Chapter 5: Looking glass
Teri x Gumball
(A/N): What is hanging everybody! I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves and are eager to delve into the fifth chapter of the romantic/fantasy story of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. In Chapter 5: Looking glass, we'll be following our intrepid duo of Nephilim fighters as they go about their day off in Elmore after the school had been damaged during yesterday's events. We'll also be taking a peek into Rob's life and what he has been up to.
All in all, this chapter will be informative, but pretty docile as far as action goes. There will also be cute and fluffy scenes between Carrie and Darwin as the chapter will focus on them for a bit. There will also be more relationship building between Teri and Gumball, but so far the two are only close friends as of this moment.
With that all in mind, I now leave you all to enjoy this story that I find joy in writing. Thank you all for reading this, I do hope you enjoy the latest chapter being presented to you. Leave a review down below and do have a good day!
(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)
-Teri's house, September 18th, 2013, 5:03 A.M.-
One thing Gumball loved about Teri's place was that it was located farthest from the highway and workplace of Elmore, meaning that there were no cars or trucks that noisily passed by as people made their way to and fro throughout the city. It was absolutely quiet and tranquil and that was how Gumball liked his mornings. Both he and Teri were peacefully dozing away in their separate beds, while the sun was just starting to rise outside.
They didn't have any nightmares about the Nephilim, which was a given to the two young protectors of Elmore seeing as such an event would signal an imminent fight that would happen within twenty minutes of their waking time. They spent several hours yesterday in a clearing within the forest that was near Teri's house practicing with each other on how to utilize their abilities effectively. Teri was slowly getting better at using different origami interchangeably, although she began pondering as to whether or not she should start making up her own origami instead of just creating the one's she knew off the top of her head. Gumball meanwhile, definitely found that he needed to work on his stance more when using his scythe because there were several times Teri was able to knock him over with her larger constructions. He didn't have anyone to teach him how to actually wield a scythe in battle, so he tried studying from books and videos on the internet, and it was going well, sort of.
After they finished practicing, they went back to her home and spent some time doing school work. As usual, Gumball kept finding ways to get distracted and Teri kept getting annoyed with him, sometimes resulting in things getting thrown at the cat boy. Despite the trials of Teri's patience and tolerance they both managed to finish their work and spent some time surfing the internet together. All while this was happening, some of their friends began texting the two of them and when they found out what they were doing both the paper girl and the cat boy were bombarded with embarrassing messages from their friends telling them and each other that they were dating. They wound up spending less time on their phones after that.
Then came evening when Teri's mom arrived home from work and got started on dinner with her husband. The two kids were called down stairs and joined the adults at the dining table to enjoy some soba noodles prepared for everyone. The meal was pretty good and Gumball got along really well with Teri's parents, swapping stories with them about his family and friends while cracking a few jokes every now and then. Then, as if both Teri's mom and dad developed some form of omniscience, they too began teasing the two kids about being together causing the children to rapidly try shutting down every comment while their faces remained red like beets. In the end, they had a good time and Gumball was glad that Teri's family wasn't completely stony and cold as he had previously thought.
After dinner, they retired to Teri's room where they watched the newest episode of Under the stethoscope and spent half an hour nearly crying with laughter. Before they went to bed, they stayed up and talked for a bit about certain things in their lives and about whatever topic they found amusing. At ten it was lights out and Gumball changed into his PJ's, pulled out the air mattress, and was soon soundly sleeping next to Teri's bed.
While snuggled up under the covers, Gumball's eyelids remained tightly closed while the eyes that remained shielded underneath darted back and forth while dreamt of something pleasant. Meanwhile, a sound, very faint, made its way through the empty halls of the house and to Gumball's ears which twitched in response to the noise. This slight disturbance caused the kitten to slowly wake up as a response to the noise.
He sat up slowly, allowing the clean, red covers to fall from his body as he stretched out his arms and let out a large yawn. Blinking a couple times to remove the excess moisture in his eyes, Gumball looked about the room. He first spotted Teri, who was still asleep as was evident by the blindfold covering her eyes and the fact that the only movement that she made were the slight twitches that resulted from her dreaming. He found it odd that he couldn't tell whether she was breathing or not because her chest didn't rise and fall like a person who was three dimensional would, but he found the sight of her all tucked up underneath the covers with a slight smile on her face to be quite adorable. He wondered what she was dreaming about that made her smile like that.
He glanced at her alarm clock and saw that it was five minutes past five and that it wouldn't be until 5:30 until it went off. The room was very dim with the only source of light being the small amount of sunlight peeking through the blindfolds from the rising sun. It was also very quiet too, except for a slight sound that was getting louder every passing second.
Confused, Gumball looked around to see what could be making the noise, but couldn't quite locate the source. He recognized it as the sound that woke him the first place, but couldn't quite put his finger on as to what it was. His attention was finally directed to the open door (Teri's dad made them keep it open whenever they were alone in the room together, which confused the two of them because they didn't do this when Gumball first slept over.) that lead to the stairwell that brought them down in the small hallway that lead either to the bathroom or the kitchen depending on which direction you took.
He was startled when the rectangular head of Mr. Pepakuma popped into the doorway.
"Morning you two!" he greeted in a friendly tone as he walked in.
He reached over and flicked the light switch, causing the whole room to explode in a glaring, yellow light that assaulted Gumball's eyes that were accustomed to the dark. He shut them tightly and groaned as he furiously rubbed at them in order to relieve them of the pain. He thought about how his mother would wake him up in the same fashion and wasn't really impressed by Fukijima's similar methods,
"Morning Mr. Pepakuma." he muttered as his eyes finally adjusted to the blinding light.
In her bed, Teri rustled a little, sat up, yawned and stretched, erased her blindfolds and added on her eyes and eyebrows in order to look at first at Gumball and then at her father,
"Morning dad." she said in a very happy tone.
Mr. Pepakuma returned her smile and quickly pulled out his phone and opened a window that lead to his messages. He cleared his throat and read the message out loud to the two kids,
"Just got a message from your principal, it reads: Due to the extensive damage done to the school during yesterday's events, all classes are cancelled until the damages can be dealt with. School will resume on Friday, but for now enjoy your two days off and please stay safe. Thank you very much for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause anyone. Signed principal Brown." he put his phone away and looked up at the two kids who were now practically swelling up with surprise,
"Looks like you two have the day off as well as tomorrow." he said.
The two let out a whoop of joy as they both jumped up out of bed and gave each other a high five. Teri's father smiled at the two while they celebrated, admiring their enthusiasm for these kinds of things before his serious face returned and he held a rectangular finger to his lips,
"Shhh!" he shushed them, the two immediately stopped and turned to look at the taller paper bear cutout,
"Yui is still sleeping downstairs." he whispered, looking at the two of them sternly through his glasses.
The two immediately sat down on Teri's bed with an embarrassed look written on their faces,
"Sorry." they replied in unison.
Nodding as an acknowledgment to their apology, Fukijima snuck a peek at the clock on Teri's dresser and turned with a less stern expression on his face,
"Alright, seeing as you two don't have school today, you're free to hang out. However, at 6:00 I want you two back home, unless Gumball has to leave, then he can, but I want you to get started on sweeping the basement after he leaves." he said, pointing at Teri.
Teri nodded once as a mere response to his orders and her father continued on with his explanation,
"I'm going to be gone for most of the day, there's a patient I'm going to be operating on and it's going to take a while to complete the surgery. Yui is downstairs in her room, sleeping, but don't wake her unless you really need something." he warned before turning to the door and walked through,
"You guys have fun and Watterson…" he turned his head in the direction of the now nervous blue cat,
"...please behave yourself and be responsible, that goes for you too, Teri." he said.
After receiving an affirmative answer from the two, he headed downstairs and soon disappeared from sight.
Gumball felt his shoulders slump and he turned to Teri with a confused look on his face,
"What did he say again? I didn't hear anything except for behave yourself." he admitted blandly.
Teri turned to him with a quizzical look on her face before facepalming herself,
"For crying out loud, Gumball you really need to work on your listening skills! I'm surprised you can take such good notes in class, yet completely zone out when someone is talking to you." she remarked in an exasperated tone.
Gumball blinked once and looked at her in utter confusion, as if he just missed something,
"Sorry what was that?" he responded, cocking an eyebrow.
Infuriated, Teri quickly reached over to throw a pillow at the boy who was driving her insane. Gumball anticipated this and quickly raised his hands in surrender just as the girl was raising the pillow over his head. She stopped when she saw his passive pose and wondered while he was chuckling,
"Stop, stop, stop! I was joking, I heard you and your dad the first time!" he continued to laugh at her aggressive reaction.
Feeling her eyes narrow, Teri just shook her head in disbelief at the little trickster sitting next to her. She knew it was like him to do this every now and then with her and it was all just to see how she would react so he could get a laugh in. Well, normally she would have just him off with a mild insult, but felt a nefarious idea come to her mind. With a quick motion of her hand, she slammed the pillow onto his face causing the laughing cat to gasp in surprise as he was knocked backwards.
While he was down, Teri saw that his white T-shirt had lifted a little and was exposing his flat stomach. Seizing the opportunity that had presented itself to her, Teri reached forward with her fingers and began poking rapidly at the exposed area. Feeling her flimsy fingers attacking his stomach, Gumball let out a sharp squeal and immediately began curling up and turning away in an attempt to get away from Teri. She continued to tickle the cat and soon the feline was drowning in laughter.
The tables were soon turned on Teri however, when Gumball remembered how light his friend was and proceeded to grab her by the shoulder and pushed her away from him. With his other hand, he started tickling her in retaliation causing the paper bear to make the same noises as him only louder this time. Realizing that she was outmatched, she quickly hopped up and off her bed, seeing as Gumball hadn't done anything to secure her, and quickly rushed out of her room. Gumball, not intending to let her off the hook so easily, sprung up and dashed out after her.
They spent a few minutes chasing each other around the house while trying to keep their voices low, so they don't disturb the sleeping Mrs. Pepakuma. After they had enough horseplay, Teri proceeded to go fix her room up like she did every morning while Gumball went to make them breakfast. At around six, they were both sitting around the kitchen table, eating the food Gumball had prepared them while enjoying a conversation.
Teri dug her fork into the quick bread and tore a piece off before lifting it towards her mouth,
"Where did you learn how to cook? If you don't mind me asking." she asked, placing the fork along with the piece of bread into her mouth before she started chewing.
Gumball poured a bit more syrup on his fluffy slice of tasty bread while he answered her question,
"I don't cook a whole lot, actually." he admitted,
"I just learned a couple recipes by myself or I'd experiment with certain ingredients whenever I'm bored. I also help mom make a few dishes every now and then, which was where I learned how to make quick bread. Other than that, I don't really cook a whole lot, so it's not exactly something I'd call a skill." he said, quickly tipping the syrup over once he had the right amount on his already sweetened sliced of bread.
Teri was slightly disturbed by the amount of syrup he used (also, who puts syrup on baked goods?), wanting to tell him that too much sugar could lead to many complications such as diabetes, but diagressed as she didn't see it as something worth getting upset over. Plus, he said he was working out, so maybe there wasn't too much to worry about. Other than that, she was actually quite impressed by the kitty's culinary skills as his dish was quite pleasing.
She swallowed her bite and began working on breaking off another piece, all the while she continued to speak,
"Well, I like it. I think you should cook more often." she complimented, actually meaning what she said.
Gumball was pleased with her comment and found himself smiling at her fondly,
"If you like this, then maybe I should bake you a cake next time." he offered.
Caught in surprise by his offer, Teri stopped eating and cast him a curious glance,
"That would be lovely actually, but could you use non-dairy products please. I think I may be lactose intolerant." she stated, once again fully aware that she was being paranoid, but wasn't sure if she wanted to risk finding out if her digestive tract didn't agree with.
Not finding that fact the least bit surprising, seeing as her kitchen lacked any dairy products except for soy, that is, Gumball merely nodded and mentally reminded himself to look up non-dairy cake recipes. Still, he was happy that she enjoyed his food and wanted to impress her some more with the other things he could make. Just seeing her happy in general made him feel the same and he wasn't quite sure where this strange feeling was coming from.
He tore a chunk of bread free and lifted towards his salivating mouth, the scent of baked loaf was seducing all on it's own,
"That won't be much of an issue." he proclaimed before taking a bite, feeling the heavenly taste flow through his mouth.
Teri was about to ask him what kind of cake he liked to bake when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Quickly retrieving it, she flipped it open and saw that Alan had sent her a message. Curious, she wondered why Alan would be messaging her this early in the morning and especially when there was no school. It wasn't like he was just going to send her a positive quote or something because he already does that on Elmore Plus. Scrolling over to it, she opened it and read what the charismatic balloon boy had written for her,
"Good morning everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your day off from school after that terrible accident that destroyed Miss Simian's room and the seventh grade hall. Luckily no one got hurt and everyone is doing okay. Seeing as everyone has the day off, Carmen and I decided to throw together a picnic at the Elmore park and you are all invited! The picnic starts at noon and we wouldn't mind if everyone brought something along with them for the rest of the class to enjoy. If you don't want to come or don't have time to make the trip, that's okay, we hope you enjoy your time today. We hope to see you guys there and are looking forward to a fun time together." the message ended with a picnic basket emoji followed up with a smiley face.
Thinking about it, Teri thought that getting together with friends was a nice way to spend the afternoon, especially when there was no school. Without having any other plans in mind, she turned to Gumball to share the message she had received, only to see that he too was checking his message. Turns out Alan had sent it out in a mass text to all his friends, meaning Carmen must've sent it out on Elmore Plus, at least that's what Teri assumed.
Having read through the message Gumball let out a little, hmm? as he looked it over one more time and began checking everyone else's responses on the group chat,
"Seems like everyone is going, even Hector." he muttered, actually shocked that the introverted, hairy giant was showing up to the party.
Teri set her phone on the table and clasped her hands together as they rested on the flat wooden surface,
"Do you think we should go?" she asked, wanting to know his opinion.
Gumball scratched his chin a little before turning to her,
"I don't know. Are you interested in going?" he replied, adding a question as an answer.
"Yes, I mean, I think it wouldn't hurt us if we went over, plus it sounds like fun." Teri stated, sounding rather excited by the idea.
Gumball saw that she looked really eager for it and decided that he just couldn't say no to the face she was making,
"Okay, it's fine with me as long as you are fine with it." he shrugged, his answer causing Teri's face to light up.
Gumball quickly turned his face towards his phone to hide the slight blush that was forming on his cheeks. He checked the group chat once again and saw that everyone was describing what they were bringing to the party. People were mostly bringing food, some of it homemade and some bought straight from the store. There was a large variety and Gumball was quite intrigued by the list that was forming,
"Huh? Everyone's bringing a really cool dish to the party. Alan and Carmen are baking a pie, Idaho is bringing his mom's special chili soup, Masami is bringing dozens of exquisite chocolates handmade by her german chef, Molly is bringing coleslaw, Darwin is bringing several bags of potato chips and the list goes on." he said, scrolling through the texts with his thumb.
Teri thought all those dishes sounded really good and it kind of showed her a little bit more about them. Just hearing all the different kinds of food being brought to the picnic gathering made her want to bring her own to the party. She looked at Gumball and then at the loaf of quick bread sitting on a plate in the middle of the table, an idea popping into her head all at once.
With her eyes lit up again, she leapt from her seat , startling Gumball as she did and she leaned in close to him,
"Let's bake a cake!" she exclaimed with a gasp.
Gumball saw the twinkle in her eyes and a sweatdrop ran down the back of his gigantic head. He was more than capable of baking a cake, having perfected the art after trying to make one for Penny and her family nearly a year ago, but was confused as to why Teri wanted to bake a cake of all things. He originally planned on making something simple, like sandwiches, but was now curious about Teri's pastry idea.
Raising his hands as an indicator for her to settle down, he set his phone down and stood up right beside her,
"A cake sounds nice, but why a cake though?" he inquired the excited paper girl.
Teri took a step back, still keeping her brightened expression, as she began excitedly waving her arms, unable to contain her excitement,
"Because it'll be fun! Also, everyone loves cake. We can also do some really cute designs with the frosting and we can mix different flavors like strawberry or chocolate (non-dairy of course.) and-!"
"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here." Gumball quickly cut in before she was completely lost in the fantasy of pastry baking,
"We can definitely do it, but right now we need to go get some ingredients because your kitchen is looking sparser than a survivor's basement." he quickly added.
Feeling herself calm down a little, she quickly nodded and sat back down in her chair,
"Okay, so what do we need?" she asked, noting that they had about six hours to get prepared.
Gumball sat down as well, he also knew about the large span of time they had to themselves and quickly tossed an answer along with a suggestion into the open,
"Don't worry about the ingredients, I'll list down what we have and don't have when I get to it. Why don't you go tell your mom that we'll be heading down to the store to get some ingredients, also we can stop along some other places if you're interested. We have plenty of time." he concluded, placing his chin on his clasped hands and stared at her patiently.
Being totally honest with herself, Teri just wanted to get straight to baking because she always wanted to do something like that with a friend or family member. Her mom always took over when it came to cooking, but would sometimes let her help when she asked, they also mostly made Japanese cuisine because of their Japanese background. Both her mother and father were born in Japan and while her dad transferred over to the United States while he was in college, her mom moved here when she was little. She was taught how to cook traditional recipes by her mother and continued the tradition, especially after she met Fukijima in college and getting married shortly after.
Either way, Teri knew how to make Japanese food, but she never really got to learn how to bake. She wanted this to be a fun experience for her and Gumball and speaking of whom, she wouldn't want to try it with any other person. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but whenever she thought about Gumball in the kitchen wearing an apron while pulling some freshly baked goods out of the oven seemed both hilarious and adorable to her.
Whatever else happened today seemed rather trivial to her now as she was entirely dedicated to this project. She was so glad that they were given time off so that they could do stuff like this.
Shaking her head, she answered Gumball as honestly as she could,
"Nah, I'm fine with just going to the store and back if you don't mind." she claimed, giving a small shrug to indicate her feelings on the matter.
Gumball gave one simple nod and smiled politely at her, making her feel warm inside again,
"Suit yourself. Let me know if you change your mind while we're on our way there." and with that, he got up and marched right into the kitchen, leaving Teri by herself at the dining room table.
After taking one last moment to decide what she wanted (also, just to picture Gumball in an apron again.) she sprung into action, quickly leaping to her feet, racing through the kitchen, the living room, turning to where the doorway was placed and rounding the corner where her parent's bedroom sat, blocked off by the wooden door that served as the entry point. Stopping just before it, Teri took a moment to collect her thoughts before grabbing the brass knocker that was bolted to the door (this was actually a common device on all their doors because their hands were too light to produce much noise.) and rapped it against the door several times, producing a rapid and sharp knocking sound.
Not a moment later, she heard a rustling sound like bed covered being tossed aside and a soft voice sounding out from behind the thin wooden door,
"Who is it?"
Teri cleared her throat and stood straight as she quickly responded to her mother's quiry,
"Someone order a pizza with extra shrimp and less cheese?" she answered in a tone that sounded somewhat like Larry's. This was a common joke that went on between the two because her mother hated Pizza topped with shrimp due to an incident that happened at Elmore pizza three years ago. It was quite hilarious, but ever since then, her mother detested that specific topping and now she jokes about it whenever she needs to enter a room with her permission.
She heard a lighthearted chuckle coming from the room and Teri knew that she was in a good mood,
"Well, take it back and have your boss eat it along with his bogus tickets. If I have to collect ten of those things with every purchase then I better darn well get a full pizza for free instead of a meager slice." she shot back with ensuing laughter from both of them.
Teri opened the door and stepped into her room while closing the door behind her with a creak and finally a click! In her parents bedroom, it was less tidy than the other areas of the house, which was surprising seeing as their daughter was a complete neat freak. The room's floor was littered with papers, documents, mailing letters, and other important materials that somehow made it on the greyish carpet. Along the dresser was a cluttered mess of family photos and old heirlooms that they brought back from Japan like a mini Buddha statue that her father kept with him as a good luck charm. The bed where her parents slept was a tangled mess of bed sheets and an occasional pillow that somehow made its way to midsection of the mattress mainly because her parents were restless sleepers who would wake up in a manner of weird positions. She even used them to predict whether she was going to have a good day or not, whenever she got a chance to peek into their room.
And laying with a swath of sheets wrapped around her like some obscene blanket mummification, was Yui Pepakuma, who was peeking at her only daughter and child from underneath the covers with only one eye opened. She greeted her tiny child with a simple wave which Teri mirrored while she approached the bedside and sat down on the comfy mattress. The rounder paper bear didn't move, but kept staring at her as if in a slight daze, she must've been really tired from the night shift in her office,
"What's the matter, Teri-bear?" she quietly asked.
Inwardly, Teri rolled her eyes at the nickname her mother used and wondered why they insisted on using it nowadays. It was fine when she was nine, but she's almost thirteen now and she wanted a respectful title and not a baby name. However, the topic of her nicknames would have to wait as she wanted to let her mother know what she and Gumball were planning on doing,
"Nothing too dramatic, I just wanted to let you know that me and Gumball are going out to the grocery store to get some items for a cake we're baking." she explained, her airy voice rising a little as she thought about the concept again.
Her mother's thin mouth curved into a bemused smile and she chuckled in amusement. This was obviously something she found to be entertaining. Though she was curious as to why her daughter and very rowdy cat friend were doing such a creative activity that took up a lot of resources and time,
"Okay." she responded, reaching up and rubbing her other eye with the back of her hand until it was open and focused on Teri,
"Why are you and Gumball baking though? Is there a party going on that I'm not aware of?" she looked Teri in the eyes in order to read her emotions.
Teri elicited a small nod to confirm this before answering in a lowered voice to prevent from disturbing her too much,
"Kind of. There's a picnic that my friends are hosting in Elmore park that's happening at noon in order to celebrate the day off and we're making a cake to bring with us to the gathering." she replied, not sparing anything from her because she didn't like lying to her mother or leaving much of her daily activities out of her awareness.
