Teri x Gumball: In between worlds

by FantasticSchaefer

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

6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Forest of light

Teri x Gumball

(A/N): Aaaaannnnnddd what's up fellow fans of TAWOG and readers of the romantic/fantasy story of Teri x Gumball: In between worlds. I hope you're all enjoying yourselves because I know I am! I've been working so hard on this chapter, plotting out events, adding information that pertains to the overarching story, deleting and starting entire plot points, and finally overcoming my procrastination.

I also wanted to thank all of you for reading my fanfiction and sending me likes and reviews, I'm just really glad that a lot of you are enjoying the fanfic I'm creating.

This chapter is going to be action heavy and adds in a bit more to the Nephilim lore. In this chapter we'll be following Rob as he seeks out help from a certain someone that has been brought up many times in the previous chapters and learns some new things regarding the runes, the Nephilim, and magic altogether. We also get to see Teri and Gumball face off against multiple, powerful adversaries in an environment completely alien to them. This will be a bizarre chapter for sure, but it will be fun and action packed.

We'll also be seeing Gumball's family and how they are coping with all the bizarre events that had been happening all over Elmore.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter, please leave a review and a like down below and also, leave some constructive criticism if you find any issues with my storytelling. With that being said, enjoy and have a good time.

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

-Eastern mountainside, September 19th, 2013, 6:32 PM-

If there was thing Rob hated most in the world other than Gumball, his wacky friends and family, and the annoying pop songs sung by boy bands that Rachel CONSTANTLY plays at home, it was the bloody forest. He didn't mind having to trek out into the wilderness if he absolutely had to, but visiting the forest twice in one week was enough to get on the cyclop's nerves. He hated all the things that lurked within the wilderness that seemed hellbent on consuming his flesh, the constant chorus of various animal songs that filled the muggy air, and all the things that made his skin itch due to some weird allergies he may have obtained in the void, probably. Maybe he was always allergic to the wilderness? However, the main reason he hated these places was just the sense of isolation it brought him and being in a place that seemed so unfamiliar just brought back even more memories of the void.

Which was the real reason he currently found himself hiking up the mountainside with a backpack containing his modified Rune Printing Coil Gun or RPCG for short, the book containing the notes he recently acquired in the void, and a spare notebook, plus some supplies for the trip, he was looking for a way to cure himself and Rachel of the void's curse.

The air was starting to grow chillier on this side of the mountain and Rob wished he had worn a hoodie or a jacket to keep his bare arms and hands from burning in the frigid evening air. The sun was already starting to set and nightfall was starting to make its shadowy presence visible. This gave the sky a fascinating color of orange tinted with reddish pink and faded into purple the further away one would look from the sunset. It was very pretty, but Rob wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy such a spectacle.

He'd been up this path before and continued to weave in between the pine trees while occasionally stopping to catch his breath. Yesterday, Teri had contacted him and proposed a new schedule to better help the three of them fend off the malevolent spirits that crept out of the sky every so often. She suggested that while they were in school throughout the morning and afternoon that he could take care of defending the city from the Nephilim while they cover the night shift. When asked what would happen if an attacking spirit were to come and prove too much a challenge for someone as brilliant as himself, she responded with the promise that both she and Gumball would come to his aid if he contacted them. This actually sounded like a good deal to the brilliant inventor, seeing as that meant he could sleep all morning and afternoon while handling all his little projects during the evening. He could also handle fighting any monster attacking the city at any time and this gave him another benefit because Rachel would have school in the during the day along with her part time job and would allow him to go about such dangerous tasks without his multi-colored roommate getting suspicious, so it was a win-win situation.

And seeing as it was evening, he was free to visit a certain magic user in order to help him decipher the runes he recently acquired and planned on obtaining more from the void tomorrow evening. He was slightly worried though because throughout the entire day not a single Nephilim had shown up as of yet and after the paper bear had reported the possibility of the Nephilim hunting them, going out alone in isolated areas is more than enough to put him on edge. The Nephilim that assaulted his two partners yesterday was described as very strong with the cleverness of a predator and even though the two kids had managed to vanquish the bronze monster, they did so with very close moments that nearly cost them their lives. Now Rob had to be extra careful if he were to deal with these things on his lonesome.

He felt the twigs and dried up pine needles from the passing autumn crunch under his mismatched feet as he continuously hiked up the steep sloping terrain. He was pretty close to cave's entrance at this point and while he wasn't looking forward to the company that was possibly awaiting him, it did bring him a sense of comfort knowing that his journey was halfway done. He was surprised to see that not many deer and other forest dwellers had made themselves visible during his journey through the woods: even the shedding trees were lacking in crows and other fowl.

Taking another moment to rest and catch his breath, he found a strange boulder that was lined up with two other boulders of a matching color and decided to pop a seat next to it. Placing his bag on the ground, he rested his back and head against the large rock and allowed his mind to drift a little as he adjusted to the high altitude he was in. Several miles back and a thousand feet below his current position was the road that lead all the way back to the city from whence he came from and he thought about how he won't be back home until nine or ten, depending on the traffic,

"Well, at least Rachel won't be getting back home from her part time job until around eleven, so that leaves me a little time to spare." he said to himself, his voice filled with exhaustion from the constant walking from earlier.

He pulled the water bottle he'd been keeping in the bag's side pocket, twisted the cap off, and took a swig. The cool flow of water water splashed against his tongue and immediately cured his parched throat. Setting the bottle down by his side and breathing in some of the chilly, fresh mountain air, he locked his one eye on the heavens above and smiled a little,

"You know, after coming up here a few times already, I just realized how nice the changing sky looks from here. Maybe I oughta bring Rachel up here sometime and just enjoy the night sky. Maybe then she'll stop harassing me for a little while." he snickered, not actually minding the idea. One of the things his colorful roommate and closest person he had to a friend would often complain about at home was the lack of anything to do around Elmore.

He remembered that Gumball had invited him to a picnic yesterday, but he didn't actually get the message until he had left the void and gotten home. He would have liked to bring Rachel to that, seeing as she skipped school that day, but by the time he discovered the message it was probably too late by that point. Next time an event popped up like that and he wasn't too busy tasking himself with his quest to help himself and his fellow void traveller, he and Rachel would definitely go. One part of told him that he should message Gumball and Teri more often, but he felt too busy for such things.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice up here, If I were to say so myself. I'd probably calm down too if I were your lady friend and I saw this wonderful sunset."

Rob first wondered if his inner voice was booming so loud that it caused the ground to vibrate, but realized in under an instant that the great voice belonged to someone else. Jumping up to his feet while quickly drawing his RPCG from his bag, he whipped around and pointed the weapon in the direction of the voice. He wouldn't say that he was paranoid, but then again, in his world there was no such thing as too much paranoia,

"What the-?! Who's there? Show yourself, stranger!" he shouted in alarm, his narrowed eye scanning the foliage.

Suddenly, the ground shifted and the boulder Rob had been resting on moved, sliding backwards as it carved up a trail of dirt. After taking a good look at the three unusual rocks, Rob soon discovered that they weren't rocks, but in fact toes belonging to a massive foot! Seeing the massive appendage moving caused the lone cyclops child to back up cautiously while keeping his weapon raised. He didn't know what it was exactly, whether it be Nephilim or a ghastly forest monster, he wanted to make sure that he was ready to fend off whatever potential threat was looming over his head… literally.

The sliding purple foot came to a halt as whatever it belonged to found a good position to stand and began to rise. He couldn't see the rest of the colossal figure very well because there were several trees in the way, plus the setting sun made it more difficult to see, but Rob did happen to spot a mound of shaggy orange fur with magenta patches connected to the foot he was staring at. Eventually the trees concealing the giant shook and forced the polygonal figure to quickly look up past the tree tops. Above the pines, he could make out a face completely covered in a thick layer of fur that matched the color of the fur near his bare feet along with a set of broad shoulders that were equally as hairy,

"Hello down there!" the giant greeted in a gentle and friendly matter, waving his hand which was also bare like his feet and matched in tone as well.

This courteous greeting caused Rob to lower the computer aided rifle until it was pointing away from the ginormous figure and gave a silent, cautious wave of his own, his expression somewhat nervous.

His timid appearance didn't go unnoticed by the giant intruder and he quickly moved to apologize,

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" he said, gently raising both arms to indicate he meant no harm,

"If you're a hunter, you may want to leave though, most of the animals get scared when I'm around." he said, now noticing the gun the miniscule child was holding, although he didn't really look like a child.

It then occurred to Rob why the animals appeared to be absent from the forest, with a monster that towered over the trees crashing about the place and making a big ruckus, would definitely scare them off. After listening to the hairy behemoth for a few moments, he came to the conclusion that the giant posed no threat (actually that was pretty evident from the beginning, but he let his nerves get to him thanks to his cautionary approach to most large creatures nowadays.) and put his rifle back in his bag that he left sitting on the ground by the crater that was made by the giant's foot. Shouldering his bag once more, he stood up straight and looked the newcomer in the eyes, or where they should be at least,

"Thank you. I apologize for freaking out like that, most giants kind of leave me terrified because the last few I met were rather… bold in their approach. I'm actually not hunting here either, I was on my way to see Mrs. Jotenheim and was afraid that there may be monsters lurking in these woods." he explained, feeling kind of awkward for pointing a weapon at a friendly stranger and was also hoping that the massive person wouldn't take the nature of his journey the wrong way.

However, the hairy creature seemed to not be offended by his earlier actions and kept a positive demeanor. However, as soon as he mentioned Mrs. Jotenheim's name, the giant seemed to jump a little, as if indicating recognition. Pushing the trees aside as if they were merely bushes, Rob could hear the loud snap as the bark gave in under the extreme force and bent aside, the towering person stepped forward and Rob was exposed to a massive ape-like creature that was covered entirely with hair and had long swinging arms with short legs in proportion to his body,

"Are you talking about my mom?" he asked in that booming voice of his despite still being gentle with his words.

Now it clicked in his head! While talking to the giant, he couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about him and coincidentally finding him on the mountain where the little witch's cave was seemed rather odd at first. Then he remembered his first visit to her mountainside home after he had found out about the Nephilim and recalled seeing a massive bedroom that couldn't have possibly belonged to the haggardly magic user. He never payed Hector much attention in the past because he just wasn't interested in finding out about the giant that would occasionally pop up in a few places around Elmore. However, he did hear a name tossed around once while stalking Gumball during one of his nefarious schemes to destroy the kitten:

This was Hector Jotenheim he was looking at!

"Oh… you must be her son, Hector, then!" he gasped, his jaw dropping and his pupil narrowing in surprise.

Hector didn't seem to catch his surprise and just scratched his head before shrugging indifferently,

"Yeah… so um, what brings you up here to see my mom this late in the evening? Are you looking for a spell to use?" he asked, his voice sounding neutral.

Rob quickly snapped out of his sudden revelation and refocused on the mission he was here to complete with a quick shake of his head. Reaching into his backpack with one hand while keeping his eye on Hector, he pulled out the book he had journeyed to the void for and presented it up to the giant with magnificent colors,

"Oh yes, right! I wanted to see her because there are runes in this book that I don't understand and I wanted to see if she can translate them." he stated, opening the book to one of the rune covered pages and holding it up with both hands for Hector to see.

The EJH star football player squatted downwards and leaned in until his face was inches away from the old book the lanky preteen was holding. On his way down, he accidentally broke three more trees with his rear causing sharp cracks to be heard throughout the forest,

"Darn! No wonder I don't see this kid around town much! He's basically a giant, clumsy, force of destruction!" Rob thought to himself in shock as he watched the Jotenheim's only child destroy nature while being completely unaware.

Also, there was the fact that his face was really close now, giving Rob a better view of a head that rivaled the school bus in length that was covered in a tangled mess of hair with various specks of dirt, tree branches, leftover turkey near his mouth, and, was that an airplane propeller near his ear!? To add to the overall unpleasantness, face reeked of what smelled like wet dog fur mixed with his natural musk and his rancid breath was strong enough to bring down a satellite. It was a really revolting experience to be near this kid in such close proximity, but he seemed to be reading the runes carefully… at least that's what it looked like.

When a full minute passed by, Hector stood to his feet once again, this time placing a finger on his chin while he pondered something and Rob let out the breath he was holding in order to not die from the horrid stench that remained in his invisible nostrils and made his eye water a bit. Hector wasn't able to see the book and the stranger's runes very well, But from what he could see he knew he saw those symbols before somewhere in his home. He was really curious as to why this stranger would seek out help from his mother to translate such weird, yet familiar symbols. The runes seemed to be of ancient magic, if he were to be honest, although that could inaccurate because the only magic he knew of came from the only family he knew and he never really delved into that subject much. His mom told him that it was very complicated and dangerous and that he should keep away from such things.

With his train of thought reaching the station, the gentle giant looked back down towards the spindly fellow, who had been eagerly awaiting a response,

"I think my mom can help you, but why do you want to learn about such ancient magic, by the looks of it?" he asked, resting his body weight on his knuckles.

Before he could answer that, Rob had to choose his next words carefully. He didn't know how much these people knew about the Nephilim and that was a difficult subject that applied to practically anyone that could not see them. He had a feeling that Mrs. Jotenheim would know a thing or two about the Nephilim, seeing as she possessed the five runes he gave to Teri, which were effective tools against said monsters, but Hector, on the other hand, may have to be treated like everyone that didn't know of the Nephilim due to his apparent lack of interest or knowledge in the magic arts. There was, however, a way that he could figure out if he knew anything about the Nephilim without directly expressing what he knew about the invisible spirits of death and destruction.

With his next choice of words planned out, Rob snapped the book shut and placed it within the secure confines of his dorsal bag,

"There is a curse that plagues Elmore. I can not rid Elmore and its citizens of the evil spell unless I learn what secrets these runes hold." he stated, sounding convincingly urgent. Actually it wasn't hard because he partially told the truth and he was in fact urgent. The best lies are spun with a little truth mixed within.

Now all that was necessary was to see how the son of the witch responded to his explanation.

His scheme was actually easier than he imagined because Hector showed no signs of hesitation or doubts when he answered,

"Oh, if that's the case then we should probably get going then." Hector replied simply, almost naively even! The truth was while Hector wasn't too sure what the implications of this curse was based on what this stranger was telling him, he did know that it took magic to destroy some curses and while the disfigured cyclops didn't seem like a magician, he did have in his possession a form of magic and he seemed to know what he was doing. Either way, curse or not, it was probably best to inform his mother about it because she always knew what to do!

To the tiny figure standing at his feet, he was pleased as well as surprised that the rarely seen giant was very trusting and willing to even invite strangers into his home if it meant saving Elmore. There were a lot of good people in this crazy city and most of which are indeed very helpful. Rob could already feel his quest to destroy the Nephilim and cure both him and Rachel coming closer to completion, although he mustn't get too carried away in his excitement and lose all common sense. He still needed to talk to the sorceress who lives in the mountain cave and plus he needed to know what exactly the new symbols were capable of.

Keeping his goals in a manageable, step by step process within his mindscape, he set his sights on the mountain path in front of him and begun marching up the trail. The sun was getting lower now, casting the sky in a light shade of red that was being eclipsed by the veil of blue that was drawing across the sky. Night will soon be here and it was going to get really cold on this mountainside, less he find shelter fast. The Jotenheim cave was just a forty five minute hike from where he was, so that should leave him with some time before he began developing frostbite.

While walking in the desired direction, he heard Hector speak up and he came to a full stop. He almost forgot to say goodbye and thank you to him and at first thought that's what Hector was about to ask him for, but instead got a different answer than he expected,

"Hey, um, I know for a person as small as yourself that it must take you a while to get to distant areas and I was wondering if you would like to hitch a ride on my shoulder? It's very safe and I can get from here to my home in less than two minutes, just to let you know." he offered, holding out a hand for him to stand on.

Once again, Rob seemed to have his mind blown again during this trip and most of the efforts being contributed to such a feat were surprisingly minimal. Also, while he knew he was small in comparison to the ginormous student, he was quite tall when compared to other kids his age and he took slight offense to being called small. With his personal issues regarding height being unceremoniously dumped into the back of his mind to be sorted out later, he carefully stepped on the palm of the colossus, feeling that the skin was quite rough and warm before nodding towards Hector, indicating that he was ready to be lifted up.

Doing so without even a monogram of difficulty, the hairy giant slowly lifted his hand up until it was level with his enormous shoulder, which to Rob seemed like a massive, furry balcony and allowed the grey-skinned, static filled cyclops to step onto his shoulder. Feeling his feet come in contact with the soft blanket of grass-like hairs on Hector's right shoulder, Rob quickly tested the sturdiness of the living surface he was on by stepping on various areas with his feet before finding it satisfactory. He whirled about and sat down once he was facing in the same direction Hector was. Even while Hector was squatting, Rob could already see a great deal of the forest from his heightened position and could even see through the various trees criss crossing his vision the path he was walking on and the craters Hector had created when standing up with better scale.

However, everything changed when Hector stood up and Rob found himself gazing at a new horizon!

With the simple act of stretching his legs and standing to his full height, the entire underside of the forest seemed to disappear entirely and was replaced with the endless emerald green and brownish orange sea that lay below an equally colorful sky. It was truly a sight to behold for the mad inventor as he was able to get a better perspective of what the giant got to see every day and all with the simple act of getting up in the morning! The many colors stretching before him left him completely breathless and he remained mesmerized by nature's beauty for but a little while.

He was broken from his trance when he heard Hector speaking to him, with his head and mouth being so close, he could feel the soundwave's vibrations through his shoulder and it felt kind of ticklish,

"What is your name by the way?" he asked, never once hearing the strange, little being introduce himself.

"Doctor Wre-. Rob. My name is Rob." he said, quickly stopping himself from using his villainous alias. Looks like he was still used to using it as his intro.

There was a moment of silence and then a chuckle could be felt rumbling from deep within the giant. It was so shaky that Rob had to grab handfuls of his fur in order to prevent himself from falling off his shoulder. After a jaw clenching twelve seconds, the earthquake that was Hector's laughter stopped and his shoulder was stable enough to sit on again. He wondered what that was all about and got his answer shortly after,

"Sorry about that, It just seems like there's not enough Bob's in the world, eh?" he said humorously.

Rob found himself laughing along nervously while unsure as to what he was going on about, did he mean Bobert the robot because his name could be shortened to Bob? It didn't really matter to him because all he wanted was to get moving before night fell completely. Urging the giant to begin their trip, Hector immediately began moving and with one single step, the towering mountain of a student cleared what had to be hundreds of feet worth of distance. Looks like they will be reaching his cave in the span of a few minutes and if he was willing to walk him back to his car, he could cut the trek home down an hour or two.

One thing he was upset about was the fact that the view he was getting was only going to be here for only a few minutes. He took back his earlier comment about the woods and decided that it was wonderful when you saw it from a different perspective. He really needed to get Rachel out here sometime because this place was simply wonderful from where he was.

-Watterson household, 6:40 PM-

"GOSH DARN IT!"

If Gumball had a nickel for every time he uttered those three words after his eight bit character was blown into little squares by another eight bit sprite, he'd have enough money to download a less frustrating game on his computer and enough left over for bus fare.

He watched as the game over screen lit up before offering him a retry, which he took and began thinking about yesterday's events while he played. When the picnic ended yesterday, Gumball had gone home with Darwin and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just goofing off with his little brother whilst hanging around the house for a bit. He had a rough time sleeping last night because of the horrific nightmares regarding the battle from yesterday constantly plaguing him and ended with him constantly rocketing from his slumber, drenched in sweat, tail fur poofed up, and eyes wide open with fear. Nightmares like these weren't uncommon, but with the encounter yesterday being so close while catching both him and Teri off guard, Gumball found himself fearing the worst for what lies ahead.

When he woke up this morning, he messaged Teri and asked her if she wanted to hang out today, but she had to decline since her parents wanted her to take care of some outdoor chores and that she was going to be staying over at Molly's new tree house with the other girls for the rest of the evening. This didn't come as a surprise to the feline preteen as he saw Teri talking with Molly and the other girls yesterday at the picnic and guessed that they made plans for the next day.

She also informed him about a schedule plan she came up with yesterday that allowed both of them to focus on school work and deal with the Nephilim in the evening. Basically it boiled down to Rob handling patrol in the daytime while they were in school and after she got done with cheerleading practice they would both head to the library to work on homework and study before heading home and taking over for the night shift. Not seeing a whole lot of flaws with this idea, Gumball decided to go along with it and after wishing her a good day, he asked his parents if he could stay after school and study with Teri, to which his mom said it wouldn't be a bad idea and his dad was just okay with it regardless. Though his mom did make him promise that he will actually get his work done and won't just use his spare time to just mess around.

Seeing as there was no school today and with a lot of time on his hands, Gumball finished the morning by watching some cartoons with Darwin and Anais, which actually got him to bring up the topic of one of his favorite shows, Under the stethoscope, to his siblings. When asked for an opinion, Darwin said that he wasn't really into medical dramas and Anais simply said those kind of shows relied too much on dumb humor and cheesy romantic subplots to be of any interest to her. Looks like his favorite show containing wisecracking doctors and clumsy surgeons was something only he and Teri shared interest in.

Once the morning had stretched into noon, Gumball then decided to make good use of his time by working out and training. When he began working out in the basement, he didn't do very well and wound up doing a few basic routines like push-ups, sit-ups, and squats before he got bored and left the house with his book bag and scythe. The afternoon was slightly warm, but full of pleasant breezes that would make themselves present to the wandering kitten as he made his way to one of the nearby forests.

Unfortunately, while his training with the scythe went rather well, learning how to use the grey fire technique was a complete disaster! The first time he activated it, a feat that took him twenty seven minutes to figure out, he immediately lost control and burnt down a few trees. After putting out the flames using some clever crafting that involved several hollow logs, vines, and a nearby river, the cat boy moved to a clearing and tried again. Once again, he failed, but quickly discovered that if he allowed fear to enter his mind, the flames will extinguished themselves. The main issue was every time he used the ability, he would go completely mad with power and quickly lose control until he realized what he had done and panic. Either way, he spent four hours trying this over and over before he decided it was time to call it quits and head home.

His entire walk home was filled with nothing, but frustration and disappointment in himself. He knew that it was a useful ability to have under his belt because confronting the Nephilim one-on-one was always risky and usually lead to some serious injury every time he did so. He was also worried for Teri too because in order for both of them to successfully kill one of them they both had to get close and while he was used to getting injured himself, he was far more worried about Teri's safety than anything else. Maybe there was a better way to attack them without having to get close or even having to engage them all together?

Getting home at around four, the exhausted boy went straight upstairs, showered, and then to his room to take a nap. He slept soundly for a couple hours without dreaming about any Nephilim before he was woken up by his phone buzzing. Turns out it was Banana Joe telling him to go onto Elmore Plus to see the results for the picnic contest.

During the party yesterday, Carmen and Alan decided to hold a contest to see who had the best food and had all the participants taste each others offering to the party before casting their votes. Turns out Idaho's mom's homemade chili won the contest and was followed up by Molly's coleslaw (which took everyone by surprise because it was so mind blowingly good!), Bobert's various sandwiches, which were delightful and surprisingly edible for organic beings, and coming in fourth place was his and Teri's rainbow cake. Gumball wanted to call foul because he really wanted to win that contest, but even he had to admit that Idaho's mother seriously had some mad skills in the kitchen because he remembered specifically getting three bowls of that wonderful spicy bean soup!

After viewing the contest results, he read everyone else's comments on the party and shared his own thoughts on the matter before he saw that Teri was online. Quickly messaging her, he found that she was using the computer at Molly's place to check up on a few things and told him that she was having a good time with the girls. When asked how he was doing, he responded with a positive remark regarding his morning with his family and how his workout went, but left out the training he went through because Elmore Plus wasn't exactly private with messages. He then went on talk about the picnic contest yesterday and she informed him that she thought it was bogus that they didn't get second place, but was glad that they made it to the top five at least. Gumball then started throwing puns at her that were food related and when she threatened to make him bake her another cake at her place during the weekend as a form of apology, to which Gumball responded with "that's what I was going to do anyway, so egh!" and they both had a laugh before she said goodbye and signed off.

Which was why he was currently playing computer games after checking a few other things on Elmore Plus and deciding to just waste his time trying to beat a level he was sick to death of being stuck on. With no monsters appearing today, so far, and quite a few things being done, Gumball would have to say that this was a pretty okay day as far as day offs go. The best part to all of this was that tomorrow was Friday and even though school was in session tomorrow, at least it will be laid back… hopefully.

While making his way through the level he was on, he heard footsteps coming upstairs and towards his room. Seconds later, the door opened and he heard someone stepping into the domain that he shared amongst his siblings. Clicking the pause option, the monitor froze and Gumball swung around in his chair to see who was standing at the door.

Turns out it was Darwin, who looked like he was about to walk up to him to tap him on the shoulder, but stopped once he saw that his furry, older brother noticed him,

"Oh! Hey, dude!" Darwin greeted sounding somewhat startled himself.

Gumball returned with a simple wave of his hand along with a tug upwards at the corner of his lips,

"Hey man! What's up? Oh, did you know that I found out the strategy behind the boss's attacks on level 9!" he said, completely forgetting that he just asked him a question first.

Darwin's eyes widened with excitement,

"Really! Wait, what game are you playing?" he asked, temporarily forgetting the reason why he was here,

"Oh, and I'm doing good by the way." he quickly added as he hurried over to the computer desk.

Gumball scooted aside for his little brother to see while answering his question,

"Horizontal Blaster 4!" he said.

Finally getting a good look at the computer screen, Darwin immediately recognized what level Gumball was referring to and grimaced at all the bad memories that dreaded level brought him,

"Yeesh! That level is so annoying!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"I knoooowww! I've been stuck on it for nearly an hour now!" he groaned with frustration greater than that of his brother.

Before Darwin derailed into the subject of hard video game levels, he remembered what he came here for and put himself back on track,

"Oh, right! Mrs. mom sent me up here to tell you that dinner's ready!" he quickly mentioned.

Realizing that he was starving, Gumball smiled at the thought of food and quickly reached over to press the power button. He did so and the computer powered off, but then he was struck with the realization that he forgot to save his progress. Inwardly screaming in rage while sighing outwardly, the slightly irritated blue cat hopped off the chair and quickly marched out of his room with his little brother trailing behind him,

"Stupid retro games and their no-automatic save points!" he raged internally because he knew it was going to take him ten minutes to get to where he was again.

Clambering downstairs the boys entered the living room and proceeded straight to the dining room where his mom and Anais were seated while his dad circled the table handing out dishes and silverware. Greeting his parents and little sister, Gumball took his spot next to Anais and began balancing his fork on his index finger while he waited for dinner to be served. While his father went to the kitchen to go grab the lasagna Nicole had prepared, the motherly cat glanced over at all three children seated at the table and smiled a little when she saw that they all looked content.

After another long, hard day at work Nicole just wanted to settle in and have a nice conversation with her family. Seeing as the boys were stuck at home today, she decided to start off with Anais since she still had to go to school today,

"So how was your day at school, Anais?" she asked, resting her gaze on the youngest and smallest member of the family.

The teeny pink rabbit glanced up from her empty plate and at her mother before shrugging a little,

"It was okay." she started out with a sigh,

"Macey was bullied by Justin and his thugs again, so I took her the principal's office and, well,... let's just say that the star of the Elmore high football team got off the hook again." she grumbled, glancing back at her plate again with an irate look on her little bunny face.

Hearing her story about her and Macey having to deal with that dimwitted Jock and his cronies brought a bit of a scowl Gumball's face and a slight frown to the other occupants of the table. Every one here knew that Macey Barnes had a history of being picked on by others because of her short size, she was actually just a few inches taller than Anais even though she's a high schooler, and ever since Anais befriended her, the two had since then become popular targets of the high school football team. They've become fast friends since the first day of school and despite the hardships they had to go through, they were pretty inseparable.

It still made Gumball and Darwin wish that they were both super geniuses like her so that way they could get into highschool and look out for her.

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry you had a rough day." Nicole said, feeling her ears droop in sadness. Anais kept telling her that she would think of some way to handle the bully, but it was getting to the point where she was really going to have to talk to Justin's parents and then the principal too.

Anais glanced over and saw the concerned look covering her mother's features along with the two boys sitting beside her and quickly perked up,

"Oh no, everything else was okay though! Macey and I had a really good time today despite this morning's… little scuffle. We got an A+ on today's science project, despite the fact that Rachel wasn't there today and yesterday to help out. After that, nothing else was really happened, other than the one time I made Macey laugh so hard at lunch that she snorted milk up through her nose." she reminisced in the funny memory with a slight chuckle and hoped that this story would put everyone else at ease.

Unfortunately, this only worked on Darwin as Gumball immediately let out a snarky response that centered on EH's resident star football player and bully,

"Why don't you just put glue on his seat and watch him try to get around with a chair stuck to his butt? Show him not to mess with you." Gumball suggested, feeling as though his really smart little sister can come up with something to foil the bell head's plans or just make him really miserable.

Anais watched as her father, who matched her in appearance, minus the excess weight, slid a slice of steaming lasagna onto her plate before turning her head in Gumball's direction to give him a deadpan look,

"As much as I would like to publicly humiliate him, that won't really solve the problem Macey and I have to deal with because he still goes to the same school as us everyday." she explained, holding up a finger right as Gumball was just about to say something as a counter to her statement,

"And before you mention anything about rigging up a spring loaded boxing glove in his locker that will punch his lights out when he opens it, I'll have you know that violence doesn't prevent mean people from committing evil acts." she added in before digging into her lasagna.

Gumball frowned and propped his elbows on the table in order to rest his chin on his hands, scowling at the plate he was focusing on,

"Oh I wish that were the case with what Teri, Rob, and I have to deal with. If I could just talk to the giant perps and get them to go away, I would have invited them over for tea!" he chuckled at the amusing thought of all these giant monsters gathered around a tiny table with tiny tea cups and biscuits while talking in a sophisticated manner like gentlefolk.

He continued to converse with his inner voices while his father finished dishing out the lasagna and sat down with the rest of the family. Soon the wattersons were all digging away at their meal and discussing today's events. Nicole promised Anais that she'll have a word with Justin's parents about their son's behavior before moving onto the boys who were seated next to each other,

"And how about you two? What have you guys been up to seeing as you didn't have school today?" she asked, perking up when she saw Darwin with a big smile on his face.

Seeing this as his cue, Darwin quickly swallowed his food and started off before Gumball could say anything, which was fine by him because he didn't really do much and all the really interesting things he did weren't up for discussion,

"Well today I decided to go for a walk after Gumball had gone off to the woods and actually found the weather to be quite pleasing today." he started off on a high note causing everyone around him to smile and listen in on his story,

"While I was out, I messaged Carrie and asked her how she was doing. She told me that she was still in Transylvania with her dad and was having such a good time that she and her dad decided to stay a little longer in order to explore the city and meet some old friends that her father knew." he explained with that high pitched voice of his and overall glowing personality that seemed to infect everyone with a case of the warm fuzzies. Seeing Darwin in such a happy mood was usually enough to put everyone at ease because there wasn't really much to bring him down thanks to his overall optimism and good nature towards most things.

Gumball thought about Carrie's trip to Transylvania, having remembered Darwin bringing it up yesterday at the picnic during their volleyball match against Sarah and Clayton. He was quite thrilled to hear about his little brother's girlfriend going out to a fascinating new place to spend time with her relatives and actually found himself a little envious of the spirit because he liked the idea of travelling too. Then again, he got enough of that with Teri and Rob, although it was usually around town and in order to save said town from invisible, ancient giants. He was also glad to hear that Carrie was getting along with her father, whom he hasn't really spoken to since the day they freed him from the mirror and reunited him with his daughter.

