(The only thing I own are my OC's, like the new one that appears in this very important chapter.)
Chapter 6 Nightmares
Twenty three days had passed since Michal was covered in frog guts and a lot had happened. Shortly after the incident with the lub-glub and the frog, the three had learned that Susan was missing. Finn and Jake had returned the day after to find that Susan had left a week ago with a 'hairy man' as said by the hyoomens. The two investigated her disappearance further for two days, but any and every clue lead to a dead end.
On the fifth day, the princess had announced the completion of the Bates knew home on the outskirts of the Candy Kingdom. It was nothing more than medium sized cottage that had been carved into a hill.
On the ninth day, Eli turned seventeen years old. The only gifts that were mentionable were the ones that Finn and Marceline gave the young man. Marceline had found him a red and black bass guitar. Finn got him something that he knew he would need, a sword. Well, he didn't give it to him per say. He took Eli on a hike to a village close to the Goblin Kingdom, to the exact location where Finn had received his sword where the blade was solid gold. Michal decided to tag along so he could get a weapon as well. Besides, the bullets in his gun wouldn't last forever and he only had twelve left out of the fifteen he had come to Ooo with. In this village was an immortal blacksmith known as the Weapons' Master. He makes custom orders for every costumer so no two weapons he forges are the same and no one knows why, but the Weapons' Master doesn't charge anything for his works of art. He was happy to give Eli and Michal, swords that would fit their grip as well as their personality. Sometime later, the swords were completed. Michal was given a beautiful sword. The blade was as black and polished as obsidian. Instead of a straight blade, a portion near the tip was indented inward. The cross guard curved up and out, and had a ruby embedded in the middle of it. The grip was wrapped in leather, and the pommel looking like a flattened bubble. When the Weapons' Master gave Eli his birthday present, he was very confused. He was given only two sword hilts, the cross guards in the shape of a crescent. But once he thought of something sharp, fire shot out of where the blades would be. The fire faded away and the blades appeared. It was a thin but strong, curved piece of metal with four serrated teeth under the bladed edge.
Finn spent the next four days, teaching the two how to use their swords. Michal having more trouble with the lessons than Eli, because he had been trained in the way of the Marine.
On day fourteen, Eli decided to go with Finn and Jake on an adventure where they had found themselves surrounded by a goblin horde. And if not for Eli's extra help, they wouldn't have left that battle ground with just minor cuts and bruises.
Eventually Eli convinced his father to go on an adventure with the two heroes. During the process of that day Finn and Jake discovered that Michal was terrified of spiders, especially the giant talking ones with marriage problems.
For the next week everything was normal. Well, as normal as it gets it in this day and time. But no matter what happened during the day, the exact same thing would happen to Finn every night. He would have the same dream about the same cloud attacking him, Finn would occasionally land a few minor blows, but the beast would always win the fight. But before it could strike the final blow, Finn was saved by the same yellow light and woke up in his bed with the scratches he received while fighting it. He always wanted to tell anyone about the dreams he had been having, but whenever Finn tried to do so, something in the back of head told him not to. With each dream, the creature became less of a cloud and more of a solid mass, until Finn could describe it from memory.
The creature stood about seven feet tall, covered head to foot with nightmare black scales. The head of the creature was basically like a human skull, except there were small indents where the eyes and nose should be, two gazelle like horns where the ears would be, and its jawline was wide with many long and pointed teeth. Its shoulders, elbows, and knees were extended and spiked. It still had the same long claws as in the first dream, but its legs resembled that of Tyrannosaurus Rex. And somewhere during the twenty three dreams, the creature had acquired a nine foot long tail with small barbs near the tip.
Tonight, being the twenty fourth night of fighting this thing. Finn was prepared. His dream began with him and Anna walking toward her house.
"So you're sure you don't want any kind of weapon?" Finn said with his hands on the back of his head.
"Finn, I wouldn't fire a gun, and I won't hold a sword."
"It doesn't have to be a sword. You could get a staff, a bow and arrow, or a dagger at the least." She flashed him a smile after saying
"Shut up, ya big lug."
