In the plains, a storm rages as two warriors face each other. One wears metallic armour pieces over a blue undersuit, a magenta belt resembling a camera, a chestplate adorned with a spade carving, and a helmet with red bug eyes and Hercules Beetle horns. The other is a monster wearing heavy spiked armour with a spade on its chest and belt, and its helmet has a segmented, drill like horn and eye holes to reveal its red flesh and inhuman yellow eyes. Jake scrambles up to the hill to witness the two in their showdown. "Finn! Don't do it!" Jake cried before the two warriors conjure greatswords in their hands then clash.
It was a lovely morning in Ooo, and Finn and Jake awoke in their cabin on the edge of the forest, constructed by them and their closest friends. In the morning, they first take turns in the bathroom brushing their teeth and showering. "Don't take too long, Finn!" Jake said as he waited at the door. "I won't!" Finn shouted. "You've been in there for ten minutes!" Jake added.
Afterwards, they sit in the living room to discuss today's schedule. "So, whaddya wanna do, Jake?" Finn asked. "I was thinking of getting fresh gherkins at the market for a pickle recipe I got from Joe." Jake answered. "I wanna get a grindstone for my swords, and then delve into the new cave that opened up in Red Rock Pass." Finn said. "What happened to the one we have?" Jake asked.
"I broke it while sharpening the Night Sword." Finn explained. "We can play video games!" BMO suggested as he stood atop the couch. They hear a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" Finn said as he vaults over his armrest. "No fair, you got it last time!" Jake said as he stretches over to the door.
They both reach the door and open it and find, not the outdoors, but Prismo's Time Room. "What the- Prismo?!" Jake said in surprise. "Come in. It's important." Prismo requested. They enter the room for the door to slam shut behind them. "What's wrong, Prismo?" Finn asked.
"We didn't mess anything up in our multiverse adventures, did we?" Jake asked. "A little bit, but that's not it. It's a matter more local." Prismo answered. "Local?" Finn asked. "As in, just your universe." Prismo answered. He brings up screens of monsters, ones they haven't seen, but we have; the dragon monster that destroyed the Multiverse Bridge during Finn and Jake's Farmworld mission, and the glassy vampire monster that possessed Marceline.
More pictures of monsters pop up around these two, attacking places all over Ooo. "Do you know what these are?" Prismo asked them. "Monsters, but not the kind we usually find in a dungeon." Jake answered. "Do you need us to beat them up?" Finn asked. "Here's the thing: you did." Prismo answered as he shows a video.
The video is of Finn and Jake fighting a white monster resembling a cross between an ogre and an astronaut. They were losing as the monster creates an ethereal rocket launcher on its right leg and shoots rockets at them. "I don't remember that." Finn said. "Whenever these monsters are defeated, time rewinds to the beginning of the day, and plays out as if they never existed." Prismo said. "Isn't that a good thing?" Finn asked.
"It is, but I want to know where these are coming from, and why time resets on their defeat. Time is my entire biz." Prismo said. "How many were there?" Jake asked. "Nineteen, all with different powers but the same time-reset effect on their death. Curiously, other than you guys the only other person on the scene is this guy." Prismo answered before showing them an image of The Barista. "It's that guy, The Barista!" Finn pointed. At that moment, he receives a call from his Amp Arsenal and picks up.
"Finn, I'm sorry to call you this early, but something is attacking the Fire Kingdom." Minerva told Finn. "Got it, mom." Finn acknowledged. "Bye, love you!" Minerva said before Finn hangs up. "We'll find The Barista later, Prismo." Finn told Prismo. "We'll be back soon!" Jake said.
They walk out the door and re-enter their cabin. "Finn, Jake, why did you take too long?" BMO asked them. "No time, BMO. Gotta go on an adventure." Finn said. "You haven't had breakfast!" BMO said before Finn and Jake leave out the door. "We'll be back by brunch!" Finn said before slamming the door shut.
They travel the edge of the Fire Kingdom where eruptions blast all over the landscape and one of the towers is sliced clean off, collapsing on a large part of the city. "Whatever's here's gotta be super juiced." Finn said. Scrambling towards them is their old friend Flambo. "Guys! Guys! I'm here like you wanted!" Flambo said in a panic. "Get us blue'd up and we'll take care of everything." Jake said.
Before Flambo could initiate the ritual, he's kicked into the horizon by something. "Flambo!" the adventurers yelled. They turn to the attacker: a monster wearing white armour with black and magenta accents, wearing a glass mask resembling a watch face that shows the monsters face, resembling that of a human's exposed face muscles. Interestingly, the number "3047" is written on a part of its chest armour and on its watch-shaped belt. "Good Glob, this one's ugly." Jake commented.
The monster brandishes twin clock-hand-swords and starts swinging. Finn and Jake evade its attacks and takes out their weapons: Finn's Night Sword and Jake's giant fists. "Let's take this from Z- no wait, I'm not giant anymore." Jake dismissed. Before they could move into attack, the monster is blasted from the side and flung away. The adventurers look to the source and see a Japanese man with brown hair, wearing a black jacket and pants over a magenta shirt with a vintage magenta camera hanging from his neck: The Barista.
