Chapter 31:
"Watch the left," Finn shouted! Patrick looked up to see three more men come through the door on his left. Two leveled guns, while the third protected them with a shield. Patrick felt and heard the crack of the steel dart as it passed him to kill the Emerald Guard behind him. Their return fire hit the shield. These guys had come well prepared. It was a terrifying example of what Fionna had been saying to him before he left. They were playing the game at a higher level than before. They weren't a couple of boisterous kids raising hell. They here the Royal Family. Peeps were going to hate just for that.
The shield absorbed Patrick's ice-bolts. It was the kind of nasty situation that terrified him. He wasn't good with thinking on his feet. Fionna would have been across the room in the blink of an eye, doing the slice-and-dice. Finn blocked two more darts, as he shouted for somebody–anybody–to take down their snipers. Focusing as much on the need to keep on breathing as on his powers, Patrick finally focused on the shield itself. Chilling the shield to freezing temperature, he caused the man holding it to let go in shock. Two Emerald Guards promptly shot the newcomers, laying out all three.
The soldiers slowly gained the upper hand, pushing the gangsters back and back and back again until they had finally slaughtered them all. Now Finn stopped and took stock of what he had and what he was dealing with. There were a lot of dudes here. There were far more than he'd been expecting. That gave him hope that maybe this was the place. Maybe he'd finally get to grips with the woman causing all the problems. On the flip side, he was losing men, and that bothered him. Stay or go, Finn, he thought, as he surveyed the scene.
If he left now, he risked his foes being gone when he returned. He could save the men he'd brought, but he'd risk losing them later anyway. If Bandit Princess could raise the numbers he'd seen here, she might have many, many more. The east, in particular, seemed full of starving men. Stay, he decided. He had to get to the bottom of this. Pressing now might save more lives down the road.
When the Emerald Guard had licked their wounds, the big man pressed onward, navigating the twists and turns of the maze-like fortress. The hill seemed honeycombed with passages linking large, open spaces. It was the open spaces that were the most dangerous, as they allowed the enemy to ambush the soldiers and bring numbers against them. The Emerald Guard, having long had little to deal with other than the occasional dangerous beasty from the wastelands, was unsuited to this kind of fight. Finn decided he'd be fixing that. He'd have Thor here fixing it. Maybe if he was working, he'd be too tired to be thinking with his dick. It had certainly worked for Finn when he was that age.
They were approaching a single door at the end of a long corridor when a strangely dressed man stepped out. Finn's hackles went up immediately. He was already conjuring one of his disks when the man lit into them with bolts of lightning. Wizard, thought the King. Again and again the strange figure at the end of the hall conjured up death, hurling bolts of lightning and fire at them. "Patrick," Finn shouted! The young wizard, who'd frozen when the madman started in trying to kill them, finally acted, hurling jagged daggers of ice at their assailant. One of the deadly missiles got through, piercing the wizard through the throat. As he crumpled, the soldiers rushed forward to finish him off.
"Think he's done," Finn muttered, as he brushed past the angry guards. The frantic hacking and chopping finally stopped. Striding through the door to see what their foe had been guarding, Finn found his breath caught. Simone and Cherry had both told him about this, though they'd both had their own spin on the matter. Cherry thought it was very dangerous. For Simone, it was a matter for pity. Finn wasn't quite sure what he felt.
Maja was asleep. She was asleep as she'd been when last he'd seen her. She lay propped up in a bed, and it was clear they'd had docs working on her. There was a feeding-tube in her right arm, and a breathing tube in her nose.
And there was a card-wars mat.
That was the thing that astonished him. The mat was almost alive. It was alive with the sights of people and places all over Ooo. As he stared at it, he saw Drew. The pretty doctor was bathing Maja's baby back in the Candy Palace, singing for the little boy as she washed him. In another place, Simone stood with Betty, looking at something that seemed to worry them. And then there was the ghostly figure of Finn. Standing over Maja's bed.
Forcing calm into his voice, the King of Ooo said, "Cenk. Go back to Piotr and tell him to send for medical help from the capitol." The Emerald Guard tore out of there, in spite of his injuries. "Berk," said Finn. "I think that dude was the last. Start a search." He wanted to make sure, and he wanted to see if they could figure out just what had been going on here. The officer started dispatching penny-packets of his soldiers, sending them scattering through the maze of rooms and passages. Nobody was arguing today, and that helped Finn's mind quite a bit.
