Chapter 5: Midnight Waltz

Earlier:

Marceline the Vampire Queen was getting sick of everything happening in Ooo as of now. It was like pulling teeth to get that undead bastard the Lich back into its prison, but she finally did it with a lot of help from the various citizens of Ooo. When the Lich was freed because Bonnie brought Billy, Canyon, and a few others like Peace Master to release it so they could fight it, but everything went to shit.

The Lich killed Billy and Peace Master, hurt Canyon, and it didn't go to the Well of Power, rather the Lich wanted to carve the fear of death across Ooo itself. After it broke free, it proceeded to rampage around Ooo, killing any living thing it could gets is terrible claws on.

There were so many fatalities that she, Flame Princess, and a few others had to step in and so something about the Lich. The barbarians that lived near Boom, Boom Mountain, most of the Banana Guard that protected Bonnie's kingdom, various talking animal folk that roamed the wilderness, most of the goblins, some wizards from Wizard City, and a good chunk of citizens and guardsman that protected the various Ooo princesses were brutally killed by the Lich.

Even after sealing the Lich, the 'curtain' of dread still hung over Ooo to this very day. Ooo had no Hero protecting it and there was still so much tension and suspense in the air with the strong possibility that Flame Princess is about to go to war with Bonnie. There were other things happening in Ooo with a red dragon terrorizing and taking over Breakfast Princess's Kingdom, a Hug Wolf menacing Wildberry Princess's Kingdom, Jake the Dog and his brother are missing and was last seen at the village of sharp people, and of course Magic Man causing random strangers' misfortune.

Speaking of Bonnie, the pink princess didn't even bother to thank her for what she did and was hiding while the undead monster was destroying Ooo. It was probably why Marceline couldn't be bothered to go help the other princesses…

The vampire deep down still wanted to care for her ex, but seeing everything blow up in Bonnie's face after what she did to Flame Princess, Marceline lost all sympathy for the manipulative candy monarch. Marceline was not surprised why Cinnamon Bun chose to serve Flame Princess over her.

It was all so tiresome.

Marceline exited her house to go play pranks, or go explore Ooo to do something fun to take her mind off the tension and stress…

The Vampire Queen found herself in the forest, using her bat form to hide behind shadows during the day to avoid the sunlight. She was exploring for a while and still didn't find any interesting, come to think of it, it's actually been a while that Marceline pranked or 'teased' someone.

The loneliness was starting to get to her, and she tried to combat it by hanging out with Ice King or LSP, or the group of pranking ghosts, but it was still bothering her. Something was missing in her life, and she didn't know what is was.

Bonnie's love?

New friends?

Getting Simone back?

Her demon lord father making amends?

Getting her prized possession back that Ash sold behind her back?

A new lover that is a a lot better than Bonnie?

There were multiple things that the Vampire Queen wanted, but none seem to be obtainable.

Marceline was about to leave the woods, but she caught the scent of blood-human blood as she sniffed the air. She hid behind a tree and noticed the car exit the car tunnel and drive into the meadow.

There was no mistaking it, it was a human. A being thought to be extinct and while it made her confused, it filled her with joy. Marceline remembered crying that night in her bed when she didn't find any more humans and just accepted that they were all dead, even accepting the truth that the humans she protected during the Mushroom War that looked up to her were gone as well. The only 'humans' of this land being people that transformed into something inhuman; Ice King and her.

She followed the human in the car for some time and then he got out of the car to go into the woods, obviously interested in the Dungeon Train close by. Marceline waited for it to get darker before getting closer, killing time by playing with her guitar or sucking the color out of red apples.

Marceline was quite impressed with the human fighting against the pigman adventurer. She watched the fight from a safe distance and at first the human man was getting beaten, but he snapped his fingers and unleashed a strange power that allowed him to destroy the pig dude in one hit.

He was quite powerful, and Marceline felt a bit giddy to meet this human and her mischievous spirit started to burn with excitement. Who knows? He might be a useful henchman to her, or something more to the Vampire Queen. All she knew was that the human man was about to become her stress ball…

Now:

Marceline flew through the sky, holding the struggling human man tightly in her arms. She chuckled as she flew around in the air.

"Ah! Let me the fuck down!" Finn shouted in fear.

