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?

11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Saturday at the mall

Teri x Gumball

(A/N): whaaaaazup! I am back and with the eleventh chapter of the romantic fantasy story, Teri x Gumball: in between worlds! In today's chapter we'll be following Teri and Gumball as they head over to the Elmore mall in order to find something to wear as to not draw suspicion to themselves in the future. We'll be seeing the two trying to have a casual day as well as the other students and their regards to the terrifying field trip they were on.

I hope you enjoy the chapter, please leave a review and let me know what you think about the chapter.

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

-Void, October 5th, 2013 time: ?-

The everlasting darkness was just as suffocating as Rob remembered during the many visits he had taken to this place over the past couple weeks, but at least it wasn't as terrifying anymore and Rob actually grew to appreciate the inky black that cloaked everything here. He had long since passed the floating ruins of Sumer's greatest abominations and was now on a direct course to the barrier. Underneath his tin foil covered space helmet, a single eye penetrated deep into the abyss and when the HUD began blinking in alarm of a massive approaching object, a familiar smirk could be seen underneath the tinted visor.

He rode the depths on a modified portable scooter he fished out of the junkyard some time ago, the absence of the Nephilim brought him the gift of time and he was able to whip up a few handy tools in between trips to the Void world. The vehicle had been fitted with dozens of chemical rockets that allowed him to traverse the microgravity environment, a larger fuel tank stored the chemical propellant, and the basket in the back of the blue, rusty two-wheeler held his supplies. He still wore his rocket pack for when he needed to leave the vehicle and he could tether himself with a cable if needed so that he wouldn't lose his crafty mode of transportation.

As a matter of fact, he was planning on leaving it above the barrier once he arrived.

While his numerous journeys to the realm of forgotten knowledge yielded him many results, well over two hundred runes written in leather books all to be added within his upcoming masterpiece, Leviathan Book, he still wasn't any closer to finding a cure for himself and Rachel. He has in his possession spells that can destroy his enemies, enhance his otherwise normal abilities to unbelievable levels, and assist him in ways normal tools fail at, but none of them brought him any closer to his goal. Which is why he needed to venture further into the source of all this precious knowledge and find out for himself.

"Okay and we're about fifty meters from the barrier, reverse thrusters." he said to himself.

While he could only see nothing in the empty space, his helmet's scanners were picking up the massive anomaly and with a tap on his modified touch screen, the frontal rockets fired a chemical burst forward with a bubbly hiss. Soon he could feel the craft start to slow down and when he was about ten meters away from the prison of the past, he deactivated the thrusters before dismounting himself from the vehicle. From the basket in the back, he grabbed a slender device shaped like a nail, only it was about a foot long with a rune printed on the nail head as well as a tether device and the inventor began to drift off towards the enormous object obscured in the shadows.

Rob could already feel his nerves wracking up as he closed in on the black, glassy surface and he tried to calm himself,

"Deep breaths, deep breaths, we've tested this out yesterday and the subject came back fine. So by that conclusion, you should too." he could already feel his heart rate starting to slow and he was calm again.

During the day prior, the young cyclops had brilliantly engineered a plan to test and see if he could send a living being into the world beyond the barrier while Gumball and Teri were off on their field trip. He bought a hamster and went straight to the void during the mid afternoon after confirming that there weren't any Nephilim coming today, not that he was worried. He then used a special rune he found to hold open the barrier itself and lowered the hamster's cage into the blinding white light. The little furball went in about fifty meters before he decided to pull the creature back out.

And the little guy was alright, albeit a little freaked out and probably blinded.

Now it was his turn and he was still uncertain if he was making a careless decision or not because he did not know what lay beyond the infinite boundary. Still, he couldn't just keep exchanging magic for snippets of unknown material. He needed to actually look inside this peculiar vault and find the answers himself. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Rob hovered over the barrier until he planted his feet on the smooth surface and he felt the barrier's weak gravity lock him in place. Kneeling down, he attached the tether system on the surface via a series of clamps and clipped the cable onto his harness. He brought his rail cannon with him as protection and while it was a simple weapon, it was the only thing he could bring seeing as Cuatro Oblivion and the RPCG had been torn apart to help him build his next project. Feeling fully prepared for what could potentially lie below, the brilliant adventurer grabbed the nail device and placed the sharp tip against the glassy ground he stood on.

On the nail's head was a circular rune divided into four sections by crossing "S" shaped lines with another circle being present within each section. The space around the tip glowed a shade of Beige and the rune on top could be seen on the barrier's surface. The four inner circles glowed brighter before moving to the center of the larger circle and expanding outwards again, this time opening a rectangular window upon the black wall itself. Upon being opened, white light began to shine through and Rob's helmet was filled with the immense brightness, luckily his visor prevented him from going blind.

Soon the barrier was opened and Rob was standing at the edge of the unknown.

Inhaling and exhaling, Rob checked his tether one more time to assure he was secure and then his ammo was recounted for good measure,

"Alright everything is set." he muttered to himself before turning on the helms built in camera,

"Oh man, this is going to be something. Got thirty minutes until this gate closes on its own." he reminded himself. He found that certain runes can last a while with minimum input from his soul and the wall window he was using had half an hour of runtime before he couldn't support it any more. He could also keep it activated at long ranges too, which was convenient for sneaking into places as well as escaping.

He thought one last time of the world beyond this place, his colleagues had informed of the attack yesterday on their way home and he was put off a bit by the grim news. He'd done his research, none of the Nephilim had ever committed to such a massive and direct assault in any given area around the world. It left him uneasy and with the giants being unusually vacant from his hometown, he worried that something was up.

He wasn't worried now though, Gumball and Teri were going to the mall today and if anything showed up, they would be able to handle it. This was his comforting thought as he prepared to make the plunge,

"Here goes." was all he said before he placed his foot through the man-sized hole followed by the other.

Within an instant, the blinding light swallowed him up and the cable began to quickly unravel as he fell.

-Nicole and Gumball, 2:55 PM-

Looking out the car window with wide eyes, Gumball watched houses and cars pass by in what felt like slow motion as his mother cruised down the road towards the Elmore mall. The twelve year old in the back seat could barely contain his ever growing excitement as he was looking forward to meeting a certain someone today and couldn't keep his imagination from creating the most wonderful scenarios that only a kid his age could dream of. His mom noted the eager look on her son's face from the rearview mirror and couldn't help, but feel happy for him,

"Calm yourself, Gumball, you'll see her in the next three minutes." she said back to the now surprised looking child of hers.

"Oh, um, I wasn't too excited, I just want to make sure that I catch her car while we're driving through the parking lot." he responded albeit with a bit of a shakiness to his voice. Dear Jade, why was he sweating so much, he was only seeing Teri today?

And trying out some outfits for today.

And eating lunch with her at Dinner.

And possibly walk her home at night with his hand in hers.

Okay, now he could understand why he was so nervous, but it should be fine since they were best friends. Still all these scenes playing in his head made him feel very hot inside and he could already tell his face was burning up. He hadn't been to the mall with Teri and he certainly had never eaten lunch with her in a public area, just him and her.

He continued to look about the busy road and allowed his mind to drift elsewhere. He thought about the events yesterday and was amazed that Teri still wanted to hang out just like they planned before the attack. The terror that swept San Francisco was all over the news today and many were left uneasy about the unprecedented disaster. He remembered the ride back from the ruined field trip, the roads were backed up, so it took an entire six hours for everyone to get back home and the entire time everyone was completely gripped with fear.

There were kids crying, most of which had been nearby the explosions or even caught up in the attacks themselves, to one another, people asking the teachers questions that they had no answers to and lots of people were receiving or making phone calls. Even Gumball himself had gotten a call from his worried mother, father, and little sister, all of which were practically screaming on the phone about his safety and he miraculously managed to ease their nerves by reassuring them that he was nowhere near the danger when it struck.

After he got off the phone, he listened to Teri try to convince her parents that she was okay and was not suffering from any physical or mental trauma. He could tell by the stress burrowing wrinkles into her brow that she was just as worried for them and was glad that the two of them were able to escape unscathed during their deadly encounter with Fright kite and general Gorothim. She hung up after two hours of comforting her parents and telling them that she'll be home eventually. Not too long after, Teri grew tired from all of the stress and fell asleep on Gumball's shoulder again, this lasted the whole ride home.

Gumball avoided the news as much as possible when he got home because he'd already been hearing terrible things being discussed and wanted to avoid that kind of negativity.

His mom was completely overjoyed to see him home, safe and sound and she was feeling even better when she saw that he was still happily moving along with his life, it was actually unbelievable how well he was taking this,

"Well, I'm just glad that you and Teri still made plans after all of that." she mentioned with a smile, before her anger rose,

"Can you believe that the Human Front is blaming bizarros for the attack! It hasn't been one whole day and that hot head, Nero, was already broadcasting the news that inhuman radicalists were targeting major human industries and neighborhoods. People died there for crying out loud, human and bizarro!" she scowled, her fingers tapping the steering wheel.

He hadn't heard much what the human-centric groups were saying about the attacks, nor did he really care to, but he did get the estimates on civilian casualties. Over four hundred people were dead and most of those had been in the streets when the black outs washed over the city. Gumball remembered the aerial pursuit of Fright kite and the entire time they were behind the flying rhombus, it continued to fire round after round into the crowded streets below.

People died that day, lots of innocent, unaware people. Both he and Teri did their best to catch the creature, but it wasn't enough to save them. It was this regret that weighed down on him and he could still recall all those people vanishing within plumes of fire.

Sighing, he leaned against the car door and felt his eyes drift downwards along with his ears,

"Yeah, everything is really crazy right now." he quietly remarked.

"No truer words have been spoken." his mother sighed, angrily shaking her head at it all,

"You know, after you had gotten home, I've been thinking and was wondering if you would like me to teach you karate?" she looked towards the rear view mirror and saw Gumball's eyes light up in curiosity.

"Why?" he verbally wondered, turning his attention to the older cat.

"Well, I'm just worried with all the terrible things happening lately, it would be best if you knew how to defend yourself. You can bet that Teri would also be very impressed if you could defend her from thugs and all sorts of bad guys." she implied with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

This seemed to catch her son's attention as his jaw dropped in awe and he imagined what Teri would think if he had somehow gotten better at fighting,

"Huh, okay, but how will you be able to do that when you've got work and I have school?" he pondered.

It didn't take the hardworking, cat woman long to figure out a schedule that would benefit them both and she turned back with a smile,

"We can practice during the weekends, seeing as with my new position as manager I get out earlier during those days and we can head on out as soon as I get back home." she replied eagerly.

"Hmm, I'll give it some thought." he hummed, he wasn't completely sure if there was anything else he could be doing during the weekends and he wanted to alert Teri about this before he made a final decision.

"It doesn't have to be today, sweetie, just let me know when you want to start." she said.

The rest of the car ride was rather quiet until they got to the large shopping center and his mom found a parking space to pull into. Once the car went silent, they both got out and Nicole turned to her younger look-alike. Kneeling down, the motherly cat wrapped her arms around her kid and gave him a tight squeeze causing Gumball to feel a little better,

"Anyways, I'm glad that you're safe." she whispered affectionately and pulled away while keeping her hands on his shoulders,

"I want you to have fun now, understood, and be a gentleman to Teri as well. You two have both been through quite a bit and you need to make sure that she's happy." she looked at him and smiled when he nodded.

"Thanks, mom. I hope you have a good day too!" he replied in a positive tone before offering her a bright smile.

She nodded and stood up,

"Thank you, I will." she walked to her car and slid into the driver's seat. With a twist of the key, the yellow station wagon rumbled to life and she closed the door,

"Enjoy your date!" she said through the open window.

Gumball's face switched from Cyan to the color of a tomato within a heartbeat and he responded in embarrassment,

"MOM! We're not boyfriend and girlfriend, I told you this a million times already!" he shot back.

His mom only raised her eyebrows and peered back at him,

"Really now? According to your brother, you two seemed very close on the bus ride to and from San Francisco and he also mentioned of a tour by trolley… with just you two." she replied in a slick voice that made him tense up.

He tried to defend himself by explaining that Teri was just tired and the trolley was a setup by Carmen, but his words got caught in his throat. His mom laughed at his uncomfortable situation and pulled out from her parking spot. She wished him luck before she drove off and left her flabbergasted son in the mall parking lot.

Happy to be here and ready to get this show started, Gumball turned around and set off towards the mall's main entrance. A rather curious sight made itself known to the walking cat boy and he noticed Hector, looking perfectly fine in light of yesterday's injuries, standing on the other side of the building while seemingly staring at nothing. He couldn't talk or wave at him because thanks to Hector's involvement in the battle, Mrs. Jotenheim decided to place him on a strict curfew and forbade him from having any contact with the defenders of Elmore.

Neither of them knew that Hector could perceive the Nephilim spirits, let alone fight them on his own and his injuries yesterday were not a result of their actions, so it was a little unfair for the mountain witch to be accusing them of Hector's predicament as well as punishing the poor kid for trying to help out. He understood that she was a little overprotective, but this felt like a slight overreaction and he was also bummed out too; he really wanted to know if Hector could help them in their fight as well as anything else the Jotenheim's knew about the Nephilim.

Nearing the entrance, Gumball spotted Teri standing by herself with her backpack strapped to her back and waved to her when she turned a head in his direction,

"Hi, Gumball!" she greeted, her eyes lighting up as she waved.

"Hi, Teri!" he returned, picking up his pace.

He was caught off guard when she quickly ran up to him and gave him a hug, her face was snuggled into his neck. It was so comfortable yet, surprising that Gumball didn't know what to do at first, but mirrored the gesture once he had his wits about him. Jade, he loved this girl!

He also noted that she smelled lovely today and he spoke to her ear,

"Ready to head on in?" he asked.

She peeled herself away from him and looked really excited,

"Yes! I know which place we should visit first, come on!" she explained rather fast before grabbing his hand and tugging him towards the door.

With no control over where they were headed, Gumball just went along with the surprisingly energetic paper girl and continued to make small talk,

"What place did you have in mind?" he asked, hopping over the sidewalk curb as they drew nearer to the building's sliding glass doors.

Looking back at him, she placed a finger over her lips and a mischievous grin accompanied her already bright features,

"You'll know when we get there!" she hinted, wanting to surprise him.

So intriguing! Gumball wondered what place she could possibly be guiding him towards and decided to keep guessing in his head,

"Very interesting! I'm surprised your parents allowed you to leave the house after everything that went down the day before." he proclaimed in amazement. He was actually curious about that seeing as her parents were very worried during their talk on the bus.

The white bear seemed to catch onto to his confusion and just simply turned back to him with another smile, although this one was smaller than the last one,

"Well, yeah, of course they were worried, but I convinced them that it was alright after I told them about how you kept me safe during the attacks yesterday." she proudly exclaimed, even though they were keeping each other safe during that whole fiasco.

"Oh!" was all Gumball could say. He was astonished that Teri would say something that placed him on a stand before her parents and he could feel himself already brimming with pure awe and joy,

"I, uh, I can't believe it. Thanks for telling them that." he replied sheepishly another shade of red filling his features.

Nodding, her grin became larger and she spoke in a light tone,

"It's not a big deal, you dork. I wanted to let them know that I feel safe around you and that you could be trusted. They were very pleased when they heard that story." she turned around again to hide her own face before he could catch on to her affectionate gaze.

It was a big deal to him and he was glad that her folks trusted him. He knew he could be a bumbling buffoon and unintentionally caused damage to everything he came across, but he did want her to be safe. He was so scared when they fought against that six armed skeleton at Jackson Square, he nearly lost several times and as a result nearly got everyone else killed.

