-Buying Time-
The citizens of the Candy Kingdom shouted in utter fear all over the streets, panicking and running into each other as the ground continued to shake violently. Soon enough, their beloved leader, along with Jake, FP, and Susan, burst out of the castle's front doors and scanned the area, looking for any cracks to signify an earthquake.
Strangely enough, no sign of broken ground was visible, only the repeating vibrations from within the planet.
"We've got to figure out what this is. Jake, take us up."
The magical dog did as asked by the princess and placed her and Susan on his back. As Flame Princess followed close by, he stretched his legs to tower over the rest of the kingdom, giving the group the ultimate vantage point. Upon taking a minute to scan the surroundings, PB noticed a fault forming near the surface at multiple points.
"There's something under the crust, moving."
To strengthen the monarch's declaration, half a dozen dirt-based explosions emerged from all over the kingdom, heralding the appearance of whatever was hidden beneath the earth's skin. As the massive objects slammed to the ground from their skyward bursts, the four observing them were shocked.
"Oh my Glob! It's a bunch of sand worms!"
The gigantic creatures slithered along the city, bashing apart whatever they came in contact with, terrorizing the citizens even further. Bubblegum watched in both astonishment and anger as the beasts reduced her land to rubble.
"Second Arc. She cloned my worm!"
Jake momentarily lost his balance, nearly causing his passengers to fall. Luckily, he stabilized and began to lower them to a more workable height.
"How do we deal with these things?" Jake shouted as a worm blew past his left leg.
Peebles studied the layout of the city, trying to decide on a course of action.
"We'll have to work in groups, but it'll be difficult since there are only four of us."
Losing hope of saving any part of her kingdom, PB was stunned by the sudden voice of someone familiar.
"Then be happy we're here to help out."
The four swung their eyes to the sky, seeing a rapidly approaching Marceline and Ice King.
"Marcy! What are you doing here?"
The vampire smirked as she floated to eye level with the princess.
"We can't have your place go down in flames now can we?"
PB smiled, appreciative of her old friend. She then turned to the hovering Ice King.
"And you?" she said with little enthusiasm.
The wizard grinned.
"Hey, I wanted to help too. Get on your good side, know what I'm sayin?"
Peebles face-palmed and groaned.
"Let's stick with you just being a good citizen. Ok?"
IK looked a bit saddened but sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, ok."
Suddenly, Jake began to wobble extensively, throwing his two friends off his back. Luckily, Marcy and Ice King caught them before the gravity could. Down below, four of the sand worms had wrapped themselves around the dog's stretchy legs, immobilizing him.
"Oh jeez, I'm not doing too good, guys!"
Flame Princess responded by floating down and firing a powerful stream of fire at the nearest worm holding the canine down. Unfortunately, her attack didn't even leave a scratch. PB called from Marceline's hold.
"It's no use, Flame Princess, they're hides are fire-resistant!"
Frustrated, the fiery girl produced a flame sword and charged at the creature, aiming to pierce its surface with the sharp weapon. However, her anger caused her to miss the fifth worm plowing along, which slammed into her and flattened the fire elemental against its glass-like cockpit.
Upon opening her eyes, FP was shocked to see what lay inside the behemoth's controls.
"They're…they're being controlled by some kind of computer brains!"
As she said, a massive technological core was connected to the tubes operating the worm, with dozens of flashing lights that signaled the device was working. Figuring it was the weak spot, FP attempted to impale her blazing weapon through the glass and destroy the machine. However, as soon as she drew her arm back, the worm halted, surprising and throwing the young ruler off.
Flame Princes landed in a pile of rubble, rubbing her head.
"Ugh, that one hurt."
The sand worm resumed its path, attempting to burrow right into the fire elemental. She panicked and closed her eyes, thinking this will hurt a lot more. Luckily, she wasn't alone. A multitude of black tentacles grabbed the worm and stopped its advancement. Stunned by the lack of pummeling, FP opened her sight to see a monstrous being wrestling with the giant digging beast. The creature's face turned to the fiery girl as it struggled to hold back the tunneling being.
"FP, get out of there!"
The fire elemental was shocked.
"Marceline?"
"Yeah, I know, I look hideous. Now go!"
Flame Princess thought for a moment.
"Wait. I've got a better idea. Keep it still."
The shape-shifter vampire glowered at her.
"What do you think I've been doing!?"
FP ignored the comment and recreated a flame sword, charging at the sand worm's front again. This time, she was able to give the red glass protecting its core a few fiery slashes, shattering it. Dissipating the blade, she backed away and held her hands in front of her, generating a powerful nucleus of flames.
"Eat this, chump!"
