A familiar sense of primal fear gripped Finn's heart before he could even comprehend what was going on. Every cell in his body screamed that something was wrong. He blinked his eyes and his surroundings shifted into focus. As he looked around at the alien landscape, the dreadful feeling only grew more intense. A thick and invasive fog settled low on the ground, not allowing him to see beyond his outstretched arms. He fumbled his way through the fog, trying to grasp at anything that would give him a semblance of normalcy. He found nothing that he could hold onto in the desolate plain he found himself in.
While Finn blindly navigated the strange environment, silhouettes appeared in the fog. Their sudden appearance made Finn's heart skip a beat as he struggled to make sense of their forms. While his eyes couldn't understand what he was seeing, Finn's brain instinctively knew that the hazy figures were people long gone. Finn took a step back in shock as their voices pounded against his ear drums, cries of pain mixed with reassuring words into an unbearable cacophony that tormented him. Finn collapsed to the ground from the auditory assault.
As he lay there, phantom pains shot along his chest, like a blade slashing at his skin. The stinging pain on his ribs were barely noticeable to the excruciating feeling emanating from his right arm. It felt like a horrible beast had sunk its teeth into his arm. The sound of skin being pulled and a wet squelch was immediately followed by a sense of numbness that replaced the horrific pain in his arm. A slight tingling sensation and a weightlessness that felt wholly unnatural. As he turned his head to investigate what was causing the uncanny feeling, he was greeted with the sight of a rounded stump in place of his right arm. His heart beat faster and his eyes darted around as he began to panic. He opened his mouth to scream, but before any sound could escape, he shot up in his bed. His body covered in sweat, his brain was slow to recover from the leftover confusion of his nightmare.
The first thing he did as he awoke was try and grasp his right arm. Like countless times before, his hand passed right through where his forearm should be before fumbling towards the remaining stump of his right arm. The tingling sensation slowly faded as his mind began to fully wake up and realized that his arm was, still indeed, missing. Finn began to feel nauseous and his mind raced as the last bits of his brain woke up.
It had been almost a decade since he had lost his arm for the first time, but his subconscious still couldn't move on, constantly reminding him of his father's betrayal. The second time he lost his arm was almost as traumatic, though in a different sense. In place of betrayal was more of a confusing mess that led to losing something far more important than his arm. A confused and angry soul lashing out at the world, all born from his right arm.
The pain of remembering Fern was enough motivation to get out of bed, as much as he would have liked to lie back down and waste away. Unfortunately for his self-destructive plans, he actually had something to do these days. He swung his legs over the side of his small bed and looked around the familiar interior of his humble mobile abode.
About an arm's length away from his bed was what could hesitantly be called a kitchen started. A single granite counter beside an old stove was appropriate for the amount of home cooking that Finn did. The microwave that sat atop the kitchen counter had seen more action in a week than the stove had in the four years that he's had it. Above the stove were a couple of cabinets that held enough instant noodles and coffee to feed an entire kingdom. Hanging on a metal hook below the cabinets was his metal prosthetic. Right across from the dinky little kitchen was a single loveseat and a small table for the rare occasion that he didn't eat in bed. With the limited amount of space that his RV afforded him, a ratty and beat up loveseat was all that he could fit inside. The small square table had papers littered atop of it, crude maps and grocery lists that had piled up since he had last cleaned.
Finn steeled his resolve as he prepared for his most arduous task of the day. He tensed his muscles and slowly stood up. After a few uncomfortable pops in his knees and numerous muttered curses, Finn was out of his bed. At the ripe old age of twenty-five, he was discovering all sorts of ways his body decided to give him payback for his years of death defying heroics as a teen. His crumbling body aside, Finn turned towards a small wardrobe standing beside his bed and began to dress himself. Despite the years passing, he had never given up on his impeccable fashion sense that he's held since he was ten. A loose light blue t-shirt and dark blue shorts were all he needed.
