Chapter 1: The Serum
Finn always felt a slight discomfort in cemeteries, but he couldn't admit it. It was just the idea that he was stepping over someone's dead body that sometimes sent shivers down his spine. But, he held his tongue that moment. He couldn't flake out now.
The sun had been beginning to set. An array of oranges and reds coated the normally gray dirt grounds, dying the cotton candy trees and Princess Bubblegum's pink body a dark magenta. The candy princess picked up a vial of brown liquid upon the table seating the larger vial and other vials of various chemicals. Both were obviously wearing safety goggles, as to protect their eyes from whatever the chemicals were. "Ok, I just need to add three drops of this…and….", the candy princess mumbled to herself, carefully adding the three precise drops of the brown substance in the larger vial. A large cloud shaped like a menacing skull formed in reaction, something the human boy couldn't help but gawk at as it faded away. He swore that occurrences like that were only in old cartoon vhs tapes he and Jake the Dog could find in piles of old junk.
"So, uh, will the bodies be rotting when they get brought back to life?", the boy asked, shuddering as he imagined revived corpses, their skin and hair missing in chunks and worms festering in every crevice of their body. "No, that shouldn't happen. If the decorpsinator serum works, they should look as young and healthy as they were before they died.", the princess clarified casually, clearly confident in what she was doing. Then again, someone like her with years of experience would have built up confidence for sure. She just seemed like the kind of person he could put faith in with scientific things like such. "Alright Finn, it's just about finished. Bring the platter onto the table." The boy did exactly as he was directed, opening the lid to reveal its contents. On the plate rested the crumpled corpse of a cream puff, his eyes and teeth having fully rotted away and his skin having darkened to a dirty brown. "Why old Puff?" "Well, we used to date." The candy princess giggled. Considering how aged the body seemed, he couldn't be certain how long it had been since they dated.
Without another word, Princess Bubblegum applied a small amount of the bright green substance onto the crumpled corpse. Almost instantly, the body glowed bright lime, oozing the same substance as the decorpsinator. "Woah, something's happening." "Come on, this has to work." As the dirt brown coloration returned to the body, he rose to his feet with a weak moan. "Hey, he's alive. Algebraic!", Finn exclaimed, looking over only to see the candy princess with a concerned look on her face. "I'm not sure. Live candy isn't supposed to do that." As if on cue, ooze pooled from the corpse's eyes and mouth, its legs violently spasming. The two avoided the substance as much as they could, as the body wobbled around the table as though every bone in his body had been simultaneously broken. The candy princess let out a gasp of horror as his right arm knocked the larger vial onto the ground, its contents absorbing into the dirt below them. The faint sound of moans became audible below them, as more corpses dug up and scratched they're way out the ground. The bodies of the candy people each were various shapes and sizes, but all shared the same glazed over bright green eyes. "This wasn't supposed to happen. They're not alive- they're live corpses.", she panicked, as they could faintly hear the zombies(?) moan about craving sugar. Using all his force, the human boy forced an undead candy heart into the hole it rose from, in an attempt to re-bury it. It didn't work at all, as the corpse simply dug its way back to the surface. It was at least an effort, though.
At the sight of dozens of zombies shambling towards the candy princess, the boy sprung into action. Kicking and punching at the bodies, he had done everything in his power to drive them away. Having grown up fending for his life with Jake against various quirky creatures has given him experience to fight off hordes. She watched him with a look of relief,grateful to not be dogpiled by the undead. They seemed to be scared off easily, limping off into the distance. "This is really bad. It looks like they're attracted to the candy kingdom." "What, because of the sugar?" "Duh, ya ding dong. We have to alter the candy people as quickly as we can.",the princess sighed, "I can't let this cause any harm to them." And with that, they were off. The human boy never thought he'd live to see the day of a zombie infestation, yet here he was. Ooo was simply full of surprises.
Chapter 2: Castle Bunker
"Dude, I got here as fast as I could."
