The Newcomer
An Amazing World of Gumball Story
By NeoNimbus
Chapter 27-The Mind
Normally for Brian, he would have been heading back home or hanging out with Gumball and Darwin after school. But today, the purple fox found himself in the science classroom after Bobert convinced him to try out a new project that he was working on. Even though Brian wasn't interested, the young robot was rather desperate and in need of some help. With great reluctance on his part, the purple fox complied and accompanied Bobert to the classroom. Speaking of which…
'Where is that robot to begin with?' Brian thought. 'I really need to get back home before my parents finds out.'
On cue, the door to the science classroom swung open, much to the surprise of the purple fox, as Bobert made his way inside, with both of his arms hiding something behind his back.
"Sorry for the long wait, Brian." Bobert apologized to the purple fox. "But I have to make sure that my latest project would work out according to my calculations."
"Speaking of which, what kind of project are you working on?" Brian questioned the robot.
"Allow me to show you." said Bobert, as he revealed what appeared to be a makeshift helmet of sorts to the curious purple fox, with a blue light bulb on top of it and a pressure gauge at the center. Brian, however, was far from happy; in fact, he was both dumbfounded and annoyed by the robot's "project".
"That's it?" asked an unimpressed Brian. "Your latest project is a helmet?"
"It's not the helmet that makes it so unique, it's what the helmet is capable of." asserted Bobert. "This helmet is capable of granting any person the ability to read minds. Exactly for how long, I don't know, but that is why I brought you here in the first place."
Brian continued to look at the robot with a look of doubt, uncertain what to make of it. As a robot, Bobert wasn't able to make any kind of expressions, but his tone suggested that he was quite serious about it. Despite the purple fox's skepticism, he decided to at least help him out.
"I don't know if it's going to work or not…" Brian began. "But if it'll make you happy, then let's do this."
Brian's response left the robot ecstatic, as he quickly went to the fox's aide and strap the helmet on his head and secured it tightly, making sure that it doesn't cause any harm to Brian when he activated it.
"Alright Brian, it's all set." Bobert informed the purple fox. "Now, are you sure you wanted to go through with this?"
"As long as it's safe, then yes, so go right ahead." Brian replied.
Despite some hesitation on his part, Bobert complied with the fox, as he pulled out a remote control from his back and proceeded to press the red button right away. Expecting for something to occur right away, Brian was surprised that the helmet didn't create any reaction.
"That's strange…" Brian commented. "I thought this helmet was suppose to-"
Without warning, the purple fox suddenly felt a surge of electricity all over his body, as the helmet had suddenly became active, the blue light bulb flickering like mad and the pressure gauge was increasing with each passing seconds. After what felt like an eternity, the helmet suddenly ceased functioning, as Bobert removed it from Brian's head, before looking at the fox with concern.
"Brian, are you alright? Is there anything you wanted to say?"
"Ouch." Brian muttered, before he collapsed to the floor unconscious, much to Bobert's surprise. The robot looked at the unconscious fox for a moment, until he realized there was only one solution to this.
"Maybe I should let the nurse know what happen." Bobert commented, before he quietly leaves the science classroom and made his way to the nurse's office.
The next day, Brian made his way to the Watterson residence, deciding that he would take the school bus for a change. The purple fox still had a big headache, no thanks to Bobert's project. He was just glad that both his parents weren't that upset when he arrived home, though he had to explain to them for at least several hours.
'I can't believe I agreed to help that crazy robot out.' Brian thought with displeasure. 'From now on, I'm just going to ignore him the next time I see him.'
As Brian was in his own thoughts, Gumball, along with Darwin and Anais, came out from their house and made their way to greet the purple fox.
"Hey Brian." Gumball, Darwin and Anais greeted.
"Hey there guys." Brian greeted back.
"So Brian…" Darwin began. "What happened yesterday with you and Bobert?"
"It was nothing." Brian replied, decided that it was best that none of his friends knew what happened yesterday.
'All I wanted to do is just go through today like any other day.'
"I couldn't agree more." says Gumball, prompting Brian to turn around and face the blue feline with a surprise look on his face.
"I didn't say anything, Gumball."
"What are you talking about, Brian? Of course you did." Gumball insisted, confused by the fox's response.
"I heard it too." Anais spoke out, leaving Brian stunned by this. "I don't see why you're denying it so suddenly."
