Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time.
PART 3: Under the Candy Dome
"I'm the primary threat to the kingdom?" Bonnie asked in disbelief. "What're you basing this assessment on Candice?"
"Considering you and your friends are about to die, it would be pointless for me to explain," Candice responded. "Instead I will simply detonate the watch we are using to communicate. The blast will not kill you, but it should wound you badly enough for the Rattle Bots to finish you off more easily. Goodbye."
The watch began to beep and a countdown clock appeared on its screen. Bonnie attempted to undo the watch strap but found it was stuck. Marceline reached over and broke the watch strap with her raw strength. The vampire queen then threw the watch out at the attacking Rattle Bots. The watch struck one of the hovering robots in the face and exploded, knocking it to the ground and shutting it off permanently.
"I've had enough of these tin cans!" Marceline declared as her body began to grow in size.
In seconds Marceline had morphed into a twenty-foot tall bipedal creature similar to a wolf. Most of her body was covered in bony grey armored plates similar to those of an armadillo. She had also gained large hands with long curved black claws. The transformed Marceline emerged from the forest and charged at the hoard of Rattle Bots. All of the killer machines focused their fire on her, but the energy bullets seemed to do very little damage to her armored hide.
Meanwhile Marceline had begun slashing at the robots with her claws, cutting them in two as she knocked them out of the sky. She'd then stomp on the fallen machines, crushing them flat into the ground.
"Looks like those robots have totally forgotten about us," a worried Simon observed. "They're all focusing on Marceline."
"Which means it's our chance to turn the tables," Finn declared. "H.W., I'll need you to back me up."
"Of course," Huntress Wizard replied as a wooden bow appeared in her hand with a flash of green light.
"Bronwyn, I want you to stay back and guard P.B. and Simon," Finn instructed.
"You got it!" Bronwyn agreed as she pulled out a pair of brass knuckles from her pockets.
"Finn! You can't face the Rattle Bots unarmed!" Bonnie told him as he rushed off towards the battlefield.
"Who says I'm going in without a weapon?" Finn asked with a smirk as he reached his mechanical arm towards the R.V. "Nothung!"
Suddenly an object flew out one of the closed windows of the R.V., shattering the glass. The object spun through the air until it reached the metal palm of Finn's right hand. It was a sword with a pommel in the form of a white skull.
Bonnie gasped. "Isn't that Billy's sword?"
Bronwyn nodded. "Years ago after the legendary Billy died, Finn took the sword as a keepsake. But he never used it because it was a little large for him. From what I understand, Billy was a pretty big guy, and not just in the metaphorical sense. Anyway, right after Finn got his new arm, he decided to pull Nothung out to give it a polish, and it suddenly shrunk down enough for him to use. Finn felt like this meant Billy wanted him to start using his sword."
Finn charged at one of the Rattle Bots close to the ground with his sword raised high and swung it downward, cleaving the machine in two. The two Rattle Bots closest to the one Finn destroyed turned their attention to the blonde warrior and aimed their cannons at him. Before either could open fire though, Finn stabbed the one on his left through the chest and swung it hard into the other Rattle Bot. With the second of these two robots disabled on the ground, Finn used his sword to cut its head off.
Meanwhile Huntress Wizard had gone higher into the trees. She aimed an arrow at one of the Rattle Bots still attacking Marceline from behind and let it loose. As the arrow flew through the air, it glowed and multiplied into a massive barrage of arrows that struck the spherical gum ball containers at the base of each robot still attacking Marceline from the rear, causing them to shatter. The damaged robots fell like stones, allowing Marceline to turn around and stomp them into the ground. In a matter of minutes, every single Rattle Bot was destroyed.
With the battle at an end, Marceline morphed back into her regular form and wiped her brow. Bonnie rushed out of the forest and hugged the vampire.
Simon ran out of the forest soon after. "Marceline! Are you hurt?"
"Nah. I'm fine," Marceline assured him. "Those bullets really stung though."
"Okay P.B. I think you need to clue us in on what's going on," Finn spoke seriously as Bronwyn and Huntress Wizard came out of the forest. "Just what exactly were those things? And what was with the talking watch that tried to blow you up earlier?"
Bonnie sighed and pulled away from Marceline. "Okay. So a little while ago I decided to connect all of the Candy Kingdom to a computer I developed called Candice. She was designed to improve the lives of my subjects and provide the kingdom with better security. For some reason though, Candice has decided I'm a threat to the kingdom and must be eliminated."
"Why would she suddenly think you're a threat?" Marceline asked.
"I don't know! The only thing I can think of is something must've gone wrong with her final software update. It's probably an unexpected glitch."
"So what do we do about it?" Bronwyn asked.
"There's only one thing to do. We need to go back to the castle and reset Candice," Bonnie answered. "Or if necessary…shut her down completely."
"Bonnie, are you sure?" Marceline asked. "You put a lot of work into that thing."
Bonnie nodded. "Right now Candice is a threat to the kingdom, not an asset. If I can't fix her, she has to go."
"Okay then. Let's go to the Candy Kingdom," Finn decided. "Just give me a few minutes to get ready."
With those words, Finn headed back into the R.V. He set his sword down next to the door and opened the nearby closet. The first thing Finn pulled from the closet was a pair of black boots, which he immediately slipped on. He then pulled out and put on a faded denim vest with the word, Hero sewn onto the back in big white letters. Next, Finn put onto his left hand a fingerless black leather glove with the words, Bun-Puncher sewed onto the back in gold thread. Lastly, Finn put his familiar bear hat on over his head.
A few moments later, Finn emerged from the R.V. with a large green backpack on his back. The sword, Nothung was slung behind his back beneath the pack.
Finn stood before the group with his hands on his hips. "Okay! Let's go to the Candy Kingdom and do some hardcore tech support!"
