Update: Made a slight change for the summary for Chapter 6, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. I apologized for this and hopefully it doesn't happened again.
The Newcomer
An Amazing World of Gumball Story
By NeoNimbus
Chapter 5-The Sleepover: Part 2
It had been almost an hour since the movie started and as far as Gumball, Darwin and Brian were concerned, this is the one and only opportunity they might have for the weekend before Monday. Apparently, the trio was watching a rather old, cheesy science fiction film from the 50s, something about an alien invasion. So far, they had reached a scene where the main character, the mad scientist, is pacing in his lab with his beautiful lab assistant, pondering how to stop the aliens.
"There must be a way to counter these aliens before all of mankind is doom." the professor mumbled, pacing back and forth and pondering while his assistant looked on with uncertainty.
"Professor, there's something I must confess." the assistant spoke.
"Whatever it is, save it for another time. Right now, I'm concentrating on the task at hand." the professor was at the chalkboard, writing up various diagrams and mathematical numbers. The assistant, meanwhile, remained uncomfortable and agitated at the same time.
"But professor, this can't wait any longer."
Annoyed by her complaints, the professor turned to confront his assistant, but before he could say anything, she suddenly transformed into a supposedly hideous being, based on the shadow casting over the now horrified professor's face.
"No. NO! Get away from me, you monstrous fiend!"
Gumball, Darwin and Brian couldn't help but chuckle at this scene. It was by far the lamest thing they have ever seen in their lives: the special effects weren't that spectacular, the actors were quite lame and they barely even had a glimpse of what these aliens supposed to look like.
"Oh man, this is such a joke. I can't believe anyone would consider that to be scary." Gumball said, while taking some popcorn from his bowl.
"No kidding, Gumball; I mean, the plot seems rather ridiculous and silly and the acting was quite lousy." Brian responded.
"Plus, none of us have actually seen what these aliens look like. To be honest, it's pretty lame." Darwin spoke.
In spite of their amusements and criticism over the awful acting, plot and special effects, they decided to continue watching the movie regardless of these factors. As they continued watching the movie, while stuffing their faces with handfuls of popcorns, the trio unexpectedly heard the doorbell rang, prompting them to yelp in response.
"Looks like Mrs. Mom came home much earlier than expected." Darwin noted.
"Let's put everything away and head to the bedroom before Mom gets inside." Gumball spoke.
"Good idea, Gumball, but let's be quiet so we don't wake up your dad and your sister." Brian responded.
With that, Gumball turned off the TV while Darwin and Brian put the bowl of popcorns on the table, before they made their way upstairs to sleep. But before Brian could step into the duo's bedroom, the doorbell rang again, getting his attention and curiosity.
"I wonder why Mrs. Watterson didn't just use the-" His thoughts were interrupted when the door bell rang twice. It appears that Nicole was becoming rather impatient.
"Hang on a minute, you guys. I'll be right back." Brian then headed downstairs to the front door so he could let their mother in. He just hoped that Nicole would at least let him explain why it took so long.
"Well, here goes nothing." Brian then opened the door for Mrs. Watterson, his eyes briefly off from her and scratching his head sheepishly.
"I'm sorry for the delay, but there's a good-" before he could even finish his sentence, a strong force out of nowhere hit Brian in the head, leaving the purple fox in a daze, before everything went dark.
After what feels like a long time, Brian managed to regain conscience, despite having blurry vision and a sharp pain in his head. Once his vision eventually cleared up, he noticed a few things wrong with this scene.
For starters, he realized that he was no longer downstairs to begin with; instead, he found himself in a barely lit room with a small window, filled with piles of boxes and junk all over the place. Then, he noticed that he was sitting on a chair, which felt rather rough and sturdy, as well as ropes binding him to said chair. When Brian attempted to free himself, the rope remained tight, no matter how much of a struggle he put in to it.
"Whoever did this must have been some experienced with this."
"Gumball, Brian's awake."
Startled to hear Darwin's voice, Brian turned to see the two-legged fish, as well as the blue feline, each bound in a similar chair. Once the shock wore off, Brian eventually spoke.
"What's going on? Why are we tied up on these chairs, and in the attic of all places?"
"Keep your voice's down, Brian. He'll hear you." Gumball nervously responded.
"Who is 'he' by any chance?"
"He meant me, sucker." A voice with a strong New York accent spoke out of nowhere.
