The Awakened

An Amazing World of Gumball Story

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 14: The Weapons

It had been a whole week since Brian and the gang fought Ivan. Even though they managed to make a full recovery from the many injuries Ivan gave them, as well as regain their powers, it didn't change the fact that they were unable to help him, as he left town shortly after their defeat.

Making it much more complicated was that his mom, as well as mostly everyone, eventually took notice of Ivan's absence. There wasn't anything they could do about it after Dana Thompson filed a missing child report, much to Brian's grief, as he sat at the usual spot with his friends, with last week's incident still fresh in his mind.

"So, any luck on finding out where Ivan fled to?" the purple fox asked the gang, as he took a bite of his lunch.

"Sorry man, but we got nothing," Gumball replied. "We searched every place that Ivan could have gone, but he wasn't in anywhere we looked."

"We even tried talking to his former friends, but they haven't spoken to him since they left Elmore Academy," Rhonda added.

"I did a sweep of the city but I couldn't find a trace of him," Carrie explained.

"It's like he fell off of the grid or something like that," Darwin stated.

Upon hearing all of this, Brian could only sigh in disappointment, lamenting that, despite their best efforts, they were no closer to finding Ivan. The purple fox wished that he had taken action sooner.

"Even if we did find him...after what happened…" Penny shuddered, causing Gumball to put an arm around her.

"Don't worry Brian, we'll find Ivan, no matter how long it takes," Mike did his best to assure his friend. "Though we're gonna need to be careful from now on. After we lost our powers, we were outmatched by a mile," Mike explained to everyone. "Sure it was temporary, but whatever did it nearly killed us."

"Good point, Mike," Brian agreed. "If we're going to face a situation like that again, we need to be better prepared. The question is how do we do that?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot..." Gumball suddenly spoke, as everyone turned their attention to him. "Anais wanted to let you guys know that she's preparing something in her lab. She wouldn't say much about it, other than that it's a surprise."

"...What kind of surprise?" Penny asked her boyfriend, a bit nervous upon hearing this.

"This wouldn't be the kind of surprise that results in another explosion, is it?" Carrie asked the blue feline.

"Honestly, I don't know," Gumball admitted. "All I do know is that she wants us to meet her in her lab this weekend."

"I hope she double or triple checks her work..." Mike began. "I'm still pulling singed fur out of odd places."

"Then we better be prepared for the inevitable then," said Brian, just as the school bell rang, as the group got up from their table to head to their next class.

A few days later...

For the most part, Elmore hadn't experienced any unexplainable attacks for a change, but even with the peaceful environment, the townsfolk didn't want to take a chance and kept their guards up just in case. Likewise, Brian and his friends also kept their guards up for the last few days just in case another attack from the OverHundred took place, but otherwise, they had a long but uneventful week.

As they had promised, Brian, along with Rhonda, Penny, Carrie and Mike, arrived at the Watterson residence. Brian knocked on the door, as a mixture of curiosity and fear was playing in their minds, unsure of what Anais had come up with and how it was related to last week's incident. A few seconds later, the front door opened, with the child prodigy standing right in front of them.

"There you guys are! What took you so long?" Anais asked, as she allowed her friends inside.

"We have lives, you know," Brian nonchalantly replied, before he noticed the absence of a certain cat and fish. "Where are your brothers?"

"They're in my laboratory," Anais answered. "Now c'mon, I have to show you guys what I have been working on."

"I hope this doesn't end with a bang," Rhonda muttered under her breath, before she and the rest of her friends followed the child prodigy to her bedroom.

After making sure that Richard and Nicole weren't around to see what they were up to, Anais led Brian and his friends to the secret entrance of her lab and after a few minutes, the child prodigy lead the group to Gumball and Darwin, both having waited patiently for them to show up.

"You're probably wondering why I bought you guys down here for today," Anais said to her friends.

"Gumball mentioned that you've been preparing something after our last fight," said Penny.

"That's right, Penny. After we lost our powers, I did a bit of research and experimentation before I finally built something that we can use in case we have to face a similar scenario."

"And that would be...?" asked Carrie.

Anais didn't answer right away, as she calmly made her way to a table that was almost entirely covered in a white sheet.

"I present you guys..." Anais began, before she pulled the sheet off from the table to reveal what she made. "Your very own personal gloves!"

