Cold Blood and Fangs

So apparently there was some uncertainty over this in the last chapter. I'm assuming Marceline isn't immortal pre-vampire, just has a really long lifespan, since she got really old in Finn the Human. I figure if she can age, she can die, otherwise she'll just wind up as a giant face in a jar on New Earth 10 billion years later...

"Ok, you're sure you're ready for this?"

Marceline sighed. "Yes, Simon! I have been for years now. You sure you are?" She added with a smirk.

Marceline and Simon stood outside a derelict campervan, underneath a bridge, in the heart of a vast city. Abandoned cars and rubble piled high around them, and made the place difficult to access for any green slime creature, which just happened to be passing by. Even though they liked to keep on the move, the two of them had made the place their campsite for over two months now, for that very reason.

Almost four years had passed since Simon's bargain with Death, and today was Marceline's twentieth birthday. Not her actual birthday of course, neither of them knew when that was, since Marceline's home dimension had no sun and, as such, no years. But every year, Simon and Marceline would celebrate the day they met, and call it a birthday for her. Marceline had asked Simon when his birthday was, but after telling her, Simon had calmly explained that birthdays were boring for "old geezers" like him, since he'd had so many of them.

While he usually made a little extra effort to scavenge something he thought Marceline would like, like a new toy, or some clothes, this year, Simon was going to do something special. He was going to let Marceline go off exploring on her own.

In the thirteen years since Marceline and Simon had met, they had never once been beyond earshot of one another. And while Marceline had been ready for such a responsibility for a few years now, she had never even suggested it before. Otherwise Simon probably would have grudgingly accepted. The truth was, Marceline had never wanted space away from Simon simply because they had never fallen out like normal girls would have fallen out with their parents. She never wanted to wear clothes Simon disapproved of, she had no reason to want to stay out all night and she had never had a boyfriend for him to dislike.

Still, Simon had suggested the idea. While he knew without doubt that he would always be around to protect Marceline, he thought it was a freedom Marceline needed to have, in order to grow up. He had every faith in her as a survivor. In fact, during recent creature incursions, it had been Marceline who saved Simon's skin, or so she thought. Simon was yet to tell her about his newfound immortality, for fear of making her worry that the crown was still affecting him, not to mention the way she'd react to Simon's deal with Death.

"So, you've got your crowbar? Your rope? Your walky-talky?" Simon listed various survival tools, which Marceline had stored in a large backpack she was wearing.

Marceline giggled. "Geez Simon, relax! I'll be fine! What are you gonna do while I'm gone, anyway?"

"Oh, I'll probably go to the park, see if I can find that bird I fed the other day, see if she wants to hang." Simon answered, semi-seriously. Truthfully, he hadn't given it much thought. It was more likely he'd just stay at the camp and wait, in case Marceline came back, needing help.

Marceline smiled, and a second later, walked into the caravan. She came out, holding an old teddy bear, with several patches holding in its stuffing. She threw it to Simon to catch.

"Here. In case the bird stands you up. You can keep Hambo company."

Smiling back, Simon stepped forward and hugged Marceline. "Have a fun adventure, sweetheart."

"Thanks Simon."

After stepping back from the hug, Marceline turned around, climbed over the wreckage that made the camp's barricade, and set off into the city.

Marceline strolled down a ruined street with a smile on her face. While she loved Simon's company more than anything, the uplifting sense of freedom she felt while being on her own was completely unexpected.

While the vastness of the city meant she didn't have a complete mental map of it yet, there was a sizable chunk of it, which Marceline and Simon had explored and considered relatively safe. They had even taken to assigning names to certain areas, which were mostly just crude descriptions, such as "Street With Leaning Over Building." And "Park With Twisty Tree."

Marceline wandered around absent-mindedly, making sure she didn't stray into the unmapped areas of the city. Eventually, her eyes fell upon something that made her instinctively drop to the ground and crawl for cover.

One of the creatures had waddled out from behind a building, up ahead of her. Marceline looked through the bare window frame of a car as it crossed the road. She and Simon had spent a great deal of time studying the behaviour of the creatures. She even had a journal they had written together, stored in her backpack. Marceline could tell that this one wasn't a part of a group, if it was, its partners wouldn't be more than a few feet away from it. The ones that travelled together, really travelled together.

Wondering what she should do, Marceline pictured Simon, crouching behind the car, next to her.

"Let's just wait until it passes, no sense in aggravating it." She could almost hear him whispering.

Marceline thought of doing just that, and then a mischievous grin spread across her face as she realised Simon wasn't there. She looked around, and her eyes fell upon a fallen tree branch, small enough for Marceline to hold in one hand, but still heavy enough to pack quite a punch. Seizing the branch, Marceline jumped up on top of the car, stood up straight and pushed her chest out like a superhero. She beckoned the slime creature with a sharp whistle. The creature turned its head and, with a focused gurgling noise, began to run, unsteadily, towards her.

Marceline's heart pounded in her chest as she bent her knees and clutched the tree branch harder. Once it was close enough, she leapt from the car, swung the branch over her head and brought it crashing down on the creature's soft, squishy head.