This is why their trust matters to him and he was now more than determined to get better at fighting.

They passed through the doors and found themselves within the vast open space illuminated by the ceiling lights and sunlight pouring in from the skylight. They could see Hector's head through the opening and if Gumball were to guess, his mom was here today on a shopping trip so it would be best if they avoided her at all cost. Their primary objective was to find some kind of outfit that would obscure their identities as well as being practical in a combat situation. With a little bit of wandering, Teri brought Gumball to a Burning Subject store and the cat's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw that this place was her first choice,

"What the what?!" he gasped, repeatedly waving both arms before turning to his taller counterpart,

"You seriously shop here? I mean, I can see Carrie shopping here because it's definitely her kind of place, but I mean- it's just that- well, you're so cute, I mean, pretty, I mean, um…" he was spinning out of control at this point.

Teri, finding his reaction amusing, merely laughed and placed a hand on his shoulder,

"No, silly. I don't shop here, but I do like to wander in from time to time. They've got a really cool anime section!" she explained, pointing towards the section where all kinds of anime products and clothes could be seen.

The sound of Gumball's brain fuses popping could be heard throughout the store as this stunning revelation that has eluded him for all this time was brought unto him with a simple point and explanation from the school hypochondriac. Before he could further melt down in a pool of sheer dumbfoundedness, Teri grabbed his hand and pulled him into the punk rock inspired store,

"Come on, there's a dragon mage hoodie from the Thunder spear of Arcadia series and I wanna see you in it!" she commanded, as a quiet Gumball was towed in behind her.

-Tobias, Tina, and Jamie, Jim's heavy iron rig store, Elmore Mall, 3:18 PM-

"Hey, Tina! Check it out, this one weighs 350 pounds!" Jamie's deep voice echoed throughout the athletics equipment store as she easily hefted the weights above her head.

Standing by a colossal lift machine with her tail pulling on the handle tied to a five hundred pound weight, she swung her massive head to the side a little and she spotted her orange haired friend tossing the extremely heavy material up with her stubby arms,

"Nice! I think we should get two of those and start practicing when we get out of here. Wanna go to my place afterwards and pump some of that iron?" she asked, her growly voice displaying her excitement.

"Heck, yeah!" Jamie hollored in consent.

"Yeeeeaaahhh…" a weak sound escaped Tobias lifted as he strained himself to pick up a twenty five pound Dumbell.

Seeing his struggle, Tina stomped on over before lowering herself down a bit and picking up the object before setting it back on the rack,

"Here, you should start with this five pound one." she suggested after plucking the miniscule Dumbell from the weight rack and handing it to the rainbow lad.

Tobias glanced at the puny weight sitting in his open hand and then at his even punier arms, feeling less than adequate,

"What?! How am I supposed to get ripped with this tiny thing?" he asked in frustration.

Tina rolled her yellow eyes and sighed at the jock wannabe's cries of insecurity,

"When starting a workout, you need to start with something you can handle or else the only thing that's getting ripped is your arms. And I mean that as in, you're going to tear a muscle." she warned.

He looked at the weight again and he realized that when he tried lifting it, it was actually a struggle! He knew he wasn't that athletic, but every time he's reminded of that, it's quite an embarrassment. Setting the tiny, yet somewhat heavy weight down, he breathed heavily and made his way towards the store's entrance,

"Whelp, I gotta stroll, can't spend too much time looking for iron to pump when there are plenty of girls looking to get pumped when they meet a hero who was present at the San Francisco attacks." he sang as he gave the other two girls a single wave, something he always thought looked cool in the movies.

Tina watched him walk before turning to Jamie with an eyebrow raised and she saw that the half cow, half troglodyte's eye was twitching with her mouth twisted in a confused grimace,

"Did you understand any of the words that just came out of his mouth?" Jamie asked, completely weirded out.

"Uh, kind of. It was way too cringey though and by the way, Tobias, we found you crying in the fetal position under a pile of rubble." she called back to him.

He was almost out the door when he heard Tina's comment and he froze up, completely overwhelmed by the terrifying memory that he was trying to suppress. As sad it may have been, it was true, and the fluffy cloud boy was very embarrassed about it. He didn't even see the thing that attacked, he was in a souvenir shop taking selfies when the power cut out and some thing blasted the roof off the shop he was in. He was lucky to be alive, it was all really terrifying when you were buried underneath a mountain of rubble with no way out, less air, and no way of telling what was going on.

However, it didn't take him long to realize that a story like this would earn him some serious pity points from chicks and while he was still remembering those awful few moments, his ego could not be suppressed. Puffing up his chest, the little blue/orange ball of fluff turned and looked Tina in the eye, he still seemed chummy,

"Well, it doesn't matter because chicks dig survivors and who cares if I fudge the details a little." he turned and walked out this time, putting a little bounce in every step,

"Laters!" he shouted with the same wave again.

To the tyrannosaur, this was nothing out of the ordinary and she had been dealing with this kind of behavior ever since they became friends, although she would "correct" him if he overstepped his boundaries. She was happier though, when he wasn't being a self centered narcissist, he actually tried to be a good friend and was considerate of her feelings. It was hard to do things together that didn't require a lot of physical action, he wasn't exactly durable like her friend Jamie, but he still tried his best.

Unfortunately, today was one of those days where his head was starting to swell again and she might have to save him from his own stupidity,

"Well, that was a… thing that happened." Jamie remarked, obviously disgusted.

Picking out another workout device that allowed her to bite down and work on her jaw strength, she replied with not much care,

"Eh, just let him run his mouth a little, a few slaps to the face oughta set him straight and he'll go home soon after. I've seen it before." she bit down on the steel bar sticking out for her and squeezed with all her might.

The device the bar was attached to displayed her bite force as 10,000 pounds, very strong for a rex her age, and the bar split in two halves, distributing enough resistance to her jaws. She continued to work her maw and Jamie picked up a barbell set with 300 pounds and started doing deadlifts. She didn't understand why Tina liked hanging out with that loser so much, he's an overinflated wind bag and a complete wimp that couldn't back up all the things his mouth churned out. Still Tina seemed happy and was actually easing up on the other students as well.

As for her? She still hasn't eased up on her physical means of ending conflict and wanted to prove to Tina that they could go back to picking on Tobias seeing as he no longer had the spine to get back at them. For the sixtieth time, she lifted the dense iron bar to the level of her chin before lowering it again in a squat,

"What do you think of the thing that attacked? I honestly doubt that it was a bunch of terrorists that did it and when all the power went out like that, it kind of reminded me of the strange thing that happened two weeks ago." she grunted as she lifted again,

"Do you think it was the same creature that attacked your dad?" she asked.

The bar was almost clamped shut when Tina bit down as hard as she could, her anger levels spiking and she released her grip on it. Jamie noticed her aggressive reaction and set the barbell down before standing up again. Tina turned to the olive green midget with a glare that threatened to kill and Jamie was mildly concerned,

"I'm sure it was and if it ever shows its invisible hide here again, I will chew it's head off!" she snarled, completely ignoring the contradiction in her otherwise passionate declaration of vengeance.

She wiped her saliva off the bite bar and picked up the weights to purchase. The two best friends quietly exited the athletics store and set out through the central hub of the mall. Hector could still be seen through the ceiling windows and the others in the mall were still going about their business, albeit with a few upwards glances towards the giant. Tina and Jamie glanced up at him once, like everyone else was doing in the mall and they also noticed that a few people were giving them some curious stares, which were dismissed with a single snarl from Tina.

Thanks to Tobias, they had a bit more money to spend (Tina insisted that he didn't have to give them anything, but he informed that he may wind up leaving and if they wanted anything else, they should be able to do so.) and decided to make way towards the food court,

"This stuff has been going on for a while now, first all over our town and now in San Francisco. I wish there was some kind of explanation for all of this." Tina said.

Jamie's eyes lit up and her chin lifted a little when she remembered something from this morning,

"Well, I got some good news on that very subject! I got a text from an old buddy of mine, she told me that she's putting together an investigation looking into the strange phenomenon and wants us on her team!" she exclaimed, lifting Tina's spirits.

Tina was interested now and allowed her curiosity to take the reins,

"Really? Wait, are you talking about that pink bunny? You know, Gumball and Darwin's little sister. The girl who was your buddy last year, but left once she moved onto high school." she questioned.

"That's the one! We have been keeping in touch every now and then, but yeah, she's looking into figuring out what attacked your dad and trashed your trash home. She's got her best friend helping her out too, and even managed to include Bobert as well." she replied excitedly to her scaly lizard friend,

"I think we should join in on this, so what do you say?" she asked, looking up at Tina with a toothy smile.

Now this was getting more interesting and a devious smile tugged at the corners of Tina's lips, while her eyes flickered greedily with revenge. Finally, they were on the path of progress and Tina could figure out all these things that left the entire class completely baffled. Not only could she avenge her father, she could avenge all the people who've died during their field trip and she finished this thought with another smile, before she walked up to a service counter to Porky's exotic meats and sandwiches.

Waiting in line with everyone else, she whispered down to Jamie,

"Yeah! let's join and kill that coward who attacked my family!" she hissed.

Jamie could feel the heat of Tina's bloodthirsty desire and she found it all too inviting. She loved it when Tina was put on a bloody rampage and the buildup to that confrontation was going to be undeniably enjoyable. With a mouthful of sharp teeth, Jamie placed a wicked grin and slammed her fists together in anticipation,

"Yeah, let's rip this guy a new one!" her voice an eerily smooth tone that seemed to display her sadistic nature very well.

The two chuckled together and then their turn came to order,

"I'll have the 1 ton special and five of the mammoth T-bones." Tina ordered and the pig man working behind the counter nodded before turning a permanently scowling mug to her little friend,

"I'll have… your regular hamburger and a medium sized alligator-ade!" she put in.

Tina shook her head and nudged her with her foot,

"We can't afford the drink, Jamie!" she started.

-Rachel Wilson, Clare cooper, and Agathe Clementine, Elmore Mall fountain, 3:29 PM-

While Tina and Jamie went about the spacious building arguing whether the extra two mammoth T-bones to Tina's three was necessary, Rachel watched the two stride on by from her bench near the mall's central water fountain and listened to their heated argument with mild amusement. On either of her sat her two friends from high school, Clare Cooper and Agathe "sissy" Clementine. They weren't really doing much except for people watching while Clare finished messaging someone,

"Those two are so loud." Clare, a grey humanoid with green hair that partially covered her face, muttered, watching the two girls disappear with uninterest.

"I'll say! Though that's nothing compared to the tall one's appearance. She needs her scales scrubbed and waxed, that way they'll shine more. Like mine!" came a sassy comment from Sissy as her forked tongue flickered in and out of her mouth.

Sissy was a diamond-back Rattlesnake with golden locks of fine hair, always done up in Nordic braids, she also had slender arms that protruded several feet below her head and she wore a lot of green: green T-shirt with an ironic message in gold stating a proverb from the Jadite holy book, "thou shalt not betray thy friends or thy kin, for those who do climb no higher than serpents!", a green skirt that allowed her tail to poke through and green hair clippings in the shape of clovers. She was outgoing and talkative, like Rachel, but she had a bad habit of flaking out on everyone when things get tough, hence the nickname.

"Hey, don't go around criticizing other people's looks, she looks fine. In a terrifying, prehistoric death machine kind of way?" Rachel said, defending the T-rex from the other reptile's hurtful comment.

"I'm just saying girl needs to shower." the serpent whispered back sarcastically.

Rachel had no idea how she became friends with these people, she felt so out of place at high school and had no idea how to make friends again after her past had been erased. However, the universe had a funny way of twisting things and she wound up hanging out with Clare a lot after just one project at the beginning of the school year. They didn't even talk that much, but when Clare mentioned how she felt so isolated in her new school environment (her old friends transferred to another school.), Rachel told her about her experiences while leaving out some disturbing details and boom, just like that, friends that sat at the same lunch table.

And then there was Sissy, who literally walked right up to her on the fifth day of school while she was at her locker and complimented her hair. She took the compliment and returned with a compliment about her hair and how her outfit matched her emerald green eyes. Then the conversation moved on to favorite colors, then to clothes, and before they knew it, they had chatted all the way to their classroom, making plans to see one another again.

Putting the phone she had been texting on away, Clare stood up and waved the other two over,

"Alright, I've finished texting Wilson, let's head on over to Burning Subject." she said in monotone.

Following after the grey female, Rachel and Sissy got up and placed themselves on either side. They walked and talked amongst the menagerie of colorful shoppers as they neared their desired location. The weather forecast displayed signs of colder weather and all three girls wanted warmer outfits, especially Sissy, but Clare had a specific style she liked to wear,

"I feel like updating my wardrobe, I mean the pink hoodie is nice, but I kind of want something a bit darker now. It'll better match my mood for the upcoming winter." she explained pessimistically, still feeling sad for her friends departure. She was also depressed because Jared, the love of her life, also transferred to another school and was interested in another girl.

Sissy seemed to have other ideas though and snapped her triangular head at Clare,

"What!? But pink is so your color, you should wear something that's at least a little bright! Why not go over to the Forever 15 store and pick up one of those parkas with the furry lining?" she suggested, wanting to help Clare out of her bad mood.

Ever since they started hanging out, Agathe had taken quite an interest in Clare's social life and would take any opportunity to hang out with her. She would more often than not try to hook her up with someone or take her and Rachel out to do something fun and crazy. When it comes to clothes, the snake's eyes would shine like precious jewels and there would be absolutely nothing to stop her from trying to get her grey, depressed friend into something magnificent. There was also the fact that she loved the color of her hair, being green and all.

As much as she appreciated the effort, Clare was not up for it,

"I'm sorry, but anything bright is too happy of a color and I kind of just want my look to flow with my feelings. Plus, Rachel's favorite brand of eyeliner is at Burning Subject." she said.

Sissy turned to Rachel and the fluffy haired rainbow lass nodded in response,

"Yeah, it's not the only one I like to wear, but I do like the way it brings out my eyes." she responded, secretly hiding the fact that she liked it because Rob once complimented her when he saw it.

"Wow! You look really nice!" Rob said when he got a closer look.

Rachel's face lit up a little and she smiled like a ray of sun,

"Really, you think so?" she said in surprise, completely amazed that he noticed a detail so minor that most people would've missed it.

Rob nodded, his distorted face showing genuine honesty,

"Yeah, I've never seen you wear make-up before, but this is a good look for you." he responded, still bobbing his head up and down.

Rachel chuckled a little,

"Dude, it's just eyeliner." she retorted.

"Well it still looks nice. I like it." he commented, refusing to let his opinion to be swayed.

And after that, she started wearing it more often. Even though it happened a month ago, she still smiled at the memory.

Being outvoted two to one, it was an obvious decision to press on to the store and Sissy insisted that they go check out her recommended places after they visited this one. Rachel agreed, although Clare was a bit more reluctant to do so, but Sissy reassured her that it will be fun and also suggested they hang out at the skatepark. No doubt to flirt with the boys there.

They reached the local punk rock store and sauntered right on in. There was a song by Broken Asylum blaring through the overhead speakers and the store wasn't overly crowded. There were a few people here and Rachel even saw a blue cat boy checking out a rack full of cargo pants by himself. Moving to the front counter, Rachel selected her preferred eyeliner and some lipstick too, she never wore any before, but wanted to try it out.

After a few minutes of picking through some sweaters, hoodies and leggings, Clare selected several that matched her tastes and joined up with Rachel and Sissy,

"Okay, I want to try some of these on." she said, looking back towards the girls changing room.

