephermelda, Princess Bubblegum said, "It sounds to me like Magic Man is still a selfish jerk and has been up until the day we arrested him."

"Well, yeah, I guess that's true."

Magic Man slumped backwards and groaned loudly. "Please stop talking, Ephermelda."

"But I'm so good at it."

Just then the lights in the room flickered and went out. Everyone went quiet, and once they were the storm outside seemed louder than ever.

"Oh, right," said Ephermelda. "I forgot. I also came to tell you that the storm going on outside is actually an evil hurricane named Louragan that was accidentally released early and we can't get it back in his prison, and it wants to kill everyone and everything."

As it turns out, even dignified members of the Candy Court can lose their heads. The room erupted in panic. Finn, ever the hero, drew his sword.

"Everyone calm down!" Princess Bubblegum hollered authoritatively.

"I'll kill that hurricane!" Finn shouted.

"We're all gonna die!" Jake shrieked.

"Jake, chill out," said Finn.

"Sorry." Jake immediately calmed down. "I just got caught up in the moment."

"Only someone who has the heart of a hero can vanquish Louragan," said Ephermelda.

"That's me!" Finn declared.

"It could be me, too," said Magic Man.

"No," said Ephermelda. "The heart has to still be beating inside of the hero."

"Oh. Never mind, then. You want Finn."

"I'll take you to the eye of the storm," said Ephermelda. "There we can defeat him."

Princess Bubblegum said, "In light of this development, we'll postpone the end of this trial until after the demon is vanquished. Guards! Stop screaming and escort Magic Man back to his cell!"

Magic Man stood up. "Wait! If Ephermelda is going into danger, I need to come with her!"

Princess Bubblegum looked at him, inviting him to continue.

"It's really dangerous," he explained, "going after demon hurricanes. She could die."

"It's true," Ephermelda added. "I could."

"Right!" Magic Man nodded vigorously. "So if she dies, I die. And if I die, I'd like to see it coming."

Princess Bubblegum facepalmed again.

"So it's only fair he goes, too," said Ephermelda, seemingly unruffled by Magic Man's self-centered interpretation of the situation.

Finn was already waving his hands and shaking his head. "No way, nuh-uh. I can't slay evil with Magic Man causing trouble."

"Don't worry," said Ephermelda. "I can keep him in line. Watch." Then she put her forearm in her mouth and bit down hard. Magic Man grabbed his own arm and bent over, whining in pain. Then he flung himself flat on his back.

"Holy hex," Finn breathed.

"See?" Ephermelda took her arm out and folded her hands behind her back.

"She's fun," said Jake to Finn. "I bet that'll be a hit at parties."

The building shook as a particularly strong gust of wind hit it hard. "We don't have time to argue," said Finn. "Let's just go." Finn jumped on Jake's back as Jake grew. Magic Man grabbed onto Jake's tail, and the four of them were off.

No one was outside enough to see the odd spectacle as Giant Jake and his riders raced to the eye of the storm. Jake had made a covered compartment on his back to shelter Finn, Magic Man, and Ephermelda from the rain. Jake shifted his mouth and ears to inside the compartment, but his eyes were outside so he could see. Along the way he'd picked up a pair of water-resistant goggles so he could see through the torrential rain.

"So what's the deal?" asked Finn. "What are we fighting?"

"A burden that the Fairy Kingdom must bear for the sake of nature. For the past thousand years, every century a terrible storm comes over the world, and the only counter is a re-awakened force of nature powerful enough to cancel it out. We set it up so that they meet and battle over the ocean, and the world is preserved. After he blows the storm out, he's weak enough that we can re-capture him.

"Normally we keep his jar in a sacred temple just on the edge of our kingdom that we only use for demon-storage, and the occasional wedding. But then Gwydion broke in and opened the jar, and now he's wreaking havoc all over Ooo."

"Wait, who's Gwydion?" Finn interrupted.

"A snail wizard," Ephermelda explained. "Magic Man, you know him."

"Is that the wizard I met in the village of Bright People? The one who shared his acorns with me once?"

"Yeah. Apparently he has a name."

"Well, good for him."

Jake was confused. "You keep him in a jar and he can't break out?"

