Family
Chapter 513 Nightmares and Ashes
By: Major144
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a story for fun.
800 years in the future.
Bubblegum rode in the Omni Transport along with Simon, Neddy, Chicle, Serenity, X, O, Mara, Marceline, Lucinda, Lance, Henry, Peridot, Lapis, and Django. Earth, Fire, and Wind traveled alongside the Omni Transport in their respective element forms to stay hidden from prying eyes. The mission to recruit the freed territories had been a complete success and as a bonus they had the forces of Zimtopia as well as the Elemental warriors and the genie Citrus Twisty working with them as well. It seemed like Bubblegum and the forces of Sanctuary had a real chance against Gumbald's massive army and if they could beat them then Bubblegum could get access to the Timenado and return to her own time. Bubblegum could also travel further back in time and prevent her past self from causing the Cooler Incident to save herself and the rest of Ooo a whole lot of trouble. All was going well, until the universe decided to throw a monkey wrench into the group's plans.
The Omni Transport was moving along, until the massive robotic form of the Mega Pirate appeared before them and the Omni Transport stopped in it's tracks.
"Hello again Bubblegum and friends. This time we will destroy you and collect your bounty!" Declared Orangusnake's voice from the mech's speakers.
The Mega Pirate began firing lasers at the Omni Transport forcing Peridot to drive off the road to avoid getting hit. The Omni Transport drove a few dozen yards before Peridot activated the flight function and the vehicle took to the sky. The Mega Pirate tried to blast them out of the sky with it's lasers, but Earth, Wind, and Fire made themselves visible in their humanoid forms and they fired a combo attack of their abilities that slammed into the mech that knocked it to the ground. The Elementals turned into their element forms and Wind used her powers to help them catch up with the Omni Transport. The Mega Pirate got back to it's feet and fired a few lasers at the fleeing heroes. The Omni Transport managed to dodge most of the lasers, but one grazed the bottom severing some wires and cables.
"We're losing power! We're going to have to land for me to do repairs!" Said Peridot.
"Where can we land?" Asked Lapis.
"Looks like we might have to land in what used to be the Fire Kingdom." Said Peridot consult in a map on her screen.
X, Mara, Chicle, Simon, Neddy, and Django exchanged concerned looks with each other and glanced over at Bubblegum.
"Guess we don't have much choice. Land us there and repair the Omni Transport as fast as you can." Said Chicle.
"Roger that." Said Peridot.
"So, we're heading to the Fire Kingdom territory, is there something I need to know about the place?" Said Bubblegum.
"Remember how we told you about the giant robot Brimstone and how it was powered by the hate filled wraiths of the victims of the Cooler Incident." Said Chicle.
"Yeah." Said Bubblegum not liking where this was going.
"Well we defeated Brimstone and preformed a exorcism that got rid of a little over half the wraiths." Said Django.
"So...there's still large amount of wraiths in what's left of the Fire Kingdom." Said Bubblegum looking a little.
"Yeah and they absolutely hate your guts. Those wraiths will come after you and they won't just kill your body, they'll drag your soul off to be tortured in who knows what kind of twisted way." Said X almost looking sorry for Bubblegum.
"So we need to make repairs quickly and get out. Just stand by close to me and hope we don't see any wraiths or that we only have to deal with a couple." Said Django.
"Ok." Said Bubblegum with a nod.
"There's also been rumors of a dangerous criminal from Wizard City residing here, so we must be on the lookout for them as well." Said Simon.
"Well this just keeps getting better." Muttered O.
The Omni Transport soon landed in what used to be the Fire Kingdom. Bubblegum and the others got out and took a look at their surroundings. The Fire Kingdom was now a dull lifeless grey color with crumbling war torn buildings and streets littered with broken metal suits of armor that had once been the soldiers of the royal family and the troops of the Infernos. The palace laid in ruins with a giant metal robot that must have been Brimstone laying on top of it. Brimstone was a large black and red robot with a skull head that was currently, missing it's left arm and right leg. The skull was dented in multiple places and there were dozens of holes in the robot's chest.
Bubblegum just looked at the once beautiful and powerful kingdom with sadness and guilt. She may not have been the one waging war on the Fire Kingdom, but her actions had played a big part in it's destruction. Bubblegum needed to make things right.
