GORGEORIA

"Hey, Fifi."

"Yeah?"

"What kinda flavor do you want for your cocoa?"

"Gingerbread." Fionna scooped up another handful of Parmesan-flavored crackers from the large blue plastic bowl in front of her. She was laying on her belly on the wooden floor of the living room, a heavy quilt draped over her back, covering her very toes. A carton of chocolate malt balls and some bags of onion-and-sour-cream chips were scattered on the floor around her. There were no lights on in the living room. All light was flashing from Beema's screen. Fionna and Cake had found this new drama whilst searching downloadable TV shows on Beema's television app. The show was about a girl enrolling at a magical academy and being sent out to slay monsters. Romance and drama to toss into, as well. They had Beema download every episode that came out each week.

Cake arrived a few minutes later with two white mugs of hot cocoa, one flavored double fudge and the other gingerbread. Fionna took hers from Cake's paw and took a long sip of the slightly spicy drink. The opening theme song of the show began to play, upbeat and snappy. As Fionna watched the credits roll, she gurgled as a laugh burst through her throat. She sputtered for a moment, then turned to Cake. "Hey, Cupcake."

"Wut?" Cake's eyes were glued to the screen, the fur around her mouth colored dark brown with the cocoa.

"What do you call bread with orange hair?"

"I dunno, rancid?" Cake guessed as she took another sip of her cocoa.

"GINGERBREAD!"

Cake dropped her mug harshly to the floor, giving her sister a harshly cold look. "Fifi, that ain't funny."

"Gingerbread~! Gingerbread~!"

"Shaddup!" Cake rolled over to lay atop her sister, sending them both rolling over the wooden floor with the quilts tangling them into a large cocoon. They both giggled, and Cake patted her sister's cheeks playfully. "Stop!"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Cake immediately stopped hitting her sister, frowning as she turned her head in the direction of the front door of the Tree-house. "Did you hear that?"

"Mm-hm," Fionna said as she and Cake picked themselves up from the floor, undoing the quilts and carefully setting their mugs aside. Beema's screen went from playing the opening theme song to displaying the computer's own 'face'.

Fionna and Cake went to go open the door and greet their visitor. Just as they did so, however, the entire wall around the door burst open with a loud boom, sending shards of wood and splinters in every direction. A gust of cold night air whipped into the living room, making the girls shiver and scream at the same time.

There, illuminated by moonlight and lightning, was a large, hulking figure that the girls knew all too well.

"STEVEN STRONG?!"

Steven Strong, the supposedly human man that the two girls had met before, stooped down, allowing himself to escape the cold air outside and enter the living room/kitchen. He looked no different from the first time they had seen him. He was still dressed in a matted indigo garment made of scrappy fur, along with a hat shaped like a dog's head and a matted tail to match. His skin, stretched over his huge, bulking muscles, was not covered in the slightest goosebump. His luminous green eyes shined in the darkness, staring down at the two girls seriously.

"Fiohna...halp Steven."

Without a beat of hesitation, Fionna said, "Yeah, sure."

"'Scuse us for a moment, Strong." Cake pulled her sister away from the large man, pulling her all the way across the room before pulling her down to whisper in her ear. "Fifi, listen, I know you're convinced that this guy is the last male of your kind, but I am here to tell you that you CANNOT TRUST HIM."

"Why not? He's totally harmless!"

"He tried to eat all of our buddies! Plus, for all we know, he's a crazy water-person!"

"We never confirmed that!"

"Just imagine what would have happened if we never existed, Fifi! He and his people would have devoured all of our friends, and, if they found out that if practically everything on earth were edible, they would have eaten everything!"

"No, they wouldn't, because we never would have been there to get him out of that chamber. Listen, I get it if you don't want to help him, but I am, regardless of whether you want me to or not!"

"Alright, I'm coming, if only to be a complete deadweight."

Fionna walked back to her other friend, giving him a serious but kind look. "Steven, what do you need us to help you with?"

"I need ur hehoine hee-art and magic."