The young king let loose her scorching inferno, which hit the worm's artificial controller dead on, instantly melting and blowing it to pieces. Marceline felt the worm stop struggling, and released her tentacles from it. It slammed to the ground, no longer moving. The vampire quickly reverted to her humanoid from and stood before the giant creature. FP landed beside her.
"Hm, nice job, lightning bug."
The fiery girl glared at her, prompting Marcy to laugh.
"Just kidding."
As the dark-haired girl began lifting back into the air, the worm's body began to shift. Its surface became rather unstable, and the ground upon which it lay rumbled slightly. Within seconds, the digging behemoth exploded into a mountain's worth of sand, crashing down upon the two girls who were nearby. They shielded their heads as the grainy mineral buried them.
A full square block of the city was now enveloped by the sand, ruining anything that was in its range. As the fine particles settled, a tower of flames suddenly shot out. Once the blaze had deformed into the air, a glassy hole remained in its wake. Out of this opening came Flame Princess, still spitting out sand from her mouth.
Marceline floated out behind her, vigorously rubbing her face.
"Agh! I got some in my eyes!"
FP looked around and spotted a fire hydrant. With some expert aim, she fired a ball of combustion at it, causing it to burst and spray a fountain up to the sky. As Marcy felt the drops hit her skin, she caught some in the palm of her hands and splashed it into her burning peepers.
As the vampire let out a sigh of relief and readjusted her vision, she looked over to the hovering fire elemental and gave her an appreciative grin.
"Thanks."
FP nodded.
"No prob. Hey, how come you're not burning up? It's daytime."
Marcy pointed to the sky, which the princess then looked towards, making her gasp. The heavens were all but invisible, shrouded by a deep layer of dark storm clouds. There was no rain, or thunder, or even lightning. It was as if the world simply had a blindfold on.
"Whoa, when did that happen?"
Marceline and FP flew off to help the others.
"A few hours ago. It's weird because no one forecasted anything close to a storm today; or the next week for that matter."
The two girls came up on Jake, who was still having trouble with the four worms holding him down. Ice King was doing his best to freeze the rampaging one that continued to level the kingdom. Susan was busy bashing one of the constricting beasts in the face, giving its glass cockpit several nasty cracks.
Soon enough, she succeeded in punching through, jumping in and grabbing the egg-shaped unit controlling it. The woman quickly tore the object out of the multiple cords connecting it to the sand worm, then dashed out of it as the creature began to shut down. As she dove and took cover behind the wall of a broken building, the worm exploded, unleashing a torrent of sand that bashed into the human's barricade.
Luckily, it didn't spill over that much, allowing her to briskly dig her way out and crush the cybernetic brain between her hands.
"Worm goes down," she smirked.
Now having one of his appendages free, Jake quickly swung it over and punched one of the remaining worms off of him. Now with two available limbs, he stood up on his still bound hind legs and grabbed the other two squirmy worms with his giant hands.
"Ok, boys, lay off the fur!"
With a massive toss, he sent the two burrowers hurling out of the kingdom's borders, where they crashed into the cotton candy forest on the outskirts. Princess Bubblegum watched from Jake's back.
"That won't do any good, they'll just tunnel back over here."
The magical dog shrank lower until he was but fifty feet high.
"Then what do we do?"
The candy monarch reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange remote-like device.
"If you can get me right in their face, I can fire an EMP beam to disable their control hubs."
Jake nodded and set his eyes upon the two worm's tails as they reentered the earth. In the meantime, Ice King had successfully immobilized his target, now adding on multiple layers of frost to ensure it couldn't escape.
"Yeah! How do ya like me now, sucker?"
A massive crack appeared in the worm's prison.
"Oh beans."
The ice shattered, sending frozen chunks in all directions, one of which hit the wizard in the head, knocking off his crown and letting him fall to the ground. To his esteemed luck, he landed in a pond of cream soda. Upon resurfacing, he tried licking off the sticky substance.
"Mm, tasty."
His enjoyment was interrupted as the previously frozen worm bore down on him, forcing the old man to cover his eyes and shriek like a little girl. Just as he was about to be pulverized, the creature's movement was halted by Jake's massive mitts. PB rode on the magical dog's head, tossing IK his crown back.
"Ice King, help Jake hold it down!"
The bumbling wizard acknowledged the princess's order and fired his powers at the worm's underbelly. Meanwhile, Peebles jumped off and ran down one of Jake's outstretched arms, coming up to the sand being's maw.
"Take this!"
She aimed her device at the cockpit, unleashing an electrical beam that attempted to pierce the technological brain within the beast. However, as soon as the ray struck the crimson glass protecting the unit, it fizzled out. Bubblegum was in shock as the worm broke free of Jake and Ice King's bindings. The yellow bulldog managed to catch the catapulted PB as she flew through the air.
