Finn strolls back towards the mansion his girlfriends were currently residing in, taking one last glance at Martin behind him, the duo giving each other a little wave before the older man fades from existence. The hero sighs, then clears his mind by focusing back on task as he makes his way through the large double doors, swooping through the halls as he makes his way to the throne room.
A few minutes later, he arrives at his destination, and swiftly slides past the massive chair that he glances at in a new light. He's got a lot of new responsibilities. He runs his hand over the armrest as he enters the bedroom behind it. Sure enough, Ice Queen and Huntress were still together, the duo snapping their gaze at him, his presence causing them to gain small smiles instantly.
The man makes his way over to them with a grin, "How are things going?" He flicks his attention to the nymph, "You had your talk with Sarah yet?" She shakes her head,
"Not yet, I got side-tracked on more pressing issues than the distant future." Finn nods,
"Heh, eyes on the prize?" She smirks a little,
"Yeah, that's a good analogy," She frowns a little, "And something the spirit of the forest said I always suffered from, saying that I needed to focus on the environment around me as well." The hero grimaces as she sighs, "I guess I still haven't learned." Ice Queen shrugs,
"Hey you can't be good at everything, I can tell you that from personal experience. Besides, that just gives you another thing to stride for." The nymph nods at her words, though the royal raises an eyebrow, "But what is it he is talking about? What did you get side tracked from?" The hero casually sits down next to them as he rolls her hand,
"She wants to make her own forest atop your mountain, like her own personal kingdom." The royal blinks as she stares in slight shock at the watcher, who merely nods without hesitation,
"Yeah he's right. I didn't want to steal the forest male me is currently living in, that's his future, he's meant to look after it. However, I am getting bored without my duties." Ice Queen nods slowly,
"Right… yeah, yeah that should be possible, I'm just worried if the mountain can take it, you know, with it being hollow and all." The couple grimace a little, Finn sighing,
"Yeah, that could be a problem… is there any way we could support the mountain? Or make the forest not reliant on the mountain's structure?" The nymph shrugs,
"A lot of magic, and I mean a ton of it. We could either use it to reinforce the mountain, making it tougher and more stable, or we could make the forest float, as in a floating kingdom. Reinforcing the mountain will make it tougher and harder to break, providing a safer refuge or shelter for both my forest people and her ice people if things get bad. While a floating forest will likely bring more visitors, and by extent more visitors and traders to the Ice Kingdom since it is right there next to it. However, that's a lot of magic, way more than we have right now, so I don't think we can do it."
While Finn grunts in disappointment, the blue royal immediately perks up however, "Yeah, and I know just the way to do that!" The couple snap their reinvigorated gaze at her with beaming grins, the royal continuing "My demonic wishing eye! That amulet can do a wish at the cost of part of your soul, remember? So we can do either one your ideas if you want, heck even both if we want to!" Finn flicks his excited gaze to Huntress to revel in joy at the idea, only to find her squinting sceptically,
"Yeah, we could, but the forest would be continuously growing, so it would continues wishing, but that isn't my main concern…" She raises an eyebrow, "How much of your soul would that cost? And is it worth the risk of losing a part of ourselves, our personalities because of it?" The royal blinks. Then sighs,
"That's… that's actually a good point to mention, and something I forgot completely about. The cost varies on the wish." The nymph nods,
"Thought so. Let me guess, it will likely destroy our souls if we wished for those?" She nods,
"Yeah, there is a reason why when I first fell in love with my knight here that I had wished to teleport to him so I kidnap him, rather than just wishing he was in love with me. The larger, more reality changing or heart longing the wish is, the grander the cost. So… yeah, the amulet is off the table. Got any other wish items you know about?" He nods,
"Yeah… there's this maze and a dude called Prismo who can give out one wish to a person. However, they both suffer from the monkey paw effect, you know, having to be very precise… and… if we were to see Prismo, he will likely send me and Huntress back to OOO, because I doubt the others haven't tried wishing for my return… actually. Why haven't we been wished back already?" He suddenly inquires, yet Huntress just shakes her head,
"I don't know Finn, and it is a little weird, but we should probably stay focused back on task. Worry about that stuff later." Ice Queen smirks,
"I don't know why haven't they haven't wished you back yet, but I definitely don't mind!" Finn chuckles as Huntress grins, causing the royal to lean forward and plant a kiss on her suitor's lips, the man leaning into it as they make it last for a second before parting.
The nymph pouts beside him, slightly dejected at missing out on some action, causing Ice Queen to laugh, "Hey now, you can't get jealous, you got more than a kiss last night!" Finn chuckles as he swiftly kisses his nymph girlfriend as well, the watcher of the forest cupping his face as she makes it last, smirking slightly as she glances at Ice Queen teasingly. The hero pulls away with a grin, "Please, I have enough love for the both you." The royal leaps to her feet, staring down at the hero,
"Maybe, but that's not fair. She's gotten more!" She smirked evilly, "And I plan to make it even!" She pounces on him, the hero grunting in shock as they bounce on the soft mattress, then chuckling as they snuggle on the bed with her resting on top of him. Huntress merely grins as she lays down beside him, staring at him as she rests her head in her hand, raising an eyebrow,
"Having fun there?" He cuddles his girlfriend even tighter with a beaming smile, listening to the royal coo as she snuggles to his warmth,
"Definitely~" Huntress smirks,
"Good~ This crazy relationship has a chance then." He grins,
"Yes, yes it does… though I just remembered why I came here." Ice Queen groans softly as she relaxes in his arms, his calm breathing lifts her up and down as it gently rocks her,
"What was it?..." She slurs off with her eyes closed, calmness and bliss claiming her.
"My dad made another appearance." Her eyes snap open, and she jolts up,
"Seriously!?" Finn nods, as she takes a deep breath, "Glob damn it… what did he say?" Finn shrugs,
"He said he deliberately put us together in the caves because of this whole relationship thing." She smirks a little, "Remind me to thank him if I ever see him." Finn grimaces,
"Oh, and that things are going to get hectic soon."
