Alright. Moving right along, I won't leave you hanging too long on this particular front. How will the girls deal with this elephant in the room?

"Are either of you interested in him?"

Lexy's innocent question hung in the air like a flying viper as the other girls became very still. Penny saw Carrie's whole body turn a pale pink. Lexy was pointedly not looking at her and she realized she was rapidly cycle through some of her more embarrassing forms, some had even managed to darken Lexy's cheeks with their… audacity.

"Well, I guess Gumball and I have always kind of had a mutual attraction," Penny offered shyly after reigning in her rampant shifting. "When he convinced me to leave my shell, he didn't exactly say it but when he kissed me-"

"He kissed you?" Carrie's breathless question cut through Penny's confession. She looked as if this news had knocked the wind out of her. She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before a hungry look stole over her. "W… What was it like?" Carrie's fixed her hungry eyes on her friend, trapping Penny with her intense gaze. Lexy was making herself as small as possible.

Penny didn't know what to do. She had realized that Carrie cared for Gumball, but she couldn't hate her for it. She and Carrie had gotten very close over the past week, and Carrie hadn't tried to force her away, nor done a single underhanded thing to separate her and Gumball. Could Penny fault her for the very weakness Penny herself was subject to? But Carrie was still waiting and Penny knew she wouldn't be able to hide the truth.

"I have never experienced anything like it. It was as if the cosmos was in harmony with that one moment." Carrie's hands gripped her knees, the pain of longing etched clearly into her features. No! Penny didn't want this; she didn't want to hurt her friend! Carrie's attempts to hide her pain were futile at this point. She seemed only seconds from tears, but the words kept falling out of Penny, completely at odds with her thoughts. I don't want to hurt you. "As soon as our lips met, I felt as if we were suspended in time, cradled in the arms of the universe." Why did you ask this of me? "That's what got my shifting under control." Please, no more!

Carrie slumped down, hugging herself as tears and silent sobs wracked her. Across the room, tears ran unheeded down Penny's own face, mourning the tragedy she was witnessing.

Carrie stared forward. She was wracked with emotion. She was slowly buckling under the crushing sadness and was quickly losing the battle to hold back her tears. She raged with anger at herself, jealousy of Penny, and yearning for Gumball. She simply couldn't contain it any longer; her pain needed release and began flowing out of her in heaving, and thankfully silent, sobs.

She couldn't look at Penny, knowing she had revealed the truth of her emotions at this point. For the moment, she didn't care. She simply let herself cry. She wasn't sure what she was crying for: herself, the loss of the boy she liked, or the sure loss of the unanticipated friend she'd made in Penny.

Carrie's tears slowed as she wished, not for the first time, that she could hate Penny. That would give her something to throw her pain into and make this so much easier. But she could no more despise Penny then she could feel guilty for her own feelings. If anyone could understand being attracted to that goofy cat, it was Carrie. The thought made her smile, and she sat up, wiping her face and composing herself.

She avoided looking at Penny while she gathered herself together. I can't put this off forever, she thought and finally turned back to Penny. "Penny, I… Penny?" Carrie realized something was wrong. Penny was slumped limply against the wall. As Carrie rose to go check her, the world suddenly lurched sideways, and she found herself on the floor. Two small legs entered her vision and the last thing she remembered before she lost consciousness was the sound of a tape recorder playing an ominous "Duh, duh, DAH!"

Darwin got into the house. He'd been out hanging out with Racheal at the mall. She and he had been secretly going out for two months now. He didn't know how to tell Gumball. Now, he was always on edge. Every time Gumball called his name he had to fight the urge to spill his guts. The last week had been nearly blissful though. With the two girls fussing over him, Gumball hadn't even seemed to care that Darwin was gone.

"DARWIN! Where have you been dude?" Gumballs voice nearly made Darwin jump out of his skin. "I called your cell like 15 times, dude. Why didn't you answer?"

Darwin started to tell him that he had turned off his phone cause that's what you do when you're out with your lady, and promptly slapped himself before he could say one word. Pulling out his phone, he peered at it. "OH! Sorry, dude. I must've butt set it to silent. My bad."

"Whatever, never mind. We have a problem!" Gumball was suddenly frantic. "Carrie and Penny are missing!"

