A/N: Guys, I am so, so sorry this took so long. I was too caught up with my studies and brainstorms to give this story any proper focus, even on spring break. So even then, I'm kinda worried that some parts of this chapter may seem kinda odd or inconsistent. You know how long Chapter 3 was? Well, this is even longer, which only contributed to the massive delay. Good news is, with my new-found use of Google Docs, I can work on chapters a lot faster, so I hope I don't delay too much this time around.

Anyhoo, enjoy this fresh new update I guess. If you have any questions as o what the heck is going on, you can send me a PM, or ask me at .com...

Chapter 5: Rich Doors

With the sounds of heavy drills, the Crystal Gems work on building the Rooms of the tower.

Earlier, they and the park crew had found all the materials they needed in a large storage room at the end of the hall next to the ballroom, including the materials to decorate the rooms. After a period yet more fascination and bewilderment at this strange find, the kids were sought out and then ushered back into the ballroom before they started, and Steven handed in the tower's map to Pearl. She looked at it in slight disappointment, unsatisfied by the simplistic and incomplete design, but took to observing its possible magical properties. They then began work right away.

First, Skips assisted the Gems in clearing the ravaged lobby, smashing the giant pieces of rubble into smithereens, and having Mordecai, Rigby, and Pops sweep the remains. This allowed them to uncover the withered remains of the support beams. Pearl then drew in minutes a more precise blueprints map of the tower's structure to compensate for the simple map. As bizarre as they were, Pearl decided that the Rooms needed better, more technical designs so they can be used as easily as possible, while still maintaining their original properties. Their cartoonish properties, if you will.

In addition to fixing the concrete beams, Pearl had planned on creating a cross-section of five rooms for each floor; four rooms facing the doors in the halls, and the fifth in the middle. The four empty spaces would allow the skylight to pass down between the walls of the rooms. After the blueprints were finished, the Gems restored the concrete pillars until they reached the measurement that Pearl had arranged. The five pillars are cylindrical and thick, recently painted turquoise, and built in the precise measurement in height and diameter in order to carry the weight of over twenty stories of Rooms.

Now it is all settled. The Gems are now installing more steel beams to form the skeleton of the Rooms. The employees are tasked with restoring the lobby and the hotel rooms, cleaning up all the dust and any remaining debris. Outside, the afternoon sun finally shines brightly through the skylight as they work, stopping for a moment to observe the alien sunlight. Lion yawns and basks in the sunlight, laying on top of the Study Room, the one room still standing.

As Mordecai begrudgingly continues to sweep the floors clean, watches the clearer skies outside the broken entrance. He stretches his back and groans. Rigby starts to do the same, coupled with his annoying loud whining. Mordecai grimaces and starts to walk away, not wanting to shut his friend's mouth for the fourteenth time. Even the sounds of all the work the Gems are doing isn't as grating. He's sure that he has a backache now. Why can't he just quit for a while; Benson wasn't there, he's not at risk of getting fired, so why is he bothering? Oh, right, because Steven they had to or something. Whatever.

Making sure that Rigby doesn't see, he drops his sweep and walks over to the pillars. After looking up to the work that the Gems were doing seemingly non-stop, he decides the noise doesn't bother him. He stretches his neck and leans comfortably in the center pillar, leaning on the fresh turquoise paint, basking underneath the warmth of the skylight. Ahhhh, how soothing. He could stay there forever...

But somewhere in the back of the tower, where adults would like to rest, the kids are unfortunately restless. Gumball, Darwin, Anais, and Penny sit on a table bored out of their minds, either slumped forward to the table, or backwards to the chair; the very same table they were in hours ago before they were ushered back into the room. For all the hours the Crystal Gems and the park crew worked, the kids had to sit in the ballroom 'for their own safety.' They don't have much to explore, since the whole area had basically been turned into a giant construction zone. Steven paces all across the room trying to think of something to do. His suggestion to take a closer look at the rest of the ballroom had been ignored.

