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?

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Fear without form: Part one

Teri x Gumball

Yo! Fellow TAWOG fans, Terball shippers, and people who are interested in this story! I am happy to bring forth the eighth chapter of the Romantic/Fantasy story Teri x Gumball: In between worlds and this one is going to be as exciting as ever. Gotta be real with you guys, again, I'm sorry for the two month hiatus. Lots of stuff happening in the world of the living and very little time for writing. It's probably going to get worse once Fall rolls around because hell, I mean, college. I also chose to read over the previous chapters to this story and after spotting several inconsistencies, I had to go through this chapter and make sure to eliminate anything that doesn't match up with the previous chapters. Sorry for the grammar mistakes and inconsistent storytelling by the way, I'm trying to fix this with effective and efficient editing techniques as well as taking notes on certain aspects of the story.

I've also improvised some of the characters a little because when I read Darwin and Carrie's characters, I realized that they weren't actually doing much except worrying about what Teri and Gumball were doing or complaining about the strange events happening around Elmore. Actually that's pretty much what everyone else is doing in Elmore, so I aim to change that, obviously.

Originally this chapter was going to be one long chapter, but once I reached page sixty I quickly realized that I wasn't even halfway done yet. With there being enough delays as is, I decided to cut the chapter into two parts for the sake of simplicity and to lessen my workload. I hope this doesn't disappoint anyone, but like I said there's a lot to write down and I hope the second half won't take too long to reach you guys.

This chapter will focus on training for a bit, Gumball and Teri will be training with one another and Rob will be doing his own thing. We'll also be seeing Darwin and Anais talking about the events happening around Elmore, as well as the mentioning of a character that has appeared in the series only once. Can you guess who it is?

Anyways, enjoy this chapter and leave a like or a review down below, I'm appreciating all the support and I will gladly take any criticisms you guys may have.

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

-Watterson residence, Sunday, Sept 22nd, 2013, 7:07 AM-

Within the confines of his round, relatively small fishbowl, Darwin slept rather soundly and did not let the morning sun interrupt his slumber, even when the curtains to the rooms single window were drawn apart. Downstairs the television set blared with sound that only reached the sleeping goldfish as a mere muffle that spread through the water within his sleeping space and the eleven year old was barely disturbed by his adoptive father's morning routine. The only response he would give to all this commotion was a slight twitch every now and then before he would go back to snoring bubbles.

Yesterday was quite a party, for when he invited his friends Bobert, Tobias, and Clayton over, he was given quite the surprise when he learned that the boys had invited several others too and even brought along people who weren't initially invited. While this wasn't a major concern for the middle child of the Watterson household (he was a firm believer in the term "the more the merrier" and was quite pleased with the amount of people who showed up.) he did have to make sure that some of his classmates/friends didn't end up getting into a quarrel. This proved futile because when Ocho got wind that there was a game night happening at Darwin's house, he invited himself over and things took a slightly intense turn when he found his rival, Bobert, already there. Naturally there was an intense match between the spider sprite and the robot that ended up booting the rest of the players from the game. Soon, everyone was gathered around the television set and cheering while also placing bets, with Gumball naturally swooping in to control the flow of cash.

Then there was Tobias.

Normally when the rainbow lad came over for a game night he would act very laid back and would also remain intent on having a good time, as a group of teens and pre-teens hanging out usually would. However, the Tobias that came over last night was a far cry from the Tobias they knew. Even though he did his best to hide it from the others, Darwin could tell he was clearly stressed out about something and was worried it had something to do with Jamie or Tina perhaps.

When Bobert and Ocho's video game death match took over the actual playing experience for the rest of the guys there, Tobias wandered into the Watterson's kitchen to grab a glass of lemonade and Darwin took this as an ample opportunity to confront the multi-spectrum jock about what was bothering him. Turns out the answer was not what he had expected.

Tobias set the glass of lemonade down on the counter and sighed before turning back to the fish, the sound of Bobert and Ocho's virtual match drowning out any noise from the kitchen as everyone cheered for whomever they supported,

"No it's not Tina or Jamie that's got me worked up. I asked her if she wanted to come over and she told me that it wouldn't be a good idea because she wouldn't be able to fit in the house much less play a video game, plus she and Jamie are going bowling tonight." he began to run his finger along the rim of the glass, listening to the hollow ringing sound as his eyes wandered a little.

Darwin found this really surprising and his facial expressions lit up to match his intrigue,

"Wait, Tina and Jamie go bowling?" he asked, his flippers dropping from their crossed position to rest at his side.

Simply shrugging as his first response, Tobias slowly nodded and kept speaking while his digit continued to trace the edge of the glass,

"Yeah, they go every once in a while, it's kind of like their version of a girls night out. I was quite surprised when she brought it up too." he said, actually displaying genuine shock similar to that of Darwin's.

"But, how does Tina bowl if her arms are too, you know?" Darwin asked, folding up his flippers until they were scrunched up like that of a T-rex's.

"She spits the balls at the pins." was all he said.

The answer was so direct and simple, that Darwin was left in utter silence as he tried to decide whether he should react out of disgust or just understand why that would actually make sense. He was mostly disgusted because he would often go bowling with friends as well as family and now he couldn't shake the revolting image of Tina lobbing the spit covered bowling balls from her maw and onto the track. He felt a cold shiver run down his back as he perished the thought from his mind,

"Um, yeah, that's…" Darwin slowly started and trailed off as he fidgeted with his upper appendages.

"Disgusting? Yeah, that was my first thought and then I learned that Tina is actually pretty good at bowling when compared to her friend. Most of the time Jamie would just chuck the ball as hard as she could down the bowling alley and break something in the process. It's also not uncommon for her to get frustrated real quick and just run down the track to knock the pins down herself, according to Tina at least." he uttered with a chuckle.

After picturing an angered Jamie getting sick of breaking things and rolling gutterballs to the point that she runs down herself to knock over the pins forced a laugh out of the two legged former pet of the Wattersons. They both shared a laugh for a bit before things returned to normal and the only thing that could be heard was the commotion happening in the living room. It wasn't long before Tobias' distress crept back into his features and Darwin was brought back to his original question,

"So what is wrong then?" his tone took a serious shift as opposed to his sympathetic, friendly one and Tobias found that he oughta get this over with as quickly as possible.

Squaring up his shoulders and releasing the breath he'd been unconsciously holding in, he turned to the eleven year old standing before him, patiently awaiting an answer,

"It's… (sigh.) it's my parents. They've been fighting at home." he finally muttered.

Suddenly the atmosphere seemed to grow increasingly dense and Darwin felt his lungs cease to function for the briefest of moments as the shock overwhelmed him. As things normally were with family members, Darwin knew right away that this was no simple matter and he immediately felt himself becoming cautious as he registered the situation. While he was no stranger to his adopted parents bickering and arguing over several things, the tone in which Tobias delivered this news coupled with the given stress, Darwin could already feel the dread and sadness that came with domestic conflicts.

Moving until he was standing besides the cloud-like humanoid, Darwin hopped up until he was seated on the counter and folded his fins on his lap, his pudgy face already laxed as his eyes focused on his,

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, trying his hardest to be as respectful as he could.

Tobias took the moment that followed Darwin's question to consider if he wanted to go through with this. On the one hand, this was a real difficult topic to discuss because he hated seeing and hearing his parents argue and fight one another. Bringing it up drew forth many unpleasant thoughts and feelings regarding those scary instances. On the other hand, he had been opening up quite a bit with both Darwin and Tina as of recently and whenever he did so, he did feel better.

He wasn't sure how talking to Darwin would fix this particular issue, but if talking to him about it would make him feel better, then might as well.

Taking a seat right next to him on the countertop, Tobias began to tell him what was happening behind the scenes at his place,

"To start off, I'm not exactly sure what they are fighting over." he started, he was staring at his hands which were also folded on his lap and frustration was already gripping his voice,

"My mom seems to think we've lost something or rather someone and she would often go through old family albums or drive to specific locations for no particular reason at all." he clutched his hands tightly and his lips twisted into a sneer as he tried to grasp what could possibly drive his mother to become so obsessed over something so vague.

Darwin also seemed to be quite vexed by this and couldn't quite put his finger (flipper.) on the matter at hand. It didn't seem to be such a big deal when he thought about it, he lost things all the time and when it came to people, sometimes he felt as though he would grow distant from someone he knew and would often come back to him as someone he lost. But these were simple things that could be solved with a little investigation, he wasn't sure how something like this could be the cause of such turmoil and the former pet of Gumball felt as though he needed more insight into the matter.

"Um, does this happen a lot with your mother? Is it recent or has this been an ongoing issue?" he asked, keeping track of Tobias' expressions as he watched him formulate an answer.

The blue and orange classmate of his released the tight grip on his own hands before he disrupted the brief silence between the two of them,

"It's been going on for a few months. Before that, she never did anything like this and when she did start, first it was just a few instances of searching then she would disappear for several hours to a whole day even, searching for something or someone she can't even remember." given the increased volume of his voice and the apparent lack of calm written in his body language, this was quite upsetting for him to discuss and has been bothering him for quite some time,

"And what's worse is that whenever me and my father asked her who this person could possibly be, she would just respond with "I don't know, but it's someone really important and I can't stop wondering if they're out there." and that's how the fights between my parents would start. Almost every night, she'd come home late and my dad would confront her, sometimes accusing her of having an affair with someone else and I would just be in the living room or my own room, curled up somewhere just wishing it would stop!" he was nearly shouting at this point and his eyes were starting to well up with tears.

Having listened to every word Tobias said, Darwin could not help but feel sorrow and pity towards his friend. There was even a slight twinge of fear that blossomed like an icy rose in the back of his head, not for himself, but for the rainbow lad's uncertain future with his parents. He had met his mother and father on a few occasions and while, they weren't bad people in his mind, he knew of Mr. Wilson's possessive attitude towards his wife and kid. Problems like the ones Tobias had described plus a lifestyle that revolved around obtaining material goods to uphold one's status and ego would probably result in some horrific conflicts that could leave behind a divided household.

Placing a comforting fin on Tobias' shoulder, the two boys remained in absolute silence for some time as Tobias tried to ride out the storm that was occurring within his own self. They were both lucky that no one had come in yet and saw the uncomfortable situation playing out within the kitchen. While Tobias wiped away his tears and sniffled a little, Darwin just pondered some of the things that had been happening as of late and their effects on the people caught within them.

After Tobias seemed relatively calm, Darwin broke the uneasy silence with an apology,

"I'm sorry that this is happening." it was all he could say, really. There wasn't much else he could offer in terms of actual help.

Feeling very parched, Tobias picked up the glass of lemonade sitting temptingly by his side and downed the rest of the glass in a single gulp. Wiping his lips with his forearm and setting the cup down, his three fingered hands began to interlock with one another again and his shoulders slumped, all the tension having been released in his vocal rant. He still felt terrible and even though Darwin was doing his best to comfort him, there was still something he felt uncertain about and he needed to get it off his chest.

With another sigh, he turned to Darwin, but didn't exactly make eye contact with him. He never felt comfortable making eye contact with others while he felt this vulnerable and he didn't even like opening up to others either despite the fact that it proved very helpful to him. Guess his ego still needed to tampered with as well as his self-centered idea of masculinity that drove him to act the way he did in school. He understood that it was all a facade, but there were just some things he could never let go of so easily.

Regardless of how he felt towards his self image, he knew that he needed to talk to someone about this and one thing he learned to appreciate about Darwin was that he was good keeping other people's dilemmas to himself as well as helping others through them,

"Thanks." he started, as response to Darwin's sympathetic apology before starting onto what he was really getting at,

"However, there is one other thing." he looked up at Darwin, this time in the eyes and saw that they were wide with curiosity, indicating that it was okay for him to proceed.

Feeling as though a crushing force was lifted off of him the moment he resolved to speak his mind, the multi-colored member of the football club proceeded forward,

"I think I know what may have caused this. In the middle of the Summer, a couple of strangers came to our house and one of them said that they knew us, but my dad sent them off by threatening to call the police. One of them looked like that guy that appeared on the bus last year and the other was a girl that I swear I've seen before. I think mom may have recognized her too, but can't seem to place a solid identity, much less track down." he waited a moment for Darwin's response and when he didn't give one, he looked up and saw that he looked kind of confused/startled,

"I mean, it could possibly be that a very distant relative came to visit or something like that, but even I'm starting to have doubts as to who that fluffy haired girl could be!" he followed up while hoping that Darwin didn't see him as crazy.

Luckily for him though, this was not what Darwin was shocked by as he was instead focusing on the first person he described. When he said that one guy who appeared on the bus last year, he immediately traced his memory back to the time the entire class tried skipping school and was seemingly hijacked by their well-disguised parents and teachers. Of course, it was all a ploy set up by their arch-nemesis, Dr. Wrecker, in order to nab a million dollars for himself and defeat his adversary in one go. It was just one incident, but Darwin was certain that the person Tobias was referring to was undoubtedly him.

He hadn't heard much from the mad inventor ever since the end of Gumball and Penny's relationship and now the main question was, why was Doctor Wrecker showing up at the Wilson's place with someone else?

Snapping back into reality from the palace of his thoughts, Darwin began to question Tobias a bit more about the strangers, one in particular,

"Yeah that's possible, but when you mentioned the first person, you said he appeared on the bus last year and I was wondering if you were referring to Dr. Wrecker?" he asked.

"Are you talking about the blocky one-eyed maniac who tried to blow us up with a ticking briefcase?" Tobias shot back, unsure as to who this "Doctor Wrecker" was.

Darwin nodded accordingly and responded with,

"That'll be the one!"

"Hmm, yeah he was definitely there alright and the girl who was with him was tall, wore a white shirt, yellow skirt, had lots of fluffy yellow/blue hair and a stylish headband awfully similar to the one me and my mom like to wear. Do you know her by any chance?" he further inquired after his description.

Darwin thought for a moment, placing a fin to his lip as he tried to trace his mind for anything to go off of based on what he heard, but came up with nothing,

"Sorry, I don't have any recollection of her." he grumbled with a shrug trailed by a frustrated sigh.

Tobias seemed equally as frustrated, having the glimmer of hope that was present in his eyes being snuffed out by Darwin's honest reply. He wanted to find that girl too and help his family end their conflict by figuring out who that familiar stranger was. He knew there was something about her, but every time he tried to dig deep into his memory, it's like a black hole just formed in various patches of his mental scape, taunting him ceaselessly with the secrets hidden within the darkness. It was all void to him.

While Darwin was now sure that the strange girl he had heard about was important in some way, there wasn't much for him to go on and his only clue was that Dr. Wrecker had something to do with it. Unfortunately, before he could dig into this matter even further, two figures made their way into the kitchen and the two boys were quickly pulled out of their private spaces and forced to confront the two newcomers. It was Gumball and Banana Joe who decided to move on into the room they were occupying, both of which had an excited look plastering their faces as they pointed back into the living room,

"Guys, guys! Get back in here, you're not going to believe what's going to happen!" the first to speak was Gumball, who was barely able to conceal his energized emotions that ran rampant throughout his whole system.

"Bobert and Ocho are tied now and are about to start their final match against one another. They can't decide on which map to play on so they want us to create a map in Ring's forge world!" Banana Joe shouted in his raspy dog voice with glee, jumping up and down on his stick-like legs as his pupils shook in his googly eyes.

Tobias was the first to react and masked his troubled emotions with an equally enthusiastic demeanor, the rainbow lad spared no time to jump off the counter and pump his fists up in the air as he whooped in excitement,

"Whoo-Yeeeaaahhh, let's lay a bunch of traps everywhere!" he shouted before making a dash for the living room.

Feeling the infectious energy brought upon him by his best pal, Banana Joe was quick to follow after him, also shouting with joy. Gumball was about to take off as well, but halted when he saw that Darwin hadn't left his spot yet. Marching up to him, Gumball grabbed him by the fin and began to pull the fish off the counter, surprising Darwin in the process, who just glanced up at him after being broken from his thoughts again,

"Come on, dude! We gotta make this map really difficult for them because Ocho is going to use his cheat codes and Bobert is using some gaming software he's been downloading." he exclaimed as he ushered his sibling along, completely oblivious to Darwin's faraway look as he continued to think about Rob, the mysterious girl, the strange phenomenon happening throughout Elmore, Gumball and Teri's disappearances, plus their constant injuries, and Carrie's odd sensations that correlate with certain events.

To the young fish, it seemed like ever since Summer had ended things have been really picking up around here and in ways he could hardly comprehend. He wanted to start investigating these things right away, but seeing as his head is already full from all these unknown variables that keep popping up so frequently, he wanted to just relax for a bit. Besides, everyone was together right now and they needed to make the most of the time they had.

Afterwards, they watched Bobert and Ocho compete against one another and the robot's superior programming proved to be unmatched by Ocho's old school cheat codes. Luckily the two took the argument outside and nobody was hurt by the fight that followed soon after… except for the mailman who was trying to deliver the latest set of bills to Nicole after he'd been held up in the hospital for a day. Turns out some crazy guy driving an old, purple geo metro ran into him while he was delivering some mail last Friday, but the most damage he received was a scraped elbow and knee along with a broken antler that he had to tape back on, his bike on the other hand had the back wheel bent after the car clipped it and was currently in the shop. Either way, Darwin felt sorry for the old guy and sent the two kids home after they've caused enough damage around the house.

He made a mental not to never allow Bobert and Ocho to occupy the same space or just never make contact at all.

The rest of the afternoon went by really fast and everyone had a pretty decent time, although another one of the people Gumball and Darwin never really invited, but showed up anyway which happened to be Sarah G. Lato, kind of creeped everyone out with her long winded speeches about how everyone here was such a great friend and how it would be a tragedy that all this would soon come to an end once they all started their own lives, leaving everyone to long for those precious days that will never return. After being thoroughly irked for several minutes, Gumball decided it was time for him to leave for Teri's place and wished Darwin along with the rest of the company a good evening before disappearing for the rest of the day. While Darwin wasn't quite bothered by Gumball leaving, he did have a few questions he still wanted to ask him, but decided that they could wait until he got back tomorrow.

The afternoon soon gave way to early evening and after playing several games with different members present at the house, Nicole and Richard soon arrived from their afternoon with the Yoshidas. Taking this as their cue to leave, the rest of Darwin's classmates took off and wished the fish boy a happy weekend before they left the Watterson residence. From that point on, Darwin continued to have a good Saturday with his folks, who had all sorts of funny and fascinating stories to share regarding their lunch with the family of clouds and eventually night came around, allowing Darwin to retire to his bedroom.

All in all, Darwin was very content with how things went yesterday and wanted to spend the last day of the weekend just relaxing. Gumball was bound to return sometime this afternoon, so all the questions he wanted to ask him regarding his connections with the anomalies could be brought up in their next meeting. As for Tobias, he may message him on Elmore Plus to check up on the junior high jock and perhaps meet him at school tomorrow to talk about family issues.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Something or someone was tapping his fishbowl and he knew this because the sound was very close and he could feel his sleeping area vibrate through slight shifts in the water. Emerging from the dream that was immediately forgotten upon contact with the waking world, his eyes slowly cracked open forcing light into his sensitive pupils and causing him to blink several times. Once adjusted to the invading light shining in through his window, the sleepy middle schooler casually glanced about the room which was slightly blurred by the liquid medium he slept in and saw nothing seemingly out of place. The room was empty, save for all the furniture that hadn't been touched since yesterday and outside, the morning sun was already casting it's celestial glow from its rising position behind the horizon.

He didn't notice anything peculiar until he looked down and saw Anais standing there at the base of his dresser while holding a broom, which she had been using to tap at Darwin's fishbowl.

Seeing his little sister standing there with an expectant look present on her cute little bunny face warranted a few questions for the walking fish. For one, he thought that Anais was spending the entire weekend at Macey's place and also, if she needed anything, she'd normally get it herself since she was very capable on her own, despite being five. Unless of course it was something that she wanted to buy, but normally she'd pester Mrs. mom for things like that. Knowing full well that he wasn't going to be getting any answers 'less he actually ask her, the odd one out of the Watterson family greeted the pink bunny girl with a simple, yet tired "morning, Anais." before he climbed out of his fishbowl and hopped down to the carpeted floor.

