Chapter 4:
"Come with me," announced the curvy blonde.
Fionna stood in the door of Bonnie's quarters wearing a pair of baggy shorts and a heavy bra to support her heavy-duty knockers. Bonnie frowned at her little sister. It was sometimes a little weird to realize she had sisters and brothers other than Jay. Simone's daughter exuded serenity, when Bonnie felt as though she were in a state of turmoil. Fionna's grey eyes were calm, and Bonnie wondered. New Fionna? Was she talking to the stranger inside her sister? Putting on a grin, the pretty blonde said, "exercise. You're not getting any, and Dr. P will get on your butt if you don't."
Bonnie flushed. She'd gotten a bit of a ration from the family physician the previous evening. Fionna brushed past her sister carrying a small bag. Tossing it on Bonnie's table, the curvy blonde said, "we're a similar size..." Wrinkling her dainty nose as she glanced at Bonnie's chest-pillows, she added, "mostly..." The half-breed flushed to her hair. In the bag, she found a pair of baggy shorts, a tee-shirt, and a bra much like the one her sister was wearing. "One of my old ones," Fionna confirmed. "Should fit you."
In for a coin, Bonnie thought, as she went into the bathroom to change. Moments later, she exited the bath dressed for a run. Fionna took her by the hand, leading the way down to the basement where the conveyances were kept. A driver was already waiting on them, and one of the burly bodyguards that were the family's peculiar jewelry bundled them both into the car. Moments later, they were headed out the palace gates.
Bonnie's eyes were immediately on their surroundings, and she found herself glancing now and again at her sister. Fi had grown up here with all of this. It had been her everyday, where Bonnie found the whole business amazing. There were a lot of things her sister could teach her.
The car wove its way through early morning traffic before rolling up into the botanical gardens at the edge of the capitol. Once there, the guards got out, taking up station outside the door. Bonnie stared at the beautiful green space she found herself in as she stepped out of the car. "We have the run of the place," said Fionna, wrinkling her nose at the unintended pun. "The gates are closed until ten. We've got plenty of time to exercise without..." She meant the bodyguards. That was going to take some getting used to. Bonnie had been used to taking long walks when she was young and the chores were done. She'd been all over their farm and the surrounding lands, but her freedom had gotten drastically curtailed here. Taking her by the hand, Fi said, "come on. It's pretty here."
On the far side of town, Jake Jr. walked into the offices of Burdette's Real Estate Fund, finding her self going back in time to some very dark memories. She'd been part of setting this place up. She'd leaned on the little peanut-brittle dude to make him sign the papers allowing the construction of this complex in the parklands outside the capitol. She'd terrorized him until he knuckled under, even showing up at his kid's school. She'd had no idea how that felt until the kids were her own. The place had been patched up after the epic fight Star had here with the Scorcher, though Jake thought she could see signs of the dustup. Now, Jake strode up to the desk, announcing, "here to see the owner..."
The little licorice girl looked down her nose at Jake before announcing, "Mr. Burdette isn't here..." "I mean the real owner," Jake growled. Burdette didn't exist. He was Cherry's favorite character from 50 Shades of Red. Jake had laughed out loud at the time to realize that her boss got off on the same trashy romance novels she did. Now, she found herself uncomfortably aware of the parallels there. Finn might as well have been Jason Burdette, with his fat stacks of money and giant dick–and the way he handled girls and their bullshit. Was it any wonder they'd both become his bitches?
A menacing rent-a-banana approached, his hand on his piece. This one was lean, and his eyes were hard. The world seemed to have turned upside down the last few years while she was hiding out in the south. Jake put on a menacing glare of her own and stared him down, as he approached. Thankfully, confrontation was avoided as the banana stopped in his tracks. His expression changed, and Jake thought he was listening to the earpiece tucked against his head. "You're clear to go into the elevator," he muttered. Jake spoke no further word and walked straight past the receptionist, who stared at her back.
Riding the elevator down three floors to the sub-sub-sub-basement, Jake Jr. found herself fighting the urge to glance at the cameras. She knew Cherry was watching her. They hadn't exactly had closure the last three years. Jake had deserted and hidden out in the south to lick her wounds, while Cherry... had gotten bitch-tamed. Now, they were headed towards a conflict.
