Penny & Gumball: Way Back To The Past
Chapter 1: Big Mistake
Right, right, right, some of you may say that I copied DiamondDragon2003's story title. But let me reassure you that this has nothing to do with his/hers storyline or the contents inside it, I've been writing this one chapter since three weeks back and I've already came up with the title. I'm also convincing you to not go against DiamondDragon2003 or send any form of threats.
(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. Said TV show belongs to Ben Bocquelet, the staff team and Cartoon Network.)
(A/N: I want to point out that I took the word "Bizzaro" (as a term referring to the residents of Elmore or likewise) from a fanfiction posted on the same website named "Teri X Gumball: In between worlds" You should probably check that fanfiction out, it has some very amazing dialogue and storyline to it.)
(This chapter doesn't contain any action sequences or other thrilling scenes but it does contain an introduction to the story itself and the characters within the fanfic.)
(Also, my English vocabulary isn't very good so expect some short sentences, bad inscription and repetitive text.)
[Elmore Neighborhood, 5:67 PM, 23rd August 2013]
Somewhere in the coasts of California, a certain suburban town, with a population of over 20,000 residents currently living in this spectacular town. However, this town isn't like any other town. You see, this town is mostly inhabited by a species known as Bizzaros. They have been living alongside the Humans for billions of years. Bizzaros come in many forms; ranging from a talking tree to a sentient object. But sometimes, not all species are equal. Both sides have tried waging war against eachother for the past few centuries. Some even fight against their own species in terms of politics. Currently, no such war has been declared between the two species as an international peace agreement has been signed by multiple nations a few centuries ago. But that's a story for another day, let's move onto the next subject, Elmore. The town was founded in the US during the early 1850s as a settlement for the Bizzaros species as well as playing an important role in resource production during the civil war, as time progressed Elmore began to shift towards military production in the 1920s. Elmore back then was the richest town to be known but as soon as the Great Depression hit, Elmore began to lose its major role due to resources depleting fast. Therefore, the government was forced to abandon resource production in the town and move onto a much more reliable location. After World War Two ended, the economy in the US began to stabilize and inflammation was beginning to slow down. Soon, everything slowly began to change back to normal and Elmore became one of the most historical sites in the US. Enough history, let's move onto the current subject, downtown Elmore. The beautiful sunrise through the horizon, the birds chirping, the atmosphere's color slowly shifting signifies a new day, a rather, unfortunate day.
[The Wattersons' Residence, 6:45 PM, 23rd August 2013]
"Ugh, why do I always have to hear this annoying alarm clock!" He groaned.
In a room that was once quiet, stood a blue, thirteen-year-old humanoid cat with an oversized head. Gumball Watterson. He was quite frustrated that he would always hear the constant beeping noise from time and time again. He hoped that one day he could disable the alarm clock and possibly take a long snooze. But now wasn't the time, he had a field trip to attend. He wasn't quite excited tough, since the field trip only goes to The Southern San Francisco Museum just to take notes and observe some artifacts. (A/N: "The Southern San Francisco Museum" is a fictional place if you're wondering.) For now, he had one hour before the school bus arrives to pick him up. Given the fact that both of his siblings were absent during this day, Darwin went to Carrie's house to settle in the day before. Whereas Anais went to Clare's house to do the same. Therefore, Gumball is left alone by himself in his room which he and his younger brother shared. He proceeded to toss the bedsheets aside and stood up beside his bed. He let out a long yawn accompanied by purrs, he stretches both of his arms to churn in the headstart energy. His attention suddenly shifted to his bedroom door. He heard a slight tinge of noise from the doorknob outside before the door swung open.
There beyond the doorway, stood a tall figure, before he could get a closer look he managed make out its appearance. It greatly resembled Gumball himself. It wore a white t-shirt, a mid-length grey colored skirt and the Rainbow Factory pin. It was nonother than Nicole Watterson.
"Good morning, sweetie." She said in a soft, welcoming tone.
"Morning Mom." Gumball responded in a neutral modus. Whilst confining his gaze onto his mother.
"How was your snooze?" She asked while giggling.
Right when she pronounced those words Gumball took a moment to lock his stare onto his bed, that is when he remembered a dream. It was like a nightmare but rather bizzare, first he recalled him along with a gradient yellow-orange skinned girl with a small pair of wings on her back and antlers from both sides of her head. They were both falling endlessly through a pitch-black void. It never seems to have an end and the longer they fall, the temperature around them gets colder. That is when Gumball saw (in the dream) in the distance a white surface, the texture was snow-like and rough. Suddenly the environment around them began to change. It began to show a very foggy environment with mountains in the distance and heavy blankets of grey clouds above them, Gumball soon realized that they were falling into the earth's atmosphere and was ready for the impact. As soon as they hit the ground everything quickly snapped into darkness. That was all that Gumball could recall.
"Gumball, is everything okay?" the voice of his mother called out to him.
He quickly broke out of his gaze and turned to stare at his mother still standing at the doorway waiting for a response.
"Eh-eh yeah, yeah everything's alright." He responded sheepishly before nervously chuckling.
Nicole felt relieved from her son's response and ordered him to take a shower, go downstairs, eat breakfast and finally head outside and wait for the bus arrive. Gumball listed off the things his mother told him to do and does the procedure one by one. Brushing off from the thoughts in his mind, he continued to wear his formal everyday outfit and headed downstairs to eat breakfast after taking a shower.
[The Fitzgeralds' Residence, 6:00 PM, 23rd August 2013]
-45 minutes earlier-
On the other side of town, a residential property belonging to the Fitzgeralds and housing four family members. One of which is a gradient shapeshifting fairy, and that is Penny Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter belonging to the Fitzgeralds. Still in her pajamas, she sat there right at the edge of her bed, blankly staring at her family photo. She was surprised that they still haven't changed their family picture since last year. Ever since she managed to break free from her shell, with the help of Gumball, their family didn't take any family pictures since then. Maybe they weren't aware of the family picture? Since renewing family pictures each year proved to the Fitzgeralds as displaying their family's current age and appearance. Maybe she had to wait for the upcoming months? Who knows, all she knew was that they may get the opportunity to update their family photo next month or delayed. But now it didn't take that much of a concern to her, she too had to attend a field trip in two hours.
Suddenly, the shapeshifting fairy heard a loud continuous beeping noise originating right beside her bed. The noise made her jump the first time hearing it but then she realized that it was just her alarm clock. This alarm clock was slightly louder than the last one just because her father bought her a new alarm clock to replace the broken one. Sighing, she got out of her bed and let out a short yawn whilst stretching both of her arms. Nevertheless, she glanced at the alarm clock which displayed red digits that read "6:05 AM". Still, she went on to dismiss the alarm clock with the single tap of a button located on top of the object's cover board. She had to wake up earlier than Gumball just because the bus arrives at her house a lot earlier. She took a glance right outside her bedroom window to see that the sun was beginning to rise with the atmospheric color of the horizon began to shift to a brighter tone aswell.
"Another day, a new experience." Penny uttered under her breath.
She proceeded to approach her bedroom door which lead to the hallway of the second floor. She realized that both of her parents were still asleep, the main reason is because her father, Patrick Fitzgerald couldn't go to work today just because his workplace had to be shutdown due to several issues. Such as the lights in the elevator lift shutting off or the lift itself malfunctioning. Another thing is that the entire buildings electricity would sometimes go off, the weird thing is that people's phone would go off too along with other electronic devices. As strange as it is, Penny shrugged it off as a mere coincidence or a supposed terrorist attack. As for her mother, she just stays home to take care of Polly, Penny's little sister. She shook her head and headed towards the bathroom to take a shower, proceed to go downstairs and prepare breakfast for herself before finally departing off to school. Snapping out, she opened the bathroom door and went inside before locking the door behind her.
-6 minutes later-
After taking a short, warm and refreshing shower. Penny closed the running water and took her towel which was hung onto a stainless-steel bar attached to the wall. She wrapped the towel around the upper-portion of her body except for the arms to cover most of her, well, you know, the towel was big enough to end at the point of her knees. After leaving the bathroom, Penny headed straight towards her bedroom to obtain her clothes. Just when she touched the doorknob of her bedroom door, she heard the sound of a harmonica playing an ominous tune. At first, she thought that it could be her dad or anyone playing a trick since her father was very good at musical instruments, but then she remembered that they were asleep and she was the only individual in the household to ever be awake. This caused her to look around at her surroundings at a rapid pace as if she was being hunted by a serial killer that could appear from any direction. Drops of sweat started to drop from her face as the tune went on along with her the beat of her heart beginning to race.
"Who's there? Show yourself! This isn't funny!" She said with fear and annoyance.
That's when the sound of the harmonica stopped along with all other noises, the house itself was now eerily quiet than before. Not only was the house quiet but the outside was too, the birds itself stopped chirping along with all other noises. Out of panic, Penny rushed to her bedroom and locked the door behind her, she then let out a sigh whilst wiping her forehead before advancing to walk towards her wardrobe. She glanced outside of her bedroom window to see that everything was as normal as it is with the exception of the noises all being muted. She shook her head and continued to open her wardrobe. There, she saw a selection of clothes, mostly as casual wear. She took the set of clothes she'd normally wear on an everyday occasion.
Those were a white-blue colored t-shirt with a symbol in the middle representing a pair of antlers aswell as a knee-length red skirt. She proceeded to wear the selected outfit from the wardrobe before heading towards the drawer next to her studying desk. There, she pulled the drawer and fished out her digital watch. This watch was gifted to her last year on her 12th birthday, her father told her to keep this watch as it may be useful in a "certain situation" although her father hasn't quiet told her yet what this watch was capable of. She shrugged it off and ensued to wrap the digital watch across her wrist. She headed over to her backpack to double check if she had her things ready. Since today there wasn't any school or learning activities due to the field trip, she didn't mind leaving her assignments and books at home. The only assignment here was taking note of the artifacts in the museum later on in the field trip. She grabbed her backpack and went outside her bedroom door.
Before she could leave, she opened the door slightly just so she could take a peak. Penny didn't see anything out of the usual, everything seemed as if nothing happened, the entire house was entirely quiet that it sent shivers down the fairy's spine. The gradient fairy then proceeded downstairs to prepare breakfast for herself, she headed to the kitchen to see what supplies they had. There were a lot of choices, but she tends to eat oatmeal with milk since it was simpler and more efficient to make, aswell as a good choice for a light morning breakfast. She went to the refrigerator and grabbed the large milk carton. She then grabbed a packet of oats from one of the cabinets located in the kitchen. She set the ceramic bowl onto the kitchen counter and poured the milk into it. That's when she realized...
"Ugh, I forgot to put the oatmeal first." Penny groaned.
But seeing at it was already too late, the gradient fairy dunked the contents inside the packet of oatmeal into the ceramic bowl. She grabbed the bowl and made her way to the living room. There, she sat down at one of the four empty chairs surrounding the circular table and rested the bowl of oatmeal onto it. She took a spoon from a utensil holder placed in the middle of the circular table. She took a small amount of oatmeal sunken in milk with the spoon and brought it to her mouth. It didn't taste bad nor good but it's the best choice anyway. However, if combined with milk, the taste of the oatmeal is greatly enhanced by the creamy taste of the milk. Penny shook her head whilst chewing on her food and proceeded to take another mouthful.
-3 minutes later-
"That was a quick breakfast." Penny spoke with irony.
After finishing her breakfast, Penny wiped her lips with tissue and went to the kitchen to wash the bowl along with the utensils. She then lifted her arm up to her torso and glanced at the digital watch she wore on her wrist. The watch displayed black colored text with a white background that read "6:21 AM".
"One more minute before the bus arrives." Penny thought.
She made her way to the front door, she then reached out to the doorknob and gave it a twist. Instantly, the outside wind came gushing into her face. The fresh air filled the entire house, she was filled with eagerness just when she made her way to the porch. Not only that, all background ambience was present again, the birds chirping, the sound of the wind gushing, it all felt strange to her that the noises all came back all of a sudden. But something caught her off guard, she realized that she stepped on something rather dense. Lifting her feet away from her previous mark, and was dumbstruck to find.