Steven hums loudly. The progress of having fun at the tower is so far… not so good. Having run out of ideas, Steven has his back turned to the group and sighs wistfully, though he continues to try to think. Gumball snorts in annoyance, and lifts his hand up to the table. He starts to bang the table once, followed by Anais tapping on the empty plate with the table's silverware, then bangs twice, and anais taps again. After the fourth bang, Darwin delivers an immediate bang with his own fist, and as Gumball pauses, Anais continues to tap. The three siblings unconsciously start a new cycle, and Penny begins to whistle a tune as they do so.

Steven eyes slightly widen and he begins to turn around, listening with interest. He squints and listens closely. It's not random. Gumball and Anais are playing a very specific rhythm, and Penny's whistles are in sync with said beat. Steven's eyes begin to light up as he watches their small symphony.

"Hey!" he shouts excitedly, bringing the other kids' immediate attention to him and seizing their playing. "You guys were playing music!"

They let out small gasps. Penny cracks a little smile.

"Oh—um, really?" Gumball asks with genuine interest. He looks down with the fist he had been drumming with. All the other kids proceed to exchange glances, and pondered just what they were doing, humming in awe at what they realized they just produced. Gumball then looks back at Steven, who starts running up to him.

"No, really!" Steven exclaims as he reaches the table and leans on it, "You guys were doing good! I bet you guys can make music at any time with ease!"

Gumball scoffs. He rolls his eyes and rests his elbow on the table. "Not me. I keep failing music class..."

Steven gasps dramatically and holds his own face. "WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" He leans closer to Gumball frantically, causing him to flinch slightly. "But why?"

Gumball snorts and pushes Steven away from him, not looking at him in the eye. "Well, my principal says I've got... No sense in timing or something. I keep missing cues, I miss triangles." He turns sharply and glares at Steven in disbelief. "How do you miss a triangle?!"

A sweat pricks on Steven's raised brow. He shrinks his head down to his shoulders, muttering a mixture of uhhh, and whaaa.

"Strangely enough, he's got better grades in just about everything else," Anais comments, bringing the handle of the fork she was tapping with to her chin. "Granted, most of the time it's because I help him..."

With a small huff, Steven releases his bewildered thoughts and arches his back. "Well, this is simply outrageous!" he declares. "We've GOT to teach you right now!" He turns around and sprints away from the table, straight to the door of the ballroom. All the other kids look at him in interest, and Gumball is left wondering what Steven's got in mind. Steven turns back at the group, smiling widely and panting excitedly.

"Guys," he announces happily. "Music's REALLY important. Music is fun, it's amazing, and it brings people together. If we all played some music, we can be a lot closer, and we can really make the most of our time. We'll be friends. That's why I'm gonna teach you how to make music!" He claps his hands and opens the door. "C'mon, let's started!"

Darwin hops off the table whooping in joy, finally having something to do. He runs to follow Steven through the door. Penny chuckles and floats off, following them both. Gumball simply sputters a raspberry and gets off the table. "O-kay," he says in insincerity and runs to the others. Steven's idealism is almost too much for Gumball to bear. Though even he thinks these thoughts might be going a little too far, Gumball hopes that a good blow to the face might knock some reality into Steven.

Still in her table distracted, it takes a minute for Anais to realize what they're doing, and gasps in worry. "Uh-Wait! They're still building—" she lingers in silence for a few seconds. She then rolls her eyes in defeat."Aw, heck, if you can't beat'em, join'em..." She hops off the table and tries to run to the others, her tiny legs keeping her from fully catching up.

Steven stands tall facing the ballroom's door with his wrists on his hips. He waits until Darwin, Penny, and Gumball exit to the back of the lobby, the sounds of the Crystal Gems building the Rooms barring ahead of them. Looking back over his shoulder for a moment to hear the noise, Steven faces the others.

"Alright, guys," he points to the hall on his left. "Pearl said they found lots of stuff on a room that way. I bet we can find instruments there," he makes a single clap with his hands and starts running left. "C'mon let's go! Let's start with some lessons!"