He thought about all of this and other things while Darwin continued retelling his activities this past afternoon,

"When I got to the park, I saw Carmen standing by one of the trees while shouting and frantically waving because it turns out Alan somehow drifted up into the tree and got his string tangled up in one of the branches. Carmen wasn't able to climb up and reach him because her arms and legs were too short, plus she was scared of accidentally popping him, so I went up there and helped him myself, although I did fall out of the tree and got this nasty bruise on my knee." he paused for a moment to raise his leg high enough so everyone could see the ugly, purple blotch that covered his scaly knee cap before putting back it down and continuing with his story,

"They were really thankful for what I did and invited me to go see a movie with them. It was really great, but there were these two biker dudes behind us that kept talking about someone or something breaking a lot of windows and destroying a couple walls in the Elmore industrial site yesterday. I always thought that place was full of hoodlums and troublemakers." he sighed, shoving another forkful of pasta in his mouth.

Gumball froze in place for a minute, which went unnoticed by the four other table occupants and he felt his brain start fizzle in fear. He could not believe that there were people nearby when Window Hopper attacked yesterday and they even heard the commotion that happened when they fought the bronze serpent. He was so glad that none of the biker dudes were hurt or saw him and Teri yesterday. They really had to do something about appearing in public to fight the Nephilim because people were gonna start noticing when a blue cat with a scythe and a paper bear with various origamis start dashing around and swinging at nothing, at least in their eyes.

Soon all the other Watterson family members began conversing about the strange things that have been happening around the already bizarre city,

"Yeah, I also heard that a section of the highway bridge was destroyed in some kind of explosion and the authorities can't figure out who did it!" Richard said, already standing up to get seconds,

"And I'm just thinking to myself, "wait a minute, why hasn't that bridge been completed yet?" because it's been seriously bugging me for a while now!" and with that, he disappeared into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, his smaller look-alike had already reached her own conclusion about what was going on and placed her thoughts into words,

"With all the weird power outages going on around here my only logical conclusion is to blame carpenter ants." she said.

Darwin turned to look at his sister with a quizzical expression after she reached her bizarre final verdict,

"Carpenter ants?" he repeated, looking completely baffled.

Without pausing in her routine, Anais offered an explanation,

"Some ants are known to get into spaces like power complexes and can sometimes cause damage by chewing through important things, like wires and whatnot. Could also be that something is wrong with the dam just outside of town." she explained while adding in another possibility,

"What I find most frustrating is that none of the authorities or governmental figures have done anything about these little catastrophes or have sent anyone in to investigate!" the highly intelligent five year old was ranting at this point because she hated not knowing what was going on.

Darwin seemed less perplexed by that answer and after a swift nod of acknowledgement, went back to eating. Gumball was slowly working through his food while listening in carefully to everyone's statements about all the consequences caused by the constant battles with the monsters no one else could see. He didn't offer his own theory into the mix because he already knew what was happening and also would rather not talk about the whole thing in general.

His silence did not go unnoticed though and Nicole looked over to see her eldest son silently picking away at his pasta. Curious as to what was on his mind, Nicole cleared her throat and motioned towards the child that matched her slightly in appearance,

"And you, Gumball? What were doing in the forest earlier today?" she asked, keeping her attention on his face in order to better read his emotions.

Already suspecting that someone was going to ask him about what he had been up to, the twelve year old kitten casually looked up to her and placed a fake smile on his face in order to appear cheerful,

"Nothing really, just the usual mischief." he replied casually before stabbing at his food again.

Raising an eyebrow, Nicole placed a hand on her chin and stroked it skeptically as she scrutinized his face,

"Hmm. Was your "usual mischief" the reason the fire department was called over to the forest not too long ago?" she asked, causing her first child to freeze up in response.

"Crud! I knew those sirens were heading towards the woods!" Gumball thought as he began to sweat bullets and he temporarily turned his head towards the kitchen, away from the prying eyes of his mother, before looking back at her again. He couldn't dodge this one with a fib so he was just going to have to soften it up a little,

"I put it out and no one got hurt, apart from that one squirrel and those five trees. I sure hope that squirrel's tail fur grows back before the winter." he admitted, feeling shameful for his misdeeds.

Everyone sitting at the table let out a long winded sigh, except for Richard, who was just returning from the kitchen with two slices of Lasagna on his plate. It wasn't really that surprising to everyone that Gumball was back to causing more mischief and were already expecting more shenanigans to ensue in the not-too-distant future. Gumball felt the weight of everyone's disapproval and just slumped down in his chair, although he was secretly glad that no one was asking him as to how he caused the fire and was hoping that he would just get off with a light scolding rather than following up with more questions.

Luckily, Nicole just shook her head in disbelief and lightly glared at her first child,

"You should really work on controlling your destructive habits, dear." his mother sighed before perking up again and asking something else,

"So I heard you went on a picnic yesterday, how was that?" she leaned back in her chair as she awaited his answer.

Richard's eyes widened at a particular word being mentioned by his wife and he dropped his chunk of heated pasta onto his shirt after freezing up in shock,

"There was a picnic!" he shouted in surprise as he looked back and forth between Gumball and Nicole.

To his dismay both of the blue cats ignored him and carried on with their conversation.

Feeling the negativity from his earlier failed attempt to master his new power lifting, Gumball felt himself sit up straighter in his seat and began to spill out his thoughts on some of the events that happened the day before. He wanted to just share what happened at the picnic and at that event only, but he also wanted to tell everyone about his sleepover with Teri along with the time they spent together yesterday. He didn't know why, but just talking about her made him really happy,

"It was really great actually!" he started off with a kind of excitement that made everyone sitting at the table look on with intrigue, including Darwin who had been with him at the event,

"Teri and I baked a cake and brought that to the party. Everyone else there brought something interesting as well and we all just hung around talked about pretty much anything really." he was now gesturing with his hands while he explained what went on at the party.

Darwin then cut in and added in his own take on the party,

"Yeah, like he said, it was really fun and everyone just had a good time talking to one another. Then were a bunch of activities that we all participated in like a food contest, some dancing with Juke blasting some tunes, and then we played volleyball-!"

"We had to stop playing that one after Jamie threw the ball at Tobias' face and caused it to cave in." Gumball interrupted with a sour look on his face as he remembered what happened to the poor rainbow lad.

Darwin nodded in agreement and turned to Nicole with a somber look on his face,

"Yeah, Jamie was a little jealous that Tina made friends with Tobias while she was in the hospital and was worried her friendship with her was in danger." he said in a saddened tone. Tina and Tobias' friendship was off at a rocky start, seeing as it was very hard for the two of them to do something fun together without one of them getting hurt or being inconvenient to the other person, but with Jamie now causing slight problems for the colorful sports fanatic, it was just going to get trickier.

It was now Anais' turn to raise an eyebrow in suspicion regarding the tomboy's presence at the picnic,

"Wait, I thought Jamie was in the hospital after mysteriously being thrown out the window and into a truck loaded with explosive chemicals?" she questioned out loud.

Gumball swallowed the food he was working on and pointed a fork in her direction,

"Do you think something like being thrown several hundred feet into oncoming traffic and through a truck full of dangerous items is going to keep Jamie out for long? Sure she got dinged up a little, but I think the truck suffered more damage than her… and the three cars around it." he countered, feeling slightly guilty because Rob wanted to talk to him that day, but felt that throwing the bully out the window was the only way to do so.

Richard, wanting to be involved in the conversation as long as possible, folded his arms and allowed his face to twist into a grumpy pout,

"I still can't believe that you guys had a picnic and didn't invite me, especially when there was cake involved!" he grumbled angrily.

"And German chocolates." Darwin added in.

"WHAT!" Richard shouted in disbelief as he stared at his adopted son as though he just shot him in the heart.

Having heard enough about the food part and accidents involving horned individuals, Nicole decided to ask Gumball about something else,

"Oh that's right! You spent the night at Teri's house last night!" she exclaimed in surprise,

"So you two baked a cake together then? What else did you guys do? Also is she the daughter of the Pepakumas? I swear I met her father when they had to remove that cookie jar lid from Richard's stomach because he believed it was an actual cookie and I think I saw her mother once at the grocery store a couple weeks ago." Nicole was peppering Gumball with questions seeing as she's seen Teri a few times and heard a lot about her from Gumball, but not a whole lot of details regarding her parents and some of the things the two kids do together.

Not even hesitating to answer, Gumball tackled the subject and described what happened the day prior,

"Well yeah, we wanted to bring something awesome to the party and as for everything that occured before that, we spent some time gathering supplies for baking, which was actually really fun, especially when we both spooked Banana Joe's mom in the pickle aisle, and then while we waited for the cake to bake, we took a really long walk through… the neighborhood. After that we watched some action films in her bedroom before we went to the park." he listed off while making sure to avoid talking about their "fantastic" trip through the abandoned warehouse section of Elmore,

"She's actually really fun to be around sometimes and a great person to just chill out with. I had a lot of fun yesterday with her." he finished with a satisfied expression on his face before he finished up his first serving of dinner.

Nicole was definitely pleased to hear that Gumball had a wonderful time with Teri yesterday. It never would have occurred to her that out of all the people Gumball would choose to hang out with, he would choose to hang out with Teri because last year whenever the paper girl was brought up in a conversation, she would usually be described as obnoxious and a bit of a attention seeker. Now within the span of a few weeks it appears as though the two of them have formed quite a bond and if she were to go off of how Gumball reacted whenever he talked about her or whenever she was brought up in a conversation, she could guess that Gumball felt more than just friendly feelings towards her.

With a warm smile playing across her lips, Nicole set her sights on the remaining few shreds of pasta resting on her plate while commenting on Gumball's interactions with Teri,

"Well I'm glad both of you are getting along well. I'm also pleased to hear that your grades have been improving as of lately and that you're taking your studying habits seriously. I think Teri has been a good influence on you, both academically and emotionally." she said while making sure to point out his improved emotional state.

Gumball felt himself warming up a little inside after considering what his mother had said. It was no surprise that everyone was starting to notice the considerable changes he was displaying, even some of the teachers were starting to become tolerable of him because of how well he was doing in class, except for a certain missing link, who still saw him and Darwin as nothing but troublemakers. Pushing aside all the teasing about him and Teri being in a relationship, he noticed that most of his classmates were starting to get along with him as well, although it wasn't anything spectacular or intimate because he usually hung out with a select few people. They may tolerate him and his better mood, but trusting him was still a whole new matter to delve into.

And speaking of lightly teasing, Darwin decided that now was a good time to start poking fun at Gumball over a certain someone, just for fun of course. Without even looking up from his plate, the walking goldfish spoke to Nicole,

"He's just trying to impress her because he likes her and doesn't know how to express it." he quietly said before casually looking up to see how his brother would react.

As soon as Darwin's statement reached Gumball's ears, his eyes widened while his pupils shrank and was followed up by a quick gasp that unfortunately resulted in some of his food getting lodged in his throat. Feeling his airway being blocked, the blue cat coughed violently as he he tried to dislodge the chewed up piece of lasagna and held his own chest with one hand in order to steady himself. Thankfully, there wasn't any danger as he managed to clear his blocked windpipe after a few forceful coughs and the offending material slid down with the rest of his dinner.

He then turned to glare at Darwin with tear filled eyes, quickly getting over the fact that he could have potentially suffocated and aimed straight for shutting down th remark about his feelings towards a certain paper girl,

"That… (cough!)... is so not true!" he seethed, feeling pretty glad that his face was already red from his near-death-experience with the killer chunk of his mom's dinner and was covering up his embarrassment.

However, Darwin was ready with his rebuttal and folded his flippers across his chest with a sly look already appearing on his face,

"Really now? You spend an awful lot of time with her, especially on the bus, you've been working out a whole lot ever since you two started hanging out, you like some of the things she likes and lastly, you made her breakfast, twice!" he exclaimed with a smug grin and eyes that flashed knowingly.

Anais chuckled a little from the otherside of Gumball, causing said boy child to cast a suspicious glance in her direction and saw that she was using a hand to cover her mouth while she continued to snicker,

"That definitely sounds like someone who wants to be noticed!" she giggled before covering her mouth up again in a poor attempt to hide her amusement.

"Whelp, I guess I should have seen this coming." Gumball's inner voice groaned as he placed both hands on his face in order to hide his already increasing mortification. This didn't help much because his large head and face made it difficult for his tiny paws to cover them entirely. He knew that because they didn't know what was really going on that they were going to start jumping to their own conclusions, but that didn't stop him from wanting to jump up from his seat and scurry up to his room so he could hide forever.

He then heard both his mom and dad joining in on the laughter and he felt his face burn a darker shade of red forcing him to turn away for fear of them seeing this change. Richard was the first to speak up and threw in some advice for Gumball to follow on picking up girls,

"Aw, no need to feel ashamed, kiddo! Remember! Talking to girls is easy and if you bake me another rainbow cake I will give you another secret that the Watterson men have held in the field of snaring dates!" he said assuringly while rushing over to his side in order to whisper the last part in his ear.

Well, it was advice, just not helpful advice and it still didn't stop the blue male kitten from feeling every fiber of his being shrivel up in response to the humiliation he was feeling at the moment.

"All right, all right! No need to further embarrass him even though it is cute that he has a crush on Teri-!" Nicole started trying to get the other three laughing members of the Watterson household to cease their playful jeering before getting cut off by a frantic-looking Gumball,

"I don't have a crush on her!" he shouted defensively, already scooting his seat out from the table in order to begin his escape.

"-but in all seriousness, Gumball if you're into getting fit then you need to remember to eat properly and also to shower more because I don't want you coming home smelling like a jungle gym." she continued on as though she never heard his last remark and Gumball felt his ears droop as his head lowered to the table. The Teri teasing was already bad enough, but getting work out and hygiene tips kind of reminded him a certain neat-freak/germaphobe which didn't help with the aforementioned predicament.

Nicole looked up as if reminded of something and the middle-aged, hard working, cat mother felt her face light up as she remembered what it was she was going to say,

"Oh, right! Speaking of cleaning, Gumball, could you vacuum the living room before you go to bed and if you wanna earn a little money with your chores, would you also mind sweeping and scrubbing the bathroom too?" she asked, leaning forward in anticipation to her kid's answer.

At the prospect of earning money, Gumball's eyes lit up with a greedy sparkle and he quickly sat up until he was straight as a board,

"Sure thing, mom! Can I earn extra by doing the dishes as well?" he asked, hoping to get a bigger score on an easy task since the only dishes that he'd have to clean would be the plates, silverware, and baking pan for the lasagna dish the family used.

The taller cat placed a finger on her chin while she pondered the thought for a moment before returning her attention to Gumball with a cheeky grin on her face,

"Nope, but since you were so kind to point that out, you can do that as well! Thank you sweetie!" she chirped before going back to eating.

As though his mom had the power to suck any joy out of anything, Gumball could feel his face contort into a scowl as he growled angrily and his pointy ears flattened against his head. So much for getting some extra loot. At least now he understood his mom's frustrations when it came to working overtime without pay and would be sure to pick his words carefully next time.

Pushing himself away from the table, he got up and proceeded to the kitchen to get seconds. Using the spatula to pull out another slice of warm, cheesy, meat filled goodness to load onto his messy plate, Gumball hopped down from the stool the younger members of the Watterson household used to get to the stove due to their short stature and headed back to the dining room. Before he got to his seat, Gumball heard Darwin turned to their mom and pop a question,

"And how was your lunch break with Yuki, Mrs. mom?" he asked while finishing his first serving.

With the topic of Nicole's two hour long break at a local cafe with her former rival and wife of her boss, Mr. Yoshida being brought up, the hard working manager of the Rainbow Factory's complaint department began discussing in great detail what she and her best friend discussed while they were out. Gumball and the rest of the family were really happy at Nicole's growing friendship with Yuki because it lead to several great developments for their otherwise overlooked and overworked mother including her manager promotion after Yuki suggested to her husband to let Nicole handle a client that the Rainbow Factory has been working very hard to win over. To everyone's surprise the Watterson actually landed the deal and the company began prospering under a new partnership with Patterson Printing Press and Nicole gained a new appreciation from Mr. Yoshida, causing the slightly misogynistic cloud man to reconsider her potential as an employee.

All in all, things kept getting better from there. With more income, the family was able to afford a few more luxuries such as actual compliances for the house that weren't Frankensteined together from various bits of machinery, their mom was more relaxed with her shorter work hours and most importantly was able to see her family more often while being able to put good food on the table. It just went to show that things were starting to look up for the otherwise poor residents of this wacky house and everyone was feeling better because of it, if you count out all the other little downs that came with the ups of course.

Whilst listening to his mother talk about her wonderful afternoon, Gumball felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, causing him to pull the device out and peek at it from under the table because of his mother's strict 'no phones at the table' policy.

To his surprise, it was Teri who had messaged him and this alone caused him to panic a little for fear of what may be possibly going on. He pressed the messages window with his thumb and the message popped up to full view. It read:

Gumball, a massive Nephilim is going to appear over the northern mountain range in less than twenty minutes from now! I'm heading over to your house right now, meet me outside when I arrive and I'll take us over to where the monster is.

It was exactly what he feared and he quickly wrote back a message saying he'll be right out before shoving the phone back into his pocket. With his mom still telling the other three about her coffee break with Yuki, Gumball practically inhaled what was left of his food before grabbing his plate and fork and dashing off to the kitchen. Depositing the dirty dishes in the sink, Gumball rushed to the stairway, but managed to get only as far as the dining room when he heard his mom call his name,

"Gumball! Where are you off to in such a hurry?" she asked sounding both confused and concerned as to what would drive the kid to practically dry his plate of food and rush off to his room, presumably.

Thinking on his toes, Gumball decided to go with the first excuse that took substance in his brain space. Turning around to face the baffled faces of his family members, he snapped both his fingers and pointed to the top of the stairs,

"I'm gonna go grab my jacket and go for a walk, just need some of that fresh air, ya' know!" he quickly spurted out before continuing with his mad dash up to his room. He knew it was rude of him not to wait for an answer, but when Teri described the Nephilim as "massive", he didn't want to waste a single moment trying to resolve one problem when he could be dealing with the real issue.

After reaching the top of the stairs, the preteen quickly darted into his bedroom grabbed his bag with the scythe folded up inside, a jacket, and before he left, a bow with a quiver of suction cup arrows from his closet. He then made his way downstairs again, nearly tripping because he was in such a hurry, and then out the door before his family could stop him and ask more questions. Once again, he felt sorry for being rude, but he'll have to apologize later once he's assured that he will have a family to get back to.

After hearing the front door slam shut, the astonished Watterson family sat in silence for what seemed like eternity before Darwin broke the ice,

"Do you think he was mad at us for teasing him about Teri?" he asked, worriedly looking towards the faces of the other three sitting around the table for confirmation.

Anais just stared with her mouth agape before reaching up to scratch her noggin,

"I'm not sure, but why did he leave with his backpack and what looked like a bow and arrows?" she pondered out loud, having seen the unusual items her mischievous sibling was carrying.

"And he still hasn't answered to whether or not he was going to bake me a cake?" Richard's frustrated, one track remark reached no one in particular.

While her two kids spoke amongst themselves, Nicole just remained silent as she stared at the door where Gumball had just stormed out of in a hurry. She too had seen the items he brought with him, but was more confused as to who was texting him, having caught him staring at his phone underneath the table. Clearly whoever was messaging him had to have some reason for his needing to dash off like that.

She thought about going after to him, but decided to just question him as soon as he got back and went back to eating with a sigh.

Meanwhile, outside of the house, Gumball rushed over to the garbage bin at the end of the driveway, ducked behind it and out of sight. If Teri was on her way now, then it shouldn't take her too long to get here and find him. He was going to have to work on his excuses once he got out of this mess because he knew there was no way he left the house without some of his family members seeing him with his backpack and bow.

He wasn't looking forward to fighting the Nephilim Teri vaguely described in her rushed text and wondered if they should enlist the help of Rob for this encounter. Then again maybe they shouldn't because it was nighttime and they did promise that they'll handle said shifts as long as he did his part. Perhaps they could do a little reconnaissance before deciding what to do from there and not to mention that they also promised him that they would come to his aid if he was struggling against a particular opponent, so the same should apply to them, right?

From his position behind the Watterson's trash barrel, Gumball could see that there weren't that many people out, with the road lacking in any cars and the sidewalks vacant of people. The evening air was really cool, albeit slightly frigid thanks to the Fall weather and even though it was already dark out, most of the streetlights haven't turned on yet. Quickly glancing up at the sky, Gumball could already see Mars glowing in the vast purple covering the ceiling that was the heavens: such a beautiful sight!

It was then when he spotted an object on the horizon heading towards him at an incredible rate and was getting bigger every passing second. Standing up on his feet again, no longer concealing himself behind the garbage bin, Gumball watched as an origami F-16 no bigger than a mattress with a familiar paper bear sitting atop the nose of the aircraft make its way down his street before slowing down and coming to a stop in front of his house. Having spotted the blue cat before she landed, she waved at him in a friendly manner before gesturing towards the back of the plane and silently indicating for him to get on. Gumball smiled at the paper girl and rushed over to mount the fragile imitation of a fighter craft,

"Speaking of beautiful sights." Gumball thought to himself, feeling glad that the evening was concealing the slight blush on his face.

Turning back towards him, Teri quickly checked to see if her furry passenger was safely aboard and secure,

"You ready?" she asked, wanting to hear his confirmation just to be extra sure.

Gumball gave her a salute using only two fingers and grinned at her,

"Take us away, captain Pepakuma!" he said with assurance.

With that being said, Teri turned to face forward and without a spoken command, the jet lurched forward, picking up speed before gaining enough lift and taking off into the darkening sky. It happened a bit too fast for Gumball and he found himself grabbing onto the paper plane's single tail rudder in order to keep from falling backwards. Meanwhile, the pilot of said aircraft was watching the city grow smaller as they climbed in altitude and changed course until they were facing northwards,

"Captain Pepakuma." she thought to herself, actually kind of liking the name,

"That dork is just a never ending well of silly nicknames and bad puns. I'm actually glad that of all the people who can be helping me through all this, this is the one I ended up with." she took another glance back at him, only to laugh a little when she saw him holding his tongue out and letting it flap with the wind. There was no ending to his silliness.

Within a minute, the fast-travelling aircraft flew past the city limits and was flying over one of the forests that sat at the edge of a line of mountains. Taking in the view from where he was at, Gumball felt a sense of awe strike him as he saw the massive swathe of forest stretch out from underneath him and admired the sheer scope of what he was seeing. The trees were dark in color thanks to the fading light and stuck up out of the ground like a bed of dark, menacing spikes, he could even see a road winding through this creepy sight like a greyish black snake.

After seeing what he could below him, he looked ahead and saw the thin wall of jagged rocks getting larger as they continued making their way towards it,

"So what did the Nephilim look like?" Gumball shouted up to Teri, his voice battling against the wind.

While Teri was at Molly's treehouse along with the other girls, minus Carrie, who was at Transylvania with her dad today, she fell asleep after Molly began telling the girls a story about a time when she came back to her house only to find it to be completely dark because the lights were off and her folks weren't home. It was a really long, boring story and Teri remembered seeing Sarah pass out from boredom before she eventually did so herself.

As for the dream that soon followed, she didn't get any good looks at the monster because all she saw was a massive shadow covering one of the mountains nestled deep within the northern mountain range. The fact that she could see its looming shadow, but not the actual body was enough to send her mind reeling in horror and quickly found herself wishing that she could escape the nightmare. She caught a lucky break when she was woken up by Carmen, who had noticed her sleeping, but she was so horrified by what she saw that she grabbed her bag and dashed out the door while giving a poorly thought out explanation to the rest of the girls.

Shaking her head and shrugging, she turned her flat head sideways a bit so she could see both Gumball and the mountain,

"I'm not sure what it looked like, to be honest." she replied bitterly, feeling angry at herself for not being able to see what it looked like in its entirety,

"All I know is that it appeared above one the mountains deep within the mountain range and that it was big enough to cast a shadow over it." she was now starting to worry.

Gumball felt a sense of dread wash over him when he heard her description of their newest opponent. It's shadow covered the mountain! He knew that the Nephilim were getting stronger every time they came to Elmore, but all he could think about now was can we even fight that? He could even hear the fear in Teri's voice when she briefly described it, so he knew this thing was not to be taken lightly. A Nephilim that can overshadow a mountain could very well be the end of Elmore.

He heard Teri call back to him and he raised his head in order to better hear her over the rushing air,

"I'm sorry for having to come and get you in such a rush. Were you doing anything important with your family?" she asked with hints of more sorrow in her voice.

Well, he was having dinner with his family, but when he left, it wasn't like he was doing anything wrong, well, except for rushing off with a half baked explanation. Not to worry though, this was an easy fix and he could always apologize when he got back. That is if he ever did come back.

"We were having dinner, but I'm glad you came anyway. It's not like it's the end of the world or anything, right?" he chuckled a little at the irony of the last statement, but quickly found that there was no humor in it, given the seriousness of the situation.

"I'm sorry." Teri apologized again, hanging her head low.

Understanding her guilt, Gumball said nothing and leaned forward a bit, not too much as he didn't want to offset the plane's balance, before patting her shoulder gently. Feeling his paw on her shoulder, the origami user could feel herself being slightly lifted in both mind and spirit, but felt the need to ask something because it was bothering her,

"Do you think we can beat something that big?" she asked, not feeling so sure herself, but wanting to confirm it with her best fighting teammate.

He wasn't sure how to answer that question for her himself. On the one hand, the Nephilim have always been ginormous and unfathomably strong, but they were always small enough to deal with while they worked together. His thoughts turned once again to Rob, and he remembered how he had assisted them in the battle of the desert. Come to think of it, the fight against Toxic Pill probably would have been very different had he not been there. If this Nephilim was something he and Teri couldn't handle, then Rob should be able to provide some great assistance in taking it down.

Should all three of them fail to do so however, well, not much to write there. They tried their best and then Elmore and its people are destroyed, simple as that. Thinking about it now, not much has changed, they were up against a mysterious entity with nothing but a vague image of what they were facing.

After one full minute of thinking this through, he conjured up what he was going to say to her in his mind and put his thoughts into words,

"Honestly, I don't know if we can." he started with his honest opinion on the matter.

He watched Teri's shoulders sag in despair, but said nothing as she continued to steer the plane in the direction of the mountains. They passed by Hector's home and were now entering the actual mountain range itself. The air became even colder as they increased their altitude and made their way into the rocky terrain covered in snow and ice.

Gumball shivered, despite wearing a jacket, and continued to give his deduction on the matter at hand,

"But it was like that for the other Nephilim too. Every single time one would appear, sometimes I just feel so unsure as to whether or not we can defeat it. Yesterday's fight was even worse because it literally came out of nowhere and there were times I thought we were going to die." he could still feel the terror buried deep within his subconscious from the battle before, but he also knew what drove him to face against such odds. He was also aware that Teri was just like him in that she feared the things they faced, but pushed on through anyway.

He continued to give Teri the push she needed,

"Yes, this one is more intimidating because of what we do and don't know about it, but we should at least face it so that all those uncertainties no longer become uncertain. Even if it is too much for the both of us, we can go get Rob and hope that him being there helps even the odds a little. If it's still not enough and we're defeated…" he paused because he never liked imagining defeat, but they both knew the stakes if something of such were to happen,

"... then at least we tried. We knew we were going to defend Elmore to the end and… and… (sigh) we both knew that it was a possibility anyway because nothing lasts forever." that last part actually stemmed from something else that was triggered in his mind. A certain shape-shifting fairy with antlers that left him for what seemed like eons ago. Thinking about defending Elmore against hopeless odds must have somehow reminded him of his former girlfriend and how he thought that their love would last forever, but inevitably crashed and burned in the end.

Sensing the sudden change of volume in his voice, Teri, who was feeling her spirits being lifted by Gumball's arousing speech, suddenly felt something when she heard that slight difference in tone. It was pain, loneliness, and disappointment. Casting another glance behind her, she saw it written all over his face and after careful scrutiny, she knew after all the time she spent with him that he wasn't thinking about something, but instead someone.

And she knew who that someone was.

Thinking about him and Penny, Teri understood that such a close relationship between the two would cause disastrous consequences were it to ever end. And then it did. During the Summer, she found out from Masami that Penny had moved away with her family to Japan after the cheerleader's father was released from his job due to the business failing and having to cut loose all of its workers. When she heard how devastated Gumball was, it honestly made her sad when she thought about him because, while she wasn't really fond of the obnoxious cat boy and didn't understand what Penny ever saw in him, she did feel some sympathy towards him due to her own loneliness and how she felt when others decided to ditch her. She wrote him a letter and mailed it to him in order to share her condolences, but didn't really see him much during the Summer and just kept the matter in the back of her mind.

Now having been with him for about a month, all the battles they took part in, all the fun activities they shared together, and even with all the silly fights they got into, made her better understand Gumball as a person and vice versa. She couldn't quite explain it, but even with the short amount of time given, she felt as though she understood him very well and she even daresay that she trusted him more than some of her friends. That's why right now, despite not knowing what was really going on in his head, how he felt about Penny, and all the baggage he carried with him, Teri felt his pain even more and it hurt her too. It hurt her just to see him like this, to see him try to lift her own spirits up only to have his own demons drag him down.

That is why she needed him to be strong again because he gave her strength even when she was wrought with weakness. She was going to bring him back up, just like he did with her,

"You're right!" she shouted back to him, causing the blue feline to lift his monumental head up to meet her gaze.

With the brightness returning to his eyes despite his confusion, Teri knew she had him where she wanted him and pushed to lift his spirits just like he did with her earlier,

"We've been outmatched many times before by these things, but we've always pulled through. We still have time, we still have Rob, I have three runes I have yet to figure out and you have your scythe, a… a bow and arrows (why did you bring those?), and probably a set of crazy ideas that will work anyway. You're also right about the fear because even now I can't help, but picture what it is we're going up against and how it scares me. But that doesn't mean it's already over!" she declared confidently, but with a smile so wobbly, Gumball was sure any second she was going to break down and turn the plane around so that they could disappear somewhere where the Nephilim will never find them.

Still, her speech was effective and Gumball felt himself slowly getting over his grief about his past failures and his overall defeated mindset. Returning his gratitude with a stronger, more confident smile, he disregarded the downed look entirely and embraced the upcoming challenge,

"Yeah! You're right and thanks for that! I was feeling a little down because of something I messed up on earlier and I was worried that it was all going to come back to me eventually." he replied with a stronger grin,

"Heh! Here I am trying to be encouraging and then I'm the one who puts myself in a bad mood." he chuckled, reminding himself that they both needed to keep their chins up when confronting this giant issue.

The aircraft shot forward through the freezing skies above the numerous mountains that rose and fell like stone waves in a white/grey sea. They couldn't stay too long in this place, not just for the fear of freezing to death, but for the very real threat of the plane's paper wings gathering frost and eventually becoming too heavy to fly. They obviously weren't planning to dawdle for long when facing the Nephilim, they could either attack it right away or retreat once they've recovered enough data on the colossal monstrosity.

The sun had long since set and the light that spread across the sky earlier has scattered and was replaced with a transparent ceiling that peered up into a white speckled, starry sky. Once again both Teri and Gumball found themselves captivated by such a wondrous sight and were astounded that such a view existed without either of them ever trying to reach it. Even the moon looked beautiful as it hung like a pale christmas ornament amongst the dazzling celestial display and cast its brilliant silver light over the snow capped mountain tops.

The mood was ruined though, when Teri and Gumball spotted something in the distant horizon, a shadow of sorts that hovered over one particular mountain and contrasted the snowscape like an inkblot on paper. Even though they were ways away, the paper girl and cat boy could make out the mysterious form in front of them and could see that it was a black storm cloud that hovered several hundred feet over the mountain. The weirdest thing about this particular storm cloud was that it was pulling snow up from the mountainside in a watery mist and into the center of the dark mass. The cloud was so large that it dwarfed the mountain it was hovering over along with four more on either side. If such a thing were to reach Elmore, the entire city could be swallowed up in the inky darkness as well as the forests that surround it.