The other two freshmen followed her into the changing area, Sissy had also found some outfits she thought to be cute and Rachel was just joining them to offer an opinion. They went right in and found that the only other occupant in the somewhat large room was a paper puppet in the shape of a bear who looked to be in her preteens. She was wearing some paper outfits that could be fastened onto her flat body, a navy blue pair of short shorts, a purple tank top with a black logo of a broken moon printed on the front, and black hoodie with white angel wings printed on the back.

She was checking herself out in the mirror, she heard the girls come in, but paid them no attention and continued to observe how the shorts matched with the rest of her outfit. The paper girl wasn't really eye catching to either Sissy or Rachel, but Clare on the other hand seemed to recognize her right away. She let out a quick gasp that alerted the middle schooler,

"Teri Pepakuma?" Clare gasped, her one eye wide with surprise.

Following Clare's reaction, Teri's eyes shot open upon recognizing the former eighth grader that once roamed their halls,

"Clare Cooper?!" her airy voice whispered in surprise.

Surprised and confused, Rachel and Sissy looked back and forth between the girls several times. Then Rachel turned to Clare while raising an index finger towards Teri,

"Wait, you know her?" the fluffy haired high schooler implored with a quizzical glance in the bear's direction.

Clare's green head snapped side to side and she shrugged,

"We never hung out much, but we used to exchange a few words in the hallway. She really liked to visit the nurse's office, so I would run into her often." she explained while rubbing her sleeve covered hands over one another.

Teri turned red a little and chuckled somewhat nervously at Clare's mentioning of her various trips to the infirmary,

"Yeah, heh heh, that was me alright." she tapped her index fingers together,

"I remember you used to go to the bathroom a lot because you wanted a private place to write poetry. Do you still do that?" she asked.

Clare seemed to show no embarrassment towards Teri's query and her blank face shook to the side again,

"Not as much as I used to, especially when I have these two constantly badgering me and following me all over the place." she said with a single head tilt in both their directions.

"Hey!" Rachel barked in offense.

"Girl, we can't have you wandering about on your lonesome or else you'll just end up moping about again, also we can't let you go alone when Justin is around. Jade knows that jockey jerk-bomb will pick on you any chance he gets." Sissy huffed in indignation, placing her scaly hands on where her hips would be and giving Clare a sassy stare.

Rachel nodded in agreement and further added on to the snake's comment,

"I know, right! I think he may have something against bizarros, I mean, he picks on all of us and leaves his human friends alone, he even tortures poor little Anais and her goat headed friend, Macey, for crying out loud!" she snorted, already feeling her blood boiling at the mentioning of Elmore High's Sophomore meathead.

Having been listening in on their conversation, Teri had picked up on Clare's new life with her very extroverted companions, feeling very happy for the normally pessimistic girl to have people who cared so much for her, and also understood the terrible situation happening at the school itself. She realized with dread that if Gumball and herself were to graduate from middle school, they would have to endure one year with the same bully they were describing and while Tina's gang as well as Julian Oppenheimer's group of lackeys were bad enough, having a human-centrist as a bully did not bode well for either of them. The one name that really jumped out at her was Anais, Gumball's little sister, whom she'd forgotten was in highschool,

"Wait, are you guys talking about Anais Watterson, little pink bunny girl, five years old and is outrageously smart?" Teri cut in, using her hands to also showcase the little girl's height.

Rachel and Sissy's eyes seemed to light up a little at the paper puppet's description and Sissy nodded in response,

"Yes, that's her alright. We share the same chemistry class with her. Cutest little thing I've ever seen, although she has quite the wit for a toddler. Wasn't she in your middle school as well?" she hissed, her forked tongue flickering about.

Another quiet sign of agreement from Teri and she explained what she knew about the youngest Watterson member,

"She was and you know my friend out there in the store, the blue cat in the brown sweater? That's Gumball Watterson, her older brother." she said with a single point towards the door.

Clare's eyes seemed to widen a bit, she knew who Gumball was, and her mouth seemed to curl downwards,

"Oh, so that was Gumball, I thought he looked familiar, but I haven't seen him around that much. Given how Anais had described him as well as past experiences, I thought he and his little brother would have set the town on fire during the summer." she quietly remarked, rubbing her chin with a covered hand.

Teri didn't say anything about that, seeing as she, along with the rest of Gumball's class, knew the reason to Gumball's lack of chaotic activity and honestly was just glad he was up and running again.

It was Rachel's turn to ask Teri something and after giving her outfit a quick look, she already knew what she wanted to ask,

"So what are you two doing here then? Do you guys come here often?" she asked, her head turning back to the door for a brief moment then back at her.

Once again, Teri was forced to fudge the details a bit to someone who was asking, but it was a total stranger, or at least, that's what she thought. That lemon/magenta hair, those piercing dark eyes, the sporty head wear, and her outgoing persona all seemed very familiar to her for some reason. It was all very confusing, but Teri just brushed it off as deja vu,

"Um, no not really. This is my first time at the mall with him and were checking out some of the stores together." she looked into the mirror for the umpteenth time and gave her figure a quick look over,

"I like the hoodie and the top, but the shorts are a little tight on the waist. Plus I don't know what to do about my face. Do you think I should just ditch the outfit altogether and go for something simpler? I always thought that worked with me." she pondered, after giving her reflection another distasteful glare.

However, with Agathe Clementine always jumping at an opportunity to give an incredibly beautiful girl a makeover, did not hesitate to slither on over to the paper puppet for a closer inspection,

"Let's see now… mmm-hmm… yes, yes, yesss, we can definitely make this work!" she excitedly proclaimed in a sing song voice as Teri backed up a few feet at the reptile's sudden lack of personal space.

She shot back to Clare, whispering to her before bringing Rachel in on the quiet conversation, all three girls giving Teri a curious glance every now and then,

"Alright, Clare you're in charge of coloring and Rachel, you need to get some more clothes, something with the colors of Fall." Sissy rattled off to her companions who all eagerly agreed.

"You got it!" Rachel replied before shooting out of the room so fast, the door swung back and forth on its hinges before coming to rest.

"Good thing I brought my art supplies with me today." Clare sighed, opening her bag to pull out some coloring materials.

With that being said, Sissy slithered back on over to a very confused Teri and a wide grin was cracking a wide grin that made Teri even more uncomfortable,

"Don't you worry now, I have a few ideas that will most certainly bring out your appearance!" her eyes were glimmering in delight and Teri finally noticed that the snake lady's golden hair was very well kept as well as her scales too. She looked very pretty up close and Teri could feel herself beginning to relax a bit,

"Would you mind if we drew some bangs on your head? I think it would outline your face in a flattering way, we could even color in some highlights!" she politely asked, not wanting to frighten her.

An image of her mom came to the young paper girl's mind and she remembered how nice she looked with her raven hair. She didn't really add too much to her face because she always thought she looked cute in a plain sort of way, but since Gumball and her were trying to look unrecognizable to their fellow classmates and citizens of Elmore, this might be the opportunity she was looking for. With her mind reaching a conclusion, she quietly gave them permission to do so,

"Actually that would be very nice, but could you make it black, please?" she added, still thinking of her mom's image.

Bobbing her triangular head so much, Teri thought the gust of air coming from the motion would blow her over, the green admiring high schooler agreed and ushered Clare on over,

"Yes, that would look lovely on you!" Sissy complimented.

"We could do a single highlight streak in your hair if you want to maintain a heavy dark presence." Clare offered, showing several shades of erasable color pencils within her hand.

Feeling a little adventurous, Teri decided to go with it and showed Clare her approval,

"That sounds like a good idea. Do you have any Cyan?" she asked, thinking of a certain cat in particular.

Clare thought about it and brought out the requested color, holding it up for her to see,

"It is a bright color, are you sure you want to use this shade?" she asked.

Sissy turned to her grey companion with a look that said, "well, duh!" before she hissed out an answer for her,

"Of course, we want brighter colors, it'll pop out more!" she explained in a raised voice before turning back to examine Teri.

One minute later, Rachel came back with several piles of paper clothes suited for two dimensional figures and made her way towards the paper girl. She began cycling through articles of clothing, holding each one up for Teri to see while Clare began sketching locks of black hair onto Teri's forehead as well as the sides of her face,

"Yeah they had a lot of options seeing as most of these can fit within a compact storage space." she said, holding up a dark grey blazer with a black ribbon and a plaid skirt that was black and white in color.

Sissy scanned the attire with immense skepticism before turning to the paper girl before both started to shake their heads, Teri only doing so slightly,

"Mmm, no I don't think so." Sissy said dismissively,

"Too gothic school girl." she waved her hand as she continued to scrutinize Teri's face.

Setting the clothes down, Rachel began to throw together another set and talked the whole time,

"Do you think Rob is the gothic type? I mean he wears a lot of bright clothing, but his mood definitely seems to match and he could pull it off with the way his hair looks." she wondered aloud.

Teri felt her face twitch a little at Rachel's mentioning of Rob and she looked about confusedly. She couldn't be talking about the Rob they worked with, right? There were plenty of people around Elmore that shared that name, so it wasn't completely out of the question she was referring to someone else.

Clare's answer helped clarify her suspicions,

"Well, yeah, I'd imagine so, I mean that distorted look and all that static does put off a bit of a dark vibe. I'd tell him to go for it." Clare said, having heard of Rachel's neighbor, according to her. She did not know that Rob had been helping provide for her and even masqueraded as her guardian at one point. The official story from the rainbow lass was that he was a neighbor that she was close friends with and that he was always very busy, so he couldn't hang out much.

To Teri though, this was definitely their enigmatic ally and she wondered why Rachel would be associated with him.

Sissy was now looking up other ideas for makeup on her phone, but also chimed in with the girl's topic of Rob,

"Maybe we should ambush him at your place, tie him down and make him wear makeup." Sissy teased,

"We could make him look like one of those heavy metal band members, like Bisou!" she cackled.

Teri wanted to shake her head in disbelief, but Clare was shading in her hair and couldn't mess up her work,

"I don't think he would like that. From what I've seen, he really hates surprises." Teri joked, referring somewhat to one of the fights he's been.

Confused, Rachel spun around towards the paper girl and a look of concern mixed with curiosity was ever so present on her blue face,

"Wait, you know Rob?" she inquired, her bafflement making her voice louder than she intended.

Taken aback by what she said, Teri could feel herself start to sweat and she fumbled about with her words until a reasonable explanation surfaced,

"Not entirely… we've just met a few times in the past and Gumball would bring him up every now and then because evidently the two shared a history. Something about him being his nemesis or whatever." she explained, feeling slightly at ease because most of what she had said was true, in a way.

Now Rachel was less stressed, she had been worried that he had gotten into some trouble with this girl, who started to seem a little familiar for reasons unknown to her, and was glad that their association was brief and vague. Seeing her relaxed, made all of Teri's stress sink like a sub and she cooled down. Shaking her head and pinching her forehead ridge, Rachel sighed,

"I swear there's so much about that kid that eludes me and I live right next to him for Jade's sake!" she sounded exasperated now and Teri could tell how she felt.

Looking over at the colorful teenager with eyes that agreed, Teri showed some understanding on her part,

"I know what you mean, he's not exactly one who is very open with his activities and he only shows up when something important is going on." she felt like she may be revealing too much, but it felt right to be saying these things.

Not exactly sure how well Teri knows her fascinating roommate, Rachel was quite surprised at the level of detail Teri was going into and her expression resonated with her a bit,

"Yeah, that's a given alright. He never really explains what he does during the days I'm at school or at work, but he's been doing a lot more when I'm home. He's a lot nicer and inclusive with some activities recently, I'm not sure why this is, but I appreciate it." she was smiling to herself now.

Everyone was quiet now and Rachel picked up on the awkward silence, quickly holding up the next set of clothes for Teri and Sissy to give their opinion on. She wanted to move on from the topic before Sissy started gushing about them both again and asking prying questions she did not want to answer.

"How does this look?" she asked before adding in,

"I think the leaves contradict the stripe, but in a good way and its simple too, so it works! At least, that's what I think." her nails scratched at her scalp as she looked about the room nervously.

Both Teri and Sissy wanted to know more about Rachel's life with Rob, Teri wanting to know because this was all interesting to hear and Sissy feeling the same, but for different reasons and Clare not caring at all because she was too busy focusing on her craftsmanship. However, like a switch being flicked, Sissy's mind returned to fashion and she brought forth her opinion on the dress Rachel presented before them. She thought it looked too simple, but Teri really liked it and just like that, it was thrown in the "maybe" pile.

Several minutes had passed and Clare was done with Teri's hair, allowing for the cute paper girl to try on some of the outfits. Eventually one was settled on and when Sissy offered to do her face, she declined, but did her nails, er, rather her finger tips.

Soon the girl standing before them was a transformed middle schooler, with soft, ebony hair with a single blue highlight streak drawn on a single lock that parted her forehead. Her new attire was a simple white spaghetti strap dress with leaves that ran down from the top to the hem of the skirt in a line that swirled a bit, as though they were being blown in the wind. Starting from the top, the leaves were green, but gradually switched to orange/red as it lowered. Her nails were also the same color as the trees of Autumn and for an added bonus, she pulled a sheet of paper out of her bag before folding it into a clip-on flower that she wore on her ear.

All in all, she looked very pretty and the three girls were in awe of their work,

"Very nice." Clare said softly.

"Splendid!" was all Sissy could say.

"I'm sure once you step out there Gumball's not even going to recognize you!" she said with an amused smile.

Giving herself one last look in the mirror, Teri was beaming happily and her face was ever more radiant. She admired the work done on her hair and her nails, also Rachel's fashion sense was nothing to sneeze at either. She absolutely loved what they did for her and she turned to the high school trio with a grateful little bow,

"Thank you, so much. This looks incredible!" she squealed, barely able to contain her excitement.

They all smiled back at her and Sissy said,

"It was our pleasure." she simply replied, still fascinated with their effort.

With another gracious bow, Teri skipped past them and cracked open the door just a bit,

"I'm going to show this to Gumball. When I get back, I'll help you with anything you need." she promised.

They all nodded and ushered her out, with Clare making one last call to her,

"Be sure to pick up his jaw when it hits the floor." her voice was still lacking in any emotion, but she was smiling a little.

She assured them that she would and went out to surprise her cat friend. Eager to see how he would react, Rachel and the other two followed her into the main shop and hid behind a clothing rack where they could see the whole thing. All eyes were on the well dressed Pepakuma child as she slowly strode up to Gumball before stopping just short of him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Gumball see anything you like?" she asked very subtly.

Gumball, who was checking out some embroidered rock shirts and sunglasses, turned around to answer the paper girl's seemingly inconspicuous question,

"I'm not one hundred percent sure if I want this green forest Ninja shirt with the pullover mask or if I-!" right then and there, Gumball was sure a Nephilim fired a doom blast from space and annihilated him because he swore this was heaven he was staring at.

The beautiful figure standing before him was Teri, but so very different, a good different! Extraordinary even and it made his eyes pop, his heart pump like a motor, as well as his jaw dropping to the floor. Teri giggled at the beauty struck boy when he couldn't say anything for the first few minutes and instead marveled at her appearance. Needing to say something now, Gumball just used the first things that came to his head,

"What the what!? Where did this summertime angel come from? Where's Teri?" he blabbered as he stared at her and the dressing room multiple times.

At this point Teri was crying with laughter and the three teenage onlookers were laughing too. They thought themselves a job well done and listened to the boy continue to prattle on with how nice she looked, he was stuttering too which just made the whole thing even more adorable. Teri seemed to love the attention she was getting and every compliment she was given made her smile even more.

Once he had finished running his mouth and took a moment to breathe, Teri finally spoke to him,

"Well seeing as you really like it, maybe you won't mind me wearing it more often." she said, her voice somewhat teasing.