Right in front of Brian and the gang were a pair of gloves, but these weren't the types that most would considered to be the latest fashion trend; these gloves looked rather high-tech, with certain parts giving an eerie glow that almost matched the same glow from their numbered tattoos. Although they wanted to be impressed by it, they remained suspicious.

"As much as I like pimp smacking people I don't like, how are gloves going to help?" asked Mike.

"Why don't you try them on for yourself? Try the green ones," Anais suggested.

"You all may want to cover your eyes," Mike said, remembering the mask testing.

"Good point," Gumball agreed, as he, as well as his friends, hastily covered their eyes.

After taking a deep breath, Mike went to the table and put a pair of green high-tech gloves on his paws that oddly fit perfectly onto them. Within a few seconds, a flash of green light emerged from said gloves, as an object was slowly coming into being, becoming as large as Mike. The light soon disappeared, revealing itself to be a giant maul hammer, much to the maroon badger's shock, as his eyes widen and his jaw dropped.

"Damn!" Mike exclaimed, as everyone put their hands down and stared at the giant maul hammer, sharing the same look of disbelief and for a while, silence filled up the whole room, with no one saying a single word.

"...What's this all about, Anais?" Darwin finally asked.

"Glad you asked that, Darwin..." Anais began her explanation, ignoring her friends' shocked reaction. "After our last fight, I realized that we needed to protect ourselves in case we lost our powers again, so I created these gloves that allow us to summon a weapon."

"But what do we need weapons for? We were doing fine without them," Gumball insisted.

"Why settle for fine when you can be doing good? Besides, don't you remember what happened during that fight?" Anais reminded her brother.

"Oh yeah, that's right. My bad." said Gumball, as he rubbed his head sheepishly, before turning his attention to Mike. "So how's your weapon, Mike?"

"A bit weighty, but otherwise, I like it," Mike answered, before a thought occurred to him, as he turned his gaze at Anais. "How do I make it disappear?"

"Just like how we say "Mask On" and "Mask Off" for our superhero identity, you just have to say "Weapon On" and "Weapon Off"," the child prodigy explained as she swapped between her hero form and normal form due to her mask being a smartass.

"Sounds simple enough," Mike shrugged his shoulder, accepting Anais' answer.

"Now that's out of the way, who here wants to try out the next pair?" asked Anais.

"Oh, I'll do it! I want to see what I got!" Gumball excitingly replied, as he got up and made his way to a pair of orange high-tech gloves, as a flash of orange light suddenly formed right in front of the eager blue feline, his mind lost in thought.

'Whatever I get, I bet it's the coolest weapon ever!' Gumball thought, before the light disappeared and he got a good glimpse of his weapon. Right in front of him was a simple looking fire axe with a flame design on the blade, much to Gumball's disappointment.

"What the WHAT?!" Gumball angrily exclaimed. "Why do I have an axe?!"

"Because they need to match the wielder," Anais replied. "Since Mike controls the earth and you can control fire, I figured the weapons should serve as an extension of the wielder."

"Anais, fireman may use axes but they put out fires, not make more," Brian corrected.

"That doesn't change the fact that I have a stupid axe for a weapon! What am I supposed to do with it?!" Gumball demanded.

"Chop up crime rates," Darwin joked.

"I'll get right on to it later," Anais dismissed her brother's rants. "Who's next?"

"I guess I'll go," Carrie answered, as she floated towards a pair of dark blue gloves and put them on; just like the last two, a flash of dark blue light appeared, along with the object, before it disappeared a few seconds later, revealing a scythe in its place.

"Really? A scythe?" the ghost asked with a tone of annoyance.

"Not gonna lie; I was expecting a fan after what Anais said," Rhonda admitted.

"Maybe you want to try one yourself, Rhonda," Anais suggested.

"Alright, I guess I'll try one," Rhonda agreed, before she made her way to a pair of white high-tech gloves, as a flash of white light suddenly appeared from said gloves, before it disappeared altogether to reveal a single katana where the light was.

"This is quite nice!" Rhonda spoke with amusement.

"I don't believe this!" a dismayed Gumball exclaimed. "How come Mike, Carrie and Rhonda get the better weapons while I get stuck with an axe?!"