This was the Nephilim they were facing.

Gumball felt his heart sink like a stone in a sea of despair and his eyes remained locked on the gigantic storm that loomed ominously in front of them. Forget all that confidence he was trying to pull up earlier, if he had a choice he'd pick fighting five Window Hoppers over trying to approach this thing. Would any of their weapons even put a scratch on the beast of biblical proportions? Does it even have a physical body to begin with?

Gumball swallowed a lump that was forming in his throat and chuckled nervously,

"Um, you know what? I say we double back and get out of here?" Gumball squeaked, his pupils shrinking in terror,

"I mean we've seen enough at this point, right?" he was gripping the paper F-16's vertical stabilizer so tightly that the surface was already crumpling under his vice-like grip.

Teri, who was equally, if not more, terrified of the Nephilim that was looming in front of him, slowly nodded her head as if agreeing with him and uttered in a shaky voice,

"U-uh, yeah sure. You know what? How about I do us one better and take us to some remote location that's far, far away from all of this. I hear Antarctica is nice this time of year!" She kept her gaze locked on the enemy and tried desperately to calm her rapid heartbeat.

They both considered running, but the plane kept traveling in a straight line towards the darkness that overshadowed the mountains. They both knew deep down inside that they could not just flee from this threat, not when everyone else would be helpless to stop it. Besides, where would they really go when the apocalypse was nearing?

The two remained silent as they closed the distance between them and the coming storm.

-Hector's home, 7:00 PM-

Closing the comic in his hands, Rob wondered to himself how the giant managed to stay sane when given such boring forms of entertainment. He wasn't really one for comics in the first place, given that they are practically rehashed stories that depict men and women dressed in ridiculous outfits that society deems as "heroes" while they fight off one dimensional figures known as "Villains", and honestly, Rob didn't see any appeal in the matter mainly because he can't relate with any of the characters due to their lack of personality, especially the villains. Given the mundane nature of Hector's bedroom despite being located in a magical cave of sorts, Rob was forced to make due with the time he had and read over whatever the hairy giant had to offer.

"Well that was… painfully boring." Rob groaned, making no attempt to hide his disdain as he placed the revised Punch-man comic back on the nightstand that sat next to the normal sized bed Rob found himself sitting on.

Hector, who was just standing quietly in the corner the whole time, merely shrugged and sat down in his spot seeing as his neck was starting to hurt from hunching down the whole time,

"Yeah… I didn't figure it would suit your tastes that much, but my mom likes to make sure that whatever I read is okay so that nothing bad ever happens to me." Hector explained in a brass, emotionless voice.

"Not that I like comics or anything similar to such, but I kinda feel as though Hector's mom is sucking all the joy out of his life." he thought to himself, though he knew that he shouldn't judge Ms. Jotenheim's parenting because there was most definitely a reason why she goes through all of this. Then again, Hector was known for being accidentally destructive and the more Rob thought about it, the more he realized that it was probably for the best that Hector remained in a calm state of mind, less his uncontrollable emotions causes him to damage something or someone…

As Hector had promised, the journey to the mysterious cave took no longer than two minutes, but to their surprise and disappointment, the tiny troll witch was nowhere to be seen. The only explanation given by Hector was that she may be out running some kind of errand or meeting up with other sorcerers and people who possess magical qualities, like the Awesome Store owner. With that being said, their only option was to wait, but as Rob had already figured out by this point, Hector wasn't really the most liveliest people to be around.

And after half an hour of boring small talk and conversations that went nowhere, Rob was just trying to find some way to keep himself from slipping into insanity. He was also worried that if Hector's mom didn't get here soon than he was going to have to reschedule the meeting for tomorrow and for someone who wanted answers, that was definitely something he wasn't looking forward to. Especially since he went through all the trouble of getting here and having to endure a seemingly long wait. Slightly bothered by Mrs. Jotenheim's absence, he looked back up at Hector and stared at the silent giant,

"So how long is she usually out?" he asked, his one eye shooting towards the cave's opening and back at the ape-like figure.

Hector simply shrugged again and kept his focus on the tiny cyclops sitting on his bed,

"Usually depends on what she's doing, sometimes she won't be gone for long, but other times she can be gone for up to five hours or more. The good news is she's never gone for long." he explained, sounding slightly happier at the final line,

"I'm glad I have my pet hamster to keep me company though. I think it would get pretty lonely here without him." he pointed towards a cage holding the skeletal remains of his beloved pet that seems to be stuck on its wheel.

Rob felt his jaw drop in shock at the gruesome sight and felt a wave of surprise and genuine pity wash over him,

"Does he even know that it's… poor guy, he really needs someone to talk to while his mom is gone." his thoughts were silenced when he stood up and walked over to the cage in order to further inspect it.

When he got close enough to the dwelling place of the deceased family pet, he could see that the creature's bones were yellow, indicating that it had been dead for quite some time. The wood shavings that littered the floor of the hamster's container were fresh and the food bowl was overflowing with dried up hamster food, this told him that either Hector was doing this himself while being completely unaware of the state his personal animal was in or his mother was doing this herself in order to prevent him from figuring it out himself. Either way, it was a sad truth to know and Rob finished scrutinizing the dead hamster's cage before pivoting on his heel to face the orange/purple colossus,

"Well, I'm glad you have something to keep you company, but I really think you should find someone to talk to, preferably someone who isn't stiff and absent minded." he suggested, not having the heart to tell him the truth.

For a moment Hector was silent, which actually wasn't that abnormal for the gentle giant, before letting out a sigh that nearly blew Rob and some of the items in the room to the other side of the cave,

"I really wish I did, but most people think I'm boring." his tone was heavier now, almost like he wish he didn't know, but could tell by the way most people acted around him. He'd gotten over that fact a while ago and accepted it as the truth, but still didn't help him with the loneliness he felt ever so often. Though he was happy at times like when he participates in football with the EJH ducks team or whenever his mother was at home for the whole day and they talked about a lot of things like what the world was like, given each others unique perspective or about what they did in their busy days.

Rob felt as though he could slightly relate to the silent behemoth of a student, he wouldn't say his life was dull in the slightest, but his odd appearance and lack of social skills made it difficult to hold conversations with regular folk, despite the odd nature of this place. However, he did know that there were people out there who appreciated different kinds of individuals based on how well they knew them or what common interest they held. With Rachel and him, they had very different personalities, with him mostly keeping to himself and her being outgoing and extroverted. It would seem like the two would never get along and sometimes that was the case: sometimes they found their values conflicting and this would force them to butt heads every once and awhile. On the other hand, with them both experiencing the horrors of the void and losing their place in the world, they had some common ground to stand on and the amount of time they spent together helped both of them understand and get along with one another.

If he were to say it himself, he would have to say that Rachel was his best friend and the greatest person he ever had the joy of spending time with.

Taking all this into consideration, the disfigured cyclops decided to offer some advice to the giant, a choice he rarely acted upon given his villainous nature,

"You know, there are actually a lot of people who would probably appreciate your company all on its own." he said, making his way towards the gentle figure that easily dwarfed a house, even when sitting.

Said giant's hairy head perked up a little when he heard the stranger he invited into his home telling him something he wished were true, but felt that it was an undeniable part of life,

"Really? What makes you think so?" he asked, raising a hand to his head in order to scratch the top of his massive cranium.

Propping himself against the rocky wall Hector was also resting against, Rob folded his arms and began to open himself up to the giant,

"Uhhh, call it personal experience, but basically one thing I know is that if you can find someone with similar interests or traits even, then making friends will come naturally." he explained feeling somewhat skittish since he wasn't use to talking to others like this. Still, he had more to add,

"After having everything taken from me, I was simply a nobody with no one to talk to or even relate with. No family, no friends, nothing really, although I did make a few enemies that provided me with something to do, but even that wasn't completely fulfilling. It did leave me with a unique set of skills that helped me skate by, which was great, I guess. Anyway, all that changed after I met Rachel." he continued with a slight smile carving its way into his blocky features,

"Just like me, she was a nobody with nothing except a name and a broken mind. After I brought her into my life and settled in with her, we both quickly discovered how polarized our personalities were and that more or less lead to a few "difficult" situations, but all in all, we still manage to pull through together because of all the things we've been through. She's by far my closest friend and greatest companion. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything." he finished with his smile increasing in width as he came to realize how much he actually appreciated his time with her.

The entire time he spoke, Hector was listening very carefully and was taking in everything the mad inventor had said. Underneath all his facial fur, his lips curved upwards and he found himself feeling a bit more relaxed after hearing all that. For the longest of times he feared that his size difference to everyone around him, plus his overly mundane lifestyle were going to forever be a hindrance to making friends or any meaningful social connections with others. His mom often told him that knowing his differences was something he would have to grow into and while he did appreciate all the things that set him apart from the others, he did want to find ways to overcome the barriers that sat between him and the people he knew.

Was this stranger the one to give him the necessary push to help pass all the issues that blocked the path even a giant as mighty as him struggled to overcome?

Curious enough to find out, Hector questioned Rob about some of the issues that constantly plagued his mind,

"That was a very touching story. I'm glad you and your friend are able to have what you have despite all the difficulties you two must face daily." he complimented, causing the brilliant middle schooler to blush a little and turn his face to the side,

"I'm still concerned about one thing though: excitement. If I get too excited then I lose control and I don't want to destroy anything or accidentally hurt anyone. How do I overcome this problem?" he asked, using his hand to brush the light purple fur covering covering his ape-like face so that he could look Rob directly in the eye.

Interesting question for a giant problem, if you don't mind the pun. Rob scratched the blocky brown hair that hovered a few inches above his grey, static head and he looked down at his mismatched feet for the briefest of moments as he tackled the problem within his inner world. After discarding a few solutions that could only lead to harmful outcomes, he settled on an answer that seemed like a positive one for his hairy accompalice,

"Well, that may take some time to figure out, if we're being honest here. I would try to find activities that don't elicit too much of an emotional response, I mean for example, you like hiking through the mountains, yes? I'm pretty sure someone in school would like to join you on a little sight-seeing trip, especially with the view you could provide them with. Also just simply being outdoors and talking to someone is a good way to pass the time. I can think of a lot of good activities that are quiet and peaceful, although you should also keep what the other person enjoys in mind too. One of the most difficult things to do in a friendship is learning to compromise." He said, mentally recalling all the fights he and Rachel would have over what to do in their spare time.

This seem to do it in for Hector, as he showed it by grinning in satisfaction and letting his hair fall back down across his face. He let out a happy sigh of relief that caused the stalactites to tremble a bit, raining down dirt and dust that came loose from the disturbance, and he leaned his back against the wall. Even though this person was someone Rob wouldn't ever consider hanging out with on a daily basis, seeing him look content made the problematic cyclops feel slightly better after talking to him. Making others miserable was one way for him to let off steam, but he had to admit, helping out others with their own problems struck him as wonderful.

"Hmm. I never really thought about that before. There's plenty I can do with others that isn't dangerous!" he said, sounding excited, but keeping himself in check before his mind lost itself again.

He twisted his head until he was staring at Rob one more time,

"Thank you, Rob! I will try your way tomorrow when school starts." he said gratefully, causing Rob to once again feel happy for helping out someone with similar issues to his own.

Telling him that it was no big deal, he made his way back to the room's only bed and pulled out his phone to see if he'd gotten any messages from Rachel, also to go over a few schematics for his newest projects. The room became increasing quiet except for the heavy, rhythmic sound of Hector's breathing that filled the whole cave like a constant breeze blowing in and around the place. The place also had a noticeable stench to it which Rob could guess came from the giant and from the various potions and things the witch would cook up. Speaking of, the first time he snuck in this place, he found that her mail was signed Mrs. Jotenheim, yet he'd never seen or ever heard any mentioning of a husband. While going over the blueprints to his most highly anticipated project, Leviathan Book, he found himself wondering who Hector's father is and whether or not he was a giant too or a sage, similar to his mother? If he was the latter than what did that mean for Hector himself?

Tapping the exit button on his phone, the window displaying the drawings and sketches detailing the unbuilt device quickly reduced itself and Rob turned the phone off with a click of a button before sliding the device back into his pocket. Turning back towards the colossal son of the troll witch, Rob opened his mouth to ask him the question he had on his mind, but was cut off after Hector looked sharply in the direction of the cave's entrance as if he heard something,

"Oh! Hey mom!" he boomed.

Rob immediately turned to see a familiar-looking lady who was short in stature, haggard looking in appearance, adorned with a purple robe and golden bangles on her wrists, riding a broom into the cave and dismounting once she was close to the ground. Dusting herself off, the green skinned troll hobbled over into the living room where her cauldron and other magical supplies rested all the while shouting to her ginormous son in that raspy voice of hers,

"Hector! What did I say about staying up late! You know how cranky you get when you don't get enough-?" she froze when she peered into her child's bedroom and saw that it held a second occupant.

Seeing her hesitation, Rob simply waved at her and stood up on his own two feet before making his way towards her, his pace was slow though, for he did not wish to alarm her,

"Mrs. Jotenheim, my name is Rob and I'm here because I need your help in deciph-!"

"I don't care who you are or why you're here! Who said you could come into my home without my permission?" she shouted with ferocity that seemed surprisingly unnatural for a person of her size.

Her beady, mismatched eyes glared into Rob's single ocular organ and he seemed to freeze up on the spot. It wasn't like she was terrifying or did anything Rob didn't expect her to, he actually figured she would react like this thanks to her overprotective nature, plus he did come in without actually notifying her, but that couldn't be helped because she was busy. What actually caused Rob to park his feet was the intensity of her stare, one of her eyes was bigger than the other one which caused most people who looked upon her face to react in discomfort, but her eyes just had this weird effect that rendered Rob's once confident mind into a doubtful mess and he still couldn't figure out why this was.

While he fumbled for his words, wanting to say anything that will break the growing, uncomfortable silence, when Hector stepped in and saved him from saying something foolish,

"Um, mom. I let him in." Hector chimed in, moving in from his room to the living room.

There was another brief period of silence before she shifted her glare towards her approaching offspring. Her eyes had softened a bit, but still seemed rather vexed at what she had heard,

"What do you mean, you let him in? Is he a friend of yours from school? You know you're not allowed to have friends over when I'm not home, or aware, or even when it's close to your bedtime!" she growled, sounding more frustrated rather than angry.

Regardless, Hector didn't seem too put off by her demanding question and simply pointed at the lanky twelve year old as he explained himself,

"I know, mom." he replied calmly,

"I met him not too far from here and he was looking for you because he wanted you to decipher some ancient symbols he found in order to rid Elmore of a curse." with a single truck-sized finger, he nudged Rob forward, indicating that it was time for him to speak up and further clarify the point to him being here.

Gathering up his courage, Rob set his mind on the task at hand and pulled the book out of his bag. He knew that he'd come this far and while he had expected some objections from the tiny troll woman (even failure was more than likely here.), he still knew he had to try to get her to at least listen to him. Hector had given him a chance and he didn't want to waste it by fumbling in his confidence to speak up to her… or down to her, in his case.

While he continued to make his way towards her, Mrs. Jotenheim continued to bicker with her son,

"Magic symbols? Curse? Are you playing those ridiculous card games ag-? Huh? Are those…" having trailed off in the middle of her sentence, Mrs. Jotenheim paused to look at the runes sprawled over the pages that Rob had on full display right in front of her.

Her eyes shot back and forth as she studied every symbol with the utmost scrutiny, the scene reminiscent of an archeologist making a massive discovery and studying the very artifact displayed in front of her. With a quick swipe of her hands, she pried the leather book out of Rob's claws and began flipping through the pages like a crazed bookworm, much to Rob's chagrin. Her look melted from a scowl to astonishment and then finally settling on confusion as she reached the final page that contained the symbols.

Satisfying her curiosity, but with more questions welling up from within her psyche, she closed the book and proceeded to hand it back to the villainous resident of Elmore,

"Where did you get this?" she asked simply, although her tone was heavy with suspicion.

At first Rob was unsure how he was supposed to answer that, quickly shutting his mouth and turning away as to think on it with some peace of mind. He knew that her knowledge of the mystic arts and some forms of the unknown had to be vast, so talking to her about the void shouldn't be too out of the ordinary. Then there was the barrier that he encountered in the void, how it blocked him off from the portion of history that predates human/bizarro civilization and how it was placed there for a reason while only giving him a small amount of knowledge in exchange for a bit of magic. What would she think of him if she learned that he'd breached a barrier he knew little about? Does she know about the barrier, its overall nature, and who put it there? Could she be trusted?

Feeling indecisive, Rob decided to go with the safest answer he knew and turned to her with a stoic mask placed upon his distorted features,

"I picked it up from an occult store somewhere in Norway." he lied through his teeth and shrugged in order to add some authenticity to the lie.

Having seen the contents of the book herself, Mrs. Jotenheim had a distinct feeling that those symbols were far too dangerous for some seller of cheap knockoffs to have possessed without incident. Then again, if the seller was unaware of what it was he or she had gotten ahold of, it could have been possible that he or she didn't pay it much attention to read into it and sold it as a means to gain a quick buck. Such things were possible and Mrs. Jotenheim considered reporting tonights findings to Central Twelve of the Supernatural Commission tomorrow after dropping Hector off to school. They'll probably know what to make of the situation and make sure to launch an investigation of certain underground magic shops within the Norwegian country.

For now though, she might as well get whatever she could out of this. Forget tossing the kid out of her home, the cyclopean monstrosity brought her something interesting and she was determined to learn what else she could about him and this supposed "curse of Elmore." that her son had brought up. Speaking of her son…

"Hmm, interesting." she mumbled to herself before turning to Hector and snapping her fingers, quickly gaining the giant's attention,

"Hector, Mama's gotta discuss something important with this young man, so why don't you head off to bed and don't forget to play your music." she instructed without a ton of strictness, but enough to get her point across.

Surprisingly, Hector did as he was told without uttering a single word and left the two alone in the living room. The orange/purple ape-like giant crept back into his room, lay down beside his bed (this caused Rob to wonder why he kept such a thing if he didn't even sleep on it. Was it possible that he could fit in it when he was younger and didn't want to part with it? So many questions.) picked up a decorated wooden music box from underneath the pillow, twisted the dial and began dozing off as soon as the short, but enchanting melody began playing. Soon the heavy, thunderous sounds of his snoring could be heard coming from the sleeping furry mass and echoed around the cave like a lawn mower stuck in a enclosed space.

With both of them covering their ears, Mrs. Jotenheim ushered Rob to follow him outside where there was less noise to deter their conversation and Rob followed the grey haired, cleaning lady out through the entrance. Once they were both standing on the ledge at the mouth of the cave, they were both treated to a nighttime spectacle with the moon slowly rising in the distance, providing a pale glow to the surrounding area and the air once again becoming frigid when compared to the cozy interior of the Jotenheim's mountainside home. With the change of scenery also came a significant change in noise quality and the two were better able to hear one another.

Staring back into the cave where Hector slept, Rob hiked a thumb in said direction and remarked in a flat voice to Mrs. Jotenheim,

"He's such a nice kid, too bad he snores like an Indie 600 motor race." he commented with a slight tease.

Turning her head once to check up on her sleeping child before returning her attention to him once again, she shrugged her tiny, hunched shoulders,

"Eh, it's not so bad once you get used to it and my hearing is not what it used to be. Besides, he sounded and smelled a lot worse after I took him to a bean farm down in New Mexico. Last time that'll ever happen." she said, her nose already wrinkling from the repulsive memory.

Rob didn't even need to ask for more details, seeing as he knew how bad his room would smell after one night at Elmore's top Mexican restaurant, Burrito Farm. Thanks to Rachel, he was forever banned from eating there less he wishes to spend the night outside and that never sat well for him, so he agreed of course. He'd hate to see how bad a giant's night out at any Mexican restaurant would get and the effects that followed afterwards.

Putting those disturbing thoughts aside, Rob jumped back on track and held his book out to her,

"Right. Is there any way you can translate these runes for me? I'd experiment with them if I could, but time is not on my side and there are few opportunities to do so." he pleaded, keeping the book where it was for her to take.

He actually fought two Nephilim on his own once, the first time was at the Elmore mall prior to meeting Gumball and Teri and another time in the landfill following their battle on the bridge. It was there where he tested all five runes he had in his arsenal and found out their true capabilities. The problem was, he now had thirteen pages worth of power and he didn't think he could test all of them on the next Nephilim that showed up. He wondered if he could activate them on his own like Gumball could, but he hadn't tried that yet and was reluctant to do so because of the runes deadly effects.

He needed a faster option that didn't require deadly experiments that could cause severe injury, collateral damage and possibly death too.

Having heard his request a second time now, Mrs. Jotenheim was far more collected than she was when she first saw him and eyed the book once more before casting one more suspicious glance,

"Short answer: yes I can, BUT!" she held a single, gnarled, green finger up in the air in front of him,

"You first have to tell me why you want to know the contents of those runes because when I looked through them, I could tell those were no ordinary spells you can find in some hokey pokey occult store. Also, I want to know the nature of this so called "curse" that is plaguing Elmore." her voice was commanding and full of authority, making her even more intimidating to the former void wanderer.

And with that, the troll witch snapped her fingers and a glowing white orb formed above her hand, casting a bright light across both of their faces,

"And don't even think about trying to lie to me! This orb will flash red when it detects a lie and if it does so even once while you're explaining then I won't help you and I will turn you into a leech!" she warned ominously.

The orb suddenly flashed from white to crimson, causing the haggardly woman to sweat a little,

"Um, okay, I can't exactly turn you into a leech because we have rules against full body transformations, but you get the gist." Mrs. Jotenheim sheepishly grumbled. Rob couldn't tell if her face was red in embarrassment or if it was due to the light the orb was giving off.

Rob quietly accepted her terms with a swift rock of his head and the orb went from red to white and got straight to answering her questions,

"Well there are quite a few reasons as to why I want to learn about those runes and it actually ties in well with the curse that is looming over Elmore." he started, not even faltering once.

The glowing remained the same color and Mrs. Jotenheim nodded for him to continue,

"For starters, the curse of Elmore I refer to is actually an invasion set out by monsters, unseen by regular folk with the acception of me and my two absent companions, Teri Pepakuma and Gumball Watterson, called the Nephilim." he put the book back in his backpack and clasped his hands behind him while he spoke, feeling more comfortable this way.

As soon as the name "Nephilim" was mentioned, Mrs. Jotenheim's eyes widened in alarm for the briefest of moments before she regained her composure and focused her thoughts on the mysterious giants. While she thought this over, she indicated for him to continue with yet another simple nod and grunt. With a small appreciative smile and a grateful look for not freaking out about the Nephilim, Rob continued,

"The invasion started roughly two weeks ago, with Gumball and Teri being the first to encounter the beasts and after learning about them myself, I set forth to find a solution and I rummaged through your cave earlier (sorry about that by the way, I was afraid you weren't going to help me the first time around and well, I went with my first instinct.) and found five symbols that I thought would be useful. Sure enough it worked and then I decided to take a trip to…" he was silent for a moment because every time the void was brought up in a conversation he'd try to just reroute the topic elsewhere in order to avoid the painful memories. Rachel never brought it up either, it was too unbearable for the both of them and they often avoided using that name at all.

Sucking in a deep breath, Rob pushed aside his anxieties and let the conversation run its course,

"I went into the void and discovered the book of spells. The truth is I want the power to eradicate the Nephilim and prevent Elmore's destruction." he finally said, his single eye shining brightly.

The lie detecting orb flashed another color, but not red, instead a warm pink color had replaced the radiatiant, white glow. At first Rob jumped in surprise because he believed himself to be telling the truth, but quickly slowed himself down after he noticed the strange new color the magical lie detector was showing. Such an odd color peeked Rob's curiosity and he pointed at the orb before asking the person responsible for its creation,

"What's that color mean?" he asked in surprise.

Without hesitating to answer, the miniature troll witch pointed first at said magical device then at him,

"You told the truth, so don't be alarmed, but the trust orb sees that you are hiding something else." she cocked a bushy white eyebrow and placed a gnarled hand on her hip,

"I'm guessing there's more for you to gain than just victory over your opponents, if I'm not mistaken?" she had the air of someone who knew more than she was letting on and that frightened the sneaky fellow a tad bit.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, knowing that he was going to have to spill everything if he was to get what he was really after, Rob cleared his throat and kept a straight face as he spoke,

"The other reasons I crave power is because I want to save myself and someone close to me, who also suffers from the curse of the void and I wish to use what powers I gain from this conflict to destroy Gumball after I vanquish the Nephilim!" he declared.

Following his declaration, the orb switched from rosy pink to a light red and Rob felt his jaw drop at the sudden change of color. How could that have been a lie! I was telling the truth! This is what I want! These thoughts and many others cycled through his head as he continued to stare at the light and felt the air around him get colder. Did this mean that their deal was off? Will Mrs. Jotenheim choose not to help him now seeing as he evidently lied?

He quickly pivoted his blocky head in order to see what expression the magical cleaning lady was making and hoped to offer some kind of explanation to her. To his surprise though, she wasn't glaring at him or hurling accusations, rather she seemed bemused by the color change and a chuckle found its way through her crooked mouth. Now was the time for Rob to be perplexed, given everything that's been happening. What could she be possibly be laughing about? was the only question on his mind when he noticed the trivial action played by the witch before she finally began talking,

"You definitely want to save yourself and your special one, but is being Gumball's nemesis really all you want to do? What could you possibly do with such powers? Surely more than settling a petty squabble that was predetermined by someone else. You can lie to me and you can certainly lie to yourself, but I think we both know that once you are whole, then there will be nothing holding you back from gaining whatever else the world has to offer." she was cracking a wide, toothy grin that Rob swore must have been painful for her because he was certain that this lady rarely smiled.

Still confused, Rob eyed the troll and threw his arms up until they were somewhat level with his shoulders, kind of as though he were shrugging, but also displaying his shock,

"If that's the case, then what is it that I really want then! Does that orb also tell you another person's deepest desires too?!" he hissed in frustration.

The green lady stood there in silence for the briefest of moments before letting out another cackle and with a snap of her fingers, she extinguished the lie detector,

"How am I supposed to know that? You're the one who decides what you want and also, I think I have everything I need from you now, so I'll definitely help you." she replied, before hobbling back to the cave where Hector's snores wrought the interior with thunderous growls.

Baffled and shaken by the realization that he didn't want to fight his arch-nemesis forever, Rob wracked his brain while his feet began to drag themselves and his body in after the witch. Okay, he knew that he had once said that he never wanted to be the bad guy, but he thought he and Gumball had made up that day and promised to keep being problematic for each other. Then again, as soon as Penny moved away and Gumball became depressed, he too became less motivated to destroy his mortal enemy and when Rachel came into the mix, his will to carry out his evil plans dropped significantly. The only time he felt a spark was when he saw Gumball and his paper classmate flying across the sky on an origami F-18 and when he followed them to the park, he saw the Nephilim for the first time. After that his plans switched from trying to take down Gumball to trying to destroy the Nephilim that have been appearing more often in their weird little corner of California.

The more these points and realizations made themselves abundantly clear to Rob, the more he understood that his focus no longer rested solely on Gumball for that matter. If that's the case then what was he to do once this conflict had ceased? He supposed there was finding away to rid the void out of his and Rachel's lives and get things back to normal for the both of them. Thinking about it now, if he got things back to normal for himself too, then he could have a shot at being a normal citizen of Elmore and get an actual life here or he could do something with all his magic and his mighty intellect as well.

Rob made his way into the cave, allowing the shadows to hide positivity spreading across his face and wondered how the universe just kept blessing him more and more possibilities.

-Location: unknown. Time: unknown-

Sand. When Gumball came to he could feel the coarse and grainy substance beneath his fingers and pressing up against his cheek. It felt very warm and for a moment he thought he was lying down on a beach somewhere in paradise. He just wanted to lay down for a bit and let the warmth ease him back into a peaceful slumber.

That's when he remembered something and his eyes snapped open, revealing to him a world covered in red sand and bright lights. Quickly getting up, Gumball surveyed the area around him and quickly spotted Teri laying face first down on the ground no more than five feet away, right next to her was the origami F-16 they flew in on with its right wing burnt off. Moving in to get a closer look, the blue kitten could see that Teri was still breathing and he let out the breath he was unconsciously holding the entire time. She was okay at least, Gumball felt very relieved and sat down next to her while he tried to recall what happened to the two of them.

It all finally came back to him and he remembered how they both got here… wherever here is. They were both flying over the northern mountain range when they spotted the Nephilim cloud and moved in to investigate. When they got close enough to get a good look at the shadowy entity, they could see that it was actually pulling snow and ice off of the mountain it was hovering over towards its center.

Curious, they both decided to fly in until they could get a visual as to where all the snow was going. When they were nearing the edge of the storm, a bolt of red lightning shot out from the inky, black cloud and tore their right wing off, sending both of them spiraling into the cloud. The last thing Gumball could recall was both him and Teri screaming as they were completely engulfed in darkness, then something large and reflective looming up ahead that was getting closer and then nothing after that.

Taking a good look around him, it became quite evident that wherever he and Teri were right now, it was not the snowy mountains they were flying over. The landscape was a bizarre setting with red sand covering the ground as previously noted by the Watterson child and a forest of crystalline trees with bands of glowing, white light moving through their trunks and branches like animal veins. The sky above was anything but bright, instead being nothing more than an abyss of darkness. Thankfully with the glowing, transparent, crystal trees surrounding the two of them, the whole forest was lit up like a stadium.

"Where did we just land?" Gumball asked himself from within the confines of his own head,

"We were flying towards the storm, we were struck by lightning, we fell towards… something large and reflective, and now we're here?" he looked around again and still nothing familiar about this place.

More confusing thoughts ran through his head as he tried to rationalize every possible reason for them being here when he heard something rustle right beside him and he was broken from his thoughts. Shifting his focus to the cause of the noise, he noticed that Teri was starting to stir and he quickly reached over to grab her shoulder,

"Teri! Teri! Get up!" he whispered while he shook her.

After a few moments of lightly shaking and whispering her name, the paper girl finally pushed herself off the ground and sat up. She first blinked her eyes a couple of times before glancing around at the unusual environment they were in and taking it all in. She looked visibly confused as she just continued to stare for a bit with her lips tightly pursed and then finally pulled her attention away from the surrounding glowing trees to look at Gumball,

"Wha-er-where are we?" she asked, her voice unusually quiet.

As if I knew, Gumball thought to himself as he shrugged and answered her question with some casual sarcasm,

"We're in the land of people who worry too much about cleanliness and hygiene! A land where paranoid hypochondriacs are chased and tormented by sarcastic classmates and vile dise- OUCH!" he shouted as Teri pulled off her backpack and swung it at his head, knocking him to the side.

She scowled at the cynical kitten and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration,

"A simple 'I don't know' would have sufficed, you overly sarcastic dunderhead!" she growled, strapping her bag on her shoulders once more.

Gumball recovered from the blunt attack to his head and stood back up, dusting himself off,

"Glad to see that you're doing well enough to attack me for my killer comebacks." he remarked with a roll of his eyes. He checked his supplies and found that his bag was still on him along with his bow, but when he checked his quiver of suction cup arrows, he discovered that only nine remained of the original twenty he came with. Must have fallen out when they were struck by that lightning bolt, it was annoying, but at least he still had everything he needed and plus they were still alive so that counted.

Another thing he noticed was that it was eerily quiet in this place, with no animals or insects or really anything living here making so much as a peep. Despite the lively look of this crystalline forest, the world was actually quite dead and reminded Gumball of some abstract art he'd seen while browsing the internet. Teri too was caught by the overall vacancy of this place and felt slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of a forest, as weird as this one may be, being dead and quiet.