The Emerald Guard ransacked the place under the King's supervision. They kicked in every door and looked in every room. That led them to the strange little space that seemed as if it were laboratory, bedroom, and prison all at once. Looking in the small chest that sat in a corner, the King found a heavy-weight bra and a fairly substantial pair of panties. Blargetha, he thought. The slime-princess had been here. Moving to the table in the center of the room, the big man examined the items there. She'd been here today. Maybe within the hour. Turning to the leader of the Emerald Guard, Finn the King rumbled, "there was a woman here, Berk. Find her."
Blargetha was standing under the bunker's transmitter when the Emerald Guard located her. She'd gotten as far as the surface and found herself completely unsure just what to do next. She was possibly hundreds of miles from any kind of civilization. There were no roads that she could see. She had no compass, and even could she create one, she had no idea which direction she should go. She was lost. She'd found this transmitter, and come up with the half-crazy idea of hacking into it to send a message. Trouble was, for a woman with no friends, anybody she summoned could be an enemy.
"Blargetha," a familiar voice shouted! The plump woman ducked behind the transmitter. Finn. It figured that Finn would be here. "Come out," Finn growled! "Come out where I can see you!" "What do you want," the plump woman retorted?! She could see him coming up the hill. He had that fucking cunt, Orzsebet, with him. "Love the company you're keeping," the snarky princess opined. Ignoring the jab, Finn circled to the right to get a better view of her. If she could conjure up an escape from two prisons, she could conjure up weapons. He knew she could build dangerous things.
She was a little thinner than he remembered, though still rather plush. "Not eating so good," he remarked? Blargetha cussed him. She'd been fucking starving! These people had been starving her. "I need to know," Finn rumbled. "Did you go with them? Willingly?" Her face went hot, as she registered what he meant. Her life was on the line. She could tell by the look in his eyes. She was on the ragged edge. "I'm a princess," she shot back! "I have rights!" "You traded your rights," Finn replied. His voice was hard and cold. "You traded your freedom to steal power, B," he said. "You're a criminal. Now you've been making weapons for the enemies of the peace..." She blinked and glanced away, and he had his answer. "They promise you freedom," he asked? "Is that it? Was that why you went with them?"
"So what're you going to do," muttered Blargetha?! "I'll never stop trying to be free! You'll have to kill me!" Finn's face was contorted in a rictus of rage, as he stepped forward. Stepping away from him, she shrieked, "is that what you want to do?! Kill me?! I know that's what you want!" Finn laughed in her face as he reached out with the tendrils of the grass-sword, fastening them about her neck and legs. Blargetha suddenly found herself snatched aloft. It was like the awful moment where Maja had threatened to tear her limb from limb! The hapless slime-person came to the sudden realization that this wasn't going anywhere she had expected it to go.
"You're right, Blargetha. I want to kill you," he said. "For what you did to Hurletta. For what you did to Breakfast and Toast. And for using war-machines to wreck the Peace of Ooo. I spared your life, when I could just as easily have taken it. I can remedy that, Blargetha. I can kill you, and I could probably make you experience that death for hours if not days." The pressure was growing, and she found she couldn't breathe anymore. Why had she antagonized him?! It seemed madness to antagonize this man when he seemed as powerful as Glob!
Out of options or ideas, the fallen princess began to beg and plead. She begged for her life just as she'd been daring him to take it moments earlier. Somewhere at the height of that awful moment, when it seemed no amount of pleading would satisfy him, the King of Ooo simply let go, letting her fall to the ground with a heavy thud. The battered princess lay there in a moaning heap at his feet as he stared down at her. After studying her a moment, the King of Ooo grabbed her by her 'hair' and jerked her upright again. Coldly, Finn told her, "I'm going to give you something to do, B. You're going to be too busy to be trying to escape."
He held up his finger and thumb in front of her eyes. There was a seed there. Grabbing the front of her dress, he tore open her bodice. Having just been cruelly tortured, she was only able to scream feebly. Drawing his hand back he drove his fingers deep into her chest. She knew he was killing her. She was certain of it. She was so certain he meant to kill her, that when he drew his hand back, she knelt there, expecting to find herself in the Night-O-Sphere.
