-Seeking Payback-
The Fire Kingdom had been normal and peaceful ever since the incident with the falling anomalies, but this fact alone did not excite Flame Princes. On the contrary, she didn't really pay her land much thought. The citizens had been doing fine on their own accord, not so much as questioning her recently enforced truth. The reason behind the fiery ruler's indifference lay in one particular boy.
That jerk. He came over once, and that was just to talk about dungeons.
FP had a mixture of a pout and a frown on her face.
I don't want to hear about adventures and fights; I just want someone to talk to.
As the king sighed depressingly, she noticed Cinnamon Bun walk by, holding a potted plant. She stood from her throne and strolled over to intercept the candy person.
"Hey, CB."
The loyal goof stopped and flashed his grin.
"Hi, princess."
FP gazed curiously at the item her friend was holding.
"You sure have brought in a lot of plants lately. What's up with you?"
The sweet being shrugged nonchalantly.
"I don't know. I just think they look nice."
Flame Princess didn't stop him as he resumed walking, placing his fire lily on a stump near the throne. She hummed thoughtfully but refocused her thinking on the subject earlier.
Next time he shows up, I might just set his butt on fire. No wait; flame shield. Darn. Hm, maybe I'll just smack him.
Lost in her own contemplation, FP didn't notice a familiar flambit scampering across the room and up to the armrest of her royal seat.
"Hey there, your highness."
The king was pulled out of her thoughts and swung around to eye her visitor. She smiled.
"Oh, hey Flambo. What have you got for me?"
The short little flame being waited until FP sat back down before giving his announcement.
"Well, there's actually not much goin' on. The only worthwhile dirt spreading is that Finn's in the hospital."
"WHAT!?"
Flame Princess nearly burst from her chair, but contained herself and stared hard at Flambo.
"What happened?"
The flambit scratched his head, trying to recall all the details.
"From what I heard, he fell off the Ice King's mountain and hit his head on some really tough snow at the bottom. I think he's unconscious."
FP began running possible scenarios through her head, thinking first that Ice King had pushed him down, but that was unlikely, Finn wasn't that slow, or dumb. Although, he was dumb enough to jump off just for the heck of it.
"I'm going."
Flambo's eyes widened.
"What!? Yous can't just leave, there's peeps here who need your leadership!"
FP shook her head.
"They'll be fine while I go out for a little bit."
With that, the girl shifted into her flame form, carrying her royal armor along with her as she headed down the halls to her personal chamber. In response to the action, Flame King was stunned within his lantern prison.
"She can do that?" he asked to no one in particular.
Regardless, Cinnamon Bun shrugged as if to answer the former ruler. Flame Princess returned a moment later, shifting back into her humanoid form, although now wearing her classic dress. I was much too clumsy to travel long distances in the armor, not to mention very unappealing for friendly confrontations.
"Come on, Flambo."
The little guy nodded and hopped onto his king's shoulder. At that point, FP took to the air, exiting the palace through one of the nearby windows. Her speed was high enough that Flambo had a difficult time hanging on. By the time the two burst out of the dark ash clouds of the Fire Kingdom, their altitude made the far off Candy Kingdom just visible on the horizon.
While zooming across the grasslands, Flame Princess spotted Finn and Jake's tree house below. There was no activity as far as she could tell, meaning that Jake was likely already at the Candy Kingdom's hospital. This only caused her to accelerate further, and made it harder for her flambit companion to not blow away in the breeze.
Upon approach to the castle in the epicenter of the kingdom, FP felt slightly nervous about passing by the towering Gumball Guardians, having a fear in the back of her mind that they would suddenly wake up and say 'threat detected'. However, no such thing occurred and she proceeded to fly right towards the window leading into the infirmary.
As the fire elemental set herself down, all present in the room stared at her in surprise.
"Flame Princess? What are you doing here?" Bubblegum stated in shock.
FP ignored the question for the moment and scanned the area like lightning until her eyes found the unmoving figure of Finn. She rushed over to him, where Jake was on the opposite side of the hero's bed.
"Yeah, what are you doing here, FP?"
The fiery girl briefly looked up at the magical dog, a scowl on her face.
