AN: Here we go ladies and germs. Served steaming to you this Valentines. This chapter was forged from late nights with a pipe of sweet leaf and a lovely guitarist I found on YouTube named Plini. You'll know when to go look for one of his tunes. I hope you enjoy the start of our next adventure! As always, I feed off the life forces of your feedback, so write me what you think! Anon commented that this chapter was light on supporting characters, so I went and whipped up additional mischief sections. Enjoy!
Chapter 14:
Lord of the Silver Tower
Temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius. Thick fogs. Powerful winds driving icy torrents. It was the first time Finn had gone so far beyond Ooo proper, and he'd chosen a doozy. Even the Ice Kingdom was more comfortable than this. It had been days since any of the others had ventured topside, but with one of Bubblegum's thick thermal coats, the boy found that the fierce chill could be withstood.
It was a gorgeous landscape. Tall, towering ice shelves framed the path of their mighty vessel as it parted the deep blue waters. Occasionally they would come to a channel that delved deep into the ice, but they never dared to follow one. "This isn't an icebreaker," PB had said when Guy had asked about the ancillary paths. "Those channels end abruptly, or close completely as the ice shifts. They're death traps, and we're lucky we don't have to try them."
The vessel was certainly a large change of pace. For 15,000 tons of ship, Finn had a hard time believing that things had to be so cramped. Places to stub toes or smack heads were everywhere, it seemed. Half the reason Finn still went up on deck was to get a break from hitting himself on the hard steel bulkheads and compartment hatches. PB said it was a 'damage control system'. Whatever that meant. PB had always been somewhat hard to follow, but whatever was in her Old Earth tomes was yet another level above Finn's formal education. The hero wondered how long she'd been pouring over those; a hoard of ancient knowledge from a world more his than hers, but she still saw fit to hide it from him. It took something big to hurt Finn's feelings; even bigger to keep them hurt for this long. But a withheld birthright borrowed without liscence seemed sufficient. The last human played the message in the control band again.
"How long have you kept this from me?" he asked the ice, imagining pink features instead of the white snd blue of the glacial flows.
"...Love, Mom," the projection said, before fading away. Finn turned his chin against his collar as the wind blew chill, and made to move back down below deck.
Within the ship was a dark, cloying warmth. The air tasted stale and recycled, a far cry from the sweet invigorating atmosphere outside. The hum of machinery was an everpresent buzz outside the engineering sections; within them, noise cancelling headsets were required to communicate. The crew ambled about, all Mark II Gumball Guards. Some greeted Finn, but most were far too busy. The boy made his way tenatively, carefully plotting his path in his head. Despite PB's claim that the ship was highly automated and crew-friendly, making your way about could still be a challenge. As he picked has way through a porthole, something quick and dark drove into his chest, pitching him down to the floor, his back to the wall. Weight settled over him, pushing him roughly against the metal.
"Owww..." Finn winced, gingerly rubbing the back of his head. Cool fingers covered his, grasping them gently, in greeting, before suplanting them, massaging his bruised scalp.
"You're freezing," Marcie said in a low voice. "Were you topside again?" Finn wasn't allowed to answer; Marceline brushed his lips roughly with hers. Of course she already knew he had been. "Baby you're frozen cold... You've been sweet to me, so let me warm your bones," she crooned against his cheek, tugging on his jacket zipper. The high-tech garment was tossed aside, replaced by the press of Marcie's body, her hands toying with neck and jaw. "What do you do out there, lover?"
"Just casing my brainspace," Finn mumbled. She responded by kissing him in ways he hadn't been kissed yet, stealing his breaths one by one. He could only speak when Marcie allowed him to, her attention focused on some other part of his face and neck. "It gets way stuffy down here... And I keep subbing my toes." He could hardly form sentences through the fog floating through his head, and the pangs of excitement being played on his heartstrings.
"Hey, I like it in here," the vampire queen countered, pouting a look that twisted Finn's gut. "It's nice and dark. Plenty of mischief for the making."
Finn cracked a wide smile. "Mischief, eh? Let's make some then." The two scampered off to see what sort of fun could be had aboard a Zumwalt-class missile destroyer.
Marcie looked to Finn one last time. He made the sign, that weird cross of the arms he'd just shown her. She nodded, and sprang. She collided quickly, wrapping her one arm about Bananaman's neck and squeezing, coiling her other arm snuggly behind Bananaman's head. Soon, he was snoozing, and Marcie let him slump aside, careful not to let him bruise.
"Algebra, Miss Marcie," Finn whispered after jogging up from his concealment. "Picture perfect rear sleeper."
"Uhh, ma'am? Are you seeing this?"
"Hmm?" Bonnibel turned to starboard to view this new spectacle.
"Okay, okay, do it!" Marcie hung on Finn as he sat at the console, his hand wrapped around a control stick. Her arms were crossed about his shoulders, her chest pressed against his back. Behind them, Bananaman still snoored.
Finn squeezed the trigger and walked the crosshairs up and down his screen. Outside the ship, one of two 30mm cannons, mounted on the rear atop the helicopter hangar, drilled shell after shell into the face of the ice shelf with a string of barking reports.
Peebs raised an eyebrow. By the time the autocannon salvo was finished, a message had been written in the frost by the thumping impacts. It read 'are we there yet?'
The beleaguered monarch couldn't help but chuckle. "Almost, slugger," she said aloud.
Down below, to the aft of the ship and down on the waterline, Abracadaniel fumbled around the small boat hangar. "Hex and confound it!" He exclaimed, rooting through a rigid boat. "I know I detected some sort of squirt, one of an arcane variety. Hmm..."
