A/N: Okay, for those who want to see FinnXFlame stuff, I'm going to try to work that in between things with the Lich and Blackwatch. Shorter chapter this time. Don't be mad. So, let's get to it.

Chapter 9

The once stark white walls of the abandoned facility, now green and black with moss and mold, seemed to go on forever. Finn and Fionna trekked further than Jake or Cake as they talked. "So, have we done the same things? Like, y'know, like once, Jake made me dance, half-nude in front of FP's fam," Finn said.

Fionna chuckled, "Yeah, Cake made me do this little dance I did when I was a baby. Wrapped up in tin foil, but not half-nude."

Finn was about to reply, but his foot sunk on one of the tiles, making both his and Fionna's hearts immediately jump. Two objects unknown to either of them lowered from the ceiling with loud squeals of rusty metal. The only thing they did recognize was the fact that they were aiming at the two of them. Finn and Fionna both yelled to their siblings to get back before ducking behind an opened door as the strange devices let loose a barrage of small projectiles that were individually accompanied by loud bangs. The metal door was enough to repel whatever they were that were being fired at them, but leaning straight up against the door, as they figured out, was not comfortable at all.

"What is this?!" the hero yelled over the loud bangs, "I'd cut 'em up, but they're moving so fast, I can't even see them!"

"I don't know," Fionna yelled back.

The human boy tried to think of a way to get around the objects, but to no avail. 'Wait... Around!' "Fi, stay here and keep these things on you. I'm gonna use this room to get behind them."

She nodded and he went into the room that looked to be the remains of a conference room. Lo and behold, there was a doorway leading into the next room awaiting. Finn ran through it and out the main door to that room, back into the hallway where the weapons were. As he jumped up and sliced them into pieces, he couldn't help but think, 'Those things... they just wouldn't run out. I guess this place isn't as abandoned as it looks.' The ringing in his ears made it hard to hear, but quickly faded.

"Finn! Dude, are you okay?" Jake yelled as he ran to his brother.

Finn still stared at the remaining parts hanging from the ceiling, "Yeah... But, what were those things?"

Jake shrugged, "Don't know. Cake?"

She shook her head and Finn sighed, "Well, let's move forward."

As Cake and Jake began to walk, Fionna grabbed her counterpart's arm. "Hey, why are you so serious? When I go through a dungeon, I'm smiling most of the time," she inquired with a small frown.

Once again, Finn sighed and began walking with Fionna, "Well, I guess I'm trying to be responsible."

"What? Why?"

"I guess it all started when I bunked up really bad with Flame Princess all because of this really weird dream. It even had the Cosmic Owl in it!" Finn explained.

"Oh, you had that, too? Was it FP shootin' her fire at you, but you wouldn't burn? Didn't you ignore it like I did?"

"I had the dream, but I was just too curious too leave it alone. And I made her and Ice King fight again. Then, it became the Ice King shooting Ice at me, and that was real creepy, but the Cosmic Owl was whispering something, so I had to complete the dream..." he trailed off for a few seconds, his head hanging down.

"And...?" Fionna encouraged.

"And I told Jake about it. He totally flipped out, yellin' at me to finish it because it must have been prophetic! So, I sent two fake letters. The one to Ice King doesn't bother me 'cause he's a total weirdo," they rounded a corner, "But, what I put in that note to Flame Princess... it was stuff that only I would know. Could know. I even wrote that she couldn't kiss me without 'totes freakin' out'. I know she's sensitive about that..."

Fionna whistled, "Whoa, dude. That was messed up."

"I know that! But,-"

There was a click and all four of them stopped, Jake and Cake after seeing the two humans do the same. While Fionna held the Angel sword up at the ready, the blade of grass that happened to be Finn's sword danced at his palm, yet not fully extended. There was ruckus behind a door that was dented and bent, but from the inside out.

The entrance was both easy enough to find and, at the same time, it was terrifying enough to make Decker blanch. Sure, he'd been able to wipe out one himself, but only as a final test from Alex. The memory of begging men haunted him.

Then, it started. The voices.

Those horrible voices.

They were screaming, moaning, groaning. And they were screaming at him. A lot of them were Blackwatch, he could tell, and they just kept at it. Things like "monster" and "abomination" banged at the walls of his mind until he shook his head and took a step back. Both Ice Queen and Alex looked at him and saw the fear present in that gaze of his that didn't particularly focus on anything.

Alex snapped his fingers in front of Decker's face, forcing him from his trance. He looked to Alex, whose eyes softened very slightly, and nodded. They entered the facility cautiously, but went through it quickly, as there were no soldiers to be found and the turrets were slashed to bits. 'I wonder what happened to them,' Alex wondered. Aloud, he spoke to Decker, "Let's go up into the air ducts in case there are too many infantry."

Really, he'd suggested that in case there were too many for Decker. There probably wasn't a number out there he himself couldn't handle, but the younger definitely had his limits. Said teen replied, "Like Midtown?"

