Finn and Bubblegum rose and headed towards the grey door. Finn had a slight lead and turned back to face his companion. Her face conveyed a mix of anxiety but hope. She was walking slower than normally, and had allowed her arms to carelessly hang at her sides as opposed to her normal formal posture. He used to berate him on always appearing dignified, even in the worst situations. Clearly, the day had taken its toll on this mentality.
Finn, still facing backwards, fumbled but eventually found the door knob. He pushed- momentarily forgetting it was a pull door- before correcting himself. He pulled the door open and slowly turned his head while he prepared to enter the general hallway- only to smack into Marceline.
"Dude, if that's your idea of payback you've lost a step." She joked.
"Sorry, I should have paid more attention. My mom told us you two were coming, so we figured we'd go out and greet you. But I guess it makes sense that you would try to come into the lab." Finn responded.
Simon poked his head out from behind Marceline. He hands were held tightly to his chest, clamped around something metallic. Finn and Marceline moved out of his way. In one definitive motion, he entered through the door and kicked it shut.
"Was that really necessary, Simon? It looked like something out of a bad detective novel." Bubblegum said.
"Well, privacy will be essential, although I probably could have just closed the door normally. But we have something more important to discuss." He responded.
Simon pulled his arms away from his body and unwrapped them. He revealed the artificial avian and handed it to Bubblegum, who eyed it and frowned. Finn took a glimpse at the foreign object and scratched his chin before shrugging his shoulders and waited for an explanation. Marceline noticed his confusion.
"It's a camera disguised to look like a bird. It was sitting directly above the entrance to the cultural center. We think it might have caught the attack, or part of it at least." She commented.
"That's… convenient." Bubblegum sighed.
"I thought you'd be happier, PB. We might have evidence now." Finn added slowly.
"I think she means the placing of the object, Finn. A camera just so happening to be right above the attack is a bit suspicious." Simon said as he walked across the room and leaned against the wall.
"Right. For all we know, someone could have planted it knowing someone may have gone looking. At the same time, we also don't know if we can accuse someone to be playing as a puppet-master." Bubblegum slumped down and sighed again. Marceline hovered over and slumped with her, putting her arm around Bubblegum's shoulders.
"Hey, we'll figure this out. For now, we should see if we can pull up whatever is on the camera." Marceline said.
Bubblegum looked up to her and gave a small smile and nodded before returning her attention to the device in her hands. She cleared her throat and spoke.
"Alright. First thing we need to do is figure out if we can access the recording from this thing, or if we need to find some external receiver." Her voice felt clearer, and was more confident since morning.
"Hey mom, do you know about this at all?" Finn called.
The Minerva bot joined the rest of the group. She took the metallic bird from Bubblegum. She flipped it over and studied it.
"Normally, the cameras we use report to the central security system. But I didn't know about this one, and it doesn't seem to be the same model as the others. I think we're going to need an external screen and connection cable to see whatever is on it."
"Finn, do you think B.M.O can help us with that?" Bubblegum asked.
"Hey, yeah- its been ages since I've seen the little dude. How are they?" Marceline added.
"Sorry, but B.M.O decided they needed to go on an adventure a while ago. Something about needing to begin the journey for their kingdom. Jake and I, or really anyone for that matter, hasn't seen them since. "Finn replied with a dejected tone.
"Well, I have a screen in my lab we can use. Although I'll have to go to the Candy Kingdom to use it. The problem is that I'm waiting for the DNA results here still." Bubblegum said.
"Hold that thought, princess." Minerva chirped.
The Minerva bot walked into the lab. A grunt, followed by a small ripping sound echoed into the waiting portion before the bot emerged with her hands behind her back.
"Here, this is the current progress made on the sample you provided. As you can see, we've nearly gone through the entire population. Hopefully, the match should appear on it pretty soon and we'll have our culprit."
"Mom, did you just break the sampling machine?" Finn asked slowly.
"No, well not really. The screen there was never connected- it was on another machine that received invisible wave-like signals. They should both still work just fine."
"Okay, so I can go to my lab now at least. It will take me a while to get there though." Bubblegum said.
"I think I can take care of that. I'll fly you to your lab and swing back here." Marceline chimed.
"You sure about that? You've been doing a lot of flying today as it is, and I think the clouds are going to part soon." Bubblegum asked.
"Well, I admit I'm pretty pooped… but the faster we get this done, the better."
Simon stood up and walked towards the group.
