Though most were sleeping by that hour of the night, Gumball sat outside, preparing his hand for what he was about to do.
In front of him, in the Watterson's backyard, stood a box with three empty tin cans of sausages.
The young cat stared one of them, and positioned himself.
Eyes closed, gloves on, left hand pointed at one of them, and directed all his will towards his paw, and forced it to reach its target.
And, in that split second, he felt something in his paw.
Two things in fact.
His hand was now exposed, and as such he felt the nightly cold surround it, but most importantly, he was now holding a tin can, and in its previous place was the glove he had.
-So that's how it works.- Gumball whispered, proudly looking at his mysterious tattoo, determined to continue what he was doing.
Since it appeared to switch objects in his hand with others at a distance, could he switch the position of objects by "holding" air? Nothing said it couldn't be that way.
And so, dropping the tin, he aimed towards it, now imagining himself holding the very particles around him, and once again conducted all his will towards making it happen.
It didn't work.
Not willing to give up, he tried again.
And again
And once again.
Until...
The cat was now holding the same can he had just discarded, all without holding a single object previously.
Gumball was very much satisfied with the result. No wonder his mother insisted he never gave up, it was worth it in the end.
Which means... that he should continue, right?
No point in stopping now.
As such, the boy continued to experiment with his magical experiments, wishing to further his own skill in something he knew for sure no one else could be better than him. Mostly because he wasn't aware if there were others that even had similar abilities.
And, even though in the end he only managed to use Alternate using a glove without losing it, even though he almost got caught by his father doing noise, Gumball still felt happy.
He was definitely repeating the process the next night.
Penny had been trying to focus on Miss Simian's lesson on some conflicts from the Cold War era, but there was something plaguing her mind.
Ever since yesterday's occurence at Mr. Small's class, everyone had been talking behind her boyfriend's back.
About how it must be another one of his attempts at being "cool".
About how he just wanted to "cheat" at that class.
And, most egregiously, that he had apparently gotten a "white thumb" from Hector's mother, a witch.
Now, these weren't slanderous rumors, but the faery was very much aware that it would definitely devolve into something worse if the answers didn't come out and the event was to repeat itself. And, while she would normally simply pay attention to what would happen next, the combination of Gumball's strange dream the night before, refusal to take off his left glove, and his genuine surprise at what had happened concerned her.
She was now afraid that something grim had gotten into the cat.
She could try to rationalize her worries away, as she didn't want to confront him without a proper reason, passing it off as him having watched an horror movie or something similarly not meant for people his age, and the "rejuvenation" of the bone rune could have simply been improper care of the objects, rather than an actual act of healing.
But what she could not justify using that reasoning was his sudden appearance at the door of the classroom, utterly drained and holding his paw, still gloved, as it continuously flinched in pain.
-S-so-sorry I am late, Miss Simian. - Gumball said, in a weary tone.
All students were looking at him, while the teacher simply told him to sit down. He complied, weakly dropping his backpack at the side his table and colapsing as soon as he got on his seat.
Immediately, Tobias, in the spur of the moment, immediately blurted:
-Haha, it seems Gumball has been "busy" with himself!
Many laughed, while others, like her, looked at him in annoyance, or just ignored it altogether, like Bobert and the now sleeping cat.
-Focus on the class, please! - Simian shouted, annoyed at the fact her students' humor was on the road to degenerate to the typical teenager variety.
However, Tobias, who was feeling particularly jerkish, continued:
-Oh, c'mon, teacher! Gumball's the one who-
In that instant, the cat instantly sprung back up from his sleep and, seemingly instantaneously, stood right next to the rainbow boy, looking at him in an undressing matter, all while looking like his energies had returned.
Similarly as quick, the whole class fell silent, and, after a few seconds passed, Tobias apologised and did his best to simply look at his notebook. This was enough for Gumball, leading to him returning to his seat and taking out his stuff, unfazed by his previous state.
Everyone quietly decided to not press on the issue, and as such Miss Simian resumed talking about the Korean War.
And, in the back of the class, Penny's mind rumbled from the possibilities that were now replacing the previous reasons, and she realized that she needed to get answers from someone experienced in strange happenings.
-Did you notice your brother doing anything strange last night? He certainly seems like he was doing something. -Carrie asked, accompanying her boyfriend to the bench.
-I mean, I remember hearing some strange noises outside my house, but considering the town where we live, I just thought it was, I don't know, Julius' gang throwing stuff at houses and robbing them. - Darwin replied, sitting down and laying down both of their morning snacks, and preparing himself for the ghost's possession so she would be able to actually eat it. -They sounded like some kind of spear hitting objects wood.
-Well, if you hear them again, check if Gumball is sleeping next to you.
-Do you think that's the thing that Tobias said Gumball was "busy" with? I hope he wasn't serious with his promise of joining one.
Carrie was used to Darwin's innocence, but even then she did not think she would ever have to come up with an alternative to adolescent habits, visibly straining herself trying.
Thankfully, the appearance of a certain faery saved her from embarassement.
-Hey guys. Are you doing alright?
-Oh, hey Penny. We are doing fine, but what about you? - The fish replied, completly and partially intentionally forgetting what his previous question.
-Not as well as I wanted. May I just borrow your girlfriend for a second? We... need to talk.
Darwin adopted a confused look, looking first at the ghost, then at the faery, then back to where he started, until he noticed his brother staring intensily at one of the windows of the school building, scratching his the back of his left hand non-stop.
Afterwards, he stared at Penny, who nodded with concerned eyes, with him nodding in response and prompting her and Carrie to go together into a corner for this supposed talk.
The young feline looked around, ensuring nobody was aware, even if for a split second.
The whispers had returned, and this time they were coming from the Principal's office.
Only this time, they were louder, and were even more seductive than before.
What were they doing, so far of reach?
Realizing nobody would suspect whatever sound he could do, as it would be disguised by the inherent background noise from recess, Gumball forced his will through his hand, directed at the lock in the window.
It soon moved into his hand, and he immediately adopted a relaxed stance by leaning on the wall.
Nobody but Darwin, who was looking around eith a confused expression, appeared to have noticed anything, though Gumball wasn't aware that Alternate did not, in fact, produce a sound to anyone but him.
Consequently, as soon as his brother focused on his snack, and the wind blew the window open, he now decided to Tether into the location.
He was in.
Without looking back, the cat paid attention to the "evidence" drawer, as it seemed to be source of his disturbances.
He was right.
There were three runes, all to different tunes, poorly crammed into the tight space provided.
Gumball touched all of them in quick sucession, each increasing the tingling and pain provided by the tattoo.
Without hesitation, not wanting to be caught unaware, he thought about the word Tether, and how more accurate it could be in bringing him to its locations, as he had to wait for the window to be mostly opened to even attempt to enter that room.
And then he felt it was.
Then, he wondered about how it would be if it was silent, or least more quiet than it was.
And then he felt it was.
But before he could think further, he heard someone open the door, the voice outside indicating it was Principal Brown.
Remembering yesterday's acident at the bathroom, and thus what he had learned, his mind wandered into the words "Black Cat", before he instinctively hide beloe the desk in the room.
Thankfully, though, Brown hadn't noticed the open drawer, and instead came to simply pick up a fedora he had been wearing for the past few days, leaving just as quickly as he entered.
Sighing in relief, Gumball quickly exited the room as soon as the footsteps were a distant memory, and he found himself going back to the classroom, as the bell was about to ring.
Just as he was about to enter, he saw Darwin, Carrie and Penny all talking together, right next to some lockers. He didn't think much of it, as it wasn't an unusual occurance, but hindsight would later prove that it would have been wise if he had done so.