"Of course not, it's locked from the outside."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Anyway," said Ephermelda, turning back to Finn and Jake's ears. "Here's the thing about Louragan. He's not evil. He's a force of nature that has been programmed to destroy. And as a force of nature, he can't be destroyed. In ancient times he was somehow imprisoned in stone, but was freed due to some great cataclysm that happened over a millennium ago. Our fairy magic has its own way of trapping him up, but part of the spell is that his prison must be sealed by someone with the heart of a hero. Still beating in his chest," she added, glancing at Magic Man, who waved back at her. "Normally we groom heroes for decades before we need to release Louragan, so we weren't ready. The king was all, 'Hey, we don't have any heroes ready! What do we do?' And then I went, 'Hey, I know a hero! I'll go get him!' So I came to find you, Finn."

"This is where I came in," said Finn. "Okay. Now I've got to think of a plan."

"Don't think too hard," said Ephermelda. "Louragan reads minds."

"What? Why didn't you say that before?"

"The opportunity never presented itself. Sorry, I guess I shoulda. It's not a big deal, though. He's got no voice so he communicates telepathically, and to communicate that way he's got to be able to be on the mindwaves, you know, the same waves that your thoughts happen on."

Finn nodded. "Oh. Right on."

Ephermelda parted Jake at the seam and peeked out. "We're getting close. Get ready."

"You ready, Jake?"

"M-hm."

Finn pointed with his sword at Magic Man. "Don't you do anything. If you junk this mess up for us, I'll cut your head off."

Magic Man held up his hands innocently. "Hey, whoa, don't look at me. I'm just sitting here."

"And no escaping," Jake ordered.

Magic Man began whistling innocently.

Jake slowed down to a stop, and then slowly morphed back to his regular size. The goggles slipped off as his head changed shape. Finn and Magic Man hopped off onto the soggy ground.

The hurricane was powerful here. Rain splattered like bullets, soaking them all to the bone in an instant. The wind knocked Finn onto his butt, and it took a lot of his strength to brace himself against it. He stabbed his sword into the ground, used it to stand, and held tight.

Ephermelda glowed bright like a beacon, and she held tight to Jake's ears. "Ready, heroes?" Her voice was so tiny, she had to shout over the wind. Even Jake had a hard time hearing her.

Finn pulled his sword out of the ground and held it over his head. "Louragan! I am here to vanquish you!"

All four of them heard a voice, a low rumbling voice that didn't come from anywhere; rather, they only heard it in the mind. How are you going to stab a hurricane, child?

Finn scrunched up his face. "Well... I don't know."

Step down and find shelter. Not everyone need be a casualty.

"No way!" Finn charged blindly forward, sword held over his head. He cried a fierce battle cry, his magic dog at his side.

Magic Man traced a bubble around himself to shield from the rain. Let the heroic goody two-shoes get blown away. Magic Man would use this opportunity to split himself from Ephermelda and continue to Wish Mountain.

You're leaving them behind? This was only for Magic Man to hear. Louragan sounded surprised.

Well, sure, Magic Man thought. That kid's got a good head on his shoulders. Nauseatingly good. He'll be fine.

And you're sure Margles wouldn't object?

No, it's not like-"Hey," he said out loud. "Stop reading people's minds."

It's not like I have a choice. I just hear, same as you hear spoken words.

Magic Man saw a glint out of the corner of his eye. He turned, but it was gone. Something moved in the sky, and Magic Man saw it for a split second. A creature, made out of raindrops and shaped by the negative space around him, a shape like a humanoid, standing on the foothills. He had no defined edges and a face like a scream. Just that quick glance made Magic Man certain that this was Louragan.

"Finn!" Magic Man shouted. "He's skimming the clouds! Look for a rain bubble!"

Finn, hacking randomly at the rain around him, looked back at Magic Man. "Huh?"

"He's in the sky! Get your magic dog to stretch up and you can hack him!"

"I see him!" Ephermelda pointed as she yelled. "Boy, he moves fast!"

"I can't see anything." Finn looked up, shielding his eyes from the rain.

Magic Man, in a flashed blinked over to Finn and traced another protective bubble around Finn's head. "That should keep water out of your eyes- and it's no-stick, like Teflon!"

Finn gave him a strange look. "Uh, thanks." He looked up and scanned the clouds. "I think I can see him! Jake! Stretch me up there!"

"Can do!"

Magic Man stayed down and watched. He had left his own bubble behind when he teleported, so now he was cold and wet out in the rain. He couldn't see Louragan anymore, but Finn clearly could. Now his sword swings weren't random, but aimed directly. "He's good," Magic Man admitted. "He's pretty good hero biz."

The wind roared louder and the rain was blinding. A particularly strong gust knocked Magic Man onto his back. Yep, Finn definitely had found Louragan. Why else would he be cranking the storm to max power? He rolled over onto his stomach, covered his head, and held his breath.