They quickly descend the stairs towards the door and pass Nicole, who is sitting on the couch with a laundry basket, not acknowledging Finn, Jake, and Simon's presence. "Later, mom! We're gonna show some new friends around town!" Gumball told Nicole as he exits the house with Darwin. "Be back by seven!" Nicole responded as the three adventurers leave the house. As they leave, Jake lets out a "Bark!" before Simon slams the door behind them. Nicole looks to the door in confusion before resuming folding the laundry.
Gumball and Darwin lead the adventurers to a park, where Jake is standing a safe five metres away from Gumball. "This is the park. We don't really come here that often." Gumball said. "This is one of the cleanest parks I've seen, one that isn't made of candy anyway." Finn said. "You've got candy parks where you're from?" Darwin asked. "An entire kingdom of candy!" Jake added.
"Has anyone tried to eat it?" Gumball asked. "Emphasis on tried." Finn answered. "I used to kidnap the princess. That was the old me, though." Simon said as he jotted down his surroundings on his Amp Arsenal with a stylus. "You what?" Darwin asked Simon. "I used to kidnap princesses. I wasn't in the right mind at the time, being an insane ice wizard and all." Simon answered.
"A wizard?! Do you still have your powers?" Darwin asked excitedly. "No, but I can still do this." Simon said as he put his Amp Arsenal away. He performs ninja hand gestures and creates and ice kunai, which he throws at a trash can, freezing it. "You still do Fridjitzu?" Jake asked Simon. "I picked it back up when I started teaching history and found the old first edition manual." Simon said.
"Y'know, we were once adepts of the martial arts." Gumball said proudly. "Yes, I remember that episode. You embarrassed yourself when you tried to chop that wooden plank." Simon said. "You saw that?" Gumball asked. "I saw everything." Simon answered. There was an awkward silence, broken by Finn clearing his throat.
"Oh look, there's the bench where Gumball glued Leslie to!" Simon pointed to the distance. As they run towards a hill, a figure emerges from behind the frozen trash can. The figure is a polygonal cycloptic teenager, with grey skin on some surfaces, static on other parts of his body, and a wireframe left foot. This is Rob; a former student of Elmore High who was erased from existence, but brought himself back into existence after escaping The Void, a dimension where non-existent entities, concepts, and objects are sent to. "Who are these people with Gumball? I don't recognize them, but something feels really wrong about them…" Rob wondered.
As he was about to walk over to them, he finds that his rendered right foot is frozen stuck to the trash can. "What?!" he growls as he tries to free his foot when the five walks back to his direction. Rob hurriedly jumps behind the trash can to hide from them as they walk by. "I'll have to stalk them to find out why they're here." Rob said to himself. "First, I gotta melt this ice off." he added.
Gumball and Darwin take the adventurers outside their school, or rather just Darwin since Gumball evidently objected to his decision, judging by his annoyed expression. "Why'd you take us to school, Darwin?" Gumball asked Darwin as he crosses his arms. "This is our school! We spend a lot of time here!" Darwin said. "Against our will." Gumball said. "Just like everywhere else in town, Elmore Junior High is the location of many of your antics. Like that time you investigated Principal Brown being stuffed into a locker. That was the first episode I watched." Simon noted.
"How old were you when you watched us?" Gumball asked Simon. "I was eleven back then. I'm about a thousand-forty-seven years old." Simon said. "Did you say a thousand-forty-seven?" Gumball asked. "Really, I was reverted to my forty-five-year-old self a while ago. Trust me, you do not want to see me in that state." Simon explained. "For about five of those years, we were beating up his face." Finn said.
"More like three, since he was pretty chill those last two years." Jake corrected. "What kinda world do you live in?" Gumball asked in confusion. "It's like Elmore, but post-apocalyptic, and a fantasy land at the same time." Simon described. "That conflicting description does not help." Darwin commented. "We got pictures." Finn said as he pulled out his Amp Arsenal from his pocket.
He shows pictures of places and people from Ooo, from Princess Bubblegum in the Candy Kingdom, to the Flame Princess and Cinnamon Bun in the Fire Kingdom, to Marceline doing a jam session with Princess Bubblegum, Simon, and Backfire, to a rather basic house party at Huntress Wizard's home. "You weren't kidding about the Candyland part." Gumball commented. Rob is hiding nearby behind a tree across the street. He puts a pair of binoculars to his eye to spy on them. "Is that a robot?" Darwin asked as he pointed to Backfire.
"Hmmm…" Rob hummed as he puts the binoculars away. "I couldn't see a thing." he said before switching to a telescope. "We made contact with a race of alien robots. We're pretty cool with each other." Finn said. "We're friends with a robot and an alien, so it's not that farfetched to us." Darwin added. "C'mon, lemme see." Gumball said as he tries to look closer at the phone while still keeping a safe distance away from Jake, when he falls down within barking range.
Jake goes into dog mode and starts barking fiercely at Gumball. "Aaah!" Gumball screams. Jake chases after Gumball, who also runs away from the dog. "Jake, stop!" Finn yelled to Jake. Rob watches as Finn, Simon, and Darwin run away from the school to chase after Jake and Gumball.