Finn dragged his feet over to his kitchenette and flung open the cabinet door and pulled out a mug, the instant coffee, and a bottle of lukewarm water. Combining the three resulted in something that could barely resemble coffee. He put the mug in the microwave before hitting the buttons that gave an irritating beep to his sensitive morning ears. As the microwave hummed, Finn brought his eyes to his metal arm dangling from its hook. It had almost been a year since he used it for anything besides handling steaming hot microwave meals. The lack of adventuring meant that the arm had been left to collect dust in the RV. Finn's reminiscing was interrupted by the microwave's beeps alerting him that his beverage was done.
Opening the door, Finn reached in and grabbed the hot mug and sipped. The caffeine barely affected him anymore but he was frightened that his body might stage a full on mutiny without it. The coffee washed over Finn's taste buds, making him cringe at its bitter taste. As much as he wanted to pretend, black coffee was much more Jake's thing than his, but he had no creamer or sugar available so he had to make do. Finishing the cup, he left in on the small counter before making his way to the RV door and stepped outside.
The natural light of the sun assaulted Finn's eyes, much harsher than the dim glow inside of his mobile home. Shielding his eyes from the sun, Finn scanned around the small forest clearing where he had made camp for the past week. In the middle of the clearing was a fallen log that Finn had placed in front of a small fire pit. Whenever he had trouble sleeping he sat on the log and poked at the fire to keep his mind occupied. Beyond the fire pit was complete wilderness, nothing but lush green trees for a few miles before coming to the flat plains of the Grasslands. He had set up shop in a forest that bordered the Grasslands and the outskirts of the Candy Kingdom, able to quickly respond to any emergency in both areas, not that there were any emergencies these days. Taking a final survey of his surroundings, Finn heard the sound of thunder despite the perfectly clear blue sky.
Quickly pivoting on his feet, Finn grabbed the teleporter's wrist with his only arm and twisted. He saw his attacker had a short sword in their right hand. Finn's vice grip on their wrist prevented them from being able to swing their blade, and Finn quickly brought his knee up into their arm, causing them to drop their weapon.
"Teleporting is never gonna work, Bronwyn." Finn teased as he kicked the blade across the ground.
Bronwyn rolled her eyes before teleporting to escape Finn's one handed grip, appearing at the fallen log and sitting down. She picked up a twig and began to poke around the charred remains of last night's fire. Her short hair hung down over her right eye which annoyed Finn to no end. When she first started as Finn's apprentice, he had urged her to shorten her hair or atleast keep it in a hat like he had when he was young. While she did reluctantly get a haircut, Finn suspected she deliberately kept it just long enough to irritate him without being able to bring it up. Even her clothing wasn't safe from Finn's constant drills of being "adventure ready." He had swapped her normal baggy and colorful t-shirts with thick and dull cotton shirts with rugged pants to match. The only thing safe from Finn's scrutiny were her high top sneakers, although he was planning to push her to wear boots in the near future.
"You're just lucky. One of these days I'll catch you off guard." She said as she stared at the fire pit.
"Luck's got nothing to do with it," Finn explained as he picked the sword off of the ground. "You rely on teleporting too much, you can't see the drawbacks of it."
"You're just jealous that I have magic powers and you don't." Bronwyn replied dryly.
"Alright yeah, I'll admit that teleporting is cool, but if you use it more than once in a fight then your opponent will figure you out." Finn explained as he sat down beside his apprentice.
"I only need to use it once, you can only block it because you know about it. If I get behind someone then the fight is over, I can just get them from behind." Bronwyn said through gritted teeth.
"What if you miss? What if they're wearing armor? What if your enemy has a friend backing him up? There's too many uncertainties to rely on. Not to mention the lightning that gives you away every time you do it." Finn's relentless questions always irked Bronwyn.
"Whatever." She muttered as she continued to poke at the burnt firewood.
"Cheer up, kiddo. If there's one thing you can always depend on, it's yourself. Come on, we got a long day of training ahead of us." Finn clapped and stood up, offering his hand to help her off the log.
Bronwyn blew her bangs away from her eyes before slapping his hand away and got up on her own. The strange duo made their way to a large opening for their daily duties. As Finn prepared to train with his grandniece, his mind drifted to how the apprenticeship had begun.
It was two months after Jake's funeral when Finn's life was once again flipped around. His RV was a mess, trash strewn around in grief stricken apathy. The ringing of his emergency only mobile flip phone reverberated throughout the entire RV, forcing him awake. He absent-mindedly scratched his patchy 5-o'clock shadow before picking up the phone.
