Princess Bubblegum paused from the fighting as an alarm suddenly went off in the gumball guardian. She frowned in confusion and quickly ran a full systems check, only to find them operating well at near full capacity. After the inspection, she viewed the HUD on the video screen that notified her of a large enemy presence approaching from the east. She became anxious at first that the Sleeping Fire Giant was being deployed on the scene, but then doubted the possibility it could arrive in a such short time. This was further reinforced when then source of the newcomer originated approximately 10 minutes from her current location. As she made the giant take a couple steps to face the appropriate direction, her expression darkened in annoyance upon confirming her suspicions. Standing before her approximately 15 paces was an improvised glacier mountain giant, operated by an all-too-familiar wizard.
"Ice King," PB called out irritably through a loudspeaker. "I should have known you would have meddled into my affairs for the last time!" Her scanners then detected a woman standing beside him and said, "And you must be Betty Grof!"
The woman slightly recoiled in shock by being addressed directly from someone she considered an absolute stranger.
"Yes, I've heard about you," PB continued. "You're Simon Petrikov's fiancée who's time-traveled 1000 years from the past, before the Great Mushroom War." The candy princess then narrowed her eyes and said, "But you're mostly known by your other alias as the 'Slayer of Bella Noche,' aren't you Betty?"
The Fire Army troops exchanged questioning glances at one another as they hid in the nearby trenches and foxholes.
"You need to stop this!" Betty yelled as she pointed at her. "These people have a right to live like everyone else!"
PB laughed unnervingly before retorting, "And who are you to say on the matter? Your people have been known to wage war on themselves countless times until they threw weapons of mass destruction into the mix!" She then curled a fist and taunted, "And look at where they are now!"
"The fault was with our world leaders," Betty argued. "They deliberately instilled the masses with hatred and propaganda just so they could profit for their own interests. Not all of us were bad, you know. We weren't born with the desire to inflict violence and meaningless destruction."
PB scoffed, "Pfft, the few versus the many. You sound no different from the Fire Kingdom. Always trying to come off rationally, but in the end still dangerous by nature to the rest of the world. I am progress, I will do what humanity has failed to achieve for countless generations, and you will not stop me!" She powered her guardian to aim both palms at the glacier giant and fired without remorse.
Ice King quickly returned fire with his own giant, the difference being that he projected two beams of ice. A bright power exchange followed shortly afterward with the night sky being illuminated with red and blue colors. As the seconds passed by, PB began to scowl in irritation by diverting more firepower while IK clenched his teeth from exertion.
"Everyone!" A flame sergeant yelled from below. "Fall back to a safe distance!"
The ground forces moved away instantly as the energy exchange progressed. Once they were far enough, the men searched for the nearest trenches and began to cast flame shields on themselves to stay out of sight.
"What do we do now, sir?" A private asked breathlessly from all the running.
Before the sergeant could answer, a large explosion took place, numbing out all his senses. Those who were watching were blinded momentarily, while the others covered their ears in outright terror. The ground shook tremendously in turn as the giants stumbled backwards from the blast, but neither of them were relatively harmed.
"You should have minded your own business!" PB taunted. "Now you will pay dearly!" She then powered her guardian to move forward at a brisk pace until she was within striking distance.
"We're finished, Princess!" Ice King announced as he motioned his giant to block the right hook. "I'm never chasing after you ever again! And honestly, this crazy attitude of yours wouldn't have worked out between us."
PB retorted, "Insolent fool, when will you ever learn there was never an 'us' to begin with?! I've told you time and time again about my feelings towards you, and you still can't get that through your thick, flippin' skull! No matter, I shall take the pleasure of killing you myself. You always were an annoyance to the whole world that I know nobody will miss you anyway."
"Hey, don't talk to him like that!" Betty defended through clenched teeth as she helped the ice giant throw a left uppercut, which PB merely dodged.
"You two deserve each other," PB said with disgust. "And in the meantime, I have a schedule to keep."