Arriving in her old boss's lair, Jake stepped out, uncomfortably aware of just how much the place reminded her of the Mafia Princess's vaults. She wondered if Cherry was even aware of how far down that road she'd gone. Much like her predecessor, the new Mafia Princess had all the money in the world and no way to enjoy a penny. It was an ugly epiphany, reminding Jake of just how alike the two of them really were, when Jake had signed on to earn the money to wander the world and ended up in a cave in the desert.
Her old boss was seated in a luxurious leather chair in a bright, open space when Jake strode into her space. In the past, the mook, Thor, would have been in the corner or maybe hiding out in back, waiting to pounce. Now, he was Star's bitch, leaving Jake to wonder who'd replaced him.
The candy-person stared back at Jake as the shapechanger crossed her office and stopped before the desk. She had weapons. Jake knew she had weapons hidden throughout this space, but she wasn't here for that. At the same time, a part of her blamed this woman for the way her own world had come crashing down. You never tried to leave, Jake, the shapechanger thought. She'd done nothing to break herself free of the underworld until well after it was too late. Maybe it was the drugs coursing through her veins just now, but she was intensely, painfully aware of just how many chances to leave she'd turned down.
"I don't like you," muttered Jake. Which was par for the course. If Cherry hadn't exactly put her on that road, she'd done nothing to help Jake get off. On her side, Cherry took that without comment. Instead, she responded, "you wanted to see me, kid?" The shapechanger flinched at the reminder that she'd been allowed to come down here. This was Finn's wife. She was one of the 'wives', and Jake was just a side-chick.
"There's a problem here in town," the shapechanger murmured. Cherry's elegant brow crinkled in a frown, reminding Jake that the bitch had gotten some kind of magic age-treatment. Physically, she was younger–and prettier–than Jake was now. "I saw Me-Mow talking to some people yesterday," Jake rumbled. "I think they maybe hired her for a job."
There was little love lost between them, and Cherry wasn't exactly a fan of Jake's either. She wasn't in the habit of worrying about 'coulda'-shoulda'-woulda'. She was on this road now and committed. While she wasn't thrilled to be sharing a man with Jake anymore than she was thrilled to share Finn with Bonnie, there was no point in complaining. This was something else again.
"Me-Mow's here," Cherry burbled? "I saw her," Jake confirmed. "I followed her two blocks." "You didn't follow her back to her lair," the crime-boss demanded? "I wanted to get back to my kids to make sure they were safe," Jake retorted. Cherry grimaced. There was little she could say to that after all that had happened with Liz. Blowing out a breath, the crime boss moved on. "Who was she meeting with," she asked? They needed to figure out who was hiring that bitch and why.
On the far side of the world, Akari sat down before a video screen. This was it. They'd been brought here wearing blindfolds, giving these people ample opportunity to do them in if that was what they were about. Akari hoped that this was their chance to attract patronage of the spymaster, Wells, because that was her only hope of achieving her goal. Behind her, the fidgety spy had his hand tucked into a pocket, and she imagined him having a knife or gun there, ready to butcher her. Part of her was ready to go along. The kernel of rage in her heart had already decided to just kill him. There were other ways to find the stranger.
Two faces appeared on that screen, side by side. One was the wax-hustler. The other was the madman, Gumbald. She remembered her father talking about the way they looked. Gordon Wells looked as slimy as a hag-fish. She could see the lies burning in his eyes. The pink-skinned man was madness incarnate. "I'm Akari Maeda," she announced. "Greetings, Ms. Maeda," responded Gordon Wells. "What may we do for you?"
She began with the tale of Lord Nagumo's fall, announcing that their aid had come much too late. Which Mr. Wells clearly new. She imagined very little on the world stage escaped a man like the wax-hustler. He was letting her put out her pitch, biding his time before responding. As a former policeman, Akari knew that it was often useful to let the suspect talk. Guilty men often had a great need to fill the silence. Gordon wasn't dealing with an inept fool, though. Akari had been rehearsing exactly what she was going to say almost from the moment she got off the boat in her homeland.
