Slightly longer this time. . . Yay!
Her hands worked slowly yet surely, doing a job that needed the utmost concentration. If she messed up now, her beloved leader would be scarred for life, never being able to see the wonderful sights, or experience the world's lights, ever again. Sweating profusely under the heat of the light, and the pressure she was under tonight, the nurse that was assigned to save Princess Bubblegum's sight and face had others wiping her face; lest there be a break in concentration or contamination. Once the vision was restored, the nurse began to apply candy matter in order to reverse the damage done by the faulty contraption that Bubblegum had tried to use. What had gone wrong? the nurse had wondered, but it was not her place to ask questions, only to help those in need without question. Now, beset with the task of helping the princess herself, she had to do the job with extreme care; it wasn't as if she would have done less with another patient, it was just that there were so many rumors going around about what had caused the malfunction. One went even so far as to say that the princess had lost her ingenuity, downright making the faulty device just so that she could try to take her life because she could not stand the stress of ruling over the Candy Kingdom anymore. But that can't be right, right? The nurse thought, that is, until she heard that someone thought that Finn himself had shorted the device because he was too awesome for it. Yes, that one makes the most sense. As she finished smoothing the candy matter over the deep melt marks in Princess Bubblegum's face, she turned away from the table to let the others know that she was finished, and that the operation was a success. Everyone was cheering at the news, everyone but Bubblegum herself. This wasn't just because the nurses had put anesthesia into her system, (that may have made it so that she was numb and could not move, but it did not put her to sleep) no, she was not cheering or even feeling good about it because she was thinking about what she had seen in Finn's mind. Throughout the entire operation, she had been dwelling on that horrible thought; so sinister it had made her machine short circuit. As soon as she could, she thought, she had to prepare for what was to come.
Meanwhile, far from the Candy Kingdom
Marceline was flying high above the ground, playing with the clouds as she went through them. She was laughing from the sheer fun that she was having, "hahaha, whew! Man that was fun. But where is this darn concert?" Marceline was horrible with directions. "Hmm, is it that way? Or . . . maybe it's back over there? Ugh!" she threw the map that she was trying to decipher away from her, and watched as it got taken up by the wind and flew through a cloud near her. The map created a hole that gradually got bigger and bigger as the cloud began to dissipate; through this, Marceline saw what looked like a giant firefly with a pulsating light down on the ground. "Whoa, what is THAT?" she asked aloud. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to go to the light and check it out. As she flew closer, Marceline began to hear the music of the concert, "right on! Looks like that dumb map put me in the right direction after all." Once on the ground, Marceline not only noticed the awesome music that was playing, but she was staring in awe at her surroundings. The concert was set up in a clearing of a dense forest, but there were many things that added to the sheer awesomeness of it all. The ground was black; it was not burned, not painted, but it was as if the grass and dirt had been turned black, now the color through and through. There were also the things that were making the light: giant, towering pillars which came out of the ground in a way that looked like the earth itself had expelled them, they went high into the sky and were bent at their topmost part, with the other end entering the ground somewhere else. Upon closer inspection, Marceline realized the ground had wires of all colors running through it at random places all over the clearing. "Wow, these decorations are awesome," she looked over at some other attendees of the concert. "Hey! Hey you!" she was waving at a halfcat-man. Catching his attention, he looked over at Marceline and pointed to himself while making a questioning look. "Yeah, you! Isn't this concert awesome?" she yelled over the extremely loud, heavy metal music that the band was playing. The halfcat-man nodded in agreement. "Do you know who did the decorations?" Marceline asked, hoping someone would know. When the halfcat-man shook his head no, she turned her attention back towards the band. She loved the music, and was banging her head to it when the band stopped playing and asked if there was anyone out in the audience who wanted to try to play a game. With Marceline's interest caught, her ears angled more acutely than they already were towards the stage. The main singer had a deep, raspy voice, "the person who wins the jam off, which will be determined by the audience's cheers, will get a perfect set of new amps, created by our very own tinker. SO! Anyone want to play?" Cries came from all around the stage as waves of contestant wannabes rushed to it. Marceline just flew up and over the crowd and onto the stage. "Well, well, well, looks like we got ourselves a little lady, what is it hun' you want an autograph?" the stage hand was burly, and had scars all over his face and arms. Marceline looked at him as if he had two heads, "Uh, no!" she kicked the stage hand right in the crotch, making him double over in pain and fall off the stage into the marauding crowd of fans. She walked up to the main singer and showed him her axe-bass. "I'd like to enter as bass please," Marceline told him. "Wow, looks like you got here just in time; you're going to be the last person to be entered into the contest," the main singer smiled at Marceline, revealing a mouth of silver-plated teeth. "Cool, when do I start?" The main singer pointed to a group of people, each with their own instruments, "It's a band tournament. Group up with those guys, and if your band wins, then we'll give each of you a pair of Pristine amps. Oh and buy the way, tell your group that they are up first." Marceline floated towards the group, and realized the halfcat-man was among them. "Hey kitty, what are you?" The halfcat-man pulled a microphone from his pocket, "vocalist," he said into the microphone, his voice was more of a whisper that much else, but Marceline could work with that. "Okay, cool. Hey you two," she pointed to the drummer and guitarist, "all you guys gotta do is go with the flow 'kay?" They both nodded in agreement. "Okay then, we're up!" As they all took to the stage, Marceline began to play a long, low, slow bass solo. The halfcat-man opened his mouth to sing, but that is as far he got; the entire stage began to shake, and the ground below the audience broke, letting smog out and making them fall into cracks. There was mass confusion below Marceline, and the halfcat-man waved a good bye to her and jumped away, onto a truck that sped away. "Oh my God, what is going on?!" She would have to wait for an answer though, because the ground in the area was imploding, and she had to get away. Marceline flew up to try to get away, but the air was being sucked down, into the cracks now, and she had to fight to escape. Finally, after much straining, she was able to get high enough to be safe. Looking behind her, all she could see of the concert was fire that was being emitted from the cracks now. "I have to tell Bonnie about this," for the first time in centuries, Marceline was terrified.