"Pfft! Haha! Man, they don't live here. Just call 'em." Darwin shrugged and started to go upstairs. He was immediately sitting on the floor, Gumball's hands firmly pressing him down.

"No, man. I think they were kidnapped."

Now Darwin was more than a little bewildered by Gumball's behavior, and irritated with this interruption to his intended actions. "Really? Based on what evidence? That they aren't there? Big deal! It's not like you are the center of their friggin' universe!"

Gumball stepped back, took a deep breath, and pulled three familiarly folded pieces of paper out of his pocket. "I found these upstairs, and Lexy says she saw them get taken."

Darwin unfolded the papers and gasped. The first one he opened was a drawing of Carrie, trapped in a strange tube with sparks of electricity crawling over it. Next was a picture of Penny suspended by her wings over a vat of rainbow mix. Finally, there was a picture of Racheal. Darwin felt his heart skip a beat and he immediately regretted his anger at Gumball. Racheal was tied up on a chair careening down a hill.

Darwin felt the rare stirring of true fury in his chest. Crushing the drawings in his fist, he spoke the name he knew Gumball was thinking. "Sarah…"

Gumball nodded. "Yeah dude. So what do we do?"

Darwin and Gumball stood thinking moment before a familiar looking pink cat came down the stairs. Darwin stared at her, trying to figure out where he remembered seeing here. "DUDE! She looks just like you did that one time Mr. Dad had a job we got hit by a temporal flux that changed you into a girl!"

Gumball shrugged. "Eh, makes sense. Lexy is my twin." Gumball held up a hand to stop Darwin's questions. "Honestly I've explained it enough times already today and we don't have time. Short, short version is stolen as a baby, found out about it, reunited last night, rough morning – don't ask – and she will be living with us now."

"Oh, OK. Nice to meet you! I'm Darwin." Darwin held out his hand.

Lexy shook his hand. "Are you a fish?"

Gumball stomped and sighed. "Urraagh! Still don't have time! Short, short, short. PET. FISH. GREW. LEGS. DARWIN. Now can we please get to finding the girls?"

The reminder of the girls' possible peril snapped Darwin back to reality. The last time they had dealt with Sarah, she had come up with some crazy script that had the three of them in a polygamist relationship. Darwin snapped his fingers. "What if the pictures are like that script she had us act out that one time?"

Gumball's eyes widened. "That means… oh god… Let me see those drawings." Darwin handed them over and Gumball looked at the pictures again. "OK. I know where Penny and Racheal are… but Carrie has me stumped. On the bright side, Carrie, doesn't seem to be in any danger. I just don't understand why she took Racheal."

Darwin grabbed Gumball by the shirt. "Tell me where Racheal is!"

Gumball's eyes narrowed. Darwin quickly let him go and tried to think of an excuse but Gumball just told him. "Remember when you kidnapped Tobias's Mom?"

"Yeah. So?" Darwin didn't get it. What does that have to do with anything? He wondered.

"Remember how she went down the hill in a chair tied up just like Racheal is in this picture?" Gumball held it up and pointed for emphasis.

Darwin's mouth became a circle for a sec before he rushed off to grab some roller skates. Then he stopped. "Wait! I won't be able to catch her without some positive reinforcement!"

Gumball looked at Lexy. "I have to go get Penny… could you ride with him?"

Lexy swallowed. "What do I have to do?" She stared nervously as the fish-boy strapping on the skates

Gumball shrugged. "Pet him gently and hang on tight."

Gumball watched as Darwin picked up Lexy and they took off in Darwin's happy rainbow boost. He nodded to himself and set off for where he expected he would find Penny – the Rainbow Factory.

Gumball was kicking himself as he ran. He had endangered both Penny and Carrie with his mixed up feelings. To him, it was obvious that the three girls had been targeted because of his and Darwin's interest in them. Given Sarah's talent for stalking, he wouldn't be surprised if she'd been there when Anais confronted him about it.

Racheal's abduction accounted for Darwin's inexplicable absences lately. They must be in a relationship but were keeping it quiet. That was fine by Gumball. He was in no position to make judgments on Darwin's love life. After all, Darwin had only gotten one girl kidnapped.

