The winners
Days have passed but James Lâne still didn't come back. Someone in "Alpha Studio" was wondering if the galactic ceremony was over. Meanwhile, the issue #30 of "The greatest adventures of Billy Bunny" wasn't in stores.
"I wonder what they will do know!" said Gumball once at home after school.
"Shall we go to ask them?" proposed his brother.
"Sure, why not?" said Gumball and they left home.
They went to the "Alpha Studio". Jenny wasn't at the reception this time. There was Jack instead of her.
"What do you want?" asked the anthropomorphic dog.
"We are Gumball and Darwin Watterson. We would like to know about our comic….." Jack interrupted Gumball's phrase;
"Oh, so you are the Wattersons, right? The principal was looking for you! Go to the third floor!"
"Thanks!" said Gumball reaching the elevator.
"Principal, they got a new principal?" said Gumball inside the elevator.
"Probably. Perhaps James's back!" answered Darwin.
The principal's door was open but the office was empty.
Looking around Gumball noticed all the awards on the shelfs. They were sixteen this time, but they should be seventeen if James actually won the galactic one.
Principal's sit was empty.
"Gumball, look!" said Darwin pointing at the door.
On the door glass there was written: "Principal: Jenny Lovejoy Brocket"
James's name was completely removed.
"Oh, there you are!" said a female voice.
Jenny arrived from the hallway. She was happy to see the two kids.
"Jenny? You are the new principal?" said Gumball.
"What happened to James?" asked Darwin.
"We'll talk about this very soon. Now, please, come inside and take a sit!"
They entered in the office and took a sit. Jenny sat on the principal's chair.
"So, what happened to James?" said Darwin again.
"Is he dead?" asked Gumball.
"Oh no, he's not dead!" said Jenny.
"We found him this morning in a forest. He returned from the galactic ceremony. To be fair, we have no idea when exactly he turned back. He may turned back the day after his departure because we found him with his clothes torn and ruined!"
"So, why he's not here?" asked Gumball.
"Because he's in a nut house, right now!"
"What?" said Darwin amazed.
"Yes, he was acting strange when we found him in the forest. He was meowing and purring like a cat. We talked to him but now all he says is "Meow"!"
Both Gumball and Darwin had a vision of James Lâne acting like a cat. They hardly hold a laugh.
"Now he is meowing, purring and scratching the walls of his cell all the time!" said Jenny.
"How come? Did the aliens brainwash him?" asked Gumball.
"Oh no, I don't think so!" said Jenny.
"When we found him we also found this…"
Jenny opened a drawer and took a little golden statue.
"What is it?" asked Darwin.
"It's a Zenit!" said Jenny.
The Zenit was the galactic award that the alien Xxyyzz Xxyyzz talked about.
"So, James won!" said Gumball.
Gumball tried to read the plate on the award but it was written in alien language.
"So James went mad winning an award?" asked Gumball a bit confused.
"Hey Gumball, look!" said his brother pointing the plate.
"It's an alien language Darwin, I can't understand!"
"No, look below!"
Under the alien ideograms, there was a translation in small print.
"Worst cartoonist of the galaxy for "The mystery of the hood""
"So James turned mad for this award!" said the blue cat.
"Yes, he never won such a prize. The shock turned him mad!" explained Jenny.
"Neither the aliens loved Nancy slime!" said Darwin laughing.
They laughed for a while.
"In fact people hated the slime version of Nancy!"
"Really?" asked Gumball.
"Yes, for this the comic book's sales started dropping!"
Nancy took from the drawer a flyer showing the selling chart.
The issue #20 reached the two millions units sold, while the following issues sold less. The #29 sold only 100.000 copies.
"People hated Nancy. But James shown me good reviews of her in his Elmore Plus channel!" said the blue cat puzzled.
Jenny explained.
"James paid some people that would write good reviews about her and make the sales lift!"
"James could do that?" asked Darwin.
"Yes, he has a lot of money! But this time his plan didn't work!"
Gumball was about to say something when Jenny talked again.
"For this he decided to kill her!"
"What?" screamed both the fish and the cat.
Jenny took a pile of sheets from a second drawer.
It was the screenplay of the issue #30 of "The greatest adventures of Billy Bunny" written by James and other five writers, it's name was "End of a love".
Gumball and Darwin read the script. It was clear; Nancy would die in that issue killed by a group of monster hunters.
"That would lift the sales! The death of a support character always make the sales lift!" said Jenny.
"So, are you going to publish this episode?" asked Gumball.
"No, we can't proceed without James or your consent!" said Jenny looking at the cat.
"My consent?" asked Gumball.
"It's your comic!" said Jenny.
"Not anymore, I signed a resignation contract that day!"