"What! You don't think I care about Finn's well-being?"
Jake backed away slightly, quite intimidated.
"Well, uh, ok. Never mind."
Flame Princess returned her attention to the knocked-out human, who was peacefully lying down, his bandaged head supported by several fluffy pillows.
"What happened to him?"
Peebles walked over and gazed at Finn's injury.
"He suffered a concussion after hitting some compacted slush in the Ice Kingdom. We haven't gotten a response out of him in hours."
Jake sighed.
"And boy, were there some weird additions to the whole crazy mess."
FP switched her sight to the dog.
"What do you mean?"
Jake gazed at the fire elemental with a serious look.
"Well, we were checking out some strange readings from Ice King's place when we caught Gunter stealing some of his lightning power. Except, it wasn't Gunter at all."
He furrowed his brow and looked back at Finn.
"It was some girl, using a…what did you call it PB?"
"Holographic projection."
"Yeah, that. It made her look just like a penguin, but she was actually…a human."
Flame Princess and Flambo nearly gasped. They were well aware of the scarcity of Finn's species, making this quite the news indeed.
"Did you catch her?"
Jake shook his head sadly.
"Nope. She had this nuts super power or something. It let her move like a tornado, we couldn't keep up. She ditched Finn on the way down the mountain."
The four beings in the room contemplated the dilemma. While doing so, FP absentmindedly slipped her hand onto Finn's and squeezed it gently. Her eyes were set in worry, wondering how badly the boy had been hit. Suddenly, his eyes flashed open and he took in a deep breath.
"Where is she!? Where!?"
As the hero frantically darted his eyes over the room, his companions restrained him to the bed.
"Dude, calm down!" Jake pleaded.
It took a minute, but the human was able to relax and sit up, propping himself up with the pillows.
"Ugh, my head. What's going on?"
As he rubbed his aching cranium, PB walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Finn, you were hit pretty hard in the head. I doubt you can even walk straight. Just stay off your feet."
The hero gazed with worry at the pink princess.
"Where's that girl?"
He swung over to Jake.
"Please, man, tell me you caught her."
Reluctantly, the dog shook his head. Finn was crestfallen, falling back against the wall.
"Dang."
He then noticed Flame Princess.
"FP? You came?"
The girl nervously smiled.
"Y-yeah. I heard you took a bad fall. I assumed it was you being stupid."
Finn actually laughed at that.
"Heh, might as well have been."
Princess Bubblegum had taken out a notepad and pen from her dress.
"Finn, what can you tell us about this girl?"
The human shifted his expression to one of serious thought.
"She's definitely human, she told me so. She also said her name was Fifth Arc, whatever that means."
This news confused the others.
"That certainly is an unusual name. I'll see what I can find. Meanwhile, you should get some rest, Finn. Jake can handle any further field work."
The hero was forced to agree, seeing as his head was messing with his cognitive functioning.
"Yeah, ok. Be careful, bro."
Jake nodded and added a grin, empowering his silent promise. The human felt down to his face and flinched as he touched his cheek.
"Ow! What the junk?"
His brother chuckled.
"You also got socked in the face."
Finn lightly rubbed the bruise.
"Oh yeah." He replied, remembering the blazing speed punch he'd received.
Flame Princess however, had a noticeably higher reaction, although didn't speak it. He eyes studied the purple toned skin on Finn's cheek, suddenly gaining a feeling of anger. In the meantime, PB looked to the yellow canine in the room.
"Jake, we have our next step. After talking with Slime Princess a few weeks ago, I planted several monitoring devices deep in the mucus membrane of her kingdom. These have just recently detected unusual tremors underneath the area. In addition, there are subtle readings of the same consistency as those from Ice King's castle."
The dog perked up at the last part, looking over again at his bedridden sibling.
"Got it. I'll head out as soon as possible."
Before PB could even nod, Flame Princess walked over to the pair.
"I'm going too."
The others were surprised.
"Uh, why?"
The fiery girl tightened her fists.
"Whoever that girl's with, they hurt Finn. And just like you guys, surly, I'm not letting them get away with it."
After a minute of processing the statement, both Peebles and Jake nodded.