A harmonica.
Penny got on her knees and picked up the said object. She inspected the object whilst rotating it, the object was dented, scratched, covered in dirt and seemed very old and antique. That's when she spotted something on the instrument's top cover plate, a text. It was very hard to make out the text just because of the fading and scratches. The only words she could make out was.
"A_ll's _863"
She wondered why such object like this would be left out here in her porch, that is unless the owner of this harmonica left it out at their neighbor's porch just because he or she didn't need it anymore. She also realized that it was warm to the touch, which is quite strange as if it had came out from an oven. She then heard the sounds of a vehicle approaching from the right side. Turning her head to the direction of the oncoming noise, she spotted a yellow bus that had passengers inside it along with text beside that reads "SCHOOL BUS".
"Just in time" Penny said while locking her gaze onto the school bus.
She stored the harmonica into one of the pouches of her bag before swiftly making her way towards the bus stop infront of the house. The bus stopped infront of her with a screeching noise and lastly a hissing noise. The side door of the bus opened to reveal a puppet in the driver's seat covered in orange fuzzy fur, Rocky.
"Welcome aboard!" He greeted the fairy enthusiastically whilst waving at her.
"Morning Rocky." She replied with a warm smile before waving back.
She proceeded to make her way into the interior of the bus. There she saw her usual everyday classmates, Alan sitting right beside his girlfriend Carmen in the front row, Molly sitting beside Teri casually explaining her three-hour stories to her as the paper bear perceives it worse than phycological torture and Darwin in the back cuddling with his usual long dead girlfriend, Carrie. There are quite a few people in the bus so Penny decided to sit by herself in the middle row. She made her way to her desired seat as the bus began moving. As she was making her way to her seat, she glanced outside one of the buses' windows and her eyes widened to see a figure staring right back at her from the bus stop she previously departed from. It measured five feet in height, had a purple spherical head with a circular eye in the middle, it lacked a mouth too, it's head greatly resembles a globe with the exception of a different color palette. It has a grey, disfigured polygonal body with a bowtie attached to the (neck?) and a hollow diamond-shaped hole carved into the right portion of its chest. It has a pair of black slender limbs that seem to be bisected in each segment but showed no signs of wounds nor blood. It wore a pair of white gloves and a small black top hat. It's legs were similar to its limbs with the exception of its feet being a rectangular black box. Penny was frozen in place with her eyes widened, it gave her the most sinister stare she ever saw. It just stared at her until the bus began to speedup. Penny looked at the far back interior of the bus just to catch a last glimpse of the figure, but it disappeared. She shook her head from the wild thoughts that were circulating in the mind and finally laid her back onto the 'comfy' bus seat. Was she hallucinating? She stared at the window emotionless as the bus began to pass the neighborhood whilst stopping to pick up one of the students. But then she remembered something, digging into her bag's pouch she discovered a harmonica, the one she picked up earlier. It was now cold to the touch and I mean ice cold, this was pretty strange to Penny just because. Nonetheless she began to continue inspecting it, trying to make out the words that were displayed on the top cover of the damaged instrument.
[The Wattersons' Residence, 7:04 AM, 23rd August 2013]
Having eaten his breakfast, Gumball went to grab his backpack he left right beside the staircase. He unzipped the backpack to double-check if he had his things ready.
"All set." He thought to himself.
He grabbed his backpack and wore it over his shoulders. He was about to reach the exit when he remembered something. He spun on his heel to face his mother looking at him from the staircase, she was giving him a warm smile.
"Stay safe out there, sweetie." She said in a sweet tone.
Nicole then proceeded to go downstairs heading towards her son to give him a kiss on the forehead before wishing him a goodbye. Gumball replied back with a goodbye and a wave. He then made his way to the front door and grabbed onto the door handle before giving it a twist, as the door swung open. The outside wind and fresh air came gushing right into their household, Gumball could feel the fresh air and wind seethe into their house. The blue feline then marched towards the front porch and stared at the neighborhood environment.
"What a new day." He muttered.
He then made his way to the bus stop just infront of his house. He checked the time on his new digital watch. It displayed a black background and a text in blue that read: "7:05 AM".
"The bus should be here anytime now." He stated.
Gumball waited for another few seconds that felt like hours to him until he heard the sounds of a vehicle approaching from the right side. Turning his heel to the oncoming noise, he spotted a large yellow vehicle with the text "SCHOOL BUS" written on the side.
"At last." He thought to himself.
He focused his attention onto the school bus that was heading towards his direction as it came to a halt right infront of him. The door on the left side of the bus opened as it revealed Rocky sitting in the driver's seat.
"Hop on in!" Rocky greeted the blue feline in a welcoming manner.
"Thanks Rocky." Gumball snapped back.
Gumball proceeded to make his way into the bus as the door behind him closed with a hissing noise. Turning to the back interior, he saw his everyday classmates chattering with eachother. He then saw his brother Darwin along with Carrie sitting in the back row. He decided to sit with his brother and discuss some things with him. As he was heading towards the back row, he spotted an empty seat right beside him, next to the empty seat was a familiar face. Turning his body to see who it was, it was Penny, sitting by herself. Gumball decided to scratch the idea of hanging out with his brother and went to sit beside the shapeshifting fairy, he saw that she was inspecting a sort of instrument. Penny didn't pay Gumball any attention given the fact that she was busy inspecting the device in her hand. So, Gumball decided to greet her first.
"Oh, hello Penny! How's it going?" He greeted her in a gentle tone.
Penny turned her head to the noise and spotted a blue big-headed cat. She gave him a heartfelt smile accompanied by a wave.
"Oh, hello Gumball! I'm sorry I didn't notice you right there." She said in shy modus along with slight signs of guilt written over her face.
Gumball sat down and sealed his stare onto Penny, his eyes showed signs of empathy and courage as he rested his hand onto Penny's shoulder.
"It's okay Penny, not all of us see our sides." Gumball reassured her.
A red blush made its way onto Penny's face as Gumball uttered those words.
"Thanks Gumball." She retorted.
Gumball gave her a smile and noticed something in her hand, it looked dented, broken and pretty old. The object in her hand seemed pretty familiar to him as he asked her a question.
"What's that Penny?" He said pointing at the object in the palm of her hand.
Penny glanced at the object Gumball was pointing at, then she turned her stare towards Gumball.
"It's a harmonica I found right outside my porch." She replied.
Gumball raised an eyebrow and proceeded to ask her another question.
"That's strange, do you have any idea of where or who it's from?" Penny extended her arm towards Gumball, showing him the object in her palm.
Gumball took the object and inspected it for himself. He discovered dents, dirt stains and scratches, another thing he found was an indecipherable text written on the top cover of the instrument.
"ALLS863?" He muttered under his breath.
Penny could clearly see that Gumball was struggling to put together the missing letters in the text. She couldn't help but chuckle at the stressed feline.
"What do you think Penny?" He inquired, turning his head towards the golden fairy.
"I'm not sure, all I could make out was the letters you pronounced earlier." She responded.
Gumball shrugged as he gave the instrument back to Penny.
"I'm sorry I couldn't find anything about this." He replied wearing a weary expression
"Oh, it's okay Gummy." She snapped back at the same time giggling.
Gumball followed along too, since he was given some silly names back in the past he was getting used to it. Gumball glanced outside of the window and saw that they were nearing the school. He felt like it happened in an instant, given the fact he and Penny were mostly chattering to eachother the whole time.
"We're almost there, Penny." Penny too glanced outside of the window beside her and saw that they were nearing the school. Approximately one or two minutes away until arrival.
(A/N: They're heading towards the school just because of an assembly before the field trip begins.)
The golden fairy reclined back to her seat and turned her head towards Gumball.
"What do you think about the trip? Are you excited?" She questioned him.
Gumball merely shrugged as a response.
"Eh, we're just going to that museum just to take notes anyway. If we were to like- go to the San Francisco City Square or anywhere else interesting it would have been more adventurous." He added.
Little do they know, that one sentence would be his last wish granted. In the opposite way.
[Rob's Apartment, 8:00 AM, 23rd August 2013]
In a dimly lit room, the sounds of metal clanking, the air filled with smolder and the scent of a repulsive wasteland. In an isolated constructing table, there stood a tall figure beside it. It wore a wielding mask as it was plying metal parts together. Just then it took off the wielding mask just to wipe the sweat on its forehead.
"It's done." Rob grinned.
The disfigured arch-nemesis of Gumball, Rob himself. He had a polygonal head closely similar to a pentagon with two patches of unattached brown hair covering his top portion, formed in a way to resemble bangs. Both of his cheeks and arms displayed TV static along with his legs. His four-fingered hand presented different colors with the right one being greyish-black and the other being pink. He had been working on one project since last year, and it was one of the most muscle-grinding projects he had ever made. A time travelling device. He had spent nearly most of his daily routine studying, researching and conducting numerous experiments with this one device. What was formerly a sci-fi related topic was now brought to life, he could even become famous to be the first man to ever time travel on earth! Regardless of the excitement he had, there was still one thing he had in mind. Since he recently finished this one particular device. The device looked like a laser pointer but slightly wider, it had a reflective surface with silver coating, it had a black screen displayed on the device's roof, an on/off button and a battery hatch. The device also had strap just so the owner of the said item could attach it to their wrist. There was one last thing he didn't knew, and those were the flaws. Luckily, there are two modes he implemented into the device itself.
One of which it could "revive" an object. For example, an old artifact from the middle ages, of course the artifact itself looks horrendous nowadays due to rust, dirt, etc. But with a simple voice command, the device could activate it's harmless laser beam and beam it onto the artifact/object itself. Sooner or later the object would begin to change, it would begin to transform to several different stages among the years it was post-built and the final result would be its appearance from the first day it was manufactured. For the second mode, you would have to type in your desired coordinates and date of the timeline you wish to travel to. After it is all set and a simple press of a button, the front tip of the device would begin to glow and shoots a laser beam onto the wall/floor. It would then open a portal to the other side of the world, in a different timeline. Well, all of this was according to Rob's previous experiments on this dangerous device. Who knows what this device could be truly capable of.
Nevertheless, Rob has decided the best place to test this device out. The Southern San Francisco Museum. The lanky cyclops had to pick one of the many artifacts in the museum. However, there were surveillance cameras that surround almost every part of the museum. But this was a joke to the mad scientist, as he had brought himself a medium-range EMP device he made a few months ago. The time travelling device won't be affected by this, since he covered the plating of the device with EMP-Resistant magnesium. God knows where he obtains all these items. Without wasting a single minute, Rob strapped the newly born device onto his wrist and gazed at the device.
"I hope this turns out well." He pleaded.
Rob made his way towards the exit, he reached his hand to close the lights. The lanky cyclops closed the door behind him and proceeded to make his way towards the front door. He made sure that he got all the tools necessary just in case things go wrong. He took a deep breath as he opened the front door. He continued along to walk through the eerie apartment hallway. It was dimly lit given the fact he was living in a cheap apartment by himself. He proceeded to make his way to the elevator.
-3 minutes later-
Ding!
The casual elevator noise indicated that the cyclops had arrived in the parking lot. Soon, the doors of the elevator slid open to reveal a cramped environment filled with vehicles parked neatly. Rob stepped out of the elevator, the parking lot smelled of fried chicken and gasoline, that may mostly be the cause of the large exhausts implemented outside of the parking lot. He entered the cramped space of cars and surveyed his surroundings. There was not even a single soul present in the area except for him. Unexpectedly, the lanky cyclops spotted a specific yellow sedan. He immediately recognized the car as "his". (Well, it's a long story as to how he obtained this car, and it's definitely not the legal way.) Rob proceeded to head towards his parked sedan, he later arrived at the door beside the driver's seat and injected his keys inside the keyhole. He heard a krrak noise as he twisted the car keys inside of the keyhole. Nonetheless, he swung open the door and entered the driver's seat. He inserted his car keys into the ignition hole and the engine roared to life. Rob took another deep breath as he rested his hands onto the steering wheel, he planned to head to The S. San Francisco Museum until he heard a growl in his stomach.