"And he's lost that thanks. Any idea when or what will cause it?" Finn shakes his head,
"Nope, just that we have to prepare for it." She sighs, and the nymph beside them frowns,
"There's nothing we can do then, with no knowledge of what's going to happen we would be attempting to do an impossible task by trying to prepare. The only thing we can do is recognise things as they come, and react to them… you know, like we've been doing our whole lives." Finn nods as the room falls silent, causing Huntress to glance at her female companion as they all prepare to sleep for the night, "You still taking that spot, or-"
Ice Queen drops back down atop Finn's chest as she tightly grips his shoulders, glaring at the nymph, "NO."
Meanwhile, in another dimension, powerful beings were convening, floating through the void of pure darkness as they glided gracefully towards each other. They begin to make an orderly circle with their twisted and altered forms, that yet somehow still look humanoid, the beings glancing at a massive structure to the side of them.
A brand new citadel.
The previous one was heavily damaged after the last prison break, plus, with it being so easily sent into chaos by the lich and was able to be invaded by a kid and a dog, it was obvious a redesign was necessary. Thus the massive structure besides them floats in space, already being filled by cosmic criminals despite the structure not being fully completed. It had the same defences as last time, guardians and ice that freezes the criminals permanently, but there was more.
The most obvious being a labyrinth. The whole prison was quickly escaped last time, there was no real struggle or a way to prevent the criminals from meeting up and busting out together. Last time, two people who were not meant to be there just easily wandered in and started unfreezing people. That has to be a little harder to do.
Thus, every jail cell is held within a humongous maze of twisting stone, spanning multiple levels and dead ends that is surely to get anyone lost. People were more likely to die of dehydration than finding and busting criminals out. And by humongous, I meant nearly as big as a planet, there was simply no way to navigate it all. The structure was this time also reinforced by the cosmic beings, their magic strengthening its stability to not only prevent it from crumbling in due to its own gravitational pull, but also from any attacks that wish to destroy the facility.
The ice itself which encases the prisoners was this time stronger, and if the lich was captured again, there simply would be no way for its corrupt and putrid magic to melt everyone free. It stops everything now, both magic and physical attacks would not be able to do a single thing to it, coming from the inside or the outside of the prison.
Finally, the largest new security improvement, a towering new guardian that works alongside the original guardians. Except while those one were built to capture and imprison escaping convicts, this new guardian was built with the singular purpose of destroying anything, attackers, intruders, or escapes.
Dark magic was used last time to destroy the first citadel, proving that last guardians had poor knowledge in both understanding and preventing it. This new guardian was definitely up to the task, the cosmic beings filtering dark magic and twisted spells of evil, corruption, and destruction to make one an expert in the stuff. It was a monstrosity, made of grey rotting flesh and pulsing with chaotic energy, and most shocking of all was its size, being as large as the citadel itself, a whole planet!
One woman within the gathering of powerful beings sighs in annoyance, glancing around at the beings around her with impatience. She wore a cloak and had glowing white eyes. The woman chasing Martin. She watches as the last of the cosmic beings finally arrive, glaring at beings like Cosmic Owl for taking his sweet time to arrive. How that bird got such an important and high role is above even her comprehension, maybe she should demote him, but at the same time he's so cute! But pathetic, and kind!
Finally, the boss steps forward, the boss of all the cosmic beings, who's words rule supreme and guides them all in whatever they do. Including her and her current orders of pursuing Martin. His powerful gaze swoops over them all, before a powerful, multi voiced voice speaks out, "Still no GOLB, as per usual. He hasn't shown up ten trillion years, why would he show up now… analysis report! NOW!" He demands, his multiple voices echoing out in different tones as the cosmic beings shuffle around him, trying to avoid direct eye contact.
He huffs, then flicks his gaze to the robed woman with glowing eyes, the girl cursing under her breath as she melts under his unrelenting state "Hekate, you're hunting that rogue ascended being who was once a mortal for breaking a cosmic law, and using your powers by the way. How is the process of his capture going!? He was put completely under your responsibilities after all!" She winces,
"It's… it's not going good you fucker!... He's been avoiding me all this time by constantly hoping through dimensions and voids my lord. However universe 010000010100000101000001 does seem to be a common dimension he often hops to, for reasons I fear may damage our future plans."
The mountain of a man doesn't seem really be bothered by her split personality swearing at him, seemingly use to it, but he does scowl at the news, "He better not, but without the god of foretelling or god of time here to tell us of the future, we must take it with our own hands, and mustn't let him take control. Don't let him decide the future, for we do not know what a mad man who lost his mind and memories will do, so stop him from altering the universes at once. He has many, many crimes under his belt, so he must be brought in for judgement at once. Do not fail me Hekate, I've put a lot of trust into you, don't make me regret it." She sighs,
"Sir, last time he broke out of prison was because he had help from the human and the dog. I fear he might be going to them again for help, or at least their different gender parts, for that was who I caught him discussing with, giving them an item from the future." The being looms over her, even the slight movement of him bending forward rips up a roar of wind that she easily nullifies with her magic, though not for her comrades who get blown away.
The larger than a planet man speaks with his multiple tones, "And?" She sighs,
"Well, that was the only time I was able to intervene and attack him. That is the closest I've ever gotten to apprehending him." She stares into his eyes, hovering up slightly with her magic, "I'm requesting permission to engage him even if mortals are around, and to ignore the law that I am not meant to meddle with mortal affairs unless summoned to." The man's gigantic finger rises above her, and gently yet firmly pushes her back down to level with the other beings in his presence,
"You are requesting to break a law that was put into place long ago for both the mortal realm and our own protection? Have you forgotten what they did to one of us? How they nailed him to a cross and poisoned him to death?" She shakes her head as his hand roars away,
"No, I haven't. However, you fight fire with fire. If I'm going to hunt him, I need my restrictions that he is using to his advantage gone." The powerful being groans in thought over her,
"... You have permission to break the cosmic law and interact with the mortal realm unhindered. HOWEVER. If you fail to capture Martin, or if you exploit this new given freedom in any way, then I shall personally strip you of all your powers, and throw you into a prison cell myself. Is that understood?" She nods,
"I do my lord… may I also request some guardians to help bring him in?" He waves his hand uncaringly at her, the movement sending off another wind shockwave that makes a few cosmic beings spin away,
"You may, though I expected you to do it with your own strength, rather than asking for help in something you can easily do yourself." She laughs at him,
"There's nothing wrong with gaining more power! I need to be as strong as possible!" She cackles, lightning arcing around her form as two guardians roar behind her, ready to back her up in her duty. The large being merely turns his attention elsewhere, uncaring of her laughter as he glances at another powerful being, "You. Status report."