"Alright, Flame Princess. But if you're going with Jake, you'll need a way to deal with…this."
She gestured to all of FP. She got the point and motioned to Flambo. The fire sprite hopped over to Jake and quickly chanted the flame shield incantation. Soon enough, the dog was coated in the blue shroud of the spell.
"Sweet, ok we're off. Come on, FP."
Jake allowed Flambo to jump on top of his head as the stretchy canine made his way out of the nearby window. Bubblegum nodded one last time to Flame Princess then proceeded out the hospital doors and back to her lab. Before the fiery girl left after Jake, she turned to gaze upon Finn one last time. The hero had sunk back to a lying position and fallen asleep.
FP walked over and gave him a warm smile.
"Get better soon, ok?"
However, as the fire elemental turned to walk off, her eyes caught something sticking out of the boy's pocket. Curious, Flame Princess knelt down and examined the object. It was a crumpled up piece of paper. Looking over to Finn's backpack, the young king reached over and dug around quickly for the roll of foil that the hero always kept inside.
After procuring the silvery wrap, she hastily wrapped her hands in it and gingerly yanked the wad out of Finn's pants. Unwrapping it, FP instantly saw several crossed out lines and various tidbits of notes. However, there were a few completed verses, which she proceeded to read, overwhelmed by curiously.
Several seconds later, Flame Princess's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed red. She looked over to Finn, still snoozing. After quickly crumpling and replacing the paper into the human's pocket, FP stood up with a jitter and tried to leave through the window after Jake. However, she stopped, turned around as if conflicted, then decided to stroll back over to the resting boy and leaned into him.
An extremely quick peck on his cheek was the result, just fast enough not to leave a burn mark so he would never know. With that, FP blushed a little harder, albeit with a smile, and swung around, shifting into her flame form and jetting out the window.
Upon arriving at the bubbling pit that marked the entrance to the Slime Kingdom, FP and Flambo allowed Jake to cover them in his stretchy body as he threw himself into the muck. The fire elementals were protected from the sticky and wet substance as the dog was let down in a gross drop of slime. Once it released him, the canine unwrapped his form and allowed Flambo to again take his place on top of Jake's head. Flame Princess floated along next to them while the trio made their way towards the correct section of the underground caverns.
Slime Princess was waiting for them at the entrance to her sister's secret stash of military resources, which the slime people had decided to keep rather than put all that firepower to waste. However, it was currently marked off by caution tape.
"Oh thank Glob you came, we've been getting so worried about the rumbling coming from underneath the place."
Jake kneeled down to comfort the nervous princess.
"It's alright, SP. Ol' Jakey and his crew will get to the bottom of this."
He gave a thumbs up to his companions and they followed him past the yellow warning tape.
"Good luck down there," the slimy royal called after them.
The three friends made their way past the lines of tanks waiting to be deployed when necessary. It was quite intimidating, seeing all the heavy machinery silently sitting there. However, the eerie sense was soon shaken by a sudden rumbling from under the group's feet.
"Oh snap! There's the earthquakes!"
Jake stopped and placed his ear to the ground while Flambo hopped onto a nearby tank.
"Hm, I'm not getting anything. I think the slime is too gooey to send the vibration junk far enough."
Pondering for a moment, Flame Princess suddenly came up with an idea.
"I know, let's try heat sense."
The fiery girl floated closer to the ground and twirled around in midair, releasing a wave of light flames that spread across the room. Once she stopped spinning, her eyes immediately locked onto a nearby tank.
"There's an opening letting out heat under that one," she pointed out.
Jake walked over and morphed his body into a jack, beginning to slowly raise the war machine on its side and revealing the hole FP had predicted.
"Whoa. I wonder what we'll find down there."
As the dog finished pushing aside the metal contraption, he quickly stretched himself down the pit, followed closely by Flame Princess with Flambo on her shoulder. The hole extended well below the normal depth attainable in the Slime Kingdom, causing the trio to think a form of drilling was involved, which may be the cause of the tremors.
Unfortunately, when the group hit the bottom level of the pit, there was nothing but a tunnel, at least twenty feet wide, running north along the mucus-like surroundings. With caution, they pressed on, figuring they'd run into the perpetrators eventually. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon an opening, which revealed a thin vein of radioactive waste running parallel to the tunnel's path.
