Chapter 2: Companionship

The loudness in his voice is almost grating to Steven, and downright startling to hear it come from a big cat. He puts his hand down and shouts again.

"H-hey! You can t-talk?" Steven responds. "And you speak English too?"

"Oh, Pffffffft," mocks the cat. "I get it, I get it. I," he gestures himself, "wear clothes, I stand on two legs, and the fact that I can talk is what bothers you?"

Steven starts to sweat in both fear and embarrassment.

"You're blue too!" Steven blurts out honestly, earning a look of disdain on Gumball. "…I-I didn't mean to offend you, I just… I've never seen anything like you before…" The cat lingers on his disdainful look for two seconds, before immediately chuckling to himself. Steven is confused.

"I was just joking, dude."

Steven is left speechless, and hopelessly uncomfortable. He thinks to himself, how is he supposed to respond? What could he possibly say? Is he supposed to laugh? He can't bring himself to even smile, something that he once thought would never occur until now. The chuckling cat notices that Steven isn't laughing, and he himself is doing a poor attempt at making light of his uncomfortable situation. He slowly stops laughing, leaving the two of them in an awkward silence. The cat clears his throat.

"I'm… Gumball Watterson," he breaks the silence. "Seriously though, what are you? I've never seen anything like you before either, and I've seen a lot."

"Oh!" Steven finally responds to the question, and decides to joke around as well. He puts his wrists on his side and puffs up his chest, trying to look heroic, and states confidently "I'm Steven Universe, and I'm a Crystal Gem!" Gumball, however, is perplexed.

"…Oookay…" he says after another short period of silence, "I have no idea what the heck you're talking about, but okay…" Steven slumps in disappointment.

It's a baffling occurrence that neither of them manage to make each other laugh, despite being able to do so to other people in their world so many times. When someone comes from a place far beyond what's familiar to the recipient, any attempts at coping humor towards them are rendered useless, as the recipient is less amused and more scared of them to the point of crippling fear. Steven and Gumball learn this the hard way.

It is now at this point that Steven decides they need to fix the mess that they're both in.

"Gumball! …right?" Steven begins to ask. "Do you have any idea what happened to us?" Gumball turns around and thinks for a few moments before responding.

"Well… uh… I guess…" he turns to Steven. "Did you come from a swirly thing?" Steven tilts his head and recalls how he came.

"Y-yeah, I came from a swirly thing!"

"You too?" Gumball hums to himself, trying to make sense of their dilemma the best he can. "That swirly thing is called a portal, or something. I don't remember anything else about it, but it's not gonna show up again 'til the lights come back. Turns out it's powered by… electricity?" Gumball starts looking around on the floor, not thinking about borrowing Steven's flashlight. "I read it in a paper here, but now I can't find it."

Curiously, Steven reaches to the map again, and takes a closer look at its backside. Indeed it contains critical information about the portals. Funny, he doesn't remember ever seeing that information when he first picked up the paper. Gumball sees the paper in Steven's hands and runs over to him. He once again reads from Steven's shoulder.

"Welcome, dear Toon visitor! You have been transported to this marvelous resort by state-of-the-art, electrical multiversal magic known as PORTALS! But what are PORTALS? PORTALS are circular anomalies […]"

They read about the definition of portals. They read about the portal's functions. They read about the electric energy portals require. They read about the multiversal qualities of the portals. They read about the portals' connections to different universes.

They realize they are so disturbed with each other because they come from different universes. And along with it, all the different science and magic; the different physics, biology, and most of all, different likenesses.

They are silent and nervous. They slowly turn their heads to each other, stepping back slightly. They are tense and repulsed as they inspect their extraterrestrial skin, hair, and every other part of each other's bodies. One thing is certain; their consciousness are similar, as they mirror each other's movements as they inspect. Both of them have the simultaneous urge to poke each other, just to know what different textures from different realities are like. They slowly reach each other; right hand to left hand and vice versa. But they pull back, at the same time. They try again; right hand to left hand. They manage to touch their fingertips. They immediately pull back and inspect their own fingertips for any abnormalities, recalling how weird it felt. They both let out a deep sigh, deciding that neither of them are toxic.