Fionna cocked her head to the side. "M-my magic?"

"Magic o' shine-ligh."

Steven pointed a finger in the direction of Beema, who instantly jumped, a small light flashing from her screen.

About thirty minutes later saw the four companions inside the cavernous chamber that the Hyumans had been found in. There was no light in the cavern to speak of before they entered. The light emitting from Beema's screen filled the air like a lighthouse beacon. Almost nothing had changed. The twenty-foot-something buildings were still falling apart, one of them having split apart at the middle and crumbling to the ground. The piles of ash and garbage were still there, albeit increased. Their footsteps still boomed around the cavern, and they still shivered when the ice-cold water hit their skin.

The Hyumans were there, too, but they lacked the hats and headgear that had concealed their fish-like features. Their fins, tentacles, gills and scales were in plain view, twitching and flapping. They hummed and whispered and clicked their tongues when they saw the newcomers, diving behind debris and rubble to escape from their sight.

Cake rolled her eyes, then scoffed when a Hyuman boy began to awe at her tail. "Fishies..."

"Lao ago, my people live in Gorgeoria," Steven began to say. His expression soured, his eyes lowering to his meaty feet. "...But driven out by Plip Plops. We come here. Too scared to fight back. This why we need your heroine heart." Steven placed his large, meaty underneath Fionna's collarbone. He stood up, and spread his arms out as he proclaimed, "HYUMANS!"

The Hyumans gasped, ducking further beneath the piles of rubble and debris that they had taken as protection.

"I be back!"

Steven turned on his heel, pulling Fionna with him as they walked between two pillars of garbage and soot. Fionna waved to the Hyumans as if they were relatives, smiling sweetly.

Cake lagged behind, turning to the people and calling out, "I BE A SQUID!" She morphed her head to grow eight furry tentacles, her eyes bulging from her head and her mouth in a slight beak. The Hyumans squealed and gasped, running far away in fear. Cake chuckled at the dark humor and strutted after the two others friends with style.

Steven led Fionna to the edge of a straight, 90-degree-angle incline that dropped thirty feet until reaching deep, dark waters that barely shined at all. Fionna craned her neck to see where the water led. The water filled a large tunnel that disappeared into darkness. There wasn't a shore to speak on on the other side of the water. It was pressed against the other side of the cavern.

"We go now," Steven told Fionna. Before she could protest, Steven picked her up like a small doll and tossed her over the side of the incline.

Fionna let out a shriek as she plummeted for the water. Steven hadn't look closely enough, and neither had she. At the very edge of the bottom of the incline, sharp rocks awaited her like razors.

Cake jumped, and shot out her arms to catch her sister. Her arms wrapped around Fionna's middle just as the human girl was about to get impaled on the razor rocks. Fionna's body curled into a 'C' shape as Cake's arms restricted around her stomach, and her forehead hit a dull rock sticking up from the dark water. A flash of white covered her vision, then dullness, then stinging, throbbing pain. She groaned as Cake lifted her back to the cliffside.

Fionna sat down heavily and pulled her white bunny ear hat from her head. Blonde locks of hair fell to her shoulders, growing out from the time in which she had shaved it all off. She brought her hand to her forehead, gingerly touching the bruised area. She hissed, sighing.

Steven lightly put his fingers to the bruise. Fionna flinched in pain, and Steven drew back. After a few seconds' silence, Steven hummed and said, "We take vroom-vroom."

Fifteen minutes later-in which Cake carefully lowered the three of them down to a small shore at the bottom of the cavern, after which they padded over to the tunnel, waded through the water, and stepped down a wooden ladder-Fionna, Cake, and Steven were on a makeshift car-like vehicle that Steven had apparently constructed himself. The vehicle was both simple yet complex. The vehicle was a large piece of hammered wood, with a garbage can in the middle, a broken office chair for a seat, a fishing rod (where Fionna had set Beema on for a lantern), and four wheels that were surprisingly well-made. The vehicle had to be moved by a bicycle-like motor that Fionna had decided to man. Cake was standing at the front, her paws on her hips.