"I'll head to Joyful Burger and then The San Francisco Museum!" Rob thought in his mind.
[Elmore Junior High Auditorium, 8:30 AM, 23rd August 2013]
20 minutes later…
After a long boring assembly hosted by the school's principal, Nigel Brown. All the students and teachers are now required to board the bus. As the flock of students and teachers make their way out of the school, Gumball was walking side-by-side with his girlfriend, Penny as they exchanged conversations and jokes among eachother. He was quite guilty for not walking with his brother Darwin, just because his fish brother was walking with Carrie. So, he tried not to interfere with him but promised to make it out to him at the end of the day. And then they reached the school's main entrance, where everyone was lining up to board the school bus. Both Penny and Gumball could hear the babbling of various students around the school, it was like the school cafeteria. The teachers didn't hesitate to barking orders at their students because lining up is the best thing the students could do.
Meanwhile...
The two students had found themselves inside of the school bus, the interior was filled with chattering and conversations of student among student. The duo made their way to the middle row, the row Penny always sat whenever she's alone or needed some space. Gumball allowed Penny to enter the seat row first before proceeding to follow along. Both students sat down as they were positioned into their seats. Gumball reached out to his backpack that was laid infront of him. He unzipped it and burrowed his hand inside his bag, he began digging for his phone he bought along with him. It took him a moment of feeling and scouting until he finally found his phone, it had a black cover with a red-yellow text that reads: "Rapsody Train". (No pun intended)
"A fan of rap music huh?" Penny questioned, rotating her bulbous head towards Gumball.
"They have good music anyways. Besides, this band is the only one that doesn't cuss." He shrugged.
Penny rolled her eyes at the same time smirking before continuing to read her book. Gumball on the other hand searched for the music library on his phone, he glanced at Penny and asked her question.
"Hey Penny, mind if I ask you what it is that you're reading?" He asked politely.
Penny was about to reply with a none-of-your-business format but decided to keep that to herself as she didn't intend to choose a rude comeback just because her boyfriend was only asking her a question. Instead, the golden fairy stared at the big-headed feline with a neutral expression and replied.
"It's a fanfiction about us venturi- "
"Breaking the fourth wall?" Gumball cut her off.
"Come on Penny, tell us what you're reading." He threw back at her.
Penny playfully punched Gumball on the shoulder whilst giggling and proceeded to respond with the correct answer.
"Alright Gumboss, I was reading a book about "125 Destinations Around the Globe." She snapped back, turning the cover of her book towards the eyes of the blue cat.
The cover of the book was pretty simple, it consists of a simply drawn globe that had a large plane over it and white text above it that displays the said title. Gumball raised an eyebrow and asked her another question.
"Oh cool! Does it contain any exciting destinations rather than travelling to any historical museum?"
Penny rolled her eyes and flipped the book to a random page. Each page contains atleast four destinations with their pictures, the golden fairy pointed at the one picture at the top left corner. It seemed like an island that had tiny huts made from straw and wood, the fascinating thing was that the beach water was completely transparent. Penny proceeded to add in an introduction.
"This is an island called 'Bali'. It's located somewhere in a place called 'Indonesia' and it's one of the most visited tourist attractions." Penny declared.
"I heard that they got some interesting food and culture, I've been dreaming of going to this place ever since last year." She added in.
Instead of paying her attention, Gumball swiftly drew his notebook and began writing down the name of the locations
"What are you doing?" Penny asked him.
"Adding them to my bucket list." He retorted.
"So you're planning to go there too?"
"Probably."
"When?"
"Dunno, maybe at the start of December."
"I was thinking that myself." Penny acknowledged.
"My family and I are planning to go there at the same time as you." She further implied.
Gumball's pair of ears raised upon hearing the statement.
"So… are there any chances that we may meet up?" Gumball responded wiggling his eyebrows.
"Chances are, we may and may not." She retorted while wearing a bored-eye expression.
Gumball's ears drooped as soon as he heard those words.
"Oh, in that case we're gonna have to see for ourselves?" He asked
"Possibly." Penny answered in a neutral tone.
Gumball let out a faint sigh and thanked Penny. He soon looked back on his phone and unpaused the music, the phone's volume was set too high that Penny could hear the music Gumball was hearing from his earpiece.
"Gumball, isn't that too loud?" She warned him, but he couldn't hear her.
"Gumball, you know it could damage your hearing." She added while tapping his shoulder. Again, she was ignored by the blue feline who was bopping his head to the music.
Penny growled and proceeded to use non-lethal force, she reached her hand out to one of the ignorant cat's earpiece and plucked it out. Gumball's eyes widened as soon as he realized that one of his earpieces had been plucked out and looked towards his left. There, he saw Penny dangling his left earpiece with her index finger whilst wearing a sly look.
"What was that for?" Gumball retaliated slightly raising his voice and using a sour expression.
Penny chuckled a little and stared at Gumball still wearing the same expression.
"Oh Gumball, I didn't know you were that rude to me." She pretended to wear a sad emotion over her face.
Gumball was about to retaliate and reassure her but was then cut off by her interference.
"Were you this rude to me the whole time." She added, pretending to sniff while wiping her eyes.
"P-Penny I-I didn't mean to- It was a misunderstanding!" Gumball tried to reassure her.
Suddenly, Gumball saw a sly grin made its way onto Penny's mouth as she lifted her head. She burst into laughter as she was holding her stomach.
"Oh I'm very sorry Gumball, it was a joke!" She said whilst laughing.
Gumball's face reddened in embarrassment from his overreaction. He didn't want his most precious figure in life to ever be hurt in any way, that's why he would sometimes overact over certain situations that happens to Penny. This is because of his bond to Penny's overprotective father, he threatened Gumball that they would move away if he causes anymore mischief to his daughter. He let out a deep sigh and stored his phone into his pocket.
"And my earpiece?" He requested as he flattened his palm.
Penny plowed her hand into the right pocket of her skirt and pulled out an earpiece as she laid it onto the blue feline's palm.
"Next time, don't set the volume of your phone too high when you're listening to music! It could damage your hearing." She warned him.
Gumball rolled his eyes as a response and burrowed the pair of earpieces deep into his pockets. Penny reclined back to her seat as she continued to read her book. She glanced at Gumball for a brief moment and saw that he was stretching and yawning, possibly preparing to take a snooze.
"Sleepy already?" She asked the snoozing cat.
Gumball smacked his lips and nodded.
"Well… since we got a two-hour trip plus a one-hour rest at the resting zone during midway, I guess it's wise to take a rest." He stated as he rested his head onto his hands.
"Well, you do you. I'm just gonna enjoy the scenery." Penny said, resting her head onto the palm her hand as she stared out of the window.
She gazed at the digital watch fasted onto her wrist.
"8:40? Time passes pretty fast." She thought to herself.
As she stared off into the window, she realized that they were already in the outer-regions of Elmore. The vast empty space of a desert landfill filled with mountains, tumbleweeds and cactuses. There were also exposed animal remains that consists of various species, although they didn't appear quite often. She got closer to the window and turned her head towards the front of the bus, so she could get a better look to where they're headed. Over the lifeless sandy environment, she spotted a large red bridge spanning across a river that rounds the outer regions of Elmore. The gate itself closely resembles the Golden Gate Bridge except that it's smaller. As Penny was staring outside of the window, she began to feel slight vibrations from her seat. At first, she realized that it was the buses' engine but when she looked to her side, she saw that Gumball was purring. A smile crept onto her face, she had never seen the big-headed feline this cute while sleeping.
But all of that was interrupted after the bus was suddenly rocked violently, it sent the passengers inside it to be tossed to the roof of the bus before landing in random locations, including Penny and Gumball. The bus then came to a halt with a screeching noise and a hiss. As the students begin to stand upright and recover, Principal Brown was walking towards the driver's seat of the bus. He was willing to question Rocky what just happened and if he just ran over something.
"Rocky, what happened?" He questioned the fuzzy puppet.
"I don't know Mr. Brown but I swear there weren't any bumps on the road." Rocky sworn.
The school's principal wasn't buying it however, he further questioned Rocky if he was sleeping while driving.
"Are you sure you didn't see anything? Were you sleeping?" He questioned.
Rocky glanced outside of the window before turning back to the principal.
"Uhm, number one, I wasn't hallucinating or sleeping during this time of day. Number two, it all happened in a matter of seconds!" He stated while raising his voice.
Principal Brown raised an eyebrow and continued to question the puppet.
"What do you mean it all happened in a matter of seconds?"
"Well, to explain. First, there was nothing on the road, everything seemed as normal. Secondly, there was this sphere-headed figure holding a briefcase that began to materialize in the middle of the road. At first glance, I thought that it was dust but then it began to take the form of a humanoid figure. And I didn't have time to react!" His voice was now in panic, as if he was calling an emergency number about a burglar in his house.
"Alright calm down Rocky, let me head outside and check." The furry slug comforted him.
As Principal Brown was making his way towards the side of the bus to inspect some damages that may have been caused, the students inside begin to chatter to eachother about the recent incident that occurred a few seconds ago.
"Penny are you okay?" Gumball asked as he kneeled to inspect the golden fairy as she was laid flat on the floor of the bus.
"Yeah Gumball, I'm alright. Except for a few light bruises... and possibly some broken bones." She replied.
Gumball then assisted her as she tried to get up on her feet. He then sat her down on a nearby chair as he inspected the bruises.
"Doesn't look that bad." He stated while rubbing his chin.
Penny didn't know whether to agree or disagree to Gumball's statement as the bruises weren't actually lethal but instead they were like tiny cuts. He then rushed to the front segment of the bus, as if he was looking for someone. Penny turned her head to the direction of the blue feline and saw that he was talking to a flat, anthromorphic paper bear.
"Teri, may I borrow your first-aid kit?" Gumball requested the paper bear.
"Uhm, sure." She nodded. She unzipped her bag and probed her hand inside it and unveiled a medium sized aid kit with a red cross symbol imprinted onto its top cover. She then handed it to Gumball's hands.
"Thanks." And just like that, Gumball sped off to the back interior of the bus.
Teri was about to say something in return but was then cut off by someone's interference.
"Teri, may I borrow your first-aid kit?" She turned towards the direction of the voice's origin and saw a grey sauropod standing upright with two of her upper trunks resting infront of her chest.
"Oh, umm, I'm sorry Molly. But someone else borrowed it from me." She responded.
"Oh, it's okay Teri." Molly replied. Turning her back towards the paper girl as she walked back to her seat.
As each and every student were trying to recall what just happened, they were interrupted by a horrible, loud, feminine voice originating from the backside of the bus. The students immediately ceased their prattling and turned towards the origin of the noise. They saw an elderly primate, with both of its long arms rested onto the surface, it's diamond-shaped eyes and it's menacing glare pierced each and every student as they knew whenever it is around. It never spelt good news.
"Quiet down you maggots!" Miss Simian ordered.
"You toddlers better be quiet until Principal Brown comes here to resolve the issue!" She further implied.
The entire body of students was staring at her with a stunned expression. No one dared to retaliate or squeak a single noise. The silence was broken by a monotone voice that came from the front of the bus. Everyone looked at the origin and saw a fuzzy slug wearing a pair of glasses as he was holding an object that looked like a briefcase in one of his hands.
"Alright, alright. I think I've found the issue to our 'misfortunate' incident." Principal Brown declared as he continued to approach the flock of students and teachers.
He came to a halt and proceeded to lay the briefcase onto the floor. Each student and teacher came rushing to the sight and looked down onto the object. It was colored black, slightly dented with scratches and clops of sand. It was also locked with a four-digit code. The one thing that stood out from the rest was a white insignia imprinted onto the top cover of the briefcase. It was a hollow triangle angled downwards (tip pointing down). It also had rectangle emerging from the bottom corner of the triangle with circle that had a black dot in it. Closely resembling an eyeball. Everyone stood there speechless on what to comment about the object. Another thing they noticed was a small text written in white at the bottom of the insignia that was hard to make out due to the scratches and faded text but it reads as follows.