After another period of silence, Steven starts to question again. This time, loud enough for Gumball to be taken aback. "But then why were we brought here? Why did the portals just open? Why were we taken here?"

"…S-sheesh, man. I don't know," Gumball shrugs casually, "I'm just a cat."

Steven hums, "Well, whatever reason we were brought here, we should probably find out how we can get home first."

Gumball laughs half-mockingly, "First, Steven? Look, I'll be honest, I don't think fate works the same way here as it does on my world. I am NOT stickin' around unlike you!" He starts to sound more agitated, "There is no reason, for me to be here! All I want is to get home, and that's final!"

It is now Steven's turn to be taken aback. He only met him for a few minutes and even he believes this attitude is somewhat unexpected of him, due to his judge of character. He isn't like this most of the time, he believes, he's just stressed. Steven starts to ponder for several minutes, studying the map further in order to look for something, humming all the while. Gumball frowns and impatiently taps the floor with his foot. As he studies the map, Steven notices another room underneath the lobby –a basement–.

"Okay! I've got a plan! See this?" he shows the map to Gumball, pointing towards the lobby, "We just have to go here and power up this thing! Then the portals will come back and we can go home!"

Gumball stares at the map, and his eyes light up for the first time. He smiles sincerely, and goofily, without any hint of mockery, and he squeaks joyfully as he scans the map. Steven looks warmly at Gumball's joyous expression. Steven doesn't want to admit it, but his curiosity slowly replaced his fear, and he wishes to know more secrets about this strange tower, especially upon seeing the map. But Gumball doesn't feel the same; he's stuck in an unfamiliar place and he desperately wants to get out. Steven decides that going home was the best for him, and the adventure could wait. He's gonna do it for his new friend.

"Well, then what are we waiting for?!" Gumball exclaims and throws the map at Steven, "Let's go!"

They shake hands with confidence, no longer agitated by the extraterrestrial textures of their hands. It is a fact that companionship is necessary in stressful and solitary environments; a half-Gem boy and a talking blue cat are no exception. More comfortable with each other, they hurriedly set off. They just needed to go further down, power up the generator, and go back up to the Portal Room, as the map specifies. How hard could it be?

They exit the room through the door to the path, and continue to quickly travel down the hall to reach the lobby. Steven observes Gumball's remarkable speed, and soon finds himself struggling to keep up with him, his cries to wait up unheard on feline ears. Maybe that's how he reached the 16th floor so quickly.

Steven turns left, and finds Gumball standing in front of the creepy elevator corner. Gumball can hardly believe he hasn't noticed the elevator in all the other floors until now; he moved so quickly he didn't see the corner. Steven walks towards Gumball at the corner. He looks at him, and the light on his eyes is gone, along with his joy. Gumball is afraid once again.

"Let's… not take the elevator," he stutters.

Steven tries to offer a rational explanation. "It probably doesn't work, anyway."

"No, man. It…" Gumball shudders. "It gives me the creeps. Like, even more than anything else here. It's just bad."

Steven stares at the elevator suspiciously, until he too feels a sense of dread towards it. With the rest of the tower's damaged state, Steven believes the elevator to be completely unsafe to use, and he mentally beats himself up for even thinking about going near it. Gumball, however, is more bothered by it for different reasons, mainly the fear of paranormal happenings within the shaft. He's been attacked by malevolent ghosts too many times, he figures.

"Okay," Steven explains, "let's just ignore it and move on, alright? We're not gonna use it."

Gumball turns to him. He closes his eyes and he swallows. "Okay."

They press on further into the hall. Gumball decides that he feels safer by Steven's side, so he slows down his pace to allow Steven to catch up. As touched on before, companion is necessary in stressful environments. They silently walk throughout the unchanging halls, getting closer and closer to the lobby. Steven decides to discover a little more about Gumball.

"So, you're a talking cat, what do you want to do -?"

"I'm going home," says Gumball firmly, not even letting Steven finish. With his single encounter with the elevator, Gumball is stressful again. He can only think about powering up the portals again and that's it.

"No I meant… do you have like, a mission or something, like me? I'm going to defend the universe!"

