Marceline touched down on the still deserted sidewalk. She pulled her hands from Finn and Bubblegum and let Simon climb off her back. Relieved of their collective weight, she stretched. Who knew flying three people at once would be so strenuous? Normally, she would have just transformed into her bat form. It would have been faster and easier to hold onto everyone. But she didn't want to scare the settlement. At least not today anyway. She saw that Finn was leading Bubblegum and Simon to the door of the woman who warned them earlier. She hung back a bit.
Finn let a quick succession of light knocks hit the door. After a minute with no answer, he tapped slightly harder. After another minute, he pounded against the door.
"Hey lady can we talk to you again? It's important!" Finn shouted.
There was still no reply. Finn was about to knock again when Simon stopped him.
"Finn it's no use. She's either not home or doesn't intend to answer us."
The three moved away the doorstep and began walking towards the middle of the street. Finn looked towards Marceline. She was eyeing him with a knowing, almost taunting grin. He shuddered. No way was he going to let her try to screech again. Finn sprinted back and slammed himself against the door and began kicking at it out of sheer desperation. Bubblegum and Simon gave each other a confused look before silently deciding to stop him. Before the pair could move towards him, Marceline had dived past them laughing.
Finn turned in time to see Marceline slam into him. Their combined weight proved too much and the door already weakened from Finn's blows gave way. Marceline got up and dusted herself off before reaching and puling Finn up.
"What's the deal Marceline? Why'd you do that? Finn cried.
"I figured you could use some extra motivation. When that got you nowhere, I lent a bit of actual muscle. Looks like it worked out."
"We broke into her house! Why would she help us now?"
"No. We just happened to find the door broken down. And being the concerned heroes we are, we entered to see if she was okay. We just happened to be looking for her at the same time."
"Like she'd believe any of that."
The pair were joined by Simon and Bubblegum. Before either could voice their anger or dislike for the situation, Marceline gave Finn a light slap on the cheek.
"Finn what have I told you a million times? Vandalism is wrong! Marceline turned hoping to have lightened the mood at least a little. Bubblegum was pinching the bridge of her nose while Simon tried to stifle back a giggle. Well, at least he wouldn't give her an earful.
"Really Marceline. We're trying to conduct a subtle investigation, not announce to the world where we are." Bubblegum sighed.
"Hey, we need answers as fast as possible. Besides, we can replace that door. We can't replace anyone else who gets attacked."
Bubblegum sighed. Marceline had a point, as poorly demonstrated as it was.
"Well, what's done is done I suppose. Let's just find our potential witness." Bubblegum said.
"Atta girl."
The group split up and searched the house. The walls were all painted a light tinted green. Unlike the cultural center, no art pieces or statues decorated any of the rooms. But there was a more important concern. The house was eerily pristine. Surely, if someone was living there something would be some sign of life. Some food crumbs, a stray hair, a crumpled pillow, or a light left on. But so far, it looked more like a museum exhibit than someone's living quarters.
Finally, Finn called out. He stumbled upon their first sign of life.
"Guys check it out, I found something!"
The others followed his voice and found the white hatted young man squatting down and peering at the floor. Finn moved his head back to reveal a barely visible piece of light green wire. It ran down the length of the room and vanished camouflaged itself against the similarly colored wall.
"What do you think it does?" Finn asked.
"Only one way to find out. Pull that sucker!" Marceline quickly grabbed the wire and tugged.
The wire tensed. A slight groan echoed throughout the room. The point where wire and wall met slowly parted and a narrow descending winding staircase revealed itself.
"Secret pathway. Who would have guessed?" Simon thought outload
"I totally called it. You can all start bowing down to me whenever you feel like." Marceline teased.
They proceeded down the circular stairway single-file. Finn led while Marceline stayed in the rear. Soon, they reached an iron hatch. Finn banged on it.
"Hello? Anyone own there?"
At first, there was no response. Finn was about to pound again before Marceline spoke up.
"Here, I can rip it off its hinges pretty easily."
Before she reached the hatch, the handle began to turn. The door popped open, and the head of a familiar young woman emerged. She stuck a metal rod with a small iron nub out between the group and her body. She looked up at them terrified.
"How did you find me down here? What do you want with me?!"
"Easy lady. We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Just put that thing down and we can talk." Finn tried to reassure her. The group backed up a bit, but spread out from their single file line.