Hekate creates a portal behind her, and both her and the guardians are pulled inside as she continues to laugh, giving everyone the middle finger, before suddenly halting, "Bye guys~! See you all next meeting!" She exits with a cheerful, polite tone, before the portal claims her.
Both her and the guardians sit in a void with humongous lightning strikes occasionally exploding all around her, the cosmic super being closing her eyes and feeling around every dimension with her magic, 'Where are you, Martin? We were friends, remember? Don't you want us to meet again you backstabbing bitch?'
Back in AAA, a certain machine was walking around as the new day arrives, yet he never slept once. He doesn't need sleep. He was designed that way. He was designed to be better than Gumball. The robot leaves the main entrance to his candy castle, strolling casually through the streets as he waves at his people waking up, the candy people too dumb to realise he wasn't their real leader.
He stops in the middle of a street, then glances around, discovering his precious people were not strolling around yet, making him smirk as he leans down towards a manhole at his feet. Yanking the cover off with ease, he holds it above his head, then promptly jumps down the vile hole, letting the lid fall back on to cover the manhole. He falls endlessly, yet he doesn't blink, and only runs more equations in his head, he has no time for emotions when he could be doing science instead.
Finally, he meets the end of the hole with a heavy thump, the collision echoing loudly through the tunnels he had just landed heavily in. He stands up casually from the small crack in the ground, rolling his joints to make sure nothing was damaged, before strolling forward, calculations scrolling through his mind.
Suddenly growls echo out, and the machine man halts, snapping his head towards the noises with a slight frown. Creatures crawl forward, former alligators that were mutated by the bucket loads of radiation that had poured down with the rain after the mushroom war.
Their bodies were nearly unrecognisable, their scales mostly gone, their jaws twisted and mutated unnaturally, six legs sprouting from their poor bodies. And bodies for there is more than one of them currently crawling towards the machine. Hey may not be made of flesh, but he was in their territory, and they were going to defend it as they hissed at him.
Robo Gumball simply glares at them, turning to face his deadly foes, analysing their forms before huffing, "You are not wanted here beasts and I have no need to fight you, leave my tunnels." They merely storm forward, making the machine scowl in annoyance. He quickly counts them, finding three messed up beings crawling from the dark depths of the abandoned sewer tunnel.
Immediately he lifts his right arm up, and the limb splits in half, the beasts discovering a tube within that let's off a foretelling hiss of its own. Gumball locks onto them, "Eliminating targets." A burst of flames shoots from the nozzle, and an incinerating ball of flames shoots down the small tight tunnel.
The beasts screech as they are engulfed in pain, the fire burst swiftly ending as they end up flailing in pain. Gumball merely watches as they wiggle in suffering. The real him has done worse.
They slowly struggle, withering and spasming in despair as their flesh is melted off their bodies. The machine merely watches the clock he has recording, seeing how long it takes for them to die. He has to test his weapons effectiveness after all. Finally, it ends for the poor beasts as they flop over dead, smoke filling the tunnels, what wasn't a problem for the nuclear ran machine.
He begins to walk away, no bothering to check their bodies as he glances at his dangerous arm, sealing it back up. He grimaces as he rolls his hand, 'That's all the fire I have in me. I wasn't built for combat, that weapon was meant to be a last resort only.' He notes, finding his pathetic weapon unable to meet his standards, however smirks as he spots a light at the end of the tunnel, 'But my personal strength was never what made me powerful, unlike that brute Marshall Lee…' He enters a lab, one still in rapid construction all around him as he grins, 'It was my brains that led to my strength! Why should I fight when I can make something else do it!? A human can't beat a gorilla in a boxing match, but a gorilla can't survive a nuke!'
He strolls into his new lair, watching the reinforced walls around him getting made before his very eyes, nodding in approval, 'Advantage of never needing sleep and being able to do a hundred calculations a second, you can make functioning nanobots overnight!' He chuckles as his small comrades, that were invisible to the naked eye, do their duty, slaving away to make what once a sewer cross channel, into a humongous scientific lab.
Unfortunately for Robo Gumball, only the structure was nearly complete, and no equipment he needed for his work of global conquering was ready. The only thing available to him was a basic table with a few items scattered atop it, causing the fake royal to stroll up to them with a smirk. A pile of papers containing his plans sat high and mighty, the machine not wanting to risk them being stored digitally on a computer, not when Gumball was such a tech wizard.
Next to it was the vial of vile green liquid, a nasty poison especially designed for his creator, a liquid designed to blend in with his meal, then kill him in mere seconds of ingestion. That's how he plans to remove him swiftly and quietly, so no one comes investigating any noise or explosion as he disposes of the body. He just needs to get it into a meal in some way, what shouldn't be too hard if he intercepts it on the way of it being delivered to the royal.
His next item, plans and sketches of both Finn and Fionna. One he plans to keep forever, one he plans to remove permanently. Finn is dangerous, stupidly so, and will likely crush him and his plans if he figures out what is going on. He'll use his kindness against him, offer to meet for a peace deal then stab him in the heart, or better yet, shoot him for safety. No need to risk getting into his preferred range.
Fionna though, she'll need heavy swaying over, and he should try dating her while keeping the whole revolution thing under wraps. Every single person in AAA, if they are a threat to his rule or his people, he has a plan to end them. If he can use them, he'll manipulate them. Everyone and everything will bow to him, so his people, his creations, may live in the best possible lives possible, and so he may secure his love.
Fionna can't love someone else if there is no one else.
His eyes flicks to another scattered pile of papers, discovering his designs for his weapons of mass destruction laid atop one another. Including his personal weapons, the toys he himself gets to use to crush any threat and subdue the fuss the other kingdoms will give him. However, his favourite drones are currently scavenging something else, and were in another kingdom all together. Or more precisely, the Ice Kingdom, scavenging up the obliterated Bubblegum Guardian scraps, and were ordered to bring them here on the pronto.
