Yo! Crazy7634, here! So, first of all, thank you to all who followed, favourited and reviewed this story. You guys' support really helps me a lot, and I wish that I had finished this chapter sooner. If it weren't for you guys I would probably have lost interest in writing because of the lack of responses. If you guys spot any mistakes or have any ideas that you'd want to be inputted into the story, feel free to tell me. I'm going to stop here, as I do not want to make this author's note long so that you can go on and head off to read the chapter. Again, sorry for the delay. But now, I present to you, the third chapter of… The Tenth Guardian.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Adventure Time.
Chapter 3 - Statues
It was night time. Clouds moved lazily across the black, star-streaked sky. The moon, obscured by a few of the semi-solid puffs of vapour, shone down on a lone cabin situated at the top of a silent hill. The plants and blooming hedges surrounding it were ruffled slightly as the cold night wind blew past. A brown, cat-like creature slinked slowly towards the small cottage, sniffing the air as the scent of peppermint flowed into his nose. The steps of its front legs were as quiet as a mouse while its two hind legs which were, oddly enough, being protected by shiny ebony boots made crunching noises on the crisp grass. Once it reached its destination, the demonic being hopped over the porch steps and sat on its haunches at the quaint home's front door. It peered inside through an uncovered window and watched a short suit-wearing man, who seemed to be made of candy, fluff a small pillow before throwing it back onto a scarlet couch. The monster grew an evil grin and lifted a paw to knock on the door. The action was responded with silence. It knocked again, a bit harsher and louder than the last time, and waited for a few seconds. The ears on the top of its head twitched when the sound of tiny footsteps growing closer was heard. The wooden door creaked open, and the beast looked down at the little candy man.
"May I come in?" It asked in a deep and rugged tone, its voice carrying a stereotypical vampire accent. Its eyes narrowed when the response he was given was mocking laughter.
"Gahahah! You're one of those old-fashioned vampires aren't you, the ones who can't enter the homes of others unless they allow it? Hahah! What did you think was going to happen when you asked for permission to enter? That I was just going to let you in? You old fool!" the peppermint man guffawed out. He back into the house and quickly cut up a single garlic clove. He grabbed the small slices off of the cutting board and threw them at the creature's face, its fur sizzling once the tiny pieces came in contact with its nose. "Here, how about some garlic you blood-sucking beast!"
The transformed vampire snarled and shook the pieces off of its muzzle. Its slitted pupils thinned as the heat signatures of earlier footprints came into view while the rest of the world went dark.
'Hmm? No unusually large footprints?' It sniffed at the bluish imprints. 'So he really isn't nearby. That is… odd.'
Peppermint Butler noticed him walk off to follow the group's trail and began to panic.
"H-Hey! Don't go that way! Uhm…" He held his head as he tried to rack his brain for an idea. In a desperate attempt, he hopped out onto the deck and called out to the creature of the night. "Heeeey! Look, I'm not inside the house anymore, come back and get me! Come back, you hear me? Come back!"
Seeing the shapeshifter disappear off into the shadows of the forest nearby, the candy butler sighed and took out a phone from his coat pocket, sending a warning to the quartet who were currently out looking for the beast's allies.
[With PB, Marceline, Finn and Jake.]
The sister of the candy dragon Neddy flinched when a shrill sound suddenly rang in her ears. She reached into her bag and grabbed the source of the noise, her phone, and read the messages that Peppermint Butler sent them.
"PB, a vamp is runin 2wards u."
"Sorry, my bad."
" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "
The princess blinked at the text before closing her eyes as she quickly typed a reply. She placed the device back into her pack and called out to her friends. "Yo guys, Pepp says that there's a vamp heading straight towards us."
Her friends froze, their heads snapping towards her direction in shock at the new piece of information. "What?!"
Finn turned around to fully face her before speaking. "Which one? Is it The Moon?"
"I doubt it." Marceline interjected, shaking her head negatively. "The Moon is more of a… hide-and-seek type, not one to charge straight into battle."
"So, what's the plan for this guy? Taking in consideration that he probably has the ability to see in the dark… h-he could come from anywhere at all… and could quite easily rip the flesh clean off of our bones." Jake pointed out nervously. The fact that the vampire making its way towards them wasn't the one who Jake thought would be the easiest to defeat didn't help his nerves one bit. The dog unconsciously shrunk himself to be around the same size as a small mushroom before hiding behind Finn's foot in his fear, breathing deeply as an attempt to calm himself.
His human younger brother nodded in agreement. "True. He could ambush us at any moment."
Before Jake could reprimand him about that not helping with his feelings about the situation at hand, he flinched and held on to the blonde's shoe as the boy ran from a bush nearby that suddenly started to shiver. It began to emit animalistic noises, causing PB to ready the gun in her hands while Marceline pulled out two stakes from the leather bands wrapped around her torso. They stared at the shaking pile of leaves, preparing for an assault, when a purple figure emerged from beneath the stack. Lumpy Space Princess yawned as she stretched her arms out, shaking the leaves off of her cloud-like form.
"Ah, I feel refreshed." The princess smacked her lips before reaching a hand inside her mouth and pulled a leaf out, turning to the group. "Y'all huntin' wabbits?"
The four shared a glance and silently asked each other what to do. Marceline perked up and spoke up in a nonchalant tone when an idea formed in her mind. "Well, you could say that… if you count fanged, blood-sucking, creatures of the night as rabbits. Anyway, I have a plan, and we could use your help if you're up for it."
The others stared at her with confused expressions while LSP just arched an eyebrow. "Sure. There isn't really much to do here in the forest anyway."