She drew herself closer to Gumball and remained by his side as she tried to get a handle on what was happening all around them,

"This makes no sense! Weren't we heading towards the Nephilim and shot down earlier? So why are we here? Were we teleported or something?" she asked, not really sure if he could answer that question.

The moment she mentioned the word 'teleported' Gumball felt a sense of unease and dread wash over him. They fell towards what was probably the Nephilim's body, but then they wound up here, wherever here was. Given the unusual nature of the Nephilim, the storm-like covering, the transportation of several tons of snow from the mountain top, and the sudden appearance of this place, could this mean…

"What if this is the Nephilim's world?" Gumball said, his voice flat and filled with absolute despair.

At first Teri didn't catch what he said and felt a momentary pause as she tried to process what she had heard. He said the Nephilim's world, right? This made little sense to the only Pepakuma child as she surveyed her surroundings once again and tried to wrap her mind around everything. Yes, this place was alien and definitely not of Earth, but why would the Nephilim send a portal, through a portal, and into the northern mountain range in order to collect water. It didn't make a lot of sense to the anthropomorphic paper girl and after thinking hard on the subject, she came up with a theory.

Turning to Gumball, she tapped his shoulder and got the cat to look at her, using her calming presence to ease his worry. It worked and her blue middle school friend stopped looking dreadful, allowing her to address what she deduced from the gathered evidence,

"I don't think so." she started, pulling him over to the the wrecked plane to sit down,

"First off, they're gathering water from the mountains, which is a pretty good spot because there aren't that many people out here, so they're not interested in attacking the city, at least not at the moment. Second, we both saw that it had a body of sorts after we entered the storm and it wouldn't make any sense for them to send a portal through a portal." she noted while using her finger to draw some depictions in the sand for Gumball to easily understand,

"We spun out of control and sailed right into the body before we blacked out." she drew a large circle and a line spiralling towards it, representing their path towards the Nephilim,

"In conclusion, I think we may actually be inside the body, perhaps in a pocket dimension of sorts." she finally stated, drawing another circle within the larger circle.

Gumball sat in silence for a short period in order to process everything Teri had pointed out to him and thought about the given circumstances. It would actually make sense that this wasn't the Nephilim's world because wouldn't there be a lot more Nephilim waiting for them if this was, in fact, a gateway. Besides, if this were a portal leading directly to them, why not position it over Elmore, seeing as that would be the fastest and easiest way to kill all of them. In hindsight, it was pretty reckless of him to jump to conclusions like that and he should have probably pieced everything together with some logic. He was glad Teri was very observant because a few moments ago and he would have expected dozens of giants hellbent on their destruction to come charging through those trees.

Giving her a look that showed he understood what she was talking about, they both calmed down and began to evaluate their next strategy,

"Right! Good thinking, Teri! I was really worried there for a few seconds because I thought we were trapped on some other world that was filled with the evil monsters." he remarked while he wiped his brow in relief,

"Okay, so we're inside the storm's 'body', correct? That should make it easier for us to kill it then, since it doesn't know we're here." he exclaimed, looking to his only companion to confirm his suspicions.

Teri was slow to nod, but was more or less worried about unknown variables,

"Theoretically, yes, but we should also keep in mind that we don't know what's going on here! For all we know, it could have some defenses planted throughout this place, meaning we should proceed with caution and be on the lookout for anything suspicious." she warned, giving her fuzzy companion a serious look.

Shrugging, Gumball pulled the bow off of his shoulder and notched an arrow he drew from his quiver before speaking to Teri once again,

"Sounds like a plan. I brought this along just so I can hit them from a distance in case they decide to show up." he mentioned, as he held it up for Teri to see.

Looking at the archaic device Teri saw him use during one of their plays last year, she thought that it was a smart move for him to bring such a weapon to aid in their fight, but she was still confused about several things,

"Hmm. that's impressive and all, but why would you use that instead of your scythe? I mean I get that it has more range and doesn't produce as much noise as a gun would, but your scythe has more power and doesn't use ammunition. Also, how do plan on damaging, much less killing any Nephilim with a suction cup arrow?" she asked, eyes alight with concern.

After practicing his aim with the string weapon, Gumball loosened his hold and allowed the string to relax while he spoke to Teri,

"To answer your question about its effectiveness against the Nephilim, I plan on attaching pieces of paper with runes drawn onto to them before I fire at the enemy. As for the reason behind using this weapon instead, it's because I still haven't gotten any better with using the scythe's powers and I don't want to put either of us in jeopardy due to my inability to control the flames it produces." he explained with a seriousness he rarely showed and when he meant "we", he was mostly referring to Teri. He was especially afraid for her because he didn't want any of his flames reducing her to a pile of ashes.

There was a moment of silence as Teri noticed her friend's way of referring to the scythe's strange properties and saw that he was most certainly troubled by this aspect. Like her own runes, she was well aware of the danger they posed and was still trying to find better, more effective ways to utilize them and Gumball's scythe was no different. He could definitely use it to their own advantage and it proved very useful to them for the many fights they've been in, but he lacked any sense of control. She understood that what he was really worrying about was her own safety, seeing as she was made of paper and could burn as easily as dried leaves. It must be absolutely terrifying to him, knowing that one slip up could either leave him helpless or worse, with one less companion.

All in all, it made sense why he would seek out an alternative to fighting the Nephilim as opposed to using an unstable weapon that might do them both more harm than good,

"I see…" Teri said glumly, turning her head so he couldn't see the sorry expression on her face,

"That's not a bad way of thinking, but you shouldn't be too scared to try to use it when absolutely necessary. I'm well aware of the risks it poses and I'm willing to help you get around that." she said, her eyes back on him now,

"When this is over, we're gonna get together sometime and help you master that ability." she promised.

There was just something about this girl that always got him fired up and Gumball wasn't sure when and where she started becoming such an encouraging teammate. Either way, what she said was exactly what he needed to hear and now he felt less afraid of the power he wielded. He was still cautious when regarding the scythe's powerful silver flames, but at least it no longer felt like a burden that was weighing him down.

Feeling better already, Gumball placed the arrow back into its quiver, slung the bow over his shoulder, and got up while holding a hand out for Teri to grab,

"Alrighty then, I look forward to when we defeat this thing and head home." he said with his trademark grin flashing.

Teri smiled back and took his hand, allowing Gumball to pull her back up. Her attention was drawn back to the damaged origami plane sitting behind them with its remaining wing pointed up at the sky (ceiling maybe?) and thought about whether it was good idea to grab it or not, seeing as it was mostly burnt. Before she could make up her mind, Gumball's ear twitched as he picked up some noises nearby and approaching, and he quickly pulled Teri down to a crouch behind the plane. She was about to say something in protest, but was silenced when the jacket-wearing cat boy placed a finger to his lips; something was coming and he needed her to be quiet.

After half a minute had passed, the sound of footsteps could be heard, large heavy footfalls made by enormous feet, along with the voices of two people conversing, drawing closer to their position,

"...you should quit dragging your arms, Torax, you're gonna knock over one of the plasma containers and this whole place is gonna go up in one big, white, fiery explosion!" one voice, a masculine one that was quite high in pitch shouted harshly at some unknown figure.

Teri looked at all the crystal trees with glowing energy spreading through them and rubbed her chin,

"Plasma? Is that what the white substance in the trees is?" she mused and continued listening to the conversation between the two unknown figures.

There was an angry grunt followed by a series of furious curses being directed at the figure who spoke,

"You do realize that I have small legs, right!?" a much gruffer voice, presumably Torax, snarled distastefully.

The other voice could be heard snorting in annoyance and continued on with his rant,

"That does not excuse your recklessness! You know fully well that Leliel worked hard to gather all this water to convert into plasma and I don't want it all to go to waste. We need it if we're going to wipe out those Earth vermin that have been resisting us along with their ugly nest." he scoffed as though he were scolding a petulant child.

Teri could tell they were getting closer by the way their footsteps and voices were getting louder and was starting to feel a sense of panic well up from within her. The two were Nephilim without a doubt and while they were arguing like two siblings, she knew very well that both she and Gumball could not take them both on. She was about alert Gumball to the ever present danger when said cat tapped her shoulder and leaned in closer in order to whisper to her,

"Okay, before we hide, I need you to draw a big explosion rune on the wing of the plane." he whispered softly to her while hiking a thumb in the direction of said aircraft,

"Once that's done, we'll go hide behind one of those trees and we'll ambush which ever one is left standing. I want you to create an origami that can hover so that way you can attack from above in case my attack fails, okay? Let's move it!" he ordered and with a shake of his head he peeked over the side the of the plane in order to keep a lookout.

Springing into action, Teri understood what Gumball was planning to do and began fishing out her pencil. She got to work on crafting the deadly rune trap and wondered to herself if the Nephilim would notice such a thing when they arrived? She kept on drawing, believing that Gumball's plan will work and also planned on making a few petrification runes once they got behind the tree in order to better prepare for the second phase of the plan. While she thought about this, Torax continued to whine to his Nephilim companion,

"Oh yeah, I know very well about your perfect plans, Raph, and you wanna know something, I don't really care! Heck, why are we even out here in the mountains, scheming against some backwater, garbage city when we should be out there fighting that pathetic Earth children organization, the NEA or whatever it is the vermin decide to call themselves!" Torax snapped back, giving Gumball and Teri the impression that whoever this Nephilim obviously didn't sign up to be here.

So does that mean they were run like an actual military or something? Also what was this NEA he spoke of? Some sort of resistance group that's been fighting the Nephilim? Many questions like this spun through the minds of both Teri and Gumball, as the paper girl finished her task, tugged on Gumball's sleeve and indicated for the preteen cat to head out. They both quickly darted behind one of the nearby trees about forty feet away from the damaged origami fighter craft and waited for the Nephilim to make their appearance. By the sound of their voices, they were closing in now and the duo should be able to get a visual within a few moments from their hiding spot.

They waited while the voice grew louder along with their footsteps and the two could here Raph continuing his conversation with Torax,

"President Nimrod wants Elmore wiped off the surface of this planet and has given the six of us, the Se'arot (storm) squad, direct orders to do so! I would like to accomplish this task and make our grand leader pleased!" Raph countered, much to his gruffer companion's annoyance as the two finally stepped into the clearing where Teri's aircraft was sitting.

As far as Nephilim went, the pair that had been approaching were probably by far one of the most intimidating monsters both Gumball and Teri ever had the displeasure of resting their eyes on and the two froze up at the sight of them. Both of them stood around the same height, with their heads barely brushing the tops of the leafless, crystal trees which Teri estimated to be at least fifty feet in height and easily made the paper airplane appear like a toy when compared to them. The two children collectively felt a chill run down their backs as they peered at the monsters from their hiding place.

The most threatening of the pair was a massive gorilla-like monster, with bulky forearms that extended all the way to the ground to which its knuckles rested on and a husky torso to match. Also like a gorilla, his hind legs were rather short in comparison to the Nephilim's main body and had three toed feet that helped support his hind quarters, which was odd seeing as his hands had four fingers and two thumbs on either side, emphasizing that he relied heavily on his forearms for support and probably for combat too. The weirdest aspect of this one was his head, which was shaped like spade, round and wide towards the neck with a tapered, pointed nose at the front with two red serpentine eyes placed on either side, providing the giant with an excellent field of vision. Like some of the other Nephilim they faced, this one had silver, reflective skin although there were a couple of black markings that covered the creature's arms and gave him a tribalistic appearance.

He glanced about the clearing with his sharp eyes and grunted when he saw nothing of interest,

"Well, he's an idiot for wasting time and resources trying to wipe out an insignificant smudge because he's an emotional wind bag. There's a reason he never got my vote!" Torax sneered as came to a stop on his ape-like arms.

His comrade, Raph, the one with the higher pitched voice, was a interesting sight to behold. Humanoid in structure, he looked like a cross between a bird and a praying mantis. He was slender, in contrast to his heavy set companion, with long, scythe-like arms that ended in three fingered talons and several spines that stuck out in various sections of his body like his elbows and back. He walked on two, narrow legs joined by two knees, the upper one facing forward and the lower bending backwards, possibly allowing for swift movement. Where his head was concerned, it appeared to match up well with the rest of his body, being streamlined and angular with five spikes protruding from the back of the cranium. For facial features, he had a short, pointy beak, a single nostril near the base of his upper mandible, and five eyes: two large, globular ones that flashed various colors (kind of like Silver Twelve's wings.) and three smaller ones arranged in a triangular pattern on his forehead. To top it off, he looked agile, fast, and deadly.

Ignoring Torax's political comment regarding their apparent leader in a negative light, Raph hungrily scanned the sight before him with his many eyes, causing both Teri and Gumball to duck behind the brightly lit tree before he spotted them. Luckily he didn't see them and Gumball pulled a pad of blue sticky notes out from his backpack and started drawing stone runes on nine of them. He remembered what Teri had shown him and drew the symbols to the best of his ability. Once he was finished, he placed each piece of paper on the suction cup tip of each arrow and looked to see that Teri was already creating a few runes herself along with another origami.

If one of them notices the plane they left out there, then hopefully one of them will go over to investigate and set off the trap they so kindly left them. Once that happens they were going to have to clean up the rest while they maintained the element of surprise. Hopefully this goes smoothly and they don't wind up causing too much of a ruckus, if there were four others like Raph had mentioned then they wouldn't want to stick around for too long when that bomb goes off.

While notching an arrow on the bowstring, Gumball heard one of them let out a surprised gasp and he felt his fur stand on end when he heard one of them speak,

"HA! There! You see, they are here! Leliel said she sensed something enter her dimension and she was right! That means I was too! Forget luring them into the trap we were planning on setting, they came right to us!" an excited Raph shouted with glee.

Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, Gumball first looked at a now frozen Teri, whose eyes were already wide with fright and her mouth pursed in order to contain her scream, and then, with perspiration already collecting on his brow, he slowly and carefully craned his neck over until he could just barely see the other side of the plasma column coursing through the tree's transparent trunk. To his relief, the Nephilim didn't spot them and was actually seen pointing at the downed aircraft, he and Teri arrived in. Guess he didn't quite understand that the aircraft wasn't big enough to hold any passengers, but was already marching towards it without any caution whatsoever.

He quickly signalled to Teri that everything was alright and that she should get ready to fly. Once her fear had subsided and she got back to work on her current paper craft which appeared to be a pair of bird wings and a tail fitted with straps so she could wear them. Clever. Gumball kept an eye on the monsters as they drew in closer to the paper plane and held his breath while he waited. Raph appeared rather eager while closing the distance to the origami, despite not having any facial expressions, while Torax hung back a little while eyeing the object suspiciously and refusing to get too close. Gumball noted his cautious nature and figured that he was going to be a tough one to deal with,

"Raph! Are you stupid? Stay away from that thing. What if it's a trap? The Earth children may be weak and primitive, but they are resourceful and cunning." he shouted in a cautionary tone, reaching out to grab his companion by the shoulder.

Raph paused in his tracks and Gumball felt his blood run cold, then it got even worse when he saw the spindly giant turn away from the trap they set up in order to face his companion,

"Hmm, perhaps you're right." he thought out loud and Gumball nearly felt his heart stop,

"If they left their aircraft here then they're either foolish or clever. I think they might have left it here to throw us off our game a bit, I mean after all, it has been ten minutes since Leliel detected something enter her storm sphere and they could have been long gone by this point!" he concluded.

With that he turned back to the aircraft and began reaching towards it. Torax caught this and realized that Raph completely missed his point and arrogantly assumed that the occupants of the vehicle had fled and left the vehicle behind as a distraction. He quickly reached out with his clawed, six fingered hand and shouted,

"Wait, Raph! That's not what I-!"

"Not too worry! Little do they know that once I catch their scent, there will be nowhere they can hide! We will find them and destroy them!" he declared, his three fingered talon plucking up the frail, ruined plane.

Gumball quickly crouched down and plugged his ears while Teri, having seen the scene unfold right before her crouched down close to Gumball and did the same. Meanwhile, a clearly enthusiastic and naive Raph brought the plane up close to his face and the bird-insect creature found his beak gaping when he saw something flashing on one of the wings. He didn't even have time to ask Torax what the glowing symbol was and felt a rough hand clasp his shoulder when it went off.

BOOM!

A sound louder than a lightning strike, a blinding light and a shock wave that followed swept through the immediate area, forcing some of the pointy branches on the glowing trees to sway a little with the changing air pressure and a vibration traveled through the ground that rocked both Teri and Gumball. With the explosion being set off at point blank range, Raph never stood a chance and his head along with the hand that held the improvised explosive was blown clean off his body, leaving behind a blackening husk that burned purple. Soon there was nothing left of the amateur Nephilim and the residing effects of the bomb faded, along with his life.

Sadly there was one thing left behind: a confused, enraged, and grieving Torax who just witnessed one of his closest friends disappear right before his very eyes. When the bomb detonated, he drew his mighty paw back and used it to shield his face, allowing the shockwave to knock him back a little and he quickly felt the surface of his marked arm increase dramatically in temperature. Once the immense blast subsided and the world was once again quiet, the spade-headed gorilla lowered his arm and saw the remains of his comrade fade away into smoke.

For a moment, the Nephilim remained where he was, replaying the image over and over in head and wondering what just happened, despite it happening right before his very eyes. His friend had just died, right in front of him, he was in arms reach and was too late to stop him. He saw right through the trap and still couldn't prevent him from foolishly taking his own life. He knew it wasn't his fault, Raph had always been an arrogant hot head who thought he was smarter than his bigger companion and always found trouble wherever he went, but that didn't matter to him right now. He was gone.

Meanwhile, from his hiding place, Gumball felt the explosion fade, uncovered his ears, and listened for anything in particular. With the attack being loud enough to pierce his protected ears, Gumball could hear a slight ringing in both of them and waited for it to gradually fade. He was more than nervous now, he saw the one named Raph pick up their rigged airplane and he was forced to look away at the last moment. There was a particular set of fears that dragged themselves through his mind as uncertainty gripped him, was he killed by the blast? Were both of them wiped out? Did they see right through it? Are they coming here right now? Are there others nearby?

He knew none of these questions were going to be answered if he didn't check it out himself and so, he gathered up his courage to do what needed to be done. His first action was to alert Teri, who was still next to him, curled up in a fetal position with her flimsy hands pressing against her ears (she must be so scared now.) and even had her eyes screwed shut as tightly as they could. With a quiet and gentle nudge from his shoulder, the paper girl jumped a little before looking up at him with a mix of fear and curiosity. Placing a finger to his lips, he first pointed at his bow and arrow, then in the direction of the clearing and then, finally, to the origami wings she constructed. Getting the gist of the message, Teri gathered her weaponized papers and crawled over to where her wings were resting without a word being uttered.

Next, Gumball needed to check and see the status of the two enemy combatants before either of them could take action. If both were alive then they would have to lure them into the forest, where they had very little room to move and pick them off there. If there was only one left, then same plan, but with less trouble, hopefully. He heard the sound of Teri's wings flapping and took that as his cue to peek around the tree.

Drawing back the arrow, the tiny blue cat took a deep breath, held it and slowly sidled along the smooth, glassy surface of the bizarre flora/container until his head was clear of the entire tree. Ever since the trap had fired off, it was deathly quiet and even though the ringing in his ears had left him shortly after, it still felt very uncomfortable for the Watterson child. Turning his head until it was facing the clearing, Gumball got his first look at the site.

Standing alone in the large space he and Teri arrived in was the Nephilim, Torax. The other was nowhere to be seen and Gumball could feel his hopes rising with every passing moment he was staring at the lonesome giant. The silver monster hadn't moved from his spot and was just staring at a particular area as if transfixed by that small space, he was so quiet and still that it was slightly unsettling for the young Watterson. If he didn't know better, he would say that the Nephilim was… In shock!?

This caused him to pause for just a moment, as he processed what he was witnessing, his entire perceptive began shifting and he could he feel it. He and Teri both just set a trap for two monsters that have been long since threatening his home, his family, and his friends and would probably kill them on sight had they spotted them. Yet, they destroyed one of them and now this one was just standing there as though he were just trying wrap his mind around what just transpired before his very eyes. Being no stranger to loss, it all came crashing down to Gumball like a ton of bricks and he realized what he had done:

He and Teri just killed this one's comrade, possibly a friend even.

Gumball was about to let himself freeze up on the spot and go over what he had done, even considering whether or not to just let the giant grieve when something snapped him back to reality. He had been peeking out from his hiding spot for so long that it completely slipped his mind and he watched as the enemy soldier's reptilian eye suddenly flick in his direction. His carelessness had gotten him spotted and in an instant, Gumball was no longer staring at a soldier he felt sympathy towards, but a monster that wished for his and everyone else's demise.

There was a brief moment where absolutely nothing happened, no one moved, nor breathed, nor put any thought into their heads. Then that all changed when Gumball jumped out from his hiding place, snapped the bow into a firing position, selected an easy target and released the bowstring. The arrow was sent flying with a Twang! And the once tense bowstring snapped back into its relaxed position, vibrating ever so slightly.

As for the rune tipped projectile itself, the magically enhanced weapon arced through the space between the bow it was fired from and the towering behemoth, quickly sticking onto the beast's upper bicep: right on target! The moment the sticky note was stuck on the Nephilim's arm, the area around it became gray and hardened in an instant, but to Gumball's surprise, it didn't cover a large area like he'd hope and instead, remained there like granite birthmark on his upper left arm.

Torax, now fully enraged, let out a roar directed at the attacking Elmore citizen and his arm markings began to glow a dark red, much like the sand they were standing on. Within seconds, intense heat dispersed throughout his bulky body, burning the arrow that was stuck to him and melting the rubber at the tip, and his pointed nose began to glow the same color as well. Being that he was fired up now, the gorilla-like Nephilim lowered its head like a bull, with his nose pointed directly at the trembling kitten and began to paw at the red sand. Gumball took it as Torax's preparation to charge and found himself reaching for another arrow.

With another roar, the hulking Nephilim used both of its arms to pull itself forward, the force of which kicked up a tremendous cloud of sand and the red hot monstrosity began closing in on its target. Gumball, startled at its ferocity and speed, quickly took aim and fired, but felt hopeless when Torax simply batted the arrow away and continued racing forward. Twenty feet and closing, desperation clawed at Gumball as he fired three more arrows in rapid succession, only to end with them being swatted away or burnt up before they even reached his body.

And within the span of a few moments, Torax was upon him, eyes filled with a hatred that Gumball could only explain as blind and pained. He stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the blue cat and raised his pointed head until hovering directly above his frightened adversary, ready to come straight down with red, hot fury. With only four arrows left and not a lot of time to act, Gumball had no time to think and found his body moving before his brain did.

He dashed forward and dove right between the Nephilim's tiny legs, just as Torax's head came crashing down with the striking force of an artillery shell, creating an impact crater ten feet in diameter. Up above the two, Teri looked down upon the skirmish with a deep concern for Gumball's safety and used her folded bird wings to launch herself at Torax's back, which was facing her. With Gumball being behind the ferocious beast and away from it's thick head, he had an opportunity to strike it in one of his weakest areas: his legs!

Drawing out another arrow and stringing it, Gumball whipped around with the simplistic weapon raised in a firing position. Having sensed that he was outflanked, Torax quickly whipped around when something caught his eye: A small, flying object was diving for his head and he instantly recognized it as another Earth child. With a quick swipe of his massive paw, he struck at Teri and despite missing Teri by a few inches, her light body was swept away by the resulting air current. She tumbled into the crystal tree she was hiding behind, tangling her bird wings up in the branches and receiving a few small cuts from the sharp edges. She groaned as unfamiliar pain surged through her and she tried to untangle her wings from the tree before Torax could attack Gumball again.

Luckily, since the fifty foot Nephilim's attention had been averted, Gumball was given an ample opportunity to counter and after releasing his grip on the string, an arrow sprouted from the Nephilim's hip joint.

Torax's attention was immediately captivated by the odd sensation coursing through his right leg and when he peered down at the stiff appendage, he could see that one of the vermin's arrows had reduced it to stone from the pelvic area all the way to the knee. Like all his Nephilim brethren, he felt no pain, but when he tried to move the frozen limb, he found that it was impossible and felt a surge of panic racing through his already chaotic mind. Without his right leg, the only way he was going anywhere was if he used his arms to drag himself and the humiliation of going about like that was enough to further drive the monstrous entity into a hate filled frenzy.

With another bellow escaping him, he raised his left hand, spotted the little creature that had killed his comrade, and brought it down just as he loaded another arrow and fired. With the intention to hit his shoulder, Gumball hoped that it would be enough to immobilize him, but Torax's hand moved too quickly and intercepted the rune tipped projectile, knocking it aside once again. With no time to stop the entity's incoming strike, Gumball's only move was to back away while raising the only thing that he had in his hands in a desperate attempt to defend himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the end to come.

KRUSH! SNAP!

The six fingered car-sized paw slammed down into the red ground several inches in front of the anthropomorphic cat boy and sent the poor lad flying backwards. Striking the ground hard, Gumball let out a grunt as his head stuck and rocked forward, straining his neck a little and making his teeth click. White hot pain filled his body as something on his face and his chest burned, not realizing that the Nephilim's red hot claw had managed to graze him as it came down. Opening his eyes once again, Gumball could see that his vision was swimming and the tree that was in his lower, left vision kept moving in a semicircle. Realizing that his paws were each clutching something, he carefully lifted them to his face and saw to to his dismay that his bow had been snapped cleanly in two.

"YOU… YOU… YOOOUUUU!" a voice so loud and filled with so much hatred, disgust, and fury rocked Gumball backed to his senses and he stopped looking at his broken weapon in order to check on the brute that sent him flying.

Looking at him now, Gumball could see that he was already raising his other hand for another strike and his scary red eyes were filled with a hungering for revenge. He hadn't moved from his spot, that being hard to do, but Gumball was still within reach of the silver skinned monster so that he could crush him if he stretched his hand out far enough. Gumball didn't see how he was going to get out of this one, once again he had been reckless and underestimated his opponent, now he was going to pay for it.

Torax continued to scream at him,

"YOU COWARDLY, VILE, LITTLE… LITTLE… RAUUUGHH! DIE!" he roared, putting all his grief and vengeance into both his words and his strike.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gumball saw something white and small zip by overhead and right behind the giants head. Torax never noticed, blinded by his own grief over the loss of his friend, which wounded up costing him his life as well. With a sound that sounded like a gasp and a cough, Torax's eyes widened in absolute horror as his spade-shaped head was quickly converted from the silvery, armored hide to a granite like substance that spread like a virus through it. Eventually his body blackened and disappeared within a brilliant burst of purple fire; like his arrogant comrade before, his ignorance had left him exposed to a trap that he simply overlooked.

Watching the massive creature die, Gumball exhaled and rested his head back onto the ground, allowing himself to catch his breath once again. He felt a pang of guilt and frustration erupt within him and he felt his fingers rubbing at his temples while he groaned. Once again, he just barely escaped death and it was all due to his incompetence and recklessness. If he hadn't hesitated and just shot Torax in the neck or in a joint then this battle would have been easier.

Instead, he hesitated because he felt the soldier's pain and completely forgot where he was. It should have been obvious that they could feel certain things like grief and inner turmoil, he should have known that whatever these things are, that they were soldiers carrying out orders and it was his and his two other companion's jobs to stop them. Failure to do otherwise would result in everything ending and he nearly let that happen because of his foolishness.

He needed to do better and realizing that helped build his resolve to do so.

Following the monster's death, Teri set herself down and allowed the wings she strapped to herself to fall to the ground. She spotted Gumball lying on his back some distance away and rushed over to him, worried that he may have been hurt. She skidded to a halt once she reached him and knelt down in order to get a closer look. He appeared to be fine, except there was a large, black, burn mark running down the center of his face and continued down to where his sternum ended, easily ripping through his clothes and exposing his chest. She also saw that his bow was broken and that he was down to only two arrows, not they were going to much use anyway.

He wasn't looking at her and instead was glaring up at the sky as if he were angry about something. Aside from the physical marks, if he was too busy being angry about something then Teri could say that he was probably fine, but asked just to be sure,

"Are you okay? You look like someone was trying to cleave you in two with a branding iron?" she tilted her flat, bear-like head and arced an eyebrow.

Gumball just rolled his eyes and let out a little dipleasured grunt,

"I broke my bow… no wait, scratch that, he did!" he said in a bittersweet tone as he crossed his arms.

Teri nodded solemnly before smiling a little,

"Was that another pun? Because you know, scratching?" she asked.

Still maintaining his grumpy expression, but cracking a smile, he quickly glanced at her then back at the sky once more,

"Maybe." he said, trying to sound apathetic, but failed after a snicker escaped him.

She punched him in the shoulder and shook her head as she stood up, offering out a hand for him. Taking it, he hoisted himself back up and glanced his companion up and down before noticing a few slight tears along her arms and sides. Eyes widening in concern, Gumball stepped forward and took her arm in his hands as he closely examined the wounds,

"You're hurt!" Gumball gasped.

Having forgotten about being flung into the tree-like, plasma container, Teri looked herself over and held back the anxiety that was already starting to present itself to the germaphobic paper doll. She didn't want to freak out because if she did then Gumball probably would too and that was the last thing they needed. Swallowing her fear, Teri put all her focus into shrugging it off and moving on,

"I-It's fine! Just a f-few scratches is all! No need to worry about it or the fact that millions of germs are probably culminating into the open areas now and- AAAUGH! WHERE'S MY DISINFECTANT!"

So much for keeping it cool.

Watching his paper classmate scramble to retrieve her bag from the base of the tree, she left it there in order to reduce weight during their earlier ambush, Gumball shrugged and pulled the scythe out of his bag. He didn't unfold it, but there was no point in keeping in there either seeing as his other weapon was just broken. He locked his gaze onto the smooth, dull grey surface of the handle and then looked at Teri for a moment,

"Even with a safer weapon, I was unable to keep her from getting hurt." he saw her pull out a tube containing bacteria killing chemicals and began squeezing it into her hands,

"I gotta keep her safe. She's the best when it comes to killing the Nephilim, way better than I am at least, but she's so frail. I don't trust myself with this weapon when I'm around her, but right now it's the only thing I have at the moment." it was a sad truth. He knew that whenever he fought against the Nephilim, he would always get hurt in the process, but the majority of the time, he was protecting Teri so she could deal a killing blow or assist him in doing so. He never wanted to see her hurt or be responsible for her pain, that's why he wanted to get better,

He looked down at the scythe again and clenched the terrifying weapon tightly within his palms,

"Looks like all I have right now is my wit and a very destructive weapon that I fear more than the Nephilim. I will not let anything bad happen to her from here on out! Even if I have to keep these flames extinguished, I will do so and give my best so that way we can both win and get back home safely." he thought with resolve and his face scrunched up with determination.

He was then broken out of his funk when Teri returned, looking all patched up with tape and disinfected. Looking down, Gumball saw her germ killing chemicals in hand and how she was looking at him like she was going to use them. Remembering his injuries, Gumball immediately took a step back whilst waving his arms in front of his face. He knew what she was about to do and it was something he wasn't interested in the slightest,

"Teri, no! I'm fine! You don't have to treat me, especially since I only got slightly singed!" he shouted defensively as he continued to back up.

Teri continued to approach him with a determined look on her face and squeezed some bluish-white ooze into her hand. The look she gave him was like that of a mother getting ready to scold her child,

"Gumball, you lost a layer of skin and I'm not even going to tell you how that can lead to some complications later. Now get over here and sit down! This won't take long, I promise!" there was an edge to her voice that warned Gumball that resistance is futile.

Realizing where this was going, Gumball knew there was no arguing his way out of this, less he face the wrath of the paper cut-out and Gumball knew he wouldn't be able to get away from her thanks to all the speed and flexibility cheerleading practice has given her. Stopping and sighing, the cat boy who was the counter to his paper companion stopped dead in his tracks,

"Okay fine, but let me do it myself!" he groaned while stretching out a paw to grab the tube from Teri.

