AN: Full steam ahead, my friends! Today we explore the Silver Tower, and uncover a few more bombshells. Brace yourselves people, more sci-fi rediculousness and steamy romance are well on the way. These last two chapters have been short and, hopefully, sweet. Wait till we hit the another battle section, and I promise I'll try to whip up some big, meaty chapters. Cheers!

Chapter 15:

Jacked Up, Responsibly

The lay of the Guard, as Thoros called it, was all too familiar to Finn's eyes. It was the city of light, the one he dreamed of after his friendly fire mishap. Or close to it, at least. Within was a sprawl of mirrored steel architecture, shining skyscrapers reaching for the ceiling above, where the tower proper breached the clouds. Clearly a space designed for habitation, it had a serenity even in its silent emptiness; parks, squares, and elegant angular buildings with not a single soul in sight. But the locale outside showed no signs of the vibrant life he witnessed, or the plague that had followed. Just ice and water. Of course, the city in the dream contained elements that were undoubtedly creations of his medicated brain, but the resemblance was uncanny.

They didn't spend long within the Guard, heading straight for a section called the Tang; the section of the tower, dubbed the Blade, which protruded down through the Guard, and into the lowest sections of the Hilt, where the massive geothermal power sinks harvested energy from the Earth's hot mantle. "Once, this section was home to five million human souls," Thoros said. "But that was long ago. What we seek is higher up." They marched their way up the stairs into a section designated as the Fuller; two five-piece clusters of exterior lifts, running up the length of the Blade, one on each flat side. Their pod accelerated gradually to an intense velocity, but it still took a few minutes to reach the top. "The Blade reaches over a one and a half thousand meters high," Thoros explained as they waited. "Our destination is the central control nexus at the top. From there, you can assume command over the entire facility."

They exited the Fuller at its terminus. The command nexus dominated the Point, the tallest triangular sectection of the Silver Tower. Even at the narrowest thickness of the structure, the nexus chamber was huge, large enough to fit the entire tree fort within it. At the center of the room was a lone chair, a minimalistic throne, plain and bare. All eyes upon him, Finn climbed a few low stairs and popped a squat. A rim of light illuminated, reaching all the way around the edge of the ceiling. The rays spilling from this blue halo converged on a single point; before Finn's eyes, they assembled a life sized image of a green-eyed human woman, dressed in a grey thermal bodysuit. "Another message," Finn breathed. The image smiled warmly.

"No message," she said. "I've flash frozen a printed reconstruction of my brain. When you activated the command throne, you thawed it, and injected the brain chemistry I recorded digitally at the time of freezing." It took a few seconds to process, but eventually Finn recognized the implications. "I'm Sarah, Finn. Mom. I built this so one day we could talk face to face, or as close to it as possible."

"Then you can tell me," Finn said, his voice gaining excitement. "Mom, there are so many questions. What happened? Where's dad? Why did he leave, what does he want?" Finn fumbled with his words, flushing furiously. "Why am I like... Me? What's my deal?"

Sarah's smile took on notes of sorrow. "My Finn, you father was once a great man. He was brave and idealistic, and he would do anything to protect and enrich those he loved." Sarah's gaze turned slightly, as her brain reached into deeper archives. "...But the events of his life broke him down and replaced the goodness in his heart with sadness, paranoia, and spite. After the third World War, the fortress cities that survived, arcologies like this one, discovered the cure to human aging; a treatment that could completely rejuvinate the body of any human, indefinitely. Essentially, we..." Sarah shook her head. "No. I discovered biological immortality in humans. And on top of that, it was a panacea; the treatment returns the body to the precise internal chemistry of perfect health. So any and all bacteria, viruses, defects, or injuries of any nature were effectively mastered by medicine. It was our desire that the technology be used to treat the mutant wasteland tribes, at long last. For the very first time since the bombs fell, the survivors of the nuclear fires held meaningful relations with the victims."

"That doesn't sound like the way things played out," Finn said glumly.