Marceline grew a smirk. "Alright, we don't know how quickly this vamp is heading towards us, so we'll have to move fast. LSP, can you come over here for a second?"
"…Okay?" The purple princess answered, tentatively floating closer towards the female who was currently smiling at her evilly.
"Let me just test something out…" When Lumpy Space Princess was close enough, the half-demon quickly shoved the blunt ends of the stakes she was holding into the other female's sides, causing the lumpy princess to yelp in surprise. "Aha! I knew that would work! Alright, now do any of you have some rope?"
Instead of replying, the rest just gave her incredulous and slightly wary stares at the fact that she wasn't fazed at all by what she had done. PB forced the disbelief out of her system and chuckled, kneeling down as she placed her backpack on the ground. She reached inside and pulled out a big coil of rope. She looked up and was about to toss the object to her friend when the sight of Marceline placing more stakes into LSP made her pause. She shook her head in amusement at the absurdity of the situation and whistled to get the ex-vampire's attention before throwing the object at her. Seeing the ebony-haired female nab the rope from the air, PB slung her bag back on and crossed her arms over her chest.
"There. Now, mind filling us in on your plan?" She asked, an expectant look on her face.
"Yeah, yeah. Just wait." Marceline said absentmindedly, waving her off. She tied the bindings around Lumpy Space Princess, who seemed to be calm despite having multiple stakes imbedded into her frame as well as having rope currently being wrapped around her. Marceline tied the final knot tightly, nodding and smirking in approval as she admired her finish work. "There. First of all, Jake, come here."
"Y-Yeah?" The magical dog slowly walked towards her, fear still in his veins. Marceline picked the unknotted end of the rope and handed it to Jake, pointing to a tree that reached far above their heads.
"Stretch up and tie the rope to the fifth branch from the forest floor."
Just as he was about to do so, he paused as a thought occurred to him. "Wait. You can fly, can't you? Why don't you do it?"
Marceline gave him a deadpan stare. "Because I have to go and prepare the other half of this plan. Now go on, scaredy-cat. It's just a simple task."
He let out a whimper, his eyes scanning the surroundings for vampires for a few seconds before he finally stretched up, LSP floating after him.
"So, what's the second half of the plan that no one other than you knows about?" PB inquired, her eyebrow raised. Marceline gave her a fanged smile before floating behind her, rummaging through the pink-haired female's backpack. Bonnibel was about to ask her what she was doing when the half-demon let out a triumphant shout as she pulled an object out of the bag. It was another coil of rope.
"Well, the second part is actually Lumpy Space Princess. I'll be up there on the branch that LSP is over, and once that vamp comes here, I'll make her swing over to the guy, stabbing him with all those stakes!" The cackle that echoed from her throat made chills crawl up the others' spines. "The first part is actually getting the vampire to come into this clearing we're in, and to do that, we'll need live bait."
"Alright, sounds good! Now, how are we going to get the bait?" Finn eagerly asked, rolling on the balls of his feet in his excitement to trap a vampire. A few moments of silence passed, the human finally noticing the looks he was receiving from the females. His brain processed the last two words of the sentence again, before thinking back to what he had been told of the creature they were hunting… or more specifically, what species they had loved to drink out of for sustenance. "...No-ho-hooooh."
"Yeaaaaaah-hah-haaah…" She unrolled the thick cable, stretching a part of it out as she aimed a menacing, predatory grin at the now-fearful Finn. "Come here, Mr. Hero!"
"Gaaah!" Finn let out a yelp as he ran in circles, determined to avoid the clutches of the ex-Vampire Queen. Princess Bubblegum sighed at their antics. Her eyes followed Finn's trail and stuck her foot out at the right moment, causing the blonde adventurer to trip. She ignored the yells and merely observed her friend as she tied the rope around one of the human's leg. Marceline dragged the screaming teen using the other end of the tough twine, taking out a stake from her pocket as she did so. She walked over to the small hill and tied the rope to the stake before jamming the wooden object deeply into the ground.
"There! See, now was that so hard?" The half-demon grinned down at the pouting hero.
"I may not be scared of these vampires like Jake, but that doesn't mean that I want to be bait for those guys." Finn huffed, his arms folded in front his chest.
"Hey, stop being such a baby about it. If the stake thing doesn't work, there's still PB and Jake. We got your back!" Marceline then leaned down and patted the male on the head. "Besides, I thought that you'd want to be even more heroic by being a core part of this thing. After all, if you're not here to lure the vamp into our trap, then the whole plan was F.U.B.A.R from the start."
"Humph!" Finn stayed quiet and turned his head away from her childishly.
Marceline rolled her eyes, floating behind the human and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Pluuus~ you get the opportunity to defeat a being from a species known to be one of the most dangerous Ooo has ever seen. A creature that not even Billy has fought or defeated."
Now THAT got Finn's attention. Determination flared in his crystalline orbs and an eager smile spread across his face. "Let's do this thing!"
"Alrighty then. Since that's been settled, Jake!" The canine had just shrunk his stretched legs when he heard the call of his name, causing his head to tilt to the side questioningly. "You magic yourself into some sort of forest-y object so that you can camouflage yourself while PB will hide somewhere with her gun ready. You'll be helping her find the perfect moment to shoot at the guy. Also, be as discrete as possible. You two are the back-up plan in case something goes wrong with this whole thing. I'm going to fly up to LSP now. Finn, make sure you get the blood-sucker's attention, alright? Now, it's time for the waiting game…"
[Six Minutes Later]
The team didn't have to wait long, as the loud sound of snapping branches and crunching leaves was heard but a few minutes later. Marceline and LSP kept their eyes on the ground, waiting with bated breath as footsteps began to become more audible by the second. They barely suppressed their gasps when an odd feline-like beast walked out, the boots on its two hind legs tipping the half-demon off that it was indeed the vampire they were searching for.
