I may have forgotten at some point to acknowledge this, but the OC Lexy is the intellectual property of lexboss and was incorporated at her request. Also I don't own Gumball or anything else in these stories. This Chapter will be a bit slower paced as we will be hashing out some internal conflict with Penny about Carrie. Now, what awaits Gumball and company in the form of Nicole? How are they going to find Carrie and what will Penny do about this rival for Gumballs affection? Let's find out.

"Where have you bee- Oh, my gosh, what happened?" Nicole transitioned from outraged parent to concerned mother seamlessly as soon as she took in the state of Gumball's group. With a glance at her companions, Penny understood Mrs. Watterson's concern. Racheal was clinging to Darwin, practically shivering in fright. Gumball was out, supported between her and Lexy. Lexy looked disheveled and she could only guess how she looked.

Penny, ever practical, spoke up. "I'd love to explain everything but, just now, I think something hot and maybe a blanket would do well for Racheal." Jerking her head toward Gumball she added, "And I think a bed will do for him."

Nicole fixed her with narrowed eyes and Penny swallowed nervously, but she stood her ground. Or tried to anyway, with Gumball seeming heavier every second. Finally, Nicole's expression cleared and she motioned up the stairs "Go ahead and lay him down. I'll get things settled here but I expect an explanation as soon as you get down here."

Penny nodded. She and Lexy worked together to get the blue cat upstairs and in bed. Penny covered him with the blanket and smoothed back the fur on his head, oblivious to Lexy's exit. She felt a rush of emotion for this strange blue cat. The things he had endured to rescue her both in the past and today were not what she might have expected anyone to willingly undergo, yet every time she needed him, there he was.

Penny giggled a bit at the thought. Sometimes he had failed so utterly, she didn't think it would ever work. Then there was the whole jealousy thing. Carrie had helped to bring an end to that… Carrie. Penny sighed. What exactly was she supposed to do about her friend's obvious feelings for Gumball?

Penny didn't want to lose her friendship. The two had talked a lot over the last week while Gumball was recovering. They had a lot in common actually. Penny had always thought that she was just a whiny emo freak, and Carrie had blushingly confessed that she always thought Penny was stuck up jock and honor student.

It was sort of sad that those stereotypes had prevented the two from becoming friends sooner. Carrie was loyal, giving and honest, if a bit sarcastic. These were the things Penny strove to be. Additionally, they both had to deal with irregular biology. Carrie's spiritborn biology was as fascinating to Penny as her morphing ability was to Carrie.

Carrie had told Penny how Gumball had helped free her father from a curse. Gumball had helped Penny have the courage to accept herself for what she was. Penny blinked. Gumball had had such an impact on both of them. And when he was hurt, Gumball's need had unified them despite their differences and perceptions of one another.

Penny had a moment of clarity then, rising to her feet and clenching her fist in determination. She refused to allow her or Carrie's feelings for Gumball to end their friendship. Now I just have to figure out how, she thought miserably. Determination was all well and good, but she needed some kind of plan. She slumped down and buried her head in her arms on Gumball's bed. How? How…

She was trapped. A glass tube surrounded her and an electrical current kept her from phasing through. Even worse, she hadn't eaten lately so she couldn't teleport out, and wasn't even sure she could. Whoever had put her here had done some homework.

She tried to figure out where she was. There wasn't much to go on. From what little light she had, she could just make out the inside of a shack. There was a generator in the corner, the only sound she could hear providing the power for her prison.

She wasn't particularly scared. She was basically immortal, all she had to do was wait and eventually her friends would find her. A vague fantasy about Gumball coming to her rescue was crushed mercilessly. She had already decided that she wouldn't allow herself to hope to for his affection. He loved Penny.

She sighed. She wished Penny hadn't seen her break down earlier. She still wasn't sure what she was going to say when she saw her again. She cherished the few friends she had, and Penny was now in that number. She smiled, remembering her opinion of the shapeshifter before this week.