Her mother and father worried about her a lot when she was out by herself and would even panic if they didn't know her whereabouts because she was so frail and they didn't want anything happening to her. Telling her these things was the result of a trusting bond they all shared ever since she was able to remember. One of the negative side effects of this though was through all the coddling they did to her whenever she was hurt or upset lead to her being rather self-centered and a bit of an attention seeker. She's trying to learn not to be so selfish, but old habits really do die hard.
Once again her mother showed a positive response when she heard that Teri was doing well with people she got along with. Yui was always happy to come home to her daughter's various stories about all the activities she was participating in at school such as marching band, music class, and cheerleading, especially cheerleading. While she was happy to hear that her beloved child was getting involved in creative activities, she was also worried about her relationships with the kids there. She got along with the other girls just fine, but she often heard about how she was usually reserved and didn't speak much when in a group. What made things worse was outside of school activities most of her friends were reluctant to hang out with her due to her "fascinating" quirks that lead others to get irritated with her.
She remembered receiving many phone calls from the school ranging from the school nurse to her class teacher at times, all complaining about her daughters various attempts at feigning illness. If that wasn't stressful enough, the very few times she brought her friends home from school, she could always tell from their expressions and interactions, even the way they spoke, that they were less than pleased to be there with her. It broke her heart especially when about a year ago, she brought home a friend of hers named "Masami" from school to spend the weekend with. The little cloud girl, whom she learned was actually the daughter of the Yoshida's, the owners of the prosperous Rainbow Factory company, stayed for literally half an hour before drifting out the door saying to her that her daughter was so difficult to deal with that she'd rather leave and never visit again. Teri was in tears that night and both her and her husband had stayed up all night comforting her.
It was rough dealing with all that on its own, with them being away at work more often and leaving Teri at home alone, her faking ailments in order to gain attention from everyone around her, and some of the kids being mean to her for her less than desirable attributes. Then after the start of the seventh grade, something had changed! After Teri had spent a Sunday night sleeping over at a friends house, she suddenly came home Monday evening with an injured leg while stating that she tore it while she and Gumball were hanging out. Ever since that day, she kept coming home to brand new stories about this Gumball Watterson kid and how he was really kind and helpful and how they would often discuss things together in class and on the bus. Following that, her introverted daughter began hanging out with Gumball even more and soon it became quite evident to Yui and Fukijima that Teri had found a friend that she could trust and be with that will make her happy.
It made her very happy to see her daughter get excited about an activity she could do with someone that became so close to her in a short span of time. Yui knew there was something more to that boy than Teri was letting her know about, but she could tell by the way her daughter has been acting lately, she was starting to develop more than just friendly feelings for the boy and she could see it within him too. She hoped this friendship would carry on to become something more.
"That sounds wonderful!" she commented cheerfully,
"I hope you two enjoy yourselves then because it sounds like a lot of fun, but do be careful, please." she said, looking at her little one with adoration and worry at the same time.
Not wanting to cause her mother any distress, Teri complied with her wishes and promised not to anything too risky. She then leaned over and gave her mother a hug, kissing her on the cheek and then receiving one on the forehead. Her mother rubbed the top of her head affectionately and looked at her in a sly manner,
"And also make sure that you and your boyfriend are only hugging and holding hands now, understood?" she said, her evil grin growing wider by the minute.
Teri felt her eyes widen in shock as she shot backwards away from her mother with a horrified look on her face,
"MOM! That's so gross, we're not even like that!" she whined, feeling her face burning up in a bright red hue.
Her mother was cackling with laughter at her daughter's hysterical reaction and laughed even harder when she tried covering the blush with her hands. It was a futile effort for the young Pepakuma, for there was no writing material or eraser on this planet that could cover her embarrassment. After a moment, the circular Pepakuma had managed to calm down enough to start speaking properly again.
"Okay, okay. You guys have fun, but remember: if you need to make the first move, just guide him into a secluded place and-!"
"BYE MOM, LOVE YOU!" she shouted this time, not caring if she was being impolite, as long as she could prevent her from finishing that particularly inappropriate sentence.
Bursting into laughter again, Yui watched as her little girl stormed her way out of the room with her face redder than before. She was fun to tease and was even funnier when Gumball was around: she'd never believe the two could radically switch color pallets with only a few lines uttered from her. Before she had a chance to close the door behind her, her mom called out her name, causing her to stop mid-shut and tilt a listening ear in her direction,
"I mean it, please be careful. I don't know what's happening in this town, but there have been a lot of accidents popping up around here. I just recently got news that a section of the incomplete highway bridge was destroyed by what appeared to be explosive devices." she warned.
She remained silent for a while because Teri knew all too well what she was referring to: yesterday's battle on the bridge, the one where her first plan nearly got her along with Gumball killed, where Gumball received all those injuries and retold the story to the others as a dog attack, and the place that was devastated by her carelessness. To the average person, all these events may appear to be random accidents or perhaps the deliberate acts of criminally insane people, but only she, Gumball, and Rob knew the real truth behind these bizarre events. One of the hardest things she's ever had to do in recent times was lie to her parents.
She knew why she had to do so, it was all to keep them from living in constant fear of their daughter's safety as well as their own. She wouldn't be able to protect Elmore if she was locked away in her room or worse, if they fled the country and took her with them. She heard from Gumball what is was like to be deliberately dishonest with the people he was close to and it was a feeling that they both shared as a pair. It felt really bad for her though because their family was built primarily on trust and being able to confide within each other about the events happening within their lives so they could look out for one another. Her mother and father became doctors because they wanted people to trust them with their lives and bring them through difficult times in their lives and she shared the same desire by wanting to become a nurse when she grew up.
Having to constantly lie about such horrible events felt like it was ripping a hole within her, metaphorically speaking, and what made it harder was that the more she continued to lie, the more and more she felt that this powerful, bonding trust was being worn away, bit by bit.
Putting on a brave face, she looked her mom directly in the eye and did her best to assure her that it was all going to be alright,
"I will. You won't have to worry about a thing." she promised.
Her mom studied her face for an instant before loosening up a little and was soon smiling once again. Teri couldn't help but feel assured by her mother's smile, despite the fact that it was herself that was leaving. She knew her mother trusted her because she loved her and cared deeply for her, she was always going to be here when she got home or would always be coming back after helping her patients in the Elmore hospital.
She heard her mother say something to her while she was deep in thought,
"I love you, Teri." she said softly, her warmth and affection carrying on through those four words and the way she looked at her.
She smiled back at her, feeling her pain melt away for a moment as she embraced those words,
"I love you too, mom." and with one last wave, she exited the room and quietly closed the door behind her.
She leaned against the wooden structure as soon as the door was shut behind her and slumped against the wall: her heart heavy with guilt. She hoped that when this ongoing battle for survival was over, she could speak truthfully to them again and let go of this necessary evil. She sulked for a minute or two before getting up and heading on over to the kitchen, where Gumball was while keeping her parent's bedroom to her back.
Once she arrived in the kitchen, she quickly resumed her cheerful appearance and approached Gumball, who had just finished taking inventory, writing down a list of groceries, and was currently looking through his phone for certain cake recipes. Teri came to a stop by Gumball's side, watching the blue cat as he concentrated on picking between two different cakes that looked really good and manageable. She admired the way he looked while in deep thought, his eyebrows were all scrunched up, his blue eyes darting back and forth between the different objects listed, and his free hand resting on his chin while his index finger consistently tapped his lower lip. This was quite the spectacle for her because she never would've believed that someone could be so hard pressed in deciding what cake they should make when to Teri, if they lacked cow products then any cake would have been suitable to her.
Gumball let out a frustrated groan as he rested his phone against his lap and he craned his head over to Teri,
"You know what? Just for you, I'll make a pun on a bun." he said, wiggling his eyebrows as he made his witty joke.
Forcing back a snicker, Teri pretended to glare angrily at him while shaking her head in disappointment,
"Seriously? I leave you to decide on what cake we should make and you give me a stupid pun?!" she was really trying to hold back her laughter now, but her cheeks were puffing and her face was turning red.
Gumball was very well aware of the effects of his lame dad jokes and pressed on despite knowing that something in this kitchen might wind up being lobbed at him,
"Okay, you're right, bad idea. How about pun-kin pi? It's got 3.14 the percentage of actual humor and about 97% filler." he quipped, a smirk forming on his face as he pretended to air drum, adding a ba-dum-tsh! sound effect for comedic effect.
Now Teri could no longer hold it in, the absolute lameness of the bakery puns was too much for her and she soon was sinking back against the counter, clutching her sides while she roared with laughter. She had to admit, his jokes, while lame, were always able to put a smile on her face and put her in a happy mood. It's like he had some kind of sixth sense that allowed him to detect whether she was stressed and knew just how to diffuse it. She felt blessed to be such close friends to this lovable dork!
Finishing up with her laughing fit, she got back up, reached over in to the sink, turned the faucet on, allowing the steady flow of water to run around her hand to soak it and then began flinging the water droplets at the humorous kitty. Feeling the droplets of water collide with his face and shoulders, Gumball immediately raised his arms in front of his face, hoping to repel Teri's new onslaught. He was giggling uncontrollably along with Teri, who was also cackling as she enacted her revenge for his stupid puns.
With one eye closed and a hand waving in front of him in order to ward off her attack, Gumball couldn't help himself to another sly slip,
"Augh! If you have something against my puns, then say it don't spray it!" he remarked, following up with more laughter.
With another fit of giggles, Teri flung even more water at him with greater ferocity and speed,
"Shut up! Your puns are lame and so are you!" she teased, laughing hysterically.
After a few minutes of a clearly one sided match, Gumball gave in and called for a truce. After relaxing for a moment, the now drenched cat boy pulled out his phone again and showed her the two cakes he was stuck on. Both were non-dairy and could be made with substitute items, however one was lemon flavored with white frosting and the other was a rainbow mix with chocolate frosting. Both seemed very good in Teri's eyes and found her mouth watering a little at sight at of such wonderful delicacies.
It didn't take her long to figure out which one she thought would look best at the picnic,
"The rainbow one!" she whispered, completely entranced by the swirling blues, pinks, reds, and violets that mashed together in a very exotic pattern.
Gumball just found himself chuckling at her choice and the hypnotic look in her eyes. He was actually leaning more towards the lemon flavored one because he liked the way the sweet and sour clashed (in his mind at least.), but after seeing how cute Teri looked when she chose the rainbow one, he knew he couldn't disagree with that face and went along with it. He pulled the phone away and tapped on the image with his thumb, pulling up the recipe right away,
"Figured you would've wanted to make that one." he remarked, with a slight tease,
"Good news is it only takes about two hours to make, plus prep time, so we're not too constricted here and the things we need are in a convenience store not too far from here, though we will have to take the bus." he said, carefully factoring in the time it takes to get to the store.
Teri understood what he was talking about without too much confusion. She knew where the store was because they would often pass by it on the route to school and it would take them a bit of time if they only walked. She was about to start heading out when she remembered something very important and was glad she caught herself before she had completely forgotten,
She whipped her head towards Gumball, who just looked on with slight curiosity,
"I forgot to ask, do you have any money? Because I don't at the moment?" she asked, feeling a little sorry for spending the last of her allowance on some more notebooks.
Looking at her with assurance, Gumball pat his pocket and nodded in her direction,
"Not a problem! Over the past few weeks I did some chores around the house and mom gave me a bit of an allowance. What I have should be enough." he explained.
Feeling relieved that they were set and prepared for their trip to the convenience store, the lanky, pre-teen girl began heading to her room, to go grab her things. Gumball figured what she was doing and followed soon after, wanting to be prepared for this trip in case something happens. He wondered if one of them should sleep sometime in the future, that way they could spot any new threats looming on the horizon. They had six hours to kill so, they should be able to work a nap in somewhere, he hoped at least. He mostly wished that no monsters would show up today at all or for them to just disappear entirely, but in times like these they had to be on their guard.
With their things eventually packed and ready to go, they both headed downstairs, finished their breakfast and were soon standing in front of the main doorway. Turning to her best friend standing beside her, she shot him a questioning glance,
"Ready?" she asked, placing a fragile hand on the door knob.
Gumball pointed towards the door and nodded,
"Let's get going." he replied.
She opened the door and the two were greeted with a blast of cool morning air that came blowing through the door. Outside, they could see that the sunlight was more visible at this point, casting the sky in a dark blue with shades of pink in the distance where the sun was rising. There were birds chirping in the trees that decorated the lawns of the various suburban houses and the sound of insects buzzing could also be heard. There weren't any cars driving by on the main road, making the place a bit quieter in Gumball's mind. It was a peaceful morning.
Leading the way, Gumball began heading towards the bus stop with Teri following closely behind.
-Rob's duplex, 7:12 AM-
The strong, pungent smell of metal being welded together filled the bedroom of a certain cyclopean pre-teen, although this hardly bothered him one bit as his focus was entirely on the device in front of him. The place he intended on traveling to had a very hostile environment, but where there was peril and challenges, innovation could be found. His quest for knowledge can only succeed as long as he had the right tools: his brilliant mind, his diligent hands, and extraordinary foresight.
His desk was in the same shape as his room was, completely littered with pieces of machinery scavenged from the junkyard (or purchased online from sites that were legit and sometimes… from shady people.) and scattered blueprints for his various devices. However, at the center of his workspace was a most peculiar instrument: a smooth, box-like device fitted with a safety harness so it could be worn on the back of the wielder, covered in nozzles that pointed in several different directions for use as propulsion in an otherwise low-gravity environment. A few dials and gauges were welded to the side of the metal box with colored wires feeding into the device to give precise measurements on fuel and pressure.
Attached to the propulsion device via a thicker cable was a gun-like machine that was rather bulky in appearance, but was actually comprised of light weight materials such as titanium alloy, thus making it easy to wield. It was a deadly weapon created with a lot of time and commitment, with Rob often getting very little sleep nor even stopping to eat until it was finished. It was a computerized weapon that would carve runes onto copper pellets based on a command given from the cell phone strapped to his wrist before firing at a spiritual opponent. It was an effective weapon to be used against the Nephilim, and unlike Teri, Rob understood all five runes in his arsenal thanks to earlier experimentation.
His goal for today was to travel into the void, where all things are left once they are forgotten or when the universe recognizes it as a mistake, and see if he can retrieve any precious artifacts that have been lost to time. It was logical to believe that if runes were used to combat the Nephilim thousands of years ago, eventually being lost to the ages thanks to man's negligence, then he should be able to find them in the place where all discarded objects go and should be his for the taking. Such an opportunity should not go to waste, not when the Nephilim are invading and more power would be needed to fight them.
Then again, such power could be used for other purposes once the war was over.
Placing the plasma torch down, Rob lifted the mask that shielded his eye from the intense glare produced by the flame and gazed at his finished project. A satisfied smile crept onto his face as he admired it's perfection. Alas, he could now traverse the void with ease and with security to assist.
Pulling off the welding mask, he wiped his brow of the perspiration that had accumulated from the intense heat and from his narrow concentration,
"Finally." he sighed, standing up,
"Now all that's left to do is to head on over to the forest of doom." he muttered to himself.
He learned that the void portal shifted locations every once in a while, he couldn't explain why this was, but it always seemed to stay near Elmore. During the summer, he had constructed a scanning device that allowed him to locate the void portal thanks to a special type of energy the gateway emits. He figured he should start the developing process for a scanner that can trace the Nephilim portals, but faced a lot of barriers including: time, resources, the fact that the Nephilim's portals operate on another plane of existence, and that finding the Nephilim in a dream was the easiest option.
He was lucky that he didn't have to go to school and that he could sleep throughout most of the day, but he rarely worried about the Nephilim in Elmore thanks to the fact that Gumball and Teri were always on it before he could so much as prepare to set out to the destroy the monsters. He had to give them credit though, for a duo that used such archaic weapons and strategies they did get the job done and made an excellent team. He had been spying on them with his specialized drones that he kept in storage, but that was neither here nor there.
He was in the middle of packing his gear when he heard a sharp knock on the bedroom door before the handle turned and the door swung open. In stepped a highschool girl who was sixteen of age, had smooth cyan skin, fluffy, voluminous hair that went down her back and was a mixture of two different colors with the upper portion being lemon yellow and the bottom part being the color magenta. Her outfit was rather plain, adorning only a plain white T-shirt, a yellow skirt, white sneaks with two pink stripes on each, and a white headband sporting two yellow stripes. In her hand was a paper bag marked with the joyful burger logo and her expression seemed apathetic.
Rob huffed and continued to pack in his foil suit that he was going to wear into the void, pretending to not care for her presence,
"You know, Rachel, common courtesy says when you knock you should probably wait for someone to answer before entering." he muttered sarcastically.
The multi-colored girl scrunched up her face in anger and tossed the burger bag right at the disfigured cyclops, not too hard of course, and the soft object bounced off his polygonal head and landed on the ground with a thud. This didn't bother him one bit because he was used to the teenager's aggressive behavior, having lived with her for two months now and all. Actually, she wasn't really angry with him, this he knew because this was a common reaction to his snarky comments. He looked over at the discarded bag and then back at her, his single eyebrow raised in a way that indicated some confusion,
Rachel huffed and crossed her arms while she leered at him with her dark eyes,
"You've been cooped up in your room for the past two days and I've only seen you eat a bag of cheesy-squares this morning. You seriously need to take a break from your "mad science projects" and start functioning like a regular person." she remarked, answering his silent question,
"I got you two double ham slammers with some fries, although I ate the fries on the way back, so you have the burgers. I know it's not the healthiest of food, but it was the cheapest thing I could afford today." she said before twirling around and marching out the door to leave him in his privacy.
Now that she mentioned it, Rob did feel very hungry and with most of his concentration going into the trip, he had completely ignored the constant rumbling in his empty stomach. He looked down at the bag of cheap, processed and probably greasy food from the local fast food restaurant. He could smell the burnt ham and baked buns wafting up to his invisible nostrils (A/N: I know he doesn't have a nose, but Darwin doesn't either, yet he's been seen with nostrils in some scenes, plus my story so, yeah!) and he could already feel his mouth watering. He didn't feel tired yet, but he could most certainly take a meal break, for a brief moment of course.
He reached down, picked up the discarded bag, and walked over to his king sized bed that he bought at garage sale. Plopping down on the memory foam mattress, the lanky kid dug into his food and began scarfing down the burgers; finishing the small meal within a minute. Honestly, he was glad to have Rachel as a housemate, she was too good for him sometimes.
Two months ago, when he decided to visit the forgotten dimension for the first time in ages, he wondered the abnormal space for a little bit, searching for devious items to use to get his arch-nemesis to fight him again (Gumball's depression and lack of motivation actually upset him a little and he too wanted to see his hated enemy back on his feet and thwarting his plans once again because kicking a guy while he was down was not satisfying at all.) when he came across a bedroom from one of the houses in Elmore. Within it, he discovered Rachel Wilson, although at the time he didn't know her name, curled up on her bed and staring out the window. When he first approached her, she seemed rather frightened of him, but after assuring that he wouldn't hurt her, she became a bit more relaxed and soon warmed up to him.
After asking if she remembered anything about herself or her past, the only thing she could recall was her name and age, but nothing else. It became evidently clear that the universe had forgotten this poor girl or believed her to be a mistake and left her in the void like a discarded piece of trash in a universal landfill. Feeling a lot of sympathy for this person whom he'd just met, Rob asked her to come with him to the real world and she agreed, deciding that starting over from there would be a lot better than sitting there for all eternity.
Once they got back, Rob did everything in his power to help reunite Rachel with her family. However, tragedy struck when after searching through various records, the cyclops was able to pull up a couple documents detailing what appeared to be her little brother, Tobias Wilson, a seventh grade student at Elmore Junior high and what may have been her mother, Jackie Wilson, who resembled her in many ways except for her face and color. He brought the teenager over to her family's house, but upon meeting her parents they were shocked to see that they didn't recognize their own daughter and this forced the two to leave.
With her spirits crushed by the revelation that her parents didn't even remember her and treated her like an outcast, Rachel didn't even know where to start with her new, lonely life. Having been in her situation before, Rob felt the need to comfort the lost girl and decided to let her into his life. He'd managed to find a cheap apartment duplex to stay in and even somehow got the colorful girl enrolled in high school again, however some of it had to be paid for through some shady deals, seeing as he wasn't exactly eligible for a job yet and he could only resort to crime as a means to gain cash.
However, his crime filled life slowed down a bit when Rachel caught wind of it and managed to get a part time job to help cover for rent. Now the two of them lived comfortably with each other despite the odd living conditions being shared between a twelve year old and a sixteen year old. Sure, they got on each other's nerves sometimes and would often get into the most ridiculous fights over trivial matters, but she was good company to have and being with her made Rob feel less lonely. He didn't have any romantic feelings for her and neither she for him, but they had a steady friendship and were very comfortable living around one another. It actually took a surprisingly short amount of time for the two of them to get accustomed to one another's living arrangements and had even made a lot of good compromises when it came to working around the house.
Either way, he was happy to be living with the rainbow lass even when things would occasionally get rough between the two of them.
He crumpled up the paper bag along with the wax casings that held the burgers and tossed them into the wastebasket next to his desk, which was already starting to overflow with trash. He was probably going to have to empty that out soon, maybe tomorrow. Up on his feet once more, he finished packing and made his way to the exit.
The duplex they lived was small, but cozy, with two bedrooms, a medium sized bathroom, a kitchen that they rarely used, a living room where they spent a majority of their off time, and a backyard they shared with another family that lived downstairs. It didn't take him long to reach the living room where he spotted Rachel lying on the couch in front of the television, lazily watching her favorite drama while Rob passed on by. She decided to take the day off from high school simply because she believed that if the middle schoolers got the day off then why shouldn't she? Rob heard that some kind of fight broke out in the school yesterday and the reason none of the kids were attending today and tomorrow was because of the damages done to the building, but once Rachel made up her mind about something, there was no talking her out of it. He wasn't too worried though as he knew she was bright student and got good grades regardless of her absent days.
He gave her a small wave as he twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open,
"Later and thanks for the burgers!" he said, casting a curious glance in her direction.