Of course, this forced the germaphobe to halt in her advance as well and a perplexed look spread across her face. She wanted to argue that she could do it and wouldn't mind doing so because she believed herself to be more sensitive and careful when applying this kind of treatment. However, she knew that Gumball was capable of treating himself and that one of the other reasons she wanted to help him, a tiny part of her at least, was because she kind of admired treating up close, but knew that she shouldn't let her personal feelings get in the way when it came to helping out a friend.

With a nod, she handed over the disinfectant and remained quiet for a few moments while Gumball squeezed some into his hand and began rubbing it carefully into the seared areas, wincing and growling as the pain tore through his body at the sudden contact. While he did this, Teri thought over what happened during their skirmish with Torax and recounted something odd that had went down before the fight began. While she was up in the air, waiting for Gumball's attack to lure Torax in, she remembered being above the tree and seeing Gumball hesitate when he saw the spade headed gorilla staring at the spot where Raph once stood. It wasn't until Torax spotted Gumball, did the kitten act and the real fight actually began between the two.

It was yet another close battle that left neither of them unscathed and when Teri saw what Torax was doing before the fight, she kind of had an understanding as to why Gumball may have hesitated. Still wanting to be sure, she looked up at the blue cat boy who was finishing up with his self treatment and asked him about it,

"I assume you hesitated before shooting the Nephilim because you saw him grieving for his friend?" she asked gently, not wanting to sound like she was accusing him of anything.

Gumball was silent when the question was asked, but Teri could tell by the sudden glare that was present on his face that this was the case. She understood why he probably did it, from all their past interactions, she knew Gumball to be sympathetic and soft at times when he wasn't being completely self-absorbed. He was actually showing more of this side in light of recent events and probably felt bad when he saw that both he and herself had caused pain to the monster, causing him to stop and think about his actions before being reawakened to the situation at hand. To be honest, Teri also felt bad for Torax when she saw the sorry state he was in and thought about just going down to Gumball and having them both leave the area before he noticed either of them.

Handing back her specialized medical substance, Gumball explained his actions while taking a good look at the area around him. Curious, he spotted a new crystal tree starting to sprout from the ground not too far away in the clearing they were in and deduced that the flora of this place grew very much like trees do on Earth, but at an accelerated rate and with the glowing fourth state of matter being present. Such a strange place,

"Yeah…" he breathed out when he started, still feeling guilty for his careless inability to act,

"Thanks for saving me again, by the way. Honestly, sometimes I feel like out of the two of us, you're the best fighter because you're level headed, observant, and all your origamis are beautiful, elegant, and match your flexibility. The only thing I can do is clumsily swing around my scythe and fire a few arrows before managing to break the bow because I panic or hesitate too much." he said with a nervous chuckle that poorly hid his low self-confidence.

Getting that Gumball was feeling doubtful again, the paper bear raised her eyebrows in shock and shook her head in disbelief. Sure, he fumbled a lot and got himself knocked around a bit more than she did, but one thing she knew for genuine fact was that she felt that she relied more on him than he did her. He was always willing to take the brunt of the Nephilim's attacks just so she could swoop in and score them both a victory and usually, the first one to act was also him.

He obviously still felt like a screw up from all his past misdeeds that left him with nothing at the end, but the fact that he was still doing all this showed just how strong he really was,

"Oh come on now, you know that I'm not one hundred percent level headed, I panic too from time to time and honestly, I feel like out of the both of us, you're the bravest. Since the first time we fought these things, you were always ready to spring into action against them and even take a few hits just to assure that we both win. You're also resourceful, crafty, trusting, obedient, skilled, and you always have a funny pun on hand when the situation seems dire. In fact, I'd say you're kitty amazing!" she commented, feeling clever with her use of wordplay.

Gumball chuckled once again and his eyes were once again shining with that same mischievousness that Teri had come to both enjoy and detest at times,

"Oh! Compliments and puns, I see! Bear-y nice! No wait, Teri nice!" he countered and waited for the backlash.

Luckily, the only piece of criticism he received from his flat, snarky, slightly aggressive, animated paper companion was just a simple roll of the eyes and a smirk that said, oh boy… before she came to her conclusion,

"Also, just because you can empathize with someone doesn't make you weak, it means you have humanity and that's a good thing!" she spoke as though she understood and knew this from her own experiences. And she did, she visited her parent's hospital very often and saw/met many types of patients there and regardless of who they were and where they came from, she always felt something for these poor people regarding what kind of situation they got into. She was glad to see that Gumball could see some things the way she did and once again, could not ask for a better person to be with,

"But, please remember next time that we're kind of in the middle of a war and I don't want anything to happen to you… and everyone else because there is only so much I can do to help." she added in as a warning.

Treating this as a learning experience, Gumball gave a silent, yet affirmative answer to Teri and mentally promised to never hesitate again. She was right, there was too much at risk here and while it was okay to feel sorry for someone else, he couldn't just stop everything because he felt bad. On another note, everytime he was left alone with Teri, Mr. Pepakuma made him promise to take care of her and he intended to follow through on that promise for many reasons, mostly personal.

Looking up at her, he took the initiative and rested the folded weapon he had over his shoulder,

"Right! I will definitely do better next time! Let's go hunt down Leliel! I feel as though this place is the biggest threat to Elmore and the other three Nephilim can be easily dealt with later." he declared, although he knew that all the Nephilim were difficult and fighting four of them was going to require a lot of caution and careful planning. They both no longer held the advantage in numbers, but their element of surprise, plus their overall versatility gave them an edge against these overwhelming odds.

Looking around the alien environment, Teri noticed that she couldn't actually see anything past the trees and realized that finding the Nephilim was going to be more difficult than they realized. She agreed with Gumball that this place needed to be taken down quickly before it reached Elmore, but the overall size of this place made it feel as though looking for a certain giant would be like trying to locate a blade of grass in the great plains. This was also coupled with the fact that they didn't even know what they were searching for, the Nephilim came in all shapes and sizes and for all they knew, Leliel could literally be the dimension they were in.

They could definitely deal with any of the others lurking about the forest, given that they were careful, but how could they fight something that could create an entire world, or at least a section of it, that could harvest water and convert it to plasma for uses that most likely involved damage. Come to think of it, it made sense why it would be harvesting water, it could separate the hydrogen from the oxygen atoms and convert said hydrogen into plasma and use the oxygen for something else, perhaps to help the trees grow? Teri remembered hearing about it in chemistry class and she also remembered that plasma was highly explosive and was what the sun was made of.

Suddenly, something went off in her head and she figured out a possible way to track down Leliel,

"Gumball!" she announced with a brilliant gleam in her eyes that caused the cat to straighten up in surprise,

"Remember when Raph said they were going to lure us out in a trap? I think I know why they are growing these plasma trees! They are harvesting them to make bombs so they can hit certain areas in Elmore in order to draw us out to fight them!" she was on a roll and Gumball was honestly surprised at how she was able to get all this just from a few simple observations.

Shrugging, he asked her what she meant while he extended his scythe's handle, used it as a support to lean on and continued to listen to her spin her theory,

"Well, I was thinking, what if they're gathering the plasma somewhere and that somewhere is where Leliel is? I know it's a stretch, but I feel as though it's the best lead we can go off of!" she exclaimed, shaking both fists in front of her in pure excitement.

This did sound like a promising lead to Gumball and while he figured that he shouldn't just blindly follow along with what everyone says, he knew for a fact that Teri is usually spot on with her observations and thus, had no reason to doubt her. She was truly a remarkable person and Gumball was more than certain that following her course of action was the smartest choice for the both of them. With his enthusiasm clearly written all over his face, Gumball twirled his weapon a few times with a flick of his wrist before resting the magical item on his shoulder again and began walking past her in order to get a better look at the forest of light surrounding them,

"So we seek out a Nephilim, possibly and preferably a harvester, and we follow him back to a base of operations or something like that? Sounds sneaky, non-violent, and a better alternative then what I had in mind, which was just flying around until we spotted something." he stated before twirling around on a single heel to face his clever companion,

"Sounds like a plan! Take the lead, captain Pepakuma!" he said with another two fingered salute similar to the one he gave her before they took off from his house.

"Right, but first we actually are going to need to fly, that way we can better scale our surroundings!" she explained as she began unzipping her bag, which was jam-packed with papers,

"He called me captain Pepakuma again! I really like that title, maybe I should have him call me that more often. Although, I will never let him name our kids because he really is ridiculous when… wait a minute! Kids? With him!? What is wrong with me? When did I start thinking of such stupid things in the first place? There must be something wrong with this place and its making me go crazy!" she rationalized, although she couldn't explain the sudden red hue that was flooding her cheeks while she continued to search for a certain black piece of paper.

Eventually finding what she was looking for, Teri began folding the blanket-sized object while Gumball kept a lookout for anything suspicious like he normally did and wondered what the other Nephilim would look like. Thinking about Raoh and Torax again, Gumball felt that the two were like guards or scouts who were sent out to patrol certain sections of this place and took orders from another Nephilim. He heard them also mention that they were part of a squad, with a name that he didn't quite pick up on and he wondered if the squad was comprised of specialized units with special tasks given to them based on their forms and abilities.

If that were the case then, maybe there were harvesting units too and thus, one of them could lead them straight to their leader. If that wasn't the case, then they must have a gathering spot regardless and observing them would be beneficial. Either way, time is of the essence and they needed to find Leliel fast before they decide to carry on with their attacks and wipe out many unsuspecting people.

When gumball turned his attention to Teri, he saw that she was finished with her newest creation: a black origami made in the semblance of a bat, with sharp, angular wings that rose and fell in narrow slopes that gave it the appearance of the flying mammal's jagged wing design and a pair of wide, leaf shaped ears that rose prominently from its tiny head. Once again, Teri had outdone herself with her practical design and attention to detail that left Gumball completely amazed by her skill. When staring at Teri and the bat, Gumball noticed that the two contrasted beautifully, with Teri being brighter in color, very cute and simple looking and her crafted animal being darker, sharper, and more dangerous looking. All in all, the two looked well together and Gumball stood by his earlier statement that everything she created had an elegance to it.

Resting on her knees, Teri mired over her work and with a satisfactory grin, she turned to Gumball and told him to hop on. He did as he was told, complimenting her work which she accepted gratefully before she joined him and sent them both up in the darkened sky above. With the two of them blending in perfectly with the starless ceiling, they were free to survey the entire area without fear of being spotted.

They were both treated to a spectacular view once they reached the prefered altitude, seeing the numerous glowing tree crystals shining like stars against a wavy sea of red set in contrast to the blackened sky gave a wonderful sense of beauty and awe for the two airborne children. They could also see that this space stretched for miles without any visible ending, implying that the space within the Nephilim storm was bigger than the outside. With the land brightly lit below, the cat and bear continued to survey for certain creatures and/or structures that may clue them in on something.

They stayed up there for a few minutes, quietly looking when Gumball peered down at the bat he was riding on and felt a question arising from within his grey matter,

"Hey Teri, just out of curiosity, I notice that you like to make animals and jets from paper, but how come you don't make other things like cars, or an extra set of limbs, or a weapon even?" he asked.

An odd question to ask, but Teri understood where he was coming from and already knew the answer to his quirie,

"I can do those things, but sometimes it just depends on the situation. I prefer to make animals because they can traverse multiple environments and have a lot of good uses when it comes to combat and utility. As for why I make military jets, simply because they are fast and very maneuverable, plus they are especially handy when fighting the Nephilim. I actually found that most of them are poorly equipped to handle aerial attacks and I think we should use that to our advantage more often." she replied, having learned this throughout most of their experiences.

"That makes sense." Gumball said to himself using his internal monologue and continued to ask Teri questions about her power,

"So, do you think you can also make long ranged weapons like paper throwing stars with runes written on them? Maybe we get a rubber band and you can fire enchanted paper wasps at the Nephilim. It would be a great help if one of us could hit them at a distance like Rob can." he said, although he was still a little salty about his bow being broken.

Hearing his questions regarding her ability to create throwing and projectile weapons, Teri found herself struck dumb by the realization that she could have been fighting the Nephilim wrong this whole time! Here it was, a solution right under her nose and she had completely missed it! It was so obviously simple that she actually felt ashamed that she didn't even consider the possibility of such innovative weapons and Gumball, with his mile-long imagination, simply brought it up like it was a mere suggestion.

Feeling a little too prideful to be shown up in such a way, Teri gave back a very sly response to her furry companion,

"Why Gumball! Are you implying that I, captain Teri Pepakuma, master of origami and paper crafting would not know of the art of shuriken making!" she huffed, feigning offense while turning back to give a sneaky look.

Not too soon after, Gumball found himself already applying a sly smile greater than that of his paper companion's and he allowed his face to morph into that of some chubby, middle aged nerd with a neck beard and rectangular glasses with thick black rims as he scoffed at her,

"Akchyually, I wasn't implying anything about your skills as a paper magician, so technically speaking, you have nothing to get offended about! I'm also offended that you're offended, so egh!" he shot back through buck teeth and a nasally voice that would most defifintely get him punched in the face by Julius Oppenheimer.

The two shared a laugh and continued to soar through the vacant sky in search of any Nephilim. They liked making small talk like this because it seemed to just lift the ominous mood right from the two middle schoolers and made them feel less terrified of the possible outcomes that the situation might bring. With shining optimism, the two shot through the sky on their winged steed and soon found a particular object looming on the horizon ahead of them.

Several miles away, in contrast with the with the vibrant colors of the pocket dimension, was a colossal wall of sorts, that seemed to stretch both ways as far as the eye could see. Once they got closer, they could see it was a fortification similar to the ones used by the feudal kingdoms of medieval Europe, except this one was massive and was comprised of large stone bricks that shown like cooling lava, mostly black with splotches of hot orange and red speckling the surface. Peeking over which, was a lone tower that stuck out of the ground like a spear. It was very long and narrow with no visible windows or any external decorations. The fact that it was so large and located so deep within the forest of light, Gumball and Teri could tell right away that this had to be a place of importance: never mind the plan to track down the Nephilim, the place to go was staring boldly at them!

With such a sight to behold, Gumball remained in silence for a moment while Teri spotted something else nearby hovering above the wall and realized all at once that it was a flying Nephilim. She quickly sent the bat into a nosedive straight into the forest below and all the while managed to catch a glimpse of the flying creature that was guarding the walls. Much like Toxic Pill, this one was not shaped like an animal, but was rather simple instead. It had metallic, reflective skin much like the other two Nephilim they fought before and was resembled a saucer with six spikes protruding out from the sides, making it look like a snowflake was dipped in liquid silver.

Taking them down until they were at least a hundred yards away from the wall, which now towered above them like a ninety degree cliff of hardening magma, Teri set the bat down gently and hopped off, followed closely by Gumball. Peering up at the structure of titanic proportions, Gumball pondered why they stopped, seeing as scaling the massive fortification was going to be incredibly difficult and flying was just way easier. Seeing as the only one who could possibly answer his question was also the pilot of the origami, Gumball shot the paper manipulator the question,

"Um, why did we land? You think Leliel is on the other side of that wall?" he asked, sounding a bit impatient.

Without saying a word, Teri pointed at a circular object that was floating above the wall and Gumball recognized it as a Nephilim guard, seeing as it couldn't really be anything else. He felt his tail droop along with his ears and he remained rooted where he was,

"Oh." was the only word he uttered as he watched the floating Nephilim with its ring of spikes glide right by from its position high above the wall.

Packing away the origami, Teri set off towards the stony barricade with Gumball just now noticing and sprinting to catch up with his silent and now dead serious teammate. In front of him, the Pepakuma child felt the wall with her hands and verbally listed their options while walking, making sure Gumball heard her,

"Obviously flying over the wall is not an option, although we could just wait it for to pass by, but that could take some time and we also don't know what its senses are capable of. We could also just walk around until we find an entrance, but that could take a while too and it could be guarded. We can try climbing, but the walls are very smooth and I don't think any of my origami insects can clasp onto something with very few ridges..." she kept on thinking about possible ways to get past the barrier, but kept finding issues.

Meanwhile, Gumball studied the wall for a moment and focused mostly on the glassy surface that seemed rather polished despite its scary appearance. He thought about Teri's abilities as well, but just like her, he also kept running into dead ends. He checked his own inventory and found that he only had a few school items that were definitely not going help them here, along with his scythe and two suction cup arrows that he hadn't used yet.

He looked at the wall and back at his supplies and an idea came to him.

As usual, it was crazy and possibly far more dangerous than some spiritual giants of old, but it was well worth mentioning. Dashing forward, he circled around Teri until he was right next to her with his long, blue tail swishing side-to-side and with both arrows clutched in his hands. Just looking at him, Teri could tell he had something crazy figured out, but was sure it was bound to work,

"Teri, I have an idea that just may stick!" he proclaimed.

Without much of a choice, Teri listened in on the brilliant schemer's idea and already found it to be a combination of her worst fears and some brilliant enginuity. Little did they know that two Nephilim had already been sent away on an important mission within the Northern mountain range and that only half their total force remains. The two absent Nephilim had been sent off on a mission to investigate a mysterious magical anomaly that had recently sprung up in one of the mountain's caves and were given direct orders to destroy anyone there.

-Jotenheim cave, 8:10 PM-

The wind continued to nip at Rob's exposed flesh as he stood out in the evening air, furiously rubbing his arms with his hands in a desperate attempt to stay warm while his teeth chattered and clicked as he felt another chill sweep through his body. He thought that the translation process was going to take place inside the cave, but Mrs. Jotenheim insisted that they work out on the front ledge, that way the chance of waking Hector up was minimized even though Rob was certain that with the way the Giant slept, nothing short of the apocalypse could even stir the giant. The only good thing about the situation was thanks to her slow and easy to follow steps, Rob pretty much had the whole process memorized in his head and wouldn't have to do stuff like this every time he discovered something new.

For the past twenty minutes while the troll witch stood on a wooden stool and prepared a mysterious concoction within a black cauldron sitting over a roaring fire pit. Rob had been acting as her assistant throughout the whole procedure and was handing her every ingredient she sent him off to fetch. To be fair, if it were any other part of the day, Rob would have been fine with this, but being as late as it was in the evening was slowly starting to wear away at the cyclop's will to stay here. Mrs. Jotenheim also taught him a few things about the runes he didn't know and a few of things about the Nephilim that managed to evade him because he never knew about these things,

"Listen here, Rob, there's something about the runes you should know. They're not your typical form of magic that involves a few chants that grant you some powers over the laws of nature." she had first said when she started the fire using the exact process she described by chanting a latin verse and causing fire to appear, surprising Rob in the process,

"The runes act as gateways that channels the spirit's energy into specific spells, anyone can use them as long as they have a powerful spirit and can afford to expend a little energy." she explained.

This fascinated Rob the first time he heard it, but it had left him with a few questions that he was rather eager to ask,

"Spirit energy?" he restated out loud while raising his monobrow in a way that indicated his confused state of mind,

"So what you're saying is that in order to actually activate the runes, one must have a lot of spiritual force to cause a reaction from the symbols? So do I have a lot of spirit energy or have I been using very small amounts of it when I use my rune bullets against the Nephilim?" he asked, not entirely sure how the process worked seeing as he originally thought that they were activated in the presence of the evil giants.

Placing the massive pot over the cackling fire pit, the miniature woman had answered him to the best of her abilities,

"The moment you draw or carve a rune into something, it does start drawing small amounts of force from your spirit, however, more of it is used when you put actual thought behind your actions. You see the mind and the spirit are connected in more ways than you realize and when you have a strong desire to take action, that resolve is then added into that rune, so the moment you use it, those thoughts become your actions and your action becomes magic. Could you please grab me a jar of frog eyes? They're in the back right next to the fridge." she commanded and pointed out the general direction of the desired item with her finger.

Rob quickly rushed off and found the needed items with relative ease, although the cave was pretty dark which caused a bit of a restriction for the preteen. This task, like many others would be repeated until the present and Rob will ask all sorts of important questions in the meantime,

"Okay, so how come it doesn't misread my actions when i'm thinking of something negative and detonate prematurely?" he asked while handing her the jar of disembodied amphibian eyes, a sight he didn't find all that appealing.

The witch pulled out three eyeballs and plopped them within the cauldron and quickly answered before she started a chant,

"Like I said, it all depends on your resolve, when you usually jump into a fight, I bet your only thoughts are, gotta defeat this thing or else everyone dies, it all reads into the magic and once you set your sights on a goal, the magic won't activate until it's within close proximity to your enemy. There are other runes that don't require you to be close to a Nephilim and there are even some that can benefit you just by activating them." she quickly chanted her latin verses again and the contents of the cauldron burst into blue flames before being replaced with a green tub of goo.

This brought Rob's attention to Gumball's scythe and he remembered how he was not only able to create a spell that stayed on his blade, but actually gave him the ability to deflect the Nephilim's doom blast, something he's seen both of them struggle against in the past. So Gumball's weapon of choice had an enhancement type rune on it that activated by some kind of need by the user, but used up a lot energy when used, as was evident by Gumball's drained state after using it twice. Then again, there were two other runes that Gumball hasn't used yet and this struck Rob as interesting.

Once Mrs. Jotenheim had finished reducing the frog eyes to frog soup, Rob quickly asked another question while keeping a stoic expression,

"Mmm, okay, but what about weapons that have been engraved with multiple runes? How does one activate the right one?" he surveyed the troll's asymmetric face as she thought up the next ingredient for the translation magic.

She told him to hand over thirteen blank papers, if he had any. and he did so after tearing some out of his notebook, she then told him how such things were achieved,

"First of all, it helps if you understand the rune and its power. The Nephilim, back when they reigned over the planet, had developed a better understanding of magic and created the runes in order to help simplify it for easier use. Once you have a better grasp on how the symbols work, you can use them any way you choose!" she allowed every individual sheet to slip into the cauldron and ordered him to fetch some human teeth.

Once again he did as he was told, and when he got back, he tried to bolster himself against the cold by keeping close to the fire, although his back was left unprotected. Mrs. Jotenheim seemed unaffected by the cold and the purple cloaked sorceress continued to add to her mix with another chant and pulled out a spoon to start stirring the contents of the magical brew. She continued with this simple task all the while asking Rob a question this time,

"I'm guessing one of your comrades has an enchanted weapon in their arsenal?" she glanced up at him once, seeing his surprised expression through the green glow of the enchanted concoction.

Rob was surprised at this lady's astute perception and found that she could read him like a book. Without hiding anything from her, Rob retold her how he saw Gumball taking the Nephilim on with a simple-looking scythe that had the ability to cut through the Nephilim with relative ease and even recalled what he saw during the battle near the chemical treatment plant. The whole time he spoke, the normally skeptical sorceress seemed quite intrigued by his retelling of the events and Rob even remembered seeing her look genuinely surprised when he mentioned the miraculous counterattack utilized by Gumball's silver flames that saved both the cat's life and his own that day.

She kept on stirring, but it seemed all automatic at this point,

"That's… perplexing. Where did Gumball gain such a weapon, if you don't mind me asking?" the expert on sorcery and magical items was very interested in the all the possible places that Gumball's Nephilim killing weapon could have come from.

Seeing no harm in answering, Rob inched closer to the fire until the former void wanderer was basking in the warmth of the flames that were licking the bottom of the boiling cauldron and he spoke,

"If I heard right from one of the few times I was spying on them, he claims to have gotten it from Carrie Krueger a while back and probably when he was still moping like an idiot over miss perfect-cheerleading-captain-shapeshifting-super-girlfriend." he said, not knowing much about the circumstances surrounding where his nemesis got the ancient weapon in the first place, although he was curious about the overly destructive farming tool Gumball was using.

Finished with stirring, the troll mother of Hector was letting the pot sit for a bit while she explained why she was concerned for Gumball's safety,

"So he's used a few times and wound up nearly passing out from it's effects. Doesn't surprise me one bit, he needs to be more careful when using enhancement type runes-!"

Rob interjected when he felt like he knew where this was going and decided to express his own thoughts on the matter,

"Let me guess! It drains a lot of spiritual energy? Yeah, kind of figured that when he looked completely winded from his double attack on Toxic Pill. He doesn't seem in danger as long as he gets a good nap in!" he said with an apathetic wave of his pink hand.

Feeling disrespected, a tick mark formed on the grumpy cleaning lady's forehead and she swat the arrogant cyclops on the head with her wooden spoon, causing him to screech in pain as he grabbed the top of his head and felt a stinging welt starting to form under his hair blocks,

"Maybe you should show a little respect for your elders when they're telling you something important by not running your mouth when i'm talking!" she shouted before cooling her jets and quickly getting back on track less she wants to lose her temper and cause some real damage,

"Anyway, enhancement type runes are incredibly dangerous because controlling them is a real nightmare! If anyone loses focus of their true objective while using such spells then the power will corrupt their very mind!" she sounded very hysterical when spewing off this new info.

"Does he train with the scythe?" she quickly asked, worried about the potential danger someone as reckless and untrained as Gumball could pose on those around him and himself.

Getting over his smack on the head and for getting yelled at, Rob once again didn't have a solid answer for her, seeing as he was spending less time watching Gumball in order to modify his machines. Shrugging, the cyclops walked about the place as though he were pacing,

"Well, I wouldn't know that exactly, but Teri did mention yesterday that he works out, so perhaps he manages to wrestle weapons training in there somewhere. Maybe, he trains with Teri as well, those two do make a good team and they hang out a lot." he noted, giving the troll witch some reassurance.

She let out a gasp of air and felt herself becoming less tense, if what Rob says is true then Gumball should be able to overcome the powerful drawbacks of the ancient scythe, given time and patience of course. From what Rob had told her before they were all a pretty determined team set on protecting Elmore and if the blue cat was as determined as Rob says he is, then maybe Gumball would prove to be one of their greatest assets. Then there was one other thing that Mrs. Jotenheim felt like asking,

"Does Gumball have any strong feelings towards Teri that you know of?" she asked, not because she was curious about the cat boy's social life, she could care less who he liked and disliked, but more for a reason regarding his powers.

Rob felt like this should be an obvious one to him because if he were to go off of how many times he's seen the two EJH students constantly getting into fights and laughing at each others lame jokes while being completely interested in the other person, then Rob could definitely say that one of them had a thing for the other. Heck, it was so sickeningly obvious that he was sure the two were just playing a game of who could last the longest without admitting their actual feelings. He didn't like discussing the topic of personal feelings and romance in general, but he decided to humor the haggard cleaning lady,

"Dude, it's so obvious that a psychic monkey could pick up on it, like Bobo, the fortune teller at Joyful Burger, for example. I think we all know that Gumball is just a wuss when it comes to asking girls out, but yeah they seem to have a thing for each other." he answered in a very sarcastic and exaggerated manner.

Feeling positive about her perspective on the matter, Mrs. Jotenheim was glad to hear that Gumball had strong feelings for Teri, even though she didn't ask to know if they were in love or not, and with a snap of her fingers, the green broth within the cursed pot turned orange and she began stirring once again,

"That's good to know. If Gumball has someone he feels strongly towards constantly with him then it should help him concentrate on containing his power or it could have the opposite effect and distract him." she replied, understanding the pros and cons that came with strong attachments to people,

"Now, I require one more ingredient before the translating process can begin, bring me one of those Orangutan toenails in that box next to Hector's doorway." she pointed in the direction of the cave once more.

Peering into the cave, the power hungry madman saw Hector's giant, sleeping form in the pale light from within his room before he looked towards the left and spotted a box matching Mrs. Jotenheim's description. Walking over to it, Rob entered the warm cave and read the label that was painted on the side. He frowned and pointed at the box while calling out to Hector's mom,

"Is it the one labeled, 'OLD PLOT DEVICES'?" he turned his head so he could see her more clearly.

Mrs. Jotenheim looked up from her potion, her mouth twisted in a frown and her mismatching eyes settled on the young lad's form and then on the crate,

"Agh! Stupid paint fading, that originally read 'OLD BLOT DEVICES' because I used them to blot out the memories of people who had witnessed my magic, but yeah, that's the one! Now hurry up and get those toenails over here!" she shouted rather gruffly.

They both continued to work on the spell all the way up to the present while occasionally bringing up rune subjects and seeing how the potion was doing. Rob was still cold and uncomfortable being here, but he was glad the translation spell was almost complete and he could go home soon. Hopefully, this will be the last time he ever needed to come here for anything magic related and considered the Awesome Store for his next paranormal visit.

"Once the broth turns purple I'm going to need your rune book so that way we can begin with the interpretation. Sorry for taking so long by the way, I know you must be cold." she was showing a softer side of her that Rob was completely caught off guard by and wondered if she had somehow gotten possessed by a demon.

He looked around for a few moments while he moved in closer to the fire and allowed his hands to warm up on their own. In the background, Rob could hear thunder from far away and figured a storm must be approaching, which he thought was odd since they were supposed to get overcast by noon tomorrow, not by this evening. Well, things never went as expected and Rob was one to understand that even the greatest of scientific minds can come up short when trying to predict the unpredictable,

"Meh, it's no big deal! The fire is warm and once the spell is done the trek back down the mountain shouldn't be too much of a hassle." he explained, although he knew that it probably was going to be a dangerous trip back to his car seeing as it was already dark and some of the night creatures have probably come back out seeing as Hector was sleeping.

"I could teleport you back down to your car, if you want?" she offered, once again creeping Rob out with her kindness,

"I mean I'd feel bad if I sent a kid down in the forest all on his own and he somehow got hurt when I could have done something about it." she gazed into her green glowing sludge, her face far more sympathetic and her shoulders were even slumped downwards.

Touched by her kind offer, Rob decided that it was best to allow for some help down to his car seeing as the journey would probably be perilous and since she was offering. He also noticed that the idea of helping others seemed to bring her down a little and he wondered what could have brought about such a reaction. Keeping his eye on her, he rubbed his hands together in order to spread the warmth and he cleared his throat in order to catch her attention,

"What's got you so down? Was there a time when you needed help, but it was refused to you?" he guessed, going off his observations.

At first Mrs. Jotenheim was about to berate him for butting into business that wasn't his, but she quickly stopped herself, seeing as she was the one who made the face and he wasn't doing anything wrong really. Sure he was a bit nosy, had gotten himself in a terrible situation and chose some dark paths, but she could see that he was just here for answers and while this wasn't what he initially came here for, it seemed as though the kid had a natural curiosity in everything. He kind of reminded her of herself when she was about his age, except she made many bad choices that cost her dearly…

Sighing, she continued to wait for the glowing potion to change color, which could be any minute now, and she retold one of her most well kept secrets she held not within dungeons and chains, but within the dark confines of her mind,

"Back when I was a kid, probably around your age, I too had a fascination with everything that was unknown to me and others. My family and fellow classmates were not ones to dwell on such matters, but i was always interested in the occult and magic. I got my first taste of it when I was twelve, after I had purchased a creepy old book of spells from the Awesome Store, which back then, was just simply known as Mr. smither's shop of the mystical wonders." she smiled at the memory before she continued,

"After learning my first few spells, I became further invested and soon began amassing quite the collection of spell books, magic charms, and all sorts of powerful items. I even had a special necklace once called the shroud stone that allowed me and another person to hide from the watchful eyes of society for a short period of time. Eventually, during one of my studies, I came across a spell that could teleport individuals to a place beneath the Earth, unknown to both Humans and Bizarros, a place where a powerful giant lived and could give secrets that no man on Earth could ever hope to grasp. So naturally, I tried the spell and after a few tries it worked, I found myself in a cavern far below the Earth's surface and face-to-face with one of the oldest and friendliest giants to ever exist." she turned to look back towards a certain someone back in the cave and Rob followed her gaze until his single yellow eye rested on Hector.

Shocked, Rob turned back to her with his jaw agape and a thumb hiked in Hector's direction, he gasped,

"Hector's dad!" his mind was relatively blown, for he too had heard the legend of the powerful Earth giant while he was studying up on Nephilim and was absolutely shocked that the tiny troll witch was able to meet with a god-like entity that could cause the fiercest of storms, crack even the mightiest of mountains, and shake the Earth with just his laughter alone. That giant was rumored to be a titan from a long forgotten age and it never would have occurred to him that he was Hector's dad.

