Chapter 12:
There was something in the air as Finn stepped off the Royal Train in Muscle Kingdom. He wasn't sure just what it was. The air was fresher somehow. He felt fresher. And maybe that was the thing. He'd gotten a breather, even if it was only a week. He'd had some real downtime. No work. No kids. No wives. For a moment, it had been like old times with Jake–until Samantha and Pearl cut the whole thing short. He couldn't exactly begrudge Jake and TV dropping Card-Wars for pussy though. Time was, he would have wanted some lovin' himself, but he already had way too much of a good thing. More to the point, he'd been very happy to see Pearl's interest return to her hubby. The last thing Finn wanted to see was his nephew's girl dumping TV for him.
His cabinet came off the train behind him. Bonnie was hard on his heels, cradling Rosie. She was irritated that she couldn't just fob their daughter off on Lollipop and Drew. Finn had left her in tears, making it clear that a child needed both parents. And there weren't going to be substitutions. He'd let her skate on the milk thing. Alone of his kids, Rosie got the fake stuff. That was all the back-sliding he intended to permit. Today Rosie was fussy, and Bonnie was frazzled.
Simone, by contrast, was dapper and put-together. But this had been every day for the Ice Queen. She'd wrangled three at once and kept their home too. Dressed in one of her old outfits, she had a notepad in one hand, Jewel sucking on her left knocker, and a phone tucked against her ear. Betty was next, cradling Ranna on one hip, and she was helpfully looking out for Simone as mother and daughter followed their husband through the train station. Nadia and Cherry were next. A floating pod containing little Vlad and Tatiana and a pair of nursemaids pushing a three-seat stroller marked them as women of means.
Hurletta and Ragnhild were next off the train. Billy had the Froyo Princess's two sons. She only had to manage herself today. Hurletta was helping her 'make up' for that because the Slime Princess was absolutely snockered with the oodles of work that Finn had found for her to do. She had to start a bank. She had to build a working treasury where none existed. She'd gone from pondering war against a man she'd been in love with most of her life to the terrifying reality that she was just as awful at being a leader as her sister had said. Only now Finn was depending on her. Millions were depending on her to get this right.
And of course Ragnhild was right there to show her how it was done. The Froyo Kingdom wasn't a shambles. There was no rampant chaos in streets that didn't quite exist. She was somehow even managing to hang on in the face of having two wenches trying to steal her man out from under her. It made Hurletta feel like hiding her face. She would have if she dared. But she wasn't going to get a second chance. There were more than a few who noticed that Blargetha was a better leader than she was, even with all her faults. Much like Bonnie before her, she had no choice if she wanted to keep her own head.
Finn was hardly surprised to find Nieve waiting on him with her few guards. Young and pretty, she reminded him of the Yolanda of his youth–before the former Muscle Princess had gone to seed from too much good living. Proud as anything, she hardly looked happy to see him. She did offer him a bow, though her face looked as though it might crack. "Thank-you for hosting our gathering," Finn offered. He motioned for her to fall in at his left. "You are welcome in our Kingdom anytime, My King," Nieve burbled.
They were coming to the exit. Thor's men already had control of the door, keeping the entry clear of people. Finn's entourage went out the exit to find a fleet of coaches waiting. It was old-style formal, reminding Finn of the good old days when Bonnie could most often be found riding in one of her big ornate carriages–when she wasn't riding around on Lady's back. "Please join the First-Minister and I," said Finn. "We've a lot to discuss."
As they settled into the coach's interior, Finn took a hard look at what he was dealing with. Nieve's face was frozen in a rictus of barely-concealed anger. Finn could hardly imagine what she was dealing with right now. She was princess of a kingdom that had lost its army, it's power, and it's independence. She'd been made princess in a bid to hold onto the little bit of power her family had left. Betty liked to remind Finn that anyone wearing a crown was a dangerously ambitious potential troublemaker, and he could see it was true. Hadn't Maja said it? Everybody who ever shafted her wore a crown.
The King of Ooo opened with, "your lands are lying fallow, Princess Nieve. I'd like to understand why. The breadbasket of Ooo was damaged by the undead. We need everyone pulling their weight." The Muscle Princess simply stared. Sitting up straight, Finn asked, "do you need fertilizer? Workers...?" Nieve swallowed her rage. In icy tones, the prickly young princess responded, "there are undead monsters prowling the darkness. They came out of Bee Kingdom. My... predecessor wasn't able to adequately address the problem." Nodding, Finn said, "I'll take care of it. I think you can sneak in a harvest before fall. Have your people in the fields. Tomorrow." Nieve Quiles-Vega goggled at him. Finn kept on keepin' on. By the time they reached the palace, the young princess was more than ready to leave his presence.
