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?

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Magic for Teri

Teri x Gumball

Hello fans of the amazing world of Gumball and random readers! I hope you are all having a good day today because I know I am! Welcome to chapter three of the romantic fantasy fan fiction Teri x Gumball: In between worlds and in this chapter we'll be focusing on Gumball's social life while Teri tries to learn some magic in order to further assist her partner in defeating the nefarious Nephilim spirits.

In this chapter I'll also be introducing Teri's parents as OC's because the show hasn't given us a proper introduction of them, so I'm going to be filling in the gaps for the audience. On a side note, I've also given Teri a last name, "pepakuma" which, according to google translate, means "paper bear" in Japanese. If any of you are familiar with the language and find this to be a mistake, please let me know in the review down below. I kind of decided to give them a name of Japanese origin because the way Teri's face is drawn reminds me of an anime girl's face and I feel that this makes sense for her character.

I also wanted to thank all of you for your reviews and your overall support of my story, it makes me really happy to know that you guys are enjoying the story and I'm grateful for all the feedback.

Please read, enjoy, and leave a review down below.

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

-September 15th, 2013, 7:12 PM, the Pepakuma household-

"So, Mr. Watterson. What career do you intend on focusing on after you finish high school?"

Gumball found himself sitting at the dinner table with Teri and her parents, Dr. Fukijima Pepakuma and Dr. Yui Pepakuma. It had been a rather pleasant evening, although Gumball had been a little nervous meeting Teri's parents, seeing as the first time he'd met them he and Darwin unknowingly folded them both into Origami swans as a means to help his little brother curb his potato cravings. Even though they said they had forgiven him, he couldn't help but feel a little tension between them and himself.

It had been six days since he and Teri had fought both silver twelve and penta-crawler and they had been involved in three more supernatural confrontations in the span of those six days. On this particular Sunday, an Orangutan-like Nephilim showed up in the forest of doom. While chasing the wily creature through the trees, avoiding its sonic blasts, and steering clear of the various forest monsters that inhabited the deadly forest, Teri accidentally dropped Gumball in a mud puddle after trying to avoid the Nephilim's sonic blast. He wasn't hurt by any means and the two managed to lure it into a cluster of tree roots where Gumball was easily able to decapitate it, but the paper girl felt bad for dropping him and wanted to make it up to him by inviting him to her house to grab a shower, clean his clothes, work on school work, and have dinner with her folks, who just so happened to be home.

Which brings him to now, where he was eating a scrumptious meal of warm rice curry while answering her father's onslaught of personal questions. He chewed his food and swallowed, taking a moment to ponder older male paper bear's latest question,

"Hmm… I honestly haven't given it much thought yet. I guess it's undecided for now." he responded as politely as he could.

Mr. Pepakuma, narrowed his eyes at the young cat and raised an eyebrow, causing the said child to sweat nervously. Teri's father was a surgeon at Elmore hospital and even though Gumball hadn't talked to him much, he could tell that he was a very serious and straightforward kind of man, which kind of reminded him of Patrick Fitzgerald, his ex-girlfriend's overprotective father. The only difference between him and Patrick was that Dr. Pepakuma gave out less threats and seemed more approachable.

Like his daughter, he was an anthropomorphic paper bear with a face and clothes that had been drawn on by a marker. He was taller than both his daughter and wife and had a more rectangular frame. His shoulders were square with sharp angles and his head was shaped like a rectangle with two square ears poking out from the top. His face was crudely drawn like a bear's only his eyes were more narrow and resting on his snout were a pair of spectacles. He wore a simple, button-up, dress shirt, a black tie, and simple trousers: all drawn on of course.

It made Gumball wonder why they all owned a washer and dryer when their clothes were simply drawn on their bodies. Earlier, he had changed out of his dirty clothes before climbing into the shower and changed into his gym clothes while his normal ones were still in the washer. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask, but decided that the washer and dryer were there for guests or that it could've just came with the house and they hadn't gotten around to selling it.

Fukijima continued eating his dinner and began grumbling,

"You should focus on your future while you still can. You're halfway through middle school and soon you'll be in high school. If you don't have everything planned out by then, you may find it difficult to get a proper foothold in life." he said gruffly.

Gumball knew he wasn't trying to be rude, but he didn't exactly like feeling pressured into deciding what career he wanted to be stuck with for the rest of his life. He already had a negative opinion on the prospect of working a pointless job for who knows what stupid reasons only to die unsatisfied with the life that he had lived. Also, there was the fact that the world may be ending and getting past middle school seemed like a hopeful yet, fleeting dream.

"Honey, you know he's got plenty of time to decide his what he's going to do with his life. What matters most is how well he does in school and how he spends his time with his friends." his wife, Yui Pepakuma countered, looking from her plate and to her husband.

Teri's mom resembled her the most, she was roughly Teri's height, was somewhat slim like her, and had a face just like hers. The only difference was that her face and ears were completely circular in contrast to Teri's round, yet, slightly angular one's and that she had short, straight black hair drawn onto her head with some bangs covering her forehead. She also had a few age lines drawn at the corners of her eyes, but they were rather small and unnoticeable from a distance. She wore a simple dress like Teri's, only this one was covered in horizontal stripes and had sleeves that ended at her wrists. She was usually quiet and soft spoken, but could be a little stern when the situation called for it. According to Teri, her mom is an allergist who specializes in treating immune system disorders, food allergies, and other body defense disorders.

With two serious parents in the house, Gumball could understand why Teri was always so shy and quiet. The other stuff he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he could guess that it had something to do with her parents being medical professionals.

"I suppose." her husband muttered into his food.

Gumball's eyes flicked over to Teri, who was delicately eating her chicken curry with a pair of chopsticks while not saying anything. From what he could gather, Teri was the only one in the family who was a germaphobe, as he saw both parents acting carefully when handling certain materials, but not to the crazy extent that his paranoid classmate would. She even told him that she was the one who kept their house spotless when he commented on how clean it was.

She caught him staring at her and he quickly diverted his attention away from her,

"I really like your rice curry, Mrs. Pepakuma! You really outdid yourself." he commented to Teri's mother, trying to generate a positive mood at the table.

Yui took her eyes off of her plate and gave Gumball a grateful smile,

"Why thank you Gumball, but there's no need for flattery. It's a simple recipe I picked up when I was around Teri's age. Her father really likes it though, so I try to make it as often as possible." she said, glancing at her husband, who returned her stare with a smile, but kept his eyes on the chopstick holding the steaming piece of chicken.

"Well, it's really good!" Gumball gave one last comment before he sunk his fork into the curry dish.

"Well, thank you very much." she responded once more before moving onto another question,

"Say Gumball, I've been wondering. How long have you and Teri been going out?" she asked casually.

Unfortunately, that 'casually' asked question elicited quite the response from a startled Teri and the little girl nearly spat out her curry,

"MOM! THAT'S NOT- WE'RE NOT-!" she stammered, her face a bright crimson and her eyes wide with embarrassment. she kept glancing to all the faces at the table, especially Gumball's, who just sat there with his face slowly turning pale. Evidently they weren't as serious as he initially thought and made Gumball think twice before assuming a personality after just meeting them.

Her mom was cackling with laughter upon seeing her daughter's overreaction to her innocent little joke,

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Couldn't help myself there!" she chuckled to herself,

"You two should see your faces!" she was pointing at both kids now.

Teri pushed away her food and allowed her head to fall to the table, she could feel her face burning and her humiliation rising. Gumball just sat in place as he focused on getting the blood to start pumping to his head again. Not only was he embarrassed, he nearly felt himself die right there because he was afraid that she was asking a serious question and wasn't quite sure how her father would react to such a thing. Luckily for him, Teri's father just smirked a little at his wife's twisted sense of humor and simply shook his head before shoving another chopstick loaded with rice curry into his mouth. Gumball was the only one using a fork since he wasn't used to eating in this particular style.

"I was worried for a sec that these people would be deadpans throughout the entire meal, but looks like I was horribly wrong." he thought in relief. He was thankful in knowing that both he and Teri had parents that would take an opportunity to tease their children, although his do it unintentionally. After her mother told her to stop face planting the table, Teri sat up and continued eating her meal, albeit with a redder face and less eye contact with anyone.

"But, seriously how long have you two known each other? It seems like since the beginning of September you two have been hanging out a lot, but I don't remember hearing Teri mentioning your name a whole lot other than a few stories here and there before that." she asked with a serious face.

That was an interesting question. Gumball was first about to answer with, "I knew her in sixth grade." since that was the first time they actually interacted with each other, but he actually remembered seeing her in kindergarten. He never talked to her much, but he did remember waving at her a couple times and her returning the gesture before he would return to whatever activity he was invested in. In hindsight, he guessed that could count as an interaction of sorts.

"That's hard to say." he said, rubbing the back of his head,

"I saw her a couple times at Kindergarten and in elementary school, but we didn't exactly start speaking to each other until sixth grade. She came over to my house around last Monday and we started hanging out more because… we discovered that we had a few 'things' in common." he answered, not so sure how to explain the last part without giving away the secret the two shared.

Yui raised an eyebrow as she analyzed his face before deciding that the answer registered as okay and went back to eating,

"That sounds pleasant. I'm glad you two get along so well. Me and Fukijima are always busy at the hospital and so we're not home all the time to watch over Teri. We appreciate hearing that someone is on good enough terms with our daughter to hang out and spend time with her. She's always so happy when we get home, she usually likes to talk about cheerleading practice and recently she's been talking about you as well." she explained, rubbing her daughters head affectionately. Teri blushed some more as her mother mentioned the last part.

Mr. Pepakuma finished his curry and stood up to place his dirty dishes in the sink. He turned to Teri and gave her a stern glare,

"Finish your food. You got a biology and a math assignment to finish up on." he ordered.

He then focused his glare on Gumball,

"And you. You're parents said they were alright with you sleeping over, correct?" he asked.

Gumball gave a quick nod and looked him straight in the eye.

The square paper bear registered the affirmative action and made his way to the kitchen,

"Very well then. I'll bring out the inflatable mattress for you to sleep on. Bedtime is at 10:00 sharp. No T.V. until your homework is finished, both of you!" he said, pointing at the both of them.

They both nodded in understanding and he left the kitchen.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Gumball saw that it was 7:17 PM and began eating at a faster pace. Mrs. Pepakuma finished her food and stood up to join her husband in the kitchen. Before she got going, she decided to say one more thing to Gumball,

"Oh, and Gumball! When you're hanging out with my daughter, try to stay out of trouble. When you two first started hanging out, I had to glue my little one's leg back together." her voice was steady, but slightly accusing, as if she suspected he had something to do with it.

Gumball sweat dropped and waved his hands nervously, he figured that they were going to connect the dots and immediately become suspicious of all the accidents they've been getting into,

"Yeah, that was my bad. When we were heading back to class, her foot got caught in the door and I tried to help her out, but I only made it worse. I'm sorry for her injury and for making you guys worry. I will make sure to be careful when she's around me." he declared.

The day after the attack of silver twelve and Penta-crawler, Teri had told him that her mom had patched her up and that she had to lie about getting her foot stuck in the door. It was obviously a good way to throw off suspicion, but they could both tell that neither one of them actually enjoyed lying to their loved ones. Unfortunately, as the week began to pass, lies like that became more common as the two often needed excuses to leave and go fight the Nephilim that were constantly plaguing Elmore. On the plus side, they were saving many lives in the process, their teamwork and coordination improved a little as each battle progressed, and they got to know and trust one another the more time they spent with each other.

Mrs. Pepakuma was about to add something else to the conversation, but her pocket began beeping. Grabbing a pencil, she drew on a pocket and pulled a pager out. She glanced at it and sighed,

"It's Dr. Burns again." she said in exasperation,

"I'm needed down at the office, most likely one of my patient's symptoms are acting up again. You two finish eating and go do your homework, I'll be back in a few hours or so." she said, rushing to grab her white coat.

Mr. Pepakuma saw her leaving and grabbed her dishes to place them in the sink,

"Would you like me to drive you there, honey?" he asked while rinsing off the dirty plate.

She nodded while she threw on her doctor's coat and pivoted on her heel to face the kids one more time,

"You two have a good night. Teri, I expect a phone call from Ms. Simian tomorrow about your assignment from yesterday and don't forget you have cheerleading practice tomorrow. I love you!" she said, before making her way to the door.

"Love you mom!" Teri called out to her and waved.

Her mom waved back and left the dining room, leaving them with Mr. Pepakuma. He grabbed the car keys from a clean, glass jar on the Kitchen counter and followed after his wife,

"All right you two, I expect you both to be well behaved and productive. I'm gonna drop her off at the hospital and go pick up some groceries from the supermarket. I should be back in an hour. If for whatever reason I am summoned to the ER then I will text you and I expect that you two will be in bed by ten. Gumball, the inflatable mattress is rolled up in the closet next to the restroom. Love you, Teribear!" he said, using her nickname.

Teri blushed a darker shade at hearing her parent's pet name for her being mentioned when she had a friend over. Gumball had to stifle a snicker, but his efforts were in vain because the paper girl noticed his forced expression and glared at him menacingly,

"Shut it, Gummypuss!" she snarled, using his mom's pet name for him in retaliation.

The blue cat burst out laughing. He didn't care whether she used his nickname or not, he thought her reaction was funny. Now he knew how to address her at school, there were so many possibilities to inconvenience her.

While a beet, red Teri was attempting to jab a hysterical Gumball in the eye with her chopstick, her father gave Gumball one last sinister glare from behind his spectacles,

"And Mr. Watterson!" he said in a raised voice.

Gumball stopped laughing and Teri stopped trying to attack him. They both sat perfectly still with their eyes focused on the square paper man bear.

He raised a flimsy pointer finger until it was directed at Gumball. The tension in the air made the blue cat feel as if he were being held at gunpoint and his heart rate began accelerating.

"No funny business! I'm entrusting you with my daughter's safety and I expect you to act responsibly. Do I make myself clear?" he growled.