"I'm on this car with a couple of weirdos

Shakin' my tail, gotta fish and a hero

Down here in this water~! Down in this water~!

This place is getter hotter!
It's so hot It's weird.

Where are we heading, Steven?"

Steven raised one of his boxing-glove-like hands and pointed forward. "There."

Fionna and Cake looked forward...and instantly jumped.

About twenty feet ahead, a hole whose width was as wide as en eighteen wheeler's length was embedded inside the cavern wall, opening to a tunnel that sloped almost pin-straight down into darkness. Cake's tail immediately frizzed on end, and she jumped into Fionna's arms in fear.

"No, Steven, we're not supposed to-!"

Suddenly, Steven plucked Fionna like a weed from the motor and put one hand on the bicycle, pumping it up and down so that the vehicle now shot for the tunnel at full speed. The girls screamed as the tunnel came nearer and nearer, until finally, they were swaying over the edge...

...and fell.

Fionna and Cake shrieked instinctively as gravity took a hold of the vehicle and began to pull it down violently. The walls of the tunnel were relatively smooth, but the vehicle still bashed against it. Hot air blew their hair on end, and their nails harshly grabbed onto the boards for support. Their ears popped loudly. The tunnel took a sharp turn, and their stomachs lurched as the vehicle cracked loudly with the force of hitting the side of the tunnel. They sped out on a slightly more level surface, still shrieking as the vehicle eventually slowed to a stop.

Fionna and Cake were frozen for a moment, their hearts pounding against their ribs and their hair on end, but eventually, Fionna laughed nervously and began to mechanically move her legs to initiate the motor once more. Bags were under her eyes and the piece of hair poking out of her hat was pin-straight. "That was fun...Totally fun..."

Cake hopped into the air and fell into her sister lap. Her eyebrows arched over her eyes angrily, her muzzle set in a very deep frown. Her head morphed out into furry tentacles again, and she raised her arm to point at Steven angrily. "Feeeeeeesh..."

"Keeps look out fo' Plip Plops." Steven, who had remained absolutely calm throughout the trip, kept a stoic expression as he looked ahead. Suddenly, his face twisted in fear and he hissed, "NO MOVE!"

Fionna and Cake bit down on their tongues as they looked forward. There was a bouncing, squeaking sound approaching from the darkness ahead. Their hearts hammered in their chests. They could almost hear the suspenseful violins shrieking.

A red rubber ball bounced down to the vehicle.

As Steven held Fionna and Cake closer to his chest, said human and feline exchanged glances. The rubber ball bounced past the vehicle and into the darkness behind them, the squeaking becoming fainter and fainter until it disappeared entirely.

Steven let out a sigh so heavy his entire deflates out. He gasped for air desperately and shakily patted the girls' backs. "We safe now...clos call...be mohr cafil."

Steven stood, swayed, and stumbled back to the slightly crooked wheel of the vehicle once more. Cake turned to Fionna with a deep set frown and leaned into her face. Their noses touched each other at the closeness. "Fifi, I'm serious. This isn't a game anymore. We've crossed from pleasant eccentric to dangerous psychopath right now."*

"He isn't a psychopath," huffs Fionna. "He's cool."

"Whatever you believe, Fifi," Cake smirked. "But we are on a psycho trip with a psycho driver." Cake leaned down to all four paws, growing out a flat tail, a bill over her muzzle and webs between her paws. "And I'm a psycho platypus!" Cake jumped onto Fionna, pinning her to her back. Fionna giggled as Cake patted her face with her webbed paws and poked her with her bill.

Steven hummed a chuckle in his throat. His gaze turned ahead and he frowned. "Ah. Plip Plop Smish'm Smooshes."

Cake frowned and turned around. She could hear a heavy - too heavy - smashing sound from ahead. Over and over. She morphed back into her normal self and turned to Fionna. "Do you hear that?"

The vehicle turns a corner, and Cake's blood ran cold.

