Chapter 5: Basketball / Pull Me In, Don't Let Go

Thanks for 500 views on ff. This chapter will be published on Wattpad and ao3 when possible. Sorry for the absence, read note at bottom. Glad to be back. Shout out to ArconVoid, Valha, and Choppy for helping me with edits. Enjoy the nearly 4000 word chapter bomb.


Gumball woke up and stretched, he glanced at the clock that resided on the nightstand next to his brother's undersized fishbowl. He shook his head in disbelief, rubbing his eyes to make sure he read it right. He and Darwin had to get to a coach bus in less than fifteen minutes. His phone buzzes every couple of seconds.

Gumball rushed to get himself dressed, leaving his nightwear scattered across the room. Darwin woke up at the noise his brother was causing, only to realize the time and begin his panic to get ready. Their phones were buzzing every minute or so. Gumball quickly grabbed his phone, "15 NEW MESSAGES FROM: Penny 3" it read. "Gosh darn it!" Gumball exclaimed.

"Where did you say the bus was again?" Darwin hastily asked.

"Hold on!" Gumball said while pulling his pants up. He rushed to call Penny. He paced around his room as the phone rang.

"Hey!" Penny greeted, "where are you guys?"

"We're on our way right now actually!" Gumball lied in the moment.

"No we're not!" Darwin mouthed at his brother before leaving the room.

"Oh ok, see you soon!" Penny finished. Gumball hung up and grabbed his camera bag in a hurry. He rushed down the stairs, following his brother out the door.

They ran down the sidewalk, the only source of light being the street lights. "Darwin! Do you have the bag that we would bring with us?" Gumball asked. Darwin stopped immediately and gave his brother a worried look. Gumball suddenly stopped in front of him. "Oh come on!" Gumball complained.

Darwin ran back to the house and frantically looked around their room for the small blue backpack. He found it and quickly made his way out of the house again. "I got it!" Darwin exclaimed, holding the bag up.

"Come on dude we only have seven minutes!" Gumball shouted before running down the sidewalk again. Darwin increased his speed to catch up with his brother. The cold temperature of a winter morning began to set in, their feet and hands became cold, and their faces began to sting.

After nearly slipping on ice for the fifth time during their mad dash, they reached the intersection near the school. Darwin began rapidly tapping the pedestrian crossing button. "Dude we don't have time for this!" Gumball complained.

"But what if there's a police officer who sees us and we get arrested!?" Darwin told Gumball.

"But there isn't!" Gumball said through gritted teeth.

"If we get arrested, we won't make it!"

"The bus is right across the street dude! And there's only a few minutes before it leaves!"

The light on the crossing turned on, and the green outline of a walking person was displayed. Gumball ran across the street without a second thought. Darwin once again fell behind.

They boarded the coach bus, it was different from the one they would usually ride to school, and the seats looked better than those of the regular school bus. The duo walked down the aisle to the back, where the rest of the club sat. The pair split to sit with their respective partners. Penny had reserved the window seat for him.

"What took you so long?" Penny asked Gumball.

"Stupid pedestrian crossing thing took too long." Gumball answered, "If a certain SOMEONE hadn't insisted we don't cross when there were no cars in sight we would've BEEN HERE earlier."

Penny laughed in response. "Anyways how long is the ride again?" Gumball asked.

"Here to LA, 6-hour ride" Penny answered.

Gumball's heart sank at the length. "Six hours!?" He responded surprised. Darwin peeked above his brother's seat at what he said.

"Well, what are we supposed to do for the next six hours?" Carrie asked.

"I normally just sleep" Nacho answered from across the aisle, joining in on their conversation.

The bus hissed as its door closed, it began to pull out of the high school parking lot, and a noticeable bump was felt as it turned onto the street. Its engine hummed as it drove down the road.

"That's why we brought this bag," Darwin stated, placing the blue backpack on his lap and opening it. Bobert and Nacho peeked over their seats to see what was inside, same with Gumball and Penny. Its contents widened their eyes: a gamechild advance, a couple of games for it, a few small bags of chips, some headphones, and comic books.


The chilling music of a dungeon emitted from the GameChild Advance's speakers. The cartridge inserted read: "THE TALE OF ZELMORE: A PORTAL TO THE VOID" Carrie watched Darwin advance through a dungeon

"Is the entire game just dungeons and villages?" Carrie asked.

"There's more to it than just villages and dungeons," Darwin stated, briefly looking up from its screen.

"Well, then what else is there to it?" Carrie asked, wanting to know more about it.