Without looking away from the television set, the multi-colored girl waved back at him with a three fingered hand,
"See ya round!" she called back to him.
Adjusting the strap of his backpack around his his shoulder, Rob began to step outside the apartment, but was stopped when he heard Rachel calling his name. He quickly spun around and faced her with a slightly agitated and perplexed look,
"What?" he asked, peeking in at her.
She lazily lifted an arm an arm and pointed in his general with a finger, her eye were now resting on him,
"Could you grab a small pillow from the convenience store? Like, one of those fluffy animal ones? Recess is SOOOOOO boring at my school and I wanna sleep on the bench comfortably." she asked in response, giving him her cutest pleading smile she could muster.
Rob strained to keep his eye from rolling and just let out a little sigh instead,
"You know recess is where you're supposed to be active, socializing, and playing around right?" he remarked sarcastically.
Hearing his disapproval made Rachel pout and fold her arms in response. Rob knew she was actually going to use it so she could get some sleep during detention and did not condone this kind of behavior. He knew it made him sound like some kind of overbearing parent, but he actually did care about her and her grades, mostly due to his lack of academic success and not wanting to have her share the same fate as he.
He still stood his ground even as she began her retaliation,
"We do all that during Phys. Ed! Recess is just that time of day when we get to relax and chill out! What's wrong with catching a few Z's during a half hour period!" she shouted.
It was Rob's turn to cross his arms and look annoyed. He knew this was going to just escalate into a shouting match if he didn't diffuse the argument right away. Propping himself up against the door while glaring at his feisty teenage roommate, he spoke in a calm, sophisticated manner,
"You really need to actually go to bed when it's bedtime." he stated simply, ignoring the nasty look she gave him as a response,
"Your grades are amazing, but your teachers are not impressed by your behavior during class time, considering that you nod off during the lectures." he finished, feeling slightly better now that he got some concerns off his chest.
Rachel paused for a moment to stare at the T.V, as she contemplated her previous actions at school. She noticed that she had been dozing off as of lately and while her grades weren't suffering, it was the reason she would receive a harsh lecture and usually after school detention afterwards. Rob knew of this because during the school year he'd been masquerading as her guardian and had already attended a few parent-teacher conferences in just the first month of school.
However, her sleeping habits were a nightmare (mind the pun.) to deal with, she had a hard time falling asleep due to the many doubts regarding her identity and purpose in life after learning she had been tossed into the void because the universe had simply forgotten her and the only way to calm herself down was just to chat with some of the friends she had made recently in school on her phone. She knew spending all her nights messaging her friends wasn't healthy, but she had no clue how to deal with her anxiety induced insomnia. She hadn't told Rob about it yet because she was unsure as to whether or not he could help. She might be in need of therapy, but wasn't so sure of that either because how do you explain such a situation to a trained psychologist without sounding like you need to be tossed into the looney bin and heavily sedated for the next few months?
It seemed to her that there was just no easy way out of this and she wondered how long it'll be until her academic performances started suffering as a result. She even wondered how this would affect her current relationships with the people she considered her friends. She decided to quickly blow this off by retaliating in witty way,
"Well I don't doze off during all the important parts at least." she muttered with a little grin,
"Besides, you're one to talk, Frankenstein! You spent two days holed up in your room working on your doomsday project while muttering something about runes, gates, and monsters." she shot back while also using the nickname she gave him when she first learned that he was an inventor.
Not wanting to answer any uncomfortable questions, the disfigured mad scientist finally rolled his large, yellow eye before turning around and heading out the door. He quickly hollered out behind him,
"Later Rachel! I'll be bringing home some pasta shells since I know you love those so much!"
"Quit dodging my questions and have a good day! Also, don't forget about the pillow!" she hollered back somewhat jokingly.
He didn't answer her and shut the door behind him, leaving him with nothing but the silent morning in front of him. He noticed some clouds in the distance, but it didn't look too bad weather wise. Looking around he saw that none of his neighbors were out and doing their morning activities despite it being a weekday, which was strange at the very least but not concerning. He began strolling towards his dusty old metro sitting in the driveway, his mind drifting towards Rachel's question,
"Man that was embarrassing!" he growled inwardly,
"I really hate it when she brings stuff like that up. Ugh, this Nephilim fighting thing is so irritating when you and two other people are the only ones who can see them. I really wish I could talk to her about it, but that would just make things even more stressful than they already are."
He wasn't sure if Rachel was aware of it or not, but he understood that she was going through some stressful times at the moment. A couple weeks before the first Nephilim showed up in this little town, he snuck out of his room to get a glass of milk late one night and heard her crying in her bedroom. When he listened to her through the closed door he could hear her weeping to herself and complaining about how she didn't know who she was anymore and if the universe was going to erase her again, this time for good. Hearing all that really upset him and struck him with a feeling he'd never felt in a long time: sympathy.
He understood all those fears and insecurities that she was feeling because he had felt those things before as well. He remembered his first few weeks back from the void and how he was a complete wreck. With no trace of his past self, coupled with a deformed body, he constantly hid from everybody, fearing any sort of judgement that may come from anyone unfortunate enough to spot him. And then, when he found out the true nature of the void, he found himself spiraling down into a deeper depression, knowing that the universe had no love for him and even considered him a mistake. Even when given a new purpose by Gumball and Darwin he still felt that nagging bit of loneliness bite at him from within as he knew that no one could share or understand the pain he had felt in those bitter times.
Until he met Rachel, an innocent just like him, cast out by unforgiving gods and was recovering from the reality that she was forced to endure. This was why he did everything in his power to make sure she was as happy and as stress free as possible, he knew there were some things she would have to face on her own, but he could definitely help by easing her pain. She had the benefit of retaining her appearance before the void, unlike him, and a shot at getting a decent life.
As for him, he knew what he wanted and was pushing towards that goal. Without a degree, it was going to be rather difficult for him to get by, but there were many options left open for him to grasp. For now, he had his list of obstacles that he needed to clear before he could focus on those prospects.
Popping the trunk, he placed his bag into the storage space and slammed the lid shut. He glanced at his mismatching hands for a moment, reflecting on his current condition and how it compared to others. His own troubled past seemed so trivial now, with all that's happened in the past couple of months, and for whatever reason, this made him feel slightly more comfortable with himself. Maybe it was because he felt as though he had a greater purpose that helped negate the loneliness and despair that nagged at him? Possibly.
Within a few paces, he soon found himself sliding into the driver's seat of the decrepit vehicle and soon had the key within the ignition. Giving it a twist, the engine roared to life and the car was soon vibrating with life. Feeling satisfied with the noise, the brown haired kid placed one hand on the wheel and used the other to switch the vehicle in reverse. As the car pulled out of the narrow driveway that ran along the tiny apartment complex, Rob's mind began to drift towards certain ideas,
"I don't know what I will find in that forsaken place, but any knowledge gained will be more than enough. Knowledge is power after all!" he thought with amusement as a smirk slowly etched itself on his flat, pentagonal face.
He soon found himself out of the driveway and rolling onto the street leading him out of the suburbs. He put the metro on drive and pressed down on the gas, feeling the car lurch forward as it began accelerating in said direction. The forest of doom was about an hour away from his current location and he was really coming to appreciate the driving skills he acquired a while back. He actually wished that he could bring Rachel along on trips like these and just cruise along for a little while, just him and her,
"Maybe on a weekend when things aren't so hectic or busy." he thought to himself with slight promise.
Looking out the window, he could see that the sun was really creeping out from beyond the horizon, making way for a beautiful dawn and possibly a wonderful day to follow. He figured he had nothing to worry about, seeing as both Gumball and Teri had today and tomorrow off, they'd probably take care of any Nephilim that have the nerve to show up on such a wonderful day. If there were any nearby in his general vicinity, he'd deal with them personally as he was opportunistic, not lazy. He also did have a deep seated hatred for the vile spirits for attacking Elmore and it's citizens when that was clearly his job. Nobody likes a wannabe who can't even be original. He did want to know their actual motivations for attacking though and hoped to gain more intel on that subject while going about his travels.
The more he thought of his mission, the more hopeful he got. Soon he was grinning from ear-to-ear at the possibilities of what lies within that space,
"What if I find powers that go beyond what I carry and beyond comprehension! What if I find a way to defeat the Nephilim quickly and perhaps find something that goes beyond this meager existence of humans, Bizarros, and Nephilim!" all these wild thoughts and fascinations spun through his head like an unwieldy hurricane, but one thought brought an even bigger smile to his face,
"What if I find a way to repair the damage done to Rachel and I from the void."
That question, that single thought, lit a spark within him that would gradually grow into an all-consuming blaze of hope and unyielding perseverance. He now knew what had to be done and by whatever god's grace, he will not stop until he completed his goal, until he had saved Rachel and himself. He considered this quiet little drive towards a deadly forest housing unknown and terrifying secrets on a beautiful day to be the catalyst of the greatest journey that he will embark on.
The metro continued to cruise along the many streets of Elmore, with its sole occupant feeling absolutely satisfied with the free hour he was given to think.
-Teri's house, 7:32 AM-
Gumball watched as the colorful batter slowly spilled out from the mixing bowl and into the empty baking pan. It was really thick and goopy, so it took its sweet (can't stop with the puns!) time to allow gravity to pull it from one container to another. It looked really bizarre, like some kind rainbow science experiment gone wrong, as it was mostly pink with bits of velvet and blue splotches here and there throughout the mixture. According to the reviews it was supposed to taste like a berry mix, but Gumball and Teri wouldn't know until they actually try it out themselves. It did smell good though, so the two bakers were fairly confident that they followed the recipe right. There was a bit of confusion when it came to adding the flavors and the food dye which was why the colors weren't as well distributed as the picture had shown, but it didn't look as though it would be too much of an issue.
After a painstaking minute and a half, most of the batter had been dropped into the baking pan, with Teri scraping out any leftover residue with the wooden spoon they used for mixing. With the oven slowly heating up, Gumball lifted the loaded pan and slid the mixture into the slightly warm container, closing the hatch as soon as the pan was resting on the shelf within. Sliding off the oven mitts and placing them on the counter, he turned to Teri, who was licking the batter off of the spoon,
"Well, that does it for that! The recipe instructs us to wait an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes before popping our delicious baby out." he chirped happily.
Teri gave the spoon another lick before moaning in satisfaction, a look of content written all over her expression,
"Mmm-hmm-hmm. Maybe we should just bring over the batter instead because this is wonderful." she said, her taste buds swimming in delight.
Chuckling in amusement, Gumball grabbed the mixing bowl and ran his finger through it, which didn't bother Teri too much seeing as he did good job of cleaning his paws, and placed the now batter covered digit into his mouth and lapped the creamy mix off with his tongue. His mouth exploded with various berry flavors that clashed in wondrous ways all over his tongue. He too found himself moaning in pleasure as he withdrew his finger from his mouth,
"Heh, heh, that would be great, but I think the cake would be better. We can bring the bowl and spoon for everyone else to have a lick!" he jokingly suggested.
"Ewww! So gross!" Teri groaned in disgust that was soon followed by some laughter seeing as Gumball's was so infectious. The paper girl turned to him and waved the spoon at his face, like a police officer waving a baton at a criminal,
"For that remark you're not getting another lick!" she stated, enacting it like it was a capital punishment.
Feeling his inner drama queen and sarcasm bubbling up from within, Gumball let out a dramatic gasp, feigning betrayal and hurt with his wide eyes, and clutching at his heart as he dropped to his knees. Teri watched the dorky cat's over-the-top display of fake hurt with amusement and didn't even bother to hide the smile that was brought to her face or to stifle the giggle that escaped her lips. Gumball continued with his "captivating and heartfelt" performance by letting out a fake sob as he reached his hand out towards the paper girl in front of him,
"But madame!" he sobbed with a horrible French accent,
"How can ah receive your forgiveness if you will not allow moi to get batter!" he snarked, trying to hide the snicker as well as prepare for what was to come next.
It was just as bad as he thought it was, and by bad, he meant hilarious. Teri's reaction went from humorous to downright disgust as she reached on to the counter, retrieved the oven mitt that Gumball had set there and began repeatedly swatting him upside the head (lightly.) with the floppy piece of protective wear,
"What. did. I. say. about. PUNS!" she laughed as she continued to swat at him causing him, as usual, to laugh even harder and try his hardest to annoy her more.
He spotted his opportunity to hit her with another pun and something else that would get quite a reaction from the offended paper cut out girl. Standing on his feet once more while using his arms to deflect all incoming attacks from her, Gumball spoke up,
"That I'll taste your fury." he answered.
This caused the paper girl to stop with her simple strike and stare at the blue cat perplexed,
"Hmm, that's weird? I thought you were going to make another pun or some other lame attempt at-?!" she halted mid-sentence when she witnessed what Gumball did next.
While she spoke, he leaned forward and licked the spoon she was holding. As quickly as he did, he snapped back into position and smacked his lips a little as he savored the taste of the cake batter. He formed a sly smirk as he stared at her deviously while her eyes widened in shock at the sudden stunt he just pulled,
"Interesting! Fury tastes like raspberry." he remarked with satisfaction.
Teri had to admit, she didn't see that one coming and it was pretty clever on his part, heck, she didn't even think that he would do it despite the fact that that's exactly something he would do. Sadly, his cleverness wasn't going to save him from the can of hurt she was about to whip out on him. She began swatting his head slightly harder than before, catching the boy off guard even with prior knowledge of this particular outcome as he tried jumping back.
However, Teri Pepakuma will not let him off that easily. She continued to attack him the harmless strikes with the mitt in hand as she playfully shouted at him,
"Oh no! You're not leaving until I serve you a good can of whoop butt! After that, we'll talk about dessert!" and with that, her punishment continued.
Gumball tried to evade her wrath by running away, but she relentlessly pursued the shrieking boy until she chased him all the way up to her room where she had him cornered. The two kids then engaged in a friendly tickling match (with Gumball going really easy on her because he didn't want to rip her accidentally.) on the floor which then moved to her bed until they eventually stopped. Out of breath from romping around and from continuous laughter, they both just lay next to each other while staring at the ceiling.
They were both really close to one another now, with their arms brushing and the heat from their little match radiating from their bodies that could be felt by either person. For a few moments, all that could be heard in the room was their heavy breathing and rapid heartbeats as they calmed down from such an active few moments. Gumball eventually allowed his head to turn to his companion, who felt his movement and also turned in response, although she actually had to lift her flat head in order to see him. He smiled at her as he looked into her eyes for a moment feeling more warmth spread into him when she repeated his actions. Right now, all they cared about was just how pleasant this moment felt to both of them and they continued to admire each other for a few more moments.
Upon realizing how long he had been staring at her, Gumball snapped out of his daze and looked back up at the ceiling,
"Um, since we have about an hour until the cake is done, you wanna go on a walk with me? It's very nice out!" he asked, quickly stealing a glance towards the window while refusing to look at Teri for fear of possibly blushing when he saw her face again, "what is wrong with me?" he wondered.
Teri, who was also looking away out of embarrassment from realizing that she had just gotten lost in Gumball's eyes, "seriously! His eyes!? This has never happened before! What the heck is going on with me?" her mental self questioned while she quickly formulated a response to his question,
"U-uh, yeah, definitely, I was actually just about to suggest that myself." she nervously responded, hoping that he didn't catch the skittishness ever so present in her voice.
Actually, she really wanted to stay here, in her room with Gumball, not really doing anything, just relaxing and lying next to him while they talked about what was on their minds. It sounded really pleasant and she suddenly became very aware of Gumball's arm brushing against her own. Soon it was all she was fixated on, the rough, yet warm, fuzzy feel of his sweater on her bare, paper arm as well as the possibility of his furry little paw enclosed within her hand… okay maybe a walk was a good idea after all.
She quickly sat up on her bed, clearing her head of these strange, pleasant thoughts and felt Gumball rise up next to her. She looked at his kitty face and noticed something different: he was now carefully avoiding making eye contact with her at all, heck, he wasn't even looking at her, and he looked rather… upset about something, but it didn't appear negative from what she could see in his eyes. Curious about the emotional state her close friend was in, she leaned in until she could see his face clearly,
"Something wrong, Gumball?" she asked, looking him in the eye again, only this time trying her best to maintain her focus.
He jumped a little at the sound of her wispy voice and he found himself looking directly at her with surprise written all over his face,
"Oh, no, just thinking about something, that's all!" he quickly explained, feeling his excitement simmer down as soon as he cleared his head of certain thoughts concerning the girl talking to him.
Hearing his answer and seeing his troubled expression melt back into his goofy, confident one, Teri felt relieved that everything seemed to be all right and formed a small, grateful smile. She thought about touching his shoulder as a sign of comfort, but she didn't see any reason to and opted instead to stand up and offer a hand to him. He first stared at the extended appendage as though it were a hundred bucks being handed to him and then back at her with a wide-eyed expression filled with surprise and something akin to joy. He grabbed her hand, sending a small spark that traveled throughout her body at the sudden contact, and pulled himself up.
"There's a nice, quiet section of the city several blocks down that actually housed an industrial center for Elmore back in the 1800's. It's been shut down for several decades so it's mostly empty and abandoned." she suggested, feeling like it was a good area to spend some time in.
Gumball felt his eyes light up like diamonds at the suggestion of such a place and found himself agreeing rather quickly,
"Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Nothing says scenic like a bunch of abandoned warehouses and factories left to time and ruin by human neglect and-!" he was already allowing his sarcasm to leak out when Teri stopped him.
"I get it!" she snapped sternly, looking down to realize that she was still holding Gumball's paw and quickly retracted it in order to place it on her hip,
"I said I liked it because it was quiet, not because it was pretty." she scoffed at him.
Gumball was about to say something else that would have been even more sarcastic, but he held his tongue. Right now was just a time to head on out and enjoy the morning air without having to be anywhere, just enjoy the time they had at the moment. He nodded in silent agreement causing Teri to spin about on her heel and march out of her room with Gumball in pursuit. He quickly remembered to grab his bag and hers from her bedroom just to keep with them for the sake of safety. They left their bags there when they went to the convenience store and he found that he had been on edge during the entire trip for the fear of what may happen.
Once downstairs, Gumball and Teri quickly checked on the cake that was sitting in the oven and saw that they still had quite a bit of time before it was finished. With that knowledge in hand, the two kids left the house and made their way down the street once more. It was brighter outside today and the weather didn't seem to show any drastic signs of changing, which was all the better for the two.
While walking past several neighboring houses on the block, Gumball turned his head in Teri's direction, remembering that he had something he wanted to say to her,
"Thanks for having me over today and yesterday as well!" he exclaimed, showing his pearly whites in another big smile.
With a half smile on her face she turned to the kitten with a look that mixed both happiness and confusion,
"You're welcome, I enjoy having you here. Why the sudden thanks?" she asked, still feeling content with his appreciation for her hospitality.
Arching an arm back, he placed a paw on the back of his neck, and rubbed it nervously all the while averting his gaze from her face. He knew why he was thankful for being here with her, but the moment she asked he suddenly felt tongue-tied and very skittish. In a sheepish voice he answered her question,
"I, uh, just really like being with you, that's all. These past few weeks, you've been really nice, supportive, and a good friend, as a matter of fact, I think it's because of you that I'm getting better. You pulled me out of a bad situation I was in and I can't seem to thank you enough for all of that. So, yeah, thank you for all that and for letting me stay with you yesterday evening and today, I honestly couldn't ask for a better way to spend a day of no school." with that, he dug his hands in his pockets and looked down at the sidewalk with a slight red hue on his face. He still had no clue why he did that.
Astonished, Teri felt her mouth hang open for a brief moment before she closed it again. Where did all that come from? She didn't hate his explanation or think of it as weird, she actually thought it was very sweet, but she had no idea how much he actually saw in her until now. She had been very well aware of his gradual change in behavior since that one night and also noted that he seemed to be spending more time with her, even when there wasn't much to talk about between the two of them. She was completely surprised to learn that she was the one responsible for his positive changes.
She found herself fidgeting again as she struggled to find the right words to say,
"Oh! Well… thank you so much for that. I'm glad that you consider me such a good friend and what you said was very touching. I'm happy to be your friend too and I'm also glad you are mine as well. I feel like ever since you started hanging out with me that I have been gaining more confidence in myself and also you make me feel less lonely. I was overjoyed when you said you wanted to hang out with me yesterday and I am very glad you are with me right now." she said with a wobbly smile, fearing that she may have sounded a little cheesy.
Good thing was, Gumball believed everything she said was genuine and found his heart fluttering while she spoke. Of all the things that had happened so far today, this was another one of those moments he enjoyed. He was thankful that he could trust Teri with his feelings and that she was able to do the same. He was really happy and lucky to have her come to his house that fateful night when he was at his lowest.
With all these positive feelings bubbling from within, Gumball turned to her with a cheery expression that caused the paper girl to become plagued with the same feeling he was displaying,
"What's with that look?" Teri giggled, her face turning red.
"I don't know!" Gumball answered, his face now on fire as well,
"You're the one who got me feeling this way." he now found himself laughing as well.
"I so did not! You're the one in control of your emotions, you dork!" Teri defended herself, although now her face was so red that she had to look away in order to keep him from seeing.
Gumball noticed her actions and found it adorable,
"Well, seeing as you gave me this energized feeling, let's hurry on over to the industrial section!" he eagerly exclaimed.
And with that, he grabbed her by the hand and began tugging her in the direction they were still heading in, speeding up their progress a bit. Again, Teri noticed the blue cat grabbing her by the hand despite the several times she told him not to, but this time she didn't mind it as much. She was way too happy to even care about that now,
"I'm still going to tell you that your overly positive emotions are your fault seeing as you're the one who started this conversation by thanking me!" she said, now looking at him with a smile still plastered on her face,
"But seeing as your gladsome attitude is contagious…"
She tightened her grip on his hand and immediately took off in a sprint, dragging the now astonished Watterson child along,
"...let's go have some fun!" she exclaimed, turning her head to him with amusement twinkling in her eyes and her smile.
Now it was Gumball's turn to be caught completely off guard with her sporadic action, but he didn't mind the sudden change in the usually shy girl's behavior,
"Never thought you to be one who was impulsive!" he exclaimed with a cheeky grin.