Back then, she'd been able to dislike her. Evenhate her, she admitted to herself. The stuck up, popular, athlete and valedictorian. Little Miss Perfect. So perfect, all the boys liked her. Even Gumball. She shoved down the wave of despair that inevitably surfaced whenever she considered his feelings for Penny.

But then Gumball got hurt, and Penny was there by her side comforting her with tales of her or Gumball's ineptitude. Penny had suggested Operation Nurse Gumball. The girls started talking, first a little, then nonstop. Yesterday, she spent all day hanging out with Gumball and Penny, gone to a movie with them, then gone home and talked to Penny on the phone for a couple hours.

She had told Penny things she hadn't told anyone else. Penny had shared things she was sure only she knew. Tears filled her eyes for the second time that day. She didn't, couldn't, feel guilty for her feelings, but she doubted that Penny would be able to see this as anything less than betrayal. She wished she could just disappear.

SLAM!

The door to that shack flew open. The near blinding sunlight momentarily revealed piles of scrap before the slightly hunched silhouette moved into the shack, slamming the door closed. She heard shuffling noises as the figure moved over to a table and turned on a lamp.

There, illuminated pale electric light, was Sarah G. Lato. Sarah stared triumphantly at her. "I hadn't expected to take you, but after that disgusting display, it was apparent that I needed to add you to my plans."

"What plans?" She asked, fear finally worming its way in to settle uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach.

"You and that silly peanut morphing monster don't deserve to breathe the same air as Gumball. I can't even believe you think he might be interested in an undead, ectoplasmic, transparent, paranormal, spooky, floating, fringe-flicking freak like you."

Recognition sparked in her mind. "Jealousy? I thought we banished you!"

A slow distorted chuckle issued from Sarah. "Figured it out already? Well, so what? This one wanted Gumball and Darwin but there were others in the way. Her jealousy built and built until it summoned me and we struck a bargain. I eliminate the competition, she helps me get revenge. Who knew that they would be one and the same?"

"What did you do to my friends?" The fear was quickly turning to panic, gripping her heart in icy fingers.

"Oh never fear. Your precious Gumball is safe. I wish I could tell you that your worries over a rival in Penny were over, but you will never enjoy her absence." The possessed Sarah smirked. "I just finished a little reading, and I think I found a way to get rid of you for good." It tapped a book it had set on the table and she gasped when she recognized the book given to her by her grandmother.

"Turns out you need to be separated from others for just a while before your ectoplasm drains completely. Come nightfall, you and I will take a little ride. I have a very nice hole set up for you, that should keep you away from people for long enough to take you out of the picture permanently."

Her mind whirled. She hoped this abomination in front of her was wrong. Her gut told her that Gumball would find a way to save Penny. She just needed to stay alive long enough to be rescued as well. That's it!

She laughed. "I don't really think you know who you are dealing with. Any living thing nearby will be syphoned from to sustain me. You won't be able to isolate me enough to kill me!"

"Oh? Hmmm…" J-Sarah considered. "You may be right, thanks." Spinning around, J-Sarah pulled up a drafting desk. A few quick strokes and she spun it to show her captive. The drawing depicted a cell within a cell buried in the ground, the outer shell creating a bubble just large enough to keep her from receiving residual ectoplasm.

She didn't say anything, to which J-Sarah chuckled darkly. "I think you should use the next 24 hours to say goodbye. That's about how long you have before I finish putting this together." With that, the possessed cone scuttled out the door.

Penny jerked awake. It was morning and she was on the couch in Gumball's house, covered with a blanket. The dream she'd had vivid in her mind she reviewed it carefully, committing it to memory and looking for any clue she might have missed. She knew it wasn't just a simple dream. There was no doubt in Penny's mind that these were the events of last night as seen by Carrie, maybe even in real time. She hoped they weren't too late.

"Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie!" A voice coming from nearby drew her attention.

"Seriously Gumball, if it didn't work the last 15 times, what makes you think it'll work now?" Came a voice Penny pegged as Anais.