Peridot and Chicle went to work on the repairs, while the others stood guard. Everything was quiet, until there was the sound of grinding rocks. Everyone turned to Earth to see if she was responsible for the noise, but she was perfectly still and looked confused about the weird noise as well. Then the source revealed itself to a dozen large stone golems marching towards the group. The golems got within a few dozen yards and they stopped.
"Welcome to hell, sinners! This place is going to be your grave!" Said Matilda as she appeared on top of a building alongside the Green Knight and Phantomrider.
"Of course we run into this whack job again." Grumbled Marceline.
"It's going to take more then some golems to stop us." Said Lucinda glaring up at Matilda.
"You're absolutely right. Luckily we have a special magic friend whose going to make things very interesting. Observe." Said Matilda with a grin.
A large thick fog appeared and began to spread and cover everything.
"Stay close together!" Ordered Simon as he and Wind try to blow the fog away, but it kept moving forward.
Soon the heroes were covered by the fog and they had trouble seeing anything. Then the golems attacked! The golems picked up speed as they charged forward swinging their large stone fists at the heroes forcing them to dodge to avoid getting hit. Marceline swung her ax and Lucinda swung her hammer smashing the golems to bits. Things got worse as a new wave of enemies joined the battle and they were very nightmarish in appearance! It was the suits of armor, though now they had black skeletal creatures inside them!
"What are those things?! Are those the wraiths?!" Asked Bubblegum backing away.
Mara pulled out some short swords and sliced some of the new enemy to bits making them collapse to the ground and explode into grey dust.
"No these aren't the wraiths. These are some kind of ash zombies." Said Lucinda as she sniffed the air.
"What are ash zombies?" Asked Bubblegum as she fired some lasers from her armor at some of the creatures.
"Low level undead created from the ashes of dead beings." Said Django as he sliced a couple of ash zombies to bits.
More golems and ash zombies came out of the fog to attack the group. Simon and Serenity quickly used their ice powers to create a protective wall of ice around Bubblegum, Peridot, and the Omni Transport as they others fought the waves of enemies. The heroes were holding their own as they cut down the enemies, but more just popped up to take their place. Peridot worked hard to repair the Omni Transport and was making quick progress in another ten minutes the repairs would be fully complete. Then things went bad.
There was a loud rumbling sound from the fog as one of the buildings suddenly came tumbling down towards the heroes at a fast speed. Neddy took flight quickly caught the building with his own psychic powers and tossed it to the side crushing dozens of golems and ash zombies to bits in the process. Another building flew through the fog and Neddy caught it as well, but he could feel that the building was in the grasp of another psychic being. The Phantomrider floated through the fog and revealed it was the one behind the thrown buildings. The two psychics wrestled with the building they held with their powers, until it broke in half from the strain. Neddy held one half of the building and the Phantomrider held the other half. The Phantomrider then swung his building half like a club and Neddy quickly blocked it with his own building half. The two psychics struck at one another using their building halves like swords. The two halves collided and let out thunderous sounds as cracks formed on them. After a dozen more strikes parts of the building halves broke off and fell to the ground below.
The Phantomrider grabbed the fallen pieces with his psychic powers and hurled them like missiles at Bubblegum below! X and Serenity came to Bubblegum's aid by blasting the rocky missiles to bits with their respective power and saving Bubblegum. The Phantomrider rider roared in anger and was about to try and smash Bubblegum with his building half, but Neddy struck him with his building half and knocked the evil creature through the air before grabbing the Phantomrider's building half with his powers.
"Let's see how you handle this!" Yelled Neddy before he sent both building halves at the flying form of the Phantomrider.
The two building halves struck the Phantomrider and sent him smashing into a another building with a mighty crash that buried the evil creature under a small mountain of ruble.
"That should keep that freak off our backs for now." Said Neddy as he flew down to help fight the golems and ash zombies.
As all that happened the Green Knight had jumped down and had joined the battle. The Green Knight snuck through the fog turning his right arm into a ax as he snuck towards Bubblegum from behind. He got within a few feet of her and started to swing his ax at her, when Mara suddenly appeared from behind and blocked the attack as she pushed Bubblegum away from the Green Knight.