Teri let out an excited laugh and continued running, blaming him for rubbing his bad behavior off on her. The two continued to tease each other playfully as they made their way through the neighborhood, surprising many people who knew Teri and were now shocked to see the once reserved Pepakuma child now tearing down the sidewalk with a mischievous cat in tow. What was the world coming to? All this didn't matter to the two children as they were too caught up in the moment together and continued to go about their fantastic day.
-Carrie's house, 7:40 AM-
"If you don't like the film, we can watch something else." Carrie stated, looking down at Darwin, who was currently lying down on the floor in front of her bed with his head turned in the direction of her door.
Darwin pulled his knees up to his face, trying to hide the fear that was ever so present in his widened eyes and quivering lips. Truth be told, he wasn't really a fan of horror films to begin with (he did make an exception for cheesy ones though.) and the film he and his horror obsessed girlfriend were currently watching, Ryan Maverick vs. the evil undead dragon army of the demon apocalypse king, was definitely one of those films he'd rather block out while it was playing. Regardless of how he was feeling though, he knew that Carrie had been waiting for this film to be released in the local video rental store and even got up early to beat the line so she could purchase it and didn't want to let her down because he simply didn't like it.
He pulled his legs further in and tried to block out the gruesome sounds coming from the TV speakers with happy thoughts,
"Nah, It's cool! I'll just stay down here and, uh, think about other things." he responded in a squeaky, small voice.
Looking down at the shivering orange fish from the edge of her bed, Carrie could tell he was lying and was just trying to make some kind of compromise so she could be happy. As sweet as that sounded, Carrie didn't really like that kind of attitude because he was just making himself suffer needlessly because he believed she would somehow be better off if he did. She was glad that he was thinking about her and her feelings, but this was unacceptable, plus she was capable of compromising too.
Reaching over to the corner of her massive mattress, the little spirit grabbed the remote and with several clicks of a button, she lowered the volume of the speakers. Immediately taking notice of the sudden change in volume within the room, Darwin sat up, looked at the television set, immediately looked away in regret at seeing yet another gruesome image, and turned his wide eyed expression towards the only person who could be responsible for the decrease in sound. Upon seeing Carrie staring in his general direction, the walking goldfish raised an eyebrow in suspicion and shot her a silent question.
Now having gained his attention, Carrie moved over and patted the spot next to her with her hand,
"Come sit next me." she ordered, giving him a soft smile that let him know she wanted him there.
Confused, Darwin pointed at the TV with a single fin and spoke in an unsure tone,
"Uh, you sure you don't want to…" he trailed off when he saw her patting the blanket again with her translucent hand.
She kept her soft smile, but her visible eye seemed to indicate her seriousness,
"Come on, I wanna talk to you. I can still watch the movie while speaking and I don't want you to be bored or miserable." she said, her voice filled with traceable amounts of concern.
Darwin was about to counter by saying that he was fine as long she was enjoying herself, but one look at her face and he knew that this was what she wanted. She was more perceptive than she let on and it actually made Darwin glad that she was like that because it made her more understanding and compassionate towards others. Without another word of resistance, Darwin crawled onto the queen sized bed and nestled himself in beside her until he was flat on his stomach. There was very little space between the ghost and the fish, but that didn't bother them because they were comfortable with each other.
As soon as he felt comfortable, he began talking to her while the screen flickered with various colors in front of them,
"Thank you." he said bashfully, feeling kind of silly for not just talking to her about the film.
Understanding what he was referring to, the emo ghost just brushed it off lightly and chuckled a little,
"No problem." she returned before moving on to another subject,
"Got any plans for after the picnic?" she asked.
Both she and Darwin had gotten the mass text from Alan and Carmen this morning at around the same time and Darwin immediately made his way over to Carrie's ruinous mansion so that they could talk about it. They both decided to just buy chips for the gathering seeing as they were both not really up for baking anything and planned on just chilling out with their friends once they had arrived, although Carrie said she was going to be sticking real close to Darwin because she was going to need a body to eat some of the food. Darwin agreed only on the condition that she didn't go crazy and eat all the food and she promised to control herself as best as possible.
They didn't know how long the event was said to last, but seeing as it was starting at noon, it would probably end at around two or three depending on what people had planned for today. Darwin decided to go with the safest answer seeing as there were a lot of uncertainties regarding today,
"It depends on how long the picnic will be and how much we eat." he replied, giving her a sassy stare when emphasizing we. She stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"If it wraps rather early, I was thinking we could go hang out at the mall or wherever you feel like we should go. I don't really have any actual plans after the picnic to be honest." he shrugged, letting her know that it didn't matter either way.
She made a cute little frown at him and lightly shoved him after he gave his honest opinion on the subject. The shove achieved nothing as her hand just sunk into his side, you know, for such a small fish he had an unusual amount of blubber. However, it did make Darwin smirk a little because he always liked it when Carrie got playful,
"You're so boring." she teased, a pout making itself present on her partially hidden face,
"Leaving me in charge to plan our two extra days off, eh? I guess I would just like to hang out at the graveyard after the picnic is over." she took a gander at her window and saw that it was bright and sunny out,
"Although I do wish there was a little more cloud cover." she grumbled, not taking to the sunshine very well.
Back then, Darwin would often avoid the graveyard along with his brother and sister whenever they came across it, but now, he wasn't as scared as he was back then because of Carrie. It was actually because of Carrie that Darwin stopped seeing cemeteries as scary places anymore. On a glorious day like this, Darwin wouldn't mind hanging out amongst the tombstones with his lovely spirit as a means to pass time, maybe they'll listen to music while they're there too, which would be nice in Darwin's mind.
He let out a little grunt that indicated he agreed and added in,
"You wanna listen to some songs on my phone while we're there?" he decided to ask since it was on his mind.
Carrie shrugged and gave a slight nod in his direction, not really showing a whole lot of emotion,
"Sure, I'm down with it." she agreed, although she sounded indifferent.
After she gave the confirmation he was waiting for, Darwin nodded and rested his head on his fins while he stared at all the punk rock posters that decorated his hard-core loved one's room along with all the other mysterious items that filled the shelves on the wall. After a few minutes of silence, he slowly draped a fin over her back and pulled her in closer to him. She blushed at the comfortable contact and turned to peck him on the cheek, which wasn't too difficult due to how close he was now. Afterwards, she floated up and towards the back of the bed where her pillow was and rested her oval shaped head against it. She then invited Darwin to sit next to her with a simple hand wave and the little fish practically leapt over to where she was, causing the mattress to bounce and her with it. After having a few laughing fits, the two began cuddling with each other with Carrie watching what remained of her film and Darwin nestling his face within the crook of her neck in order to avoid watching the film. She felt really soft, there wasn't any warmth because she was a ghost, but that didn't matter to him because he loved how she felt. She also smelled really nice too.
A few minutes of peaceful silence passed on by and Carrie swore that Darwin was about to doze off right then and there. Then again, she couldn't blame him for she was absolutely comfortable like this and with him being there, the idea of just falling asleep next to her lovable, level-headed, pure-hearted, goofy, and softie of a boyfriend was very tempting. Actually, a nap may be a good way to pass the time once the film was over and so Carrie was set on catching a few Z's after she finished watching the somewhat corny horror flick.
Unfortunately, the moment was kind of ruined when she noticed a familiar, white, fluffy head poke it's way into her room. Moving quickly, Carrie sat up (kind of.), causing Darwin to jolt upwards all wide eyed and bushy tailed while Carrie used her telekinesis to draw the remote towards her from its resting spot and she paused the movie. She quickly turned her head towards the door and used her other hand to move her bangs away from her other eye as she used both of them get a better look at the grinning intruder,
"Dad?" she said in a questioning tone that sounded both embarrassed and angered at the same time.
Shocked, Darwin twisted his head until his view panned from Carrie's surprised form to her ghostly dad standing in the doorway. Like Carrie, he was a transparent entity with black, empty eyes, snow white skin and a wispy tail instead of legs. However, unlike his girlfriend, Vladus Lokowitchki had a more humanoid appearance than that of his daughter with a broad upper body and noodly arms, all of which was covered in a heavy, buttoned up grey-brown trench coat. On his head was a cap that matched the color of his coat giving him the look of a classic, scruffy sailor which was actually quite possible given the time period he must have lived in before he met Carrie's mother.
He greeted the two with a silly smirk that revealed his pearly white gates and kind, tired eyes that had bags under them,
"Hey you two! Hope I'm not interruptin' anything?" he greeted in a sly, friendly tone with his gravelly, yet gentle voice.
Carrie felt herself blush a little bit when he indirectly brought up their cuddle session and really wished that he wasn't ghost so he couldn't silently make his way upstairs and phase through her door like that. She knew he could be a bit of joker sometimes, but for most of the time he was usually quiet around her and anyone who came over. He wasn't shy by any means, just a quiet person in general, but every time he pulled one of his pranks it was always unexpected and came completely out of nowhere.
Darwin, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind his intrusion and waved cheerfully at the old ghost,
"Hello Mr. Lokowitchki! You weren't interrupting anything and also, how are you doing?" he greeted pleasantly. It had taken him a while to remember and pronounce his full name and was glad it could roll off his tongue now.
"I guess you can say I'm doing alright for a ghost that was once cursed for hundreds of years." he responded, using his usual quip whenever he greeted one of the Watterson boys. It was his weird way of thanking them for helping him get free of the Limbo he was trapped in after he used a spell that resulted in said fate.
He turned to Carrie once again, this time with a serious look that decorated his bearded face lightly,
"Carrie, I came up here because I just remembered that you and me are going to be travelling to Transylvania tomorrow to visit some relatives and that we're going to be leaving first thing in the morning. There'll be no need to pack anything because we're only going to be there for about an hour or two." he explained, placing both hands in his pockets as he drifted a little further into the room.
Carrie nodded as soon as he finished explaining and thought about specific things regarding tomorrow's trip to Romania. She was a little nervous about visiting the relatives on her dad's side of the family because she had never met them before. She also didn't hear much about them from her father because he was always so silent and only mentioned them recently when he spoke of the trip four days ago while she was hanging out in the living room listening to music and doing her homework that she had forgotten to finish on Friday. She formulated a few questions that had been nervously floating around her head the moment he brought up the trip,
"Do I Have to look nice or behave in a certain way when I'm interacting with them?" she asked, knowing full well that most of the people who appreciated her punk rock style were the people closest to her and the ones who knew her well.
With a subtle shake of his head, Vlad indicated that such things were unnecessary for this family reunion,
"I reckon you don't have to. We're only going to be there for a short period of time and that's pretty much just to say hello. Besides, I'd like to show them what my baby girl is really like." he said warmly, giving her a gentle smile.
Carrie smiled back appreciatively, feeling thankful that she didn't have to pretend to be someone else in order to avoid harsh judgement from other people who didn't even know her. A moment later, Vlad paused and scratched his scraggly beard as if he were remembering something important. It eventually came back to him and he quickly snapped his head back at Carrie, who was now surprised at his odd movements,
"Oh yeah, if memory serves me right, you should be wary of your aunt Charlotte, she's a bit stiff and not in the dead sense and also, watch out for your cousin Wilhelm, if you value your sanity don't bring up the war of Spanish succession, he's still a bit salty for joining the losing side and getting his head lopped off by another soldier." he pointed out.
Carrie mentally noted what he said and decided beforehand to avoid those people as much as possible.
Hearing the conversation, Darwin found himself to be rather ecstatic! He was actually a big fan of travelling to new places and enjoyed hearing stories from friends and relatives who had gone to new and exciting places. Romania was another one of those places he thought was rather interesting and wanted to visit in order to scratch off his bucket list.
Jumping up on the bed, startling both Carrie and Vlad who had been too enveloped in their conversation and completely forgot that there was another person in the room, Darwin gasped in amazement,
"Oh my gosh, that is so cool! I heard about Transylvania in a few books that I've read! Is it true that Dracula lives there?" he exclaimed excitedly, that being the first question amongst many.
At first, not a word was uttered from the two ghosts until Vlad let out an amused chuckle at the fishboy's excitement and bizarre questions,
"Fraid' not my boy!" he said with a grin,
"Although there are vampires living in the city, although that's nothing compared to that one group of bears that came from Norway that got lost because they were trying to trade some fur in Rome, but got on the wrong ship because it said Romania! You should've seen the confusion written on their faces when the Romanian's weren't responding to their Italian dialect. Good thing I had sailed the world for a while and had picked up on a few languages and was able to help them out. They were actually really good company." he explained with a reminiscent smile. You could practically see the nostalgia flooding his eyes.
And with that, Carrie's ghostly father pivoted towards the door and flew towards the exit, turning his head until he could see the two of them out of the corner of his empty eyes,
"Anyway, that's all I came up here to talk about and I don't want to bore you with my old stories." he said with a tip of his cap before he vanished through the door,
"I'll be downstairs in the living room if you need me. You two enjoy your make out session!" he called out from the other side of the wooden door.
Carrie shot straight up with an annoyed look on her face as she cupped her hands around her mouth and called back to him,
"Whatever, and you're not funny either!" she snapped.
All that came back was a simple hee-hee!
Somewhat flustered by her dad's suggestive comments about her activities with Darwin, Carrie turned around, floated back to where her boyfriend was and laid back down on her pillow while she used her supernatural powers to unpause the movie. Darwin had to admit that the scene was a little funny, but did his best to hide his snickers as he sat down besides Carrie and nestled himself back into a comfortable position. There was a bit of a heavy silence in the air as the two sat by each other, one staring mindlessly at the flashing screen while the other examined a poster with the rock band, Broken Asylum pictured on the front with four ripped, demonic-looking dudes all decked out in leather and metal studs playing guitars and drums that matched their color schemes.
Finally Darwin decided to break the ice with a joke he just thought up,
"Wanna make out?" he suggested, turning to her and raising his eyebrows several times in a lude fashion.
Carrie slowly turned her head in his direction once, delivered an icy glare from her eye, before turning back to the screen and crossing her arms,
"Your sense of humor has just dropped to the lowest level of tasteless humor. A level we simply refer to as "dad", so congratulations!" she growled, although she knew he was just pulling her leg.
Darwin felt another snicker escape him and he shook his head slightly before jumping on to the subject he actually wanted to talk about,
"Well, seeing your family in Transylvania sounds really exciting. Aren't you excited?" he asked, now actually curious seeing as she didn't really give out much of a reaction when Vlad announced the trip.
Feeling rather mixed about the family reunion, Carrie didn't feel as though she could give Darwin an accurate answer in regards to how she feels about it. On the one hand, going on a trip and actually doing something with her father sounded really exciting, but then there was his side of the family tree and Carrie wasn't sure what they were going to be like. The only other relatives she had known and interacted with were her mother and grandmother and that wasn't really going off of much.
First off, her grandmother was literally a disembodied, ghost hand that wandered the house and while it was great to have her around just for company's sake, she wasn't much of a conversationalist. Her mother, Elizabeth Krueger, was another story, being a pure ghost, she spends a majority of her time in the underworld and sometimes in the grave. With the rules of the afterlife binding her to one spot for all eternity, Carrie was only able to speak to her whenever she was present in the grave and while she would like to search for her in the world of the dead, it was a near impossible task because finding one soul there is like trying to find one grain of salt in the Sahara. Any time they did speak, they would have very meaningful conversations with one another and Carrie actually enjoyed all their small conversations. Whenever all hallows eve came, sometimes her mother would join her and the two would spend a few hours in the graveyard just talking and interacting.
It was by no means a normal mother-daughter relationship, but at least they can still be together when the time was right.
Bringing it back to the current topic at hand, she hadn't had enough experience with relatives to understand what a family normally acts like, leaving her feeling rather unsure if she could interact with these relative strangers normally. Crossing her arms and releasing a breath she been unconsciously holding as a sigh, she stared up at the ceiling while she answered Darwin's question,
"I honestly don't know how I feel about the trip to Transylvania." she started with sincere honesty, making Darwin look at her with a straightened face, although she didn't notice because her attention was elsewhere,
"My dad and I have been trying to connect in a meaningful way ever since we were reunited and I can tell he's been trying real hard to be a good father despite his introverted nature. It's been going pretty well as far as familial relationships go, we don't get into any major arguments, there are no awkward moments between us, and we even found that we share a similar taste in films, which is surprising because I never feel as if I do anything other than listen to music, watch TV, and hang out with you and friends." she rambled off while trying to make sense of her own convoluted feelings.
Now Darwin was intrigued, she was confused as to how she was feeling about meeting people she never met before, yet they were related to her. That kind of stress must be pretty hard to deal with especially when you have issues connecting with your immediate family. Looking at his own family and his experiences with them, Darwin could definitely see the contrast between him and Carrie. He and his family members were pretty close, dysfunctional, but well woven. Now throw in a new family member that you never heard about nor had any memorable interactions with and Darwin would say that meeting them wouldn't be too difficult or awkward because you understand that you're family and can find some common ground.
There was no easy solution to this and not a whole lot of time for Carrie to process all of this information that was being thrown at her. The only thing Darwin felt that he could do for her right now was just tell her how he felt about it. Clearing his throat, the walking fish also turned his attention to the ceiling,
"You know, you and your dad have a great relationship with each other, I'm sure the rest of his family members are going to be awesome like him." he commented positively.
Confused, Carrie rolled on her side until she was facing him and began studying his face: sure enough he was being genuine about what he said and wasn't just saying stuff to make her feel better.
Darwin was aware of his girlfriend's gaze, but continued anyway,
"I mean, that's kind of what I notice with a lot of families, including my own. Everyone in the Watterson household loves and cares for one another, even if we got our own issues and conflicting opinions that causes everyone to butt heads often. When Granny Jojo came over to visit the first time, it was a little awkward at first, but after she spent some time with everyone, she became a Watterson essentially. She loves all of us, but just like the rest of us she's stubborn, thick headed, and set in her own ways." he now turned to look at Carrie, who still appeared to be confused.
"So what's your point exactly?" she asked.
Shrugging, Darwin just gave her a reassuring smile and got to the point,
"I'm saying you've got nothing to worry about. I'm positive your dad's relatives love him and they'll love you too, and even if you guys don't necessarily agree on everything, you're still a part of their family." while he spoke, his optimism was shining through like always and gave Carrie a bit more confidence in herself.
What he said actually made sense to her and did a better job of helping her grasp the situation and her own feelings towards the matter. She knew her father wouldn't do anything to hurt her or put her in an unpleasant situation. He even went out of the way to explain to her how nutty his family actually was and to be honest, both Carrie and her father were both nutty people as well. Whatever happened at that reunion tomorrow, will just have to happen and Carrie felt more prepared to face the unknowns that awaited her the following day.
She grinned at the thought and leaned in to plant a kiss on Darwin's lips. She remained with her face pressed up against his for a moment, allowing the cuddly goldfish to feel the sparks fly before her lips parted from his. When she brought her head back to get a good look at her fishy beloved, she saw that his lips were still puckered, but for only the briefest of moments because he then opened his eyes and saw that she was giggling a little at his entranced expression,
"Thanks for that talk." she said in a soothing voice, feeling her ghostly cheeks turn pink a little,
"I feel better about the journey to Romania now." she said while giving him a hug.
Darwin returned the embrace, patting her back gently while he whispered in her ear,
"Glad I could help, I'm happy that you're willing to go through this with a positive attitude. I love you." and with that he hugged her tighter.
"I love you too." she responded, holding him tightly.
They both remained in a silent embrace, allowing the quiet, wonderful moment to stretch on while they remained entangled in each other's arms. Carrie considered herself lucky to have such a kind, thoughtful, and helpful person as her boyfriend. With him, the things she considered the worst seemed so trivial to her and while she was in his arms, she felt okay.
Eventually they let go and slumped back onto their backs and just thought happy thoughts while staring off into space. When Carrie began thinking about family, she began to think about Darwin's family and how they were doing, one such person that also came to mind was Gumball,
"Speaking of family, how's yours doing?" she asked, scooting a little so she could be on her side as she propped her head up with one, tiny arm.
The question came out of nowhere, so Darwin had to take a moment to actually think about an answer because he had to bring up his last memories regarding the people he lived with. After a moment of recalling, Darwin began rattling off what he knew,
"Everyone's doing great!" he started off in a chirpy, optimistic tone,
"Mrs. mom's working her new position as department manager in the Rainbow Factory, so she's making a lot more money and she gets to get home earlier and sleep, Mr. dad is well, you know, the usual except that he's even more happy that mrs. mom is bringing home better food and is able to see her more often. Anais has been spending so much time with her new friend, Macey Barnes, that she sometimes disappears at her house for a whole week and also the high school teachers love her." he got to the final person on his list and paused for a second.
He knew his older brother was doing better than he had been earlier, but he realized that Gumball didn't actually talk about what he does nowadays. Every time he asks him what he's been up to, he kind of keeps it short and vague before quickly moving on to some other topic. It was kind of odd seeing someone act so much better about themselves and yet be very secretive. He would normally brush it off as Gumball just getting into something that involved Teri that he didn't feel the need to share with everyone else and he would totally accept it because sometimes people just do their own thing.
He continued on with his discussion with Carrie once he realized his pause had exceeded the three second limit this kind of thing needed before it got weird,
"...and as for Gumball, he's doing fine, actually. He's way more talkative and humorous now and he even stood up to Tina yesterday, Teri helped too, but I was more surprised at Gumball. Speaking of Teri, she and him are baking a cake today for the picnic!" he exclaimed.
Carrie was more than aware of Gumball's new behavior that had surfaced as of recently, but she also began noticing a lot of strange things regarding the cat boy, Teri included. In a really odd coincidence, the night following the day where Teri and Gumball were first seen together in front of Gumball's house, Carrie began sensing something really odd and out of place somewhere in Elmore, like as if a presence had made itself known, but was clouding her psychic sense. When she saw the Watterson's neighborhood destroyed the next morning, she wondered if it was connected to the strange sensations that plagued her mind at around midnight.
