Broadcast

"I think you'll find everything in perfect order," Starchy said. He held out his identification papers and photo id card to the Battlebot stationed at the entrance to his radio station. The large android took them in one large steel fist and began scanning them. "Looks like rain later today, hope your waterproof."

Despite chuckling at the bad joke, Starchy mentally kicked himself for even saying anything at all. The Battlebots never responded to anything said to them, he wasn't even sure if they COULD talk. He began to look around as he waited, he'd counted almost 5 dozen cameras on his way to work, and passed over a dozen Battlebots stationed on every street.

The princess had told them that the cameras and extra Battlebots were for their own protection, that The Lich was somewhere about and that it wasn't safe to be out after dark. At really was the case, no one had ever seen anything prowling around at night before, least of all The Lich.

When his papers were returned, Starchy quickly ducked inside and locked the door. Heading upstairs, he wasn't surprised to see two more Battlebots standing outside his recording room.

"Mornin' boys," he said, trying to sound cheerful as he stepped between them and went inside. Immediately their heavy footsteps began chasing after him and the door slamming shut told him that they were staying. Sitting down, he adjusted his microphone and flipped the switch. "Good morning, Candy Kingdom! It's your old pal Starchy here with your morning news."

He shuffled through the pile of new papers that had been left for him, by who he didn't know.

"Our first order of business is that the fall concert has been canceled due to it falling after curfew, but; it will be rescheduled for the following Saturday at 2PM," he read. Behind him he could feel mechanical eyes watching him. ""Remember, curfew is at 6PM tonight, and be sure to always have your identification papers and photo id cards with you whenever you leave the house, this is so the Battlebots can recognize who is a Candy Kingdom citizen, and must be protected, and who is an enemy and must be dealt with."

"Now, onto more somber news, Finn the human has turned traitor to our beloved Princess Bubblegum. I know I can't believe it either, but; it happened, he has sided with The Lich and is planning to wipe us all out! Luckily, our princess has already taken steps to prevent this from happening." he said, trying to keep his voice calm.

Behind him, the sound of the Battlebots stepping closer made his spine tingle, he had to be careful with this next part.

"In her infinite wisdom, Princess Bubblegum had brought us many allies to combat The Lich," Starchy said. "Castle Lemongrab has taken over guarding the Western Pass into the kingdom, and our ally the Flame King, not his daughter Flame Princess, has promised full support of his army once the Lich has been driven from the Fire Kingdom. I don't know about you folks, but 3 armies makes me feel a lot safer than just one."

Starchy set the paper aside and readied to read the last page.

"There's to be a royal wedding, Breakfast Princess is to marry our own brave and true knight, Sir Slicer. He and the royal army are riding right this very minute to retrieve his royal bride and bringing her back here for the wedding. The festivities will be this Friday starting at 8AM with a royal breakfast, followed by the wedding ceremony at 11AM, then with lunch served at 3PM," he read. "I'm sure the blushing bride is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her future husband as he comes to sweep her off her feet."

From the balcony, she watched as the Marauders began scaling the walls with ladders and grapnels. Her bacon knights were fighting them back off the ladders as they came one by one, but; more and more were getting onto the walls as her forces began to be stretched thin by the fighting. She felt a knot twist in her chest as something heavy slammed into the gates.

The Marauders had come screaming out of the morning mist like a hairy tide. They hadn't had time to boil any syrup to pour onto the attackers before the barbarians were beginning to scale the wall. She had ordered letters to be sent out to the Fire Kingdom as well as the Jungle and Slime Kingdoms for aid. She had thought of sending one to the Candy Kingdom, but; PB's Banana Guards were no matched against the Marauders. Her hopes were quickly dashed as two of the birds were shot down, only the one bound for the Jungle Kingdom slipped through the hail of arrows.

"Fly fast little one," she whispered. Beside her, French Toast Princess was looking just as worried. Thankfully, Strudel Princess was still asleep, and hopefully would sleep straight through the death that was surely coming for them.

"What do we do, Becky?" she asked, hugging her tightly.

"We pray, Frieda," Breakfast Princess replied, hugging her sister back. "We pray."

A final, savage crash rang out through the kingdom as the gates finally gave way to the battering ram and a throng of barbarians came swarming through the open gates. The final stand of her army quickly became a full on retreat as the Marauder's pursued them on horseback. Breakfast Princess was confused, after getting through the gates, the Marauders stopped killing her soldiers.

"What's going on?" the two princesses jumped and turned to see Strudel Princess coming groggily towards them, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Before they could stop her, she hopped up and looked out onto the Marauders herding her forces back towards the palace. "A parade!"

