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- 3 -

Bushwhacked

Verse 1

"...So you get it now?" Princess Bubblegum finished her explanation while she daintily held her saucer and tea cup.

"Mmmm...I think so." Finn replied before taking a long drag of coffee from his mug.

They sat...or...at least Bubblegum sat, at her table on the sun-soaked deck of the middle level of the keep. Finn, on the other hand, knelt at it, as he was too large now for any chairs in the kingdom to accommodate him.

"In a sense," Finn continued, "what I have is a sort of...smart blood, that can regulate the intake of nutrients to my living tissues, promote accelerated growth, as well as pass on and even create knowledge patterns in my brain's synapses."

"Exactly!" Bubblegum replied, stimulated, at last, by someone else's intelligent speech.

"...Maaath. That's good noggin nuggin, PB."

"Oh, I know. And, I must say, it's real refreshing to hear someone of like mindage actually acknowledge my...ha-genius." the Princess faked a modeling pose, complete with kissy lips, causing Finn to chuckle. (Much like Alva from Back-To-Nature Island.)

Finn was about to mention that 'mindage' wasn't exactly a word, but, he restrained himself, to let Bubblegum have her moment.

It was a few days after the celebration at Beautopia and Finn had been experiencing a few ups, downs, and growing pains, even some cold sweats and fevers, during his transition into his current form...which was a sort of super Finn. He was trim and a little more muscular, his height had capped out at around two thirds the same of Canyon, and yet, despite all the drastic changes over the past few days, he still retained his sweet, warm, boyish charm...although he now exuded a fairly manly aura and confidence about himself. He seemed the complete package, as was what Bonnibel was noticing, all morning long.

The Princess was subconsciously making eyes at Finn and adoring his every measure. Along with this, she also adored his increased intelligence and was finding his conversation...stimulating, in more ways than one.

"So, do the nanites have any kind of direct reception?" Finn suddenly broke her...concentration.

"Huh? Oh! Why, yes they do." Bubblegum struggled to get her mind on track, after realizing Finn had actually asked her a question. "They can receive and transmit information as well as instruction."

"Really..." Finn's right brow raised in interest, as he began wondering if he could use that to his advantage, somehow. Yet, a concerning factor consumed him, especially after he noticed all the changes in him begin to slow to a halt. "But, it seems they have stopped changing me too." he said. "Do the nanites have a sort of half-life that I should be aware of?"

"Well, no, not that I know of." Bubblegum replied, somewhat concerned, herself. "They can be given an emergency kill...er, eheheh, sorry...I mean, emergency stop and deactivate mechanism, though. Is that what you're asking?"

"No, no. Not quite. I was just wondering, you know, if they'll be active within me, indefinitely, or if there's a point where they just sort of start breaking down and just, kinda...get tossed out with the bathwater, if ya know what I mean, heheh."

Bubblegum giggled as well, with a modest hand to her mouth. "Hmhmhm, no, as far as I know. They can act and repair themselves, AND each other, indefinitely, as long as you have sugars to feed them, from your own intake of, like, carbs and straight sugar and stuff."

"I seeee..." Finn said again, which Bubblegum really liked. His intrigued, somewhat evil genius look returned to his face and his mind was brewing with many a thought. "...Can I...contact them directly...through thought? Even instruct them?"

"..." Bubblegum was taken aback with Finn's question. "Well...theoretically...I suppose...huh. You know? I've never even given that a moment's thought." It was Bubblegum's turn, now, to consider the true scope of her technology. She raised her eyes skyward and furrowed her brow, while slightly pinching her chin with a thumb and middle finger, while her forefinger tapped at her lips. Finn actually began thinking that she looked awful cute this way, but, suddenly dismissed the thought from his mind, feeling that he had no chance at romance with her. "I...don't know! I just don't know!" the Princess suddenly said with a smile, oddly. Her interests were greatly piqued. "You know? You should just try it, sometime. You never know! You just might be able to talk with them! Do you have any idea how awesome that might be?!"

Finn and Bonnibel shared a moment of synergy then. Their eyes locked and their brains were teaming with agreement and possibility, and then, just for a moment, it felt like there was an equality and a chance for more than friendship, more than anyone Bubblegum had felt for, in the past...but then that moment passed, when Finn noticed that the shadows were short upon the landscape and the day was quickly approaching noontime.

"Oh, spudz...what time is it?" Finn asked. Again, sadly, he broke Bubblegum's concentration.

"Oh...iit's about nine? Ten?" Bubblegum answered, estimating the same through the look of the sun and shadows. "Why do you ask...?" the Princess put forward with an almost pleading tone in her voice. She clearly saw that Finn was moving to leave. She certainly didn't want him to.