Finding a spot on Gumball's bed, Darwin popped a seat and began wrestling his shoes onto his bare feet. Still on the floor and standing beside him, Anais kept her gaze away from Darwin as he dressed himself (he was still kind of sensitive of having his feet exposed to the world and considered it the closest thing to being naked. This usually made very little sense to Anais seeing as a lot of the Elmore citizens wear very little to no clothing at all, but to each their own she guessed.) while she spoke,

"Um, hey, so you're probably wondering why I'm here and not at my friend's house." she started off before politely adding in,

"Also, good morning to you too!"

Having completed the task of covering his feet with the protective footwear he kept as a child, which he surprisingly never outgrew nor wore down despite having them for nearly eleven years (A/N: Forgot to mention this because I originally thought he was eleven and not ten, but his birthday was celebrated in June, a couple months before Anais turned five.) and returned his attention to his baby sister,

"That is quite interesting, seeing as you and Macey rarely seem to separate from one another. Why did you come home early?" Darwin asked, genuinely curious about Anais' early arrival.

Getting straight to the point, Anais began to pace the bedroom they all shared, her arms folded behind her back and her long ears dangling from the back of her head,

"Well, the first thing I want to ask you is, do you remember my first friend? The one you, me, and Gumball first believed we made up as an imaginary friend?" she quizzed, hoping that Darwin hadn't forgotten the event.

Darwin had to think for a moment in order to recall whom she was referring to before it quickly came back to him and his eyes lit up in recognition,

"Oh, yeah! The lonely toy that came to your party and was thought to be a criminal by the citizens of Elmore!" he exclaimed with surprising zeal before his expression switched to something akin to worry and his eyes faded in their luster,

"Is he okay after that whole incident with the police?" he asked, his normally upbeat voice reduced to a mere whisper.

Shrugging a little, Anais gave a swift nod and smiled a little in order to reassure her elder sibling,

"More or less. He was very happy to see me and he was delighted to meet Macey too. I was actually surprised that the two of them got along pretty well and that she didn't start freaking out at the sight of him. Turns out, she and her parents don't like to watch the news because of all the general negativity the media likes to force onto us. Oh! and I forgot to mention, he goes by the name Chimera." she stated, sounding very pleased at how things turned out.

This seemed to cause Darwin to lighten up a little, as his body posture seemed to deflate and his fins to stop fumbling around each other, however the worried expression he held remained unchanged,

"But, if the police are still after him, why would he risk coming back here to see you?" he asked, feeling uncertain as to whether everything was alright if their wanted friend suddenly showed up after being gone for half a year.

Turns out, the answer was just as unsettling as he thought,

"Well, actually, he wasn't really risking anything because Macey's family lives out in the woods just North of here. We found him by a riverbed trying to catch a crayfish and I seized the opportunity to catch up with him while also introducing him to my friend. It turns out he's been living out in the mountains ever since he left, not far from Hector's place to be exact. They're not close enough to see one another though, which is a good thing. Also both he and Macey like to search rivers for pretty stones." the entire time she spoke there was this gentle look on her face and her eyes seemed to be a little distant as though she were living through a happy memory. When she moved on to the next subject however, she snapped back into a serious composure and moved on to answering the second question,

"As to why he was there, he said he something strange was going on as of lately. He keeps getting these nightmares about monsters dropping out of the sky above Elmore and even saw a strange, black storm above the mountains several days ago that spat red lightning while also pulling snow up towards it. He was feeling worried so he wandered down here in order to check up on me." she explained.

Now was the part where Darwin had to pause and take all this in. If it weren't for the fact that this place was already as crazy as it gets, he would have considered Anais' friend to be schizophrenic and would recommend professional help to Chimera, perhaps a toy manufacturer or an engineer maybe? However, knowing that Anais wouldn't come home to just simply tell him that a friend of hers was having bad dreams while witnessing unusual weather patterns, he could only assume that something serious was going on and that his high school sibling was going to ask him to help her with something. Plus, with Carrie also having weird feelings every now and then, it wasn't odd to say that something could be actually happening right now.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Darwin was ready to hear what she needed to say,

"Interesting. I'm guessing you found something about his dreams that piques your interest?" he rested his head on his fin as he leaned forward with a listening ear.

With her smirk giving a clear indication that he was on the right track, Anais nodded and stopped pacing,

"Right on!" she exclaimed with a snap of her fingers,

"I asked Chimera to describe his dreams to me and when he did, I discovered that all his dreams take place in various locations around the city. It just so happens that all those locations happen to line up with all the weird anomalies that have been showing up in the past few weeks."

This was definitely becoming more interesting and the sitting goldfish was curious as to where she was going with this,

"So what are you going to do about these strange happenings?" he questioned, wondering if there was a point to her coming over and bringing this up to him.

It was right when he asked that question did Anais' face change from discovery to determination and Darwin was well aware this could only mean that she was going to take action,

"That's the reason why I'm here, I wanted to ask you to join me and my two friends on an investigation around Elmore to uncover the meaning behind these bizarre events." she folded her arms and awaited a response, one of her ears already lifting as a telltale sign.

This of course, was by no means a bad idea to the curious aquatic student and he certainly felt that having more people looking into these matters was a good thing. He felt that including Carrie would be a good idea, seeing as she could sense the unusual events in some fashion and having her on the team would also help them cover a lot of ground too. Then there was Gumball, who seemed like an obvious contender for this operation because he could be very diligent when searching for something, especially if it was unnatural, but then he thought about his odd behavior and Carrie's dismay yesterday about he and Teri possibly being up to something,

"That sounds like a great idea! Count me in and also, can we include Carrie in on the investigation as well?" Darwin chirped.

Raising an eyebrow, Anais asked,

"Why would you want to include your girlfriend in on this? I mean, I'm not saying that she's incapable or anything, I just don't understand why she would be interested." her questioning stare gave off a slight twinge of suspicion regarding her older brother's incorporeal girlfriend.

Understanding her skepticism, Darwin was quick to answer,

"The thing is, she's also been noticing things as of recently and not just as in dreams, but as in sensations, like a ghost sense or something. She wants to figure this out just as much as the rest of us and having her on our investigation team would be really beneficial as well because she's an expert on the supernatural, which in this case, the odd things happening around here can be just that and her teleportation ability can help us cover more ground." he explained thoroughly, making sure to list down all the pros of having a fifth member to help out.

Anais seemed to accept this as her critical stance seemed to deteriorate and reform into a tolerant figure,

"Hmm, okay, that's actually very practical and while I'm still adamant that anything is "supernatural", having her help us uncover any mysterious forces connected to these anomalies would be a definite benefit. Therefore, I accept your proposal to add her to our group." she concluded, displaying her approval with an affirmative nod of the head.

Darwin nodded in return and began to fidget once again. Now came the next question,

"That's good to hear! Um, there's something else: should we include Gumball and Teri because Carrie suspects that they're both linked to this, somehow?" he asked.

The room immediately went quiet and the sense of discomfort slowly began to fill the air. When Anais first heard the question, she wasn't quite sure how she should go about answering it, especially since she knew about her other brother's erratic behavior. She didn't see Teri all that much either, but given that she was real close to Gumball, she could only guess that they were in on this together. Seeing how her gaze shifted to the side and how her lips were pursed together, Darwin could tell right away that she was having some doubts regarding their feline sibling and to be frank, she had a good reason too,

"I'm not entirely sure that's… a good idea." she finally said, breaking the silence that had been choking the room,

"It's not that he's unreliable, it's just that, given how many times he's made excuses to cover up his strange behaviors, and I know they're cover ups just by his body language alone, I don't think he's going to be very cooperative when it comes to cracking this case. Sorry if you wanted to include him in, but I think we should leave him and Teri out of this." she explained, already appearing downtrodden by this unfortunate fact.

Already suspecting that would be the case, Darwin just let out a frustrated sigh and quietly agreed with her with a slow nod of his head,

"Yeah, that's what I thought, but if he and Teri are suspects, then what should we do about them?" he asked, already fearing what the possible answer may be.

Pulling the stool sitting in front of the computer desk until it was a few feet from the bed on which Darwin sat, Anais hopped up on it and placed herself down until she was facing Darwin once again,

"About that." she started off with an uneasy tone, already making Darwin nervous,

"you see, one thing I'm going to need you to do is to keep an eye on Gumball along with his friend and when you notice either of them doing something odd, keep track of them both or let one of us know so we can observe them ourselves." she explained, her brows knitted together in serious concentration while sitting upright on her stool.

It's just as Darwin had feared, she wanted him to keep tabs on Gumball and Teri like they were wanted criminals rather than their family and friend/associate,

"So you're basically telling me to spy on them." the goldfish replied, sounding very upset and rather hurt by Anais' request.

And there it was, Darwin's reluctance to do something that involved deceit because of his overall nature. While Anais herself admitted that was actually wrong in some cases, as she was literally asking her own brother to spy on someone else, a family member no less, along with his female colleague who also seems rather close to Gumball. It was selfish and also very invasive when it came to Gumball and Teri's privacy, but given the frightening circumstances the town was facing currently, Anais was willing to resort to such members if it meant solving this whole debacle once and for all.

Having already prepared for this kind of reaction, Anais selected a different approach,

"Yes and I know that's really bad considering that it is deceptive, but also taking in the consideration that Gumball is hiding something from us, I think the best way to help him out would be to find out what he and Teri have been getting into. If it's something really bad, then we can't let those two deal with it on their own. Trust me when I say, I'm not trying to hurt Gumball and Teri, I really want them to be safe, but we need to know what's going on first." she pleaded.

She wasn't lying, Darwin understood that and to be honest, he probably would have resorted to the exact same thing if confronting Gumball or the paper girl doesn't work. He knew something was up with those two and that they weren't being completely honest about their behavior. Every time they would come back with cuts, bruises, and even burns at times, it would frighten him and he didn't want to see either of them hurt or feeling as though they have to lie about what's really been going on.

He knew Gumball could be overprotective at times and if he was lying about whatever was causing him and Teri so much trouble, then it must be something really awful. Unfortunately, he didn't want to be in the dark on this, so he reluctantly agreed with Anais on the task she was giving him,

"...(sigh)... okay, I will." he started, but quickly stood up soon after he finished speaking,

"BUT, I will only do so if confronting them doesn't work." he snapped, using an aggressive tone that was unlike him.

While she felt the last part was a waste of time, the vexed bunny decided to go along with it as long as he was willing to,

"I doubt, there will be much success in that field, but I guess it's worth a try." she sighed before hopping off the stool and paced towards the door,

"I'm going to leave all that up to you while I get ready to interview some of the people who have been in the areas that suffered electrical failures in the last three weeks. Macey is with Chimera and she going to let me know if he's experienced any nightmares like the ones he has been as of recently. Don't forget to also contact Carrie!" she listed off while she walked and tossed a glance towards her aquatic older brother after mentioning the last line.

Pulling out his phone already, Darwin began to scroll down his list of contacts until his fin landed on the image of his spiritual girlfriend,

"Already texting her!" he chirped, typing out a message to Carrie saying he wanted to meet up with her sometime soon.

Satisfied, the youngest Watterson child continued down the hallway and towards the stairs that lead to the living room, her little feet lightly patting on the carpet in contrast to Darwin's heavier and longer strides as he walked beside her. She was definitely worried about the crazy turn of events that elmore was facing and while she initially had given her own sound theories as to why these things are happening, Chimera's nightmares, Carrie's sensations, Gumball and Teri's reported disappearances plus injuries and the additional fact that it's been happening all over the world, according to various news stations, Anais was more than convinced that something bigger was happening and that Elmore is the recent place to be swept up in it.

She wanted to know if this was something that could be a massive threat and if so, could it be stopped?

Today, they were taking their first steps into solving this conspiracy,

"Oh, yeah! Dad is making his breakfast special downstairs!" Anais announced while moving down the stairs.

Feeling overjoyed, Darwin could practically smell the waffles doused in chocolate syrup and picked up the pace,

"YESSSSSS!" was all he could shout as he made his way towards the kitchen with Anais happily trailing behind them.

-Teri's house, roughly two hours earlier, 5:37 AM-

Dr. Fukijima Pepakuma was used to quiet mornings. With the only two women in his life (Yui and Teri, the only ones that mattered to him.) being rather silent like himself, he was always guaranteed a peaceful morning and especially on the weekends too, where there were usually less calls from the doctor's office. However, ever since a certain classmate of his daughter's started coming over more often, the forty-year-old paper puppet hardly knew a silent moment around here. Not that he minded having Gumball over, like his wife, he was more than happy to see Teri having a friend over more often and actually enjoying herself when she was around him, even though she seems to get into more mischief the more she hangs around him.

This particular Sunday morning was anything but peaceful, as the tranquil silence that filled the sleeping house was shattered when Teri screamed at something or rather someone. Hearing the angered shout (he knew it was anger because there were only two types of loud sounds his little one would make: fright and anger, both of which were usually directed at her rambunctious partner in crime.) tearing across the hallway and through his door. The rectangular bear growled in his sleep and squeezed his already shut eyes tighter as he prepared to open them to the morning he had hoped to sleep through.

Carefully opening his peepers, the oldest Pepakuma of the house sat up in his bed, which was covered in many documents and papers from both his and his beloved's work, before reaching over and retrieving a pencil from his nightstand to draw on his glasses. Being able to see the world clearly again, Dr. Pepakuma noticed that it wasn't really bright out yet, as the sky outside his window was a dark blue indicating that the California sun hasn't risen yet. When he checked his alarm clock sitting next to the mini Buddha statue, he saw that it was twenty minutes until six and he let out another agitated groan,

"Who needs an alarm clock when you have those two getting up early and squawking at each other." he grumbled to himself as he put his feet on the floor and slowly got up.

Drawing up a new attire for himself, Fukijima was eventually ready to emerge into the world from his and his wife's private domain. Looking back at the empty bed, the surgeon was reminded that Yui won't be getting out of work until six, which wasn't too long from now, but won't be getting home until eight once she's completed some errands. He was scheduled to go into work around nine, so once she gets back, he'll be taking off shortly after. Once she gets home, she'll no doubt need some rest and he was going to have to remind the two kids to keep it quiet once his wife returns.

With a ragged sigh, the older paper puppet stepped out of his room and quietly closed the door behind him. Once out in the little hallway that lead to the house's main entrance and into the living room, Dr. Pepakuma could very clearly hear his daughter angrily speaking to someone in the living room and went in to go investigate what was causing such a ruckus.

"...and how many times do I have to remind you that there are more germs on the keyboard than there are on a toilet seat?" she reminded him in a matter of fact, though her voice was still reaching a few high notes.

When Fukijima stepped into the living he was introduced to quite the sight, a sight so ridiculous that if he hadn't been Teri's father he himself would've thought it ludicrous and probably would have laughed it off as a joke. The living room was set up like any other in a typical suburban household with a large couch centered on a carpet floor, flanked on either side by two additional chairs and set in front of a television set. On the wall farthest from him was a glass sliding door that leads to a storage room which further lead to their backyard and on the wall opposite was a series of shelves holding books, family photos, and some old artifacts that meant a lot to the family. Tucked in the corner was a computer desk which sat an old computer that allowed the family to do some web surfing as well as important work.

Laying on the computer's keyboard was Gumball Watterson, all curled up on his belly with his paws tucked in and his tail curled around his sleeping form, like that of a typical housecat. It was an admittingly funny sight to see, a middle school student whom was well associated with his only child sleeping in such a bizarre fashion, but this also seemed to be the cause for Teri's dismay as well. Looking into the kitchen that separated the living room from the dining room, Fukijima could see the little paper bear standing at the counter with her arms crossed and wearing a sour face as she eyed the offending child her age with scorn. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together to know that Teri, being a colossal germaphobe and all, was not happy with Gumball's current choice of resting spots.

It was all too funny really and Dr. Pepakuma had to place a hand over his mouth in order to keep from laughing out loud as his daughter continued to shout at the fickle friend of hers,

"I know you can hear me, you scoundrel! That keyboard is not a bed, so get off before you catch an infection!" she argued, sounding very much like an angry cat owner talking down to her pet.

Gumball didn't really respond much, except for one ear twitching and cracking an eye open to look at her before lazily going back to sleep. He completely ignored her angry protests and judging by the little smirk that was playing across his lips, he seemed to enjoy getting on her nerves. Once a minute or two of silence drifted between them, Teri seemed about ready to strangle the little trickster when she spotted her dad standing by the doorway and looked up at him with surprise,

"Oh! Morning da-?" she was cut off by her father making a shush! gesture by placing an index finger to his lips.

Teri remained silent as her father quietly made his way over to the coffee table resting in front of the couch and picked up the remote sitting on the corner before tossing it to her. Catching the household object, she looked up at him quizzically and saw the rectangular bear man making a clicking motion with his fingers before pointing at Gumball, who was still sleeping. It came to her all at once and she realized that her dad was referring to a particular feature the device had.

Pointing the remote at Gumball, Teri made sure the front of the device was aimed just below the chair at the desk and pressed a button. A little red light as big as a ladybug appeared on the floor where she was pointing at and with a sharp whistle followed up by a clicking noise made by her father, Gumball's eyes opened. At first, he didn't seem to understand what was going on or why everyone was so silent, but before he could have a look around the room, something very small and bright caught his eye and his head snapped in the direction of the little dot on the floor.

Seeing the little red spot of light rapidly moving in circles on the floor in front of him, Gumball's eyes became as big as golf balls, his tail began wagging with great ferocity, and he soon found himself in a crouched position, hind legs shifting as he watched the little object continue to dance in front of him. With a sharp flick of her wrist, Teri aimed the laser pointer at the other side of the room and the dot darted to said area. Upon seeing the fascinating spot quickly jump away, Gumball pounced after it, landing on the carpeted floor with a heavy thud! before scrabbling after the runaway speck of light much like a housecat would.

Teri and Fukijima were both howling with laughter as she sent the cat boy all over the room, making him dart underneath the table, hop on the couch, scramble up the wall, and run around in circles on the carpet. All the while, Gumball would yowl very loudly as he could not seem to catch the flighty thing that has completely captivated his attention and would constantly swipe at the thing with his claws, only to have it appear on the top of his paws and race away once more.

Eventually Teri turned off the device, having laughed so hard that she couldn't even stand anymore and her father was in no position to remain on his own two feet either. Having been released from his cat craze, Gumball looked around the living room and wondered why he was on the floor before hearing two voices in the living room with him and spotting the Pepakumas drowning in laughter. Realizing that he had been duped into playing a silly game involving a laser pointer, Gumball felt his ears flatten on his head and his tail starting to swish angrily to the side.

However, his grumpy attitude was short-lived when he realized that it was probably Mr. Pepakumas idea and that it was indeed pretty funny; soon he found himself laughing alongside them,

"There you go, sweetie, I got him to move for you." Mr. Pepakuma said in between chuckles.

"It was definitely worth seeing because he went everywhere!" Teri laughed, replicating the experience by waving the remote around before setting it back down on the table.

Gumball also finished laughing at his own silliness and just rolled his eyes before looking at Teri's dad,

"Well, you were right on the dot, Mr. Pepakuma because Teri certainly had me on the ropes… and the couch… and the wall… and the table." he joked, counting his fingers as he listed off all the items in the living room he visited.

Both Teri and Fukijima found themselves groaning at Gumball's lame pun and expressed their disdain in different ways, such as rolling their eyes or shaking their heads. Last night before Yui left for work, they all had to put up with his lame dad jokes during their early dinner and neither of them were willing to put up with it now. What was really amusing to Fukijima was that, despite the short amount of time Gumball and Teri have been hanging out, Gumball has been over at their house so much that they jokingly started referring to him as part of the family.

Turning his head towards his only child, Mr. Pepakuma pointed towards the sponge lying besides the kitchen sink and spoke to her,

"Teri, take that sponge and throw it at him! We need to wash him of his lame sense of humor." he ordered.