"Hey, woah, wait a minute, wait a minute!" Gumball calls, and Steven stops in confusion.

Huh? Steven turns around. "Uh... What?" Steven asks sincerely.

Gumball clears his throat and averts his gaze slightly. "Well, I was just wondering... we don't have to use instruments right now..." he explains as playful as he can, not wanting to sound uninterested in the idea of using boring instruments. "Why use all those instruments when you can just use what's around you? I mean... You heard us back there, we can just use everything else as an instrument."

Steven's eyes widen more. Intriguing idea. Is there anything Gumball can't do to surprise him into silence? Steven stands in silence and puts his fist in his mouth in thought. "Hmmmm... Should we go for the more fun route, like Amethyst would've said, or the more practical route like Pearl...?" he thinks to himself out loud. He then gestures to Gumball warmly. "Whatcha got in mind?"

"Oh!" Gumball beams up slightly at the thought of his idea not being shot down for once. He quickly runs to the door. "Y'know, like this!" Gumball slightly opens the door and slams it. The hollow, echoing sound it emits is drum-like, and the hinges are smooth enough to allow him to slam as quickly as he can. He repeats the rhythm he had been drumming with his fingers, slower, but producing a far louder noise than before, then stops. "... Like that."

Steven observes with interest —and internal excitement— at Gumball's little improvisation. "That sounds pretty good!" he comments. "But I think we're gonna need a LOT more doors to make the sound you wanna make. Just the right sound..."

"How about the rooms over there?" Penny asks pointing ahead towards the pillars. They turn to her. "Do you think some of them might work?"

"Worth a shot." Darwin says almost pleadingly as he turns towards Steven. "...Right?"

Steven smiles warmly. "Whatever you guys want!" his face lights up in joy and eagerness, his eyes shining like stars once more. He pumps himself up, ready for fun, and points ahead to the pillars. "So let's make some sound!"

Giggles ensue as Steven speedily leads them to the lobby, laughing to himself as he does. As Darwin cheers and Penny starts to giggle again in her bubbly manner, Gumball watches on in contentment as they follow his lead, silently eager to join in on the fun as soon as he can. Unconsciously, his smile begins to fade, and his eyes squint.

But before he can run, Gumball hears the door behind him being knocked hard. His face twists into confusion, and slight fear if it's really what he thinks it is, and he leans in to open it slowly. When the door opens all the way through, his sister walks out with a scratched face, a bruised eye, and a terrible demonic scowl. His pupils shrink and he begins to sweat as his fears are confirmed. Before he can say anything, Anais holds a finger up.

"Just carry me," she demands. Gumball looks in a combination of both pity and annoyance, sighing as he grabs her head and starts to sprint towards the others.

In their single-minded goal of fun, the kids run ahead past the pillars, seemingly unaware of their presence and creating half-figure eights as they run straight through them without touching them. Amidst the giggles, and a breeze when Gumball and Anais run past, Mordecai, who has since fallen asleep leaning on the pillar, stirs and mumbles. Uncaring, he immediately resumes his nap, drawing a long, satisfied sigh without opening his eyes once and smacking his "lips," finding himself a little stuck on the pillar. Rigby opens his bored eyes enough to see the kids speeding past him, bringing the pillars into his view, and watches Mordecai nap. Rigby cracks a smile and tries to stifle his laughter. A quiet, giggly "oh, man" escapes his lips as he approaches Mordecai in his position, ignoring everything around him.

As they reach the lobby, the kids begin to climb up the stairs, looking through doors that haven't been tilted or decayed severely. They scatter, running throughout the halls and finding doors to use in the rooms of the balcony. Pops observes them from one of the deeper halls and walks ahead, forgetting about vacuuming the carpet.

Gumball sets Anais down on the last floor of the balcony and begins to look for a door. "So..." Anais rubs her chin as she watches Gumball, her anger replaced by interest and a small, curious smile. "What's the plan?"