"Oh, no. Your sign wasn't complete!"
"So, that means, I'm still the owner of the comic book?" asked Gumball excited.
"That's right, at 100%. Now James is no longer here!"
Gumball recalled James's words before Darwin's resignation: "I can do whatever I want with your comic book. It will be like this until I'm gone!" and now James was gone.
"Now we have the control of our comic once again!" said Gumball happily.
"We can create our issue #30 as we want!" said Darwin excited.
"We can make Nancy finally a cat as we imagined!" said Gumball also excited.
"Of course, and I'll give you a hand! Moreover it was my idea!" said Nancy.
"What? You are "Anonymous"?" said the blue cat and the doe nodded.
"Yes, they said that draw was made by a draftsman of the studio!" said Darwin recalling the myth.
"I'm not a professional draftsman but I like drawing!" said Jenny.
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's start!" said Darwin impatient.
Gumball and Darwin regained their comic book possession once again. When Darwin concluded his comic book series "The perfect strangers" with the issue #5 where the Grizzly bear marries the Panda, he started to work with the issue #30 of "The greatest adventures of Billy Bunny" with his brother.
First, they had to remove all the weird characters. They explained that they were aliens from another dimension, so they opened a dimensional portal and turned back on their home planet.
"Done! Now Leafville is once again populated by anthropomorphic animals!" said Darwin after creating the cartoon where all the weird character disappear through the portal.
"Great. Now we have to fix Nancy!" said Gumball.
Fixing Nancy was simple but not easy. She was a shape-shifter, she was able to turn into a cat. The problem was to find a good reason to do that.
"Billy already loves her as a slime, so why should Nancy turn into a cat?" said Darwin.
"Because she…..needs arms and legs to be an athlete!" said Gumball.
"Probably but, she also can grow those parts without shape-shifting into a cat. We need a better excuse!" said his brother.
"Should we ask for help from James's writers?" proposed the blue cat.
"Absolutely not. They already made enough trouble! We can do it by ourselves!" answered the goldfish.
The thought deeply for a solution.
"I got it!" said Gumball.
"Listen!" said calling his brother.
Gumball explained his plan and Darwin agreed.
"Great idea!"
The issue #30 was ready. Before publishing, Gumball and Darwin read their comic.
They read the Nancy part.
"Billy, I must confess…." said Nancy in a balloon as a slime.
"I'm a slime but I have cat ears and a cat tail because I was supposed to be a cat!"
"My mom is a cat also my dad. I had to born as a cat but a witch casted a curse on me, then I was born as a slime!"
Gumball and Darwin turned the page;
"The witch was jealous of my parent's love. They were the happiest couple in Leafville. Therefore, she tried to ruin their happiness but with no success. So, she decide to ruin their life by ruining me! Before dying, the witch said that only the true love could break the curse! I was ugly and dangerous. No one loved me. So I disguised my appearance with a cape!"
Gumball and Darwin read the following balloon.
"But now I met you. You loved me as I am. With you, I discovered the true love. Now the curse is broken and I can finally take my true form!"
The following pages shown Nancy slowly shape shifting into an anthropomorphic cat.
"Awww….she's so cute!" said Darwin once Nancy finished her transformation.
"Yup….she looks like our mom Nicole!" said Gumball.
Nancy helped the tow kids to draw Nancy cat. It was hard to believe but she was prettier than the one of the myth.
The comic book ended with the wedding of Billy and Nancy. They had a female bunny and a male cat as children. None of them had shape-shifting powers, and they lived happily ever after.
"Awwww….what a nice ending!" said Darwin when he saw the "The end" title.
"Yes, it's perfect!" agreed his brother. After many vicissitudes, Gumball and Darwin gave to Billy his deserved happy conclusion.
"Let's publish!" screamed Darwin.
"Yes, let's press!" said Gumball.
Jenny started to publish the comic.
The next week it arrived in all bookstores. Its name was "And they lived happily ever after" and it was written only by Gumball and Darwin. It was a huge success. It sold 3 millions. Fans loved the new Nancy and the ending.
Days later Gumball and Darwin received a nomination at the Enny awards and they won.
Their comic book won the award for the "Best story".
"I'm so proud of you!" said Nancy at the two kids when the ceremony was over.
"Thanks Jenny!" said Gumball.
Jenny stayed in the Alpha Studio as principal and she was one of the greatest.
James stayed at the nut house. He no longer made cartoons or comics.
Gumball and Darwin also no longer made comics and proudly kept their Enny award on their room's shelf.
"You guys are amazing!" said their sister Anais.
"Yes…..now I'm hungry, let's eat!" said Darwin.
"I wonder what's for dinner!" said Gumball walking down the stairs.
END