Teri did as she was told and within seconds, the soft, brick-shaped scrubbing utensil was sailing across the living room and found itself landing square in the center of Gumball's surprised face. The dry sponge bounced harmlessly off of his face and landed on the ground without making any noise. Not being phased in the slightest, Gumball shrugged and cast a sinister glance in their direction,

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I had such a dirty sense of humor! You guys really know how to soak up all the fun!" he retaliated, knowing full well what was coming up next.

"Hit him again!" Teri's father shouted.

"Roger!" Teri responded, reaching for the rag used most commonly for drying dishes.

"I thought his name was Fukijima?" Gumball stated, feigning confusion.

Soon, multiple non-lethal objects were being tossed at the blue feline from the kitchen and the young middle schooler was forced to take cover behind the living room couch in order to avoid the wrath of the Pepakumas.

DING!

The sound of the oven's alarm caused an immediate ceasefire to Teri and Fukijima's barrage of soft kitchen utensils and the two watched as Gumball zipped from the living room to the kitchen with an eager look. With his hands safely sheathed in oven mitts, the cat baker popped open the oven door and reached in to retrieve a tray from the hot interior of the stove. Setting the piping hot tray on the kitchen counter, Teri and her dad could see that Gumball had made several cookies that were golden brown in color and smelled wonderfully sweet, like cinnamon.

"What are those?" Fukijima asked, his mouth already watering.

Pulling off his mitts, Gumball eyed his newest breakfast creation and turned to the older paper puppet with a smile,

"Oh, this? I noticed that you guys have a lot of oatmeal laying around, so I decided to make oatmeal cookies sprinkled with cinnamon. It was really easy to make, so easy, that I was able to take a nap afterwards." he said, already reaching for one.

His attempts to nab a cookie were intercepted when his paw was slapped by Teri's hand and the cat looked up at the girl with a baffled expression,

"Wash your hands first, you goof!" she snapped, getting behind him and pushing him towards the sink.

While Gumball struggled against the pushy bear girl, he called back to Fukijima,

"Feel free to have a couple, I made two for everyone-OW! Hey, watch it!" he said, disgruntled as he shot a glare back at Teri.

Given that he now had permission to make his selection of the six cookies laid out before him, the surgeon's hand hovered over a few that caught his eye before finding a particularly thick one and plucked it from the Aluminum foil wrap before bringing it up to his awaiting mouth. The fragrance was even sweeter now that it was a few centimeters from his face and the cookie itself was nice and warm. He eventually sank his teeth into it and the moment the breakfast food hit his tongue, a wonderful mixture of flavors began to swirl about his mouth and the rectangular paper bear man allowed his sharp shoulders to sink in content.

It was probably one of the best things he had ever tasted and what made it so great was that it was for breakfast too!

"Mmm! This is so good!" he exclaimed, his mouth still somewhat full from his first bite.

Having washed his hands thanks to Teri's "persuasive" methods, Gumball walked over to the counter followed by the aforementioned paper girl,

"Yeah? Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it." he responded gratefully.

He grabbed a cookie and passed it to Teri before grabbing one for himself. Teri bit into the gooey clump of oatmeal grains and dough and immediately allowed her face to melt into one of absolute delight. She never would have believed that oatmeal could have tasted this good and within a few minutes, she scarfed down the rest of it.

She saw that Gumball was enjoying his own and she smiled at him while she reached for another,

"You know what, Gumball? You're gonna have to say goodbye to your family because you're never leaving this house again." she proclaimed as she bit into her second one.

Mr. Pepakuma nodded in agreement and spoke to both of them,

"I agree! Your cooking is amazing and your here often enough to start living here!" he seconded before finishing his final cookie.

Gumball chuckled lightly at their possessive statements and shook his head as he began putting the dishes away,

"Well okay, but you're going to have to first fight my little brother, then my dad along with Anais, and finally my mom. And let me remind you that my mom is a complete force of nature on her own!" he explained, remembering all his mother's unbelievable feats of strength, skill, and tenacity.

Heading into the living room to pick up all the things that were strewn about following her and her father's combined assault on Gumball, Teri very nonchalantly challenged Gumball's claim,

"I'm pretty sure I can think of something. I mean, I am pretty capable of causing some damage." she said, giving Gumball a knowing wink that made the shorter friend of hers smile in mutual respect.

"The only damage you're capable of causing is a rupture to my eardrums." Teri's father corrected, folding his arms and giving his daughter a kind of stare that seemed to allude to something she did this morning.

Freezing up, Teri remembered her reaction this morning and hung her head low in shame,

"Sorry for waking you up like that." she meekly apologized.

Mr. Pepakuma simply shrugged and began making his way to the bathroom,

"You're forgiven, just try to control your volume next time someone is being pesky because if your mom was the one who had been awoken, I can assure you that when stuff starts flying around the living room, it wouldn't have been a laughing matter." he reminded her in a manner that sounded both harmless and ominous.

As lighthearted as it sounded, it was still enough to send a shiver down both the children's spines because even though Gumball had never seen Teri's mom get angry before, he remembered how often he, Darwin and Anais (and his dad, in some cases.) would be in for a world of hurt whenever they woke their mom up after a long day at work.

He explained to them that he was going to go take a shower and that Yui won't be back until eight, so he'll be hanging around until she gets back. After he left, the two spent the next hour tidying up the house, with Gumball handling most of the kitchen tasks and the living room as well and Teri doing the rest. While she was appreciative of him helping her out, she reminded him that he didn't have to do all of this because this was her home after all, and he was her guest, but Gumball insisted on helping because he wanted the process to go faster. With that being said, the two worked together in comfortable silence, only exchanging a few words to make small talk every now and then.

Once the chores were finished and Mr. Pepakuma stepped out of the bathroom, they decided to head out to the nearby forest in order to train. With their battle against Uriel last Friday, they've learned a few things during such an event and wanted to practice with the new skills they've learned. Teri's leg was also doing better and the mark left behind was barely even visible. Telling her dad that they needed some fresh air, Mr. Pepakuma gave them his blessing to leave the house on the premise that they be back relatively soon because once Yui finishes sleeping, she was going to need some help in the yard and Gumball was going to have to head home once that started happening.

Gathering their things, Teri and Gumball marched up to the door and were just about to step outside when Teri spun around to bid her father a farewell,

"Bye, dad! See you when you get back from work!" she waved to him.

He waved back and gave her a warm smile,

"Have fun you two and don't forget to be back soon." he reminded before shooting Gumball an icy glare that caused the blue cat to stiffen,

"And you, mister! Make sure nothing bad happens to her and that you get her home on time!" he said with an ominous tone that made Gumball tremble a little.

Standing as straight as a fence post and bringing his hand up to a salute, the nervous feline responded in a shaky voice,

"S-sir, yes sir!" he dropped his hand the moment the surgeon gave a subtle nod and spun around to face the door, avoiding his icy stare of death.

Sighing at her father's overprotectiveness and at Gumball's frightened state of mind, the paper girl grabbed the blue cat by the hand and dragged him out the door before giving her father one last goodbye,

"Bye, dad! Love you!" she called back to the figure relaxing on the couch.

"Love you too, Teri-bear!" came a loving response from Fukijima and Teri found herself going red with embarrassment at her parent's use of her nickname.

Hearing the front door swing shut, Mr. Pepakuma let out a sigh and settled into the couch. He remained in relative silence for a moment before grabbing the television remote and flicking on the television set in front of him. Switching to the news channel, the male paper puppet found himself feeling rather happy because while he may act a little stern around Teri's new best friend, he actually liked the kid and was amazed at how much he and Teri got along. He never would have believed that his tidy, shy little girl would have found someone she trusted so much and for that person to want to be with her as much as possible.

Such a friendship brought joy to his heart and he couldn't help but smile whenever he saw Teri being so happy.

While he pondered this among other things, the channel 6 news station was centered on the airport with the news reporter interviewing someone who appeared to work there. From what he was getting, there was some kind of electrical interference two days ago in the skies above Elmore that caused aircraft coming in and out of the airport to suffer unusual power surges, some even shutting down entirely. As if that weren't frightening enough, it also appeared that were several abnormal accidents that occured at the airfield including two random lightning strikes, a couple of trucks being damaged beyond repair, a power outage throughout the entire facility, and random scorch marks appearing on the runway.

Curious, Dr. Pepakuma kept his eyes glued to the screen as the figure being interviewed answered some of the reporter's questions,

"And would you happen to understand the nature of these weird phenomenon?" the reporter, micr-O-phone asked, holding the mic (which also served as his head.) toward the worker's mouth.

The worker, a male background character with a circular, red head perched atop a stocky body clad in denim overalls and a white work shirt, thought for a moment before shrugging and answering the question,

"Not really, no. although, a couple of my pals that work in the terminal blame global warming, which is… probable, I guess?" he answered with another shrug and a raised eyebrow.

The micr-O-phone pulled his head mic back and looked directly at the camera,

"A fascinating statement! With climate change on the rise, maybe there is a possible explanation for all these strange electric disturbances. For about a month now, the citizens of Elmore have been suffering accidents similar to the one that happened last Friday afternoon and according other news stations along the California coastline, this bizarre trend in weather changes has also been affecting several cities and small towns, causing extensive property damage and even death in many cases." he explained before turning once again to the red airport worker standing beside him.

"Is there anything else you would like to share? Any other unusual happenings around the airport?" he asked, holding the mic close to his head again.

The airport worker once again to a moment to think and recollect his thoughts from the last two days and let out a little sigh before placing his hands in his pockets,

"Not exactly sure what it was I saw, but while I was working up in the control tower, I did manage to see something on the runway."

"Something was on the runway?"

"Yeah, once again not exactly sure what it was, but it looked to be some kind of large animal that was orange and it was carrying something on its back. My eyesight is terrible and the other guys up there were too busy trying get the the power back on, so no one else really saw anything either." he responded honestly, sounding unsure as to what he saw.

"Wait a minute, if your eyesight is terrible, then why were you working up in the control tower?" the news reporter asked, perplexed.

"I'm a janitor. I was asked to clean up a coffee spill before the power went down." the airport employee responded with a deadpan look to the trench coat wearing correspondent.

There was an awkward silence before the mic head was brought back and facing the camera this time,

"Well, that's all the time we have, thank you for your time, Mr-?"

"Jimmy Que."

"Thank you mister- wait, is it Que as in the letter "Q" or like C-U-E?"

The janitor sighed and spelled it out for him,

"It's Q-U-E!" he corrected, sounding as though he'd done this multiple times.

"Thank you mister Que. Stay tuned for more channel six news and be careful folks!" he said, wrapping the news report and the camera cut to a commercial.

Being no stranger to this weird city and the bizarre happenings, Mr. Pepakuma was confused as well as very concerned for these ill times. When the reporter mentioned several disasters and untimely deaths happening all over the California coast, he thought back to the three unfortunate people who had passed away about a month ago, right when the blackouts and random acts of destruction started happening, and was still baffled as to how three people could show up dead at the place he worked with no signs of assault, shock, or any organ failures. They just dropped dead in the streets and that was that.

There haven't been any major incidents like that ever since, but it did leave him a little uneasy. Also, another thing that he just could not get off his mind was just how Teri and Gumball suddenly started hanging out, coincidentally around a month ago and at the same time this all started happening. The more he thought about it, the more he was able to pick out individual incidents that would occur with the two kids, like injuries or misplacing certain items, but he just chalked that up to Gumball's reckless behavior.

He liked the kid, but honestly, every time Teri (and Gumball occasionally.) would come home with some kind of mishap, he would nearly die every time from stress and he still wasn't sure if he could decide whether to keep the cat boy around because he had close, friendly relations with his daughter or send him off because of the many near-heart attacks that the kid would inflict on him.

To be honest, he did worry about his daughter's own protection, very often, and like any parent would, he tried to keep her as safe as possible. He knew he could sometimes be very strict with her and a bit overbearing (no pun intended.), he knew this, but there were layers to it too and he also wanted her to be happy, hence the strict homework and bedtime schedules. However, he did know that she had a social life as well and as much as the troublesome Watterson child worried him, he was glad to see something really good constantly springing out of this relationship.

One of the hardest things he learned about parenting was when to step in and when to let one's child move about on their own.

Settling into the couch cushion, Fukijima continued to let these little thoughts whirl about his mind space, pushing the rectangular paper bear into a deep sense worry for possible things to come and with all the crazy things happening to this town, he had all the more reason to be concerned. Working in an environment for almost two decades and seeing all kinds of terrible things happen to people and having to operate on said people, really shakes a person's belief in security. He became a surgeon because like all bright eyed youths wanting to be a doctor, he wanted to help others get better and make the world a better place. He was amazed when he met his soon-to-be-wife, Yui Pepakuma, studying at the same college as him and sharing his dream of making the world a better place.

They did achieve their dreams of course, but they were also no strangers to death and accidents. The world is full of scary and unknown variables, but a doctor's duty was to focus on keeping the living balanced. Feeling as though he worked himself into a spiral, Fukijima pressed another button on the remote, causing the box to switch channels in a burst of static, and the moment he reached the anime channel, he could feel himself start to unwind.

No need to worry about work or the news or even death for now, just need to relax and enjoy life for a bit. His kid was fine and he was certain that Gumball would not intentionally bring any harm to her. At least he hoped.

-Elmore grocery store, 7:22 AM-

The store was quite busy today with customers varying in shape, size, and species making their way through the various aisles. The cold, air conditioned building was filled with the rattling sounds of grocery carts being pushed through various sections, children playfully chattering and/or crying to their parents, and various adults making small talk as they sorted through the shelves for whatever fit their needs.

Taking her time in the arts and crafts aisle, doctor Yui Pepakuma selected a few stacks of drawing paper as well as ten sheets of extra large paper and placing them within her shopping cart. These of course, were for her daughter and she was quite surprised at how fast she was going through all these sheets of paper. At this rate, an entire forest was going torn down by next month and she didn't even know what Teri was using these for.

With all of that out of the way, the tired paper puppet began heading over to the meat section and wondered if she should grab some pork slices in order to make Tonkatsu for tonight. It was a simple dish for her to make and Teri loved it while her husband was usually fine with whatever she made. While that seemed like the most ideal option, she thought about others that might sound delightful and while lost in thought, the raven haired doctor heard someone speak to her while passing by,

"Oh, hey! Are you Teri's mom?" a feminine voice asked and Yui's head snapped upwards at the mentioning of her only child's name.

Standing besides her while pushing a cart full of various cleaning supplies and food, was a woman strongly resembling Gumball in appearance wearing a white work shirt with a pin that displayed the rainbow factory colors and a grey mid length skirt. She had kind eyes and sounded very polite despite the tired look she wore, giving Yui the sense that this woman was a very hard working individual who did her best to hide any stress her life may give her. It took Yui a few moments to pull herself out of her thoughts and formulate a response to the other woman standing right next to her,

"Oh, um, yes I am!" she responded positively before reaching out to shake her hand,

"I'm Yui Pepakuma, are you Gumball's mom?" she asked after introducing herself.

Reaching out and taking her hand, Yui was surprised by how unbelievably strong her grasp was when she gave it a firm shake,

"That would be me, my name is Nicole Watterson, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Pepakuma." she said with a chipper tone and a friendly smile,

"Wait, you work at the hospital, right? Do I refer to you as doctor or Mrs. Pepakuma?" she asked, forming a quizzical expression.

Having been used to these kind of questions, Yui was quick to respond,

"You may call me Mrs. Pepakuma, if you wish. My husband is also a doctor, so we use those surnames in order to avoid confusion." she explained, waving a hand while she spoke.

Nicole brought her hand up to her mouth and chuckled a little,

"Okay, Mrs. Pepakuma. What do you and your husband specialize in?." she asked politely, a noticeable twinge of curiosity within her voice.

Seeing no reason not to answer her question, Yui felt herself relax a little and began speaking in a light tone,

"Well, I'm an allergist and Fukijima is a surgeon. I never know how he manages to put up with such a job, having to be extremely careful with his operations and having to… cut people open." she shivered in disgust as the idea forced its way into her head,

"It just makes me so uncomfortable and I've seen some severe allergic reactions, mind you!" she stated, holding up a finger to Nicole's face in order to emphasize the serious point she was making.

Seeing her point, Nicole couldn't help but agree with the ebony haired paper doll about the whole surgical process. Having driven through the outer parts of town before and witnessing different kinds of roadkill, all of which made her queasy, seeing any living thing's innards was not something she particularly enjoyed. Even thinking about it now made the blue cat woman turn as white as the person standing beside her,

"Yeah, I second you on that. I wouldn't want to be a surgeon either because I wouldn't make the cut." she replied, another chuckle escaping her lips.

"Just like her son." Yui thought with a roll of her eyes,

"Does everyone in that kid's family make puns as bad his?" she asked herself quietly as she giggled a little at the possibility of all the Wattersons at a family dinner just firing off jokes and laughing wholeheartedly the entire time. That was something that definitely wouldn't have run by at her parent's place and the thought of them placed a small, barely noticeable frown on her face.

Nicole continued on after seeing Yui giggle a little, seeing that as a positive sign,

"Actually, I'm not sure if I was ever cut out to be a doctor anyway, despite my name being Doctor." she added in, feeling slightly down now at the reminder of her parents high expectations.

Yui didn't quite get what she was saying, was this another joke of hers or was Nicole actually being serious? This left the paper woman feeling very confused,

"Wait, I thought your name was Nicole?" she asked, scratching the top of her round head.

Clearly understanding the female paper puppet's puzzlement, Nicole continued to laugh it off as she explained,

"Actually Nicole is my middle name. My parents had such high expectations of me that they named me "doctor" and, boy, did that lead to some confusing times." she stopped laughing and heavily exhaled,

"It was one of the many things that bothered me about them, but we're on good terms now and I now see my first name as kind of an odd joke." she wrapped up the explanation with another sigh before looking up to see that she seemed to have lost Yui amidst the explanation and couldn't tell whether she should just walk away or just laugh.

"Oh! I apologize, it's just when you told me about you and your husband using your surnames instead of doctors as a means to avoid confusion, it kind of brought up that little tidbit and I kind of launched right into it. Sorry, if I made this awkward." she apologized, scratching the back of her head nervously.

Given her explanation, Yui was able to understand that she was just trying to make small talk and decided to let this person's bizarre story slide. She let out a little laugh of her own, shocking Nicole a bit before she seemed to realize that the black haired, bear woman didn't mind her at all. This was further proven when the doctor spoke to the Rainbow Factory worker, sounding very friendly and amused,

"No, no, no, well, okay it was a little weird, but I can understand the whole strict parent thing because my parents were stuck in their ways and didn't appreciate deviancy that much either." she said, her laughter dying down a little.

Feeling somewhat relieved with Yui's reaction, Nicole began to relax and felt somewhat curious about her now,

"If you don't mind me asking, is that why you became a doctor? Just curious." she asked, slightly unsure if she was prying too much into her backstory.

Luckily, she didn't seem to mind all that much and answered without much hesitation,

"Not really, no. my family and I used to live in Sapporo, a city in the Hokkaido island of Japan, and my parents worked as shrine keepers for one of the few temples located nearby. This was an ongoing tradition, as that's what my family bloodline has been doing for generations, that was until we moved to the United States. I was six years old at the time, but I knew I had a grandmother that lived on the California coast and after her husband passed away, we moved to the states in order to be with her because my parents were firm believers that no Pepakuma family member should be left alone. We stayed in the U.S. for a very long time and when my grandma eventually followed her husband to the grave, my mother and father wanted to move back to Sapporo and they wanted me to come with them." while telling her face remained pleasant, but her eyes were a little dim,

"I was nineteen at the time and studying at the University of San Francisco to become a doctor, but I didn't want to give up the life I had here so, I refused. They didn't take well to my decision and we had several massive arguments that usually went nowhere. Eventually they went back home, back to their jobs as shrine keepers, and not long after I met my husband at college (he was known as Fukijima Ikari back then.). After I met him, we were always together and he was always supportive, even when I felt as though my decision to stay was the wrong one. It was thanks to his aid that I later got my doctorate, married him, eventually moved to Elmore and settled down before bringing Teri into the world. Never been any happier with my decisions." she concluded, sounding happier even though it sounded like she was hiding a little resentment in her tone.