Realizing how he had been reacting towards Teri's stunning transformation, Gumball straightened himself out and tried to act cool,

"Um, well, that's entirely up to you. I think you look very hot- PRETTY! I mean very pretty, but that's just my opinion. Your opinion matters most to me, so like I said, totally up to you!" he was very red now and was hoping that she didn't think he was weird for calling her hot, although she very much was.

Another giggle and she was already heading back to the dressing room,

"I'm going to take this off and try on some others. After that, you wanna head over to Dinner and grab something to eat?" she asked, flashing him another smile.

At this point, steam was coming out of the poor boys ears and the red faced child fired an affirmative answer,

"Sounds lovely!" he nearly shouted, but managed to keep it under control.

With that, she spun around on her heel and Gumball saw that her dress also covered her back too. He watched her walk off until she was behind closed doors and he turned around before placing an arm against the wall to steady himself as he mouthed the word WOW! Now he couldn't stop thinking about her in that dress, her newly added hair looking fantastic with that blue streak giving her a slightly rebellious look, and that little flower to top it all off. If he had known that shopping was going to be this much fun then he would have asked her out here a while ago.

With a silly grin carving across his jaw, Gumball shook his head and got back to browsing, his hands aimlessly sifting through shirts while his mind was preoccupied. He didn't even notice that he was looking in the female section.

When Teri announced that she was heading back to the dressing room, Rachel had ushered her friends back in and covertly made it back to the room. When Teri came back in, she was very happy and all the girls asked how it went despite seeing the whole thing. They all shared laughs when Teri described Gumball's amazement and when they had finished, they immediately went on to dress Clare up in her new Fall attire.

While Rachel held Clare's clothes, she spoke to Teri, who was in the stall with her and giving opinions,

"You and Gumball should hang out with us sometime, we can even try inviting Rob too." Rachel offered,

"He actually knows a few places up in the mountains that are really good for stargazing!" she figured that would be a good place to start, but if it was too far for them to go, then she had other places in mind.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea!" Sissy proclaimed in acknowledgement, standing in front of the mirror while trying on some of the eyeliner Rachel picked out to see if it worked on her.

"As long as we have mosquito spray." Clare said, pulling her head through the sweater's neck hole and giving her image a look,

"I'm not really an outdoorsy person." she sighed, remembering some camping trips her father brought her on.

"Yeah, I'm with Clare on that one. Mosquito bites are known to carry harmful infections, plus we should also bring some first aid in case something else happens. The woods are very dangerous!" she gave Clare a careful look while talking and smiled at the way she looked,

"That looks really good with those leggings." she commented before turning her attention to Rachel,

"We should also invite two more guys, that way our men aren't feeling outnumbered." she suggested with a chuckle.

Rachel snickered at that too and offered a wisecrack towards Teri's last comment,

"Are you sure? I thought it was every boy's dream to be lost in the wilderness and surrounded by pretty girls." she grabbed the sweater Clare tossed over and handed her another one.

"I don't know, Gumball and Rob don't seem like the careful types." Clare answered in a completely straight voice.

This caused a round of laughter from all the girls present, Rachel couldn't even picture how awkward Rob would be if he was left alone with a group of girls and given how flustered Gumball looked when he saw Teri with her new getup, she could tell that Gumball was also a big dork. Hilariously, Teri was thinking the same thing and shook her head as she finished laughing. Gumball probably wouldn't last long in such a situation because he'd probably freak out and cause an accident,

"I'm not so sure Gumball is capable of handling a situation as complex as that and also there's the fact that both Rob and him have a bit of a rivalry, so having more dudes to talk with may be a safer option." she said in between giggles,

"I would like to come and I'm sure Gumball wouldn't mind either." she leaned back against the wall, feeling pretty sure that she wasn't wrong, although the idea of spending an evening under the stars with the boy she loved sent more butterflies fluttering about her innards.

It was then decided that they would all try to get together sometime, although figuring out a good schedule was best left for later and a certain paper bear had something else to worry about, something worse than mosquitoes and ticks. They exchanged phone numbers and within a few minutes filled with intriguing banter, Clare had decided on what she wanted before making her way to the outside. Teri, Rachel, and Sissy followed after her and when they reached the cash register, the paper girl thanked them for the makeover and bid them farewell before dragging Gumball off somewhere else.

Rachel also said her goodbyes and promised to message her sometime soon. She turned back to her small group and while they exchanged a few pleasant words regarding their new friend, Rachel couldn't help but wonder about something. Rob never actually told her anything about what he did in his free time and yet, these two knew about him.

She knew none of what he did was really her business, but with all the crazy things that have been happening lately, she was really starting to concern herself with Rob's reclusive nature.

She needed to see how these two strangers interacted with him and if that didn't yield any results, then she was going to have to ask him herself. After the attacks on San Francisco, she was starting to notice a pattern within her own town and ever since the news broadcast this morning, a feeling of unease was ever so present within the high schooler. Clutching her skirt with her free hand, she feared something very odd was happening around here and after her experience in the void, she prayed that nothing would ever shatter the peace she had recently found.

-Fifty sense, Elmore mall, 3:52 PM-

Banana Joe twirled around several times before coming to a stop, flaring his fingerless hands to the sides of his face, googly eyes spinning and on his face he wore thick rimmed glasses, a fake nose and mustache. Standing in front of him as a viewing audience to his comedy act was Idaho, Anton, and two lego construction workers, a red one named Hank, and his younger brother, a green one named Eric. They all snickered as he began bouncing up and down while saying in a gruff voice,

"I'm Banana Bob, look! Slapstick comedy!" he said as he stepped on a rake conveniently placed in front of him, causing the handle to fly up and smack him in the face, sending his glasses and fake mustache flying.

Stepping back, he felt his face with his own limbs and once he realized his getup was gone, he screamed in a high pitched, female voice much like his father would whenever he misplaced his mustache. Another round of laughter from the food friends and a chuckling Eric elbowed Hank a little in the arm,

"I think he's talking about you, Hank." the bulky, lego green man teased.

"No way, that's what you sound like when you scream!" he teased back, lightly punching his little brother in the arm.

Suddenly from one of the many aisles, Carrie appeared and was holding a basket full of red chalk, a special ingredient for her summoning ritual. The ghost girl had heard the laughter coming from the other end of the cheap item's store and went in to investigate. She wasn't surprised to see Banana Joe here in the gags department, but invited herself in to chat when she saw the company that was with him,

"Hey guys! Wow, never thought I'd see the entire breakfast set in one spot, all we need is Sarah and we could call you guys lunch." she joked and every one of the boys just rolled their eyes a bit,

"So what bring all of you guys here?" she asked after getting her laughs in.

Picking up his goofy glasses and putting them back into the bin, Banana Joe answered in a happy-go-lucky tone,

"We all met up here after our friends ditched us!" he said, sounding a bit too happy when he said that.

"Yeah, Tina and Jamie are too busy hanging out with Tobias nowadays, so we all decided to get together instead." Anton claimed, also sounding pleased.

Idaho shifted his gaze between the banana and the slice of toast a few times before turning his attention back to the ghost,

"Actually, I'm here just because my ma and pa wanted me to get some paper plates. We're having an outdoor barbecue tonight with a bonfire!" he said in his heavy southern accent, sounding very loud and overjoyed.

Slowly nodding, Carrie then noticed the two lego construction workers and looked at them expectantly. Luckily Hank caught on and introduced himself along with his little brother,

"Oh and I'm Hank! The little brickhead standing next to me is my little brother, Eric." he said, although Carrie could see that they were both the same height and while Eric had a thick, handlebar mustache, the only real difference between them was their skin color.

"We're friends with the little yellow fellow and when we saw him walking around the mall with his other friend, we just happened to tag along."

His green brother grunted and turned to his older sibling with an irritated look,

"Yeah, she probably knows that and quit calling me a brickhead, you gorilla!" he shouted in respite.

While the two lego men began to argue back and forth, Carrie picked up on the previous conversation. The two weren't disturbing anyone with their banter and they haven't destroyed anything yet, so it was okay for them to talk. With the four of them standing around, Carrie spoke while Banana Joe checked out another pair of specs,

"So you guys seem very happy. Did anything happen recently?" she asked, tucking her basket under one arm.

Anton was practically ready to bounce off the walls at this point and with a slew of cobbled together words he said something like,

"We just learned that Ms. Simian has retired!" he babbled, his gloved hands waving in the air as though he were at a concert.

The floating spirit had to catch herself from flying back into a shelf full of party streamers and napkins when she got that,

"Wait, what?! That can't be right, Ms. Simian would never retire from teaching! Being alive for so long, she has no other outlet to vent her misery and trust me, I know what that's like!" she gasped, still not believing what she was hearing.

Banana Joe returned with a pair of glasses with popping eyeballs and shrugged his shoulders,

"Well, retired isn't exactly the correct way to put it, rather she quit entirely." he corrected.

This was unprecedented for the ancient ape and while Carrie was more than glad for the teacher's announced retirement from her job, it was still very surprising. Why would she leave now of all times? There was only one recent event that could have explained her disappearance,

"Could it have something to do with what happened yesterday on the field trip?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

The three food boys thought for a moment before Idaho initially shrugged his stick arms and exhaled,

"I'm sure that has to be the case, but I'm curious as to why that would be the last straw when the school itself has been through many devastating accidents." he wondered.

"Maybe, she just has something against San Francisco!" Anton thought out loud, but on the turn of a dime, went straight back to celebrating,

"But who cares! She's gone now and I have one less person making my life a living misery fest!" he screamed with glee.

Having heard the mentioning of San Francisco through their argument, the lego brothers ceased their petty bickering and joined in with their own thoughts to share,

"Hey, my dad works in San Francisco! He was caught up in those accidents too, but he's alright because he's a tough geezer!" Hank exclaimed.

"Hey, I have a dad that works there too and he was also nearby the explosions that went off! What a weird coincidence?" Eric muttered as he rubbed his chin with his clasper hand.

Hank turned to his green counterpart with a dumbfounded look and raised his hand to slap the back of his head,

"Of course he works in San Fran, you dummy, we're brothers!" he said before delivering the smack upside his noggin.

Under the powerful blow of his brother's strike, Eric was sent face first into the tile floor, cracking the surface with his forehead and leaving a lasting impression. The three food children gasped while Carrie just stared on with no clear indication of surprise and watched as he slowly got back up. Dusting his clothes off, Eric looked mildly annoyed and wasn't scuffed up in the slightest by the impact.

Meanwhile, his sibling continued to chastise him,

"You really need to clean out the space between your ears, it's got cobwebs again!" he groaned in irritation.

The mustached man looked about confusedly and then back at his red worker companion,

"Really? Huh, you're probably right." he said as he pulled off his cylindrical head with both hands and held it out to Hank,

"Little help here?" he asked.

The bulky figure leaned over and blew some air in the lego's head hole, sending dust and cobwebs spewing out from the other side. The green man then slid his head back on and his brother looked at him with an eyebrow raised,

"Better?" he asked.

"Better." Eric replied.

After witnessing the construction brother's comedic routine, the four children went back to their original topic. There wasn't much more to discuss on Ms. Simian quitting other than Banana Joe hypothesising that she may have known who was behind the attacks and the conversation was steered to another topic. Taking the lead, Idaho remembered something Sarah told him during their time yesterday spent as a group and he got everyone's attention by clearing his throat,

"That's right, I almost forgot to tell ya'll about Masami's birthday party on the first of November." he chided.

Intrigued, everyone was listening in now and all eyes were on the walking ball of starch,

"Are we all invited?" Joe asked, clasping his hands together hopefully.

"I reckon we all are!" Idaho answered with a happy grin.

"That's cool. Where is this party taking place, exactly?" a curious Carrie exhorted.

"At her mansion, if I do recall." he replied before adding in,

"It'll probably be after school though, seeing as it's on Friday."

Anton was more than pumped at this point and he was bounding with relentless, youthful energy once again,

"Wa-hoo! Party at a mansion! This day just keeps getting better!" he was bouncing like a grasshopper and his tiny size made it to be quite a sight.

Everyone seemed to be on the same page, except the construction workers who kept asking who's birthday was it, and Carrie was feeling the same energy they were, but for another reason entirely. She already knew that the gathering of materials was going to take time, but Masami's birthday party gave her more than enough to get everything started. It was also a great distraction, mainly due to the fact that such an event will attract many people, and would allow her to summon Malabranche without others noticing the ritual's side effects.

Now she had to go tell Gumball and Teri, which luckily, she saw them earlier and knew where they were headed.

Drifting towards the counter to go pay for her supplies, she was stopped when Banana Joe noticed the red chalk she was bringing and asked her what it was for,

"Uh, it's for a coloring project." she answered with a nervous rub on the back of her head and an awkward grimace allowed itself to show.

Banana Joe didn't seem to pick up on her facial cues and merely looked on without mentioning it,

"Sounds like a big project. Is it called ketchup explosion?" he chortled.

Rolling her eyes, she sarcastically responded to his joke,

"Ha ha, no, but is very gruesome though and I'm going to work on it in the gym, so I'd stay away from there if you value your sanity." now it was her turn to laugh, but in a morbid fashion.

The class clown didn't find that very funny and quietly went back to his small friend group. Satisfied in her solitude, the emo went to the front of the store and began checking out her items. She had eight of the seventy three items listed in her father's demonology hand book and could probably go home to learn some other spells or just grab dinner with Darwin. Either one worked with her.

-Dinner, Teri and Gumball-

Despite the ironic name the restaurant displayed on the outside, the inside definitely gave off a late-night vibe and boasted a number of dishes best suited for an evening stay. It had a classical fifties look, with elaborate walls hung with black and white photos, bare bulbs that hung from the ceiling on a single pole, illuminating the whole place in a comfortable orange/yellow, the tables were dressed in checkered tablecloths sporting colors of white and red and the sound of frying food could be heard from the kitchen, enchanting customers with that soothing sizzling sound. The smells were also very delightful and there were quite a lot of couples and families already seated around the tables with staff dressed in fifties-style uniforms and aprons, catering to their needs.

One such couple was already seated in a booth farthest from the store window and while their food has yet to arrive, they were still delighted by each other's company. Listening to Gumball telling a funny joke, Teri quietly rested her arms on the table, still rocking her new hair and flower while keeping her gaze on the talking blue cat in front of her. She was doing everything in her power to keep herself from laughing, but she could already tell he was getting close to the punchline and her face was already tightened up as she held back,

"...and then George Washington enters the campus and says to Thompson, 'you're under arrest for treason!'" he stood in his chair, striking a pose like a general before assuming the pose of a frightened man,

"He gasps in surprise and asks him how could this be and George Washington says back to him, 'because my spies have delivered me your report card and it says here that you're an English major!'" he finished with a laugh as he plopped back down into his seat.

Nope, she couldn't do it anymore and Teri collapsed onto the table, laughing hysterically as her fingers clawed at the tabletop. She should've known that the joke was going to end that way, puns were just how he communicated, and now she has surrendered herself to the tidal wave of belly aching laughs. Ever since they left Burning Subject it's been joke after joke with him, some were hit-and-miss, but a lot of them were able to get a chuckle out of her and ones like this were able to knock her over in a wheezing fit.

Once she was done laughing into the tablecloth, she wiped her eyes of the tears that had leaked out and saw the kitten looking at her in delight,

"Seriously where do you get all of these?" she asked in a wheezy voice, chuckling every now and then.

Another slick smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows told her something bad was coming up and he said,

"From punderground, obviously! Not as many dirty jokes as you would think, surprisingly." he snickered.

