Teri x Gumball: In between worlds

by FantasticSchaefer

Three months after a devastating break up, a depressed Gumball is surprised when Teri shows up at his house in the middle of the night with a monster chasing her. Soon Gumball and Teri find themselves caught in an invasion by invisible monsters known as "Nephilim" and have to prevent Elmore's destruction. Will this unlikely duo succeed or will Elmore be trampled underfoot?

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Giants of old

Teri x Gumball

Hey guys! Welcome to chapter two of the romantic fantasy Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. In this chapter we shall follow the survivors of the first Nephilim assault as they search their school for answers regarding the terrifying monster that claimed the lives of three people and caused serious damage to Gumball's neighborhood. This chapter will be a long one and will be covering some details concerning the lore behind this story. As for the relationship between Teri and Gumball, it's going to start out slow, but will gain traction after a few events in the upcoming chapters. So don't worry, there'll be plenty of fluffy moments between the two later on in the story. Please enjoy and leave a review, if you wish!

One last thing, I wanted to do a shout out to Villicus, my first reviewer, for giving my story positive feedback. Thank you so much for reading my story and responding to the first chapter, you really made my day when I read your post for the first time, I was smiling and bouncing up and down in my booth when I first read your review, I was just so giddy! There are more chapters on the way and I will hopefully be able to upload a chapter every week, no promises though because anything can happen. Once again, thank you so much for your positive review, Villicus, it was definitely uplifting and encouraging to hear that my first reviewer enjoyed what I had written and I hope that you and many others enjoy this story that I have been constructing for a while.

(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)

-September 9th, 2013, the Watterson household, 7:00 a.m.-

Throughout the entirety of the night, Gumball didn't have any nightmares and he was grateful for that. Unfortunately, if he did have any dreams during the previous night, he didn't remember because the moment his alarm went off, everything filling his head through his unconscious hours vanished in an instant. Thank heaven for mornings! He thought sarcastically as he groggily sat up and switched off his alarm. Stretching his limbs and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Gumball began prepping for the day that was laid out in front of him.

Remembering the events of the night prior, he shuddered and glance towards the window again. He didn't see any flashing sirens nor did he hear any commotion outside, meaning that people either haven't really reacted to the damage outside or damage control was on its way and just hasn't arrived yet. He knew Gaylord and Margaret Robinson were going to be pretty upset at the damage done to their house, but that was the least of his concerns since he wasn't the one who caused it… at least this time. He was pretty sure everyone could deal with a few craters in their lawns and roads and the toppled tree was easy to avoid, although anyone driving an automobile was going to have to swerve a little.

This also brought his attention to Teri, who was still sleeping on the bed above his. Tossing the covers off of himself and swinging his legs until his feet were planted on the carpeted floor, the little cat got up and proceeded to wake up the snoozing paper bear. Reaching for the bed's side railing, he grabbed it and hoisted himself up until he was now level with the paper girl's sleeping area.

When his eyes cleared the side of the bed, he got a good look at the sleeping classmate who had come over to his house in an unexpected twist of events. She was still tucked into her sleeping bag, with her nose pointed at the ceiling, blindfold drawn on her eyes, her dark mouth hanging open as she breathed in and out. She seemed to be in a state of complete bliss and, as much as he was willing to admit, she looked kind of cute with her being tucked in neatly and her mouth hanging open slightly. She looked like a child who was in the middle of a slumber party or a camp out and if this wasn't a school day, Gumball would've let her sleep.

However, seeing as the bus was going to be here in half an hour, the blue cat knew he was going to have to disturb her peaceful state of slumber. Reaching out, he grabbed her shoulder and gently shook her,

"Teri, it's time to get up!" he said in a soft, yet commanding tone.

At the sudden contact and someone calling out to her, his paper classmate slowly stirred and sat up in a leisurely fashion. She muttered a couple incoherent words and looked around the room, but quickly discovered that she couldn't see anything,

"Wha-? Gumball…? What are you doing in my…!" she stopped herself from finishing her sentence at the sudden realization that she was talking to Gumball, in the morning!

Feeling that something was off, she felt around the bed (occasionally grabbing Gumball's face, much to the latter's chagrin.) before she found the pencil she kept beside her head. Erasing the blindfold that obscured her vision and drawing on her eyes, she blinked a couple of times before turning to look at Gumball, who's furry face was a little ruffled from her earlier attempts at finding her pencil.

"Rise and shine, paper girl!" he greeted with a roll of his eyes,

"We got half an hour before the bus arrives. If you need to grab a shower or prepare yourself for the day, why don't you get started on that now while my folks are still asleep, and before you ask, the bathroom is the one in hall to the right." he suggested, not even waiting for her to reply to his greeting.

After a moment of silence, the events of last night came rushing back to Teri and she remembered why and how she got here. With a slight nod, she unzipped her sleeping bag and stretched all the kinks out of her limbs before she began crawling towards the bed's edge,

"Thank you." she softly muttered, jumping off the bed and landing on her feet without making even a sound. Her face was blank, as she hadn't woken up completely and was looking forward to a refreshing shower.

Before she could grab the door handle, she heard Gumball clear his throat and turned towards the feline classmate, who had suddenly materialized a few feet behind her. He had his arms crossed and his kitty face held a slightly happy expression,

"I also figured that while you shower I could get started on breakfast. Is there anything you want in particular? I have to warn you though, there are only two options: cereal or toast. Mom bought groceries yesterday, but dad unfortunately vacuumed most of the fridge's contents the same day mom bought the goods home. Not my fault since he's pretty much a walking stomach that has no bottom. Actually, hold that thought..." he said in a joking manner. Even in light of his depression and recent events, he tends to get humorous when he has guests.

Not being able to contain her laughter, Teri chuckled a little at the prospect of Gumball's father being a ravenous being that would clear out any pantry. She'd seen him a few times before and wasn't surprised that the overweight pink bunny had a voracious appetite. She opened the door and began walking out into the vacant hallway,

"I'll have toast since I'm not a cereal person." she requested as she disappeared.

Being left alone now, Gumball quickly sprung into action. He changed out of his pajama shirt and shorts and into his brown sweater and grey trousers, his everyday attire, and made his way down the hallway and down the stairs. When he passed the bathroom, he could already hear the shower running and Teri humming to herself as she washed herself clean. As soon as he arrived downstairs, he checked on his parents to see if they were awake. To his relief they were both sound asleep, meaning he didn't have to worry about either one of them waking up and discovering that one of his female classmates was in his house and taking a shower. He already had enough on his plate and the idea of his mother flipping out over a surprise visit from Teri didn't sit well with him.

He entered the kitchen and got started on breakfast. Pouring himself a bowl of cereal and popping two slices of toast into the toaster, he checked the fridge and discovered that they were low on milk and the stick of butter had been consumed by Richard… again. Groaning in frustration, he poured the milk into his bowl and grabbed some peanut butter and jam for Teri to spread on the toast, not wanting to spread it himself since he didn't know if she'd like it or not. Eventually the toast popped from its respective heating device with a ding! And Gumball grabbed a plate to set the two slices on. In record span of a minute and fifteen seconds, breakfast was set and Gumball proceeded back up to the room from whence he came.

Entering his room, he set the food on the desk where his antique computer sat and checked the time. 7:06 it read. Twenty four minutes left until the bus arrived. He decided to check his bag to see if he'd forgotten anything for school while he waited for Teri to finish up with her shower.

Going through his bag, he saw that he wasn't missing any homework. His geography textbook was gone and he remembered lending it to Banana Joe two days ago. Normally, he never had any concern for school work, but in recent times, he'd been trying to distract himself from the hurt that he was still feeling.

Thinking about Penny again made his heart sink, his whiskers droop and his tail lower along with his eyes. He really missed her and even wondered what she would think of last night's events, if he decided to talk to her about it. She'd probably be very concerned with his well being or would probably laugh it off as some kind of funny story he came up with. Either alternative sounded realistic and this made Gumball's heart ache even more. He really missed her.

Three minutes had passed when Teri finally entered his room looking refreshed and clean. She found Gumball sitting on his bed, rummaging through his backpack by the looks of it. The sight of the blue cat's bookbag made her realize, with dread, that she left her bag at home before she went out to the hospital last night and it was still sitting there, on her bed, with all her school work in it. She internally facepalmed herself and decided that she was just going to have to turn in her homework late and borrow someone else's books for the day.

She walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. She saw Gumball's sensitive ears twitch at the sound of the door clicking shut and his head spun around in surprise, focusing his eyes on the stranger that entered his room. Upon seeing that it was only Teri, Gumball relaxed, quickly stood up, and made his way towards his desk where he had set the food for him and his guest. The scent of toast made its way to Teri's nostrils and the paper bear, was immediately entranced by the aroma,

"That smells nice!" she commented, directing her attention to the food that was sitting on the computer desk and then to Gumball, who had grabbed a bowl of cereal and was now sitting down on the floor.

She grabbed her plate and joined her furry classmate on the floor. Sitting across from him, she grabbed the jar of jam and began spreading it across the bread's crispy surface,

"Thanks for letting me use your shower. I really appreciate it." she said, taking a bite out of her toast.

Gumball was in the process of shoveling a spoonful of soggy, colorful cereal in his mouth when he answered,

"Mmm… no problem… (crunch, crunch)... I said I owed you one last night, so now we're even." he reminded her. He swallowed his food and loaded his spoon with more.

Thinking back, she did remember him saying that after she had saved him the first time. She realized that despite his gross lifestyle and outrageous antics, he was actually a nice person who will look out after others when a situation called for it. Looking around his room, she could guess that this protective and helpful side of him spouted from the need to care for his little siblings. She did some self reflecting and realized her self absorbed behavior probably stemmed from the fact that she was an only child. Now that she gave it some thought, maybe she ought to hang out with him some more. She'd have to dwell on it.

She continued eating and having small talk,

"Well, I thank you for your hospitality. By the way, you guys are going to need some more shampoo in the not-too-distant future." she felt the need to address the Watterson's dwindling supply of bathroom hygiene products.

This didn't seem to concern the eldest child of the Watterson household, as he shrugged and kept eating,

"Eh, I'll put on mom's grocery list." he answered nonchalantly before eyeing the untouched jar of peanut butter next to the feminine paper doll,

"You haven't touched the peanut butter, by the way. Don't like peanut butter?" he asked.

Teri finished her first slice and shook her circular head side to side,

"I have a severe nut allergy. I can't eat that or else I'll get sick." she stated in a high pitch voice then glanced to the side and quietly added,

"I think."

Once again, the health freak's paranoia struck true and Gumball rolled his eyes while stifling some laughter. Then he thought of a joke he couldn't pass up on,

"If you're allergic to nuts then why are you sitting across from me?" he teased, raising his eyebrows to emphasize his witty banter.

The paper girl caught onto his joke and let out a groan before facepalming, which hilariously caused her flat head to bend back a little,

"Seriously! take someone else's health a bit more seriously!" she growled, pinching the bridge of her nose. Underneath the cover of her hand, she smiled a little. The joke was lame, but at the same time it was a little clever. The cat was a little nuts.

Still chuckling, Gumball waved at her and continued with his quick wit, lame jokes,

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get Teri-ed away there!" he said. He erupted into a laughing fit at his own pun.

Wanting no more of this, Teri expressed her discontent by picking up her remaining slice of burnt bread and chucking her plate at the laughing cat's big head. The kitchen china smacked him on the forehead and he was sent reeling backwards. Teri continued to eat as if nothing happened,

"Sorry, your jokes are so bad, I thought I'd dish out some punishment!" she snapped, adding her own pun to the mix.

The blue cat groaned, not from the plate hitting his face which actually didn't hurt, and muttered something that sounded like a complaint about crappy comebacks. He sat up and ate in silence.