'Come on, Hierophant. Move forward…' She muttered in her mind, her eyes following the shapeshifter's every move. Her teeth clenched and she stopped a growl from emanating through her throat when she noticed that the transformed being was currently unreachable. 'Ah, dang it!'
Marceline glanced at Finn, hoping that he would do something to catch his attention. The boy caught her gaze and gave a discrete nod, silently giving the indication that he understood. Finn began to whistle, the noise immediately reaching the creature's ears. It stalked closer to the bush separating the hill and the forest, peering through a small gap in the bundle of leaves in order to watch the bound teen.
"Man, I can't believe they just left me here…" Finn pulled his hat off, moving his head from side to side in order to let his hair to unravel. He grabbed the rope linking his ankle to the stake and tugged it gently. "…All unarmed and tethered like this…"
Hierophant silently slid through the bush, slowly stalking towards the adventurer. He was four meters away. PB readied her blaster and Jake tensed his muscles, ready to mould himself into whatever he would need to change into. LSP's hands turned into fists and Marceline's eyes narrowed.
The cured vampire pulled the princess in her hands towards herself more. 'Yes… that's it. Just a little closer…'
"Huh, my neck sure is hot. This baby needs to get some air." The predator was less than a meter away now. The long-haired blonde shifted the hair covering his neck to the side. With the strands obscuring his neck gone, Hierophant opened his mouth, his elongated fangs poking out. He leaned closer and was about to pierce the boy's neck.
"You ready?" Marceline whispered lowly to LSP. The purple female nodded.
"Let's do this-" her eyes widened to epic proportions when she was suddenly shoved into the direction of the vampire below before she could even finish her sentence. She flailed her arms and could not help but shout as her form went closer and closer to the terrifying beast behind Finn. "-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Unfortunately, her scream had alerted the vampire of her presence, the male quickly pulled back and twisted his head to where the yell had come from. At first, he was taken aback at the sight of what seemed to be a wriggling purple cloud heading his way, before he shook himself out of his surprise when his eyes caught the stakes imbedded into its form. He hurriedly shrunk into the form of a rat and hissed at the passing lumpy space person. He tried to scamper over to the swinging–and screaming–LSP, but was stopped in his tracks when Finn jumped on top of him, trying to cage him using his body. Hierophant snarled in annoyance and changed back to his normal appearance, shoving the teen hero off of his back.
"Back off!" the man rolled his shoulders and stared silently when his prey ran up to his front and began punching him weakly in the chest.
"What are you going to turn into next? A puppy? Baby goose?!" the coat-wearing transformer grabbed the blonde by his hair and arm, sniffing his neck as he pulled him close. "I'm a- *phhhbt* vampire- *pffft*!"
The fact that Hierophant was about to suck his blood didn't deter Finn however, as he only continued to make fun of the man. The bloodsucker moved his fangs to the human's neck...
'I guess the plan will have to be tweaked a bit…' Marceline thought, floating up above the hill. "Hierophant!"
The familiar voice made him freeze, his eyes narrowing. His head tilted upwards and he saw the figure he had been looking for all this time. The duo still hidden in the trees saw that he was distracted and chose to make a move.
"Green light." Jake said to PB, who had cocked the shotgun blaster and was aiming at the vampire who had changed into humanoid bat. At hearing Jake's signal, she pulled the trigger, a beam of teal-coloured energy rocketing towards their opponent. However, it appeared that she had shot a second too late as Hierophant had propelled himself up into the air a second before the shot reached his previous location. Princess Bubblegum clicked her tongue when she saw that her attack only managed to take a sizable chunk out of a tree instead of vaporizing the resurrected being. She aimed the gun up at the flying vampire and pulled the trigger multiple times, only to find out that it had run out of power.
"Gaaah!" PB groaned in frustration.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Marceline stayed silent with her arms crossed under her chest as she observed the movements of her enemy. The thousands-of-years-old creature's black whispery wings flapped as he joined the half-demon in the cold night sky.
"Jeez, aren't you cold up here? Do you people even wear coats anymore?" She didn't reply. Hierophant blinked and raised an eyebrow at her lack of response. He shook his head and continued on. "Anyway, I have a proposition for you- OOF!"
His silent adversary socked him in the face mid-sentence, causing anger to course through his veins. He snarled and swiped at Marceline, only for her to dodge and turn invisible.
"Oooh, surprise!" She laughed tauntingly.
"Marceline, wait!" The bat-like man swivelled around, in an attempt to fine the girl whose voice was coming from every direction. "Marceline!"
She giggled at how ridiculous Hierophant looked as he scoured the area for her before turning her gaze downwards. She had to cover her mouth with her hands in order to keep herself from giving away her position, silently guffawing at the sight of Finn, who had put his backpack and hat back on, barely dodging the multiple stakes that LSP threw at him in her attempt to be useful before choosing to run away and accidentally running into Jake. She paused when she spotted a wayward stake cut LSP's binds, with said princess falling on top of the other princess in their crew. Her eyes followed the crudely-repaired garlic bomb and winced when it rolled by Hierophant's feet, the man having flown back down and had morphed back to his original self during the scuffle.
"Well… that was slightly convenient." Marceline murmured. She slowly floated down, landing about three meters away from her fallen friends, her form visible again. Everyone stared at Hierophant as he fiddled with the circular bomb. They held in hopeful breaths when he began to scratch its knob, hoping that he would pull it out and detonate the weapon right in his face.