Nicole could relate to her situation pretty well, as it kind of happened to her and while she suffered a lot of hardships for her choices, she wouldn't take any of it back if she were given the option. She was also happy that the rift between her and her parents has been mended somewhat, but given Yui's attitude towards her folks, she hasn't reached that stage yet and there were probably a lot of reasons as to why that was, most of which she could only speculate. If there was one thing she knew, it was that families were very complicated and not all problems had one easy solution.

Acknowledging the paper doll's statement regarding herself and her past decisions, Nicole began to open up to her a little,

"Yeah, you can kind of say I've been there too." she felt her shoulders slump a little as she began to recall her troubled history with her folks,

"I grew up here in Elmore, I was pushed into striving for success by my parents and it made for a difficult time growing up because I couldn't make any friends, nor could I relate to anyone. It was a very lonely childhood, but I was able to excel in many areas, something that was a greater help later on. That all changed though, after I met Richard in middle school." a warm smile crept across her lips and her overall appearance seemed to brighten up a little,

"He was the biggest dork in the entire school, even the other teachers considered him a loser. At first, I didn't think much of him during the first semester of sixth grade, but then I kind of bumped into him on an eventful day and it was the first time I actually just sat down and talked to someone. A lot happened afterwards, one thing lead to another and I kind of started drifting closer to this big oaf of a student." she chuckled to herself and Yui could already guess how this story was going to end.

She continued on, but with a serious tone this time,

"After spending enough time with him, my parents started to notice and kept on suggesting I try making friends with more "sophisticated people". There were many nights where we would argue, scream at one another, and sometimes I would just stay away from home all together. Eventually High school was drawing to a close and neither Richard and I were doing so well. So we both dropped out, worked odd jobs here and there, eventually got married, and had a kid along the way. Now I work at the Rainbow Factory while raising a horde of children… and a husband." she said.

There was a quiet moment between the two and they both just remained where they were contemplating their life choices while a couple of shoppers passed them by. It never occurred to either of them how easy it was to compare their lives and the decisions they made to others and while they both looked happy and well off, there were always those little moments they would think about constantly. Both were amazed to find someone else with completely different lifestyles and yet, share some common misfortunes.

Finished with weighing in her circumstances, Yui turned to Nicole on a positive note,

"But you and your parents made up in the end, correct?" she asked, remembering her mentioning her folks earlier.

"Yeah, we did, but even that was quite an ordeal." she responded with a shrug.

Yui couldn't help but feel a little envious of the cat woman. She never really got around to contacting her parents and she'd be pretty impressed if they ever decided to leave their safe zone to come over and actually visit her family. Then again, perhaps impressed is not the right word to describe how she would feel if they ever decided to leave Sapporo…

"I'm guessing you've thought about contacting your folks every now and then?" Nicole questioned, stirring the paper doctor out of her thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh! Not necessarily, actually, I'd rather just keep our distance and let them stick with their "traditions". It doesn't really bother me too much." well that was an obvious lie, she was actually very resentful towards her parents and didn't bother contacting them because she feared that nothing good would come of it. What made things worse was that she carried a little bit of their strictness into Teri's childhood, although she keeps telling herself that it was for a good reason. She wasn't too sure if this has caused any major problems with her daughter, but she seemed to be doing fine right now. She was excelling in so many areas and she was happy, right?

She caught Nicole carefully scrutinizing her face and realized that she may have been a little obvious given her tone and the way she worded that last statement. She hadn't expected to go so far into her own past and was shocked that after just meeting someone who was a complete stranger to her, she was able to open up this much. Maybe it was because she was Gumball's mother and that because he was so polite she got the impression that his mother is someone she can trust.

Lady luck seemed to smile upon her at that moment because even if Nicole suspected anything, she didn't show it and didn't pry any deeper,

"That's understandable, I mean I don't fully know what's going on between you and the other members of your family and I'm not going to tell you what to do either." she said respectfully before jumping to something else,

"That's a lot of paper by the way. Does Teri have a project or something?" she asked, knowing full well from Gumball and Darwin that Ms. Simian was issuing out more assignments than usual because, well, she's a grouch.

Directing her attention to the piles of paper sitting at the bottom of shopping cart, Yui could guess that seeing such a large amount of paper would seem like project material to an outsider and Yui quickly turned her attention back to Nicole,

"Um, actually this is… I'm sorry, this is probably going to sound weird." she warned after pausing to think about how she was going to explain herself.

Nicole raised an eyebrow and cocked a smile,

"Come on, we live in a city where a tree can have a casual conversation with a crocodile at the bus stop. I doubt whatever you're doing can top the diversity of bizarre our place currently carries." she said lightheartedly, giving Mrs. Pepakuma a bit more reassurance.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Yui then allowed Nicole on one of her family's strangest secrets,

"Well, you see, Teri has the ability to control paper just by simply touching it- actually, here let me demonstrate for you!" she said, quickly reaching into the cart and withdrawing a single sheet for herself.

Nicole's gaze went from Yui's face to the piece of paper she held between two fingers and watched in amazement as Yui began to exert her control over the flimsy object. The paper seemed to move about on its own as it twisted and folded multiple times within the doctor's grasp. Within a few seconds Yui was holding an origami cat in her hands and Nicole was relatively impressed by the feat, not blown away, just impressed.

Yui handed the paper construct to the motherly feline, who took it in her paw and inspected it thoroughly,

"This is incredible! You said Teri can do this too, so does it run in the family?" she asked, flipping the tiny paper cat around as she eyed the beautiful craftsmanship.

The Pepakuma mother just shrugged, seeing what she did as no big deal and just spoke like she was explaining something mundane,

"Only on my side of the family. My husband has never shown any kind of ability quite like that, but he does have his own talents." she said with a smile,

"Your son's very good at cooking, does he get that from you?" she asked, having tried Gumball's breakfast bread once and finding it very delightful.

Nicole stopped inspecting Yui's paper construction and looked up at her with a curious expression,

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, kind of. We used to bake stuff together when he was little and then he started experimenting as he got older. I'm glad he's gotten better at that skill." she said, sounding pleased.

Yui nodded in agreement and responded kindly to her statement,

"Yeah, his breakfast bread was really good!" she said as a compliment to both Nicole and her eldest son.

They both shared a pleasant back and forth conversation about their families, telling a few humorous stories about who did what and other activities that they've cherished. Once again, both found themselves amazed at just how well they got along despite the brief amount of time they knew each other, but didn't let that bother them and just continued to enjoy the conversation. After several minutes had passed, and multiple shoppers walked on by, some slightly puzzled at the sight of two people talking, yet not shopping, the conversation took a slight turn when something came up in Nicole's mind and the tall, Cyan furred cat brought it up once Yui finished her story regarding a time she found Teri and Fukijima at home, playing with her husband's action figures,

"That's so adorable!" Nicole nearly squealed before her face quickly changed from delighted to seriously concerned,

"Um, Mrs. Pepakuma, I don't know if you're aware of this or not and I'm sorry to bring this up now, but sometimes when my son comes home, he has… multiple injuries, like bruises, scratches, and burn marks even. Now I know my son can be "careless" at times, but it seems that this has increased significantly ever since he started hanging out with Teri." she explained.

Teri's mom immediately stopped chuckling and put on a worried face of her own. It was very subtle at first: leading with disbelief, then fear, followed by a sense of dread and genuine worry. Nicole picked up on this and realized that what she said was suggesting something very bad, even though that's not what she meant,

"U-uh, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your daughter! She seems very nice and I don't believe she would hurt Gumball, or anyone else. I'm just worried that there might be something else-?" she was in the middle of reassuring Yui that she wasn't jumping to any conclusions when the paper woman held up a single finger, politely demanding silence,

"I know. I've also been noticing Teri coming home with several injuries of her own at times and I was worried too, but she keeps telling me that they were all 'accidents' and I want to believe her. However, I don't believe that your son is the one behind this, given what you've told me right now and the fact that he does show a lot of care for her." she said, dismissing Nicole's concern for possible abuse between the two.

To Nicole, it's a scary thing to live through, having to see your own child come home from school covered in injuries and lying about the cause. She flipped her lid once when she found out that Tina had been picking on Gumball while he tried covering it up and she swore her hair would turn grey every time she heard about Anais coming back home from high school after getting picked on by Justin. Every time. She already knew it was possible that her eldest son held a lot of affection for Teri, but having to picture something terrible possibly happening behind the scenes was just as horrible as any nightmare she could sleep through.

She was glad that those two were not harming one another, especially since they seemed so close, but now she needed to know why they were getting hurt so often,

"Okay… so if they're both getting hurt, then it may be possible that someone else is hurting them. Does Teri have any known bullies or perhaps a history of people picking on her?" she asked.

This called for some serious analysis on Yui's part, while she knew that Teri was sweet and caring, she had obsessive traits that could be considered obnoxious by others and this definitely opened her up to being harassed by others. The first person that came to mind was Jamie and Tina, two well known bullies at Elmore Junior High and though she hadn't met them personally, she had her fair share of awful stories from Teri herself. Then there was that one incident with Masami a few years back, but from what she heard, both Teri and the cloud girl were on good terms.

Alas, she could only draw up the conclusion that it had to be Jamie or Tina,

"Yes, unfortunately." she answered slowly, hating to admit so,

"Throughout most of her life at school she would often come home with stories on how Jamie and Tina would pick on her, she even came home with a missing leg once because Jamie used it to lob spitballs at her." she was nearly sobbing at this point.

Seeing the distress on the poor mother's face, Nicole quickly went over to comfort her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder,

"I know how you feel. My children also have had their fair share of… encounters with Tina and Jamie. It's rough and I don't like seeing them coming home injured both physically and emotionally." she paused for a moment, her own feelings of distraught and fear welling up within her before she was able to stifle it down enough to continue what she was getting at,

"Listen, if that's the case then I'm going to have a talk with my son as soon as I see him again and I will help you get to the bottom of this." she proclaimed, still keeping a hand on her shoulder.

Yui was silent for a moment, the full grown paper doll needed a moment to collect herself before she turned to the blue cat with a slightly more upbeat look,

"Okay. I will have a talk with Teri too as soon as I see her." she said, agreeing with the mother of the three Watterson kids.

A small smile crept onto Nicole's face as she nodded and gave Yui's shoulder one gentle squeeze before releasing her hold,

"We'll help them get through this." she declared before making her way back to her cart and the two began walking down along the meat section while they continued to talk.

"Thanks for the talk, by the way. I'm really glad to have met you today, Nicole." she said, still appearing happy.

Nicole nodded in agreement, also appreciating bumping into Teri's mother today,

"Any time. I was really shocked to see you here and I wanted to formally introduce myself in a decent location instead of at your workplace." she responded with a chuckle.

Selecting a few sliced pork chops wrapped in plastic and examining them before placing them in her cart, Yui looked over at the cat woman walking next to her with familiarity,

"Oh now I'm starting to remember, didn't you bring your daughter in one time because she kept kissing a frog?" she asked.

Nicole let out another chuckle, this one more nervous than the last one as she looked off to the side,

"Yeeaahh… that's her alright… she's smart, but can be a little delusional sometimes. You know how little girls are with princess movies, right?" she questioned, still looking embarrassed at such an event.

She had to remember that with Yui and her husband working at the hospital that all their family accidents were going to reach the Pepakumas somehow.

Yui let out a brief laugh and a story regarding her own daughter came to mind,

"Oh you're so right! I remember this one time when Teri was eight, she learned about the tooth fairy and when she found that she couldn't lose any teeth because she was made of paper, she went to the playground and kept asking the other kids to give them one of their teeth." she recalled with another bout of laughter.

Nicole felt her former embarrassment quickly fade away and was replaced with humorous curiosity,

"Really?! She actually tried doing that?" she gasped, putting a hand over her own mouth to contain her laughter.

Mrs. Pepakuma continued to retell Teri's humorous little experience,

"Oh yes, and she even tried paying some of the kids with her lunch money!"

Now they both launched into a fit of chortles that could heard all over the grocery store and everyone close by stopped to stare at the two laughing loons. The two women didn't seem to mind the attention one bit and continued to laugh out loud. They eventually settled down though and continued to exchange embarrassing stories regarding their children when they were younger.

Soon enough, both Mrs. Watterson and Mrs. Pepakuma found friendship within each other's company.

-Forest close to Teri's neighborhood, 8:35 AM-

Gumball dropped to the ground, panting and drenched in sweat. He was really glad for the cool morning air because both he and Teri had been going at it for almost a couple hours now and his body was really starting to heat up. Right next to him lay the garbage can lid with a red bullseye painted on the interior, he'd been running around with that thing and playing target with Teri, who had been throwing paper shurikens at him while trying to hit the target.

On their way here, she had been complaining that her accuracy was way off and that she could only hit the Nephilim because they were huge, but not specific areas unless she was close enough. It was Gumball who came up with the idea of running with a bullseye hanging off his wrist because he saw it as killing two birds with one stone: he can work on his evasion skills and Teri can improve on her throwing. Also, there was the added bonus of getting a run in too, so three birds actually.

Before they did that, they spent about an hour working on basic combat and team building exercises for better cohesion. The rest of the time up til now was spent running through the misty forest, her trailing behind on various origami animals and repeatedly hurling paper projectiles at the moving trash can lid. Gumball stared up at the morning sky, which was obscured by the rolling fog that covered the entire forest, leaving nothing but a dull grey that covered his vision. He lazily reached up with one arm and wiped the sweat from his forehead, he also had a sharp metallic taste in his mouth and it was really bugging him. He could feel his chest and lower abdomen thump with every heavy heart beat that pounded in his thoracic cavity. It goes without saying, but the last few minutes have brought him quite the workout and he was fairly confident that when he got home the first thing he'll be doing is taking a nap.

He heard a shuffling sound not too far away and Gumball could tell that Teri was coming in for a landing. Sure enough, the moment he propped himself up, he could see the figure of an angular sparrow with a bear-like person riding atop of it emerging from the fog and setting down right next to him. Gumball watched Teri dismount from the paper bird and unfolded the creature before reforming it back into a folded rectangle that she slid into her bag.

Skipping over to him, the paper girl that shone like a white beacon through the dark, grey mist grabbed the blue kitty by the hand and helped him to his feet,

"Nice job!" Gumball greeted while dusting himself off,

"Out of the two hundred and twelve projectiles you've hurled at me, I think seven managed to strike the target." he teased, flinching when Teri swatted at him with her free hand.

"Oh, shut up! It's hard to see someone or something so small from way up in the treetops through this heavy fog, while also keeping in mind that the person I'm training with keeps forgetting to raise the lid up high like he's supposed to!" she remarked, shooting him a glare.

Gumball merely snorted at this and stood his ground,

"Well, I wouldn't make it any easier for you because the Nephilim sure haven't made things easy for us." he defended himself despite knowing that he was actually just tired from all the running around.

Teri seemed to notice this too and a snarky smirk made itself present on her cute bear face,

"Maybe you just need to do more push-ups?" she shot back.

Crossing his slightly toned arms, the offended cat boy played it off as cool as he could by switching topics,

"Yeah well, speaking of making things easier, how's the research on the Nephilim going?" he asked, keeping his stance straight and his arms folded,

"And I did seventy five push-ups this morning before you got up, so I say I'm pretty good when it comes to working out thank you very much." he half muttered sarcastically. (A/N: this is a really bad lie, his highest record was thirty two before he fainted from exhaustion.)

The air grew very quiet as Teri paused for a moment to think, allowing for the birds and insects of the forest to be heard through their chorus of songs. Truth be told, she hadn't gotten very far on her research because she found most sources regarding the ancient giants to be unreliable and would often quit out of sheer frustration after hours of exhausting research both at school and at home. Then there were all her responsibilities that got in the way as well and if that wasn't overwhelming enough, she could say that the emotional crisis regarding the lack of progress they were making in halting the Nephilim's attacks was enough to topple the young monster fighter.

Inhaling deeply, she let out an exhausted sigh and allowed her shoulders to slump forward,

"No… nothing much. There's nothing online or in the library that says anything about the Nephilim or how to defeat them for good." she was clearly bummed out about this and Gumball couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

He'd done his own research as well, whenever he could at least, but like his feeble friend, he came up blank,

"I'm sorry. I wish I could say that I've found something useful, but I'm just as in the dark as you are." he stated glumly. There was no real reason for him to apologize, but he was sad and disappointed that neither of them have gotten anywhere and Teri was the one who was working the hardest out of both of them.

There was some good news that Teri had to share though, well, actually she probably wouldn't consider it 'good' by any means, but at least she had something. Checking on her shorter companion, she could see that he was looking down at his feet and was quite somber. Clearing the silence with a cough, Gumball's head snapped up and he was checking to see if something was the matter, which gave Teri an ample opportunity to speak,

"But, I did find something else or something interesting I should say!" she declared.

Intrigued, Gumball stood up straighter, his ears shooting straight up and his hands found their way behind his back as he eagerly listened.

Teri reached into her book bag and withdrew a pencil from the side pocket. Within a moment, she drew a pocket on her blazer and pulled out her paper flip phone (Gumball was curious as to why she kept that type of phone instead of updating to a touch screen, but chalked it up to it being a preference of hers.) while making her way towards him. Standing next to him now, Teri held the phone up so they could both see and selected a news article she found online,

"After I had given up trying to look into the past for answers, I decided to look into some recent events and I kept coming across some peculiar articles, like this one here: Plane crash over Oregon, no survivors! It says in the space below that the airliner lost power mid-flight and went down with all its crew and passengers. Nobody survived." she explained, allowing Gumball to read through the clip.

Gumball studied the image carefully, it was a gruesome sight and it struck the anthropomorphic cat as sad when he saw the shattered remains of the airliner. There were bits and pieces of the airplane scattered across the forest the plane crashed in, some were recognizable like a few engine modules and the cylindrical fuselage which was torn and crumpled like a used can of soda. While the report officially says that it was a complete engine failure that sent the plane down, the fact that it happened at random seemed a little suspicious and with everything that the two had been through, it seemed less likely that this was an accident,

"I'm guessing a lot of people onboard were killed by circumstances that didn't involve the crash?" he inquired, rubbing his chin and prying his eyes from the screen in order to look at Teri's face for an answer.

With a swift nod, Teri continued to scroll through different articles that she saved on her phone,

"Exactly! Most of the victims seemingly died for no apparent reason and with minimal injuries from the crash itself. However, this is not uncommon, multiple incidents like have been happening all over the world, but concentrated in a few areas such as: the western and eastern coast of the United States, the Mediterranean, the United Kingdom, several countries in the middle east, and several areas in Russia." she listed off the names of the most common locations where weird phenomenon akin to the ones in their own town while showing Gumball all the articles and pictures taken at such places.

This did not surprise Gumball in the slightest because he already knew from Rob that the Nephilim were attacking the world at large, but it still felt slightly unnerving to know that this was going on and that the world remained completely unaware of this threat. Every report he was shown merely dismissed all the incidents as natural disasters and there even some attempts to explain the strange events being covered in science articles. There was one thing that stood out to the pre-teen though and he brought up his concern to Teri,

"Okay, I understand why they would attack these areas, but they seem so random and they haven't even caused any major damage, yet. If this is an invasion then shouldn't they be coming in at full force?" he scratched his head in confusion.

Teri heard something snap behind them and she turned around to see what it was, only to find a pair of squirrels chasing each other up a tree. They probably broke a twig before they reached the tree's trunk and Teri realized that she was a bit jumpy today. She guessed that talking about the Nephilim must be setting her nerves off. With that little distraction out of the way, she returned to answering Gumball's question,

"Mmm yeah, you're definitely right about that. This is pretty tame as far as an apocalypse goes, but these attacks do have meaning behind them, I think." she explained, now pulling up another tab with another newsletter attached to it.

Gently grabbing her phone from her, Gumball read through the recent event, which happened to take place on August 6th, 2013, and was quite surprised by what he pulled from the page. It turns out it was about a woman in Seattle who was deemed insane after being caught several times in the streets wielding a staff-like weapon during times of power loss and fighting "invisible opponents", forcing the Seattle police to restrain her and lock her up shortly after.