Still smiling as if fond of the memory, Mrs. Jotenheim's tone shifted to warm while she continued retelling what happened, this time using her magic to form pictures within the potion,

"Fjel Jotenheim." she announced his name with such passion, as if it were something she cherished deeply,

"Despite being in a cave for thousands of years, he was quite charming and patient. I will admit, I was quite intimidated by him at first, but all that subsided after we just talked and got to know each other more. It was actually rather easy for us because we were both outcasts." she said, showing a picture of a little troll woman, Mrs. Jotenheim obviously, standing at the edge of a ledge of sorts while the silhouette of a giant loomed over her.

"So two very different people were able to find one another and accept each other through mutual understanding." Rob mused as she told the story, feeling as though it sounded familiar.

The storm coming in from behind them made itself ever more present when several more thunder strikes could be heard echoing across the rocky terrain all around them and Rob wondered if he could make it home before it reached Elmore. Meanwhile Mrs. Jotenheim continued to retell her life story as though the storm wasn't even a concern,

"We spent a few years together, I told him about the upper world and he told me amazing things about his experiences in the past and all kinds of secrets about magic. I used to skip whole school days just to visit him and talk. Eventually, we both fell in love and when I was sixteen, Hector came into the picture." she turned once again to Hector's room before looking back at the pot with a pained expression on her face and she found herself slumping again,

"Unfortunately, when news of my pregnancy reached my folks and everyone at my school, things went downhill from there. My parents were furious and they kicked me out from their house underneath a bridge in San Francisco, I was forced to constantly live with any friends I still had, and eventually dropped out of high school all together. Sadly, Fjel was unable to help me in caring for our son and I soon found a job as a cleaning lady at Chanax and eventually moved to Elmore." she let out a sigh and took a moment to reflect on those events.

Rob, who had been listening the entire time, found himself feeling quite surprised and sympathetic towards this overprotective, hard working and somewhat mysterious woman's story. He knew what it was like to have no home, but having to take care of a child too, was just something he couldn't even fathom. How many hard choices and sacrifices did this person have to make in order to make it where she was? It was definitely tragic when he thought about it and he found himself asking about Fjel,

"Why couldn't Fjel help you? Surely if he was as powerful and wise as he was depicted in the books then he could have provided you with a better way of living, right?" he asked, sounding rather confused about the old giant's lack of help to his family.

Her next answer surprised him,

"Fjel was helpful. Whenever I needed a place to stay, he would provide me with food, shelter, clothing, and company whenever my friends or even I couldn't. The problem was though, his reach couldn't extend very far outside his cave, and if he tried leaving, his mere presence would have caused mass destruction to any civilized areas. Even as great and wise as he was, he couldn't do much outside his domain and what's worse was his five year waking period was coming to an end and he was about to drip into his five year sleep." she said, not sounding too bitter about it all, but Rob could tell it was rather difficult for her to accept.

"Why did he need to sleep for five years?" Rob asked.

"He uses a lot of magical energy when he's awake, so he can only stay conscious for five years and needs five years of sleep in order to recharge. We wedded a year after Hector was born and shortly before he went to sleep, which fell a little after my seventeenth birthday. He was lucky to see his son before he drifted off on the fifth year. Looking back on it now, it was probably the best and worst five years of my life. I met an incredible being that I got to know very well, was given a son that I still love to this day, and all in all, was given a simple life that I can enjoy. It was my impulsive decisions that got me here in the first place and lead to a lot of horrible things happening to me, but looking at it all now, I'm happy with what I have. Keep that in mind by the way, I know you think you've lost so much and you did, but you have so much more now." this obviously went way beyond the answer he wanted, but Mrs. Jotenheim was happy to give off any kind of life advice she could to strangers.

Having taken all that in, Rob now had a better understanding of the witch troll and realized that she seemed a lot less like the overbearing and obnoxious parent he made her out to be and more like a person who had seen and been through some hard times and was using that experience to do her best for herself and for her son. Take away all the wacky things about her and Rob could understand that she was just a normal person who had to go through the drags of life like everyone else. Suddenly, he felt as though his own issues seemed so trivial and that maybe he had been focusing on his own loneliness for so long that he kind of missed out on everything else.

There was something else that caught his attention though, something that had been building up in the back of his mind and he realized that it was a concern that regarded Mrs. Jotenheim's husband. First off, his reluctance to come close to human and bizarro civilization due to his mere presence being enough to cause catastrophe was a bit striking. Another thing that hit the disfigured polygon being was that Mrs. Jotenheim had mentioned that Fjel was thousands of years old and knew many secrets regarding early civilization and magic. Couple that with the fact that Mrs. Jotenheim possessed runes in her own library and even had working knowledge of the ancient symbols, Rob was very suspicious of this Fjel character.

Before he could ask though, something caught his attention, causing him to look up into the sky as something began descending towards them and what he saw made his pupil slit in terror. Shooting towards them at a hundred feet above the cave entrance was a wasp like entity with glossy, black, armored skin, four pairs of gossamer wings with a wingspan twice that of a Cessna 172 (a small, four seat, single engine, propeller plane commonly used by private pilots in general aviation.) that beat rapidly in order to maintain lift, six red eyes lining the sides of its narrow little head, and its most striking feature, a translucent lower abdomen filled with small, cylindrical, glass (or maybe crystal?) containers containing what appeared to be white plasma. There was no doubt about it, it was a Nephilim and it had found him!

Taking immediate action, Rob's first step was to protect Mrs. Jotenheim, who was still watching the potion resting within the cauldron, seeing as the thing could easily swoop down and kill the little woman with just a single touch. Lunging forward and leaning over the boiling pot, he grabbed the miniature troll and quickly tossed her towards the cave like a mere pillow. The poor woman in her late twenties was caught completely by surprise and could only utter a pained grunt as she struck the ground at an odd angle with her right shoulder. Rob noticed how she landed and mentally prayed that she was alright and wouldn't be too mad at him once this was over: better to have a broken shoulder than to be killed off unsuspectedly.

With her safely out of the way, Rob quickly jumped back from the boiling pot, pulling his modified RPCG out of his bag and aiming the bulky gun at the Nephilim wasp. He already had an explosive carve onto the copper pellet and all he had to do was aim and wait five seconds for the electric coils to charge up before firing. Landing a safe distance away from the translation potion, Rob pressed down on the trigger and pointed at the largest target he could find, which so happened to be the wasp's lower abdomen. There was a light hum and the coils lining the interior barrel charged with electrical energy. With his target locked on, Rob felt a slight kick and heard a loud snap as the enchanted pellet was propelled from the weapon at high speeds thanks to the guns electromagnetic field.

However, victory did not come easily for Rob, as the Nephilim was faster than he and was already using a countermeasure. Tracking his firing arc, the winged Nephilim arched its stinger forward and fired one of the plasma cylinders from its tail. The plasma container, being as long as an adult human forearm, easily collided with the explosive pellet before it even reached the Nephilim, triggering a massive, white explosion that died out quickly. The shockwave from the projectiles colliding had little effect on the Nephilim, as its armor only absorbed the shock, but Rob felt it and was knocked off his feet.

Landing hard on his rear, Rob was completely shocked and confused at what just happened. The monster had calculated where he was going to shoot and quickly countered with a long ranged attack of its own. With him being knocked over and the Nephilim fast approaching, Rob was going to need to get up and run for cover in order to avoid being hit by whatever explosive weapon that thing carried. He tried getting up, but was stopped when he saw that the wasp had already fired at him, sending a plasma shell his direction before the Nephilim itself pulled away and back into the sky again.

He wasn't going to make it!

Mrs. Jotenheim, who had recovered from her unwarranted flight, had gotten up and dusted herself off before seeing Rob with a gun, unlike any she had seen before, pointing at something as he leapt away from the cauldron. At first she thought Rob had gone insane and was preparing to shoot her with something, but she stopped when she saw that his focus was on something else. Realizing that the block headed kid wasn't after her, her head snapped in the direction he was pointing at and she flinched when she saw the world's most ugliest wasp was swooping down towards him.

Seeing that he had tossed her out of the way in order to protect her, she immediately got the idea that whatever this thing was, it was dangerous for both of them and the not-so-old witch immediately raised her arms, closed her eyes and began concentrating on a spell used for protecting people. She heard a deafening explosion and quickly shouted a chant in Latin,

"Insolubili muro (unbreakable wall.)!" she shouted and snapped her hands back down to her sides.

Rob shield his face with one arm as the deadly projectile spiralled towards him, only to be surprised when a solid wall of what appeared to be iron curved out of the ground in front of him and deflected the plasma canister. The explosion resulting from the highly explosive projectile did little to hurt the marksman, minus the aching eardrums, and quickly faded away into nothing. It didn't take a genius to figure out who saved him and Rob scrambled to his feet before dashing off to where the sorceress was, not wanting to stick around when the monster makes another pass.

Reaching the cave, Rob skidded to a halt in order to catch his breath and quickly glanced down at the little witch who was eyeing the sky for the creature's inevitable return. Rob was about to thank her for saving him at the last moment, but paused when he realized something,

"Wait! You can see it!?" he was so baffled that he dropped his gun as a result.

The green skinned troll mother grunted in response and eyed him with the eye that was bigger than the other,

"I'm guessing that was a Nephilim, no doubt." she said simply, not really asking it as a question because she kind of got the answer from the flabbergasted kid's reaction.

Pulling himself together, the staticy anti-hero picked up his fallen weapon and raised his head towards the sky, his orb carefully scanning the darkened celestial ceiling for the creature. He spotted it within no time thanks to the glow of the plasma it carried and spoke to Mrs. Jotenheim without taking his eye off the now-approaching Nephilim,

"Okay, that's good because you can help me take it down then. Is there a spell you can use to grab it or at least prevent it from going anywhere?" he asked, watching as the glowing white dot increased in size. They probably had about thirty seconds until it got to where they were and Rob needed to prevent it from moving around so he could get an easy shot.

Already on it, Mrs. Jotenheim rose her hands and placed the chant within her mind so she could say out loud,

"I have a trick or two that may work. Can you keep it occupied long enough?" she asked back.

Rob needn't answer that question as the next rune had already been selected and carved into the bullet that he was going to be firing at the oversized bug. He dashed forward out in the open again and began waving his free hand in order to get the Nephilim's attention. Taking that as her cue, Mrs. Jotenheim closed her eyes and began muttering the next spell in Latin, hoping that the monster would be close by when she finished.

Up above them, the wasp Nephilim raced forward like a speeding bullet towards the ledge, its wings buzzing and working hard in order to achieve the speed it was travelling at as it zeroed in on one lone figure standing out in the open. Rob watching the beast become as large as a quarter from where he was standing, raised the barrel of the protected electronic weapon and peered through the digital scope, watching as the Nephilim filled in the little glass window. He had thirteen rounds left in the magazine, each time he fired he'd have to put in a command for which rune to carve into the pellets and the carving process usually took between ten to twenty five seconds depending on which rune he selected. With all that time factored in, plus the time it took to select a rune, load the chamber, and aim the weapon, the whole process could take up to a minute in order to fire so Rob couldn't afford to miss. Good news was, the rune he selected was very good at hitting targets despite their distance.

Placing one knee on the ground and keeping his body lowered so that he could appear as less of a target, Rob kept his aim steady and waited until he could hear the rapid buzz of the Nephilim's eight massive wings getting louder. Being roughly two hundred feet away from the ledge and closing, the Nephilim's powerful eyes locked on to Rob and with a quick twitch of its tail, fired a single canister at the waiting boy. Rob anticipated this and held his ground, waiting until the explosive shell was close enough.

Once it was merely a few feet from the polygonal inventor and Nephilim fighter, Rob quickly catapulted himself backwards using his lanky, yet powerful legs to push him away and roll twice before he came to a stop, just as the plasma shell smashed into the ground in front of him, spewing the extremely hot gas-like substance everywhere in a certain radius, burning the grass and scorching the dirt. The smell of sulfur filled the air as the atmosphere around the blast zone burned. Luckily, the worst Rob received was the intense wave of heat that spread from the white mushroom cloud and left his bare face, arms, and legs feeling as though they were on fire.

Thankfully, the explosion served as a great momentary source of cover and Rob was able to fire at the Nephilim as it began to make its pass. There was another sharp snap and the copper sphere leapt from the bulky gun's barrel along with a stream of electricity towards the flying monstrosity. With its vision being obscured by the blinding explosion, the bug-like Nephilim did not see the copper pellet narrowly miss its head and flew right into the path of its massive wings.

KRA-KOOM!

A bolt of lightning materialized from thin air and struck the rune tipped copper pellet and obliterated anything in between, which just so happened to be two of the Nephilim's left wings. The Nephilim screeched as it lost control and began to plummet down to the ledge it was attacking. Rob quickly jumped up from his crouched position and bolted away the moment the bus-sized insect from the world beyond came crashing down in front of him. The impact of the horrifying beast left a massive trench in the dirt that covered the rocks beneath as it continued to slide towards the cliffside next to the cave entrance before slamming into it with the force of a speeding pick-up truck. After that it lay still and didn't make any noise.

Making it to the cave just after the monster slammed into the wall next to the entrance, Rob stopped dead in his tracks and kept a scrutinizing eye on the beast while he punched in a command on his smartphone to start carving explosive runes into two pellets. With about forty seconds to wait until the boxy gun's internal machinery completed its task, Rob decided to keep an eye on the Nephilim since it hadn't faded and burned away, a sure sign that it wasn't dead yet. Behind him, he could still hear Mrs. Jotenheim muttering away as she continued her enchantment and Rob was impressed that she hadn't broken her concentration yet. Curious to see what condition the Nephilim was in, Rob raised his gun (wanting to be ready when the runes were done being carved, in case the monster decided to do anything.), sucked in a breath, and began to quietly creep towards the plasma bomb carrier, which lay still.

Being at a range of around eleven feet, Rob could make out quite a lot of details on the wasp Nephilim. He first noticed that it didn't actually have six eyes, rather it had two large ones with six individual pupils that glowed red (the thing must have incredible vision, probably out of the visible spectrum even!), a triangular head covered in fine hairs, but no antennae, a circular mouth at the front with rows of pointy teeth lining the interior and pointing inwards. Its midsection was rather large (probably five feet in length, maybe more), and was the base where its eight massive wings connected and actually housed six legs much like an insects that were tucked away. And lastly, it gargantuan lower abdomen which was nothing more than a storage space for its ammunition and was clear as glass, holding hundreds of brightly lit containers which were used against him three times. At the end was a stinger that rivaled most broadswords with a hole located directly beneath, presumably the exit hole for the plasma shells.

Once again, Rob found himself awed by this creature, the Nephilim always came in different forms that either looked so terrifyingly beautiful or just straight up alien and bizarre. It made Rob curious as to what life was like on the Nephilim's world, did they all have different forms like the Bizarros of Earth? Do their forms change when they come through their portals? Due to their bizarre biology, were all the Nephilim sent here highly advanced drones piloted from far away? If so, was Earth unsafe for them? Was their intention to wipe out all the natives here so they could terraform the place and make it livable to them? Intriguing questions that one could only speculate on and Rob was so wrapped in them that he almost failed to take notice of the Nephilim's stinger twitching and raising itself.

He saw it at the corner of his vision and when he did, his fight or flight instincts told him to move, forcing him to leap backwards and away from the gargantuan insect of death. It was right then and there, the monstrous tail of the spirit bug cut through the air and impaled the rocky cliffside. Had he been standing there just a second ago, his head would have been skewered and his body would have been dragged to the wall like a bloody puppet. Landing not too far away, his mind a hectic mess of instincts at this point, the survivor of the void was already preparing to shoot the monster when he stopped himself just in time and realized that if he shot the tail, then all the plasma will erupt all at once.

He saw his wrist mounted phone screen flash green, meaning the gun was done carving the runes, and he kept his sights on the monster just as the thing unlatched its tail from the face of the mountain. The Nephilim then rose up on its six legs and its head twisted until it was looking directly him. If something like that were capable of burning its victims alive with its hateful gaze, Rob would have been nothing more than a pile of ashes.

He quickly took aim, but the monster still proved too fast and had he realized where he was standing now, he would have gotten off the creatures wing before it slipped it out from underneath him. Rob was sent flying and his back connected with the dirt, his head already swimming and his vision was filled with stars. In front of him, the Nephilim raised a taloned leg and prepared to squash the mad scientist like a bug… as ironic as that may have seemed.

"Suffocans corrumpam vineameius (suffocating vines)!"

As soon as those words concluded her long chant, Mrs. Jotenheim's eyes snapped open and she curled her claw-like fingers together as if to crush something within her palms. All around the Nephilim, black vines covered in prickly thorns erupted from the ground with a shattering roar and the snake-like plants began to wrap themselves around the Nephilim's middle body and raised appendage. The winged monstrosity let out an hiss that sounded like air being let out of a tire as it thrashed about, trying to rid itself of the tangled, sharp, and suffocating plants before it decided to use its stinger: only to discover that when it stabbed at the plants, they wrapped around the pointed aft weapon and snapped it off after squeezing it tightly. Eventually, the beast was brought down and the vines continued to coil and constrict the poor beast as it still continued to struggle and let out unpleasant noises.

Recovering from his little slip up, Rob shook his head and brought himself back onto his feet before checking his surroundings. He was well beyond amazed when he saw that the clever devil that had nearly killed him several times within the span of a few minutes, completely entangled within a cluster of magic vines, if there wasn't a doubt. Once again, he was in the witch's favor and was gonna have to thank her for saving his behind.

He approached the oversized bug with more confidence than before and made his way towards its colossal head. Upon reaching it, the Nephilim violently hissed at him as he planted one foot on the hard surface right between the eyes and raised the RPCG until the barrel was practically touching it. Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger twice and put two rounds into the monster's head. He quickly dashed away just as the Nephilim's head was reduced to a fiery ball and the rest faded to nothing.

And so the beast was no more and Rob was feeling pretty good about himself.

It wasn't his best win by any means, but then again fighting these things was never easy and he aimed to change that when he gained even more power. He owed his thanks to Mrs. Jotenheim for making the fight easier and for saving his skin, her magic was definitely incredible. He walked up to the aforementioned little witch with a smug look on his face and his gun pointing at the ground,

"Thanks for the help!" he said, showing his gratitude.

The grey haired cleaning lady looked up at him with her grumpy expression, but held a kind look in her eyes,

"Eh, don't mention it. At least no one was hurt and my home was saved thanks to you, but could you please tone it down with the explosions next time! You're gonna wake my kid and I don't wanna send him off to school tomorrow in a cranky mood!" she shouted while waving her arms up and down in frustration and another tick mark formed on her head.

Rob quickly glanced into the cave and was surprised to see Hector still snoring away like a baby, in spite of all that happened,

"Yeah, I don't think that will be an issue." he mentioned out loud and a sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head,

"By the way, what kind of magic did you use back there? You said that the rune magic was ancient Nephilim magic and I didn't see you use any runes." he questioned after seeing her using it during the fight.

The woman garbed in purple robes did not even hesitate when answering, having already sensed the question coming her direction,

"Light and dark magic. Like Nephilim magic, it uses the power of the soul, but is more based on concentration and memorization of certain enchantments. Also, runes can usually only activate one or more kinds of spells that last for a short period of time while light and dark magic can create spells and curses that last for a while, but take many years of practice to master. Do not fret though, some runes have been rumored to change the state of beings and there is possibly one for you and your special one that can reverse the effect of the void. Unfortunately, I know not of any spells that can do that and so I wish you luck on your search." she replied with earnest intentions to help the cyclops.

While Rob shuddered when he heard the way she referred to Rachel as his "special one", he was indeed grateful for all the information she had given him and his hope for his and Rachel's betterment was higher. While Hector's mother proved a great source of information when it came to magic, one that he definitely wouldn't mind visiting in the future, he now knew of other figures to turn to when he needed more insight into these matters and was now caught up in his own research while possibly searching for these wise individuals in order to further his own quest. There was definitely more out there that he could use to his own benefit and Rob felt as though he was just getting started.

He was about to ask her if she could elaborate more on some of the people she had mentioned during her explanations to him, like Fjel for example, but soon felt that something wasn't right. He couldn't tell why, but he felt as though something was wrong and it had something to do with how quiet the surrounding area had become, plus the overwhelming feeling that he was being watched. He was about to shake it off as just a feeling when he noticed that Mrs. Jotenheim too seemed rather disturbed, as she was twisting her head every which way as if something was nearby. This definitely seemed bad and Rob could feel himself starting to sweat in response with this overwhelming feeling of dread that was increasing by the second.

Suddenly, both he and Mrs. Jotenheim were pressed down to the ground by a powerful force that Rob could most certainly recognize and his despair only increased when he figured out what it was. Mrs. Jotenheim, on the other hand, was completely unaware of what was happening and was struggling to speak, but couldn't because whatever was pressing down on her was preventing her from doing so. While Rob struggled to lift himself up, he heard something large and heavy land not too far away from them and he didn't need to see it to know that it was another Nephilim,

"Darn it! I let my guard down, but how can there be another one! Every single one that came before only came alone. Are they sending more now or is this an actual invasion?" Rob's panicked thoughts speculated, but proved useless in light of the given situation as right now he should be focusing on trying to free himself and not wasting energy trying to answer pointless questions on his head.

His blood ran cold when a familiar hum reached his ears and the sky began to light up in a crimson red while the air around them began to heat up, he knew what was coming and he desperately needed to move now and get Mrs. Jotenheim to safety. He then heard a harsh laugh coming from the malevolent entity itself and he could surprisingly move his head just enough so he could see the Nephilim before him. The one he saw was very different from the one that came before and was probably more powerful too.

Standing at a height of twenty feet or so, was a humanoid Nephilim that resembled a Hindu or Buddhist deity Rob had seen in many cultural books and sites on the internet. Charcoal in color, the beast had three human faces all joined side by side on one head with glaring eyes and sharp teeth within its many mouths, four arms protruded from its torso, the upper two of which were raised above its head in order to form the doom blast, and its body was covered in markings that glowed different colors. It also appeared quite feminine and the voice that came from its three mouths also sounded like that of a middle aged woman, although it was harsh and full of malice whenever it spoke,

"I commend you for defeating Thundero, truly that had to be quite a feat on both your parts seeing as he was one of our most formidable warriors." she congratulated the two of them, even though they both could hear the distaste in her tone towards her former comrade and made Rob wonder Rob wonder if the two possibly didn't get along or had some kind of rivalry going on.

Regardless he continued on with his efforts to free himself and could actually hear Mrs. Jotenheim next to him muttering something intangible. Was she trying to cast another spell? While they both continued with their individual tasks, the monster kept on speaking to them as her doom blast increased in strength,

"So in turn, I, Brahka, will bring a swift end to the likes of both of you vermin as a well suited reward for-!"

And so came the most anti-climatic end for the Nephilim, as she was cut off in the middle of her monologue after being crushed by a massive purple/blue hand connected to an arm covered in a fine layer of orange and maroon fur. With the four armed giant being reduced to purple flames under the massive palm, her spell wore off and Rob, along with his mini companion were able to stand up once again. After removing the dirt from his clothes and his mouth (he had his mouth open when he was slammed into the dirt and thus he got some on his yellow tongue.), the glitchy preteen turned to see that Hector, who had been sleeping just a minute ago, was somehow woken up, crept all the way over to the cave entrance without anyone noticing and crushed the Nephilim giant.

So he was able to see them as well and was also somehow able to kill one without magic.

However, this was disproved when he saw the giant lift his hand from the ground and on his palm, Rob could see a glowing green symbol that resembled a pentagon with five smaller symbols placed in each corner. It was a rune, no doubt, and Rob watched it fade as Hector drew his hand back and stood up straight again. Looks like Rob was wrong about Hector being boring after all and was at a loss for how strange this family really was.

While he remained in his complex stupor, Mrs. Jotenheim marched right up to her son's feet, completely undisturbed by the fact that Hector just smashed another giant like a cockroach and proceeded to scold him,

"Hector! What are you doing out of bed? You know you have school in the morning and you shouldn't be up this late!" she shouted, leaving Rob's already shocked mind scrambling even more at just how casual she was acting.

Hector didn't seem all that embarrassed and just seemed to shrug it off while he responded to her in his usual boring way,

"Sorry mom, but I woke up when I heard fireworks and then I eventually looked over and saw that one lady standing at the doorway. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying, but she sounded like another one of those soulless door-to-door salesmen trying to scam you with another promise of eternal power and seeing as you and Rob looked so tired, I decided to help you get rid of her." he explained while reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

Rob's jaw dropped to the floor, he could not believe what he was hearing,

"Did the boring brute seriously just assume that whole thing was a simple affair regarding fireworks and a demonic salesman?!" his mind frantically spun,

"Also, does he just deal with people who annoy him by squishing them? Not that I don't appreciate him for stepping in to help, but isn't that rather gruesome for a supposed gentle giant?"

And he thought the witch was the wacky one of the family! Such a revelation made him shudder to think what Fjel was actually like when he was awake. Thinking about it now, he didn't know whether or not the giant was awake right now. She must be twenty eight or twenty nine right now if he factored in her age when Hector was born, which was sixteen and Hector was twelve now, so all he had to do was add her age back then and Hector's age now in order to get her approximate age. Next he had to figure out when Fjel went to sleep which she said was when she was seventeen, so that would mean she was twenty two when he woke up again and twenty seven when he fell back to sleep. Meaning that he was still sleeping right now. Bummer.

Sighing in discontempt, Rob decided to further review his options in regards to help while Mrs. Jotenheim continued to talk to her son,

"Well, thank you very much, sweetie, for helping me get rid of the nasty saleswoman and for looking out for your dear mother. I'm also sorry that Rob was too loud, he was trying to help out with a pest problem, but it got a little out hand." she said in a coddling voice before levitating a broom to her and flying up to his face in order to give him a kiss on the cheek,

"Now go back to bed and let me deal with anyone who decides to drop by in the middle of the night with unwelcomed behaviors." she said in a rather sweet, yet commanding tone.

And with that, the giant simply nodded, wished his mom and Rob a good night before lumbering back to his room. Within minutes, the sound of pleasant music played and was followed by thunderous snoring that echoed throughout the cavern. Once again, Rob wondered what the heck was wrong with this family and before he could burn out his fuses thinking about it, he just chalked it up it to being that all the people of Elmore were like this.

With the night being quiet (except for Hector's ungodly, nighttime, breathing noises.) and tranquil again, Mrs. Jotenheim set herself down and placed her broom back against the wall. Then with a wave of her hand, she beckoned Rob to follow her to where the the cauldron sat and began shuffling her way towards said object. Rob found it quite surprising that the pot hadn't spilled over during the fight and was still boiling a now purple slime without showing any sign of disturbance.

Once Mrs. Jotenheim reached the witches broth, she hopped on the stool she had been using to hoist herself up to the edge and grabbed the wooden stirring spoon again,

"Okay, the potion's ready, bring the rune book over and we can begin the process!" she called over to him and placed the spoon within the magical mix in order to scoop out and study it.

Before his feet could comply, he quickly swapped his RPCG with the book and glanced over the blank leather cover again before studying the contents once more. He was so happy to have gotten this far and he wondered what kind of secrets these pages held. Feeling his excitement bubbling up from within, he began to hurry his way over to the witch and stopped when he heard the sound of thunder again. He turned his head to see a dark cloud, (actually it wasn't just dark, it was completely black!) looming over the horizon a ways away, with red lightning lighting up from within and its black tendrils reaching forward as if trying to consume even the air itself.

He noticed that it was heading in the same direction as Elmore and he got a bad feeling about the unnatural phenomenon. Given that he was just attacked by two Nephilim in one night, this didn't spell good news to the young cyclops and he wondered if something bigger was going on. He feared for Elmore's safety along with Rachel's and quickly rushed towards Mrs. Jotenheim while shoving the book in her hands,

"Will the process take long?" he asked.

The troll witch dumped the book into the bubbling purple sludge and watched as it turned cyan,

"Only a minute. I can teleport you down to your car once it's done, seeing as something seems to be making its way towards Elmore." she replied, whilst silently indicating the massive cloud behind her.

Rob certainly appreciated the offer since the storm that was coming was getting deadly.

-Storm sphere-

Within the alien landscape that was the spacious interior of the storm, a circular fortification was in the process of being scaled by a blue chibi cat and a paper bear. The two invaders of this pocket dimension could feel their mission coming close to its conclusion, but were still wary of the potential threats that lurked about the hostile plane they were in. In this space, there was no way for the two of them to tell the time, but the duo could feel the urgent need to hurry, find and defeat Leliel, before the storm moved on to Elmore or before any of the other Nephilim show up. The ones they at least believe to be here and currently tracking them.

Using the two suction-cup arrows to stick to the wall's smooth surface, Gumball could see that they were about ten feet from the edge and kept his focus on getting to the top. He wouldn't count himself as someone who was afraid of heights, but after a few traumatic experiences in the past, Gumball found himself to be quite tense when in high places and tried not to look down. On his back with her arms wrapped around his neck was Teri, who was less thrilled about high places as Gumball was, but not as scared seeing as she wouldn't get hurt if she fell.

The entire journey up the walls was a rather slow and arduous one with some perils involved. Gumball's arms felt like they were on fire once he got them both halfway up the wall, not that Teri was heavy, as a matter of fact, she was extremely light, but it was the other things he had to carry as well, such as his backpack, Teri's backpack, and his own weight. However, he was determined to get to the top of the wall and continued to press on like an engine. He was now feeling really glad for all the time he spent in the gym and at home, working his upper body. Now this task didn't seem as bad to him as it probably would have a month ago.

On his back, Teri could feel his fur against her face, given how close she was to him, and could smell his sweat as he worked himself really hard to get them both to their destination, which wasn't really that pleasant if she were being honest. She was very grateful for him doing this for her, but she did kind of wished that she could craft an origami centipede or something that could scurry up vertical surfaces as quickly as possible so that Gumball wouldn't have to overwork himself in order to bring them up here. Still, his dedication was quite amazing and she was glad that he was able to come up with a clever idea while having the brawn to pull them through it. It was really inspiring to say in the least and she wanted to make it up to him by doing her best when they reached the top.

Unbeknownst to her, Gumball was really happy he could be carrying her for a change seeing how often she carried him due to his lack of speed and agility. It felt nice that he was able to do something back for someone who has done so much for him already and he wanted to keep doing favors for her in the future. He was worried though, if he reached the top then he was probably going to be out of breath and very tired to do a whole lot, but believed that if they took a quick break before moving on, then things should be all right.

He felt Teri's arms tightened around his collar and he raised a sweaty eyebrow once he noticed this,

"Thank you for doing this, I'm sorry that I couldn't bring us both up." he heard Teri say and he let out a huff of old air in his lungs before weakly smiling.

"Yeah… (huff! huff!)... no problem, just like… (inhales deeply, oh boy!)... gym class." he trailed off before pulling a pink sucker off the smooth, glassy surface, pulling his body up, and planting the arrow back onto the blackened wall again before repeating the process.

It was really tiring, but worth it seeing as flying would most likely get them caught. They needed to maintain their stealth if they were going to locate and defeat the creator of this dangerous place. That objective alone was enough to keep Gumball moving upwards and with a sudden burst of energy, he quickly moved them up about two feet before needing to stop and catch a breather.