Brian, along with Gumball and Darwin, turned to the source of the voice and saw the figure slowly coming out of the shadow. Immediately, the duo yelped upon seeing him, while Brian was puzzled by the robber. Standing right in front of him was an oversized fingerprint, wearing nothing but a domino mask, with two skinny arms and legs that were rather short compared to his body. The robber paced in the attic back and forth, his face filled with amusements when he laid eyes on the helpless captives.
"Look who we have here, if it isn't the runts from the gas station the other day." The robber then leaned towards to Brian with a smug look.
"Oh and here's the runt who made my whole job easier by letting me in. Seriously, I can't believe you just fall for such a simple trick." The robber then proceeded to cackle by this. Brian responded by glaring at the robber.
"Just let us go and leave."
"So you and your buddies could call the police or that crazy woman that lived here? Not a chance, sucker." The robber then shuddered when he realized he had mention Nicole, who gave him such a severe beating after his failed robbery attempt and muttered something about how it's all in his head.
"Well, there's no way you can get away with this." said Gumball.
"Well see about that, runt. In the mean time, you and your pals stay put or else!" The robber pulled what appears to be a…dirty, rusted spoon from his back? Brian was puzzled by the robber's unusual weapon of choice.
"Is he really serious? What kind of moron tries to intimidate anyone with a-"
"Oh my goodness, he's got a spoon!" Darwin fearfully shouted, prompting the purple fox to turn his attention on him and Gumball, now shuddering with fear at the mere sight of the robber's weapon of choice. Brian, on the other hand, couldn't help but snicker, gaining the robber's attention.
"What's so funny, runt?" he asked, raising an eyebrow with curiosity
"I'm sorry; it's just that it's the lamest thing I have ever seen. Seriously, what are you going to do, feed us?" Brian continued to snicker, despite the situation he fined himself in. What happened next, however, was quite unexpected.
"You know runt, you're right. A spoon wouldn't be a serious threat…" the robber discarded the spoon and pulled something else from his back. "But I bet you this is!"
Brian's eyes grew wide open, his head sweating like crazy and trembling in fear at the sight of the object before he finally shouted…
"Oh my goodness, he's got a ray gun!"
Indeed, the next weapon of choice was an fashion, ray gun that was mostly seen in 1950s science fiction films. The only difference, however, is that it was in working condition and looked like it really could do some serious damage. Satisfied to see the fox's reaction, the robber proceeded to leave the attic until he was out of their sight, but not before he closed the only entrance behind him.
Brian, still a bit shaken by this, noticed that Gumball and Darwin were looking at him with disappointment, oblivious to the scene they witnessed earlier.
"Are you serious Brian? A spoon won't make you afraid but a ray gun would?" asked Gumball. The fox simply glared at his friend in response.
"Now's not the time, Gumball. We need to get ourselves out of here and call Mrs. Watterson immediately."
"But how do we do that? These ropes are so tight I could barely feel my arms."
"Why not use that loose nail sticking out on the post?" Darwin asked.
Gumball and Brian paused for a moment and turned to see one of the posts had a loose nail sticking out. Once they saw it, the trio couldn't help but grin, as they know exactly what to do.
Sal Left Thumb tiptoed as quietly as he could once he exited the attic before making his way downstairs; the last thing he wanted is to alert the large, pink bunny of his presence. Then again, he has been asleep for the last several minutes, despite the scuffle that occurred upstairs earlier. In any case, he should be quite safe for the moment.
Earlier, he had already checked both the master bedroom and the runts' bedroom for some good deals, but so far, he has yet to find anything that caught his interest. The other runt's bedroom was locked and although Sal thought about it, he decided not to barge in; it was simply too risky and she could inform the cops about his presence.
As Sal made his way to the stairs, he slowly crept up to the picture frames and one after another, he inspected behind each frame, hoping to at least find a safe. Much to his disappointment, none of the frames contained a hidden vault, not even a glimpse as far as he could tell. He made a quick check under the couch for some hidden valuables, but found nothing but dust bunnies and a few junks. At this point, Sal was starting to get frustrated by this.
"Darn it! Where are all the loots?!" he shouted, flailing his arms around. Not wanting to waste anymore time, he quickly made his way upstairs and to the attic as quickly as he could. Perhaps those kids, or at least the cat and his two-legged fish pal, knows where to find some good valuables.