When she finally opened her eyes, he was standing there looming over her, his blue eyes hard and cold. Glancing down, she found an ugly scar down along her right booby. "I have some things you're going to do for me," he said. He brushed the side of her face and her 'hair' almost tenderly, as he explained, "there're things Nadia can't do for me, B. She'd be violating her people's laws, you see. But you're already a criminal. Please me, and you live. Betray me, and... well, the seed will grow into a tree... And you won't survive the experience." Turning away, he said, "fix your dress. It's time to go."
The hapless princess tottered to her feet. She wobbled there a moment, but Finn gave her no time to get herself together. Grabbing her by the shoulder, he shoved her down the hill. The plush princess nearly face-planted. Catching herself, she went stumbling down the hill in a daze. Finn followed along after her, his mind already moving on to the things he had to get done next. He needed to get home and look in on his family.
Orzsebet fell in at his side as he followed the slime-creature back down the hill. "You know you can't trust her," she muttered. "She'll betray you first chance she gets." Finn chuckled. It was pot calling kettle, but he expected that out of the Agent Princess. More to the point, he already had plans to keep the nasty bitch out of trouble. Sarah couldn't be building weapons for him. She purely didn't have the time. However, she could easily supervise his little problem. At least until the day that Blargetha decided to die.
"Are you even listening to me," the spy muttered? "I think you need to focus on finding out who the ogre-woman is," Finn replied. She sniffed in disappointed anger. Finn grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Taking her face in his hands, the big man told her, "I'm pleased, Orzsebet. Your work has been satisfactory. Please continue your efforts in the east. Find me that name." And without a further word, he strode down the hill, leaving her staring after him.
Far from feeling elated at the outcome of business in Aysun's kingdom, Finn felt drained as he strode into his quarters at the close of the day. While Aysun was no longer acting cunty and raising hell, Finn was far from happy about her participation in the stupidity he'd just dealt with. Part of it was the worry over Maja. He was worried about her. The sight of her shifting objects around on the Card Wars mat had given him hope, but she hadn't come out of her sleep. Part of it was the very real sense that he'd dodged a bullet. Blargetha had been working on some very dangerous things. His enemies had been very specific about taking her and very specific about what they wanted her to build. It might take a genius to build a rocket, but it didn't take a genius to think of all the ugly things they could carry.
Part of him felt remorse over his rage. He'd been an asshole the last couple of days, and he knew it. He was at his wits end. Between the frustration of trying to track down the Bandit Princess, the sudden shock and fear of finding that she was moving against his family, maybe even trying to lure Emeraude to her death, and the ugly revelation about just how close to the truth he'd been with Blargetha's abduction, he'd been kind of an emotional mess. Drew was right. He was edging closer to the limit, and he'd done things he honestly wasn't that proud of.
He'd been angry at Blargetha. He'd felt a whole lot of anger at her for all the things she'd done the last couple of years. At the same time, torturing her wasn't right, and he knew it. He'd lost his temper with Aysun and hit her, and he felt bad about that too. He'd been at his wits end with a woman who'd once been a friend. He'd felt an ugly desire to really show her the consequences of the things she'd been screwing around with, and that was a bridge much too far. When you added in the twisted bondage-sex, he was a whole lot of conflicted about the previous night.
"I don't want this," he muttered. He didn't know who those words were meant for, but it was the truth. He didn't want this job anymore. He wanted his old life back. He wanted to be back in the treehouse–with Simone and E and their kids. He liked his old life and its glorious simplicity. Can't go home, dude, he told himself. He was ridin' the tiger.
Shaking off the worry and unhappiness, the big man strode over to the side-table and began shedding the weight of equipment he bore. That kit had scarcely changed since he'd been twenty–more than two decades ago, and honestly, there were moments he was tired of the weight of it. He was supposed to be resting now–setting down the burdens of rushing around, but things never quite seemed to work that way.
As he was staring into the bathroom mirror and contemplating the growth of whitish-blonde hair around his chin, there came a knocking at the door. Warily, the big man fingered the dagger hidden up his coat-sleeve. "Yes," he called? "Sire," said a voice. "I bear Royal Gifts." Frowning now, Finn left the bath and went to the door. Warily, he opened it a crack and found a pair of strapping fellows there. One was dressed in the uniform of the Emerald Guard. The other came dressed in the uniform of the Laurel Guard. Wearing an expression of utter confusion, Finn opened the door and stepped aside.