"So, this is what they were after, but what for?" Jake wondered.
As the fire elmentals continued studying the stream of hazardous green goo, Jake called up PB on his pink crystal.
"Yo, Prubs. We found something interesting."
The candy princess's hologram face was shown the extent of the tunneling beneath the Slime Kingdom.
"Great Gob! There's way too much structural instability down there. You guys have got to get out!"
Jake frowned.
"What about finding the perps?"
Peebles sighed.
"Alright, take a look around, but be careful. Any slight impact on those walls might bring the whole place down on you."
The princess's connection was cut off and Jake tucked the pendant back into a fold pocket on his skin.
"Ok. Everyone stay close, and let's not touch anything."
The fire elementals nodded as the trio proceeded deeper into the artificial cavern. A few more quakes shuddered around them, making the three nervous about a collapsing roof. These were significantly louder than earlier, hinting that they were closing in on the source. Once they reached a corner, Jake ordered the other two to hang back for a second as he stretched his eyeballs around the slimy wall.
On the other side was what they had been looking for. However, it astonished the magical dog nonetheless. A mountain of a man was busy punching and digging through the mucus substance composing the walls, revealing more and more sources of the radioactive waste with each hit. A few yards away from him stood a collection of barrels, each nearly spilling over with the toxic slag.
"Oh man," Jake whispered as he returned his oculi to their sockets.
"There's this huge dude carving out the place, and he's jacking the waste!"
FP leaned forward.
"What is he?"
Jake sent his whole head around again for a peek. He managed to catch the man while he was turned around, filling up another drum with the glowing chemical sludge. The canine's eyes grew wide.
"I…I can't believe it! It's another human!"
The fire elementals were shocked.
"Yous serious?" Flambo asked with a hint of skepticism.
The dog nodded.
"Definitely. His body looks just like Susan Strong's, a human-like friend of me and Finn's, but his face and that brown hair; it's totally my bro's species."
Jake looked back to the powerhouse, eagerly continuing his pounding of the slimy cave.
"Ok, here's the plan, we'll sneak up on two sides, that way he won't-"
Before he could finish the thought, a flame shot itself around the corner and straight at the hulking human.
"FP! What are you doing!?"
The princess wasn't listening, she was too busy charging a massive fireball in between her hands. The man noticed her approach and turned around with astonishment.
"What the-"
"This one's for Finn, you jerks!"
The fiery ruler blasted her enormous projectile at the human, intending to fry his buns off before he could dodge. Unfortunately, he didn't have to. Just before the searing object was upon him, the big guy smashed his giant fist into the ground with the full force of his muscular arm. The resulting impact threw up tons of slimy material, blocking the fireball and fizzling it out instantly.
When the gunk settled, the towering human glared at the stunned fire elemental.
"You dare to mess with me? You've got guts, fire lady."
He took a step forward and cracked his knuckles as Jake and Flambo caught up to their hotheaded companion. Jake didn't waste any time in enlarging his fist and firing it at the approaching human. Sadly, his attack fared worse than Flame Princess's. The man blocked the punch, not even being forced back an inch by its impact. Jake was shocked; more so when his opponent suddenly grabbed his wrist and yanked the dog forward. A solid punch to the face was delivered to the yellow canine as his body was helplessly pulled in. After getting thrown back, FP was able to catch him midflight.
"Jake! Are you alright?"
The dog had a shiny black eye and a bit of blood coming out of his nose. Regardless he grinned.
"Ugh. Yeah. I'm cool. But man, can that guy punch. And he's mad strong too."
Once the trio resumed a fighting stance, the human resumed his closing in on them. He hadn't even broken a sweat dealing with Jake. Noticeably, there was a strange symbol within a circle on his dark muscle shirt. It appeared to display 'VI'.
"You're all going to regret trying to tangle with Sixth Arc."
The trio's eyes narrowed at this declaration, then the enemy suddenly charged at them like a crazed elephant.
A/N: Sweet, managed to get in an extra update. I hope it's appreciated.