"Oh, yeah!" Gumball pauses. "We... are gonna make some music!" Gumball walks up to a door that had not been broken. "With whatever we can find!"

He opens and slams the door, and starts the rhythm from scratch. Darwin, and Anais soon join him in their doorly percussion throughout the functioning doors of the hotel, turning knobs to produce clicking sounds in addition to the low-sounding slams, laughing a little all the while. They all begin to alternate slams, timing the same rhythm quickly and accurately. Penny starts to trot and flutter up the hotel halls as the rhythm echoes through them, listening to the sounds pleasantly.

Slam-click, slam, slam-click, slamslam. Clickclick. Slam-click, slam…*

"Yeah, that's it!" Steven cheers, walking down the halls with them and paying attention to Penny's whistles."You've got it! You've got the right sound!"

Steven dances along with the rhythm. He starts to "doo" a new melody along with Penny's whistles as the others slammed the rhythm, trying to think of lyrics on the spot. Pops begins to happily dance as well, laughing quietly to himself as he enjoys the music, and even humming some of the tunes along with Steven. It doesn't take long for everything to reach Skips's ears as he mopped the floor around the lobby. He slightly raises one eyebrow in bafflement as he turns around.

"What the heck is all that noise?" asks Skips, somewhat startled.

"It's music!" Darwin pops out next to Skips seemingly out of nowhere. He snatches Skips's mop, dancing with it and singing to its dripping head. "Oh today we're go, go, gooo..."

Skips stares at the kids in baffled amusement, wide-eyed and not cracking a smile, but laughing inside. He watches Penny whistling a little louder. Anais has climbed the stairs, and creates more sounds with the doors along with her brothers, in addition to tapping on the metal bars of the balcony, which produces a strange, piano-like vibration (Anais reels back in confusion at this, but continues regardless). The kids continue to play their improvised symphony, Steven creating "doo-doo-doos" and "dah-dah-dahs" with his mouth, and Pops continues to dance. Gumball and Darwin find themselves singing alongside Steven; Gumball sings slightly more sinister tunes as Anais hit sour "notes," while Darwin always sung the highest notes.

Penny, in a burst of inspiration, soon starts to fly towards the door at the end of the 8th floor in full speed, straight to the Rooms that the Gems were building. The musical noises from the lobby drown out as she settles down to the floor and closes the door. She giddily heads up the slopes hallway. She heads up all the way to the 14th floor, panting slightly, then faces one of the four doors from that room. Her smile slowly disappears. She approaches the door with caution, twist the knob, and with a creak, the rather unstable door is pushed open. Penny gulps and looks at the chasm.

The steel beams nearly towered for seven stories from the 8th floor up. The chasm seems larger than Penny remembers it; the horizontal beams spread out widely, almost 20 feet away from each other for each room. This meant that the chasm, and the whole interior of the tower would be miles wide on Penny's perspective. The Rooms would have to be BIG to warrant such space ―as they ought to be, after all, what's in store in the future Rooms would need it. Somehow, looking at all the work in progress, the music back at the lobby rings in her mind again, despite not hearing it. Penny looks up to find the Study Room in the 16th floor, though she couldn't see Lion. She looks down and finds the Crystal Gems at work… certainly not as she expected it to be (especially considering her father's profession).

She watches in awe as Pearl, in the beams from the 9th floor, walks effortlessly in perfect balance with her tiptoes as she reaches towards her conjured toolbelt for a angle measuring tool, testing the accuracy of the beams as far as the tower's architecture would allow. Deciding that it was satisfactory and safe, Pearl leaps in a single bound to the beams in the 10th floor, and twirls herself to stand at the top of one of them, walking towards the corner to repeat the process. Amethyst also walks around the higher beams closer to Penny in perfect balance, but doesn't seem to do anything of importance, more like she's goofing off, and yet she demonstrates casual acrobatics and finds her hanging on to a beam with a single arm while keeping her body rigid and hopping around without concern of falling. She looks up at Garnet walking down one of the uppermost beams, carrying under her single arm another beam by herself to put it into place with a gigantic drill in her other arm and a tool belt of her own, just as causal as the others.