Teri groaned,

"Uggh! Of course you would find them there." she reached over and grabbed a ketchup bottle to read the ingredients.

"Yeah, and that last one was revolutionary in my opinion." he commented, continuing to give her his sly looks.

Teri popped the cap on the ketchup bottle and shot a playful glare at him,

"This is going all over your shirt, you know. Don't underestimate me either, it can squirt pretty far and I won't even have to move." she warned, although her smile definitely told him she was only kidding around.

Gumball didn't seem frightened though and he moved his shoulders vertically,

"Actually, I love ketchup and if you spray my shirt I'll save it for school then because let's face it, it's leagues better than Monday's mystery meat." he replied with a wink.

And then Teri made a gagging sound while pushing herself away from the table,

"Ew! Don't joke like that, we haven't even gotten our food yet and you're NOT doing that either!" she glared at him as she set the bottle of tomato sauce as far away from the cat boy as possible.

As soon as she said that, Karen arrived with their food on a tray and set both of their burgers in front of each kid,

"There's your Philly cheese steak sandwich with fries and I believe that's the Hash brown double stacker also with fries." the pink Axolotl first handed Gumball his and Teri's last,

"Do you two need anymore refills?" she asked after placing her tray underneath the crook of her arm.

Casting a glance at their half-way finished glasses, the boy and girl looked each other in the eye before shaking their heads at the same time,

"I think we're good, thank you." they said in unison.

Checking her notes and giving their food one last look, Karen was nodding approvingly and slunk off to another table. Checking out the steaming sandwich in front of him, Gumball could feel his mouth starting to salivate as the smell of burnt beef and toasted bread wafted into his nostrils. He could already tell this was going to be a delicious meal and he wrapped his paws around the sandwich, lifting it up to his awaiting mouth.

Before he could take his first bite, a frustrated grunt from Teri reached his ears and he paused to see what was wrong,

"Something up?" he asked.

She was holding her burger in one hand and was lifting the top bun with the other, inside were two hamburger patties, hash browns, lettuce, tomato, and… cheese. This was the main object of her irritation and she angrily set the burger back on her plate. She then got up from the table and picked the plate up as well, but didn't leave until she told Gumball,

"I specifically told them not to put cheese on this. I will be right back." she growled, before storming off to the front counter.

Watching her leave to go argue with the waitress, Gumball set his sandwich down and waited for Teri to come back. He wanted to enjoy his meal with her and if he hadn't ordered what he had, then he could have traded with her. Oh well, nothing to do about that.

It was about a minute into waiting when someone spotted him sitting by himself and she came marching right towards the unaware kitten. At first, he didn't notice anything off as he was preoccupied with dowsing his fries in ketchup before Teri got back and the person remained unseen for a while. When he finished drowning his food in a morbid amount of red sauce, he then noticed a presence at the table and thought that the waitress had returned, hopefully with the realization that she made an error with Teri's food.

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw that this was not the case,

"Molly?" he gasped in surprise.

The quiet Sauropod waved a trunk at him before smiling a little, although her eyes seemed a little sad,

"Hi Gumball, are you busy?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"Uh-uhhhh…" was the only sound he made when he looked back over to see what Teri was doing.

She was still at the counter, waiting for customer service to come, but her back was turned to them. It wasn't like he was embarrassed to be seen with her in a public place like this, but he'd hoped that Teri and him could enjoy some time alone together. However, he felt inclined to ask what was troubling Molly and sucked in a deep breath.

Turning back in his seat, Gumball's attention was now on her,

"What seems to be the issue?" he politely questioned, his gaze shifting to Teri every few seconds.

This seemed to make Molly a bit happier, as she stood up a bit taller and seemed a bit more radiant,

"Well, I was thinking about what happened yesterday and I wanted someone to talk to about it. Everyone else is too busy and I'm really terrified." she explained very sincerely and Gumball can even hear her voice shaking a little.

It was as Gumball feared. She wanted to talk to him about something important and he would really like to, seeing as she was very upset right now, but Teri and him were in the middle of something, the former of which could be coming back any time now. He needed to find a good compromise and make sure Molly didn't go home sad.

His eyes searched the area until through the window, he looked up and spotted Hector still standing beside the mall building. What exactly was he doing? He's been standing there for nearly an hour and hasn't actually done much. What exactly was his mother shopping for?

These questions were waved aside when an idea popped up in his head.

Turning to Molly with his eyes closed, he took a deep breath, placed his hands together and exhaled before opening his eyes again,

"Molly, I understand how you're feeling and I would like to discuss that with you, but now isn't a good time…" he explained slowly, carefully thinking about what he wanted to say.

Right away her smile turned into a frown and her eyes became even more downcast. Gumball could see right away that she was hurt and quickly sprung up to keep her from walking away or crying, both of which would have been terrible things to see,

"...but that's where the good news comes in!" he quickly cheered, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Confused, the very tall cheerleader just stared at him with a perplexed expression and Gumball took that opportunity to quickly lead her outside. Tugging her by one of her trunk-like hands, they were soon outside the restaurant where the hub was and Gumball could see Hector clearly now. He directed her attention to the ceiling window with both hands and his face was riddled with excitement as he presented her with someone to talk to,

"Hector! You can talk to him! He's not doing anything at the moment and he's always open to listening to other people talk." he exclaimed, still waving his hands about frantically.

Molly seemed to freeze up on the spot, her lips were tightly pursed, and her pupils seemed to shrink in fear. She shook her head in defiance,

"I… I can't do it!" she squeaked and turned to head the other direction.

Before she could go though, Gumball grabbed a hold of her elbow and she stopped to look at him. He seemed very concerned and he asked,

"What's wrong, Molly? Hector isn't bad, he's very nice!" he spoke calmly, trying to keep the blocky sauropod from panicking again.

Molly seemed to shrink back a little and if Gumball weren't so sure, he could have sworn that she would have disappeared if she could,

"I know, it's just that…" Molly found her words getting caught in her throat. She was so nervous and didn't want to tell him how she felt, but with another shake of her head, she decided to spill it,

"He's so big a-and I don't think he'll ever hear me and even if he did, he probably wouldn't want to hear anything I want to say." she was on the verge of tears at this point.

So that was it. The idea made sense to Gumball, Hector was indeed a colossus and just simply walking up to talk to him was really intimidating to think about. He remembered the first time he and Darwin tried talking to him the first time in Elementary school, it took them both weeks to muster up their courage. For someone as shy and quiet as Molly, approaching someone of that immensity had to be a daunting task.

As for her fear of him not hearing her and also not wanting to hear what she said, that wasn't necessarily true. Gumball knew Hector, the big guy was quite lonely and told him that he wouldn't mind talking to anyone. He figured that Hector wouldn't object if Molly decided to keep him company and they both had… well, not-so-interesting tastes in how to spend their spare time, so maybe they would really get along.

He checked on Teri again and could see that she was now talking to the chef. He probably had about a minute or two before she came back and moved to wrap up things with Molly. Once again, another compromise and he knew what he wanted to say.

Looking back at her with a steady expression, he let go of her elbow and relaxed his shoulders,

"It's okay. Hector has big ears and will be able to hear you just fine. As for the other part, he would like to listen because he has barely anyone to talk to and trust me, he is a good listener." he explained.

After hearing him out, Molly seemed to calm down some and looked from him to Hector. Her frown was still present though and Gumball knew he needed to make one last push to get this cart rolling. Here comes the compromise,

"And if things don't go so well, just shoot me a text and we can meet up tomorrow on Sunday to talk about things." he added in after clearing his throat.

That seemed to just about do it for the dark middle schooler and she was now looking down at the blue cat with a hopeful light in her eyes,

"You will?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Gumball nodded once, his face a solid block of serious,

"I promise." he agreed, although the back of mind was screaming what have you done?!

With one final gesture towards the door leading outside, Gumball began to jog in place as he slowly headed back into Dinner and waved Molly good-bye. She was hesitant at first, checking first on the retreating Gumball then on Hector once more. She then heard Gumball wish her luck and also mentioned:

"Yeah, I'd introduce you two, but his mom made it very clear to me that she didn't want me anywhere near her son, but don't be scared of her either." he halfway shouted from inside the restaurant.

He gave her a thumbs up and raced back to his seat just as Teri turned around from the counter. Gumball watched as Molly took a deep breath and walked towards the main entrance. From what he saw, she still seemed nervous, but something told him that this was all going to work out just fine.

Eventually Teri came back looking very irritated, but not as much as she was before she left,

"Well, that was interesting." she fumed as she adjusted herself in her seat until she was comfortable,

"Turns out they had my order, but they sent Karen out with the wrong dish. They're finishing up right now, so it should be out here in a minute or two." she grumbled, still a little peeved.

Listening to her giving grief, Gumball felt bad for her and placed his hands on his lap,

"I'm sorry." he said.

Shaking her head, she waved it off and sighed,

"It's alright, it's not your issue to begin with." she replied, looking back at him with calmly written face.

"Want one of my fries?" Gumball offered, sliding his plate towards her.

Not one to refuse such an offer, Teri's hand darted from its resting spot and snatched up a seasoned, ketchup covered potato slice,

"Thanks." she said before popping it into her mouth and chewing. She noticed that he hadn't started on his sandwich yet, but she already knew why that was,

"So how did your talk with Molly go?" she asked as she reached for another fry.

Gumball swallowed the food he was working on and his eyes met hers shortly after. He didn't know that she had seen that entire thing and was feeling slightly embarrassed now for feeling like he had to talk to her in private. Wiping his paws against one another, Gumball sat up and cleared his throat,

"Oh, you noticed that?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer to that question.

Teri shrugged and from her relaxed posture seemed alright by this,

"I turned my head a couple of times." she popped a fry into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed,

"So how did your talk go?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Feeling more at ease, Gumball simply told her everything that happened and while he did so, Karen arrived with Teri's order, the correct one this time, before leaving with an apology. They both ate and talked, Teri telling him that she wouldn't have minded inviting Molly in to talk with them. He kept that in mind and peeked out the window, looking through the skylight where Hector could be seen.

Teri followed his gaze and they both saw that Hector was holding something in his hand,

"Oh my Jade! They're really going at it with that conversation!" Teri exclaimed in surprise.

Gumball was just as surprised as his friend, he could see Molly in Hector's hand, her stubby arms waving about while she spoke in that rapid machine gun way of hers and Hector was just intently listening to everything she said, nodding every now and then,

"I can't believe it! It couldn't have been that long since she left and they're already talking like they've known each other for years." he gasped.

The giant and the dinosaur seemed very intrigued with one another and the two kids in the restaurant couldn't help but watch this amazing spectacle unfold before them.

Eventually Teri turned around and gave Gumball another bright smile before she teasingly said to him,

"You know, you make a pretty good wingman!" she laughed.

Stunned, Gumball shook a little as he tried to figure out the implications of what Teri was telling him and as a result, spilled some steaming hot steak onto the back of his hand,

"Wha-! Ow!" he yelped, as he shook his burnt hand.

Seeing what he had accidentally done to himself, Teri leapt up from her spot, rushed to the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels, wet them with cold water, and rushed back out to where Gumball was sitting. He had managed to clean off the stain with a napkin and Teri dabbed the red spot with the wet paper towel wad. It didn't hurt too bad in Gumball's opinion, but having Teri being in such close proximity to him wasn't all that bad and he could already see that her face was a few inches from his.

"Sorry for startling you like that, I should've waited for you to finish eating before I said anything." she apologized as she continued to apply cold water to the burn area.

"It's alright, no need to apologize. I'm a huge klutz anyway and I forgot that the sandwich was hot." he replied back with a chuckle.

Beneath Gumball's notice, a mischievous smirk carved its way onto Teri's face and the paper girl stood up straight, both hands now on her hips,

"Oh, I see now. So the sandwich is hot and I'm just pretty." she remarked in a faked offended tone.

Gumball wasn't sure where this was coming from and he assumed that he must have said something wrong. His entire body dropped several shades in color and the burn from his food spill seemed colder now. His jaw fell and a sound matching a creaking door came out from his open maw.

Time seemed to stand still as the two just stared at another and the quiet between them was broken when Gumball flipped his lid,

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute here!" he frantically sputtered, he was moving in all sorts of crazy motions now,

"I don't know what I did wrong, but I didn't mean it like that!" his heart was threatening to stop right now and he still didn't understand what was going on.

All the while this was happening, several customers were now staring at the overreacting kitten and Teri just found the whole thing amusing. She had to force herself from cracking another smile and just folded her arms before turning away as though very disappointed in him. Gumball felt another shade of blue fade when she started speaking again, this time sounding very hurt,

"Back in Burning subject, you called me hot, but then you took it back and called me pretty instead. I guess you just find sandwiches more appealing, but I should've known that already." she said in indignation before switching to a more sassy approach,

"I just find it hard to believe that I had so much competition with Anton, but then again, you could do so much better than a flimsy piece of paper like me." she turned her back on him now and her smile was even more evident.

The whole restaurant oohed at Gumball, some even Tsking him, and the blue cat felt himself die a little on the inside,

"What is going on here? All I did was comment on how that piece of meat was hot and now she's acting like I'm comparing her!" this and many other regretful thoughts threatened to force the bipedal cat out of the restaurant and back home in shame.

Completely red faced and feeling very humiliated, Gumball got up to somehow fix things with her, even though he had no idea where to start,

"No, no, no, Teri I didn't mean it like that, I think you're very hot- no wait- actually, yes, you are, but I don't mean that in a creepy way! I mean-" he stopped himself before taking another deep breath and calming down, his heart still thundering within,

"What I meant to say is, you're very spectacular! I think you're very kind, wise, funny, creative, scary enough to keep me from doing dumb things, caring, and so much more! I'm glad to have you as a friend because you mean so much to me!" it was everything that came out of his grey matter, but it was the best he could think of on the spot.

A moment passed, then another, followed up by a third and Gumball was wondering if he should apologize for that last statement or try again with another. Should he tell her how he actually felt about her? Is that what she really wanted?

Without warning, laughter could be heard from Teri and she turned around, her eyes squeezed shut as her pearly whites glistened within her grinning face. Soon everyone there began to fall in with the laughter and with a grim realization, Gumball knew that he had been duped. His ears flattened against his head and his face was lit ablaze as he tried to think if there was a rune he could use to make himself vanish.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and he saw a chuckling Teri hugging him tight,

"I'm sorry, I was just teasing you. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, but you're reaction was pretty funny." she whispered in his ear,

"Also, did you just call me scary?" she looked him in the eye while still hugging him.

He didn't really hear her question and if he were to be honest here, he wasn't too upset with her joke either. He was just glad that it didn't escalate even further and that he didn't actually confess his true feelings for her, though he came really close. He gave her a hug too and they both sat back down, the rest of the Dinner staff and customers had their laughs before they went back to their own activities.

They both joked about the scene they made for a bit before Teri hopped onto another subject,

"What would you think about working here?" she asked before sinking her teeth into her juicy burger.

Gumball panned his head around and scanned the restaurant carefully before formulating an opinion,

"It's not too bad when I think about it, but Darwin and I already did the burger gig once and that's not something I'm willing to make a career out of." he said before finishing the final bite to his sandwich,

"Why do you ask?" he inquired with his mouth somewhat full.

Teri swallowed her bite and pulled her drink over to her,

"Well, seeing as you're amazing at cooking, I figured maybe that's a career you should look into and please don't talk with your mouth full, you could choke." she replied, giving him a brief warning on his eating habits before taking a sip of her lemonade.

Having long since gotten used to Teri's health tips, Gumball quietly finished his food before raising his head to ask her something,

"I feel like I already know the answer to this one, but what job would you like to do when you're older?" he sipped his soda through a straw.