Nieve gleefully fobbed them off on her staff and beat a hasty retreat. Finn found himself watching her swaying backside as she all but tore out of there. "Well you developed a way with the ladies," Bonnie teased. At Finn's frown, she said, "I don't know how you do that. When you were a boy you were always checking out my tits. She had it all hangin' out there, and you didn't even notice..." Finn shrugged. He didn't have the time. There was work to do. The big man strode off. He had to call Marshall and get the zombies rounded up. He left Bonnie frowning at him–and at Nadia. "Beats me," Nadia rumbled. "He keeps complaining that he's too horny and wants to get dialed back."
It was news that had several faces there worried. Drew had been militating for Nadia to get the nano-machines out of Finn's body, but there never seemed to be time. He was carrying the world. Again. Still. Simone said, "you need to find the time, Nadia. At the least, we need to know what's going on inside..." It wasn't angry or judgmental. Simone was as calm and composed as Simon. "I'll have Drew take samples," Nadia promised. Simone nodded. That was enough. Moving onward, the Ice Queen said, "let's get dinner on the table. Tomorrow will be with us soon enough."
The King of Ooo had the entirety of the Council up and moving bright and early the following morning. After his phone call with Marshall, he'd had a pleasant evening with his family. For once Strudel and Breakfast were behaving, and the family had enjoyed a wonderful and wide-ranging conversation about future plans. With no crises threatening to swallow them, Cherry had managed to finally broach the topic of a family vacation, and most everyone had been happy to agree. The mood of his family/cabinet was a positive one as they headed out to see Finn's demonstration.
The land outside Nieve's capitol was a magnificent desolation. Empty of life after the Lich-War and Wildberry's rebellion, the place made an excellent place to demonstrate a weapon. Bonnie found herself a little astonished to see Finn's plan coming together like this and a little appalled that her former chump of a boyfriend could envision something like this. It was like he was two or three steps down the road while she was just getting out of the shower.
There was a sullen group of men and women waiting on them. They were, as a whole, a terrified lot. Several had been blocked at the border with Warrior Kingdom. That had forced them south and east through Engagement Ring Kingdom where mindless undead seemed to roam the land. Shambling skeletons and bloated, stinking zombies had greeted them–an ugly reminder of what had happened to the armies sent by Wildberry Kingdom. The caravans of minor royalty had faced a veritable carnival-ride of terror as they had crossed the kingdom of the damned.
Of course nobody could forget that Marshall Lee, the Vampire King, was the son of the self-proclaimed King of Ooo. No-one brought more than a handful of guards. No-one dared. It was a certainty that they kept their heads only as long as Finn allowed it. Now they were facing the man himself.
Backing him was a set of even more fiendish creations. There were a dozen of the brutish machines sitting silently on that field. Opposite them stood an army of statues built out of wood and scrap-metal. It was an unsubtle suggestion of the power those things had. The audience was already feeling the heat before their unlikely conqueror stepped on the stage.
The King of Ooo began his speech far off topic. The issue on his mind was the aliens who'd struck Ooo, the Lich and his attempts to murder everyone with ice and snow, and the onslaught of undead just ended. He was building his case. It was exactly what Bonnie herself had tried–in vain–for years with Wildberry blocking the effort. Finn invoked the existential threats their world faced and skillfully drew the correct conclusions. Bonnie found her heart swelled with pride. For once she seemed to have made the right choice instead of the choice that satisfied her ego.
Done speaking, Finn took up the microphone and unleashed hell on the packed mass of statues. The war-machines laid into the targets en-masse, blasting and vaporizing them. From above, a swarming mass of killer-bees swooped in, unleashing bombs and masses of the deadly magic javelins that had been Huntress Wizard's stock in trade. The scene sent a shiver of fear down Betty's spine, and she'd seen this sort of thing all over the TV when she was a young woman in the 21st century.
When the smoke finally cleared away from a set of thoroughly obliterated targets, there was dead silence. Finn moved back to the podium, cleared his throat, and said, "we will be stationing the weapon-storage containers across the face of Ooo, primarily in empty places so they don't disturb the Peace of Ooo. Of course I reserve the right to move them as needed to address problems that arise."