"Don't be such a downer, Gumball. If it'll make you feel better, I'll go try them on and show you that you're just exaggerating," Darwin assured his brother, as he made his way to a pair of blue high-tech gloves and put them on. Soon, a flash of blue light appeared, before disappearing to reveal a trident in its place, much to the two-legged fish's surprise.

"Wow! This is the most amazing thing ever!" he exclaimed, before Darwin turned to Gumball and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry, it's...all good," Gumball insisted, trying to sound as calm as possible, as his left eye twitched in annoyance.

"Say, I should try a pair of those gloves and see what I get," Penny suddenly spoke, wanting to quickly change the subject, as the deer made her way to a pair of red high-tech gloves and put them on, before a flash of red light appeared before suddenly disappearing, revealing a shield of sorts on her left arm, with a red cross embedded in the center.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful, but why do I have a shield, Anais?" asked Penny.

"Believe it or not, Penny, your shield does more than protection, it can heal the nearest person, but more on that later," Anais answered her friend's question, as Gumball put his paw on his girlfriend's shoulder and looked at her with sympathy on his face.

"I guess it's my turn," said Brian, before he made his way towards the yellow gloves and put them on; before long, a flash of yellow light appeared, lasting a few seconds, before disappearing and in its place is a metal staff.

"This is rather nice," Brian commented, as he examined his new weapon, before turning his attention to the child prodigy. "What kind of weapon do you wield?"

"I'm glad you asked that," Anais happily replied, as she walked towards the table and put a pair of purple high-tech gloves on her hands, as a flash of purple light appeared, along with an object, before it disappeared and revealed itself to be...

"A wand?" Brian asked, completely dumbfounded by what he was looking at.

"Oh thank god! Someone has a more useless weapon than me!" Gumball yelled aloud, irking Anais. "What are you going to do to the bad guys? Play with them to death?" Gumball continued to mock his sister.

As if to answer his question, Anais stick her wand out towards Gumball and flicked it to her right; surprisingly, Gumball found himself dragged to the right, hitting a few objects along the way, before his sister flicked her wand to the left, causing the blue feline to jerk to the left as well and hit more objects along the way, before Anais put her now injured brother in his previous position.

"Does that answer your question?" Anais asked with a smug. "It's a tractor beam...minus the beam. I can't exactly hold something that can do a lot of physical damage so I went with making something to help myself around that."

"I really wish you didn't use me as your personal guinea pig," Gumball painfully retorted.

"I wish you'd shut up but we can't have everything," Anais countered.

"Anyway, now that we got ourselves some weapons, we can go out and find ourselves the nearest bad guy and test them out," Darwin happily suggested.

"No Darwin, I don't think that's a good idea!" Brian objected to his friend's suggestion. "We just got them and the last thing we need is to attract attention."

"Besides, we haven't seen them for the last few days," Rhonda pointed out. "It's not like they'll suddenly attack."

Suddenly, the alarm went off inside the lab, as Brian and his friends groaned in dismay upon hearing this.

'Me and my big mouth,' Rhonda cursed herself, as she and the gang went to the monitor to see Mark Call on it, as the business wearing cell phone started his announcement.

"This is Mark Call reporting live at Elmore Bridge where, after a few days of peace has been interrupted by a madman wearing a pair of bizarre gauntlets with blades sticking out. He is now on the rampage, chasing and cutting down anyone who gets in his way!"

The cameraman then zoomed in on the madman in question, revealing himself to be a yellow humanoid, snarling like an animal, completely bald and wearing a brown open vest, black wristbands, a pair of blue trousers and grey boots; in the middle of his forehead was a number 156 colored in crimson.

"Well, how about that, this is a good time to test our weapons after all!" Darwin joyfully said, as he observed the monitor, before he noticed everyone looking at him. "What?"

"...Nothing at all, Darwin," Mike replied with a straight face, before becoming serious. "Right now, we need to get to that bridge and help those people out."

"Fortunately for us, I finally managed to install a secret exit for the lab," Anais spoke up. "Come on and I'll show you."

"Thank god! I really didn't want to spend any more time on that elevator!" Gumball exclaimed, as he and the rest of his friends followed the child prodigy's lead to the secret exit.

