Chapter 1: Vow for the Future

The sun shined brightly as it bathed the city beneath it in the early afternoon light.

This city was called Elmore, and in this city was a park where several families were currently enjoying themselves by having picnics, walking, or even just watching as their children played on the playground equipment.

Of course a story such as this needs a main character and we quickly focus on one of these families.

"Could you hand me the plates please, Gumball?"

The question was directed at the eldest of three children as he helped his mother set up for lunch.

"Okay!" Was the happy reply from five year old Gumball Waterson as he reached into the basket beside him and brought out the plates and handed them to his mother.

Nicole Waterson smiled down at the ball of joy that was her son. The way his eyes would light up and his cat tail and ears wagged when he was excited was adorable.

Yes you heard right. Although human, the people of Elmore all had animal features. Gumball's just so happened to be those of a cat, something he got from his mother who also had the same ears and tail sprouting from her head and back. Although they did blend into his blue hair a good deal of the time.

It was the same way with her husband, Richard, and other two kids, Darwin and Anais.

Richard was a rather large man with the ears and tail of a rabbit, and Darwin had the features of a fish.

Looking down at the playground where her husband and middle child played, Nicole could but smile wider as she watched Richard push a laughing Darwin on the swings.

Feeling a small tug on her blouse, Nicole looked down and set her eyes on her youngest child. Anais had inherited Richard's features and her own rabbit ears swayed in the lite midday breeze.

Anais was a rather bright child for the age of two as she could already read where as Gumball was only just starting to learn.

However the two year old was looking at her with a look of desperation as she hopped around on her feet. It almost looked like she was dancing.

"Mommy, I have to pee!" The child exclaimed and her dance hastened.

Nicole sighed, although she was bright and more mature than should be; Anais had yet to learn discretion when speaking and was still scared to be anywhere without one of her parents or brothers around.

However this presented a problem for the young mother as she couldn't just leave Gumball or the food unattended, Gumball for obvious reasons, and the food because Richard was liable to have it all eaten by the time she got back and ruin their family outing. The man could go over board when it came to his eating habits and Nicole was trying to stop him before he gained anymore weight and became a lazy slob.

Therefore Nicole couldn't just leave, and her indecision must have shown on her face because Gumball suddenly spoke up.

"I can take her, mama." He offered, smiling up at her.

Nicole smiled at her son as he bound up to her, smile as bright as ever. But she found herself at another impasse; could she really let her five-year-old take his sister to use the restroom?

Her decision was made for her when she saw Richard and Darwin making their way to them, Darwin giggling as he rode atop Richard's shoulders.

"Okay," Nicole conceded, but her face became serious as she looked at the two, "but be careful and come straight back when she's done, alright?"

Gumball nodded enthusiastically before Anais grabbed his hand and started dragging him in the direction of the public restroom a short distance away.

Nicole smiled as she watched her children walk away; her family could not be any more perfect at this moment to her.

"Um, N-Nicole?" she heard Richard stutter from behind her for some reason. Nicole turned and her face paled when she saw a man behind him and Darwin and what he was pointing at them.

"Alright lady, do what I say and no one gets hurt!"

'A few minutes later'

"All done!" Anais exclaimed happily as she came out of the stall and walked over to the waiting Gumball.

"Mama said to get back right after you got done, so we better go." Gumball told her, holding out his hand for her to take, which she happily did and they made for the door.

They'd only just opened it when two loud bangs rang out followed by a scream. Gumball's eyes widened, that was his mother's!

Turning to his little sister, he saw that she wore a scared look as she looked around and was clutching his hand to an almost painful point.

"Anais," he breathed, drawing her attention to him. "Stay here. I'm gonna go see what that was."

"B-but-" she made to protest, but Gumball's hand on her head stopped her.

"I'll be right back, okay?"

Anais stared at her big brother with teary eyes but nodded after a moment. "You pwomise?" she asked, sticking her pinky up to him.

Gumball smiled to her and laced his pinky with hers, "promise!" he assured before letting her hand go and stepping out the door.

Anais' teary eyes and worried look were the last thing Gumball saw before the door closed and her turned in the direction of his family and took off as fast as his little legs could carry him. He never noticed how deserted the park had suddenly become.

As he neared where he last saw his family, Gumball began to make out four figures, two laying on the ground and the last two, one of them obviously a woman, standing just above them. One of the standing two had a gun pointed at the other.

Nearing even closer, Gumball began to make out his mother as one of the standing figures. But Darwin and their father were on the ground, unmoving.

Stopping dead in his tracks as he realized what was happening, Gumball stood in horror as he watched the man demand something of his mother only to be denied. The man was obviously already angry, and being denied apparently didn't help.

It was then the man did something that would forever hunt Gumball's dreams.

He aimed the gun at Nicole and pulled the trigger.

Gumball's strangled scream was drowned out by the noise of the bullet exploding from the gun's barrel and he watched his mother fall to join Richard and Darwin.

Gumball could only stand there staring as time seemed to freeze around him. Slowly, ever so slowly tears began to well and fall from his eyes as he stared at his lifeless family.

Then came the first sob, then another and another; pretty soon Gumball found himself on his hands and knees, sobbing as he looked upon the bodies of his family.

'Click'

Looking up when a shadow suddenly blocked off the sun, Gumball found himself staring into the barrel of a gun, the hammer already cocked.

Bringing his tear filled eyes up further, Gumball stared into the eyes of his family's killer. In them he saw no pain, no remorse for what he'd done. Gumball realized something then. Those eyes; they were the eyes of a monster.