Bonnie shivered as she took in the enormity of that subtle threat. He didn't bluster like she expected a man to. One of the reasons she'd always preferred to deal with princesses was the male proclivity to resort to his fists–or so she thought. Now she found herself reassessing that world-view as Finn calmly laid out exactly what his guests were going to contribute to the Crown of Ooo lest they find themselves staring down the ugly black barrels of the robot-army's guns.
The big man laid it on sweet, and he laid it on thick. He was the man who was going to protect them and their lands from the predations of liches, undead, and alien invaders. He'd stop it all. He already had on numerous occasions. In exchange, all he needed was a little money. Their lives would change very little. He wasn't even offering to smash them for the predations they'd made against their neighbors. It would all get swept under the rug. Go and sin no more. And he had them. Bonnie could see he had them. They were men and women who understood what a threat was. More to the point, they understood what overwhelming force looked like. And at the end of the day, he was letting them off very lightly when he could easily have taken everything they had plus their lives.
They signed.
The pack of them was eager to sign. While they didn't all have the money Finn demanded, Hurletta didn't lack for pledges. There were a couple of the more powerful lords who seemed utterly terrified that, did their new master fail to get all he asked, he would unleash his toys on the pack of them. They pooled their money to pay for a couple of weaklings who were short. Then Thor's troops gleefully whipped them on their way, driving them down to where their coaches waited. They were gone and headed back east to their homes scarcely an hour after the guns fell silent.
For his part, Finn stood aloof from much of the business, leaving it to Bonnie, Ragnhild, and Hurletta to manage. They were the face of his government, and he let them do their thing. As the day drew to a close, Finn the King stood on that empty field watching as Nadia's guys bundled up the few robots they'd brought down, preparatory to transporting them back to Bonnie's capitol. Coming up alongside her husband, Bonnibel Bubblegum found herself stricken by melancholy. She was losing her carefully crafted control over Ooo's affairs, and that was bothering her. Finn had been right about her–righter than she wanted to admit. She was a control-freak. She needed to change.
Slipping her arms around his shoulders, she lay her face against the crook of his neck and sighed, "you were right again, baby. Thank-you for doing this. Thank-you for fixing a problem I neglected." Turning slightly, Finn pulled the tall princess into his arms and held her tight. Moments later, they were kissing, with Finn running his fingers through her sticky pink hair. "Ok," chuckled Betty. "Break it up!" Flushing, the King and his Queen separated. Smiling, Betty said, "Hurletta's wrapping things up. Breezy wanted to see you this evening." "Ok," Finn said. "Where and when?" "She'd like to see you in the Royal Garden," Betty replied. Nodding, the King said, "I'm'a go get a shower." Drawing the plump woman to him, Finn gave Betty a kiss, and then he got on his way, leaving Bonnie and Betty on the field.
Betty was smirking, and Bonnie found herself wondering at that. "Ok," she murmured. "What gives?" When Betty might have dissembled, the tall princess said, "something's up. What is it you know?" With a shrug, Betty said, "I just saw what Breezy was wearing, is all..." Apparently what Breezy was wearing was something more interesting than the typical demur dress she showed up to council meetings wearing. They'd all more or less agreed to have Breezy join their number. She'd been down in the trenches like the rest of them, fighting to save the world from Death's evil scheme.
More to the point, Breezy had a kingdom and an army to support them. She made a far better addition than the breakfast sisters. Unfortunately for their scheme, Finn had stubbornly resisted the very idea, and Breezy herself had been ambivalent, bouncing back and forth between an ernest lust for the man who's life she'd saved and a desire to remain faithful to the husband that was shitting on her.
"You don't think," murmured Bonnie? Betty chuckled. Judging by what Breezy was wearing, Finn was in for quite the time. And he'd as much as admitted to wanting to bang the Queen Bee in an unguarded moment. Both women found themselves giggling. Bonnie honestly wanted to watch, suggesting that Sarah had come by her voyeuristic tendencies honestly.
For his part, Finn headed straight back to Nieve's palace where he went straight to his quarters and straight into the shower. It had been months since the last time Finn had seen the Queen Bee. They'd chatted once or twice on the phone, but mostly she'd been in her Kingdom doing her thing–cranking out tasty-but-addictive honey.
The King of Ooo had been pleased to see that plan bear fruit. The bees were making money hand-over-fist on sales of honey. The price had gone down a little now that it was so much easier to get since the men of Engagement Ring Kingdom only had to go to the border to meet up with their connects as opposed to marching far into the interior of Bee Kingdom to trade. Still, even with the price drop, Breezy's dudes were making bank. And Finn? He was going to tap some of that. He'd made it possible, after all.
