Admittedly this is probably a crazy story idea. But I love crazy story ideas, so ha. :)
Ok so back in 2017, I made this concept, where it was pretty much The Shell but Gumball and Penny's roles are sorta swapped, with both having powers. After several different versions of it and several old drawings, I forgot about it for a while, until 2020 where I decided to redraw some stuff. With that, I also decided to give this concept a chance, and make a story out of it! Well, a story with more added creativity that is, but you all know me. I love finding creativity in things.
I will say, this story isn't SUPER action packed and horrifically dark like my other works. This time around I feel it would be fun to have it be sorta angsty but also like, a collection of shorts in a way. A story that dives into what it would look like with this scenario. Though, the beginning obviously is The Shell, so there is still some form of big angst but after that should be pretty peaceful.
With that said, enjoy the first chapter! ^^
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It was Elmore Junior High's one night production of their Beauty and the Beast play, now at the final act. The small audience waited in their seats, rather impatiently, as the blue feline Gumball portrayed the titular beast character. His act was rather drawn out, as he stumbled around, making exaggerated dying noises.
"Oh my heart! Oh, it is broken! I'm going! I'm going! Argh! Ooh this is the end of me! Argh my heart!" He paused, and fell to the ground dramatically.
The audience sighed, but Gumball abruptly continued, making them gasp.
"Is the beast gonna be alright? He just wanted to be loved!" Richard whimpered with concern, as his daughter Anais patted him on the shoulder in comfort, though admittedly she could hardly care, currently focused on the novel she brought. Nicole meanwhile was trying her best to be proud and invested, though even she could see how tedious it was getting.
Gumball finally fell over, and the lights turned to Darwin, the fish frozen in fright. "Uhh..."
His mouth involuntarily began to move on its own thanks to Mr. Small, though was monotone in result. "When Belle came to see the beast, she realized that she had loved him all along and cried for her lost love."
The lights dimmed, as they focused back to the center stage, as Penny now knelt on the ground beside the currently sprawled out Gumball, making sobbing noises in her princess outfit. Suddenly, the cat stood up, now wearing a blond wig and prince attire. "Thanks to your tears Belle, the curse has been lifted!"
"They called him a beast, because he looked like a beast, but her love made him beautiful!" Richard cried out from the crowd, filling the room with brief awkward silence.
"Yeah." Penny tried to gloss over it as best she could. This was a play after all. "Now that the fairy's curse has been lifted, we can finally seal our love. With a kiss!"
Gumball's face lit up, as the surroundings collapsed around them, leaving the two floating in the familiar beautiful space scenery. Though, admittedly he was very much freaking out, trying to keep himself from screaming. "Is this really happening?! 'Cause there was no kiss in rehearsals!"
"I kinda improvised." The peanut replied with a smile.
The blue cat was beginning to hyperventilate at this point. Admittedly this was something he practically dreamed of for years, and now it was finally here, though he didn't feel ready. "Then how come we're not exploding?! We're in space and why are we always in space when we're gonna kiss? Also-"
"Come on, hurry up everyone's looking." She interrupted his frantic rambling quickly. "Three, two, one-"
Gumball inhaled deeply and quickly leaned in, only to promptly headbutt the other by accident. In the process, he managed to hurt himself as well, smacking his face against her hard shell. He felt rather grateful for the curtains swiftly closing.
A few minutes later, the two are in the dressing room, Gumball sobbing on the floor.
"Come on, I'm sure it wasn't that bad." Darwin was in there with them, though was not as dramatic and tearful about the situation as his brother was. He had a feeling this was coming, considering the other practically begged him to stay behind with him rather than go home with the rest of the family.
Gumball lifted his head up, revealing his face blurry and covered in tears. "Not that bad?! If I did that in a cage fight I'd be disqualified!"
He fell back down onto the ground and sobbed, feeling the utmost guilt he's ever had in his life. "This can't be happening!"