Gumball continued to worry at the problem of his polyamory until the Rainbow Factory came into view. The memory of the toxic material that was rainbow mix filled him with dread and chased away his worries over his own duality. The exact composition of rainbow mix was unknown, but Gumball was almost certain the stuff was responsible for Darwin's mutation and various other oddities like his rainbow boost.

Who knows what would happen to Penny? Gumball thought, and anger at Sarah lent him a boost of speed. He didn't notice he was starting to steam or the slightly darker stripes that were just barely visible in his coat.

When Gumball reached the factory, finally noticed the steam, but he had steamed before on a run and paid it no mind. He approached the door and didn't even notice as he broke the deadbolt, pushing open the door as if it weren't even locked.

"Penny?!" Gumball's voice rang loud and strong and a little deeper than normal. "Penny, are you in here?!" Gumball strained to hear some answer, any answer. There! Was it? Yes! Ahead a muffled voice could be heard. Gumball rushed toward the noise, careful to avoid going close to the rainbow mix.

After a couple minutes he found her, suspended just as in the picture over the enormous main vat of rainbow mix, slowly being lowered by a winch. She was holding her feet up to keep them out of the mix. Her mouth was taped.

Gumball made a beeline for the winch. The next thing he knew he was doing a back flip. Something had tried to hit him, but his newly developed instincts had enabled him to barely avoid the strike. Landing smoothly on his feet, he stared at the impressive battle form of Bobert.

"Target acquired." Bobert droned. "Commencing target destruction."

"Whoa, wait, Bobert, buddy, don't do this!" Gumball tried to talk the robot down. "This isn't you! Were friends remember?"

"Negative. One's programming states that Gumball must be eliminated unless he is kissing Sarah." Bobert leveled his energy blaster at Gumball. Gumball saw the energy gather as the blaster charged and got ready to dodge until he realized that Penny was directly behind him. Oh man, this is gonna hurt, he thought as scrunched up his eyes and braced himself. Gosh-darn Sarah.

Sarah. That girl's name pulsed through him repeating over and over, each pulse triggering a fresh eruption of anger in him. As his anger built up he felt that same rage fill him and time contracted once more. The sound of the blaster s charge, filled his ears as his anger hit a wall.

Finally came the snap and he felt and incredible surge of energy, but this time he managed to remain conscious. He opened his eyes to a radically different view. Bobert stood seemingly frozen in time, his blaster mid-fire while the energy bolt sluggishly crept towards him, like a marble sinking in molasses.

Gumball blinked. He recognized this. He had done something like this when Penny's father had almost run her over with a car. Gumball shook his head. He didn't need to be standing around like this. The blaster bolt was moving slow but it was already halfway to him. Looking around, Gumball's eyes fell on a trash can.

Running over, he reached out to grab the can and was startled by the stripes on his arms. As he stared at them, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye that made him look up. Glancing around, he noticed that things were slowly speeding up. Realizing there was a limit to this time slowing thing, he filed away the stripes for later and took the can over into the path of the blaster bolt. The can took the bolt and was immediately blasted into a cloud of smoke and debris.

Gumball crouched behind the smoke as time resumed an almost normal speed. Everything was still a little slow, though. Good, he thought, that gives me an edge. He focused on Bobert's hulking outline through the smoke. Gumball rushed from the cover of the smoke and managed to get the robot's control port open before he could react. Gumball hit reboot and dropped down.

Gumball's feet were just touching the ground as he realized his mistake. He was practically in Bobert's arms and the robot was trying to catch him in a bear hug. Drawing on knowledge or instinct he wasn't aware he had, Gumball planted his feet and dropped his weight. Throwing his arms to either side he stuck Bobert's monstrous armored forearms, throwing them wide and off balancing the robot's enormous battle form.

Gumball dropped lower still as he slide one foot forward. Squaring his shoulders to his target and drawing his hands back, he suddenly fired all his muscles in rapids sequence. Legs lifted his weight and sent it up and forward at a 45° angle. His arms extended at the same time, putting all his force along the same angle and directing it into his hands, which struck Bobert in the center of the chest. He had, in effect, fired a cannon composed of all Gumball's strength and weight point blank into the robot's chest.