The nanobots can easily repair the Kingdom's destroyed guardians, and return the watchers who protect them to their former glory, to help him crush Gumball and his pathetic ways. The candy people are admittedly useless, so they must have a strong leader to make up for it. A man who struggles to ask a girl who already likes him out and has petty, childish arguments with his ex all the time in ways that tarnishes the Candy Kingdom's reputation is not that. But, if he is to top the man in charge, his friends, his forces, and the whole globbing world, then he's going to need an army himself.
His smirk continues to grow as he flicks his gaze to a small factory pumping out hand sized drones, the tiny machines simply rolling off the assembly line. He would have made a bigger factory that made bigger, better soldiers, but his time was limited, and the nanobots can only work so fast. Still, he wears a massive grin as he approaches the massive pile of machines, clapping twice as they all spring to life.
They were four legged machines on rectangular bases, four massive red glowing eyes sitting on the front, multiple for distance differentiation. Those four claws each have three joints, allowing for quick and high mobility if it is needed, with razor sharp tips that dug down into the ground for grip. Then there was a scorpion tail of sorts on the back, with a small red lens on the end, a high powered laser that would slice through flesh with ease.
Better yet, light doesn't make any noise… that can be heard normally, meaning that these tiny drones the size of a hand yet were lightning fast can quickly enter an area, assassinate a target with ease, then escape before anyone notices. But as for an actual army or military force, well, it's hard to survive hundreds of lasers slicing you in half in an instant, what works wonders on armies when they simply sweep the battlefield a few million times. And, if things get really bad, the nanobots themselves can help out, they can melt someone down faster than acid.
He chuckles. Another day, and everything will be ready. Advantages of machines, they never need to sleep.
Fionna meanwhile was in her home, groaning as her eyes flicker open, the girl scratching her belly as she releases a fart, her eyes wishing to remain closed to enjoy her peaceful sleep some more. But then she snaps wide awake and leaps from the bed, her heart for adventure and hero-ing overpowering her basic instincts.
She wears a massive bold grin as she does some morning stretches, before abandoning her pink pjs to get changed for the day, snatching up her signature clothing. A few minutes later, she was bouncing down the ladder with a huge grin as she took a deep whiff of the scent of breakfast: Cake's bacon pancakes. She skids into the kitchen, yet before she could take another step forward towards her cooking food, she freezes up in shock at a huge mass.
Then beams as he memories of the day before fills her mind, "Stephen!" She screams, before strolling up to the mountain of a man currently sitting on the floor, his gaze twitching around at… everything really, still attempting to take the new world he's exploring. He flicks his attention to the girl as she stands before him, then wraps him in a hug as best as she can, just barely not being able to reach halfway.
He remains still in confusion, before attempting to copy her, his massive log thick arms enveloping her, crushing her like two massive pythons as she gasps in shock. Her air gets squeezed out her chest while the massive man murs, hugging her even tighter as he rests his chin atop her head with a massive grin, his eyes closed. She struggles, yet can't do anything against the large man, causing Cake to have to swoop to the heroine's rescue, shifting her arms into massive crowbars and wedging them between the duo.
With a grunt of all her might, she parts them by a centimetre, allowing Fionna to scramble out of his arms, backing away as he pants desperately for air. Stephen only cocks his head, raising an eyebrow as he stares at her winded form, causing the girl to sigh, she couldn't stay mad at the innocent man. She grins at him, "Morning big dude!" He gazes at her, causing her to point at her mouth, "Morn."
"Morn."
"Ing!"
"Ing." She smirks,
"Morning!" He beams at her,
"Morning!" She jumps up,
"Yes! He's learning! I'll have him telling me about the humans in no time!" Cake meanwhile raises an eyebrow at the duo,
"Erh, girl, he doesn't understand what morning means, he's just copying it… and now that I think about, he's learning it very fast..." She wonders, causing Fionna to glance at her,
"And? You're a talking cat that can shapeshift. There's weirder things in AAA than someone who can learn fast." She explains with a tad of mocking, unknowing of the man's past where he had already learnt of their language, and is simply getting reminded of it. Cake huffs,
"I'm not weird, and I can do more than that! Normal stuff! Like cooking, or fighting!" Fionna smirks,
"Oh really- wait. Cooking." The sisters glance at their breakfast starting to burn at the feline's absence. And scream as they rush to save it.
A few moments later, slightly black bacon pancakes were dished up onto white plastic plates, the only material to survive a thousand years and not be smashed by atomic shockwaves. They place a massive mountain of the grub before the curious human, the man poking at them with his huge finger, flicking his gaze to the brave heroine for support. She merely points at her mouth just like she did last time with the marshmallows, causing the massive man to reach down and grab a massive handful of the food.
Then crams it into his face in the fist full, making Fionna giddy as she begins chomping on her own breakfast, while her sister tries her best to not watch the man messily eating her meal. Fionna was practically bouncing in her seat as she speedily shoots through the most important meal of the day, wishing to get it out of the way and onto more important things. Cake raises an eyebrow at her, "Your mood has done a full one eighty, hasn't it?" She shrugs, swallowing another huge chunk of food,
"What can I say? Knowing I'm not alone anymore has really cheered me up, I can finally find out about my past!" The feline squints at her,
"How could you feel alone if Finn is here? He's a human, isn't he?" She stops for a second,
"I don't know, it's weird, like… it's like seeing my reflection. Just because you look in a mirror doesn't mean you're no longer lonely. That's what happens when I look at Finn, I just see… myself." She shakes her head, then immediately digs into her meal again, causing the cat to sigh and glance at Stephen to check his progress.
Just in time to see him put his plate in his mouth and bite down, crunching it into shards and chewing it with cringing snaps. Cake shivers as she covers her sensitive ears from the unpleasant noise of plastic being cracked and shattered in his mouth, while Fionna uncaringly continues her own meal. The feline quickly evacuates, leaving the human duo on their own as Fionna beams up at him, finishing up her meal and frisbee-ing her plate away.
She leans in close to gaze him in the eyes, "So… enjoy your meal?" He cocks his head, triggering her to immediately hum in thought as she brings her hand to her chin, rubbing it as the man patiently waits for the woman who has led him so far.