She gives Penny a quick glance from behind her shades.

Penny gasps and suddenly finds herself overcome with shyness. She immediately closes the door and backs away, blushing and taking rapid little breaths. She feels a strong tingle, like butterflies in her stomach. She turns into a blue butterfly in response, and starts to flutter around frantically.

"Oh, oh, oh! What am I gonna do? I can't go out like this! They're too good!" she says to herself in a tiny insect voice. "Oh, come on, Penny," she transforms into a dark green weasel and speaks in a smug voice. "You're a cheerleader, for goodness sake! Act like it! You've performed for even more intimidating people before… granted," she reverts back to her original form. "...they weren't aliens from another universe… " she taps lightly at her form, then lets out a sigh. She runs up the halls towards the 20th floor.

"You know, Amethyst…" Pearl says as she turns her head towards her, in a gentle tone but with an obvious hint of annoyance. "You COULD help us out a little bit more don't you think?"

"I am helping!" Amethyst shouts defensively, and jokingly, while hanging from her legs in a beam. "I'm testing how strong these these things are! If I fall, that means they aren't strong!"

Pearl simply looks away dismissively. Her and the others' attention is brought forward when she hears a little voice shouting from above.

"Excuse me?"

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl look up to find Penny standing on the edge of one of the doors of the 20th floor. With all the attention on her, and the sight of Lion snoozing without a care on top of the Study Room, Penny almost blushes again, but decides to keep a compustore. After all that's what performers are supposed to do.

"Oh, pardon? Please move away from the door!" Pearl shouts upwards, not to scold her, but out of concern. "This is a very dangerous place!"

Penny shyly holds her hands forward. "I-I know, but…!" hoo boy, stuttering. "I just wanna show you something… If that's not too much trouble. I just felt so inspired and excited and I want to see if I can do this."

The Gems don't respond. Garnet looks down to see Pearl and Amethyst directing their attention to her, questioning on what they could do. Garnet looks at them with some moments of thought. She turns her head back towards Penny.

"Go ahead, then," Garnet suggests.

Penny takes a breath and gulps. She closes her eyes, and continues to breathe, her mind locked in concentration, blocking almost everything else away. Her surroundings no longer existed She puts a foot forward, and takes a sludgy step. She lets herself fall. And she flies.

With the right amount of space, she gains the momentum for it. She falls and flies up, opening her eyes if only to see the beams obscuring her path. She flies around the beams, in figure eights, in rings, and in use of momentum to fly in higher speed. She flies fast and feels a breeze in her fairy-like body. This feels different from cheerleading. It's not like the dance music and it's not a previously rehearsed and planned dance, and she's no longer clumsy or uncoordinated, something she feels happy about. It's something that comes to her herself. She feels it and she thinks it. She finally gets a little tired from flying, and starts to simply float around the beams, making her own twirls and pirouettes in a way she couldn't do as a cheerleader on her shell —kinda cheating, she imagines. Garnet and Amethyst watch everything Penny does in interest, intrigued by her abilities. Pearl watches blankly in puzzlement, not entirely of what to think. But she knew it had to be at least little bit positive.

Penny lets out a small series of whistles as she floats further.

After the percussion in the lobby ceases slightly, leaving only Gumball and Steven's vocals (and Penny's whistles, deaf to the others' ears), it begins to start again in triumph and full-on fun. But they don't intend to stop just yet.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Gumball laughs heartily —but not mischievously— in the heat of the moment, then yells to Darwin, "Maybe we can get those ladies up there to join us!"

"Really?" shouts Darwin with his fins clasped together.

"Yeah! They look, uh... musical enough! There's more doors in there, too! C'mon!" he starts to dash towards the same door Penny flew in, still unbeknownst to her disappearance, and Darwin follows him excitedly. Anais stops what she's doing when she watches her brothers head towards the danger sone. Her smile disappears, and is replaced with assuring tension as to the obvious outcome.