It collapsed to the ground and lay still. Marceline jumped back as it's liquid contents began to leak across the ground. She and Simon had discovered the hard way, that the liquid was corrosive. Simon had once punched one, and then startled Marceline by screaming, and using up a week's worth of water, trying to get the slime off his hand.

Marceline began to giggle, and then laugh as she thought of how little Simon would have approved of what she had just done. She knew that Simon's rules were there to protect her, and she happened to agree with all of them. But rebellion gave Marceline an unexpected adrenaline rush. Not so much that she'd defy Simon to his face, but it did make her realise, this was something she should have done years ago.

With a grin on her face, Marceline continued down the road, twirling the branch around her hand like a baton. She walked five steps, before she stopped and arched her back in shock, like a cat faced with a loud noise. With no warning, another goo creature had flown from above her and landed, with a squelch, at her feet. While it picked itself up, Marceline spun around to see where it had come from, just in time to see a black figure, 10 stories up, disappear behind a building.

Although confused, Marceline knew to prioritise. She spun around, swinging the branch as she did, smashing it into the side of the goo creature's head, before it had a chance to attack. Before she could rest or get her bearings, three more splats alerted Marceline to a fresh triad of creatures, hitting the ground behind her. She rounded on the creatures just in time to see the same figure vanishing down another alleyway, high in the air. She had a better look that time… It was a human!

"Hey!" Marceline called, angrily, as she backed away from the advancing creatures. "Show yourself!" She demanded.

When the floating person failed to respond, she returned her attention to the slime creatures.

As they advanced, Marceline scanned the area and noticed a fist-sized chunk of tarmac at her feet. Thinking of when Simon had taught her how to play baseball, Marceline rolled it onto the top of her foot, flicked it into the air and struck it with her tree branch, sending it flying like a bullet, clean between the central creature's eyes.

As it fell to the ground, Marceline stepped forwards and drove her branch through another creature's open mouth and out the back of its head. She was just about to withdraw it, when she realised with a start, that it was still alive! It continued to ease itself forwards, along the branch. Well… that was certainly one for the journal. Getting over her shock, Marceline lifted the creature into the air by the branch and brought it crashing down on the third, reducing them both to unidentifiable sludge.

Marceline let go of the branch and gave a hiss-like scream as the green slime splashed her hands and clothes. She rubber her hands on her jeans as they began to burn and itch.

"Dang babe…" A quiet voice came from above Marceline. "You could be, like, 'the one'."

Marceline jumped and looked up. The figure she had seen earlier floated serenely above her, as if hung from invisible puppet strings.

With only herself and Simon to compare the person to, Marceline had difficulty identifying him, through a black hoodie he was wearing which covered most of his face, but she guessed it was a boy, around her age, based on his posture, complexion and voice. As well as the hoodie, he wore blue jeans and trainers, and in each of his gloved hands, he held another creature, by the folds of skin on top of its head. They writhed their limbs and moaned pathetically.

"Who are you?" Marceline asked quietly, almost saying 'What are you?' instead. Although an equally good question, it didn't seem very polite.

A range of emotions boiled inside her. She felt like she should be happy that someone else survived the Mushroom War, but the boy's unsupported levitation sent shivers up her spine, plus the fact that he was holding toxic creatures like they were puppies, and there was the part where he had tried to kill her for no reason.

Without answering, the boy swung his arms back and hurled both creatures at Marceline, one after the other. Without missing a beat, Marceline leant to one side, avoiding the first creature, and then sent the second careening past her with impressive spinning kick, taking care to hit the side opposite to the one with the acid-spewing orifices.

By this point the boy was laughing. "That's not bad!" He complimented Marceline.

The young half-demon was less than flattered. In fact she was fuming. She looked around for anything she could throw to cause as much pain to the floating freak as possible, and her eyes fell upon a car license plate, lying a foot away from her. She looked up at the boy and made eye contact with him. He had noticed it too. His eyes challenged Marceline. Dared her to make a move.

In a flash, Marceline dived for the plate. She took her eyes off the boy and put her hand on it, but as soon as she touched it, a trainered foot stamped down on her hand. As she cried in pain, the boy used his other foot to deliver a powerful kick to her forehead.

Marceline's head span and, as she was distracted by the throbbing pain in her hand and head, the boy shot behind her, wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her to her feet. Marceline struggled to breathe under the boy's iron grip.

"You're impressive." The boy said, matter-of-factly. "I mean, you're no vampire, but we'll soon fix that." His voice told Marceline he was grinning wickedly.

"There's no such thing as vampires!" Marceline choked, angrily.

As she said the words, she realised how foolish they probably were. Super strength. Flying. A hoodie and gloves that protected him from the sun. Simon had made it very clear to Marceline that vampires weren't real when she had favoured a book about them when she was a child. Could it be that he had been wrong?

"I disagree." The boy said calmly.

"Who are you? And what do you mean 'I could be the one'?" Marceline demanded.

The boy snorted. "Babe, you're in no position to demand answers."

"Marceline." She corrected. "And we'll soon fix that." She jeered.