"Hello?" He muttered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Finn." Kim Kil Whan's curt and business-like voice came through the phone's speaker. "I am in need of your assistance."
"Yeah, what is it, KKW?" Finn responded, barely awake.
"It's about my daughter, Bronwyn. She's been in a funk lately and well uhh… it's reaching a point where I'm truly concerned." Kim Kil Whan's voice showed a rare hint of emotion as he talked about his daughter.
"Listen Kim, I'm really the last guy to talk to about this. I'm not doing so great either to be honest." Finn said as he looked around at the sorry state of his home.
"I wouldn't be asking you for help if I had another option. I have nowhere else to turn." Kim Kil Whan pleaded.
Finn was growing agitated at the disruption of his self imposed solitude and was looking for any way to shut the conversation down and return to decaying in his bed.
"I can't do it. I'm sorry about Bronwyn but I don't have time for this." Finn lied through his teeth, the only plans being a microwaved noodle lunch and staring at the ceiling.
"Bronwyn needs your help, Finn. She's distancing herself and I can't do anything about it. I've tried to talk to her but she just ignores me." KKW took a sharp breath before continuing. "I need someone else to talk some sense into her. I need your help."
"No." Finn said bluntly before snapping the phone shut.
Finn laid back down on his bed and shut his eyes, trying to fall back asleep. As he lay there, a quiet voice rang in the back of his head. What would Jake think about this? Was he really abandoning his remaining family just to rot in bed? Finn huffed as his conscience had returned after a two month long vacation. Staring up at the ceiling, the small voice continued to heckle him, urging him with every ounce of strength it had to get him out of bed. The voice finally tipped Finn over the edge as he gave an annoyed groan before rolling off the bed.
Shuffling his way through the garbage strewn about the RV, he made his way to the driver seat. Fishing the keys out of the glove compartment, he stuck it in the ignition and turned it over. The engine gave a sputtering noise before finally firing on, the entire mobile home rumbling as the engine turned over. Finn pressed on the gas and began to drive towards Kim Kil Whan's home. Finn navigated the narrow paths that were barely wide enough to fit the large vehicle. Tree branches brushed against the windows as the RV crawled by, giving a stomach curling scratch as they passed. Eventually the trail widened into something that resembled an intersection in the woods. It had been quite a while since Finn last visited the Whan residence. He turned left based on instinct and half forgotten memories of previous visits. He had apparently chosen correctly as the untamed woods became a woodland themed residential center constructed by Kim Kil Whan's real-estate ventures. Finn drove past condos carved into trees on his way down the path. He followed the path around a curve and let the RV roll to a stop as a familiar brownstone came into view.
Stepping out of the cab of the RV, Finn quickly ran his hands through his unkempt hair. The attempt to make himself presentable was useless and he quickly gave up. He quietly walked to the front door with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Every step towards the tall and imposing building made Finn regret his decision to come here more and more. He stood in front of the wooden door and before his mind could talk him out of it, his arm acted on its own and knocked. The sound of his hand rasping against the wood was followed by silence, and Finn inwardly wished that no one was home. That hope was dashed as the door swung inwards to reveal Kim Kil Whan standing in the entrance.
"Finn, you came." KKW said with a hint of surprise.
"Yeah, I had an opening in my schedule." Finn gruffly replied.
"You're looking…" KKW trailed off as he looked Finn's rough demeanor up and down, he was looking like everything but well. "Please, come on in."
Finn squeezed past KKW and into the living room. He spotted numerous photos of the Whan family hung along the walls, all happy as they smiled at the camera over the years. A pit formed in Finn's stomach as he went and sat down on a chair that looked much more comfortable than it was. The plush red cushioning didn't give an inch as Finn settled his weight onto it.
"All right Kim, what is this about?" Finn questioned as he kept shifting his position in order to find any semblance of comfort.
"Like I said on the phone, Bronwyn's behavior has me concerned." KKW said as he sat down on the couch across from Finn, his squiggly frame filling every inch that the seat afforded him. "I've barely seen her since the funeral. She either locks herself in her room or is out Glob knows where."