"The King of Ooo has declared that anyone who committed certain... actions... during the hostilities is to be hung for murder," she said. "I have concerns that my life may be in jeopardy, but with no patron, I have narrowed choices." "You want shelter," Gordon asked? "Is that it?" "I need a job," Akari retorted. Her eyes were on the creepy old man. He was studying her in unnerving fashion. "Poor child," he said. "Talk to uncle Gumbald... Tell me, how I can help." "Perhaps," she said, "I can help you. I fought the King of Ooo and his soldiers. I was there for the last battle, and I saw how my master was undone. I have information that could be valuable for someone who's... opposed to him."
Gordon frowned at the screen. Two of them. He now had two runaways who supposedly wanted to help him against Finn the Human. It scarcely seemed possible for the two of them to fall into his lap this way. Of course, Ms. Maeda did seem to have a lot more reason to support them than young Mr. Mertens. "We're headed towards a collision with the King of Ooo, Ms. Maeda," Gordon announced, and she knew she had him then. "There'll be no backing out." "I'm guilty of treason in my homeland," she responded. "I don't plan on backing down." "Very well," said the master spy. "I'll arrange transportation for you."
The screen went dark, leaving Akari alone with her minder. She could hear the spy drawing his hand out of his pocket. She wouldn't need to kill him, yet. Rising, she offered him a curt nod. It was time to get some rest. She hadn't been sleeping very well, and using Kiss of the Dragon had taken a lot out of her. Outside, Haruko joined her, as their minder took them back to their quarters. In Japanese, the ex-cop told her companion, "we're in. They're sending transportation." Haruko watched the spy out of the corner of her eyes for signs that he understood them. His expression showed irritation, suggesting that he only spoke Common.
"Where are we going," Haruko asked? "Does it matter," Akari retorted? They weren't on the island, going through the motions pretending to fit in a world of pacifists. More to the point, they were one step closer to finding this Prince Jay. Akari could see her revenge in the distance like a shimmering heat-mirage.
Back in the west, the two sisters came jogging up to a water fountain in the middle of the park with Bonnie huffing and puffing in exhaustion. She was young and healthy again, but she was also pretty fucking out of shape. She was shocked at how out of shape she actually was, and keeping up with Fionna had taken everything she had and then some.
Slugging down water, Fionna watched her sister out of the corner of her eye. "What," Bonnie puffed? "You need to step up your game," Fionna said. "All of your game. There's a big fight coming... probably the worst yet. Gumwad's still out there... If he's anything like Bonnie, he's tinkering away on something nasty." New Fionna, thought Bonnie. It was definitely the 'other'. Putting the water bottle down, the tall blonde studied her. She was her mother's daughter–tall and pale, and her eyes were hypnotic.
"You can't save him this way," Fionna murmured, "not by sacrificing everything. You'd be making the same mistake he's making now." Bonnie shivered, as she took in the enormity of what her younger sister was saying because Fionna could apparently read her like a book. "I have to leave in a few days," Fionna said. "There's a couple more loads of nuke fuel leaving Abieuwa's bunker, and I want to make sure nothing happens. Life comes at us fast, Bonnibel. You need to work on your game. Lives depend on it." Putting the bottle back on her belt, Fionna said, "c'mon." And she set off again. With a groan, Bonnie set off after her.
The two spent much of the morning exercising before packing it in to go back to the castle. As they rode back through the town, Fionna mopped the sweat from her hair, as she chattered away like the innocent young girl that Bonnie had once been. Everyone said she was faking when she did that–trying to put you at ease. "What do you think is coming," Bonnie asked? She cut right through the dustbunny to the heart of the matter. "I don't know," Fionna replied, "but I've known Bonnie... our Bonnie all my life. She was always tinkering. She spent more time in that lab in the basement than she spent with my brother and sister." Fionna's dad had raised Boniface and Shoko because Bonnibel Bubblegum purely didn't have the time.
"Bonnie messes up sometimes because she's too proud to admit she doesn't know everything," said the warrior woman. "She accidentally let loose zombies on the kingdom twice, and my dad had to go clean up the mess both times. Gumwad's as smart as she is, but he's not doing anything by accident."