It was a simple message that held a lot of weight and dire consequences if he messed up. The pre-teen gulped and squeeked out a "yes sir!" before shakily saluting. Why are girl's fathers so terrifying, even when this one was made of paper and could be knocked down by blowing on him.

Fukijima snorted like a bull once he got Gumball's word and stormed out of the house, shutting the door behind him. The two listened as the Pepakuma's car rolled out of the driveway and made its way down the road to the hospital. As soon as they were gone, Gumball allowed all the stress that was building within to be released in a single act of exhaling. They were alone now and that meant they could discuss plans for tomorrow.

Teri noticed Gumball's stressed state and cleared her throat,

"My parents aren't really that scary, just a little strict. They want me to do my best in school, so they lay down all these ground rules to make sure my academic performances are top level. They also worry about my health because we're all pretty feeble and have to take extra care not to get hurt." she explained.

The blue cat boy mentally took back his earlier comment about her developing a fear of germs on her own because she was crazy, but due to the fact that her family was literally so frail that they had to take many precautions to ensure their own safety. He understood what it was like to have someone worry about him because he would often get himself in all sorts of trouble. However, the Watterson's were kind of a tough sort that could recover from the most dangerous of incidents. Teri on the other hand, was flexible, but extremely vulnerable to even the slightest of injuries. He could understand why this family acted a little paranoid and protective.

"I can see why that is." he commented in sympathy.

The two finished their meal, washed their dishes (Gumball helped to make the process go a bit faster, but found it slightly irritating when Teri would criticize every little thing he did.), and headed upstairs to her bedroom.

Her room was like the rest of the house: very clean and organized. Looking around, Gumball could not find a single trace of dust on any of the various surfaces nor a single smudge on the bedroom's single window. Her bedsheets were thoroughly washed and filled the air with the scent of fresh detergent. Along her shelves were various books about biology, origami, paper crafting, and even some manga! On her dresser that sat in the corner of her room were several different origami animals that sat in a neatly arranged formation. He could also see that she had a television sitting on a table opposite of her dresser and was facing her bed. Lastly, he noticed her green, bedroom walls were decorated with posters depicting several J-pop stars.

It was a nice room, but if sterile had taken a form it would be this space.

"Your room is very… nice!" Gumball said in awe, setting his backpack down on the floor.

Teri walked over to her desk and set her stuff down next to it. She gestured Gumball to sit on the spare chair next to hers.

"Thank you. I wake up early every morning to clean it." she boasted. Beaming with pride.

Gumball dragged his book bag over to the spot next to her and pulled out his biology textbook, notes, and finally, the assignment itself. Teri followed suit and the two got to work. It was an agonizing hour for the two because Gumball couldn't sit still for two minutes and would often try to slack off or find something to distract himself with. Teri would often chastise him for messing with the various objects in her room or when ever she found herself being distracted by the cat's wild antics. After a serious argument that lasted a few minutes, the two sat down and plowed through their two assignments. Eventually, both had finished their homework and made sure everything was correct and ready to be turned in.

Mentally exhausted, Teri flopped down on her bed and let out an irritated sigh while staring at the single, glaring light bulb that illuminated her entire room,

"And now I understand why they say age isn't the only thing that gives you wrinkles." she sighed, allowing herself to relax on the bed sheets.

Spinning around on his chair, balancing a ruler on his nose, Gumball wasn't looking at her, but heard her comment nonetheless,

"You sure about that? You're made of paper, you already have wrinkles!" he jeered, stopping himself from spinning after getting dizzy.

Having enough of his mockery, a tick mark formed on the paper girl's forehead as she grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer from her nightstand and lobbed it at the snarky cat's head. Being large as it was, made it an easy target for Teri's fury and the bottle of disinfectant struck him on the temple, sending him tumbling off his chair with a crash. Teri sneered at the sight and layed back down, having accomplished her retaliation with satisfaction.

Gumball peeled his face off of the carpet and propped himself up. His expression had gone from relaxed to straight up murderous as he picked up the offending bottle of hand sanitizer. He got up and turned to Teri, who was still ignoring him,

"It was a joke! Don't throw things at me!" he snarled.

Teri snorted at his angered comment and didn't even look at him,

"I wasn't throwing it at you. Your big head just got in the way was all!" she remarked sarcastically.

Her comment on his big head tipped him over to the petty side and he smiled in a wicked fashion, his eyes turning red at the evil comeback he was about to unleash upon her,

"Well you've got pretty bad aim!" he started, placing the jar on her nightstand,

"And I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I meant to say you look like a soggy gym sock who spent too much time at a daycare!" he laughed out loud.

More tick marks formed on Teri's head and she grabbed something harder (the T.V. remote) to throw at him. Gumball saw this coming and threw up his thin arms to protect his sensitive face,

"AHH! TRUCE! TRUCE!" he pleaded.

Lowering the remote, she glared at him and switched on the T.V. after clicking the power button,

"What do you want to watch?" she asked, venom still in her voice.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Gumball placed a paw on his chin and thought about what was on right now,

"How about Z-Crashers? It's this cool show about a teenager who discovers a mysterious alien car and competes in these wild races, while also stopping an alien inv-!"

"We're watching Under the stethoscope." she interrupted, switching the channel to the desired show.

Gumball just remained where he was as if on pause before his anger returned and he began shouting at her.

"What the what!? Why bother giving me an option when we were just going to watch what you wanted anyway? Also what is this garbage anyway?" he asked, plopping down next to her at the edge of her bed.

Teri shot a lazy glance at him before turning her attention to the screen once more,

"You didn't apologize so we're watching what I want, and Under the stethoscope is a medical drama/comedy centering around a group of doctors who start out as interns at piece of heart hospital and follows their everyday routine. And it is not garbage!" she crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance.

Groaning, the blue cat leaned back on the bed's headrest, trying to keep some space between himself and Teri, and focused his attention on the show,

"I'll say." he grumbled,

"I'm legitimately sorry for my earlier comments. You don't look look wrinkled or like a gym sock, you're actually very pretty." he apologized. He wanted to compliment her, but didn't want to risk going over the top and sounding flirty.

Hearing his apology and his compliment, Teri felt herself lighten up a little and her cheeks burn a bit. "Did he just say I'm very pretty?"

"Well, apology accepted." she stated, sneaking a glance at her friend,

"But we're still watching Under the stethoscope. My room, my rules." she said as a final statement.

Gumball rolled his eyes and settled into his spot. Looks like he was in for this whether he liked it or not. It honestly couldn't be as bad as watching Daisy the donkey with Anais, he still trembled with disgust at hearing the name of that dreaded kids show. He actually felt a little better though and sitting in this cozy room with Teri was actually making him feel happy.

Half an hour passed by quickly and the two students found themselves holding their aching sides as laughter consumed the two of them. This was probably one of the funniest shows that Gumball had ever had the pleasure of watching. He actually regretted calling it garbage and realized that Teri actually had a good sense of humor.

He continued to laugh as he wiped several tears from his eyes,

"Man… that doctor Crox! He's gotta be the most grumpiest yet wittiest character on the show! I mean, who can come up with such insults to your boss on the fly like that!" he let loose another round of laughter and lurched forward as his sides began splitting from another one-liner from said T.V. character.

Next to him, resting in the fetal position while tightly hugging her pillow and trying to catch her breath from all her chortling,

"Oh no… (wheeze!) It gets funnier when… his ex-wife comes into the hospital. The way they interact is beautiful." with that she burst into another fit of laughter and hugged her pillow tighter.

The two pre-teens were now very close to one another, practically brushing each other every time they moved. Both could feel each others warmth radiating from the person at their respective side, and neither minded one bit. Gumball was so happy, comfortable and content that he was unaware of his body's actions, until Teri noticed it.

It felt very small and faint at first, so it was barely registering to her. Then it became more frequent and noticeable that Teri couldn't help, but wonder what the cause of it was. Her bed was vibrating and there was a low noise coming from besides her where Gumball was. At first she thought it was the boy's cell phone vibrating, but then after listening for a few more seconds and seeing the calm, pleased look on his face, she realized the cause all at once: he was purring!

She sat up to get a better look at the furry, blue, Watterson child and cocked an eyebrow as she stared at him in curiosity,

"Are you purring?" she asked.

When Gumball first heard the question it didn't register in his mind and he blanked out for a second. Then, when a moment had passed, he realized what she had said and what he was doing. His face immediately began burning up with a blush at the sudden realization that he was emanating pure comfort and happiness in the form of his soothing, throaty vibrations. He didn't know why he was embarrassed, he was caught off guard by all this and now felt completely silly.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't know- I didn't mean to disturb you- I was just- ah, forget it." he groaned, his face burning up more. What made it worse was that he was still purring.

Seeing him getting flustered about his natural response to being happy and comfortable forced a smile on Teri's face,

"No, no, no, don't be upset! I don't mind it, I actually think it's very cute!" she giggled.

Her response and the laughter that followed made the blue cat turn a deeper shade of red. She just called him cute! To be fair, he did call her very pretty earlier, and she was! He meant it mainly as a compliment and as a way to apologize for hurting her feelings earlier. The truth was that he actually did find Teri to be very attractive and when she called him cute just now, he discovered that he actually liked the compliment.

He buried his red face into his knees in order to hide his expression from the paper girl next to him, whom was still giggling. He rested like that for a few minutes, trying to get his rampant emotions under control. He didn't understand why her calling him cute made him so flustered or happy and just wanted his face to return to its natural shade of blue before she noticed. He stopped hiding his face after he felt four, flimsy fingers make their way to the top of his head and begun scratching the spot between his ears.

Realizing that Teri was gently scratching his head, his noggin pivoted so quickly that he sprained a muscle in the back of neck. He saw his paper friend reaching over, scratching the top of his head, and was wearing the biggest smile he had ever seen.

"I wonder if I can make you purr louder if I scratch the top of your head like this?" she said in a sly tone.

To her surprise and Gumball's, it actually worked and the soothing vibrations could be heard over the television. What made things worse was that Gumball, despite his wide eyed, shocked expression, was actually enjoying the feel of her fingers caressing his fur and the sensitive spot between his ears. While she did this, Gumball came up with a dubious plan and smiled his trademark grin of mischievousness.

"Say Teri… I wonder what sound you'll make if I did THIS!"

with the final word being shouted, he lunged towards the surprised paper girl and began furiously tickling her armpits. With the blue cat's sudden barrage of tickling, Teri fell back on her bed and began laughing furiously as Gumball kept up his attack. She desperately squirmed and tried to wiggle herself away from Gumball's fast fingers, but to no avail, for the kitten had her pinned.

"Gumball, (hysterical laughter) stop… I'm gonna pee!" she squealed while trying to push his arms away.

Gumball did as she asked and stopped his hilarious onslaught and flopped back onto his spot while cackling mischievously,

"I'm sorry! I didn't realize that I tickled you the wrong way!" he teased.

Teri found herself rolling her eyes and groaning at Gumball's lame pun and took a moment to reclaim her breath. She sat back up next to her friend and continued to watch her show,

"No need to apologize. That move was purr-fectly timed." she retaliated with her own witty comeback. This caused the Watterson child to sigh and allow his head to drop on the pillow he had grabbed for this exact scenario.

In another thirty minutes, the show had ended and the two were left in tears and out of breath from all the wacky humor that was blasted at them through the screen and the audio system. It was 9:30, so that meant they had another half hour to stay up until bedtime. Teri had checked her messages and found that her father was needed in the E.R. and that he had dropped off the groceries about an hour ago. He told her that she and Gumball had better be in their respective beds by ten and that if he caught them up any later then there will be consequences. She wished him a good night and put her phone away.

"Oh man, that was awesome!" Gumball exclaimed as he sat up,

"I didn't think I'd have this much fun on a Sunday evening. Hey, do you mind if I sit with you on the bus tomorrow?" he asked.

Feeling quite excited by that idea as well as grateful, she sat up next to her friend and looked him in the eye,

"Sure thing!" she replied in cheery tone,

"Although, wouldn't you want to sit next to Darwin and Carrie?" she thought it was kind of odd that he would choose to sit next to her on the bus when he would normally sit next to his best friend and sibling.

Gumball shrugged and turned his attention towards the window. It was really dark out and he could hear the insects forming a chorus of noises as the night dragged on,

"I would, but he got in trouble last Friday when Tobias made fun of Tina's breath and Tina took her anger out on the two of them. Principal Brown caught the three of them fighting and assumed they were both guilty for hurting Tina's feelings and phoned both Tobias' mom and my mom. So Darwin was grounded and not allowed to hang out with his girlfriend over the weekend and, with that being said, I'm pretty sure when they meet on the bus they're gonna get… lovey-dovey!" he grimaced at the last two words.

Teri wasn't surprised at Gumball's reluctance to sit next to his brother and his ghostly girlfriend. She even found it rather uncomfortable to be sitting by a couple who seemed to enjoy spending time getting cuddly. It wasn't like she despised couples everywhere, she just didn't like all the love between two people being prominently displayed in public areas. Maybe she'll change her mind when she has a special someone of her own, but for now, she wanted to avoid any PDA as much as possible. Also, the idea of kissing freaked her out because of the exchange of saliva between two different people: it was like asking to get infected.

"On a scale of one to ten, how lovey-dovey will Carrie and Darwin get?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"With those two, about an eight, I suppose. They're not all over each other like Alan and Carmen, but they will cuddle and hug for most of the trip's duration." he explained.

When the two had seriously begun dating, they at first started out slow and only flirted while also enjoying some romantic activities together. Then after a month, they began doing things like holding hands and sharing food in the cafeteria. Once summer rolled around, Darwin and Carrie began visiting each other more often and going on dates whenever time made it convenient for the walking fish and emo ghost. When Penny and Gumball broke up, the two had even more time to hang out, since Gumball was going through his depression.

In all honesty, the depression hadn't gone away. He still missed her a lot and found himself getting sad any time he was by himself. He hadn't been mopey like he was during the summer and first week of school because he was too busy worrying about saving Elmore from the Nephilim alongside Teri.