"Okay guys don't panic. We don't know how bad it is yet. Come on, tell me how it looks." Penny had her hand over her eye, to which she uncovered the area with a frown. At the moment she did, the two boys inhaled sharply in response, only further worrying her.
"Uhh.. It's a nice scar.. Gives you character like a.. Beautiful warlord or an adorable Frankenstein or.. Something." Gumball said, trying to put it into as nice of words as he could. The last thing he wanted was to hurt the love of his life both physically and mentally.
"Wait I've got a scar?!"
"No don't worry. It's not a scar, it's more of a crack!" Darwin cut in, attempting to reassure her.
"What?! How bad is it?!" It was hard to deny her panic, as she didn't even know what it looked like.
"Oh no it's cute! It's like there was a teeny-weeny, really pretty earthquake in your face." Gumball was hoping she wouldn't be hurt by that, but telling by her expression, she didn't seem that happy toward his comment.
Penny faced toward the mirror, spotting the crack across her left eye. For a moment she examined it, admittedly relieved that it wasn't as large as she thought. Suddenly however, a yellow flame-like spark lit up within it, causing her to gasp in fear.
"What was that?" Gumball inquired, noticing her quickly place her hand back onto her eye.
"Nothing!" She blurted out, though it came out more panicky and vaguer than she wanted. "Is your eye okay?"
"Oh uh.." The cat looked at his own injury, a black eye that looked pretty bad compared to others he's had in the past. Unlike those times though, he nearly screamed as he saw a flash of blue light briefly try to escape from it. "It's fine. I mean, it'll heal anyway, always has."
He covered the area with his paw, worry filling him. Though, he hadn't been aware of Penny and Darwin watching. "Oh gosh what have I done?!"
Gumball took the peanut's hand, and slapped his face with it repeatedly, much to the others' confusion.
"What are you doing?" Penny let out a short sigh, seeing him avoiding looking at her.
"Hurting your head made his heart hurt, so he's hurting his head with your hand to heal his heart." Darwin explained, rather annoyed by the scene. Gumball spun her in the chair, making her kick him by accident. Though at the action, he then took her foot and slammed it against his head instead.
Penny couldn't help but sigh again, watching this play out. "Look if you really want to do something, just help me fix this."
"Hmm. Well, maybe if we put the accent on your good eye and integrate the area of discontent into the piece as a whole, no one will notice." Darwin replied, stepping closer to observe the injury. "Okay pass me the rouge."
His brother handed it to him, to which he carefully attempted to put it on her. "Okay, pass me the mascara."
After applying it, he gave up, tossing the makeup away. "Forget it, pass me the paint roller."
Penny slowly turned, now having a crudely drawn eye and mouth on the side of her face. The boys could easily tell she wasn't going to like what she had to say. To her, it sounded like an awful thought. "Guys, this isn't going to work. I'm going to have to tell my dad."
The three were soon walking down the sidewalk, getting to the direction of the Fitzgerald residence at a rather average pace. For a moment a quiet silence hung in the air.
"Hey so um.. You know when you were looking at your eye and there was that.. Mm.. What was that?" Gumball looked at Penny, not really sure how to describe what he saw. He couldn't really see any expression in her eyes at the moment, the thought of it slightly worrying him.
"I don't know what you mean." The peanut replied, quickly dismissing the question. She didn't give any visual contact to him, blank faced as she kept walking.
"You know, there was that.." He tried to recreate it by making a crackling sound, waving his hands around for dramatic effect.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You know. The.." He attempted to make another recreation, practically a babbling noise at this point, but like before, her answer was the same.
"I really don't know-"
"What's in the shell woman?!" Darwin startled the both of them as he cut in with an annoyed loud tone.
Penny sighed, as she finally turned to face them, a look of sorrow in her eyes. "Okay, it's the.. It's the real me.."
"Get outta here! Can I see?"
"No! No one can see." She quickly replied, shooting down Gumball's humorous answer. "My dad would go nuts."