Breakfast Princess had to restrain herself from slapping her youngest sister. But; she mentally thanked Glob that her sister was far too young to understand what was happening.

"Yes, Stacey, a parade," she said, fighting to keep her voice calm and the tears from falling. Taking both of her sisters by the hand, she led them back into the palace. "Let's go see what the parade is for."

By the time three princesses made their way down to the throne room, they found what remained of their army kneeling on the floor with their wrists bound behind their backs. Marauders were everywhere, they filled the room from side to side and corner to corner. It looked as if the whole barbarian army tried to cram inside.

"There she is boys, my bride," a knight dressed in armor as black as night sat on her throne, his feet were propped up by a kneeling bacon knight. "I told you she was pretty."

The assembled savages began to laugh as the princesses stepped out into the room fully and made their way before the throne.

"You're no Marauder, who are you?" Breakfast Princess asked.

"I'm your new husband," He replied, placing his hands behind his head and smirking. "They call me Sir Slicer, but; after we're wed it'll be King Slicer."

Before Breakfast Princess could even begin to think of response to that statement, Strudel Princess spoke up.

"You can't marry her!" her sister screamed, her shrill voice filling the room. "She's going to marry Finn!"

Sir Slicer smiled slyly, and leaned forward, placing his feet on the floor.

"Oh, is that true, little girl?" he asked, his voice just dripping with sarcasm. "You hear that boys, my lady's to marry that traitor!"

The knight stood, and drew the sword at his hip. The grip and cross guard were black, the pommel was in the likeness of a hissing cobra. The blade itself was pure silver and shined beautifully in the light.

"That makes you a traitor as well, princess," he said. Slicer nodded his head, and immediately, Breakfast Princess and her sisters were each violently seized by two Marauders each and forced down to their knees. "The penalty for treason, is death."

Breakfast Princess's heart was pounding in her chest. Tears began welling up in her eyes as she watched the knight draw back his sword and in the instant before he swung it down, she made a decision that would change the fate of Ooo forever.

"I'll be your wife," she said, bowing her head. "Just don't hurt us."

With that, the Princess found herself being carried out of her palace over the heads of the Marauders, laughing and cheering as they carried her out to where a carriage was waiting. Too late she realized, after they tossed her in and slammed the door, that she was alone.

She began to cry out as the carriage pulled away and could only watch helplessly as the Savages began ripping at her sister's dresses and, mercifully, she could see no more as the carriage headed towards the gate.

They stopped to rest again after only traveling a few miles. Finn was looking extremely pale, his skin was soaked with sweat and his eyes were bloodshot and had developed dark bags under them that seemed to get darker and darker with each passing day.

The hero was always tired, like he wasn't getting any sleep at all, though he sleep like a dead man every night. they'd been forced to tie him to Jaime's back to keep him from falling off after the first day when it became apparent that the human was too weak to walk very far.

He complained constantly about his arm, saying that it ached and throbbed and it had began to itch him terribly but; he couldn't stand to scratch it as the mere act of touching it made him howl. When they removed his shirt to check his wound they found the area to be severely red and swollen. To make matters worse, black veins had began slowly creeping from the arm.

By the third day they were across his shoulder, and by that night they were on his chest.

"Time to check him," Jake said, dreading what he's find. Lifting up Finn's shirt, the magic dog felt like he was going to be sick. The veins had snaked down to his friend's bellybutton, and, to his horror, the flesh around the black tendrils was starting to turn red and puffy. "Oh Glob, this is bad, this is really bad!"

"Here, give me a knife," Rattleballs said. He took the dagger Jaime offered him, and carefully turned Finn onto his side. "Try and hold him still, this will hurt a lot."

Jake and Samantha grabbed the human by the arms and legs as Rattleballs deftly sliced into one of the creeping black veins. Finn began to scream and thrash as Rattleballs slid the knife along one of the tendrils and began pressing down on the hero's stomach.

The group wrinkled their noses as a thick black fluid began oozing out of the open gash. After a minute or so, the gumball robot sliced further along the vein and squeezed more dark fluid out.

"STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF GLOB PLEASE STOP!" Finn howled. The thrashing became more violent as thick slobber began running out of the human's mouth, making him look like a rabid animal. "YOU'RE KILLING ME! YOU'RE KILLING ME!"

"Rattleballs stop!" Jake exclaimed, struggling to hold Finn still. "That's enough! He can't take this!"

"Get away from him!" a voice shouted. The group looked to see a green skinned girl with leaves for hair looking down at them from a tree branch. Several arrows crackling with magical energy were floating around her. "Get away now or die!"

END CHAPTER 14