While Gumball thought about Elmore and his plans on defending it, Teri had something she wanted to talk to Gumball about and decided now was the right time to bring it up.

Mumbling to herself, she stated that she understood what Gumball said and spoke about her next topic,

"It's unfortunate that you won't be able to speak to Carrie on the bus." she started, sounding more disappointed than Gumball was at the moment,

"I was hoping that you could ask her if there were any items she could lend me so I can fight the Nephilim too." she muttered to herself all the while checking Gumball's face for any visible signs that he may know something.

This was came as a surprise to Gumball. She was asking him if there were any ways she could fight the evil spirits from beyond? This was kind of confusing to the blue cat because even though it would make more sense to find some way to arm his only accomplice with a way to fight them off, he thought that they were doing well as a team. Her paper manipulation was more than enough cover for his and her weaknesses.

"Huh? Why would you want a magical item to help you fight the Nephilim? I thought you were doing fine with all your origami constructs." he asked in bewilderment.

Teri saw that one coming and sat up straighter, looking at Gumball with more concern written on her bear face,

"I'm not saying I feel weak or like a burden to you. I'm more concerned about the possibility of a Nephilim attacking when you are gone, for whatever reason, and I'm the only one who can see it, but I won't be able to fight back effectively." she explained, although she did lie about the first part, she actually did feel a bit like a burden to him because while he had to defend himself, he also had to look out for her as well. That was just something she did not want to continue and wanted to find a better way to assist him.

That actually made sense to Gumball. It was true that she wasn't holding him back by not being able to kill or damage a Nephilim, but in the event that he was gone for a while or they lose the scythe, there wouldn't be much that they or she could do to stop them. Now that he thought about it, it wouldn't hurt to find alternative means of fighting the constant threats to Elmore's citizens.

"You have a fair point Teri. Tomorrow, I shall talk to Carrie at lunch and see if she has anything to offer you in terms of spiritual warfare." he declared in a mighty voice he imitated from a TV show he'd once seen,

"I shall also look into finding a way to better hone my scythe skills and probably finding a secondary weapon, like a magical dagger or a gun that fires lightning bolts!" he mentions with child-like excitement.

Teri tilted her head to side a little, causing a shadow to fall over most of her features,

"Scythe skills?" she asked with slight intrigue and criticism,

"You mean to tell me that the way you've been swinging that metal rod with the hook blade was actually a set of coordinated moves that have been rehearsed?" she mocked him with a slight smile.

Gumball felt the sting of her words and stopped looking all excited in order to shoot her a glare that could melt steel. The paper bear just smiled at him sarcastically as a response to his leering. Of course, the adventurous child took this as a personal challenge and hopped off the bed to where his backpack lay.

Seeing where he was going and what he was about to do, Teri shot upwards on her bed with a look of terror mixed with anger bolted on her flat face,

"GUMBALL! DON'T YOU DARE SWING THAT SCYTHE IN MY ROOM!" she shrieked, realizing right away that she may have overreacted.

Pulling the scythe out of his backpack, his paw found the button that extended the shaft to the full length and was soon holding the weapon in its full length form. Two things that had always bothered him about the weapon was that Carrie mentioned that it was a thousand years old and yet it looked and felt brand new, also, it was always the perfect weight for him without feeling clumsy or too light in his paws. He didn't pull out the blade, he only extended the handle.

He held it up in front of him and took his position in the center of her room,

"I'm not going to extend the blade, I'm just going to show you an impressive move I recently perfected." he said with a grin and a suggestive raise of an eyebrow.

Despite his promise not to break anything, Teri still didn't feel at ease, but allowed to continue on the silent premise that if he did break anything in her room, he was paying for it.

He swung the handle until the closed weapon was resting at his hip. Teri laid herself on her stomach and placed her head on her hands as she watched in amusement,

"This should be an interesting show, at the very least." she chuckled inwardly.

The blue cat spread his legs until they were at shoulder length, bent his knees, and took a deep breath,

"BE AMAZED!" he roared.

Snapping his body into action, he leapt up in the air and twirled the folded scythe with both hands. The spinning weapon made a grey circle as it swung around in the child's paws and made a slight whooshing noise as it caught the air. Unfortunately, he didn't stick the landing too well and he fumbled with the weapon as he was caught off balance.

The four foot metal rod smacked him square in the face, drawing blood from his tiny, orange, triangular nose as he fell backwards from the painful mistake.

Dropping the weapon, he fell on his back, hands clasping his throbbing nose as he rolled about the carpet. He groaned in pain as the sharp, burning sensation made its way up his face and throughout his body. His eyes were stinging with tears and he could feel blood running from his nostrils down to his upper lip. He mentally blamed his mistake on peer pressure, stage fright, and the light burning his eyes.

Seeing the scythe wielder hurt by his own blunder, Teri leapt up from her bed and fetched a box of tissues from her nightstand and rushed to Gumball's side. She sat down beside his curled form and pried his arms away from his face. She could see the tears starting to form in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling,

"Gumball! Are you okay?" she cried out in an wispy voice.

With a groan, the blue cat gave the paper girl a sideways glance and saw her wide, black eyes full of concern and sadness, he felt bad seeing her like this and decided to try and cheer her up,

"Yeah, well you should see the other guy when I perfect the dragon spin and leave his jaw on the floor, cause' I'm gonna slice it off with that surprise finishing move!" he boasted with a hearty laugh, ignoring the pain his face was in.

Rolling her eyes once again, she began dabbing at his bleeding nostrils in order to clean up the area,

"Here, use this, and don't tilt your head backwards. I know that's probably what other people have told you in the past, but I've done my research and I know that it increases the risk of letting blood into your lungs." she explained, giving the blue cat her usual as-a-matter-fact tone and know-it-all face. She handed him another tissue and he pressed it against his nose while tilting his head forward.

"Go downstairs and wash up in the bathroom!" she directed.

Gumball uttered a 'thank you' and left the room. Once Teri was alone, she cleaned up any stray drops of blood from the carpet with extensive care. After she had finished cleaning the potential bloodborne pathogen from her floor, she went and retrieved the inflatable air mattress from the closet and began pumping it up for the night using a hand pump that came along with it. She was in the process of retrieving some spare blankets and a pillow when Gumball had exited the bathroom and met her in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. His face was clean, but Teri could see that the fur on his snout was still wet.

"You ready for bed?" she asked, poking her face out from behind the stack of blankets and the pillow that rested in her arms.

The cat boy nodded and stretched his arms as fatigue made itself present within his body,

"Yeah." he yawned,

"By the way, I made sure to clean the sink so it looks as nice as it was before I used it. I didn't want you waking up and going to the bathroom only to find dry blood in the sink." he added.

"Thank you for doing that." Teri replied, handing him his sheets and pillow,

"Speaking of cleaning, I'm going to be waking up at 5 a.m. to clean my room. The bus stops in front of my house at around 6:30, so if you wish to sleep in I'll wake at 6 so you can eat breakfast, shower, and get dressed for the day." she was already climbing the steps when she said the last sentence.

Gumball followed behind her, being careful to watch where he was stepping since he couldn't see over the clean sheets he held, and silently acknowledged what she said. Five o' clock wasn't a terrible time to wake up, he was used to waking up at seven on a school day, but at least she was giving him the option to sleep in an extra hour. He'd probably do something nice for her tomorrow morning, seeing as she's been a wonderful hostess and she brought him over as a way to pay him back for getting his clothes dirty in the first place. He thought about ways he could help her out in the morning.

They reached the top of the stairs and proceeded to make their way to the bedroom across the short hall. Upon entering, Gumball spread his blanket on the air mattress that awaited him and flopped down its fluffy surface. Teri turned off the light and got under the covers to her own bed and began the process of "applying" her blindfold onto her face.

"Night, Gumball." she said silently.

Gumball nestled himself under the soft covers and snuggled his head into the pillow provided for him. He curled up and allowed his eyes to close,

"Night, Teri." he replied,

"Thank you for having me over. I had a lot fun tonight." he mumbled, feeling his consciousness starting to fade into the dreamworld.

Though blind, Teri turned to face him and formed a sleepy smile on her face.

"You're welcome! It was nice having you over and I had a lot of fun as well." she responded in her airy voice.

After a few moments, she could hear Gumball's breathing grow soft and the room was completely silent. It was quite pleasant to the paper bear girl and she hoped that they would be able to do this more often. Over the past few days, she found herself growing more attached to the troublesome blue cat that was her classmate and now one of her best friends. They've faced and defeated seven Nephilim spirits together. For an apocalypse, things were moving along at a pleasant pace for them. It actually gave the young girl hope that there was a future that didn't involve the end of this world. A future where she could grow up with her friends, finish school, get a job as a nurse, and possibly get married and settle down with a family of her own.

She and Gumball did their fair share of research on the evil spirits, but haven't pulled up much in terms of useful information. They did learn that they were once the first beings to inherit the Earth, but they turned their backs on the Jade emperor, their father and creator of the world according to certain texts, and for that they were wiped off the planet. In some other articles it was said that the Nephilim lived alongside the Earth children, the people that live on Earth today, but treated them as they would any other animal and proceeded to crush them underfoot. The Earth children had no way of fighting back against the powerful giants and when they cried to the heavens for help, the Jade emperor pitied them and scorched the world in order to rid it of the fearsome giants.

It seemed that that was the only info. they could dig up in the library or from other people, but while surfing the web, Teri did come across an article that discussed their "theoretical" return. It said that the Earth children, while diverse in body and spirit, also began diverge from the true path the emperor of the celestial heavens had set out for us. It described a few vague events that were predicted to happen in the future, but one them included the spirit of the Nephilim returning to the Earth in order to wreak havoc amongst the peoples of this age. Some said the Nephilim's return was just the beginning of the end, other theological theorists claim that the Nephilim were returning to reclaim the world as the true inheritors, and some hopeful optimists had posted that the war between the spirit realm and the Earthly realm will bring about a new age that will ensure prosperity and enlightenment amongst the children of the Jade emperor.

It provided some insight for the two spirit fighters of Elmore, but it still remained unclear for the pair as to what was actually going on. The world was clueless or simply just didn't care for such events. It was likely that they were on their own for the time being.

Teri felt herself start to grow weary of all the questions and possibilities that spun through her head. It had been a stressful week and September will be drawing to a close soon. Once they get to school, they'll find better ways to combat the wrathful spirits of old so that all these possibilities don't become realities. Teri allowed herself to rest and eventually drifted into her subconscious. She prayed that she'll never dream of the Nephilim tonight along with Gumball.

Thankfully her prayers were answered.

-September 16th, 2013, Elmore Junior High, 12:00 P.M.-

The lunch room was as rowdy as ever, leaving not even a moment of silence. Gumball sat at his table with Darwin, Carrie, and Tobias with a tray full of cafeteria slop in front of him. His body ached all over from his intense workout in the gym. He had pushed himself beyond his limits and even asked coach Russo to help out by giving tips on how to build muscle faster. Sadly the overweight, middle age, cube woman just prattled him to keep up the good work without actually giving out any good advice. His reflexes have increased a little thanks to the baseball pitching machine he rigged up to fire at him while he dodged and deflected each ball with a bat. He was improving overall, but still had a lot of work to do.

While he waited for his three friends to finish speaking, he peeked over at Teri's table and saw that she was sitting with Leslie, Masami, and Molly while reading a book of sorts. She hadn't even touched her food, which made Gumball assume that she was studying something important or she too was disgusted by the ugly green slop that looked like tossed out pig feed. Knowing how cheap the school could be at times, it could very much be pig slop.

The morning had gone on with little incident. When Teri's alarm clock started ringing, Gumball and Teri both got up and began handling separate tasks. When Teri started cleaning her room, Gumball informed her that he'll be handling breakfast and went down to the kitchen. Her parents hadn't woken up yet, so the house was quiet and seemed empty to the blue cat. He sorted through their pantry and fridge and remembered that Teri often said that she enjoyed oatmeal and decided to make that for his friend upstairs.

Not being a fan of oatmeal, Gumball made himself a sandwich and fried up some bacon he found in the fridge. Once their meal was ready, Gumball set it on the table and went up to tell Teri that breakfast was ready. When he opened her door, he accidently opened it too fast and the gust of wind sent her flying across the room. After a brief argument, Gumball apologized and informed her that breakfast was ready and they both went downstairs, ate together, and continued with their morning rituals.

After taking a shower and dressing up for the day, the blue cat helped Teri finish up her chores in order for her to take a shower and clean herself before the bus arrived.

They rode the bus together and sure enough, in the back of the bus Darwin and his incorporeal love were cuddling while retelling the tale of their long weekend. While that happened, the two spirit fighters discussed their plan for the day and decided to meet up again at the schoolyard like they have been doing for a while now. Gumball suggested that she should look in the magic section of the library and if they couldn't find anything to help her at the school, then they could pay a visit to Hector's mom, Ms. Jotenheim, to see if she had a spell or charm that could assist in the extermination of the evil dead.

During class time, the paper bear and the blue cat sat next to each other and helped take notes. Darwin sat on the opposite end and would often pester his older brother about what he was doing at Teri's house. Both of them had been completely unaware of the rumors that had been spreading around the school regarding the two and their potential "relationship". Darwin had also been caught in the cycle of rumors as well, but didn't dwell too much within them. He believed that Gumball had made better connections with the school germaphobe and was now hanging out with her. To the goldfish, this was good news because it was a sign that he was recovering from the fallout of his previous relationship.

When fourth period swung around the corner, Gumball made his way to gym class while Teri took off for the library. She went to the magic section like Gumball had suggested, but she only found books that contained fairy tales and other bizarre stories and offered no help in the ways of defending oneself against otherworldly monsters. Next, she tried the internet, but to her frustration most of the sites were either censored because of school policy or were from people who spent too much time playing RPG's and definitely were not to be trusted as credible sources of information. Finally, she decided to consult a few teachers who may know of such things such as Mr. Small, but he only gave her vague advice about battling inner demons and spirits of negativity by the power of positive vibes.