"She's a teenager, Kim. Sneaking out is practically routine, it's not that serious." Finn said with an arm wave.
"Yesterday she came home with scratches all over her hands. I couldn't even ask her about it before she ran to her room." Kim said, his voice gravely serious. "Whatever she's up to isn't the run-of-the-mill teenage fueled rebellion."
"What do you want me to do about it? Have a heart to heart talk? I've met her, what, three times? I doubt she'll listen to me anymore than you." Finn said.
"I want you to follow her. Make sure she's not getting into any trouble." Kim said.
"Are you serious?" Finn said as he shot Kim with an incredulous look. "What would I say? 'Hey it's your grand uncle you barely know dropping by after fighting with your dad'? She'd just clam up even more."
"You wouldn't let her see you, obviously." Kim seethed.
"You're asking me to spy on your daughter?" A look of confusion was plastered on Finn's face.
Kim clasped his hands and glanced at a picture frame of him and Bronwyn looking towards the camera.
"I need to make sure she's safe." Kim said with a sigh.
Finn pinched his eyebrows and looked down at the wood paneling of the living room floor. The request was ridiculous and a breach of trust between Kim and Bronwyn. Although it may not be a complete over reaction. Finn knew how grief affected people, and if Bronwyn were doing something unsafe to cope then it may be best to try and intervene. Finn looked up from the floor and looked into KKW's eyes.
"Fine, I'll do it. I'm gonna park my RV somewhere far away so she doesn't know I'm here. I'll also have to set up some surveillance in case she tries to sneak out at night. How long do I have until she comes home?"
Kim glanced at his expensive wrist watch. The watch was as extravagant as real-estate empire money could buy. It had a golden band and the face was encrusted with jewels that could blind.
"About twenty minutes." Kim said flatly.
"Ahhhh, Glob." Finn cursed as he rushed out of the door.
Finn quickly sprinted across KKW's well maintained lawn and slammed his way into the interior of his RV. He began rummaging through the cabinets above his small loveseat. He searched through bins full of electronic scrap before pulling out a small round metal disk with exposed wires. He rushed back into the Whan's triplex and faced a very confused Kim.
"Which room is Bronwyn's?" Finn questioned.
"Third floor, first door on the left. What in Glob's name is that?" Kim asked as he pointed at the device in Finn's hand.
"A listening device, I need to plant it in her room." Finn explained as if it were the most trivial thing on Ooo.
Finn strode up the stairs two steps at a time, Kim hot on his heels.
"A listening device?! You're gonna bug my daughter's room?" Kim shouted as he quickly followed Finn.
"You want her safe, right? I'm gonna have to keep tabs on her to make sure she is ok." Finn said as he rounded the banister to the second floor.
Kim quickly stepped in front of him, blocking Finn's passage to the third floor. Kim's brow was furrowed as he was clearly annoyed at Finn's nonchalant answers.
"Where did you even get one of those?" Kim asked in a huff.
"Princess Bubblegum showed me how to make one while I was investigating some candy criminal gang. It's kinda scary how much she knows about these things." Finn admitted. "Can I get past you now? This whole thing was your idea."
Kim relented with his questions and stepped aside. Finn continued up the stairs with Kim behind him. As they both reached the third floor, they heard the front door of the house swing open. Finn and Kim faced each other in a panic as their covert operation was about to be bust wide open.
"I thought you said we had twenty minutes." Finn whispered angrily.
"I guess she's early today." Kim hissed back.
Finn could hear the creaking of steps on the first floor as Bronwyn came walking up the stairs. He quickly turned to Kim and began formulating a plan.
"Alright, just keep her distracted while I plant this in her room. I just need a minute."
Finn quickly opened the door to Bronwyn's room and shut the door quietly. He heard Kim walk down the stairs and greet his daughter.
"Bronwyn, welcome home! How was school today?" Kim asked with forced cheerfulness.
Finn heard no reply from Bronwyn as he began looking around the room to plant the listening device. From the sound of his voice, Kim met Bronwyn on the second flight of stairs and was doing a terrible job at stalling.
"Oh come on, don't just ignore your old man. Talk to me for a minute!" Kim said as he tried to keep up the act.