"Gotcha!"
He retreated into his protective ball form, bouncing along the ground with the monarch safely inside. Once they were a fair distance away, he unraveled and returned to his normal shape. Ice King floated over as well, but mostly because he was scared of the rampaging sand worms.
"I don't get it, why didn't it work?" Jake asked.
PB growled at the distant worms.
"Second Arc must have placed an electrostatic barrier on the worms' hubs. The EMP can't penetrate that glass."
As the group though about how to deal with the tunneling creatures, Susan suddenly jumped down next to them, looking quite battered.
"Susan have plan."
The others stared at her in astonishment.
"Really? Way to go Susie!" Jake congratulated.
PB walked up to the towering lady.
"What have you got for us?"
The woman knelt down to the ground, as did everyone else. Using her finger, she began drawing a plan in the candy dirt.
"Jake stretch into big worm, just like bad ones, then me and princess ride on his head while fire lady and blue old guy fly over us."
"Hey!"
"Get over it, Simon."
"They zap worms with their magic to get them to attack Jake, he hold monster steady, then I bash them in face to break glass. Princess can then shoot her light thing into worm's mouth."
Bubblegum smiled.
"That's excellent, Susan. A team effort. It should work."
Marceline came forward.
"What about me, huh?"
Susan thought for a moment, then smiled.
"You be lookout, tell us if worms are about to attack."
The vampire shrugged then headed up into the air, taking her role. Susan tightened her fist.
"Let's go."
Following his que, Jake expanded his body to massive proportions, then tucked in his arms and legs to form the splitting image of a burrowing beast himself. PB and Susan hopped on to get in their positions, while Ice King and Flame princess flew up and charged their respective elemental powers. With the formation assembled, Jake charged forward, aiming at the nearest thrashing sand worm. IK fired several volleys of ice lightning at the behemoth, irritating it and causing it to turn around and make a run at Jake.
The magic dog acted fast, twining his body around the foe and immobilizing it as best he could. As he did, Susan dove at the burrower's face, slugging it in the glass with the full might of her fist. A web of cracks instantly formed, as she swung her second blow to finish the job. The second strike blew the canopy apart, exposing the core within. With her job done, the human retreated back to her position as PB stood carefully on Jake's shaking head.
With one well-placed blast from her device, the brain commanding its worm overloaded, blowing a fuse and immediately shutting down. The worm in Jake's grasp went limp, then promptly disintegrated into sand like the others. With that done, the gang moved on to the next one.
Their next target was quite a bit feistier than the previous, thrashing around wildly in Jake's coiled body. Luckily, Ice King and FP provided some extra support in containing the beast, allowing Susan and Peebles to do their part and disable the core. As the second worm blew apart into sandy smithereens, they moved on to tracking down the two remaining creatures.
It had become routine by this point, as the group worked in perfect sync to take down the final pair of earth-levelers. Once the kingdom was finally clear of rumbling and destruction, the gang proceeded to the walls surrounding the city, taking a moment to rest. As they gazed over the land, Jake frowned.
"Yeesh, you might need to change the name of the place, PB."
A good portion of the area was buried beneath the tons of material the worms had released, making the Candy Kingdom look like a sandbox for kids to play in. The pink monarch sighed.
"At least the citizens are safe; the gumball guardians should be able to help clean up and- wait a second, why didn't those two wake up and fight?"
All eyes gazed at the unmoving protectors of the kingdom, who sat silently blowing their bubbles. Before further questioning could begin, Marceline floated down to them, holding a techy object in her hand.
"I think this might give you an answer."
She handed the item to Bubblegum, who briefly studied it before crushing it in her hand and baring her teeth.
"Darn that Arc. She put the guardians in sleep mode with a jamming device."
Throwing the jammer away, Peebles absentmindedly scanned the horizon out in the grasslands, suddenly noticing a large glow.
"What the heck is that?"
Everyone turned to look at the strange light in the distance.
"Looks like a fire, a bonfire." Jake distinguished.
The magical dog stretched out and grew to his fifty foot form.
"Come on, we should check it out. It might be those humans."
Nodding, those who couldn't fly got onto the dog's back, as he stomped through the cotton candy forest to reach the verdant plains beyond. It only took a few minutes, thanks to his size, before Jake reached a fair distance to the massive blaze erupting from the land. PB and Susan got off of him and slowly approached the phenomenon along with FP, Marcy, and Ice King.
It was now notable that a group of person-shaped silhouettes were in front of the fire, seeming to be wearing cloaks with hoods. The gang took caution upon nearing the group, nervous that these beings might be hostile. However, as they came within measurable distance of the mysterious assembly, it was clearly seen that they were humanoids dressed in the cloaks.