Once he finished he eating, he he got up to place his empty bowl on the desk when something caught his eye. Shoved into the corner by his desk, was Teri's origami hawk all folded up for easier storage. He remembered when she used it and realized he'd never seen her actually do something like that before.

"Um, Teri. If it's not too much trouble, could you explain to me how you got that hawk you made to move and do your bidding?" he asked the paper girl, who was sitting down and staring at the object he was pointing at.

She looked up into his eyes and pointed at the hawk,

"Oh that! That's an ability of mine. I can manipulate paper by simply touching it. I usually use it when I need to get somewhere in a hurry or if I need to reach something that I otherwise cannot reach. So, that's why you rarely see me using that ability. It does run in my family, so I knew how to use it as a child." she explained as if it were nothing special.

Gumball felt his jaw drop to the floor. That had to be one of the coolest super powers he had ever heard of and seen up close, and the way she spoke of it made it seem like it was no more difficult than flexing a muscle. He had so many questions regarding her ability and immediately began dreaming up some awesome scenarios that he knew would rock his socks.

While his mind was being blown, the paper bender just stared at him like he was loon making a big deal out of a little thing. In a way, it was kind of like that for her. Sure she could manipulate paper that she came in contact with, but it's still just paper! It was weak, flimsy, flammable and could deteriorate when in contact with water (except for her due to the fact she should stand in the rain and not turn into a soggy mess. She couldn't swim because being submerged would kill her.), it just didn't seem like that great of an ability when compared to someone like Bobert, who could do many things, like calculate complex mathematical formulas in under a second, shoot lasers out of his eye, replay what he heard and saw on a holographic recording or Tina, a powerful T-rex that could crush metal underfoot. And that was only a couple students in her class.

Seeing Gumball getting excited over her ability actually surprised her just as much.

With wide eyes that sparkled with excitement, he placed his hands on his cheeks and let out a squealing noise,

"That's so awesome! So you can create anything you want, as long as it's made of paper, and you can control it! You and me should build a giant paper mech suit sometime or a jet or a gorilla crocodile hybrid with bull horns!" he cheered, pumping both fists in the air.

Seeing how he was acting, Teri had to admit his childish behavior was kind of cute and kind of infectious. He must have had an imagination a mile long because his energetic aura pretty much said he had more ideas. She was still confused as to why he was excited over such a feeble power, but enjoyed the attention she was receiving, so it didn't bother her for too long.

Giggling a bit, she stood up with the plate in her hand and set it on the desk next to the spazzy pre-teen,

"Hold your horses. There's a limit to what I can create and I'm pretty sure two thirds of the things you just mentioned will be very difficult to create, much less control." she said in a deadpan voice. She didn't want to crush his spirits, but she didn't have as much power as he made her out to have.

Gumball stopped jumping up and stared directly at her with the widest, craziest eyes she had ever seen on a person his size,

"Can you create horses?" he asked, apparently missing everything she had said except horses.

This forced another sigh of her and she responded slowly,

"Yes, I can create origami horses that can support both you and me." she answered with a roll of her eyes. She was slightly annoyed at his short attention span and wished that he would pay more attention to her when she was speaking.

Still wearing the same expression, the blue cat began bouncing up and down with joy. He didn't know why he felt this way, the moment Teri revealed her power to him, the spark of adventure that he thought had been extinguished, reignited his burning desire for infinite possibilities of fun. He now wanted to spend more time with Teri, despite the fact that her hypochondria drove him up the wall every time they interacted.

"Let's meet up after school, okay!" he exclaimed in a giddy tone.

This request sent a shock rippling through Teri that could be felt both physically and emotionally. She didn't know how to feel about this. She's been invited to hang out with her friends after school multiple times, but those occasions only happened because she was either just seen as extra member to have or because she was part of the cheerleader squad. She never had anyone ask her to hang out with them because they were legitimately interested in her, and what made things weirder was the fact that up until last night, she and Gumball often couldn't stand to be near each other because of their polar opposite beliefs and personalities.

With her brain feeling fuzzy, she just stared at the short cat with wide, unblinking eyes and a mouth that hung open ever so slightly. At first, Gumball just patiently waited for an answer, but after waiting for a moment or two, things began to feel a little awkward,

"Um, you okay, Teri?" he asked, waving his hand in front of her face.

The sudden motion snapped the normally serious paper girl out of her daze. She shook her head and refocused on the person in front of her,

"Guh, wha'? Oh, sorry about that, I was lost in thought there for a moment. Yes I would like to hang out with you after school. We should also use that time to discuss our findings on the Neph-!" she was abruptly cut off when Gumball placed a finger to his lips and shushed her.

At first, she was about to berate him for being rude based on instinct, but held her tongue as soon as she heard something coming from outside the bedroom door. In the silence of the room, both students recognized the sounds as footsteps climbing the stairs. Someone was coming up to the second floor and based on how light the footsteps were, it was without a doubt Nicole Watterson: Gumball's mother.

Recognizing the situation at hand, Teri immediately began to panic! Her heart was now beating like a jackhammer and her legs and arms wouldn't stop shaking. If Nicole found her in here, then Gumball was in for a world of hurt once his mom sees that he had a girl in his bedroom without properly informing them about her visit. Gumball found himself reacting in a way similar to Teri before coming up with a solution,

Turning to her, he whispered,

"Hide!"

A good idea, but Teri didn't know where a good hiding spot was. She was definitely not going under the bed, there wasn't any way to get into his closet without making too much noise, and if she hid under the sheets of Gumball's bed, what would happen if his mom decided to have a seat on the bed and she made a noise. Scanning the room for a better hiding spot, her eyes locked onto Gumball's backpack, and within a matter of seconds, she crumpled herself up into a ball and leapt into the cloth school sack with the other crumpled up pieces of paper.

The moment she was nestled in, the door to Gumball's room swung open.

"Gumball it's time to get going, the bus will be here in ten minutes." she ordered her son who shared similar physical features with her.

She was wearing her usual work clothes: a white T-shirt decorated with a pinned on rainbow factory button, the symbol of her work place, and a grey, mid-length skirt. She stood in the doorway, inspecting her son's room before looking at said child, who was standing in the center of the room, trying to look inconspicuous.

It worked because his mom, just stared at him with a relieved, yet surprised expression on plastered on her blue, cat face,

"Oh, so you are up! I thought I heard someone get up and grab a shower this morning. Are you feeling alright?" she asked, more concerned about her son's mood than his early awakening.

Feeling more relaxed at the fact that his mom didn't suspect anyone else was in the house other than him, herself, and his dad, he allowed his tense shoulders to slump downwards. He released the breath he had been unconsciously holding and spoke in a casual tone,

"Yep, just peachy!" he chirped with a shrug.

Nicole immediately noticed the change in her son's tone and behavior. Normally he wouldn't wake up so early in the morning and whenever he did, he was always silent and barely looked at anyone. Right now, he was bright eyed, lively, and was speaking in a normal tone. It's like the person they had for over three months was replaced with the son she had before the break up with Penny.

It was good to see him in such a way, but strange nonetheless.

"Well, I'm glad to see you acting so chipper this morning!" she commented,

"I was afraid that you weren't ever going to recover from… that, but I see that you're doing better now." she said, trying to avoid digging up anymore negative emotions Gumball had about what happened before school let out for Summer.

She gave him a pleasant smile and Gumball returned it with a smile of his own. It wasn't faked, like he was trying to hide his pain, but it wasn't exactly genuine happiness that he was displaying. It was more like, a sense of understanding that was being displayed for her.

"Okay, well, I'll be heading off now. Get to school and don't cause too much trouble. Try to have a good day." she said, grabbing the door handle and prepared to leave her son for the day.

Gumball waved at his mother, still smiling,

"Yep! I will definitely try. Have a good day mom. See you when you get home from work!" he waved goodbye and kept his tone as cheery as possible. He wasn't trying to get rid of her as soon as possible, but he didn't exactly want Teri to spend any more time as a crumpled up ball stuffed in his backpack. His mom gave him one more pleasant smile and began closing the door.

Before she could completely close the door, Nicole noticed the origami hawk resting near his desk. Curious, she re-opened the door, which surprised Gumball, who was reaching for his bag. Standing straight again, he gave the older female blue cat a confused glance,

"Is something wrong, mom?" he asked, his tail swishing a little in frustration.

Leveling her gaze at the odd paper construction, she brought his attention to it,

"Is that a new hobby of yours?" she asked.

Gumball flinched, but quickly came up with a false answer,

"Oh that! That's just something I decided to work on last night. I had this large sheet of paper I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to fold it into a hawk. Pretty cool, right?" he quickly blurted out, he had completely forgotten that he hadn't put the hawk somewhere more hidden and mentally berated himself.

Inside his backpack, if Teri could sweat nervously, she would be pouring buckets right now.

However, his mom seemed to buy his explanation, but before she could walk out, had one last question for her son,

"Hmm, I see. By the way, I was going to bring this up after I had returned from work, but were you talking to someone up here? I thought I heard a some excited shouts from downstairs." she glanced around the room once more, her expression now serious.

The tiny, blue cat began sweat a little. He knew she was referring to his excited cries when he found out about Teri's ability to manipulate paper and was mentally kicking himself for his careless behavior. Once again, from the interior of Gumball's school bag, Teri began mentally screaming in terror and wondered if she should just hop out and fess up to Gumball's observant mother.

Good news was that Gumball already cooked up a lie for this situation. Taking a deep breath, he calmly slipped his cellphone (his mom had gotten one for him at the beginning of summer after she had gotten a promotion.) out of his pocket and held it up next to his face,

"I was playing a game on my phone and I finally reached a level I had been struggling to get to for two weeks now. You can say, I was more than happy." he fibbed.

There was a moment of silence. Gumball and Teri swore they could hear some intense background music as his mom glared at her son skeptically. The music and tension cut out when her expression switched from suspicious back to relieved,

"Well that's good, I would've been pretty upset if you invited someone over without telling me. Please keep it down next time, alright." she said, shooting her son a stern glare until he complied with a promise to never be too loud again.

Before she left, Gumball asked if it was alright to hang out with a friend of his after school, not wanting to miss out on helping Teri figure out anything about the mysterious creature from last night. Seeing it as a sign that he was recovering, Nicole allowed it on the premise that he was home for dinner. Thanking her, the cat child wished his mother a good day at work and warned her to be careful driving on the road, since he noticed a few odd "potholes" that weren't there yesterday. His mom left, wishing him a good day before grumbling something about teenagers and explosives.

With his mom gone, Teri hopped out of his bag and unfurled herself until she standing at her full height again. Seeing how easily she could control her body like that, Gumball could understand why her paper skin had so many crinkles. Outside, they both heard his mom slam the car door shut, the engine roaring to life, and the sound of tires crunching on the paved driveway as she pulled out and drove off. Since Richard was most likely still asleep and probably will be until noon, the two decided it was safe to head downstairs.

Stepping out of his room, backpack slung over his shoulders, and his paper classmate following close behind, the blue cat began to head down to the living room. Before he left his room, he grabbed his folded scythe and stuffed it in his backpack: he'd rather be safe than sorry. Making it downstairs, Gumball surveyed the lower floor and noted that it was vacant and quiet. Once again, he found himself feeling grateful for the fact that his paper friend was so light that she didn't make any noise moving through the house. No wonder no one noticed her enter the house last night, with her being flat and a lightweight, you'd have to bump into her in order to notice her in the dark home.