"Carrie told us a long time ago that you can summon any ghost this way. We even did it at the time so we know it works." That was Darwin. Penny sat up to find Gumball, Darwin, Rachel, Anais and Lexy sitting at the table.

"She can't. She doesn't have enough energy to make a teleport." Everyone at the dining room table jumped at her sudden interjection.

"How do you know that?" Anais raised a skeptical eyebrow. Penny got up and walked toward the dining room.

"We talked a lot about how her body works now." Penny said, hesitating to share her dream. "And… and because I had a dream showing me where she is being kept and who is responsible for all this." She finished in a rush and sat down, not looking at anyone. Hearing it, it sounded even crazier out loud.

Gumball cleared his throat. "Penny…" She cringed inwardly. "Please, tell us everything." She looked up and there he was, looking at her steadily and expectantly. Anais's mouth hung open but she didn't say anything. Penny recounted the dream she'd had, carefully leaving out the bits about Carrie's feelings and the angst between the two of them.

When she finished, Gumball pulled out a picture. He smoothed out the drawing of Carrie, trapped in a glass tube. There in the corner of the drawing, was a generator. "Oh, come on!" Anais cried. "She could have seen that earlier! We could end up chasing a wild goose while something even worse is being done to her!"

Gumball held up a paw. He turned the picture over. "I wrote something down as soon as I woke up this morning so I wouldn't forget." He began to read and everyone's jaw dropped. Gumball described the same dream Penny had.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" Anais managed when she got her wits back. It was too similar to be coincidence. Penny wondered if that was the only reason he'd believed her.

"Honestly I'd still forgotten until Penny mentioned the generator." Gumball admitted miserably.

"Well why are we still sitting here?" Penny asked.

"Because I still haven't gotten an explanation." Nicole said from behind them, making everyone jump.

Gumball, ever eloquent, managed to sum it up. "A girl possessed by an evil spirit of jealousy kidnapped and tried to kill Penny and Rachel and Carrie. Darwin, Lexy and I managed to save Penny and Rachel, but J-Sarah still has Carrie and is currently scheming to destroy her."

"Oh. Well that's fine then." Nicole shrugged speaking cordially.

The teens exchanged glances. "Really?" said Darwin.

"No! Are you out of your minds? Why didn't you call the police? You could have been seriously hurt! I cannot believe you were so reckless!" Nicole blasted her boys and recently recovered daughter.

Gumball went still. "Mom, I love you but you are wrong on this. There was a guard placed on Penny. No one else could have saved her."

"It's true!" Penny piped up, but a glare from Nicole quieted any further argument from her. Gumball was on his own; Nicole was a force unto herself.

"Are you crazy!? What exactly can you do that an armed officer of the law couldn't do?!" Nicole turned her glare on Gumball who, to his credit, didn't even flinch.

Standing up, Gumball rolled up his sleeves, revealing the stripes beginning to appear. He grabbed a pen and placed it on the table, then met his mother's glare. With a bit of a smirk, he said simply, "Don't blink."

The two stared at one another. One minute stretched to two and neither blinked. Penny didn't either, hoping to see him move. There is was. Gumball blurred and he was holding the pen. Blur. He was holding a blank drawing pad. Blur. He showed a drawing of Nicole with a mustache and thick eyebrows. Blur. He had a mirror in one hand and the drawing in the other.

Nicole touched her face while looking in the mirror. Her voice trembled slightly as she asked the question everyone wanted to know. "How did you do that?" Glancing over, Penny realized that Gumball had not only drawn Nicole's face in an impossibly short time, he'd drawn on her face to match the drawing and Penny had never him touch her.

Gumball shrugged as the stripes faded. He laid out the circumstances including the morning and afternoon's events. "When I figured out I could control it by concentrating, I started working on it. Still has a rough activation time and it makes me hungry and tired like crazy. I talked to Anais about it and she thinks it's a modified adrenaline state that burns calories really fast to give me a significant burst of speed and power. Makes sense given how tired it make me."

Nicole looked surprised. "And you understood all that? What have you done with my son?" Nicole looked as if she'd had the wind knocked out of her.

