Hey guys, I'm so sorry that it took me as long as it did to get this new chapter out. Work has not been the best on me recently as I now have two jobs and am exhausted from them and school.
I have little exscuse to not have posted before now but i hope you all understand.
Disclaimer: I only own this story. Not the series it is based on.
Chapter 9: It Begins.
The season was changing. The tree leaves were beginning to turn from their luscious green to their harder fall colors. Already people were breaking out their heavier and longer cloths to combat the chilling air and frost had come on the coldest of days recently.
For Gumball Watterson the change in season meant little. The only thing it did was that his jobs would only less enjoyable then they were due to the cold. He rarely enjoyed them anyway, but with the cold he would even less now.
Currently however, Gumball was moving at a rapid pace as he jumped from one roof top to another in search of his newest target.
Just two days prior a call had come in from an apartment inspector asking for Shadow Cat's services.
Apparently, the inspector had run into some money issues a while back and had been forced to resort to a Loan Shark for help. Long story short his loans were due as the Loan Shark was demanding a high interest rate the inspector had sought out a different means to resolve his troubles.
Truthfully, Gumball couldn't see why the man had even gone to a Loan Shark in the first place. But he supposed he had just made the wrong choices in his investments and made another deciding what he did. Of course after hearing what the aforementioned 'Shark' was threatening the inspector with was enough reason for Shadow Cat's cooperation. Payment had been arranged and the job accepted.
And now, two days later, Gumball was dressed in a heavier version of his usual gear carrying out his assignment.
It had been easy enough for Anais to track down and then break into the Shark's computer systems to find out even more evidence against him to add to her ever growing data base of criminals. Pretty soon she was going to have to start expanding past the little desk top she had. But once her job had been done, all Gumball had had to do was wait for a time that the target would be relatively unguarded and take him down.
Of course that was easier said than done apparently. The target, much like others Gumball had taken down before, was a runner.
As soon as the first of his three body guards had fallen the target had fled, leaving the other two to Gumball's sword. They hadn't been much of a fight and now Gumball was following as his target crashed through the alleyways and side streets below.
Gumball's breath was blooming from his mouth in misty puffs when he came to a stop. His target, the Loan Shark, had come to a dead end.
'Perfect.'
Gumball waited as the target panted against the gate blocking his way. "I…I had to have...gotten away from…that…D…Devil by now." He heard him gasp out loud.
'That's what you think.' Gumball thought.
With the grace of his cat half, Gumball dropped into the alley, barely three feet away from the target. Hardly that same number of seconds had passed before the targets throat was missing. Blood was gushing from the slit made in it as the lifeless body fell, by which time Shadow Cat had left the alleyway behind.
'Too easy.' Gumball thought, grimly wiping blood from the knife he'd used. With the job done the half-cat half-human turned his direction homeward and let his mind wonder to an event that had been on it for the last several weeks.
'That was not what I expected to happen.'
Flashback-2 months ago
"Rachel?" Gumball squeaked when he saw the girl on his doorstep.
"Hi, Gumball." Rachel muttered, a small blush on her face. "Can we talk?" She looked away shyly.
"Um," Gumball hesitated as he studied the older girl. Wasn't this the same girl whose brother he had just knocked out with a doge ball that same day? Shouldn't she be angry with him? "I guess..." he muttered. He stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him.
Rachel was silent for a moment or two afterwards and couldn't keep eye contact with the cat hybrid. "Is every thing-" "I'mnotmadatyouandIknowyou'resecret."
"Pardon?" Gumball asked after the girl's speedy interruption. Even his trained hearing hadn't been able to keep track of it.
"I said, I'm not mad at you, and..." Rachel repeated and paused as she looked at her somewhat friend. She didn't know how he would react to what she said next. "I know your secret."
Already interested by her appearance at his house, Gumball's curiosity was peaked at the last bit of information, but he hid it well. "Oh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as he leaned against the railing. "And what secret might that be? I have a lot of 'em." He tried to be cocky and cool. But on the inside he was almost panicking.
Despite what he'd said, Gumball didn't have very many skeletons in his closet, and only one of those was worth anything of significant value. Gumball shook that thought off. There was no way Rachel could know that one.
"Shadow Cat."
"Oh," Gumball muttered, lowering his head; guess he spoke too soon.
Now it was Rachel's turn to raise an eyebrow. ""Oh"?" she asked in bewilderment, "all you have to say is "oh"? No "you've got it wrong, I'm not that hooded vigilante and murderer", or "now that you know I've got to kill you"?" Rachel almost screamed in frustration when Gumball only turned a blank look at her. His eyes showed no look of concern, or even caring of what she'd revealed. "Is it even true?"
"Yeah, it's true." Gumball muttered turning back to stare at the ground. His voice sounded empty; dead even.
"Don't you even care?" Rachel asked, "I could go to the police with this."
Gumball snorted, "Honestly? I don't care one way or another who knows. The only people I don't want finding out are Carrie and Tina. And I know you won't go to the police. You wouldn't be able to prove it if you did and you're too nice of a girl to do that."