"What… is… with… All THIS…" His voice slowly became louder and louder as he lifted the sphere up and shook it. "…TACKY, PLASTIC RUBBISH?!"
He threw the bomb far away in his rage, the action making the others flinch. Finn gritted his teeth and grabbed a stake from his pack, pulling it with him as he sprinted towards Hierophant.
"We'll never let you get to her!" He growled, lifting the pointed wood above his head. He jumped up and tried to pounce on the revived male, but was only swatted away effortlessly. The old-fashioned man bared his razor-sharp fangs in annoyance at the two princesses who stood in the middle of him and Marceline.
He raised his hand to the air, his arm beginning to stretch and grow longer. Soon enough, the arm which was now an animal's hoofed leg crashed back down to the earth, landing in the middle of Lumpy Space Princess and Princess Bubblegum. The old vampire's bones produced cracking sounds as they disjointed and forged a different, monstrously-sized form. The gang gasped when they saw that Hierophant was now some sort of hybrid created using parts of his other transformations. His head was the same, but his neck was longer and was covered in dark-brown hair. His body was circular and was dotted with demonic cat eyes. Attached to his body were five different limbs that acted as his legs. Two seemed to be thin ape-like arms, one was the same hoof that had separated PB and LSP earlier, and another took the appearance of a tail while the final attachment was one of his bat form's wings. What made his new appearance even odder was that he had a scorpion tail, another bat wing, a sludgy tentacle and what seemed to be a short, pudgy arm protruding from his back.
"You dunderheads! I can't even deal with all this modern… NONSENSE!" He spat, hatred eminent in his voice. "Why can't the rest of you just… BEAT IT!"
Jake stood stock-still, paralyzed with fear. He could do nothing but watch as his allies ran in the direction of the gigantic beast before them. Slowly, he began to shrink and run backwards into the thick forest. Once he was no taller than the shortest blade of grass, he span on his feet and sprinted into a group of mushrooms, crawling into PB's hidden backpack. "My blood man… I love my blood!"
He sat on a purse, his knees bent to his chest and his hands covering his ears, trying to block out the sounds of battle. As he sat, he was surprised when the current ex-ruler of the Candy Kingdom's phone lit up, shining a message from Peppermint Butler through the darkness of the bag. Jake slid off of the wallet's red material and walked up to the phone, reading the glowing words.
"PS vamp plays by old timey rulez,
cant enter house etc. HTH"
"Old timey rules, huh…" He pondered aloud, a hand to his chin. A loud swooshing noise caught his attention, and he peeked out of the bag's flap worriedly. He saw Hierophant swiping at Marceline using the tentacle with the vampire hunter swiftly dodging his strikes. She noticed that LSP was hanging on to his furry tail and kicked the waving appendage, making the purple cloud fly off. The eyes on Hierophant's spider-like body narrowed and the scorpion tail sneaked up behind Marceline before nicking her in the arm.
"Ah!" She grabbed the wound on her arm, hissing at the retreating tail. She felt her arm sting and removed her hand, a concerned frown on her face when she saw the cut sizzle and emanate green smoke. After seeing his friend being injured, Jake narrowed his eyes determination and jumped out off the bag, stretching into a fleshy house.
"Guys, get in me!" He yelled, opening the "door" located underneath his face. Finn quickly poked the monster in his eyes before hopping off of Hierophant's face and dragging LSP over to the inside of the "house". Bonnibel followed closely behind with Marceline hastily floating backwards to Jake, keeping her eyes on Hierophant while a hand was on her cut once again. Hierophant was about to shove his head through the doorway when he paused.
"May I come in?" He asked icily. Jake rose an eyebrow before promptly slamming the door in his face.
"Nope!" He replied bluntly, the answer making Hierophant's rage burn even more.
He transformed into a quadrupedal, wolf-like creature and growled at Jake. "Grrr!"
"Grr?" The dog responded, fearful of the vampire's next move and unsure of what to do.
"Let me in!" Hierophant slowly stalked forwards towards Jake's moulded body.
"Not gonna happen, man!"
The shapeshifter snapped at the magical canine's body, only for him to pull his flesh back, making Hierophant bite the air.
His earlier rage gone, curiosity was now in its place. "What sort of creature are you?"
"Uh… I-I'm a magic dog with magic blood-"
"Magic dog, you say?" the wolf interrupted.
"…Y-Yeah?" The bloodsucker's new interest in him made Jake uneasy. The wolf took a few steps back and sat on his haunches.
"Any sort of connection to a… magical, bright-yellow fox?" The question made Marceline and Princess Bubblegum flinch from their seats inside Jake.
"N-… No?"
"Hmm… well that's too bad. Anyway, we digress." Hierophant stood on all fours again before padding over to the house's door. "Marceline, listen to me. You will not be able to defeat the Vampire King. Not only can you not defeat me in your current state, but it also seems that you are missing a certain gold… partner, of yours. Though, I sure do hope that this dog and the other human are not the replacements of that blonde idiot… even he was smarter than them."
Silence filled the clearing before Marceline slowly opened the door, floating over to the door way and sat down. "…What do you want?"
"All I wanted was to ask you if we could team up. You are not the only one who bares hatred for that deluded fool. But before I could even ask my request, you and your troublesome crew began tempting me with boy blood and hurling spiky, purple… gobs at me." As if on cue, LSP flew up behind Marceline, attempting to strike what was supposed to be a flirtatious pose at Hierophant. He looked at her weirdly before continuing on. "Here's the dope. You need me. I don't know how it finally happened, but he must've LET you win, am I right?"
Marceline didn't say a word and merely pushed LSP back into the house, flashes of the night she became a vampire appearing in her mind. She sighed at his know-it-all expression and stood up from her cross-legged position.