Rachel spoke up at this point. "Really? Your son has super powers but you're floored that he understood an explanation?"

"Hahaha! How about I take you home now Rachel? Your parents must be worried sick." Darwin jumped to intervene between his sassy girlfriend and volatile mother.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure I guess. Let me get my coat." Rachel headed upstairs.

"Oh, Darwin?" Nicole said sweetly.

"Uh-oh. Y-yes Mrs. Mom?" Darwin stuttered.

"I'd feel much better if you and that young lady stayed here. Gumball may have suddenly developed super powers, but you didn't and that girl is after Rachel, too right?" Nicole said seriously. Penny was impressed. Nicole may be scary, but she was an excellent mother. "Besides. I'd like to get to know the girl you are dating." Darwin groaned – Gumball and Penny couldn't suppress their grins.

"Speaking of which, Gumball. Do you know why Sarah targeted both Penny and Carrie? Not to mention Rachel." Anais said, a sly look on her face.

Gumball looked as if he'd swallowed a bug. "Well I know she took Penny and Rachel because of their relation to Darwin and I. Maybe she thought Carrie was a rival for my affection as well?"

Penny was confused. "What do you mean Darwin and you? Which one of you does she want to be with?"

Gumball rolled his eyes. "Oh. Both of us. In fact, 2 years ago she was stalking us." Gumball went upstairs. He came down with a video tape and played it for everyone. Penny mentally recoiled. The tape showed Sarah following them and doing various creepy things.

"That is really disturbing. Why do you even still have this?" Penny demanded.

"Insurance. We told Sarah if we caught her stalking us or doing anything else we would turn it over to the cops. Until now, we thought it had done the trick." Gumball shook his head sadly. "At first when we saw it we tried to cut ties. But then, we thought maybe she just wants some friends. We even did a skit she wrote to try to cheer her up but the ending was weird."

"Weird how?" Anais asked tilting her head quizzically.

"After fighting over her, we were supposed to share her. Darwin would get her for part of the week and I would get her for the other part." Gumball shuddered.

"You and Darwin were supposed to… share her?" Penny asked, a kernel of an impossible idea embedding in her mind. "How was that supposed to work?"

Gumball shrugged. "I don't know. Apparently it's called polygory… no poly, poly-something."

"Polygamy?" offered Anais.

"No… Polyamory! It's a multiple partner relationship where everyone knows what is going on. Polygamy is specifically marriage." Gumball shot at Anais. "Anyway, apparently, it works for some people, but the idea of doing that to someone? Treating them like a possession to be passed back and forth? I don't think it's fair."

Penny buried the idea that was nagging at the back of her mind. She wasn't even going to entertain such an insane thought.

Carrie watched as the sunlight coming into the shed weakened, changed from yellow to red and disappeared altogether taking with it her final hopes of rescue.

She heard the steps approaching and steeled herself. The time had come. She wished she'd had the guts to tell Gumball how she felt. The door opened and a familiar voice called out. "Carrie! Oh thank goodness." Penny ran over and killed the generator. "Can you phase through now?"

Carrie nodded, dumbfounded. "How-"

"No time. Gumball is keeping J-Sarah busy" Penny held out her hand. "Let's go!"

Carrie reached out, but hesitated. "But I-"

Penny sighed and rolled her eyes. "I don't feel like you betrayed me. And this isn't a ploy. In fact, there is an idea that has been bothering me since earlier, but we can talk about it later. Can you fly?" Carrie shook her head, still blasted by the way Penny had nailed down her thoughts. "No problem, come on!" Penny dragged her outside and transformed into a dragon. She bent her leg to give Carrie a step and only just let her sit before taking off.

"Wait! I know how to stop Jealousy!" Carrie shouted over the wind while Penny fought for altitude.

"Well, I am all ears!" Penny answered, momentarily sprouting about a thousand of them before she could stop it.

"Ok. Gumball should be able to do it, but I'll have to help." Penny craned her neck to look back at her friend. Carrie held up her hands, "Nothing dangerous, I just need to get close enough to push Jealousy out of Sarah. After that, Gumball can touch it."