Another thing she began to notice was that she began sensing more and more of these abnormalities throughout the month and every single time she felt it, the feeling would vanish. What was really strange though was that every single time the feeling popped up, she would sometimes see that Gumball and Teri had vanished and would be back several minutes after it would vanish, sometimes with injuries. She even felt one yesterday after the brawl between Ocho and Bobert broke out in the classroom and once again, Gumball had disappeared from the class, only to show up later with Teri in an unoccupied classroom. Of course, it was an awkward situation because Masami was also there and, well, there were rumors about the two… anyway, she couldn't stay long to question them about what was really going on.
One last thing she had noticed was that Gumball was carrying the cursed scythe she had given him as a friendly gift after his break-up with Penny Fitzgerald on his person the same day these bizarre events started. There was no mistaking it was the scythe because she could recognize the distinct aura it gave off and given how powerful of an aura it has now when compared to several weeks ago, she could tell that he had been using it quite a bit. She also sensed that Teri was carrying something magical, but it was so weak that she couldn't exactly figure out what it was.
Whatever the case may be, those two were definitely up to something and it probably had something to do with that "Nephilim" Gumball asked her about that Monday morning.
While she went over all these mysterious facts that had sprung up in her mind, she continued to hold a conversation with Darwin,
"Well that's good. I can't wait to see what kind of cake he and Teri are going to bring." she responded with a hungry smile.
Darwin nodded in a agreement, his face brimming with delight,
"Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the picnic now cause all I can think about is cake!" he said, allowing his mouth to hang open as a little drool formed at the corner of his mouth.
Carrie giggled at her boyfriends goofy face and his unbelievable fondness for sweets. She flipped her bangs to the side a little and sat up on the bed, allowing herself to stretch her arms and not because she had to, but because she felt like it. She picked up on some Darwin's morning habits during one of their many sleepovers,
"I'm not so sure of the rumors myself, but do you think Gumball has a thing for Teri and vice versa?" she asked, turning her head to eye the laidback goldfish.
Surprised, Darwin shot up and into a sitting position as he stared at his ghostly girlfriend with perplexity,
"You've been getting those rumors too?" he asked, completely baffled by this.
Carrie glared at him as if he just asked her to add two and two,
"Uh, yeah dude, some of the girls, and Leslie, have been gossiping about it yesterday. Masami even went over to her friend circle and told them that Gumball and Teri were kissing and holding hands after we spotted them in the eighth grade hall together when you sent me to go look for them." she muttered in a monotone voice.
Darwin's knew that Masami was obviously just spreading drabble because she was one of the Elmore Jr. High's top drama queens and also because he heard from Gumball himself where he had been and what he had been doing. He didn't show much of a reaction to this, but did let a little sigh escape him before he flopped back down onto the bed,
"If only Gumball were aware of the dumb situation he's gotten himself into." he groaned, covering his eyes with a single flipper.
"I don't think neither he nor Teri actually care about the things people are saying behind their backs. It appears as though they have a lot more going on that is occupying their minds." Carrie said, lightly implying the mysterious antics regarding the two kids.
There was something else that was bothering Darwin about his older brother and he felt the need to get it off his chest right away. Sitting back up, placing his fins on his lap, he gave his incorporeal lover a serious look and asked her a question,
"Do you think Gumball has gotten over Penny?" his normally high-pitched, cheery voice was replaced with a lower, more somber one.
Carrie was actually about to ask that question herself, but now saw an opportunity to give her opinion on the matter. Placing her hands together and raising them to her mouth, she paused before coming up with the exact words she wanted to say,
"It has been a few months, so it would seem that way, but I don't he's moved on completely, yet. We know that he was devastated by her moving away and the subsequent end to their relationship, and even though he's now showing signs of recovery, I still think he's carrying a lot of baggage. His relationship with Teri on the other hand can show signs that he's getting better and if he takes his time with it (that is if he's actually into her.) then it could actually work out for the better." she explained, feeling as though that were the real case when it came to the two of them.
Darwin couldn't help but feel that Carrie was right on point with what he was thinking. As a matter of fact, what she said was exactly what he was thinking too and he was glad that they were both on the same page. He could tell himself that Gumball actually had a thing for Teri even though he probably wasn't aware of it himself and he also believes that Gumball is still recovering from the event that happened quite some time ago. Either way, he was happy for his older brother, even it annoyed him with how much he was actually keeping from him and the rest of his friends and family.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Darwin rested his head on his appendages and looked about the room that was becoming brighter as the sun rose,
"Well, that's pretty much what I was thinking." he muttered, allowing his head/body to fall back on Carrie's for the third time. Carrie noticed this and moved to join him and was soon cuddling up besides him,
"I just hope he doesn't mess this one up and go through an even longer depression." he said, exasperated, not even wanting to think about the blue cat boy's fragile mental state.
Carrie silently nodded in agreement and snuggled in closer until her head was pressed up against his,
"Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I seriously doubt that those two are going to be leaving each other's side any time soon." she muttered, her voice a little softer despite the cynical undertone.
She levitated the TV remote to her once more, unpaused the Ryan Maverick movie, and resumed watching her anticipated film. Not feeling slightly interested in the film, Darwin closed his eyes and allowed himself to gently fall into a light sleep. Soon Carrie could feel the rhythmic movement of his chest heaving up and down while he slept along with the sound of his breathing getting slightly louder and deeper. It was all very soothing to her and she soon found herself glancing over at his sleeping face: was there ever a time he didn't look this cute? Thankfully she couldn't remember, although she did remember the one time he tried wearing a fringe to make himself appear emo-like and the memory elicited a giggle from her. Good times.
Everything seemed to just kind of space out for the ghost girl due to her being so comfortable and the fact that the only things she was paying attention to were the television set and the sleeping form of Darwin. She was happy, content, and perfectly at peace right now. When she looked over at the clock, 8:05 it read. They still had another four hours until they had to leave which seemed like a wonderful blessing to her right at this moment.
Eventually the film ended in a grotesque blood battle with Ryan holding the demon king's head up in his hand for all his followers to see and the film cut to the end credits. She turned the box off and set the remote on her dresser so that it wouldn't get knocked over. She laid beside Darwin for a little bit, until she too felt her eyelids grow heavy and she started to descend into a deep slumber. She pulled out her phone and quickly set the alarm for ten and set it on her dresser before placing herself next to Darwin once done. Allowing her head to rest against his, she felt the warmth radiating from his body and she soon started to feel drowsy and began to doze off. She finally felt darkness obscure her vision and her conscious fade into the oblivious realm of sleep.
However, before she could fully get to sleep, she felt another dark presence. It was further away, but it was no doubt similar to one's she's been feeling as of lately. This one was coming from the direction of the Elmore industrial section.
-Elmore industrial section, 8:10 AM-
Ever since it's start in 1856, Elmore has always been considered an industrial city, where businesses boomed and workers were arriving by the dozens to collect wages for their families. Throughout it's timeline the shabby little city had been considered nothing more than a nest of smokestacks surrounded by a desert by many outsiders, but what really made it stand out were the kinds of people it attracted.
Promising jobs to the "bizarros", all beings considered both sentient and sapient, yet do not hold many human attributes, many creatures of different shapes and sizes flocked to the fledgling city with the promise of getting better jobs while avoiding human discrimination in many human owned businesses. With the variety of different beings applying their unique skill sets to the many jobs the small town provided, Elmore rapidly became a place of prosperity and economic growth. This prosperity attracted even more Bizarros, some humans too, to Elmore and within a few decades the tiny industrial town began to grow exponentially.
That was until the great depression arrived to the United States in the 1920's and many businesses suffered from the economic downfall. This lead to many of the warehouses being shut down and abandoned as there was no way the business owners could pay their workers enough which resulted in many quitting their jobs there. Elmore eventually recovered after the outbreak of World War 2 two decades later, but most of the industrial section was still left to rot as business had now shifted to other areas of the city.
The vacant sector of Elmore was now a nest of deteriorating warehouses and industrial complexes, with peeling paint on the walls that revealed the many bricks underneath, empty rooms covered in a sea of dust, filth, and spider webs that clung everywhere like ghastly streamers of silk. The only inhabitants of this desolate place were certain pests such as rats, mice, skunks, a few stray dogs, multitudes of different insects that lived within the buildings and the occasional gang of thugs, criminals, and teenagers looking for a place to hide in peace, away from the prying eyes of society.
On this particular day, there weren't any inhabitants, save for two kids: a blue cat boy with a brown sweater and a paper doll girl who resembled a bear of sorts. They both wandered through the twisting streets filled with discarded beer cans, torn-up newspapers, and broken pieces of the buildings that had fallen due to the sands of time wearing down heavily on them. The buildings were like brown-red empty husks of amazing beasts that contained powerful machinery at one point before it was scuttled and sold off to different businesses for money and lined every block like an eerie graveyard. Teri honestly didn't like coming here by herself or even at all at most times, but she wanted a quiet place to walk in and enjoy the peace with a friend.
Who, of course, was besides her and was engaged in the most ridiculous conversation that she had been involved in all day,
"I'm telling you, I heard Dr. Crox use the F-word while he was insulting Junior." he stated, obviously talking about two characters from the medical drama Under the knife that he and Teri enjoyed so much that it was starting to become a ritual to watch it and discuss it whenever they had the chance.
Teri, however, was having none of it and absolutely did not recall hearing the otherwise grouchy, snarky doctor use foul language in the show,
"That's complete ludicrousy!" the paper girl exclaimed, folding her arms while she strolled besides Gumball's right side,
"That show is supposed to be family friendly, so there's no way he would have said that! Besides, which episode was it? Last nights?" she asked, sounding real skeptical.
Gumball rolled his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and spoke in a slightly condescending tone,
"Uh, yeah it was last night's episode! That's the one we've been talking for the past four minutes now-!"
"Six minutes." Teri corrected with a smug grin. She quickly stepped over a broken glass bottle while simultaneously guiding Gumball away from the shards in fear of him cutting his bare feet and getting an infection.
"Whatever!" Gumball continued as he lowered his eyes to ground in order to keep a lookout for certain objects,
"All I'm saying is that a man like Dr. Crox should never use the words "Fanny pack" ever because it is belittling of a man of his gruff type!" Gumball nearly shouted in annoyance.
Now it was Teri's turn to look annoyed,
"Fanny pack? That's what you're so worked up about?!" she exclaimed in disbelief while she glared at the unbelievable blue cat.
Gumball remained angry looking and didn't even look in her direction because he knew she was giving him a look that would tell him he was being ridiculous, as most of his arguments were,
"I had such high hopes for him…" he grumbled, still keeping his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in a direction that wasn't in Teri's.
Noting Gumball's reluctance to look at her just further proved Teri's idea that he knew he was getting worked up about nothing. He was so silly sometimes and she often wondered why everyone got on her case for being a germaphobe. Some things in this universe will just never make sense to her.
"You're being ridiculous." she replied, a half smile etching itself onto her face,
"He was using it to belittle Junior like he normally does, so it wasn't out character for him. Also, what's wrong with a male using "fanny pack"? Doesn't sound unmanly to me?" she commented.
Now Gumball decided to drop the subject because when she puts it that way, it did make more sense. He knew he was just rambling about a fictional character and it didn't matter too much, but it was another fun thing to get worked up about. His mind eventually drifted to the current time and he decided to pull out his cellphone to check the time. He wanted to make sure they got home in time and make sure the cake didn't burn in the oven and if he were to guess, they probably had half an hour to get back.
He ran into an immediate issue when he tried turning his phone on, only to discover that it wouldn't.
Raising an eyebrow, he pressed all the buttons on the device and tapped the screen several times only for it to remain silent and dead,
"Huh, that's weird? My phone won't turn on!" he exclaimed, still messing with the device in a vain attempt to activate it.
Curious, Teri looked over at Gumball's phone and saw the screen blank. It was odd, but not out of the ordinary to her,
"Is the battery dead?" she asked, now looking up from his phone and at his face.
He furiously shook his head and held down the power button to see if it will start up that way,
"No, it was at 73% when we left! No way it should be dead right now!" he responded, frustration making itself present in his voice.
Now that was odd to the paper girl and so she wondered if there was some kind of interference with the network. She pulled out her flip phone and opened it,
"That's odd, I wonder if the network is malfunctioning or something. Let me see if I can turn on my phone." she suggested, pressing the power button on her cellular device. She sometimes turned off her phone after she left the house as weird habit of hers. Maybe she was just paranoid of the battery draining or something?
While Teri tried to power up her phone, Gumball gave up on his and decided to peek over at Teri to see if she was having any luck. The upright blue cat then noticed something the moment he turned in her direction and stared at the building on their left. In the reflection of the ground floor window of the warehouse they were passing, the eldest Watterson child could make out a long shadow-like creature that resembled a serpent in some shape or form.
He didn't get a good look at it because the moment he saw it, he saw a gaping mouth with two rows of sharp teeth in the reflective surface of the glass and his instincts kicked in the moment he sensed they were in danger,
"SHOOT!"
He cursed and doved forward, tackling a surprised Teri by the upper torso just as an explosion of glass shards erupted forth followed by the unearthly snarl of an enormous beast lunging out from the glass and missing them by a few inches. Before Gumball and Teri had a chance to register anything that was going on, they could already tell that they were being attacked by a Nephilim!
Rolling to the side while grasping Teri tightly, Gumball maneuvered them away from the beast before coming to a stop and allowing the both of them to jump to their feet. Quickly checking to see if either one was okay, the two kids quickly looked each other up and down before verbally confirming that they were fine. Surprisingly, none of them had gotten cut by the glass that had fallen after the monster's emergence.
Speaking of the monster, both Teri and Gumball quickly pivoted on their heels and got a better look at the thing that tried attacking them. Just like the shadowy reflection Gumball had seen, the Nephilim was indeed a large serpent, maybe twenty feet in length, that had three foot thick, cylinder-like body covered in glittering bronze scales, an unusual color for a Nephilim considering all the others that had appeared so far, and a narrow, triangular head with the top covered in ten, ruby red eyes and a gaping mouth full of four inch, dagger-like fangs. Like all it's brethren, it was a beautiful, yet horrifying sight to see.
With fear coursing through the two kids, they both took a step back while the monster slithered and twisted itself around in a pile of broken glass. The sound of glass shards and metallic scales scraping the ground created a beautiful and interesting sound while the monster moved. Gumball quickly pulled his bag off his back and began pulling the scythe out while Teri did the same by pulling out a few explosive runes,
"Well, at least we know why our phones weren't working." Teri whispered.
Gumball was about to reply, but he never got the chance. In one, unbelievably quick motion, the bronze serpent lashed out with its tail and caught both of them in the stomach before slamming them into the wall. Both kids immediately felt the wind leave their lungs as their backs and heads struck the solid surface. Then, as quickly as it struck, the Nephilim hissed, slithered across the street and dove into the window, leaving behind ripples like the surface of water after something disturbs it.
Slumping down from the wall, Gumball felt his head spin and a slight ringing in his ear: he didn't even remember what had hit him or what had happened. Right next to him, Teri peeled off from the wall and fell forward slowly, her head pounding like a hammer and anvil while a groan released itself from her lower abdomen and straight up through her throat. She didn't even get a chance to attach a few bomb runes to the evil spirit and Gumball's scythe wasn't even unfolded: it was it's first strike and the Nephilim already proved too fast for either of them.
After regaining her senses, Teri lifted her head and looked around to see where the Nephilim was. She didn't spot the slithering creature anywhere in the abandoned street and counted it as a good thing. It will probably be back shortly to finish them off, so now would be a good time to move. She quickly checked to see if anything was wrong with her and found that none of her organs were ruptured and none of her body parts had been torn. Her head hurt and she was caked in dust, but all in all, she was fine.
Turning around to check on Gumball, she saw that he too was fine and moving, albeit a little slowly as he rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head from where it had struck the wall. Feeling a little woozy, Gumball shook his noggin until he felt his head clear up and as soon as his eyes were focused, he surveyed the area. He was just in time to see Teri leaning forward, grabbing him by the arm that clutched the compacted scythe, before taking off with him being dragged behind her.
Teri was really frantic now. They had their fair share of tough Nephilim opponents, but at least they had a good idea of what they were going up against whenever they dreamed about them. This time however, the Nephilim came out of nowhere and they weren't prepared for it. None of them knew how to fight this thing and so Teri's only thought was to run and put as much distance between them and that monster,
"We gotta get out of here now before that thing shows up again!" she shouted to Gumball without turning her head.
Gumball could hear the panic within her voice and was actually on the same page as her. He didn't understand what was happening or where and when the Nephilim was going to attack. Not knowing what you were up against was terrifying in it's own right and Gumball believed that a tactical retreat was the best option they had at the moment,
"I think I'm with you on this one!" he called up to her in agreement.
While they ran, all the empty buildings from the industrial era of Elmore seem to become a blur as the two reached breakneck speeds. While they were trying to get away, they weren't necessarily trying to leave the industrial sector, at least Teri hadn't planned on it, seeing as leading the Nephilim to a populated area would be disastrous. One fear that made its way into Teri's head was the monster leaving the vacant area to her neighborhood and to where her mother was. They needed to defeat it here and now before things got out of hand, but first they had to come up with a plan.
While Teri was desperately thinking up of possible solutions to their current snake-related issue, Gumball spotted the darkened silhouette of the Nephilim slithering in the glass of the building across the street from them. It was no doubt their earlier attacker and despite the fact they were both running at top speed, the Nephilim was still managing to keep up with them. It seemed as though wherever the serpent was currently, it was free from any obstacles as it passed from one pane of glass from another, like a shadow following its owner.
Quickly allowing the curved blade of the scythe to spring out of the hollow space within the steely handle, Gumball kept his eye on the evil spirit within the window and alerted Teri,
"Teri! The window, to your left!" he warned.
Just in time too, the moment Teri saw the coiling monster opening its mouth for another strike, she quickly let go of Gumball and jumped to the side just as the window shattered. The twenty foot, scaly cylinder came shooting out of the small broken surface, all ten eyes locked onto Gumball as it soared towards him with its gaping maw ready to swallow him whole. In the short period of time it took for the cold-blooded demon to reach him, Gumball managed to narrowly dodge being eaten alive by rolling to the side, his most common evasion technique. The serpent slammed into the wall behind him like a bronze battering ram, causing the brick wall to cave in a little with a light boom
Standing up, Gumball's eyes widened as he screamed when the Nephilim's head snapped out of the hole it made and was already raising it in an attack position. It bared its many fangs that gleamed in the sun like white crystals and lunged its head at Gumball a second time. In a moment of sheer panic, Gumball jumped backwards while simultaneously swinging his Nephilim destroying weapon in front of him in a semicircle arc, only to discover that the blade's tip bounced harmlessly off the Nephilim's head as it came crashing down. Good news was he managed to dodge the lightning quick attack from said monster.
Landing on his feet, Gumball's revelation that he couldn't harm the monster drove him into a panic. Not only was he barely able to keep up with it, the bronze scales covering its body were impervious to his weapon's effects. If it attacked again, there may be little he could do to stop it,
"I hope Teri's rune magic will work on it!" he thought desperately to himself.
He then thought about trying to use that grey fire technique again, the one that helped him in the fight against Concretin on the broken bridge the other day. He immediately dismissed the idea,
"Absolutely not! That was a completely reckless decision on my part and left me completely derived of any common sense in exchange for increased strength and speed. If I use it here and act carelessly like last time then I may wind up with more than just scratches." he scolded himself internally.
In real time, the bronze serpent had lifted its head again and followed with another attack to the clearly outmatched blue cat. When Gumball saw a hole surrounded by razor-sharp teeth heading towards him, his first instinct was to jump back again or perhaps to the side in order to clear its path, but he could tell by the way it was moving side to side and at a higher speed than before that that wasn't going to be an option that would better his chances of survival. He had no choice but to attack.
Do or die time, he quickly spun around until he was a little off to the serpent's side and held his scythe out in front of the ten-eyed monster. The serpent was too late to read Gumball's attack and felt tremendous pain as the inside of the scythe blade caught the corner of its mouth and dug into the interior flesh with the serrated edge. Gumball was nearly yanked off his feet when the charging Nephilim was caught on his scythe, but he managed to stand firm, although his feet were scraped up when they were dragged along the rough sidewalk. With a hearty pull, Gumball brought the weapon forward and tore it free of the serpent's mouth, along with a few strands of flesh.
He had finally found a weak spot, although getting to it was going to be a problem.
The serpent hissed louder than before while bringing its tail around and quickly swatted Gumball away. The scythe wielding kid managed to catch its tail with the shaft of the magical weapon and prevented further injury to his body, but it wasn't enough to actually catch the momentum the tail carried with it and he was sent flying down the street. He bounced a couple times before rolling to a stop, his scythe clattering on the pavement a few feet from him and Gumball clutched his side as he groaned in agony. He was starting to get the impression that trying to tank a shot from these monsters was going to result in nothing but bruised ribs and other body parts.
The bronze, window hopping snake smirked triumphantly as it watched the small mammal fall helplessly on the ground after it had tail-whipped it. Surging forward to finish him off, the vile creature locked it's multitude of eyes on its prey and unhinged its jaw in order to devour him. This time Gumball was helpless to stop it because he was once again too exhausted from the pain he suffered and his only means of killing the monster was a few feet away from him.
That was, until five small explosions blossomed on the serpent's backside, violently rocking the beast and shattering a few windows from the shock wave that ensued from the destructive force. The Nephilim hissed angrily, a long, black, forked tongue lashing out of its mouth as it turned itself around to see who the attacker was. Its red eyes focused on a frightened-looking Teri who stood a few feet from its midsection, a few pieces of paper and pencil in both hands as she nervously stared at the demon that was glaring down at her like an angered exterminator that was bitten by a wasp.
The reason Teri was frozen with fear at this precise moment was because she expected her bombs to kill the monster right away: instead her magic did nothing but leave a few scorch marks that tainted the serpent's scaly hide like random inkblots. She had lost her first set of runes when the monster attacked them the first time and while Gumball was dealing with it, she quickly drew up five of them, trying her best not to mess up because she knew Gumball was having some difficulty fighting the Nephilim on his own and attacked when the spirit monster lunged at Gumball the second time. Now she was standing there in the open, no weapons to defend herself with, no time to create more, no origami to get her out of here, and Gumball was temporarily out of commission.