She suddenly snaps her fingers, making him jump in slight fear at the unknown noise as she grins, "Was that meal…" She points to his plate with a massive bite mark missing, "... Good?" She licks her lips, "Or bad?" She gags, then stares inquisitively at him, using his own facial recognition instincts to figure out that she was asking a question. He murmurs for a second,
"Erh… gah… good!" He exclaims, making the heroine fist pump in celebration as she wears a massive smile,
"Yes!" She leaps up to her feet, swiftly jolting a hand out to him with a massive beaming smile, the man curiously taking it as to allow her to yank him to his feet with all her might. She then starts to lead the nervous man towards the door, "Come on! Let's see if we can't get you used to the world! With guns that big you can't stay indoors all the time, you've got to explore it, you have to let go of your fears!" She brings him to the door, then with a grunt, opens the door, a cool breeze washing in as Stephen shivers in fear, his legs refusing to move.
She groans and struggles as she tugs on the man, slowly dragging him out as his heels dig into the ground, but eventually she yanks him out of the doorway. He stumbles outside, and immediately his head starts snapping around, his eyes wide as he locks onto every sound and movement that fills the world. Fionna giggles at his fear, making him snap his gaze to the calm girl, before she points upwards, "Look, it's the sun, suuuunnn, remember?" He snaps his head up at the familiar word, and stares into the great orb.
And immediately yells in pain as he covers his eyes, panicking as he scrambles backwards with a groan, Fionna swiftly leaping to his aid to calm the man down. He scrambles back in doors, running to the couch he slept on for the night and flipping it, putting it atop his body as he cowered beneath it. The heroine comes in after him, and stares at him in his hiding position, grimacing as she slowly approaches.
She once again extends an arm to him, the petrified muscle man staring at her open palm again, and retreats even further under the couch. She huffs and grabs his arm, making him jump in shock, before she begins tugging him out, flipping the couch off the top of him in a series of bangs that gets Cake's attention. She glares at the flipped furniture, and quickly extends her arms to the duo, who both yelp in shock when they are wrapt up by her spaghetti arms.
Cake groans a little, "Okay you two, play fight outside!" She starts to move them towards the door, causing the heroine to fist pump in celebration while Stephen wiggles nervously. Fionna then blinks, realising she hasn't grabbed her sword, then quickly snaps her arm out to the money pile, and snatches Milly's gauntlet resting casually atop it.
She puts the weapon on just as Cake puts them outside, the feline dropping them both to the ground before slamming the door behind them, "Go work off your energy!" Her muffled voice yells from inside, causing the girl to shrug nonchalantly, then glance at Stephen, who was snapping his head around him again.
She sighs, and grips his arm, then starts to yank him away, heading towards the forest in the distance as he stares in fear at the dark, creepy, nightmarish woods of death before them. Fionna hums a little tune as they enter the trees, glancing backwards every once in while to check if the man was calming down to the tune. He wasn't.
She huffs, then brings them both to a stop as she raises an eyebrow, "Dude, I know you're afraid, but why!? Look at you!" She gestures to his body, the man glancing down at himself, "You've got more muscles than muscle prince! You could probably ko a dragon in one punch! You know, rip and tear!" She flexes her own muscles, trying to get the message across that he could survive this peaceful forest, but Stephen still whimpers, his eyes locked on the forest of hell as things move.
She glances around, her eyes scanning the environment, until locking onto an old dead log resting on the floor, and grins as she heads towards it. Bending down, she grabs the decaying wood many times her size, then with a grunt lifts it onto her shoulder before spinning around to face the worried man. "HEY STEPHEN!" He snaps his gaze to her, and she beams at him, "Let's see how strong you are!" She strolls up to him with the massive log in hand, doing a small pass to the man who catches it with ease yet so with enough force to slightly crush the wood.
He glances curiously at her, and she spins around before doing a throw, making him raise an eyebrow. She grins at him, "Come on! How far can you throw it!?" He stares at the wood,
"... Throw?" He repeats, the word echoing some distant command from his past, some definition for a task he once knew. He blinks, before swiftly beginning to whirl with an aggressive growl, then yelling as he lets go.
The log rockets away as a wave of wind flicks up some dirt and leaves, Fionna gaping as the edge of her lips are tugged upwards, her eyes wide as she watches the log fly. It smashes into the Ice Kingdom, causing her to flinch, then look away, her hand going to the side of her face to shield the destruction. Stephen grunts at her, triggering her to laugh nervously, "I'm sure it's fine…"
Meanwhile, in said kingdom, Ice Queen, Huntress Wizard, and Finn all stand in a confused fighting stance, staring at the log before them that was buried into their room. The royal blinks, "That's huh… so this is what it is like for Gumball." Huntress raises an eyebrow as she steps up to it, then promptly absorbs the wood with her magic,
"Where did this come from? That would have taken a lot of strength to lob this through the mountain and our mansion walls." Finn smirks,
"I have an idea…"
They girls stare at him in absolute confusion.
Fionna hums a little tune as she bounces along. Or more accurately, bounces atop Stephen as he strolls along, the girl riding his shoulder as she snaps her gaze about to spot things she could do with her human companion. She will teach him English, she will bring her people up from that hole, she will become their princess, and then she will be a royal to marry Gumball. But that's later, for now she wishes to go on a cool adventure and punch someone's buns!... Or, try to talk peacefully to them.
She shakes her head with a slight huff, she wants to be a better hero, like Finn! But man is having a conversation to talk bad dudes out of things so boring, not to mention it is so much slower. She then smirks however. 'I've sworn to be peaceful, but Stephen here hasn't!' She points in a direction, "Go that way!" She had to jab her finger several times, but he eventually got the message, and began to stroll in that direction, gradually calming down as he listened to the bird chirps all around him.
Fionna meanwhile pans her head around, looking for a fight for her man with brining muscles to obliterate, a cheeky grin on her face, 'Oh I can't wait to see this!' They start to wander into more dangerous territory, the atmosphere changing into a more toxic, dark place, trees with sharp branches seemingly reaching out for them, causing Stephen to hesitate. Fionna immediately tries to sooth his worries, "Hey dude, don't be scared, I've saved so many people here from absolutely nothing! Everything here is super weak, you'll easily be able to beat them no probs! And if anything gets too close, or you start to lose, I'm here, I'll literally beat something to death before you get hurt."