Of course that was hardly his only reason for seeing his 'bro'. Breezy had done him a good turn, showing up with some of her troops to help him with his little demonstration. He was excited to see her and thank her for her assistance, and of course absence did indeed make the heart go fonder. He missed her voice. He missed her strange scent and odd little habits. The madness of the war against the undead had changed both of them, making them closer than before, and he was excited to share his plans with her.
As he stood in the garden that evening, staring into the distance at the crystal-blue waters of the sea, Breezy stood in the shadows, watching him. He was just as she remembered. Tall, broad in the shoulders and narrow at the waist, he was shockingly fit for a man his age. But she knew his secret. She couldn't really help a smirk. He was dressed far better than he had in his youth, and some of her missed his old look. At the same time, the suit made him look very tasty. Lost in thought as he was, she wondered what he thought of, and she almost hated to break the spell. Still, she had come for a purpose too.
"Finn," she called. The big man turned to find his 'bro' there in all her glory, holding a picnic basket of all things. Unaccountably a blush suffused his weathered features, and she wondered. Had he been thinking of her? And then he did a double-take as he took in the sight of what his 'bro' was wearing. Finn was astonished by how Breezy was dressed. She'd come in a micro-mini skirt that was slit up the side and tied in place at her left hip. A thin black stripe on either hip, just above the waist of that abbreviated skirt suggested that she was wearing the skimpiest of panties. Up top, she wore a thin silk top that barely came down below her pear-shaped knockers. Tied in back with the thinnest of spaghetti strings, it threatened to bare those knobs to his hungry gaze at any moment. Finn found his mouth went dry and his pecker got a little hard in his pants at the sight.
Meanwhile, two of the unhappy witnesses to Finn's demonstration were meeting up on the far side of the Muscle Palace for some mischief. The Emerald Princess had been enraged by her treatment at Finn's hands. Her nephew had seen an unlikely ally in Nieve the Muscle Princess. Usually she took her good-for-nothing heir's advice with a few grains of salt. This time she thought he might well be right.
Nieve greeted her warmly, offering ice-tea and plum punch along with sugar-cookies. The Emerald Princess helped herself liberally to the punch and cookies. The two chatted for a few minutes about small matters. Testing the waters a bit, Princess Aysun inquired about Nieve's aunt, the now-deposed Muscle Princess. Nieve simply responded, "that damned barbarian won't even discuss the matter of her freedom. It's as if he intends to jail her for the rest of her life. She didn't lead an army against him!" Aysun offered comforting platitudes, though she expected this wench hardly wanted Yolanda back. She'd be back as an understudy. At best, she'd be looking over her shoulder. Still she was circumspect enough to conceal her true feelings. That counted for something, making Aysun more comfortable.
Setting down her cup, the Emerald Princess, said, "I came calling today to discuss the matter of our nasty little tyrant..." Nieve sat straighter. Nodding, Aysun opined, "he's rather full of himself and his power. I think we both know how that will end." "Men like him brought the Mushroom War," Nieve responded automatically. The princesses had never been friendly to male membership. That played into Aysun's hands as she broached her idea. "I have no heir," said the Emerald Princess. "None, save my nephew. I would be delighted if he had a strong daughter... someone who could be groomed..."
Nieve's eyes went wide as she realized what this woman was proposing. After a moment, she finally responded, "you fear the reaction if we just announce this. That's why you wanted to meet like this..." Ordinarily, they would have exchanged official envoys and official gifts until an agreement was struck. And everyone on Ooo would have been aware that the Emerald Throne was courting Muscle Kingdom's heir. But in an Ooo shaken by a very recent war, that might draw negative attention. If they went forward with this, they risked Finn's wrath.
But what will you do, Nieve, thought the muscle princess? Be a prisoner of your own kingdom? Her choices were narrow here. She could be Finn's dog or she could fight. "Alright," she said. "Let's chat..." Aysun leaned forward, and the negotiating began in ernest.
Back in the garden, Finn put down the remnant of the delicious chicken Breezy had brought. He might have guessed she was a fantastic cook. A part of him dazedly wondered how she was as a mom. It was a forbidden idea–especially when he had two-dozen kids already–but he was more attracted to Breezy than ever. Of course, the opposite was just as true. Between the compliments and the way he looked at her–better than Bart had looked at her in years–the Queen Bee wanted to jump him.