They both left the house and made their way to the front lawn, where the school bus stopped in order to pick him and his siblings up, only this time it was just him and Teri. With the morning sun now illuminating the area, the two could see the aftermath of last night's scuffle all over the neighborhood more clearly. Nothing had changed all that much, except that Gumball could see several neighbors standing outside, some in their PJ's and some in work attire, and inspecting the damage. There was already a police officer inspecting the tree that had been uprooted the next house over and he could hear Gaylord and Margaret Robinson shouting at one another within their home. He picked out pieces of the conversation and concluded that they were both angry about the hole that suddenly appeared where the guest room wall had been. That obviously wasn't shocking.

Standing on the sidewalk, the two began to mentally go over the events of last night, trying to pick apart anything useful. Running into a dead end, Teri decided to make small talk with the silent cat next to her,

"What time is it?" she asked, wanting to know how much time they had until the bus arrived.

Hearing her request, Gumball pulled out his Iphone and checked the display,

"It's 7:27. We have three minutes until the bus arrives, give or take." he responded. He noticed a few messages had been sent by Darwin and decided to check them out later. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and continued waiting for the bus.

With that concern out of the way, the pale, bear girl gave a small grunt and nod before switching onto another topic,

"Sorry for leaving my hawk out where your mom could see it. That was extremely careless of me." she apologized, feeling quite ashamed that her careless mistake nearly got them (mainly Gumball) in trouble.

Turning to his female classmate with a baffled look on his fuzzy face, Gumball responded with his own apology,

"Oh no, that's okay! That one was easy to escape from. I'm sorry for nearly getting you caught because I couldn't contain my excitement." he was waving his hands like as if he was shaking off her apology,

"I'm just glad she didn't decide to inspect my room, or else there would've been no way to hide you." he chuckled nervously while placing a hand behind his oversized head.

Watching his nervous expression and the way he moved about as he apologized, Teri smiled and turned her attention to the road again in order to hide the positive expression that was drawing itself onto her face.

Speaking of his room,

"Yeah, if I was your mom, I'd be horrified at the state of your room. You seriously need to clean it and disinfect it, plus your backpack needs to be washed. I could smell the remains of leftover snacks the entire time I was in there." she told him, feeling herself becoming nauseous just thinking about her poor choice of hiding places.

Gumball looked offended. He grinded his teeth, furrowed his eyebrows, and glared at the nitpicky germaphobe,

"Would you lay off me for a couple of minutes!" he snarled, thrusting his arms down at his sides. He couldn't look down at her because of the height her lanky body provided her, so he had to puff out his chest to look more intimidating,

"I'm not wasting a day cleaning my room nor will I compromise my immune system sterilizing my home!" he declared.

Not fazed in the slightest, the health freak continued to glare at the road while the spazzy student next to her continued to give her the stink eye. Folding her arms, she continued to build her case against the unruly child that was her age,

"Being organized is not a waste of time." she grumbled, her usually light voice deepening a notch,

"For starters, you may find that it would be easier to locate anything you needed and a tidy room can help make thinking easier. Also, you're not strengthening your immune system by leaving moldy food under your bed and grime on your windowsill. Instead, you're only leaving your body open to infection and increasing your chances of getting sick." she wasn't just pulling this out of a book or a website she found, she was speaking from experience.

Normally, Gumball would've gotten into a heated debate with the school infirmary's most frequent visitor, but he guessed that they had only one minute until the bus arrived and wanted to get something off of his chest. Swallowing his pride and letting her comments regarding his lifestyle slide, the upright feline, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed,

"Why did you come to my house?" he slowly asked, trying to cool down.

Not expecting this, the paper girl was taken aback. She fixed her gaze on the short watterson child,

"Wait, what?" she replied, very confused by the question.

Gumball didn't want to repeat himself, so he asked her again while rephrasing his earlier question,

"Last night you came to my house and went into my room! Why didn't you go to another house or ask my parents to help you?" he was now staring into her eyes, trying to find an answer.

That was an interesting question, unfortunately Teri didn't have an answer for him.

"I honestly don't know." she muttered softly, so soft that Gumball nearly missed it,

"It began chasing me the moment I spotted it emerge from that opening in the sky. I was so scared that I kept running down every possible street in Elmore in order to elude the creature. When I saw your house, I recognized it from when Sarah showed the other girls a photo, don't ask by the way, I really don't know nor do I want to, the other day and for some reason, I immediately thought that you would be able to help out." she was relaying everything she had felt during the night when she encountered Silver Twelve.

Gumball quietly listened to the somber bear girl. He noticed that her head was hanging low the whole time and she seemed confused and even unsure of herself. It was like she had reacted on an instinct and didn't know how to explain it. She was amazingly lucky with how it all worked out in the end.

He grabbed her attention by placing a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look down at the furry appendage then at his face,

"Look, I don't understand what's going on right now, but you made the right choice, even if you didn't know it at first. When we get to school let's get cracking on that research and see what's the deal with that giant." he said enthusiastically.

Teri felt grateful for his comforting words and sympathy.

A few seconds later, a yellow school bus rounded the corner and began heading their direction. It's engine roared as it pulled up in front of them, billowing foul smelling smoke from it's exhaust pipe, and the tires screeched as it came to a stop. The double doors swung open, revealing Rocky Robinson, the fuzzy, orange muppet dressed in ripped jeans and a black T-shirt with a band logo that read AB-CD. He was listening to some music blasting from his headphone's as he greeted the two in his usual cheery tone,

"Welcome aboard you two!" he didn't think twice as to why Teri was at Gumball's house, seeing it as none of his concern.

The two returned his friendly greeting and boarded the bus, with Teri taking the lead and Gumball following behind her. The two passengers made their way down the aisle as the bus began moving. Unbeknownst to the two newcomers, everyone else on the bus had their eyes on them (except Sussie, who was just staring out the window with her mouth hanging open.) and were completely silent.

On her way to her seat, Teri remembered something and spun around to face Gumball, who had stopped as soon as he noticed her stopping.

"Oh that's right!" she exclaimed to herself,

"Um, Gumball, I forgot my book bag at my parent's house. Can I borrow your notes and textbooks when we get to Ms. Simian's class?" she asked, glancing off to the side and fidgeting with her fingers as she was kind of embarrassed to be asking him of this. She didn't like feeling like a burden to others either and was afraid Gumball would see her request as annoying.

Fortunately, luck was on her side, as the blue cat just shrugged and nodded,

"Pfft! I don't mind. You can sit by me and we can take notes together. When you finish doing research in the Library, you wanna meet up in the school yard after lunch and talk about your findings?" he asked, since he had P.E. class during the time she went to the library.

The idea sounded reasonable to her and she gave an affirmative nod,

"Certainly. I will see you later then." she smiled and waved at him before she made her way to her usual spot and sat down by herself.

Seeing Darwin and Carrie in the back of the bus, Gumball proceeded to sit down with his adopted brother and ghostly emo friend. The two, like everyone else on the bus, were just staring at him in shock, like as if they'd seen a ghost that wasn't Carrie. This was kind of funny for Gumball because he had just fought something like a spirit last night. He plopped down next to his sibling with a smile on his face and greeted him by striking up a conversation,

"Hey dude, how did your weekend with Carrie go?" he asked nonchalantly.

Both Darwin and Carrie jumped back in surprise. Not only was he seen standing outside his house with Teri, which warranted a million questions on it's own, but now, he was sitting next to them with a cheery expression on his face whilst popping a question regarding his younger fish brother and his girlfriend. What the heck happened to the gloomy person that lived with them for over three months now!

Darwin uttered a few verbal pauses as he tried to get over his surprise and come up with an answer,

"Uhhh-yeah! It was… it was great, you know, we hung out a lot and partied with some other ghosts… uh, how was your weekend?" he replied, quickly recollecting himself.

Gumball stretched his arms and brought them back behind his head,

"It wasn't too eventful. Just spent most of my time in my room." he said. He didn't exactly sound depressed, but it was evident that he wasn't really happy with how the last two days went.

"Got my homework done, so I guess that's a given." he added and switched his focus to the ceiling.

This didn't exactly strike Darwin as odd, for the past three months he'd been acting like that due to his heart being pounded in a million pieces. To the perceptive, walking goldfish however, he knew something was up. Something must have happened in the past few days and it probably had something to do with Teri. Why else would she standing with him at the bus stop, talking about sharing notes, meeting up later, and Gumball's sudden change in personality, it was too coincidental and suspicious.

Rubbing his chin with a fin, Darwin narrowed his eyes at his absent minded cat brother and spoke to him,

"I'm glad to see you in such high spirits this morning." he commented, his high pitched voice cracking a little,

"Does it have something to do with Teri being at our house this morning." he asked, his voice laced with suspicion.

It finally hit Gumball as to why Darwin and everyone on the bus was so shocked to see him this morning. At first he thought the baffled faces and the silence that captivated everyone was due to wrecked state of the street he lived on. Now he realized that everyone was actually surprised to see the normally depressed, withdrawn Gumball Watterson with a friend, a girl, standing at his bus stop, chatting with each other, and practically radiating calmness before he sat down.

He chose to take the calm approach and lie to Darwin.

Normally he would never even think to do such a thing, seeing as both he and Darwin, his closest friend and brother, were so tight that he felt that he could share anything with him. On the other hand though, if he knew what had happened to him and Teri the evening prior, he would probably flip out. What makes matters worse is that Darwin might not be able to see the Nephilim and would probably worry about him every single time he wasn't there. And Gumball knew that there were more Nephilim on the way. He recalled when he asked silver twelve what he wanted and he responded with, "finishing where we left off, 6,000 years ago." we as in others like him.

Without changing his expression, he glanced at Darwin and shrugged,

"Oh, Teri? She just popped by this morning to say hi and to see if I was doing okay. We actually had a pleasant conversation, so that's why I'm feeling better." he falsely explained. He was aware that his lie had a few holes in it, but Darwin seemed to be buying it.

Carrie, on the other hand, didn't seem convinced. She knew Teri better than Gumball due to her being a social floater and having engaged in many conversations with the paper girl whenever there was no one else to talk to. One thing that didn't add up to the big headed ghost girl was the fact that Teri would swing by to say hello to Gumball instead of waiting until they got to school or by simply meeting him on the bus. Why would she waste precious time out of her morning just to say hello to someone she barely interacted with? Another thing to note, was that Teri came without her school supplies and Carrie knew that she wasn't one to easily forget something that important. Grades were important to her and she wouldn't mess up like that just to talk to someone like Gumball. Lastly, she knew Gumball was lying, with the reasons being everything she just listed, the coincidental dishevelled state of Gumball's neighborhood, and the fact that he was hiding his nervousness under a chilled expression.

The floating spirit tilted her head until she could see the mischievous sibling of her boyfriend clearly,

"Really now? And what are you two planning on "researching" later?" she asked, flipping her bangs that covered her left eye.

She caught onto their conversation, this made Gumball slightly nervous. Still wearing his mask of relaxation, he shrugged his shoulders once more and slowly turned to the transparent spirit,

"Something for the project miss Simian had assigned the class on Friday." he answered before looking up to the ceiling once more,

"By the way, Carrie, what do you know about the Nephilim?" he decided to take this opportunity to both distract Carrie Krueger from asking him more questions about what he and Teri were up to and hopefully get some answers regarding the supernatural beings that were now threatening the existence of the world at large. The way he put it, it was killing two birds with one stone.

His question achieved the desired effect, as Carrie took a moment to pull up any information she knew off hand about the Nephilim,

"The Nephilim…?" she said the name out loud, thinking on it. She turned her head to the side until her gaze was to the back of the seat in front of her.