"Scared of heights? Come on dude, you're a big boy!" Marceline teased Finn as she played with him in the air, even tickling him.

"Tickle, tickle, tickle, hehe!" She giggled.

Finn was left so confused by the Vampire Queen's behavior. The fear of being very high and suddenly laughing at being tickled was playing havoc on his senses and mind. But the most important question was why the Vampire Queen was toying with him like this?

She could have easily snapped his neck with her telekinesis, or bit his neck and drained him of his precious blood when she grabbed him as she moved so damn fast that Finn couldn't even react to her movements.

Finn had to do something quickly because Marceline must have been the type of predator to 'play with her food' like a cat playing with a mouse like it's a toy until the cat becomes bored with the mouse and then starts to rip and tear into the helpless mouse. Finn had to fight, or escape, or persuade her to stop before her 'playing' phase ends and the 'feast' phase starts.

Finn managed to yank Marceline's hair as hard she he could, even bit down on her arm to free himself, but it didn't do anything but amuse her.

"You like pulling a girl's hair and biting? Kinky. I like playing rough too!" She giggled and squeezed Finn's ass with her hand, causing him to yelp as she did it a bit too hard.

"I should be the one who's biting…" She bared her fangs at him and dove towards his neck and was about to bite down but stopped and dangled her fangs a mere inch away from his skin. It was like she was telling Finn she just needed to move a tiny bit for her fangs to sank into his flesh as easily as knife stabbing butter.

The fangs didn't touch his skin, but it caused Finn great discomfort to have something so sharp and deadly dangerously close to his exposed and vulnerable throat.

"Leave me alone, I just need to find a city, town, village, or any place to stay!" Finn yelled out.

"Oh?" Marceline leaned away from his neck, and she stopped moving in the air, remaining stationary. Finn was glad she stopped flying fast, but he was still too high up from the ground that the fall would have easily killed him.

"You're homeless?" She questioned him.

Finn decided to roll with the idea about the island he made up. The blonde-haired human man hoped this lie didn't bite him in the ass later.

"Y-Yeah, I was the captain of a trade ship. My duty was to bring goods to a different island, but I was caught in a terrible storm, and it shipwrecked me here. My ship was destroyed, and I lost most a lot of my stuff, but I was able to salvage the car that I was driving in because I was close enough to the beach. I arrived in this place a day ago and lived in my car for a short period of time; I stayed at the car tunnel for a little bit, but then I had to move on because I was running out of food, supplies, and I had no weapons. I was able to get some food, water, and weapons from that train that never stopped. I'm trying to get back home so I can see my mom and dad again." Finn explained to Marceline.

Finn knew him being a Captain of a ship was a lie, but going to the train was the truth.

Marceline looked at him with a thoughtful expression after Finn told her what happened. Finn even noted that she gave him a sympathetic look when he brought up his parents.

"About your parents, are they on the island, right?"

"Yeah, my parents are like the lords of the island that take care of everyone." Finn replied.

"Lords huh? So, are they like royalty? Is your mom a queen and your dad a king? Doesn't that make you a prince of this island?" Marceline smiled with her fangs glinting in the light.

Finn sighed, realizing that his lie was starting to have a snowball effect, but he had no choice but to keep going.

"We don't really like to see ourselves as royalty and all that, but pretty much. We treat our fellow humans well."

The vampire chuckled.

"Uh oh, I better not tell the princesses about you. They'll want to marry you because of your royal blood."

"Princesses? How many princesses live on this land?" Finn asked with interest.

"A lot actually, there is Hot Dog Princess, Lumpy Space Princess, but she likes to go by LSP, and she is my bestie. We pranked the heck out of Breakfast Princess one time it was so funny! Let's see, Doctor Princess, even though she keeps saying she doesn't like to be called a princess. Crab Princess, Turtle Princess who runs the library of Ooo, Engagement Ring Princess…"

Marceline went on about the different princesses and it fascinated Finn to no end, he even forgot to fight back or escape because he was so engrossed in the various royal families that ruled this land. However, he was a bit confused on why there were so many princesses and not that many kings, queens, and princes.

"Flame Princess, and…"

Marceline frowned as if trying to get a bad taste out of her mouth.