"Just like Midtown."

Decker shivered, "Alright. Let's go."

Using the virus to cling to the walls, he climbed up and tore a hole in the metal ceiling. Alex hopped up into the hole, while Ice Queen floated up. The trio began crawling through the network of ducts. After a couple minutes of crawling (and stopping momentarily to look out through a grate) Decker managed to chuckle. "What?" Ice Queen asked.

"I'm terrified," he giggled quietly, "and for some reason, I'm exhilarated by it!"

Unseen by either of them, Alex's brow furrowed. Something was off. In all of the time he'd been with Decker, when the boy was terrified, he was shivering in his shoes, not giggling madly. The first time he'd been taken to a Blackwatch base, he had to push him from the roof to get him to fight. And then, he'd frozen up. No, this definitely was not normal.

Alex would have to keep an eye on his behavior.

Meanwhile, Finn, Fionna, Jake, and Cake made their way around to an opening in one of the side walls made by obvious attempts to get out by going through room after room, then they'd squeezed between the panels of the wall to get to the opening. Now, the four of them were glancing into the mystery room, only to be met with the sight of about one hundred men, maybe more, all dressed in dark, navy blue uniforms that had hoods and masks with glowing blue optics. All of them were armed with guns. But, then, they all saw it. The Lich appeared from a small explosion of green fire, holding up a woman by the back of her shirt.

Finn couldn't tell her age from there, but he could see she had very, very curly strawberry blonde hair, down to her shoulder blades and she wore button-up, short sleeved, fluorescent blue shirt, along with some khaki capris. Oddly enough, she didn't have any shoes on. Then, the Lich said something indistinct before handing over the girl to one of the soldiers who had no hood and sleeker uniform, who nodded. It then disappeared in the same green flame it appeared from. Said soldier proceeded to lock her into what looked like a fairly confining glass cell.

"We gotta help her!" Finn whispered furiously.

Jake replied, "Dude, we'll get our buns handed to us like mad if we try to go against this many people."

"Sorry, but he's right, Finn," Fionna said.

The other human huffed, "Then, what do we do?"

His brother shrugged nonchalantly, "Wait and hope they leave?"

Finn groaned.

"Here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. All of the soldiers seem to be right below us," Alex looked down with his thermal vision.

Indeed, there were quite a few of them, but it was child's play for him. But, he wasn't going to fight them. Decker was, whether he wanted to or not. Speaking of whom, he hadn't spoken up until now after his little display. It had been a little over twenty minutes and all there had been were just chuckles here and there. Honestly, it made him wary around the teen. The last time he had a giggle fit, he'd...

But, all there was was hope now. Hope that it wasn't happening again. So, now, Decker opened his hand and pressed his fingers together tightly before jabbing it down swiftly to cut a slit into the metal to look through. Unfortunately, he had not yet "unlocked" his thermal vision, so he needed to see things through a peep hole. When he looked through, he gasped. No one else did, but he heard something snap; like his mind breaking was so strong and sudden, it was audible, but no.

Just below was his sister, Larkspur, and his logic was gone.

Alex saw that look in his eye and hurried to hold onto him. "Ragh! Lemme go, you son of a-"

Before he could get it out, Alex had clamped a hand over his mouth. Now, there were only vicious grunts and muffled screams coming the restrained young man. He shook as hard as he could to escape from the other man's grasp, but to no avail, "Wait," Alex hissed into his captive's ear.

The only response Decker returned was a series of guttural growls as he continued to shake and thrash against Alex's hold. He more represented an enraged animal now. At the moment, all the youngest of the three could hear was the sound of his own growling and the screaming voices in his head. But, the other two looked down (Alex with his thermal vision, Ice Queen through the slit Decker had made) when they heard a familiar girl's voice yell, "Charge!"

The charging people in question were none other than Finn, Jake, Fionna, and Cake. And the fact that they were charging an entire base-full of Blackwatch soldiers took Alex by enough surprise that Decker seized the opportunity to break free. With a hard headbutt backwards, straight into the other's nose, Decker dove to the slit, shoved Ice Queen out of the way, and tore the metal open with ease. The shriek of tearing metal called everyone's attention to the teen's head peaking out. Decker called down to them, somewhat reminiscent of a maniac, "Honey, I'm home!"

His voice had become accented by a deep, gurgling voice that could be heard just below his own voice. It scared everyone deeply, save for Alex. Larkspur, by far, was the most frightened that this... thing...looked like her brother. Its voice didn't sound like his and that mad look on his face wasn't one she'd ever seen on her baby brother's. Whatever it is... It's not my brother.

Whatever it was... It scared her. Decker casually fell from the hole, head first, and flipped midair to land on his feet in a genuflecting position. A small crater formed in the linoleum tile at his feet. When he stood up, they saw a red glow protrude into his iris from the edges of his pupils, as well as the veins' glow on his arms brighten. "Now..." he began eerily, "Who wants to play?"