"If memory serves me right, they were a race of magic giants that existed until around six thousand years ago. They weren't really that great, as in they used their knowledge of the ancient arts to wage wars amongst each other and corrupt the world as a whole. They nearly wiped out the small tribes of people who lived before, but they were killed off when a great deity of sorts, known as the Jade emperor, scorched the Earth with divine fire. Of course, the world survived the cataclysmic event and nothing remained of the giants of old." she tried to summarize the story to the best of her ability because heaven knew that both Gumball AND Darwin had short attention spans. She especially knew of Darwin's inability to maintain focus on an important story since she's been dating him for quite some time now.

Taking in everything he had heard, the blue cat simply nodded and allowed his chilled expression to melt off of his face. The information the trickster spirit had given was actually quite helpful and allowed Gumball to understand the motive behind Silver Twelve's actions last night. The Nephilim must be here to destroy the world and the people here because they had failed to do so the first time. However, there were still a lot of questions he needed answers to and he once again turned to Carrie.

To his dismay, he saw that Darwin was already talking to her. When he listened in, he learned that the conversation was regarding the story that Carrie just shared,

"...So in the end, the story teaches us that in order to ensure long and prosperous lives, we must take care of mother Earth or else karma will retaliate with fire!" Darwin stated, he was obviously not taking the story literally and instead treated it as a metaphor for Karmic justice.

His incorporeal girlfriend stared at her two-legged fish lover with a blank expression before giving a small shrug and a quick nod,

"I guess that's one way to interpret it." she sighed,

"Although, I believe that the story is real and explains why magic exists in the world in the first place." her expression was followed by silence.

Gumball decided to take that silent moment as a cue to ring up another question. Leaning forward so that his head was visible to Carrie, he chimed in with his next question,

"Did the story also happen to mention anything about the Nephilim returning? Perhaps not in physical form, but as invisible spirits?" he asked as casually as he could.

Darwin turned so his body/head was facing in his older brother's direction and began scrutinizing his elder sibling. He was acting really strange this morning, first his arrival with Teri and now he was hung up on the subject of ancient, magical giants. Was he helping the paper girl write a fantasy novel or was he getting involved in something suspicious?

Gumball ignored his little brother's quizzical expression and kept his focus on Carrie, who was pondering, again.

When she found an answer buried in her memories, she peaked at the male kitten from underneath her bangs and retold what she knew,

"I don't remember hearing anything about them returning with a purpose. Although there was one quote from the internet page I read this off of, that their return could signal the beginning of the apocalypse." she explained in a monotone voice.

This didn't sit well with the pre-teen kitten. He slumped forward and racked his brain while that last line from Carrie swam through his conscious. The apocalypse. The end of all things. This was happening now and only he and Teri knew about it. How could this be happening?! He and Teri were both kids, they haven't even finished middle school yet and now the world was coming to an end. He was already going through a rough patch in his life to start, but now he and some other unfortunate soul were facing events so extraordinarily horrifying that it seemed unthinkable.

Honestly, he would prefer facing a miserable life without Penny rather than face the end of the world. Sure, it already felt like the world had ended before, but now he was dealing with that and an invasion of hostile spirits who wanted nothing but him and everyone in the world dead.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Darwin trying to gain his attention,

"DUDE! STOP MOPING AND ANSWER ME!" Darwin shrieked in a high pitched voice.

Startled, Gumball jumped in his seat and shot a worried glance at his brother,

"Huh? Oh sorry dude, I was just thinking about something. What were you trying to tell me?' he asked, returning to a relaxed position.

The cute, former pet of the elder Watterson child studied his face a little more, trying to detect any clues that could tell him what was wrong. He knew something was wrong because after Carrie had told him that story about the Nephilim and the apocalypse, he suddenly became all mopey again. He asked him why he was so hung up on this "completely" fictional story and Gumball just sighed and answered,

"It's no big deal, man." he forced a smile on his face, but couldn't look his little brother in the eye,

"Why don't you tell me about that undead party you and Carrie went to? It sounded really awesome." he asked, trying to dodge answering anymore questions.

The walking fish and the ghost knew that they weren't going to get anything else out of him, so they humored the elusive cat by telling him about their happy weekend together. Gumball kept up the facade of paying attention while he thought about the future. Ironic, since there was probably not going to be one. He killed one Nephilim, for sure, but that was with blind luck on his side, plus Teri was able to see a flaw in his plan and filled in the gap with a back up plan which resulted in an overall success for the both of them. But at what cost? Three people had died and his neighborhood was damaged, at the cost of one evil spirit that didn't even leave him unscathed.

And there were more on the way. For all he knew, they could all be descending from the sky right now. He didn't know what forms they had, what powers or weapons they possessed, or how many of them there were: thousands, millions, trillions! They weren't prepared for this. He brought his scythe along so that he could fight off any potential threat, even so, he still didn't feel like it would be enough to fight them off.

Contemplating his options, he placed his backpack on his lap and stared at the bulging spot where the scythe's handle was poking out of. He then glanced over to where Teri was sitting, four rows ahead of him, and saw that she was talking to Leslie, an effeminate flower that was part of the Elmore cheerleading team and a friend of the paper girl. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation from the looks of it, since he could only see the back at Teri's round head.

He decided that he would have to worry about the future later and instead focus on getting more information out of people he figured had some knowledge on the threat at hand. He remembered that he wasn't alone in this and that he and Teri were both talented and crafty individuals. Plus, they had a fighting chance, thus they had hope. With this in mind, he concentrated on enjoying the ride with his brother and Carrie by listening to them happily reminisce about their weekend, until the bus pulled up next to the school.

-Elmore Junior High, 10:42 AM, third period-

The first two school periods went by very quickly and felt like any other school day. Both Gumball and Teri sat by each other in Ms. Simian's class and as promised, Gumball shared his notes and textbooks with Teri after she had explained to the ape-like teacher that she had forgotten her supplies back at home. The elderly teacher was no doubt grouchy about this, but luckily let Teri off with a harsh scolding before returning to her lesson. When the elderly primate noticed that Gumball was in a better mood today, she became determined to make him suffer some more (also, it was Monday and it's a universal law that everyone with a soul was to be at their most miserable on these dreary beginning days.) and proceeded to give him some more assignments to do tonight. With a project due at the end of the week, Gumball was sure that it was going to be a busy night, plus he thought about possibly training himself to better fight the upcoming threat and the extra work wasn't helping with stress.

Teri listened to the teacher drone on during their math and while she focused on her notes, she thought about her earlier conversation on the bus with Leslie.

-flash back, on the bus, Teri POV-

Teri sat down in her usual seat on the bus and watched Gumball make his way to the back where Darwin and Carrie sat. It was kind of strange to see Carrie sitting in the spot where Anais, Gumball's younger sister, once sat. She took a different bus ever since she entered high school and because Carrie was now dating Darwin, she sat beside her goofy boyfriend any time the bus picked him up. She would often hear them chatting and occasionally flirting with one another. It was such an adorable sight to see those two being all romantic around each other, although they often kept their behavior refined because Carrie wasn't comfortable with public displays of affection. Regardless, it was nice seeing young love blossom and Teri hoped that the two would remain together as long as possible.

On the other hand, she'd heard about Gumball and Penny's break-up and noticed the blue cat's sudden change from a happy-go-lucky kid from 6th grade to a depressed, clearly broken child the first week of the second year of middle school. It honestly saddened her to see her classmate in such a state, she knew Penny meant the world to him and her moving away left him in shambles. She was one of the people who tried comforting him as soon as she heard the news from Masami, she sent him a card expressing her sympathies, but she didn't see any change in his character afterwards.

Seeing the way he was acting this morning after the attack, actually made her feel better. He wasn't exactly beaming with happiness or showing signs of recovery, but he was acting a little bit like the person he was before the split up. From his helpful nature, to his wise-cracking jokes, and even his irritation towards her comments about his dirty room and belongings made it seem like he was returning to normal. In some bizarre way, she was actually glad to have met him during the time she was being attacked by Silver Twelve.

She sat in silence while she heard the three aforementioned classmates of hers began to strike up a conversation with each other. She noted that Gumball was the first one to speak, and the anthropomorphic paper bear was actually shocked and glad at the same time to hear him engaging in a sociallable manner towards his two closest friends. It wasn't long until she realized she was being watched by a friendly flower sitting in front of her.

Startled, Teri jumped a little when she noticed a round, yellow face surrounded by pink flower petals peaking over the seat in front of her and was regarding her with black, friendly eyes,

"Morning Teri!" he greeted in an effeminate, singsong voice.

Catching herself, she returned the greeting and proceeded to engage the flower boy in a normal conversation. They spoke about their weekend and shared stories they thought were interesting. She made sure to leave out what happened during midnight and the sleepover at Gumball's place because she didn't feel like giving her friend and cheerleading squad member a scare. Then, there was the fact that Leslie had no idea how to keep a secret and would often gossip about what he had heard to the other girls and the last thing she needed was a rumor regarding her and Gumball.

Speaking of which, Leslie made sure to bring up what she and the class troublemaker were doing at the bus stop,

"So what's up with you and Gumball? You never told anyone that you two were going to hang out this weekend?" he asked, still smiling at her.

Thinking quickly, Teri thought up a very original excuse for the prying flower,

"Oh, Gumball? I was just swinging by his place to say hello. I was really worried about him and we both had a pleasant conversation this morning, so that's why he's very happy this morning." she falsely explained. The story sounded believable and she hoped that Gumball had used a similar excuse himself in order to avoid confusion.

Lucky for her, the flamboyant flower wasn't one to dwell too long on such explanations and was immediately jumping onto the next subject. Judging by the sly look he was giving her, she could guess that he was going to talk about a certain blue cat,

"Worried about him, huh? Got a crush on him, I suppose?" he asked, winking once to emphasize a potential romance.

She called it and that still didn't make it any less frustrating to deal with. With her eyes widening in surprise and her expression contorting into one of disgust, she nearly gagged,

"What?! With that germ farm! I can't stand being near that epidemic center, let alone hold hands with him!' she remarked, revolted at the idea of him and her being a couple. Even being friends was pushing it a little.

Okay, some of that wasn't true. She really appreciated him coming to her aid last night, allowing her to sleep in his room, use his shower in the morning, make breakfast for her, and share his school supplies. He was being very kind to her and she barely did anything to deserve it, so she wouldn't mind being close friends with him, as disgusting as the idea sounded.

Keeping his suggestive expression, he continued pestering her,

"Oh really. You come over to his house because you are worried about his welfare and want to convince me that you don't feel anything for him?" he mentioned, placing his head on a leaf that served as his arm and allowed it to rest there. His expression and use of words was really getting to Teri.

Rolling her eyes to the side, Teri hit the peak of frustration. Leslie was the kind of person who sought out drama whenever he spotted an ample opportunity to draw it out of someone. She knew this because every time she hung with him and the other girls, he always had some kind of story that included a couple, another person's feelings, events that went unnoticed by the major student body, and of course, his own dilemma.

With knowledge that this conversation was going nowhere real fast, she chose to change the subject before she would have to go to the nurse's office to have her brain disinfected. She knew what to ask and folded her hands in her lap and looked at Leslie innocently,

"Hey leslie, I was wondering if you had any knowledge on a particular subject." she asked, the upbeat plant boy raised his head in anticipation and his already cheery face lit up like the morning sun.

Now that she had his undivided attention, the paper bear proceeded forward with her question,

"What do you know about the Nephilim?" Teri asked, tilting her head as she waited for an answer.

This struck Leslie as odd, which was apparent by the reaction he had when she asked because he was prepared for her ask him something that had to do with 'romance' or 'how to talk to boys?', areas that he knew how to deal with. Or so he believed.