There weren't any pictures or videos showcasing the event like normal newsfeed on the internet often would, but there was an image of a human female being arrested by several officers while carrying what appeared to be a type of bo staff, typically used for close quarters combat. When Gumball further inspected the image, he could clearly see there was some kind of writing on both ends of the staff and if he didn't know any better, they could be runes like the ones he, Teri, and Rob used. Teri went on to show him more images of various people all over the world wielding different weapons with supposed magical properties and all information covering these enigmatic figures state that they always appear during mass power outages, acting very strange and fighting unseen adversaries.

So there were people like them and the world knew too, but they saw things differently.

While he was glad for the fact that they weren't alone in this conflict, this did leave the skinny twelve year old with several questions aimed towards those very people. If they knew about the existing threat, were they contacting one another? How serious was it in other cities? Was it possible they could find any of these people if they ventured out into the world? Should they seek out these other extraordinary individuals?

While he silently sorted through all these troubling thoughts within his grey matter, Teri quickly drew her own conclusion regarding her search into recent matters,

"The thing is, all these attacks are not random, they are being directed towards Nephilim hunters. All the planes that had crashed, had people who've been resisting them onboard and all the attacks happening all over the world usually had something to do with people like us." she explained, watching as Gumball slowly began to understand what she was getting at.

"Gotcha. So what are we going to do then?" he remarked.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"If they're targeting people like us, then shouldn't we try contacting them? I mean, clearly this has been going on for quite a while now and I remember one of the Nephilim in the Storm Sphere mentioning something about fighting the NEA. So maybe there's a resistance of some sort that can help us with this mess." he pointed out, placing both hands on his hips.

While the prospect of getting even more help sounded nice, Teri wasn't sure if there was any way they could contact these people and leaving Elmore to seek out help was not a good option,

"No, I don't think so, I mean any form of help would be more than appreciated, but we can't exactly leave Elmore in order to hunt down these individuals. The three of us can barely fend off the Nephilim currently and leaving the city even if it's for a day just sounds too risky. I'm sorry, but until things show signs of improving I think we're on our own." she knew this barely sounded helpful, but three people have already died and she wanted to do everything in her power to prevent that casualty list from rising. There was also the fact that if there was an organization or resistance group fending off the Nephilim in various areas, then they may have to be cautious when approaching these groups because if their existence was discovered then that may lead to trouble later on, like their town getting invaded by militant individuals or worse, the three of them are forcefully indoctrinated into their group.

Gumball kind of figured Teri was going to stick with the cautious approach and he knew it was a good idea, but there was something else he'd been meaning to bring up,

"Hmm, I see, but what about our class field trip to San Francisco? If we go, then we'll be leaving Rob with the task of defending Elmore on his own." he asked, feeling slightly worried for their ally, despite knowing how crafty he could be.

However, the situation wasn't so grim to Teri and the paper puppet had already thought about it in advance,

"It won't be an issue." she stated with absolutely no concern,

"The school trip will only last from morning and we won't be back until six, which is when Rob's shift usually ends, so we won't be overstaying. If it just so happens, that the enemy is too much for Rob to handle, then we can just fly back on a paper rocket or something." she watched Gumball's worry visibly melt away with satisfaction.

"That's good to hear and I'm guessing we're not doing any investigating while we're there either?" he added in while raising an eyebrow.

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Teri put her phone away and started walking away,

"Precisely." she responded after a brief period of nature-filled silence,

"You've gotten better at controlling your grey fire, correct?" she asked, changing the subject and looking back at him while she awaited an answer.

Good question. The battle on Friday showed significant improvement for the young scythe wielder as his enchanted weapon was no longer able to control him as long as he maintained his objective,

"Mmm, yes, though it still uses up too much energy if I use it long enough." he looked away for a moment as he recalled his solo fight with the Uriel clone that resulted in a very narrow victory for him. The fight itself couldn't have been more than four minutes long, if he were to guess, but he wasted most of his energy chasing him so it was hard to tell what his actual limit was.

He eventually found his gaze meeting hers again and shrugged his shoulders to let her know that he wasn't entirely sure. The taller female classmate of his acknowledged this with a nod and proceeded to make another origami. Once she was finished, Gumball found himself staring at a grey, paper monkey with very long limbs meant for swinging through the treetops as well as a long tail to assist in said climbing. She put quite a bit of effort into crafting this creature as it actually had fingers instead of pointed tips like her origamis normally had and the selection of grey paper was definitely intentional as it helped the beast blend in more with the forest.

While Gumball admired her crafting skills, he had a distinct feeling in his gut that the training Teri had in mind for him was going to be very difficult and possibly dangerous.

Before he could ask, Teri began to explain as though she were able to hear his thoughts,

"Seeing as you're probably well rested at this point, why don't we get started on increasing your stamina." she hopped atop the light ape and the creature stirred to life under her touch, moving about on all fours around the pre-teen cat boy.

While already knowing that this was coming, Gumball wasn't exactly onboard with the actual purpose of this exercise,

"Stamina?" he looked up at her, waiting for an answer.

Sensing his confusion, the flimsy girl proceeded to clarify her statement,

"Well you said you keep running low on energy the longer you use your scythe's magical powers, correct? So theoretically the best way to improve your overall usage of the weapon would be to use it as long as possible and to keep conditioning yourself until you can use it for longer periods of time. It's no different from working out." she explained from atop her paper mount.

That made sense and Gumball was sure that being able to use the scythe's unusual properties for extended periods of time would have many unforetold benefits. He still didn't know what the other two symbols on the scythe meant, the one that looked like a sun with a line cutting through it was the only one he utilized in his fights, but the other two have never made themselves useful during those times. The middle rune was a circle within a circle with six arrows bordering the edge of the outer circle and the final one farthest from the handle was the most gruesome looking, resembling a human skull with sharp fangs. Neither of them made any sense to him and given what he already could do with weapon's first rune, he was slightly worried about what they were capable of, especially the final one.

Removing these thoughts by thinking only about what he did have, he sought about improving himself and looked to Teri for further guidance,

"That makes sense." he mentioned agreeably before moving on to his most important quirey,

"So how are we going to do this?" his wide eyes now scanning the forest around them, but found that the mist still shrouded everything.

Moving the monkey towards the tree closest to them, the paper bear sat herself and her creation down at the base of the trunk. Using her pointer finger to direct Gumball's attention to the top of the forest, Gumball felt a shiver work its way down his spine and his tail was already swishing side to side as his anxiety began to climb. While Teri herself was used to heights, she knew Gumball wasn't a particular fan of high places, but hopefully this exercise will help him not only master his power, but also his fears,

"Simple, I'm going to climb up this tree and move about the treetops. Your goal will be to find me and catch me. Normally this would be quite difficult on your own, plus the heavy fog here will make it harder to find me, but your scythe should give you the advantage you need." she told him as though she were explaining the rules of a simple game.

Gumball gulped audibly and cracked his knuckles nervously, this sounded very dangerous and while he didn't mind activities as dangerous as this one, there were a lot of potential things that could go wrong with this exercise. However, given the gist of the activity, this was actually a viable solution to increasing his overall stamina, plus his awareness if he were to factor in the searching aspect of Teri's plan. Swallowing his fear of what could possibly go wrong, the blue cat just pulled out his collapsed crescent moon blade and brought it out to its full extent with the click of two buttons.

Seeing as he was ready, Teri ordered her paper monkey to begin climbing up the tree. With its fingers clenching onto the barks rough surface, the paper animal easily made its way up the mossy, vertical surface of the gargantuan structure and the two eventually faded into the mist. Remembering something, Teri turned her head and called back down to her male companion,

"Oh, one last thing, you can't start the hunt until five minutes have passed!" her voice rang back down to the cat below and Gumball returned her reminder with a joke,

"I'm guessing failure to comply is tree-son!" he smirked mischievously as he braced himself for Teri's snappy comeback.

A tick mark formed on Teri's head and she felt another groan making its way up her windpipe,

"Would you leaf your puns and take this seriously!" she snapped.

Not being able to help himself, Gumball laughed at her angry retort and responded once again with another joke,

"Are you saying you want me to branch out to other forms of humor or are my puns the root of all your problems?" he snickered again and waited for another furious reply.

What came back was predictably another punny remark from the ascending paper girl and something else,

"You're barking up the wrong tree pal, now taste my sharp wit!" she shouted.

Her reply was quickly followed by a spinning object making its way towards the blue feline and the cat moved back just in time as a paper shuriken embedded itself in the dirt three inches from his foot. That was really impressive! He thought to himself before adding, the shuriken was cool too, I guess. Turning his head upwards and cupping his hand over his mouth, he called up into the gray haze that blanketed the treetops,

"Nice one, Teri! Your puns are getting better, but your aim still needs improvement!" he said in a sarcastic manner he knew Teri would pick up on.

As expected all that came back was a weak laugh that symbolized the paper bears distaste in Gumball's comment. Gumball loved hanging out with Teri, she was so much fun to pick on and the two often had the weirdest back and forths with one another. He had his odd conversations with his other friends and family for sure, but he had to admit there was something special about this germaphobe that had recently come crashing into his life. Everything exchanged between the two of them just felt so comfortable and he found it very hard to be awkward around her when they just spoke to one another.

He waited in relative silence for five long minutes and wasn't entirely sure where he should begin. He could no longer pick up the sounds of the branches rustling as the paper monkey shot across the orange-red canopy that lay behind the veil of fog and with his sight rendered nearly useless in this weather, Gumball had lost track of her a while ago. It made Gumball understand how she probably felt while she was chasing him through here and felt the slight sting of karmic justice when he remembered how he said he wasn't going to make things easy for her,

"Should've watched what I said back there, now this is going to be a fun game of hide and seek mixed with tag… in the trees, hundreds of feet above the ground while running amuck with a dangerous weapon." the cynical sarcasm of his inner voice could not be any more present within that statement.

Once he checked the clock on his phone and saw that five minutes had indeed passed, Gumball readied himself for the hunt. His first step was to analyze the tree and figure out the best way to scale it. Obviously he needed to be quick, so he was going to ignite the scythe's grey fire to give him a boost and as for climbing, he could use the claws on his feet to gain some purchase on the bark's rigid surface.

The next step he needed to get past was activating his ability and that took a couple tries. As he already knew, the scythe wouldn't produce its flames unless the wielder was in a desperate situation and trying to replicate a desperate situation when everything was fine was slightly harder than he imagined. After a minute of trying his hardest to ignite his blade, the solution finally came to him in the form of picturing Teri's origami monkey as a Nephilim and was trying to make a getaway with its prisoner.

That seemed to the trick as the curved blade sitting atop the dull, metal handle was immediately engulfed in a blazing, silver inferno with a rage that matched the user's.

Keeping the enchanted device secured within one hand, Gumball set his focus on scaling the tree and finding his friend. Crouching down into a running position, Gumball's claws extended themselves from the pads of his feet, curving downwards and into the dirt, the white nails gleamed in the silver light produced by the cackling flame. With his head clear and focused, put all his weight into one leg and launched himself forward, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt behind him as he closed the gap between him and the tree in an instant.

Once he reached the massive trunk that rested in front of him, the empowered pre-teen planted a foot onto the tree's cool, bumpy surface and allowed his claws to sink into it. Feeling as though he had secured himself, Gumball pressed off the small foothold he had and shot upwards several hundred feet, disappearing into the fog and eventually making his way into the massive canopy of leaves. His rapid ascension didn't take him much time and he was quite shocked to see how much air he was able to gain in a single bound.

It all happened so fast that he nearly smacked into a large branch above him, had he not reached out in time and grasped a stray tree arm, allowing him to swing around in a sharp circle before his feet found a solid surface to stand on. Balancing himself on the slender branch that now served as his platform, Gumball heard the tree limb creak a little and bent a little under his weight. Luckily it held its own and didn't give way under the slim cat boy, allowing him to relax.

The scythe's flames extinguished themselves as his head spun a little from the close call that nearly knocked him out cold. He had no idea how much power he was actually wielding and when he took that single leap, he cleared the ground entirely before finding himself in another world full of orange maple leaves that announced the coming of Fall along with gnarled, twisting branches that spread out in every conceivable direction. One more jump and he could easily launch himself out of the forest and maybe even get a glance of the clear sky,

"That was way too close for comfort!" his jarred mind frantically spat as his eyes kept darting from branch to branch. His heart was thundering in his chest and a cold sweat running down his back as the child tried to calm himself,

"I could have easily hurt myself there, how can there be so much power packed into this little thing?" his eyesight found itself focusing on the still weapon resting in his paw. He continued to muse about his current predicament and it never really occurred to him that there was a limit to his power that he didn't understand. Then again, thinking back on how strong the Nephilim were and how he was able to go toe to toe with them using his enhancement, no wonder this scythe was crazy strong. He'd been taking the power he held for granted the entire time and never tried to understand what he actually had.

He now understood that despite how superhuman strength is often portrayed in comic books and cartoons, it was a lot harder to do ordinary tasks when each jump could possibly send you beyond the clouds.

Once he felt calm, he decided to rethink his next course of action and kept his hearing sharp for any particular sounds. He completed his first objective, getting up to the top of the tree albeit with a slight scare to himself, now all he needed was to find a way to track down Teri and pursue her without using too much power. She was most likely long gone now, but he assumed that she wouldn't stray too far away, especially since she needed to teach him to extend the length of his scythe usage. With that possibility in mind, Gumball now focused on trying to locate her,

"Okay, I can't just run around with this thing turned on full power, that'll leave me tired and useless. Darn, she could be anywhere at this point." he peered into the dense foliage and swirling clouds of mist, finding absolutely nothing to his frustration.

Growing ever more frustrated, Gumball wracked his head as hard as he could, but with every second that passed, he felt as though she was slipping further away from him,

"Ugggh! I need a better vantage point! I can't see past this fog and all these leaves either!" he growled to himself, interrupting the chorus of bugs that chanted throughout the entirety of the woods.

He thought about climbing to the top of the tree at first, believing that would somehow buy him a better field of view, but then another idea came to mind. At first, it didn't seem to make too much sense to the desperate cat, but when he actually thought about it, it could give him both a better viewpoint and a superior advantage over his fleeing opponent. Thinking about Teri getting farther and farther away from him, Gumball's scythe roared to life in its vibrant display of fire and the bipedal cat crouched down once more.

And with a mighty force delivered to his legs, Gumball leapt from the branch he was on and shot straight out of the forest's colorful ceiling with a trail of broken branches and leaves following close behind.

Like a rocket, all Gumball could do was go up and up, with speeds that forced him away from the clutches of the Earth. The feeling was like that of true freedom, he was just flying, gravity meant nothing up here, a hundred feet above the forest and with an immense sea of orange and grey that spanned below. He could see the morning sky clearly now and it was quite a liberating sight in contrast to the dense fog and foliage his earthbound self was restricted to several minutes ago. The sun was already up, but not too high and the sky was a brilliant sapphire blue with another storm front looming over the horizon, like a predatory giant stalking the city of Elmore towards his back.

Eventually Gumball's ascension slowed down gradually before coming to a slow halt and the flying cat took that time to survey the ground below. His eyes darted from one pocket of trees to another, but in the few moments he was up there, he didn't catch any movement or other telltale signs of Teri's progress through the woods. This could be due to the fact that he was too high up to see her or she could have stayed below to canopy in order to remain concealed even from a glance from above or it could simply be that he missed her, seeing as he had only a few seconds to look around before he started falling.

After remaining still within the empty space above the forest for about an instant, physics once again took their toll on the airborne child and he immediately began to plummet back into the forest. While gaining a bird's eye view was a smart move that yielded little results in his first attempt, one problem Gumball hadn't looked into when he concocted this plan was his landing. The air pressed into him as he rapidly descended from his jumping peak, causing his face to stretch a bit from the force of the intense air resistance and his loose fitting gym clothes to billow about in the wind. It was very hard to see thanks to all the tears that were pooling in his eyes as the rushing stung them and Gumball began to wonder if this was actually the right thing to do.

He fell for a small amount of time before the branches from the tree that separated him from the ground began scraping past his face, arms, legs and torso, causing several small scrapes and cuts before he spotted a large branch racing towards him. He reached out with his empty hand and used it along with his scratched-up legs to brace himself against the landing impact. He landed with a jolt, but failed to extend his claws and ended up slipping off the branch and plummeting further down the tree. Desperately scrabbling for something to grasp, Gumball screamed while he fell before he finally struck another branch big enough to support him. This time he was able to gain a better grasp on it and remained where he was.

With his adrenaline kicking into overdrive and his mind abuzz with primitive drives to stay alive, Gumball remained where he was and was uttering an endless stream of curses and garbled nonsense as he tried to get ahold of himself. He was safe at least and aside from a few scrapes he obtained from his klutzy landing, he was physically okay, but It didn't help that his attempt to see his target from above was a failure. Not only that, but his weapon's power was still active during the fall and he could already feel slightly ragged and weary.

A few broken branches fell all around him and Gumball recognized them as the ones he broke when he entered the canopy from above. He jumped a little when he saw a few burning branches fall too and faded into the grey ocean that covered the floor. Evidently these were also the branches that his weapon touched during his unpleasant descent and he could already tell that he was going to have to do something about the burning debris.

Glancing upwards, Gumball checked to see if there were any tree limbs above him that were set on fire and he did spot a few of them flickering with bright tongues of fire. Cursing himself mentally, the big headed cat boy prepared to jump up and smother the flames when he stopped himself. He looked at his scythe and thought,

"If I jump now with this thing at full power, then I will be sent flying again and I will cause even more damage to the forest." it was a real issue and while he could just climb up without his power, it would take him a while and who knows what kind of damage the flames down below could be doing, seeing as there were mostly dry leaves covering the forest floor.

There was only one option that quickly made itself present in his mind: he had to use his power, but not at full strength. This actually came as a brilliant decision to Gumball and he nearly found himself slapping his own face for not thinking of it earlier. Now the next question was how could he achieve this feat?

The forest was still quiet and while he knew that he should be looking for Teri, he wanted to focus on this obstacle, not only for the sake of saving the forest from a potential wildfire of his own doing, but also as a means of discovering a solution to his energy problem. Seeing as there was nothing to distract him at the moment, Gumball held the scythe up with both hands, the curved blade to his right and facing outwards, pointing away from him. He closed his eyes and concentrated, he felt the danger of the flames growing and spreading throughout the woods and began to feel the power resonate through him, feeding strength into his body and burning through the ancient weapon secured in his grip. To him it felt like his body was an engine, somehow providing excessive energy that was being released through the scythe as exhaust, even though it was the weapon providing him the energy. Maybe the rune inscribed on the blade drew energy out of him and amplified it? Gumball wasn't sure, but it definitely didn't feel like the power was coming from the scythe he'd grown accustomed to for the time he used it.

Feeling the weapon drawing out massive amounts of energy, Gumball remained focused and tried to think of a way to lower the energy output. He first thought about calming himself down, thinking that perhaps his emotions tied into the scythe's energy consumption and it made sense, seeing as it only activated when he was distressed or trying to achieve something. However, this did not succeed in the slightest as his flames cut out entirely and the immense energy within faded.

His eyes snapped open and he growled in frustration, he knew this was his first attempt, but he didn't like the fact that this was taking too long. He looked up and saw that the fire he accidentally started in several of the branches above him were starting to spread and had even consumed some leaves that happened to be in its path. He had to hurry and with that in mind, he closed his eyes again and his silver inferno burned to life once more.

He tried multiple times with the calming effect and even used different emotions, but with no such luck. Intense and powerful emotions tended to make him slip away mentally and collected ones tended to put out the flame right away. His mental state determined how his power would burn, but not how much energy he could put out. It always remained the same, wild and unyielding.

He shouted and swore several times after his fire was put out again after nearly losing his mind and he swung the serrated edge of the weapon until it cut a branch in front of him in two. He felt like doing more damage to anything around him, but stopped himself when he realized one wrong move could cause him to lose his balance and fall. He also knew that getting angry wasn't going to fix the problem he just started.

Slowing down his breathing and sitting himself down on the branch, he began to recollect his thoughts while he rested his exhausted self. Ran a paw through the coarse hair on his head, already hardened by the sweat that was produced during his early exercise training with Teri when they first came here, and let out a ragged sigh,

"Gosh darnit! Why is this so difficult?" he fumed to no one in particular,

"Exercise my butt! If this were anything like running and doing push-ups, then I could just slow down if I were going to fast and… and…" he thought at first that he was just running himself into a circle that got him anywhere, but a solution. However, the moment his rant slowed down, he began to realize something and when he looked down at his scythe again, a rational idea sprang into his head, forcing him back onto his feet.