"Don't worry young lady," His tone was serious, though he began to laugh, much to the annoyance of both Darwin and Penny. "I'm the nutcracker! Oh that's funny. 'Cause I cracked your shell and.. Uh.."
His laughter stopped, as the peanut walked away. Darwin only imitated a rim-shot in response to the conversation, the cat very much noticing the hint of sarcasm inside it.
As soon as they got to the house, Gumball and Penny prepared for the argument, somewhat terrified for what could occur. Both knew how Mr. Fitzgerald could be, and no doubt would he be upset the moment he opened that door. Before they knew it, there he was, at rather awful timing as he was able to see their preparation.
"Hey! What's going on here?"
Penny gasped in fear, quickly moving out of the way as she covered her cracked eye. She soon had her back facing them, too afraid to confront the situation just yet.
"Penny where were you? We were worried sick!"
"Mr. Fitzgerald! Can I call you Rob?" Gumball tried to lighten the mood, and keep Penny's father from looking at her, at least for now. He had a feeling it would not be a good talk after this, much less a sight.
"No." The older man was not amused by the cat being there, narrowing his eyes as the other kept talking.
"Can I call you Bobby? Bobert? The Bebop? Burcher? Bobzilla? No wait! Trebor!" Gumball chuckled, feeling proud of himself for that one. "That's Robert backwards."
"My name is Patrick."
The feline took this as cue to shut up, as nervousness took over.
"Okay dad, before you say anything, don't get mad." Penny turned around, worry in her expression as she finally removed her hand from her eye. Her frown deepened, as she could tell he was very much acting like such.
"What the? What happened?!" Mr. Fitzgerald stepped forward, angrily glaring at Gumball with his fist raised up. "Were you involved in this?!"
"I wouldn't say involved, more like directly responsi-"
Gumball grabbed Darwin's tongue, cutting him off right away. He couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed by the older peanut. "I don't see the problem. I mean what's inside that shell that's so scary?"
"Something unstable and dangerous, and we need to fix this right now!" Mr. Fitzgerald grabbed Penny by the arm and took her inside the house. Angry himself by this, Gumball quickly followed right after him, Darwin close behind.
"What if I don't want to be fixed?!" Penny yanked her hand away from her father, furiously crossing her arms.
"You don't know what you want Penny.." Mr. Fitzgerald noticed the two boys had walked in, turning to them and slamming his fist on the table, the vase on it wobbling by the force. "AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MESSING WITH!"
"How would YOU know?!" Gumball did the same action, however, was weaker in strength, hardly making a dent.
"He's right dad. Everyone in the family has spent their life hiding from themselves!"
"Penny, you're grounded!"
The younger peanut scoffed, as she began storming off to the upstairs. Mr. Fitzgerald took his attention back to Gumball, very much showing how angry he was right now. "Now listen you. Penny is my daughter, AND I DECIDE WHAT'S BEST FOR HER!"
"What? So best is not being herself?!" The flash of light blue appeared in the cat's bruised eye, as the vase on the table nearby was suddenly thrown off by itself, breaking into several pieces with a loud smash. His anger briefly ceased, as his eyes widened in fear, taking steps back at the sight.
Mr. Fitzgerald had noticed the flash, for a moment his eyes widening as well, as he was admittedly confused by this, almost curious. Yet, his fury returned, as he decided to toss the boys out, slamming the door loudly behind them.
"Hey wait!" Gumball stared at the door for a moment, hoping it would open. It did not. A silent, horrifying thought appeared in his head, as he knew what this likely meant.
"Um.. Dude? Are you okay or?..." Darwin gave a look of concern, not even sure himself what he just saw. He noticed the cat soon cover his eye, much like Penny had, slumping his shoulders as he turned around, movements full of dejection.
"Let's just go."
They left the house, the feline feeling worse than when he arrived.
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Reviews are always appreciated! ^^