"Hmm? Interesting question." he muttered, scratching his pretty chin with his tendril-like leaf,

"Aside from an awesome band called "the Nephilim onslaught", which you should, like, totally check out cause they're pretty hardcore, I do know that they were, like, these powerful giants that lived a long time ago, not like Hector, they were worse! They destroyed a lot of things in the past and evidently the Jade emperor was like, "oh no you didn't!" and burned them all to a crisp or something. The church I volunteered at several years ago had a pastor that talked about them and he mentioned that they were like, the first beings created by the Jade emperor, which sounds really messed up because he's like their dad and he just straight up killed them because they were acting like teenagers or something. Hmm, let's see, that's about all I know. I never really paid much attention to the stories cause it was all really boring to me. That sound clear to you?" he finished, quickly turning to the paper girl.

Teri nodded and placed her flat, white hands together,

"Yes, I suppose, that was actually a lot more helpful than I had anticipated. Thank you!" she said, realizing that she basically insulted the flower to his face. Whoops! Too late now.

To her relief though, the flower ignored her remark and began pounding her with more questions regarding the school work that was assigned on friday. She breathed an inner sigh of relief and continued to speak with Leslie as the bus made its way to school. She wondered if Gumball had gotten any info. out of Carrie like he said he was going to do. Well, she was going to hit the books and computers once fourth period came around and was looking forward to an hour of paranormal investigation.

She saw Gumball slip his scythe into his backpack before he left the house this morning. It was a great reminder to her that they were no longer safe and that the unknown had made it's statement last night: this place was going to experience a series of extraordinary events on the road ahead. She hoped that her skill, Gumball's weapon, and their combined strength would be enough to take on the monsters standing at their door. Some part of her wished that this was happening to someone else. Someone who was more qualified for the job, a hero, a warrior, or a savior even.

The war she saw approaching was something kids could not and should not be fighting.

-present-

Teri was silently scribbling the last of her notes on a lined piece of paper, provided by Gumball, as she patiently waited for third period to end. Once fourth period started, she would proceed straight to the library and begin her search in the religious and fantasy section. There was bound to be a lot of books whose topics involved evil spirits and how to fight them. She also decided that it was in her best interest to learn some banishment spells or find some protective charms that would be effective against the Nephilim. If Gumball's ancient scythe could harm them, then perhaps there was a spell for her that she could use.

She listened to haggard primate explain fractions and how to divide them on the blackboard. It wasn't something Teri was particularly excited about and she could already feel herself drifting off as the teacher continued to babble on. Soon the paper girl's flat, round, bear shaped head found itself dropping onto her desk top and soon drifted off into a horrifying nightmare.

She found herself floating above the Elmore park, how she was doing this was unclear, but Teri made no attempt to figure it out because something else was happening. It appeared to be midday and the sun was glaring down on the grassy fields, the rolling hills, gently swaying oak trees, and the pond that housed ducks, geese, various amphibians, and several other water-borne organisms. There weren't any people strolling by or riding along the paved pathway, no children playing tag or doing some other activity in the fields, or any senior citizens sitting under the protective shade of the tree and enjoying the wonderful weather outside. As strange as that was, none of it compared to what she saw appear in the middle of the park.

Falling out of a dark crack in the sky, much like the one that silver twelve came out of the night prior, was another Nephilim spirit. This one was very different from the first one, but still looked terrifying. It's body was shaped like a thick, three dimensional hexagon at least twenty feet from one point to another and was covered in a black, chiton-like armor. Sprouting out from five of its six "faces" was a long, slender spider leg that looked incredibly sharp and matched the color of its central body. With its legs, it stood at an astounding height of forty feet and towered over many of the trees and structures in the park. Finally, the face that lacked an appendage had a series of ruby red eyes assembled in a chaotic cluster and they all surveyed the park frantically like it was searching for something.

She woke up when all of its eyes zeroed in on her.

Her head shot upwards as she sat upright and exited the dream. She felt her heart pounding in her flimsy body as she scanned the room in order to regain her bearings. She realized she was back in class and the monster was nowhere to be seen. She sighed in relief and felt her heartbeat return to its normal speed. It took her a moment to realize that the class was completely empty and that she was alone.

At first, Teri believed that she was still dreaming, somehow, until she looked at the clock on the wall and realized it was 11:10, ten minutes since third period had ended.

"Oh no! I slept through class and it's already fourth period!" she shouted to no one in particular.

She quickly gathered her notes, placed them in a neat pile before leaving taking them with her to put in her locker. She was about to sprint out of the classroom when the scary dream resurfaced in her mind and she remembered something Gumball had mentioned last night. Before they went to bed, he mentioned that he had a dream about Silver Twelve before she woke him up. He said that he probably slept for about twenty minutes before she had arrived and when she thought about it herself, she realized that they had about ten minutes left until class had ended when had fallen asleep. Meaning she had slept for twenty minutes.

Looking outside, she could see that the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky, just like it was in her dream. Feeling more panic rising within her, she realized that the dream might've been a vision of sorts that warned her of what was to come. She wondered if it had something to do with the fact that only she and Gumball could see them or if there was some other force behind it, but she had no time to ponder that,

"I've got to warn Gumball! There are innocent people in danger!" she screamed, grabbing the sides of her face in fright as her pupils shrunk.

She raced out of the class, down the hall, past Mr. small, whom she shoved to the side as she raced by, making him spill his herbal tea, and towards the gym class where Gumball was.

-the gym, phys. ed class-

Out of all the times Gumball had found himself running for his life, chasing down a friend or family member, or being forced to hold some heavy object that threatened to crush him or someone close: he was pretty sure he donated a lot less sweat than he did working out the gym.

The humanoid cat child was practically drenched in perspiration as he forced his body off of the ground and into a plank position,

"...four…" he grunted, feeling himself starting to cry as he finished the push-up.

He felt like hell. His arms and joints were replaced with burning iron castings and his body was heavier than lead, or at least that's what it felt like. The normally inactive cat child would have avoided this kind of physical activity with an excuse from the nurse's office that he would give to coach Russo and enjoy his class time sitting on the bench.

But this time was different. The people of Elmore were in danger from an unseen threat and he was going to need to be in peak physical condition if he was to stand a better chance against the Nephilim. He knew that there was no way to beat them with sheer strength alone, he was also going to have to sharpen his skills as a scythe wielder as well as figure out other means of combating an unknown enemy with powers that were not of this world.

Around him he could hear many kids who were as unfit as him, struggling to complete their warm-up. Tobias, the multicolored, cloud-like humanoid and jock wannabe, was attempting to lift a barbell that was at least a hundred pounds in order to impress Masami Yoshida, a sentient cloud with a face and a spoiled princess personality, and Sarah G. Lato, a creepy lemon flavored ice cream and cone that had arms and legs matching the color of her head. Both girls were just standing around and talking while trying to avoid doing any sort of physical activity or looking at Tobias. On Tobias' other side was Banana Joe, a wisecracking animate banana who had a reputation of being the class clown and being rather rude on some occasions. He was busy doing squats while making fart noises every time his body dipped and laughed every time he did so.

On the other side of the gym, coach Russo, an oversized cube lady with a personality more bland than her color scheme, watched as her daughter, Jamie Russo, a husky little girl with short, round, messy orange hair that hid her eyes and a pair of cow horns that stuck out on either side of her head and curved downwards, expertly jumped and flipped several times at an incredible height from a trampoline. Coach Russo congratulated her everytime she completed a jump with her gravelly monotone voice. Gumball still wondered to this day, how those two could be related, since they both neither acted or looked the same. Okay, they were both rude, but that was still a stretch when compared the world of differences that often displayed themselves whenever the two would interact with him.

Also, standing right next to the Russos was Tina Rex, the school bully that resembled the famous Tyrannosaur. She was currently lifting over 200 pound weights with her tail and she wasn't even breaking a sweat.

The next activity after the warm-ups was indoor baseball, which Gumball was dying to get to (literally.) since he could work on swinging and hitting something with precision. It would also help increase his awareness and reaction time. He wanted to utilize every spare moment he had here in order to prep for the oncoming fights ahead. He hoped Teri was having luck in her research, any additional info. on these creatures would be very useful in the nearby future.

He heard the gym doors slam open in the background and wondered who was visiting the class at this time of day. Probably principle Brown needing to talk to the coach about a staff meeting or something. Gumball ignored it and began to work on his fifth push-up: his goal was to reach ten.

He heard a soft, airy voice and light footsteps on the gym floor drawing nearer to his area as he practically screamed in agony as he managed to push his wobbly arms until they were straight. He was so out of breath and out of shape that he couldn't even utter the number he was on. Maybe he oughta stop at five for today before his arms snapped off.

"GUMBALL! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!"

He recognized the frantic, high pitched, feminine voice that was being directed at him and collapsed onto his stomach and into the puddle that was his effort with a sickening splash. He got up, albeit slowly, and wiped the film of sweat from his forehead and slowly turned his head to the person he didn't expect to see here,

"...Teri…?" he panted, exhaustion overcoming his frail body,

"What are you doing here?" he wheezed, sucking in another gust of air afterwards.

Teri was hunched over herself and panting like the person she was talking to. She looked like she had been sprinting down the halls and her expression was hard to read because only the back of her head was visible. Being a piece of paper had some real pitfalls and Gumball was starting to understand why she was so nervous all the time. He could clearly tell that she was in distress due to her being here and the fact that she looked like she was in a rush.

"No time to explain…" she gasped,

"The park! it's going to appear at the park! I saw it in a dream." she blurted out as fast as she could.

Gumball remembered seeing Teri sleeping at her desk before he left class and assumed that she was just resting her head. That would explain her dream, but Gumball wasn't so sure about leaving gym class just yet. Also there was the fact, that he didn't think that a Nephilim would appear so soon.

"Okay, Teri we'll deal with it after school. Right now I got to focus on-oof!" he grunted as Teri grabbed a nearby basketball during his explanation and slammed it into his stomach.

This caused him to double over and fall to the ground while clutching his lower abdomen. He couldn't scream because he was completely winded by the paper girl's swift yet powerful strike. He felt her hands grab him by the shoulders, hoist him up a little and she began dragging him towards the door, all the while shouting,

"Oh dear! Gumball you're hurt! I gotta get you down to the nurse's office right away! Coach Russo, can you call Ms. Markham, please!" she shouted so the whole class could hear her,

"Ugh! Why are you so slimy? How hard were you working out?" she uttered in disgust as she felt Gumball's sweat pour from his body.

She disappeared with Gumball through the exit doors and out into the hallway.

The entire gymnasium was left in shock. It was so quiet that a pin dropping to the floor could be heard from across the vast room. The guys stood still with their mouths agape and eyes their eyes popping from their skulls, while the girls, just glared at the door with a mixture of sour expressions and genuine awe.

Coach Russo was the one to break the silence as she just sighed in annoyance and muttered.

"When Mr. Watterson comes to his senses, tell him he could have avoided that ball if he had participated more in dodgeball." she said, completely disregarding the fact that the two had already left. With that said, she ordered the students to stop gawking and carry on with the workout.

Everyone did as they were told and resumed their workout routines or whatever activity that didn't require much effort. The entire class began quietly chatting about the scene Teri had made not even a minute ago. There were confused questions including whether Teri was actually sick for once, did she want to beat up Gumball for something he said or did earlier, were they a thing now, or was Teri conducting some kind of operation that involved kidnapping people from their respective classes in order to disinfect them. Some of the girls even seemed rather awestruck or jealous that Teri was actually bold enough to pull off that kind of stunt.

The two other guys in the gym were thinking of other things. Mainly Tobias, seeing as he always allowed his mind to wonder in the drama zone when it came to events like the one that just transpired. It was just so much for him to take in: first Gumball was mopey, then he and Teri show up together at the bus stop, they exchange some kind of secret code when they spoke to each other on the vehicle, then she literally walks right in here in order to steal away her man! Gumball seriously had it going!