She reaches down and pats his muscular arms, the man looking worried at her, but continues nevertheless, causing Fionna to reach into her bag and pull out Milly's gauntlet. With a smirk, she equips it, then keeps her eyes peeled, ready to defend her human comrade at the sign of serious danger.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them begins to wiggle and move, as if the earth was breathing as Stephen panics, causing Fionna to hop off his shoulder. She lands before him, then raises her fists for a fight, eyes glancing around for the first attack. The ground bursts to her left, and a massive black spider leaps from the ground, causing Fionna to scream as she punches it.
It goes flying backwards as Stephen continues to stumble away, his eyes locked onto the bug. Fionna raises her hand and blasts it with a laser, then snaps to another that crawls out of the ground at her feet. She raises her foot up and stomps on it, crushing it beneath her as she takes a second to glance at her companion.
He was panicking as the world around now violently shifted, before bursting into a tsunami of massive spiders. They immediately go for him as he yells in fear, causing Fionna to instantly leap to his aid.
She yells a war cry as she fires a laser all around him, killing waves of them before they could reach the human. But at the cost of her own safety. Immediately they lunge onto her, swarming her as she desperately begins to slap them off. But there were too many, and they began to rapidly entomb her in spider webs, coating her in the white fabric as Stephen watches.
They start to approach him. His flight or fight activates, and he spins to run away, but his eyes catches with Fionna as she falls to the ground. The brave woman who showed him the world so far, who did her best to calm his fears, was in trouble.
He freezes up, grimaces, then with a war cry charges straight into the mess. He stomps on the spiders as he runs, their webs having no chance to stop his bulging muscles as he tears through them with ease. He reaches a bulge in the swarm where Fionna laid and slams his hands into it, gripping her form.
With a yell, he rips Fionna's web covered body from the spiders, then using his bulging muscles he begins slapping them away. Swaths of them go flying in every direction as he rampages, stomping and smashing, grabbing and tearing.
He grabs Fionna's face, and tears the webs off with ease, the heroine taking a deep breath before Stephen frees her arm. With her gauntlet limb free, she begins to save herself, firing the laser down as the man continues to rampage with her in hand. She burns the rest of the white layered string off, before yelling as she leaps from his hand, firing a massive laser downwards.
Like an orbital strike the massive beam hits the ground and explodes as Fionna laughs. She falls into the cloud it had whipped up, then starts firing the laser in all directions, but mostly in Stephen's direction. They strike spiders leaping at him from behind, allowing him to not worry about his rear as much as he pounds the ground with earth shaking strikes.
The huge swarm of horrid arachnids begins to thin out, the duo making short work of their foes, mowing them down with ease. A bug leaps onto Fionna's head, but before it could do anything Stephen grabs it and yanks it off. Without any effort he crushes it with a crack in his hand, before throwing that fist into a swarm leaping for him.
Their tiny bodies go flying and splatter against the trees, what catches his attention, squinting at it in thought, before charging towards them. He grabs the massive plants, before with a groan he gradually yanks it up from ground, but the spiders swarm towards him.
Fionna leaps onto his back, then starts spraying her laser everywhere, covering the muscle man as he rips the tree from the ground. Finally with a yell he yanks it free, before spinning to face the bugs with his humongous weapon.
With a war cry he starts doing massive sweeps, the tree roaring as it is swung, flicking up dirt and leaves. The bugs are either crushed beneath the plant, or sent flying from it, smashing into the ground and other trees in impacts that shatter their shells.
Fionna whoops as they start to retreat at his massive weapon, scurrying away from the deadly duo as they slaughter away. Stephen grins as he smashes everything with his weapon, breaking logs, trees, bushes, anything and everything in his rampage.
He slams it down hard enough to shatter the tree into shards, the earth shaking from the impact. The wooden fragments explode out like fragments, piercing into spiders all around them, yet bounces off the tough as nails body of the man.
Fionna hops off him to chase after some fleeing arachnids, letting him rampage behind her as she blasts away. She screams in joy as she releases a thick laser beam, incinerating a line of spiders in front of her, before they swarm in.
With a grin she gets to work, dancing about beautifully as she releases an explosive attack after explosive attack, blowing up their bodies into bloody splats. She joyfully boots them as they go flying into others, stunning them as they all tumble at the collision, allowing her to quickly shoot a disintegrating beam at them.
One leaps onto her gauntlet, trying to cover it up to prevent it from firing, but Fionna just casually aims at another group and fires, the beam going straight through it. She hears a massive thump and few wooden groans behind her, causing her to glance behind her to check up on Stephen.
He was fine, the forest now in complete tatters with broken parts everywhere, not so much, causing Fionna to grimace, 'Sorry Huntress!' She retreats back towards the giant, gauntlet blazing as she destroys as many arachnids as possible, before going back to back with Stephen.
With many of them vanquished, the spiders start to retreat full time, their legs tapping as thousands retreat. The duo pant as they recover their lost air, before Fionna grins and spins to face Stephen, finding the man standing tall and proud, his fist clenched for a fight, "You did it dude! You faced your fear and challenged AAA!"
She cheers in celebration at their victory, the man beaming as he glances around at the world, no longer afraid of the puny things he can crush with ease, much to the heroine's joy, 'Maybe he can become a permanent adventure buddy!?' She wonders, when suddenly loud cracks fill the air, making them both freeze up, then spin around to try and locate the source of the disturbance.
They get the answer when the ground begins to move again, causing them both to raise their fist, Fionna sighing, "Not more of the-" Suddenly a single, gigantic spider tears itself free from the ground, it's front half raised, becoming taller than the trees. The duo immediately back it up away from the pitch black beast as it slams it legs down, shaking the earth. It was huge, it was hairy, and sending the humans natural instincts to run.
Stephen charges straight at it without hesitation, causing the beast to snap out at him with its huge fangs that were half his size. His fist slams into its mouth as he releases a war cry, and sends it flying back, smashing a tree or two as his full augmented strength is used.
