Chapter 2: The Icemen Cometh
"So..." Jamie began, standing cross-armed beside Jake. "Yer a magic dog, and that's why you can stretch yer limbs about and what not?"
"And also the rest of me." Jake clarified nonchalantly, sipping from a mug of coffee.
"If we were in our own dimension I would tell you to stop being silly." came Zoe from Jake's other side, crouching down as she looked him over. "But in this universe, who can tell whether or not magic is just an accepted scientific fact."
"You know we're in a bad way when magic is the one part of this place I can't call out for bein' a load of malarkey so far."
Zoe returned Jamie's comment with a chiding tilt of the head, before returning her attention (along with a smile) to Jake.
"Say, is that why you're orange? And also...can talk?"
She raised her hands and back-pedaled slightly when Jake looked at her curiously.
"I'm sorry, if that's a sensitive subject I won't bother you about it." She said, Jake merely shrugging in response and taking another sip from his mug.
"Aha!" Said Bubblegum, who had returned from outside the room and laid out an old book on the table ahead of her and The Doctor. She opened to a certain page before turning to Finn.
"I went out to the library to see if I could find anything on our comet problem, Finn. And wouldn't you know it..." She gestured to the page, which indeed had an illustration and label reading "The Catalyst Comet" next to the text.
"If Finn's right-"
"Which I might be."
"Hmmm, yes. Thank you. Anyway, it says here that the Catalyst Comet falls planet-side every thousand years...yadda yadda, destructive capabilities are...literally incalculable."
The Doctor moved to read the book over Bubblegum's shoulder, as the monarch's voice grew more worried with every word.
"The most likely outcome of its arrival," the Doctor continued in her place, "Is a complete environmental compromise-"
"Complete extinction event-" Bubblegum interrupted, before the two finished together.
"Event horizon totaling the whole of the planet."
Jamie, Zoe, Finn and Jake all looked on wide-eyed as bubblegum and The Doctor exchanged panicked glances.
"...So much for my net idea." Jake said, downtrodden.
"Now wait just a minute!" Jamie interjected, walking up to the book. "How does this book know what happened with the comet at all? If it was a, uh, total extinction event, who'd have survived to write it all down, eh?"
"Well who wrote the book?" Zoe asked curiously as she joined Jamie.
"Doesn't say." Bubblegum admitted. What she didn't tell is that, for whatever reason, the handwriting was awfully familiar to her. She snatched the book up from the table and inhaled.
"So," she said to The Doctor, looking between he and his companions, "giant, world ending comet which, according to Finn, is coming earlier than it should. Does that sound like the type of space-time anomaly that would bring you here from your dimension?"
The three visitors looked at each nervously, before The Doctor spoke up.
"Yes, indeed it does. "
"And judging by your knowledge, I'm going to assume you have a plan to deal with it."
"Well," Jamie began, "not really a plan per se-Oof!"
"Quiet Jamie." Said The Doctor after elbowing Jamie lightly. "I'm sure we can whip up a solution that can protect the citizens of the planet from this threat."
"Good." Said Bubblegum, studying the mans face. "And then, hopefully you can use the comet to get back home at the same time. Everyone wins."
She extended a hand, which The Doctor took enthusiastically.
"Everyone wins."
Zoe looked over to see Jamie rubbing his shoulders, patting his side with a look of sympathy.
"Oh Doctor," she said, "you mustn't be so hard on Jamie, I think you elbowed him a bit to hard."
Jamie shook his head. "It's not that, it's just...does it feel a mite cold to anyone else?"
Suddenly and without warning, the window burst from the outside, and a blue bearded man was at the window sill in a large blue robe.
"SURPRISE!" The blue man shouted, raising his hands and spreading blue energy throughout the room. The place started to slowly freeze over, and with a shout of panic, The Doctor grabbed for Jamie and Zoe, the three huddling together before they were all frozen in a block of ice.
"ICE KING!" Finn shouted, lunging at the man with Jake before they too were frozen.
With a mad giggle, the Ice King picked up the protesting pink Princess and pounced off with her.
It was a short while later when Jake had gained enough cognitive function to expand his body and shatter the ice around him. Growing his fist, he proceeded to do the same for Finn,The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe.
"Simon!" Finn growled as he leapt to his feet and the others wiped themselves off.