"Projt. 40: T**E TR*V****NG D***CE M-345"
"Bobert could you do a scan on that thing?" Gumball asked the white robot.
"Affirmative." He replied.
"Conducting scan of unidentified object." He said in his usual robotic voice.
Everyone surrounding the object begin to slowly take a few paces as the robot beamed a blue projectile that looked like a wireframe, in the meantime conducting his scan as everyone was anxiously waiting for an answer.
"Scan complete." The white robot announced.
"What's the news?" Teri asked the robot.
"Object identified to be a briefcase, made with a rare mineral known as 'Alloy Glassetite'. Last owner seen holding the object was a bio-degradable lifeform named S-S-[STATIC NOISE] Joe."
Everyone began looking at eachother with a confused expression written over their faces. Gumball was the first to speak up.
"What Joe?" Gumball asked.
The white robot again responded with static noise. Once again, students began babbling about the current situation until Principal Brown picks up the briefcase and announces the students.
"I'm going to send this to the Police Department just so they could figure this out."
"But after the trip. Luckily, the damage wasn't too serious, just a few scratches." He added in.
"Wait, you're telling me that after the bus was violently rocketed off the ground for a brief moment there weren't any serious damage?!" Gumball asked the furry slug in a hysterical manner.
"You can see for yourself." Principal Brown snapped back while pointing at the window to his right.
All the students rushed to the window to see that not even a single dent was made on the side of the bus. It was very hard to believe but yet strange, how could this vehicle survive an enormous force that nearly wasted the lives of many young students?
"Alright, I insist that you all go back to your seats and pretend that this never happened." The principal insisted.
The flock of students and teachers retreated back to their previous seats with Principal Brown now sitting at a seat located behind the driver's seat. Just so he could watch over Rocky. In the meantime, Gumball and Penny headed towards their previous seat and sat down. None of them exchanged words between eachother. The silence went on for a full minute, until Gumball asked Penny a question.
"What was that?" He asked.
"I have no idea." Penny retorted.
Gumball took a moment to think about a certain topic to think about but came out with no results. He went on to ask Penny if she had a topic that they could discuss about to break the awkward silence. She too, came out with no results. The two students stood there in silence, until Penny came up with a plan.
"Hey Gumball." She called out.
"Yeah Penny?"
"You wanna read Around the Globe with me?" She requested.
"Sure, since hearing music is kinda boring I don't think I have better to do. Besides, maybe we could discuss about the featured areas we plan on going during the upcoming holiday?" The feline shrugged before making another request.
"Sure thing." The golden fairy smiled.
Penny proceeded to retrieve the book she kept inside of her backpack, she rested her book onto her lap and flipped the book open to a random page. Gumball on the other hand, advanced to move closer to Penny just so he could get a better look at the book. The wo students began pointing at pictures and locations as they discussed about the current topic. Soon after, everyone in the bus too began to start talking to eachother and starting conversations, it seemed as if everything went back to normal.
[Somewhere on the express highway, 8:50 AM, 23rd August 2013]
Meanwhile, a certain yellow sedan came to a screeching halt as it stopped next to the traffic light. The only occupant inside the car was the driver, a tall lanky cyclops with a disfigured polygonal body. As he was tapping the steering wheel of the car, he looked over his GPS device he mounted using a suction cup onto the surface of the dashboard.
"Alright, turn left and proceed for another fourty kilometers…" Rob sighed.
He was quite disappointed that he had to stop on food a few minutes back, of course he had a schedule on which time of the day the museum was filled with visitors or not. He could've chosen the nearest option which was the Elmore Museum but the place was under maintenance for three months due to several issues regarding the electricity going off unintentionally and random potholes being created on the floors. And he didn't want to wait three months just to wait for the museum to be opened up, what if he waited for those three months just to find out that his most valuable contraption doesn't work? Of course, he didn't want that, and if he tried today he could maybe find out it's errors and faults and get it fixed right away. For now, he had a staggering one hour and fifty-eight minutes before arrival, the worse thing is that there may be traffic jams that could cause delays. Who knows? The probabilities are endless. The one thing that the lanky cyclops feared the most were roadblocks, he wasn't wanted by the police or anything but the fact that they could ask for the driver's license. Since that he stole this car last year from the Elmore Shopping Center, the owner of this car probably sent a report to the police department. All Rob had in mind was to stay away from the law, and he had a very high chance. The Police force in Elmore isn't that strict. Besides, the only professional law enforcer here is the Doughnut Sheriff.
As the traffic light turned green, Rob switched the gear of the car to "D" at the same time he pressed his foot against the gas pad. He steered the car to the left and proceeded straight, the road wasn't filled with that many cars, it made the highway very quiet and eerie. As he was descending along with the highway, he saw that the road was entirely empty. It wasn't too surprising for him, since that the bottom highway was recently finished a few months ago. Maybe the habitants of Elmore weren't aware of the new highway? Nevertheless, he went on and proceeded to follow along with the direction given by the GPS. That is until he saw something odd, he noticed that there were cars lined up infront of the highway. At first glance, he thought that it was a traffic jam, one of the most frustrating situations he would himself in. But then, he noticed two yellow-red cones that had a yellow blinking light mounted on each of them as they were placed on one side of the highway to the other. Immediately, he recognized this as a roadblock.
"Ah crap!" He swore under his breath.
Anything that could happen will happen. This situation was the worst ever than the traffic jam itself, it could land him in the hands of law enforcers just because he is currently driving a stolen car. Rob looked around his environment to look for a possible U-Turn. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single U-turn in the area. Rob's heart was pounding at a high rate, he planned that he might just talk it out with the cops or just stop his car on the right side of the road and wait until the cops were gone. Either way, he had to choose between one of them. He took another glance beside the road to think of an idea while driving his car slowly. That's when luck was by his side, he noticed that there was a thin pavement in between the road that he's on and the opposite side of the road. So he's best bet was to drive his car to the other side of the road. He looked around his surroundings one more time to ensure that there were no cars around him except for the ones infront of him just a few meters away. The cyclops swiftly steered his car to the right and hit the pavement, it made his car bump a bit but that wasn't a big concern to him. He later found himself on the opposite side of the road, Rob sighed in relief that he had emerged victorious. He was on the verge to celebrate but was interrupted by a feminine machinelike voice originating from his GPS.
"Recalculating route." Rob looked over at the GPS as he anxiously waited for a response.
"Estimated time of arrival has been delayed to three hours. In two hundred meters, turn left."
The lanky cyclops bashed his head against the steering wheel setting off the car's horn. Luckily, he didn't draw the attention of any other drivers in the area since the highway was empty.
"I think waiting three months is better than this… psychological agony." He said to himself.
Although he made the statement, he didn't actually mean it. He too didn't want to wait three months just for his device to be proven faulty, he didn't have a choice but to head to his current destination. Sighing in frustration, he pressed his feet against the gas pad as hard as possible causing the car slowly rocket up to speeds up to 100 MPH. Ignoring the speed limit, Rob drove straight before taking a glance at his rear mirror. There were still no cars on the road and the speeding driver decided to slow down his car a little. He didn't know what to think of anymore, he switched on the radio while shifting through. He didn't mind taking his eyes off the road just because he installed a switch in the car that allowed it to go into AI autopilot. He flicked the switch that was located on the dashboard of the car and went on to find some jazz music. He switched to different channels several times until finally finding the right one. This radio station only aired 50's,60's,70's,80's and 90's music. It was the right choice for him, Rob really enjoyed music from the 1950s and so on. He was fortunate enough to hear that the radio station was currently broadcasting Jazz music.
He felt a relaxing sensation soothing into his mind, the music itself muted outside noise. As his body began to recline into his seat, a smile made its way onto Rob's mouth. He then glanced at the GPS, which showed that he had a hundred more meters before he had to turn left. He flicked off the switch and rested his hand on the steering wheel, he then drove his car to the far-left lane of the highway.
"Turn left." The GPS announced.
Rob did what the GPS told him to and steered his vehicle to the left. Now he was on an open road, the roads were now filled with cars. It was quite stunning for him to witness this, it was like travelling to another dimension. Nonetheless, he continued to drive his vehicle to the given destination.
"In ten kilometers, take the third exit in the roundabout." The GPS informed.
Rob lowered the volume of the radio just so he could clearly hear the GPS, he was too late tough. But since the GPS had a HUD on the top right corner that displayed what the GPS told him to do recently, it wasn't a matter to him. For now, he had ten kilometers to spare, he flicked on the autopilot switch and rested his body onto the comfy seat. He didn't have to worry about stopping his vehicle when a car stopped nearby, since the car was equipped with advanced sensors he invented last year that could detect any nearby vehicle or object near it and it would steer the vehicle away from it. But, he still had to keep his eyes on the road for any traffic lights and push his feet onto the brake pad when he sees one.
[ A/N LINE BREAK]
Alright, alright, sorry for the sudden interruption, you can skip this if you don't care but I just want to announce that we've reached our 9,901-word count! (Excluding this line break) I originally planned to make this chapter around 5,000-7,000 words and my short script that I wrote right before this fanfic had only about 21 important events in this one chapter, you could say that I got carried away and you're not wrong. And I also want to say thank you for reading this, you are truly an amazing person that you've made it this far. This is the first ever story I've written on a fanfiction. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out a storyline while adding some improvements to it as I'm writing this one story. As I said, my English vocab isn't that good mainly because I don't originate from an English-speaking country, and I'm learning new words and sentences as I proceed to write this one story. Don't forget to leave a review on your thoughts of this one arc that I am currently writing, helpful criticism is allowed too, as long as it makes sense. Without further ado, let's jump back right into the story.
[Hillside Resting Zone, 10:30 AM, 23rd August 2013]
1 hour and 30 minutes later…
As the large transport vehicle stopped at a bus stop near the resting zone, the students and teachers inside were allowed to be dispatched from their seat. Everyone stretched their arms as they stood up ever since the moment they sat, their bottoms felt very sore. The teachers were the first to head out and the students were ordered to line up inside of the bus, every did as they're told and each of them will be given fifteen dollars by Miss Simian. As everyone took their turn to grab the money handed by the grumpy elderly primate, Penny was still sitting at her seat row trying to wake up Gumball.
"Gumball, Gumball, wake up." The fairy said in a soft commanding tone.
It took Penny a couple of shakes and repeating the same message before finally getting the cat to wake up.
"Wha-what? Already? I thought that we still had an hour." Gumball complained.
"Well it almost took an hour of waking you up." Penny snapped back.
The blue big-head cat shook his head and detached himself from his seat, he observed his surroundings to see that everyone was lined up at the middle isle of the bus in the meantime taking their turns to receive money given by Miss Simian standing at the front portion of the bus not too far from the buses' exit. Penny leaded Gumball to the further back of the line and had to wait for their turn. Fortunately, the line of students was now cut short because of the delay it took to wake Gumball up. After the last student before them, Sussie, took the cash given by the diamond-eyed primate, it was now Penny's turn to receive the money. All she had to do was lend out her hand and Miss Simian would disrespectfully slam the money onto her palm, Gumball too followed suite. Soon, the two students of Elmore Junior High had successfully made their way out of the yellow transport vehicle. Gumball turned around just to take a last glace on who may be the last to exit, it was no doubt Miss Simian and her companion, Principal Brown, holding hands together as the bizzare couple made their way out of the bus. Gumball turned his head back onto the road place they're currently heading, he wonders how could an elderly primate that is not only a million years old, but is also a cunning and sadistic creature find love with someone that was the opposite to her. Nevertheless, it strangely bothered Gumball as the two made their way into the building.