Regardless, she got nowhere real fast and decided to find a book with a story that closely resembled fighting evil spirits and figured maybe there was something in those books that she could replicate or use before lunch period had started. If Ms. Jotenheim had nothing for her, then she may have to ask Carrie for help, although she was reluctant to do so because she was afraid that the emo student might become suspicious of her requests. She may wind up having to rely on Gumball to kill the ancient monsters and that didn't bode well for her at all.

Watching his fighting partner carefully reading what appeared to be a fantasy story of sorts, Gumball decided that he should probably ask Carrie to help him out with something. Unfortunately, both she and Darwin were in the middle of a heated argument with Tobias over the events that occured last Friday and from the sounds of it, the worst wasn't over yet. At least, they still had one plan to enact upon before the next monster showed up and Gumball was not looking forward to either of those things.

"WATTERSON!" a gruff, feminine voice roared.

It wasn't enough to cause a disruption in the cafeteria, but it did cause a certain cat to knit his brow, allow his pointy ears to droop, tail wag in an angry manner, and his stomach churn in disgust. He recognized the voice and it was bad enough he had to see her in the gym, now she was here to cause more trouble for him. Marching towards his table on short stubby legs, yellow hair hiding her glaring eyes, and a nasty sneer full of pointy white teeth, was the coach's daughter herself: Jamie Russo.

Gumball could feel himself falling into a deep funk and a sour taste came into his mouth upon seeing the half cow, half troglodyte. He kept his expression somewhat neutral albeit a little annoyed if you saw his eyebrows as he came up with a classic zinger as a greeting,

"Did the zoo lose another one or did they decide to let you out for once?" he said, voice heavy with sarcasm, but behind it was a little nervousness as well. He didn't have the best track record with the tiny, yet brash bully and frankly, he was hoping that she'd just come here to tease him a bit before storming off to join her friend Tina and their lackey piece of toast, Anton.

The insult flew right over her head as she continued towards his table, looking devious as ever,

"I saw you at gym class today-!"

"Wait! you can actually see through that yellow haystack you call hair?!" he exclaimed mockingly. Widening his eyes in pretend surprise.

She snorted at being interrupted and gave him a growl,

"I WASN'T FINISHED, YOU TWERP!" she shouted.

Now she had the attention of Carrie, Darwin, and Tobias, who saw the husky little pest and decided to move somewhere else while her attention was on someone else.

"I'm sorry. I was just so surprised because you always blindly lash out at people that I just assumed you couldn't see past your bangs or sensitive inferiority complex." he shrugged. He knew he shouldn't egg her on, but the snarky side of him wanted to bite today.

This caused the short tempered friend of Tina to launch into a flurry of insults and threats directed at the cat who was currently sassing her. She jumped up and down, slammed her meaty fist into her oversized mit and bared her fangs at him. If he could see her eyes, they'd probably be spewing flames or lasers or daggers or pretty much every deadly artifact known to man.

She eventually cooled her jets a little, but was now a few inches closer and was still looking venomous,

"As I was saying, I saw you working hard in gym class!" she fumed,

"Trying to knock me down a peg, I see! Well, before you think you can even hold a candle to me, I'm going to take you to my personal workout that involves you running for your life and testing your endurance against my two best pals: Papa knuckles and big bro slammer!" she threatened, pounding her fists together in order to better emphasize her point.

So Jamie felt threatened by Gumball because he was working out today. Gumball felt his eyes roll in his noggin at the sheer stupidity of that revelation. Doesn't Jamie realize that even if he gets stronger, he still won't be able to defeat her or the T-rex that also assists in bullying the school children.

He was too tired and sore to run or fight back so he just braced himself for what was to come.

Jamie saw her opportunity to punch the cowering kitten and raised her fist to deliver the first painful blow. Luckily, she never got to throw a punch or deliver any sort of pain to her back talking classmate because her arm was caught as it was reeling back. Looking back in confusion and surprise, she saw that her thick, little arm was being held in place by a greyish black, four fingered hand.

Before she could react or turn her head to face the intruder, another hand placed itself on top of her round, horned head. She felt the fingers dig into her scalp and her body was lifted off the ground by an amazing force. She kicked her stubby legs as they dangled in the air, flailed about with her free arm, and shouted a few curses as she tried to figure out who was doing this.

And with a sudden and quick motion, the arms holding her swung around at full force: dragging the screaming bully in a half circle. Once enough force was gathered, the arms released their hold and Jamie was sent flying out the window. The last thing she saw before she crashed through the glass was a distorted, polygonal figure with one eye, grinning at her as she flew away.

Gumball watched in shock as he watched one of the school's most notorious fiends get tossed out of the school like a sack of potatoes by someone he knew all too well.

"DOCTOR WRECKER!" he shouted.

The disfigured arch-nemesis of Gumball and Darwin spun around on his heel to face the surprised child. His head was polygonal with patches of brown hair shaped in the same way covering the upper portion to resemble bangs. His cheeks and left arm displayed static and his single yellow eye was narrowed at the blue cat with a slit pupil focusing on his figure. He was very tall and lanky with scrawny limbs and legs: how he was able to throw Jamie so easily was beyond Gumball. He wore a yellow T-shirt with orange sleeves, a brown backpack, and red shorts. Despite his simple appearance he was quite unsettling to look at and being Gumball's mortal enemy, his presence here meant there was trouble ahead.

With Jamie being replaced with this evil genius, it was like jumping out of the frying pan and into a bonfire.

Dr. Wrecker sneered at his frightened opponent and placed a pink hand on his forehead,

"Geez Gumball, how many times do we have to go over this. It's just Rob!" he scolded in annoyance, his voice was slightly high pitched, like a teenager going through puberty.

"And stop looking so frightened, you don't know why I'm here." he folded his arms and continued to leer at him.

Gumball wasn't exactly sure if he could trust the former student of Elmore Junior High and sat up straight, looking his opponent in the eye,

"Um, dude! No offense, but you kinda just tossed a student out the window!" he replied, holding both hands out in front of him in the direction of the broken window that was attracting several curious students.

Rob's eye widened at the realization of his actions and he quickly turned to glance at the window. After a moment of analyzing the damage, he turned his attention to Gumball once more with a relaxed expression melting away the worried one,

"She'll be fine." he remarked nonchalantly.

BOOM!

The moment Rob uttered those words, an explosion erupted in the background where the main road was, conveniently in the same direction Jamie was thrown in. This caused the students gathered at the window to scream in panic and run towards the exit. The blue cat narrowed his eyes at the villainous figure and crossed his arms in response to the terrible accident that occured just a second ago.

Rob still looked calm and just shrugged, like it was just a minor inconvenience,

"No one's going to miss her." he said, glancing off to the side.

"JAMIE!" both coach Russo and Tina Rex screamed in unison, having witnessed the whole fiasco, and rushed for the exit to check on the fallen student.

Gumball raised an eyebrow to further emphasize the consequences of Rob's actions.

At this point Rob was losing his patience and threw his arms up in a rage,

"OKAY! I GET IT!" he roared,

"Can I talk to you about something, since that's what I came here to do in the first place!"

"If you're here to destroy me, you should have waited. Either Jamie or the school lunch would have caused a death more painful than anything you could have come up with." He replied snidely, clearly in a bad mood.

The former background character now-turned-villain paused before he could come back with a snappy reply and then held up a finger,

"Uh- is that a challenge?" he asked, grinning wickedly.

Having enough of people seeking to destroy him for the day, Gumball hopped off his seat and proceeded to dump his tray of chemical sludge in one of the few trash bins placed in the cafeteria. He noticed that Teri was gone and assumed she had left with the other students after Rob's "explosive" entrance. There were a couple places she could be that Gumball could think of off the top of his head: out on the school yard waiting for him or observing the damage, or she could be in the infirmary for a plethora of reasons. He would have to pay a visit to the infirmary first because that was the first and most likely place the hypochondriac was.

Rob saw his nemesis walking away without waiting for him to explain the reason for why he was here and raced after him. He was slightly irritated that he was being ignored like that and wanted to give the obnoxious feline a piece of his mind. He easily caught up to him (with his legs being longer it took him only three strides to do so.), waited for him to dump his trash, and began walking beside him as he made his way towards the school hall.

Gumball walked in angered silence, as he didn't appreciate Rob's presence, but had no choice but to let him walk beside him since he couldn't send him away. He saw the disfigured cyclops studying his expression and pretended to pay him no mind. However, with lady luck going against him today, Rob immediately began speaking,

"Um, so where are we heading?" he asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

Gumball continued to glare ahead of him and pushed aside a set of double door,

"The infirmary." he simply answered.

"Why are you heading there? Are you ill?" he studied him some more for any sign of illness.

"No. I'm visiting a friend. Would you buzz off!"

"Who's your friend?"

"Teri."

"Who's she again?"

"Oh right, you were sucked into the void and you don't remember any of your former classmates." Gumball said, remembering the past events concerning the villain,

"She's the paper girl who looks like a bear, very feeble, a huge germaphobe, and is always checking in to the nurse's office. I think the nurse and her get along really well." he explained, although he wasn't entirely sure about that last line.

Rob kept his pace and pondered on the kitten's words. Searching his distorted memory he picked up a few things regarding the girl whom Gumball was referring to. Unfortunately, his memories were still too hazy to land any meaningful definitions.

"I think I know who you're talking about." he responded slowly.

His pupil narrowed into a slit again as he remembered what he was here for. Now that he was engaged in a conversation with Gumball, he could focus on the topic he had on his mind. Looking ahead of him and his current companion, he saw that they were nearing Gumball's desired destination and decided to bring up what he knew,

"Is she the one who has been helping you defeat the Nephilim that have been attacking Elmore?" he asked, lowering his gaze to the student's face.

Shock immediately gripped the Watterson child, forcing him to stop in place. With a baffled complexion, he twisted his head until it was facing his nemesis. His eyes searched his face for any hints of a joke, but couldn't find anything seeing as his face was rather unreadable. Plus, why would he joke about something he'd probably known about for a while now. To Gumball, it made logical sense that someone was going to notice the two of them going about their various encounters eventually. What he hadn't guessed though, was that someone would see them and the Nephilim.

If Rob could see them, could there be others that could see the evil spirits as well?

"You… can… see them too?!" he fumbled with his words.

Feeling appreciative of the fact that he had Gumball's attention, Rob smirked a little and continued to relay what he had gathered,

"Oh yes! As clear as day! And I can even see them in my dreams before they even arrive." he answered with full confidence.

Gumball felt his jaw drop and hit the floor. Rob continued to ramble on about his findings,

"I'm guessing you and Teri have been experiencing the same things as I, because every time I went out to investigate, I always find you two already engaging the creatures. I bet you two didn't know that I found a way to help combat the spirits from beyond!" he stated.

There was a slight pause as Gumball stared at him perplexed,

"Of course we didn't know!" he exclaimed rather loudly,

"We didn't know you were spying on us, we didn't know that you could you could see them and of course, we didn't know you'd find a way to fight them. We didn't even know that were other people that were aware of the Nephilims existence up till now!"

Rob listened to his rant and glared at the blue cat in frustration,

"Well were you two aware that the entire world is under attack and that your town is just a small target when compared to other sites." he snapped back.

This caught Gumball off guard. He wasn't aware that there were other Nephilim monsters attacking various areas around the globe. He was so caught up in defending Elmore from their apocalyptic plight that he hadn't even considered the possibility of other places being attacked. However, as alarming as that was, it wasn't that much of a concern for him because his fight and focus were in his hometown.

His expression soften up a little and he cooled the fire that was burning within him,

"So the whole world is under attack by these things?" he asked aloud.

"That's literally what I just said." Rob replied in a monotone voice as he stared at him in a dull fashion,

"Anyway, the reason I'm here right now is because, as much as I hate the idea, I wish to TEMPORARILY drop all hostilities and have you and your girlfriend join me in an alliance to defend Elmore against the forces of evil." he offered, raising his voice on the word "temporarily" in order to highlight that such an alliance was only for this one task.

Honestly, Gumball wasn't as shocked by this offer as he was when he found out Rob could see the invisible threat that loomed over the citizens of this strange town. This by no means, was a pleasant idea to Gumball when he thought about teaming up with the person who could backstab him when the opportunity presented itself. On the plus side though, it would mean an extra pair of hands would be joining the cause that was their survival. Rob was also very crafty and full of knowledge that would be of a benefit to him and Teri.

Gumball decided to take the road of caution, a route he very rarely used,

"How do I know that you're not going to betray us as a means to gain more power or something? Also, Teri's not my girlfriend!" the last part was more out of irritation than anything else.

Rolling his eye in frustration, Rob snorted at Gumball's reasonable, yet cautious response before answering in a tone akin to an adult trying to convince his child to go to the doctor,

"These things are going to destroy the world. If they were out to get you, then I would've helped them, but since all our lives are on the line, I'd sooner help you so I can live to destroy you one day rather than let something else exterminate the rest of us." he responded before adding,

"And, pfft! Whatever, you and paper girl are so joined at the hip nowadays you might as well be going out. You're a lot happier than when Penny moved out and trust me when I say, that's a good thing. I hate tormenting you when you're all depressed and mopey."

Gumball pushed down the tide of depressing thoughts that usually flooded his mind when someone mentioned the name of his ex-girlfriend and let out a heavy, agitated sigh. He understood where Rob was going at and it made sense to Gumball, apart from the thing where he said he and Teri should be dating. He liked her as a friend and he could tell that they were getting closer as pals, but wasn't sure if he felt anything that resembled romantic desire towards her.

"Okay. I'll let you join our team if Teri agrees on you joining as well." he responded, adding the little catch at the end.

The villainous cyclops didn't seem to mind the extra inconvenience of getting Teri to let him join his team and instead, just readjusted the straps on his backpack. Nodding in quiet agreement, he took a step forward and began making his way to infirmary. Gumball noticed his odd response, but thought nothing of it. Rob's face was showing signs of irritation, but it seemed like he wanted to visit Teri by the way he immediately began heading in her supposed direction. Gumball decided to take it as Rob killing two birds with one stone and took off after him.

