-False Alarm-
It didn't take that long for the reconstruction crew to remove the blemish upon their kingdom. With a little bit of molten rock, the void crater was soon lost beneath freshly lain earth. While Flame Princess oversaw the operation, Finn and Jake stepped aside to give an update to PB.
"You did what!?" the pink lady shouted.
Finn nervously gazed over his shoulder at FP, then back to Peeble's holographic face.
"Um, well, we couldn't just leave a giant hole in the ground, especially in the Fire Kingdom. Stable land is kinda valuable around here and I don't think FP would want her citizens falling into a ditch."
The candy princess groaned.
"Oh for Glob's sake. There could've been important information and evidence in that crater. Now it's gone forever. Great."
The human frowned, having already prepared a defense.
"Prubs, you've got four other holes to study and junk. Can you at least tone down the perfectionist in you just a little bit?"
PB shot him a resistive glare. He sighed.
"Plus, I really don't think Flame Princess would want you poking around. She's still edgy toward you."
Bubblegum face-palmed and shook her head.
"Fine. Whatever. Just get over to the next site. I don't want to lose even more potential data."
Finn nodded and deactivated the pendant, tucking it back under his shirt. The boy and his magical dog strolled back over to FP, who turned at their approach and let out a tired breath.
"Man, what an exhausting day. First a load of treaties to read, then a giant 'something' smashing into the place and disappearing, now I've got to go deal with some riots at the southern district."
The fire elemental still managed to smile a bit and looked to Finn and Jake.
"But I do appreciate your guys' help. Thanks."
The two heroes nodded, as if it were no big deal.
"No prob, FP. We're always around if you need some stuff done."
The flame king smiled brighter at the human then brought her hands together in front of her.
"So, now what are you guys going to do?"
Finn pointed in the direction of a distance trail of snow.
"We'll be heading for the Ice Kingdom, that's where the next closest hit took place."
Flame Princess noticeably lost some of her upbeat expression.
"Oh. Ok."
The human grinned amusedly.
"Yeah. PB's got us running all over today. A hero's work is never done."
Jake suddenly snickered from beside his bro, who raised an eyebrow, along with the fiery girl before them.
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
The yellow dog tried waving him off as he controlled his hysterics.
"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it."
FP narrowed her eyes.
"Jake…"
The canine noticed the darkened tone in her voice and gulped slightly.
"I-it was just an inside joke. You wouldn't get it."
The fire elemental crossed her arms, beckoning him to continue. Jake gave up and awkwardly stared at the ground, kicking up some volcanic ash.
"It's funny cuz I said that same thing to Lady a little while ago when she was sad I was leaving, and now Finn just said it to you, hehe."
His laugh was halfhearted, afraid of the reaction. Luckily for him, the only effect it had was making both teenagers next to him blush. Before the embarrassment could last any longer, Finn briskly began pushing his bro towards the borders of the Fire and Ice Kingdom.
"Ok so we'll see you around, FP, bye!"
He spoke so fast that the fiery royal could barely understand the words. However, she distinguished it fully and slowly waved as the two departed, wearing a somewhat blank expression on her face.
"Uh, yeah, alright. Hey, Finn!"
The human stopped and turned, although looked very uncomfortable doing so. FP sent out a little smile.
"Come over more often, ok? It's fun to hang out."
The hero hid his second blush and waved back with a makeshift grin.
"S-sure. See ya!"
He was off, at a speed the fire elemental didn't know he possessed. She stared after the duo of adventurers as they disappeared into the distance, crossing multiple peaks and climbing over a cliff to reach the snowy land beyond the horizon.
I hope it'll be soon, she thought.
The frosty domain of Ice King wasn't that much different than other days, just the usual barren and frankly depressing surroundings of pointy mountains and white blanketed ground. The one thing that stood out from the pure-like state of the kingdom was the column of smoke peeking out from Ice King's overseeing castle. Jake stretched himself to massive proportions as he and Finn proceeded to the crash, reaching the taller mountain within a minute.
Instead of just barging into a foreign land without consent, the two figured even the crazy wizard deserved to be asked politely about the state of his kingdom. And so, they quickly zoned in on the entrance to IK's pad and slipped right in.
Upon entering the icy abode, the heroes scanned around the room for their loony frenemy. It didn't take long, since his distraught groans could be heard echoing on the walls, leading Finn and Jake to his recliner.