"There is another dimension called The Void, which is trying to swallow the Weird Dimension as it sees the Weird Dimension as a mistake. So it's up to me to fight against it!" Darwin explained.

"But why would The Void see it as a mistake?" Carrie continued asking questions.

"Well the Void is trying to 'rid the universe of all its mistakes to create a perfect universe, and the Weird Dimension could be seen as a mistake' so…" Darwin happily answered.

"Can you travel there?"

"I have to open a portal to it using a level 25 Magic Remote. Which I don't have yet. The only way I can get there is through patches where the void has started to consume the dimension."

"Interesting. But how exactly do you stop it?"

"Well first I have to close up the patches by defeating the mistakes that spawn out of them; which I haven't completed yet. But the patches will keep opening so I have to go into the Void and fight the Evil Wizard Rob. But I'm not strong enough yet."

"Oooh. Sounds fun, where can I get it?"

"I got mine at Laser Video. There is probably somewhere where we're going that sells it"

"Awesome!"

Their conversation ended and Carrie returned to silently watching him play the game.

The sun started to rise, Gumball couldn't help but watch the outside terrain slowly become brighter and brighter. The sky shifted from its pitch black into multiple shades of blue and orange as time passed. Penny noticed him staring out the window. "

Watching the sunrise?" She asked.

Her question snapped Gumball out of it. "Yeah. Never usually get to see it fully." Gumball replied.

"Care if I join you?" Penny requested, leaning onto his shoulder.

"Not at all," He accepted. They watched as the flaming ball continued to rise above the horizon. It's light painting the sky a fiery orange.

"So basically Bobert, it's the two best teams in the state playing against each other in a single game, the winner wins the title of state champion. The school already got us covered for where we're staying." Nacho explained, "the game is later this evening."

"I understand now, but what is the reward for winning the tournament?" Bobert's robotic voice asked.

"Well we get bragging rights, a trophy, and a bunch of money."

"I see."

"We probably won't win though, we never do at these sorts of events."

"What makes you think that?"

Every time we get close to making it to state or we make it to state, we get knocked out. Happens with a variety of sports. Last year it was the swim team…"

"Maybe this time will be different."

"We'll hope and see."


Darwin sighed in defeat once again. The Elder Platybelodon's 16-bit roar of victory only made him more frustrated. He began to contemplate asking his brother to try and beat it for him. Darwin looked across the aisle to where his brother was sitting, he was clearly asleep. Darwin didn't want to bother his sleeping brother so he made his way back to his seat and sighed. He popped the Zelmore cartridge out of the back and dug through the bag for a different game.

Gumball slowly woke up, the bright sun outside immediately assaulted his eyes. The conversing of the basketball team and the humming of the bus became clearer as he regained consciousness, the headphones resting on his lap. He yawned and looked to check the time. Seeing that there was still another two hours, his expression turned blank. He unbuckled the seat belt to stretch and use the restroom, trying his best to not wake the fairy who was still asleep next to him.

"This is it?" Gumball said to himself, the bathroom was a single toilet with a hand sanitizer dispenser and a small mirror.

After he was done, he made his way back to his seat, his brother caught his attention, "Gumball. need you to beat the Elder Platybelodon for me."

"Dude, I already told you that you need to learn the pattern and level up ranged magic attacks," Gumball told him, walking back to his seat. Darwin rolled his eyes and mumbled,

"Fine…"

Gumball put his headphones back on and went back to staring out the window. The same boring desert landscape came and went as the song's intro reached its peak.

And so, Darwin took his brother's advice and began grinding his ranged attack level. Slaying the same sets of monsters with the same attack over and over made him lose track of time, as if time mattered anyway. The level increased bit by bit with every monster defeated.

After what felt like an hour, he unlocked the level required for a better bow. He felt relieved at his accomplishment and all that was left was to memorize the pattern of its attacks.

The hero approached the void patch once again, with more confidence than before. The unskippable cutscene played again as the 16-bit shrieks of Platybelodons came out of the console's speakers. Darwin was unfazed. After the Elder Platybelodon finished it's unintelligible speech, it was time to see if Gumball's advice had worked.

As it turned out, the Platybelodons attacked in turns, which meant that most of the fight was dodging and shooting four arrows. Darwin questioned why he found the fight so difficult in the first place. Ater a while of doing this, the boss entered it's second phase, it began firing it's hyper beam's out of it's eyes. Darwin hastily maneuvered the hero around the beam. Narrowly dodging it each time.

"Shoot!" He said to himself. He barely failed to move the hero away from the beam. The health bar instantly collapsed down to 50%. He quickly debated if he should drink a health potion.