"Princess Bubblegum."

Finn noticed the vampire's disdain at mentioning the princess named Bubblegum. They must have bad blood, and Finn didn't want to press the issue on why she was a bit upset at this Princess Bubblegum.

"Anyway…" Finn said, trying to get back on track. He wanted to know if there was High King or High Queen that ruled everything, but that wasn't important, he just needed to get to a safe human settlement.

"Can you tell me where the nearest town or city is? I need to get some supplies, and I need a place to stay. My mom and dad are worried about me, and I need to return home."

"Hmmm…" The Vampire Queen pondered.

"You know what…" Marceline began and slowly floated back to the ground and put Finn down. The vampire and human stood nearby the lake containing the Lake Knights.

"Let's make a bet."

"Huh? A bet?" He looked at her in puzzlement.

"Yeah, bro. If you can put up a good fight against me, I won't take your rocking leather jacket and other stuff, there will be a STRONG maybe on letting you stay at my old house, and I will give you directions to where you can collect useful supplies in Ooo and the best city to get information at."

"And if I lose?"

Marceline grinned, revealing her sharp fangs.

"I take your jacket, your gold, your car, and you become my henchman. So…do we have a deal?" She extended her hand towards him.

Finn had to process this for a moment. He gets to have a temporary home and some help, but the problem is that if he loses, she'll will mug him of his stuff, leaving him in a much more terrible situation as he won't have the safety of sleeping in a locked car at night and he'll be even more exposed to the monsters lurking in the wilderness and he'll become her henchman, which meant he will become some sort of a servant towards the Vampire Queen.

But still, getting a temporary home instead of trying to live in his car and the vital information from the Vampire Queen was too hard to pass up. She could even tell him where Wizard City was…

"Dang it, I got to smoke her, I got to smoke her with the Spin System." He thought.

During their brief squabble, Finn quickly found out that he was outmatched, and she could have easily killed him, but chose to toy with him. She was way stronger than the pigman adventurer and the Spin System is definitely needed against her, even if he used every weapon and item that he collected from the Dungeon Train, it still wouldn't be enough to beat her.

The problem that Finn was facing is that he didn't have that 100% guarantee of getting Heroism anymore, and the system was no longer rigged in order for him to win on his first spin; Finn now has to roll the dice of fate and luck and hopefully get it the second time.

"Deal." Finn shook her hand.

"Good!" Marceline said with excitement and backed off to get some good distance away from Finn.

"I have to get you back at setting me on fire earlier!" She growled like a wolf at Finn. Finn looked at her in shock.

"Y-You were the wolf that-"

"Oh, yeah! I admit, you got me pretty good back there, I didn't expect you to have any of the magical weapons from the Dungeon Train, but that ain't gonna save you now dude!" Marceline hissed.

"B-But you attacked me, I was just defending-"

"Don't care little human, you'll pay for that! Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a prince!"

Marceline started to shapeshift and went from an attractive vampire biker chick into a horrific vampire bat-like monster that towered over the shocked human that stared at her in horror.

"Spin System, you there?" Finn thought.

[Always. Are you ready to spin?]

Marceline approached Finn while licking her lips, her footsteps shaking a good portion of the meadow. The nearby Lake Knights swam to the surface to see what the commotion was about because the vibrations were disturbing the water, but they quickly retreated back underwater once they saw Marceline's terrifying demon bat monster form.

"I found you because I smelled your blood when you were bleeding…I think I'll have a little taste."

"Shit, so she was the thing that was watching me when I was at the car tunnel. I had that nosebleed and…damn. Draw 3 and 8!" Finn yelled mentally and snapped his fingers. The wheel appeared before him and started to spin…

Finn grabbed his magical lightning sword he got from the Dungeon Train, Stormalong and was ready to fight.

"What are you snapping your fingers for? Trying to cast a spell, huh?" Marceline taunted and lunged to grab him. She knew that snapping his fingers meant he was going to activate his power up, she had to end this fight quickly before Finn could actually threaten her life.

Marceline didn't know how strong he was when his powers activated, but hopefully she wouldn't have to resort to her demonic tentacle monster form to beat him.

Finn was able to evade, but it wasn't because of his greater speed, but because his [Avoidance Aura] kicked in and forcefully made her miss.