Inside, the only main place in the building was a food court, a large restroom and a small park. There were many kinds of food served on several counters ranging from fast food to traditional cuisine, the two had a variety of choices to pick from. Obviously, Gumball chose the fast food as it was a favorite meal for most pre-teen students. He also saw that there were many of Elmore's students lining up at the fast food counter. Penny on the other hand decided to choose Asian delicacy, as she wanted to know the taste of foreign cookery. However, she wasn't the only one, there were students such as Molly, Teri, Leslie and Masami all lined up in a row along with two other strangers. Both of which were human males. Penny told Gumball that she was heading for the other counter and Gumball didn't mind, it was her choice after all.
As she arrived at the food counter, she stood there behind the two strangers as they were chatting to eachother. She decided to eavesdrop on them but couldn't make out the words they were emitting, it seemed as if they were talking in a foreign language. Aborting her decision, she decided to look at the menu displayed on the counter. It showed a wide variety of dishes to pick from, she didn't even know what to choose!
"Uhh, let's see… pad thai, claypot, teriyaki, Southeast Asian…" Penny thought to herself whilst using her thumb to rub her chin and the other hand fixed onto her waist.
She stood there for a full minute locking her gaze onto the menu, not being aware of her surroundings.
"Next!" The sound of a masculine voice snapped her from her gaze.
Turning her head, she saw that there was no one left in the line, it was only her this time, she turned to her back just to see anyone waiting in line and was relieved to see that there was no one. If there was it would be a bit embarrassing for her. Walking her way towards the counter's register, she saw an elderly human male dressed in a red sleeved top, black slacks and shoes along with a bald top and hair surrounding his head looking at her with a welcoming expression.
"How may I help you today lady?" He spoke in a cheery manner.
The man itself was quite funny at first glance and he seemed like a gentle elderly, smiling back at him, Penny was about to make her order until her words got stuck in her throat. She had no idea on what to choose from so she decided to let the old man choose.
"Uhm sir, would you care to recommend some of the foods for me? I can't seem to get my mind on which foods to choose, there's a lot of choices!" She explained to the elderly man politely.
Nodding, the old man proceeded to grab an object from the bottom of the counter. He later re-appeared on the counter and showed what looked like another menu to her but the contents inside of it were different.
"Here are some of the customer favorites and most ordered foods, see for yourself ma'am." The elder registrant spoke with a polite attitude whilst handing the menu over to the golden fairy.
Penny grabbed the menu from the old man's left hand and stared at it. She saw that there were ten options for each category, those were Customer Favorites and Most Ordered. She looked at the category on the left (Customer Favorites) She saw that there were a small selection of dishes that was more easier to make, she finally landed her interest onto a dish tagged with the name "Northern Japanese Ramen". The delicacy itself costed about six dollars which wasn't that expensive. She had a choice now, but out of curiosity, she turned her eyes over to the other category. Penny looked at the list for a while and saw another option, "Fried Rice" which costed about five dollars and fifty cents. She really did enjoy eating rice even though it is quite rare here in the US but fried rice? It sounded like a new delicacy that she HAD to try. Now she found herself on the same situation again, it was either to choose between her favorite meal or an interesting food she had never tried. She was shifting gazes over on which food, she felt like breaking down. Her body was shifting colors too, from her gradient yellow- orange color pallete to a reddish crimson along with tints of yellow. Penny was at her bursting rate at this point.
Suddenly, she was interrupted by an intruder's hand pointing towards the fried rice option. It's four-fingered hand was obscured by a cartoonish white glove with black limbs following along it.
"I think the fried rice is a better option." A calm British accent belonging to the intruder spoke.
Turning her head towards the hand belonging to whoever it was. She was stunned and her jaw dropped in shock as she saw who the hand belonged to. There stood a familiar figure standing five feet in height and scoring a small black top hat along with a bowtie, it had a disfigured grey polygonal body along with a hollow diamond-shaped hole carved into the left portion of his chest, it had a spherical purple head that resembles a globe. And a singular eye, narrowed at her. The sphere-headed cyclops took the menu from the fairy's hand and headed towards the counter, it leaned over the counter as it positioned the menu onto it.
"One fried rice for the girl." It requested to the old man whilst raising its index finger indicating the number "1".
The old man nodded ignoring the fact that a random stranger decided to order for the girl and headed towards the back and got to work. The cyclops turned over to the golden fairy who was still standing there emotionless, having nothing coming out of her wide-opened mouth except for her own breath.
"First time?" The stranger asked the paralyzed fairy in the meantime leaning over the counter with his elbow.
"U-uh-m, who are you sir?" Penny inquired in a nervous tone still shaking with minor fear.
"Relax, Bulbhead, I'm not going to kidnap you." The stranger joked whilst trying to comfort her.
Although offended by the name given by a stranger she clearly didn't have any recognition of, Penny managed to calm down a little before correcting the man.
"That's very nice of you sir, also the name's Penny!" She raised her voice a little, slowly shifting her skin tone to a dark crimson.
The stranger chuckled a bit before introducing himself.
"And the name's S. Joe. You can call me Joe for short since no one knows my first." He detailed himself.
Penny has slight recognition of the name as if she heard it somewhere, but decided to grudge it out as it seems that she was just mishearing stuff.
"So, what brings you here?" Joe asked.
"Me and my classmates are on a field trip to the Southern San Francisco Museum. We're headed there just because we have several assignments to do." She explained.
The cyclops slightly nodded before adding in his own sentence.
"Oh yes, the Ministry of Education these days. I wonder what's going around their minds." He spoke in irritancy while shaking his head.
Penny was about to add in her own question. As she opened her mouth, she was cut by the stranger's interference.
"I recognize your school; Elmore Junior High was it?" He questioned.
"Mhm. How'd you know?" The fairy nodded while adding another question.
"Been there, schooled there." Joe stated in a calm British accent.
"Is that irritating crone still around?" He asked the fairy.
"Did you mean Miss Simian? If so, yes." She snapped back.
"Ah, everyone hates her, do they?" He queried.
"Fortunately, yes, everyone in my class hates her. Including me, well, a little." She declared.
The disfigured cyclops nodded a few times as a response.
"You know Mr. Joe, you remind me of someone." Penny added in.
Joe turned his head towards the fairy, raising his eyebrow making it look like a squiggly line.
"Go ahead."
"There is this guy named Rob and he is my classmate's arch-nemesis." Penny stated.
"Not really the kind of sadistic nemesis but the kind of guy who likes to ruin his life." She added.
A brief silence took over the conversation before the cyclops reacted.
"I see." The cyclops answered.
The two stood there in stillness before they heard a voice calling out for one of them originating from the inside of the counter. The sphere-headed cyclops turned his head to face the oncoming noise and spotted an elderly man holding a plate filled with yellowish rice. He old man placed the dish onto the counter before giving him a receipt.
"That'd be five dollars and fifty cents." The elderly man stated.
Penny, having heard the price announced by the registrant, headed towards the counter whilst pulling out her wallet. She was suddenly halted by a slender black limb extending its side infront of her. The hand slowly pushed her backwards as it reclined back to the cyclops' body.
"I'll pay for you." The British cyclopean offered.
Joe dug his right hand into the right side of his waist, the hand just no-clipped right through his invisible pocket whilst making static noises. He then proceeded to pull out a stack of dollar bills along with a few coins and rested them onto the counter. The old man took the money and stored it into his register, he then gazed at the two with a warm smile.
"Thank you, be sure to visit any time." He said whilst chuckling.
"Sure old man, I'm only a one time visitor. And I won't be coming back." Joe snapped back, picking up the tray and turning his back towards the elderly man as his smile suddenly became into a stern expression.
The cyclops headed towards the golden fairy and handed the tray to her.
"Alright, I better get going, I've got better things to do." He declared.
"You may now have some fun with your colleagues." The sphere-headed cyclops added in.
"Good day." Joe's last goodbye before tipping his small top hat and turning towards the opposite direction.
"Thank you for your help sir!" Penny thanked the cyclops for helping her out but he didn't respond.
Penny stood there, staring at her tray. It all felt like it happened all of a sudden and quickly faded away, she wished that she could start a longer conversation with this man even though she didn't know him well. She looked around her surroundings to see that the man instantly disappeared from sight. Sighing, she glanced at Gumball's table who was him sitting with his brother Darwin and Carrie. She then proceeded to walk towards the table with the trio sitting there.
10 seconds later…
"Oh, you know what happened after that? Theodore Roosevelt then asked the assassinator if he had a better gun." Gumball joked whilst laughing tears.
Darwin too joined suite with Carrie only slightly chuckling before sipping on her grape juice.
"Where'd you learn these jokes dude?" Darwin asked the humorous cat with his high-pitched voice.
"Oh, my sense of humor." He replied.
"Look who's here." Carrie pointed towards an approaching newcomer.
Gumball and Darwin turned to the side of their table and speckled a gradient, golden fairy holding a tray approaching them, it was no doubt Penny. As the newcomer was nearing their table, Gumball decided to ask Penny a question.
"Penny, what took you so long?" The blue feline inquired, raising both of his hands like a shrug.
"The registrant took almost forever took cook this one dish." She answered whilst taking a seat right beside Gumball.
"What's that?" Darwin asked the fairy, pointing at the dish she settled onto their occupied table.
"It's fried rice." She casually answered.
Darwin oh'ed as a response in the meantime slowly nodding his head before proceeding to stare at his dish.
"Darwin aren't you going to eat?" The fairy questioned the orange fish who still haven't took a single bite out of his salad dish.
"Oh, I was. Gumball made jokes that were too distracting that I couldn't just ignore him." He answered with his high-pitched voice and giving her a smile.
The fairy glanced at Gumball's plate to see that all of its contents were swiped clean off, except for a couple bones. She analyzed the dish Gumball ordered and finally came up with a conclusion, fried chicken. It was one of the blue big-headed cat's favorite dishes ever since he started 1st grade, the fairy really knew that much of Gumball ever since last year he's been slowly introducing himself to her. Gumball then gazed towards the fairy who was looking at his dish, he then leaned over the table and spoke to her.
"You want some?" He joked, raising his eyebrows and narrowing his eyes.
Penny let out an annoyed growl before turning towards her dish which she still hasn't eaten yet. She decided to take the plastic spoon given to her along with the dish, she took a scoop of rice with the plastic utensil as it slowly made its way to her mouth. As she chewed on the food that entered her mouth, she felt drops of slightly salty taste along with the smack of traditional flavor enhancers. But she felt something odd, there was a sweet taste in her mouth, as she chewed on the sweet taste slowly fades away and was replaced by a burning sensation in her mouth, she realized that she had eaten a chili. She was a fan of chili however; the only fact is that this one was alot more spicier. She swallowed the food in her mouth and taking a gaze at her dish whilst letting out quiet pants. Her yellow bulbous head slowly turned into a red crimson along with shades of red stretching down across her torso, Gumball looked at Penny with a frightened glare as he questioned her.
"Penny, you okay?" He asked.
"Y-yeah (pant), I'm alright. (gasp)" She replied.
"Uhm, Penny, I'll be right back. I'll go get you some water." Gumball stated whilst quickly getting off from his seat.
Both Darwin and Carrie looked at the fairy with an eyes-widened expression.
"Penny, aren't you supposed to be a fan of chili?" Darwin queried the panting fairy.
"Yeah, (inhale) but I didn't know (gasp) this one was alot spicier." She insisted while nodding her head rapidly several times.
"Then why did you choose to order this?" Carrie interrogated her with her low, monotone voice.
"I didn't order it!" She declared slightly raising her voice at the same time slamming both of her fists onto the table.
The two other students looked at eachother with a confused gaze before the fish boy questioned her once again.
"You mean someone else ordered it for you? Who?"
"Yeah, (inhale) he looks like Gumball's nemesis except- that he is much (gasp) taller and has a spherical head." She retorted.
"Also, he (pant) goes by the name of Joe." She further added in.
As soon as she added in the sentence, she saw a familiar blue cat approaching her from the right side. He appears to be holding a cone-shaped cup that had water inside of it, he was also rushing past people sometimes even nudging past them with a worried expression all over the blue kitten's face.
"Penny! I got you some water." He spoke whilst panting onto the table.