"Get lost you green ghoul!" Yelled Mara.
The Green Knight swung his ax at Mara who expertly dodged out of the way and managed to jump onto the Green Knight's back and stabbed him in the neck with her short sword! Bubblegum watched in shock as the Green Knight trashed around as green liquid dripped from his wound. It seemed like the evil knight would die, but the Green Knight recovered and managed to yank Mara off himself before tossing her to the side. The Green Knight yanked the sword out of his neck and it began to heal as he hurled the blade at Bubblegum!
Bubblegum dropped to her back in fright as the sword just barely missed her by an inch. The Green Knight advanced towards Bubblegum with his ax hand raised up high and then he brought it down towards her. Bubblegum managed to roll out of the way as the ax hit the ground with a mighty crash as it imbedded itself into the ground. There was a pound cracking sound as cracks began to spread across the ground around Bubblegum and the Green Knight.
"That's not good." Thought Bubblegum a few seconds before the ground beneath her and the Green Knight gave away and they fell through it.
The fall seemed to last for a eternity, until Bubblegum struck some rocks and bounced off them before finally hitting the ground. Thankfully Bubblegum's armor took most of the force of the fall and though Bubblegum was a bit bruised up and dazed, she wasn't too seriously hurt. Bubblegum stumbled to her feet as she found herself in some kind of catacombs. She then saw the Green Knight who had gotten impaled on some stalagmites. Bubblegum eyed the knight and decided it was best to put some distance between herself and the villain and try to get back with the others. She activated some lights in her armor as she took off running. The Green Knight slowly began to stir and push itself off the stalagmites.
Mara saw what happened to Bubblegum and the Green Knight and she called out to Neddy and told him what happened. Neddy quickly
Elsewhere, Matilda had pulled out a silver bow and began firing golden arrows of light at the heroes below specially at Marceline and Lucinda.
"Yeah! Be pierced by my holy light you evil sinners!" Laughed Matilda with glee.
Marceline and Lucinda dodged and knocked the arrows away as they both flew up at Matilda.
"You know you've ruined the advantages the fog you gave you by standing in the same spot and shouting." Said Marceline as she and Lucinda prepared to strike Matilda.
"Or it could just be a clever plan to lure you two into my brilliant trap!" Said Matilda with a wicked smile as a gigantic golem suddenly rose up behind and swatted both Marceline and Lucinda out of the air and into the ground.
"Rats! She tricked us!" Growled Lucinda as she and Marceline got to their feet.
"Even crazy people can come up with decent plans from time to time." Said Marceline.
"I told you this place would be your grave. Now hold still and accept your Devine punishment for all your years of sin!" Declared Matilda as she rode the giant golem as it stomped towards Marceline and Lucinda.
"Sorry not going to happen." Said Marceline.
"You're not the only one with a large rock friend." Said Lucinda with a smirk.
Earth suddenly came rushing in from the side and punched the golem in the face knocking it back. The golem let out a angry roar as it's hands turned into spiked balls and it tried to smash Earth, only for Fire to fly in and sliced the arms off with it's flames. The Golem staggered back with no arms and Matilda cursed under her breath. Earth fired some large rock spikes at the golem impaling it in multiple places and making cracks appear on it's body. Marceline and Lucinda rushed at the golem with their weapons and shattered it to bits! Matilda tumbled through the air before she righted herself.
"This is not over!" Yelled Matilda.
"Not yet anyway." Said Marceline.
Wind arrived on the scene and she used her powers to create a tornado that sucked up Matilda and the parts of her golem condensing them into a large rock ball with Matilda stuck inside. Matilda screamed in rage as she tried to break out, but couldn't.
"Time for a home run!" Said Lucinda as she flew at the rock ball and swung her hammer.
The hammer struck the ball with a mighty crash sending it and Matilda flying through the air and vanishing into the distance.
"Another point and win for us for the crazy angel!" Said Marceline as she and Lucinda fist bumped.
In the catacombs, Bubblegum had tried using the communicator in her armor to contact the others, but she wasn't having much luck. This was either due to damage from the fall or interference from being underground. Bubblegum walked on trying to find a exit, when she heard the faint sound of someone crying and decided to go investigate it. She looked and looked, until she saw what appeared to be a young Fire Girl huddled on a rock up ahead with her back facing Bubblegum.