Ice King sat in a lazy position, tapping away at the buttons on his remote control. One of his penguins was standing on the floor next to his chair, also wielding a controller. The difference between them was that the penguin was actually good at the videogame they were playing. The two bros chose to wait for the old man to finish his round before interrupting.
IK fidgeted with the buttons, almost whining as he struggled to press the right combination. However, it was all for naught, as his companion secured the victory and the screen flashed their final score. The wizard angrily threw his controller to the floor.
"Aw bunk! You were cheating! Zap!"
The poor penguin was instantly trapped in a block of ice, completely immobile. IK scratched the top of his head, bumping his crown, and looked over to a corridor entrance.
"Gunter! Come take away another one!"
The cute little bird waddled in, frowning as it saw its fellow frozen solid.
"Wenk wenk?"
Ice King laughed out loud.
"Haha, of course not, sweety. I know you're not good at videogames so I won't force you to play. That would be unfair."
Little did the king know his feathery friend was actually much better than he was, but kept quiet about it to avoid being 'cubed' like the others. As Gunter lugged away the penguin-sicle, IK turned and saw Finn and Jake, almost jumping out of his seat.
"Whoa! You guys almost gave me a heart attack. Hm, that's strange. I don't recall this being a day when I freeze and force- I mean, ask you guys to hang out with me. Let me check my schedule book. Gunter! I need my-"
"Wenk."
IK jumped again, not expecting such a rapid response.
"My word, Gunter; that was fast. Have you been working on those buns and thighs?" he teased.
The penguin just stared at him, inclining the wizard to dismiss her after accepting the records. Ice King licked his finger and began flipping through the calendar, trying to find today's date.
"Let's see; kidnap Bubblegum, kidnap Wildberry, kidnap Emerald, kidnap Breakfast…Oh! Here it is! Hang with my best bros. But wait, that's not till next week."
He shut the book and gazed warmly at the heroes.
"So, you guys really came all on your own? Wanting to hang out?"
The old man was getting some tears in his eyes, making it that much harder for the duo to state their actual reasoning.
"Uh, actually, we came to check out the smoking hole behind your house."
The king's expression fell apart instantly, changed to one of absolute confusion.
"Do what now?"
Jake frowned.
"Dude, I thought you could tell when someone's messing with your ice or whatever."
IK pointed to his head.
"I haven't been wearing my crown that much today; no powers."
It was Finn's turn to be skeptical.
"Even so, you seriously didn't hear of feel anything in the last hour or so?"
Ice King shrugged.
"Nope."
The two bros nearly fell over from disbelief. Instead however, Jake sighed in disappointment and looked back to the wizard.
"Well, do you mind if we check it out?"
The old man gave an invitational gesture.
"Go right ahead, bro."
Finn added in one more thing as Ice King retrieved his controller and got back into his recliner.
"Hey, could you come with us? There's a lot of smoke and your powers could really help."
IK just reached under his tunic and tossed the human a bag, which he quickly caught, noticing how light it was.
"Na, I've got chumps to destroy. Take this bag of winds. It should do the trick. Gunter! Send in the next one!"
Finn and Jake took one last look as another penguin nervously waddled over and took hold of the second controller. Then, they retreated back outside and headed for the crater. It was actually beginning to clear up by now, raising the spirits of the two adventurers, since they were honestly a little nervous about what kind of 'winds' Ice King was talking about.
"If I pass out from this, we're beating him up the next time we see him."
Finn wasn't too keen on his bro's idea, but went along with it as he removed the string from the bag and aimed the opening at the smoke. He was nearly thrown back as icy gusts bellowed from within the sack, pushing the black fog away at a rapid rate. Once the winds had run out, they had done their job.
As Finn and Jake had feared, this hole in the ground was no different from the last; empty. The human called up PB to inform her of the situation.
"Hey Peebs, nothing new. Just a hole, nothing in it."
The princess hummed to herself as she thought.
"This is so strange. In the meantime, I found that the one outside the Candy Kingdom has nothing going for it as well. I just can't understand this. There's no way these objects shattered into undetectable pieces in between their changed direction and impact. And I would've found residue at the least. It's puzzling."
The heroes couldn't quite grasp the princess's frustration, but went along with it and agreed. The monarch then instructed the two to check on the remaining two locations. So once again, Jake grew himself super tall and placed his human bro on his back. The pair then began the long trip to the next kingdom.
