Accompanied by a shrill cackle, a blizzard blasted through the doorway of the storage room and the mutants were pelted with icy daggers with such force that they were blasted through the balcony's safety rail. Around twenty mutants collapsed onto the mall's ground floor and into a thick layer of snow, which covered the mass of gumballs.
Sammy floated down towards them. Her hair had become twice as long and rippled like fire, her eyebrows had become pointed lightning bolts.
"How dare you parade around MY domain?" She shrieked. Her voice had become high-pitched and grating.
The mutants rose, covered in snow and charged at her. An ice blade formed in her hand and she cackled as she spun around, cleaving the mutants in half, one after the other, sending a splatter of green across the snow.
Marshall-Lee watched in terror as he ran down the stairs and around the outside of the ground floor. He glanced over to the exit. No matter what Sammy said, he couldn't just leave her, the mutants were the last of her worries.
Once the last mutant had been destroyed, there was a deep rumbling sound and the colossal mutant from earlier rose from the snow.
"I bet you fancy yourself quite the monarch!" Sammy cried, with an insane grin. "But there's a new queen in town now!"
The mutant charged at her frantically, when it was just a few feet away, Sammy's sword morphed into a colossal glacier which tore into the mutant's chest and erupted out of its back with a shower of green.
Sammy screamed with maniacal laughter. The sky turned dark, and electric blue lightning bolts began to strike through the hole in the ceiling and hit the ground around her, sending mutants and gumballs flying.
"Sammy!" Marshall-Lee screamed, above the noise. "That's enough!"
Sammy stopped laughing, but the lightning continued. She flew over to Marshall-Lee and loomed over him, her hair flapping around and blotting out the rest of the mall.
"It'll be enough when the world is coated with ice!" She laughed. "Now are you with me, little boy?" She asked, with a sneer.
Marshall-Lee closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Pathetic…" Sammy spat.
She turned around and floated towards the hole in the ceiling. Marshall-Lee stood up and gritted his teeth. Hoping Sammy wasn't so high up, that the fall would hurt her, he carefully aimed his toy gun at her tiara and fired.
The foam bullet sailed through the air, but just as it was about to his the tiara, Sammy turned around and swatted it away.
"You would mess with my tiara. MY POWERS?!" She bellowed, furiously.
She aimed her hand at Marshall-Lee and it glowed blue, in preparation for a spell. Marshall-Lee screamed and ran. Sammy followed him with her hand, but the spell never came. Once Marshall-Lee was clear of the mall, Sammy screwed up her face as if in pain, the uncertainty and conflict was clear on her face.
Suddenly, her eyes widened in shock as she realised what she was doing. She screamed and ruffled her hair desperately, until the tiara flew off her. She fell to the ground with a splash of snow and green goo. She feebly tried to pick herself up and look towards the door Marshall-Lee had run from, but a moment later, collapsed into the snow.
Marshall-Lee curled up on his sleeping bag, clutching Hambo and quietly sobbing. The dark clouds had subsided a couple of minutes after he left the mall, but he hadn't dared go back. Sammy had said she'd meet him back at the camp, and that meant she would, she had never let him down before. The camp was situated on the outskirts of the city and was basically just a couple of sleeping bags and a campfire, surrounded by bushes. The bushes hid it completely.
Marshall-Lee had fled the mall aver three hours ago, and he had hardly moved since he arrived at the camp. His heart was crushed by dread. He wouldn't know what to do if Sammy didn't come back, and not just about survival, he needed her for so much more than that.
Suddenly, Marshall-Lee shot into a sitting position. He heard faint footsteps. Although hope raged within him, he wasn't naïve enough to simply assume it was Sammy, she had taught him better than that. He grabbed his slingshot and a rock, and poked his head through the bushes.
He trained the slingshot on the nearest building, behind which the sound seemed to be originating. Almost a minute later, the person making the sound emerged.
"Sammy!" Marshall-Lee cried ecstatically.
He forced his way through the bush and ran towards her. Sammy's clothes were ragged and she looked so tired, it seemed like she'd been up for days, but the joy in her eyes paralleled Marshall-Lee's. She knelt down and hugged him as he reached her.
"Marshall-Lee, I'm so sorry!" Sammy said, pleading him for forgiveness with her voice. "I don't remember what happened, but…"
"I'm just glad you're back." Marshall-Lee interrupted her.
When Marshall-Lee stepped back from the hug, he noticed what else was different about Sammy.
"Hey, where's your tiara?" He asked.
Sammy smiled warmly. "In the mall, under a pile of green goo and sleet. That tiara is far more dangerous to us than any mutant. And it was only a matter of time before it took me away from you."
Marshall-Lee's face showed conflicting emotions. He was clearly overjoyed that the tiara was gone, but at the same time, reality hit him.
"But… what about the mutants?"
"The tiara never protected us from them. Even when I wasn't wearing it, it always whispered that it was there to fall back on. I'd never have took us back to that mall if I didn't have it, and I'll never make that mistake again. Can you forgive me, sweetheart?"
Marshall-Lee hugged Sammy again.
"I love you Sammy."
"I love you too, Marshall-Lee."
"And so, Sammy grew old at Marshall-Lee's side and the two of them lived happily ever after… What do you guys think?"
In the Ice Kingdom, the Ice King closed the latest volume of his Fan Fiction. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him, and surrounded by penguins, Marceline gaped at him.
"Wow… that good, huh?" The Ice King remarked, sounding surprised.
The penguins all began quacking, mostly sounding bored and indifferent, and waddled away.
"Well whatever! This wasn't supposed to appeal to a penguin market, anyway! Marceline liked it, right Marcy?"
Marceline stood up and floated over to him.
"Hey Simon, who were those characters based on?" She asked him, hopefully.
The Ice King shrugged. "I dunno, I just made them up."
"Then how is it Fan Fiction?" Marceline prompted.
"Huh… oh yeah… I guess it's just regular fiction. You still liked it though, right?" The Ice King asked, with a broad grin.
Marceline smiled weakly and patted the Ice King's shoulder.
"Yeah man… It was awesome."