"무슨 일이야? 핍스는 왜 그렇게 겁먹은 것 같아?"("What's going on? Why does Peebs seem so scared?")
"She'll explain in a moment. Come on!"
Finn stepped foot into the entrance just inside of the Candy Kingdom castle with Jake and Lady Rainicorn. They had arrived only moments after Princess Bubblegum gave her announcement to the kingdom's populace. In contrast to the darkness of the outdoors, as the sun had set by the time he and the candy princess arrived, the inside of the castle was lit up, the walls and ceiling was pastel, the coloration resembling that of a vanilla ice cream cone. Higher up on the walls, pale window frames made of colored waffles and banners of varying colors made of thick edible paper. Candy citizens were filed in a surprisingly orderly crowd, nervously muttering amongst each other. The human boy couldn't make out the conversations, but he guessed it was about the sudden announcement. Eavesdropping just seemed wrong in this circumstance. Tree Trunks, a small elderly yellow elephant, carefully carried a basket of streaming hot buns with her petite trunk, commenting "I sure hope nothing bad happened."
After the crowds had finished assembling in the pastel castle, Finn and Jake closed the large, arched milk chocolate doors behind them. "Alright. Manfried, can you check if everyone's here?" Princess Bubblegum, who was positioned in front of the anxious group, looked up at the red and green pinata hung up from the ceiling. After observing the crowd below him, Mafried assured "Everyone is present and accounted for." "Thanks, man.", Finn gave him a thumbs up. "You're welcome." After the mutterings had died down, the candy princess spoke up "Citizens, I have assembled you here for a momentous announcement." After pausing for a minute, as though collecting her thoughts, she continued, "On this night, we shall be having….a sleepover!" Cheers rang out all around Finn, though something about the announcement seemed strange. Why would she, at the appearance of a zombie horde, want to start a slumber party?
The human boy pushed through the crowds, assuming if he asked her directly, he'd get an answer. "Hey, why didn't you-" he was quickly cut off by the candy princess shushing "Finn, no." under her breath. Grabbing him by his left arm, she quickly spoke "We'll be right back in a minute," before dragging him off into her lab. "I don't understand. Why can't they know about the zombies?", he inquired. The castle lab was much darker than the rest of it, the walls coated a dark navy blue, bordering on black. The main sources of light were dim, only casting small amounts of illumination around them. "If they found out, they'd flip out.", she responded, concern oozing from her voice. "Yeah, I'm sure they'd flip out. But wouldn't they make it a priority to protect themselves if they knew, though?" "No, you still don't understand. I meant they would flip out."
-Cutaway-
The sight of the graveyard's grays and browns was nothing more than a common sight to the gravedigger. "Hello? Princess? I brought the larger corpse shovel like you asked." Starchy held up the shovel with his right hand. Getting no response, he continued "Running late? Oh alright, no sweat. I'll just, uh, stand here, by the mausoleum. With my back turned away from those graves. Completely defenseless." After finishing the mild tangent, he just stood completely still, his shovel lowered. Soon, he was met with the sound of weak moaning, as a hand touched his shoulder. The malt ball gasped, as he felt himself spontaneously combust.
-Cutaway End-
"Wait, so they just explode?"
Finn was taken aback by the explanation. He'd never expected the candy people to be so volatile. He understood then that explaining the situation would be like setting off hundreds of bombs at once. "Yes, and that is why it is of utmost importance to make sure they never find out about the zombies. The sleepover thing is just a distraction while I figure out what went wrong in the decorpsinator serum.", Princess Bubblegum explained in response surprisingly calmly. "Oh ok then. I won't tell a soul." "Royal promise me you won't." The human boy kneeled, complying "I Royal Promise." "Thank you. I will be too busy to return to the party, and I was hoping you could keep them distracted for me. Could you do that?" "Yes." "Thanks, I knew I could rely on you."