"Alright, you suckers, if you valued your lives, your going to tell me where the-" As soon as Sal opened the entrance, he notice that none of the kids were tied to their chairs. Needless to say, Sal's temper started to boil up, displeased by this outcome.
"Where are you suckers?!" Sal demanded, before he drew his ray gun from his back and started to inspect one pile after another. But after checking through several piles of junk, he couldn't find the trio at all. Where did they all go? They certainly didn't go through the window and the only entrance was locked. They couldn't have disappeared to thin air. Their antics were causing Sal's patience to reach its limits.
"Play times over, suckers! Show your sorry faces and I'll considered going easy on you runts!" Sal exclaimed, before resuming his search.
As Sal started to check the piles of junk for the second time, he felt something sticking on his back. Suddenly, 10,000 jolts of electricity were coursing throughout his entire body, putting Sal in a state of shock for a few seconds, before he fell flat on the floor. Gumball, Darwin and Brian poke their heads behind the post.
"Wow that was some quick thinking back there, Gumball." said Darwin.
"I know. Who would have thought that Fat Electro device would be so useful to take down an intruder?" Gumball responded.
"Um, guys…" Brian began to talk. "Let's get out of here before he recovers. I really don't want to stick around and see what he does next."
Nodding their heads in agreement, the trio made a mad dash to the attic's entrance, locking it from behind in the process. Sal, meanwhile, briefly got up, his face filled with deep rage. Those little punks would pay for that!
"Anais! Anais! Anais!"
Gumball, Darwin and Brian were shouting and banging on the door of Anais' room as loud as they could, hoping to get the child prodigy's attention very quickly. What they did to Sal in the attic was just pure luck; they needed some extra help to outsmart him.
After what felt like a long time, the trio heard a click on the door, prompting them to back up, as Anais opens the door. The tired, pink bunny, still in her night gown, yawned and rubbed her weary eyes before she confronted the three that were banging loudly on the door. Needless to say, she wasn't in an upbeat mood.
"What do you guys want?! Do you know what time it is?!"
"Now's not the time for arguments, sis." Gumball started to explain. "Right now, we need to hide in your room before he shows up!"
Before Anais could say anything, all three of the boys dashed right into her bedroom and quickly locked the door. The next thing she knew, she heard a loud booming noise not far away, causing her to become quite anxious.
"W-w-what was that?"
"Just open the door slightly and you'll find out." a rather scared Darwin replied.
Taking his advice, Anais cracked the door a little and couldn't believe what she's seeing: it was the robber from the gas station not so long ago, but instead of carrying a spoon, it looked like he was carrying a ray gun. The sight of the robber was enough for the child prodigy to tremble in fear and shuts the door quietly, before she confronts the trio.
"How did he get in here to begin with?" Anais asked the trio, prompting Gumball and Darwin to focus their attention on to Brian, who hung his head with shame.
"I'm sorry, you guys; I really wasn't paying any attention. I swear, I didn't mean to let him in."
"Don't be so hard on yourself." says Darwin.
"Darwin's right…" Gumball started to talk. "What happened was an accident. Besides, none of us knew it was him either."
"It's alright, Brian." said Anais. "I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose. Right now, I think I know how to buy us some time."
With that, the child prodigy proceeded to rub her feet on the carpet.
"Alright, suckers. You better come out and show yourselves. I might even go easy on you twerps for that dirty trick you pulled off." Sal exclaimed, as he searched for the trio, his hand gripping the ray gun. Just a minute ago, the robber was forced to shoot the entrance when he discovered the trio locked him inside after he got knocked out. Still, as far as he was concerned, he's the only one armed in the house; he shouldn't be worried about a bunch of little punks doing any harm to him.
"Oh no, I hope he doesn't find us in here."
Sal stopped in his tracks and turned to the direction of the voice. He glanced and saw the blue feline's head sticking out of the previous locked bedroom before closing it. Smiling, Sal made his way to the door, determine to finish this.
"You twerps just made the biggest mistake of your-"
As soon as his hand touches the knob, Sal felt another surge of electricity enter his body, as he shouted out in complete agony, before falling to the floor unconscious, his body twitching from the aftershock.
Shortly thereafter, the door slightly opened, as Gumball inspected the unconscious robber to be certain that he is knocked out, before turning his little sister.
"Looks like that trick of yours worked, Anais."
"I'm just actually surprised he fell for it." Anais responded.
"Um, guys…" Brian started to talk. "If you two are done talking, we need to get downstairs quickly."