Nothing else was said after that. The two giants posed in combat stances momentarily like two boxers in the ring and studied each other's movements. Before long, the two closed the distance between each other and went through an exchange of jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. Neither of them used any ranged attacks due to being within close proximity and the fight progressed at a steady pace. Some hits were able to go through each other's defenses by landing at the body or face, but overall neither of them faltered. Every time PB was hit, the force field barrier would highlight yellow at the sight of impact before fading away. As for Ice King, his giant would crumble slightly with chunks of rock and ice flying right off.
"Oh, man," IK said as he blocked a straight jab. "I can't believe I'm doing this!"
"Focus, Simon!" Betty called out. "She's going for the underhand!"
IK regained his bearings in response as he quickly parried the blow. When the gumball guardian slacked in response for missing, IK threw a swift blow to head, stunning Bubblegum. The candy giant was left defenseless momentarily as IK proceeded to throw one hook after another three times until the former decided to lunge itself over for the clinch. Their arms shook as they tried to force each other down sideways, but neither of them were successful. Eventually, both exchanged blows to each other's lower sides in an effort to force the other to buckle.
"We're not getting far with this," Betty advised. "Go for the shove!"
"Might want to hold tight for this next one then," IK grunted as he prepped his giant for the head butt. Shortly after, a large shattering noise took place as candy giant stumbled backwards from the impact. The yellow force field barrier outlining the war machine dispersed with traces of electricity running around the body. While it seemed advantageous for IK to go for the offensive, both he and Betty were also stunned from the impact in doing so.
Bubblegum groaned as she slowly recovered from the hit. Her mind was spinning and the alarm blaring off in the machine only made things worse for her. She tried to focus nonetheless by pressing multiple buttons off the console to reset the giant into combat, but none of them rendered a response. As she tried to troubleshoot the problem, her nerves quickly spiked up when she overheard chatter from the Fire Army forces.
"The shields are down," a grunt exclaimed. "Get all available artillery units and hit that thing with everything you got!"
PB could only brace herself in that moment. She could see tons of rockets glowing ominously in the sky approaching at a slow and steady rate. She tried to reactivate the weapons to return fire at the very least, but even that seemed unsuccessful. When PB made another desperate effort for what seemed like the hundredth time, it was already too late. Her giant sustained a heavy barrage of ordinance that landed mostly on the head and center mass. Sparks and explosions could be seen flying right off machine, but surprisingly none of its limbs were severed. The guardian stumbled backwards continuously as it reacted to each shot, while IK and Betty could only watch in fascination. Shortly after, the giant finally collapsed backwards in a smoldering mess with PB being knocked out momentarily.
"So, uh," IK began awkwardly after a long while. "What happens now?"
"We find our friends," Betty answered. "Besides, I think it's safe to say were among good company." She then looked down over in the distance and noticed a group of elementals nodding to them with respect and recognition. As the minutes passed some of them emerged from the trenches and foxholes and began to cheer when the gumball was seen defeated. Betty and Ice King then looked over to each other with tender smiles and they both rushed into each other's arms.
"I knew I could count on you," Betty said gratefully as she planted a quick kiss on IK's forehead before hugging again.
The ice wizard blushed tremendously from the affection and was at lost for words. "I could get used to this," he thought proudly to himself. "This definitely beats kidnapping princesses any day."
Unfortunately it was too early to celebrate once again. Inside the gumball guardian, the pink monarch regained consciousness where she found herself sitting on her back. She looked over to the screen to find most of her systems were running at critical and that a group of elementals were approaching her position to investigate the wreckage. She quickly regained her bearings as she used an adrenaline shot from a nearby first aid kit and proceeded to type urgently on the keypad.
"I grow tired of these games," PB seethed to herself. After passing through several prompts and messages, she then pressed one last button on the console command and initiated her last resort. As soon as the input went through, the Grasslands was met with another air raid siren that stopped the elementals and glacier couple from cheering altogether.
"We got heavy activity emerging from the lakeside again!" A grunt reported. Moments later, hundreds of small silhouettes resembling airplanes sprouted from the same exit the gumball guardian previously used.
"What are those?" Another asked squinting as they circled the air continuously above the battlefield in one massive flock. "Birds? Bats? Or..."
"No," the former paled upon realization. "It's neither of those things. They're-"
"DRONES!"
