Rerunning a Disaster

Chapter 2: Enter Gumball

It didn't take long for Penny to find Gumball. After only a few minutes of searching around the mall, she saw the unmistakable sight of the Watterson pack coming in through one of the side entrances near the parking garage.

"Hey, Gumball!"

Gumball stopped walking and turned to face her. In that split-second, Penny noticed his behavior seemed off. Usually he'd give her a "Penny!" or a "Hey, Penny!" in a chipper mood and with a twinkle in his eye. But today he looked surprised to see her, as if his mind was somewhere else or he'd been caught off-guard. This wasn't like her Gummy at all. Something was definitely wrong.

"Penny? H-hey!" Gumball greeted, nervously trying to look composed.

Definitely something wrong here.

"I'm glad I caught you, Gumball. There's something serious I need to talk to you about."

"Serious?! Like what?"

"It's, well... it's very complicated..."

Now Gumball was concerned. Whenever Penny told him they needed to talk serious, his mind always darted straight for the worst case scenario. (Which was always that she was breaking up with him.)

"Please, Gummy? I really need some private talk with you right now..."

Gumball looked at her, then back to his family. He seemed to almost hesitate, like he didn't want his family to go. But with a sigh, he made up his mind.

"Go on, guys. I'll catch up in a minute."

"Alright, well you two sweethearts take your time," said Nicole. "We'll try not to wander off too far."

But then Darwin piped up. "Ms. Mom? Mr. Dad is bothering the hot dog vendor guy!"

"Excuse us, Penny." Nicole said in a faux-happy way. "Richard, no!"

As the other Wattersons went to corral Richard, Penny couldn't help but smile for a moment. Gumball's family was weird, but they were nice weird.

"So what's wrong, Penny?" asked Gumball. "Is your dad being a total jerkwad about your look again?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's not why I needed to talk to you. You see, I don't know how to explain this, but shortly after I walked into the mall, I had a, uhm... a vision."

And Penny explained everything that she saw.

"...And that's how it ends, and I can't figure out if it's something that really happened or not, so that's why I decided to ask you for help."

By now, Gumball looked awestruck, as if his worldview had been shattered. But nothing could've prepared Penny for what he said next.

"You remember that, too?!?"

Now Penny was really befuddled. Not only did Gumball know exactly what she was talking about, but it had already happened? Her head started to spin again, but she caught herself before she started spiraling. That wasn't going to do her any good. Gumball had answers, and she needed to know. Urgently.

"R-remember?!? What do you mean remember? Please, Gumball, what's going on?!?"

"Well, the answer isn't a simple one, but since you're the only other one who remembers what happened, I'll try to explain everything," Gumball began.

"So there's this guy called Rob, I think he once said that he used to go to school with us? Anyway, he had a remote that could bend reality to his whims, like pausing time or changing the lighting and stuff. Or in our case, changing languages and fast-forwarding..."