The friends stopped, wary of the possibility that the beings were their worst nightmares. Sure enough, the shrouded figures noticed the arrivals, slowly turning to look at them. The Ooocian's narrowed their eyes as the identity of the group was revealed.
There stood the Arcs, calmly gazing upon the assembled companions as if they were no threat. PB stepped forward as she spotted Second Arc among them.
"You! How dare you copy my sand worm!"
The woman stepped forward as well, while her allies spread out a bit, revealing all five of them.
"It was a necessary distraction, as our goal is near completion."
As if beckoning to the lady's words, sunlight suddenly spilled out over the area, causing everyone to momentarily shield their eyes. Marceline yelped as the rays began to burn her. She quickly reached to the strap holding her ax bass and pulled out a sunhat, which had been stashed there as well.
Upon recovering from the shine, the gang was amazed to find that the clouds were departing at impossible speeds, clearing the sky of anything besides the pure blue of the heavens. Scanning the air further, they were shocked to see a distant object streaking across the sky.
"A comet?" PB asked with bewilderment.
Second Arc nodded.
"Indeed. It is our responsibility to bring that celestial force to earth, putting our plan in motion."
The gummy princess was stunned.
"You're insane! How could you possibly force an icy body to crash down to the planet?"
The human woman gestured to the towering bonfire behind her.
"With a ritual, of course."
The group gazed into the fires, confused as to what the Arc meant.
"Ritual?"
Second Arc reached into her cloak and pulled out a rolled piece of paper.
"Why do you think I stole your chart?"
Following those words, her form briefly flickered, shifting into the image of Peppermint Butler. PB glared at the woman as she shifted back to her true form.
"I should've known. No one else had access to my more secure labs and information."
She stepped forward again.
"Why did you need it?"
Second Arc pointed to the sun.
"To predict the next alignment."
The gathered friends all looked to where the Arc was pointing, stunned to see a massive dark disk beginning to cover up the star. Bubblegum swung back to stare down the human.
"A solar eclipse? Why?"
The human motioned to all her fellow Arcs.
"It is the most important part of the ritual; a circle that you cannot break."
She lowered her arms and hardened her facial expression.
"As you might guess, we would need all of us to complete it."
The inhabitants of Ooo were taken aback, wondering what she meant. PB was the first to figure it out.
"Six Arcs, but there are only five of you."
Second Arc nodded.
"Correct. Coming to your land was not only in preparation for this day, but also the continuing effort to find our final member."
She began causally strolling back and forth as she explained herself.
"We Arcs resonate with each other, it is how we were brought together in the first place. We searched the planet for months trying to find the last of us, but in vain. You see, our abilities manifest at maturity, the point where we can control and harness them. I came to the conclusion that the last had not revealed itself because of this lack in mental development."
She stopped walking.
"But now, we are finally as one."
Second Arc stepped aside, allowing the natives to see the space behind her. Astonishingly enough, a sixth hooded figure was unveiled. This being slowly walked forward, until it passed Second Arc and halted, signaling the others to gather up on either side. All was silent for a moment, as the Ooocians gazed in mixed fear and apprehension at the newcomer.
Eventually, Flame Princess had enough waiting and stepped forward, firing her strongest fire stream at the prominent figure among the Arcs. The being gave no attempt to dodge, simply allowing the blast to hit. FP stopped after a few seconds, waiting for the inferno to die down and show the result. As the combustion finally dissipated into the wind, everyone was shocked to see the sixth still standing, with virtually no damage at all done.
The sole object affected was its cloak, which progressively burned away into ash. The other Arcs proceeded to throw off their cloaks as well, revealing their full view and the enigmatic symbols on their chests. Meanwhile, their lead's shrouding attire vanished, disintegrated entirely.
The gang stared with wide eyes and open mouths, too shocked to even respond to what they saw. It took a minute, but Flame Princess was the first to regain partial composure and step forward.
"F-Finn?"
The human boy stood in significantly different clothing, namely a white jacket that incorporated his bear hat as its hood. The coat was unzipped, letting the ends flap slightly in the breeze. A grey shirt was present underneath, embroidered with a circle containing the symbol 'I'. His face was hard, set in a near blank expression that showed no emotion. he did however, slightly shake his head.
"No, not Finn."
He took one strong step towards the gang, who were still paralyzed with disbelief.
"I am First Arc."
A/N: Not gonna say much, don't want to ruin the feeling.
DJ Rodriguez: Hopefully this was informative, but not too revealing.
OMAC001: There's your answer.
I am The7: Haha, not quite.