He had been going about the wrong way and now he needed to test something out. Resuming his stance again, Gumball allowed for the activation of his ability and let the natural energy burn on the deadly end of his weapon. He focused on this energy, not his emotions, but the energy itself and when he visualized it, he saw it as an actual fire, like that which you would see at a campsite. The flames were burning hot through the consumption of the wood and oxygen as its fuel, it wouldn't be long until this ravenous creature sated its appetite on the limited supply it sat upon before dying out entirely. This is what his body was doing with all the energy the scythe was drawing out of him.

Now he needed to control those flames, he needed to reel it in and cut down on the fire's rate of consumption before it devoured everything. He pictured one log instead of several being fed to the fire and the once proud and roaring, conflagration was reduced to a simple, yet steady blade of silver that was still being fed, but at a slower rate. Now the flame was under control, no longer spritely and untouchable.

When he opened his eyes again, he noticed right away that his body was no longer tiring at an increased rate, instead it felt as though he were using at least a quarter of the immense energy he once left unchecked, and his ears found no cackling sound whatsoever from the item he had with him. Checking the blade itself, Gumball was blown away from what he was seeing before him, the two foot serrated end that stuck out horizontally from the weapon's shaft was no longer producing flames and looked as though no power was being used. At a second glance he could see that the sun-like rune was glowing grey like the flames itself, as if it were a kind of signal that the power was turned on and Gumball was pleased to see to this kind of detail.

Shifting from awe to determination, the successful twelve year old checked the branch's progress and saw that the fire had grown, but hasn't spread too far. Setting himself on the simple task ahead of him, the blue feline readied himself and leapt off the branch he was standing, shooting upwards at heights that still outdid humans. He almost overshot the branch he was aiming for, but with a quick swing of his scythe, the curved blade caught the tree-limb and he gracefully swung around before landing carefully on the tree itself,

"Not bad." he thought to himself, feeling pleased at his relative success,

"This is definitely way better." he pulled his sweater out from his bag and used it to smother the growing fire.

Using his newly refined power, he did this with every single branch that was being burned and even made it down to the ground with very little issue. Once the threat was completely purged, Gumball began to ponder his next move while he raced along the ground and kept close to the tree's bases. He needed to locate his paper friend, but still found that locating her is still difficult because the forest was enormous and the fog still hasn't lifted.

He wasn't sure if there was a time limit to this exercise, but he knew for a fact that Teri would probably contact him on his phone once a certain amount of time had passed. While his little side task didn't take up too much time, probably seven minutes tops, he didn't want to waste even more time than was necessary, so he figured now was a time to rethink his overall strategy. While he knew he couldn't possibly find her on his own, maybe he could find a way to lure her to him and ambush her. The question was how?

While racing at incredible speeds throughout the nature infested area, Gumball came across a pile of leaves and paused a moment to stare at them. He knew that Teri was in the treetops somewhere and if she were keeping an eye out for him, she'd probably head to the top to get a better view and that would mean she would be able to see the entire forest. It was entirely theoretical, but Gumball had a feeling that this was likely and with a devilish smile that reflected his equally wicked antics, he started towards the pile of leaves with his scythe already starting to burn again.

-Teri's location, two minutes later-

While Teri was sure that she hadn't strayed too far from Gumball's general vicinity, she was slightly concerned for Gumball's well-being. She knew that getting him used to using his abilities was indeed very beneficial, she was also aware of the dangers his weapon posed for the environment and himself. If he wasn't careful this whole place could up in flames or he could tire himself out and make a mistake that causes him major damage. She was ready to run away when she spotted him, but also ready to run towards him in case he needed help.

She hadn't even erased the pocket that held her phone, wanting to be ready to answer in case he called.

Hanging by its prehensile tail, the origami monkey that Teri rode upon remained stationary underneath the branch while its operator remained on the lookout for her friend. Her black, drawn on eyes had grown used to the misty forest, being able to track the slightest of movements within her field of view and her ears remained sharp, picking up anything from the smallest disturbance of leaves down below to the soft whoosh of a bird's wings as it flew over the leafy roof of the woods. One of the things she despised about her two dimensional anatomy was the fact that she could only see forward, not to the sides, unless she folded one half of her head and allowed one of her eyes to peer in the particular direction. However, she felt pretty confident in her ability to sense Gumball or anything else coming before she was spotted.

Scratching an itch that made itself known on her cheek, the paper bear kept waiting in complete silence while she anxiously wondered what Gumball could possibly be doing. She hadn't heard anything breaking or blowing up or even a scream from her close friend (she thought she did a couple times, but she was on the move at the time and didn't quite know if it was an actual scream or something else.) and presumed that he might be lost. She was tempted to call him, but wanted to give him a few more minutes.

Feeling bored and a little jumpy to admit, she decided that she'd best check the tops of the trees to get a better lookout and maybe perhaps spot where he might be,

"Might as well, seeing as he hasn't made his presence known yet and all this waiting is just making me anxious." she sighed, and commanded her flimsy beast of burden to start climbing.

Having easily scaled the trees with the ape's long arms and flexible tail, Teri's climb lasted no longer than a minute as the skilled EJH student had crafted her creature with great care and it showed significantly. To be honest, Teri enjoyed the ride through the forest, the feeling of swinging from tree to tree with such ease was freeing and exhilarating at the same time. Flying was also amazing and while she never used her origami as much as she did before the Nephilim showed up, one of the things she would do in her free time while she wasn't burdened with responsibilities was just simply create a paper bird and soar through the skies for just a little bit. To her, it was freedom, simple and beautiful liberation from the troubles of the Earth below.

The monkey's hands grasped the single bare branch that stuck out from the canopy like an oddly bent antenna and the lightweight creature pulled itself up along with its rider, offering Teri a complete view of the vast, seemingly unending ocean of orange above the low rolling fog of the ground. Feeling somewhat relaxed by the sight of a brilliant sky, Teri began her search for any signs of Gumball whether it be him leaping across the tops of the trees or the shaking of several branches as he disturbed them throughout his journey. She didn't spot him, but after searching for a second or two, she spotted something else:

A pillar of smoke rising several hundred feet from her current position, slightly further from where she left Gumball.

"Oh no, that can't be good!" she gasped, placing a single hand to her mouth.

Snapping into action, the paper ape sprang from the branch it was perched on and caught itself onto a nearby branch, gracefully moving from tree to tree as an extension of its rider. She kept to the higher branches so that she could keep an eye on the black plume billowing upwards while praying that Gumball was alright. She left him alone with the assumption that he could handle himself and seeing this could only mean that something went wrong that could spell potential disaster for her beloved friend.

While she was aware that forest fires were dangerous and that as a paper person, she should definitely stay clear of them, she needed to locate Gumball to see if he was okay. Afterwards, they could deal with the inferno that could possibly consume the whole forest. She swallowed a lump in her throat, her fear of fire rising up once again as she drew closer to the smoke stack and she was sure that if Gumball was okay then she was going to seriously reprimand him for causing so much trouble.

It didn't take long for the feeble paper girl and her equally fragile mount to reach the site of the fire and when she did, she was quite surprised at what she found. There was indeed a fire, but it was set only on a large pile of leaves with the area around it being void of any flammable materials. The more she surveyed the area, the more apparent it became that there was no danger and that whoever started the fire did so with unknown intentions.

She watched as the blaze continued to eat away at the pile of dry leaves, cackling and spewing up cloudy ash as it did so, while she tried to wrap her mind around this debacle,

"There wasn't anyone else here in the forest when both of us arrived, we both made sure we were alone, plus no one else really goes here anyway." she ruled out any potential intruders and campers because no one would start a fire with a pile of leaves and leave it unattended,

"This was definitely Gumball's doing, but the only reason he would deliberately start a fire is if he were somehow trying to get my attention…" it all came to her within an instant and she realized that she had walked herself into a trap.

Before she could check her surroundings, something moved, causing Teri to freeze and snapped her head in the direction of said movement. She didn't get a good look at what it was, or rather, who it was, with all the fog impairing her vision of course, but she could definitely tell that the mysterious figure was small and fast. She saw the disturbance occur in the tree across from hers and she could already start to feel her heart rate increasing.

She was going to have to run now.

With her fight or flight instincts kicking in, Teri maneuvered herself around the tree that she was on and began making her way deeper into the forest. She knew it was Gumball, somehow, although she wondered why she couldn't see the grey fire of his scythe, seeing as he was obviously using his power to move quickly, but that still didn't stop her from feeling dizzy with fear and excitement. She had been caught after all and now she needed to evade him for as long as possible.

Passing in between all the gaps the trees possessed, Teri kept all of her senses attuned to the surrounding area as she thought of a plan,

"He saw me and is tracking my position, no doubt. Maybe I should transform the monkey into a hummingbird and weave through the forest that way. It would be a challenge for Gumball, but I never said that transformations were restricted either." she thought to herself with wicked glee. She was going to get back at him for tricking her like that.

Searching for a particularly large branch to rest upon, Teri spotted one to her right, just a few feet ahead and was thick enough for the paper master to reform her origami without feeling too cramped. The paper ape sprang up from the tree limb, caught it with both arms and wrapped its tail around a branch hanging from above, allowing for it and Teri to swing upside down and towards the desired location. The moment she was inverted and facing the direction from whence she came, she found herself peering at an adorable kitty face mere inches from her own.

While a million different thoughts conjured themselves into Teri's head, two things happened within the real world: first, she let out a startled shriek and then, in her panic, the monkey's tail released its grip on the brown appendage it was hanging from, causing both to plummet to the ground. With both of them being very light, thanks to their material makeup, the bear and the monkey did not fall very fast, giving Teri enough to time to react and catch herself on a passing branch using the dull colored monkey's hands to do so. Pulling them both back up, Teri sat and tried to catch her breath as she tried to force the images of her entire lifespan from her mind. That was a bit startling for the seventh grader and she swore that she just lost ten years of her life.

Unfortunately, she wasn't given much time to collect herself, as she felt the tree branch shake a little and when she turned around, Gumball was already sitting behind her in a crouching position. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was covered in multiple scratches that criss crossed his arms and face, so something definitely went wrong somewhere. The second thing she was able to spot was that his scythe wasn't engulfed in silver flames, rather one of the runes closest to the base of the blade was glowing in the moon-like color. She wasn't quite sure what had transpired earlier, but he definitely figured something out and given the straight-forward, determined look that decorated his features, he wasn't worried in the slightest about exhausting himself.

This was all analyzed in under a second, as the paper girl needed to act fast because not too long after the blue cat had leapt down from his position in the canopy above, he lunged forward with a single hand outstretched and aiming towards her shoulder,

"Gotcha!" he shouted triumphantly as he flew towards her.

Using the only move she could in this situation, Teri bent her whole upper body backwards, pretty far since she doesn't have any bones, and allowed the scythe wielding cat boy to fly over her with a confused look on his face,

"Huh?" was all he could say as he unintentionally flung himself to the leaf covered Earth below.

Twisting his body around, Gumball was reoriented well enough to land on his feet and when he felt the leaves crunching underneath his pads, he spun around to see a grinning Teri peering back down at him,

"You know, I'm not used to bending over backwards for others, but I can say that it worked out for the better this time around!" she remarked teasingly.

Gumball chuckled along with her and began nonchalantly polishing his scythe's blade with his forearm,

"I'll admit, maybe my approach was a little too direct, but you can't dodge forever because only spineless people would do that." he shot back, earning a sinister glare from his companion.

"Touche, my thick headed friend!" she said in a snippy tone.

Gumball took slight offense towards her comment regarding his big head and stuck his tongue out at her. She copied his action in a child-like fashion and blew him a raspberry too which caused them both to laugh afterwards. They could really get on each other's nerves sometimes, but such things were trivial when it came to their childish conduct.

When things were quiet again, Teri cleared her throat and spoke to Gumball,

"So what's the deal with your scythe? Are able to control it now or is this something else?" she asked, curious about the enchanted weapon.

Looking down at the object in his hand and then back at her, Gumball waved the weapon in the air above his head,

"I can control the level of energy my body is emitting!" he announced in an excited tone reminiscent to that of a gamer who achieved a new level in an RPG,

"I realized that the reason I was getting so tired was because I was using one hundred percent of my energy every time I activated the rune on my scythe, so I just cut the power down to twenty five percent instead! Now I'm using even less and I can still use my super speed and strength, although with a lot less power this time." he simply explained.

Feeling a little shocked, Teri nodded slowly once he was finished explaining and spoke up once he lowered his weapon,

"Gotcha, so you're seventy five percent slower and weaker than you were when you first activated it. How are you going to fare against the Nephilim with such little power?" she placed her finger tips together as she leaned on her monkey's head and listened to his response.

After a brief pause, Gumball shrugged and met Teri's questioning stare,

"Honestly, it's better than being at zero percent most of the time and at a hundred while exhausting myself within a few minutes. You and me both know that taking them head on doesn't help us, so having a slight boost while outsmarting them is definitely helpful in my opinion and also, I won't stop training with this until I can go at full power. I also haven't figured out what the other two runes do either and I wonder how effective they'll be?" he asked aloud.

Teri knew he was referring to the other two symbols his weapon carried and was also eager to know what they could do. If they were anything like the first one, then the fight against the giants would probably turn in their favor or at least become slightly less stressful. Another thing she noticed about Gumball's runes was that it took some time for them to activate, while whenever she and Rob used theirs, they activate within close proximity of a Nephilim. Gumball's grey fire rune activated roughly a week after the Nephilim first invaded their town and the remaining have yet to display their power.

She could speculate why such things were so, but was sure that given time, Gumball would be able to master his own weapon,

"It seems that your scythe takes time to activate." she said, repeating what she had just concluded in her mind,

"Also, did you just say that your body is giving off the energy? I thought that it was the scythe that empowered you." that was the other thing she heard him mention and she was intent on figuring out what he meant.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." he stated, wasting no time to answer her question,

"But recently I found that it draws energy from me and amplifies it. I know it sounds bizarre, but that's the best way I can describe it." he said.

Hearing all she needed to hear, Teri nodded in acknowledgement and pulled out her phone to check the time. They've been out in the woods for a while now and Teri's stomach was already starting to grumble. However, she still wanted to do some practice runs with Gumball, so she decided to continue their exercise, with some new stakes of course,

"Okay, we've been out here for almost three hours now and I'm starting to get hungry. If you can catch me within five minutes, I'll buy us lunch and if you can't then you're paying. Also, if you lose, you'll have to bake me something for tomorrow." she said, adding the baking part as an extra benefit to her.

Feeling all the more excited for this challenge, Gumball's ears pricked up along with his tail and he could already feel himself moving about a little from where he was standing. He had been meaning to ask her if she wanted to go grab a bite to eat somewhere in Elmore and now that she was offering, Gumball could not refuse this trial. There was also the fact that he wanted to see what he was really capable of while at twenty five percent.

Seeing no need for a verbal response, Gumball just crouched down and got ready to jump. Noting this, Teri readied herself as well, taking a moment to reconfigure her monkey into a hummingbird and taking off from her branch. Gumball understood the advantage Teri possessed, obtaining flight as a means to escape would prove quite challenging for a pursuer who could only remain on the ground, but Gumball had a few tricks that may help him out.

The game started the moment Teri took off, zipping through the forest on her nimble construct with no obstructions to slow her down and Gumball was forced to give chase. Rather than immediately head for higher ground, Gumball stayed his course and remained on the ground while pursuing his target from down below. One issue that made itself clear right away, was that Teri was really adept at flying and her hummingbird made it ever so easy for the paper bear to weave her way through the treeline with its tiny wings being able to make sharp turns and all. If it weren't for his incredulous speed, Gumball would have already lost her.

For the first minute, all Gumball could do was follow close behind and observe as Teri continued to flee. He was watching for any noticeable patterns in her flight path and his patience was finally rewarded, when he figured it out. She would turn and maneuver her way through the forest, but otherwise her path was rather linear and didn't deviate too much, usually just a few changes in direction in an attempt to throw him off.

This could just be due to the fact that he was on the ground and not in the trees, at her level, allowing her to keep an eye on him so she could adjust her flight path if needed. He could most likely catch her if he increased his power output, but that was still considered to risky, also he didn't want to accidentally injure her if he put too much force in it. His best option for now would be to break off and ambush her later.

"Perfect." he thought and quickly shot to the right where he disappeared into the dense cluster of trees.

Watching as every single natural obstacle flashed by in an instant, Teri felt assured that she could not be caught and found some enjoyment during the wild ride. She kept below the upper portion of the treetops, away from the dense orange foliage that was starting to burn brighter with the sun's continuous path across the blue ceiling and even the mist was starting to clear away, giving a sharper view to the entire forest. With her position as it is, she knew she was susceptible to interception by her pursuer, but at least she still had breathing room down here.

Keeping an eye on Gumball and the path ahead of her was rather difficult, so she could only afford the occasional backwards glance and readjust her course whenever she spotted him in order to lose him. She was impressed that he managed to figure out what would happen if he were to try to climb the trees and catch her from behind, having taken him as someone with a more direct approach to his problems. Looks like he was learning to be more clever and this forced yet another smile on Teri's face. If he caught up to her in the analytical department, then she was really going to have to try harder to remain as a vital member.

However, he wasn't going to win at this rate, figuring out what not to do wasn't going to be enough for him if he was just going to remain where he was.

After banking around another flora obstacle, Teri peeked behind her and quickly realized that Gumball was no longer behind her. When she first made this discovery, she was tempted to slow down and search the area again, like common sense would dictate, but instead opted to make another turn. Hoping that changing directions would throw off any potential ambushes the cat had in store for her, Teri continued to fly at her regular speed while keeping her guard up and wondered how much time they had left.

After a few moments of relative silence, Teri checked her moving surroundings and saw no super powered twelve year olds flying about the forest, giving her a good opportunity to check her phone's stopwatch. She set it for five minutes after she started the chase and looking at the time now, there were only two minutes remaining. This was pleasing to her, if she was successful in losing him then she was getting a free lunch. Poor Gumball.

She put the phone away and right when she did, Gumball came exploding out towards her from the left side from above, catching her completely off guard! If it weren't for the fact that she stopped the minute she saw him, he would have smacked right into her and sent both of them to the forest floor. She watched the blue blur shoot by and rebound off a tree opposite from his jumping point, using his hand and both legs to bounce back off and towards her again. What reaction time!

Seeing nowhere to go but down, Teri forced the hummingbird to close its wings and dive, Gumball's fingers grazed her backpack handle as she descended. While she was in free fall, Teri felt the air rushing by her and could hear Gumball's laughter from behind as he continued to give chase. He was enjoying himself and with a giddy laugh escaping her lips, Teri found that she was also having fun. This was like rough housing back at home, only taken to another level.

Birds and tree dwelling animals were disturbed as two blurs, a grey/white one followed by a blue one raced through their homes as the two bound from tree to tree in their amazing game of tag. Gumball, in close pursuit of the flying Pepakuma, was blown away by her reflexive movements and became all the more enthralled to outmaneuver her in the narrow space above the ground and below the thick veil of leaves studding their various branches. He never strayed too far from her when he defected from his original path and just when she let her guard down, he took that opportunity to ambush her.

Now that he was really close to catching her, Gumball began mapping out the path of oaks in front of them and set up a new route that would allow him to encircle her. Taking a gamble, Gumball decided to add more fuel to the fire in order to get ahead and once the effects took place, Gumball was already bouncing over several dozen yards. Sadly, his greed for an easy win cost him dearly as he placed a bit too much power into his legs and before he knew it, his noggin had connected with a stray tree branch, sending him tumbling downwards.

While he felt no immediate pain from his head bump with the unforeseen obstacle, he was quickly driven with fear as he began to fall, which lead to his power fading once again and gravity's effects became more evident as he began to drop like a rock. He wasn't too high up to die from the impact, but if he did hit the ground, he was probably going to sprain something or worse, break an ankle.