"Uh, Steven?!" Anais yells agitatedly. Steven stops humming, noticing he's being called and that the music has stopped, though Pops continued to dance.

He looks worriedly at Anais. "What is it?" he asks.

"Construction zone!" she points towards the door that led to the Rooms, her face twisted in an upwards frown frown that combines fear and anger. "They just went there!"

He frowns in confusion, slightly disturbed. "Construction zone…?" he asks. Then he realizes. He gasps in terror and puts his hands to his face. "OH, NO!" he immediately stumbles down, scrambles to his feet, and dashes towards the door. Anais tries to catch up with him on her stubby feet, panting all the way. Pops continues to dance as if the music had never stopped abruptly, while Skips watches the kids head up to the door that led to the Rooms, moving back to his standard scowl. He has a bad feeling about this.

As the hallways of the Rooms are filled with hyperactive laughter, Gumball stops to pant, and Darwin stops next to him.

"Dude, I wanna go higher!" Darwin exclaims, pointing farther to the hall.

Gumball hums. "Alright, here's the plan, you go higher, and I'll stay over here. So we can make echoes or something!"

Darwin joyfully dashes to the 21st floor, while Gumball goes ahead and stops at the 9th floor, panting some more.

Gumball stands at the door, moves quickly forward and opens it a little too harshly. The first of the three hinges loosens as he leans forwards sharply. He looks down to see the vast chasm and the pillars, then looks ahead to find the Gems looking at something above them. Before he could try to look up himself, Amethyst notices him. She turns to walk towards him on one of the upper beams with a small smile.

"Heyyyy, cat," Amethyst asks playfully, twirling around to hang from an upper beam upside down with her hands and legs. She looks 'upwards' towards him, leaning as far back as her fingers grasping the beam would allow. "What're you doing over there? It's kinda dangerous, unless you can fly," she says that last word in a low, sarcastic pitch.

"We're just trying to make music," Gumball states, and grips the door handle. "We're just trying to make some sound, like this!" he quickly pulls back and slams the door, producing a loud bang that loosens the second hinge.

Amethyst releases her grip from one of her hands, staring at the weak door. Is it supposed to do that?

Gumball laughs at himself with the sound the door produces, completely ignorant of the weakening door. He then hears some shouts coming from down the hall. He turns his head to find Steven and Anais, scoffing at their worried faces.

"Gumball," Steven takes a breath. "Please stop slamming that door..."

"Why?" Gumball asks, completely clueless and seemingly uncaring. "You said I could do it!"

"Gumball, you get away from that door," Anais outright commands. Her voice sounds more cold than agitated, and her deep scowl reaches the top of her eyeballs.

Gumball starts quietly laughing at her. "Sis, why are you getting so worked up?"

Gumball is now trying to mock her. She only started to scowl harder, tilting her head down without keeping her sinister stare on him. Her voice sounds colder. "Gumball, don't be stupid. You're gonna get hurt." She states with clear certainty.

Oh no. Steven's definitely seen this before. He gulps slightly

At this point, Gumball feels threatened. His smile disappears for a moment, but tries to smile again in compustore. He leans against the door with seeming smug confidence, continuing to rile up his sister. "C'mon, sis. I got this, I'm not gonna fa—"

The door breaks forward from the top down, sending Gumball towards the chasm his face turning blank and his eyes beady as it happens.

"Wo-ho-hoah!" Amethyst exclaims and rights herself with a flip, now standing on top of the beam. The Gems stand up and exchange "Ohs" in alarm as they begin to leap on the beams closer to Gumball and the broken door. His body is splayed across the door and his clawed fingertips firmly planted on the surface. Steven and Anais look in horror, while the Gems try to make sense on what they should do, unsure if they should interfere, or whether Gumball can get out on his own.