"I gotta go." Finn said plainly however, despite Bubblegum's subtle cues. "I contacted Canyon for a...aheh...rendezvous, later today. I thought the effects of the nanites were beginning to wear off, so, I thought it was now or never." Finn said, as he rose in place. "Even though we know now that that's not the case...duty calls, heheheh. I'd better get going."

"O...oh, I see..." Bubblegum said, also rising from her chair, to bid a fond farewell to Finn. "Well, good luck to you then." she spoke, formally, and reached out a hand to shake Finn's...finger. (She was a tad bit too small to do much else. Hugging him was well out of the question.)

"Will do, Princess." Finn replied...shaking his finger with her.

Bubblegum suddenly felt a surge of longing shoot through her body that coursed straight through her core, into even the tingling depths of her genitals. She didn't know why, but, she felt like she needed to say something, as if she was losing him or sending him off to war. "...Will I see you again?" she asked. Though a part of her regretted her somewhat crudeness of action, the bigger part of her did not apologize for it. She let her words go, uninhibited by reason, motivated by bigger words that started with the letter 'L'.

Finn suddenly turned around, acknowledging the strange longing in her voice. "...Of course, Princess." he replied, not quite knowing how to. There was a moment of silence between them and Finn witnessed the ghost of a smile cross Bonnibel's lips, a warmth of hope that told him that she wanted something of him, more than that of practicality. It was deeper and honest, somehow. He acknowledged it, yet, he wasn't quite prepared to face what that meant, so, he replied...more practically. "We gotta explore the reaches of what these crazy things, flowing through my body can do, right? The possibilities could be endless!"

Bubblegum caught up to herself, then, realizing that she had been acting in a manner that was far more primal to her station. "Oh...yes! Of course! I can't wait to explore your body's...potentials."

"Heheh, foh sho', Peebles. We'll make a day of it." Finn replied, reassuringly, yet, he didn't fathom the piercing depths to which his particular choice of words had affected the Princess. He simply waved her off...and then slipped himself up and over the castle wall, which was the only way to and from the upper decks of the keep, since all the doors inside the tower were too small to accommodate him.

'...a day of it.' Bubblegum thought to herself, nibbling at and relishing the words with her mouth, as she waved him goodbye. "...A night too...Finnie." she pushed, in wishful thinking.

A little down the ways, towards the bottom of the grand stairway, Finn recalled some things that Bubblegum had said, regarding the nanites. "...Transmit..." he said to himself. "Does that mean they can even share...whatever I'm doing, with her? Can she see it all?"

Finn smirked at this, suspicious.

He just didn't know, but, that didn't make him any less paranoid.

Finn made it back to the tree house by the early afternoon hours, leaving him just enough time to freshen up before his and Canyon's date. However, as was the case this morning, it wasn't exactly easy getting in or out. He had to squeeze through every doorway and nudge and slip through every tunnel that led him through the house, because his rather large body would not let him through easy. His muscles scraped on through the tight fitting spaces, leaving him to wonder if he should just grab clothes and leap on out through the bedroom window and into the pond to take his bath, instead of using the indoor fixtures. All things considered, he could have even climbed the tree to give himself an easier time to get to his room, but, since he had to grab a number of bathroom amenities along the way, it ended up easier for him to claw and climb upwards through the ladder ways and shafts, with his hands, rather than wiggle his way down, with legs and toes.

Having finagled his way through the various ways through the tree's larger branches and rooms, wiggled and reached through the bathroom to get some body wash and shampoo, he was now ready to squeeze on up to his room while trying not to squish the bottles in his arms. His head had just popped up to the opening to the bedroom and he was just getting a fair view of his surroundings, after being stuck in a wooden shaft for the past few minutes or so...when he suddenly noticed that he was not alone. His room had a host of familiar creatures called 'wolf lards' in it.

The dark, puffy, creepy looking creatures turned their eyes to Finn and gave off a menacing hiss that sounded like a prolonged stroke of chalk scratching on a chalkboard. There were roughly five of them, with their very sight making Finn's blood boil as he remembered his last encounter with these beasts. Deprived, previously, of his chance to test his mettle against them, and, equipped with newly gained strength and intelligence, he was more than willing to scrap with these hybrid monsters.

Finn gave his trademark, boyish yet fearsome growl and clawed at the makeshift ladder rungs nailed into the tree's shaft to drag himself upward and catapult his mass into the room. He sailed through the wooden portal and landed with a roll, straight into the midst of the small ring of dark beasts and used his momentum to rise into a karate type stance. He growled again, about to rush towards the closest lard, but...

"...I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Finn. You...and your grandniece...will live to regret it." a mature, soothing...yet familiarly wicked and teasing voice flowed to Finn's ears. Finn immediately halted his attack when he swallowed the words that were just presented him. He knew who that was. Dr. Gross's motherly yet subtly sinister voice was unmistakable.