"No way, Marcy. Bonnibel's right. You need a break; you've been lugging people and things around all day." Simon piped up.
"Simon, I'm fine, trust me. I've gone through worse."
"And as you've told me many times before, that isn't an excuse for straining yourself now."
"Using my own words against me, Simon?"
"I'll do you one better. I seem to recall us all making a bet earlier. The loser has to obey an order from the winners?" He grinned.
"Simon, come on. Don't waste your order on having me get rest. That's lame."
"I've already made up my mind, Marcy. Besides, you wouldn't listen if I didn't use it."
"And what makes you think I'll listen to it?"
"Marceline the Vampire Queen not honoring a bet she started? I couldn't imagine it. Besides, I'll never let you hear the end of it if you don't." He joked.
She was going to keep arguing, but looked around the room. Bubblegum and Finn were clearly on Simon's side on this, while Minerva maintained a sympathetic expression. She sighed.
"How long of a rest are we talking, Simon?"
"I'm thinking at least an hour after all the results are in. It should give time for Bonnibel to double check everything and for us to try to see if anything in our evidence doesn't add up."
"Peebs, I'll meet you outside. And I'm calling it now, you can't try to give me the same order."
"I'll be a minute, Marceline. And I won't, promise."
Marceline opened and hovered out the window. Bubblegum turned to Simon.
"Thanks for doing that. Between her normally being asleep right now and all the excitement of the day, the rest will be good for her."
"Of course. She might not always appreciate it, but I'm going to keep bugging her about taking care of herself. No matter annoying I come off."
"Nah dude, she definitely appreciates it. She just doesn't want to admit it. Besides, I think she knows that we're right. And she certainly wants a break from political junk."
Bubblegum waved goodbye to the three and approached the window. Marceline returned and scooped her up. He pair sped off. The faint echo of "Not so fast" rung though the lab.
Finn turned to Simon
"So, while PB handles all that, what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, we could also probably use a break. But I'm guessing you that isn't what you had in mind."
"No, its not. And don't think about using your command to make me."
"Don't worry, I won't. I didn't even plan on using either of them until just now to be honest."
"So, again, what are we supposed to do?"
The Minerva bot walked between the two.
"Why don't the two of you visit some of the people who were attacked earlier?"
"Oh, yeah great idea mom. Elder Marc will probably be able to tell us a lot."
Minerva went silent for a moment.
"Finn, right now it doesn't look like elder Marc will be waking up anytime soon. I think he's going to be out of commission for a while." She said
"Oh…" Finn let his voice trail off. The Minerva bot put her arm over his shoulder. The room went silent for a minute.
"Well, I guess we should check up on the others. They might have something we can use." Finn finally said.
Bubblegum and Marceline had just touched down in the lab. Bubblegum wasted no time in locating and setting up an external monitor with the connection cable and camera. For her part, Marceline slowly floated from the lab into Bubblegum's room, found her way into Bubblegum's bed and laid down.
"Man, I'm more tired than I thought." She mumbled to herself. She allowed her fatigue to take over, and drifted to sleep.
Bubblegum popped her head in and heard a faint snoring. Pleased, Bubblegum returned to the lab.
She booted up the recording and played it on triple speed. She peered at the bottom right hand corner of the recording where dates were displayed. They started six months before today, which was odd. If this was a planted camera, it would have likely only been setup recently. But Minerva didn't know about it. But Minerva said that it was different from the others models. Not to mention being perfectly positioned above the attack. There was something fishy, but she couldn't form a concrete hypothesis.
After a minute of skipping past people she didn't recognize coming and going, she suddenly paused. Her eyes darted to the righthand corner, and then back to the center of the screen. No doubt about it. That, long, disgusting beard, flashy robes, and extremely punchable face could only belong to one person.
Six months before, Marlo the Wizard had been in the settlement. What's more was that he was walking with a woman Bubblegum had seen sitting near Elder Marc during the celebration. She hadn't caught her name, but distinctly remembered her face. She was jeering after Bubblegum had been summoned to the VIP section.
Before she resumed the recording, she heard a pinging sound. She briskly walked over to the screen Minerva had acquired for her earlier. A DNA match had been found.
It wasn't someone Bubblegum recognized. That would have been too easy. But something was clicking into place. She took the screen and compared it to the external monitor. No doubt about it. The woman in the recording, and her memory, bore an overwhelming resemblance to the woman with the DNA match- a Sarah Tollins.