"Huh? What was that all about?" Marceline looked at him confused. She had no trouble grabbing the human earlier, where did this invisible force come from? It was like an out-of-nowhere forcefield that she couldn't see suddenly appeared around Finn and made it difficult for her to touch him. The forcefield didn't block her like an invisible unbreakable wall, rather it manipulated her movement against her will. No matter, she will just try again.

The human unleashed a thunderbolt with a swing of his sword at the giant demon bat monster that was Marceline, striking her dead in the face.

"Ow! That hurt dude!" She exclaimed in pain. The attack was enough to cause some damage, but Finn realized she did have a healing factor and quickly recovered from the lightning-based attack.

Finn tried to dodge, but she was too quick and used her massive claw to scoop up the human and bring him to her face. When he was grabbed, Finn stabbed his blade through her clawed hand.

"Ha! Gotcha this time!" Marceline taunted but bared her fangs and hissed with pain and annoyance, trying to ignore the fact that the human stabbed her hand.

[2]

[1]

[LOSER!

*Clown Horn Honk*]

"Oh, no! Shit!" Finn screamed in shock, realizing with horror that he was about to be struck by a curse.

[The Avoidance Aura blessing is stripped from you; you will now be under a curse called: Human Meat Shield for 30 minutes. This curse will ensure that you cannot block or dodge any attack against you, no matter how slow the attack is, when getting struck by an attack, you will lose a chunk of stamina, and you suffer quadrable the damage and pain, even something as mundane as getting hit by a BB pellet will become just as deadly and lethal as getting hit by a 12-guage shotgun slug]

"Are you kidding me!? That's one fucked up curse! I'm literally helpless to any enemy that wants to murder me, no matter how weak they are!" Finn thought with horror. The idea that something as small and weak as a squirrel can easily maul him to death was very concerning.

He was quite skilled in MMA and was training for six to seven years, but if he would have fought a unathletic rookie that just started on day one and he had this Human Meat Shield curse on him, he would have folded easily as the curse will force him to take the hits, no matter how out-of-shape and sluggish his opponent was.

What made it worse is that any damage to him is amplified and to add sprinkles on top of a shitty ice cream, his energy will be sapped away when getting hit by anything.

"Haha, oh no indeed, man! The show has ended and I'm the hook that's gonna grab you off the stage! Blah, blah!" Marceline slammed him back to the ground, causing Finn to grunt in pain and he was left dazed, she turned back into being an attractive vampire biker chick and was no longer in her monstrous form. She tossed Stormalong into the lake.

She reared her fist back and was about to punch Finn in the face.

"Oh, god, if she hits me, even with her holding back, she'll kill me!" Finn thought alarmed. It didn't help that he was already dazed and hurting from getting slammed into the dirt and felt his conscious slipping by the second and he was suddenly getting very exhausted. It was definitely the curse that made him take extra damage and lose a portion of his stamina when the vampire slammed him on the ground.

But it wasn't just from the curse, but the fact that he literally had no time to breathe and rest ever since he showed up to this world only taking those small snack breaks when he was on the Dungeon Train. He was already quite tired from his ordeal with getting teleported to this new world, a few fights he had with the train monsters, and the pigman adventurer wanting to kill him and take his stuff didn't help.

Quite a few hours had passed when he got transported to this world and if he was still home, he would have already been sleeping by now in his nice warm and cozy bed, getting ready to work out with Jake in the morning, play with Fionna in the afternoon, or helping his parents with any odd jobs before he would have gone to Boot Camp to become a US Marine.

"Wait, wait…I give up…You win, Vampire Queen Marceline. I'll be your henchman…" Finn said in surrender. Marceline put her fist down and smiled down at him.

"Good boy. You'll make a better henchman then that old guy that I used to have…"

Finn struggled to stay awake, but the fatigue was finally getting to him. Before he passed out, the vampire leaned over his body and Finn felt her soft lips on his cheek…

Finn was dreaming, he knew it. But this dream felt very realistic to him. He was sitting on the sidewalk with his dog, Jake, sleeping peacefully near him. Finn tried to wake himself up, but he found he couldn't.