The next thing Finn knew, they were in Anna's living room. Finn took Bemmo out of his pack and set him on the table in front of the couch. When the two sat down, Finn saw Michal sitting on the other side of the room, putting together the pieces of his freshly cleaned Glock. As Finn and Anna began playing, the Captain stepped out of the room after he placed the pistol on the mantle above the fireplace. All of a sudden Anna drops her controller and grabs her stomach.
"I don't feel so good." Black smoke began to pour out of Anna's mouth and surround her. "Finn, what's happening!" Anna said with her voice muffled. Finn did not answer, he had simply jumped off of the couch as he drew his sword. When he turned around the smoke had cleared and the beast stood where Anna was. It lunged at Finn, but he ducked under it and allowed it to slam itself into the wall. Finn rotated to face the creature and blocked every attack the beast made. Occasionally it would scratch Finn on an arm or a leg, but nothing that was too much for him to handle. After a month of fighting this thing, every new dream felt more like a sparring match and less like an ass kicking. As the creature swung from above, allowing Finn to dodge yet another attack and move behind the creature. He jammed the tip of his blade into the back of the creature and out of its chest. Not only was the attack unsuccessful, as the thing felt no pain, but it began to absorb the sword from both entry and exit wound. Finn tried to remove his sword, but it only sank deeper into the creature.
The tail of the creature wrapped itself around Finn's ankle, the barbs piercing his several layers of skin, yanked him up in the air and slammed him against the floor like a ragdoll. It repeated this again before throwing Finn at the wall above the fireplace. Finn grunted as he hit the wall, and brought pretty much everything on the mantle to the ground with him. He grabbed the left side of his chest in pain.
"Okay, that was probably a rib." Finn blinked several times before he saw what was right in front of his face, Michal's gun. As Finn stood up slowly, he grabbed the gun. 'I've seen Michal use this, how hard could it be.' He thought to himself as the creature completed the absorbing of Finn's sword. Finn and the creature stared at each other, until the creature spoke.
"This ends tonight, human."
"You said that three nights ago." Finn replied as he pointed the Glock at the creature, and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. Since this was Finn's first time firing any kind of gun, he had no idea that the safety was on. Finn pulled the trigger several more times and with few smacks to the back, got the same result. "You work for Michal, why not for me." The creature charged at the boy and drove one of its clawed hands deep through Finn's gut, and about two inches into the wall. Finn knew that it was all a dream, but that didn't stop the blinding pain that shot through him. The creature's other hand formed into jagged blade. The attack caused Finn's finger to flip the safety off.
"Any last words for my master, boy." The creature said as it raised its bladed hand above Finn's head. 'I got nothing else to lose'. He placed a hand on the creature's arm that was inside of him.
"Just three, Alvin's Hot Juicebox!" Finn screamed as he jammed the muzzle against the temple of the creature and pulled the trigger as many times as he could. The bullets cut through the skull of the creature like a knife through butter. As the creature fell to the ground, it took Finn with it. Finn rolled over after he fell on top of it, causing the creature to turn into a black fog and fade out of existence.
He placed both of his hands over the gaping hole in his abdomen that was bleeding very badly. Finn gave a small smile as he saw the yellow light that consumed everything the boy saw. He expected to wake up in his bed, just like the other times it had happened. But became very confused when he opened his eyes and found himself lying on the grass of large field, looking up at a clear blue sky with small clouds moving overhead.
Out of the corner of his eye Finn saw someone kneeling over him, one arm above where the creature's hand was. Finn raised his head to get a better look at the person, and saw a knight in golden armor. The armor was scratched, dented, chipped, and even scorched in several places. Despite the damage, the armor seemed to glisten in the sunlight. In the gaps between his armor, was what looked like a black jumpsuit lined with dark blue strings of light. His helmet had four horns curved backwards, with a much smaller horns in between each of the larger ones. The only part of his face that was shown through his helmet was the man's mouth and chin. The gauntlet above Finn looked strangely familiar. Attached to his waist were two objects. One was a thin sword in long sheath. The second was something that looked like a flattened 'V', one half of the object thicker than the other.
"A-am I dead?" Finn said softly. The knight let out a small laugh and pulled his hand away.