"Same here." says Darwin. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Before Brian could say anything else, the school bus finally arrived and the purple fox thought it would be better to discuss with them on the way to school. As the four made their way to the bus, trying to find a spot to sit down, all Brian could do was think of what had happened seconds ago.
'That was really weird…' Brian thought. 'Why did they react like that? I haven't said a single-'
Brian's thoughts were suddenly cut off, as a certain t-rex spoke out of nowhere.
"Hello furball." Tina greeted Brian sarcastically. "Looking forward to another day of extortion?"
'Ha-ha! That was very funny, lizard breath!' Brian thought, clearly unimpressed. What happened next, however, took the purple fox by surprise.
"How dare you to talk to me like that!" Tina snarled, prompting Brian to quickly walk away, leaving him rather confused by the t-rex's response.
'First Gumball and his siblings, not Tina's behaving like this? What is going on around here?'
As Brian tried to figure out why his friends and Tina reacted like that, all the while trying to find somewhere to sit down, the purple fox was suddenly distracted by some of his classmates' behaviors, irking him in the process.
'Aw gross! Chew with your mouth close, Sussie!'
'Tobias, do everyone a favor and actually exercise for a change!'
'Try to get some new materials for your jokes, Banana Joe!'
'Relax for once, Teri!'
One by one, Brian's thoughts were filled with one wave of brutal honesty after another, until the purple fox finally made his way to an empty seat. But as soon as he sat down, Brian noticed that most, if not all, of his classmates were glaring at the purple fox, clearly infuriated what he was just thinking about them. All Brian could do was chuckle nervously; clearly uncomfortable by the attention he is receiving right now. It didn't take him too long to realize what had occurred.
'Oh man! It looks like Bobert's project did work after all! Only now they're reading my mind instead! I need to talk to him about this!'
But for now, he just wanted to get to school and pretend this never happened at all.
It was another typical day at Miss Simian's class in Elmore Junior High and for Brian, he was actually glad to be here for once. His fellow classmates were still peeved by his comments he made on the bus earlier, so the purple fox decided not to say or do anything that would make the situation ever worse. Right now, all Brian could is just focus on today's lesson and talk to Bobert about his situation, hopefully the robot would fix it right away.
"Alright Brian, you can do this." the purple fox muttered to himself. "I'll just go through my routine as usual and meet up with Bobert during lunch. It'll be a piece of cake."
"Alright class, listen up…" Miss Simian began, prompting Brian to focus his attention to the teacher. "Today, we will be learning about the history of Thomas Edison."
'I better get ready for this.' Brian thought, as pulled out a pencil and a piece of paper.
"Thomas Edison was responsible for inventing at least 1,093 patents under his name." Miss Simian explained. "His inventions were responsible for influencing telecommunications of today…"
'…Telecommunications of today…'
Miss Simian stopped what she was doing, as her students started to snicker in response. The elderly baboon was puzzled by the random outburst in her classroom, but shrugged it off and resumed her lesson.
"As I was saying, his inventions included the motion picture camera, phonograph, stock ticker and most famous of all, the light bulb."
'…the light bulb…'
Miss Simian stopped with her lecture once more, as her students snickered due to that sudden outburst. The cantankerous baboon was a bit annoyed by this. Who keeps interrupting her to begin with? Regardless, she was starting to loose her patience, but decided to restrain it for the moment and focus on today's lesson.
"Due to the success of his inventions, Thomas Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park…"
As Miss Simian continued on her lecture, Brian continued to write down the notes about Thomas Edison and at the same time, unknowingly copying everything the elderly baboon said with his thoughts, from his first demonstration right down to forming the first power station in New York. Right now, the purple fox was writing down the "War of Currents" on his paper.
'…Thomas Edison made sure that George Westinghouse didn't succeed with his goal of allowing alternating currents to be used for everyday life.'
As Brian continued to write down, what happened next turned out to be quite unfortunate for the purple fox.
"As soon as Brian O'Quinn stops copying me, he'll be paying a visit to Mr. Small's office this afternoon."
'As soon as I stopped copying Miss Simian, I'll be…paying…a…visit…'
Brian's thoughts trailed off, with bewilderment on his face, before he looked up and saw a disgruntled Miss Simian staring right down at him, displeased that the fox had kept interrupting her speech.