"Do be careful how you go about smashing people out of ice!" The Doctor reprimanded. "You could have killed us!"
"There's no time for that biz!" Finn said, "The Ice King took the Princess again!"
"Again?" Zoe said. "So this is a regular occurrence."
Finn nodded. "He's probably at his castle already. Come on, Jake!"
With that, the two poised to leap from the window, before The Doctor stopped them.
"Wait!" He said. "There's no need to catch up when we have a way to beat him there!"
With that he gestured for the boy and dog to follow, as he, Jamie and Zoe ran to the blue box they had arrived in and entered it. The two looked at each other and shrug before rushing to join them inside the box.
Upon entering, the two were left momentarily speechless. Inside the relatively small box was a much larger stark white room, even bigger than the one they had just left. In the center was a large console, shimmering with multicolored buttons and radars. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe rushed about the console, pressing buttons and checking a screen that jutted from the console.
"Welcome to the TARDIS, boys." The Doctor said. "Tell me, that mountain on the screen, is that the domain of this 'Ice King'?"
Finn went over to the screen, nodding in the affirmative as he saw the snow capped face of the Ice Castle.
"Whooooa, this place is globbin' huge!" Said Jake, stretching around the console. "Actually...am I allowed to say that anymore?"
"Are you certain we'll be able to take off, Doctor?" Zoe asked, "What if the TARDIS reacts badly to having to travel in this universe."
"It's worth a try at least, Zoe." The man said, though he seemed hesitant. "Yes...yes, we've got to try!"
With that he pushed one last button, and with the sound similar to a gong the room was suddenly shaking uncontrollably.
"Ooh! I told you!" Zoe shouted, as they all clung to the console to avoid being tossed about the room.
"What's going on?" Finn asked Jamie over the shaking.
"Erm," the Scotsman said, trying to think of the simplest explanation. "This box is a spaceship, and we're flyin' it to the mountain to save the Princess."
"...cool."
"Well it's a bit more complicated than that!" The Doctor said. "We're- ah! - currently traveling through the time vortex. If I've timed it right we should be at the castle much faster then you two would in real time."
"Doctor!" Zoe shouted. "On the scanner, look! Near the mountain!"
"What?" The Doctor asked, carefully moving closer to the scanner to observe. He saw something he couldn't quite make out in the air near the mountain. Another violent shake drew his attention away from the screen and he began pressing a series of buttons.
"Now now, old girl, calm down! I swear, she usually flies much more smoothly then this!"
At that exact moment, The Ice King was sitting on his bed, directly across from a glaring and imprisoned Princess Bubblegum.
"I thought we were over this, Simon." She said. "You kidnapping me got old a while back."
"I'm sorry!" The King said desperately. "It's just...you know, I've been trying to go out, meet new people and what not. But, uh, yesterday I tried talkin' to some girls in the Cloud Kingdom, and you know...my game might've hit a rough patch."
He paused, and Bubblegum raised an eyebrow as if to ask why she should care about this.
"I just felt like having someone to talk to about it, you know? I mean, we're buddies, right?"
The Princess still didn't respond.
"Right? Right? Princess?
"..."
"Princess, right?"
"..."
"Right Princess?"
"..."
"...Ugh, you're worse than Gunter."
The penguin in question gave a look of disappointment, which the Ice King returned with one of contempt.
"You know what you did." He muttered, before his eyes widened at an unfamiliar sound. The Princess grasped the bars of her frozen cell, looking around curiously at the source of the sound. Suddenly, her and the Ice King's garments were blown about by a gust of wind from inside the cell, and Bubblegum pressed herself back against the bars as only a few feet away, the blue box materialized into the room.
The door to the box swung open, and out came Finn.
"PB!" He shouted with an excited grin, before yelling back into the box. "It worked, guys!" And then fell flat on his face.
"WHOO-HOO!" Shouted Jake as he wobbled out of the machine and fell in much the same way.
"Yes, yes I knew it would." Came The Doctor's voice, as PB and Ice King shared bewildered glances.
"No matter what the old girl goes through, she always comes through in the end." Said the man as he patted the box satisfactorily.
"The heck are these weirdos?" Simon whispered as Jamie and Zoe came out to join them, looking rather woozy themselves. All three of the travelers were wearing heavy coats over their clothes in anticipation of the cold. The Doctor had made sure to put on the one made of Yeti skin. He was rather fond of that one.