Teri shrugged and placed her arms on the table, looking off in another direction,

"I want to be a nurse, but being a doctor also sounds nice. I haven't really decided which one is more preferable." she said thoughtfully, her eyes drifting back to Gumball.

Snickering a little, Gumball pictured Teri being a nurse, with the white coat and little white cap embroidered with a red cross, as she nagged patients about their lifestyle choices and then another funny thought formed,

"Maybe you could be the next school nurse! Mrs. Markham is pretty close to retiring anyway, all you gotta do is increase your visits from three times a day to six and you may just run her out of the job!" he joked.

A snort and a roll of her eyes was the answer Gumball got and expected from the school hypochondriac,

"Oh, ha ha ha! Yes, it's so funny that I treat my health so seriously. I'll remember this conversation when you catch a serious cold at school and wind up having to pay several visits yourself." her voice came out as a low growl and she leered at him from the other side of the table.

Gumball laughed and began to play around with his straw, twirling the piece of plastic in between his fingers as it slid around the rim of the glass,

"You know, I actually think owning a bakery of my own wouldn't be so bad! I get to bake sweets and bread for several hours straight and owning the place would do me some good too!" he thought about it and the image of him wearing an apron along with those big chef hats really tickled his fancy.

Teri was also thinking the same thing and she found the idea to be adorable as well as delicious and she voiced her own opinion,

"Yeah, and you can also give me free samples whenever I come by. Just me though." she shot him a look and went back to working on her half eaten burger.

Gumball looked up at her with amusement and wondered what was going on in that head of hers,

"What makes you think that I'm just going to give you free stuff?" he asked, still grinning.

Teri looked back at him with an equally amused glance and set her burger down to point at him,

"Because you're going to like me so much that giving me free samples will be just the smallest favor you could do in return." she boldly claimed.

Jade, this girl was just so awesome and Gumball was already releasing a few snickers in response to such a ridiculous answer,

"Oh, you're just too good for me, aren't ya!" he remarked, the sarcasm as thick as syrup.

"You bet your big head I am and you're not allowed to be anything other than a baker!" Teri declared.

Throwing his hands up, Gumball was utterly shocked at her declaration,

"Whoah, hey now! Give me some personal freedom in my life choices!" he cried out, his smile getting bigger by the second.

Teri shook her head and munched on her burger before gulping it down,

"I am giving you choices. You're going to choose what you're going to bake me tomorrow night!" she gave her eyebrows a little wiggle after she said that.

The two shared another laugh and Gumball talked to her about tomorrow's plans, seeing as she was the one who brought it up. They spent the next few minutes talking about their favorite foods and then somehow transitioned to favorite lines/episodes from Under the Stethoscope. Soon an hour had passed with the two still talking about just anything at this point and both of their plates had long since been emptied before being taken care of by the staff.

With it just being the two of them engaged in conversation, the world itself seemed to disappear entirely and the only person Gumball could see was the girl in front of him. It's been a while since he'd felt like this and the more he thought about it all, the more something began to dawn on him. It was at this very mall, this very restaurant where he shared moments just like these ones with another and something that he thought was so far away came crashing back to him.

His thoughts were on Penny now and a wave of guilt followed soon after, he shouldn't be thinking about her, not right now.

He continued to go along with the flow while keeping a straight face and making sure he kept his thoughts on his previous lover at a low. They continued on like this and completely missed the familiar sight of a ghost girl drifting into the restaurant. She spotted the two right away and floated over to their table, she was carrying more bags from other places she's visited, not saying anything until she was practically at the edge,

"Wow! You two really went for it!" she butted in with a witty remark,

"Tell me now, who asked first?"

The two immediately stopped talking and like two synced devices their heads turned until they could both see the transparent emo spirit grinning at them both,

"Carrie?!" Gumball shouted in surprise.

"Does this look like a date to you?" Teri also shouted, answering her first question with another one.

Carrie placed an index finger and thumb on her chin as she observed the setting before her,

"Hmmm…" she mused.

Teri quickly realized her mistake and angrily waved her off,

"Never mind, don't answer that!" she barked.

Carrie giggled softly,

"You guys are so cute." she replied, giving Gumball a wink before saying,

"Nice hair by the way!" she commented, eyeing Teri's new look.

Teri realized she was talking about her and a smile quickly presented itself,

"Thank you!" she replied happily.

The ghost nodded and her head twisted in Gumball's direction,

"So how you guys doing?" she brushed some white locks from her face.

Clasping his hands together, Gumball settled down into his seat,

"We're doing great, we haven't found anything to cover our identities yet, but honestly that isn't even the worst of our problems." he said in a somewhat gloomy tone.

Teri agreed with him and nodded towards Carrie,

"Yeah, we've fought some powerful Nephilim before, but general Gorothim was definitely something else. He took down Hector with ease, tossed me and Gumball around like we were mice, and even dealing him some damage didn't slow him down." her gaze was now on the table as she fiddled with her fingers,

"That golden woman Gumball and I encountered, she told us that he's been leading the invasion of Earth from the very beginning and if that's true, then he's probably our biggest threat." she muttered uncomfortably.

Carrie shared a grimace at the mentioning of the powerful Nephilim that appeared, though she didn't see it herself, she saw how banged up Hector looked and how the two Nephilim fighters were completely exhausted afterwards. She also felt bad that there was very little she could do against the invading spirits during her second encounter with them because she failed to save multiple people and she was the one in need of saving in the end. For her, being a ghost and all, she should have an edge when it came to such things and yet, her powers had proven to be less than effective.

Carrie's mouth continued to twist itself into a snarl and a dangerous glow was present in her dark eyes,

"I know what you mean. I told you guys about my encounter with the cleaver-wielding giant and how it was Hector who came to my aid." she sighed in frustration,

"Even with my magic and the weapon I stole from it, I still wasn't able to cause any lasting damage. I really need to brush up on my magic skills and I think the forbidden book might help." she thought out loud.

She felt a hand pressing onto her shoulder and when she looked up, she saw that it belonged to Teri,

"Don't feel too bad about it." she said in a lighthearted tone,

"You were still able to help Hector when he needed it and for a while I was in the same boat as you were. I had no magic of my own to defeat the Nephilim with and I was still able to help Gumball in my own ways." she said with a gentle smile.

Gumball hummed in agreement and also turned to comfort Carrie,

"And no one is going to fault you for not being able to single handedly take these guys on. They are very dangerous, even by themselves, and you already know how my first attempt to take one on by myself went." he shot Teri a glance and saw that she was staring back at him.

He gave her a crooked smile and there was a brief moment of uncomfortable yet, peaceful silence between the two before they switched their focus back to the ghost girl. This did indeed make her feel better and she went on ahead with the news she wanted to deliver,

"Thanks guys." she said quietly before digging out her phone,

"I have the list of materials needed to summon Malabranche and I'm still searching for some of them, but I learned from Banana Joe that Masami is throwing a tremendous birthday party at her place on the first of next month!" she explained in excitement.

Teri and Gumball looked at one another in surprise and then back at her again,

"That sounds awesome!" Gumball whooped gleefully, pumping a fist into the air.

"What's this got to do with the summoning?" Teri asked, being more practical of the two and also feeling less enthusiastic about the cloud girl's birthday celebration.

Putting her phone away, Carrie looked rather pleased to answer the paper girl's question,

"Since a lot of people are bound to show up and spend a majority of the evening hamming it up at her manor, the ritual can proceed unnoticed at school by the citizens of Elmore." she spoke in a cool tone that matched her overall aesthetic.

Now that sounded practical and the two students were already feeling satisfied with how everything was falling together. There were still the uncertainties surrounding the conjuring of the demon, but at least it was a step in the right direction for themselves and plus, there was the party to consider. When they briefly touched upon it, Carrie simply stated that she wasn't really into those sort of parties and would spend the beginning of the evening setting up the spell in the school gymnasium while Teri and Gumball could go on ahead and enjoy themselves during the birthday festivities.

They were all in consensual alignment with this scheme and when they were just about to get back to their private activities, Gumball had to ask her,

"Hey, Carrie. Why do you have to perform the conjuring at the school? Why not at your place?" he cocked his head to the side a little and Teri did the same.

The little ghost shifted a little in place, her eyes watering up a little and she hid her face from view, something was upsetting her,

"I can't perform the ritual at home because my mother despises demons." she rubbed her own arm a little and spoke quietly,

"Back when she was alive, there was a wealthy man she once loved named Thomas Hempson, the two lived in the same village for many years and were bound to be married at some point. However, tragedy struck when Thomas died of tuberculosis and when my mother eventually joined him in death, she found that he had sold himself to Mephistopheles in order to amass his fortune." she now faced them once again, this time with a pain none of them could describe written into her features,

"She learned that he had also planned on giving his first bride to him for his soul's release, but Mephisto could not claim her because she was not to be given unto him, so he took Thomas' life instead. Ever since then, my mother has hated anything related to the pit of darkness and the things that dwell within it, so I can't summon the demon there." she finished by wiping the tears from her eyes.

Upon hearing about her mother's heartbreaking story, a waterfall of tears were flowing down both Gumball and Teri's cheeks, forcing Carrie to jump back in surprise at how touched they were,

"Okay, I think we understand now." Gumball replied through the waterworks.

"That's so cruel, I can't believe someone could be so heartless to someone who only wanted to love him." Teri sniffled, dabbing at her eyes with an eraser.

Deciding that it was best for her to leave, the big-headed spirit grabbed her shopping bags and sailed towards the door, turning back to wave them good-bye,

"Thanks for letting me join you guys for a bit, but I gotta head off to get more things, plus Darwin invited me over to Juke's place. They're having a dance off, which I guess is their way of forgetting the attack." she explained with a shrug,

"See ya guys at school on Monday!" she called back as she disappeared into the mall center.

The cat and bear waved back and watched until she vanished. They then looked up to see if Hector and Molly were still talking, but they had already left, much to their surprise. Receiving a check from the waitress, Gumball paid and left her a tip before they rushed out to find more places to look into.

-Void, time: ?-

White. It was all Rob could see through the protective barrier that was his visor and after being suspended in such a dull space for so long, it seemed as though the cyclops himself had been erased in this world of serene nothingness. He wasn't alarmed though, not even mildly concerned for his well-being, there was nothing here and Rob was only falling or was he? It didn't matter, this was nothing after all.

He could feel his cable still attached to his safety harness and when he looked back to the rectangular entrance, he could see that it had long since disappeared, lost in a sea of light. He read his phone's display and found that he had been falling for ten minutes, another five and he'll have to go back up. He was quite disappointed that he hadn't found anything down here yet and wondered if the only way he could get anything out of this place was through magical exchange.

He checked his HUD and sighed to himself,

"For a place wrapped in total mystery, never thought it could be so boring." he groaned in boredom and continued to survey the blank landscape.

That was until something happened. The problem was, he didn't exactly know what occurred: One minute, he was in the barrier void and the next, the environment changed altogether. The white light was washed away, replaced by darkness, and his body jolted to a halt when he slammed into something soft. The disfigured adventurer flailed his arms as this happened and the first few sounds that came from him were incoherent grunts of surprise followed up with,

"What in the blazing-?" he realized that he had come to a complete stop now and was a little dizzy from the experience of falling before stopping so quickly.

His tinted visor was making it very hard to make anything out, so he pressed the button on the side and the concealing glass shot up with a shp, allowing him to get a better view of his surroundings. Unobscured, his yellow orb began to scan the strange new place and he found that he appeared to be in a bed room of sorts. It was an ordinary American bedroom, belonging to a boy it seemed, as was evident with all the space posters and action figures spread throughout the room. He could also make out a dresser with many drawers crammed with clothes and some model spaceships placed on top, a desk with a computer on top along with crumpled up wads of paper and discarded empty soda cans.

It was an ordinary room for what seemed like an ordinary kid, probably around his age and Rob was very confused as to how he wound up here of all places.

He felt his fingers grasp the cable he was attached to and when he followed the metal wire, he saw that it lead out the single bedroom window, which overlooked a starry night sky. Very strange. Could it be that he stumbled through a window to another place on Earth? Rob was very sure that couldn't have been the case, but this was a very bizarre place, so there was only so much he could know. Checking his phone again, he saw that he had only three minutes left and needed to get moving.

Clutching his rail cannon tightly, Rob crawled off the bed and carefully made his way to the door,

"Hopefully no one's home." he whispered to himself.

He carefully opened the door and leaned against the wall with his weapon's barrel pointing upwards. Once he heard no one approaching nor any sound coming from the hallway, he crept out and into the empty hall with his weapon raised in front of him. He had a flaming claw rune armed and if anything were to prove hostile in this strange environment, then he would be ready to reduce it to ashes.

The hall itself was dimly lit, but showed no signs of life and Rob continued to creep along the corridor with his other hand tightly grasping the safety cable. He could eventually make out a noise coming from the other end, it sounded like sizzling, as though a person were cooking something in a fry pan and a delicious smell made itself present to the curious cyclopean wanderer. Given the time of day, someone was definitely making dinner and Rob was starting to get the suspicion that he may have found his way back to Earth, maybe he was back in Elmore too.

Feeling braver, Rob picked up the pace and made his way to the end of the hallway. It led him into a large living room with a couch, two comfy armchairs sitting in front of a large flat screen TV where some video game consoles could be seen along with several racks containing video games and films. There were some decorative plants in pots lining some shelves and the more Rob got a look around, a large sense of nostalgia would pick up in the back of his mind.

He couldn't help but feel as though he's been here before and that this was a place of comfort for him,

"This place…" he muttered out loud, placing a hand on the side of his tin foil covered helmet,

"...that bedroom, the smell of grilled cheese, this living room. Why does this feel like…" he couldn't place it in his head and also, how did he know what he was smelling was grilled cheese.

Curious, he wandered over to the television set and crouched down by the video game consoles. It felt odd to be going through a stranger's things, but once again this all felt surprisingly normal for him and he picked up a few cases for the video games set on the rack. They were mostly space based, some were shoot em' ups and others were about exploration, but they all looked really cool and Rob could feel a smile come to his face when he thought about playing these games on the couch.

"Rob, get yer butt down here! It's dinner time!" a gruff male voice called out from what was perhaps the kitchen.

Breaking from his occupied thoughts, Rob sprang up from his kneeling position and spun around so fast that his world began to spin itself. A lot of perplexing things were channeling through his head, how did that guy know his name? Why did his voice sound familiar? Why was this whole place eerily familiar to him? Was this a trap set by the void?

Rob was completely silent and stood in place for a moment as the sound of whoever that was began to shift from the kitchen to the next room,

"Robby, It's grilled cheese with tomatoes, your favorite, and if you don't get down here right away, I'm going to gobble it all up and leave you the crust!" the voice called out again in a not-so-threatening tone.

More silence as Rob just remained still, unsure if he should answer the voice supposedly calling out his name. He didn't know who it was? Even if he did, this was probably all an illusion anyway, so why even bother with all of this? He came here for answers and now he was in a strangely familiar place listening to a strangely familiar stranger calling his name as though this were a normal evening.

So why did he want to answer and play along with whatever this may be?

He didn't get much time to ponder this as a large figure stepped into the living room and spotted Rob by the television set. He was very tall, probably six whole inches taller than Robert, with violet skin that covered his body except his hands, which were yellow, he wore a simple work outfit which consisted of a yellow polo shirt, a navy blue tie with diagonal yellow stripes, and black trousers with brown leather shoes. His white hair was buzzed short, he had no distinguishable nose, and his face was aged to that of someone who appeared to be in his mid-forties.