"What am I going to do?" she thought to herself in horror.
For the longest five seconds of her life, the serpentine Nephilim didn't do anything except stare down at her, almost as if its hungry glare alone was enough to keep her in one spot. Then it let out a gurgling noise with its throat that sounded really odd to Teri and moments later, the otherworldly monster sprayed a golden, liquid substance from two small holes located on the roof of its mouth. Without thinking about it, Teri immediately darted away from the twin streams of golden goo spraying from the monster's maw, a mere second before the stuff splashed her. While she ran away, she looked back and saw that when the liquid substance struck the broken pavement, the concrete began sizzling and dissolving, making it abruptly clear to the only Pepakuma child that it was acidic and had she been standing there moments earlier, she would have been broken down in the blink of an eye.
The Nephilim stopped spraying the corrosive poison at Teri moments after she had evaded it and slithered towards the glimmering puddle. With a subtle hiss and a quick lunge, it dove into the puddle of golden goo and disappeared entirely. The only thing remaining was a highly reflective golden puddle that slowly ate its way through the road it was set on, hissing and popping as it undid the foundations of the asphalt. Both Gumball and Teri were left completely baffled at the revealing of the Nephilim's newest trick.
Speaking of Gumball, the blue cat had finally reclaimed his breath along with his weapon and rushed towards Teri, carefully avoiding the pretty splatter of acid on the ground and stopped short a few feet from her, his heart racing a mile a minute. After looking her over, he could see that she was alright, physically, but she seemed rather shaken at her encounter and he knew why that was. Most of their opponents before had been tough, but not invincible. This one, on the other hand, had very few weaknesses to offer and it's only weakness that had been exploited was also well defended.
He gently grabbed her shoulder, causing Teri to look him in the eye,
"Are you alright?" he asked, looking concerned for his friend. He knew that moral was low right now, but he needed her with him right now and wanted to help her get back up.
Realizing the condition her mind was in and that Gumball was able to see it clearly, she put on a straight face and nodded with an assured smile,
"Yeah, sorry about that. That's the first time my magic didn't damage a Nephilim and also, I'm not exactly comfortable with being that close to my demise." she chuckled.
Gumball chuckled too and mirrored her smile,
"I know what you mean, I'm not exactly a fan of going toe-to-toe with these ancient giants either." he replied jokingly before turning to point his scythe at the shimmering puddle of acidic liquid produced by the Nephilim,
"It probably won't be gone for long and we can't fight it down here, can you make something that can get us in the air?" he asked while keeping a lookout for any mysterious shadows in the windows reflections.
Teri gave an affirmative reply and reached into her backpack, which still managed to stay with her, and pull out a green, blanket sized piece of paper. While she folded the sheet in different ways according to memory, Gumball stood guard and watched while Teri worked her magic. Soon, a beautifully created paper quetzal was formed by the paper bear and the two soon lifted off from the ugly, empty streets and above the buildings.
She didn't fly too high though, for the fear of discouraging the Nephilim from hunting them and deciding to pursue other targets. She also circled around the area they lifted off from because both she and Gumball wanted to keep the Nephilim contained in a certain area if they could help it. At least up here, they had a better chance of seeing and countering the Nephilim if it decided to pop out of a window for another surprise visit. Gumball resumed his normal position while riding Teri's origami and maintained a constant lookout for any threats while Teri formulated a plan.
"Okay, we have the advantage up here, but how are we going to destroy this thing?" she asked Gumball, who was nervously scanning the windows and other reflective surfaces for any slithering shadows.
While keeping his eye on a passing window closest to them, Gumball offered some insight,
"Well, I discovered that it's mouth is vulnerable to attacks, so our goal should be to get it to swallow one of your bombs or you can use another rune, seeing as you have four others that you haven't used yet." he suggested, flinching when he saw their reflection in the glass of a nearby window and mistaking it for the Nephilim.
It finally clicked in Teri's head that Gumball was right and that she hadn't even thought about using the other magic symbols she had in her arsenal. She had gotten used to using the explosive ones that she kind of forgotten about the other four runes, whose uses are still a mystery to her. Then again, the reason she never actually used them was because none of them were labeled and if she learned anything from her mother and father's scoldings was that you should never mess around with items that aren't properly labeled.
"We'll use one of new the runes as a last resort, I'm still not sure about using them yet." she said, having made up her mind already. She checked some of the windows they were passing and was sort of relieved that she didn't see the Nephilim moving besides them in the glass,
"For now, let's just focus on what we do know: one, the Nephilim is capable of hopping through reflective objects and is capable of spitting acid that can also serve as a portal for the monster. Two, it's only vulnerability is its innards and it must have some excellent senses if its able to track us while in the glass. Any ideas?" she asked.
Gumball spotted a slim, dark object shoot across the second floor windows of the empty textile warehouse next to him and he sprung into a defensive position, but the shadow quickly disappeared. Confused for a brief second, Gumball figured it must be observing them and was looking for a better way to strike the both of them or was just messing with them so that they'll panic. He knew a lot of the Nephilim acted more like animals, but that was no reason to underestimate their intelligence seeing as most of them act like cunning predatory animals.
Like predatory animals… that's when it hit Gumball,
He excitedly turned to Teri, ignoring the wind that was now slapping his face and stinging his eyes as he brought forth a possible solution,
"If it's tracking us, why don't we trap it in a confined space, like one of these warehouses and finish it off there. It won't be able to maneuver easily and you'd be able to deal some damage to its weak spot. I can even distract it for you, if the situation calls for it!" he explained.
There was a moment of silence as Teri thought about the details, pros, and cons to the plan Gumball suggested. The bronze Nephilim was faster than them for sure, but most of its attacks required a lot of room to deal some damage and trapping it in a small, narrow space may keep it from reacting quickly enough. The problem that kept presenting itself to her though was that the creature didn't need to do much to kill them either. If they found themselves trapped then all it would have to do is devour them, spit acid at them, and/or finish them off with a doom blast, if it had such an ability. Also, it can easily escape by creating a reflective pool of acid which would ruin their plan.
Still, it was a good bet and better than fighting the monster out here where it had the advantage.
Teri began to bring the bird down to the street while Gumball carefully watched the nearby windows,
"Okay, we'll go with that idea, but how will we escape if it somehow corners us?" she asked, glancing back at him.
"Serpentine patterns, I guess?" he uttered with a shrug.
Teri frowned and gave him a really? Look as she scoffed at his lame pun,
"Really couldn't help yourself there, huh?" she snapped back.
Gumball chuckled a little and waved her off with a single hand,
"Sorry, sorry, If we both get cornered we can use your origami or your runes to escape or I can bust out my grey fire and knock it down, hopefully without getting cocky this time." he threw these ideas out there because he too was worried about getting cornered by the twenty foot demon serpent he now named "Window Hopper" and wanted to make sure that they had options.
Teri liked all those options, except the last one he brought up and found herself slightly worried that he'd even go for something like that. Yeah, it was a powerful skill that could better their chances against the Nephilim if they ever found themselves caught in a troubling situation, she'd seen the battle against Toxic Pill and Concretin to confirm that, but it was by far a solution with too many drawbacks and could wind up with either Gumball or the both of them getting killed and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. She was glad that he put the other solutions first because it told her that he was aware of his limitations and the dangers his newfound power posed and was trying to cut down on the risks to her and himself.
CRASH!
The chilling sound of glass shattering ruptured the silence of Teri's thoughts and brought the paper girl cutout back to reality. Looking to her left to the building closest to them, Teri saw the bronze serpent launching itself out from another window and was aiming straight for her! When she got a good look at the cold-blooded monster, she noticed something about it was off, it wasn't as big as it originally was, instead only being half its original size. This made it look less intimidating, sure, but Teri recognized the problem the moment it presented itself. With the Nephilim's size being reduced, it was much lighter and faster than it was earlier and was now rocketing towards the pilot of the paper quetzal with unmatched speed, it's mouth dripping with acidic venom.
There was only one thing Teri could do to save both herself and Gumball from certain death: she quickly willed the bird to tilt to the right and shield themselves from the serpent's attack path. Gumball hadn't been keeping an eye out for the Nephilim while he was talking to Teri and was now completely shocked at seeing the now half-sized monster shooting towards Teri from its hiding spot. How could I have been so careless?! He mentally chastised himself as he felt the bird tilt and was forced to hang on tightly in order to avoid a thirty foot drop to the street below. Gumball was thankful that she had her wits about her and made a silent promise to never let his guard down again.
The good news was Window Hopper had missed its intended target entirely and Teri was saved from a painful death. The bad news however, the quetzal Teri had crafted didn't exactly make it. When Teri banked to the right, Window Hopper kept sailing straight ahead and tore through the left wing of Teri's bird with its acid coated fangs, effectively separating the flimsy appendage from the body. The ten-eyed serpent kept sailing forward and disappeared into another window that was fixed on the building across the street. As for Teri, Gumball, and the damaged paper craft modeled after the famous emerald green bird of Mexico, they all began spinning out of control and careened towards the ground at a fast pace.
Seeing the ground approaching fast, Gumball acted quickly, grabbed Teri, who was trying to control their descent despite the damage done to their ride, by the waist and leapt off the bird just as they were ten feet from the ground. The ruined paper bird smacked the pavement and simply bounced away without making much of a sound while Gumball fudged the landing and wound up on his rear while holding on to Teri,
"Ow!" he exclaimed in pain as he let go of the paper girl, got up, and rubbed his sore behind,
"Man, that was less cool and dramatic than it was in my head, also more painful." he complained.
Teri just rolled her eyes at the blue cat's whininess before grabbing him by the arm and rushing towards a building that looked like it was going to collapse by a stiff breeze. Normally this is the last place she would hide in, but she wanted to get to a sheltered area before the serpent showed back up again and catches them out in the open. She thought about retrieving the remains of her origami bird, but decided it wouldn't be worth it.
They were a few feet from the door of the warehouse, Teri and Gumball tried to read the sign above it to see what it said, but the words were too faded to even make out, much less read and they stopped just outside the entrance. Taking a moment to catch their breaths, both the children decided to thank one another.
Gumball decided to go first, seeing as she saved him first,
"Thanks for reacting in time to Window Hopper. I let my guard down and gave the Nephilim the right moment to attack. I'm sorry about that." he apologized, feeling guilty for almost costing Teri her life.
Teri looked at him and smiled a little, his sincerity and concern for her well-being making her feel even more grateful to have him by her side,
"It's alright. Thank you for pulling me off the bird before we crashed. That was real nice of you." she said, earning a smile from Gumball upon hearing her gratitude and forgiveness.
However, he still had doubts as to whether he actually did any good and he voiced his opinion while rubbing the back of his head nervously,
"Actually, that probably didn't need to happen because the bird probably would've absorbed the impact and you wouldn't have gotten hurt, plus that fall wouldn't have caused any serious-!"
"GUMBALL!" she shouted, cutting him off before he could continue with his self-harming drabble. This caused Gumball to cease his nervousness and place his full attention on his friend and classmate. She calmed down and assumed a more relaxed pose, although she still looked serious,
"Thank you. You helped me because you were concerned for my well-being. I can't tell you how appreciative I feel right now, so once again, thank you!" she explained, clear and simple.
Surprisingly, that was all Gumball needed to hear to put an end to the doubts he had at his ability to keep her safe. Sure, he messed up, but at least she managed to help them both avoid any losses and he helped her escape a potentially dangerous situation. They were both in on this together and anything they did to help one another was a major step forward. He was going to keep going forward with her by his side, catching each other when they fell, and helping in any way they can, no matter how small.
Feeling his confidence returning, Gumball's eyes lit up with determination and he stood up straighter. He was going to do his best from now on. It was right at that moment both he and Teri heard the sound of glass shattering and the sound of something large and heavy hitting the ground with a metallic Clang! Turning until their vision rested on the other side of the street, both Teri and Gumball spotted the sinister serpent back to its original size and was shaking the broken glass off it's reflective body.
Then it spotted them, let out a hungry hiss, and began slithering towards them at a frightening fast pace.
With only twenty seconds until the Nephilim reached them, Teri turned around and tried opening the door that lead into the warehouse. She wrestled with the doorknob only to find to her horror that it was locked! Seeing the issue rather quickly, Gumball quickly used a hand to push Teri back a few feet before slamming the butt of his scythe into the door handle and breaking it off.
Being made in an earlier time, the door unlocked once the handle was forcibly removed and Gumball pushed open the door, quickly ushering Teri in before turning around to see where the bronze serpent was. He felt all the hairs on his body stand on end when he saw that Window Hopper was only ten feet from him, moving his mule-sized head side-to-side with all ten eyes locked on him as its forked tongue shot in and out of its mouth. Its metallic scales made a grating sound as it contracted and relaxed its body to slide across the pavement. This was all taken in by Gumball in under an instant and the blue cat quickly darted through the door, slamming it shut behind him.
With his back against the door, his heart racing a like a jackhammer, and his body paralyzed with fear, Gumball stood absolutely still. That was until, he felt the force of the snake spirit's head slam into the door behind him and he was sent flying forward and past Teri, who was just standing a ways away from the door with a frightful look on her face. Gumball landed flat on his face, his front half immediately becoming caked with all the dust that had been collecting on the floor for years causing him to sneeze a couple times after inhaling it, but quickly found himself scrambling to his feet once he realized that the door had been flung open and that both he and Teri were in danger.
Once on his feet, Gumball whirled around until he could see the door and saw something that was for once a relief to him. Wedged into the door's frame was Window Hopper's snout as it struggled to get itself through the opening that was clearly too small for its large head. Feeling his heart rate slow itself down after a minute of watching the Nephilim continue with its pointless struggle to force its way into the building and actually found himself snickering at the sight.
Teri, who was overcome with fear, heard Gumball's light snickering and at first looked at him like he was deranged, but then saw what he was laughing at after glancing back and forth between him and the Nephilim referred to as "Window Hopper" by said cat. It then dawned on her that the name was a play on the name "Window Shopper" and found herself groaning inwardly, seriously, how does he come up with these names? Soon, she too found herself laughing at the monster's rather embarrassing situation,
"Well, I guess he's found himself in a tight situation!" Teri joked, causing Gumball to actually start laughing.
Window Hopper began pushing even harder, as if it understood Teri's insult and was now trying to work its way into the building to attack her for the offending joke. Then again, it probably could understand her because the Nephilim have been known to understand them and actually speak to them. Maybe they just choose not to talk them or can't because the form they appear in prevents them from speaking. Teri had been doing all she could to learn about the Nephilim in her spare time, but she didn't pull up anything when it came to the Nephilim's contact with the people of this world.
After hearing Teri's joke diffuse the situation, slightly, Gumball decided to join in, not being one to be low on humor himself,
"I guess being narrow minded just doesn't get you very far in life, huh?" he chuckled, hearing the snake's scales grinding against pavement outside getting louder as it tried to break through the wall.
Both of them laughed harder, filling the empty room they were in with echoes of their laughing.
Teri found herself clutching her sides while she continued to laugh, but managed to squeeze out another joke that popped in her head,
"Well, I guess it doesn't always pay to have a big head!" she said, shrieking with more laughter.
Gumball immediately stopped laughing and turned towards the paper being with an angry look in her eyes. Hearing silence from Gumball along with the weight of his glare on her, Teri slowly stopped laughing and curiously glanced in the boy's direction. After seeing him offendedly staring at her, the paper doll cut out wondered what it was she said, and then came to a conclusion regarding his sudden anger. She forgot that he too had a big head and was somewhat sensitive about it. Oops.
Wearing a more sorrowful look, Teri slowly put up her hands and waved them back forth as she tried to show her close friend that she was sorry for what she said,
"Sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! I got caught up in all the joking and-!" she blubbered out and stopped when she saw Gumball raise a hand and shake his head while closing his eyes.
He was hurt, but he didn't feel that now was the best time to start arguing about that and also, he knew she didn't mean it,
"It's okay, it's not that big of a deal." he sighed.
"Pun intended?" Teri asked with a sneaky grin.
Gumball was about to yell at her for that comeback, but stopped when he heard another scraping sound and turned to see what Window Hopper was doing. Teri also heard the noise and her senses immediately went back into alert mode when she turned to see the latter mentioned Nephilim. To their surprise, the oversized serpent had removed its head from the tiny doorway and was now rearing it back.
Having given up on forcing itself through a small doorway, the Nephilim opted to make it wider and opened its mouth. Soon, a familiar gurgling sound could be heard and the two kids immediately recognized what was about to happen. Fearing the imminent danger they were in, the two made like a frightened pup and zipped back further into the decaying building, leaving the horrific entity behind as the darkness of the hallway swallowed them up.
The warehouse had several floors and many large rooms that could at one point hold massive machines that could be run by dozens of workers to assemble various products for consumers to purchase after they had been shipped out. Given the concrete layout of the building floor and the various wires that hung from the walls and ceiling, Gumball and Teri could deduce that this factory was one of the "newer" ones that came a little before the great depression, probably late 1910's if they were to estimate. Either way, the place reeked of ancient history, with musty smells and dust irritating the nostrils as the two inhaled the dirty air. Teri promised herself that she was going to deep clean her whole body (and make Gumball do the same, following her own decontamination process, and there was no way he was backing out of it!) when she got back home. If she got back home.
The good news was, some of the hallways were extremely narrow and would prove quite a challenge for the large demon if he tried making his way in here. The bad news was, there was little light in some of rooms and the two were having a difficult time seeing and making their way through the hallways. Right now was the time Gumball wished his cell phone wasn't compromised with the Nephilim's presence as he could have used the flashlight on the device to illuminate the dark, musky halls of the dying building.
Surprisingly, they didn't hear any sounds coming from behind them nor any sound at all really. They've been wandering the dim hallways for three minutes now, having slowed down after feeling as though they had put enough distance between themselves and the acid spitting Nephilim, yet the sound of metallic scales grating against concrete could not be heard from anywhere within the building. While Gumball was appreciating the silence the halls were giving, he felt really tense right now because he was worried the monster was setting a trap for them or worse, had gone off to hunt other prey.
Teri who was moving silently behind him was feeling the same way and wanted to formulate a plan rather than wander the halls in silence, plus she wanted to put a little ease on her mind and the only way to do that was to talk to her only companion in the dark. Clearing her throat as to indicate to her partner that she was about to speak, she gently grabbed Gumball's shoulder and prevented him from walking any further,
"Wait a minute." she whispered.
Gumball cautiously turned his head towards her. He was still armed and felt pretty sure that he could defend the both of them if Window Hopper decided to show up and engage them in close quarters, but he still didn't feel at ease in the darkness so he wasn't exactly happy to be stopping in the darkened hall,
"Something wrong, Teri?" he whispered back.
He heard a slight crumpling sound and a few swishes, indicating that she was shaking her head side to side,
"No, not really, I just came up with something!" she exclaimed.
Gumball felt his spirits lifting the moment she presented herself with a plan,
"Oh thank goodness! I really thought we were stumped here for a moment and were just going to wander through this dingy place until the thing shows up and tries to kill us. What have you got in mind?" he asked, allowing his anxiety to release itself from his troubled mind.
Teri ignored his comments and continued on with her train of thought. She took a step forward and began whispering in his ear, worried that the Nephilim may be nearby and listening in on them,
"I think it's back in the reflections again so we're going to go on with your original plan. Let's find a large room with windows and draw it out. Once we accomplish that, let's lure it back in the hallway, I'm going to use a rune to finish it off and if that doesn't work use your grey fire trick to finish the job." she finished and took a step back, wanting to see what his response will be.
At first, Gumball remained silent as he thought it over and then lifted his shoulders in a shrug since he didn't see any other options in defeating the reflection dwelling Nephilim at the moment,
"That works for me, although I'm still feeling unsure about my new abilities." he stated, giving her his honest opinion. At the same time he felt his hand clutching the scythe tightly.
Aware of his uncertainty, the origami wielder made sure to assure him that they will only use his uncanny ability as a last resort. Feeling confident in her plan, Gumball nodded and took the lead once more, as they both searched for a room with windows and was hopefully well lit too. While they continued to creep through the vacant building, Gumball wondered what it was they made here. He could imagine the thunderous sounds of many machines working as workers dressed in drab uniforms meandered through the halls and stood by the assembly lines as they performed repetitive tasks that would most definitely drive him nuts if he ever had to work at such a job.
As a matter of fact, Gumball still hated the aspect of growing up and selling yourself to a job that you detested. He knew that it was an eventual outcome in life and that he was going to have to do it sometime (despite how much he loved and even acted like his father, he didn't take well to the idea of being a stay-at-home dad either.) in the future. It then occurred to him that maybe he should look into things he actually enjoyed doing and apply himself to that. Maybe he could be a baker or a gym teacher, seeing as he was actually starting to enjoy exercising, but he still didn't know if those were his kind of jobs. Well, he still had a lot of time to decide these things and will worry about it when the time actually comes. He realized that this place was making him think about his future and decided to push the thoughts out of his head in order to focus on the mission.
They wandered the ruinous hallways for a good minute and a half when they finally reached a room that had many windows lining the walls and was basking the place with an unnatural amount of light. It was so bright in fact that Gumball and Teri had to shield their eyes while they entered the room. Gumball hissed as response to this blinding effect that agitated his eyes that were adjusted to the dark prior to entering this place,
"Augh! What gives? This place is like walking into the Bobert store, only with twice the brightness!" he groaned, furiously rubbing at his burnt out eyes with a free paw.
Teri too groaned as she reached for the pocket on her backpack that held the pencils so that she could draw on a pair of shades,
"Urrgh! Where is it?" she muttered to herself as she kept reaching back for the pocket containing her drawing materials.
After a few agonizing moments the two were able adjust their eyes to the brightness and intensity of the room and opened their eyes after blinking a few times. When they looked around they noticed right away that they stumbled into the absolute worst of places they could fight Window Hopper: a storage room filled with dozens of ornate, full length mirrors that caught the sun's glare shining through the windows. This was definitely bad news for the two of them.