As Finn stood up, the candy princess walked off to get her science work finished, Jake walked in on him watching her leave. "So, what were you two talking about?", the magical dog asked, a curious smile spreading across his face. "Oh, it's none of your business.", the boy nervously joked with him, as the two made their way back to the castle foyer. While he hated to lie to his bro, he didn't want the dog to blurt it out and cause a mass spontaneous combustion event.
Chapter 3: Party Games
"Dude, is something going on with you and PB?"
"Nah man"
"Wait, no- don't tell me. Are you two flirting?"
"What? No!"
Finn found himself blushing at Jake's question. He hated to admit his liking for her, but at the same time he couldn't explain overwise due to the spontaneous combusting thing. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place- left with no real good answers to the scenario.
Fortunately, it seemed that everyone else was partying like usual, the worry they previously had had faded during the time before the magical dog retrieved him. Lady Raincorn waved at Jake upon noticing his re-arrival, a small smile forming on her face. While observing them, Finn took note that everyone seemed to be continuing the party aimlessly. Some were dancing, some were conversing, etc,etc. If he didn't do anything to properly distract them, they could easily discover the zombies by accident and instantly die. Thankfully, there seemed to be an easy solution to the aforementioned problem. What better way to engage an impromptu party than impromptu party games?
"Hey everyone, who wants to play truth or dare?", Finn announced to the crowd of partygoers, him and Jake walking further from the entrance of the foyer. The magical dog shot him a skeptical look, though as he sat down beside him in the forming group of participants, he still seemed interested in the game. The human boy hoped that his choice of game wouldn't backfire somehow. "Ok, who wants to start?" A chocolate dipped strawberry enthusiastically raised her hand. "Alright then. Chocoberry, ask anyone here either a deep truth or a saucy dare." At the request, she smirked "Heyy . Truth or dare?". The cupcake with a muscular looking build and a mustache casually replied "Dare." "I dare you to take off your wrapper." Various "Ooo"s could be heard in the circle. Without any protest, took off his wrapper, effectively stripping down naked. However, none of the candy people had visible genitalia.
"Dude, I know you're interested in your party games and all, but you never answered my question. Bros like us can confide this kind of thing with one another." Jake mildly shouldered Finn, giving him a small shock of pain. "I told you, it's none of your business." "None of my business my butt. If there's something bothering you, you know you can tell me." Two were interrupted by the nude cupcake asking "Jake, truth or dare?" "Truth.", the magical dog responded, before muttering "We'll continue this after the game." into the human boy's ear. "Which do you think is better: chocolate or fudge?", the cupcake then proceeded to ask, not seeming bothered by his nudity whatsoever. "Well, that's a tricky question. Since I'm a dog, both those will definitely just kill me. I'd have to say…..neither.", the dog answered. After a beat, he then proceeded to ask the boy "Truth or dare Finn?" "Dare. Hit me with your worst.", he responded with full confidence. He'd much rather endure whatever dare his bro could throw at him than try to try to make up an explanation of his interaction with Princess Bubblegum. "Ohh ho ho, I have a good one. I dare you….to tell me what you were doing with Princess Bubblegum earlier!" Another set of "Ooo"s session ensued, as the human boy's confidence quickly evaporated. The smug look on Jake's face didn't help matters at all. For a minute, Finn was left a stuttering mess. The exact thing he was worried about happened; how was he supposed to react? "Uh, well, I….I,uh,I…." He slipped a sock off of one of his feet, before blurting "Truth or Dare was going on for too long. I was thinking…dodge sock." He then proceeded to pathetically throw the sock at Jake as the group stood up and dispersed, the dog giving him an unimpressed glare. "Dude, stop dodging my questions. It's weird." "So, can you give me my sock back?" "Not until you tell me what's up."