Finn didn't enjoy the entrance to the slippery and frankly gross underground of the Slime Kingdom the first time and he certainly didn't like it a second time. Once he and Jake cleared the goop that dropped them into the main cavern, the pair scrapped off as much of the gooey substance as possible before proceeding forward to a large gathering of slime people.
The crowd recognized the human immediately, parting a path for him to reach the center of the mass. Upon arrival, the two heroes found Slime Princess staring up at the ceiling of the cavern. She did, however, hear the squishing noises under their feet and turned to face them.
"Finn! Jake! Thank Grod!"
Finn kneeled down to be at eye level with the short royal.
"What is it, SP? Did something evil come out of that thing that fell in the kingdom?"
The greenish being shook her head.
"No. Just look, there's a gaping hole in the ceiling. It looks awful!"
The bros were a bit disappointed in the attitude of several royals today, rolling their eyes while the princess wasn't looking.
"Ok, well, we'll get right on that. Anyway, you're saying there was nothing?"
Before Slime Princess could reply, another inhabitant of the kingdom stepped through the crowd, holding his scepter high to dispel those in his way.
"No! That is what she said. But I, Elder Plops, saw something much more than just 'nothing'."
Finn and Jake let the interruption slide and faced the eldery man, who readjusted the towering miter on his head before continuing.
"Just as the sound of a crash echoed through the kingdom I, Elder Plops, drew my sight to the roof of our beloved home, instantly seeing the object from the sky beginning to drip down after being caught in the slimy substance of the surroundings."
Finn was extremely hopeful at this point.
"So what was it? And where is it now?"
The old slime person's expression changed to one of discomfort.
"Mm, Elder Plops has no idea."
Jake face-palmed and groaned, tired of having no results and dealing only with old loonies. Finn on the other hand, kept his chivalrous demeanor.
"Oh. Well, thanks anyway. Later."
"Wait!"
The human stopped leaving and looked back to Plops.
"What is it?"
The stubby slime man pulled at his beard as he appeared to be whimsically gazing at the area in the ceiling that had been breached.
"This cool guy didn't say anything about having no info whatsoever. All you asked was if I knew what and where it was. You never inquired of me, Elder Plops, if I could give any form of description of said object."
Finn was a bit lost by all the eccentric talk but understood what the elder meant.
"Oh, well sure. Could you please give us a rundown of what you saw?"
Plops nodded and pointed with his scepter to the hole.
"Right there, above the glorious kingdom where I, Elder Plops, am much beloved, there fell an irregular shaped 'thing' that reminded me of a boulder. Sadly, even the astounding eyesight of me, Elder Plops, couldn't be sure. It appeared to be, melty."
Finn raised an eyebrow.
"Melty?"
The elder nodded.
"Indeed. It looked like it was shifting somewhat, not quite satisfied with its shape."
Jake's eyes widened.
"So, it was a living thing?"
Plops held his hand defensively to the dog.
"Whoa, whoa! This awesome dude didn't say that. I only said what I, Elder Plops, directly told you. There's nothing more to it."
Jake took great effort into not losing his mind as Finn frowned and tried to process the info.
"Well, thank you for the description, sir. We'll be on our way."
The slime person nodded.
"Of course. Just come by if you need the services of me, Elder Plops, for any further reason."
The human acknowledged, rather awkwardly, and turned back to Slime Princess.
"I guess we'll get going. We've still got to check on the Goblin Kingdom. Later, SP."
The short royal waved back with a smile as Jake stretched his legs like an elevator to deliver himself and Finn to the surface once again, leaving behind the added mystery of an actual object within one of the falling anomalies.
By the time Finn and Jake made it to the isolated city of the goblins, the smoke from their unwelcome guest had long since subsided. Not only that, but the citizens had cleaned up the whole mess. Figures. After all, the people had proven their skill in rebuilding after Flame Princess made a 'visit' several years ago.
As the two adventurers descended down into the city, they were immediately greeted by many of the goblins, who remembered the times this duo had saved them. It took some effort, but they made it to the palace and pushed their way inside. Before them was the goblin throne, upon which sat Whisper Dan, Finn's scapegoat for escaping the insanity of the Goblin Kingdom's rules.