"Ugh. Alright, say if we do work together. You need to give up drinking blood." She hovered out of the safety of the house and circled around Hierophant, the man tense and ready to attack if needed.
"But I'm a vampire! Drinking blood is kind of the main thing-"
"And you can drink red, just as easily." She interjected, causing him to huff. Hierophant's ears twitched as he followed her trail using the sound of her voice.
[In The Bushes]
[With King of Ooo and Crunchy]
The duo hid behind a bush, staring at the scene with rapt attention.
"Uh, don't you think we should go back now?"
"So that vile, transforming beast wants to be friends with the Vampire Queen, huh…" King of Ooo muttered, ignoring the nervous Crunchy beside him. Crunchy fiddled with his fingers and shuffled his feet, wanting to be as far away from the vampire as possible.
"C-Can we just go?"
"SHUSH, Crunchy!" The "princess" replied nonchalantly, waving off his subject's worries. The cookie silently took multiple steps back, his eyes flashing from corner to corner as he expected something to jump out and attack them. He didn't look where he was going and tripped up on a root, his head hitting against a tree's trunk as his hand accidentally pushed a mushroom down. The duo flinched when their visions became black and all that they could see was faint scarlet glowing coming from behind them. They slowly turned around and saw that it was a menacing, canine skull design imbedded into the tree creating the light. Its empty eye sockets flashed white before it began to cackle, symbols beginning to snake around the whole tree. "…Hi?"
Circles appeared underneath their feet and green light seemed to scan them for something. After a few seconds, the green turned to bright red before completely disappearing. The black background then changed to a deep maroon, the ground became cracked, crimson rock and a ring of fire surrounded them. Panic filled their beings as they turned to the skull indentation for answers, only for them to finally notice that its colour had changed from rose to coal and its eyes were glowing an ominous yellow.
"TRESSPASSERS!"
[Meanwhile, With The Others]
"Well, then I suppose I have no choice…" He closed his eyes and relaxed his posture, giving Marceline a fake sense of security. Just as he heard her fly to his side, his hand shot up and wrapped itself firmly around her neck. "…I'm just going to waste YOU, and eat that KID, because that's what an old-school vampire does-"
"GAAAAAAAH!" Hierophant's head snapped towards the bushes behind him when he heard the fearful shout. Crunchy, who was running away from the odd tree with his eyes closed, did not see the vampire and crashed against his boots. The resurrected vampire did not expect someone to have collide against him. He was caught off-guard and lost balance, he fell forward and his grip on Marceline was gone. The force of the clash was strong enough to push him into Jake's open door and he fell inside the makeshift-house, his eyes widening in realization.
"Wait- No! I wasn't invited! Noooo-" He dispersed into a cloud of soul dust, the half-demon he had been restraining flew up to the clouds and sucked in his soul. Finn blinked at the sight of the souls being sucked before turning his gaze towards what remained of Hierophant.
"Jeez…" He muttered, staring at the bones. "What happened?"
"Dude was too old-fashioned for his own good. He just couldn't get with the times-"
"A-ah, great! My plan worked!" An unpleasantly familiar voice exclaimed as he walked out of the woods. Everyone, other than Crunchy, looked curiously at the shirtless "princess" as sweat was dripping down his temples and terror was eminent in his eyes. The man caught the hate-filled glare PB was sending his way and internally winced. As this was going on, Marceline began to feel woozy, her eyesight going blurry.
"Urgh… I don't feel so good." She grunted and clutched her stomach as she unwillingly morphed into many of her other forms before finally turned back to normal, laying weakly on the ground.
"Uh… Buh-bye!" King of Ooo called out as he grabbed Crunchy and hightailed it out of there. His antics were ignored with everyone running over to their ill friend. PB knelt down and laid Marceline's head on her lap.
"Marceline…" She spotted the green cut on her arm and gasped. "Oh no."
"Uh, guys." The three other conscious people looked at him. "I'm not feeling so great either… Bluuuurgh!"
The others winced when they saw him vomit out the skeletal remains of Hierophant. Jake panted before smacking his lips, the taste of the ribs, spine and skull was alright in his opinion. He was a dog, and bones were bones after all.
[Within Marceline's Mind]
She was confused. Her head hurt and she couldn't see anything. She could feel pressure around her eyes, but she couldn't think of a reason why. What happened? Where was she?
"…cy." A faint, familiar voice whispered.
'Who was that?' She thought perplexedly.
"…arcy."
Her head began to throb. "Huh?"
"Marcy, open your eyes!"
The loud yell made her flinch and made her headache worse. She was about to complain when she processed the last three words that were said. Her eyes were closed? Well, that would explain things… she opened her eyes, blinking as she tried to get her eyes adjusted to the bright light. "W-What?"
"Hahah, there ya go! Jeez, you aren't dozing off, are you? We're at Simon and Betty's place already." Her pointed ears twitched and she turned to who had spoken. Standing to her right was a blonde, spiky-haired man. His cerulean eyes shone with mirth and a cheeky grin was plastered on his face while three whisker-like lines were on his cheeks. He wore a black suit with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath and a rust-orange tie dangling from his neck. A gold-buckled belt was tied around his formal pants and his dress shoes were shining under the sunset's light. Seeing her puzzled expression, he gave her a worried frown. "Hey, you alright?"
"Y-Yeah. W-Where…?" Where was she? Who was this man? Why was he so… familiar to her? As her mind became bombarded with question after question, one in particular caught her attention. "Hey, what happened to the vampires? And why aren't you in your fox form?"
"Fox form?" He looked confused. "And… vampires? What vampires?"