While he did this, Teri thought about what they could do once they reached the top and considered their best option was to perhaps create an origami panther from her black paper that both she and Gumball could hide in, that way whatever was in the tower overlooking the wall wouldn't spot them so easily. They would probably have to do this once they were clinging on to the edge and another thing that worried Teri was the star-shaped Nephilim (which Gumball already named Flakey Platter, seeing as it looked like a snowflake and a silver platter to him.) that was flying along the wall. While she hoped that it had long since passed by, she couldn't help but feel that their arriving just when it happened to be passing by seemed a little too coincidental, given how big this place was. She hoped her suspicions were wrong though and the only thing that they would have to worry about was whoever was in that tower. She had a distinct feeling that whatever they were looking for was within that tower.

At least they had a plan and a place to head to once they overcame this hurdle.

She heard Gumball make a noise and when she pulled herself out of her thoughts, she found that he was laughing. What could possibly be going on in that feline's head that he found so amusing? She knew that Gumball could always find something to chuckle about regardless of the situation they were in and what Teri always found herself asking was whether or not she wanted to hear it, seeing as it could be anything. However, as soon as she heard more laughter pouring forth from the wall climber, the dangling Pepakuma couldn't help, but satisfy her curiosity by asking,

"What are you laughing about now, you goof!"

Gumball stopped moving in order to catch his breath while stifling his laugh and tried to answer her with a straight face.

"That's quite a wall you got there, Junior! You using it to hide your insecurities or do you still use Dr. Wangs skirt for that?" he managed to get through that sentence without bursting into laughter, but failed when he finished and wheezing fits of laughing could heard from the cat boy.

Looks like she got the ridiculous answer she was anticipating and Teri found herself groaning in disbelief. Of course, Gumball was referring to a line used by Dr. Crox to Junior in his favorite episode of Under the stethoscope and only Teri knew this. She had no idea how that mind of his worked sometimes, but she also found it funny too and was glad for the change in tone,

"You're ridiculous!" she laughed,

"Why do you find that line funny anyway?" she quickly looked around them and saw that there was nothing out of the ordinary, except for an extraordinary view of the forest.

Gumball didn't really have a specific reason for bringing that line up or why he thought it was funny, but he spoke his mind anyway,

"Eh…(huff!)... Just thought it was funny 'cause you know,...(wheeze!)... were climbing a wall and I still think Dr. Crox is just hilarious despite his condescending attitude towards others. I also thinks it's…(whew!)... ironic because he's super insecure himself." he explained having started moving once again. They were about five feet now from the top and Gumball could feel his excitement growing as he continued to work his way upwards.

Teri had a feeling that Gumball may have appreciated the cynical character in the medical drama that also doubled as a comedy because he could probably relate to him. There were quite a few similarities between the two and she could also tell that Gumball enjoyed the show because it helped him escape the stress the days usually brought him. It was the same for the paper girl and she enjoyed those simple, fun moments with him.

Seeing that they were nearing the top of the wall, Teri could already feel a kind of calm filling her tense mind and was beyond ready to get started on the next, and hopefully final, phase of their plan. Before she left the tree house located at Molly's place, she told the girls that she was going home to grab some sleeping pills (she sometimes had trouble sleeping at new places, although when she slept over at Gumball's house, she was so exhausted from the fight that despite the overall stress the situation brought, her body forced her to sleep and she found rest rather quickly.) and while she was unaware how much time has passed in the duration of their visit to this pocket dimension, she didn't want to keep everyone waiting too long. If Carmen and Molly suspected that she was gone for too long, they might wind up calling her parents and that wouldn't be good for her if they found out that she hasn't reached their house and can't contact her on her phone. Plus, she needed to get Gumball home too because he mentioned that he left in a hurry and if his parents become worried about him as well, then they were both going to be in trouble.

Gumball sped up their ascent, hoping his burst of energy would carry them all the way to the end and this risky mode of transportation would be over quick. While he moved as fast as he could, he was very careful when placing each arrow down on the hard surface and made sure that the rubber cups suction force was secured enough to provide enough support for their weight. Being about a foot away from the edge now, Teri decided now was the best time to unveil her plan to her climbing companion and reached back with one hand to retrieve the black paper she used to fly them here before once again started filling in the hard working cat about her plan,

"Hey, Gumball, before we reach the top, we might want to stop so I can give us some cover-AAAUGHHH!" she screamed as something latched itself on her backpack and yanked her away from Gumball.

Hearing her scream and her grip suddenly release from his neck, Gumball stopped dead in his tracks while whipping his head around to see what happened to his friend. To his fright, Flakey Platter had returned and snatched Teri away with a claw attached to a long arm that ran all the way to the center of its disc-shaped body. The real bad news was, the point where the arm protruded from was actually a circular mouth lined with sharp teeth that trailed saliva as it pulled Teri closer to its gaping maw with the intent on swallowing her whole.

Gumball wasn't sure how the thing had managed to find them, whether it was just simply waiting for them or had managed to sense the two of them while moving away, but none of those questions mattered at this point because Teri was in trouble and Gumball needed to do something, now! With his first objective being to get to the top of the barrier so that he wasn't dangling uselessly on the wall, Gumball decided to ignore climbing and instead put all his energy into thrusting himself up to the edge. Taking a deep breath and listening to Teri's screams, Gumball concentrated and with a growl, he pulled upwards with enough force to propel his body upwards. He cleared the final foot of space left and with a quick grab of both hands, he managed to grasp the edge, his fingers slipped until his claws shot out and stopped him before he fell. With his heart and mind racing a mile a minute, Gumball quickly pulled himself up to the ledge and found himself lying on his stomach in less than seven seconds.

While this happened, Teri eventually stopped screaming, looked up behind her, saw the horrific, gaping hole that was fast approaching, and immediately began trying something before she could be devoured. The appendage that acted as both a manipulator and a tongue kept swaying, which caused nothing but a case of dizziness for the poor girl being held captive. She tried reaching into her bag to retrieve one of her notebooks, but was having a difficult time doing so.

Down on the walltop, Gumball staggered to his feet and let out a strained groaned as his upper body screamed in pain. This didn't bother him in the slightest, but he did notice that his movements were a bit sluggish while he tried opening his own school bag and was in such a frantic state that he didn't even consider taking a break. There was simply no time for such things, not when one of his closest friends is in danger.

Having already drawn out his scythe, Gumball unfolded the weapon and dropped his bag behind him. Turning around, he could see that Teri was no longer screaming and was instead trying to get something out of her bag. The Nephilim, on the other hand, was quickly reeling her in and in less than a minute, Teri will have disappeared inside the floating creature.

Many options and scenarios went through his head at once, but he found himself limited by his own exhaustion and the distance that was increasing between him and the Nephilim. It was too far away to jump to and Gumball was too winded to make the jump anyway. He considered throwing the scythe, hoping to severe the tongue that was holding Teri, but that option was quickly cast aside for fear of possibly missing or having no effect whatsoever, and losing his strongest weapon altogether. He could try distracting it and making it forget about Teri to go after him, but that had very little chances of working and he knew that it already had what it wanted.

With every passing second, Gumball could see Teri being pulled closer to her doom and with very few options coming to him, Gumball was already starting to panic. He felt as though in a few moments he was going to lose her and the thought filled him with a sense of hoplessness,

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I gotta save her! I can't let it end like this!" his mind was already in overdrive and he could feel his grip tightening on the scythe's handle.

Without even realizing it this time, Gumball's crescent blade burst into grey flames again and a flood of newfound strength made itself known to the young cat boy. Startled, Gumball let out a gasp and stared down at the burning weapon he held. He put two and two together, and quickly realized that it had activated due to his desperation. For a moment, he forgot about everything else and felt his fear creeping up again, causing the flames to die down.

However, when he heard Teri make a startled noise, Gumball looked up to see that the paper bear had managed to grab a notebook along with a pencil and managed to slip out from her bag straps. The reason she screamed though was when she saw that the Nephilim, having somehow noticed her escape, was charging up six blue orbs at the tip of each spike sticking out from its body and was preparing to fire upon the falling girl. Seeing that she was at a safe distance from the monster and in trouble of being vaporized, Gumball pushed his fear deep down and chose to act,

"Can't worry right now! I have to keep that thing from firing at her, she's far enough away so I can hit it." his internal monologue was matched with his actions as he was already sprinting towards the edge.

Before he made the leap, Gumball noticed something for the briefest of moments, the fire that normally burned out of control when spewing from his enchanted Nephilim killing item was now surprisingly calm and refined even. He didn't even feel cocky anymore, he didn't know why this was as his only intention was to unleash whatever this thing had upon the enemy in front of him, but it was like as if the power that entered him was a faucet that was being controlled: he could still feel the immense pressure, but it felt calmer and more direct. All this left his mind when he found himself sailing through the air at high speeds and shooting towards the saucer shaped monster like a cannonball. The sensation that came with the flight was great to Gumball as he felt as though he were actually flying on his own accord and that nothing could bring him down.

As she descended, Teri desperately began folding the black paper sheet into a quick, simple, yet effective means of flying with the hopes that she could get away from the Nephilim's firing arc, when she caught a glimpse of Gumball heading straight towards the monster with a flaming scythe in his hand. She didn't have a whole lot of time to question that right now, but she was concerned as to why Gumball was doing something so risky. Whatever he was doing, it seemed to have worked because Flakey Platter noticed the approaching menace and was already trying to maneuver itself away from the flying cat while simultaneously preparing a counter attack, no longer paying the girl any attention.

She formed a simple paper airplane, one that resembled something a bored student would make in class, and felt her fall come to stop as she began to glide in a straight line. Above her, the Nephilim fired a blue bolt of energy at Gumball, who saw it coming and was already twisting his body to counter it. What happened next was something Gumball could only describe as spectacular, the moment he swung his body around in the open air in order to intercept the incoming energy bolt, another surge of energy fired through him and made its way out of his scythe. The resulting effect unleashed a crescent arc of destructive silver flames, three times Gumball's size, from the weapon's own curved blade and traveled towards the Nephilim, cutting through the energy bolt in the process.

The Nephilim itself stood no chance as it was struck by the flaming wave, resulting in one of the spikes sticking out from its rim being severed and a clean path being torn through the main body of the monster that only stopped near its center. Without a single cry coming from the guardian of the wall, the Nephilim burned purple as it fell and eventually disappeared. Gumball's unorthodox attack had proven to be more than effective at just distracting the monster from Teri, but also managed to wipe it out too.

Not even seeing the monster's defeat after using such a bizarre attack, thanks to said move slowing his forward momentum to a near stop and causing him to rapidly fall all the way down to the crystal trees and red sand that waited for him. His flames immediately went out after the aerial assault and Gumball felt as though half his energy was drained from his body, which was somewhat better from the other times he used it (once again, he didn't know why this was the case, seeing as the weapon was very different from the one's Teri and Rob used, even outdoing conventional weapons in terms of bizarreness.), but he was still exhausted and now very terrified once he saw how fast the ground was approaching. He wanted to figure out how he did what he did back there, but surviving his very close encounter with the ground that was quickly coming up to meet him was his biggest concern at the moment,

"Gosh darn it! Why does everything cool I do always follow up with me falling from some great height! No wait, scratch that, why am I always falling in general!" he shouted in both fright and frustration. He always did wonder how he got himself into these types of situations, maybe the gods or the Jade emperor just had a really twisted sense of humor.

With tears stinging his eyes and the resulting air pressure locking his form in place, Gumball screamed as he careened downwards to a nearby plasma container with its sharp branches pointed directly at him. Before he could utter a final prayer to whatever supreme being ruled the universe, something appeared in the corner of his eye and when he saw the black shape approaching, he feared it was another Nephilim making its way towards him to finish him off instead of the bizarre flora of this place. He stopped screaming and tried to move himself again, but was halted when whatever was approaching slammed into him.

You could only imagine his surprise when the first thing he noticed was that the object that caught him felt like paper and was in the familiar triangular shape of a paper airplane,

"And there's my savior, always catching me after I make one dumb decision after the other!" he thought with both relief and bittersweet amusement, constantly feeling as though he was going to be nominated the "best damsel in distress" award sometime in the future.

He heard Teri's voice call out from underneath and if Gumball knew any better, he'd say that she somehow read his mind,

"Is this going to be a theme from now on because I'm not sure if I can get use to this!" this was the first thing she said to him after having been saved herself and in turn having to save boy wonder from his own rescue attempt.

Gumball couldn't see her, for he was on top of the plane while she clung onto the bottom, but he could probably guess that she had a smug look on her face. Not wanting to take her sass, Gumball decided to counter with a snippy quote of his own,

"Mmm, don't know really. I save you, you save me, I think it all evens out well if you actually think about it, but to be fair, in the past month or so, I have been falling for you a lot lately." he replied, as he quickly lay down on his side and began cleaning his nails to show how much he didn't care about the given situation.

From below, Teri found herself chuckling at the cat's snarkiness and quickly thought of a comeback for his terrible pun,

"Aww, really!? That's so sweet! You're the air under my wings, just to let you know!" she shouted back at him.

Gumball watched the forest go by and smiled,

"Well, I'm glad to know you think so, I think it's plane to see that you're quite clever yourself when making puns." he remarked.

This was obviously turning into a pun war that closely resembled flirtation and the two kids managed to turn around an otherwise terrible situation for something that eased their minds a little,

"Well, should we try to attack Leliel with another cautious approach or are we going to wing it?" she asked in a joking manner.

Gumball gave it some thought and decided that stealth was still their best option seeing as the one Nephilim guard had been taken out and once Leliel noticed, there was going to be an uproar. They were going to have to be quick too, before anything bad happened,

"Well, I say once we start our approach, we'll slip in as covertly as possible and give her some of our own turbulence once we find her!" he declared, still going along with the airplane puns.

Setting the improvised glider down near the base of the wall, Gumball hopped off while Teri began to fold the paper airplane into a black butterfly while she spoke to him,

"Okay, but we're going to have to be careful about this, my backpack was eaten by Flakey Platter and I only have one big sheet, a single notebook, and a pencil left." she showed him the remaining items at her disposal after she finished up with her folded butterfly.

Taking that into account, Gumball figured the best way to survive an encounter with Leliel is if they either attacked while she remained unsuspecting, set a trap with the papers Teri had and lure her to it, or perhaps he could just remain on the defensive while Teri used her papers as a means of offense. He really liked the shuriken idea he had earlier and reminded her to use that if they were in a pinch. She took the idea well and questioned Gumball on what he was going to do,

"Me? I'm just gonna play defense, it's a better position for me and since you're faster and have some papers to spare, you're definitely well suited for attacking, plus I can't be reckless." he said, reminding himself not to get ahead of himself for their next encounter. One of the downsides of training by himself was that he couldn't really come up with strategies in the heat of a fight and was mostly concerned with making sure he didn't die. He needed to find a way to keep a cool head in the middle of a fight and also figure out how to be more creative.

She seemed to like that idea and agreed to remain close to him when Leliel was attacking so they could both figure out a way to defeat her and go home. Turning back to the wall, the paper craftswoman looked to the top once more in order to see if there were anymore guards posted on top. While she saw no guards, something else caught her eye and she was so perplexed that she slowly reached out next to her to tug on Gumball's jacket sleeve until his attention was on her,

"What is it, Teri?" he asked, wondering what was nagging at her.

"Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but were there any stars in the sky when we first arrived?" she pondered while pointing up towards the sky.

That was an odd question for her to ask because Gumball was sure she saw the same black sky he did, until he looked up himself and saw that she was in fact right. In the darkened sky above them, dozens of stars had appeared, spilling across the ceiling like scattered diamonds and the farther away they looked, the more the stars kept flashing into existence. What is going on here? Was the only thing they could think of as they watched the glorious spectacle unfold before their very eyes. Even if they were to go home and tell everyone what they had seen tonight, everyone would think they were the most creative storytellers and would have just laughed them off because this was just too far out.

Before they could enjoy the light show they were given, a voice rang out in the distance and it was laughing. Not a joyful, hearty laugh that filled the spirit with pleasantness, but instead a cold, wicked, and apathetic cackle that rang throughout the entire dimension. Gumball and Teri quivered in fear and inched closer together until they were barely inches apart.

The laughter was eventually replaced with a sharp, feminine voice that spoke to them,

"You invasive pests have proven to be quite troublesome!" the disembodied voice echoed throughout the space and the two kids could feel the disgust coming from whatever it was that was speaking to them,

"Torax, Raph, and even poor Olaf, how could they be defeated so quickly by such vile and cowardly beings. Even Brahka and Thundero seem to have fallen after sending them away to investigate a magical disturbance happening not too far from here. It seems that even after sending out our scouts and our hunters, we still continue to underestimate the likes of you pests!" her snarl seemed to cause a bit of a breeze to rip through the forest and Gumball had to quickly grab Teri before she flew away.

After hearing the names of the opponents they fought earlier (Gumball liked his name, Flakey Platter better because seriously, what kind of disgustingly, horrific monster names itself Olaf?) Gumball could assume the other two, Brahka and Thundero, were the ones they never encountered and if they were missing, that could only mean that they were dealt with. Despite the grave situation surrounding the pair, Gumball could feel a small grin creep onto his face, of course Rob would have dealt with them and Gumball was actually genuinely impressed that his one-eyed rival managed to hold off two Nephilim. At least, that's what he wanted to believe because the idea of two unaccounted Nephilim running amuck in Elmore was beyond terrible to imagine on its own.

If they ever survived this encounter then he'd have to contact the grey cyclops as soon as possible in order to get a word in on the two possible threats to their home city,

"Teri, get ready to fly! We're heading to the tower!" Gumball declared, grabbing her by the hand and heading towards the black butterfly.

Leliel's voice continued to fill the air around them and the two could sense murderous intent within her tone,

"It matters not what you do! I have been watching the two of you ever since you entered my storm sphere and I know how you two operate!" she shouted, another gust of wind buffeting them as her voice increased in intensity.

Above them the stars began to shine brightly and while Teri had already climbed aboard the origami insect of her creation, Gumball was still standing beside her and had a very bad feeling about the sky above them. In preparation for what was to come, Gumball climbed onto the butterfly, stood over Teri protectively, and raised his scythe above his head like a lateral bar. The powerful, unseen Nephilim let out a bloodcurdling scream that nearly ruptured Gumball and Teri's ears and caused the ground and the trees to shake as a result before she shouted,

"DIE!"

The stars in the sky lit up with amazing intensity and came streaking down one after the other towards Gumball and Teri's position. Seeing the meteorite-like projectiles of energy falling towards them like guided bombs, Gumball's mind seemingly went numb as he did the only trick he believed would save them both in this increasingly perilous situation. Shifting his hands on the scythe's shaft until they were closer together and met towards the middle, Gumball began to rapidly turn one hand over the other, making the elongated weapon itself spin in a wide circle. He picked up speed just as the first striking star closed in on them and Teri watched from behind him in amazement as the blue cat boy deflected the first projectile away from them.

More falling energy blasts soon followed after and Gumball continued to keep up the unusual defensive stance as more and more energy blasts came in contact. After sending the first ten into the dirt and trees with resounding white explosions, Gumball could already feel himself getting worn down by the relentless assault and triggered his scythe's special power in order to keep up with Leliel's sky barrage. Even when he felt himself going mad with power, laughing and cursing the unseen monster as he continued to bat away every attack that came close, he kept the blade as far from his fragile companion as possible and quickly fell into a state of fright once the Nephilim's aerial bombardment had quickly ceased, his flames extinguishing themselves at the presence of his fear.

With a total of forty projectiles deflected in the span of a minute and four seconds, Gumball was already once again exhausted at the use of the scythe's enhancement and the powerful strikes that nearly knocked him back into his partner. Even with his power, blocking each attack was like deflecting a bowling being dropped directly on him from two stories with a pole made of titanium, sure, it was doable, but it costed a lot of strength and stamina and without his ability it felt even worse. He didn't know why the attack stopped like it did, Leliel could have easily wiped them out with her sheer overwhelming strength, but Gumball wasn't going to question it seeing as he was glad for the break.

Behind him, Teri looked on with shock and awe. She saw him do incredible things like deflect a doom blast and fight off multiple limbs of concrete, but being able to protect both of them from dozens of volleyball-sized energy projectiles being hurled at who-knows-what-kind-of-speeds and without so much as getting singed was utterly impressive to the paper girl. She read a few mangas before and seeing what Gumball did reminded her of some of the impressive feats the main characters of such stories would pull off. However, once the attack had ended, she got one good look at Gumball and saw that he was already nearing total fatigue: another attack like that would probably do him in.

Panting and covered in sweat, Gumball pulled off his red jacket, the combined heat of the falling star bombs with his own rising internal temperature made him feel as though he were being baked alive in his own protective clothing, and tied it around his waist. Feeling cooler, Gumball sat himself down and allowed himself to recover, he really just wanted to catch a nap at this point. He was impressed by what he did back there and was very glad that such a simple move worked because he had very little confidence that it would, given how many times he failed when practicing said move. The bipedal cat was feeling glad for not screwing up despite losing his collected mind, but such thoughts were interrupted when he heard the person whom he was defending speak,

"Wow!..." was all she could say at first, still being blown away by Gumball's well performed move,

"How long have you been practicing that one?" she asked, a childish excitement was present in her voice and Gumball could see her leaning forward slightly until she was about a foot away from him.

Gumball was about to give her an unsure answer, seeing as he actually wasn't sure what was bound to happen, but did it with hopes that they could at least survive with minimal damage. He didn't get to say anything though, as Leliel, master of the storm sphere and leader of the late Se'arot squad, was already preparing her next move against the two. Beneath their feet, the ground began to buckle and shift as an earthquake (wait, can it still be considered an earthquake if it's in a pocket dimension that's not even a part of the planet they were on?) began spread throughout the land. All at the same time, the beautiful crystal trees that dotted the landscape began to glow brighter and the two members of the three man team that was responsible for Elmore's safety felt an unbearable wave of heat crash over them. Besides them, the solid volcanic wall began to crack and break apart, pieces both large and small began to detach themselves and fall around the two, adding more to the deafening noise all around them.

They needed to leave before they were either crushed to death or burned alive by the plasma preparing to escape their tree shaped containers. Luckily, Gumball needn't say a word to Teri as the competent paper crafting and paper controlling classmate was already lifting them both in the air with a single flap of the butterfly's sharp and angular wings. Luckily, Gumball was already sitting and was easily able to catch himself before the paper insect took off, although he was sitting backwards when compared to the pilot and watched as the ground below sped away from them.

Seconds passed by and the two were at a high enough altitude where the catastrophe that was happening below could not affect them, this didn't prevent the scythe wielding cat from keeping his eyes on the sky above in case Leliel tried using her stars to attack them once again. Luckily, while the stars remained in their fixed position on the dark canopy, they didn't shoot down towards them. From their new position, Gumball and Teri could see that the unusual seismic activity was being generated from the central spire they were originally heading for, with the land around it rippling like waves in a pond. At this point the walls had completely crumbled away, revealing the land on the other side to be a scorched and desolate circle of glass that stretched out two miles in diameter with the tower at its central point.

Gumball watched as the forest was lit up in a brilliant display of cotton colored ionized gas as each structure exploded in unison, most likely glassing the red sand beneath it,

"I don't like what's going on here!" Gumball shouted, his startled expression illuminated by the intense glow from the ground.

Teri seconded Gumball's feelings of unease as she gazed at the fantastically immense scene unfolding around them, she heard Leliel mention that she had been watching them ever since they arrived,

"Does she control this entire dimension? Okay that's definitely not a question at this point, seeing as she clearly does. With that being said, if her presence is everywhere then that should mean that she has a center. It's gotta be that tower seeing as that's where all this is originating from." she figured through her observations and caused the butterfly to bank towards the only structure remaining within this hellish landscape,

"We need to destroy that tower now! This pocket dimension is like her body and that place is like her brain, we destroy it, we destroy her!" she shouted back to Gumball.

"Already got that, let's reduce Leliel to rubble and clear up the cloudy weather over the mountains!" he shouted in agreement, getting ready to defend the both of them.

With an understanding nod, Teri forced the flying paper craft to accelerate towards Leliel's only hiding place.

Making a direct beeline towards the tower, both pairs of eyes were on the lookout for any immediate threats to the two of them and both felt extremely tense with virtually every threat being able to come from multiple directions. They crossed into the scorched territory of the spire and Teri could see that the tower in front of them would have to be taken down with multiple explosive runes due to the tower's great size being too much for a single attack. At the base of the structure, Teri estimated it to be at least twenty feet in diameter with the rest of the building getting slimmer as it reached the top, which had to be at least five feet in diameter. The trick was figuring out where to attack, once they were close enough, they should be relatively safe from Leliel's attacks because she wouldn't attack herself, but she didn't know where she really "was". If she was at the top of the spire, then the attack will be quick and simple, but if she was hiding at the bottom or even is the tower itself, then she would have to circle around and plant many explosives in order to knock the whole thing down.

It wasn't difficult for Gumball's intelligent partner to decide that their best option was to destroy the base of the tall building because even if she was at the top, the collapse of the structure would most definitely kill the powerful Nephilim. It would certainly take them a while to complete such a task, but she believed it was doable and Gumball was more than a good when it came to defense. En route to the colossal structure, Teri pulled out her notebook and quickly began scribbling rune after rune within the pages, pausing once to draw a new rune for in case something went wrong, and glanced up every once in awhile to see where they were in relation to their target.

While they made great progress in their journey, Gumball began to feel as though something was off: Leliel wasn't even attempting to attack them even though they were now halfway across the burnt territory surrounding the dark building and closing in fast. He wanted to believe that as they were closing in on the tower, Leliel was holding back because she didn't want to accidently hit herself, but if Gumball knew anything, her star strike was very accurate and would definitely slow the two down if she was worried about them getting too close. With nothing happening all around them, Gumball kept all his senses on high alert as he waited for whatever was to come and kept suspecting they were heading into a trap.

Surrounding the tower's blackened circle, the fiery white plasma continued to rage out of control and began to climb higher and higher without ever passing over the two mile territory that the two preteens were nearly at the center of. Rather than dissipate, like normal plasma did, it just remained where it was and continued to violently sway and swirl about without as though it had a mind of its own. The blue cat had a sneaking suspicion that the glowing matter was being manipulated by the Nephilim and she was going to use it on the two of them. The real question was would they be able to get away fast enough because gumball knew he wouldn't be able to defend them against such a powerful and all consuming attack like that.

They were less than two hundred feet away from the towering heart of the storm sphere, having gotten this far with very little incident, when something happened to the building in front of them: with a sound like a bullet leaving the barrel of a rifle, a golden sphere shot from the top of the menacing building, tearing through the roof and demolishing the building with the resulting shockwave that came from the flying object reaching speeds that surpassed the sound barrier. Teri halted their advance and swung the butterfly around, nimbly dodging falling debris and accelerating away from the crumbling remains of the tower. Gumball even successfully knocked away a stray piece of rock the size of a tennis ball with the stock end of his four foot weapon before it could tear through their wing.

The golden orb rose high into the sky above and as it did, all the burning plasma surrounding the area began to swirl and rise towards the odd object. The resulting ionized Hydrogen gathered from the mountains began collect underneath the sphere and took a shape, growing bigger and more defined as more plasma added itself to the overall mass. The two middle schoolers watched with intrigue as the being shrouded in mystique began to reveal itself with its glorious intensity.

The final result from all the plasma gathering together, leaving the rest of the dimension a dark, decimated landscape scarred with the intense heat from all the broken containers, was a being whose size rivalled all others that came before, easily being thousands of feet in length and width. It was avion in shape, with six, enormous wings that stretched far and wide from its central body which was streamlined and sleek, as if this thing was made for fast flight. There was no visible head, as the top of the creature tapered off to an arrow like point with no discernable facial features to recognize (if they were there, then they were probably well hidden within the glow being emitted from such a creature.). Though, if one were to take a closer look, a crown could be seen atop the plasma monster's body, with seven spikes arranged in a circle with the frontal one being the tallest and with the golden orb, the two kids assumed this was the real body, hovering on top. There were no other features that could be seen on the large bird hovering above them, making it simply an almond shaped body with six wings covered in a fiery, white aura that illuminated the world around Gumball and Teri.

This was Leliel in her final stage and it was a dreaded sight for the cat and the bear hovering in place,

"So that's Leliel… never would have believed I would think this, but the Nephilim really know how to put on an incredible display when they're about to destroy. Seems a little overkill." Gumball thought in morbid amusement as his despair had well since faded and was replaced with incredible awe.

"So that's what we're up against. Is victory even possible at this point?" Teri questioned as the monstrous entity made itself known before her very eyes. She really hated this place and wanted nothing more than to just go home.

Unfortunately, that can't happen, not until Leliel, the Nephilim, the greatest threat ever present to Elmore was vanquished here and now. Tearing out three pages from her notebook, Teri used her powers to reshape the rune covered pages until they resembled four-bladed throwing stars and held them each within one hand while using the other to tightly grip the butterfly's head. They were going straight for Leliel, it was do or die time and Teri intended to get home as quickly as possible for this nightmare needed to end.

"Gumball!" her head snapped back towards the soft colored feline who whipped around to see her,

"Don't let her touch us! We're going to get as close as possible and I need you to prevent us from burning up!" she ordered, stating her intentions as simply as she could.

Not needing any further clarification, Gumball swallowed his fear, glanced at the six winged entity hovering so far up in the sky and then back at the bear-shaped, paper cut out with determination and fear mixed up in her drawn on expressions. Obviously she had a strategy, was scared to go through with it, but willing to fight the hard fight if it meant saving everyone. Gumball liked this side of her, along with her take charge attitude and merely got ready for what was about happen next,

"Sure thing, captain Pepakuma." he responded, his feelings mirroring hers as he feared what the Nephilim could possibly do, but knew what he needed to do as well.

This boy and his names, Teri was seriously liking the respect and trust he was giving her and a smile crept onto her face as she turned away from the cat she admired so much in order to focus on the objective ahead. With a silent command and a flap of the insects wings, the butterfly shot upwards with its two passengers hanging on tightly. They climbed upwards at an incredible rate and the light shining from the beautiful creature was starting to blind the two, forcing Teri to swing the butterfly upwards until its body blocked out the light. They heard Leliel's voice again and it still sounded just as hateful and cruel as before,

"Not even intimidated by my grand form, such a fascinating pair! Too bad your weaknesses are so easily displayed by your actions!" she stated in a mocking tone and unbeknownst to the two, the plasma monster began forming hundreds of small plasma lances on each wing, all of which were aiming at the approaching winged insect,

"Now burn!" she screeched and with a flap of all six wings, unleashed a rainstorm of burning hot spikes along with a cyclone of rushing air.

Having heard her, the pair immediately halted in mid-air and felt a powerful gale slam into them, knocking them back. While tumbling through the air, Gumball and Teri could barely understand what was going on as they had lost their bearings once the black butterfly started spinning out of control. While trying to regain control of their paper mount, Teri heard something whistle by and saw something bright sail right past them and disappear into the darkness. Soon more of those strange objects began passing by and Teri realized that they were caught in a barrage of plasma bolts fired from Leliel,

"Gumball!" she shouted in desperation.

Already seeing the severity of the situation, Gumball was already swinging his scythe about and when Teri flipped the flying origami around, ten foot energy lances were being swatted away by Gumball's quick swipes. This went on for a bit, until Teri was able to finally regain control of the black origami and effectively began dodging the storm of plasma lances. Looking back at the phoenix inspired entity, Teri thought it best that they don't try another frontal assault and opted to circle around and attack from behind.

Gumball noticed their shift in direction and whipped around to tell Teri something,

"Are you going around so you can catch her from behind?" he asked, already having a feeling seeing as they were already starting to circle around the Nephilim.

Teri didn't look back at him, but still answered anyway,

"Yeah, we were almost wiped out when we attacked from the front. That was incredibly careless of me." she muttered regretfully.

Now understanding the reasoning behind her actions, Gumball was sure that she was on the right track, but had an idea of his own,

"I don't think flanking her is going to work out so well, she probably knows where we are!" he stated, pointing over the paper girl's shoulder and Teri could see that as they moved, Leliel was already turning in their direction.