"What do you mean, my grandniece?" Finn replied, testing her.

"Tsk...really now, Finn. I would have thought you'd credit me with more mindfulness than that!" Dr. Gross spoke again. Finn's eyes shifted about the room. He wasn't certain where her voice was coming from. It was then that the wolf lard standing before him came forward and pointed an arm towards him. Hidden seams within its palm and forearm opened up, transforming the foremost part of the limb into an electronic tablet. The image of Dr. Gross's stem suit soon appeared...next to his grandniece, Bronwyn. She was gagged with a sturdy looking ball with air vents drilled into it and it was fastened around her face with industrial grade type rubber straps. She was lying down at an angle upon one of Dr. Gross's operating chairs, tied by her wrists, which were stretched above her head, as well as at the ankles...which were far apart from each other. More importantly...she wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing.

Bronwyn's fearful eyes, sweaty brow, and muffled cries pierced Finn's soul, causing a flood of sheer rage and a horrid sense of ice cold helplessness to flood his gut. "...You monster." was all he could really say, as he leered towards the doctor with molten ire running through his veins. He clenched his fist, one of his eyes twitching, as he restrained the urge to shatter the tablet with a single punch.

"Ah, ah, ahh, Finn. Tssk...tssk...tssk." Dr. Gross replied, wagging her finger in the air. "We must behave ourselves. We wouldn't want something bad to happen to this...helpless young lady, now...would we?" Dr. Gross said as she began laying a hand across Bronwyn's naked belly and began petting and stroking across her body. She even began running her palm and fingers over one of her breasts, causing her captive to protest by shifting left and right in place, wiggling, as it was all she could do. "If you're not cooperative...baaad things might happen..." the doctor teased, and then roughly pinched and rolled one of Bronwyn's nipples between her thumb and forefinger, making her wince and scrunch her eyes shut from the pain.

"NO!" Finn growled. One of the wolf lards to his side immediately reacted with a fierce jab to his stomach. "Oogh!" he groaned in reply. It didn't actually hurt him, but...he felt it was a proper reaction. Resistance or even show of strength might only work to provoke the 'good doctor' into actions more severe. In any case, the minion's blatant aggression nailed in the fact that he was in no position to make demands. Finn's eyes shifted towards the lard that struck him...then to the screen...and then back to the lard, before he angrily raised his hands above his head...in surrender.

"Thaaat's more like it. Such a good boy!" Dr. Gross replied. Disturbingly, she sounded so soothingly honest and pleased...like an owner petting her dog.

Finn's mouth crimped into a slant. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked..." Dr. Gross replied, somewhat jovial.

Finn couldn't see, as her face was obscured by her helmet, but, he could practically hear her smiling through her voice. It pumped even more anger through his veins, but, still, there wasn't a single thing he could do about it.

Dr. Gross turned aside and began typing on an unseen object. Her hand was still smoothing over Bronwyn's belly, toying with her, albeit with far tamer intentions. The worry in her eyes still very much affected and enraged Finn, especially since she started searching around just north of her pubic mound. Some beeps and taps were heard, as Dr. Gross fiddled around with a console, offscreen, while she began fiddling around with Bronwyn's inner thighs...and then a sharp pain was felt in Finn's side, piercing and stabbing into him, possibly going as deep as his liver. He reacted then, revoking his sense of helplessness in favor of a more brutal, vengeful spirit. He growled again and spun around to face the lard that stabbed him with something...only to make himself dizzier than he would have been if he were standing perfectly still. He suddenly lost his motor functions and dropped to the ground like a sack of jelly, with his eyes just catching the sight of a large syringe, in his peripheral vision, in the place of where one of the lard's hands was supposed to be. His vision began blurring and fading, and, the last thing he felt were the arms of several lards wrapping around him and lifting him off the ground. Conscience fading, the last thing he heard was Dr. Gross saying, rather bluntly, "...You."

Finn's consciousness began fading in and out then, at least for a little while, before his body plainly fell to the irresistible need of a nice, long nap. He felt himself being tossed out of his bedroom window and caught by more of the doctor's minion lards. He saw that he was being carried away from the tree house, in the direction of the Candy Kingdom. Then, in his last gasp of momentary consciousness, he thought he saw a tall figure stand atop a distant, rolling hill, observing this rather morbid procession, before it began following them, somewhere into the candy forest.

"...Cahn...yon..." Finn mumbled, before the shot of paralyzing chemicals running through his veins absolved him of his consciousness and interned him to a nice...deep...sleep...

Sorry...again, for the extreeeeeeme lateness.

...To be continued, fairly soon!