"U-um, do you, need any help?" Pearl asks in alarming concern. She looks at Steven, silently asking whether they should

"Nononono, wait wait… No I got it, I got it…" Gumball sputters, trying to slowly turn around, but finding his sweat too slippery. "I can do this, really, I can…" he lifts an arm, releasing a clawed hand from the door to start crawling to safety, but the door begins to creak at the shift in weight. He draws an agitated breath, and his heart goes on miles. "It's fine, it's fine, it's fine," he tells the Gems, but mostly to himself.

Steven kneels down and stretches his arm out. "… Okay, Gumball…" he tries to coax. "Just try to reach my hand… We'll pull you out in no time." His arm started to shake as Gumball slowly but desperately tried to reach it. The Gems looked on in tension.

Darwin reached the door of the 21st floor, unaware of what's happening below. He opens the door harshly, though this door's hinges are smooth. He looks around at the chasm, and looks up to find Penny still floating in her moment. Looking at her performance, he thinks about telling that to Gumball later. But he looks down and finds something strange at the floors below, like a bunch of figures seemingly on the same spot. Is something going on down there? He starts to lean forward to take a closer look, his feet reaching out farther towards the edge, and trying to hold on to the handle of the door.

Penny finally decides to finish. Upon realizing the Gems paid no attention to her anymore, Penny looks around in puzzlement, with some slight disappointment. She proceed to float down to try to find where they went, until she sees what is clearly happening. Her breath catches in her throat when he sees a familiar body clinging to life at a loose door as she tried not to shapeshift in horror.

"GUMBALL!" She cries out.

"Penny—?" Gumball quickly turns his body upwards. He suddenly shifts his weight too fast, and the hingeless side of the door collapses towards the chasm with only the last hinge as support.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHH!" With a noisy squeaky scream, Gumball precariously clings to the edges of the door, his face stuck in a terrified stiff. Steven cringes and blows from his mouth, while Anais covers her face with a hand and peeks between her fingers. The Gems are more alert, fully prepared to help him now as it becomes clear to them he is not going to be able to climb up, but realizing if they did something now, the door would collapse entirely. They swiftly move in closer with caution, save for Amethyst.

After breathing hard, Steven wipes the sweat off his palm with his side, and moves to reach Gumball again. Gumball tries to lean forward as much as he can, sweat trickling down the side of his face as he lifts his arm and tries to reach Steven's hand.

Penny gasps in horror, and begins to sweat from her forehead, being forced to concentrate her emotions so as not to shapeshift into anything that couldn't fly. Calmly, but still concerned, she tries to float down quickly to his aid.

"Gumball?" Darwin begins to lean further into the door's opening and farther out in the chasm. Only his heels are planted in the edge now, and the door creaks further open, taking his grip with it. Darwin slowly lacks something to support his arms with.

He feels himself slipping.

"Oops…" he squeaks out, just before tumbling off. His squeaky screams as he falls manage to catch Penny's attention. She turns around to look, only for Darwin to collid straight onto her. Penny falls with him, both of them screaming along the way.

Amethyst, being on a higher beam, looks at the kids fall before the other Gems get a chance to. Without thinking, she leaps upwards, attempting to lock her arms around the kids to protect them from the impact. In a quick move, she brings the kids to her two arms, but her face curls into a startled frown when she realizes too late she let go of the beam. She starts to stammer as she feels herself falling, her chest unconsciously turned away from the ground.

Just as Steven manages to reach Gumball's fingers, and they both start giving little hopeful smiles, Gumball is startled by screams and a breeze behind him. He turns around, shifting his weight again, the last hinge giving out. Gumball does not get a chance to jump up as the door finally falls with him. Gumball screams and instinctively positions his body away from the ground. Steven nearly falls himself as he tries in vain to reach him, but Anais pulls him back by the shirt.

Amethyst falls on her back on top of the pillar, cushioning Darwin and Penny's fall. She has no time to groan as the door comes falling towards them. She extends her legs and kicks the the door, breaking it into pieces. As the door breaks, Gumball bounces right off with a squeal, straight over the edge of the pillar.