After catching Jake and Gumball, they go to the mall. Jake is restrained by Finn with a leash, and Gumball as a bite-shaped gash on his torso. He puts his thumb to his mouth and blows on it, inflating a bit of his torso back. "Not the first time you've been bitten in the abdomen." Simon said. "I bet you can name at least five times that happened to me." Gumball told Simon. "Just one. Remember when you played Dodj or Daar with your family, and you were daar'd to wear a ham suit and your dad-" Simon explained before Gumball extends his hand to his mouth to interrupt him.
"Back to the tour. This is Elmore Mall!" Darwin pointed to the mall. "I've never been in a functional mall before, except that one time we time-travelled to Chicago in twenty-eleven." Finn commented. "You don't have malls where you live?" Gumball asked. "Not that many. The kingdoms are too small to have a mall. The closest we have to a mall is the Grocery Kingdom." Jake answered. "That's a supermarket, Jake." Simon corrected Jake.
"Yeah, I know, but it might as well be called the Mall Kingdom by how big it is." Jake rebutted. Rob once again follows them, hiding behind a car as he watches Gumball, Darwin, and the adventurers. "Darwin, what time is it?" Gumball asked Darwin. Darwin lifts his right fin, where a digital watch is equipped, and sees the time is 03:54PM. "Almost four." Darwin answered.
"Sorry, fellas. I gotta go on a date with my girlfriend." Gumball told the adventurers. "What about Mister Dad? You told him to send us to the mall, and now we just walked here." Darwin asked. "I'm sure he'll get the idea once he realizes we're gone." Gumball said. "Richard isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Or even the factory batch, for that matter." Simon added. "How dumb are we talking?" Jake asked Simon.
Meanwhile at the Watterson house, Richard waits in the station wagon for Gumball and Darwin, and doesn't even know they're already gone. Anais walks up to the car and hops up to the window. "Dad, you've been waiting in the car for about an hour and a half." Anais told Richard. "I'm sure Gumball is making himself presentable for his date. Beauty isn't instant." Richard answered. "They already left with… a librarian, a jogger with a bear hat, and a dog." Anais told Richard.
"Wow, he sounds dumber than Cinnamon Bun pre-baking." Jake told Simon. "Like I said, he'll get the idea soon enough." Gumball commented. "Well, I'll see you in about an hour or two or whenever I'm done." Gumball said as he walks into the mall. "He's separated from them. I need to get some answers." Rob said as he emerged from behind the car to intercept Gumball. As he crosses the street, he is swiped away by a fast-moving car.
The adventurers and Darwin don't acknowledge Rob, or even the car, and continue conversing. "Do we go in? It'd be awkward to go in after Gumball while he's on his date." Simon asked Darwin. "Nah, we can visit this place some other time. Let's go somewhere without cats." Jake said. "Do you know who he's dating? Do you remember that part of the show?" Finn asked Simon. "How could I forget? She had her own episode where the came out of her shell. Literally. She's a shapeshifter kinda like Jake, and used a shell to hide herself in the past." Simon answered.
"Did you say Jake can shapeshift?" Darwin asked them. "Yep." Jake said before stretching into the shape of Darwin. "Woah, you can really magically shapeshift like Penny!" Darwin said in surprise. "Yeah, it's not magic, though." Jake said as he reverts to his original form. "One of my dad's an alien. He was a huge dook who wanted me for my cool stretchy powers, so I threw him into a black hole." Jake explained.
"Huh… you wanna go to a game store?" Darwin asked. "What was the name of that one? I know it's has the same name as an Alien protagonist…" Simon said as he tries to think. "Just follow me." Darwin said. As they walk away, the car that rammed into Rob stops abruptly at the entrance of a parking garage, throwing Rob into the building. Injured, Rob gets up and faces the car; a sleek, black Italian sports car.
"What the heck, man?! Watch where you're driving!" Rob berated the driver before slamming his fists onto the hood. The car pushes Rob away as its engine revs louder. As Rob crawls backwards from the car, its chassis breaks apart and reassembles into a humanoid robot with a very familiar face. "You… you're different from everything else, and that's really saying something." the robot commented. "Who are you?!" Rob asked nervously.
"My name is Lockdown… and I have a deal for you." Lockdown answered. "What deal?!" Rob asked in a panic. Lockdown transforms into car mode and opens his passenger door. "Get in…" Lockdown demanded before deploying blasters from his hood. "Or else." he added.
Rob gulps and reluctantly enters Lockdown as the blasters are retracted. Lockdown swerves around and zooms out of the parking garage. He takes Rob to a junkyard and into a large warehouse where other familiar faces are present. Doctor Morocco, C.Y.L.A.S., and Martin are there, waiting for Lockdown. Rob exits Lockdown before he transforms into robot mode.
"Is this the anomaly?" Doctor Morocco asked. "Indeed he is." Lockdown said. "Let's take a closer look, shall we?" Doctor Gross said as she emerges from the shadows, looking more human than machine, somehow. As the warehouse doors close, another portal opens elsewhere in town. Emerging from the portal is The Barista, The Scientist, and The Astronaut.
Unlike everyone else in town, they appear as live-action people. "Feels good to travel to another universe." The Barista said. "Let's get to work." The Astronaut said as he opens his visor, revealing a bright flash of light.
To be continued…