The first one to voice out their frustration was surprisingly not Gumball, but instead his paper companion,
"OH COME ON!" she shouted, stomping her foot as her voice echoed through the cavernous room,
"Of all the factories we walk into, how is it remotely possible that we wind up in the one that produces mirrors of all things!" she continued to rant, her face twisted in anger and her flimsy hands balled up into fists.
Gumball noticed a sign with visible print on the wall right next to the entranceway and saw that it read: Looking Glass factory storage room. Warning: reckless behavior around mirrors could lead to serious injury or seven years of bad luck. Looking Glass factory, eh? That would've been nice to know from the beginning.
Gumball looked away from the sign and sighed out loud with his eyebrows furrowed in frustration,
"Well, I guess now would be a good time to reflect on our poor choices." he muttered to himself.
Teri glared daggers at him and raised a finger up to his face as a warning,
"One more half baked pun and I will shatter you!" she hissed.
Gumball barely even noticed the venom in her voice and shrugged a little, a sly smirk making its way on its face,
"Good one." he complimented,
"But I thought we were done with bakery puns?" he replied, his smile getting wider.
Teri froze in place because she was caught between two important decisions right now: should she throw him at a mirror or should she clobber him with her bag? Well, she supposed she couldn't harm him now, since she kind of needed him for this mission, but she definitely could play an annoying song nonstop or make him watch a horrendous show later on in the evening. Question was: what did he really hate and which one sounded really bad?
Unfortunately, before she could come up with a decision, an explosion of glass could be heard followed by a breeze seeping in from a broken window, as Window Hopper had located them and was attacking now. Looking up and across the room where the windows were, Gumball and Teri watched in shock as the massive spirit dropped from the highest window, in its jaws was an orb of red energy that grew brighter by the second, and before the Nephilim hunter reached the mirror that it was heading for, it discharged the energy blast in Gumball and Teri's direction.
Without having to think about it, both the cat and the paper bear dove forward and placed their hands on the back of their heads just as the hot blast of exotic energy struck the ceiling above the doorway. Seconds later, a roaring sound could be heard as rubble torn from the damaged spot came raining down behind the two, completely blocking the doorway they came through and sealing the two kids in the mirror room.
When Gumball and Teri stood on their feet again, they observed the damage done by Window Hopper's doom blast and to their dread saw that their only means of effectively fighting the monster and the fastest means of leaving this room was cut off by a mountain of smoldering bricks and plaster. The Nephilim had been waiting for them here and set up a trap for the two of them. Now they were sealed in room filled with mirrors and a creature that was so fast and deadly that they could barely fight it the first time. Both the boy and girl felt their hearts collectively sink at the realization that they had just been fooled.
Gripping the scythe as tightly as possible, turning his knuckles white in the process, Gumball began to sweat profusely as his eyes darted about each mirror in the room, searching for any flickering shadows,
"Well, so much for that idea." he said nervously, his voice shaky and filled with terror,
"Any other ideas?" his voice cracked, as he slowly turned his head to see what Teri was doing.
He saw that she had already pulled a few normal-sized sheets of paper out along with a larger one, obviously for origami making. She was scribbling a few symbols on the smaller sheets of paper and from the frantic motions of her hands added in with the speed she was drawing with, Gumball could tell right away she was nervous. She no doubt had a plan in action, but for now she needed some time to construct her items.
And Gumball was just the guy to buy her that time.
He returned his attention to the many mirrors scattered about the room. They had some dust coating the surface and some of the metal frames had already begun to rust, but they could serve their purpose to the Nephilim whose travel methods are bizarre as his anatomy. There was one thing that Gumball noticed though and that was whenever Window Hopper leapt out of a window, it always shattered and he'd immediately have to enter through another one. He could also use his reflective poison to travel to his dimension, but one thing remained constant: he could only enter through reflections, but whenever he left them they shattered and became unusable.
What would happen if he shattered a mirror while he was in it?
Reaching back into the debris behind him, Gumball pulled a brick still warm and blackened by the doom blast out of the rubble and carefully began searching for the shadow the Nephilim always left behind in the reflection. Seconds felt like hours as the eldest Watterson child narrowed his eyes against the glaring reflection the mirrors gave off while he continued to search for a familiar shape. He wondered if he should try searching faster because the bronze otherworldly creature could move pretty fast, but he kept his search at a medium pace for fear of accidentally missing it.
Then he spotted it! To his left, twenty feet from Teri, leaning against the wall, a mirror with a rust covered frame adorned with carvings of angels playing trumpets or pulling aside curtains displayed a silhouette of the murderous snake monster curling around in a circle as it prepared to strike at the unsuspecting Teri, who had finished with her runes and was working on the origami. Reacting without thinking, Gumball felt his whole body tense up as he twisted on his heel, curved his arm backwards like a baseball pitcher would before finished with his half spin and snapped his arm forward, releasing the brick at the same time.
Watching the solid, rectangular prism projectile sail through the air, Gumball immediately felt a twinge of doubt fill his mind as he wondered if he had thrown too hard and was going to overshoot the mirror or if he had miscalculated the weight of the missile and was going to undershoot the target. The brick sailed through the open space in an arc, spinning as it traveled, and made its way towards the mirror within the span of a second. Unbelievable to Gumball, lady fortune was smiling on him today as the brick struck the mirror square in the center, forming spider web-like cracks that spread across the silver, rectangular surface and distorted the world it was reflecting.
After the brick that had been thrown clattered to the ground, the damaged mirror exploded into several hundred silver shards whose sizes varied from the size of a pea to the size of a human hand as they rained down in a pretty, glittering shower of broken glass and metal. What also came tumbling out was a five-foot long Nephilim serpent, who was writhing about the floor as if in agony and spat out little globs of acid as it hissed violently. Evidently being forced out of its hiding spot caused it to shrink in size and also resulted in excruciating pain for Window Hopper. Gumball mentally took note of this and decided that it would provide them an excellent advantage.
Getting over its initial shock, the Nephilim spirit reoriented itself until it was on its belly again and turned to glare at Gumball with hate filled eyes. Seeing as he had cheesed it off some, Gumball quickly got himself in a defensive position, lowering his body and keeping his weapon raised as he carefully eyed the creature, tracking any little changes in its body that would indicate to him when it was going to attack. Coiling its body up, the shortened serpent sprung at Gumball with its jaw opened and its fangs aiming for the little kid's vulnerable neck.
Already counting in for the increase for the changing monster's speed, Gumball was already reacting by the time the snake had coiled itself to launch. Placing his right foot behind him while keeping the scythe's curved blade to his left, the moment the Nephilim was in striking distance, Gumball swiped at the beast, not with the blade itself, but instead with the stock end of the weapon since it was faster and caught the monster in mid attack. He managed to catch the bronze spirit in the mouth and with his body's momentum, he carried it over until he flung Window Hopper to the wall opposite of where it came out of. The five foot, living cylinder of bronze scales sailed like the world's prettiest missile all the way over the opposite end of the room and crashed onto the cold floor with a heavy thud. After a few moments of laying still, the Nephilim regained its bearings and spotted a mirror in front of it before quickly slinking away and disappearing into the looking glass.
Watching it disappear from sight, Gumball found himself wiping the sweat off his brow with an unconscious swipe of his forearm as his heart pounded in his chest,
"That was way too close for comfort!" he thought to himself.
He'd had plenty of intense, deadly moments throughout his life, even during all his and Teri's fights with the evil invaders from another world, but this one literally left him shaking because for most of this fight, they were barely able to keep up with Window Hopper and up until a few seconds ago, it felt as though any chance of hitting it while it was attacking was less than likely. He actually felt proud of himself for managing to fend off the monster on his own, but also regretted not using the blade-end of his scythe because that probably would have caused some damage given the Nephilim's reduced size. He brushed off his regret though, he defended himself and bought Teri some more time: he did great!
Finally finished with setting up her paper creation, Teri stood up for a moment to admire the craftsmanship of her work. What she had created by folding the piece of paper as carefully as possible was a grasshopper! Whenever Window Hopper attacked, Teri noticed that it only did so whenever they were within its range and even had a limited agility when it came to movement that only improved when it decreased its size. So she decided that outrunning the monster was a bad idea since speed was its greatest advantage and opted to create something that had greater agility. Rather than outrun it, she was going to outmaneuver it!
While she had been working, she was aware that she was leaving herself open to an attack and was also keeping her and Gumball in one spot. This was a concern for her, but she needed to do this by hand because whenever she did so, her creations would perform better. She never understood why this was the case, but she had known this ever since she found that she could control paper just by touching it. Maybe it just had to do with how much thought and care she placed into the creation process that affected the Origamis' performance.
And when she heard the mirror shattering beside her along with the Nephilim hissing and eventually attacking, she didn't even pause while she worked. This was because she knew Gumball was watching out for her and wouldn't let any harm come to her while she put together her plan. She trusted him entirely and knew her life was safe in his hands. Her faith paid off when she heard Gumball catch their attacker in its attack and flung it away from the two of them. This made her incredibly happy causing a small smile to form on her lips that was unseen by Gumball before she finished creating the grasshopper.
Turning to her reliable companion, she called his name and gestured for him to climb aboard the incredibly realistic-looking paper insect,
"Hop on! We're going to kill that snake!" she said confidently.
Seeing her determination shining through, Gumball also felt himself getting fired up and complied with her orders. He dashed over to the dog-sized, jumping insect, saddled up, and waited on Teri, who was gathering four sheets of paper that held her deadly magical symbols. Having everything she needed, she quickly clambered aboard in front of Gumball, and briefed Gumball on her plan,
"Okay, I created three explosive runes and one new one I'm going to use first on Window Hopper. We're going to move about the room and when we land next to any mirrors, smash them with your scythe! Also, you're in charge of defending us in case it gets too close." she explained, placing her hands on the grasshopper's round head, causing it to spring to life and leap into the air,
"It may have us trapped, but it too is cornered, let's turn that into our advantage!" Teri said as she searched for a spot to land.
Gumball nodded in acknowledgement and hefted his favored weapon over his shoulder while he kept a grip on the insect to maintain his stability,
"Good plan! I feel as though I hissed it off earlier, so we shouldn't have to wait long for it to attack." Gumball replied.
Teri didn't want to waste her energy yelling at him, so she just rolled her eyes and groaned,
"Ugh!" she hated his puns, but was glad he could keep lighting up the situation with humor. He's got a spirit that just never quits and that was something Teri would never want to see fade any time soon or at all really.
The fight began the moment the grasshopper and its riders landed on smack dab in the middle of the mirror storage room. Not even one second after the paper insects six legs touched the ground, Window Hopper's giant head shot out from a dirty mirror laying on its back on the floor not too far away from them and attempted to snap them up in its fangs. Luckily Teri was able react just in time and pulled them both out of the trap by leaping high into the air again. Down below, the bizarre entity left the broken mirror that it exited from and raced towards another one nearby and quickly left the realm they were in.
Once alone, Gumball and Teri quickly descended and began visiting every mirror that was within their reach, smashing every one they came in close proximity to. While they did this, Window Hopper immediately went on the offensive, attacking the two every time they got close to the ground, predicting where they would go before finally stopping them by pinning them with a doom blast. Fortunately, like Toxic Pill and Concretin, the red blast of energy was deflected when Gumball's scythe lit up with flames the color of a grey winter sky, allowing the cat boy to act. With the grey fire coating his scythe again, Gumball and Teri went into a panic as Gumball quickly tried to will the flames to disappear before anything bad could happen to his mind.
Strangely enough, the moment Gumball's thoughts went from desperation to worry and fear, the weapon's grey flames went out.
"Huh? That's all it takes to shut them off?" Gumball wondered out loud, surprised that nothing bad happened and that a solution to such a problem could found as easily as that.
Seeing that they were about to be attacked again, Teri ignored Gumball's self imposed question and got the grasshopper moving again,
"We'll worry about that later! Right now, you need to worry about the Nephilim and not using the flames unless they're needed. There are ten mirrors left, we gotta smash the rest and defeat that thing for good!" she exclaimed, before getting them up in the air again.
She'd never seen Gumball use the grey fire to deflect a doom blast up close before, but was now quite impressed by the power that he wielded. She had a feeling that the scythe was on a level of its own and wondered if there was more to it than she and Gumball knew. She was also curious if the magical device was able to be used by anyone or if it was reacting only to Gumball, he never used the magic stored within the weapon until their battle in the desert and again on the bridge. Perhaps this was something he was going to have to train with in order to get better at wielding it. Whatever the case may be, any more help in defeating the Nephilim was more than welcomed by the paper bear girl, as long as it didn't affect them in a negative way.
The struggle continued in the storage room, dragging on for another three minutes that felt significantly longer for the active participants involved and was starting to grow in intensity the longer it dragged on. Within those three minutes, Gumball had successfully destroyed seven out of the ten mirrors remaining while parrying any surprise attacks enacted by the serpent and Teri continued to nimbly avoid any attacks Gumball could otherwise not defend against. Within the heat of the battle, both pre-teens having been thrown into this conflict only a few weeks prior, were now an impressive team that continued to whittle down the Nephilim's best means of attacking, defending, and escaping during the ongoing conflict.
Sensing that it had very little hiding places left, Window Hopper, now sitting in a room mostly filled with broken, unuseable mirrors, decided to change tactics. Opening its mouth, it began whipping its head about the place while spraying acid in every direction as far as it could. The corrosive liquid splashed all over the place covering the most of the floor and the walls, melting broken mirror frames and dissolving all the mirror fragments it covered. Gumball and Teri were fortunate enough to avoid the waves of acid that covered the room, but now understood that their problem just got worse.
With many pools of reflective, golden acid everywhere, the air was filled with the hiss of materials being broken down to their base elements and the repulsive smell of said materials dissolving. Satisfied with all the new hiding places it created, Window Hopper began slinking his way towards the nearest puddle. Within a few seconds it will disappear in its dimension and will be able to attack from which ever puddle or mirror (the ones still intact, at least.) it chooses.
Still up in the air, but with few places to land, Gumball began desperately concocting a plan. Thinking on his toes, he spotted the Nephilim making its way towards the nearest puddle of acid and thought up of something. It hadn't noticed them yet, which was good, but the problem with Gumball's plan was that it was a gamble.
Nevertheless, it will probably help defeat the beast before it reached the puddle to begin a new series of attacks. Reaching over Teri's shoulder and pointing towards the retreating form of the twenty foot monster, Gumball shouted in her ear,
"Land on its back and use your new rune, quickly!" he shouted.
Teri understood right away and quickly twisted the grasshopper until it's head was pointing towards the Nephilim. They fell for a second, grasshoppers legs outstretched as it prepared to land and the Nephilim's nose was just mere inches away from the reflective puddle of ooze. They weren't going to make it in time!
That was until, Teri crumpled up the rune sheet and hurled it at the Nephilim below.
The paper wad moved faster than them and struck the serpent's scaly backside. Rather than bounce and roll off, the paper stuck to the spot it landed on and at first nothing happened. They landed on the serpents neck area just as it was dipping its head into the pool of acid, when suddenly, it stopped moving. It pulled its head out of the golden puddle and began looking around with wide eyes as if sensing something wrong and indeed something was.
Right behind the grasshopper riding Nephilim fighters, sitting on Window Hopper's back was the wad of paper with a triangular rune that Teri had written onto was glowing and causing the Nephilim's shiny, bronze scales surrounding it to lose its color and eventually turn into stone. The effect spread a little ways, like a virus, across a section of the Nephilim's body before a five foot section of the beast was reduced to stone, granite by the looks of it. When Teri had looked through the notebook Rob had given her, she spotted an easy to draw rune that looked like a triangle with a little circle located within the upper point and decided to try that one out first.
Turns out it petrified the bodies of Nephilim spirits, though not completely and now Teri wondered if the Nephilim were any smaller, would it completely petrify it?
While she was lost in this thought, Gumball spotted a golden opportunity to finish the Nephilim off. Using his powerful legs to pounce over Teri's head, Gumball landed on its back and began to race all the way up to Window Hopper's head. In the meantime, the serpent had realized that its midsection was completely turned to stone and had left itself completely immobile. Panicking, the Nephilim let out another hiss as it tried desperately to move its body again while it felt something crawl on top of its head. With its eyes lining the sides of his head and facing outwards, it wasn't able to see what it was, but it knew for a fact it was one of the vermin it was trying to exterminate.
Nearing the nose of the beast, Gumball shifted his grip on the scythe so that his paw was closer to the blade itself, knelt down on one knee, and drove the blade into one of the creatures brilliant, ruby red eyes. Window Hopper let out the loudest hiss that Gumball had ever heard it make as it began thrashing its head about, desperately trying to rid itself of the attacking cat boy. Gumball had no choice but to hang on for dear life as he was flung about like a ragdoll, all the while calling out to Teri,
"Teri! Throw your bomb runes in its mouth! Hurry!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, starting to feel queasy from all the thrashing the monster was doing.
Recognizing the chance Gumball had provided her, Teri sprung into action! Quickly skittering up the Nephilim's neck and onto its head, she willed the paper insect to cling on tightly as she grabbed onto a flailing Gumball and pulled him onto the grasshopper with her. Without being tossed around like a towel, Gumball felt slightly better now, although his eyes were spinning in his head and his stomach was trying to crawl into his heart. With Gumball safely aboard, Teri quickly moved to a better position and pulled out the bomb runes she had prepared earlier. The metallic snake was still thrashing its head about and hissing in agony as it tried to move away and into the acid puddle, but couldn't because its middle was still stone solid.
Having reached the monsters mouth, Teri crumpled up the three magic bombs, leaned over and tossed them into its gullet, being extra careful to make sure they were thrown in deep. The whole time this was happening, Teri was feeling really disoriented from all the movement and having done the deed, was more than glad to leap away from the doomed beast and onto the broken window it came in through. The grasshopper clung on tightly to the window sill with its four front legs, all the while the two riders were catching their breaths and waiting for the world to stop spinning.
A moment or two later and a bright light filled the room, followed with a thunderous boom, and shockwave that blew all the acid and broken mirror away from the source. The second the explosion came, it ended and through the smoke that filled the room, the two kids caught a faint glimpse of a headless serpent collapsing on the ground. Seconds later, it's brilliant bronze scales that glimmered so wonderfully in the sunlight, faded into a blackened color before bursting into purple flames that traveled up with the smoke.
Another battle had been won.
Simultaneously feeling a breath of relief escape their mouths, the two exhausted middle schoolers took a moment to just let the stress flow out of their systems and process over everything that had just transpired. That had definitely been one of their toughest battles, while previous fights never lasted beyond twenty minutes, this one felt like it lasted at least half an hour. There were so many times they could have died and so many times they had no choice but to run from the enemy they were facing, rather than just keeping their distance and studying it while also figuring out how it fought through trial and error. On the plus side, they adapted to the situation and emerged victorious, with surprisingly little injury to themselves. Also, Teri now had a new rune to use and Gumball knew how to shut off his power, kinda.
With all the excitement they faced today, both agreed that it was time to go home and Teri reformed the grasshopper into a quetzal bird again in order to fly them back to her house. Having achieved air travel, the industrial section of Elmore began to fade away behind them as they headed back to the Elmore suburbs. However, there was something that was bugging Gumball ever since the fight had ended and now wanted to share his observations with his partner and close friend,
"You know what I noticed." Gumball stated, folding his arms across his chest, his grey weapon already folded away and stashed in his bag.
Teri turned her head back and returned his question with a curious look,
"What?" she asked.
"We never even dreamed about the Nephilim before we left, so we never knew of it, yet it appeared in the industrial section at the same time we were walking through it." he remarked, sounding suspicious.
Teri knew where he was going with this and also thought it was strange that it would happen to appear at the exact place they were walking. It could be that its portal opened nearby and Window Hopper was just seeking out the nearest target, but she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that it wasn't just a coincidence. She wore a solemn look on her face as the realization kicked in and she eyed Gumball,
"You think it was hunting us, specifically?" she asked, fear gripping her voice.
Gumball shrugged as he didn't have the answers to give, only speculations,
"Maybe. It wouldn't be too strange for them. For starters, they have shown signs of intelligence and counting out the first night they appeared, they hadn't scored a single casualty or caused any real damage to Elmore. If their goal is to kill everyone in this town, then removing us, the ones that have been repelling them…" he trailed off when Teri picked up on what he was saying.
"...would leave them with no one to stop them from killing everyone in Elmore." she muttered, clarity now resounding within her.
This was troubling news for the both of them because not only did it mean that they themselves were being hunted, but it meant that everyone else around them was in danger of being attacked. Also, counting the fact that every Nephilim that has come to Elmore has been eradicated by the city's three defenders and yet, they were still able to coordinate an attack specifically aimed at the two of them. That would have to mean that the Nephilim are getting information on them somehow and that they were now acting with a strategy. This lead to the possibility that their enemies were well organized and were not attacking randomly or opportunistically, but were actually waging a war against this town.
With all these possibilities in mind, that still left one thing really clear to the two of them,
"We have to be really careful from now on." Gumball said.
There was no need for Teri to verbally or physically express her agreement because she already knew that they were going to have to proceed with caution from now on. She also became aware that their only other ally, Rob, was probably on the Nephilim's hit list as well and made a mental note to warn him about their findings whenever she would get the chance. She also figured that all three of them were going to have to take extra precautions, starting tomorrow in order to better prepare for the next wave of attacks, that is if their theory was correct.
She figured that Rob could take the day shift, seeing as he didn't have to go to school and could sleep whenever he wanted, plus he was very capable on his own. Next was the night shift, which seemed more challenging because Teri's parents had her on a strict schedule and couldn't exactly sleep when she wanted to until it was bedtime, Gumball, on the other hand, may have better luck in that field. After pondering on it, she figured she could ask her parents if she could stay after school to work on school work and ask Gumball to ask his parents if he could do the same. That way they could finish any school work during the afternoon and have more time to prepare for any attacks.
Now came the issue of getting everyone to go along with the plan, but she would worry about that after the picnic.