"You know, the ones I was hunting with PB, Finn and Jake?"
"Who?" She blinked in slight disbelief. To be honest, she could understand his confusion about his "fox form". Even she didn't know what she was talking about. But he didn't recognize his friends? He didn't know who they were? Okay, maybe he wouldn't have recognized Bubblegum from her nickname, but Finn and Jake? They were renowned heroes in Ooo! "…arcy! OI, MARCY!"
"H-Huh? What is it?"
The male clicked his tongue, looking at her anxiously. "Are you sure you're okay? That's the second time now…"
"Y-Yeah. Yeah! I'm fine. Just… thinking, I guess."
"Heheh, alright weirdo." A small smile stretched in the place of his frown. Although he was acting nonchalant, she could still see the traces of concern in his eyes. "Now come on, those two lovebirds are probably waiting for us already."
"Right…" She clenched her hand and was surprised when she felt something move. She looked down and saw that she was holding a bouquet of flowers. She stared at the flowers before glancing at the blonde when he knocked loudly on the door. She walked up to his side and heard shuffling from the other side of the door. A lock clicked as it unlocked and it opened, revealing two bespectacled humans.
"Ah, Marceline. Naruto." The man, who she assumed was Simon, said kindly.
"Hey, guys. Thanks for inviting us over!" The blonde smiled.
"Come in, come in. It must've been a bit of a trek to get here." Betty ushered him in. Once the odd male was inside, she turned to her fellow female. "Marceline, come on."
The black-and-white-haired woman didn't move, it was as if she was paralyzed.
'Na… ru… to?' She slowly muttered in her mind, unable to think of why that name was so familiar, why it made her heart ache. Her eyes slid to the blonde who was laughing inside the house with Simon. Who is he?
[Outside The Mind]
"Guys, stop burping! I told you, it's not working. There aren't any cure-alls."
Finn and Jake stopped half-burp and sheepishly scratched their heads.
"Heheh, sorry PB. We just wanted to double-check." Finn chuckled out nervously.
"Yeah, we're so- *BURP*"
"Whoo, Jake!" PB winced, waving the air in front of her nose with a hand. "What the heck did you eat?"
"Hey, I'll have you know that I pride myself in having nice-smelling burps! Heh, not really." Jake stuck his tongue out childishly before muttering one last sentence silently. "Though, it might've been that other vamp's bones…"
Princess Bubblegum sighed and went back to gazing at Marceline's pained expression. "…Do you guys know what a hubris is?"
Finn tilted his head bewilderedly. "Ain't that some sort of old-timey deity guy who weighs your deeds on a scale?"
Bonnibel chuckled slightly. "Heheh, no, no… It means excessive pride or self-confidence."
Lumpy Space Princess smirked and raised an eyebrow. "So that's basically what you've got, right PB?"
The human gave her a sharp look. "Dude!"
PB stared at the ground sadly. "No… She's right. I was so arrogant that I was blinded to the other possible consequences-"
"Then don't believe in yourself so much then, dumdum." LSP rolled her eyes and interrupted her.
"-and now my best friend is dying of poison… it's all my fault."
Finn crossed his arms and clicked his tongue. "Hey now, you know that ain't true."
Jake nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Marcy took a risk, and you helped her because she's your friend. Real friends stick with each other, even when against the face of death… 'cause death is life! Right Finn?"
"Shoot yeah!" The blonde then gave her an embarrassed smile. "Besides, I get poisoned all the time just by doing the dishes."
"I get poisoned on purpose!" Everyone perked up turned to where the voice came from and saw that it was Peppermint Butler who spoke. The butler gave them a deadpan stare when he saw the odd expressions on their faces. "Hey now, don't look at me like that! I do it for research. It's for my poison lab back in the castle."
PB's eyes widened at the new piece of information.
"Why didn't you say something about it earlier?! Let's get our butts over there, then!" The pink-haired female turned to her two knights. "Finn, Jake. You two go find The Moon. If we can't get the poison out of Marceline's system, then we'll just wake her up and have her suck up the vamp's powers. If Marcy doesn't wake up, then maybe we can find a way to extract her healing ability and transfer it manually."
Finn grabbed his stake sword from his back and nodded. "Got it!"
As the two heroes ran off into the woods to follow the trail of moon pearls they had found earlier, Bonnibel carried Marceline on her back as she and Peppermint Butler ran off towards the Candy Kingdom, all not hearing LSP's yells. Lumpy Space Princess sighed and began to float back towards her camp when the ground shook. She paused in her tracks in confusion, looking around as the trees shook violently for a few moments before stopping.
"What was that?"
[With Finn and Jake]
"…the trail was around here somewhere. Aha!" Finn bent down and picked up a fragile, teal-coloured pearl from the forest floor, turning it around is he examined it.
"Ugh, dude, they're gross!"
"Meh. I think they're pretty cool."
"But what if- what if they're her BOOGERS… or worse?!"
Finn promptly dropped the orb in his hand and went back to following the track. "Come on, Jake."
"Ew… ew… EW!" Jake stretched his legs and shrunk his feet, determined to not touch a single one of the orbs the vampire had dropped. "You know, sometimes I feel like vampires were created just to torment me."
Finn blinked and glanced back at his brother. "Dude, I think you've got a hubris."
"Hey, I'm just saying… it could be a possibility, ya know?" The dog shrugged.
The human turned back to the orbs on the ground. As they climbed up a hill, they saw that the trail ended at a floating pontoon. "Oh, look! I think The Moon is in there."
The magical canine watched as his younger sibling hopped up onto the wooden boat and called out to him. "Hey, don't just go on and hop onto weird forms of transportation! What if The Moon plopped this thing right out of her bod?!"