He regarded Rob with a single, pink eye, and smiled when he saw him standing in the living room,

"Ah, there you are, champ? Playing Galactic Space Marine again? Can't believe you would dress up for a simple computer game, but what do I know about kids these days." He spoke with a lighthearted chuckle to a surprised Rob, who couldn't believe this stranger was talking to him as though he were a member of the household rather than an intruder.

The older cyclops waved him over to the kitchen, his happy expression seemingly cemented into his features,

"Come on, it's gonna get cold. You can defend the galaxy from the Xenobloods when you're done eating." he explained before scuttling off to the dining room.

Completely flipped, Rob suddenly found himself again and took off after the old cyclops, which he wasn't sure if he should, but he seemed friendly, so far at least. He entered the eating area, a room with plenty of windows that seemed to only display a night time sky, centered with a circular table surrounded by four chairs, the walls were painted in a lovely shade of red with geometric decor, and sitting at the table with a plate stacked with ten grilled cheese sandwiches straight off the frying pan.

He stared suspiciously at the dining room before setting his gaze upon the cyclopean house owner, who had taken a position at one of the chairs and was waiting for Rob to join him,

"Sit." he said, waving a hand towards an empty seat.

Rob refused to move, instead he clutched his rail cannon even tighter and glared at the man,

"Pardon my bad manners, but would you mind telling me who you are and where I am. I know I'm still in the void and while this place seems familiar, I still don't know you." he finally said to the old stranger.

The purple cyclops seemingly disregarded Rob's questioning tone and pointed at the seat once more, his expression still calm and patient,

"Sit down and we'll talk while we eat. I made this for you so that you'll be comfortable here." he explained and Rob realized he wasn't referring to the food.

The other cyclops then pointed at the rail cannon Rob kept raised and shook his head,

"And you won't be needing that." he said.

Suddenly, Rob could feel nothing in his hand and when he looked, he saw that his only weapon was gone causing him to gasp in shock. The older cyclops then pointed to his tin foil covered suit and that too vanished from Rob's body,

"And that too. Don't worry though, your memories will stay intact once you leave." he calmly explained.

Rob was completely flabbergasted, how did he do that? Whoever this guy was, it was clear his power was immense and even controlled this entire space. He wanted to shout in alarm and demand that he return his suit and weapon, but given that he was being polite thus far, he may as well humor the entity. His mind was still screaming in protest, but the overall familiarity and sense of comfort this place brought him made him feel at ease.

He took his place at the table, right next to the old cyclops, and selected a crispy sandwich from the stack and set it on the plate in front of him. The food felt very real and he was more than certain that if he ate it, it would taste very good. The scent, the texture, and the overall delightful appearance of the grilled sandwich oozing with melted yellow cheese made his mouth water.

He picked up the sandwich and shoved it into his mouth. The moment he bit down, an explosion of flavor erupted throughout his taste buds and he tore away the bit, leaving a trail of cheese and shredded tomato as he started chewing. While he enjoyed his first bite, the other cyclops began talking,

"Glad you could make it down here. I don't think anyone has ever visited my dreams before, although I have been in yours." he lifted up his own food and began eating.

Rob finished chewing and swallowed his food, his one eye now locked onto the old man,

"Wait, what? Dreams? Are you telling me this whole place is a dream?" the baffled boy questioned as he scanned the room for the umpteenth time.

The white haired figure nodded and took another bite,

"Indeed. You're technically in my head and this house is a dream I'm having right now. I've been sleeping for so long you see." he still sounded pleased, but Rob could detect a faint sense of loneliness coming from him.

Now another slew of questions came pouring forth and the disfigured inventor sat up a bit more in his seat,

"So, if this is your dream, then why is there magic in here? I keep entering the void and firing runes into the barrier, then I get more runes from it. Why is that?" he asked.

The older cyclops reached over and grabbed two more sandwiches before plopping them onto Rob's plate. His yellow finger tapped the toasted bread several times and he gave Rob a stern look,

"Eat. It's going to get cold if you keep asking questions." he commanded in a fatherly tone.

Rob could care less about the food sitting in front of him, but given that the stranger has been very hospitable so far, he obeyed and dug into his food some more. Once again this all felt very familiar to him and he could picture something like this happening every so often, although it seemed so distant. His obedience was rewarded when the purple figure continued on with his explanation,

"This space is not only the place my sub-conscious manifests itself, but also exists as storage for the library of magic." he started with a sigh.

"Two million years ago, I was but a simple mammal living on this planet. The Nephilim were also here at the time and it was their divine duty was to protect the Earth and its creatures from Mephistopheles and his demons. They would come here from the depths to possess helpless animals, turning them into corrupted monsters with the powers of the dead and wreak destruction across the planet. The Nephilim were also capable of possessing animals and used them to combat the demonic forces, preserving life as it was." Rob continued to eat as he listened to his story, already finishing a couple sandwiches,

"Despite their divinity, the Nephilim were also very curious about life itself and sought to figure out its secrets through experiments conducted on the animals that lived here. I was one of these creatures they tested on and when they found out about my capability for storing memory, they sealed away many of their secrets within my head and granted me an extended life span. Unfortunately, while their spirits were fiery and not bound to this Earth nor to death, their strength could only come through the possession of living creatures and many soon became corrupted in their search for power, causing the Jade Emperor to banish them to the prison dimension of Babyloth." he kept his gaze to the window and his voice trembled a bit at the memory.

Finishing his fourth one now, Rob wiped off his mouth with the napkin provided to him and asked,

"What of Mephistopheles and his demons? Were they allowed to roam free?" he took more from the center plate and began eating those as well.

The purple cyclops shook his head and placed his clasped hands in front of his mouth,

"They too were sealed away when the emperor scorched the Earth with his divine flames, although Mephistopheles' shadow still lingers, causing a great manner of evil to remain present, especially in the minds of the fledgling human race, which was starting to advance in the period of their banishment." he wiped his hands together and told Rob about himself,

"I was lucky to survive and when the Jade Emperor reached out to me, he gave me two important tasks: to guard the library of magic I now possess and to watch over the children of Earth through their dreams. I was allowed to interfere only when I had to and when the Nephilim were pre-determined to show up once more, six thousand years later, the Emperor of the heavens instructed me to awaken certain individuals in order to defend the world from Nimrod and the forces imprisoned on Babyloth. When they were prepared to show themselves on Elmore, I selected Gumball Watterson, Teri Pepakuma, Chimera, and you, through your dreams, to defend the city." he finally said, giving Rob a gentle smile as it all finally came to him.

It all made sense to the disfigured cyclops and his eye widened as he nearly dropped his grilled cheese,

"You… you're the one who's been giving us the premonitions?" he asked and the other nodded in response,

"But why are the Nephilim invading Elmore? It's not of any strategic importance and it's not housing any powerful figures that I know of." he asked.

Another frown and the older cyclops fidgeted with his fingers a little, shifting uncomfortably in his seat,

"That's not entirely true." he said, his voice barely a whisper,

"My son, Hector, possesses a magic power so great, he will become your most powerful ally in the war against the Nephilim, but he also has access to the library of magic. That's what the Nephilim are after, they want access to his mind so they can find the spell that will allow them to enter the library of magic, which lies within the void. The Nephilim are but a shadow of their former selves and in order to gain that power back, they need the magic that I guard and once they have regained what they had lost, they will make short work of your race. Plus, once they have what they want from my son, they will kill him before he becomes too much of a threat to them and that's why I've selected you as well as the others to defend Elmore. My son must be protected until he is ready to take on the otherworldly threat." he was clenching his jaw now as a raging fire could be seen burning within his single iris.

Clattering onto his plate, Rob's half eaten sandwich finally dropped as his eye widened in shock and the chair creaked as his back pressed against the back support. It actually made sense that the Nephilim would want to access to the barrier, he'd never seen a Nephilim in the void and he always questioned why that was since they could use it as a means to attack undetected. No, what really came to him as a shock was what he called Hector, the giant he had seen wield a power immense enough to smite a Nephilim in one strike, he called him his son, which meant that this mysterious entity was in fact…

"Fjel… Fjel Jotenheim!" Rob gasped.

There was a glow in the man's eye, accompanied with a smile so warm and welcoming, like someone who had just been found after ages of being lost. Someone who seemed so lonely being found and he nodded with a hearty chuckle,

"The one and only." Fjel announced, standing up and giving a little bow before sitting back down,

"Not quite who you were expecting, was I?" he chimed with a mischievous smirk.

Rob shook his head, his features glitching a bit as he tried to digest everything he'd figured out up 'til this point,

"No… I do believe it's you that I'm talking to, I've met your son and your wife, she told me about you and I know that you're asleep, somewhere, but I want to know…" he took a moment to bring both hands to his face, rubbing his forehead before bringing them together and pointing his closed hands at the giant as he looked at him,

"If you're as powerful as they say and you knew of the approaching Nephilim threat, why haven't you done more to help prevent their invasion? I mean, if you're capable of awakening people to the threat as well as creating all of this in your sleep, then surely you can do more to help us, right?" he wore a dumbfounded look as he couldn't believe that Fjel could detect the Nephilim as well as reach out to others in order to warn them of their approach and yet, remain slumbering beneath the Earth.

There was a pause between the two and for a moment, Rob was worried that he overstepped some kind of boundary by asking more of the powerful titan. However, the only thing Fjel did was point a single yellow digit towards his pile of food, indicating for Rob to eat up while he spoke. Rob did as he was quietly told and was chowing down again while the white haired cyclops sighed to himself, his expression forlorn,

"I wish I could do more, believe me, I wish I could be there for my family as well as protect the rest of the world from the giants, but you've no doubt heard of why I sleep from my wife, have you not?" he asked with a single tentative glance in the polygonal kid's direction.

Rob nodded and remembered what Mrs. Jotenheim had told him back in the mountain. He slept for five years because he needed that time to replenish his energy for the five years he was awake. It obviously made for a rather absent marriage between the two and it meant that Hector would go long periods without really interacting with his father, but there was only so much he could guess.

Moving on, Fjel kept speaking while holding a somber look and his tone was no different,

"I can't wake up now because if I do, I will not have the strength to maintain consciousness for more than a few hours at most and believe me when I say the last you would want is a mountain-sized colossus collapsing into a coma when passing by something as fragile as a city." he explained and Rob was taken back to when he first met Hector, how the hairy giant managed to destroy so much forest just by moving around a little. If Fjel was as big as he was implying, then surely any move he makes up on the surface will likely result in mass destruction for any civilized area he comes across.

"The same rule applies to my magic power as well, I have to preserve as much as I can while I rest or else I won't have much to use when I awaken. The glorious emperor who resides above has placed me in charge of guarding the library where my magic is most effective and has left the children of Earth in charge of protecting the planet. If he has faith in you and your kin, then I will too, for I have faith in him as well." he spoke with confidence and gave Rob a look that the latter could only describe as fatherly assurance.

Speaking of father.

There was the real reason for why Rob was here and while he was glad to finally have answers on the Nephilim as well finally meeting Fjel for the first time (though not in person.), there was still something he needed to know. He had told him that this was a dream he was standing and Rob found it as no coincidence that he would model this place into something he would recognize. He said it was to make him comfortable, but Rob suspected there was a bit more to it than that,

"It's an honor to hear that you and Jade have faith in us to protect this planet, even though we're also the ones messing it up…" he had no doubt that both of them were well aware of the damage mankind is wreaking upon the planet's ecosystem and was quite surprised that, first off there was a god that existed, and second, it still has enough faith in its creation considering what happened to the last ones left in charge of protecting Earth,

"...and I'm glad to be hearing all of this as well as meeting you for the first time, but that's not what I'm here for." he explained truthfully.

There was no change in the cyclops' features and Fjel merely nodded in acknowledgement, as though he knew this to be the case from the very beginning, in which he did in fact,

"You recognized this place the moment you arrived, if I am not mistaken? From the moment you landed in that bedroom, explored your surroundings, and met me for the first time, a sense of deja vu that has you confused, yet nostalgic?" there was truth in his words and Rob could only peer about the dining room several times while taking it all in, it was indeed very familiar, yet distant to him like a foggy memory,

"This dream is not just mine, but yours as well, I can see into the hearts of others when I peer into their dreams and this is what your heart longs for, the return of things once forgotten." he waited for Rob to confirm this himself, to which he did with a nod and certainty in his eye.

With that, Fjel got up from his seat and made his way over to Rob's side, who remained seated as he did so. He held a hand up in front of his face and from the air itself, a turquoise mist materialized. The cloud coalesced under a mysterious force and formed a disc that easily fit within the palm of Fjel's hand before he handed it over to Rob,

"What you seek lies within both Elmore and the void, your missing pieces scattered by the void's wrath." he explained as the young lad turned the object over in his hands.

It was turquoise in color, made of a shiny material that was smooth to the touch and on one side, a rune was engraved, complex in design, it was a spiral with a series of dots and circles arranged in the pattern of a constellation. Another exchange, Rob was curious as to what this rune was capable of, but an answer was given from the intuitive giant standing next to him,

"This spell should help you travel in between worlds, pour your spiritual energy into the symbol and a window will open to any place you can think of, as long as you can clearly picture it." he proceeded to then place his hand on top of the disc Rob was holding, helping the boy to his feet before pouring his spirit energy into the rune.

The symbol glowed the same color as the material it was imprinted on and before them, a circular portal materialized from thin air. The place Fjel thought of was displayed clearly through the magical opening, the space just outside the barrier that held his mind and the library. When Rob peered into the darkness, he could see the space scooter he came here on floating just outside where he left it and he realized the middle aged looking cyclops was sending him on his way.

There was still a question left for Rob to ask and he turned to Fjel once more with a look of concern,

"But how will I find my missing pieces? I barely remember anything about myself!" his voice raised a few notches as it cracked a little.

Keeping his stance tall, Fjel let go of the rune disc and raised the same hand until his index finger was tapping the spot above his heart, his eye boring straight into his,

"Even if most of the world has forgotten you, there are still places that exist where your presence lingers, places from your past. Find those places and find out who you once were before you were lost. Same goes for your friend, if you two want to be saved from the void's grip." he took his finger away and with a wave of his hand, Rob's suit and rail cannon reappeared on his person.

He could travel through the void again and Rob was thankful for the return of his items, but he was also alarmed that he may have to bring Rachel here if he were to cure her. He wasn't even sure if he could confront her on such an issue given that she already made her peace with life and now that he thought about it, was it even right to force this journey upon her if she was already willing to be happy with what she had? He figured he could bring her the solution and let her decide for herself, but hell if it were that simple and he really needed to think about this when he got back.

From his space helmet, he looked at Fjel one more time and thanked him for his help,

"Thank you for your help, Fjel, I never would have dreamed of meeting someone I've only heard stories about in a place that holds such sad memories for me." he bowed his head a little as a sign of respect, but something terrible came to mind when he realized something about the void,

"Did Jade consider me a mistake in the past?" he asked, his tone and his expression sounding very hurt and a faint rage could also be detected in his eye.

Fjel's shoulders heaved as he breathed out heavily and he looked away, but only for the briefest of moments before looking back at him,

"What Jade wills is sometimes a mystery to me, but what I do know is that when someone is left in the void, sooner or later they will be found. That, I believe, is due to the will of the ruler of heaven, whose command even reaches the darkest depths of the void and I wouldn't blame you if you feel very frustrated with him, his plans are often complex and often won't become clear until much later." he apologized, his pity feeling very genuine.

