It Came From the Nightosphere (6 page)

‘Give up those souls, Marceline’s dad,’ Finn ordered while he climbed up the giant Lord of Evil and swung what seemed like a miniature sword, ‘in the name of justice!’

‘Oh, Marceline,’ the Lord of Evil called down to his daughter, completely ignoring the annoyance caused by Finn and his sword. ‘Still following me?’

‘I’ll stop following you if you give me back my guitar!’ Marceline yelled.

‘Now, Marceline,’ the Lord of Evil said sweetly. Then he flicked Finn off his lapel like a bug.

‘No one flicks me in the butt without my consent!’ Finn yelled as he spun around in midair and plunged his sword right in the middle of the Lord of Evil’s forehead. The giant’s head opened up.

Finn screamed as he fell. He managed to grab onto some tentacles that were now protruding from the Lord of Evil’s chin. He looked into the evil creature’s mouth and saw the captured souls, including Lumpy Space Princess.

Finn yelled as he looked at the wide variety of souls that the Lord of Evil had managed to imprison. ‘Lumpy Space Princess! He got your soul, too?’

the soul of Lumpy Space Princess answered. ‘Nah! I totally saw Hot Dog Princess get sucked in here, and I wasn’t invited. I was all, “What the lump?” So, I’m crashing this party.’

‘Uh, well, I’ll save you,’ Finn assured her, not quite sure if she really wanted to be saved. ‘Yeah, I’ll save all of you!’

Just then, a tentacle crashed into Finn. He grabbed it and swung his sword, not realising that he was also cutting off the very tentacle to which he was clinging. He plunged to the ground, along with Marceline’s guitar.

‘In your face, Dad!’ Marceline yelled as she caught the axe-guitar in her greedy, outstretched hand.

‘Give back that axe, Marceline,’ the Lord of Evil demanded. ‘You don’t respect it enough.’

‘Well, you don’t respect anything, Dad!’ Marceline shouted back. ‘I’m out of here!’

‘Fine! Go!’ the Lord of Evil yelled after his daughter as she flew away. ‘I’m too busy sucking souls to deal with you.’ The Lord of Evil turned and continued to suck souls as he ambled through Ooo.

‘No! Wait!’ Finn shouted to Marceline. ‘Marceline, keep talking to him. When he’s talking, he can’t steal souls.’

‘I said, I’m out of here!’ Marceline called back over her shoulder. Finn had to do something. He had to keep Marceline talking to her father.

‘Diversion…’ Finn said desperately to himself as he dug through his backpack. ‘I need to create a diversion.’ The recorder! It was still in his backpack! Finn pressed the ‘PLAY’ button and held it up over his head.

Daaaaddy, why did you eat my fries?

I bought them,

And they were mine.

But you ate them.

Yeah, you ate my fries,

And I cried.

But you didn’t see me cry.

Daaaaddy, do you even love me?

Well, I wish you would show it,

’Cause I wouldn’t know it.

What kind of dad eats his daughter’s fries?

And doesn’t look her in the eyes?

Daddy, there were tears there.

If you saw them, would you even care?

‘Oh, my glob, you guys,’ Lumpy Space Princess whined from inside the Lord of Evil as the song continued to play. ‘Drama bomb.’

Marceline sang a new verse while her father listened intently.

What kind of dad eats his daughter’s fries

And doesn’t look her in the eyes?

‘Marceline,’ the Lord of Evil said, stopping in his tracks to listen to the sad words being sung by his daughter. ‘Do you really feel this way?’

‘Dad…’ Marceline replied uneasily, turning to face her evil father.

‘Marceline,’ the Lord of Evil went on, ‘of course I love you. I’m sorry I ate your fries. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘It’s okay, Dad,’ Marceline answered. Her cheeks started to turn red. She wasn’t ready for this heart-to-heart with her evil dad. ‘It’s really okay.’

‘No, it’s not okay,’ the Lord of Evil insisted as he thought about the fries.‘They weren’t even very good. They were really cold. I love you, Marceline. Don’t you ever doubt that.’

‘I love you, too, Dad,’ Marceline said with relief.

‘Marceline, I am so…’ the Lord of Evil tried to continue to share his feelings with his daughter, but just then, Finn attacked.

Finn screamed a battle cry as he soared through the air with two swords, aimed directly at the Lord of Evil. The swords pierced right through the centre of the evil one’s body. Instantly, all the trapped souls were released. Then, working quickly and knowing exactly what he must do to reverse the harm he had done, Finn drew a happy face on the ground and threw bug juice on top of it.

‘Maloso yabis com et cum spiritum!’
Finn chanted, undoing the spell.