The two men came in, both bearing large baskets. Under his watchful eye, they set the baskets up in front of the fireplace. Pronouncing that the night might be chill, the Emerald Guard bent and lit the fire. At the same time, the Laurel Guard clapped his hands and a pair of servants bustled in, bringing wine and food. Finn, who'd been far too busy to even eat for most of the day, found himself feeling suddenly famished–as if suddenly reminded of his hunger. Bowing obsequiously to the King, the two soldiers made their way to the door, bidding him good night, leaving Finn alone once more.
Finn went and locked the door behind them. Moving to the table, he took a good look at the food presented. He was a little surprised to find Golden Honey there in a tiny jar, and his mind went to Breezy and her troubles with Bart. He wished he knew how to fix that, but that was Breezy's life, and he couldn't meddle. Sitting down, the big man found himself turning that jar over and over in his hands as he thought about the way Breezy had sounded last he heard her voice. In spite of his wives, in spite of his many commitments, and even in spite of the fact that he'd promised/offered/agreed to help Teri, Riley, and Alexia have babies of their own, he hungered for Breezy.
Something inside him had changed the night she'd carried him to the fortress where Toast and Breakfast had been imprisoned. Having come to know that Breezy had a thing for him and having matured enough to realize just how beautiful she was, Finn found himself wanting to sin with her–to break her marriage vows as he'd once broken his own. It helped not at all that several of his wives actually wanted that, Cherry foremost among them.
As the big man was thinking his way through that deadly spiral, music began to play. Finn glanced up in some surprise and found himself glancing this way and that. It took a couple of moments for him to realize that the musician was actually in an adjoining room, and he was hearing the music through the wall. A corner of his mind briefly feared that whoever it was might play all night! He had a plane to catch in the morning! But shortly, that fear was far from his mind. The first of the baskets had just popped open. A startled Finn went reaching for the dagger on the table just before he realized who had just stood up from the basket on the right.
Aysun. Wearing transparent silk pantaloons in a turquoise color that did nothing at all to hide her still-firm body. She wore a matching top with sleeves that were slit from her wrists to her elbows, baring her emerald-colored skin. And, as Finn stared with dry mouth at the woman he'd practically taken last night, Aysun began to dance. She danced in time with that smoky beat, broad hips gyrating, arms gently swaying, as she showed off the charms that he'd enjoyed so thoroughly.
As the big man tried to come to terms with this sudden development, Alexia stood up from the second basket. The little woman came wearing a similar costume in grey silk, and she too began to dance for him. The two danced in synchronicity, hips gyrating, asses shaking, and plump knockers jiggling. They said nary a word, letting their bodies speak for them. And Finn? His pants felt two sizes too small.
Stepping out of the two baskets, the pair approached him, still dancing, showing off their still-hot bodies. It was all the more erotic because Aysun was technically still within the strictures of her people. Her body was covered. She even had a silk veil bound around her face. But she was absolutely bare-assed, and Finn could see everything he wanted to–from her face down to the plump knobs he'd sucked on the other night to her green-furred gash. He could see it all, and it made her hotter than if she'd just been naked.
The two got up close on him, still dancing, and Finn found himself with a new hunger. He hungered to touch them. At the same time, he sort of knew this game. Simone had played it with him. Cherry had too. The point was for them to get him riled up to the point where he was ready to pound the shit out of both of them. And it was working. Thoughts of 'shouldn't' fled his mind. Alexia wanted a baby. He'd promised to give her one. He'd already given Sheila a child, even when he hadn't wanted or intended to. And Bonnie and Betty had both been nagging him about all the 'instability' they saw.
The princess population was aging. There were a lot of heirless women who'd spent far too many years partying hearty running the Kingdoms of Ooo. Belle's species was going extinct, and Hurletta and Blargetha were the last members of the Slime People's Royal Family. He'd already seen what could happen when a Royal House disappeared and left the citizens fending for themselves. Ingrid's Kingdom had descended into lawlessness before her resurrection, and Wildberry Kingdom was on the brink with murder and cannibalism running wild in the streets.