"Hey...are you ok?" Asked Bubblegum as she walked towards the child.
"No...I'm not. I was murdered!" Cried the child.
"Murdered...?" Asked Bubblegum as she felt a cold chill go down her spine.
"Murdered by YOU!" Said the child before she whirled around to face Bubblegum.
Bubblegum's body went cold and num in terror as she saw what she could only assume was one of the wraiths she had been told about. The back of the child had appeared normal, but the front of the child was a nightmare. The face was sunken looking with sickly flames, the mouth was full of needle sharp teeth, and the eyes were blood red. The wraith grind at Bubblegum with a twisted slasher smile as she raised some clawed hands and drew a finger across her throat. Bubblegum watched in horror as the wraith's neck was cut open and dark red liquid poured out. The wraith levitated off the ground laughing like a psychopath, before she rushed at Bubblegum screaming like a banshee!
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Screamed Bubblegum in terror as she took off running, with the wraith in pursuit.
"YOU CANNOT RUN FROM THE SINS YOU COMMITTED! YOU DIE HORRIBLY For WHAT YOU DID AND YOUR SOUL WILL BE TORMENTED FOR ALL OF ETERNITY!" Yelled the wraith.
The wraith chased Bubblegum through various twists and turns, until they came to a dead end. Bubblegum whirled around to face the wraith.
"I'm...for what I did to you and the others! It was wrong! Please let me go and I'll try to make things right!" Begged Bubblegum.
"Oh so you finally admit it! Too late! The only thing you can do to make this right is to just stay stand still and let out a good scream as you die!" Said the wraith before she charged forward.
Bubblegum fired laser and candy at the wraith, but she avoided them with ease and kept charging forward. The candy monarch closed her eyes expecting to be killed, when there was a whoosh and a scream from the wraith as it was sent flying back. Bubblegum opened her eyes and was surprised to see Neddy standing in front of her facing the wraith.
"Get away from my mother!" Growled Neddy as he glared at the wraith.
"So the son has shown up to defend the mother." Chuckled the wraith.
"I know for a fact you and the other wraiths aren't thinking straight. The magic that summoned you all here turned you into vengeful spirit of rage to be used as tools." Said Neddy.
"That may be so, but the fact remains we are all dead because of what your mother did and she must die for our souls to finally find peace and pass on." Said a voice from the shadows.
Bubblegum and Neddy watched as dozens of wraiths phased through the walls and surround them. The new wraiths were of various ages and sizes, but had the same creepy features as the first wraith as well as the hate filled eyes.
"We need to get out of here and regroup with Django and the others. My psychic powers can hurt and push these wraiths away, but Django is the only one who can preform a exorcism to send these beings back to the Dead Worlds." Said Neddy.
"Alright I'll let you take a lead on this. You haven't seen the Green Knight, since you arrived have you?" Said Bubblegum.
"No I didn't. He must be around here somewhere, so we have to keep our guard up." Said Neddy.
"Got it." Said Bubblegum.
The wraiths looked like they were about to charge forward, when they suddenly backed away. Both Neddy and Bubblegum looked at the wraiths in confusion, when the ground before them suddenly exploded open and some green vines shot out and slammed the two candy people against the wall and restrained them. The Green Knight emerged from the ground revealing that he was connected to the vines and was responsible for the surprise attack. Before either Bubblegum or Neddy could do anything. There was a light tapping of a staff coming from ahead as a hooded figure walked onto the scene. The newcomer looked up at the captives revealing their squid-like face.
"Dark Shaman!" Said Neddy as he recognized the wizard criminal.
"Sleep and enter your worst nightmares." Said Dark Shaman as he raised his staff in the air and it glowed green.
Both Bubblegum and Neddy fell asleep. The Green Knight pulled the sleeping captives from the wall and turned to Dark Shaman.
"Now we have a special chamber setup for the wraiths to enjoy the torment of the one they hate most. Let their friends and allies come. I have some surprises in store for them." Said Dark Shaman before walking down a tunnel.
The Green Knight followed him carrying Bubblegum and Neddy followed by the wraiths who were eager for a show.
To be continued.