The debate ended as the Elder Platybelodon recharged it's beam. The hero hastily drank the health potion and began shooting a barrage of arrows at the Platybelodon. It's health bar was finally below 10%. Darwin was fully locked in.

The hero approached the Elder Platybelodon, blade in hand. Darwin knew it was risky but he liked the chances. The hero began slashing the blade at it. The beast cried out in pain. It's health bar steadily decreased as Darwin mashed the A button.

"6…5…4…" Darwin began to whisper the amount of health it had aloud.

Darwin then realized it was nearly done recharging it's beam, a single hit from it would kill him. He mashed the button harder, the hum of the beam charging up grew from the speakers.

"2..1…" He said. The hum reached it's peak, "Zero!" Darwin exclaimed. The Elder Platybelodon had been defeated! It's death cutscene played as Darwin pumped his arm in joy.


The bus began to slow down as it approached the city streets. Gumball couldn't help but take out his camera and photograph the tall buildings that were just out of its view. The hotel stuck out amongst several other equally tall buildings. Like any other standard hotel it had: balconies on one side, a small pool, and at least ten stories tall. Nothing major compared to the other buildings in the city.

"I think it's stupid that they would cram two teams that hate each other into the same hotel. It's like they're asking for us to fight each other." Nacho stated. They watched as their rival unloaded their bags from the bus and into the hotel.

After what felt like an eternity, they could finally begin unloading their things. Unfortunately for them, they were at the back so they needed to wait for the team to get off first.

It felt great to finally get fresh air. Despite it being winter, it was quite warm. Coach informed them about the floor they would be on. Their brief moment outside ended as they needed to head to the room to leave their luggage. She also made it abundantly clear to the club that boys and girls would be separate.

Gumball fiddled with the keycard in his hand as he and his brother made their way down the hall, the racket the team was making in their rooms came and went with each passing room.

"Two thirty-seven" Gumball read to himself. He looked for the number as others went by.

"There!" Darwin pointed. Gumball inserted the card into the slot on the handle. It beeped and unlocked. Gumball pushed the slightly heavy door open.

The room looked normal to them: two beds, a television, a bathroom, and a closet. The clock in the room read half-past one. Gumball placed his camera bag on the ground next to a bed and fell back onto said bed. He let out a yawn as he strectched himself out.

"Dude there's still another 3 hours before we need to go again, what do we do until then?" Darwin asked.

"Relax. Heard this place has a pool." Gumball answered.

"Well, yeah, but you didn't bring your trunks dude. So unless you feel like going skinny dipping…" Darwin said back.

Gumball laughed at his brother's suggestion. "Nah dude," He answered. turning on the TV to see what channels they had to offer.

"I can't see why they would trust a bunch of teenagers with their own hotel rooms," Darwin said, unpacking the blue bag and finding the GameChild Advance.

"Where else were we supposed to sleep? The bus?" Gumball replied, flipping through the channels.

"True..."

Gumball stopped flipping when a movie he'd seen before came on. He shrugged and decided to watch it.

Gumball glanced at the clock on the nightstand '2:37 PM' He'd stopped paying attention to the show on the television a while ago. It became background noise to him as he zoned out.

"I'm hungry…" Darwin said.

"Same," Gumball related. "We should go down to the lobby, they got food there."

"Then let's go!" Darwin stated, getting up from the floor.

The door closed with a click behind them.

"Should we ask the rest of them to come along?" Darwin asked.

"Sure!" Gumball answered. He went to the door across from them and knocked.

"In a second!" A muffled voice said from inside the room. They recognized it as Carrie's. They heard the door handle turn and the door open. Only for it to be stopped by the chain-lock.

"Was the lock really necessary!?" Carrie looked back and complained.

"I thought we would spend the day here until we needed to leave!" Penny rebutted. Carrie slid the short chain off the door and opened it. Penny got off the bed and went to see who it was at the door.

"Uhh, we were wondering if we could all go down to the dining area to eat lunch?" Gumball asked.

"Sure!" Penny accepted, "We don't have much else to do."

The group then headed for Nacho and Bobert's room. They gladly joined in with them.

After a short trip down the elevator, they arrived at the dining area. Which was closed, and a sign next to it showed the order in which the teams would eat. Gumball whined, and his stomach grumbled in response. Darwin instantly turned and made his way to the receptionist's desk in the lobby. The rest followed him.

"Excuse me," Darwin started, the stick figure receptionist looked up from his magazine and at the fish, "Is there anywhere that me and my friends could eat?"

"Fervidus Pizza is a 3-minute drive from here. Either that or the vending machines on every floor." He answered.