Brian couldn't believe how his day was turning out; first, his classmates had every single thought about them and now, he has to go to Mr. Small's office after lunch. The purple fox had no doubt that he'll be in hot water should the counselor hear his thoughts and that was the last thing he wanted to happen.
'Oh man, this is really not cool at all. What do I do now?' Brian thought, as Rocky served him today's menu, before making his way to his usual spot with Gumball and Darwin. 'I need to come up with a good idea before Mr. Small hears my thoughts.'
"Hey Brian." Gumball and Darwin greeted, prompting the purple fox to focus his attention to his friends for the moment.
"Hey guys." Brian gloomily greeted back.
"Are you still down because of what happened in Miss Simian's class?" Darwin asked.
"That's what you get for trying to copy her every single word." Gumball pointed out.
"The thing is, it wasn't on purpose…" Brian started to explain. "Ever since I volunteer to help Bobert out with his project yesterday, everyone has been reading my mind instead of the other way."
"Wait a minute…" Darwin began, arching an eyebrow in curiosity. "I thought you said it was nothing."
"It was until this morning when I got on the bus. At that time, I didn't think that it was going to work like it did." Brian said defensively.
"That makes sense now." says Gumball. "Have you tried to think of something else?"
Brian glared back at the blue feline in response, before Gumball quickly realized his poor choice of words.
"Oh, that's right. Sorry about that." Gumball sheepishly apologized.
Just then, a certain young robot passed by their table, prompting Brian to confront him the moment he showed up.
"There you are, Bobert!" the purple fox exclaimed. "Thank goodness I finally bumped into you. I really need your help!"
"What seems to be the trouble, Brian?" asked the robot, prompting Brian to take a deep breath, before he started to explain how his project ended up working too well, causing everyone to read his mind instead of the other way around. As soon as the purple fox finished his story, Bobert took a moment to ponder about this. Eventually, the robot turned his attention to Brian, as if he had found the answer.
"Tell you what, I'll try to locate the helmet and reprogram it to fix the problem. In the meantime, try to keep Mr. Small busy before he could read your mind."
"Thank you so much, Bobert." Brian said to the robot, relieved that his problem will be over soon. Right now, though, he needed to get to Mr. Small's office and made sure that things didn't get any worse.
Brian sat on his chair near Mr. Small's office, waiting patiently for the hippie to show up at any given moment. Earlier in the cafeteria, Bobert insisted that the only way to prevent the hippie from reading his mind was to keep talking with him, while the robot reprogrammed the helmet to remove the fox's mind-reading ability. Brian just hopes that he could meet up with Bobert when this is over.
'Where is Mr. Small to begin with? I need to get this done and over with.'
On cue, the door to Mr. Small's office opened, as the hippie poked his head to see Brian, beckoning him to come in right away.
"Brian, I'm so glad you dropped by this afternoon." says Mr. Small. "Now, before we get started-"
"Don't mind if I do, Mr. Small." Brian suddenly spoke, cutting off the hippie's sentence, as he made his way inside. "Let me just say I apologize for everything I did this morning."
"Go on." Mr. Small said to the fox.
"You see…" Brian began. "Being a kid, especially at this age, can really feel the pressure building up from within, especially when you have to get up so early and try to keep your mind focus on the task ahead."
"Please continue." Mr. Small insisted.
"I guess I was so worked up by what's been happening around me that I inadvertently let out all of my pent-up rage from my mouth and I accidentally upset so many people in the process. Believe me, I feel really bad for what I did back there."
"Is there anything else you wanted to add?" asked Mr. Small.
"Well…" Brian began.
30 minutes later…
Brian continued on with his "explanation" to Mr. Small, prolonging the session with the hippie as best as he can. Some were about his problems with Miss Simian's outrageous actions and other times, it was some random moments that he had done on a few occasions.
For his part, Mr. Small continued to listen on, jotting down what was told about him. The hippie didn't know what to make of this and it seemed a bit off with the purple fox's action. At the same time, Brian was quite open and gave some intriguing info that Mr. Small thought was interesting enough to write down, including his recent ones right now.
"…So you see, Mr. Small…" Brian began to talk. "That's what I have to deal with every single day of my life."
As soon as the purple fox said those last words, Brian felt exhausted from going non-stop with his talks, while Mr. Small put his notepad and pencil on the desk, somewhat astonished that the purple fox was able to tell him all of this for half an hour.