Hammers. Two huge, car-sized, rusted steel, swinging hammers. They were attached to mechanical arms that moved up and down rhythmically. When the hammers came back to the ground, they made the ground tremble and sent chunks of rock flying. The girls could feel their bones rattle. Cake was on the verge of grabbing the vehicle and running for it at this point.

Steven just waved his hand at the hammers nonchalantly. "Smish'm Smoosh Smashers." He seemed to take notice of Cake's discomfort, because he began to scratch her ears gently. Despite her will, a purr emitted from Cake's throat. "S'okay. Steven kno wen ta go an' wen naht ta go."

Cake turned to Fionna. Her eyes were full of discomfort. "Fifi...can't we just leave...?"

"Cupcake, I need your trust, especially right at this moment." Fifi leaned into her sister's ear, whispering under her breath. "And I need your prayers, too." She turned back to the taller man with a reassuring smile. "Ready when you are, captain."

"Fifi...why can't I just stretch us over?" Cake asked worriedly.

Steven, however, took his place at the wheel. He paused, staring at the hammers intensely. He held his right hand high, then brought it down with a soft swish. "GO NOW!"

The vehicle shot forward with a sudden lurch. Cake instinctively jumped onto her older sister's shoulders, digging her claws into Fionna's blue shirt fabric. The first hammer rose mechanically, and the vehicle darted beneath it. Cake let out a small yelp of terror when the hammer smashed down behind them.

The next hammer was the worst one. With the rhythm if the hammers, the next came down more quickly, it seemed, and ended up clipping the tail of the vehicle harshly. Pieces of wood go flying as the head of the vehicle lurches up in the air. Cake shrieked this time.

When the vehicle slowed to a stop, Steven inspected the damage. Most of the tail was missing, but not enough so that the wheels would cease working correctly. He hummed, apparently impressed. "Still hav cah lef."

Cake turned to her younger human sister angrily. "Are you blind? He's nutter than Grandma's brownies!"

"Cupcake, take a chill pill," Fionna snapped. She was getting fed up with Cake's distrustful attitude to the last member of her kind. "And while you're at it, take a break on the Hater-ade."

Cake huffed and crossed her arms over her furry chest. As she did so, Fionna shook her head and stood to her feet. She approached Steven, who in turn knelt down to her level. "What now, Steven?"

"Hm..." Steven stroked his chin in thought. "Nevah made eet dis fah befo. Weh jus' got ta get pas' Plip-Plops."

"Hey, what are Plip-Plops, anyway?"

"Dey iz...beeg." Steven stood to his full towering height for example. Fionna nodded and gestured for him to go forward. "And...dey iz...snarlee." Steven hunched forward, raising his arms and bending his fingers to resemble claws. He flashed Fionna his carnivore teeth. "Dey iz fahst." Steven suddenly lifted Fionna from the floor of the vehicle without giving her time to move.

Cake hummed in thought. Fionna thought with a twinge of annoyance that she would, once again, insult Steven's quirky attitude, but instead, Cake clicked her tongue and said, "So...they're basically a bunch of Uncle Chancellers?" Cake quickly realized her words and angrily slapped a paw to her head. "Now I'm losing it!"

"Plip-Plops carazay scayare," Steven concludes. He bends down to Fionna's level once again. "Hyumans scayared fo ah lung tiem. Even Steven." Steven smiles and turns to Fionna. He raises his right hand and presses it to the area of her heart. "Thas' why I gla' I meet yew. Yew has great heroine-heart." He tries to gently squeeze her 'heart' gently, but ends up unintentionally crushing that area of flesh in between his fingers.

Fionna sucks in air through her teeth at the stinging sensation. She pushes Steven's hand away and rubs the tender area. "Thanks..."

A half-hour passed quickly. The cavern changed considerably. The stalactites had turned from stony and sharp like teeth to warped as if it were melted. The ground was now asphalt-smooth and the water was crystal clear. Fionna felt like this fairytale Gorgeoria was close ahead. Cake had calmed down a bit. She was currently combing out the knots in her tail hairs.