Even for a five-year-old, Gumball knew there were people who were bad, people who would go out of their way to hurt others, to tear families apart. He just had not realized that his family could possibly be hurt.

"Why?"

Gumball was surprised when he heard himself ask this.

The man regarded the child before him with those same emotionless eyes and after several long moments answered, "They got in my way."

Gumball's eyes widened. They got in the way? His mother, his father, his brother were killed, just because they had gotten in the way? Was he next? These questions and more ran through Gumball's head as he watched the man's figure move to pull the trigger.

Gumball lowered his head as more tears made their way down his face.

"pwomise?"

The voice ripped through his head like a hot knife through butter.

Anais! He'd promised her he'd come back! There was no way he was going to let his little sister lose anymore family!

Gumball's head snapped up and time seemingly slowing around him as the gun went off.

The bullet seemed like it was going in slow motion for him, and Gumball was able to move his head away from its path, to where it only grazed his shoulder.

Roaring in a mix of anger and pain, Gumball leapt at the surprised killer and managed to ram his head into the man's chest.

The man buckled over as the child hit and drove the air from him. Bending over allowed the man's face to come into rang and Gumball, in a surprising amount of speed for a child, brought his hand up as his figure nails elongated and sharpened to points and swiped them across the murderer's face.

The man screamed in pain as the cat boy's claws cut across his face, but the assault didn't end there because Gumball was on him again. The man's screams rang out for several long moments as Gumball clawed everything he could get at. The man's face, arms, back, anything.

"ENOUGH!" the man screamed, somehow managing to grab the child's shirt when he went to claw one of his arms.

"Alright you little shit," the man growled, holding the five-year-old by the front of his shirt, his eyes burning with anger, "I was going to make it quick and painless for you. But after that I'm going to enjoy watching the life drain from your eyes!"

Gumball's breath left him when the man shifted his hold from his shirt to his neck and started to squeeze.

As the pressure on his wind pipe increase with every passing second Gumball's vision began to swim and darken, but before the last of his consciousness left him, Gumball heard his sister again, only this time it wasn't in his head.

"G-Gumball?"

Suddenly the pressure on his throat lessened and Gumball was able to make out Anais' blurry form through the corner of eyes a short distance to the right.

"Well well, what do we have here?" the faint voice of the man asked. "Another kid wants to meet an early end? Well then, allow me." Gumball saw the man's free arm move and he could hear the hammer of the gun being cocked back again.

When asked what happened next in future years Gumball would say he was unsure of just how he'd managed it, but when he realized what was about to happen, something inside him snapped.

This man had already robbed him of his parents and brother, he WAS NOT going to take Anais away from him!

Using the hand holding him as leverage, Gumball managed to swing himself forward, brought one of his legs up and kicked the man as hard as he could, right on the nose.

The man screamed and he dropped the child as his hands went up to grasp his broken nose. However, Gumball wasn't the only thing the man dropped and as his vision cleared, Gumball spotted his gun, lying on the ground infront of him.

His instincts kicking in, Gumball dove for the gun. The man seemed to realize he'd dropped it and quickly dove for it as well. Not fast enough though, and the man soon found himself staring down the barrel of his own weapon.

There was a loud bang.

That had been several hours ago and now Gumball found himself staring up at the moon in the night sky.

The cops had arrived shortly afterwards to find Gumball comforting a crying Anais. Several questions later and they had the full story. The man had killed their family; Gumball fought and killed the man to protect his sister, and although they were amazed that a child of five had managed a feet many people three times his age couldn't, they understood.

Shortly after that and their grandmother had arrived to receive the news that her son and his family were dead and all that were left were her eldest and youngest grandchildren. She told them she'd take them in and had left right after to take them to their new home.

All the while Anais had not let go of Gumball, even when they'd gone home to pick up a few belongings.

And now, Gumball stood at the window of his and Anais' shared room at Granny Jojo's, staring up at the moon as he went over what had happened.

How could this have happened? How could someone just take his family away and not regret it? How?

Gumball was broken from his thoughts when he heard Anais stir fitfully in her sleep, and he made his way over to the bed to rub her head.

The rabbit girl calmed and continued to sleep, causing Gumball to smile slightly. Anais and Granny Jojo were the only family he had left, he would be damned if anyone were to take them away from him.

Turning back to the window, Gumball glared up to the sky. "I promise you, Anais. I'll protect you from those monsters. Never again will they hurt you. I'll hunt them down and make sure of it! Even to my last breath!" he swore as he lay down beside her and quickly joined his sister in sleep.

Little did Gumball know, but his vow had been over heard from a small crack in the doorway of the room.

Granny Jojo closed the door of the room quietly as what she'd just heard echoed through her head.

"Gumball," she muttered. She couldn't believe the lengths her grandson was will to go to protect his sister. She knew the event had to have been traumatizing from the five-year-old, but never had she thought he would vow something like this.

But despite herself, she found a small smile on her face as she made a decision. A decision that would change the world as they knew it.

"If that's your future Gumball then I'll help. No matter what it takes I'll find a way to help you take these criminals down." She swore before continuing down the hall to her room.

So began the story of a boy. A boy who had lost his family. This is his story of becoming a hero and a killer. This is the story of Gumball Watterson, the Shadow Cat.

Beware world, a monster was born in the blood of sin this day, and he's out for vengeance!

And cut!

Okay so here's my newest story. I would like to thank 'Shadow Gumball of Death' for allowing me to use his story as a base for this.

Please review and I'll see how fast I can get out the next chapter.