She continued to fly along their current course, not really knowing what to do seeing as she didn't know any possible way to escape the monster's sight,

"So what do you think we should do?" she shot back, her voice on the edge of sounding angry.

Gumball directed her attention once again to the brightly lit, six winged, bird of prey and spoke,

"Call it a hunch, but I think she uses the light her plasma gives off to see us." he pointed out, having found it rather odd that she could see them, but couldn't necessarily hear them,

"I mean think about it, those trees were everywhere and she always seemed to know where to send those other Nephilim. How about we fly low in those hills over there where its darkest and follow that path until we can get close enough to her!" he suggested.

Teri wanted to believe him on his theory, but there were so many holes in it that it seemed too ludicrous to even consider. Her eyebrows furrowed deep in concentration and her face twisted into a scowl as indecision gripped her. She was just unsure at the moment,

"How do you know this will work? Your evidence doesn't really add up and I'm sure she has other ways of finding us." she looked back at him so she could see him clearly.

To be frank, Gumball knew this was a far fetched theory he cooked up on the spot, but given Leliel's reliance on plasma made him feel as though there was more to it than using it as a weapon. Even the star attack she used on him was plasma based, he noticed this when he deflected each one and was also aware that Leliel didn't even know about them when they were outside her pocket dimension. The lightning strike that brought them here wasn't directed at them because if it was, it would have struck both of them directly.

Taking a deep breath and looking Teri directly in the eyes while giving her his most serious and confident self, Gumball explained what he came up with,

"I know this will work because she relies too much on plasma. She uses it to see us, construct her forms and even attack us. She even lured us over to her tower because we were out in the open where she had a clear shot at us. Please trust me when I say this will work." he pleaded.

He was being honest, not giving off so much as a doubt and Teri knew that while this seemed a little crazy, it actually made a bit of sense. She noticed the Nephilim's extensive use of plasma and not the other objects within the dimension itself. Maybe it had better control over the glowing, white material then over the other things located within the storm sphere and found better uses for the stuff since it was everywhere. She didn't want to be wrong because of what was at stake here, but then again, everything was always a gamble in these types of situations.

Taking in a deep breath and exhaling, allowing her head to cool itself, she spoke back to the cat boy while turning her attention back to the front of the origami,

"Okay. we'll go with your idea, but I'm not comfortable with it." she admitted in defeat.

Gumball felt a tug at the corner of his lips and found a seat,

"Thank you, and for the record, I'm not so sure about this either considering how often my plans usually go wrong." he muttered back to her.

There was a comfortable silence between the two as they made their way to the glassy hills Gumball had directed Teri to.

From high above, Leliel watched them disappear behind the rows of hills on the outer reaches of her former spire territory and began to burn with anger. Without her white light shining down on them, she was practically blind as to where they were and that didn't bode well to the powerful entity. Furious at their disappearance, Leliel let out a roar that spread throughout the storm sphere and with her six wings outstretched, another cascade of brightly lit lances began to rain down on the rolling landscape,

"You think you can escape me, you parasites! I will flatten this whole dimension if it means wiping you off our planet!" she screeched, her fury and her frustration making themselves blatantly visible.

Within the their hiding place, Teri and Gumball continued to fly along the little valley weaving in between the rising and falling land. When the rain of volatile lances began to pepper the area around them, Teri took at advantage of her creation's small and narrow wings ability to make snap turns and tight maneuvers in order to easily dodge the falling bolts and Gumball did his best job to shield them from harm. They shot through the space and Leliel was able to spot them thanks to the bits of plasma that she sent forth,

"There you are!" she shouted, a malicious eagerness replacing her wrath.

She then began to sail towards where she predicted they'll turn up, hoping to block their escape with a third volley of attacks directed solely at them. She thought about using a doom blast, but she recognized the weapon the little blue one possessed and knew such an attack would be futile. Her best bet was to overwhelm them until they tired out, mainly the blue one because he posed the greatest threat to her. The flimsy vermin would be no challenge to destroy once her companion was killed off.

She continued to descend towards her targeted spot and prepared another attack to send their way. With her wings brimming with newly formed weapons, Leliel couldn't see the Earth children, they were out of range from her previous attack, but she could calculate the general area they would be in. believing she had them cornered now, Leliel flapped her magnificent wings again and the shower of plasma lances that followed came crashing down all over the hills with the same destructive force of a strategic carpet bombing.

She waited for her senses to catch the two vermin as they burned or tried to evade her attacks, but was shocked to see that when her lances rained down on the scorched landscape below, they were nowhere to be found. All her destructive power and near omnipotent sense, and she couldn't even stop them nor see them anymore. However, before she could panic, it came to her realization that they didn't disappear, but rather changed directions after they got out of range from her first strike.

Which means they could be anywhere, but two areas now. This simply would not do for the mighty Leliel, master of the storm sphere and leader of the Se'arot squad, and further rage began to burn up within her being, much like her plasma. With a full fledged, vibrant display of ferocity and anger, Leliel fanned her fiery wings out and began firing a continuous cloud of burning fragments in every conceivable direction she could. There was no way they were going to get away that easily and she was ready to burn the whole place to the ground if she had to.

What Leliel had failed to realize was that Gumball and Teri never stayed close to the ground and instead, opted to go straight up after they escaped the second volley of attacks. Using the origami as cover against the dark sky, the small children watched as Leliel continued to fling bits of herself all over the place, causing a few stray missiles to race on by, although it appeared as though they hadn't been spotted. They were nearly floating above the Nephilim now and Teri could even make out the golden orb that served as the monster's real body and tip of the Phoenix's crown.

She peeked at gumball for a moment and gave him a thumbs up,

"Good job on figuring out her weakness and for figuring out she would come closer when she couldn't see us." she praised, recalling the brief moment after they escaped the attack in the hills when Gumball suspected she would be coming after them and instructed her to take them up quickly, as high as she could go. She also erased her eyes and drew on a pair of shades in order to see Leliel without going blind while they were gliding high above her.

Looking quite pleased with himself, Gumball beamed with pride and shook his oversized cat head in acknowledgment,

"Thank you, but I was just going off a hunch back there. We'd have been in big trouble if she could sense through the air as well." he explained, feeling more relieved than anything.

Once he said what he had said, Teri carefully looked back down and saw that they were now passing directly over the Nephilim. This was their chance to strike and Teri dug the shurikens out of the crease that ran down the center of the butterfly where she also kept her notebook and pencil. Looking back down at the target thousands of feet down below, at the golden orb specifically, and gathered her courage once again. This was another high risk strike, but she had a clear shot and Gumball was helping her, she could do this.

With her mind meeting its resolve, Teri set the black mariposa into a dive and shot straight down to the Nephilim below.

The wind screamed in both of their ears as they accelerated in their controlled dive and they could both feel the cold air starting to warm up as they closed the distance between them and the avion themed entity. Soon they were nearing a thousand feet, then eight hundred, six hundred feet and closing. Leliel seemed completely oblivious to their approach, but in their arrogance they both believed this to be the case.

She kept her focus on the Nephilim's vulnerable spot, but not until something caught her eye and when she looked up, she shouted in surprise when she saw a plasma heading directly at her. She thought about pulling away in order to avoid the incoming weapon and possibly retreating, but a flash of silver caught her attention and the white hot, plasma charge was dispersed. She didn't need to look in order to know who was responsible for saving them both and she took that as his silent reminder to keep going.

She stayed on course while multiple plasma lances raced towards them and were easily deflected with a few swift strokes by Gumball or easily avoided by a last-minute twist by Teri. to Gumball, who was close behind her, he was really getting the hang of deflecting all these attacks and was feeling very impressed with himself. Once they were about three hundred feet from Leliel's body, the heat became far too strong for them both and Teri was forced to attack from where she was. Taking both hands off the origami, Teri held her shurikens, eyed her target carefully, and threw all three paper throwing stars in succession at Leliel.

The three long ranged weapons spun like windmills towards the golden orb resting upon the white crown of the beast and for a moment Teri believed they were going to hit. That was, until the paper shurikens burst into flames when approaching the orb that was no doubt nearly as hot as a star. Teri's heart seemed to cave in on itself when she saw this and with nothing else on her mind, except running, she quickly pulled the butterfly upwards and began her retreat.

"What are you doing? Did you get her?" Gumball asked, having nearly fell off for the umpteenth time today.

Teri nearly felt like crying right there because she didn't want to tell him the bad news. They were so close and she forgot to take into account the immense heat the beast's plasma was giving off. Of all the basic observations she could have missed, how could she have forgotten something that simple.

"My throwing stars burned up!" she replied back to him as another plasma lance shot by and she got an idea,

"Can you fire another grey fire wave like you did the last time?" she asked, inquiring his special move he used earlier.

Gumball felt slightly uneasy when thinking about that attack and besides, if Leliel's body could take the heat of the plasma, then how would his own fire based attack fare against that? He didn't feel like his own unusual ability could get the job the done and he shook his head in response,

"I don't think that will work against her, also I have no idea how I used it." he explained in a grim tone,

"Do you have any runes that use ice or water attacks? Maybe something really strong that won't burn up?" he suggested knowing that they still had three runes that they didn't know about.

That brought Teri's attention to her notebook once again, she remembered drawing one of the new ones in there in case things went awry and well, she supposed now was a good time as any. She pulled the binded collection of papers from the central fold again and flipped to the marked page, all the while Gumball kept a lookout for more nearing attacks. She found what she was looking for, a page with a trident shaped symbol comprised of a diamond and two extra prongs on each side, and tore out said page.

She didn't think much of it when she first drew it on, it was just another easy symbol to remember and she now figured it must have some kind of water properties since tridents were often associated with the sea. The question was, how effective was it really against something that put off just as much heat as a star? She would just have to wait and see herself once she used it.

They were still directly above the golden Nephilim, Teri quickly folded the page into another shuriken and rather than turn the aircraft around, she began climbing down past Gumball and towards the tail end of the black butterfly. Having them right where she wanted them, Leliel began taking a different approach to ridding herself of her persistent opponents and began to manipulate the ionized gas until it began to rise upwards and surround the two in a blazing white tornado. Gumball was completely blinded by the bright white lights and forced his eyes shut, whatever Teri was going to do, she'd better to quick because he knew he was not going to be able to protect them from now on.

Teri felt the heat around them rise exponentially and she raised the shuriken again, making sure her arm was steady along with her aim. Before she could hurl the crafted throwing star, something happened and a six foot long trident made of water materialized around the shuriken in her hand. Teri was astonished by this, none of the runes she used ever activated before she let go of them, but didn't dwell on it for too long as she wanted to skewer the Nephilim now.

Taking aim, Teri felt the walls of the plasma torrent start to close in and she hurled the trident/shuriken straight down at Leliel's vulnerable body. The Nephilim saw the attack coming and tried to intercept it with a wall of plasma. Before the trident could reach the burning hot material, ice formed at the three tips and broke through the barrier while only losing a small portion of its overall mass in a puff of steam, which it then quickly regenerated. Leliel could do nothing as her golden ball-shaped body was pierced by the unaffected trident like a grape with a toothpick.

A hole the size of a dinner plate was all that remained of Teri's strike and it was one that ran from one side of Leliel's hollow body to the other. Her husk lost its luster as it began to decay rapidly, her overwhelming force of plasma dispersed into nothing as she was unable to maintain her hold on it and it died away with her.

With it all gone, Teri could see that they were surrounded by an inky blackness thanks to the lack of light Leliel provided and figured they were still trapped within the storm sphere. With the brightness of leliel's attack gone, Gumball carefully cracked open his eyes and saw the same thing Teri saw and wondered what happened. He got his answer when he saw something below them burst into purple flames, which was then followed by the entire place erupting into magnificent amethyst colored fire that consumed everything with their ever so hungry tongues.

"Now there's a light show I can appreciate." Gumball joked in response to the death of Leliel and the storm sphere.

Behind him, Teri laughed nervously and began to climb back up to her preferred spot. Once she was where she needed to be, she erased the sunglasses, drew on her eyes again, made the flying origami level out and Gumball settled back down in his seat, glad to not be dangling on the butterfly anymore. Eventually the entire dimension disappeared and they found themselves surrounded by the familiar sights of the forest at the edge of the mountain range along with the illuminated city of Elmore. Teri and Gumball were quite surprised at just how far they traveled while inside the Nephilim's pocket dimension and were glad that they defeated them just before they reached the city.

After assuring that they were okay, Teri set a course straight for Gumball's house and the two continued to fly above the dark, creepy, and blissfully not glowing forest. They were going to be arriving within a few minutes and Teri asked Gumball if he would like for her to land and reconfigure her origami into something faster, but he declined, saying he had enough of the woods for a while. They both shared another nervous laugh after that and continued flying in silence for a bit.

While they seemed to be making great progress in reaching Elmore, Gumball decided to check the time on his cell phone, 9:07 it read. They had been gone for over two hours, which wasn't good considering how late it was, but Gumball wasn't exactly too worried because he already had an excuse prepared for his folks at home. He hoped that Teri also had her situation under control and wasn't going to be in trouble with anyone, but after remembering that she was at a sleepover before she left, Gumball felt as though she would have better luck telling a fine tale as well.

Feeling slightly relaxed now, Gumball first stared at the approaching city and then at Teri while she continued to deliver them both to their respective places. Thinking back on it, this was probably their largest battle yet, having taken down four Nephilim and while also overcoming several obstacles in an environment otherwise unknown to them. They also learned a little more about their enemies during their time within the storm sphere and there were many questions running through the Watterson's head,

"So they have a leader called president Nimrod. Who the heck would lead with a name like that? That would be like if our president decided to name himself 'major dunce' and expected everyone to take him seriously." Gumball questioned out loud, hoping that Teri would answer him.

Also having similar questions, Teri was glad Gumball broke the silence and responded to Gumball's remark about the Nephilim's aforementioned leader,

"I don't think his name matters that much, it could even be a cultural thing for them, but what I'm concerned about is why does he want Elmore destroyed? That one named Torax mentioned that he was doing as an emotional response to something and that doesn't seem wise for a leader to do." she wondered, shivering a little at the cold.

Gumball was sent into his own little world of possibilities and he began listing off every single one that popped into his head,

"Maybe he fought someone here long ago and is now seeking to destroy his former rival? Maybe he went on vacation here once and didn't like the food? Maybe he wanted the collector's edition mini-figure of Captain punch that came with the kid's meal at Joyful Burger, but was too late because they were out of stock? Maybe he and his wife had a bad time here and got a divorce and-!"

"Gumball! Before we both get lost in your amazing world of nonsense, let's just focus on what we're going to do from now on. We've just fought four Nephilim and won, but as usual only by the skin of our teeth, Rob probably wiped out the other two (you should text him by the way.) and we don't know how many more they're going to send here." she was almost shouting now, not because she was angry at Gumball's ludicrousy, but because she was more scared than ever.

This also came as a concern to Gumball because up until now, they've only dealt with a single Nephilim coming every now and then and even then they were always a handful to manage. With the six that arrived today, dealing with them was just as hazardous if not more even and they even let two of them get away. If they hadn't been sent off to deal with Rob, possibly, then who knows what sort of damage they could have dealt while they were gone? Before he answered, he quickly shot a text to Rob regarding the two Nephilim and he received a message less than a minute later from their ally saying that he did encounter two of them and that they were a piece of cake to deal with.

Feeling glad, Gumball explained the situation to him before he wished Rob a good night and thanked him for helping out before he put the phone away and answered Teri's question,

"Well, there's not a whole lot we can do exactly, except try to get better and maybe lay out a few traps for them. I can also start creating a few more weapons and maybe even modify our own. All in all, we should focus on each one that comes, deal with it, and maybe perhaps try to find a way to contact their leader, although that last one is probably a long shot." he suggested, not feeling too sure about what to do in terms of long term planning.

She expected an answer like that from him and to be honest, she kind of felt that was just about the only thing they could do. That didn't mean she didn't find it frustrating though, she had so many things she wanted to worry about, school, friends, cheerleading, the school music group, and all the other things that concerned her. All this fighting and surviving just added even more stress to her daily living and it was already starting to wear her down. She was now shivering constantly from the cold, but she didn't really notice it.

That was until she felt something wrap around her and when she looked, she saw that it Gumball's red jacket that he brought with him.

While she had been lost in thought, Gumball thought she looked cold and decided to give his jacket to her. There was no real reason behind it, he just felt like being nice and she's also been through a lot today, so he felt bad for the paper girl. He didn't want her catching a cold and having one more thing to worry about.

Of course, his act of friendliness confused Teri and she cast a curious glance back at him,

"What's this for?" she asked.

Gumball shrugged, his face plain and uncertain,

"I dunno, you looked cold and I really don't need it right now because I'm wearing a sweater and have lots of fur." he responded, hoping that it sounded like a legitimate answer.

While Teri appreciated the gesture, her rampant germaphobia was already sending warning signs to her brain,

"Ugh! It's probably covered in your sweat and possibly dirty too. You didn't have to give it to me either!" she retorted in disgust, though she didn't take it off.

Feeling stung by her ungrateful comeback (although he did have to admit she had a point there, she didn't ask for it and he had been running around a lot in that thing.), Gumball could already feel his frustration rising to critical levels and his hand shot as he attempted to retrieve his article of clothing,

"Okay fine then! I will just be taking that back now!" he snapped back.

Before he could take his jacket, Teri's hand protectively shot out and batted his away. Surprised, Gumball looked up at her with a baffled look and some rage in his eyes, only to see her with an enraged look that rivalled his own,

"No, it's warm and you gave it to me, so you can't have it back!" she stuck her tongue out at him and clutched the jacket with one hand.

Well this was just all sorts of confusing for the blue cat and he swore to himself he would never understand how this girl's mind operated. Then again he never understood girls in general,

"What the what? You just said you didn't want it and I didn't say it was yours either, I was going to let you borrow it until we got to my house." he said, reaching for it again, only for Teri to smack his hand away once more.

"I never said that, I just said it was filthy and it's mine now, so too bad. Also, you're seriously going to let a girl go to her friend's place without a jacket, not very chivalrous if you ask me." she responded with a smug look.

Gumball was about to counter with some more yelling and probably a few insults, but he realized that she had a point and decided to drop it with a heavy sigh. He'd get it back tomorrow anyways and besides, if she thought it was warm then who was he to take it from her. He leaned back a little and continued to watch as they passed the forest boundary and entered the city proper. Teri smiled at her victory, but quickly replaced it with a frown when she remembered how Gumball was before they encountered the Nephilim in the mountains.

Looking back at him, she called out his name and his attention was focused on her,

"Um, I know this is not a subject you like to talk about a lot and I didn't want to bring it up either, but before we encountered the storm in the mountains, you looked sad about something when you said good things don't always last forever. You were thinking about Penny, right?" she asked softly, carefully studying his face.

At the mention of her name, Gumball instantly felt the stinging in his heart and his mood became drowsy and downcast. Amazingly, his depression didn't come back in full force, but it still hurt regardless. He guessed that even with everything that has been happening lately, some part of him never fully got over her and he nodded slowly without really making eye contact with Teri.

She of course knew this was the case for him, even without his response because she saw it in his downtrodden eyes and somber face when she brought it up,

"I know you really miss her and while I don't fully understand what your relationship with her was like, I do know that she meant a lot to you. When she moved away, it was really sad for all of us too, Leslie was disappointed because he wasn't going to be able to hang out with his cousin at school anymore, most of the girls on the cheerleading squad, myself included, were broken up about it because she was one of our best members and we all felt like no one could ever replace someone that wonderful, and quite a few others had their own grievances when she moved away." her voice was considerably lower and even though she still appeared collected, Gumball could tell she too was hurt by this,

"Some of us kept in contact with her, but for the most part, we just talked to each other about how we felt and things slowly began getting better after that. I know that your situation is very different, but what I want to say is, I'm not going to make you talk about your feelings regarding Penny's departure, but if you want to talk about it with someone, you can talk to me and I will listen." she offered, knowing that she couldn't take his pain away, but could only do her best by being there for him.

Feeling touched by her heartfelt confession and offering to help him with his internal struggles nearly made Gumball's heart stop and he felt a wonderful sensation deep down inside. He wasn't aware how everyone else was feeling about Penny because he was too wrapped up in his own grief to even notice and hearing it from someone who probably knew Penny far longer than he did brought him to that sudden realization. He wasn't alone in his grievance over Penny's absence and he didn't have to be either, Teri was offering to help him lift that painful burden off his shoulders and he would be completely stupid to say no after hearing all that from her.

A warm smile crept onto his kitty face and his eyes shone with a kind of gratitude that ran deep with trust and understanding,

"Thank you. I will talk about it when I'm ready and I'm sorry for blocking all you guys out when I was dealing with our break up. I didn't think that everyone was taking it as hard as I was and was completely wrapped up in how sorry I felt. I should have reached out to everyone else who knew her." he said, feeling a twinge of regret for being so selfish.

Teri's eyes widen at his apology and she immediately rushed in to clarify what she actually meant because she didn't want him to feel bad,

"No, no, no, no, I didn't mean to make you feel bad for feeling sorry for yourself. Everyone handles grief in their own way, we knew why you weren't talking to anyone and we understood that you needed a little space. I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to keep this pain to yourself and you can talk to me or anyone else really, if you need to." she spoke with a rapid fire voice and waved her arms frantically in front of her.

Gumball seemed to get the gist of what she was saying and nodded to her before uttering another thank you and looking up at the sky again. There was another period of silence between the two and Teri could see that they were closing in on Gumball's street, probably arriving in the next two minutes or so. She was about to allow the silence to continue when she thought of something to do tomorrow and she turned around to ask Gumball one more thing,

"Hey, Gumball?"

His ear twitched and he switched his gaze from the stars to her once again,

"Hmm?" was the only noise he made in response as he cocked an eyebrow.

Teri felt her heart starting to race and she stole another breath before asking,

"If you have time tomorrow, do you think you can swing by the football stadium tomorrow and watch me and the girls practice one of our routines?" she mentally screamed at her heart to slow down, seeing as she had no reason to be so nervous if he said no.

The only pause that came was when Gumball shot straight up and nodded before saying,

"Sure, no problem!" he added an eager smile for charm's sake.

"Well that was quick!" she thought in surprise when he quickly responded. She at least thought that he would have something going on like workouts or something that involved prolonged physical activity,

"U-um, are you sure because if you have to train or do something far more important then you don't have to come." she stammered out, now realizing that what she asked could be seen as selfish because she actually just wanted to help take his mind off of certain things by watching her practice cheerleading. She didn't want him to feel like he had to watch her because he was obliged to do so or something like that.

However Gumball simply shook his head and kept his excited demeanor,

"Nah! I can work out in the stands while I watch besides, I wanna see what you guys are like nowadays, especially with the new girl, what was her name… Shelly?" he scratched at his chin as he tried to recall the mermaid's name.

"Um, it's Sherry." Teri corrected, feeling a slight twinge of jealousy that she couldn't quite put her thumb on when Gumball turned his attention to the eighth grader that was the recent edition to their cheer team.

Gumball thanked her for reminding him, before adding in that he already knew that and quickly ignored Teri's snappy comeback. Sighing and turning back to the path ahead, Teri could see Gumball's house coming up and she began her descent. She didn't understand why she got worked up over him sometimes, she didn't even get why certain emotions would trigger whenever Gumball would mention another girl, but at least she was going to be seeing him tomorrow and she could also bring him over to her house tomorrow night if she wanted to. She had a distinct feeling he wouldn't say no if she asked.

After dropping him off at his house, saying her goodbyes, and taking her butterfly back up in the air, Teri focused her thought on getting back to her friend's and enjoying what remained of their day off.

-somewhere else in Elmore, 9:13 PM-

Rob was sure glad the drive back to Elmore was quiet and uneventful. After seeing the black storm disappear in purple flames, he and Mrs. Jotenheim felt no need to pursue the cloud on her broomsticks and the troll witch was ready to send him off with his now translated book. Before he left, he was about to ask her about Hector's dad, but she quickly cut him off by saying that she didn't want him bringing anymore Nephilim or bad news to her home and that if he ever came to her place to steal something or just as uninvited, then she will personally send him back into the void and seal him within it for all eternity. Then just as she was about to teleport him back to his car, she gave him a parchment contain the recipe and chants required to translate the runes on his own and also warned him to be careful when messing with some runes because they can sometimes cause more damage than just taking a lot of spirit energy. Before he could ask any more questions regarding the runes and what she meant, she sent him traveling back to his car in an instant and he took that as his cue to just go home with what he had.

He wasn't disappointed though, his journey up the mountain yielded him far more knowledge than he originally came for and all the questions he had now could all be answered in time. He suspected that Fjel Jotenheim could be a Nephilim, given what was mentioned about him, but Rob couldn't possibly guess why he would still be living here if the Jade emperor supposedly banished the Nephilim to wherever it is they crawl about nowadays. Then again, no one had the exact answers as to what really transpired thousands of years ago… or was there?

While Rob didn't quite remember the details of everyone who lived in Elmore, he did know for a fact that some people in this town were effectively immortal or have been around for quite awhile. As tempting as it was to seek out these individuals and have his questions answered, Rob reminded himself not to get too ambitious and focus on what he had right now. Looking down at the rune book resting in the passenger seat next to him, Rob felt a sense of joy and curiosity for all the new items he had to play with and his eagerness to get started on his greatest project yet flared up within him.

It would be several months until he could acquire the funds and the parts for such a highly ambitious project, but he was glad for the time he had now, for it was a time of study and learning and with all the Nephilim that were bound to appear in the future, it was bound to be a fun learning experience.

Speaking of the Nephilim, while he was entering the city, he received a text from Gumball asking about two Nephilim appearing within his general vicinity or if he perhaps noticed anything. Realizing he was talking about Thundero and Brahka, Rob quickly messaged back that he dealt with them and left out his visit with Mrs. Jotenheim all together. Gumball responded with a thanks along with an explanation that they had to fight four Nephilim (Rob was quite impressed that the two of them could handle such a large amount of foes on their own.) and couldn't fight the other two before wishing him a good night and presumably put his phone away.

Not feeling like bringing up their failure to honor their end of the bargain by handling the nightshift, although to be fair they were handling a lot more than they usually did and he was the other two's target so he had no choice but to defend himself and the family that lived in the mountain, Rob just let everything slide and began thinking up more effective to deal with multiple Nephilim, if such a threat were to become a constant in their future. He was thinking about creating some modified drones that could detect Nephilim right as they appeared and would immediately attack when given an order, but he was still unsure how to detect them. They didn't give off any particular signatures that would show up on conventional scanners, but they could interact with the physical world despite being just spirits. Maybe he would have to narrow down the search to specific movements?

All this thinking made him hungry and Rob realized that he hadn't eaten since noon and should probably grab dinner. He was travelling down 29th street when he spotted a nearby Burrito Barn and his mouth began to salivate at the thought of a large, wet burrito with beans and rice. Luckily for him, there weren't that many people out and driving tonight, so finding a parking space wasn't too difficult. He activated the car's automatic taser system he rigged up in case someone tried breaking in and stealing some valuable assets before making his way into the Mexican themed restaurant.

Inside wafted the delightful smell of various foods being prepared by the restaurant's best chef and deskman, Larry Needlemeyer, and Rob could see about six or seven people within the restaurant itself. The place itself was rather cozy for a fast-food restaurant, with cushy booths that could seat a whole family lining the walls, lights housed in colorful, mosaic casings that gave the room a vibrant glow, and the walls were decorated with many photos of the company's owners, first building sights and foundations, various happy families, and a couple nature shots here and there. He didn't have a whole lot of money on him at the moment, so he decided to select something from the value menu.

While standing in line behind a large, purple blob man with a cowboy hat, a thick, handlebar mustache and some leather western style boots, he heard someone call out his name,

"Rob!" a feminine voice belonging to a highschooler, no doubt

Spinning around on his heels, the polygonal cyclops raised his hands defensively (a typical reaction, for he was always slightly paranoid about the potential number of people after him.) and let out a little scream before he saw who was calling him. Sitting at one of the booths by herself with a tray full of food and waving at him was Rachel Wilson. She was wearing her fluffy hair in a ponytail and she was dressed in a black T-shirt with a pink arrow streaking across the front at an angle along with a white skirt and her usual sneaks. She wasn't wearing her headband like she usually did, but that was only a minor detail Rob noticed.

She appeared really excited to see him and was waving him over to her table,

"Rob, hey! Come on and sit next to me! I got quesadilla slices!" her hyper voice and wide eyes reflected her overall excitement that she was unable to contain, a charm that Rob sometimes found irresistible, though she didn't need to know that.

Seeing no reason not to sit by her, Rob shuffled over to the booth she was in and plopped a seat right next to her,

"Wow! Fancy meeting you here! I didn't even know you liked this place or Mexican food in general?" he greeted with a smile. It was true though, throughout the entire time he knew her, she never mentioned anything about Burrito Barn or anything about liking this kind of food.

The rainbow lass shrugged and dipped a quesadilla slice into some cheese dip while casually answering,

"Eh, I don't really get out much so I didn't know what I really like, but my friend, Sissy Clementine (her real name is Agathe, but we all call her Sissy.) wanted to hang out today so I skipped work and came here. She's in the bathroom right now in case you're wondering." she pointed out, chomping down onto quesadilla once she finished speaking.

While Rob was slightly disturbed at how she could blow off work and talk about it so casually, he did admit that he was happy that she was getting out and enjoying herself. He was actually really happy to have bumped into her by coincidence and decided to put off his project just to enjoy himself tonight. He picked up one of the tortilla slices with melted cheese sandwiched in between and dipped it in some of the marinara sauce,

"Oh that's really cool! Does your boss know about you flaking from work?" he asked, not wanting to sound rude, but was concerned that the manager of the gas station she worked would find out. He popped the tiny triangle dipped in tomato flavored sauce and bit down, savoring the mixed taste that swirled on his yellow tongue.

Once again she didn't seem all that concerned and the blue skinned girl just shrugged innocently,

"For all he knows, I'm sick today and don't you worry, I won't be doing this tomorrow either. I just wanted to relax and hang out with some friends." she gave him a sly smile before moving onto a question of her own,

"So what brings you all the way out here, Mr. mad scientist?" she asked, adding another one of her pet names in order to aggravate the inventive preteen.

To her disappointment, Rob did not seem agitated by her use of descriptive names and just casually responded while selecting another slice of cheesy goodness,

"Oh, I just wanted to go for a ride, you know, enjoy the outdoors for a bit. Oh speaking of which, there's a really good place out in the mountains…" he continued on with his description of the mountains and how they should travel out there sometime.

Rachel continued to listen with intrigue, but was slightly worried on how she was going to break it to Rob and her friend, that she didn't have any money to pay for the large meal she just got.

(A/N) Finished! Dear goodness that was a long chapter and I am so mentally drained right now! Either way I'm just gonna say that I'm really proud of what came out of this mess that I wrote and I'm gonna also keep the outro brief here. Don't wanna keep you guys reading for too long, I mean that's what the story is for, right?

Anyway, I'm gonna be real with you guys and gals reading this, I'm still gonna keep writing these chapters and continue the story as I had planned. I love this story and I love that you guys are seriously enjoying it, but the real issue is this: when I first started uploading these chapters, I had chapters 1-3 done already and I was able to keep things going at a constant rate for awhile, but time caught up to me in the end. Most of these chapters are very long and take me a while to write and edit, usually around two or three weeks. I'm gonna keep making these chapters, but I'm gonna have to ask you guys to be a little patient, please.

Trust me when I say I hate hiatuses and delays like any other red blooded human being, but I wanna produce the best I can offer.

Anyway, sorry if this ending felt rushed, I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible, but I hope you guys liked this lore and action heavy chapter. Next chapter will be another fun one and I look forward to sending out chapter 7: Burning sky. I hope you guys have a fantastic day, I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I hope it will be soon because I don't intend on that chapter being too long.

Have a good day, all of you, and please leave a like or a review down below.