There were no sounds in the hallway except for the soft pitter patter of feet echoing through the voluminous space.

-Nurses office-

The door that separated the school medical office from the passageway that allowed students and staff to transverse throughout the school was flung open with a crash and Teri was pushed out of the office by a pair of red, stick-like appendages. She had only been in there for two minutes and was already being tossed out by the rather brash school nurse. She didn't make a sound when she was being pushed out from behind, but her eyes were wide with disbelief and her mouth was pursed.

"Next time you choose to waste my time with another fake ailment, I'll have them send you to the therapist where they can treat your real problem." Ms. Markham snarled before slamming the door shut on the paper girl.

Getting over her shock, Teri balled up her fist and lowered her head until she could see only her feet. She was very upset. When she got to the lunchroom, she tried to pick apart, in a metaphorical sense, the book, detergent, a story describing the adventures of a teenage boy who fought evil spirits similar to the ones she and Gumball fought, when her head started hurting for some unknown reason. Deciding it was a sign of some horrendous sickness, Teri left to go see if there was a treatment for whatever she was feeling. Before she left, she saw Gumball talking to Jamie for reasons unknown to her.

She made her way down here, told the band-aid nurse what was happening, and before she knew it, was shoved back out into the hall and humiliated for the umpteenth time.

"That nurse is such a quack!" she muttered to herself.

She sucked in a huge breath of air and let off some steam by exhaling. She was better at anger management than most of her classmates and was quite used to being ridiculed for her frequent visits to the medical room. What's funny about it all was the fact that that was how she ran into Silver Twelve and met up with Gumball. She was visiting her mom in the hospital because she believed her dream was a sign of an illness and when she was sent out, she ran into Silver Twelve and the rest was history.

She still wished that people would take her seriously.

She heard the sound of approaching footsteps drawing nearer and she raised her head to see who was coming. To her surprise, it was Gumball and some mysterious person she had seen once on the bus. She recalled him going by the title of Dr. Wrecker and was Gumball's self proclaimed nemesis. She didn't understand why they were walking side by side towards her instead of attacking one another and this caused her to fear something was up.

Nervous, she took a step in the direction opposite of the two,

"Hey Gumball. Hey… Dr. wrecker was it?" she greeted skittishly.

As soon as she mentioned his evil alias, Rob threw his mismatched hands in the air, glared at her as his pupil narrowed once again, and left his jaw hanging open,

"Seriously! It's Rob!" he shouted in offense.

Gumball elbowed him in the rib, causing the lanky cyclops to flinch as a sharp pain shot through his side,

"Dude! You forgot about her when I brought her up, hypocrite!" Gumball retorted gesturing with both hands towards the nervous girl in question.

Rob glared at him and looked like he was about to counter his point, but after a moment of thinking he realized he was in the wrong and kept his lips zipped. He turned until he was facing away from the cat and muttered some snarky comment under his breath. Gumball rolled his eyes and continued to explain to Teri what was going on,

"Teri, this is Rob." he introduced the mad doctor, who just gave her a slight wave before turning his attention elsewhere,

"He's actually one of the original students of EJH and was in our class last year. He was thrown into the void, a weird dimension parallel to our own where all the worlds mistakes are thrown into to be forgotten, last year and became disfigured like this and barely remembers his past. He became Elmore's villain and now he wants to help us fight the Nephilim because it turns out he can see them and has been stalking us throughout our various battles. Sound simple?" he summarized the story as best as he could and wanted to make sure his partner understood what was being told to her.

"Honestly, as much as I dislike him, I wouldn't mind him joining us to fight seeing as we're barely holding our own against these things. However, I wanted to check with you to see if it was alright if he joined us because your opinion matters too." he added in, looking first at Rob and then back at her.

Teri just stared at Gumball blankly. After seeing her friend show up with a past figure that threatened to destroy them once before and explain that he was once one of the students that went here and now wants to join them in their own little war, was a bit much for the paper girl to take in at the moment. However, one thing she did notice right away was that Gumball showed up with Rob without appearing threatened or showing any signs that he was doing this against his own free will that would normally set off a red flag for the normally paranoid female student. It seemed as though the two had come to some understanding and were coming to her for her input.

Before Teri could say anything, Rob pulled something out of his backpack and approached her with said item in an outstretched hand. Curious and slightly confused, Teri grabbed the object as soon as it was within her reach and looked it over. It appeared to be just a plain, old notebook one would buy at a convenience store with a blue cover and a title written in black marker that read "Rob's notes" in neat handwriting. She opened it and began flipping through the pages and discovered, to her fascination, each page had a rune, similar to the ones etched into Gumball's scythe blade, drawn in it. There were only five runes written in the notebook, leaving the remaining pages blank.

Closing the book, Teri looked up at mysterious villain and asked,

"Where did you get these?"

The cyclops gave her a little shrug and stepped back to where Gumball was,

"I thought the symbols on Gumball's weapon looked familiar, so I snuck into Ms. Jotenheim's cave and dug through her ancient texts. I found a section dedicated to fighting the Nephilim, but most of it didn't survive the test of time (actually a lot of books in that section were practically a year away from turning into dust.) so I could only copy five symbols." he explained, his static cheeks darkening with his disappointment.

Well that was very inconvenient because this is exactly what Teri was looking for, but only had a limited stock to fight with. Still, it was more than enough because it now meant she had a fighting chance against the malevolent entities. The blue cat, on the other hand, was skeptical of his gifts and wanted some answers.

He walked over to Teri, flipped open the notebook she held and analyzed the runes displayed on the five pages,

"And how are these supposed to help her fight the Nephilim?" he asked, both he and Teri regarding Rob with skeptical looks.

Once again, Rob didn't seem caught off guard as he smiled confidently and stood tall as he spoke,

"After finding those symbols, I did a little field test on a Nephilim spirit that appeared at the mall. I brought with me a gun, a jar of paint, a brush and the notebook itself. When it appeared, I painted one of the runes on a bullet and fired at the creature. As I suspected the creature burst into flames and disappeared. I fled the mall before security could arrive along with you two."

Both listeners stood there in shock as they listened to his story. While Teri was surprised that such a simple trick could actually work, Gumball was in a rage,

"Wait!" he said in a raised voice,

"So you mean to tell me you're the reason why Teri and I wandered around the mall for two hours, three days ago!" he angrily accused the distorted cyclops.

Rob waved off him off before quickly making his way down the hall. He looked over his shoulder towards the two and jerked his head towards the direction he was walking, indicating he wanted the two to follow along. The two children silently agreed and began following the tall child of the same age. They weren't sure where he was taking them, but they could definitely tell by his body language that he wanted to move quickly.

Teri looked over the symbols once again and memorized them,

"So you painted them on a regular bullet and it killed the Nephilim spirit, just like that?" she asked silently.

Rob looked over his shoulder towards the paper bear girl he had recently decided was trustworthy enough to share vital information with and continued to provide her with intel,

"Well, I didn't just pick a random spot to shoot at. I observed how you guys fought and chose to shoot its vital area, it died instantly. I think those runes have different powers." he now directed his intel towards Gumball,

"I also believe that scythe you wield has other powers seeing as it has three runes inscribed on the blade."

This was the only thing Rob said that struck Gumball as interesting. He noticed the runes etched onto the blade a couple of times, but didn't look into it that much. Now that he thought about it, he did feel something resonating through the weapon and into himself whenever it came in contact with a Nephilim spirit. He knew he wasn't all that good at studying, especially ancient, magical, mumbo jumbo, but Rob on the other hand, was actually good at overcoming complex puzzles. Maybe he could help unlock potential ways to fight the dark forces because for all the blue cat knew, the Nephilim weren't going to be easier to fight as time goes on. There will be more and each one had the potential to grow stronger, meaning they had to get stronger themselves.

"I have a proposal." Rob stated, breaking Gumball out of his thoughts,

"There's a Nephilim that's going to appear in the desert, near a toxic chemical plant about an hour from now. Teri, why don't you use this opportunity as a field test for your new powers and Gumball, you can let me assist you in fighting the creature off. If I prove to be of use to you two, you will let me join you guys. If not, then we'll go our separate ways and never-!"

"You're in!" they both said in unison.

Halting in his tracks, the brilliant madman of Elmore pivoted on his heel with an expression that screamed, "this isn't what I expected!" as soon as the two unanimously gave him their consent.

"Wait, wha- but I didn't go through my trial, I didn't earn your friendship, or rite of passage- DON'T YOU TWO HAVE AT LEAST A LITTLE COMMON SENSE?!" he hysterically pulled at his polygonal hair as he tried to find some reasoning behind their actions.

Teri was the first to speak up,

"Well, I agree that you're not the first person I'd trust, considering you tried blowing us up on a bus about a year back, but you did approach us with some knowledge that we definitely needed. Also, you resolved an issue I was having since last night, so all in all, I'd say you're worthy of working with us." she casually pointed out.

Gumball was the next to speak, but he still looked unpleased about the whole situation,

"Yeah, like Teri said, you did some pretty bad things in the past, but you have fought the Nephilim before and seeing as you told me you despise them, I'd count you as an ally in this case."

They both walked over to him and shook his hand one at a time, symbolizing a newfound alliance. While both Gumball and Teri seemed uneasy about the idea, Rob seemed to be pleased with it as he was smiling kindly at the two. His smile quickly became a frown as he focused his one eye on his former nemesis,

"And for the record Gumball, you're not so much a saint either." he pointed out with a little malice.

"Yeah, we all know that, but it's okay, we're not perfect." a high pitched voice sounded behind Rob, who reacted nervously by jumping at the sound of a stranger invading their little circle.

The high pitched voice belonged to Allen, a teal balloon with a handsome face drawn on his head and a heart of gold filling his hollow body. He drifted by and greeted Gumball, Rob and Teri in a pleasant manner. Right as he was out of earshot, Gumball pulled a straw out of his pocket along with a few stones and fired the rock pellets from his mouth, through the straw and at Allen. The balloon popped after being struck by three, high speed projectiles.

Gumball sighed happily and put the straw away, before turning back to a disturbed Rob,

"You're definitely right about that." he mentioned with a sly grin.

Teri shook her head and glared at the blue cat,

"Gumball! Next time we see him, you're going to apologize. That was very mean!" she cried, placing her hands on her hips in a scolding manner.

Shrugging, the elder child of the Watterson family made a fake promise to do so, thus further proving Rob's point. They began heading towards the main doors of the building.

"Okay, after recess is over there's going to be an assembly that will last an hour. That'll give us plenty of time to get to the desert, fight the monster, and get back before your next class starts." Rob whispered to the two students following him.

This left Teri with a question and she tugged at Rob's T-shirt in order to summon his attention,

"Not to be a downer or bringer of bad news, but the desert is quite a ways away from here and I don't think any aircraft I form will be able to support all our weight. Plus, we need to stop by our lockers so Gumball can retrieve his scythe and I have to grab some paper and pencils." she said, pointing a flimsy finger towards the hallway where their lockers were located.

Rob glared ahead with his one eye and took a deep breath before releasing it,

"Not to worry, I have acquired a mode of transportation three weeks ago and as for the other thing- WAIT WHAT! You guys keep weapons at school?" he questioned in surprise.

It was kind of uncanny for Rob, the evil villain out to destroy Gumball and everyone he loves, to be worried over school safety like that. It was so unbelievable and random that both children just stood in place with vacant looks as they wondered if this is the real Rob they were talking to.

"Um, no offense, but have you seen this school. We got a brutish T-rex, a robot that can shoot lasers, a prickly, walking cactus, a sentient cloud that shoot lightning and create powerful gales via emotional outbursts, a giant that could flatten a city block by sitting, and much more. Do you really think a scythe is going to lower the school safety regulations?" he responded, his voice laced with derision.

It didn't take a mad scientist to know that this school was far from safe and rob saw the flaw in his earlier outburst. Facepalming, he shook his head in disbelief,

"Okay, okay, that was dumb of me. First, we'll stop by your lockers then we'll hunt down the beast!" he exclaimed.

The three cheered in determination and pumped their fists in the air.

GROOWLL! GUUURRRGGLE! GRRRNNN!

Their stomachs were loud enough to drown out their cheers with roars of protest. The three sweat dropped in unison as they stared at their empty abdomens in surprise. An awkward silence filled the air and Rob raised a hand to point at the ceiling in a grand gesture,

"To the lockers, then Joyful Burger, THEN we hunt the beast!" the mad cyclops shouted.

The three cheered in unison once more and the duo rushed to their lockers while Rob rushed to the main entrance.

-on the highway running through Elmore desert. 12:07 p.m.-

The afternoon was searing hot once again as the sun basked everything within its fiery glow. The desert was dry and devoid of trees and large animals. There was little vegetation save for a few shrubs that could retain a lot of water for extended periods and could withstand the dry heat.

Unfortunately for a certain trio driving in a 1997 Geo Metro with a purple paint job and a rattling muffler, they had to share the dry heat of the desert. With Gumball and Teri sitting in the back seat that was several times their size due to their short stature (Teri's feet were able to hang off the edge of the seat seeing as she was a little taller than Gumball.) and Rob in the driver's seat. The three were sitting in uncomfortable silence while the heat trapped in the car baked them. Rob had told them that the AC didn't work and the window's were jammed for some reason and he couldn't get it fixed until he could afford to get a license. It goes without saying, but the children knew that Rob didn't acquire this car by any legal means.

They had left around half an hour ago, avoided a near embarrassing encounter with Gumball's dad at Joyful Burger (seriously, you'd think with 23 JB chains located throughout the town, against all odds, they find Richard at this particular one near their school!) and had beaten traffic to get to the vast swathe of dry land and were now three miles out from the chemical factory. After they had finished eating, both Gumball and Teri took a short nap to see if they could identify the Nephilim that was bound to appear in the near future. What they saw was a massive, pill-shape monster covered in reflective, segmented armor. It had no visible facial features and instead of walking or crawling on a set or sets of legs, it levitated about 20 feet from the ground. It appeared to be one hundred feet in length and forty feet in width.