Bobert sailed in an arc backwards nearly 20 m and smashed through the brick wall of the factory, leaving Gumball to stare at a Bobert shaped hole. Now how did I manage that?

Penny's frantic muffled screams reminded him of the urgency of her situation and he rushed to the winch. He reached it just moments before Penny's feet touched the deadly mix. Without enough time to reverse the winch, he grabbed the rope and raised Penny high enough to let her relax while he set the winch to bring her up.

As he watched her rise, slumped now with relief, a reality occurred to him. There was no way to get to her. He had a thought and stopped the winch. "Penny! Can you hear me?" Penny had felt the winch stop and was looking at him. She nodded slowly. "Can you transform?" The look Penny shot him was clear. "Oh, yeah, I bet you already thought of that, huh? Ok then, I know this might sound crazy but I need you to kick your feet as fast as possible."

Penny was obviously confused, but began doing as he asked. Gumball focused his attention on her swinging legs and concentrated. At first, nothing happened. Penny was starting to get tired and Gumball was about to tell her to stop when he felt it happen. Penny's legs were now slowing to a stop. Just to be sure, he fished a coin from his pocket and held it in front of him before dropping it.

The coin hung in the air. Now sure, Gumball snapped into action. Grabbing his pocket knife, he flipped out the blade. He ran forward, sliced the rope, dropped the knife and launched himself at Penny.

Penny was getting tired. She was confused and scared and she simply didn't understand why gumball wanted her to kick her feet. Then his arm blurred and he was holding a coin. She couldn't believe her eyes as Gumballs arm blurred again, a knife appearing in his hand. Her eyes widened as she took in what he was doing and panic filled her.

Blur. The knife blade was out. Blur. The rope was cut. Then everything blurred and she found herself standing next to Gumball, free from the rope and gag and safe on the factory floor. Just like that. Her mouth fell open and she just stared at him.

"Uh, sorry if I scared you. I just couldn't stand the thought of leaving you hanging there, so I did the only thing I could think o…" Gumball trailed off, wobbling slightly as the stripes faded from his fur. Quick on her feet, Penny slid into a burly, gorilla-like form and caught the cat.

"Thanks." he smiled weakly at her.

"Let's get you home" Penny said.

"Yeah, I guess." Gumball nodded.

Penny transformed into a red dragon and Gumball climbed wearily aboard. As they flew Gumball laid out the events of the afternoon and explaining what he could of his experience with his transformation. Penny was gob-smacked. It was almost like super powers… Glancing back at the drained cat riding her back, she decided the price for those powers was decidedly high. Gumball looked as though he'd run a full marathon – without sleep – and he was only "powered up" for 2-3 minutes.

Gumballs house was in sight and as she leveled out to glide in, she was happy to point out Darwin and Lexy leading a sobbing, but fully intact, Racheal up the driveway to Gumball. She craned her neck about and found the chair a few blocks away, mere feet from an intersection.

"Hold on tight" Penny warned as she back-winged to land gracefully on the lawn. Her mind was working furiously as Gumball slid off her back and she resumed her natural form. Why would Sarah do this to us? She tried hard but the only thing she could remember was Carrie sitting in Gumball's room sobbing. Then waking suspended by her wings over the lava. The knowledge that she couldn't transform with her wings tied was filed away for later. Who knew it was that simple to control her transformations? WAIT…

"CARRIE! Where is she?" Penny felt the panic close her throat.

Gumball pulled out the drawing of Carrie. "We had to prioritize. Carrie is trapped but there is no immediate danger." Stripes flickered across his fur as Gumballs face became fiercely determined. "I will find her…" This time he really did pass out. Penny guessed that last little display had exhausted whatever it was that powered this change of his.

The ragged group limped into the house and met face to face with the most terrifying creature Penny knew: Nicole Watterson.

Please for the love of my story, please review. This whole Sarah arc is good for one or two more chapters, but I need to know that this is worth continuing. Anyway. Where has Sarah taken Carrie, and will Gumball and gang find her in time? And what are Penny and Carrie going to do about their Gumball problem? Will Gumball figure out his feelings? And what exactly are they? Find out as we continue Gumball's crazy adventures.