He marches towards them, wielding a slim black-and-white machine pistol bearing a magenta mask-like insignia on the side. "Yo, we meet again." The Barista greeted them. "The Barista!" Finn exclaimed. "Is that what you're calling me? I never actually was one for making coffee, but conveniently it was a skill given when I got here." The Barista commented as he lowers his weapon. "Are you gonna help defeat this monster?" Jake asked.
"Not this time. You two should stay out of this." The Barista answered as he folds his pistol into a metallic book-like device. The monster gets up and lets out a roar at them. "If Prismo's right, then we've done this nineteen times before and succeeded." Finn said. "Is that what you think? *SCOFF* You weren't even there for a quarter of them, and almost died the rest of the time, I had to carry you two outta there before doing anything." The Barista smirked. He puts on a magenta camera-shaped belt on his waist and opens up his book to reveal a card pocket inside.
Before he could take a card, a mirror materializes behind the monster to its confusion. Emerging from the mirror as if it were a horizontal pool of water is a warrior in slick, black alien armour with spiked boots and shoulders, and a helmet with an arrangement of spikes on the back of its head and red eyed. "You're coming with me." the warrior told the monster as he places his hand on its shoulder. The monster snarls and prepares to attack him, but he quickly falls back into the mirror with the monster. "Hey, that's my target!" The Barista said before running into the mirror. "Hey, wait for us!" Jake said before he and Finn follow, jumping headfirst into the mirror before it shatters itself.
Finn and Jake find themselves falling through a mirror-lined, seeing the reflections all around them, and ahead are The Barista falling towards the mysterious warrior and the monster bound in energy chains. The Barista swiftly transforms his metal book into blaster mode and fires at the warrior, only to have the blasts reflected by an invisible shield back to him, knocking him into Finn and Jake. "Dude, you okay?" Finn asked The Barista as he holds onto his arm. "It's nothing." The Barista groans. Before they could do anything else, they approach a bright light at the end of the tunnel, and they are engulfed in it.
Finn and Jake soon wake up sitting on a bench in the middle of a park. "Jake, wake up!" Finn shakes Jake. "Huh? What? Weren't we somewhere else?" Jake wondered. Finn gets up and observes his surrounding, finding sprawling skyscrapers bordering the park. "We were just in a tunnel, chasing after Barista and those two monsters." Finn recalled.
"This feels familiar… I think I stepped on here once." Jake commented. "Yeah, same here, but I thought it was a little grayer…" Finn added. He turns his head and sees signage in a foreign script: Japanese. "We're in Japan again." Jake said. "Where're those three dudes?" Finn wondered.
They leave the park and stroll around the city, finding humans walking about and cars congesting the roads. "How did we lose them? What even happened between that light and us sitting on the bench?" Finn wondered. "Maybe instead of a portal on the other side, it just plopped us right in like dolls in a dollhouse?" Jake suggested. "What about memory loss? Maybe someone knocked us out and carried us there?" Finn suggested. "I don't feel any bonks to the noodle. And why would anyone do that?" Jake contested.
As Finn gawks at the high-rises, he bumps into someone. "Eh, gomen!" the other person apologized. Finn looks to see a young Japanese man with a brown bowl cut, wearing a long pink dress shirt and black shorts. He is accompanied by another young man with combed-up hair, wearing a black tracksuit and some kind of leather harness with a tall collar. "Sorry, didn't see you there." Finn apologized.
"It's fine." the edgier young man said in English before he pushes his friend along. "We were just going." the man added as they walk away from Finn and Jake. "[I didn't know you can speak English too.]" the other man said to his friend in Japanese. As the adventurers look to the two strangers, Finn's stomach rumble. "We haven't had breakfast." Finn commented.
"Too bad we don't have money." Jake said. "Actually, we do." Finn said as he took out Ooo gold coins from his backpack. They go to a shop named "Omokagedo" to trade their coins for legal tender. "Whatddya feel like eating?" Jake asked Finn as they walked. "Whatever they have around here." Finn said.
They pass by a restaurant, one with a very familiar name: Restaurant AGITΩ. "Agito… just like in Paris." Finn noted in surprise. They enter the café and find it almost identical to the one run by The Barista in Paris. "Y'think they allow dogs?" Jake asked. Leaving the restaurant past them is a humanoid canine with blue fur wearing a black trenchcoat and a police badge.
"Sumimasen." the humanoid dog excused himself as he leaves the café. "I'll take that as a yes." Jake said. They sit at a table and order a continental breakfast. "I think this might be where The Barista came from." Jake suggested. "Y'think he liked this place so much he made a knockoff in Paris?" Finn wondered.
"I don't see why not! This place is sooo good! Y'see this sausage here? It's made in-house, and it's delicious!" Jake said excitedly as he shows Finn a big breakfast sausage. "Jake, focus. We don't know where to find him, the monster, or that other monster." Finn reminded Jake. "These dangers and mysteries find us in time." Jake commented. Just then, they hear screaming from outside. "Huh, right on cue." Finn said before he gets up, leaves payment on the table, and walks out the door.
To be continued…