Unable to contain the emotions bubbling within and the drive to cause drama, Tobias whispered to Banana Joe, who was now doing jumping jacks with his wiry arms and legs,

"Dude! You saw that, right?" he exclaimed, pretending to do some stretches.

Banana Joe let out a hysterical laugh, his googly eyes bouncing about some more,

"Yeah, she just knocked him down with a ball! What a loser! Ha Ha!" he laughed harder this time, nearly falling on his backside.

"No. she knocked him down so that she could drag him out of here." he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Banana Joe didn't seem to be on the same page. He just stared at the sporty cloud kid with his mouth hanging open.

Tobias could tell he was lost, so he chose to better clarify what he meant,

"She used his injury as an excuse to drag him out of gym so she could… you know… be alone with him." he explained with a wink.

Banana Joe's eyes widened and his mouth formed an "ooooohhhhh!" like someone who had just understood the punchline of a witty joke and winked back at Tobias,

"I see… so she just wanted to talk to him." he said. He continued doing jumping jacks.

Tobias knew instantly that the fruity jester had completely missed the point he was trying to make and facepalmed himself so hard that the smack could be heard all around the gym.

"NO! Dude! She's dragging him out of this class because she wants to smooch him!" he shouted,

"You saw them today on the bus, man! She was at his house! I don't know what happened, but I'm just going to assume that they were up to romantic stuff. You gotta know how girls work, man." his voice was lower now.

Hearing this, the banana immediately bought into it, even though he was positive that Teri showed absolutely no interest in him before. Though, he did have to admit, this morning's bus ride and what just happened not two minutes ago did seem kind of off,

"Hmm, well, good for him." he simply replied before going back to his workout.

Tobias gave up in trying to talk to him. He thought that he would have a bro to join him on an angsty rant about how Gumball always got the girls, even though he only ever dated one girl and the only other girl to show him any affection was Sarah, but that was entirely unintentional. Plus, Teri being with him for one day wasn't exactly legitimate proof of a blooming relationship. Either way, Tobias was Tobias and whenever things didn't go his way, he'd pin the blame on the person he despised the most. He was also mad at the fact that Teri, like the other girls on the cheerleading squad or any popular girl in that matter, was a target of his constant flirting attempts and yet, she shows up at Gumball's house after a month of him doing nothing but acting like a depressed loser. Seriously, the world was a cruel and unfair place for the blue-orange delusional jock and he couldn't make heads or tails as to why.

While Tobias seethed in silence as he paced the gym, the closet door opened and out stepped Darwin with a jump rope in his fin. He was confused when he saw that the mood of the gymnasium had changed. Everyone was either, huddled in groups, whispering amongst themselves, or just looking rather confused or awkward. He could see Tobias angrily pacing the area where Banana Joe, Sarah, and Masami were hanging out, but that could be any number of things, seeing as the whiny rich kid was always in a bad mood about something. One thing that he noticed right off the bat was that Gumball was absent. He had gone to the closet to get a jump rope and left him there to do his push-ups and after rummaging through the messy pile that was the gym equipment, he got out only to discover his brother from another mother had gone missing.

He looked around at all the faces in the gym and placed a flipper on the side of his body as if he were placing a hand on his hip,

"What did I miss?"

-1 mile from Elmore park, twenty minutes later-

With the sun high in the sky, the temperature outside has risen dramatically, to the point most people moving about in the heat had retreated indoors to enjoy the shade of their homes and the air conditioning. It was pretty hot out for a casual day in September, but being in California it was bound to happen occasionally. The summer may have left, but the heat certainly hadn't and it probably won't until later in the fall.

For our two heroes racing across the sky in an origami F-18, the outdoor temperature was the least of their worries. When they left the gym, they first visited their lockers to retrieve Gumball's deadly spirit slaying weapon and several blanket-sized sheets of paper Teri's parents gave her for emergencies. After that, they paid a quick visit to the nurses office where Joan checked Gumball for any serious injuries before diagnosing him as fine and sending the two on their way. They did this to throw off any suspicion and to buy themselves a little extra time before anyone noticed that they were missing. After leaving the infirmary, the two fleeing students rushed outside until they were in front of the main doors and steps before Teri formed her jet and the two were soon airborne. They were now on an intercept course that lead straight to the park Teri saw in her dream.

Gumball ducked down in order to keep the rushing air from smacking him in the face and to eliminate on parasitic drag. Teri sat in front of him and was also ducking down for the same reasons although she was controlling the high speed aircraft through her manipulation abilities. Even though she formed an F-18 out of paper, there was no cockpit or passenger cabin to sit in, so Teri found herself sitting on the nose of the model strike craft and Gumball was positioned behind her near the spot where the cockpit connected to the fuselage. With his scythe folded in his right hand, he secured himself to the bizarre transport by wrapping his left arm around and legs around the narrow pilot's cabin and held on for dear life.

With the wind tearing across his fur and filling his ears, the little blue cat felt somewhat nervous, as he wasn't comfortable with flying this high and fast while being on the outside, and cold due to the high altitude and the little protective clothing he had on his body. He seriously hoped that Teri was right about this and that there was a Nephilim spirit appearing at the park they were quickly approaching. He estimated that they had about fifteen minutes before lunch started and wanted to make this quick.

"You know, if there's nothing there and we find out that this was a colossal waste of time, I'm expecting a huge apology when we get back and an ice pack!" he shouted over the screaming wind, the throb of his stomach was just as painful as the cold, frigid air that burned his fingers.

Teri kept her eyes straight on the small green smudge that was the park and willed the jet to increase in speed. The sun was at its highest peak, they had little time until it would appear: provided that her dream was correct, of course.

She heard Gumball over the rushing air and answered,

"I know it's there! It stands to reason that if it appeared shortly after you had your dream, then it will appear here where my dream said so." she would be irritated at his previous statement, but she was too focused on dealing with the current problem at hand,

"Besides, even if it wasn't there, it would be better to be safe than sorry."

That did make a lot of sense to the Watterson child, it would be better to deal with a possible threat now, than to leave it up to chance and risk having multiple people getting hurt or worse. She explained on the way to Joan's office the details of her dream and the absence of people in the park. At least that allowed them to fight without any risk of civilian casualties.

"Fine, but next time could you at least use an excuse that doesn't involve a ball striking any of my sensitive spots!" he shouted, not pleased with how the paper girl handled their "getaway" excuse.

The plane's pilot snickered a little at the cat's misfortune and shrugged,

"Yeah, sure. Next time I'll just frame you for something bad and have us both sent down to Mr. Brown's office." she replied sarcastically. Although, she wouldn't mind going through that plan and even had a few ideas on how to pull it off.

Hearing her snappy comeback, a tick mark formed on the cat's gargantuan head and he gritted his teeth in frustration. He let out a growl that was directed at his snarky, paper cut-out classmate,

"Let's just focus on the Nephilim and plan out our escape plans later." he grumbled, saving his energy for the potential fight ahead.

Teri was about to form a clever quip to further frustrate her passenger/partner, but they had already reached the park: just as the Nephilim spirit arrived.

When the two reached the expanse of green land that served as a recreational area for the citizens of Elmore, Teri slowed the origami F-18 and began to circle the area. As soon as they had arrived, a dark shadow tore across the blue, cloudless skies, as if the heavens themselves were cracking, and opened, revealing a murky black void. From this void the five legged monstrosity descended and gracefully landed on the grass with it's long, delicate-looking legs. The portal closed behind the hideous, spider-like spirit and the Nephilim's various eyes scanned the area in a frenzied fashion: like a predator searching a new habitat for potential prey.

The good news was that it hadn't spotted the two circling it at an altitude of five hundred feet. The bad news: the beast began tearing across the field at unbelievable speeds towards the populated city itself. They had to react fast or else the malevolent spirit was going to reach the populated center in a short time span.

Gumball nearly jumped out of his skin the moment he saw the tall, five legged daddy long legs of death,

"What the what! That spider is huge!" he shrieked, his arachnophobia taking control of his better judgement.

Teri checked on her passenger and saw that he was wide eyed with fear and his body was trembling in terror. She was unaware of his fear of spiders, so this was quite the news for her and it was actually kind of funny too. Gumball, the fearless, impulsive, class troublemaker was scared of spiders. It just seemed relatively ridiculous to the paper bear girl, but was a subtle reminder that you could only know someone so well.

"Gumball, that's not a spider. Spiders have eight legs, not five, along with two body segments instead of one, blocky, hexagonal one." she explained, knowing a little bit about bug and insect anatomy, since she feared the possibilities of infection by bug bite.

"Besides, do you have a plan for fighting that thing?" she asked, carefully watching the thing make its way towards the bustling city.

The blue cat didn't have many clues as to where this thing's weakness was, but he could assume that the cluster of red eyes was a good place to start as any. The places to avoid were its legs of course, seeing as they looked rather sharp and precise. Combined with its speed, it was the perfect killing weapon and would be hard to avoid. There were a lot of unknown factors regarding the multi-legged monster, but they didn't have the luxury to study their opponent's capabilities as they were rapidly running out of time.

He spotted a glaring weakness in the bug's defenses: the top of its "body" where its five legs connected. With that, he knew how he was going to approach this creepy crawly conundrum and readied himself for the inevitable confrontation. Steeling his nerves, he scooted towards Teri, his weight throwing off the plane's balance a little, and tapped her shoulder, grabbing her attention,

"Seeing as I'd rather end this fight the fastest way imaginable, I want you to circle around until you're on top of it. I'm going to jump off and start hacking away at its face, until it disappears. I think it's safe to say that it's weak spot is it's eyes." he told his plan as quietly as he could. He knew it probably couldn't hear him while they were five hundred feet above it, but he wasn't quite willing to risk the possibility of his most horrible nightmare overhearing his plan.

Following along with what he was saying, Teri agreed that it was the best approach seeing as it probably couldn't react if Gumball was standing atop its center. However, she did have a concern for this kind of plan,

"So we're basically using the same trick that we used to defeat silver twelve?" she called back to him.

Gumball gave a confident nod, although his eyes held some uncertainty.

She wasn't convinced that this plan was going to be as easy as that,

"Okay, we'll go through with it, BUT if it somehow sees you before you land or you miss somehow, I'm coming down to pick you up. That monster is really fast so you'll need me to help you keep up." she stated as a matter of fact.

Understanding what she meant, Gumball respected her decision and gave one more determined nod and placed his scythe in both hands. With a click of two separate buttons, the ancient weapon's shaft extended to its full four feet and the curved blade snapped outwards like a claw being extended. The blade gleamed in the sunlight and the runes etched on its surface contrasted the glaring light. Standing up, the blue cat made his way to the back of the jet while Teri guided said aircraft towards the striding monstrosity.

The Nephilim spirit made some progress clearing the park. Being taller than most of the objects in the surrounding area, the insect-like monster easily made its way over trees, lamp posts, benches, even entire hills. Anything that was caught within its path was either knocked aside or pierced by its sharp, narrow appendages not even hesitating to impale small animals like squirrels or birds. With its nimble body, it had already cleared half of the park and was approaching the closest street at an alarming rate.

Knowing that the road was busy with people in their automobiles, trying to beat the afternoon heat, Teri moved faster until she and Gumball had closed in on the beast. Dropping down until she was least ten feet above the creature, Teri approached the five legged bug of terror from the left and was preparing to fly over and allow Gumball to drop onto its body. With a hundred feet to cover, she slowed her approach in a way that allowed her to catch the wandering spirit and allow Gumball to jump with little error in his timing. Within twelve seconds, the two had reached the Nephilim and Gumball prepared his attack, it was the moment of truth.

Then it stopped and turned in their direction.