Steven's eyes raised forward and he audibly gasped. He grabbed Fionna from the bicycle engine and forced her gaze ahead. "Wee heer! Wee at Gorgeoria!"

Fionna's blue-green eyes landed on this magnificent structure. She gasped in awe. Gorgeoria was gorgeous, in a sad way. It was a large stone dome imbedded into the rock, with large parts fallen and crumbled away. The inside was open for all to see. Cubes and rectangular prisms made up the interior of Gorgeoria, littered with debris and garbage. On closer inspection, Fionna realized that they weren't shapes, but apartment complexes. A rusted white tower stood in the middle of it all, a large pit at its top. Fionna felt overcome with it.

"Wee will be oh-hay," Steven told the girls. He pointed a meaty finger up at the tower. "Once we get Shine-light up to towah." Fionna had completely forgotten about Beema. The little computer had buried itself into her backpack a long time ago, and was now poking its head out of the flap.

The ground trembled suddenly. Fionna frowned as she felt vibrations run through the vehicle and up her legs. Cake had heightened senses, and jumped a foot in the air when it happened. Steven, however, looked positively alarmed. He gasped aloud and jumped in the air. The trembling grew into shaking, and then into pounding. Cake latched onto Fionna's skirt so she wouldn't tip over. "What's with all of this?"

"Plip-Plops!" Steven squeaked. "Thay ar cahming!"

A sound droned out from behind Gorgeoria that made Fionna's skin crawl. The sound was warped and droning, a sound like a broken electric speaker. It was like three sounds at once. It grew louder and louder, closer to them. Cake's claws dug deeper in Fionna's skirt fabric. Fionna gripped onto her older sister's furry shoulder in response. Beema ducked back down into the bag.

And that's when several bouncy balls, a slinky, a girl's doll and a teddy bear basically flopped out from behind Gorgeoria.

Cake almost immediately burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. She cackled until her sides her, and continued to gasp for air afterwards. She wiped the tears from her eyes and hummed, "I-it's just a couple of kids' toys."

Maybe so, Fionna thought. But she did feel a bit...uneasy about these Plip-Plops. It didn't help that they seemed to be moving towards them. They slid across the ground in a jittering fit, as if they were glitched video game models. Fionna knew that toys didn't just move like that.

Steven was having a meltdown. His breathing was quick and ragged, his skillet-thick muscles rigged and tense. He backed away on the vehicle in fear. "T-Too manee Plip-Plops to figh'!"

Cake threw her furry arms up in exasperation. "Steven! Steven, ugh..." Cake stomped to the edge of the vehicle, where the teddy bear was approaching in the same jittery fashion as the others. Cake's paw morphed into a hook, and she turned to look at Steven with annoyance. "Steven, Plip-Plops are just normal children's' toys that your crazy mind turned into monsters. Look, I'll just use my sickle-paw, alright?" Cake raised her paw and brought it down on the teddy bear's muzzle. She chuckled when the toy's head mashed in from the force. "See, Steven, it's just-"

The teddy bear's face burst open where Cake had pierced its felt. Thick black cotton poured out of its head, dropping to the ground below. Just as Cake reeled back in discomfort, the felt of the teddy bear's head curled down it's body. It was peeling its own skin off, leaving a pile of black cotton in its wake. The cotton began to shift and inflate. When it began to shoot out, Cake jumped back in fright. The cotton rose, and things began to appear in it, small white dots. Fionna felt her stomach drop. It was teeth. The cotton stretched to ten feet high, forming a grotesque silhouette of a creature with dull teeth and pits for eyes.

The others began to shape as well. The bouncy balls split open wide, and black ooze pooled out of them. The ooze rose from the ground and formed blob-like creatures with warped mouths and no eyes that seemed to moan in pain. The slinky began to knot and twist until it made a skinny creature with long arms and short legs. The girl's doll's head, made of porcelain, shattered to pieces that formed a different creature. This one had eyes in its hand and its lips in its chest.