To be honest, the name of Jade had reached Rob's ears multiple times and every time he heard of this enigmatic god's mercy and goodwill towards all his children, he would often come down with grinding hatred that forced his teeth to gnash, his eye to burn red, and his fingers to curl into claws. How could such a god exist that was said to be benevolent and merciful, yet left unfortunates such as Rachel and himself to be forgotten. The idea in of itself was ludicrous and the nihilistic inventor would dismiss the cries of those who claimed the emperor of the heavens was an all-good, all-loving creator. All of them be damned!

While he may have disagreed with the giant on the concept of Jade, he understood why he would devote himself to such a being and didn't bother to let his rage be known, though it was clearly displayed on his face for him to see,

"Yeah… sure." was all he said before looking back through the window he aimed to step through.

After taking one last look at the familiar setting he was leaving behind, he put his foot through the opening and fell back into the dark, microgravity environment. He turned and spotted the white haired entity standing in the opening, watching him as he began to drift away. He gave him a wave and Rob waved back, the glare of his visor obscuring his features.

Fjel said one last thing before the portal vanished completely,

"Don't forget, keep Hector safe. They already know about him and I fear that they will try harder to get their hands on him, but fear not, for more help is on the way." he warned and with that the portal shrank and vanished, leaving Rob alone in the darkness.

Floating seemingly in nothingness, the mad inventor reoriented himself using the thruster nozzles on his pack and set a course for his vehicle. He thought about the place he had been in and felt a sense of ease whenever the image of that bedroom, that house, and that dining room where he sat and ate with someone so familiar. One thought came to mind whenever he thought of the cyclops Fjel impersonated,

"Dad."

-Teri's house, 6:17 PM-

The setting sun dipped low in the red sea of the western horizon, unveiling the purple of oncoming twilight towards the east. An ever changing masterpiece of the skies, the triumph of a day having already passed, and the symphony of insects signals night's coming reign. Along the street, motorized vehicles seldom passed on by, leaving the streets feeling empty and the sidewalks too were vacant of people, making it feel as though the world had misplaced its inhabitants.

For the two children approaching the suburban household that the Pepakumas called home, this emptiness was welcomed as they were both only interested in each other and how they were feeling in the present. In their hands were bundles of shopping bags filled with various purchased materials from all the shops they had visited in the past few hours. They hadn't succeeded in their goal of finding disguises, but at least they had fun today and that's all that mattered to them.

Heeding to his mother's advice, Gumball had been a gentleman and walked Teri home from the bus stop, planning on returning home himself once they had said their good-byes. He joined her at her house's door and the two stopped short of the entryway, swiveling on their heels to face one another,

"Well, today was fun." Gumball remarked, smiling pleasantly at her while setting his bags down,

"Never thought I would find myself in so many different stores in a single afternoon, but you certainly had many places in mind." he snickered.

Teri giggled in response before setting her bags down herself and placing her hands behind her back,

"Well, I figured you wouldn't mind the exercise, I mean we couldn't train today, so we can't let it go to waste doing nothing." the paper puppet was grinning ear to ear.

Gumball shot her a look dripping with sarcasm and cocked an eyebrow,

"Hey now, I worked out this morning, what you did was overkill!" he shot back.

"Well, at least you're double prepared then, maybe this could count as tomorrow's exercise too?" she said.

The two let out a laugh and Gumball looked down at the bags at their feet,

"Well, we didn't find anything to keep us from being recognized by others, but at least we got some cool stuff." he said as he pulled a sweater that had an alien's face on the front that was actually a projection from a flying saucer.

Teri knew that if he wore that sweater more often she was going to end up stealing it, for a while at least. She may even give his red jacket back, but that was only a maybe. He was right about the cover up thing though and she felt a little regretful that they hadn't thought about that when they were in San Francisco,

"Yeah, I've read a few reports before I went to the mall and some people have spotted us while we were chasing Fright Kite. Luckily they only saw the underside of the aircraft and none of the phones or cameras were working thanks to the EMP, though a lot of people saw Hector in the outskirts." she muttered before quickly adding in,

"It's fine though, we can look again tomorrow and the better part is, Hector hasn't received any blame for the attacks either, thanks to the mayor vouching on his behalf." she felt her mood lighting up a bit more when she mentioned it and she could see that Gumball was optimistic as well, but there was a trace of concern within his being.

He shuffled his feet a little and placed his hands behind him much like his paper counterpart,

"I hope we can gain Mrs. Jotenheim's trust again, I really wish I was able to protect him before he got attacked by Gorothim." he knew it wasn't his fault, but he was still upset that he wasn't able to prevent one of his friends from getting hurt. A moment sooner and the shy giant would've been killed too.

Shaking her head, the paper puppet made a crackling noise as her flimsy noggin came to a stop and Gumball soon found a dark pair of eyes gazing into his own,

"Don't beat yourself up about it. You did the right thing and your training has also improved, remember when you were barely able to control the scythe's flames? Now you're shooting fire waves left and right without so much as snapping!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down while pumping her fists up in the air like a cheerleader would.

This would have looked so cute if she had pom poms and Gumball chuckled at the thought,

"Come on, I can only fire off four of those before getting winded and I still get tired after using thirty percent for half an hour." he said rather nervously.

Teri then made a shushing gesture with her finger and shuffled up to him, her face very close to his now and Gumball could feel a blush starting to spread like wildfire,

"Enough of that, you're still a hero and that's what counts." she proclaimed.

She then proceeded to tackle him in a hug, although her weight wasn't enough to send him to the ground, he still took a step back though out of surprise. He reflexively wrapped his arms around her as well and felt her face brush up against his, her cheek felt very warm. Not too long after, she pulled away from him and her eyes were shining while she maintained her grip on his arms,

"Besides, we're going to train harder on Monday after school, the Nephilim have left us alone for some time now and I say we should use that time to our advantage." she noted.

Gumball nodded in response and spoke his own thoughts,

"You're right, tomorrow I'm going to look on the web and see if I can pull anything up on the NEA, or that golden lady." he said before giving some thought on another matter at hand,

"Also, sometime this week we should try to make it up to Hector and his mom, that way we can gain their trust and figure out what they know about the Nephilim. They're bound to know something seeing as Hector was able to smash two of the Nephilim yesterday." he wondered, while Teri released her grip on him and backed away.

She seemed rather pensive and her eyes shifted towards the ground and back at Gumball several times while her finger tapped her chin,

"Well, we never did anything wrong and her judgement is completely askew in my opinion, but you're right in that we need their help as well." she replied in an agitated manner. She was still rather peeved at Mrs. Jotenheim's misdirection of blame for her kid's injury and wasn't particularly fond of the mountain witch.

Gumball understood her discontent and animosity towards the little troll, which is exactly why he believed they should wait a little bit before approaching them. At least they still had Carrie's summoning to look forward to and there was at least some guarantee they would get some helpful information on the evil giants. Maybe they'll find a way to defeat them for good?

Before the cat could say something, a repetitive wailing sound like a siren was heard overhead followed shortly by the roar of jet thrusters and the two looked up to see what the sky's commotion was. Turns out, it was only Ocho and Bobert, chasing one another through the air and both were attacking one another. Ocho, who was bigger than his usual form was firing 8-bit white bolts from his sides while weaving up and down in a serpentine pattern while Bobert closed in from behind, dodging bolt after bolt while exchanging laser fire,

Ocho laughed maniacally as he dodged several laser blasts from his robotic pursuer,

"Keep firing all you want, you puny trash compactor, you'll never hit me!" he laughed as he swerved around another lance of red light,

"Maybe it will help if you switched to aimbot. Oh wait, was that insensitive." he continued to jeer at him as they soared through the sky.

Bobert ignored him and continued to train his optic on the slippery spider, all the while, his voice modulator made an electronic sound,

"I would not underestimate me you simple-minded, obsolete hack! Your accuracy is off by 78 percent and you wouldn't be able to hit the broadside of an oil tanker at arms length. Plus I have also analyzed your flight pattern while you were mocking me. Preparing non-lethal counter-measures!" he warned as a blaring alarm sounded and his display lit up in a dangerous red glow.

He began to fire a rapid stream of short laser pulses, causing the flying spider to panic and swerve in a crazy motion, much akin to a drunk helicopter pilot piloting said vehicle, all the while screaming and swearing loudly. Sadly these laser pulses were but a decoy as the real attack was unleashed in the form of two laser-guided stun missiles that sprang from a panel in the Robot's back. The two rocket propelled pieces of heavy ordinance streaked towards the spider sprite, who only looked on in absolute horror, as they detonated at close range and sent a shockwave that rattled the trees as well as Teri's house.

BOOM! BOOM!

And down Ocho went, making a death sound matching the Pac-man death cry as he flipped upside down and fell straight into the neighbor's yard. The sound of crunching leaves could be heard and a stunned Teri and Gumball were pretty sure that he fell into a pile of freshly raked leaves, at least they hoped so. Once his aerial foe had been defeated, Bobert disengaged his weapons system and looked at the two students once before giving them a single wave and jetting off to some other location.

The paper bear and blue cat listened as a shockwave could be heard from the robotic unit surpassing the sound barrier and they both turned to one another,

"Are they still going at it?" Teri asked, completely shocked that she had just witnessed the two having a scuffle over her neighborhood.

Gumball scratched the back of his head and shrugged in confusion,

"I guess. I remember that they started a rivalry last month and it doesn't seem like that's going away anytime soon. I think I saw them both at the mall today after we left Dinner." he said, wondering if that was the likely cause for their deadly aerobatics display.

That seemed to just about do it for Teri tonight, so she picked up her things and made her way to the door, which Gumball was polite enough to open for her,

"Thank you." she said as she passed him by and set her bags down in the landing area,

"I guess I'll be seeing you again on Monday?" she said as she whipped around.

Gumball crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe a little as a reassuring smile played across his lips,

"You know it! I hope you had a good time today?" he said.

She nodded and flashed him another smile, this one very warm,

"I did! Thank you for hanging out with me today, you're so much fun to be with!" and with that she leapt forward and gave him a fourth hug that day.

Dang he was really liking this and he squeezed her back with a bear hug of his own, almost lifting her off of her feet. Once she felt as though her breathing had been cut off, Gumball released her and she gave him one last look,

"Have a good night!" she exclaimed.

"And you as well! See you at school on Monday!" he swore.

The two stood in the door frame for a bit, keeping their eyes on each other, neither of them really wanting to leave or accepting that the day was over. They had so much fun together today, that both of them were thinking up something else to say just to prolong the little moment as much as possible and just wanted to stay together. Unfortunately, Teri promised to help her mother out with the dishes tonight and Gumball had to be home so he could vacuum the living per mom's orders.

This reality came crashing down on them at the sound of Teri's mom calling her from the bedroom and asking if she was home. She hollered back, claiming that she was before she sent Gumball off with one last hug and the door was shut behind her. This left Gumball standing by himself in the Pepakuma's driveway and while he was about to turn around to head home, Yui must have said something embarrassing because the next thing Gumball heard coming from the house was a mortified scream from Teri,

"MOOOOOMMMMM!" and he wondered what it was she said that caused her to burst like that.

Homeward bound, the lonely blue cat walked with his ears and tail perked, almost swishing actually. He was so happy today, he'd never had this much fun since Penny's departure and seeing Teri looking so happy during those various moments, just put the kid in a happier mood altogether. He felt as light as a feather, his heart was making all sorts of rapid beats, he was purring like an engine and nothing could bring him down now! He was invincible!

He had a resolve now, he knew what he was going to do on Monday now and even though it was going to take him a lot of courage, he was going to do it! The next time he saw her in class, he was going to tell her how he really felt. That's right, on Monday he will go straight up to her and tell her that he loves her. He knew that he was still a little broken up over Penny, but he couldn't help it anymore, he'd been falling for Teri for a while now.

It was time to start embracing the future and he wasn't going to let his past affect them both,

"Oh! Speaking of…" he muttered to no one, but the air as he paused in his tracks.

Placing his bags in one hand, he fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed his mom's number. There was an audible ringing sound that followed and a click could be heard from the other end of the line. A feminine voice spoke up and with only one word, Gumball knew it was his mom,

"Hey, sweetie! How's your day been?" she asked right away.

Gumball could have bounced to the moon and back as a means of answering, but somehow remained composed,

"It was fantastic! How are you doing?" he quickly responded, his mind running a mile a minute.

"That's so wonderful to hear, Gumball! I'm glad you had a good time with Teri and as for me, I had a pretty decent time. Just got back from picking Anais up from her friend's place and I'm on my way with Richard to pick up some pizza for dinner tonight." there was a loud rumbling noise through the phone's speakers as a car passed by and his mom's voice could be heard again,

"Would you like us to come pick you up, seeing as we're already out and about?" she offered politely.

Gumball shook his head, even though he knew that she couldn't see him on the other side and began rapidly chattering again,

"Yeah, yeah, that would be awesome! Also, there's something else I would like to do." he replied.

"What's that, sweetie?" she asked.

"Is it possible that tomorrow evening, you could teach me some Karate?" he finally asked, as he grabbed his swishing tail with his bag hand.

A/N: Finished! What's that I see on the horizon? Oh my goodness, the ships are sailing, the ships are sailing! This has been another fine chapter written and once again I'm exhausted.

For starters, everyone's reaction to the destruction wrought upon San Francisco. Most of the student body isn't exactly phased by the attacks mainly due to the fact that mass destruction is something they're kind of used to, given the Watterson's crazy antics. Although Miss Simian has indeed retired from school and I wonder why that may be, hmmm? Everyone else is a little spooked for sure and the rest of the world outside of Elmore is reeling from the tragedy that occurred that day.

Groups such as the Human Front for example, are especially riled up and we finally have a confirmed name within the group, Nero. I wonder what role this vile group of despicable human beings will play later in the story and who will this Nero person be? Another time, perhaps.

As for the elephant in the room, Fjel Jotenheim, husband of Mrs. Jotenheim and father of Hector Jotenheim, the mystery is finally revealed! Well almost, there's still much to explore on this character. So yeah, basically his powers are great and so are his son's, but unlike his child, he must rest a lot in order to maintain his colossal form and to clear something up, his powers do not reach beyond the barrier world in the void. The barrier world serves as a resting place for his mind which contains an immense index of magic, both ancient and modern, that he can guard easily with his powers. The Nephilim cannot enter this library without Fjel's permission, but they can enter the void as long as they know where the entrance is.

The two anomalies mentioned by the Nephilim in previous chapters were indeed Hector and the Void entrance, these are what they are targeting.

As for Rob's home being presented in Fjel's dream, this was something I was planning for a while now and honestly, I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute it. The goal was to have Rob meet Fjel in the shape of Rob's father and to have the latter exchange important information to him on how to cure himself and Rachel of the void's curse. This is now where Rob's true journey begins and as a side note, when I first saw Rob's smiling picture in the TAWOG website, my first thought was "this kid wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, I can just tell by the look on his face." so, that's why his room and videogames were all space based. Just a fun fact.

When I thought about who Rachel would hang out with as an afterschool clique, I first thought of some fanart and paired her up with Clare Cooper. Then I thought it would be better if she were part of a trio because three's company too, you know what I'm saying? So, I came up with an OC straight afterwards and I always thought that snakes were beautiful and Agathe also sounds like a snake name, so that's how I created Sissy Clementine. I thought her having an unusual obsession with the color green would make her seem more quirky.

I also loved the idea of the girls meeting up with Teri and giving her a complete makeover, so that scene was just adorable throughout the entire writing process.

Okay, wrapping this up, we're now leaving the familiar abodes of chapter eleven and venturing boldly into chapter twelve, "At universe's end." and this chapter is going to be spectacular, so stay tuned when that one comes out.

Have an awesome day you guys, leave a comment and review down below and stay Fantastic!