"No," the projection agreed. "The wasteland tribes were the remains of the instigators of the third war. They remembered your father as the man in charge when the bombs fell; they had passed on that memory for generations. The dialog with the wasteland tribes fell apart before the treatment could be perfected for mass use. Eventually, delays lead the tribes to believe they were being mocked by their old enemy, and they declared war. Your father pacified them with a barely understood dimensional weapon. The great tribal war-moot beseiging the Central European Arcology was shifted into another reality, but as was feared, something entered our reality in its place. Something virulent and malicious." Nobody in the room needed to be told what that was. "Your father, at the reigns of global martial law, forcibly evacuated every arcology left on Earth. The fleet of cryogenic colony ships that had been humanity's last chance before the discovery of the treatment was filled, and your father left with all humanity as his prisoners, along with all avaliable information and resources on the rejuvenation treatment. Everything he couldn't take was expunged, a purge that almost included me. The plague we had unleashed was beyond his ability to defeat. And that's when I had you, my dear. In the Central European Arcology. You were delivered by medical drones, and for weeks I raised you there while the plague raged around us. When I learned I would soon die, I froze you in cryogenic sleep, and tasked the facility's AI to wake you when Earth would be safe, and maintain this realm until you were able to reclaim it." Thoros floated silently, the soft light from within his structure peering back and forth between the boy and the projection. "There was no way of knowing what Earth would look like when it was livable again. The dangers you were destined to face were unfathomable. And to that end I..." The projection lost its strength, Sarah covering her face with her hands. "...I did everything I could to make sure that you could handle whatever you would need to survive," she finally managed. "I'm sorry, my love. As a scientist there is no doubt that what I did to you was unethical in the most extreme fashion, but there was no time left and too much risk. So I did what I could to give you an edge."

Finn found himself out of the throne, trying to close his arms around the shaped light. "Mom, it's fine," he said, his eyes tearing as the heartstrings Marceline had so gently plucked were wrenched violently about.. "I'm... I'm here. It worked, you kept me safe."

"I know, " she sniffed. "And I'm overjoyed to see that it turned out alright. My dear boy, this technology can only maintain a stable brain chemistry for so long. Inevitably the brain slips into insanity as the chemistry destabilizes. I'm out of time." Finn couldn't pull a response together as the projection slipped straight through his arms, gazing at him with a look of blissful sadness. "That isn't something I want you to see. But I am so proud to see my boy alive, and healthy, surrounded by what I can only assume are his friends. That's a better life than all the nightmares I feared you would experience. Goodbye, dear Finn. And remember that I will always be with you."

Finn swiped at the projection, frantic as it dissolved into nothingness, and the projection ring above them turned dim. When it was gone, he could only slump back onto his rear, arms on his knees, head held low in his hands. The gang, all sufficiently deflated by what they'd just witnessed, began to close around Finn. Their intentions were all beneficent, but PB realized quickly what would happened, and shooed the bulk of the crowd off. Marcie and Jake payed her silent looks and gestures no heed, and Peebs didn't challenge them; the list of people Finn needed at the moment only had those two names. Peebs, feeling she and Finn were mending but not mended, joined the others in setting up shop within the Point and throughout the facility. They were all going to be spending quite a bit of time in the Silver Tower, and there was a lot of work to be done.

Finn hadn't moved. Marcie and Jake eyed each other as they sat down next to him on the floor. There were no words passed about for a long while, just a dog sitting in a boy's lap while a girl sat with him, her head rested upon his shoulder. Eventually, he cleared his throat and spoke. "I think I wanna forget for a little while," he muttered. "Just for a little. Please."

Jake and Marcie shared a look between them. "Okay buddy bro," Jake said. "Come on, let's go find something to help get you cheery-like."

The three made their way back to the Hilt. They passed detachments of Gumball Guard setting up a camp as they retrived Jake and Marceline's items. They saw PB, and she saw them, but no words were shared. A few backpacks and parcels were gathered. Jake brought his viola, and Marcie brought along her new axe. They had also put together a bag of things which they refused to identify. "It's a surpriiiiise," Jake insisted, as he liked to do. Marceline wouldn't even say that much. She was just grinning like a fool.

Thus equipped, they headed back for the Point. "Ok, bromite, here's the what-what. Grown up Finn means grown up fun. You're riding with two seasoned party peeps, and we're gonna help you have the biggest blast you ever had, safelike. Don't mess around with this buddy boy, or your fun is gonna become none with the glob-darn quickness."

Finn blanched. "You're making it sound like a mondo monster, Jake." Marceline couldn't help but cackle.

"Relax bright eyes," she said. "It's gonna be fine. Like the dog said, we're gonna lead you along and watch your back. So just try to enjoy yourself, we'll make sure you're right as rain."

They picked out a small green with a tall old oak in the center. The climate within the Hilt was balmy, and the night sky was easily viewed through the perfect glass roof. Finn's two comrades began to unpack; Jake produced two big bottles made of green glass, and Marceline revealed a hermetically sealable glass jar full of some leafy substance. "Okay hero boy," Marcie said with glee, popping the top of her jar. A powerful, earthy smell immediately emanated from it. "This is the part where your bro and your gal get you jacked up."

All three turned to the fourth wall to drive home the Aesop. "Responsibly!" Jake insisted.

Post Script:

There's nothing wrong with some grown up fun, but there's nothing fun about getting people hurt by partying too hard. Stay safe, dear readers, no matter what you do for fun.