As Penny snatched the cup from Gumball's hand, she gulped the entire contents of the palm-sized cup. Although the spicy sensation was greatly reduced but still remained, the golden fairy felt a bit eased for the cold water that was flushed down her throat. She thanked Gumball for his assistance and asked him where he got this beverage.
"Gumball, where'd you get this from?"
"Oh, I was waiting in line at the beverage counter over there." He pointed at the counter with his index finger.
"And then some guy who looks like Rob's brother or something came up to me offered me this cup. He told me to hand it over the suffocating fairy over there." He further enhanced.
Upon hearing his statement, she immediately recognized the man her feline company was talking about, the one she recently encountered at the Asian delicacy counter. Though she appreciated Gumball's assistance, she lightly scolded him for accepting consumables from other strangers. Gumball shrugged it off and simply replied.
"Eh, atleast we got help from someone who offered us one."
Gumball was met with a smack from the back of his head and finally apologized. The big-headed feline rubbed the back of his head before continuing to protest against the fairy. As the couple argued at the other side of the table, Carrie was just casually sipping on her grape juice whilst enjoying this moment. She wasn't helping at all, in fact, her fish boyfriend was helping the two resolve their issue and still came out unsuccessful. Suddenly, Carrie felt a sense of unease loom over her, this was apparently an ability that was issued to ghosts whenever something unfortunate or suspicious was about to happen in the next few minutes, she gazed at the bus parked not too far from the food court itself and noticed that the sense of unease was originating from that one location. She glanced back at the table to make sure that the trio was still busy arguing to eachother. She then hopped off from the table and floated her way to the bus, she stood behind a pillar and took a peak towards the bus and taking a closer inspection. Her eyes widened to see that the door of the bus was completely wide open, at first glance it could be anyone entering the bus. However, she could clearly see the reflection of a lanky stranger measuring five feet in height searching the bus from the inside. She knew that this one man wasn't part of their school.
-Inside the school bus-
As the sphere-headed cyclops successfully broke into the large yellow transport vehicle, he stared at the interior of the bus from the driver's seat. He then ventured deeper to the buses' interior and glanced at some of the red colored seat rows. There, what he discovered was quite a mess ranging from empty cans to paper shreds all over the floor.
"What do these kids have in mind?" He muttered to himself in disgust, showing a sour expression.
He spent most of the time pacing back and forth inside of the bus whilst ducking to check whether or not his desired object was hidden under the seats. As he was walking towards the front interior of the bus he noticed a black rectangular briefcase that was hidden under a seat located behind the driver's seat. Joe kneeled onto the floor's surface and reached his slender arm out to retrieve the briefcase, as he dragged it along the floor, he entered a code into the briefcase and it suddenly swung opened. Inside of it, was a device that was similar to a pocketwatch. It had a chain attached to it's top and a surface coated with reflective stainless gold.
"Alas." He sighed in relief.
As he closed the briefcase with a clack!. He gripped the object's rubber handle as he stood up.
"Hey!" A feminine voice called out to the cyclops from the back side of the bus.
Joe's tiny top hat immediately jumped a few inches from his spherical head. His one eye was drawn-out in shock as he heard the voice originating from the far interior of the bus, he slowly turned his read to the left to see a translucent ghost girl with bangs covering her left eye with a hairclip attached that resembles a skull with a pair of wings, she didn't had any. She was glaring at the cyclops with a scowl that covered her face.
"What do you think you're doing!?" She shouted at the tall cyclops.
Joe looked at the furious ghost girl's glare that shot daggers at him, but his face was now a rather calm expression.
"Retrieving. What is it that you want?" He put his arms on his back whilst asking her in a calm British accent.
"You're the one to talk, stranger!" She snapped back, pointing her fingerless hand at him.
As Carrie lowered her arm and was prepared to charge at him, Joe narrowed his one eye at the ghost girl and his pupil turned into a slim slit. He took a few paces to the back and stood there locking his gaze onto the translucent ghost girl. Carrie was ready to launch her assault onto the purple-headed cyclops. Just as she took two steps towards charging at the cyclops, she was suddenly met with a heavy blow to her scalp that inflicted pain. She had never felt such pain ever since the last few centuries she had remained with the dead, her vision was blocked out by a bright white glow before it slowly faded away into darkness. The last thing she saw before she was blinded was a device being thrown at her by the cyclops. As she opened her eyes, she saw that there were several students standing around her with a worried expression all over her face, she noticed a familiar fish boy kneeling right beside her.
"Carrie! I'm glad you're okay!" The fish boy shrieked with his high-pitched voice.
The emo ghost stood up on her (feet?) as she rubbed the back of her head whilst groaning.
"What happened?" She queried with a tired tone.
"All of us heard you screaming inside of the bus and so we all turned our attention towards it, we saw a stranger that looked like the guy that who occupied our bus a year ago escape from the entrance. We tried to stop him but then he suddenly disappeared out of thin air." Described Molly.
"Hey what's this?" Gumball asked.
As everyone turned their attention towards the blue cat, Gumball pulled a strange looking object from beneath a seat located next to him. He held the object high up with his hand to give everyone a good look at it, it was cylinder in shape, with both sides of the object painted in black and was slightly wider, the middle. Section of the cylinder was a transparent glass, it was shattered and had the remains of a glowing blue substance in it.
Each and every student looked at the object speechless, until Penny was the one to speak up.
"Yeah, that guy was pretty polite the first I met him at the counter."
"Who?" Banana Joe asked.
"S. Joe, the guy who just ran out of our bus a few minutes ago." As Penny herself uttered those words, her eyes immediately widened in realization.
The reason the name was so familiar is because hours ago, Bobert did a scan on the briefcase they once got ahold of and couldn't fully spell out the name of its owner. That is when she knew that the man with the briefcase that had been following her all the time was some sort of agent.
"S. Joe?" Teri asked the golden fairy.
"You know, a few hours ago, Bobert did a scan on the briefcase and didn't fully spell out the name of its owner." She replied.
Everyone was dumbstruck by the statement made by Penny, the man with the briefcase was pretty much responsible for everything, the near accident back in the outskirts of Elmore, tricking Penny into ordering a spicy food, knocking out one of their students and breaking into their bus. It could just be a way of him playing a trick on the students of Elmore. All eyes turned to the sound of heels thumping coming from the front portion of the bus, they saw a fuzzy slug with grey hair all around him wearing a pair of glasses approaching them.
"Alright, everyone please sit down at your previous seats. I see that you all have already encountered the unfortunate today so I suggest you to… just… take a seat and relax- we've called the authorities over." He said sheepishly.
Everyone glanced at eachother giving off confused looks before slowly retreating to their previous seat rows, the school's principal soon followed suite. As a blue big-headed cat accompanied by a gradient golden fairy sat down at their seat row, the two began exchanging words to eachother.
"Wait, so this guy actually tricked you into ordering that spicy food?!" Gumball spoke in a hysterical tone.
"Yeah, but he seems like a nice guy, he even payed for my food-!" Penny remarked but was cut off by Gumball.
"That guy payed for your food just because he could draw you away from the food itself!" He shrieked.
Penny's mouth was zipped shut when she heard Gumball's breakdown, she had seen her boyfriend go through several rages including the one at the food court but had never seen him in this sort of condition. It seemed as if her own partner was against her. She retreated further into her seat and drew her attention away from the blue kitten whilst crossing her arms. She then felt a few light taps on her shoulder but didn't want to face her feline company.
"Penny, I'm sorry." Gumball apologized.
Even with his seamless attempt to comfort, he was still met with the sad face of hers. The expression on her face was enough to draw the same expression on his, he soon wrapped his arms around her and began sobbing lightly. He could feel the warmth of her body as he wrapped his hand her, he then felt another arm wrapped around his back, it belonged to Penny. The golden fairy raised her head and stared at the sobbing feline.
"Gumball, I'm sorry too." She apologized whilst hugging him tighter.
She raised the blue feline's head and wiped a tear from him, a warm smile made it's way to Penny's mouth. Soon, the two students stopped sobbing and stayed with that position for a couple seconds, they didn't really drag the attention of others instead this whole time no one even noticed the two sulking at their seat. Everything seemed as it gone back to normal, the two students were quiet until Gumball apologizes to Penny once again.
"Penny, I'm sorry for the outbreak recently."
"It's okay Gumball, you were purr-fect." She jokes whilst grinning.
"Really Penny? I'm might even pay you a single penny for that joke." He snapped back.
Soon, the two students began exchanging puns and playfully punching eachother as they laughed their guts out. As they became tired of laughing and joking, the two took out their water bottles from their bags and took a big gulp from it. Gumball was the last to finish his drink, he realized that he drank too much but couldn't resist to feel relieved from the freshness of the water. He plucked the bottle away from his mouth and wiped his lips with his other hand, he glared at his bottle in realization that he had a milliliter left. Grudging it off, he stored the water bottle back into a pouch located outside of his bag. After that, he rested his hands onto his hips, not knowing what to do next. He kept silent for a full minute until he felt sometime lean against his shoulder, turning his head, he saw that Penny was resting her head onto his fluffy shoulder. He felt a sense of ease strike into his hear, he saw those cute eyes of hers closed shut and that smooth yellow skin of hers. She was breathing lightly and Gumball's heart was starting to race like a jackhammer, he had never slept with his girlfriend in his entire life. Suddenly, he felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as he rested his head onto the seat, he didn't intend to disturb his snoozing girlfriend. Soon, he too started to fall asleep whilst purring. His purr attracted the attention of two individuals sitting across them, Masami and Leslie.
"It's so sweet seeing these two together." Leslie judged.
Masami only showed a warm smile whilst nodding.
As time passed by, the bus itself was starting to quiet down. Some students even fell asleep after the feast at the resting zone a few minutes back. It was now the noise of the buses' engine along with quiet chatters of those who are still awake.
Gumball thought that he could finally return home after a long day and possibly rest his body onto the bed all day and not wake up for the next twenty hours.
He was wrong.
[Southern San Francisco Museum, 12:13 AM, 23rd August 2013]
1 hour and 13 minutes later…
As the bus came to a halt in an open parking lot, all of the snoozing students were awakened by the call of a loud airhorn set off by the cunning elderly primate, Miss Simian. The students inside of the bus jumped upon hearing the noise of that one particular device, it caused many of the students to scream while some started fights with one another. Miss Simian really loved whenever her students were always suffering infront of her eyes, it made the sense of joy linger around her and a smile made its way to her wrinkly lips. Soon, the students stopped arguing to eachother once they heard the voice of their principal.
"Settle down, settle down!" He ordered them.
All turned their attention towards the principal standing infront of them as he barked directions towards the students ears. All the students followed suite as they packed their backpacks and went outside. There, students were required to follow Mr. Small as he will lead them to the museum and hand out tasks and assignments, on the other hand, Miss Simian and Principal Brown will enjoy time taking two hours off at an old-themed café located in the museum. As the odd couple hold hands and leaped their way through the museum exchanging flirts with eachother, the students were all overwhelmed with relief that they didn't had to go with the two worst teachers in Elmore Junior High. Mr. Small told the students to calm down as they made their way into the museum. Upon entering, both students and teachers of Elmore Junior High were stunned and dumbfounded by the overall interior. It had a clean marble floor with wooden walls that had a pillar embedded into them and a ceiling made out of mirrors that reflected upon the visitors, there weren't that many people in the museum mostly with guards and other guests. They saw a large dome carved into the center of the museum's ceiling with a large chandelier hanging from it, the building itself dwarfed Masami's mansion. The outside wasn't very stunning though, as the building was designed to look like a medieval castle except that it was made with limestone and a sign above the large entrance that read: "WELCOME TO THE SOUTHERN SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM".
Each student was handed five sheets of palm-sized notes and was given five minutes to form a team of five, Gumball had a little chat with his girlfriend and decided to split up with her this time. Penny formed a team consisting of Teri, Masami, Leslie, Molly and Carmen. Gumball on the other side formed a team consisting of Darwin, Bobert, Clayton, Banana Joe and Tobias. After five minutes, the pack of students were now allowed to disembark from their colonies in search of artifacts displayed all around the museum.