"MORDECAI!" Rigby yells, startling Mordecai awake.

"Wha-a-wha, wha... W-what?" Mordecai tried to turn his head towards Rigby but finds himself planted to the pillar, possibly still too groggy.

"Dude, you were asleep standing up!" Rigby shrieks in amusement. "I just watched you the whole time. Too bad I didn't have a camera, or a permanent marker!"

Mordecai grimaces and attempts to move away, but finds himself stuck to the pillar. Quite literally. His grimace turns into a look of alarm, and he forcefully pulls away from the pillar. He looks in utter disgust to find a silhouette in the pillar with a wrinkly texture and small dead feathers stuck to the surface, most of them from his head.

"WHAT TH- WH-H!?" Mordecai reaches to his head to feel the possible missing feathers, then pulls his hand back to find turquoise flakes. He opens his mouth wide open as he reaches a terrible conclusion.

"AUUUGH, THE PAINT WAS STILL WET?!"

For a moment, Rigby is blank. He then sputters his lips and begins to laugh maniacally. He points at a seething Mordecai and cackles his head off with loudness.

Rigby then opens his eyes and looks up to laugh at Mordecai further. His laughter immediately ceases, and lets out a long, drawn gasp. He looks up at the chaos above, and the crash at the top of the pillar. He looks up to see Gumball sliding rapidly down the pillar, leaving a trail of claw marks and wrinkles from his body onto the paint.

Mordecai notices Rigby's sudden horror, and tries to turn around to see what was happening.

"No wait, Mordecai," Rigby tells him matter-of-factly, with a hint of fear. Mordecai looks down at him with a frown. "Keep lookin' at me."

"Why—?"

He is cut off by a sudden hit in the back of his head. Gumball falls onto Mordecai's head and he collapses onto the floor. Gumball lays on Mordecai's back, glazed from the impact, and the bird finds himself in pain from the back of his neck down, groaning.

At the top of the pillar, Amethyst pulls the splintered remains of the door on top of her and the other kids with a scrunched and painful, but mostly annoyed grimace. Darwin looked as glazed as Gumball was, but was conscious enough to look submissive and apologetic towards the people above. Penny had transformed into a stiffened gray goat with black beady eyes, lying on her side.

Anais brings both of her hands to her face and starts to moan quietly in sheer, anxious exasperation. She rubs her hands far enough for her rage-filled eyes to see the aftermath of the disaster. Steven looks below with his eyes growing as wide as dinner plates. Steven looks at Garnet and Pearl. He can't read Garnet's expression as she stares at him and looks down and puts her finger and thumb at the base of her shades, looking as if she is quietly chastising herself for not preventing that. Pearl looks at everything in the same exasperation as Anais, with heavy breathing through her nose, not quite unlike her reaction when Amethyst once popped a bubble she had.

Steven gulps. Maybe they should have gone with the more practical route.

*: Rich Doors, by NewVillager

A/N: He, he... It doesn't really count as a songfic, right? I'm not violating ffnet's rules by only using a portion of the song and having the characters perform fragments of it, am I? LOL please don't report this

Well, screw the rules, because music is pretty prominent part of this series. The effect is a lot neater in the AO3 version, where the text can just link to the song itself. It's not really meant to be a read-along, though. The fic references the songs and they're described and written with as accurate timing as possible, but it can be distracting for some. You can choose to play the song as you read, but despite its importance in the series, it's not really optional. Check out the updating playlist at .com to see what else is in store on this part!

A couple of comments: I liked writing Penny's scene. It's pretty important for one of the themes of this series, so keep an eye out for similar scenes. As a side note, it's also my headcanon on what Penny's cheerleading looks like out of her shell. I wish I could see that on the show proper.

Anyway, that's it for now... Chapter 6 won't take this long. I hope to have Part 1 finished by the end of the year, so I can start Part 2 at the same place... kind of.