The worst did not come to pass though, Teri, having seen Gumball's fumble and recognizing the danger present, forgot about fleeing from him and moved to intercept the falling boy. Spotting her closing in, Gumball opened his arms and the two close friends were brought even closer in an embrace that wound up saving the kitten. Worried beyond belief, Teri continued to hold Gumball tightly as she flew towards a branch to sit upon,

"Are you alright? I saw you hit your head and then you started falling and then you were screaming…" she trailed off, the stress in her voice was evident and her volume was raised to a concerning level.

With his fear gradually passing, Gumball soon found that it was replaced with shame as he realized that despite his best efforts he fell to fear once again and messed up. Why couldn't he ever learn to just keep a cool head when doing something this dangerous? To make this even worse, he caused Teri unnecessary stress again and his foolishness was also making her worry.

He wanted to bash his head against the trunk of one of these oaks and end it right there, also he didn't remember screaming as he fell. Was it blotted out by his concern of striking the ground? It didn't matter, what did matter though was calming Teri,

"Caught you." he whispered, a wobbly grin slowly creeping across his face.

Teri was frozen for a minute before she realized that the goof was alright and returned her own snarky comeback soon after,

"It's the other way around, dummy!" she laughed, somehow squeezing him tighter than she already was.

Gumball reciprocated the hug and felt a better measure of security when he did. He was so glad to have someone like her watching his back and to prevent him from doing stupid things to himself. Now he needed to work on thinking ahead and maybe all these little moments won't have to come after something so traumatic.

Nestling itself on a branch that was almost twenty feet from the ground, the grey hummingbird went limp as the two kids climbed off and sat down on the space next to it. They were very close to one another and both just took a minute to catch their breath. Eventually Gumball was able to break the silence that enveloped them both,

"Okay, so since you technically won that exercise, is there anywhere in particular you want to go to grab lunch or would it be brunch, since it's not even noon yet?" he asked, looking at her and raising an eyebrow.

Realizing that he had a point, (the match was technically hers since she caught him instead of the other way around, albeit it was an accident.) the origami wielder began to ponder her options and considered any possible cuisine that would sate her appetite. The problem was, she didn't know what she wanted, there were so many options and not enough pocket cash to get them all. Bowing her head in despair, Teri whispered to her companion,

"I don't know exactly, there are too many good options that I want to try out." she whimpered, sounding completely distraught.

With a dilemma that sounded all too familiar, Gumball knew a solution that will immediately bring resolution to this problem: pick the first thing that came to mind!

And without much thought he knew just the right place,

"There's this one restaurant down at the mall that I know of, it's a Japanese restaurant that sells all kinds of cool dishes and the sushi there is really great too!" he stated, already drooling at the thought of sushi.

A frown made itself present on the girl's face and she shook her head in response,

"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for anything Japanese right now, mainly because of mom's dinner last night. Also, isn't it weird for you to be eating fish since your brother is… you know…?" she asked, feeling slightly unsteady asking that question.

Understanding her concern, Gumball shook his and waved his hands in the air,

"Oh, no, not really, no. I asked him about that once and he said that it wasn't really that upsetting since fish eat other fish in the wild. However, I still don't feel comfortable eating fish around him, so I only eat sushi when he's not around. Also, everyone else's eating habits are weird, I mean Sarah eats ice cream, Doughnut Sheriff snacks on doughnuts, Darwin eats potatoes and Idaho is fine with it, so yeah, this town is weird." he finished with a small shrug and realized saying all those things out loud did not make them sound any crazier. Maybe he really should reconsider eating fish.

Teri tried not to think about the uncomfortable facts too much and fought a wave of nausea that appeared as a reaction to the thoughts she desperately tried to banish. Thankfully, there was one option that finally came to mind and Teri's head was clear once again. Turning to her sitting partner in crime, Teri popped her question,

"Ooh! How about we get lunch at that downtown bakery, Siren's Lure I believe is what it's called." she suggested, her face lighting up soon after.

Gumball recalled such a place, it was a small bakery that wasn't too far from his the mall and also served as an outdoor cafe as well. Larry worked there as he did with the various other jobs in Elmore, so it stuck in his mind a little. All in all, it was a nice little place to grab a bite and hang out for a bit.

Shrugging, Gumball found himself agreeing with Teri and joked around with her a little,

"You just have nothing but pastries on the mind, don't you?" he chuckled.

Teri grinned from ear to ear and bashfully nodded as she stood up,

"You made them popular at my house, so it's your fault, actually." she said.

Can't argue with that logic, although Gumball found it funny that he was heading out to a bakery to buy them both lunch coupled with the fact that he had to bake her something for tomorrow as well. It didn't matter to him though, it seems that she loves pastries (one's that fit her lactose intolerant standards at least, though Gumball had a sneaking suspicion it was all in the germaphobe's head.) and seeing her get excited over sweets was just really adorable. Even the slightly embarrassed look she gave him when he brought up her addiction to baked goods made it hard for him to resist taking her down to the Siren's Lure.

Without any further discussion the two hopped aboard the origami hummingbird and sped out of the forest, the paper creature's wings creating a loud hum as it did so. Both were satisfied with what they had learned today and the mark of progress was a great boost in overall morale. Now they must end a productive morning with a fitting reward before the rest of the day's mundane tasks caught up to them.

-Rob's duplex, 11:02 AM-

Reaching out with one hand, Rob hit the record button on the camera and sat back down in his seat. He was sitting in front of his desk, alone in his room surrounded by various inventions, projects and sketches while in front of him was a single sheet of paper with a petrification rune drawn onto it. On the symbol was an iron cog he pulled off of one of his useless devices and was being used as an item to transform. This was part of an experiment he had been conducting all day and he felt as though he were getting closer to producing better results.

He wiped at his face as he shook his head, an attempt to rid himself of fatigue. He wasn't dirty by any means, so he didn't know why he was wiping his face, but the action helped clear his head a little. Placing his hands together, he glanced up at the camera lens that was staring emptily back at him and cleared his throat,

"All right this my seventy second recording and my eightieth attempt at remotely activating the rune. Several days ago, I came in contact with the troll witch, Mrs. Jotenheim and she explained to me that like most magic, runes were activated by the soul." he kept his voice low because his roommate and only real friend, Rachel, was sleeping in the next room over and while there was a considerable distance between their designated sleeping quarters, the drywall was very bad at blocking out sound, plus she was a light sleeper too.

After Saturday, she was given Sunday off, so of course she was sleeping in today and after yesterday's trip out to the woods, Rob could understand why she would be so tuckered out. After she had gotten out of work, the two immediately went home and spent an hour or two packing. After they made sure they had everything they needed, they immediately set off to the northernmost section of the city and found a spot to start their hike.

It was a harrowing and tedious journey to say for sure, while they had enough mosquito spray to keep the airborne pests off of them, there were still lots of bugs that kept annoying the both of them. There were also multiple hazards that made travel really difficult for the pair and every time one of them stumbled or tripped over an obstacle they would scrape a knee or receive a bruise or cut every time. It also didn't help that they would both laugh at each other's expense which led to multiple heated arguments that would shut down after a few minutes.

In the end, all that hard work paid off when he and Rachel reached a clear mountaintop by sunset and broke out the camp gear to begin their stargazing. After everything went dark and the stars began dotting the infinite sky above them, everything was just simply fantastic from there on out! With Rob's telescope they both got an incredible view of venus, which gave rise to some commentary from Rachel about the Roman goddess of love and beauty that she was studying in one of her history classes. This brought them both into an engaging conversation about the ancient Greeks and Romans, with Rob focusing more on the discovery side of things and Rachel reading more into the mythology that surrounded most of the ancient cultures.

After viewing any celestial bodies they could with the telescope, Rachel snapped a few photos with her camera for her photography class and the two eventually settled onto the blanket they brought with them, just viewing the nighttime sky and having pleasant small talk every now and then. It was just simply peaceful and Rob enjoyed the time away from Elmore, his projects, the Nephilim, and the regular dregs that came with living in an urban area. He wanted to do this kind of thing more often and when he brought it up to Rachel, she seemed rather excited about the idea,

"Are you kidding, of course we should do this more often! Heck, we should scraped together some money and leave the country sometime! Like go to the Bahamas, or Morocco, or, oooh, how about Florida?" she exclaimed, stars in her eyes as she gazed at Rob hopefully.

Rob froze up for a moment and glanced at the sky. He was pretty sure that going on a vacation anywhere in the world would be a wonderous experience for the two of them, but when he looked into recent events happening globally, the Nephilim threat seemed more present in areas outside of Elmore. While Elmore had it's fair share of invaders from other worlds, cities all over the planet were frequently overcome with "accidents" that happened more randomly. Either way, venturing outside of Elmore seemed to welcome disaster and Rob already had his hands full with the crisis that was happening in his hometown,

Eventually finding the correct words and putting them into his mouth, Rob covertly objected to the idea,

"Umm, I'm not a huge fan of travel per say and I'm fine with just staying here in Elmore, I mean this place is already crazy enough as it is and I don't want to see what other places are willing to do to top our place. Also, for the record, Florida is in the United states. You should pay more attention in geography class." he snickered as Rachel slugged him in the shoulder.

"Oh poo on you, I know what I'm talking about and yeah, now that I think about it, Elmore is the safest place for us. I hear that some countries are still controlled by humans and don't necessarily accept Bizarros all that well." she muttered uncomfortably, turning a little so she could lay on her back.

Rob was also aware of this fact and it didn't sit well with him either, mainly because he and Rachel were already sort of outcasts. But at least they were still seen as ordinary citizens, with this city being mostly populated Bizarros (the exception being Richwood high, having humans amongst cardboard cutouts.), they fit right in. However, having other cities and even whole nations run by humans that treat their inhuman counterparts as second rate citizens, was very disturbing to think about.

At least there was some good news in that a lot of western countries appreciated the Bizarros and their unique gifts that helped their economies prosper. It did help that in the western world there was a significantly higher population of Bizarros when compared to humans, so a lot of changes that benefited their kind were easy to put in place. When he did some research though he found that several groups opposed these unbalanced circumstances, groups like the Human Front for example believed that humans should remain in prominent positions of power within most societies in order to keep things fair.

While Rob didn't disagree with fair representation in any governing authority, he didn't really like the Human Front's narrow minded stance on keeping humans in power, especially when regarding some of the group's sketchy activities that have been brought up in recent events. He didn't delve any deeper into the subject of species politics, for it was a long and complicated history that stemmed all the way since the beginning of civilization. In his opinion, the Bizarros were just as human as the homosapiens that lived among them and that the human race was just another odd group mixed into this odd population that covered the planet.

Maybe he should conquer the world after the Nephilim were defeated, that way he could treat all the Humans and Bizarros as mere subjects, maybe that will get them to get along, right? Probably not, but it would be fun to see both factions unite against him in order to take him down. Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe the Nephilim invasion isn't such a bad thing after all given that such an existential threat would bring all the nations of Earth together in order to stave off the invaders.

Then again, the Nephilim weren't exactly dumb and wouldn't invade if the odds were stacked against them, so they must have a plan of some kind to deal with all of the creatures living here.

They both remained close to one another, with Rob thinking uncertain thoughts of the future and Rachel just watching the sky with awe. It was a chilly evening and Rob was glad to have thought ahead in order to prepare against such unfavorable conditions, having brought a couple sweaters and blankets for him and Rachel to share. However, the blankets seemed rather overkill as their close proximity with one another transferred enough heat to keep both of them comfortable. Rob was well aware of how close he was to the blue skinned teenager, but was not bothered by it as the two would often sit close to one another on the loveseat they had back at the duplex while watching whatever television program that happened to grab their attention. It did bring him some comfort to have someone to be with and there wasn't a whole lot she could do to make him feel uncomfortable or awkward in the slightest.

Even when he was wrought with worry, it didn't feel so overwhelming right now and he was able to enjoy this peaceful moment. He felt Rachel stir beside him and he turned to see what she could be doing. When he spotted her dark eyes gazing into his only one, his single eyebrow lifted a little to reflect his vexed feelings,

"Something up?" he asked, keeping his mismatched hands propped under his big, blocky head.

At first, Rachel was hesitant to answer, almost putting off the question entirely, but curiosity got the better of her and refused to let her back down,

"Well, I was thinking… since we can't figure out who we were back before the… the "incident" and chances are we're never going to get back to normal any time soon…" she trailed off, taking a moment to brush a lock of curly, magenta hair although the look on her face showed that she was having trouble continuing the subject.

This prompted Rob to encourage her to continue the line of dialogue she was stalling on,

"Yes, is there something you have planned for the future?" he asked, feeling as though this were accurate given what she was talking about.

This seemed to break her out of her internal stalemate and the rainbow lass continued with a huffy sigh,

"You see, what I was trying to get to was that if we can't figure out how to piece everything back together, then maybe we should just focus on moving on with our lives, you know, thinking about the future and whatnot." she explained, fumbling through her speech a little.

Rob's eye widened a bit and his thin lips pressed together in a thin line, he was very concerned as to where this conversation was heading,

"Are you saying that one of us should move out and start on different paths?" he croaked out, trying not to sound to upset, although he wasn't sure if he was or not.

Having taken notice of the misunderstanding, Rachel was quick to dismiss what he was thinking right away,

"Oh no, that's not what I meant at all!" she quickly sputtered, waving her hands back and forth,

"I want you to stay with me, if you choose, because you're the only person I can relate to and you're the most reliable friend I've ever had. What I'm saying is, rather than try and fix what's wrong with us, why don't we just move on with our lives and focus on building a life together." her voice lowered into a more gentle, yet serious tone as she finished explaining her intentions to the cyclops, who had just calmed down and was listening more carefully.

This came as a bit of a shock to the cyclopean inventor, not because this seemed too out of the ordinary for his outgoing roommate, he knew that she was struggling with her identity and the fact that the people they believed to be her relatives held no recognition of her at all, but the fact that she was indirectly asking him to give up on his quest to repair the damage done by the void just seemed so… draining to him. On the one hand, if they focused on building a better future for themselves, then they could probably do it. If he actually tried, he could possibly reintegrate himself back into the education system, get himself a diploma, go to college and utilize his engineering skills to further his own career, then yes, he and Rachel could live happy lives regardless of the void's corruption. Provided that the world was still standing of course.

However, while that was the simple solution, Rob could not accept it. The main reason being simply that he did not want the void to triumph in their lives, to forever haunt them with the damage it has caused and leave them broken for the rest of their lives. He needed this triumph because for all he knew, he never did anything significant throughout his life and the universe taunted him for his irrelevance by tossing him into the space where forgettable people are left to rot. His journey to cure him and Rachel wasn't just about retrieving something that they had lost, it was about standing up to an injustice the cosmos itself has thrust upon them.

Bringing his attention back to the present, he knew that Rachel just wanted to find peace in her life after everything that has happened and that outright disagreeing with her might bring about a conflict that could not be solved so easily. Technically speaking, he was already at odds with her, but she just wasn't aware of it and he didn't have to drag her into it either, especially since it tied into several other unpleasant realities that he had to deal with. Thus, he was able to form a compromise without having to argue with her,

"Well, I'm glad you want to keep me around and I do appreciate your company, so I will stay with you as long as you want me around. If you think that moving forward is the best solution for us both, then I'm sure that's the direction we must take." he stated, already feeling guilty for not admitting how he truly felt.

Studying his face, Rachel appeared satisfied with his response and a content smile played across her lips,

"I'm glad you think so too and I really mean it, you are my best friend. I want you to be happy too and since you've done so much for me in the past, the only thing I can do is remain by your side." she proclaimed, feeling a little blush fill her cheeks.

Rob spotted her facial features darken to a navy blue causing him to do the same, though it was his static that darkened rather than his cheeks. His body was really bizarre and somewhat annoying to him because it was hard to hide things from the people he was closest to. Disrupting the tender moment by clearing his throat, he quickly went on about something else while quickly turning his polygonal noggin to the stars again,

"Pssh! That's fine and all, but you don't even know what job you want to go into and I doubt working at a gas station is going to get you far either." he muttered jokingly while Rachel became enraged with the way he changed the atmospheric tone.

"Jerk! I'm still a Freshman, so I still have time and I don't see any viable career options for you either since your only source of income is selling devices you frankensteined together out of the scrapyard!" she shouted in protest while slugging him repeatedly in the shoulder, making the cyclops flinch every time she did so.

Rob tried to wave her away while he spoke about his future plans,

"Ow, ow, ow, hey! I'll go back to middle school next year alright! Sheesh!" he shot back causing her to stop.

"Really?" she asked, her small mouth agape,

"That's awesome and also convenient because I can pick on you for being a few grades below me!" she rubbed her hands together in anticipation while a twisted grin full sharp teeth etched its way onto her face.

Rolling his eye, the preteen cyclops just waved off her act of superiority and took a moment to jeer at her,

"So what? We're only three years apart in age (A/N: Rob's turning thirteen soon, so it's pretty close to three years.) and I'm still taller than you, so take that!" he proclaimed triumphantly with a bit of condescending attached.

This brought forth another barrage of attacks from the multicolored teenage girl at the mentioning of their height difference and she spewed out a number of insults directed at the reactive companion of hers,

"Oh, who cares how tall you are! You may be smart, but you're also a wimp! I'm still going to boss you around, stringbean, because I'm stronger and older!" she shouted back at him while repeatedly punching his shoulder, which was starting to ache from all the abuse it was getting.

Rob internally added in that she was louder too and just rolled with the punches while she let her fury out on him. It honestly didn't affect him that much and he knew that she was just puffing out her chest. Eventually she did settle down and was just quietly resting beside him, allowing another content expression to form on her face and her body to relax. She was quite the ball of energy and Rob was certain that one of these days her overly reactive side was going to get him injured one day, but he was glad to have her extroverted personality to balance out his introverted one. Even if such a relationship lead to some of the most ridiculous arguments that he ever had the misfortune of being a part of.

"I'm glad that we have this, it's better than nothing." she spoke directly to him while remaining transfixed on a star somewhere above the moon,

"Thanks for bringing me out here, this was really fun." she whispered softly.

Rob couldn't have agreed more and found his own goofy smirk becoming prominent on his grey face,

"Yeah, no problem, this was a great experience for me too and I'm glad we have the time to do this." he responded kindly, watching with awe as a meteorite shot by in bright ball of burning debris.

He heard a quiet chuckle coming from her and a silent response following short after,

"We have all the time in the world." she said as she scooted closer to him, feeling herself warm up even faster.

Rob definitely felt happier now than he was at the end of the week and he was looking forward to more opportunities like this one. The world was indeed a messed up place and what happened to them was in fact very harsh, but this was a storm they could ride out together no doubt. He just hoped that the storm didn't become a powerful hurricane that would blow them all away before they could really anchor themselves down.

As soon as the memory ran its course, Rob felt a sense of peace return to his exhausted self and he continued on with the experiment. As soon as they got back home, which was around midnight, Rachel immediately retired to her private domain while Rob began to conduct more research for his newest and greatest weapon, Leviathan Book. Of course, there was a major obstacle he needed to overcome and that was the remote use and activation of the runes he yielded in his arsenal. After a brief nap to make sure no Nephilim threats were present in the foreseeable future, Rob got straight to work and decided that once he was done with his experiments, that he will journey to void once again to gather more runes and with the translation spell Mrs. Jotenheim gave him, he had a whole evening to translate the newest material he would gather.

However, the tests have been rather unsuccessful and while he was starting to get a feel for the Nephilim's ancient magic, there was just something that he wasn't quite getting. That's what he was aiming to find out right now and with that being said, he began the experiment,

"Okay, so I've been going about this trial by using emotions, but that's been rather unsuccessful. However, after giving it some serious consideration and redirecting my approach, I think I may have found the answer." he was still looking at the camera, but was now placing his hands around the cog while he went over his theory,

"We briefly touched upon a specialized rune my associate, Gumball Watterson, possesses that enhances his own physical assets, but he has to remain fixed on his objective in order to do so. With that in mind, I'm going that same logic here and hopefully, hopefully, it will work." he closed his eye as he finished and concentrated.