"Nope. Pretty sure this mummy job came out of this mummy job." The teen replied, pointing to something inside the hut on the boat. Jake cautiously stepped onto the pontoon and peered inside the bud-shaped shelter's hole.
He winced at the sight of the mummified corpse. "I still hate it."
Finn rolled his eyes and stepped inside and walked over to the vase beside the mummy. He pulled off its lid and stared at the sleeping figure within. "Oh."
"What? What's inside? Is it pickles?" Jake rose an eyebrow at the lack of response before stretching over to his brother's side. "Oh, yeah… that's her."
The blonde hero passed him the stake sword and he shoved it straight through her heart. They gawked at the sight of the stake being pushed out of the vampire's body.
"D-Did she just…?" The teen stuttered.
"She just healed that sword right out of her bod!" The quadruped grabbed his head in panic.
They stood there, gaping in awe for a few moments. Minutes later, Finn shook his head and spoke. "How about we try to fry her up in the sun?"
The bulldog nodded and pulled The Moon out of the vase and out of the shadowed, makeshift hut. The watched as her skin began to bubble, only for it to return back to normal.
"You've gotta be kidding me! How are we supposed to kill this creep?!" Jake yelled in anger and confusion.
"Hey, calm down dude. Let's just stick with PB's plan and try to stake her a bunch of different ways." The backpack-wearing male went back into the hut and grabbed his forgotten sword before beginning to repeatedly stab the sleeping vampire.
[A Few Hours Later]
Jake's eyes followed Finn's hand as it kept lowering in an attempt to stake the vampire correctly, just as they had been for the past couple of hours. "Gah, dude. This ain't working!"
"Yeah, I know… my wrist hurts, I've been stabbin' her for hours!" Finn sighed. "You know, I'm surprised PB asked us to stake her back, instead of taking her back."
"…"
"…"
"WAIT!" Jake yelled in realization. "Taking or staking?"
"Huh?"
"She said "You guys… stake her back"? Right?" He asked confusedly, rolling out the S in "guys" and "stake".
"Oh yeah, she said "You guys, take her back."! I think…"
The dog scratched his head. "So, uh… which one should we do?"
"Both, I guess." Finn rubbed his chin in thought. "Though we better hurry before she wakes up at sundown."
They turned to check the Sun's position, only to gulp when they saw it disappear completely into the horizon. A shuffling noise was heard, and they were shocked to see that The Moon's trowel-like ear located on her forehead was twitching. Jake hopped on his feet.
"Aaah! G-Get her back in the vase!" He stammered, hurried stretching his arms to place her into the large piece of furniture before re-placing its lid. The act was futile, however, as The Moon poked her head out of the vase a few seconds later, hissing at the two. For a few moments, the three partook in a staring contest before Finn decided to break the silence.
"COME GET US, BLOOD BUCKET!" He shouted, gesturing to the awake undead creature.
"WHAT?!" Jake cried out incredulously. Finn just twisted him around so that he was facing the direction of the Candy Kingdom.
"RUN!" With that order, the canine stretched into a larger version of himself and placed his brother on his back, sprinting towards where their sick friend would be at. As the dog hybrid ran, he curved his head around and asked his companion a panicked question.
"Dude, why the heck did you make her chase us?!"
Finn kept his eye on the running vampire, replying loudly through the wind. "Don't you remember? PB said that Marcy will need her healing powers. We'll just stake her back at the castle, bro!"
Jake sighed. "Fine, just don't let her near my deli tray!"
"If you don't want her to get any closer, then run faster!" He exclaimed, slapping the dog.
"Alright! Whooooo!" He let out a war cry and sped his pace up even faster.
Finn kept staring at the creepy figure following them. "Man… she's really booking it hard. You see that, Jake?"
"No, bro. Just let me run."
"Holy stink! She's smilin' right at me!"
"I don't need a play-by-play, man."
"She's messing with us…"
"What do you mean?!"
"I mean that she's not catching up to us on purpose!"
"Why do you think that?"
"She's just giving me this look." Finn glared at her as cogs spun in his mind. "…Slow down so that I can talk to her."
"No boy, you CRAZY!" His brother bellowed in response.
"Just do it! I won't let her bite you!" The adventurer roared, smacking his sibling again.
"Okay, okay. My life is in your hands man." Jake's footsteps became more sluggish and they lost speed quickly. Finn narrowed his eyes when he was face-to-face with The Moon.
"Hey. We're leading you into a trap." He said bluntly, his expression showing seriousness. "We're going to suck out your healing power and dust you."
A low growl reverberated in his throat when she didn't reply.
"Then, I'm gonna put your dust in a litter box, and get a tiger to drop a huge, smelly tiger bomb on your sorry dust clumps!" He howled, hitting Jake again.
"DUDE, stop slapping my butt!" Jake complained, twisting his head back to look at the two behind him. He and Finn tensed when they heard The Moon start to chuckle demonically.
"You run in the path of my light."
Jake flinched at the sound of the deep, gravelly voice. "THAT'S HER VOICE?!"
"How can you lead me, when I am your guide?"
Finn blinked and turned to the glowing orb in the sky before switching his gaze to The Moon. "Are you being literal or allegorical?"
She didn't answer and just smiled widely, the sight of her fangs giving Finn ominous chills as she laughed at him evilly. "HAHAHAHAH!"
"ME NO LIKE!" His eyes widened in surprise and quickly looked at his brother. "Run Jake, RUN!"
[With Princess Bubblegum and Peppermint Butler]
Princess Bubblegum was silent, staring at Peppermint Butler as he waved his hands over the gems placed on Marceline's body.