That's when a sudden, terrible realization came to her and her eyes widened in horror as she remembered something they were supposed to do when they got home. When they left the house, they were supposed to be gone for an hour, but fighting the Nephilim took up a lot of time. She, of course, was worried about the cake both she and Gumball had left baking in the oven this morning.
With her mind on overdrive, she mentally commanded the inorganic bird to hightail it back to her house and the bird immediately began picking up speed. Soon, the Elmore industrial sector fell away from sight and the trees, cars, and houses that came into view below them, shot by in a blur of motion. Gumball was sitting behind her, sifting through his thoughts on the Nephilim when he felt the bird's speed increase dramatically and actually felt his upper body start to lean back to the sudden increase in acceleration. Quickly reaching forward, both his hands found Teri's waist and he quickly pulled himself forward until his chest was pressed against her back,
"What's the rush?" he hollered over the roaring wind.
Teri wanted to focus on only getting home because her mind was in such a panicked state, but she managed to answer any way,
"The cake! We fought Window Hopper for a really long time, and it completely slipped my mind! We gotta get home fast or else the cake is gonna burn!"
Now understanding the reason for her maddening dash forward and nearly throwing him off the bird, Gumball realized that their project for the picnic had completely slipped his mind as well when Window Hopper appeared and it was probably past 8:30 at this point. Feeling rather concerned, he pulled out his phone and checked the time, 8:37 AM the screen said. He immediately felt his fear vanish once he realized that not much time had passed and that the cake can be saved. He actually remembered putting the cake in at 7:33, meaning that it was probably still good. Still didn't mean they shouldn't hurry though.
Putting his phone away, he kept a tight hold on Teri as her house slowly came into view,
"There it is! We're almost there!" Teri exclaimed, feeling her heart jumping as she sped up towards the driveway.
Gumball couldn't help but feel himself smile a little bit as his over-reactive friend continued to tear them both across the sky and towards the house,
"Teri, it's alright! It's only 8:38, I put the cake in the oven at 7:33, it's definitely not burnt at this point." he explained, laughing giddily afterwards.
It was as if a light went on in Teri's mind and everything seemed to slow down afterwards. Well, that was partially because after Gumball had told her that everything was fine, she did cause the bird to slow down a little, but mentally speaking all her anxieties seem to just leave her like a poisonous vapor being vented out of a crowded room. She looked back at the cat boy with a shocked and confused expression sprawled all over her facial features (she also just now noticed that Gumball was practically hugging her and was extremely close.) as she noticed that he was very calm,
"Wait, what?" was all she asked while continued to descend despite not looking where she was going.
Gumball continued to keep a cool face and head as he calmly explained to her what he discovered,
"I said not to worry. I placed the cake in the oven at 7:33 before we left, also, I forgot to wait for the oven to warm up, so the actual cooking process didn't actually start until around 7:43." he checked his phone again, 8:40 it read,
"We're actually right on time." he said with a chuckle.
Feeling a bit of red creep into her face, Teri looked away in embarrassment and continued to make her descent. She felt incredibly silly for freaking out like that without actually checking the time and checking in with Gumball as well. It was funny, she always thought herself to be the level-headed one of the two, but here she was, making a fool out of herself over something she overlooked.
They landed on the paved driveway of the Pepakuma household and dismounted from their odd form of transportation. Everything appeared to be in prime condition and a sweet, warm smell was wafting through one of the screen windows they left open in the kitchen. Looks like the cake was ready to be born into the world and decorated by its odd parents.
Unfolding and refolding her origami into a simple square before placing it in her bag along with her other supplies and began heading towards the house with Gumball following close behind. She still felt embarrassed about her reaction and held her head low as she made her way towards the closed door that safely guarded the interior of her home from the outdoors. Sighing to herself, she grabbed the doorknob and with a twist followed by a push, the door swung open,
"I'm so embarrassed." she squeaked.
Gumball overheard her talking to herself and let out another chuckle, causing her to turn around and look at him with another baffled expression. Her eyes seemed to ask what? as Gumball calmed down and looked at her with a goofy smile on his face. Sometimes Teri really wondered how she survived so long with this dork,
"It's okay, Teri! I probably would've freaked out if you hadn't because I probably would've came to that realization too, given time. You also did the right thing by getting us here faster, so good job! Also, you look really cute when you're embarrassed." he said, feeling another chuckle making its way up.
A rather odd way of putting things, is what Teri thought to herself as she watched the big-headed blue cat let loose an amused laugh. However, what he said did the job and put her in a better mood. Yeah, she panicked, but at least she got them here on time and now they can finish what they started, which was a definite win for the both of them.
She turned to walk into the house, but stopped when she remembered the last line he said to her and turned around with a suspicious glance,
"Hang on a sec! did you just say I looked cute when I'm embarrassed?" she asked in a tone that was both accusing and curious at the same time.
With his laughing ceasing the moment the question left her lips, Gumball remained frozen in place as he went over what he had just said. Teri watched as his pupils shrank in terror and his face went from the shade of Cyan to the shade of a strawberry in under a second. Teri swore that she could hear his fuses blowing as he tried to come up with an explanation for his unusual choice of words. The fact that he said she was cute and coupled with his reaction of her pointing that out, made Teri suspect that something was going on with him, but she didn't get a chance to question him about it or even ponder on it because a second later, the once blue boy quickly sprang up and made a dash for the house, rushing past her as he shouted,
"I THINK SOMETHING'S BURNING!" and raced into the kitchen, despite the fact he knew was supposed to be quiet due to her mother's need for rest.
Pausing for a moment to think about what just happened, Teri shrugged it off and followed the overreacting boy's trail to the kitchen where said person was pulling the rainbow cake out of the oven, but was in such a hurry that he forgot to put on oven mitts and burned his hands by accident. She helped him by soaking his burnt hands in cold water to cool off before placing her own hands into protective mitts and pulled the cake out of the oven. Such an odd, wonderful day! She thought to herself as she placed the warm, scrumptious-looking piece of doughy wonderfulness on the counter. They then proceeded to the next step of decorating the cake with frosting, having fun as they did so.
-Void, time: unknown-
Aside from being boring, lifeless, downright eerie and unsettling, the farthest depths of the void can also be described as pitch black. This one, true, simple fact did a really good job at highlighting the other descriptions used for the realm of forgotten items and mistakes and could make anyone venturing this place want to leave it immediately. Long term exposure in such a terribly dull landscape could also drive a person mad and cause them to lose all sense of reality and even their own identity, assuring that nothing ever left this trash dimension that doubled as a prison for the forgotten.
Coming back here over and over again was always unsettling for Rob, not just for the memories it would bring, but the sheer hopelessness this place enforced on its occupants. Diving into this place for Rob, was like diving into the true world of death, everything and everyone left here for eternity in absence of the real world, while slowly allowing whatever consciousness that the unlucky few were able retain rot. Everything else was just frozen, caught in a limbo of nothingness.
Rob guessed for those who were frozen along with their thoughts had a more peaceful existence, for they couldn't feel anything, but it was still terrifying to think about: having everything that makes you, well, you! just fade like that, was unsettling to think of.
However, he wasn't here to contemplate such dreary things or to stay as a prisoner, he was here in this dump for something extremely valuable: knowledge! Whatever may lay within the darkest depths of the void had to be extremely valuable in terms of power and perhaps even held valuable information on the Nephilim themselves. He knew that the invading monsters were just beginning in their small city and that in order to fight the monsters at their doorstep, he was going to need something that will level the playing field or maybe even tip it in their favor.
He arrived at the forest of doom at around 8:30 this morning and began his long trek with his equipment in hand as he made his way into the deadly forest. He met very little threats on his way to the void entrance, though he did have to scare a swarm of man-eating squirrels away with an air horn and also had to fend off a slug-like monster with many teeth by zapping it with a stun pole he had constructed many months ago, and eventually found the tear in space time hidden very well in the dense foliage. After suiting up in a foil jumper, a motorcycle helmet covered in foil too, along with the thruster pack he finished creating today, he pulled out a type of bracing device made from steel poles that could root themselves in any surface out of his suitcase, and used it to keep the void portal open throughout the duration of his travels.
After placing a transmitter that served as a beacon near the front entrance, the cyclops stepped into the portal and let himself drift off in the open, static filled space before him. The good thing about his suit was the fact that it allowed him to keep his memories thanks to the protective properties found within the tin foil. He had been here many times and learned through many trials and experiments on how to travel this creepy, parallel world without getting lost or losing his memories in the process. This, however, was the first time he had ever gone deep into the abyss and so that's why he spent two days and nights preparing for the journey.
The mad scientist and former student of Elmore Junior High drifted through the weightless world shrouded in darkness, avoiding any stray objects that appeared on the HUD that was placed in the lower corner of his helmet's visor. Most of the items located within this ancient expanse were small things that had been forgotten by time, like transcripts written by Egyptian merchants, discarded poems carved in stone by Roman poets, failed carvings of Greek deities, and so much more material tossed aside by people who lived so long ago, both mighty and meek. None of it was useful to Rob though, so he kept pushing forward.
It really did help that the void was set up in a similar manner as a tree, with the outer rings being the newest and most recent while the inner rings, the ones that receded further into the trunk, were where the oldest of things were held. Of course, not everything stayed where it was, some things would drift in between time zones because of the weightless nature of this place. Rob encountered a few strange objects due to this phenomenon, like a live Dodo bird wandering the Hindenberg and a sergeant belonging to Napoleon's army stuck on the prototype version of the Viking longboat, which was just a really long log with a sail attached to it's center, actually, that last one could've been that soldier's bad attempt at escaping wherever he was.
Regardless, this place was intriguing and held some really interesting insight to the lives of people from earlier times.
Using his rocket pack, Rob quickly shot around a Sumerian inverted pyramid that was carved with all the laws of their empire, but was abandoned because the structure of the object simply would not hold, Rob could only wonder why it was left to be forgotten in this place. After avoiding a collision with the massive blunder of engineering by some guy even the Sumerians tried forgetting about, the disfigured inventor recorrected his course and continued to move forward.
He could feel his excitement mounting as he made his way further down the world's garbage timeline,
"Okay! I am now passing beyond the timeline of the world's oldest Human/Bizarro civilization! Beyond here should contain some history of the Nephilim and the people who lived during the time!" he eagerly muttered to himself as his one eye kept scanning the darkness obscuring his vision, save the little, blue screen within his visor.
He detected another incoming object approaching his proximity and with the way the scanner was binging, it was pretty big! Quickly glancing at his HUD, he could see that the object he was approaching was enormous, covering up the scanner entirely. This was very interesting, not only did he not expect something so large to be popping up so soon after leaving the Sumerian era behind and from closer inspection, it seemed to be less of an item and more of a barrier of sorts. It was about 900 meters away and even though he couldn't see it, he knew it was quite a distance from his current location.
Curious, he reached up and pressed a single button on his wrist pad causing the rocket nozzles on his back to spew forth an explosive chemical compound that increased his overall forward speed. Without any gravity to slow him down, the human-shaped missile shot forward and closed the gap really quickly, before slowing himself down when he was halfway from the unusual object. After his approach was slowed and the risk of him becoming a Cyclopean pancake was minimal to non-existent, Rob slowly drew closer to the massive object and planted his boot covered feet on a surface that felt like glass.
Like all the other objects drifting within the void, the thing he was standing had its own gravity that allowed Rob to stay standing on top of it or whatever the definition of "top" was in this place thanks to the lack of gravity removing all sense of direction, which could easily disorient beings who were only used to linear planes. The "object" was definitely a barrier of sorts because the instruments placed within his stolen space helmet that he covered with tin foil were showing no signs of an ending point or an edge, if you will. The place seemed to span like an infinite horizon within the darkness.
He knelt down and placed a gloved hand on the glossy black surface below him,
"Hmm, this barrier is placed right before the Sumerian artifacts, definitely not a coincidence." he thought to himself out loud,
"There aren't any clues for me to follow off of here, but maybe this wall of sorts is magical by nature?" he really didn't have much to go off of, seeing as this is his first time visiting this place and he may actually be the only being in the modern age to have made it this far.
Formulating a conjecture to further to test upon, Rob pulled the weapon he produced within his own home off of the rocket pack's weapon harness and leapt off the dark barrier until he was hovering twenty feet above the infinite plane. Punching in a few commands on the smart phone strapped to his wrist, he pressed a button on the side of the rifle and moments later, a whirring sound could be heard as many devices from within the weapon's loading chamber began to carve the explosive rune into the copper pellet stored within. Within the span of ten seconds, a rune was carved into the bullet and Rob had already raised the weapon until he was in a firing position,
"If the barrier is magical by nature, then it should have a reaction to the enhanced pellet I'm about fire at it." this was all speculation to him of course. If nothing happened here then he was going to have to go back and search some suspect areas for a possible means of bypassing this wall before him. There was never one simple answer when it came to science, sometimes multiple experiments were needed in order to move forward.
With the rune printing coil gun or RPCG for short, primed, loaded, and ready to fire, Rob sucked in a breath, held it, before squeezing the trigger. He felt the click reverberate from the rifle and throughout his body as the round was propelled out of the stocky gun thanks to the use of charged coils lining the barrel of the homemade weapon. The coils were given energy via a EMP resistant battery pack built within the booster pack itself and was connected by the thick cable Rob had to add in. The tiny projectile was sent streaking towards the solid, black barrier at speeds that dwarfed that of regular firearms and struck its target with a sharp Snap! That echoed throughout the space around him. It was so strange to be in a place that had little gravity, yet still had an atmosphere that allowed him and the inhabitants of this dimension to breathe and create sound.
To his disappointment, nothing happened right away. Thirty seconds passed by, at least that's what it felt like to him, and the only thing that happened after the bullet struck the barrier was the sound that it created from striking it, faded away. He thought about possibly loading another round with a different rune carved into it and trying again, when something happened.
It was small at first, so insignificant that he initially dismissed it as a trick of his imagination or his helmet's digital display flashing in order to warn him about the pellet he fired earlier approaching his proximity and then, after a second glance, he saw that something on the barrier was actually lighting up! Stopping the reloading process, the grey, polygonal pre-teen glanced up with his single, yellow eye and squinted to get a better look at the small glow originating from the mysterious wall in front of him. From his distant perspective, the marvel showing presenting itself before was but a mere orange glow, like a distant star or planet in the night sky.
Not sure if he should get close or not, Rob pulled the phone that served as a data pad and a command device for his various inventions (he really like how modern phones are able to connect to just about anything these days, so that anyone who has studied electronics as extensively as he had could produce such ingenious devices like the ones he did recently.) and pulled up the camera app in order to zoom in on the glowing object. After using his two fingers to expand on the image, he saw to his surprise that the brightly lit, orange object was actually a glowing symbol, and not just any symbol, but the familiar octagonal explosion rune he just used! So his theory of the wall being magical in nature was correct and that it did react to other magical objects.
Keeping his excitement about such a discovery down to a minimum, the temporary ally of Gumball Watterson remained where he was and waited to see what would happen next. Keeping his phone focused on the glowing symbol, Rob watched with amazement as the symbol began to glow brighter and three concentric circles containing geometric designs formed around the explosive symbol and the surface of the barrier began to ripple. Suddenly, the symbols faded entirely, replaced by a blank blinding white glow as though a porthole displaying a world of pure light were being opened and forced the cyclop's pupil to constrict into a slit-like shape at the sudden increase in brightness and forced him to turn away.
There was no sound being emitted from the light source, but the symbol's glare continued to glow ever so brightly, casting everything in the surrounding area in white brilliance. Even turning himself away, Rob could not escape the brightness surrounding him and wondered to himself if what he did was wrong! Closing his eye, curling himself in a tight ball, even allowing his RPCG to drift out of his hand as he placed it along with the other on the sides of his and gritted his teeth together. He waited in both fear and anticipation for whatever was to come.
Then, just like that, the blinding glow slowly faded, allowing darkness to creep back within the void and shroud everything within its suffocating grasp. The moment the light started retreating, the adventurous cyclops opened his one eye again and with the utmost caution coupled with a sense of wonder, checked his surroundings. Once again there was nothing but the blackness of an uncaring dimension peering back at him through his helmet. He didn't realize it at first, but he was breathing so heavily that his breath collected as fog on his visor. He had never been through something so intense and downright terrifying.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Rob checked the proximity scanner within his helmet and his glaring, yellow eye widened significantly when he saw something on the HUD.
The small, blue, digital screen showed his current location in comparison to the barrier behind him, which was still where it currently was due to him not moving from his current spot. Approaching him however, was a very small object and was coming in from the wall! Snapping to attention, Rob quickly reached out, grabbed his rifle, punched in a series of commands on his phone and felt several nozzles on his maneuvering pack fire off. He soon found himself recalibrated until he was facing the barrier with his rifle already primed and ready to blast away anything resembling a threat.
It took a few moments of ardent waiting and tracking the mysterious object before the polygonal, former resident of this dimension gained a visual on said object. To his surprise, the object that came to him was none other than an old book. Taken aback by this discovery, Rob placed the weapon back in its holster and reached out, grasping the book in his four fingers. Even through the gloves he could tell the book was bound in leather and was actually in good condition.
Holding it both hands now, the disfigured madman checked it out first, noting that the cover was a reddish brown with no distinguishable markings and the pages were yellow when viewed from the side. It was a thick book containing many pages, kind of like a textbook, and after finally getting a good look at it, he flipped it open to the first page. The inside cover was empty, but the first page was filled with dozens of runes he'd never seen before!
Amazed, Rob carefully turned several other pages finding that only thirteen of them contained runes while the rest remained blank,
"This is better than I expected!" he exclaimed, unable to contain his giddiness and amazement. There were so many different spells he could cast now and he didn't even know where to begin.
He turned his attention to the barrier once more and began filling his head with ideas to do in the future. If the wall spat out this book just after firing one rune at it, then imagine what else it could provide him with all the symbols he had now! He thought about firing another rune at the wall to see what else it would provide him, but ultimately decided against it,
"I'll have to go home to study these runes for the time being, plus I need to develop better equipment for the next trip here, starting with a sun visor. I can't risk burning my eye out everytime that wall decides to release something." he mused. Then he thought about how he was going to obtain the necessary funds in order to build such contraptions, plus he needed more parts for his most ambitious project he had planned for the future,
"I may have to rob a few banks, if needed or I can swing by the scrap yard, nab a few items, fix them up, and sell them online." he kept coming up with quick and easy solutions to make a few bucks for the parts he was going to need for his next void suit and… that project.
Firing off a few rockets, Rob positioned himself until he was facing the beacon's direction and set off to the entrance with his prize. He had enough fuel in his pack for the journey back and felt at ease, knowing he could spend most of time just thinking. The darkness surrounding him also felt more comfortable to him now than it had on his way towards the most ancient section of the void.
He had so many questions regarding the barrier he was leaving behind and the mysterious contents that rested within. It was clearly put there to prevent people venturing into the void from retrieving the artifacts that it was guarding, but was willing to trade with him regardless. In a way, the barrier seemed more alive than it initially appeared to be and this left Rob with further questions.
Considering all these factors within his own mental space, the grey, polygonal being also remembered to maintain some caution moving forward because some of the things he may be given could lead him to further disaster. Wherever the path may lead him, he will always stay true to his goals: absolute victory over the Nephilim, the curing of both him and Rachel, and the things that will come afterwards once he wields such tremendous power.
The universe was such a big, scary place with so many unknown factors, but Rob definitely liked the journey it provided.
(A/N): and that's all folks! Really enjoyed writing this chapter and boy, was this one long too! There were quite a lot of things I wanted to write into this chapter, but didn't wind up doing so because I didn't want to stretch the chapter out any longer than it had to be. One of those scenes was the actual picnic scene where Gumball and Teri meet up with everyone at Elmore park, but couldn't because that would've been an extra twenty pages to write and I'm NOT writing a one hundred page chapter. I will explain what happened at the picnic in a flashback or summary exposition from one of the characters in the next chapter, just so you guys can get an idea of what happened and also because I like you guys a lot!
So we obviously know that people all over Elmore, friends and family alike are starting to notice all the strange events that are happening all over town. Carrie is especially becoming suspicious and we'll be following her a bit during the next few chapters, but not as the chapter's focus. Also, we haven't been seeing things from Gumball's family's perspective (save for Darwin.) and we'll be seeing them in the next chapter.
We also got a good look at Rob's life for a bit and what his motivations are. I honestly enjoyed writing about him in this section along with his interactions with Rachel Wilson. I kind of wanted to go with the sibling-like roommate style with the two because I felt like that would fit them perfectly in this story, but I feel like I may have made their relationship a bit deeper than that, at least in my opinion. Rob obviously has strong feelings for her and feels very sympathetic because he once found himself in a similar situation. I'm definitely looking forward to writing more about these two in the future.
And, yeah, we also found out that Gumball can cook. This was something I noticed he could do in some of the episodes and thought it would be cute if both he and Teri decided to bake a cake together. It actually took the two of them a while to get started on the cake because Teri was trying to find something she could wrap Gumball up in because she was afraid of him shedding his fur on the cake and couldn't find any body-sized hair nets for him. Poor Gumball! I also thought Gumball making Teri breakfast was just so adorable!
One last thing I wanted to point out out was the nature of some of Teri's devices, like her phone for instance. Like Gumball's cellphone, it can be compromised by the Nephilim's EM (ElectroMagnetic.) field because it was actually produced by a phone company rather than being made by herself. She can create paper constructions that resemble modern vehicles that are run by a form of energy she possesses and thus, can't be taken down by the Nephilim's EM field. This was a minor mistake that I caught after going through the editing process and wanted to clear this up with you guys just in case you noticed this too and are confused. I know this is basically retconning, but this is because I'm trying to produce a believable story without breaking too many in-universe rules that I established in order to provide for the best reading experience. So please forgive me for my mistake and I hope this didn't throw you guys off too much.
Those are my closing thoughts on the chapter, this took me a really long time to write because I kept getting distracted and plus I work a lot, so yeah, not good for just sitting down and writing. I look forward to hearing from you guys and I can't wait for you to get your hands on chapter six: Forest of light. Have a wonderful day, enjoy life as it is, and please leave a review and a like down below!
See ya on the wayside!