He placed his hands around the triangular symbol the cog sat upon, sort of allowing him to better visualize what he was doing while undergoing intense concentration, and focused on creating an objective. He obviously wanted to turn the metal gear into stone, but that simple desire had no effect, so there must be a deeper meaning to it. So he decided to come up with a reason behind the abnormal act and summoned within his mind the people he cared about. First, he thought of Rachel, the person who mattered most to him and his greatest friend. Then he thought of Gumball and Teri, his two companions in arms that remained as his allies during the Nephilim attacks. Finally, he thought of Hector and Mrs. Jotenheim, two people he met for a brief time, but has come to a kind of understanding and also aided him in a time of need too.

As soon as he envisioned these individuals he thought of a desperate situation that involved them and it wasn't that hard either. He thought of a Nephilim attacking them and they were in trouble, the only way for him to save them would be to turn the cog into a stone and throw it at the beast. He thought about this, concentrating as hard as he could and when he visualized Rachel being approached by the monster she could not even notice, something happened.

He felt it through the table and even saw the purple flash through his closed eyelid, indicating that something had happened. When his orb opened, he saw the object his hands were surrounding and to his satisfaction: the once iron cog was now a simple, stone carving that sat on a blank sheet of paper. After many attempts to activate a rune on his own that left him completely exhausted throughout the night and early morning, he did it.

A shaky smile carved onto his face and he let out a weak laugh, so weak that it sounded more like a gasp as he flung his hands up in the air and scooted his chair back in pure excitement. He jumped up and down a few times as he grabbed the piece of stone and inspected it closely, carefully scrutinizing and finally confirming that it was in fact petrified. He was completely ecstatic and so caught up in his success that he nearly forgot that the camera was still recording his activity.

Quickly setting back down and bringing his nerves to grinding halt, Rob was composed as quickly as he was excited. Placing the gear down on the desk again, Rob wiped his face with both hands and looked at the single, optical lens staring emptily back at him. He was really tired and burned out from all the earlier attempts that he just decided to end the video recording on a short note,

"Alright, the experiment was a success and I'm going to do more tests like this, using some other runes on a smaller scale of course. However, before I do any more of that, the first thing I'm going to do is go to Joyful Burger once because I am famished and afterwards, I will journey to the void in order to obtain more knowledge." he reached out to the camera and clicked the "stop" button. Ending the recording immediately.

He then proceeded to get ready to leave the house, gathering some materials he would be bringing with him to work on while at the restaurant and wondered if he should wake Rachel in order to tell him he was leaving. He eventually decided against, thinking that letting her sleep was better and that he wouldn't be gone for long, so there were no major concerns. With all that being decided, he swiftly left his room and was out of the house soon after.

-Watterson residence, 11:22 AM-

Disappointment. It was more than just a word, rather an intense feeling that may seem minor at first glance, but can gradually grow into a deeper form of misery. For a certain unlucky blue cat heading up the porch to his own household, this was the most prominent feeling that stained his heart. He never could have believed that he could be so unfortunate as to lose Teri and right before they were about to have lunch too.

To the reader who may be concerned, nothing terrible has happened to the eldest child of the Watterson family or Teri for that matter, rather just as they were completing their two hour walk from the forest by rounding the corner where the Siren's Lure sat with its delicious aromas taunting and capturing the minds of passerby's with the effect of an actual Siren from mythology, Teri's phone began to vibrate and when she checked who it was, they were both surprised to see it was Carmen. One short phone conversation later, Teri informed Gumball that most of the cheerleading squad has recovered and Carmen was calling an emergency cheer session in order to catch up on the practice they missed on Friday. While Gumball was saddened at having their little outing cancelled, he wished her a good time and waved goodbye as he set off for home while Teri made her way back to school.

He knew it couldn't be helped, things always popped up when people least expected them and such was the way of life. Still, Carmen couldn't have just postponed practice for at least another hour or perhaps a day even? He knew he was being selfish, but he was really looking forward to eating with Teri at the bakery and just the thought of both of them being together while enjoying pastries was enough to lighten his mood. Only to have that light extinguish every time he remembered what happened and he grumbled at his misfortune.

When he reached the door, he placed his paw upon the brass doorknob, but didn't twist the handle, instead opting to pause for a moment. Letting out a sigh, Gumball allowed his frustrations to slowly leave his system as he reasoned with himself and thought about what he could do at home. Teri was at cheerleading practice with her friends, the ones caught up in that chemical monster incident two days ago were okay, and he was happy that she was going to have a good time. Now he began to list off of things he could do once he got inside: he was definitely going to take a shower and a nap first, then when he woke up, he was going to watch whatever was on TV before checking on any of his assignments (he did them at Teri's place when he went over yesterday, but it wouldn't hurt to double check. Groan!) and then he was going to work out for a bit, gotta show Teri that he could actually do seventy five push-ups before she got suspicious.

Oops, there he goes thinking about Teri again, Gumball was surprised that his thoughts looped all the way back around to her and he shook his head. Something was definitely up with him as of late and it always had something to do with his paper friend. Thinking of another activity, Gumball considered baking and thought about the various recipes he could use that used very few dairy products or suitable replacements. He could surprise Teri with a raw blueberry cheesecake or some raw thin mint peppermint patties, the amazed expression on her face would be so adorable… and there it was again! He was thinking about her being happy with him and it was making him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Well, whatever it was, Gumball was sure that it was a positive thing and that he should start baking as soon as he woke up from his nap. He may have failed to buy her lunch, but he did promise to surprise her with something seeing as he lost the challenge fair and square. Feeling more sure of himself, Gumball twisted the knob still locked within his grasp, only to have it turn the rest of the way on its own and without warning, the door swung open!

Startled, Gumball jumped back quickly in order to clear the doorway before whoever it was that was leaving the house could bump into him and gazed within the wide door frame to see who it could possibly be. To his confusion, the person standing before him was a tall, slender human woman rather than any family member that lived here, or at least that's how it appeared at first. The woman had short brown hair done up in a stylish beehive, golden hourglass-shaped earrings that hung from her lobes that somehow matched her 80's inspired green coat and skirt, and wore red heels that further complimented her outfit. Now while this thin woman in her early forties could have been seen as a complete stranger here, Gumball knew exactly who it was once he got a better look,

"Why hello, Samantha! How do you fare on this fine afternoon?" he greeted in a polite tone, even giving his voice more of an accent to sound more sophisticated.

The elegant-looking female chuckled while ever so delicately placing a hand on her prominent cheekbone, she looked incredibly bemused by the kitten's greeting,

"Oh Gumball, my darling son, I am doing quite well, thank you so much for asking. I guess you've caught me just on my way out to meet Angela and Maria, what are the odds!" she exclaimed, her lipsticked smile never wavering once as she let out another charming laugh.

For those who had never actually known the Watterson's personally, no one would have believed that this striking woman was actually Gumball's father and when Gumball and Darwin found out about it the first time, they didn't know any better either. Once several misunderstandings were cleared up though, Gumball and his little brother came to the realization that their dad, a man who'd rarely leave the house, was in fact very lonely when their mom had gone off to work while the kids were elsewhere and sought out some friends to help rid him of his solitary situation. Finding no solace amongst the men of Elmore, Richard came across several mature women his age and found his social circle shortly after when he impersonated himself as one of them.

It came as a big surprise to everyone that two out of his three female companions were actually men too, who were indeed suffering from seclusion when it came to their male colleagues and once it was decided that the odd quartet could stay together in relative comfort, Richard eventually came clean to Nicole and unveiled his secret activities to the rest of the family. Gumball would never forget the look on his mother's face when he revealed to her who "Samantha" truly was as it was pure amusement and baffled curiosity that sent their mother howling with laughter before running up and hugging her husband, who was almost as pale as the moon when upon witnessing his wife's reaction. The story had a happy ending to say the least, as Nicole accepted Richard's unusual double life, provided he no longer kept secrets and that she was invited to their get togethers every so often while also accompanying her as an additional "girl friend" to their meetings with Yuki.

Without a doubt, everyone was pleased with this outcome and it became a normal occurrence to find their dad cross dressed for an evening with his female social group.

Back to the present, Gumball slipped into the house as his father reached over and retrieved his purse, quickly pausing to make sure all the required contents were inside, and watching as Gumball began to make his way towards the living room couch. Gumball flopped down onto the cushion and sank into the cushy surface as his sore body began to relax. He was surprised that none of his siblings were home, seeing as it was nearly mid-day, but shrugged it off when he figured they probably had some important matters to attend to. Guess he was going to have the place to himself then, which wasn't a big deal and the blue cat allowed his bag to slide to the floor as he slumped further into a relaxed coma.

Having made sure that he had all his things, Gumball's well-dressed father began to head out like he intended to, turning his head back to let Gumball know a few important things before he left,

"Oh and Gumball, I'm going to be gone for a while and I'm not quite sure when Darwin and Anais are going to be back, they said something about a "secret mission" and that I wasn't supposed to mention that to… oh, pardon me, forget I ever said anything." he said bashfully, covering his mouth in a truly lady-like fashion,

"But your mother is going to be home at around two, so if you need anything by then, she's the person to go to." he reminded, flashing him a gentle look, which Gumball responded with a thumbs-up and a swift nod before his arm flopped back down like a puppet cut from its strings.

While he was curious about Anais and Darwin's "secret mission" that his father was so careless to slip up on, he was concerned as to why his father was staying out so late. He asked him and for the first time since he got home, his father's appearance suddenly became somber and Gumball was already starting to feel some twinge of despair when he saw that look. The dark eyes that set themselves upon the floor, tightly clasped hands, and the heavy, sorrowful sigh that followed, Gumball knew something had happened to someone and it was undoubtedly someone close.

He listened with a heavy heart as his dad spilled the terrible news,

"Violet or Marvin, I should say, has passed away." he said, his voice growing heavy with every word that came tumbling out of his mouth, as if the very sentence itself was made of lead.

Gumball was wrought with silence, he wasn't exactly sure what he was to say about this, he knew Marvin a little from some past experiences and the occasional encounters throughout the neighborhood. The elderly red blotch was part of grandpa Louie's friend group and the senior citizen somehow managed to fit himself into the woman's quartet that his father was a part of as Violet, a slightly air-headed blonde who the constant target of Angela's teasing and witty comebacks. He wasn't sure how close his dad was to him, but guessing by the pained look he wore plainly on his face, they must have been pretty close.

A very long and dread filled silence hung in the air as the two waited for someone to eventually speak, which Gumball did as he now had something he wanted to say. He wasn't sure how it would help, but it was all he could think of,

"I'm sorry." was all he said, his only condolences to a friend of his father and grandfather that he barely knew, yet, still felt the sting of the pain that his family member was clearly displaying.

With a slow nod, his disguised father accepted his son's move to comfort him and slowly wiped a tear from his eye with a slender finger,

"Thanks." he replied, his charming feminine voice finally giving way and revealing his higher pitched, course voice that belonged to his real father underneath all the makeup and fancy clothes,

"I mean, we all knew that he was getting to that age and that he wasn't probably going to… he already was showing signs of heart complications and other issues that were affecting his health and… and… I don't really know! It all came so sudden and even though it was a month ago, it still feels like yesterday he was just with us, laughing and making dumb comments that would lead to Angela firing off more snide comments." at this point more tears were falling from his eyes and Gumball forced himself off the couch to go over by his father's side.

Being as short as he was, Gumball could only wrap his arms around his mid-torso while his father continued to bawl, he could smell his perfume from being so close and when he took a better look, he saw him eventually reached into his purse to retrieve a handkerchief in order to blow his nose. He was in shambles at this point and Gumball could do nothing except feel sorrow for him, he never knew how much Marvin impacted their little group until now. Staying with his father, Gumball waited for him to calm down and when he did, Gumball felt a slender hand caress the top of his head, on the spot in between his ears and Gumball felt slightly better, although he felt as though it was his parent that needed comforting. Casting a glance upwards, the little boy could see his dad looking down at him, already putting on a brave face, although his makeup was a little smeared from his emotional outburst,

"Thanks, son." he said gratefully as Gumball nodded and slowly parted from him, feeling assured that his father was somewhat better now.

With the terrible news and the negative feelings that came with it out of the way or contained at least, the heavyweight bunny man masquerading as a petite human woman gave Gumball one last head rub before turning his attention towards the door again,

"I need to visit the two of them now, especially Maria because she's the one who's taking it the hardest of the three of us. We're just trying to get through the worst of it together right now." he muttered as he slipped out the door.

Gumball still felt terrible for what had happened to one of Richard's closest friends and understood why his sudden need to leave. He stepped out to wish him farewell and to tell Maria and Angela he gives his condolences. Accepting his message, Richard is about to get in his car and drive off, when Gumball was struck by a sudden realization and called out to his dad one more time,

"Wait, dad, hold up! You said he died about a month ago, correct? When and how did Marvin, er, Violet die?" he shouted across the lawn and to the driveway.

Richard paused before he was fully inside the vehicle, not exactly sure why his oldest kid wanted to know this specific information regarding the senior citizen's death, but passed it off as a harmless gesture to pay his respects,

"He passed away on September 8th and no one is quite sure what the cause of his death was, he was just sitting out on his front lawn, stargazing presumably, when his organs just failed him along with his heart and wasn't discovered until later on that night when your grandpa Louie came out to bring him back in. like I said, it was very sudden and very unpleasant to think about." he gave him one last wobbly smile before he waved again and hopped into the driver's seat.

Watching the yellow station wagon pulling out of the driveway, Gumball was struck with the horror of what actually happened to Marvin and an even greater sorrow filled his heart. Marvin had been one of the victims of the Nephilim's first attack on Elmore, with Teri having informed him that three people had perished while Silver Twelve pursued her and nearly lead to the deaths of more people. While Gumball understood that there was nothing he could have done at that point, for starters he wasn't even aware of the Nephilim's existence before Teri woke him up and also, he was asleep during that time, but he still felt bad that someone close to his father had been caught up in a terrible event that he couldn't have possibly known about.

Thinking about stuff like that really filled him with malice and bitterness towards the invading spirits. All those people who have died, were just ordinary citizens trying to live their lives and the Nephilim just snuffed them out, just like that and without a care too. This has been a constant reminder for him every time they encountered the vile beasts from beyond, with them mercilessly attacking and even looking down upon the people here as meager pests. It was just so mind boggling and unreal that such mighty creatures would be so heartless and cruel towards people who didn't even do anything wrong in the first place.

It didn't get any better with every news flash that revealed more death tolls as unnatural anomalies sweep the planet, causing death and destruction in their wake. It made Gumball feel completely hopeless when he listened to events like this and whenever that happened, it just seemed to flesh out his own weaknesses even more. He wanted to find some better way to help everyone around the world, but with it just being the three of them stuck here in Elmore, there was not much they could do except defend their lot of land.

Already feeling tired from thinking such depressing thoughts, Gumball decided that it was best he went to bed and later wake up to do something nice. He turned off the TV, got up from the couch and strolled all the way upstairs to where his room awaited him. Still in his gym clothes, Gumball decided that he would change after he woke up and took a shower. With that being decided, the tired boy fell to the comforting embrace of his mattress and allowed his big, furry head to bury itself in the pillow. His clock read 11:30 when his eyes shut and what followed next was another nightmare.

First Gumball dreamed that he was back in the industrial sector while being chased Window Hopper and with no weapon to use, the only thing the frightened cat could do was scream and run. The bronze snake would leap from window to window, stalking him as a shadow on the glass before leaping out to attack. Gumball would keep running, but he knew that it would eventually catch him and tear him to shreds.

However, the dream took a turn to something even more horrifying when he found himself in the landfill during a rainy day and something was in the sky above him. When he got a better look, he saw that it was a crack, no not a crack, a Nephilim portal and it was tearing itself open, as if the sky itself was breaking. What came next was a small object that flew from the darkness of the portal, followed by an amorphous substance that fell from the interdimensional opening and landed not too far away with a splat. It wasn't very big, maybe ten feet in height and it was silver in color, but when it hit the ground it began to reshape itself.

And that was when Gumball's dream ended, he saw it take a humanoid shape before everything went black and he was returned to the waking world.

Flinging himself from his bed, Gumball was already on his two feet and the first place his eyes set upon was the clock on his dresser. It read 11:50, meaning he had until 12:10 to get Teri and head on out to the designated area where the monster would appear. Gumball knew that Tina and her father lived in the landfill, so destroying that monster was a definite must.

With his mind set on the objective, Gumball rushed downstairs where his backpack awaited him and retrieved it, pulling out the mystical scythe before heading out the door and into the cool afternoon air. He noticed that there were storm clouds gathered overhead and that it was going to rain eventually, meaning some areas in the landfill were going to be slippery and possibly hazardous during the fight. A useful thing to note and Gumball thought of other possible factors that could affect them during the fight while he pulled out his phone.

Before his thumb could land on Teri's number, Gumball froze and thought about something. Teri's practice was going to be going on until 2:00 and chances were she wasn't going to notice her phone ringing. He could use his scythe's super speed to run all the way over and fetch her himself, but the interruption may cause quite a commotion and if Teri had to suddenly leave without explanation, the others might get suspicious. He could call for Rob's assistance, but as usual, that blockhead could be anywhere, doing anything and ignoring his phone.

With his tail swishing side to side as a result of his climbing anxiety, Gumball figured the best option at the moment was to take on the Nephilim himself. He knew this was very dangerous in of itself, but when he thought about it, he did take on a Uriel puppet that was twice the size of the monster he saw in his dream and he has gotten better at using his scythe, so this shouldn't be too difficult to deal with. He was just going to have to be very careful was all and combine that with his experience, the Nephilim was surely good as dead.

Taking a look around, Gumball could already see a few drops of rain beginning to fall and there was no doubt that when it started raining people were going to remain indoors, allowing him to run at high speeds without any risk of being spotted. He also knew of several backroads that lead to the landfill that avoided the main city roads and Gumball knew that he could reach the target before it started wreaking havoc throughout the city.

Feeling confident in his own abilities, Gumball wasted no time in activating his power and taking off from the house, clearing the block in less than a minute. He quickly dropped the power usage to twenty five percent using the visualization technique he learned in the forest and while his speed did in fact decrease, he was still moving fast enough to keep up with motorized transport. One thing he was weary of though, was that using twenty five percent against the Nephilim may not put him in favorable odds, but he could bump it up to one hundred percent if he needed to. He really needed to work on using that powerful slash so he could take out his opponents at a distance. He grumbled as he thought how in the world was he going to train like that? He obviously wasn't using it in the forest, the desert maybe?

However he used his power, he hoped that the fight would end quickly and that nothing will get out of hand. He knew in the back of his mind that he should probably let Teri know what he was doing at the very least, but he kept to the idea that this wasn't going to be a big deal. Besides, she had all this stuff going on in her life, there was no need to add further stress to the paper puppet and Gumball told himself that what he was doing was a great thing.

He continued to weave through the backroads and alleys at speeds that hardly made him recognizable to any casual passerby. The path he was taking was leading him to certain danger against an opponent he had no idea in the slightest was going to give him one of the most horrifying fights in his life. Another thing that he didn't see coming was another person that was going to get involved very soon.

(A/N): And that wraps up the first half of Fear without form, the next half is already underway and will hopefully be published in the nearish future. I know this one didn't have much action in it, but I'm glad that there was a lot more character interaction and behind the scenes stuff. Also, I wanted to reintroduce Richard as "Samantha" again because I found that episode very enjoyable and added a bit more to his character. I'm kind of bummed that not a lot of fanfiction writers ever show that side of him because there are so many funny paths that people could go with.

Anyway, the next chapter will have lots of action and some more character interactions. I know that Gumball and Teri are getting very close, but are not quite at the romantic level yet and trust me when I say, there aren't very many chapters left until they finally confess. I have all the chapters of the story outlined and ready to be written so I'm very eager for that moment too, but I gotta build it up just right.

Also, we're going to get some more Nephilim lore next chapter too, so be prepared for that.

And lastly, thank you all so much for reading and leaving your reviews as well as liking and following my story. They all mean so much to me and I'm glad you're all enjoying this story. Please have an awesome day and enjoy life as much as possible. The next chapter will be finishing up this minor arc in the story and I can't wait for it to be released.

Have a fantastic time!