Marceline thrust her head back, violently head butting the boy in the face. As he let go of Marceline and stumbled backwards, screaming in pain, Marceline spun around, grabbed a handful of his hair through his hood, and then, putting all her weight behind her arm, slammed his head, face-first, into the road. She pressed her forearm down on the back of his neck, preventing him from getting up.

"Who are you?" Marceline repeated, testily.

The boy struggled for a few seconds, before giving up and slumping onto the ground.

"Connor." He growled, and then followed up with, "Vampire!" Before Marceline could ask what he was.

She paused, not sure of how to respond to that. Vampires were real? Even when pinning one down, she had trouble believing it. She hesitated for a few seconds, trying to think of a follow-up question. Fortunately, Connor broke the ice for her.

"BORIS! HELP ME!" He cried.

Panicking, Marceline pushed on the back of his head, muffling his voice against the tarmac. She looked around for this 'Boris', unsure if she could handle two vampires. She felt her walky-talky pressing against her thigh, inside her pocket. She was sure Simon would know what to do, but the last thing she wanted to do was call him for help on her first solo adventure. She wanted him to feel like he could trust her…

As Connor felt Marceline's grip weakening, due to her distraction, he forced himself into the air. Marceline snapped back to attention and wrapped her arms around his neck and furiously kicked his torso as the two of them rose unsteadily off the ground, like a deflated balloon. Connor struggled against Marceline, trying to push her off him. As Marceline noticed them getting continuously higher, she decided to cut her losses and let go, while she could still do so without hurting herself.

Landing nimbly on the ground, Marceline broke into a sprint, she had just decided that she definitely didn't want to try her luck against two vampires. And if she was going to run, she risked leading them back to Simon anyway. She swallowed her pride and pulled out her walky-talky.

"Hi Simon, my day's going pretty well…" She lied, nervously. "It's been kinda weird, I met this guy who was still alive… Kinda…"

Marceline ducked into an alleyway in an attempt to escape Connor, and came face to face with a second floating man. This one was in his thirties, wore a pair of jeans and a smart jacket, and shielded himself from the sun with a wide-brimmed stetson. He was a lot less scrawny than Connor and sported a menacing pair of sideburns.

"Marceline!?" Simon's voice came from the walky-talky, as the vampire Marceline presumed to be Boris, stared her down.

"I'M BEING ATTACKED BY VAMPIRES! SAVE ME!" Marceline cried, quickly.

She dropped the walky-talky and scrambled backwards, as Boris swiped his arms forwards in an attempt to grab her shoulders. She spun around to run but missed her footing and collapsed on the ground. She crawled backwards desperately, ashamed to be wishing that Simon would swoop in and save her.

Boris floated forwards eerily, with an evil sneer on his face. As he bore his arms back, like a lion, about to pounce, Marceline flinched in fear, covering her face. She waited… for the hands on her shoulders… the fangs in her neck? But neither came. What did come, was a muffled scream, and a voice that sounded like it was coming through a pillow.

"What is this stuff!? CONNOR!"

Marceline opened her eyes carefully. Boris was writhing back and forth in the air, slamming into the walls of the alleyway, trying to pry off what appeared to be a thick layer of pink rubber that seemed to have glued the rim of his hat to his face. With a splat, two more lumps of the pink substance fell from above and hit the ground, and a third one hit Boris' face again, sticking down his hands.

Marceline looked up. At the top of the alleyway, strung between the two buildings like a spider's web, was the familiar, gelatinous pink substance she and Simon had discovered so many years ago. She looked back at Boris, and jumped at what she saw. Three dark purple patches had formed on the glob he was trying to separate from his face and hands, and they arranged themselves, to form a grinning face. Although surprised, Marceline wasn't creeped out by what she saw. If anything, the face appeared child-like and cheerful.

Just like Simon had taught her, Marceline chose to save herself and, if she could, explore her new discovery later. She climbed to her feet and ran from the alleyway and back into the street, but as soon as she did, she ran straight into Connor, flying towards her in response to Boris' call.

"Ugh! Get away from me you creep!" Marceline snapped. Although Boris had frightened Marceline with his menacing demeanour, Connor was just beginning to get on her nerves.

She pushed him backwards, forcefully, and ran towards the campsite. But turning her back on Connor turned out to be a bad idea. He hit her like a cannon, tackling her waist and sending them both rolling across the ground. Marceline heard a gasp of pain and a brief sizzling sound as Connor's face was briefly exposed to the sunlight.

Marceline drove her elbow back at Connor as she struggled to free herself. She was still undecided about just killing him. She was sure she could if she found another tree branch to stake him with, but she wasn't sure if it was right. This wasn't like killing a goo creature when she wasn't supposed to. She really needed to talk to Simon…

Before Marceline could stand up again, Connor jumped at her for a final time, wrapping one arm around her neck, and with the other, placing a cloth over Marceline's mouth, which had a strong chemical smell. Marceline tried to resist, but her limbs had suddenly become heavy. Her eyelids drooped as she felt her energy drain from her body. Despite her strong desire to get back up and run, Marceline's vision blurred and everything went black.