Taking a breath, the tall girl said, "it's a dangerous combo because that wax-jerk has the connections to keep him hidden until he's ready. He can maybe steal stuff Gumwad needs for whatever he's cooking up. It's why I'm going to Jungle Kingdom. Nuke Fuel could power the world to paradise, or it could finish destroying everything. I... I need to know that you've got this, Bonnie. Bill's... There's a good chance he'll either be tied up with the council, or he'll have to go back to the western lands to look in on the humans there. N'I'm'a be running around rebuilding our defenses. You're backstop. You have to back daddy up."
Her fingers closed around Bonnie's fingers, feeling warm and alive. Bonnie felt heat come to her face. After years of feeling alone in her own home, she was shocked at how good that felt. She had a family–a massive family. The curvy hybrid twined her fingers with her sister's. "I'll get it done, Fi," she said. She felt a little like she was abandoning Jay, but she knew this was right. Her father was the King. He was the man who kept evil at bay. She had a duty. "We're not giving up, Bons," Fi rumbled. "Jay's still our brother, and we're not giving up. We... we just have to let things ride a bit until things are sorted out." Bonnie squeezed her hand. Just so.
Meanwhile, across the ocean, a clandestine meeting was getting underway. Gabrio Morales stalked into the little clearing like he owned the place, though thankfully, he'd left his orangutan boots behind in his quarters. Blanca stepped out of the forest in front of him. They were playing a very dangerous game meeting out of sight of the other chiefs. Blanca was in a hole right now, with half of the chiefs wanting her head for losing the Temple. While she had enough allies on her side to keep the rest in line, she knew it was dangerous to be having this little chat.
Gabrio was in hock himself with a couple of his neighbors. Chief Rubber-Knees was missing a son just now. The young fellow had marched west with the expedition to attack Tequila Kingdom and disappeared somewhere along the way. Fingers were pointing at Gabrio, since the young man had last been seen at Gabrio's tent. Blanca didn't know if it was a drunken fight over something trivial, nor did she really care. Gabrio needed her support as much as she needed his.
"I have news," rumbled the battle-scarred warrior-chief. "I hope so," groused Blanca. "That performance in the council was weak." Gabrio's fists clenched. He'd done his best, but she hadn't exactly rallied the other chiefs to their side. Calming himself, the rogue warrior said, "some of my men did some snooping amongst the outlanders."
Blanca frowned up at him, the shadows from the moon making her even uglier, if that were possible. As far as she knew, he'd kept his men from going down to the strangers' camp. They hadn't participated in working on the strangers' perversion of the Temple, a fact that the witch-doctors had been complaining of for weeks.
"Those creatures... those balls of snot," said Gabrio. "They can't abide the water." Which was absurd, when their nemesis wanted to bring water by the ton to the Temple. "It's said that water will dissolve them on contact," he said. "They don't go out in the rain." "She's been here for months," Blanca retorted. "But have you ever seen her working outdoors in the rain," Gabrio snapped?
Blanca glanced away. She hadn't been to the new Temple either. She had been hiding out from the witch-doctors' wrath. Then she'd been doing her best to mend fences with the chiefs. And she'd been dealing with rebellions in her own family. Nodding, Gabrio said, "I have men who are going to give our nasty friend a bath. If the other gets in the way, well, she can have a bath too."
"When," muttered Blanca? She was crossing another line–one that might bring civil war to the Coca Kingdom. While her people were notorious stoners, spending much of their time getting high chewing coca-leaves or drinking coca-tea, the one thing everybody took seriously was the Temple of the Sky.
Blanca didn't have the knowledge to rebuild the temple, and she was certain that Beto and his friends lacked the knowledge too, else they wouldn't be so anxious to let a stranger into their ranks. At the same time, she could clearly see that slime-bitch did. She was, quite possibly, the only creature on Ooo who could, and it seemed madness to want to do her in. But I'll burn it all to the ground before I let somebody else sit on my throne while I still live, Blanca thought. "I heard the two talking," he said. "They're going down to the shore tomorrow. They'll be in the perfect place."
Fionna takes Young Bonnie under her wing as Jake Jr discovers just how much she and her old boss have in common. Meanwhile, Akari closes in on her goal of doing in Jay and Blanca makes her move on the Slime Sisters.