"Thank you," Darwin said. The receptionist went back to his magazine.

"There's a pizza place that's not far from here," Darwin told the group.

"Well let's go," Gumball said, and they began heading towards the door.

Their walk to the Fervidus Pizza felt longer than it should have.

"What pizza are we thinking about?" Gumball asked.

"Cheese," Penny said at the same time as Darwin said, "Pepperoni"

"I'm thinking pepperoni." Gumball chipped in.

Carrie looked at the ground and sighed.

"You can use my body if you want to." Darwin offered innocently.

"Dude, it's attached to a gas station!" Gumball mentioned, "Plus, I don't need both of you getting arrested while we're 500 miles from home"

Their eyes widened. "We've been trying to control it for the past few months…" Carrie mentioned, "Not to great success though…"

"I wouldn't suggest trying it then..." Gumball replied, "Sorry."

"It's fine, we'll figure something out," Carrie sighed.

The pizza place came into view. Much to the disappointment of Carrie and Darwin, it was connected to a gas station. The door opened with a stereotypical ding. Nacho had volunteered to order for them so they found themselves a booth to sit at in the meantime.

"Hello! Welcome to Fervidus Pizza! May I take your order?" Larry enthusiastically said.

"We'd like a medium pepperoni with breadsticks please," Nacho ordered. Larry repeated the order before stating the total, which came out to be $14.96.

They found themselves a booth to sit at as they waited for their order to be fulfilled.

"So, what got you guys into photography?" Nacho asked, attempting to start a conversation.

"Old hobby of mine I picked up again, I used to take pictures of bugs and tape them to my wall when I was like, nine," Gumball answered, giving a slight chuckle.

"He got me into it," Darwin answered, pointing to Gumball.

"I liked taking pictures in the forest since I was 12, regardless of season or time," Penny answered.

"You ever taken pictures inside the Forest of Doom?" Gumball asked.

"No, but we should all do it before we graduate," Penny responded.

"After existing for hundreds of years you start wanting to learn more hobbies," Carrie gave her answer.

"I decided to put my ultra high definition camera to use," Bobert answered.

Larry arrived with the pizza, the group thanked him and took their respective slices.

"Anyways, when are we gonna go to the Forest of Doom?" Gumball asked.

"I don't know… Spring break?" Nacho shrugged.

"Sure" They unanimously agreed.

They were in a bit of a hurry eating their pizza, as they needed to be back before 3:15 PM.

They didn't have much rest time as when they got back, the team bus was already parked out front and the team was filing near the front.

"Strange," Gumball said, "There's still another 2 hours until tip-off"

"They need to warm up, Gumball," Nacho explained.

"Oh, right."

The ride wasn't as long as the one that brought them there. It was a 30-minute commute to the place where they would compete. The bus was near-silent for the majority of it, the nervousness inside made the atmosphere thick. The sun had begun to set during the ride, and the street lights turned on in unison.

The lampposts of the empty college campus flickered on as the bus slowly drove through it. Its brakes squealed as the bus came to a halt outside the arena. After a long speech from Coach Russo, the players filed out of the bus and into the stadium.


The club got themselves into position around the court for tip-off. Ignoring the regular hustle and bustle of other news media, the group decided to take their own photographs. With the toss of a ball, the state championship started. The Ducks quickly got busy, gaining an early lead over their longtime rival.

Richwood bounced back from their deficit, missed calls from the referees did not help much either. The lead Elmore once had was chipped away until they were separated by single digits. The scoreboard now read ELMORE 14 RICHWOOD 11.

The game continued to be an intense shootout between the rivals: Elmore would score and Richwood would answer back. 23-21 Elmore ahead. A critical miss by their star player left Richwood with an opportunity to tie the game. Which they took, tying it 23-23.

"Shit!" Coach said under her breath.

Coach Kreese hit Russo with a smug grin from across the court. Russo felt a vein pop from her forehead in anger. Richwood gained the upper hand again with a steal, the 2D player dribbled the ball down the court and dunked it. Giving Richwood their first lead of the night. Kreese gave Russo another smug look.

Carrie felt the need to capture the arrogance of Kreese and the rage of Russo, deviating from the game to photograph them in their current state.

Richwood had begun gaining a substantial lead, having now gotten into a comfortable rhythm. Elmore began to trail by double digits as the time crept near half.

It was now halftime, and the scoreboard read: ELMORE 29 RICHWOOD 40. The team was worn out from trying to keep up with their flashy play style. Some of them looked at the scoreboard in disappointment.