Rachel bit back her own retort. Gumball was right, she wouldn't be able to prove what she knew to the police. She also couldn't just make an accusation without it and the other girls had wiped away the discovery from Bobbert's memory banks. Plus, while Rachel may not have known the boy well enough, she knew Gumball was too much of her friend to do such a thing. Hell, the only reason she'd told him was for that reason.
"Rachel," she heard Gumball speak through the fog of her thoughts. "You've got to understand. I've gone through a lot to become Shadow Cat." The cat hybrid's face was hidden by the shadow of his hair and his cat ears laid flat against his head. "The day of my family's murder I made a vow to never let anyone hurt what little I have left. When I became friends with Carrie and Tina that vow expanded to them and eventually to you and everyone else. Even this city if I were honest." The admission surprised the rainbow haired girl greatly. Out of all the reasons for Gumball to say why he did what he did, that was not one of the ones she'd expected.
"I've been trained in martial arts by the best fighters and monks and in weapons by the military commanders I've met through them." Gumball looked up into Rachel's eyes. "I became a mercenary yes, but only to help those in need. In doing so I also eliminate any threat to my family and friends. I do this, in part from my vow, but also from who I am; who I've become since that day, ten years ago."
For the first time since meeting him, Rachel saw something in Gumball's eyes, something that not even Carrie and Tina had before. Something that spoke about what the young man really was. For the first time Rachel was seeing the soul of the boy in front of her.
Gumball Watterson was broken inside.
Flashback end
Gumball shook the memory away as he made it to his home and quickly changed out of his gear.
Rachel had stayed only a few more minutes after hearing him out. Barely long enough to let him know that his secret was in no danger of being revealed. But she had left with a far more troubled look on her face then she had arrived with. It had left Gumball wondering what was really on her mind. Even now, as he moved to sit by the window in his room he was still clueless.
What had he gained by letting Rachel know all that he had? Had he really even needed to do so? He could have done what Rachel had expected him to do and threatened her with death if she didn't keep her silence. But to Gumball that was being no better than the people he fought. He wasn't like them and would not be, even to keep his secret.
What he had said to Rachel about everybody except for Carrie and Tina knowing about it was true. He didn't care if everyone else knew, just as long as the girls didn't. Gumball knew, that if they were too find out they would leave him.
And that was not something he thought he would be able to handle, especially since he-
CRASH!
Gumball's hand shot up and caught an object that had sliced through the air before entering his now shattered window. For an instant he sensed a presence out in the darkness outside his home, but it vanished as fast as it had come.
His eyes narrowed as he brought the object into his line of sight.
Roughly twenty-five centimeters in length it had a sharp point with a narrow handle and rounded end. 'A Kunai?' gumball knew all too well what type of object it was. After all he used them in many of his jobs.
However, his attention was drawn from the bladed weapon to the folded note tied to the rounded end of it.
Quickly cutting it free he unfolded it to see what this mysterious person had to say.
'Shadow Cat-
This is you first and only warning. Stop any and all jobs related to my business ring or you WILL suffer the consequences.
As you can see I have people who have worked out your identity. What you probably haven't yet is the fact that in doing so I know where you live, and who you live with. Think on that for a while if you will.
You have been warned.'
"Fuck!" Gumball swore out loud. Standing quickly he rushed out of his room.
"ANAIS, GRANDMA! WAKE UP NOW!"
xXx
Lexy slipped the mask off her face as she slide into her new apartment through a window. Her objective of the night having been accomplished.
What that objective had been was to deliver a message from her master to her target. Finding Gumball had been easy. All she had to do was ask around for his place of residence from the people in town.
Turned out Gumball was well liked among the Elmorians. They all said he was a good guy who helped out whenever he could, very little was said about anything bad about him. It was strange though. Everyone she asked seemed to pause for a moment before they answered her, it was like they were pausing in memory of something sad, tragic. One had even come close to shedding tears when she asked about it.
Strange.
Lexy was going to have to look into the Watterson more. If for no other reason than to see what could cause such a reaction from an entire city. To top it all off the house she had found him in had brought up a surge of emotion she had not felt in a long time.
It left her with mixed emotions as she reviewed prior events.
Three months ago it had been the pulling when she'd heard of Elmore as her destination, then it had been the strange dream when she had met Gumball the day after, and now it was the feeling she got from seeing his home. By the time she had settled in for the night Lexy was beyond curious as to why she was reacting to the place as she was.
She needed to know now.
Besides, her master had set her up for a long mission with this new apartment, something that had only happened once thus far. His orders had been to "Watch and investigate". Surely she could take a little time to herself to find the reason to her reactions. It would fit with the mission objectives at least…
right?
CUT!
I hope you all enjoyed this one.
Statis on my other stories is that Cortana's Rebirth's newest chapter was posted 2 or 3 days ago, BTB V.2 ch6 is being written as is chapter 5 of Kitsune Dragon. However, all my others are now on hiatus. I again apologize, but these are all I can manage right now.
please review.