When Gumball and Teri woke up, they described what they had seen to Rob and he confirmed that the floating pillbug was the same thing he saw in his dream. Teri was curious as to why Rob could see the things an hour ahead of time while she and Gumball could only see them around twenty to thirty minutes before they arrived. That also brought up the question of how many people were actually aware of the invisible world. On their way out to the desert Rob explained to them that the Nephilim were attacking cities and other locations around the globe. If that was the case, then how come there wasn't a massive death toll being reported, were there others doing the same thing she, Gumball, and Rob were doing: fighting a war for survival. Whatever the answer may be, she was going to have to look into it when she got home.

If they got home that is.

Checking his rear view mirror, the grey cyclops spotted Gumball and Teri's reflection in the small, rectangular slab of glass. Gumball's face and hands resembled raisins that had been left in the sun for too long and his breath sounded dry and raspy, like a pile of autumn leaves being blown across a yard. Teri seemed fine, except that she had drawn multiple drops of sweat running down her face and arms and she looked like everything was bothering her. The heat, the trash on the floor, Gumball's raspy breathing, the horrid smell, and the blinding sun, all this made her face scrunch up in irritation.

Rob was in no pleasant condition either. He was drenched in perspiration, causing his T-shirt to stick to his body and his exposed thighs were now practically glued to the leather seat. He felt like a wet towel welded to a turtle's back side and what made it worse was the constant rattling the muffler made as the car drove along the vacant highway was slowly driving him bonkers.

"I'm sorry for the lack of air conditioning, guys. I was going to install an AC after I installed some surface-to-air missiles on the sides, a flamethrower next to the exhaust pipe, some magnetic deployable mines and a mine launcher in the trunk." he listed off after apologizing for the seventeenth time,

"Oh and a drone equipped with a submachine gun and infrared optics that can launch from the roof, kind of like that one in the film Bladesprinter 2059. Have either of you guys seen that one?"

"No." they both said unison.

"My mom and dad won't allow me to see rated R movies." Teri explained irritatedly.

"Same. Also, glad to hear that you're going pro with the whole villain thing. You got a name for your car?" Gumball asked, smacking his dry lips.

Rob pondered the idea for a moment before shaking his head,

"No not really. I want to give it a good name that doesn't sound too cliche, but I haven't thought up of anything yet." he sighed in disappointment and returned his eye to the road.

Gumball slumped back into his seat some more and found his eyes drifting towards the empty soda bottle he had finished twenty minutes ago. He knew the cup was completely dry, but couldn't help but wonder if there were a few drops left that could moisturize his shriveled up tongue. He was starting to regret finishing his drink in a matter of seconds.

"It's okay man, no need to rush yourself. You only need to name it once you install all the weapons and repaint the vehicle." he wheezed, still looking at the empty cup.

Rob grunted at his answer and put more pressure on the gas pedal. They were now traveling at 80 mph, five miles above the speed limit. They should be able to reach the target zone within ten minutes or so, which would leave them twenty minutes to prepare for its arrival.

Teri drew another sweat drop on her forehead and placed the pencil in the cup holder next to her seat. She was roasting in this car and was wondering why she and Gumball couldn't just fly above Rob's car in a paper helicopter or plane. At least they'd have the wind blowing in their faces. However, that would still leave the one eyed villain in the car and there was the chance of someone who knew them spotting them.

She turned her attention to the notebook that sat in between her and Gumball along with several sheets of blank paper, both large and small, and the folded scythe. She picked up the worn down collection of notes and began studying the runes once more. One that really caught her eye was one that resembled a hexagon locked in a circle with lines sprouting out from the hexagon's corners and extended beyond the circles borders. It looked easy to draw and she saw a note underneath that read, explosive rune.

She didn't quite know what that meant, but as the name implied it probably acted as a bomb or perhaps a landmine. That was when she realized that she didn't know how to use the ancient symbols. She peeled her eyes from the book and shot a question towards the original owner of the notebook,

"Hey Rob?" she asked, seeing his singular orb twitch to the rearview mirror hanging overhead,

"How do I use these runes?" she held the notebook up for him to see.

She heard another grunt from the polygonal figure as he placed a pink finger on his chin,

"Hmm, I guess for you, you'd have to draw a symbol on a sheet of paper or on one of your paper beasts. It doesn't matter what you draw it on as long as it's drawn correctly and that it comes in contact with the spirit. I don't know if it can be used once or repeatedly, you're going to have to figure that out yourself." he replied, keeping one hand on the wheel as he spoke.

Looking back at the simple symbol, Teri understood now that in order to be effective in combat she'd have to know which of the five symbols to use and be able to draw them quickly. This was going to involve more training, as she needed to improve her overall speed, reflexes and ability to assess a situation. She didn't know much about the giant, floating pillbug she saw in her dream and realized that the upcoming battle was going to be more difficult because the monster had no distinguishable weaknesses.

She placed the notebook on her lap and began viewing the passing landscape. There was a lot less vegetation now and a few dust devils were swirling about the red sand, flinging dust every which way and that.

"Thanks for the advice." she said softly.

"No problem. We're about five minutes away from the targeted area. It's going to appear half a mile from the chemical plant, which I believe is it's target." Rob replied, choosing to brief them now on the monster's possible destination and motivation.

The paper girls ears perked up upon hearing the news and turned towards the driver. She raised an eyebrow as she asked,

"Why would it be heading for the chemical plant?"

Rob watched a semi-truck pass them by with a logo that read Channax incorporated on the side of the trailer. Afterwards he peered into the backseat at the two passengers in order to look them in the eye,

"It's kind of obvious. If it destroys the chemical treatment plant then it will release millions of tons of toxic gas into the air that will travel along the wind current, back to Elmore, and poison all the citizens there." he explained in a serious tone before shifting his focus back to the road.

Gumball, who had been playing around with the empty soda cup for a minute now, suddenly reverted back to his healthy hydrated form in order to inform the driver of something he had realized. It was really bothering him, so he looked more annoyed than he did surprised,

"Then why would it land half a mile away from it's target? It's not like anyone there is going to see it!" he rambled.

Rob raised his fingers while keeping his thumbs locked on the wheel as he shook his head and shrugged in confusion,

"I don't know! Maybe their portals aren't that accurate or maybe it's being cautious?" he suggested, although it sounded more like a question.

"Sounds like lazy writing if you were to ask me." he muttered as he folded his arms and slumped back in his chair.

It really was odd for the enemy to appear so far away from its designated target, but at least it gave them time to figure out a way to destroy it. Recess had just ended, now they had half an hour to fight before they needed to be back. Seeing as it was an assembly being held by Mr. Brown, who was going to be informing the students about a field trip that was being held on October 4th, they probably weren't going to be aware of the two student's absence and Rob had nothing to worry about since he was forgotten by everyone.

Spotting a familiar landscape, Rob quickly pulled over on the side of the road and killed the engine. The car went silent and the three sat and observed their surroundings: it definitely looked familiar. Popping the trunk, Rob opened the driver door, climbed out and pulled the seat lever that slid the driver seat forward in order to let his fellow passengers out. After the boy and girl gathered their supplies, they hopped out and followed Rob to the rear of the two-door Geo Metro.

Swinging the back hatch open, the polygonal cyclops grinned wildly at an object that occupied the storage space,

"I've been waiting a while to test this thing out!" he gleefully spoke as he reached in and pulled out a sinister-looking weapon.

To Gumball and Teri, the device Rob held in his hands resembled a futuristic rifle that boasted a length of four feet and required the madman to hold it with both hands. Unlike regular guns seen in action movies, military videos, or in gun stores, this one was shaped like a rectangle prism with four vertically aligned barrels of varying sizes at the end, two different sized magazines that stuck out horizontally on each side two feet from the barrel, a digital scope placed on the top, and a trigger placed within a handle at the bottom. The device gleamed within the sunlight as Rob rested it against the car to retrieve some more magazines and what appeared to be self-propelled explosives.

Gumball felt his jaw drop as he gawked at the weapon that Rob was hiding in the car trunk right behind them,

"Rob! What is that!" Gumball shouted in exasperation.

After sliding the extra ammo into his backpack, the villain smiled at Gumball and Teri, who seemed surprised at the sight of the overly destructive weapon, but not to the same degree as her blue friend, and picked up the weapon as if showing it off,

"Oh, this? This is a little thing I cooked up in my duplex. It's called Cuatro Oblivion!" he explained while caressing the gun as if it were a beloved pet,

"It features two electromagnetic accelerator cannons on the top, with the first being able to fire .50 caliber AP rounds and the second being able to fire .25 caliber rounds at a range of two miles. The third barrel is a launcher for self-propelled HE rounds and the bottom barrel is a flamethrower." he listed off the deadly features like a salesman offering a product via TV commercial.

Suddenly, Gumball felt as though his weapon of choice was utterly insignificant. It came as no surprise to the cat that the former void wanderer would create something with amazing power. He on the other hand, had an ancient weapon that was given to him by a friend that may or may not contain some magic that he could utilize in the future.

Teri was wondering about something as well, but it wasn't about the weapon, moreover what the enemy was capable of. She raised an eyebrow and directed some of her suspicion towards the evil genius,

"That's great and all, but what about the Nephilim's ability to knock out electricity. Every Nephilim spirit Gumball and I fought had the ability to temporarily knock out any form of software within a certain radius." she pointed out, folding her arms and taking a step back.

"Not to worry, I've thought of everything!" he proclaimed in a matter of fact,

"Number one, this weapon has quite a range as I've explained earlier. Two, all the electronics are housed in an EMP resistant casing for in case I have to get close or if their EM field range is wider than I thought. Also, in case if you're wondering, each round has been engraved with a rune in order to assure that the Nephilim is effectively damaged on impact."

With that being said he began to march in the direction of the evil spirit's supposed drop point. He gestured with his blocky head for the two to follow along,

"Come on now! We shouldn't waste our time discussing weapon schematics when we got a town to save." he called out behind him.

The paper girl and her cat friend began to trudge behind the brilliant inventor. The heat was worse now because there was no roof providing them cover. Rob's grey head was very reflective in the afternoon sun and shone like a lighthouse beacon. The dust crunched underfoot as the three made their way from the car and into the barren environment,

Gumball swung his scythe over his shoulder and allowed it to rest there while he glared at the back of Rob's head,

"You know I just realized that we're helping my nemesis defeat genocidal monsters just so he can go off and commit even more crimes against humanity." he whispered to the paper bear next to him.

Teri held the notebook in one hand, her various papers tucked underneath the opposite arm, and her pencil was placed within the crook of her left ear. She turned to her fighting partner and gave him a quizzical look,

"Well, yeah! Of course we are. I may not agree with his antics and all that, but we're all united in a fight against an enemy that wishes for our demise. To shorten it up, we're fighting for everyone's right to live and choose who they want to be." she explained.

Realizing that she had a point, Gumball stopped his rebuttal against her statement and kept his mouth clamped shut. Yeah, that was true, Rob did choose to become like this (with some encouragement from himself and Darwin.) and even though it was a destructive path, Rob did seem to enjoy himself. On the plus side, maybe his inventive nature and brilliant mind will lead him somewhere where he will prosper.

Nodding his bulbous head in agreement, he picked up the pace so he could keep up with the figure in question,

"You're right. We're not saving the world so we can judge others. I'm actually glad he's using his talents to help us for a change." he said in a lightened tone.

Trailing them Teri continued to wonder about how she could help in the upcoming battle. Rob has a highly lethal killing machine that could probably reduce an army of low-level Nephilim to purple flames, Gumball had his scythe and some experience to back him up, plus a plan at the ready. She had her runes now, but she had to get in close in order to be effective. At least she had a wide range of animals, vehicles, and tools to construct.

She'll have to find out once they confront the Pillbug of Death.

-20 minutes later-

After fighting over several evil spirits in the past week alone, seeing the behemoth drop out of the dark portal barely fazed the trio standing out in the open, roughly two hundred feet away. The Nephilim's plated armor caught the sun's rays and began to glow intensely, to the point that it was hard to look at. It floated several feet above the ground like a flat blimp that hadn't taken off yet. Without any horrific features to cover its simplistic shape, the entity seemed pretty harmless from a distance, with only its size causing a bit of unease for the three odd figures watching.

The creature was drifting away from Rob, Gumball, and Teri, and was heading in the direction of the chemical treatment plant Rob had mentioned. They had ten minutes to fight and defeat the monster before they had to return to the car and get back in time for their next class. At the speed it was going, catching up to it was going to be no big problem, considering it was moving as fast as a golf cart.

Gumball snickered at the Nephilim's appearance and directed a joke towards Teri,

"Hey Teri, I think that pill is going to be a bit hard for you to swallow, but if you wanna give it a try, it might help you conquer your fears." he snickered.

Teri shot him a glare, pulled out a sheet of paper, and began scribbling an explosion rune onto its surface,

"Don't talk to me about medication after you learn how wash your mouth, and I meant that both literally and metaphorically because your jokes are lame." she snapped, finishing her drawing and began walking towards the evil spirit. Gumball rolled his eyes, but breathed into his hand and sniffed before grimacing.

Rob held out a grey hand in front of her and stopped the feeble paper girl from getting any closer. She looked up at him with a curious glance and saw that he was raising his multipurpose weapon to his left shoulder, all four barrels directed towards the target,

"I think we should try taking it out at a distance before we try confronting it up close." he cautiously explained as he leveled the scope with his eye. While the weapon locked on to its oversized target, he gestured towards the paper girl and the blue cat,

"Teri why don't you form a helicopter and stand by for take off. Gumball I want you in front of me, on my left. You're going to be on guard in case something goes wrong and I want Teri in the air to report anything on it in case something unexpected happens." he noted their strengths and weaknesses and wanted them placed accordingly. Just because the Nephilim was visually lacking any offensive weapons didn't mean they were non-existent.