Cake's muzzle dropped open at what she had just commenced. She sucked air through her teeth. "Aye, basura!"**

The teddy bear Plip-Plop lunges forward and chomps his dull teeth. Steven reels back in fright, cowering away. Fionna jumps in quickly and brings her fist up to the Plip-Plop's mouth, uppercutting it. When it flew back, Fionna pounced on its fallen body and ripped off its snapping head easily. She tossed it away, but the rest of its body continued to kick and punch. Fionna disposed of its remaining limbs before it could attack once more.

Cake leap-frogged over her sister onto an incoming Plip-Plop, one of the bouncy-ball slime creatures. She forced herself through it, sending droplets of ooze everywhere. The ooze droplets withered and shrieked at Cake, who sneered in disgust and stomped them down until they were lifeless.

Fionna smashed and ground the doll Plip-Plop until it was a fine powder, and Cake disposed of another ooze Plip-Plop. But for every Plip-Plop fallen, three more appeared and took its place. Cake turned around to her sister and said, "Fifi, they got us outnumbered like two chocolates in a fruit basket!"

"We gotta use Beema," Fionna told her older sister. Her backpack shuffled in response. "That should get rid of them, like Steven said. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yes!" Cake punched away another Plip-Plop as it drew near. "I'll do whatever Steven says! Let's just do it!"

Fionna ran to the slinky Plip-Plop and outstretched her arm. She clotheslined it onto its back. She turned back to Steven, who continued to cower on the vehicle. "STEVEN! HELP US!"

"Steven scayard!" replied Steven. He cowered back a bit more. He bit down on his lip and put on a brave face, standing tall and proud. He patted over his heart with a thump. "But Steven brave, too." He leapt off of the vehicle between a swarm of Plip-Plops. As the creatures grew near, Steven threw his head back and let out a thunderous war cry. "STEVE-E-E-E-E-E-N!"

Shooting forward with sudden adrenaline, Steven held out his meaty arm as he approached a nearby doll Plip-Plop and harshly clothesline'd it. The thing hit the ground with a loud thump, spattering black goop everywhere. At the same time, a teddy Plip-Plop took Cake by the tail and raised her over its head. Cake screamed in fright as her body was smashed into the ground. Steven roared in fury and effortlessly plucks the Plip-Plop from his friend. Cake watched as Steven stuck his hands right into one of the Plip-Plop's many mouths, taking hold of its jaws and tearing it in half with a paper-esque rip. Black cotton-like substance littered the ground.

"Cake!" Steven tossed the Plip-Plop over his shoulder, turning to the feline female. "Tak tha shine-ligh to da Gorgeoria Heart."

Steven's meaty hand pointed above, and Cake followed it with her gaze. He was pointing at the white tower in the center of Gorgeoria, up at the pit at the top. With no ladders, no steps, nothing to elevate any person, Cake knew that she was really the only one who could take on this job.

Cake turned to Fionna, who was kicking off a ragdoll Plip-Plop with her feet. "YO, FOOFI, THROW ME DAT COMPUTE!"

Fionna delivered a harsh kick to the Plip-Plop's face, sending it stumbling back. Fionna pushed herself up to her feet and hurriedly pulled her backpack off her shoulders. Reaching inside, she took out the small computer/video game console and tossed it foot-ball style to her older adoptive sister. Cake caught it with one paw and shot her stretchy body through the air to the pit of the white tower.

Cake never saw it coming. So distracted by her focus on the tower's pit, she didn't see it rising from the pitch waters. It was a shapeless form of black cotton, goo, slinky wires and porcelain shards. Thousands of teeth, hundreds of ribs, dozens of pairs of jaws and other grotesque bones were imbedded in its body, creating an image of a million nightmares. Its roar was electric and static, a dying animal or a screaming banshee.

Cake finally reaches the pit of the tower, which wasn't really a pit at all but more or less a power-box. The box was a jumble of wires, buttons, switches and motherboards mixed together like a electric spaghetti. Cake's eyes landed on the USB-like entrance in the middle. She turned to Beema, who obediently removed the face of its body. Cake's eyes traveled to the wound chord in a small compartment and removed it, finding a USB end. She connected it to the entrance in the power box. Beema's screen turned into a blinking ellipses. Cake leaned against the box as she waited. She tapped her digits on the surface, whistled a tune, and then disappointingly stared down at her claws. "Ooh, mama's gotta get these trimmed."