"Not that far from it, kid." Finn's eyes widened as he heard the knight's voice. It was the same voice that had spoken to him in the astral plain, the night of the first dream.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Soturi, and I am a friend." Soturi stood up and extended his hand so he could help Finn up and he took the offer. Once Finn was on his feet, he could see that Soturi towered over him
"How do I know you're a friend?" Finn said with one eyebrow raised.
"Well I never let my creature kill you, now did I?" Finn wrenched his hand away from Soturi's.
"You sent that thing after me!" He yelled.
"Only with the intention to see if you are worthy." Soturi replied in a calm voice.
"Worthy of what?" Finn asked still heated about what this knight had just told him.
"Worthy of my training, Finn. And you did remarkably well, considering the fact that you killed it in under a month and the last person who I tested took over a year."
"Who was the last guy?" Finn asked. Soturi raised his hand that was previously over Finn's gut.
"You're not going to tell me that you haven't seen this on anyone else's hand." Finn thought for a moment.
"No, I don't…" he stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the eye on the back of the hand staring back at him. "No way." Finn said, his jaw almost hitting the ground. Soturi only nodded.
"I'm sure you have a ton of questions, but before I can answer one. I need to show you something that you'll never forget." He placed a hand on Finn's forehead, and made his eyes glow yellow. When the glow faded, Finn saw that he and Soturi were no longer in a field, but in the middle of a busy city street with buildings that touched the sky, covered with too many blinking screens to count. Walking the streets were humans, humans of all shapes and sizes. The expression on Finn's face was priceless. He was confused, but he had never felt this happy in his entire life. Sadly that happiness would soon be ripped away from him and replaced with horror.
"So why did you want to show me this?" Finn said as he walked over to a small girl with brown curls that was no more than four years of age, holding on to her mother's hand. Finn reached for the girl, but his hand passed through her, as if she were a ghost. He tried the same thing with the man to his right. Even though Finn's hand went through his chest numerous times, the man and everyone else was oblivious to him.
"Well, this isn't what I wanted to show you." Soturi said with anguish in his voice. Finn turned to look the knight directly at his covered face.
"If this isn't it, than what is?" He said, a big smile still plastered to the boy's face. It took everything Soturi had to look away from Finn, and pointed toward the sky. Finn followed his finger and something that was falling from the sky caught his eye. The happy faded away and was replaced with curiosity. It looked like a thick pencil with a wings in the middle and the back. If it continued to fall, it would hit the ground about twelve miles from where Finn and Soturi were standing. Finn watched the object fall as he heard several of the humans start to scream. He then saw everyone turn and run. He looked back at the pencil just in time for it to go supernova. Finn immediately shut his eyes and covered his face with his hands to stop the light from blinding him permanently.
A few minutes after the light was no more, he could finally see again. But Soturi was right, what he seeing was something he would not soon forget. Where there were once buildings that stood tall and proud now lie in heaps of smoldering rubble. The streets where the people walked were now covered in things that ranged from bits and pieces of buildings and cars, to the bits and pieces of the humans who walked them. The humans who survived the blast, were dazed, confused, and badly injured. Finn saw the mother of the girl he had touched, limp by with her daughter wrapped tightly in her arms. He only got a quick glance at the girls face, it was almost expressionless, with a large trail of blood running down it. Finn felt as if he was about to vomit. He looked up to the sky and more terror fell upon his face as he saw a gigantic mushroom cloud overhead. Finn turned to Soturi for an explanation. He bowed his head and said. "Welcome to Times Square in New York City, July seventh, two thousand fifteen. Day one of the Mushroom War. But the devastation does not stop here." Soturi then snapped his fingers several times, each snap separated by at least ten seconds. Every snap showed a new city that lay in waste. Soturi told Finn the name of each location as it flashed in front of him. "Tokyo, Miami, Bangkok, Moscow, London, Iraq, Los Angeles, Beijing, Seoul, Paris…"
"Stop!" Finn screamed as he feel to his knees and his voice died down to a shuttering murmur. "Please stop." Behind the two was a giant heap of twisted metal that was the Eiffel Tower. Soturi walked up next to Finn.