With that, the Watterson siblings and Brian made their way downstairs as fast as they could before the robber regained consciousness. Once they reached the bottom of the steps, Brian was amazed to find Richard still asleep, snoring rather loudly, despite the ruckus they made upstairs. Undaunted by this, he, Gumball and Darwin made their way towards the large, pink bunny while Anais heads to the phone to call Nicole.
"Mr. Watterson, wake up! There's an intruder in the house armed with a ray gun and he's going to get up anytime!" Brian shouted to the sleeping rabbit, who remained completely unresponsive despite this.
"Wait a second; I think I know what will wake him up." Gumball said, before he pulled a blow horn out of his pocket and pressing it as hard as he can. But much to his dismay, Richard continued to sleep.
"Let me give it a shot." Darwin spoke, making his way towards Richard. Carefully aiming his flipper, he proceeded to slap him in the face, stunned to see that even his slap wasn't effective enough to wake the large bunny.
"Wow! Waking up Mr. Dad is like trying to wake up a brick wall."
"Well, this is going to be more problematic than we thought." said Brian.
While the boys wondered how to wake up Richard, Anais, on the other hand, had been waiting for her mother to respond from work. She doesn't know how long this will take until the robber shows up, but she prayed it would be as soon as possible. Finally, much to her joy, she could her Nicole from the other line.
"Hello?" she asked with curiosity.
"Mom, it's so good to hear you." Anais said with excitement.
"Anais? Why are you calling me this late? Actually, why are you awake to begin with?"
"I'll explain everything later…" Anais responded. "Right now, we really need you here because there is a-"
Before Anais could finish her sentence, the phone was blown into bits, leaving the child prodigy with only the receiver and the remains of the cord. The explosion also caught the trio's attention as well, as they all turned in the direction of the shot. Standing right in front of them was the robber, who has managed to recover from the shock he received earlier; his face was deep red, clearly angry for getting electrocuted twice in one night, his hand gripping on the ray gun, ready to pull the trigger anytime.
"Playtime is over, suckers! This time, I mean serious business!"
With that, he proceeded to shoot wildly at the four, all the while laughing like a complete lunatic. Startled, Gumball, Darwin, Anais and Brian panicked, screaming in sheer terror and dodging each and every shot from the robber's ray gun. Fortunately for them, Sal's erratic aiming only succeeded in destroying parts of the house, including the roof and the living room. Even more amazing, Richard, still sleeping on the couch, managed to dodge each shot from Sal's gun.
After several minutes of dodging and screaming, both the Watterson siblings and Brian dashed towards the kitchen, turning the table to form some cover, hoping to avoid any further shots from Sal. Gumball, still panting and breathing, was the first to talk.
"Darwin…won't you check… to see…if he's…still here."
Darwin nodded his head in agreement and poked from the table to see if the mad robber was still there, waving his ray gun wildly, before he turned his attention to the group.
"I think he's gone, Gumball."
As if on cue, a laser shot through the table, but the group barely dodged it just in time. All four poked their head to see Sal, still in the house and armed with the laser gun, slowly making his way towards the group, who could only trembled in fear as he came closer.
"You know, suckers…" Sal started to talk. "I was going to leave you guys alone once I find some good loot, but after being zapped twice in the same night, I think I'm going to punished all of you instead."
As Sal got closer to the terrified group, aiming his ray gun towards them, he unexpectedly stepped on a discarded popcorn on the floor, unaware of what was about to happen next.
Richard was snoozing peacefully all night ever since his wife left for work. Everyone was in bed and as far as he was concerned, he had a lot of time to sleep until tomorrow comes. For now, he just wants to sleep on the couch as long as he can.
But just then, his ears managed to pick up a loud but faint noise, prompting the large, pink bunny to wake up. Startled by the noise, Richard headed to the kitchen as fast as he could, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his kids and their fox friend hiding behind the table. Richard was puzzled by this; why were they up at this time of night? Shouldn't they be in bed by now, or did they just come by to grab a late snack?
Before he could say anything, Richard spots an unexpected surprise: it was the robber from the gas station the other night. But instead of holding that dreadful spoon he was carrying with him, he was holding an old ray gun. The robber stopped what he was doing and notice Richard, now awake, looking directly at him, leaving him stunned and speechless.