Up in the corner of the ceiling, two shadowed figures hid. Marceline held Finn up, her arms hooked under his. The boy aimed carefully with their ramshackle wand, and launched a feeble ray of cold at the far wall. Then with a blur, they switched corners, again and again till they were finally caught.
In the mess hall, Guy stood his ground against flurry of blows from a well-worn FP. He would occasionally correct her form verbally; when she failed to catch on, he would apply the lesson physically. Finn took a moment to watch the other fighter run his lesson, until Marcie touched his arm. Silently she indicated to the damage control sprinkler system. Finn shook his head; that kind of prank wouldn't end in laughs. The two scampered off to see about other antics.
In one of the crew cabins, Jake snoozed peacefully. Finn poked his head in, with Marcel in behind him. Marcie stayed at the door; Finn crept up beside his slumbering buddy and left a present, rashers of back bacon wrapped in foil that the two had gotten FP to cook. The vampire queen felt her stomach do little turns as Finn gave his bro a little scratch behind the ear. She took his arm then, and led him away.
A pair of mirthful voices carried through holds and hallways. The ship had entered the region effected by polar night; the sun would not be seen again for many days. The voices traveled up and out; bundled up and fearless, they romped out onto the flight deck on the aft of Peeb's warship. The sky was filled with ghostly lights, streams of solar plasma deflecting off the Earth's magnetic field, challenging the clear brightness of the stars with rivers of color. Finn found his back to metal yet again, a sweet kiss pressed to his lips. A headphone found its way into his ear, and a rich banquet of gentle guitar tones filled his head.
"New tunes?" The boy managed to intone.
"Old tunes," was the reply. "Some dude named Plini wrote a jam called Heart, before the bomb fell."
Heart had no words; they filled the silence with muffled sounds lost to the frigid winds. Marceline kissed Finn till he forced her to let him breathe, till the speakers spoke no more. By that time, a separate glow had filled the sky, its source on the horizon that their vessel chased. Finn jumped up without a word, bounding towards the prow with Marceline fast in tow.
As they summited the destroyer's tall citadel, the sight stole the spring from their feet. It rose up into the sky like a dagger, two edges, a perfectly symmetrical blade of impossible proportions, a mirrored shard rising into the heavens. It rose from a base, a plate-like structure the size of an island city. The blade drove high into the clouds, it's point beyond vision, obscured higher in the atmosphere. Marcie could hardly peel her eyes away from the sight to take in the look on Finn's face. There was no reading that look fully; there was an odd set to his jaw, a blue flame in his eyes that expressed torment and glee simultaneously. Finn looked to his wrist. The watch had activated, it's screen displaying a familiar shape; Thoros, his silvered crystalline form an aesthetic allusion to the sight sitting on the horizon.
Then the sky cracked, and four triangular shapes streaked overhead, each riding four furious exhausts. The human boy and the vampire queen scrambled back into the shelter of the ship, and made all haste to the bridge.
"Are we under attack?" Marcie asked PB as klaxons began to sound. She had to shout it again over the tumult of the bridge.
The gum princess shook her head. "If we were, we'd already be dead," she replied. Then she began dialog with her crew, taking the reigns in a flurry of orders and inquiry. As the rest of the gang began to assemble, PB broke away and back to the group. Finn caught her attention, indicating to the activated command watch, to which Peebs just nodded.
"Well gang," she began. "We're here. We're locked into a docking course with the facility, so we should all get ready to make landfall."
As the gaggle dispersed to gather their things together and bundle up, Peebs caught up with Finn and Marceline. "Nice little gag," she said amicably. The immortal simply beamed, and Finn cracked a grin in spite of himself. "Could you give us a minute?" Bonnibel asked her compadre, to which Marcie acquiesced. Then, it was just the two of them and a bridge crew of gumball guard. The last human propped himself up on the wall, regarding Peebs evenly.
"What's what, Peebles?" the boy asked.
Bonnie didn't hold back. "I need to apologize, Finn. For the shock of this, and the way it had to play out. I can't help what happened, I did what I needed to do for the sake of my people. I'm..." Finn shot her a look at the mention of her people.
"I thought that included me," Finn said softly, his look so gentle, warm, but utterly judgemental."Glob, I still do. So what's what? For realzies."
Peebs covered her face. "You weren't supposed to be, at first. You must understand, my world... It's built out of the shards of yours, every inch of it. I used you, and what little I could learn of you and where you came from, the secrets you're key to." The hurt in Finn's face drove her to grasp his hand tight. "I never counted on being your friend, Finn, but I would never change it. I just want what happens next to help heal that friendship. So... Are we alright?"
The last human nodded once, his face certain, with misty eyes and a solid smile. "Righteous apology, totes accepted," he said. "Now come on, let's get set."
Their vessel closed the distance; quickly, the base of the tower loomed above them, tall enough to swallow their ship into its silvered steel bulk. Which is precisely what happened; a great portal opened in the side of the structure, running lights glowing out from the gloom to guide their ship to harbor. The chamber they entered was vast and poorly lit. Out from the dark came gantries, lit for passage, to connect the ship to its new home.
The path they took was long and straight, but eventually they found themselves in a new, circular chamber, away from the damp of the massive harbor chamber. The sudden lurch in the gut was the only warning that they were now traveling upwards, through a shaft with light spilling down its top. As the elevator came to still, they stood at the very base of the tower, gazing up through a glass ceiling at it.
Thoros was there, floating patiently. "Finn, company, I welcome you to the last bastion of Old Earth; the Silver Tower."