"I have to say, those were some interesting things you have told me just now." Mr. Small admitted. "But in any case, I think it's safe to say that this session had reached its conclusion."
"You really mean it?" asked Brian.
"Sure. I don't see any problems aside from having a bad day." the hippie replied. "Anyway, you're free to go now."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Small." Brian thanked the hippie, as he got up from his seat and made his way to the door, before Mr. Small began to talk once more.
"Oh, one more thing…" the hippie began. "Try to think positive next time."
"I will." Brian stated, before something unexpected happened next.
'IDIOT!'
Brian's face turned from joy to horror, as he had let his guard down, allowing Mr. Small to unfortunately hear his thoughts, leaving the purple fox to become worried of the next course of action the hippie would take next.
Brian couldn't believe what happened just now; just when he thought he was in the clear, in his moment of victory, he allowed his thoughts to be heard out loud for Mr. Small to hear what he have to say and as a result, he will be sent to Principal Brown's office. If the furry slug heard his latest thought, he has no doubt that he'll be facing expulsion.
'Where in the world if Bobert?!' Brian thought. 'If he doesn't show up soon, Principal Brown will know what I'm thinking and that won't be cool at all!'
"Am I interrupting something, furball?" asked a certain deep voice, prompting the purple fox to reluctantly turned around and saw Tina staring down at him, much to his dismay.
"Look Tina, I'm really having problems of my own right now, so whatever it is you have in mind, can it wait?" Brian pleaded with the t-rex.
"It's going to happen right now, furball." Tina insisted, as she leaned closer to Brian's face. "I still haven't forgotten about you calling me a lizard breath back in the bus, so I suggest you apologize right now and or else!"
"Alright already, I'm sorry." Brian quickly said, hoping it would be enough to please her. What happened next, however, made the situation much worse.
'I'm sorry to know that you're not being so good looking to begin with!'
Brian couldn't believe that he just thought of that just now and it didn't help that Tina was there to listen to it in front of her, as her expression grew darker and she growled much louder than usual.
"Oh, that does it!" Tina shouted, before she gave a tremendous roar and proceeded to attempt to stomp on the purple fox. Unfortunately for her, Brian managed to dodge it just in time, before he quickly regained his composure and ran for dear life, with the carnivore in pursuit.
"This is really not a good day!" Brian called out, as Tina rampaged throughout the hallway, destroying every locker and nearly crushing some of her fellow students in her path.
'I have to get to the science classroom and find Bobert fast before I'm a goner!' Brian thought, as he pushed several trash cans along the way, hoping to slow down the enraged t-rex.
Tina, however, was unfazed by this and easily crushed the trash cans, much to the purple fox's chagrin. Desperate to get rid of the dinosaur off of his back, he noticed Banana Joe popping halfway in the hallway and he suddenly got an idea.
"Hey Banana Joe!" Brian called out, prompting the banana to look at Brian in surprise. Before Banana Joe could say anything, Brian turned to the opposite direction, prompting Tina to do the same, only to step on the banana, causing her to slip into an oncoming wall, knocking her out in the process.
"I'm alright." says Banana Joe, despite being injured in the process.
Brian is relieved that Banana Joe was fine and that Tina was knocked out for the moment. But he also knew that the enraged dinosaur will eventually recover and the purple fox wasted no time by running through the hallway with all of his might, hoping he could make it to the science classroom on time.
Fixing the helmet proved to be a lot complicated than Bobert had anticipated, forcing him to replace a few broken wires, along with the light bulb and improved its usage. It may have been long and tedious, but at least the robot now knows that the helmet wouldn't cause any serious harm once he activated it on Brian's head. Speaking of which…
"I should get this to him right away." Bobert noted.
Before the robot could make a single move, Brian suddenly burst through the door to the science classroom and almost immediately, began to barricade said door with several desks, shelves and even a few chemistry sets. After making sure that the door was secured, the fox sighed with relief, before he confronted Bobert with a glare.
"Where the flip have you been?!" Brian demanded.
"I apologized for the unfortunate delay." Bobert apologized. "It took a lot longer than I thought to fix this helmet and-"
"Alright, apology accepted." says Brian, cutting off the robot. "Just put that helmet on me quick before she comes."
Confused by that last statement, Bobert was about to question him when they heard a loud banging outside the science classroom, leaving them startled by this. It didn't take too long for them to realize who was responsible for doing it.