"Sh- Sh- Sh- Sh- Shuuh. Sh- Sh- Sh- Sh- Shuuuh." Once he was finished he stepped back and tilted his head up to face PB. "It's done."
She gave him a deadpanned look. "That's it? You just go "Shu Shu Shu" with your hands?"
The butler pointed at her, annoyed. "Hey, don't question my methods! This is my way."
PB sighed. "Okay, what now then?"
"We just wait for around about… two hours."
"Oh…" She stared at the grassy floor.
"How about we do something else?" The peppermint man suggested.
"Hm… video games?"
"I don't really like video games…"
"Me neither."
The gum-haired princess stared through the window in thought. "How about we talk?"
Her butler raised an eyebrow. "About what?"
"Maybe as to why you have a poison lab that I didn't know about located in the castle?"
"Oh…" He rubbed the back of his head with a hand. "Well, it was actually a just-in-case plan that me and… another guy thought up of. We created this place just for research and for creating antidotes. You know, in case something like our current situation happened?"
PB gave him a suspicious look. "Who was this other person?"
He flinched and glanced at the two objects that were currently being obstructed by the two banana guards that were situated by the door. "Well…"
She followed his gaze and saw the edges of the stone structures the guards were standing in front of. She clicked her tongue when she couldn't get a clear view and called out to her two subjects. "Uh, guys, we'll be fine. Do you think you can just stay outside the door for a bit?"
The bananas shared glances before turning back to their ruler. "Okay princess."
She gave them a thankful smile. PB turned back to the statues and was shocked when she saw two depictions of a certain multi-tailed fox sitting on his haunches. "So it was him…"
"Yeah…"
Bonnibel chuckled mirthlessly. "He always was over-protective of those close to him…"
"Yep. He helped me build this room and got all the tools and items I needed for me." He sighed melancholically at the sight of the foxes. "I was walking in one day and was surprised to see him placing these two here at the sides of the door. I asked him about them, but he just winked at me and said "trade secret" before running off."
"Really? I wonder-"
*CRASH*
She was cut off when Finn and Jake crashed through the room's lone window and broke off most of the wall. "WE BROUGHT THE MOON! What do we do now?!"
"Die like pigs."
They ran over to the princess's side and flinched when they saw The Moon climb into the room through the giant hole they made in the wall. PB hurriedly looked around for a hiding spot and saw an open metal container.
'Jackpot!' She picked up Marceline from the table and ran over to the safe. She turned to Finn and Jake, giving them one more order before locking the metal door. "You guys, you'll have to slow her down until Marcy wakes up. We don't know how to collect her dust, and Marcy needs her powers. Just distract her!"
The brothers took fighting stances and waited for The Moon to strike, only to become confused when she didn't move an inch. "Uh… she's not doing anything."
Jake glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "So, you gonna try something?"
"Hm. Okay I guess." He tightened his grip on his sword and was about to run her through, when his body felt weak and he fell to the ground. "Whoops!"
Jake stared at him in disbelief. "What was that?!"
"I think I just… tapped out?"
"Tap out? When do you ever tap out?!" The dog shivered when he caught her intimidating smile. She chuckled lowly and spoke again.
"Pigs!"
Jake clutched his heart and fell to the ground, his body also feeling sluggish and heavy.
"Dude, she's doing something weird to us!" Finn grabbed on to her leg as she walked away. "Jake, help!"
"I can't! I feel like I'm in a slow-motion terror dream!"
The human looked around for anything that could help and spotted a foot poking into view from the doorway. His eyes widened in realization.
"Banana guards, help!" The dozing guards outside woke up with a jolt from the command before grabbing their spears and rushing inside the room. But once they saw The Moon, the stopped and cowered in fear. She hissed at them, causing their chocolate on their heads to melt. "Princess, I can't stop her!"
"You kinda have to, Finn!"
He let go of the vampire's leg and grunted as his upper half collided with the ground. He pulled himself around and started to make his way to his over-sized stake. "I gotta get my sword…"
The Moon had reached the locked container and tried to pry it open by twisting its handle. The sound of the locked handle clicking reached PB's ears and she yelled out hatefully to the being outside. "It's locked, dipstick!"
The Moon didn't seem fazed. She merely stared at the combination knob and began to shout. "Open, pig! Open, pig! Pigs! PIGS! PIGS!"
PB flinched and looked at Marceline's face, slapping her gently on the cheek. "C'mon Marcy, wake up. Wake up!"
She closed her eyes when Marceline didn't even twitch, tears escaping her eyes. But then, something unusual happened. Light began to shine in the safe's darkness. Her eyes snapped open and she was surprised to see that a green light was emanating from something in Marceline's shirt. She tugged the cord around her friend's neck and pulled the object out. It was Naruto's old necklace.
"W-What?"
As the outside world was obscured to her by the metal walls of the container, unbeknownst to her, something odd was happening outside as well. Peppermint Butler stared in wonder when one of the fox statues' eyes glowed green. Four beams of light shot out of its chest, two knocking out the oblivious Finn and Jake, while the other two healed the heads of the unconscious guards. A red burst of energy then shot from its now-open maw, the crimson aura encasing the vampire in chains. He then watched in wonder as its skin slowly began to change from stone to… fur? He flinched when he saw a foot twitch, the statue was losing more of its grey appearance as the fox finished materializing. The quadruped shook himself, his fur gracefully arching as he did so. He opened and closed his jaw, wincing when he took a breath.
"Oh jeez... my mouth tastes like death."
Peppermint Butler could not believe his eyes. There before him, many years after his mysterious disappearance, was none other than…
"Naruto?"