As far as the heroes could tell, the inhabitants of the city paid no mind to the fact that Finn was now adventuring out and about, rather than sitting upon his kingly chair. The whole situation was confusing and weird, but they chose not to argue about it, since there was no reason to ruin a good thing.
"Sire, you have guests," Gummy, the Royal Goblin Chief of Staff, announced.
Naturally, before Whisper Dan replied (not that he could), the little goblin held up his hands.
"I shall exchange the greetings for you."
He proceeded to perform a small bow to the newly arrived pair.
"The king welcomes you to our humble land. To what do we owe this pleasant visit?"
Finn rubbed the back of his neck, realizing that without anything left of the crater, there wasn't much point in being here.
"Um, well. We were sent by Princess Bubblegum to check out some 'thing' that landed near here. You wouldn't by chance know anything about it, would you?"
Gummy looked back to his king and held up his hand again.
"I know exactly what to say, your highness. Do not worry."
He turned back to Finn and Jake.
"Indeed, there was a most unusual crash just outside our walls. However, we found not a trace of any 'thing' inside."
The heroes hung their heads sadly, expecting such an answer. Gummy meanwhile, frowned as well.
"The sire would like to express his deepest apologies that he could not offer more. It is truly sorrowful that we cannot repay the great heroes who saved us many times over."
Finn formed a humble smile.
"Na, that's ok. You told us exactly what we needed. Thanks a lot, Gummy."
The goblin shook his head.
"Oh no. It was the great king who you should thank."
The bros stared for a second at Whisper Dan's form and gave weak wave.
"Thank you."
With that, the pair departed, leaving behind the Goblin Kingdom and making their way home by use of Jake's massive steps. While making the journey, Finn called up PB and informed her of the statuses of the other kingdoms, explaining the same results. However, the princess was extremely interested in Elder Plops' story.
"An possible organism? This is worth looking into. I'm going to set up a meeting with Slime Princess. In the meantime guys, thanks for all your help today. Go get a good rest."
The adventurers acknowledged the message and Finn promptly flung the holo-pendant far across the grasslands.
"Hey how come you always do that?" Jake asked.
The human shrugged.
"I don't really know."
The sun was setting by this point, producing a gorgeous mixture of oranges, reds, and yellows on the horizon, drawing Finn's entire attention for the whole trip home. Jake noticed the silence from his bro and spoke up.
"You alright up there, dude?"
The boy was almost too mesmerized to answer back.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm good. Just looking at the sunset."
The dog grinned.
"Thinking about anyone?"
Finn's eyes wouldn't even blink by now.
"Yeah…wait, what? No! Jake, butt out, man!"
The magical canine stretched his face up to meet his bro's.
"Don't be lying, lover boy. I could practically smell your emotions when you stopped FP from tripping. You were soooo happy to have her in your arms for those precious few seconds."
He proceeded to laugh while Finn's face changed shades to nearly match a rose.
"Seriously, Jake, quit it!"
The dog shifted some of his body to match a figure of Flame Princess, then began speaking in a teasing female voice.
"Oh Finn! You're such an awesome guy, I just want to sit in your lap and watch the sunset. But you'll probably just stare at me cuz you think I'm so pretty. Want a kiss, my hero?"
Finn was grinding his teeth at this point and resisting the urge to wonk his bro in the eye.
"Let me off."
Jake's entertained expression fell off.
"Huh?"
The human narrowed his eyes at the dog.
"Let. Me. Off."
The tone he used was so definite that Jake didn't hesitate to shrink down and let the human off. Finn strolled away, walking on his own back to the tree house.
"Finn, I'm really sorry. I know, I'm a jerk and you have every right to ignore or punch me and stuff, but please, don't be walking home on your own. Finn?"
The hero didn't turn as he continued his pace.
"I'll be fine."
Jake watched sadly as his bro-ham wandered across the plains, cursing himself for taking the joke too far. Eventually, he stretched himself big again and depressingly stepped past the human and out of sight over a hill. In the meantime, Finn resumed his gaze at the sunset while walking. He smiled.
Well, I guess I've got time to think of another poem.
When the rains fall, I'll be there to shield you
When the people are restless, I'll be there to aid you
There will never be a time
When my time is more treasured than yours…
A/N: I might just be able to do two updates a week. I'll see how how it goes. Also, thank you all who gave this a chance. I hope you'll like what comes next.
-S.A.