The teams went to their locker rooms to temporarily rest. The club had decided to find a spot in the stands to sit for the half.

"Think we could come back from this?" Darwin inquired, looking up from the GameChild and at the scoreboard.

"Probably not…" Gumball guessed, taking a picture of the scoreboard.

"You never know," Penny shrugged.

"Hope we didn't do all this just for us to lose," Gumball sighed.


The game resumed, they noticed that Elmore had started to play better. They were more focused and swift both defensively and offensively. Their 11 point deficit had began to vanish. Richwood struggled to score much against their improved defense. The scoreboard now read ELMORE 37 RICHWOOD 40.

A huge three from Elmore sealed the tie, Richwood's lead had dissipated with ten minutes left in the game. Kreese called a timeout upon seeing it. Gumball felt some sweat trickle down his head as he snapped another picture of the scoreboard.

The game resumed, the playing style of Richwood had once again shifted. They were attempting to get back into their previously established rhythm from the first half. However, Elmore's defense was now able to counter against it, disrupting the rhythm before it could even start.

Soon enough, Elmore had a growing lead. Kreese's face turned red in fury. Russo gave him the smug look from earlier. The scoreboard now read ELMORE 47 RICHWOOD 42.

From there, it felt like Richwood's team fell apart, they made more mistakes, they weren't shooting as well and they could hardly defend. Everyone was amazed how quick it happened.

From there, it felt like time trickled away. Elmore had amassed a double-digit lead and the game felt over before the final three minutes.

The scoreboard read ELMORE 61 RICHWOOD 47. The clock began to wind down from 60, the Elmore Ducks were going to win their first ever state championship. The final buzzer blared it's loud buzz.

The Ducks had won their first state championship.

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Hardly anybody got rest that night. The club emerged from their rooms. They'd agreed to meet on the balcony of the girl's room. The cool night air hit them as the door slid open, it wasn't as cold as the nights in Elmore. "Want one?" Penny offered, holding an unopened soda can. "Sure," Gumball accepted, grabbing the soda and pulling the tab. It fizzed for a second before Gumball took a sip.

"I'm guessing none of us can sleep," Gumball said.

"Yep," They said in unison.

"Eh we can just sleep on the ride back," Carrie shrugged, "until then we just need to power through it!"

"Yeah…" Darwin responded.

They spent most of the night in silence, watching the cars pass through the streets and the city lights of LA flicker on. They enjoyed the time they spent on the balcony. Time seemed to flow away as the new day began.

"Can't see the big bird constellation, too much light pollution," Penny mentioned.

"Mhm," Gumball responded.

They stayed on that balcony until almost 3 AM, they went back into the room to watch whatever late night TV had to offer. They all shared a single energy drink to keep them awake.


Despite the struggle to keep themselves awake in the morning, they'd gotten through it. However, only with the use the energy drink from a vending machine. Needless to say, they were still exhausted..

"Hey Carrie!" Darwin got her attention as she was floating towards the elevator. His arms were behind him.

"Yeah?" Carrie responded.

"I got you something!" "Well what is it?" She smiled. Darwin took his arms from behind his back to reveal a video game, 'THE TALE OF ZELMORE: A PORTAL TO THE VOID"

"Aww, thanks!" She happily took the game from Darwin, "but how did you get it?"

"Bought it off of one of the players yesterday for twenty bucks!" He answered.
"Can't wait to play it when we get back!" Carrie opened her arms for a hug, only for Darwin to fall right through her. Darwin got himself up and laughed it off.


They slept through the entire ride home. The only exception being Carrie, who was playing on her newly acquired videogame. The awkward sleep position meant nothing as they were overwhelmed with exhaustion, resulting in the club being in a dormant state for the whole six hours.

They all felt better than ever when they arrived back needed to wait for the crowd of people who surrounded the bus to disperse in order to exit.

They went into the building and left SD's on Mr. Corneille's desk before parted their separate ways, each member feeling like a different person than they were the day before, they all gained something from the experience but couldn't quite put a finger on it.


It's been a while since i last published anything lol. I couldn't motivate myself to continue this but i got my shit together and started again. Also school started and got in the way. Hopefully i can continue to write this.
Ill start doing the first revision of chapters 1-4 after this gets published, I looked back on how i wrote the previous chapters and 100% feel like i could do a better job and there are some corrections i need to make, stay posted for those. xxcmdon8 on twitter/X for updates and other stuff. Shout out to ArconVoid, Valha, and Choppy for helping me with edits.

I will focus more on the camera aspect in the first revision. Also I plan on releasing this on ao3 (with revisions)