"I'm sorry for what I have shown you." He snapped his fingers once more and the two were back in the field where Finn had awoken. "But it had to be done." Finn looked at the knight with hurtful eyes. "For what you saw, was all my brother's doing. And he plans to do it once again" Soturi pulled Finn up onto his feet again.
"Wait, the Mushroom War was a thousand years ago." Finn said and Soturi was quick to respond.
"True, but I come from a city named Rumah, we had discovered the secret of prolonged life almost a millennia ago. Biologically I'm about thirty five years old, chronologically I'm two thousand eight hundred and seventy six years old, I think." Finn's eyebrows were now raised.
"That's impressive but, what about your brother compelled him to carry out something," Finn had to stop himself from talking when the brand new memories of that fresh hell. "something like that."
"I think it's was something about revenge for what the humans did to him a long time ago. How they defaced him. But he was just caught in the crossfire of a human war called World War II, I think it was." Finn scratched his head before saying.
"Okay, so who is your brother?"
Soturi sighed, the only memorial to a person long dead. "I once knew him as Veli, a man whose heart was as pure as his mind was strong. A man of great honor, who made no enemies, but who only saw the good in any and every sentient being. However, I believe he goes by a name that you are all too familiar with." Soturi paused so he could gather his thoughts, but Finn wanting to know, made a gesture that told him to 'go on'. Soturi forced out his next words. "My brother, The Lich King."
"W-what! No, no that's impossible. I killed the Lich."
"Yeah well so have I. After I drove a knife just like this one…" He grabbed half of the flattened 'V' and pulled it in half. Both halves regenerated as if nothing had happened. "…straight through his heart and then threw him down into a canyon, he played possum for about a year. I discovered that Veli was alive only after I learned of his plan to eradicate humanity and by then it was far too late for me to stop him. But I was able to thwart him from taking control of the planet before he imprisoned me in the astral plain and took me from…" Soturi stopped before he said something that he shouldn't have. "And so I ask you, Finn the human, as one of the last members of your race. To help me bring my brother to justice for the crime, of genocide."
Finn was quiet, he knew Soturi was keeping something from him. "There's something else, isn't there." The knight clenched his fist and breathed in.
"Yes, there is. You know that billions died because of my brother, but first to fall at his hands was our father."
"But who did he take you from?"
"That would be my queen Charlotte, and our unborn child." Soturi raised his hand so Finn could see his palm. From the small circle embedded into his palm came a blurred holographic image of a woman. But before the hologram could become clear, it was reduced to nothing by an explosion of sparks. "Damn." Soturi whispered as he re-clenched his fist. "So now you know I'm doing this mostly for revenge, I'll understand if you reject my teachings. But when my brother returns with an army, and I assure you he will. I know for a fact that he will come for you, the location where he was trapped in amber, and then he will move on the rest of your world."
Finn rubbed his chin before saying, "So basically, you want to train me so I…"
"We." Soturi interrupted.
"…right, so we can stop your brother, The Lich, from taking over the world."
"Correct." Soturi said nodding his head.
"How long do you think it will take to train me?" Soturi thought at Finn's question.
"Statistics say, about three years."
"Okay, there's still one thing I don't understand Soturi."
"And that being?"
"When you talked to me in that first dream you said and I quote 'rest now young hero, prepare yourself for the storm that is fast approaching', why did you say it like that?"
Soturi couldn't help but smile. "Okay, so imagine you haven't talked to any to anyone for almost a thousand years, wouldn't you like to make the first thing you say to someone sound all cool and dramatic." Finn opened his mouth to protest, but then he realized he would probably do something like that, if given the chance.
"Okay, one last question, I promise. When do I start training?"
Soturi (Sow-tur-e) and Veli (Va-lee) are two words in Finnish, and I hope you at least smiled at the play on words. But Soturi is Finnish for warrior and if you think I used a word that means something evil for the Lich's real name, think again. Veli is Finnish for brother, and you'll find out why in future chapters.
The next three chapters will be based off of some AT episodes. And if any new episode that comes on that I can use, I will.
Oh and tell me, is it sad when a personal achievement is spelling statistics (Holy crap I did it again) without having Word say it's misspelled.