Kim's voice was quickly approaching the third floor which meant that Finn was running out of time. He spotted a desk by Bronwyn's window. It was right in the center of the room and would be perfect to hide the device under. Finn briskly walked over to the desk and stuck the device on the underside of the desk, gluing it with the adhesive side. Finn could hear Kim's voice right outside the door.
"Fine, young lady, I didn't want it to come to this. As your father, I demand that you talk to me about your recent behavior." Kim said with as much parental authority as he could muster.
Finn heard the shuffle of Bronwyn's feet as she turned to face her father right at her room's entrance.
"All right Dad, you want to talk? Fine." Bronwyn said with a raised voice. "What's with that stupid RV outside? Another one of your dumb projects for us to 'work on' together?"
Finn thanked Glob for the brief chance at escaping, only to then face reality as there were very few options. He had planned on slipping out of a second story window, but Kim was much worse at talking to his daughter than Finn anticipated. With no other alternative, he crept towards the window and slowly slid it open, hoping not to be heard over the argument between Kim and Bronwyn.
"I was hoping to go camping with you, reconnect and all that." Kim desperately tried to explain. "I know times have been hard since J-"
Kim was cut off by Bronwyn shouting again.
"Save it, Dad! Just leave me alone!" She yelled as she reached for the door knob.
As the knob jiggled, Finn took in a deep breath before jumping out of the third story window. The ground quickly approached and Finn deeply regretted not putting his artificial arm on this morning. With only one arm to brace for impact, Finn clumsily rolled as his body met the ground, hoping to conserve some momentum to lessen the shock. His plan barely worked as he tumbled on the ground, body screaming in agony. He quickly scrambled around the corner of the house, out of sight of Bronwyn's window. Her head peeked out and glanced around the area.
"What was that noise?" She asked Kim.
"I don't know, something probably just tumbled off the roof." Kim excused.
"Whatever, just get out of my room."
Finn sighed in relief before scowling.
'My RV isn't stupid.'
Finn was ticked off at Bronwyn's lack of recreation vehicle taste and quietly made his way to the very cool RV. He stopped halfway through the walk and winced in pain as the adrenaline dissipated. He was left to feel the full pain that comes with leaping out of a third floor window. His knees throbbed and he could already see welts begin to form on his arm and legs. He hobbled as quickly as he could to the door of the RV and slipped inside. With Kim's hastily constructed camping story, Finn would have to keep the RV where it was.
Finn dug through the same plastic bin that he pulled the listening device out of. Skimming through the loose wires and metal bits, he fished out a small radio with dials and buttons littered all around its frame. He set it on the table before beginning to fiddle with one of the dials, scanning through multiple frequencies. A brief second of one of Marceline's new hit singles was followed by a soap opera as Finn continued to turn the dial. He finally tuned it to the frequency of his bug and waited.
One of the downsides to spying, as he learned in recent years, was that it was rarely as glamorous in the VHS tapes that BMO played. Instead of your target monologuing about their secret plans, it was mostly just white noise that needed to be listened to very carefully in order to discern the slightest bit of information from. Finn sighed in disappointment as the only sound that his bug was picking up was the scratching of a pencil on paper. He walked over to his cabinet and began to microwave a packet of instant noodles before collapsing onto the loveseat. It was going to be a long night.
Finn's head was resting on his arm, lightly dozing off and was beginning to dream when the radio crackled to life after a long period of silence. Finn's head jolted up as the sound of a window opening interrupted what was likely to be another nightmare. In the shock of his rude awakening, his arm flailed around and knocked the half finished cup of noodles off of the table where he was sleeping. Finn swore softly and bent down to pick up the spilt food. His cleaning attempt was stopped in its tracks as he heard a thunder splitting the sky. His tired brain slowly piece together both the window opening and booming noise into one conclusion; Bronwyn was on the move. He abandoned the noodles as he peeled the curtain of the RV windows and looked outside. There he could see Bronwyn stalking away from the house and into the woods, slipping past the treeline and out of Finn's sight.