Finn stood up from the sidewalk and discovered he was in his neighborhood in the afternoon and his house was behind him. The young man wanted to accept the fact that he was home, but he was dreaming as everything felt off.

Jake woke up and started to yawn, but he took interest in a passing black car that appeared as a hearse; a type of car that carries coffins and started to chase after it, barking while he sprinted.

"Jake! Wait!" Finn shouted, running after his dog. Jake was able to catch up to it, but what shocked Finn was that the back of the hearse opened up and long skeletal arms reached towards Jake.

"Jake! No!"

The arms grabbed Jake and dragged him into the hearse.

As Finn sprinted as hard as he could towards the car, he came across a white sword with some sort of blue gem in its cross guard sticking out of the ground and he grabbed it, planning on slaying the thing that was holding Jake hostage.

Try as he might, the car was getting faster and it even caught fire, but it wasn't a normal fire, it was a sickly green fire that engulfed the car. He could even hear the driver laughing at him in a deep menacing voice.

YOU CAN'T EVEN DEFEAT HUNSON ABADEER'S DAUGHTER, GIVE UP AND DIE LIKE THE REST OF YOUR KIND…

The voice taunted him, but Finn pressed on to get Jake. He heard loud flapping, and he looked up to see a giant owl made out of golden energy fly overhead, easily catching up to the hearse.

The golden owl stared at him, observing his attempt at trying to get Jake back.

"Better hurry up buddy, Jake is in trouble. Prismo will be sad if he died…" The owl spoke to Finn…

"Ah!" Finn shot awake and looked around his surroundings, discovering that he was still by the lake and the morning sun came over the horizon. He sighed with relief, thanking God that it was just a dream, but it felt so real.

Finn discovered he was in his underwear as Marceline stripped him of his shirt, pants, and shoes, he was lying on the grass with a bunch of leaves over him like a blanket, and he wasn't just missing his cool leather jacket, but the vampire took his damn car as well. She even took his army dog tags…

"Damn it, Marceline. I'll get that blood sucker back." Finn growled with anger. He at least still had his green backpack that was filled with some food, water, weapons, and an extra change of clothes.

He went over to his backpack and found a little note left on it. He grabbed the letter and started to read it.

Hey man, I had a great time last night! You were rough with me, but that's ok, I let to get rough too. Anyways, I'll be seeing you later handsome, and I got to say you got nice hunky muscles on you. I went to go feed on some morsels and don't forget, you are my henchman, so if I see ya again, I'll have a job for you to do and you better not refuse me. If you can put up a better fight next time, I'll let you stay at my old tree home.

Bye! Welcome to Ooo!

Kisses, and hugs!

Thanks for the rocking jacket and car dude!

Love, M

"Oh, don't worry vamp chick, you'll be sorry once I get Heroism." Finn tore the paper up.

"Ugh, shit! Now I have no transportation and no place to sleep." He complained. The curse he got was absolutely nasty, but he was glad it only lasted for half an hour. Still, the idea that the Spin System had a terrible drawback was awful. It could make things easier for him or fuck him over and get him killed if he was in a pinch.

Finn had to be really careful on using the Spin System now. But the thing that sucked is that if he runs across an enemy that is as strong, or stronger than the vampire queen, he had no choice but to use it.

He lost all his gold because she mugged him, and she threw the sword he liked and that he named Stormalong into the damn lake containing the Lake Knights. He walked over to the edge of the lake and peered down and saw at the bottom was his sword, but a strange device next to it and they were both sitting on piles of gold that belonged to the Lake Knights.

Finn thought about the dream and how realistic it was. The golden owl told him Jake was in trouble and he needed to go save him, and the Jake of this world is missing. It might not have been the same Jake, but Finn felt this desire to find him and make sure he's ok.

He wanted to go find a town or city, but the dream was telling him he needed to go save his buddy. Who knows, the Jake of this world is probably his own dog that got sent here, was exposed to magic, and became a magical talking dog. He had to see, he had to know if his dog really was here.

Finn balled up his fists and stared down at the water.

"I'll find you and save you, buddy, even if you are not MY Jake, you are still Jake to me…" He said with determination and dove into the water while carrying a magic weapon to fight the Lake Knights…

Next Chapter: Tears of a Rainbow