Finn glanced at a window to see pale, shambling bodies approaching the building. "Shoot, this isn't great. Princess, hurry up!", he thought to himself, a twinge of fear sticking to the back of his mind. "Look, Jake, what I did with Princess Bubblegum is between me and her. As bros, I thought you'd understand that I need to keep things private.", he tried explaining himself as concisely as possible. Jake sighed in annoyance, as the human boy then took the time to shut the shutters in the room, stopping to catch his breath after the last one. "Geez man, are you ok?", the magical dog questioned him "Uh, you know what time it is?" "What, Adventure Time?" the dog stared at him with a look that screamed "Huh?". "No, uh, it's 7 minutes in heaven. You- go in first.". He then called out "Rainicorn! Get in the closet with Jake!" "어? 어, 좋아요. 재미있겠네요."("Huh? Oh ok. That sounds….fun."), the Rainicorn forced a giggle as the dog grumbled "Ok, fine. But once the 7 minutes are up you gotta spill the beans." With much reluctance, the dog and his girlfriend headed inside a closet, with the boy closing the door behind them.
Suddenly, another spike of fear slipped down Finn's spine as the sounds of scratching became audible behind the closed windows and the front doors. "Hey, what's up with all the scratching on the wood? Am I hearing things?", a bonbon tilted his head in a look of naive curiosity. "Yeah, you're hearing things.", the boy lied to confirm Chet's wrong assumption. As the scratching escalated to full blown banging against the wood, the dancing seemed to come to a screeching halt with confused murmuring filling the air. "This,uh-this doesn't sound good. It's creepy, man." The bonbon had begun shivering, having fallen into a fetal position. "Guys, guys- everyone, what noise are you fretting about. These sick beats?" The human boy rushed over to a closeby boombox, blasting party music in it, then rushing to turn on some bright party lights to really set in the lie. The candy people seemed to calm down almost instantly, resuming their group dance session. Despite the distraction being a success, the zombie problem hadn't been 100% solved.
At the sight of a zombified hand groping into the building, Finn grabbed a table and shoved it at the entrance, preventing whatever was behind the door from endangering them. "Huh, that's a strange game Finn. What's it called?"Chocoberry watched him blockade the door with intrigue. After taking a moment to think, he answered "It's called…Blockado. Everyone, Blockado's the new game. Come on, let's all block off the windows and entrance!" Without a second's notice, the partygoers were working like bees in a hive. Without even questioning the idea of the "game", they were barricading the windows and doors relatively efficiently. Still, that couldn't possibly prevent them from seeing the undead. "Hey man, I wish I could've been partying with y'all. But honestly, watching the party isn't too bad.", Manfried remarked as the human boy looked up to see him. Without warning, an idea appeared in his brain. "Thank you for conveniently just being there. I just got the best idea. Everyone get sticks- we're smashin' pinatas." After a bear, the boy added "Not you Manfried. We're chill." The pinata let out a sigh of relief in response. Gently pulling some of the strips off of an odd looking candy person's pelt, whispering "Thanks." to her as he walked over to where others were recklessly flailing sticks around. Once again, none of the partygoers protested as Finn tied the taffy strips over their eyes. "Ok, guys. The pinatas are surrounding you. Let's smash 'em!"
Chapter 4: Climax
To both a surprise and no surprise, the partygoers beat the candy zombies with no mercy.
The undead's guts spilled out all over the ground as they were smashed to death. Finn joined in assisting them, punching and kicking them with as much force as possible. Admittedly, he found it weird to see them eating the zombie candy's remains off of the ground. The fact that they weren't aware of it only slightly lessened the blow.