Time seemed to stop for Teri as soon as its many eyes rested on her. The thing had reacted so fast, that it seemed to outrun time itself. All Teri could think at that moment was "how?" they weren't supposed to be seen nor heard. Did it have a sixth sense? Some way to detect incoming objects within a certain proximity? She didn't think that they would be discovered until they had completed their attack run.

Then she remembered Gumball.

He wasn't facing the creature like she was and instead, was standing at the back of the plane getting ready to jump. He didn't know that it had spotted them already and was now preparing to attack it head on. He was unknowingly jumping to his doom and she needed to react now!

With a mighty tug on the aircraft's nose and a split second decision, Teri pulled the F-18 into a steep climb while at the same time accelerating into the sky. She had only one thing on her mind and that was to simply evade the creature before it could do anything to the both of them. Her heart raced as the aircraft shot upwards and the wind from the sudden increase in speed caused her eyes to sting.

Unfortunately for her, while she managed to escape a potential attack from the creature that had spotted them: Gumball had jumped, believing that it was time to do so and that his partner was pulling away for another round.

Feeling the sudden decrease in weight towards the rear, the paper aircraft's pilot turned back only to see that Gumball had vanished! She shrieked in fear and pivoted her head until she could see both Gumball and the five legged monster clearly. She watched as the blue cat sailed towards the entity with his scythe raised above his head. The monsters eyes all focused on Gumballs falling form and with a flick of one of its frontal legs, it batted Gumball out of the air and into the clearing about thirty feet away.

The strike was so fast and powerful that Gumball barely felt himself hit the ground and tumble to a stop. His body must have been in shock because his breathing seemed to stop right there and he didn't notice any pain despite the fact he was struck in the stomach by a solid appendage traveling at traveling at speeds that rivaled professional baseball batters. Today was just not a good day for his lower abdomen.

At first he just wanted to lay where he was and cry for what it was worth: he just wanted this day to be over with. However, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw that the five legged monster was already upon him and was in the process of raising a needle-like appendage to impale him with. With his adrenaline suddenly kicking in, his survival instincts told him roll to the left and he did so with amazing reaction time. Just as he moved, he heard a whoosh! followed by the sound of something slamming into the ground where his head was once resting. He had managed to dodge getting his head pulverized with only half a second to spare!

After rolling around a few more times to avoid being in the creature's next line of attacks, Gumball got to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. He was covered in dirt and his sweater was torn at the shoulder, but this didn't bother him as much as the fact that he had dropped his scythe. The weapon Carrie had given him left his hands after he had taken a hit from the monster during his first attempt to attack it. It was probably lying nearby, at least he hoped it was.

After a few quick glances, he spotted the weapon sticking out of the ground with its blade sinking into the soil. It was several yards away and would take him a few seconds to reach it if he sprinted. The only problem was that the Penta-crawler, the name he had given the Nephilim, was already looming over him with two, forty foot legs raised to attack. He wondered if Teri was on her way now because even if he reached the scythe he wouldn't be able to keep up with the monster's lightning-quick strikes,

With only one way but forward, Gumball raced towards his weapon all the while keeping an eye on the Penta-crawler's raised legs. As soon as he began running, he caught sight of one of the spear-like appendages racing towards him and jumped to the side as soon as it struck the ground where his feet once were. The first attack was followed by a second one, causing the blue cat to dodge in the other direction as the sharp limb sent dirt flying upon impact. So far he had managed to barely dodge each strike and he was already no more than five yards away from the desired item.

The tall abnormality continued to stalk Gumball as it slashed and stabbed at the tiny cat who continued to make his way towards his weapon. Its attacks continued to land no direct fatal hits, but did manage to graze the kitten on more than one occasion. Unbeknownst to both the Penta-crawler and the fleeing Gumball, Teri had managed to set down nearby and reform her F-18 into a folded Lion, no bigger than a bicycle, and began tearing across the field to where the desperate struggle ensued.

With only a few feet remaining between Gumball and the mystical weapon, Gumball decided to close the distance by leaping forward. Bending his knees, he launched himself at the discarded weapon, arms reaching out towards the raised handle just as the crawler's leg pierced the ground where he once stood. He was successful in retrieving the weapon, feeling the cold, metal handle within his enclosed fingers as he tugged the weapon out of the ground, but fumbled on the landing as his momentum carried him forward and into a roll that left the cat dizzy.

He found himself on his back, once again, and was now gazing into the murderous eyes of a deadly spirit as it towered above him, blocking out the sunlight. Steadying itself on its hind leg and its left rear leg, the Penta-crawler raised its three other legs menacingly and a hissing noise could be heard from an unseen sound organ. Gumball realized that there was no way he dodge all three legs while lying on his back. Even if he dodged one, the other two would get him for sure. In sheer desperation he raised the staffed weapon above with the hopes of somehow diverting the simultaneous attacks.

As quick as a lightning strike, the impaling weapons shot towards the helpless student on the ground.

The only thing the beast struck was dirt because the second before the attack begun, Gumball was snatched up by a small paper lion with a humanoid bear mount of the same material. The Penta-crawler hissed angrily and turned to see where the speeding animal had run off to. To its surprise, Teri, Gumball, and the paper lion hadn't gone far, but instead were encircling it like a pair of cowboys circling some restless cattle.

Pulling the dazed cat onto the folded feline, Teri checked and saw that Gumball was okay albeit a little scratched up and terrified. He held onto the scythe as tightly as possible, not wanting to lose it a second time, while his life flashed before his eyes.

"Are you alright?!" Teri shouted back to him.

Gumball managed a nod and continued to stare straight ahead,

"Y-yeah… I don't think my plan worked, though." he gasped.

That couldn't have been clearer than glass.

Seeing that the spindly creature wasn't doing anything except watching them racing around itself, Teri let her body relax and her mind clear up,

"It's not attacking us at the moment. I think it's because we're moving too fast for it to follow." she pointed out.

The Nephilim version of daddy long legs didn't even attempt to attack the two of them and instead just kept an eye(s?) on the couple of students riding their strange beast.

Gumball saw this as an opportunity to form a counter strategy. One thing he had noticed was that this one didn't attack unless the target was in range. Another thing to note was that while it's legs and body were hard, its joints had to be softer in order to increase its overall flexibility. From what he could see was that it had three joints per leg, with the lowest joint being roughly 20 feet off the ground. If they could reach one of the legs pivotal areas then maybe he could inflict some damage or even disable the monster.

Once again, it was do or die and Gumball didn't want to wait around and see what other tricks the sorta-spider of the apocalypse had in store,

"Teri, do you think you can somehow get us both up to the lowest joint on its hind leg?" he asked, using his scythe as a pointer to indicate the area he was referring to.

Looking at the monster's hind leg, she saw it and understood what Gumball's plan was,

"Yeah, I'm sure I can get us both up there. HANG ON!" she shouted, willing the Lion to pick up the pace towards the monster.

Gumball wrapped his free arm around Teri's thin waist, causing both them to blush a little at the sudden close contact, while they picked up speed. He hoped to the heavens above that he didn't accidentally rip the feeble hypochondriac in half.

They reached the Nephilim spirit within the span of ten seconds and commenced their plan of attack. As soon as they were both in range, the Penta-crawler immediately lashed out at them. Thrusting a front, right leg into the ground, the paper lion swiftly dodged before leaping onto said limb and began scrambling up the spindly appendage. Gumball experimented a little and sliced a few times at the crawler's leg and as expected, the blade bounced off harmlessly in a cascade of sparks followed by the hollow sound of metal striking metal.

Before they could reach the first legs joint, the penta-crawler quickly retaliated by swiping at the two with another leg. Just like with the first one, the lion bearing two riders gracefully leapt upwards and onto the striking limb with little effort. When they landed on the opposing appendage, Gumball noticed that its flexible, pivot point was just within striking distance and swung the scythe until it sank into the penta-crawler's vulnerable flesh. Teri knew he was about to attack and ducked before Gumball swung, giving him easy access to his target. The crescent blade sliced through the joint with ease and Teri forced the origami lion to leap off as the leg was severed from the monster's body. It fell to the ground with a heavy crash and into a writhing heap as Gumball and Teri managed to reach its hind leg and repeated the procedure.

With another limb severed, it was down to just three legs.

Unfortunately, what Gumball hadn't counted on was the beast being able to sense where they are and being able to use its rear legs to attack as well. Both of them didn't see the spear-like limb racing towards them and with a quick swipe, it knocked both of them out of the air. The two students separated from their folded paper mount and tumbled to the ground, well Gumball did at least, Teri on the other hand just kind of floated down to earth. Her origami jungle cat struck the ground lifelessly, tumbled a bit, before rolling to a complete stop several yards away.

When Gumball and Teri reached the ground, they both immediately stood up and faced the creature looming above them. With only three legs to stand on and move around, the beast became slower. Teri and Gumball easily leapt out of the way when the Penta-crawler tried to trample them both underfoot. It occasionally stabbed at the two with Teri simply bending and contorting herself to avoid being struck, while Gumball sidestepped, leapt, or deflected each strike away with his scythes handle,

"We can't hold out like this!" he shouted, swiping at the beast's rapidly striking piercer,

"Teri, go grab your lion while I hold this thing's attention!"

His paper accomplice nodded and complied to his order and took off running. Unfortunately, the Nephilim saw this and with a quick strike from one of its hind legs, it severed Teri's right leg from her body!

Gumball screamed in horror as his classmate went down,

"TERI!"

He was about to rush to her side when one of the monster's legs shot outwards and sent the small cat flying like a soccer ball. He landed quite a ways away from his downed teammate and near her discarded origami tool. His ribs burned and felt like an invisible shark took a bite out of his right side, he might've bruised a rib or two. The sharp and sudden pain caused him to vomit while he used his shaky arms to prop himself up.

Meanwhile, in front of the Penta-crawler while holding the stump that was what was left of her right leg, Teri screamed in agony. This wasn't the first time the paper girl had some part of her torn off, as a matter of fact, her frailty is one of the factors that played into her fear of germs and serious injury. No matter how many times she had been torn in the past, it was always painful and horrifying to the animate paper doll.

What made it worse, was that now it was very possible that she could die here, at this very moment, helpless and left in agony.

The Penta-crawler didn't opt to shred his wounded prey into paper scraps. Instead, it lowered its body until its ugly mess of a face was a dozen feet from the quivering paper bear. Teri saw the monster's cluster of scarlet orbs drawing nearer and began backing away as fast as she could, using her hands and remaining leg to push herself backwards. She knew it was a pointless endeavor and was reacting purely on instinct, but she wanted to be as far away from the ghastly face that peering at her weakened body.

In what was considered a bizarre move, the Penta-crawler's eyes first began to vibrate rapidly, then they all began to merge together like a clump of platelet cells, to form one large, circular eye with a midnight black pupil at the center. The large ocular organ bore into Teri's own two and the paper bear began feel a tremendous force pressing down on her, driving her into the ground. Her flat body was spread out on the grass and Teri even found it getting increasingly difficult to breathe.

Following the strange force, a glowing, red orb of what appeared to be plasma or some exotic form of energy materialized in front of the single red eye and began increasing from the size of a tennis ball to something larger. The air around Teri began heating up and a loud hum could be heard resonating from the energy orb. Teri guessed that she had seconds before that thing released its final attack and vaporized her from the face of the planet. Closing her eyes tightly, and uttering a final prayer, she braced herself for the ending attack. Kind of ironic, since she always thought she was going to get killed by an invader no one else could see or perceive.

"Are you alright?" a low voice uttered. It sounded pained, like as if the person speaking was having trouble breathing.