His first move was to let loose a round of five .50 caliber AP rounds to test out the floater's armor strength. The targeting optics zeroed in on the pillbugs frontal section, right onto the the crevice of the second armor plate where it's defensive strength was weakest. With its chink marked, Rob held his breath and pressed a button above the trigger. The weapon made a humming noise as the electric coils lining the top barrel began charging up. Within thirty seconds, Cuatro Oblivion's AP weapon was completely charged.

Time seemed to stand still as Rob's senses heightened when his pink index finger squeezed the trigger.

BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA! BRAKKA!

All five rounds streaked from the barrel and tore their way towards the metallic beast. By the time Rob's recoil finished, the bullets reached their target and struck with enough force to punch through several inches of titanium. Unfortunately, the projectiles never reached the beast that now hovered three hundred feet away from them. Instead, they slammed into what appeared to be an invisible barrier that lit up with interconnecting, blue hexagons from where the airborne AP rounds struck.

Rob just stared up at it in confusion while Gumball and Teri let their jaws drop in shock. Before they had a moment to register that the monster had an invisible barrier of sorts, the floating pillbug stopped its advance and a orb of blue energy began to materialize towards its rear. Gumball saw what was coming and reacted as quickly as he could by jumping directly in front of his one-eyed ally with his scythe raised.

A blue beam erupted from the orb, it was smaller than the red beams fired by the previous monsters, but was several times faster. Gumball barely had time to swipe horizontally with his shafted weapon. The blade's arc caught the beam before it stuck the cat of the matching color in the chest and deflected it to the side, away from his teammates, and into the dirt where it exploded.

It wasn't as strong as the red one's either because the crater it left behind was no bigger than a basketball and it didn't even knock the scythe wielder back.

Gumball could feel his heart racing as he kept his eyes glued on the Nephilim that was slowly rotating towards them. He could not believe that he had just done what he did and was unsure if he should be excited or just plain grateful. He chuckled nervously and slowly turned his head towards the two behind him,

"J-just like baseball p-practice!" he squeaked, clutching his weapon tightly until his knuckles turned white.

Teri was watching the whole ordeal and was actually quite impressed. She knew he was secretly honing his skills in the gym and it seemed as though they were paying off. She was glad to see that his hard work was actually benefiting him and felt encouraged to work harder herself when this battle was finished. She was definitely going to need to consider adding the runes in her training regimine and was wondering about certain areas to practice in.

With her helicopter already formed, she quickly took off, leaving behind a cloud of dust kicked up by the alternating pressure caused by the paper rotors. She quickly began to circle around the battlefield while searching for a notable weakness in the Nephilim's defensive barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier was completely invisible to the naked eye and was giving the paper bear a difficult time discerning the nature of the shield.

On the ground, Rob had gotten over his initial shock, and began moving backwards as he fired a couple more rounds at the slowly approaching Nephilim. As expected, the magic bullets did nothing except crumple on impact and bounce off the transparent field that protected the pill shaped monster. Even though it lacked eyes, it seemed to know where Rob was and fired a few rounds of blue beams towards the disfigured Elmore citizen. He dodged them while Gumball swatted a few more death beams away from them both and continued to act as defense.

Rob growled at the ineffectiveness of his weapon and switched to HE rounds,

"If armor piercing rounds can't get the job done, then some high explosive rockets should do the trick!" he exclaimed. Gumball heard him and stepped aside so he was clear of the weapons path.

The mad cyclops estimated that the monster was 275 feet away and the shield was set around the creature at a distance of ten feet. Quickly calculating the speed of the target's approach, the arc of the rocket, the distance of the barrier, and other factors, he set the detonator on the rocket to explode upon impact of the barrier using the digital HUD (Heads Up Display) on the scope.

He carefully took aim and fired one rocket towards the Nephilim in front of him and Gumball. The self propelled explosive shot in an arc towards the reflective behemoth and erupted in a brilliant ball of flame. The thunderous roar and shockwave spread across the area and nearly knocked Gumball down. Dust and smoke filled the air in a massive, dirty, dark plume and began to settle within seconds.

Seeing as the target was obscured, Gumball regained his balance and peered into the cloud of debris in order to see if the Nephilim had been affected by the magically enhanced explosive round,

"Did it work?" he asked no one in particular, although Rob had been listening and was squinting as hard as he could so he could confirm the target's status.

Dread immediately filled the two when the smoke and sand cleared. The floating pillbug was still hovering in place and its force field was completely lit up in a blue honeycomb pattern. With the barrier and the beast completely unharmed, it began an immediate counterattack. This time a larger, red orb of energy began to form at the front of the triumphant monster. A hum filled the air and a force began to press down on Gumball and Rob. It was the doom blast utilized by all the Nephilim spirits.

Both boys shrank back in terror upon recognition of this attack and were now at a loss as to what to do. Rob immediately collapsed to the ground and didn't move. Gumball, on the other hand, didn't fall, rather he stood in place and trembled in fear. It was going to be a few seconds until the beast fired it's devastating weapon and the poor cat boy didn't know what to do.

He didn't understand why he was able to suddenly withstand the power of the Nephilim's force, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to deflect the blast away from himself or drag Rob away in time before the scarlet energy lance of death fired. When he looked up, he could see Teri hovering above in her origami copter, but she wouldn't be able to rescue the both of them in time.

The hum grew louder and the air began heating up around them.

It was at that moment Gumball felt something. It was faint at first, like a spark, but then it erupted into a powerful, resonating energy that traveled from his scythe and into his body. He looked at the moon shaped, serrated blade that glinted in the sun and noticed that one of the three runes was glowing and emitting a grey, fiery aura. The rune was shaped like a sun with a vertical line bisecting it. Gumball didn't know what it meant, but it seemed to be reacting to the Nephilim's energy or was it activating due to some other factor?.

The massive red orb collapsed into a narrow line of ruby devastation and shot towards the two boys at incredible speed.

For the anthropomorphic cat, the mid-ranged attack seemed to travel rather slowly as he spun on one foot and allowed the curved blade to spin with him. As he picked up speed, the blade became engulfed in grey fire and soon formed a glowing ring around the spinning cat. The doom blast struck the blazing blade and vanished upon contact.

It happened so quickly, that the universe itself didn't seem to catch it and the world was still. Then in a moment's passing, the world caught on and everything seemed to return to a normal speed. Rob felt the intense gravitational force that pressed into his back, head, and shoulders suddenly release it's hold and he scrambled to his feet,

"What happened? I thought we were dead?!" he blurted out, swishing his blocky head side to side in frenzied attempt to assess the situation.

Not exactly sure as to what that was either, the dizzy cat tried his hardest to regain his bearings and explain to the nefarious inventor what he just did. One thing he noticed right away was that whatever that grey fiery aura did, it sapped a lot of energy out of him and left the middle-schooler feeling rather drained and dizzy. One of his rolling eyes caught something glowing and when he tried to focus on it, he could see that the Nephilim was charging up two blue orbs. He quickly turned to Rob and desperately shouted,

"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!''

Seeing the oncoming attack, Rob's slit pupil narrowed in fear as he scrambled to find cover. Gumball scurried away, screaming as a storm of rapidly moving blue projectiles began peppering the ground around him. The two found cover behind a potato shaped rock and while Gumball huddled behind the stony obstacle, Rob peeked out from behind the rock and began firing several shots at the approaching enemy,

"I don't know what it was you did back there, but at least it saved us for the time being!" he shouted over the sound of gunfire.

He ducked down after a few blue bolts struck near the spot where his head was and began switching out magazines. After resupplying his depleted ammo, he checked once more where the Nephilim was and saw that it was closing in on them at a distance of two hundred feet. He scowled at the approaching monster and ducked down once more as a few stray projectiles flew overhead,

"I hope Teri's found a weak spot in that things barrier or else we're going to have to find more cover!" he shouted to Gumball, who was now taking a chance to peek out at the entity after feeling some of his energy return to him.

The cat boy pondered his next plan of action after seeing that Rob's weapon was having no effect on the Nephilim's protective barrier,

"If that's the case maybe I should try to attack it's barrier with my scythe!" Gumball exclaimed, flinching as a projectile slammed into the rock, leaving behind a smoking, black spot,

"By the way, what do you think I should name the scythe? Carrie never told me whether it had a name or not, so I wanted to know if you had any suggestions?" he directed his attention at the shooting cyclops.

"Dude! Do you really think that now is a good time to discuss a title for your pathetic weapon!" he shouted as he fired another rocket towards the floating, legless, pillbug Nephilim. The rocket once again exploded with no effect on the shield.

Gumball rubbed his chin and discussed with his inner self before answering,

"Yes…?" he shrugged.

The doctor just let out a raspy and tired sigh. If he could facepalm, he would have smacked his head so hard that it would've left him in a coma. He mentally reminded himself to never underestimate the cat's stupidity and kept firing at the monster that was returning with a cascade of energy projectiles. They were stuck at the moment and all it would take for the Nephilim to wipe out their hiding spot was either to knock it aside with its shield or fire a red doom blast and just incinerate the rock and them with it.

Either way, things were looking bad and Rob guessed that they had five minutes left until they had to be leaving. They could stay longer to fight the beast, but then they would be late or worse they could exhaust themselves trying to break that thing's defenses.

"Where's Teri when you need her?" Rob muttered to himself.

Sitting still and pondering a good name for the mysterious magical weapon that rested on his lap, Gumball heard Rob's self-inquiry and answered nonchalantly even though there was no need to,

"I'm pretty sure she's noticed something at this point!" he boasted confidently.

The blasts became louder and Gumball could sense that Toxic Pill (the name he just came up with!) was drawing near. He stood, scythe in hand, and prepared for the worse to come.

Meanwhile, up in the air, a certain paper girl rested on her helicopter's landing skid as she observed the battle down below. She was well aware that Toxic Pill was nearly one hundred feet away from the two hiding fighters and estimated that they had less than a minute before the hovering tank of a monster reached them. She had witnessed Rob's various attacks and concluded that conventional weapons weren't very effective even when tipped with runes. She also saw Gumball's spectacular deflection of the doom blast and had wondered how on Earth he was able to perform such a feat when the attack left it's targets vulnerable. It was confusing to say at the least, but thanks to their efforts, she had gathered some helpful info regarding Toxic Pill's shield.

The first thing she noticed was that the energy barrier was dome-shaped, as was prevalent during Rob's missile strike. With the option of attacking from above out of the question, she focused on the sides of the shields. However, the whole barrier appeared to be equally as strong throughout so there weren't any areas that neither of them could pick away at.

To her fascination, whatever seemed to come in contact with the barrier, the Nephilim would notice as was made evident by how it sensed where Rob was after he fired upon it. She noticed that Toxic Pill wasn't firing at the both of them, but only at Rob because it was using the barrier to predict where he was located and would fire upon his position. She also noticed that its shield seemed to be generated from the center of the flat, pill shaped, armored creature because she saw a pillar of energy stemming from the mid-section after Rob fired a second rocket. So she knew where to hit it in order to disable it's shields.

However, her most important discovery, was that the shield didn't block out everything. From her perch in the air, she could see that whenever the shield came in contact with something like a large stone or bush, it will cut it off ten centimeters from the surface. She had to draw on a pair of electronic binoculars in order to notice such a detail, but nonetheless she exploited a weak spot in its otherwise perfect defense.

With a plan mapped out in her head, she swooped downwards, behind the Nephilim. It was do or die time!

She landed a foot behind where she estimated the shield to be and unfolded her helicopter into its basic form. She turned and watched the Nephilim's actions and noticed that its attention was still focused on eliminating the boys in front of it. It appeared that she was right about its awareness being only limited to what came in contact with its shield. The sounds of exchanging gunfire could be heard, (She wondered if Rob was shooting at Toxic Pill because he was trying to exploit a weak spot himself or was just trying to keep its attention on him.) and she saw that it was now seventy five feet from their hiding spot. She had less than a minute to act!

Gathering up her courage, she charged forward, dropping her notebook and pencil (seeing as they were likely to get caught in the barrier.) and dove straight forward as low to the ground as possible. Being about a millimeter thick, the feature that proved to be one of Teri's greatest setbacks proved to be her greatest strength in this situation, as she easily passed underneath the moving barrier with both her large piece of paper and her note page with the explosion rune inscribed on it. She flew a bit of a distance before she landed on her face and accidently swallowed some dirt, causing her to cough and recoil at the foul taste,

"I'm going to need to wash my mouth out when I get back to school and take a few meds when I get home!" she thought bitterly to herself,

"Sounds perfectly reasonable."

When she got up, she quickly dusted herself off and immediately noticed that it had gotten considerably darker. She wondered if she had gotten underneath the barrier and what could possibly be blocking out the sun. Curious, she looked up and saw herself looking back at her! She squeaked in fear and jumped back, startled a little by the image, before she realized that she was looking at reflective underside of the titanic monster several dozen feet above her.

She was quite amazed at the sheer size of the Nephilim, with it being forty feet wide and one hundred feet long, it was like looking at a building sized mirror or a floating silver lake! It seemed to stretch out in front of her as it slowly moved ahead, she could make out the armored segments clearly, and saw that they were sealed tightly. She wondered if her bomb rune would even make a dent in its armor. It was most likely hollow like the other Nephilim, but its body was ten feet thick and could have at least a foot of metallic plating covering it. This thing was built like a hovering tank!

While she gawked at the monster, it passed over her and allowed sunlight to strike her flat, white face once more. The absence of its shadow snapped Teri back to her senses and after blinking a couple times to readjust her vision, she willed the paper to form a simple, diamond-like dragonfly the size of a motorcycle and flew up towards the top of the oval shaped spirit.

In a graceful arc, she circled over top and landed on the mid-section of Toxic Pill. Seeing as the dragonfly lacked legs, she had to use her own feet to position herself on the smooth, metallic surface that served as its armor and skin. The first thing the dragonfly mounted paper bear noticed was that the armor she stood on was scorching hot. Being in the sun for a few minutes, the shiny reflective surface was so hot, it felt cold, like a stove being lit for an hour. She screeched in pain as soon as her feet touched the surface and she launched herself in the air again.