While his mind was working on that, Aysun was popping the lid off the little jar of Golden Honey. As his nanite-infused brain worked through the last little stray bits of logic, Alexia popped a chunk of bread dipped in the dangerously addictive honey into his mouth. The familiar feeling of euphoria was immediate and powerful. He felt powerful, and simple worries like the risks of dealing with powerful and wealthy women like Aysun quickly faded into the background in his mind.
The pair took turns alternating between plying him with food and drink and dancing for his entertainment. In spite of the years and the miles, both were still graceful, and it was pretty obvious they both worked out like fiends to keep the fat off the bones. In spite of the crazy day he'd had–and maybe a lot because of the honey he'd consumed–the King of Ooo found himself hungry for princess. Putting his plate aside, the big man climbed to his feet, causing Aysun to stop in mid-dance. Taking Alexia by the wrist, the big man strode towards the bedroom, grabbing their host's wrist along the way.
Elsewhere in the palace, Billy lay in bed with Noemi perched on his stomach. She'd greeted him with a whole lot of jealousy when he got back. There was a bitter, acrid taste to her pheremones when she was twisted and green. He'd assumed that Hamest was the reason for the jealousy–at least until Olesia stopped by to tell him his father had returned. The sight of the plump girl had turned the jealousy up to eleven.
Noemi had dialed up an intoxicating dose of her pheremones and plied him with hot sex and food for over an hour, basically spoiling him. It had been a while, honestly. The last couple of years had been a blur. He'd hardly gotten to know Rags before they'd both gotten sucked deep into this mad business of his father's. He'd gone from being a happily married man with a beautiful adopted son and another kid on the way to husband of three and father of five, with one wife who was slowly and quietly self-destructing, a second wife struggling to stay on the straight-and-narrow, and a third desperately trying to hold the whole thing up.
He'd taken a lot of cold showers the last six months or so, and he'd slipped down to a strip-club a time or two himself. It honestly amazed him that his father had gone through two years of basically getting jack-shit while his wives were pregnant, and he'd fought down the temptation to do anything more than stroke it. It made him feel inadequate. So, when Noemi came out of the bathroom dressed in panties so skimpy that you could have used them for a handkerchief and a bra to match, well, it felt a lot like hitting the jackpot.
"There were no signs of the stolen antiquities at all," announced Noemi. Billy nodded, his eyes mesmerized by her swaying titties. Those big baby-food factories had gotten a lot plumper after his daughter got born. The Purple Princess had been worried about nursing doing damage to her big grapes, but Billy hardly thought any harm had been done. "Maybe I should dial you down a bit," Noemi burbled, as she realized where his focus was at the moment. "I'm a guy," he retorted. "Maybe you should have put a sack-dress on." He couldn't have given less of a fuck about Hamest's missing books. The big man grabbed his wife by her shoulders and casually threw her on her back. "W-William," she howled! But Billy was already fastening his lips onto her heavy left knocker.
Back in the King's quarters, Finn had already moved on to the main event. The teasing had him hot as fuck, and any thought of working the two women over went right out the window. He'd basically thrown Aysun on her belly on the bed and all but tore the see-through robe off that slim body of hers. When he jammed her full of his meat-missile, the princess was a goner. As he plugged her steamy snatch insistently, Finn slapped Aysun's ass hard as he could, making the meaty mass jiggle, while the princess wailed into the sheets, her hands clawing at the mattress. Grinding her hot body against his, Alexia continued to whisper dirty thoughts at him, reminding him that she was ripe right now and telling him that Aysun was too. He might be fucking his baby into Aysun right now. He might well have knobbed both of them already!
The thought was so nasty, he lost it, shooting off right there. Grabbing Alexia by her hair, he pulled her face up to his and stuffed his tongue in her mouth. The little woman was at once turned on and afflicted with regret. She could have had this years ago. As he began to fuck Aysun again, she realized that, instead of shitting on him, they should have made Finn the Human their boy-toy. Both their kingdoms would have prospered. Better late than never, she thought, as she broke that kiss. "I'm next," she breathed. "I want it next..."
The King of Ooo has recovered the last of the missing princesses, and Blargetha is reaping what she's so long sowed. Finn's made a start on fixing the 'instability' in Ooo, and Billy is slowly getting back some semblance of normalcy in his life.