Penny's eyes widened. "He can? How? And how do you know?"

Carrie blushed. "Yesterday when he changed the first time, I got hit by an energy wave so I got curious. I tried to phase through him but there was a residual flow of energy; even when I was intangible he was as solid to me as ever."

Penny was nodding thoughtfully. "I get it. When he's transformed, he can touch spirits – whether they like it or not…" Penny trailed off. And her eyes widened. "That must have been an… interesting revelation for you?"

"I haven't been able to explore my feelings on the matter." She sniffed, then acceded, "But it was kind of a shock. I just thank goodness it was Gumball and not one of those horn-dogs we call classmates." She shivered.

Penny nodded slowly. She seemed about to speak when a movement below them caught their attention. Gumball was straining to hold an enraged J-Sarah. Penny went into a dive and Carrie jumps just as she reach pulled up, tucking into a roll. A couple of bumps later, Carrie was sprawled awkwardly near Gumball and his struggling captive.

"Carrie! What are… you doing… here? Penny was… supposed to get… you to safety." Gumball managed between J-Sarah's thrashings.

Carrie dusted herself off. "And you will what? Hold her forever?"

Gumball nodded to his left. "Darwin and Lexy are bringing your spellbook to banish it. My idea." He grinned, and took an elbow to the nose for his trouble.

Carrie winced. "No need. I know the spell and you have to get him out of her first anyway." She took in his condition and looked at his grip on the Cone. She couldn't have him let her go. She came up with an idea, but was worried. J-Sarah got in a few more shots and made up Carries mind for her.

She rushed around behind Gumball. "This might feel weird, but you are going to have to trust me." Carrie formed her molded her body against the blue cat. "Here we go." Carrie took a deep breath, closed her eyes and went intangible.

She was on fire. She was plunged into the iciest water. The energy tearing through her was incredible and Carrie barely held on. Mentally she confronted the wild energy. She tried to force it to obey but it simply lashed back. She fought viciously to claim a little of the extra energy; she needed it to do what she felt she must.

Finally, she managed to tame a bit of the energy to her purpose. She and Gumballs hands were passing through Sarah, leaving the girl unharmed while they extracted Jealousy. Carrie opened her eyes to find herself eye to eye with the malevolent spirit. It immediately tried to possess her and she flinched, afraid of what it might reveal, but the energy flowing to her from Gumball protected her. Oh, now you help me, she thought wryly.

Speaking quickly, she intoned the words of the spell.

Orb of light, I summon thee with all my might,

This spirit bring us only blight, banish it now from my sight!

A ball of light swirled into being above them. Glowing brighter and brighter. Carrie sighed but it wasn't quite over.

Jealousy screamed in defiance. It thrust its face within inches of Gumball's "You created me. I swear I will destroy everything you hold dear. And you," the blob of resentment pointed a stubby finger at Carrie. "You will be his undoing, mark my words."

The spell finally finished casting and the orb of light enveloped the ugly green spirit before winking out of existence.

Gumball went limp and Carrie landed on her butt, his head on her lap. As their friends rush over, she couldn't get Jealousy's words out of her head. The possibilities they suggested made her feel sick.

"Carrie, are you ok?" Penny's hand rested comfortingly on her shoulder.

Carrie nodded. "I'm ok. Just really sore."

"Well, that was something. What happened to just pushing him out?" Penny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, you see-" Carrie was interrupted by a wave of exhaustion. She fought for consciousness as Darwin reached them.

"Did y… that?!" Darwin was shouting, eyes wide. "She… wings!"

Carrie tried to focus but she was so tired and couldn't quite make out Darwin's words. Even her thoughts were broken. Wings? What is… no wonder Gumball… she somehow knew it didn't make sense and just gave up and let the darkness take her.

Ok, bad news. I am going to slow down a bit. I have been writing like I'm possessed to make up for my long break, but I can't keep up the pace. I am going to try for a weekly post, but I'm thinking every other week is more reasonable.