"I know you're hiding in there, furball!" Tina shouted. "Come out and face your punishment like a man before I barge in there and do it for you!"
"There's no time for explanation!" a panicked Brian informed Bobert. "Just strap that thing on me and let's get this over with!"
Nodding his head in agreement, Bobert strapped the helmet on Brian's head as tightly as he could, all the while securing it in its place. After making sure that the helmet sat firmly on the fox's head, the young robot pulled out the remote control from behind his back, ready to press the red button at any given moment.
"Here goes." says Bobert.
Without any hesitation, the robot proceeded to press the red button on the red remote, causing the helmet to unleash a powerful surge of electricity all over Brian's body. After almost a minute or so, the helmet turned off, as Bobert removed the helmet from the electrocuted fox's head.
"So Brian, did it work?" asked the concern robot.
Brian, however, didn't respond right away, as the fox was too busy trying to regain his composure. After stretching out his arms and legs, the purple fox was about to answer Bobert's question when the door burst wide open, scattering the various objects around, as Tina made her way in the classroom, slowly approached Brian with malicious intent.
"You got nowhere to run now, furball!" Tina yelled at Brian. "But before I pummel you to the ground, do you have any last words to say?"
"Actually, I do." Brian said to the dinosaur. "I just wanted to say that I owe you an apology for that last remark earlier and I assure you that I really mean it."
The purple fox then closed his eyes, praying that this was enough to convince the t-rex to change her mind, all the while fearfully thinking about the punishment she intended to inflict on him.
'If this doesn't work, then I'm really a goner for sure!'
Brian then waited for Tina to react to his thoughts, only to find her inspecting him up close instead, suspicious by his apology. After the carnivore stared at the purple fox for a few minutes, she finally spoke, breaking the silence between them.
"Alright, it looks like you were sincere this time around." Tina said to the terrified fox. "But don't say something like that ever again!"
After Tina made her threat, the dinosaur turned around and exited the science classroom, leaving both Brian and Bobert in the classroom on their own, clearly shaken by the dinosaur's presence.
"Thanks for saving me back there." Brian thanked the robot, as he sighed with relief.
"Your welcome, Brian." says Bobert. "Sorry for causing you so much trouble to begin with."
"That's alright, it's all good." Brian said to the robot, accepting his apology. "I'm just glad that this all over."
"Anyway…" Bobert began. "About the project-"
"Thanks, but no thanks." says Brian. "I'm not interested and right now, I have to get to Principal Brown's office to clear this whole mess up."
With that said, the purple fox left the science classroom in a hurry, wanting to get the whole ordeal behind him as quickly as he can.
The rest of the afternoon went by without any further incidents, as the school bell rang to signal the end of the day, allowing its students to leave for the day until tomorrow. Among the students are Gumball, Darwin, Anais and Brian, the latter relieved that today's ordeal was over.
After making his way to Principal Brown's office, Brian came up with an excuse for the furry slug that he was simply talking about something else and never meant to offend Mr. Small at all. Though Principal Brown was a bit suspicious by this, the furry slug accepted it and called the hippie in so that both of them would bury the hatchet and move on.
'Thank goodness that's over with.' Brian happily thought.
"So Brian, were you able to get Bobert to fix your problem?" asked Gumball.
"As far as I could tell, no one has been reading my mind since then." Brian replied.
"That's a shame then…" Darwin began. "It would have been easier for us to uncover what Miss Simian was up to."
"After what I've been through, I don't think so." Brian informed the two-legged fish.
"Glad to know that everything turned out alright." Anais said to the fox. "Anyway, who's up for a race back home?"
"You don't need to read my mind to know the answer." Brian said to the child prodigy, before he and his friends began to ran all the way to the Watterson residence, just glad to have some fun after what he has been through.
Next time on The Newcomer
Chapter 28-The Brain: Part 1
When Anais' Brain suddenly ditched its host, Gumball, Darwin and Brian desperately go on a frenzied search for it.
Tidbits
-This chapter was loosely inspired by "Mind over Chatter", an episode from Dexter's Laboratory.
-First time I did a chapter involving Bobert. Hopefully I did this one very well.
-This was rather tricky to do when I first started this chapter, but in the end, it turned out alright.
I hope everyone enjoyed "The Mind" and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!