Elmore Bridge was considered by most of its inhabitants to be a prime example of the town's success, so it came as a shock for many of the sudden chaos from the street; minutes ago, most of the commuters stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a bedraggled looking man wandering out of nowhere. When one of them tried to help him, the yellow humanoid promptly slashed him down, before he began to attack the next commuter, prompting everyone to flee on foot, as the deranged lunatic was continuing to slice anyone or anything.

"Where are you, little Numbers?!" the yellow humanoid called out. "I just want to hack you into little pieces and send you eight to an early grave!" The yellow humanoid continued on with his attacks, ignoring the pleas and mercy from those who cross his path, including a mother and her child.

"Please don't do this! My kid still needs me!"

"Don't worry, ma'am. It'll be over in just a second," the yellow humanoid raised both of his arms up when he suddenly felt his body jerked to the left and soon, he found himself dragged onto the pavement until his head hit the nearest car, stopping him dead in his tracks.

'What the hell just happened?' the yellow humanoid thought, as he picked himself up with little difficulty and looked all over to find the person responsible for the surprise attack.

"If you want to fight us, then here we are!" the yellow humanoid turned around and saw eight costumed individuals right behind him; but what really caught his attentions where the numbers on their costumes and it didn't take long for him to realize who he's up against.

"Ah! The Numbers! You just saved me the trouble for searching all over this poor damn excuse of a town! No matter, your lives end right here!" the yellow humanoid declared out loud, unsheathing his gauntlet blades and fired them at his foes.

"Disperse!" Lightning commanded, as he and the others split up to evade the oncoming attack. Undaunted, the yellow humanoid summoned his blades back on their chains and began to run after them, as he started to chase the nearest Number in his vicinity, starting with Golem.

"Fight and face me, coward!" the yellow humanoid taunted the green badger. Golem just shrugged his shoulders.

"...Okay," Golem said as he stomped the ground, causing a pillar to launch the OverHundred before he wound up with his hammer and swung at the falling humanoid, sending him flying into a nearby building. "And he is outta here!"

The yellow humanoid, meanwhile, struggled to get back on his feet, shrugging the debris from his body, as he leapt from the building and onto the pavement; despite getting slammed by Golem's hammer, he didn't seemed to suffer any serious injuries, though he was bruised up.

"Not bad at all, but try this on for size!" the yellow humanoid then slashed his arms around and soon, a wave of projectiles formed and headed straight towards Golem.

"I got this!" Savior shouted, as she leaped in front of her friend and raised her shield and saw it expand to a bubble around them, blocking the projectiles in the nick of time, while sending a few back at the OverHundred, as he received a few slashes himself.

"Thanks Savior," Golem thanked her.

"Don't mention it," Savior insisted.

"Defend all you want, but that won't stop me," the yellow humanoid remarked.

"Dude, you really need to stop talking. Seriously, it's getting annoying now," Toaster retorted from behind, as he swung his axe towards his opponent, unexpectedly unleashing a wave of fire in the process, as it knocked the OverHundred down, much to his amazement. "...Hot."

The yellow humanoid attempted to get back on his feet, only to find himself lifted up from the ground and suspended up in the air, much to his shock. Before he knew what happened next, Phantasma popped out of the wind and swung her scythe at her opponent, as he attempted to block the move; it only succeeded to accelerate his fall much faster and he slammed down to the pavement rather hard.

'These Numbers are tougher than I thought,' the OverHundred admitted in his mind, as he got up and barely regained his composure. 'But nothing is going to stop me!'

"Hey Scurvy!" the yellow humanoid turned around and saw Scales in front of him. "You should get a checkup and take a good look at yourself."

"Your joke won't change nothing," the OverHundred rebuffed, as he ran towards the costumed hero and slashed his arms, unleashing a wave of projectiles along the way, prompting Scales to deflect them as best as he could with his trident, despite suffering a few injuries himself. As the yellow humanoid had made his way to his target, he began to gloat. "Now prepare to meet your-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the trident suddenly extended, hitting the OverHundred on the gut, sending him a few feet away from him.

"That was a close one," Scales remarked, as he let out a sigh of relief.

The yellow humanoid attempted to get up once again, intending to continue on with his fight, when he suddenly found himself being flung upwards into the sky, but not before he got a good glimpse of I.Q. using her wand at him. As he tried to comprehend his situation, Lightning leaped up, grasping his metal staff, as he raised it up and planted it on his opponent's chest, slowly sending him back down.