"Oh, surely we're the weirdos when you're the one who goes around kidnapping Princesses!" Jamie said, steadying himself on the side of the TARDIS. "Aye, let's not fly her in this dimension again for a while, agreed?"
"Agreed." Zoe whined as The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Now then, Mr...uh, Ice King, I do believe you owe us a Princess."
"Hey man, why don't you get your own Princess?" Ice King asked with a scowl.
"How did you do that?" Bubblegum asked, looking over the TARDIS with new curiosity. "It just... It just materialized." She then looked inside the open door and couldn't contain a gasp of excitement.
"Whoa-hoo-hoh! You have got to explain how this works!"
"Hey!" Ice King shouted, clutching the air in front of him. "Hey, hey, what are you guys talking about? Lemme see!"
"I do think he's insane." Zoe muttered to her companions, both of whom nodded unconsciously. They then stepped back and grabbed each other instinctively as Finn suddenly rose to his feet, sword aloft.
"Simon! We're taking Bubblegum back to her castle, and you're grounded for FIVE weeks!"
"WHAT!?" Ice King yelled indignantly, "Come on! You guys can't even do that!"
Raising his fist, they again began to glow with blue power, before the wall to their side exploded violently. All motion stopped as everyone present turned to the gigantic hole left in the wall, then to the Ice King.
"...Ok, that wasn't me." The old wizard said defensively.
As snow gently fell into the room, all present moved closer to the hole in an attempt to see what was out there, Jamie and Zoe holding each other tighter as The Doctor exited their little huddle. Slowly, a sound emerged. The sound was familiar to Finn.
"!I think I've heard that sound before." He said. "It sounds kinda like the spaceships on...Mars."
At this comment, whilst the others continued to stare out the hole, The Doctor looked at Finn with wide eyes. He seemed about to say something before suddenly the rest of the wall caved in, a large green craft having smashed right through it and embedding itself in the side of the mountain.
"Zoe.." The Doctor said.
"Yes?"
"I think we know what you saw on the scanner. Into the TARDIS!" He shouted, motioning wildly at all of them and pushing Jake and Finn along.
"What?" Bubblegum asked as Jamie and Zoe ran past her.
"The box! Inside, hurry!"
Once they were all inside, The Doctor ran to the console and turned the scanner on. Inside the room, Ice King stood awkwardly.
"Guys?" He asked pathetically. "Can...can I come in the box too?"
"Doctor what's going on?" Bubblegum asked. The man merely held up a finger to silence her, eyes never leaving the screen.
"The workmanship on that craft...Jamie, Zoe, does it look at all familiar to you?"
"Well, er, it's...green, and uh, scaly... Oh."
The boy and girl turned to each other and then The Doctor.
"Oh no."
"You said the sound was reminiscent of Mars, yes?" The Doctor asked, getting a nod from Finn. "I must admit I didn't expect to meet them here of all places."
"What are you talking about?" Bubblegum asked more forcefully this time.
"Guyyys?" Ice King called out again, before the ship that had found itself in his wall opened up suddenly, it's hatch landing on the floor with a bang that made the Ice King cringe.
Smoke billowed out of the ship, as a prolonged hissing sound and thundering footsteps signaled its occupants exit. They stepped into the room, three incredibly tall men, clad in green scaly armor and each with jagged helmets and pronged claw-hands. Their eyes were protected by red lenses in their helmet, and in each of their hands was a gun.
Inside the TARDIS, one trio looked at the other in confusion.
"...Ice Warriors." was all that came out of their mouths.
Back in the room, the Ice King shifted from foot to foot before waving apprehensively at the intruders.
"Hey." He said. "What up?"
AN: Alright. So, now that I've got a solid week to myself, progress on fics is definitely a priority. I thankfully didn't have to wrack my brains for too long over which Doctor Who villains (if any) I would include in this story. The Ice Warriors are, to me the most easily associated with the Second Doctor era, and with the sole ice thing and what with Mars being so pivotal in Adventure Time, it made it a lot easier to tie in DW villains who were Martians. As for what it is they want, that'll have to wait for next time. Here's hoping I can keep rolling with both this and my collab fics.
Review if you liked, review if you didn't, and as always feel free to suggest another DW crossover should the mood strike you.