10 minutes later…
"One, two, three… and… flash!" A bright light flashed for a single moment as a certain white robot takes a picture of four students standing in a row next to a cannon.
"Awesome, can we take a look?" Gumball cheered.
"Affirmative, printing out .png file…" Bobert stated whilst printing out a hand-sized image that contained the four students standing there.
The artifact they were standing next to was a 42-pounder gun, it's a massive cannon used during the civil war by both the Confederacy and the Union and was widely used due to its high range and lethality. However, this particular cannon wasn't a replica, it was an actual used cannon dating back to 1863 and was retrieved in a river somewhere in the Mississippi theatre. The cannon now stands here as an artifact and a reminder to those living decades after the events of the civil war. Beside the cannon was a podium like object made with marble and had the inscription of the cannon in it.
As the team of five were already done with the second task, they all departed away from the cannon and decided to head down towards the stairs. Gumball was somewhat enjoying the time of his life but something caught his eye. Upon gazing down from the upper-floor, he spotted a familiar figure. It was tall, had a disfigured polygonal head along with its body, it had patches of brown hair that resembled bangs and both of its cheeks were replaced with static, it was nonother than Gumball's arch-nemesis, Rob.
Gumball wanted to call his name out loud just so he could hear but changed the idea just because it would drag the attention of others. Instead, he decided to trail his disfigured arch-nemesis to wherever he is going. As he made his way down the stairs, he saw four of his colleagues waiting for him at the other side.
"Come on Gumball! We don't have all day!" Called out Tobias, the school's wannabe jock.
As he arrived downstairs, he needed to fabricate an excuse for the others. Luckily, he already had one in his mind.
"Uhmm, sorry guys. I need to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back!" Gumball declared before taking off in a sprint.
"Uh, isn't the bathroom that way?" Banana Joe corrected whilst pointing to his right using his tiny black limb.
"He'll probably turn around. Besides, he's gone now so let's continue with our task." Tobias insisted.
As the blue feline ran down the hallways before turning towards a corner, he stopped in his tracks and leaned over a wooden wall in the meantime panting in relief. He turned to his left to see a long hallway accompanied by numerous open arches of entrances. Suddenly, all the electricity in the museum went off along with an eerie low-pitched hum. It made the museum itself pitch black and its visitors blinded by the darkness, some students screamed in a terrified manner while some others were nervous. Gumball could hear the shrieks of students and visitors coming from the other side of the hallway he once ran through, he knew that this was possibly the work of his arch-nemesis. All of a sudden, a dim-blue light originated from one of the open arches, the one arch that had the dim light was located just a few feet infront of him. Gumball took a big gulp before slowly making his way to the entrance that stood infront of him, he was tip-toeing each step as he didn't want to make a single noise that would send off an alarm. As he arrived in the steps of the arch, he took a single peek at the archway.
There, stood a tall figure measuring 4'6 feet in height (I guess) and had a disfigured polygonal body and a head that greatly resembles a pentagon. The blue feline saw that Rob was beaming something that looked like a laser onto an artifact that glowed blue upon contact with the beam, Rob also got his back faced to him so it wouldn't be that hard to sneak up on him. As Gumball slowly made his way to the disfigured cyclops, he could clearly see that he was still standing there and had no reaction over Gumball's entrance.
In the blink of an eye, the lights in the museum suddenly went on. Gumball was about to squeak until Rob looked around his surroundings with a terrified expression all over his face, the blue big-headed cat was lucky that Rob didn't spin his heel to face the blue feline in an awkward attempt to sneak up on him.
"Darn it! I forgot to charge my EMP before this!" The cyclopean scientist uttered under his breath.
Now was Gumball's chance to strike, he slowly got on his feet standing upright as the cyclops was still unaware over his presence.
"HEY DOCTOR WRECKER!" Gumball shouted out loud that his voice echoed along the hallway.
With a sour expression immediately splatted onto his face, Rob slowly rotated his polygonal head to face the voice of the stranger that called out to him. He saw a blue cat with a massive head wearing a brown sweater and beige khaki pants.
"Oh-uhmm-uhh, Gumball what are you doing here? Also the name's Rob, how many times do we have to go through this-!" Rob was cut off at the end of his sentence by Gumball's interference.
"Well, what are YOU doing here?" He raised his voice at the "YOU" to indicate that he is referring to his arch-nemesis.
"Gumball tone it down! You're going to attract the attention of others!" Rob whispered to the blue kitten.
Gumball still didn't listen to the cyclops advice and continued to harass him.
"So you're up with your criminalistics again eh?"
"No! Gumball, this is not the time! I'm conducting a dangerous field test and I want you to-!" Once again, Rob was cut off this time mid-sentence by the blue cat as he tried to warn him.
"You came here to steal something isn't it?"
"No that's not it-!"
"Then I'm gonna hand you over to the authorities."
"Gumball! Please listen to me-!" Rob raised his voice slightly this time, cut off again by Gumball.
"I wonder what will they do to you this time."
Rob has had enough of it, with his face turning hot red and his blood boiling to the point of anger. He suddenly lunged forward and tackled the blue feline, the two were now in the middle of a wrestling match against eachother. Rob delivered a smack towards the cat's cheeks while Gumball kicked him in the crotch and sent him tumbling back, the blue big-headed cat's instincts then kicked in him causing him to launch a pounce towards the cyclops but missed just because he managed to roll to the side in time, knocking over an artifact in the process.
The ruckus being held inside of the room dragged the attention of a curious golden fairy, as she made her way to a turn in the hallway, she took a peek from there. She heard sounds of grunting that came from Gumball and another one from the sounds of a familiar stranger. She slowly marched her way towards the archway leading to the room of where the noises seem to be originating from. As she arrived, she stood there in shock to see that his boyfriend was fighting with another guy that she presumably remembered as his nemesis.
"Gumball!" She cried out to him.
As Rob was busy strangling the blue feline who was pinned onto a wall hoping to knock him out, he suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps getting louder and louder. Before he could react though, he was met with a flying kick on the left side of his cheek. The force of the kick sent the disfigured cyclops crashing into a wall before slowly getting up. As his vision cleared, he saw that his opponent had another assistant who was by his side, one that wore a white t-shirt with a tint of blue and had symbol imprinted in the middle representing a pair of antlers along with a knee-length red skirt. She had yellow gradient skin, a bulbous head and a pair of antlers that matched the color of her head. She was posed with her hands up as if she was in a taekwondo match.
"So you brought in (cough) your soulmate." Rob coughed.
"Don't ever touch my friend like that ever again!" Penny's face was now turned into a red scowl that cowered over her face.
As the disfigured cyclops finally got on his feet, Gumball noticed something that was attached to his wrist.
"Hah, what's that?" He pointed at the device strapped onto Rob's wrist
Rob glanced at the device was referring to and came up with a reply.
"Why should you know?"
Upon making the comeback, Rob was terrified when he saw the person beside Gumball turn into a red gorgon with its snake-hair all pointed at him.
"Okay! Okay! It's a time traveling device!" Rob finally confessed.
The pair looked at eachother with their eyebrows raised until Penny came up with a question.
"What do you mean?"
"A year until now, I've been working on this one inven-(cough)-tion, it took me almost half of my life it was a stunning outcome once I've completed it. I decided to test it out here. Until for you to ruin it all…" Rob declared.
The two kids that stood infront of him looked at eachother once again.
"Well, this is awkward. I guess I might get going." Rob stated whilst taking off in a sprint, colliding past the two students.
"Hey!" Gumball called out.
Gumball was pretty fast when it comes to sprinting and managed to pounce over the disfigured cyclops.
"Give me that!" The blue feline tackled Rob, trying to reach out for the device strapped onto his wrist.
"No! I've spent two years working on it and I'm not letting you foil it all!" He argued.
Gumball managed to get ahold of the device on the cyclops' wrist but accidentally touched the display of it causing it to type in random coordinates and year dates.
"Oh shoot!" Rob cursed.
Just as he said that command, it caused the tip of the device to glow bright blue causing Gumball to let go of Rob as all trio in the room was stunned. It then fired a beam into the wall it was aimed at and opened a vortex, all color around the students except for themselves and the vortex turned grayscale and light itself began to darken. All the trio could see were eachother and the vortex that lead to nothingness. Rob then got up on his feet and scolded Gumball.
"WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DOOONNNNEEEE!?" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
"What the what?! You're the one to caus-!" Gumball was cut off by Rob's outrage.
"You've done some pretty stupid things, Gumball! In fact, I wasn't the one to do all this, you're the one who interfered with me!" He further added in.
As the two pairs were arguing to eachother, Penny stood quiet at the corner not knowing what to do except to watch. That is until she approached the two of them who stood very close to eachother and pushed them away.
"STOP!" She shouted at the two.
"We can't just resolve issues by shouting at one another!" She added in, her skin tone now changing to a red crimson.
The blue cat and his nemesis just zipped their mouths after her break-in through their conversation. She did have a point though, no one could solve such problems by arguing and accusing one another. Sighing, she decided to resolve the entire issue right away.
"Alright, how about we-!" Her line was cut short when she and the other two felt a force dragging them.
The trio all together gazed at the portal which was spinning counter-clockwise as it dragged them closer and closer. No matter how hard they try to keep their ground, it still kept dragging them closer and closer. All of a sudden, the force of the drag greatly increased into the force of being sucked into a black hole, all other objects in the room remained static except for the three individuals. Gumball and Penny both were about to lose their grip onto an artifact stand a few meters away from the death-bringing vortex, Gumball was gripping onto Penny's thighs as tight as possible. This led to a the reddest blush forming on both Penny and Gumball's faces. Suddenly, she lost her grip onto the stand causing the two students of Elmore Junior High fell slid through the room's floor at an accelerating speed towards the vortex. The couple screamed in a horrified manner, closing their eyes as they both thought that it was the end, but it wasn't. Penny felt another hand grip her tightly from the waist, as she opened her eyes, she saw a pink four-fingered hand connected to a limb that displayed static gripping her as tight as possible.
It was Rob!
"Rob?!" She queried in a hysterical tone.
"You know, I really hate you two but no matter how much I hate the both of you. I wouldn't let you die." He stated to the two.
Rob himself was struggling to get ahold of the large stand that holds a rusty sword encased in a glass box. It gave him a great advantage due to its flat surface but still had to grip onto both the fairy and the cat's combined weight, making it feel like he was holding ten tons worth combined with the force of the drag in his pink hand. His limb was feeling a burning sensation along what felt like it was about to detach clean off from his body.
"I-I can't hold it anymore!" He shouted
"Keep it up Rob!" Gumball cheered for the cyclops just so he could increase his morale, but it didn't seem that effective.
Rob was trying his best to grip onto the golden fairy's hand but no matter how hard he tried, his mind was always telling him to let go.
"Penny… Gumball…" He spoke shedding a tear.
"I'm sorry."
And just like that, he finally let go of his grip from the fairy's wrist. The pair fell into the endless vortex screaming at the top of their lungs as the portal slowly encloses and the force of the drag disappears. Rob fell onto the surface of the ground emotionless as the colors of his surroundings began to reappear. Everything was intact except for the fact that he lost two people. He just stood there, kneeling whilst staring at the wall where the two kids disappeared, he didn't even care if the authorities came other an arrested him. He just kneeled there, emotionless, with his eyes widened trying to recall what just happened a few seconds ago. That is until he heard footsteps coming from the hallway getting closer and closer, he didn't even bother who entered the room and assumed that it was just a security guard ready to send him off. As the figure approached the emotionless cyclops, it began to shake his shoulder whilst calling out to him.
"Hey. Hey. Hey!"
Rob still kneeled there unresponsive as if he had been hypnotized, he was then interrupted when he was given a backhand across the face. Snapping out of his gaze and shaking his head, he turned towards the stranger who had slapped him earlier.
"Hey! What the heck man?" He protested.