"Photondra, now!" Lightning called out, as the white mouse planted herself right in the yellow humanoid's path, as she waited patiently for her opponent to show up and after what felt like a very long time, Photondra used her katana, slashing the yellow humanoid down, as he tumbled down and laid on the pavement, completely unconscious from the many attacks from the eight.

"Is everyone alright?!" Photondra shouted, as she saw her friends regrouping.

"Yeah, we're good, thanks to these weapons!" Golem remarked, as he and everyone made their weapons disappear. "Strange; I was expecting a katana of all things to slice him in half."

"The weapons with blades can't deal lethal cuts but it can make people feel what they would have felt," I.Q. explained.

"That explains everything," Toaster commented, before he spotted a few people coming right towards him and his friends. "Guys, we got company!"

Before they have a chance to respond, the eight found themselves being swarmed by one too many reporters and journalists, taking pictures and asking questions and pointing their microphones at them.

"So where did you eight come from?"

"How did you manage to take the blade wielding lunatic down?"

"Can you guys show up for an exclusive interview with us?"

"Let's get out of here," Phantasma stated, as she closed her eyes to concentrate and teleport herself and her companions out of sight.

After returning to the Watterson residence, all eight reverted back to their civilian identities, as they quietly walked inside just in time to see Richard watching the TV, with Nicole watching from behind.

"So...what's going on?" Gumball asked his parents with a straight face.

"You guys are just in time to see the news!" Richard replied, before he turned his attention on the TV to see Mark Call making his announcement.

"This is Mark Call reporting live from yet another bizarre incident. After a few days of relative peace, the town was attacked yet again by another mad man. Fortunately, he was taken out thanks to the Amazing Eight. Since their arrival, they have managed to do the impossible. Today was no exception, as witnesses claimed to have seen them wielding weapons for the very first time..."

"Weapons? What would they need weapons for?" asked a surprised Nicole, only for her husband to shush her, as the reporter continued on with his reports.

"Regardless of their actions, the Amazing Eight had managed to stop the criminal dead in his tracks and despite our best attempt to get an interview from them, they mysteriously disappeared. We'll have more about them at a later time. Now back to-"

Without warning, the TV turned off, as Richard groaned in dismay and turned to see his wife with the remote.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked his wife.

"I don't care what the news said. I still say those eight are still up to no good," Nicole explained. "It's bad enough they have powers, but now they're wielding weapons too?"

For their part, Brian and the gang laughed rather nervously, but quietly enough so that Nicole wouldn't notice.

"Look, I really don't want to talk about them anymore," Nicole continued. "I'm going to get dinner ready and I could sure use your help."

"If you say so," said Richard, as he followed his wife back to the kitchen, leaving just the eight alone in the living room.

"I see some people are still having doubts about us as heroes," Brian commented.

"No kidding, Brian," Darwin added. "They call us the Amazing Eight! That should mean something."

"I think we need a better team name…" Gumball began. "Seriously, the Amazing Eight? That's even cheesier than Alan and Carmen's romance lines."

"Let's talk about that another time, guys," Carrie insisted. "We should be more concern about our weapons."

"Carrie's right, we still need to be careful..." Mike began. "The last thing we want is to cause more damage if we get careless."

"Mike's right," Anais agreed. "Sure the weapons are effective, but we should take precautions with them and only used them for emergencies."

"That sounds like a plan," said Penny. "But for now, let's just get some rest and relaxation."

Everyone agreed with the deer on the statement, before they went their separate ways and back to their respective homes, intending to get some peace and quiet.

Next time on The Awakened…

Chapter 15-The Form

Being in a semi-physical form doesn't grant Carrie all the advantages she'd like. But when she learns that she can become fully physical, she asks Mike to come and help her on her quest.

Tidbits

-The idea of giving Brian and his friends weapons is meant to give them added protection in case their powers proved to be ineffective against other foes. Don't worry, though, they'll still be using their powers in this story.

-Regarding their team name, consider the Amazing Eight to be a placeholder for now. They'll eventually have an official name for their team in the future.

-I wanted to thank Sal for coming up with the gang's weapons for the story.

Hope everyone enjoyed this so far and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!