"We can talk, but I'm not putting my weapon down."
"I'm sorry, but your weapon of choice appears to be broken golf club. It wouldn't be much use in a fight." Bubblegum said.
The woman directed the club towards Bubblegum.
"That's just what you want me to think. You want me to put down the club so I'll be defenseless!"
"You can keep holding the club. We won't take it from you. But lets at least sit down somewhere to talk things out." Simon suggested.
The woman sighed and stepped aside. The group walked into the metal hatch and golf club protected room. Seeing that there was just one crudely made wooden rocking chair, Finn, Simon, and Bubblegum sat on the ground. Marceline floated above, periodically removing Finn's hat and rifling through Simon and Bubblegum's hair. The woman sat in the rocking chair. She wrapped her left arm around its arm rest but kept the club pointed at the group in her right hand. She began to swing.
She had short brown hair and blue eyes. She wore an itchy looking white shirt with some kind of red stain near the naval along with black baggy pants with slight tears on the knee caps. She stared at the group while rocking in place.
"You can call me Penny."
"Okay Penny. My name is Finn. Like I said last time we spoke, I'm Minerva's son. You warned us before about being on the street. My friends and I need to ask you a couple of questions about what happened."
"I already told you. I heard a bunch of angry humans but didn't see anything."
Marceline stopped combing through Bubblegum's hair, much to the latter's relief.
"Hold on. Last time, you called them people, but said you didn't know if they were humans or not."
"I must have misspoken."
Finn scooted forwards. Penny flinched but didn't raise the gold club.
"Penny, are you sure there isn't anything you're not telling us? Its really important we know everything."
Penny sighed. She dropped the golf club. It produced a clang that echoed throughout the room.
"They were humans. And they weren't random humans. By their chants, they were that isolationist group."
"Did you see anyone you recognized? Or anything we can use to them? Like a tattoo or facial scar or something?" Finn asked.
"No. I didn't get a good look at them. They came down the street and waited out in front of the big culture center for a while. Then they just all left at the same time. No police came to threaten them, no politicians asked them to stop or anything." Penny continued.
Maybe they were signaled? Like someone called them away? Marceline suggested
"Maybe. There was a lot of chanting so one of them could have been called on a phone without me hearing it."
Bubblegum frowned. Something didn't add up.
"Yeah, but maybe isn't good enough evidence. Simon sighed. "We should return to the front of the cultural center. We might find something." He proposed.
"Is there anything else you can remember, Penny? Literally any little detail?" Bubblegum asked.
"I've already told you everything I know!"
Bubblegum got up and walked towards the woman. She stopped and bent down in front of her and narrowed her eyes.
"If that's all you know, why were you hiding in this panic room with a golf club?"
Bubblegum bore her eyes into Penny's. The woman began to fidget in place. She darted her eyes looking for an escape but saw none. She eyed her golf club. Too far out of reach. Plus, the floating girl was probably faster. She sighed.
"Okay. There was one thing that scared me. One or two of their group were walking around looking into buildings in this part of town. They didn't look into mine, but I think one of them caught me staring at them before they left with the rest of their crowd. I don't know what they were looking for."
"Any discerning features?" Bubblegum asked exasperated.
"None that stand out. One was a man, the other a woman. I think they had black hair? Or, brown maybe? Definitely a darker shade."
Bubblegum sighed and left the panic room. Finn and Marceline quickly followed her. Simon thanked Penny for her time, handed her a bit of money and followed suit. The group walked up the staircase and out the broken door. They began heading towards the cultural center. As they moved, Marceline floated next to Bubblegum.
"Hey, you doing okay?"
"No. Nothing that woman said was as helpful as I would have liked."
"Hey. We got an eyewitness to some weird biz plus descriptions of two people to look out for. That's something."
"Not really. Eyewitness testimony is pretty unreliable. Besides, you saw how nervous she was. I doubt she'd come forward with anything. They might even think we forced her to say that stuff."
"What? I've seen you put tons of peeps in jail for eyewitness testimony."
"Yeah, well those were mostly candy citizens. I know all of their descriptions by heart considering I made them. Plus, all of the cameras helped a ton."
"Well, do you think there might be any cameras near here?"
A smile slowly cracked through Bubblegum's look of frustration.
"We won't know unless we check."