But Richard saw something he never thought would happen: the robber was standing on a piece of popcorn, crumbled all over his foot. He couldn't believe the sight he was witnessing right now.
"How could he do something so cruel and inhumane?"
Then, his expression suddenly became serious and with one war cry, Richard proceeded to leap on top of Sal, still speechless, as he dropped his ray gun and froze from this unexpected action.
"Uh…oh." was all Sal could say, before everything went dark.
Thanks to Sal's erratic shooting, the Doughnut Sheriff arrived at the Watterson residence, finding the house partially damaged, as well as finding the robber currently trapped underneath Richard's massive bulk. Amazingly, the robber managed to survive, but still suffered serious injuries, including a few broken ribs, a bruised eye and missing some of his teeth.
As the police officer hauls the injured robber in the back of the police cruiser, he turned his attention to the Watterson family, as well as their fox guest; he was especially focusing his attention on Richard.
"You should be glad that his injuries weren't too severe; otherwise, it would have been an entirely different outcome."
"Sorry about that…" Richard started to explain, scratching his head sheepishly. "Looks like I got carried away over there."
"Fair enough, sir" the Doughnut Sheriff replied. The police officer then turned his attention to the partially destroyed house before focusing on the group.
"You sure you don't need any help getting this place fixed?"
"That's alright, officer." Gumball responded. "We got everything under control."
"If you say so; right now, I'll have to bring this poor fellow to the hospital before taking him to jail."
With that, the Doughnut Sheriff went into his vehicle and drove Sal to his destination, until he was out of the group's sights. Although the Wattersons were relieved that tonight's event was over, Brian, on the other hand, still feels bad for triggering it to begin with. The purple fox then turned his attention to the group, hoping they would at least listen.
"I'm really sorry I ruined everyone's night." Brian began explaining. "I just wished I had paid more attention before everything went crazy."
"Don't worry about it, Brian." Gumball responded. "We've already told you, it's not your fault and we didn't expect it to happen either."
Brian was comfort by this, certain that neither he nor his family was upset by his actions.
"Besides…" Darwin began explaining. "This happens to us all the time."
"The boys are right, Brian." Richard suddenly spoke. "But after a while, you get used to them."
Brian was surprised to hear this, especially how familiar they were to these strange situations. Curious, he turned his attention to Anais for answers.
"Does this happen all the time in Elmore?" Brian asked.
"Twenty four hours, seven days a week and three hundred and sixty five days a year."
Brian was startled to hear this from the child prodigy; he never suspects that such occurrences were quite common around town.
"This is going to take some time getting use to."
While the purple fox was gathering his thoughts, he, as well as the Wattersons, noticed Nicole coming by, driving like mad, before parking near the sidewalk and quickly making her way towards them.
"Is it everyone alright?! I came here as fast as I could!"
"It's alright mom…" Gumball explained. "There's nothing to worry about anymore."
"Plus, we owe it all to Mr. Watterson. You could say he manage to solve the situation almost right away." said Brian.
"Oh, it was nothing." Richard chuckled, scratching his head sheepishly. Nicole sighed, relieved that nothing bad happened to them.
"I'm just glad that everyone's alright. But I just got one thing to say."
"What's that, Mrs. Mom?" asked Darwin.
"Care to explain why the house is such a mess?!" Nicole demanded, as she points to said partially destroyed house.
Richard, his children and Brian looked at one another nervously, uncertain how to answer her question, until they all focus on Gumball. Taking a deep breath, the blue feline proceeded to give his mother the best explanation he could came up.
"Well, mom, it's kind of a funny story…"
Next time on The Newcomer
Chapter 6-The Disguise: Part 1
When Gumball impulsively agreed to help Penny on her project and watch a movie with Darwin on the same day, he believes the solution to his problem is with the assistance of a reluctant Brian.
Tidbits
-Just to set the record straight, Sal Left Thumb is NOT a name I made up for the robber. It's his real name that I found on the Gumball wiki.
-I did consider using Nicole to deal with Sal, but I decided to make Richard be the solution instead.
-Just like the first part, this chapter was quite challenging, but this concludes The Sleepover, which of course, was based on a suggestion from my beta reader. Once again, I appreciate his help.
-At the request from my beta reader, in addition to references from "The Spoon", I decided to explain the set-up the story: it will follow through the show's established timeline and as such, it would make past references of most of the episodes that have aired (including those from season 2 or future seasons).
Hope you enjoyed reading and see ya next chapter!