It skids to a halt on its back, but quickly scrambles onto its feet once more, and bounds for them. Fionna lights it up, lasers flying into it as she analyses it for a weakness of some sort, hoping the beam's heat will be enough.
Unfortunately for them, the beast of an arachnid is completely unfazed by her weaker attacks, causing her to bite her tongue. The spider slams into the man again, who roars as his arms wrap around it, then with a grunt lift it high upside down above his head.
He lobs the pest away, slamming it into even more trees, and away from them as Fionna grins. Charging up a deadlier blast, she lets it rip onto its recovering form.
A huge explosion rips through the forest, a blast wave slamming into the duo as they stumble back from her attack. A tiny fireball rises from ground zero of her strike, smoke obscuring their vision of the beast as they both squint.
Not a moment later, it comes barrelling towards them, its body smoking as it legs thump and shake the earth. They both dive out of the way, and it scrambles past them, before lifting its legs high and smashing them into the ground hard. A massive cloud of dirt gets flung up as it starts to dig, attempting to escape the duo as Fionna glares, "Oh no you don't!"
They sprint at it as it makes a tunnel, following closely behind it as it burrows into the ground, Fionna glaring at its ugly butt. With a yell of effort, she boots it in the ass, sending it flying forward through a thin wall of dirt and into a massive underground chamber. It quickly recovers and darts away as the heroine and her companion leap inside, and immediately analyse the situation.
The dirt room was a massive chamber nearly the size of a kingdom, with the skeletons of animals and other unfortunate creatures littering the floor and walls, covered in a thick layer of white webs. Tunnels of varying sizes honeycomb the room, one having a waterfall pouring in fresh water, while rapid taps echo out the others, making Fionna grimace, 'The little spiders are coming to save their mother. We've got to deal with it quickly!'
She glances at it in the centre of the room, and discovers it getting comfortable on a massive web the size of a football pitch, staring at them with its singed armour. Stephen growls, and charges forward with a yell, leaping at its mountain of webbing, causing it to pounce forward in anticipation for its meal. He slams into the webs, his feet getting stuck for a second, yet he also swings his fist forward. It connects with the massive spider's face, sending it flying backwards with a confident grin.
Fionna meanwhile glances at the tunnels as the black cat sized arachnids rain in, coming in from all directions as she huffs, "I've got these guys, you deal with big momma!" She yells at Stephen as she snaps her arm up, and releases a deadly laser beam. It slams into a tunnel in an explosion, causing it to cave in and crush the arachnids crawling within. However, it also shakes the main chamber, dust falling from the ceiling as she grimaces, preparing for a collapse.
Luckily, it doesn't, causing her to sigh, then flick her gaze to the approaching spiders with a glare, then raise her arm and fire a smaller laser.
Stephen meanwhile was power walking through the thick webbing the queen spider had laid, his gaze locked on his foe as it recovers. They stare each other down for a second, the man scowling at the embodiment of fear, then with a yell lunges unflinchingly at it.
He grabs its front legs as they go to slam into him, then yanks it over his head, slamming it behind him. He doesn't let go, then swings it over his head again, slamming it into the ground before him as it flails in pain. With a yell, he does it again and again, the earth shaking as more dust falls from the ceiling with every thump and bang.
Eventually, cracks join the symphony of noise as its armour begins to break, its exoskeleton cracking. In desperation, it swipes at him, its massive leg slamming into his gut, winding him as he doubles over. His grip weakens, and its long limbs slip free from his grasp, the spider pouncing on him before he can recover. Its legs slam him into the ground as it fangs go for his face, the man's hands shooting up to catch them.
They slam together, then both shake with effort, Stephen growling as he resists the arachnid's attack with all his might. The massive daggers of death were mere inches from his face, the human staring death in the eye as he began to push it back.
But then he hears rapid tapping of more spiders coming, and snaps his gaze above him. They scramble across the ground towards him, causing him to yell loudly, catching Fionna's attention. She spins to face him, then sweeps the incinerating laser at his approaching foes, killing them all instantly.
Then she brings the gauntlet to bear at the queen spider, and unleashes a powerful attack. It screams through the air and strikes it square on the face, causing it spasm in pain as it lets up its attack. Stephen immediately pushes it off him with a war cry, then starts pounding at it with punch after punch.
Fionna nods, then jolts as the nightmarish spiders reach her with their fangs twitching for her flesh. She swings her clenched fist at one leaping for her face, its body shattering at the impact of her heavy fist. Then she starts spinning while aiming her fist low, the weapon glowing as it charges up its magical energy.
It unleashes its narrow cutting beam, murdering any that were close to her, before she starts to spiral it out. Swaths of the pests are erased from the world, yet she can't do a too large of a circle thanks to Stephen, causing her to cut her attack short. Stumbling for a second, she quickly recovers and continues to unleash bursts of lasers at her unrelenting foes.
She grins as she blasts away, yet the eye in the gauntlet starts twitching, spasming in fear in its hold. One second she was releasing attack after attack upon her foe, then suddenly nothing, causing the heroine to blink.
She glances down at her weapon, and finds it unresponsive. She whacks it. Still nothing. Then her eyes widened in realisation. This artefact just ran out of magic. She bites her lips, realising she never refreshed the weapon's magic supply, then shakes her head, 'Self lecture later! Fighting now!' She slams the heavy gauntlet at a spider at her feet, splattering it into the ground.
They start to swarm her in her weaker state yet she doesn't relent, and keeps on attacking with all she's got. Kicks, punches, stomps, crushing, even at one point biting, she slaughters the horde assaulting her. Yet they just keep coming, causing her to get worried as every one of her strikes takes out large groups of them.
She glances at Stephen, and finds him still power walking through the spider web with ease, dancing with the spider queen. She yells to him, "Dude! We've got to kick these guys buns now, we can't keep this up forever!" He glances at her untranslatable yelling, and discovers her being overrun by the arachnids, causing his eyes to widen. He moves to leap to her aid, yet the massive beast he was tangoing with wasn't finished with him yet.
It scrambles towards him, causing him to yell in anger and swing both hands towards it. He double fists it in the face with enough force to shake the chamber, slamming it down into the web as it bounces.