The mutated Plip-Plop mass appeared suddenly, nearly sending Cake into a million cardiac arrests. It roars its inhumane roars again, and every being in a ten-mile radius flinches as a result.

Cake, meanwhile, just stares at the Plip-Plop with wide eyes and slack jaw. Then, in a Boston accent, she screams, "THAT LOOKS LIKE UNCLE LEO!"

Cake prepares herself for the worst beatdown in her life, but it never comes. Beema's screen flashes, its body beeps, and suddenly, there is light. Every fixture, every compartment, every surface and crook and cranny is suddenly filled with light so bright it's lightning to the companions.

The Plip-Plops shriek and scream their inhumane sounds. As the three companions watch, the black goo evaporates, the pitch cotton disintegrates and the dark porcelain shards crumble to dust. The bones themselves fade away from existence, leaving nothing of the Plip-Plops. Everyone sighs in relief at knowing this.

Cake stretches herself back down to the level of her friends. Fionna brushes the black soot from her shirt and skirt in puffs of dark color. Steven himself pushes himself back onto his feet and observes the twinkling lights of the city. Cake turns to examine the new sight of Gorgeoria as well. The whole city is a structure of starlight and shine. "It is gorgeous."

Fionna would probably never know how, but Steven managed to make contact with the other Hyumans. They found the switches for the Smish'm Smooshes to assure a fairly safe passage for them. In about thirty minutes, vehicle after vehicle of Hyumans were traveling into the light of their city with luggage and children in tow. It warmed Fionna's heart to see them all together, her people, happy and at peace for once in their lives.

As Cake assisted a Hyuman woman with her bags, Fionna turned to Steven. "This place is great for you guys. We'll come visit, alright?"

Steven frowned in either confusion or disappointment. He put a hand on Fionna's shoulder - at least gently so she wouldn't crumple at his touch - and said in a soft voice, "Fionna stah heer wit Steven. We liv togeter."

Fionna felt this like a punch in the gut. To stay with Hyumans sounded amazing, to live in Gorgeoria and never be afraid of the fears of the outside world. But she would miss her friends, the sensation of sunlight on her face and the grass beneath her feet, the fresh air and the adventures, off course. Gorgeoria was so small compared to Aaa. "No, Steven. I have to leave. I'm not like you."

Steven took Fionna's hand in his. Fionna squeezed it back, but slowly, Steven pulled her hand to his neck. Sliding it under his hat, he brushed her hand over the flesh beneath it.

Fionna felt her heart skip a beat. Could it be true? "Steven..."

Before Fionna could say another word, Cake cried out, "C'MON, FIFI, I GRABBED LIKE TEN POUNDS OF POPCORN." Fionna turned and saw, as expected, that Cake was sitting on the remains of the vehicle, a happy Beema at her side. Several bags of popcorn, orange, white, and yellow of all flavors were around them.

Fionna turned to look back at Steven, who smiled at her warmly and gestured with his meaty hand for her to continue. Fionna numbly walked to the vehicle and climbed aboard, sitting at the bicycle engine. Cake began to man the steering wheel, and Fionna span her legs in circles. As the vehicle turned down the tunnel, Fionna looked at Steven one last time. He smiled at her and waved. She waved back. At least she had Steven...

Alright...I know that I've neglected my rights as an author by making you guys wait for so long for this. But I want to write stories out of enjoyment. I've been feeling labored, not happy, writing this story as of yet. It seemed more like a job than a hobby. I promise now that I will continue this story and take it by the reigns. Also, I have promised that episodes fro here on out will have special flair to them. I've also added the idea of Cake speaking in movie or book references.

*Carlotta, Penn & Teller Get Killed. I do not own.

**Rikochet, ¡Mucha Lucha! I do not own.