In a teasing voice, Breezy said, "I noticed that you liked my top earlier..." Finn blushed to his hair. Her pouty lips were pursed in a smile as she asked, "did it remind you of when I was carrying you? When you kept slipping out of the harness and ending up with your face pressed into my tits?" Finn felt the heat of desire begin to flow through his body. Just like that night, he was struck by the way his 'bro' smelled and sounded. Yeah, he was tempted. Just like with Pearl, he was tempted to do every wrong thing with a woman who was married to some other dude. The trouble here was that he didn't really know Bart, and what he did know of Breezy's guy he didn't really like.
Finn forced himself to look away. They shouldn't be here like this. Leaning toward him, she whispered, "is it so bad to admit you're attracted to me? I mean, you got a big boner when I was carrying you..." Finn's blush deepened, and he would have apologized. "No need to be sorry, Finn," she murmured. "Actually, I got a little creamy thinking about it. I could feel how big your cock was, and I kept thinking about how much those bitches must like it because you had eleven..." That turned the heat up to eleven, and he found himself staring into those dark, dark eyes of hers. Yeah, he could lose himself in those eyes if he wasn't careful. Another needy girl who just wanted him to scratch the itch.
What he didn't understand was how they'd found themselves here. Breezy was married, and she'd never been shy about reminding him of that fact. More to the point, she stood to lose the respect of her people if she got caught doing something dumb. "B," he murmured. "We... we should go in." "Is that what you want to do," she asked? She was pushing. "Do you want to go in, Finn," she demanded? "Or maybe get off." His little head definitely wanted the second suggestion. "B," he pleaded. "Let's not go there..." "Where do you want to go," she retorted? "My room? Yours is probably better. Or we could find someplace quiet... You could take this top off..."
As she spoke, the big man found himself leaning towards her, while she leaned towards him. Lips parted in an inviting fashion, her long, thin, pointed tongue teased at those sumptuous, bee-stung lips, urging him to take that invitation. Moment by moment and inch by inch the pair got closer and closer still until finally, with a minute shock of electricity, their lips met. Finn found himself kissing Breezy, their tongues dueling. Her hand caught at his big right mitt and dragged it to her plump left titty, shoving it unceremoniously up under her top. Her other hand brought his left hand down to her thigh. He didn't have to be told twice.
In short order, he had his old flame on her back, and he had his hands all over those plump knockers of hers. At the same time, she was trying to devour him. She had her hands twined in his hair, her lips locked to his, and she wasn't letting him up for air. Fighting his passion for a woman who'd saved his ass twice now, Finn the human tore himself out of her grasp, even managing to lose a little of his hair in the process. "Finn," she whined. She was about to turn on the water, and if she did, he wouldn't be able to get out of here. He'd be in her pants, and they'd be in trouble. He put his back to her. He knew it was hurting her, but he did it anyway.
"B," he said. "What's... what's really going on? W-why?" With a heavy-hearted sigh, she admitted, "Bart's... I'm tired of Bart... He's always saying I cheat on him... I... If he's going to say it, I want to finally have it!" The tears started then. She threw herself on him and cried and cried. Finn had to harden his heart against that, when he really wanted to fucking smoke Bart and sell him for sausages. "Babe," he sighed. "I'm sorry... I didn't know what I was asking for..." "Fuck him," she snarled! "He... We're prosperous! My people have all they could want for once, and you made it happen! And all that ass can see is his fear that you'll take me away!"
She tried to spin him around. She was strong–probably strong as he was. When she locked those plump lips of hers to his again, it was harder than ever to push her away. Push he did, though. "Y-you're not gonna'...," she whined? "No," he said. "I'm not going to mess things up for you, B. No matter how much I want to." Her face went hot. Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed, "I've thought about bangin' Breezy for the last six months, babe. But that pisses on five kids, and that wouldn't be right." The Queen Bee sighed heavily. "You're annoying, Finn," she said. "I can't even beg for it when you put it like that..." Finn laughed. Still, they really needed to get out of here. Finn didn't really like the risk she was running being here this way.
The big man began gathering up the plates and things from their picnic. Breezy made a show out of covering those amazing knobs of hers. You would hardly have guessed she was his age and had fed five kids with those knockers. A part of him wanted to touch those knobs–to lick them and suck them like her kids had. He hungered to see that glorious ass without that skirt in the way. He wanted to see if those panties were as skimpy as her top was. In the end, fighting down temptation, the King of Ooo made his escape, though it was straight back to the shower to stand under icy cold water.
How long can he dodge the temptation? And how long until he has to get his hands dirty himself?