Opening her eyes and straining her eyes downwards, she saw Gumball standing in front of her! His body was a silhouette against the overwhelmingly bright glow of the crawler's charging energy sphere, but she could clearly see the chibi-like cat reaching towards her as if to help her up. In his other hand was her lion and his scythe, the lion being easy to carry since it was made from one of the lightest materials on the planet. Teri couldn't exactly place the words in her mouth, but she was very confused as to how Gumball had gotten to her so quickly when he appeared to be injured by the way he was hunched over.

He didn't bother waiting for an answer though, as he just grabbed her by the hand and threw her onto the Lion,

"I'll take the the surprised look on your face as a yes. NOW FLOOR IT!" he screamed, as the deadly orb of energy's glow switched from slightly bright to blinding red intensity. The hum was now thunderous and deafening, causing both student's ears to surge with pain as the overwhelming noise assaulted their eardrums.

Letting go of any doubts, fears, or any confusion, Teri willed the beast to shoot forward and as far away from the blast as possible. They got away just as a beam of ruby, red, scorching death burned a hole ten feet wide and four feet deep into the earth where they once stood. Even though they'd manage to cover a lot of ground in the last few seconds, the smell of burning grass reached their nostrils.

After narrowly dodging a quick death by incineration, the two spirit fighters made their way to a large tree and dove behind it before the crawler spotted them. Pressed against the trunk, the two took a moment to catch their breath, the sound of heavy breathing, hearts thumping and Teri's body crinkling as she trembled could all be heard by one another. They both had their fair shares of avoiding death at the last moment and that last one was by far the most intense. They both wondered how they were going to survive an uncountable number of these things when they couldn't seem to make it past today.

Wiping his forehead, Gumball turned to check on Teri and saw her missing leg,

"Y-you're hurt!" he panicked, he was really scared for his friend.

Becoming aware of her missing leg again, Teri glanced down at the ripped stump of her right leg. She gulped down her anxiety, she couldn't afford to worry about an infection, especially not when they had limited time before the attacking creature located them or decides to attack the unsuspecting populace.

She waved the concerned cat away and shook her head,

"Don't worry about it for now! Once the fight is over we'll find the leg and disinfect the wound before we head back to school." she said, fighting hard to keep her voice from cracking.

Gumball thought about school for a moment and took a second to take out his phone to check the time. He found that the phone wasn't turning on and remembered that the Nephilim had the ability to prevent any electric device from working, like an EMP. He didn't know how much time they had until lunch starts, but he knew that they had to defeat this thing fast!

The Nephilim hadn't spotted them yet or sensed their presence, he could tell because he could hear the thump thump thump of its legs as it wondered the area in search of its missing prey. They had Teri's origami Lion, so at least they still had mobility and that meant he didn't have to worry about leaving her somewhere unprotected. He knew she was light, but he was very, very well aware of his own recklessness and didn't want to place her in harm's way if he could help it. One thing he had noticed about the Penta-crawler (at this point, it was hardly a penta- and more of a tri-) was that when it fired its beam weapon, it lowered his body. However, it only lowered its head when it felt that its victims were disabled.

That's when it hit him.

With his expression lighting up at the sudden realization, he turned to Teri once more, seeing as she was the crucial element to this plan,

"Teri!" he whispered, although his voice came out a little louder than he intended.

The paper girl raised her head and looked at Gumball expectantly,

"I have an idea that will work! However, it's an all or nothing kind of plan. Are you willing to hear me out?" he definitely wasn't hiding the fact that this was potentially, by far, one of his riskiest ideas out of the other two they tried out so far.

Honestly, it didn't matter to the injured anthropomorphic paper bear whether the plan was suicidal or not, so her answer was clear and to the point,

"It's not like it can be any worse than sitting here and waiting for it to find us and pick us both off." she replied with a very lighthearted chuckle.

That was the answer Gumball assumed he would receive and was already handing his scythe to her,

"Good! Cause' you're going to bring it down this time!" he beamed at her as she slowly took the weapon with a confused look plastered on her face.

He sat down and quickly went over his final, last ditch plan of attack.

-one minute later-

The Penta-crawler was surveying a bush when the eldest Watterson child revealed himself. He let out a loud, pained moan (which actually wasn't fake due to how much pain he found himself in.) and slowly crawled his way out from behind the large oak tree. He pretended like he was attempting to flee in an unseen fashion, whimpering as he pulled his body forward and away from the tree, but not too far.

The Nephilim immediately spotted the cat person and scrambled over to see what kind of condition he was in. It appeared to Gumball that this Nephilim spirit was more animal-like than the one that came before it, as that one actually spoke to Gumball and was able to recognize a trap for what it was. This one came scuttling over without so much as a glance to the tree he came crawling from. Within a second it was upon the pre-teen cat.

The Penta-crawler regarded Gumball with its many eyes, scrutinizing the boy like a beast sizing up an opponent for anything that might potentially bring it harm. So it had a sense of caution at least, Gumball was surprised that the multi-legged monster had a survival instinct and wasn't some senseless killing machine. It was still dangerous, just an interesting observation was all.

After a long thirty seconds that felt like a century to the little, defenseless cat, the beast stopped scanning him and allowed its cluster of eyes to form into their single, massive, red one. Immediately, Gumball felt a familiar pressure being exerted on him and he was effectively pinned to the ground. A hum filled the air and the ball of red energy began to materialize once again. It lowered its body until it was a mere dozen feet from the helpless child.

Gumball smirked at the sight and at what was to follow,

"You… should… keep… all… your… eyes open!" he stammered as he delivered his one-liner, the invisible force made it hard for him to breathe, let alone talk.

The tree branches above Gumball rustled, sending a few red/orange leaves fluttering downwards. This caught the attention of the Nephilim and forced it to abort its attack. The single eye shot upwards to catch a glimpse of what was in the tree.

From the tree's dense foliage, sprang a white scorpion no bigger than a mattress, that sailed on to the creature's head and latched on with its pincers. Startled, the Penta-crawler lurched backwards in reaction to the sudden appearance of the unfamiliar creature and began scurrying around in order to throw it off. Gumball, free of the monster's invisible hold on him, found himself gasping for air as he sat up and watched his planned out surprise attack unfold before his very eyes.

On the scorpion's back was Teri, who was clinging tightly to the origami's thin armor plating. The pincers and legs did a great job of clinging to the top of the Nephilim's body, as she did not slide off its glossy, black, chiton surface as it frantically rushed from one spot to another. Wrapped within the paper arachnids tail was the ancient scythe itself, serving as the tails stinger. The tail was poised high, blade gleaming, and ready to strike.

Placing her thoughts into actions, she willed the flat, paper arachnid to position itself over the demonic daddy long legs eye. With a powerful thrust, the tail whipped forward, and sank into the soft, red ocular organ. The monster hissed in pain and shook around some more in order to throw off its attacker: to no avail. With its vain attempt to discard Teri and her newly formed scorpion a complete failure, Teri repeatedly stabbed it in the eye over and over again. Each strike opened a new gash that ran deeper than the previous ones and eventually the eyeball itself was reduced to a few red strands of hollow tissue.

Then the monster stopped moving entirely.

The air grew silent as the monster's movements halted as if the creature itself was paused by a cosmic remote. It's glossy shine faded as it's form became murky and the remaining legs that kept it standing upright, gave way and allowed gravity to pull its carcass to the dirt below. Teri hopped off just as its crumpled body burst into purple flames and left no trace of the monster behind.

Gumball watched the whole thing go down and was now smiling at the success of his plan. The fruits of his knowledge and Teri's effort allowed them to succeed and bring peace to Elmore, for the time being at least. He hoped that there weren't going to be anymore evil spirits appearing soon: two in one day was more than enough excitement for the mischievous child of the Watterson household.

He watched Teri approach him, positioned on her bizarre mount and with a tired look on her face. She seemed relaxed and Gumball could even swear he caught a prideful smirk playing across her thin lips. When she reached him, she lowered the scorpion's tail and allowed the scythe to slide back into Gumball's hands.

He smiled at the familiar touch of the weapon and then returned his gaze to his crafty teammate,

"Good job on that last attack, Teri! I'm glad that at least one of my brilliant plans turned out-!"

"WHO THE HECK CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID PLAN! HELP ME FIND MY LEG AND GET BACK TO SCHOOL BEFORE IT GETS INFECTED!" she shrieked hysterically.

Gumball just stood there with his jaw hanging open like a dope. He knew it was only a matter of time before her inner hypochondriac came rushing forth, he just didn't think it would be this soon.

Without uttering a word discontent, he climbed aboard the origami scorpion, and the two set off towards the area where she had lost her leg in the first place. While they moved, Gumball surveyed the park and saw the damage done to it. The grassy fields were pocketed with holes and freshly turned up dirt. Dented, torn trash cans and broken trees were scattered about and then there was the big smoking crater from where the Penta-crawler fired its beam attack. There might've been a lot of damage done to the area, but at least no one lost their lives this time, well aside from a few helpless animals that got in the way of the Nephilim's path.

Teri spotted her dismembered limb gently rolling about the grass like a white feather in the wind and proceeded to chase after it. While the scorpion picked up speed, her blue passenger contemplated their two battles and what the future held in store for them. The Nephilim they have fought varied in form, intelligence and power, so it could be deduced that every fight from now on will be a different and difficult challenge.

He'd only been with Teri for one day, but throughout both fights she had proven to be a very crafty and helpful partner. Now that he actually thought about it, he wouldn't mind facing whatever came, as long as she was by his side and willing to help him through the challenges that lay ahead. This thought gave him a warm feeling inside that he hadn't felt in a while and quite couldn't explain what it was.

After she caught her missing leg, Teri converted the scorpion into a small helicopter that could carry the two of them and they were soon airborne. They had five minutes until lunch started. Teri told Gumball that she was going to go to her locker, spread some disinfectant on the torn areas, reattach the limb with some tape she also keeps on her, and allow her parents to fix it when she got home. She noticed the scrapes and bruises Gumball had received after getting knocked around in the earlier fight and offered to treat him, but he politely turned her down and told her that the only thing was concerned about was his busted rib cage. He was probably going to have to pay the school nurse a second visit.

With the supernatural battle being finished in a short period of time, the two continued to make their way towards Elmore Junior High to continue on with their normal lives.

(A/N): and that concludes chapter two! This was definitely a fun writing experience and I'm very happy with how this chapter turned out. This didn't take me very long to write and took even less time to go over and edit. I really hope I spotted as many mistakes as possible and I also hope that anyone reading this enjoys the story without being put off by such little things.

Can't wait for more reviews and, hopefully, constructive criticism!

As for the lore presented in the chapter itself, the amount of information given on the Nephilim is about as much as we're going to get for a while, but we will learn more about them in the later chapters. We also got a name drop from another mysterious figure known as the Jade emperor, who is in fact based off of the ruler of the heavens in the fantastic story, "Journey to the west." originating from Chinese mythology. I do have a fondness for ancient myths and legends from popular locations around the worlds, i.e. Greek mythology, Norse mythology, stories from the bible and Jewish texts, and also stories from the east. Even the name "Nephilim" refers to the ancient giants described in the book of genesis and Enoch. However, the figures appearing in this story share only names with their mythological counterparts and don't necessarily share any other characteristics with them, mostly.

This chapter and the previous one were made to kind of set the stage and to show what the two main characters of the story are going to be dealing with and how they are going to proceed from here. The next chapter will follow Teri and Gumball as they find help from an odd person they never will suspect, someone who has some knowledge on the Nephilim and is willing to wage war against the vile spirits in an unlikely alliance. There will also be a time skip in the following chapter, as an entire week will pass and the two resident Nephilim slayers will have gained more experience in fighting the ancient giants.

That is all I'm willing to share today, I hope you guys have a lovely day and I will be publishing the third chapter next week. See you guys around for chapter 3: Magic for Teri.

Don't forget to leave a review and a like for this chapter. Have a nice day!