The figure before him was significantly taller than Rob himself, in fact, it looked almost like him, except that it doesn't have a mouth. It had a spherical head colored purple as it greatly resembles a globe with a different pallete, one eye that had a slit pupil, scored both a small black top hat for his head and a necktie for his (neck?), a grey disfigured polygonal body that had a hollow diamond-shaped hole carved into it, slender limbs whose hands had been dressed by a cartoonish white glove, and legs that were similar to its hands only that it hat black rectangular feet.
"Listen Polygon, I knew what you did back there and we need to get out of here fast." The other cyclops stated to Rob in a calm British accent.
"The name's Rob!" Rob shouted as a response.
Ignoring his response, Joe quickly grasped onto his counterpart's arm and led him through the marble hallway, the two cyclopes heard the footsteps of several people approaching from the other turn of the hallway. Immediately, Joe who's still grappling onto Rob's static arm with the force of being bitten by an alligator led him into another room filled with statues. The two took cover behind the archway as the taller cyclops spotted two men in white uniforms and black slacks making their way to the room infront of them. Joe let go of Rob's arm as he rubbed it.
"Can you grip my arm with a force less extreme?" Rob requested the other cyclops.
"No." He simply replied.
"Stay here, I've got a short match to attend." Joe demanded to his shorter companion as he exited the room.
Rob didn't had time to protest. Instead, he peeked through the archway just to see what the other guy was doing. He saw two men in white uniforms standing stationary, barking orders at the other room they exited from whilst they holstered their guns toward the archway. The taller cyclops tapped on both of the men's shoulders, the two men turned around and before they could react, the one on the left was met with an uppercut punch towards the jaw while the other was punched straight into the face by the cyclops' lanky arm. As the two security personnel fell unconscious on the surface of the marble floor, Joe spun on his heel and headed towards the other side of the hallway.
"Let's go." He signaled to his shorter cyclops.
Rob stepped out from the archway as he followed side-to-side with his taller counterpart, s they made their turn Joe decided to introduce himself.
"Name's Joe." He simply declared.
Rob just glanced at the taller cyclops who still had his eye focused on the road before he decided to ask him a question.
"Where are we going?" He inquired raising his eyebrow to make it look like a squiggly line.
"Your car." Joe snapped back
"Why are you using my car?"
"Because I don't have one."
"Then-!" Rob was about to ask him how he got her but was immediately cut off by a quick answer.
"Public transport."
Rob's mouth was closed tight by nails inflicted by Joe's words. The two figures made their way towards the museum's exit not being noticed by the museum inhabitants. Luckily, after the EMP was set off, the surveillance cameras will take about an hour to re-activate. Rob leaded the taller cyclops towards his car.
"Give me them keys." Joe pleaded.
"No, I'm driving." Rob resisted.
"Atleast I'm a licensed driver and know how to drive a car better than you stealing others." Joe snapped back.
Rob was dumbstruck by the sentence, he thought it was a joke at first. It was true, Rob didn't obtain this car in any legal means, but it impaled him as to how this man managed to recognize a stolen car in a few moments of meeting him. Sighing in defeat, he had to give up his keys to the British cyclops. Rob took the seat right beside the driver's one as he entered the yellow sedan. Joe plugged the keys into the ignition hole as the engine roared to life, he rested his hands onto the steering wheel before turning his head to stare at the cyclops right beside him.
"Put on your seatbelts." Joe requested to Rob.
"Why should I-!" He was always cut whenever he had to talk, but this time, the driver immediately slammed his rectangular foot onto the gas pad causing the entire vehicle to rocket forwards as the driver made a sharp turn to the right.
"Geez man! Take it easy!" Rob scolded him.
"Whenever I direct someone I don't like to expect another reply." Joe stated in monotone.
"Set up a GPS to your house." The taller cyclops demanded calmly.
Having heard that replying to him wasn't the best option, Rob straight away did what he was told by the man. The two later found themselves on the main road not too far from the museum itself.
"We're going to gear up and venture back into that hole, once we're there we're gonna find both of your friends and save their endangered asses."
-Gumball and Penny-
As the two students of Elmore were falling through a vast space filled with nothing but eternal darkness, they've been falling there for over five minutes now and felt like no time had passed. The two sat in a legs-crossed position and decided to start up a conversation.
"So what brings you here?" Gumball pretendedly asked the fairy.
"At first, I was sucked into a portal and then I met you!" She joked.
The couple laughed at eachother whilst exchanging jokes that went on for another full minute. All of a sudden, they began to feel the air around them getting colder and colder.
"Gumball? Is it just me or is the air getting c-colder?" She queried the blue kitten who was also hunched in a self-hug position same as her.
"Yeah, we probably be freezin' cold." He joked once again.
"Gumball, this is serious." Her eyelids now covered half of her round eyes as she gave Gumball the really? look.
"Yeah I'm f-feeling it too." His voice was slightly shivering.
The two students sat pretty close to eachother to eachother ever since they fell into the vortex. Gumball then tapped onto Penny's shoulder and pointed around their surrounds.
"You see that?!" He asked her.
The environment around them was beginning to change, from pitch black to the view of foggy mountains from above. That's when they realize they were falling through the sky, the two braced each other as they fell through the new environment. Below them were dense shrouds of clouds that were sprinkling snow over the surface below it, as they entered the massive covering clouds that seemed to span for almost an eternity, the force of the wind begins to toss the two in random directions. Fortunately, Gumball was gripping onto Penny as they were falling through the skies. Their encounter with the massive clump of dense clouds was cut short when they were finally tossed out of it through the bottom of the clouds. The two stared in horror as they realized they were about to hit the ground and their moments will all be erased with a quick death. The two hugged eachother tighter whilst embracing for the impact.
One…
…
Two…
…
Three…
…They were nearing the snow-covered surface.
Four…
…They are few feet away from the ground.
Five…
…They were slammed into the ground.
It was painless. At first, they thought that it was some sort of adrenaline running throughout their bodies in the moment of death, but the two students realized that it was a miracle.
They were still alive.
It felt like if they were slammed into a soft bed mattress. The two soon opened their eyes to see that nothing hard had hit them. They were both touching their cheeks and their own bodies before realizing that they're still well and breathing.
"Penny! I'm glad your okay!" Gumball shrieked happily.
"Gumball! I'm glad your alright!" Penny snapped back.
The two then hugged eachother tightly as they feel the warmth of their bodies combined, but that wasn't enough to fend them off from the freezing cold temperature. Two students then got on their feet as they were standing upright, they surveyed their surroundings to see that they were in the middle of a blizzard happening somewhere on earth, or another planet. As the wind blew onto them penetrating their clothes, they were in search of a nearby shelter, the entire place was covered with pine trees that had snow layers clothed over their leaves, making the two aware that they are somewhere deep in a forest.
"Where are we?" Penny queried to herself.
"Don't know, we seem to be in some sort of forest." Gumball replied.
The lonely pair wandered around in look for a shelter, a cave would do too as their only plan in mind was survival. Minutes past by which felt like eternity for the two wandering souls, their bodies were beginning to be taken aback by frostbite as their skins were now covered with snow forming on them. The two ventured along and rested to stop by a pine tree, Gumball leaned Penny onto the tree's bark and rested his palm over her shoulder, the fairy girl's skin color was shifted to a blue-white pallete indicating that her body was in a freezing condition. Gumball soon knelt right beside her, shivering along as they exchanged incomprehensible words towards eachother. Soon, Gumball fell on his side as he was overwhelmed with frostbite that was starting to take over his body, Penny gazed at Gumball and shook his shoulder but came out with no response.
"Gu-G-G-Gumba-ll, a-a-re y-ou a-alri-ght." She asked with her body shivering in the freezing temperature.
She too, fell onto her side whilst she was in a curled-up position. She thought that this would be the last thing she and her boyfriend would see, the last time they would ever meet eachother, their friends and families. She was waiting for the time to come whilst a tear was forming on her eyes as she sobbed. Suddenly, she saw something move among the pine trees, it was well camouflaged, she didn't know this was either a last-minute hallucination or an actual thing. Then it showed itself. At first, she thought that it was a wolf approaching them just to feast on them as they die but then it looked humanoid in appearance, each step it took made a clinging noise. It's body greatly resembles a human as it wore a long white overcoat, high-heeled black boots, a pair of white gloves, and a white hat of some sorts. In fact, all she could make out was that its entire appearance was white from head to toe (except for the boots) as it approached them calmly, it seemed to be holding something in its hands, Penny could recall it being some sort of firearm used by hunters. As it stopped right infront of Penny's eyes, she could see that it was very tall, possibly six feet in height. It then kneeled over to Penny as the figure inspected the girl who had a couple of minutes left to live.
"Do something!" She shouted inside of her thoughts.
The figure then got up and inspected her feline company, it then returned to Penny and positioned its palm onto her forehead, it rubbed the smooth skin of her head using its thumb and finally got up. First, it took off its thick overcoat and positioned it onto the ground. It then picked up Gumball as it rested the shivering feline onto one side of the overcoat. Then it went to Penny, where it carried her next, it settled her next to her feline company and wrapped the overcoat around them. The wind of the blizzard was immediately blocked off by the warmth of the thick overcoat that was made with sheepskin from the inside. The figure then wrapped the two sleeves of the overcoat and tied them together, it then picked the makeshift transport that was made for the two of them and carried it over its shoulder, it used only one hand to carry the weight of the two students combined. Penny quietly whispered a thanks under her shivering breath as the figure didn't notice it, she then felt her eyelids getting heavier and her mind going numb. Her vision then blacked off into darkness.
…
The warmth of a fireplace placed near her, the movement of the chair she's sitting on chair rocking back and forth, the scent of something delicious entering her (nostrils?), the sounds of clanking and hissing obfuscated by another room.
She opened her eyes.
Penny was completely in a different environment; all her memories were being pieced together in her mind as she surveyed her surroundings. She was in a wooden cabin as she presumed due to the fact everything around her was made with wood ranging from the ceiling to the walls, except that the floor was made with smooth stone, the window frames were made with steel and the front door had a handle made in steel too. She was positioned in what seemed like the living room around a circular wooden table with her feline company sitting across the other side, slightly shivering whilst taking a snooze. She continued to inspect her surroundings, she looked over at the place of where the warmth is coming from, the fireplace made with red bricks and had a family portrait that was hard to make out above it. She then turned her head over and her eyes widened to see that there were a wide array of armaments ranging from revolvers to rifles stocked neatly into a cupboard-like furniture. She also looked to the side of the armament array to see that there were three wearables hung up onto the wall, one was a long white overcoat, possibly the one the stranger used earlier, another was a shorter mid-length trenchcoat and the last were a pair of riding gloves. What caught her attention was that all of the items that were displayed are all white, pure white with tiny dirt stains on them.
Suddenly, she heard the noises of clinging and footsteps approaching from the other side of the room, Penny turned her head to the wooden door shut closed that had kept the noise coming and coming. As it swung open with a creak, there stood a tall figure dressed in all-white, it wore a sleeved shirt with an un-buttoned vest that concealed it, a fedora that had a black band with a card stored into it, a scarf around its neck that had both ends tied up to look like a long necktie, a pair of white slacks and a pair of high-heeled black boots. Its appearance was very human-like, with the exception of its head being a chiseled cylinder-like shape and blank white eyes lacking pupils and eyebrows and had a beak that was curved downwards. With both of its hands, it held up a tray that had a pitcher, two teacups and two bowls filled with delicious soup. The stranger closed the door behind it with its feet and stared at the fairy who was the only one awake, the stranger exhaled in relief.
"Glad, you're alive." It spoke in a calm manner.
[END OF CHAPTER 1]
Wooooooooweeeeyyy, that was quite the write, topping up with 21,098 words for the first chapter (line break, introduction and story included. This outro doesn't count). I'd like to say thank you for reading this, you truly meant that you've appreciated this story and showed your kindness to me. I've re-read this whole chapter and corrected some words, it took me about a few weeks for me to finish this one chapter. What do you think? Was it worth the hour? Let me know in the reviews, all from of reviews are allowed as long as they make sense. Anyways, I'm gonna go take a 78-hour rest. See you soon and have a wonderous day out there.