Gumball stares at him. "A mission?" he hesitates for a moment. "...W-well, same as you, I guess. Trying to find the secrets of the universe…" he pauses. "Well it's not really a mission, it just happens. I just do my own thing. I actually live a pretty normal life, when this stuff doesn't find me. I go to school, I play, I date, I get chased by T. Rexes…"

As Gumball continues to list his daily activities, Steven alternates between excitement and utter bafflement. He let the weirdness slide however, as Gumball continues to describe his countless misadventures, admiring his strange and wonderful life. He can't help but compliment. "Wow, your life sounds so amazing!"

Surprised, Gumball stops in his tracks and faces Steven. He opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out. He just chuckles, flattered and delighted. This guy is seriously starting to make his day. Just hanging out with him makes things better already. He reminds him of Darwin, somewhat.

They finally reach the very end of the hall, a single door standing right in front of them, presumably leading to one of the one of the floors of the lobby, along with the guest rooms. They both pause, look at each other, and Steven steps up to open it. As they step outside the door and into the lobby, both of them suddenly feel like they've walked into a different building altogether. They step into one of the long balconies with dusty red carpets, passing by some guest rooms with golden numbers engraved in the darker wooden doors, tilted and broken to reveal the whitened empty room. The remaining essence of luxury is washed away by disrepair, but Steven and Gumball's attention focused on the empty main lobby and leaned against the steel handrails.

They stare at the vast rubble of what remains of the lobby, illuminated by a skylight at the topmost of the tower. Hundreds of huge, destroyed concrete pieces, including what remains of the support beams that held up the series of strange rooms above. The entire broken state leaves the whole lobby and the guest rooms in a post-apocalyptic feel, punctuated by the gray, cloudy sky that illuminates it. Steven has a nauseous tingle in his stomach as he questions to himself just how sturdy the room and its door on the floor was when he stood above it. Disconcerted, they both began to make their way to the basement treading alongside the rest of the balcony, passing by several rooms.

"What about you, then?" Gumball brings him out of his thoughts as walk. "What's YOUR world like? Are you a superhero or something?"

Steven has no idea what to say. After hearing the near-incomprehensible "adventures" that Gumball faces daily, it's difficult to compete. Gumball has practically seen everything, what could he say that he doesn't already somewhat know? Regardless, he begins to explain his life story from the beginning. Something he would quickly regret.

"U-uh WHAT? You're your own MOM?!" Gumball shouts madly as they travel down the first stairs they've seen since entering the tower. Had it not for him grabbing the railings as he reeled back, he would have fallen the entire flight of stairs.

"It's a-it's… complicated!" Steven stammers embarrassingly before he continues calmly, "Anyway, now it's just me and the Crystal Gems. It's pretty simple; me, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl go on missions, we do really cool stuff, we beat monsters, and collect their gems to keep them safe (we don't really kill the monsters)." They continued to descend the flight of stairs, passing and going down the floors. Steven tells Gumball the details of his own adventures with the Crystal Gems, as well as the happenings in Beach City

Gumball also becomes fascinated with Steven's heroics and thrills. Unfortunately he can detect within himself a small, yet significant hint of envy for Steven's strength and bravery against almost all odds, and the fact that he lives in a place so cozy and quiet compared to the daily chaos that is Elmore. But he tries to push those thoughts aside, and instead compliments him. He wants to be nicer to strangers this time around, especially when they're not from Elmore. "Man, your life sounds so…" Gumball struggles to find the words. "…epic!"

"Ah, ha, ha!" flattered, Steven dons his usual happy chuckle. "Thank you!"

They make their way down the stairs into the main lobby. They decide not to explore it for the time being, but Steven glances at the shattered front entrance and the gray light outside. He could exit the building and find out what's out there, but he needs to help his friend, who's stressed out enough already. He moves forward before Gumball could get impatient again. They descend the next flight of stairs.

The stairs leading to the basement are pitch-black, far darker than the study room. Not even Steven's flashlight can illuminate the darkness fully; all they see is stairs and a blackened void. Steven gulps, and Gumball, in his somewhat paranoid state, half expects a ghostly face to appear and devour them. What they find instead is yet another door at the end. A metal one with a lock that's been picked with a quill that lies on the floor. He's getting pretty darn sick of doors.

Steven pushes the unlocked door open, and stare at some sort of concrete cave. The cave that is the basement. And right at the end, was the generator.