Pulling the curtain back in place, Finn swore much louder this time. Bronwyn teleported out of the house and was now somewhere in a very dark forest. Spying on someone who already knows your face is hard enough without having to track them through a forest at night. Finn steeled himself before exiting the mobile home and following Bronwyn into the woods. Finn didn't have much of a trail to follow, but the subtle clues that were there were enough. A broken tree branch, matted down grass, and a shoe print in some mud lead Finn in the right direction. He kept following the clues deeper into the forest, the moon overhead obscured by the tree canopy. Through the darkness, Finn forged ahead and followed Bronwyn's trail.
The clues led Finn to an opening in the trees, and through the gap Finn could see Bronwyn. She was standing atop of a cement skating bowl with her back turned. Finn had a vague memory of visiting this place with Jake. As Finn crept closer, he could hear Bronwyn grunting. He slowly climbed his way on top of the cement structure and approached Bronwyn. Now that he was closer to her, he could see that she was wailing on a dummy constructed of wood boards and pillows. The wood gave it the frame of a humanoid assailant and pillows with painted on bull's eyes covered where the chest, head, and arms would have been. She grunted as her fists impacted the fake enemy and the dummy shook from the blows. Her form was sloppy and clearly untrained, her arms flailing more than punching.
"You're doing it all wrong." Finn interjected, now just a couple of feet away from Bronwyn.
She gasped in shock before turning and launching her fist right into Finn's stomach. With only one arm to block the hit, he wasn't able to stop her attack. Finn doubled over from the pain and Broneyn quickly retracted her fist before getting a good look at her unidentified stalker. Her face turned from surprise to suspicion when she recognized the face of the person she just punched.
"What are you doing here?" She asked coldly with her arms crossed as she looked down at Finn.
Finn put one finger up to indicate that he still had the breath knocked out of him. He gulped down a few breaths of air before he shakily rose to his feet.
"I certainly didn't come here to get assaulted." Finn wheezed.
"Maybe don't sneak up on someone while they're hitting something." Bronwyn quickly replied.
"Noted. I'm here to make sure you're staying safe, and yea before you ask your dad did put me up to this." Finn admitted as he finally found steady footing.
"Of course he did." Bronwyn groaned. "Why did you reveal yourself then?"
"You were gonna hurt yourself the way you were pummeling this poor dummy." Finn said as he jokingly tapped the dummy with his knuckle.
"I can hit just fine, as you already saw. Now go back to Dad and tell him I'm fine." Bronwyn responded, her annoyance with Finn's presence clear in her voice.
"You got lucky with that one, plus I only got one arm." Finn said as he waved his stump at her. "You're too scrunched up and you're making your arms do all the work."
Finn faced the dummy with his feet apart and his arm floating in front of his chest. He lightly rocked side to side before cocking his fist back and rotating his hips, slamming his fist into the side of the dummy's pillowy head. The wood underneath the soft surface cracked and splintered under the pressure. The wooden base split and the entire dummy clattered onto the ground. Finn turned towards Bronwyn before giving a smug bow.
"Thanks, you jerk. Now I gotta make a new one." She huffed before collecting the dummy off the ground and chucked it towards the tree line.
"Don't worry about it, besides, if you want to start adventuring, you should probably be focusing on sword fighting rather than punching." Finn said slyly.
Bronwyn turned to Finn slowly, squinting her eyes. "Who told you I want to go adventuring?"
"Psssh." Finn waved his hand in dismissal. "I know what it's like. Times get tough, you want to get away from it, so you want to start adventuring."
"Let's say that I did want to go… adventuring," Bronwyn said hesitantly. "Would you tell my Dad about it?"
"We'll, yeah, obviously. That's why I'm here." Finn said. "Then after that I'd tell him that adventuring is done best with an experienced and cool teacher."
Bronwyn's eyes lit up at Finn's unspoken offer.
"Would you really teach me?" She asked.
"You could barely handle the dummy, it'd be irresponsible to let you out in the world like that." Finn joked.
The glint in Bronwyn's eyes dissipated as she realized that the immature idiot before her was gonna be her mentor.
"Fine, you can teach me, but how are you gonna tell my dad about this?"
"I'll handle that tomorrow, for now we have a lot to cover. So what do you say, want me to show you the ropes?" Finn asked as he outstretched his hand.
Bronwyn grasped the hand and shook it. As the handshake ended, Finn felt like he had made the first good decision in a long time.