With a silent scowl, he reaches down and grabs the fangs half the size of his body, then with a scream of rage, yanks on them. He rips them off with a bloody splurt, the beast flailing as he stomps on its head to hold it down.
Blood pours from its wounds as Stephen holds its deadly weapons high above his head with a grin before slamming them down. They pierce straight into its eight eyes as it struggles in agony, its long limbs slamming about as the cave shakes around them once more.
Using its body as a platform, he leaps away from the arachnid, and into the hornet's nest as he rushes to the brave woman's defence. She continues to beat off the spiders that completely surround her, a growl of annoyance escaping her throat.
Suddenly, the mountain of a man slams before her, crushing their foes beneath his feet as his gaze snaps to his next prey. His limbs start swinging as he pounds the earth as fast as he can, even his light rapid attacks killing them in one blow.
Fionna whoops as she leaves her back to him, and starts murdering the ones before her, obliterating their bodies under her own might. Cracks, grunts, and thumps fill the air as they battle back to back, occasionally spinning around to help one another by ripping a spider off. Yet they never seem to stop coming, making Fionna grimace, especially with the spider queen beginning to move again despite her wounds, randomly flailing about.
Every time her eight legs hit the floor, and every time Stephen does an attack, the roof above them cracks and crumbles, a cave in imminent. She experienced that in the night-o-sphere, and she would rather not experience it again. She snaps to her companion, "We've got to be careful! We don't want a cave in!" He glances at her,
"Cave… in?" He inquires, making Fionna nod desperately as she boots several of her huge foes tumbling together,
"Yeah! A cave in! Really bad!" He blinks, then hurriedly grabs her, swiftly swinging her atop his shoulders before yelling as he charges forward, Fionna panicking atop his shoulder, "Dude! What are you-"
He slams into a wall hard, and the cavern violently shakes all around them, rocks and boulders falling from the ceiling. The debris slam into the ground, squish some spiders as Fionna goes wide eyed, "Don't! Don't do a cave in! That's bad, really BBBAAADDD!" She attempts to emphasise to the behemoth of a man, yet he only spins, and rockets towards another wall.
He shoulder slams into it this time, and the cavern shakes around them even more, yet spiders begin to leap onto him. Fionna immediately gets to work on protecting them both, slapping their foes off his muscular body.
He yells a war cry as he punches the wall, then again, and again and again, the wall cracking as the chamber groans and crackles, stones bouncing off them both. Every blow to the wall makes cracks shoot out, arcing out like lightning bolts as the chamber loses stability, until finally, a massive groan fills the air.
With a roar, the ceiling around them begins to collapse, and massive boulders rain down from the above. Stephen wastes no time, and bolts for a tunnel as fast as he can as the spiders get crushed all around them, Fionna blinking atop his shoulder. Then grinning, 'The cave in wasn't a restraint, it was a salvation!' She notes as the humongous man carries the away from death.
Behind him, the spider queen that is the embodiment of fear, is left behind, and crushed to death. Air displacement launches them from the tunnels as they both scream, shooting out from the hole and into the air, before falling back towards the earth. They slam into the ground with pained grunts, the duo looking straight up at the bright sun as the earth shifts around them, filling in the cavern completely with cold earth.
Then they laugh, both of them wearing massive grins as they stare dazed upwards, their bodies a tad worn out as they recover their lost breath. Fionna glances at Stephen as he releases a massive sigh, a beaming smile on his face as he shuffles to stand up, getting onto his feet and posing tall and proud.
Fionna smirks, and leaps to her feet as well, taking a glance at the cave in which they just avoided, 'So… cool! He was so strong, he was punching that massive spider without a care in the world! He punched the cavern in!...' She flicks her gaze to him, discovering him standing stoically, no longer afraid of the world around him, 'Him fighting is so awesome… I… I want to see more, but Finn said no violence… should I… should I just give up?' She stares at Stephen's bulging muscles, enraptured by them and their destructive power.
Then shakes her head, 'No! A hero never quits! I won't give up!... I'll use this as a test! Despite how mathmatical he is, I'll use him as a temptation to resist!' She grins as she strolls up to him with a grin, "Ready to go home?" He raises an eyebrow,
"Home?" She nods, then points to her left,
"Home." He picks her up, and puts her to rest on his shoulder, before beginning his confident march home, a grin on both their faces.
All the while Hekate closes in on Martin, and robo Gumball watches a fresh robot army salute him, a new factory with even deadlier machines rolling off the line.
Here we go, things are picking up again as cosmic beings move in on Finn, Huntress, Ice Queen, and Martin, while RoboGumball moves on Fionna, Cake, Marshall, and Gumball.
Dropped another hint for who the woman is, and if you guys don't know who she is by now then I'll be honestly disappointed in all of you. And stop writing this fanfic to live life as a hobbit, then probably write some Flame Princess x Finn fics.
Even though I hinted heavily at, encase no one realised the reason why I chose them to fight spiders is because they represent fear, and how Stephen was beating his fear. So expecting him to become more confident with his bulging muscles… let's just hope a certain someone with her own failing restraints can reel him in if he gets too cocky.
VOTE RESULTS:
A. Write until completion
6
B. Continue with 10K a week
1
So I shall be writing until completion, but 10K will be the minimum I'll strive for.
Review response:
The Book of Eli, on FF, chapter 45:
Yep, and that wasn't because I didn't have any content/idea what to write, that's a little tease for you. I'm pretty sure he would completely flip out when a big muscular dude starts eating his maid, and start whacking him with a rolled up newspaper XD Yeah, the worst thing to have during any fight in no info, that just spells doom. If they are to do anything, to help Finn get a good relationship with his dad or to protect him from another scam, they need to know more about the man and his motives. While they could spy on Finn until he shows up, he has got his gaze everywhere that concerns his goal so it won't really work (at being sneaky about it that is). Finn teasing his queen in public? Naughty. And an idea I'm sure the royal would have to initiate by planting the thought in his head. Huntress teasing Finn in public though? Not as likely, but still possible. As for a pleasure competition? Maybe… once Ice Queen gets her turn with her knight of course! She might have some chains for him… or should she be the one to wear them?
FinalKingdomHearts, on FF, chapter 45:
It's nearly done!
And thank you for voting!