It was a few hours before Marceline and the others arrived in sight of the Candy Kingdom. They had to travel as stealthily as possible to avoid any more Rattle Bots that might be patrolling the territory, so it took the gang a little longer for them to get there than it normally would've taken them. When they arrived, the group saw a dome of transparent green energy over the entire city. In the sky, Marceline saw a small white bird fly into the barrier and explode like a mosquito in a bug zapper.
"P.B., I think you might've gone a little overboard with your new security system," Marceline remarked.
"Yeah, this may have been a little excessive," Bonnie admitted. "Of course in my defense, this barrier is only supposed to be up during a state of emergency. I guess Candice considers my existence as such an emergency."
Bronwyn used a telescope to look at the front gate. "Looks like the gate's closed. There are also two more of those killer robots guarding the door."
"Okay. I'll go get us in," Finn declared as he emerged from their hiding place in the bushes.
"Finn, what're you planning to do?" Bonnie asked.
"Simple. I'm just gonna ask them to let us in," Finn answered before walking off.
As Finn calmly walked towards the front gate, Marceline and the others failed to notice when Huntress Wizard vanished. In another few moments, Finn reached the gate and the two Rattle Bots trained their weapons on them.
"Hey guys," Finn spoke with a wave. "I'm Finn the Human, kind of a big deal around here. I was wondering if you'd let me in?"
"Finn the Human. You have been classified as a threat to the Candy Kingdom's safety," one of the Rattle Bots declared. "As a threat to the kingdom, you are to be eliminated."
Finn sighed. "Yeah, kinda figured."
Before either of the Rattle Bots could open fire, two green arrows flew through the air and struck each one in the eye. Both robots froze and began to spark with electricity. Finn drew his sword and cut the robot on his right in half with a diagonal slash. He then stabbed the other Rattle Bot through the chest. With both Rattle Bots down, Finn used his sword to cut open the gate.
Huntress Wizard reappeared next to Finn soon after the robots were slain. The two of them rushed through the gate as Marceline and the others quickly followed. As soon as the entire team was through the gate though, about twenty more Rattle Bots flew onto the scene. Marceline again took on the form of the armored werewolf creature she had transformed into earlier and began to tear into the attackers. Huntress Wizard meanwhile stayed back and fired arrows at some of the robots, striking them in the eyes or the glass gum ball-filled spheres on their undersides, disabling them, allowing Finn to move in and cut each Rattle Bot that Huntress Wizard disabled to pieces.
Meanwhile Bronwyn had gotten on her skateboard and zoomed towards a Rattle Bot that had its attention focused on Marceline. Using the brass knuckles on her right hand, Bronwyn smashed the glass sphere on the machine's underside, knocking it to the ground. Just as another Rattle Bot trained its cannons on Bronwyn, she fired a spark of electricity from the horn on her head into the air. A small bolt of lighting came down and struck Bronwyn, causing her to vanish right as the robot opened fire on her. Bronwyn reappeared behind the Rattle Bot and smashed its ball just like she did with the first one.
In a matter of moments most of the attacking Rattle Bots had been destroyed. Ten more soon arrived though to take their place. As the replacement robots flew in to attack, Bonnie stepped forward and sprayed streams of fizzy brown liquid from the palms of her hands. The liquid drenched both Finn and the others and the oncoming Rattle Bots. Upon being sprayed, the robots sparked with electricity and exploded.
Finn licked his lips to taste the liquid and smiled. "Cream soda. Nice."
"Ugh! Now I'm gonna be sticky for the rest of the night," Bronwyn protested.
Marceline meanwhile morphed back to her normal form and shook herself dry like a dog. She then heard Bonnie groan and came over to her.
"Bonnie, are you okay?" Marceline asked.
"No I'm not okay!" Bonnie exclaimed. "I've donked up my entire kingdom with my malfunctioning computer! When am I going to learn not to work such long hours in my lab? I mean there's a shining example of what happens when I work days at a time without sleep decorating my castle!"
Marceline looked at where Bonnie pointed her hand and saw a pair of odd-looking sphinxes on one of the horizontal turrets of the castle. One was pink with a bald head and a human-like face, and the other was cream-colored with long blonde hair and the face of a bird. Both creatures had a third eye extending from a long stalk in the middle of their foreheads. A stream of yellow electricity traveled between the two eyes as the sphinxes gazed at one another as if in a trance.
"Oh. I thought those were just a couple of weird gargoyles you had commissioned as decoration," Marceline remarked.
"Hey!" Finn protested. "One of those weird gargoyles is technically my son!"
"Wha?"
"We don't have time for this, gang!" Simon interrupted. "I'm sure more of those robots are coming to shoot us full of holes right now."
"He's right," Bonnie agreed. "We need to get to the castle and reset Candice as soon as possible."
"Then let's get a move on!" Finn responded.
Just as the team began to run for the castle however, a bolt of lighting came down and blocked their path with a blinding flash. The light soon cleared to reveal a figure in a glittering red hooded cloak, which he immediately threw off to reveal his appearance. The person under the cloak was a man with blue skin, spiked white hair, pointed ears, and small light-purple horns growing from his forehead. A red and silver visor covered his eyes, and he had on a red leather jacket over a white shirt with stains on it, and a pair of red leather pants with black steel-toed boots. In his hand appeared a glittering red keyboard guitar.
The stranger gave a fanged grin to the team as he played a techno riff on his instrument. "Hello, sweet Marceline. I know we just met recently, but to me it feels like an eternity since we last saw each other."
"Oh Glob!" Marceline exclaimed as put her hand over her eyes.
"Marcy, do you know this wad?" Finn asked as he trained his sword on the stranger.
Marceline let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah. His name's Techno Joe. He's the guy my dad just tried to set me up with."
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