"We did it guys! We smashed all the pinatas!", the human boy exclaimed, as those around him began triumphantly cheering. Jake and Lady Rainicorn exited the closet, a look of horror washing over their face at the sight of the zombie corpses. "Woah! What the nuts happened here?", the magical dog rushed up to Finn, adding "You ok dude?" "Ok alright, I'll admit. We just finished killing the candy zombies me and Princess Bubblegum accidentally brought to life.", he reluctantly answered, knowing at this point there was no other way to get out of the situation through lying. "Woah, th-", before the magical dog could respond, everything around Finn froze in place, everything being coated by a bright blue hue. "Dude, you ok?", the human boy asked, hoping that he was being pranked. His stomach dropped when Jake didn't respond, remaining unmoving. Princess Bubblegum walked in, unaffected by the time stop spell. Taking in her surroundings, her look of excitement shifted to one of horror. "Finn, what's going on? Did you break the Royal Promise?", she asked in a panic. "I mean, what was the point of it all? The zombies are dead, and Jake would've just continued pestering me until I caved in, anyway.", he casually responded, not sure what the Royal Promise had to do with anything. "Finn, this is really bad. When you make a Royal Promise, you can't just break it. Not under any circumstance.", she explained, gasping as the building began to violently shake. "But why? I still don't know what you're talking about." "The Guardians of the Royal Promise- they're here to punish us. I can feel them from here, shaking the very earth under our feet." Before he could question further, him and the candy princess were snatched by a large hand from outside. Once they were lifted into the night sky, they were met with the 2 Gumball Guardians, both looking particularly furious. "Finn the human, You have broken a Royal Promise. The penalty shall be trial by fire.", one commanded, the other spitting fire out of its glass mouth to prove they weren't bluffing. "Wait, is there any better way to go through with this? Finn's my friend, and he didn't know any better.", Princess Bubblegum pleaded with the two, who looked at each other in consideration before turning their attention back to her and the boy. "Ah, since you seem to feel sympathy for the promise-breaker, we shall give him a less…painful trial.", the first agreed, the second adding "We shall instead give him a math trial." "Woah, mathematical!" Finn exclaimed, the candy princess grumbling "You're not good at math, Finn." "Oh.", the boy sighed in response.
Without another word, a hologram of a math equation materialized in front of them. Finn stared at the equation, analyzing every element of it. However, looking at it felt like staring at a foreign language. None of it was making sense, no matter how long he took to try figuring out what some of the symbols meant. "Oh wait, that's the wrong one.", the first guardian commented, switching out the hologram for one that simply read "2+2". After another minute of observation, he came up with the answer, "It's 4, right?". After a dramatic pause, the first guardian responded "Yes, that is correct. You have atoned for your promise breaking." Before the human boy could celebrate, they suddenly found themselves warping into the castle's laboratory, time seemingly distorted in front of their eyes. The boy blinked, the sterile white lights of the room temporarily blinding him. "Geez, what happened?". The boy could barely make heads or tails over what he witnessed over the last minute. "Since you've atoned for breaking the Royal Promise, the Gumball Guardians have reset.", she explained, taking in deep breaths to regain her composure. "Huh, strange." She walked over to her incomplete equation, mumbling something to herself and she analyzed it intensely.
After a couple minutes, she abruptly perked up. "Oh, 4! That's it." Writing the number down in the equestion, she added "Thank you. The answer was so simple, I wouldn't have realized it overwise." "You're welcome PB."
Chapter 5- The Perfect Revival
After the creation of the improved serum, Princess Bubblegum carefully applied some of it onto each of the zombies in the castle. Unlike the last incident, the result of all was the crumbled bodies springing to life, as young and healthy as they were before they died. Finn didn't recognize all of them, with the exception of the non-zombified Starchy that had instead been revived from spontaneously combusting. Despite this, he could help but think the friends and families reuniting was wholesome. "So, this whole time you had a Royal Promise? Dude, if you just said that, I would've gotten off your case.", Jake remarked beside him as the candy people left the castle in groupings. "Nah, I doubt you'd do that.", Finn responded jokingly, gently shouldering him. "No really man. I know what's up."
Once the magical dog walked off, the human boy and the candy princess were left alone. "Now, do you understand the consequence of breaking promises?" "Uh, yeah? If I break the Royal Promise, I get to throw slumber parties, go through a guardian's trials, and reset time itself. It was actually kinda cool." She sighed, "That's against the point, but your enthusiasm is adorable. Just keep your promises from now on, ok?" "Ok."