Hovering a foot above the monster, Teri allowed her seering feet to cool down a moment and recollected her troubled thoughts. She now knew that the armor encasing Toxic Pill was super conductive when it came to heat and wasn't safe to land on. She looked over the side, but couldn't see past the fifty feet, or so, of Nephilim that expanded outwards. She knew they had to be at least fifty feet from the boys and in the second that she thought that, she heard an all too familiar hum and realized it was charging another doom blast! So much for charging in, it was going to just blow them away as simple as that.

Raising the hand that held the rune note in front of her, Teri swooped downwards and planted the paper onto the Nephilim's backside. Originally, she planned on holding it there until it began to take effect (she reminded herself to get some tape or sticky notes the next time she and her mom went shopping.), but the magic activated immediately upon contact with Toxic Pill's armor. It stuck there as if glued to the monsters backside and the hexagonal symbol began to glow orange and began to flash warningly. The rapid dimming and glowing of the symbol indicated that Teri had a short amount of time to clear the blast area.

Realizing this, Teri darted away and flew towards the rear of the Nephilim tank. She made her way to the ground and abandoned her dragonfly in order to dive through the small space between the shield and the dirt. Laying flat on the ground, Teri covered her ears and prayed that the blast wouldn't be too large. She also hoped that her assumption was correct and that the explosive magic weapon will take out the Nephilim's impenetrable force field or even better the monster itself!

Five seconds later, the paper girl received her answer when she heard a brief, but deafening explosion sounding off behind her. There wasn't a shock wave to be felt from the distance she was at (maybe the creature's magical barrier absorbed it?) but, she could tell that it was somewhat large and powerful. Cautiously standing up and turning around, she laid her eyes on the Nephilim and saw that her plan had been successful!

A joyful smile found its way onto her lips as she watched the Nephilim shudder from the blast and the barrier around it flickered erratically before disappearing completely. On its back, a plume of smoke rose, signalling where the bomb had gone off previously. Also, from the front, Teri could see that her surprise attack had halted the doom blast it was preparing earlier. Being weakened from the blast, Toxic Pill descended like a sinking ship until it hovered four feet from ground.

She cheered victoriously, jumping up in the air, and then rushing back to her notebook, papers, and pencil. The shield may be down, but the Nephilim hadn't vanished yet, meaning it had not received enough damage to effectively kill it. However, before she reached her supplies, she heard a couple of shouts coming from behind and turned to see that the boys had now taken the initiative.

In the front, Gumball and Rob saw Teri's surprise attack and after the shield was disabled, the two leapt out from their cover and charged the beast. With two magazines loaded, the cyclops unloaded the two clips of enchanted armor piercing bullets into the Nephilim's frontal section. The explosive rounds tore through the thick armor with ease, leaving behind ping-pong ball sized holes that severely weakened the armor.

Gumball followed up by charging up the scythe again for another amplified swing. Allowing its energy to ring throughout his body, the crescent blade erupted in grey flames once more and Gumball swung down vertically as soon as he reached Toxic Pill. The attack itself lacked the same amount of power it had when he first used it, but managed to cut through the weakened armor with a horrific screech of metal on metal and left a six foot gash that exposed the hollow interior of the malicious entity.

Rob finished it off by firing a HE, self-propelled round into the gash Gumball created, forcing the blue cat to leap away as the round exploded. The entire front section was violently ripped open by the blast and the Nephilim crashed to the ground, flinging dirt upwards in all directions. Upon its death, the Nephilim lay still, blackened, and burst into brilliant purple flames. As usual, nothing was left behind. The three stood around the area where the Nephilim once rested and took a moment to catch their breath.

This made Rob wonder if the Nephilim actually die upon being defeated or if they just go somewhere else. He wondered if they'll be seeing monsters like these in the nearby future. Perhaps, he oughta investigate the void after he dropped the students off to school and see if there were any disturbances in that dimension.

He noticed something approaching them at high speed and was about to warn Gumball when the object accelerated and was upon them in mere seconds. To his relief, it was only Teri mounted on an origami hawk as she quickly made her way towards the two. She landed in front of them and Gumball rushed over and gave her a high five,

"That was awesome, Teri!" he exclaimed, pumping his fists in the air,

"I thought me and Rob we're gonna get cooked back there! That was some real good timing and thinking!" he praised excitedly.

Rob joined in on the celebrating by walking over to the two with his arms crossed and an appreciative smile on his face,

"That was really clever. Thanks to your keen observation and great performance, you helped me and Gumball take down the Nephilim." he applauded her actions.

Teri smiled and blushed a little more at the thanks she was receiving,

"Thanks. I'm glad I was able to be more effective in getting rid of it." she said with pride.

Rob broke the warm mood by waving them in the direction of the car,

"Come on you two, we have to get going now if you want to get back before the assembly ends." he ushered them forward with his free hand and the two began speed walking towards the car.

The trio walked in silence for a moment before Teri decided to ask Gumball something that has been picking at her,

"Hey Gumball." she started, causing the Watterson child to glance back at her,

"What was that move you used? The one where you deflected the Nephilim's doom blast with what appeared to be grey fire." she asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Even Rob was sneaking glances towards the cat of the same age, although he simultaneously pretended not to care.

Staring down at the ancient magical weapon responsible for the power she described, Gumball gave it a quizzical look then shifted his gaze to her,

"I have no idea. When Toxic Pill-!"

"Toxic Pill? Really!?" Rob interrupted, rolling his one large eye.

Teri turned towards the lanky pre-teen and explained Gumball's naming habits,

"He usually likes to give them catchy names that stick so that it's easier to remember which Nephilim spirit we're talking about." she folded her arms, while Rob just blew some non-existent hair out of his face,

"Pfft! Lame!" he teased, shifting his gaze to a now offended Gumball.

The tiny mammal folded his scythe until it was in its compact, portable form, and then shot a venomous glare at his nemesis,

"At least I know what I'm going to name my car, when I get one!" he shot back in a snide tone. Rob narrowed his eye, squared up his shoulders, and opened his mouth to respond to his nemesis' sass.

Sensing a heated argument forming between the two, Teri immediately broke it up,

"GUMBALL!" she shouted angrily, immediately grabbing her friend's attention whilst halting any snappy comebacks from Rob,

"You were saying something about toxic pill and what its doom blast had to do with your new power." she reminded, still glaring at the cat.

Nervously scratching the back of his head, Gumball jogged his memory until he caught back onto the train of thought that had been derailed by Rob's interruption. He explained that he felt a strange force within the scythe as the Nephilim spirit began charging up its common, yet most devastating attack. The ancient weapon gave him the strength to stand up to its gravity press and the speed to counteract the lightning fast beam that it fired. He also explained that every time he used it, he felt kind of drained, like as if he had finished doing fifteen push-ups in gym class.

This was obviously news for the two listeners, as it meant runes can also be used as a means to enhance a person's physical strength and attacks. If they could discover more relics that relate to the Nephilim, maybe they can form a spell book of sorts that could help turn the tide of battle against the rampaging spirits. This was more interesting to Rob than it was to the other two kids accompanying him and it was due to the fact that he had a few ideas where such powers could be located and what he could use them for.

This brought his attention back to the void, to the place he spent some time in along with someone else he knew and where he was nearly forgotten. If the runes that were in Ms. Jotenheim's spell books were lost to time than perhaps he could find them in the void itself, where all forgotten items found themselves. There were also plenty of other individuals and places that held mysterious artifacts and were also known to dabble in the mystic arts that he could exploit.

Concluding his thoughts on the matter, Rob began to walk faster to the car that was parked a few minutes away. He now had something to fill his calendar with and wanted to get to it right away. From what he had seen, Gumball's scythe offered a small teaspoon of power compared to all the divine might that was locked away or scattered about the world.

And now he wanted it all for himself,

"Thank you for helping us, Rob!"

The evil inventor turned around to Teri, who had spoken to him and gave her a surprised facial expression,

"Huh, uh, Oh! Yeah, no problem. You guys did a great job today as well." he nervously babbled, completely caught off guard by Teri's sudden expression of gratitude. The two actually smiled at him and continued walking.

"I'm going to, um, be busy doing some research on the Nephilim, especially the ones around the world, so you guys might not see me around that often." he quickly explained. He was lying to cover the fact that he wanted to locate some more ancient symbols for his own purposes.

They seemed to buy into it as Teri gave a simple, responsive nod and Gumball just stared straight ahead,

"Are you going to be watching Elmore when we go on the field trip next month?" the upright feline asked the distorted cyclops.

Rob looked Gumball in the eyes with an affirmative gaze and answered,

"Definitely. I wouldn't want to be gone for one day only to come back to a desolate town. I have way too many valuable assets here, plus a certain someone that resides within my apartment would probably kill me if I stayed away for too long." he chuckled a little.

The two chuckled along with him before catching onto the last part. What did he mean by a certain someone? This raised a few questions amongst the two,

"Were you talking about your mom?" Teri was the first to ask.

Rob glanced at her once before angrily responding with,

"I don't have a mom."

Teri felt her lips purse as she felt some shame overcoming her for possibly treading on a touchy subject and decided to remain silent on the matter. Gumball, on the other hand, already knew this and continued to guess what he was referring to. He began listing off some possible ideas as he continued to walk behind the polygonal cyclops,

"Your girlfriend? A clingy roommate? Your aunt? Your lazy college roommate? Your dog?" he was aware that he was nagging, but he wanted answers and he was going to get them darn it!

Instead, Rob just stopped in his tracks and turned around with a stern look written all over his misshapen face, his single eye glaring into Gumball's own two,

"Does my personal life interest you that much?" he asked in a raised tone.

Gumball was taken aback by his stern appearance alongside his deflecting question and found himself unable to continue with his nagging,

"Uh no, not really…" he stammered out before looking away.

Rob snorted like an angry bull before spinning around once more and continued making his way towards his car,

"Then don't ask." he replied simply without looking at him nor Teri as his answer also applied to her as well.

Gumball felt his face grow sour and a dark shadow covered his eyes,

"Cheeky little son of a biscuit." he grumbled under his breath, not understanding why the crazy inventor was being so difficult after they just finished a somewhat difficult match with Toxic Pill.

Teri could only watch Gumball's grumpy reaction with amusement and giggled to herself in response. She had a feeling that things were kind of like this between the two before the whole incident with Penny. It seemed like this was going to be an interesting alliance with many bizarre days that lay ahead and while Teri was glad for their newest member, she found herself not really liking the whole shadiness of his overall character. He just seemed like someone who could be just as troubling to them as the Nephilim and could possibly their worst enemy to deal with. They were all going to be very cautious of one another.

The red dust that expanded beyond where the eye could see was lit up bright under the burning central star. There probably weren't very many people out in this heat, so getting back to school on time should be a cinche. There weren't any birds or insects making any noises, only the sound of feet crunching on sand and ragged breaths from parched throats. It was more than well established that the three triumphant fighters would appreciate this day more if they were back indoors with AC and drinking fountains.

The thought of water made Gumball die a little on the inside as he knew there wasn't going to be any water for a while. He spoke to Rob as they walked,

"Hey Rob, can we stop for water on the way to school?" he gasped.

"Only if we have time. I have to put fuel in the tank and I think there's a gas station three miles back." he said sternly.

Teri and Gumball groaned with happiness and began to run to the car.

(A/N): Okay, and that is it for chapter three! Had a lot of fun writing this one, even though there was so much I needed to edit and do research (and by research I mean re-watching several Gumball episodes.) on just to make sure that this chapter worked.

One of the things I was definitely looking forward to while writing this chapter was introducing Teri's parents, giving her a last name, and giving Teri magic in order to better engage the Nephilim in battle. I also enjoyed just writing a chapter where Gumball and Teri could just hang out together and find something simple that they can enjoy with each other. These two are just so adorable together and I can't wait to write more chapters with them doing more stuff like this.

And then there is Rob. I wanted to add in a third party member for a while now and decided that Rob would be the perfect candidate because he's an interesting character all around and i can see him most likely teaming up with his arch nemesis if the world is at stake. We'll also be seeing what kind of things he goes through and what his motivations are for gaining what he wants in the upcoming chapters, so stay tuned. Also we'll be finding out who this "certain someone" Rob was referring to in later chapters as well.

Oh yeah, one last thing I wanted to point out in case if you guys were confused by this, the bullets Rob used were tipped with explosive runes like the one Teri used for the first time. The reason why they didn't explode after coming in contact with Toxic Pill's barrier was because the nature of its shield was to negate any magical forces that may be a threat to it along with physical ones. Also the effectiveness of a rune can be based on its size, Teri's rune had a larger area of effect because she drew a large one on a sheet of paper and Rob had to paint really tiny ones on all his ammunition. Also, fun fact: what happens if you try using non-magical weapons against the Nephilim? Whether it be a bullet or a knife, it will just disintegrate against the Nephilim's skin.

And the last thing I wanted to bring up is Gumball's new power. Like Teri's it is rune-based and gives him quite an edge when fighting the Nephilim. However, as amazing as that power is, it has many setbacks and Gumball will have to spend a very long time learning how to fully utilize it while minimizing its negative effects. Which is alright because Gumball still has his wits and Teri fighting by his side, so he won't have to depend on his power too much.

This week was really fun because in my part of the country, there were some heavy snowstorms that kept many businesses and schools closed for the whole week! So i got to stay home and just relax for a while in my PJ's for a bit, sometimes watch vids on my laptop and workout for a little bit. I was kind of bummed about the weather though because I do enjoy going outside and just being able to enjoy nature as it is, plus my friends couldn't hang out because the roads were absolute garbage!

Regardless, I had fun writing this chapter and I look forward to posting chapter four: Bridging the gap next week.

You guys have an awesome day, leave a review and a like down below and enjoy what life brings!