Rerunning a Disaster

Chapter 3: When Strikes the Wrecker

It had been about an hour and a half or so since they had parted ways. Penny was sitting on a bench near one of the escalators. She was still processing and thinking about everything Gumball had said.

"A remote control... with the ability to bend and distort reality to the user's will... where does someone even get something like that? Any TV or tech shop would know that that's a weapon, not a remote!"

In the time since departing from Gumball, Penny had bought a soda. Although she knew that she had one in the falling memory, she couldn't help how thirsty she'd become. That and something as inconsequential as a cup of soda couldn't cause or prevent something like that from happening.

Getting bored of sitting around, Penny decided to go aimlessly wander until either something happened or she saw Gumball again.

As the fairy wandered around, she found herself near another set of escalators and a glass pane.The very one where Gumball inadvertently pushed her.

Penny stared at the spot, her mind filled with a mounting feeling of unease. She could vividly see herself crashing through the glass and going into the helpless fall...

Trying to divert her mind from the incident itself, Penny instead tried thinking about the logistics of the mall's infrastructure.

"Even if Gumball was sped up, one push was enough for me to shatter that pane? Who did this mall contract their glass from, because it doesn't sound like very strong glass to me. Actually, how does so much construction in this town get by with being so unsafe and substandard? If I can give my dad any credit, at least he ensures that he works with solid materials, and the work he puts in isn't half-a-"

Before she could finish that thought, Penny heard what sounded like yelling on the floor below. From where she was standing she couldn't see anything, so against her better judgement, she decided to make her way near the escalators to see what was going on.

There was Gumball, kneeling over on the floor, and opposed to him was some strange-looking man with a polygonal build, static-covered limbs, and holding what looked like a TV remote.

"Oh no..." Penny murmured.

This must be him. This must be the Rob in question.

Penny's heart rate increased tenfold as she realized what was happening. Gumball's fight back against Rob must have gone wrong again, because she didn't see the other Wattersons, and Gumball looked indescribably angry.

Down below, Gumball bolted towards Rob, only for him to move out of the way. He then pressed a button, and as Gumball landed on the escalator, both began to move twice as fast. It was in that moment that Penny realized where she was.

Gumball was rapidly approaching Penny, who was standing right where she had been before. He was going to collide with her, forcing her through the glass, leaving her in a fall to either injury or death once again...

...

...no.

Not this time.

Without even thinking, Penny practically catapulted herself out of Gumball's way, abandoning her soda as she lunged for safety. As Gumball careened to the top floor, he made contact with the soda cup, sending it over the edge of the pane. Gumball immediately jolted up and looked over the edge. The only thing he saw was an empty cup in a puddle of soda below.

"Litterbug!" called out that random goblin as he looked up at Gumball.

Gumball didn't have time to snap back at the comment, as he was dealing with more pressing matters.

Then he heard a familiar voice.

"Gumball?"

Gumball turned to his side, and lo and behold, sitting there was Penny. Visibly shaken, yes, but still on solid ground. Not upset with him, not in the middle of a fall, and not in danger's way. Not at the moment, anyway.

"P-P-Penny!!!"

Gumball ran over to the fairy girl and embraced her, reeled over in tears. Penny started petting him to try and calm him down.

"Gumball, relax! I'm still here, I'm still alive!"

"Penny, p-please.. forget about t-the plan... get out of this mall, get to safety... y-y-you're all I have left now..."

Penny was taken aback by this. All he had left? Just how far off the rails had Gumball's day gone this time?

"Gumball, what do you mean?! What's happened to your family?!"

Through a barrage of tears, the feline gradually found his words. "It's Rob... he regressed mom and dad into babies, a-and Anais and D-Darwin, they're... they're..."

"They're what, Gummy?!?"

"THEY'RE GONE!!! Rob rewound them until Anais disappeared, and Darwin suffocated and disintegrated into nothing!"

Gumball cried harder as he laid into Penny's chest. As for Penny, everything around her seemed to freeze. Nicole and Richard were now both infants, and Darwin and Anais were gone, essentially murdered. The fairy's mind swirled in a sea of various emotions.

Shock.

Confusion.

Disgust.

Anger.

She looked to the escalators with a darkness in her eyes. She knew Rob was still down there, and the danger far from over. Yet fate had put her here to help Gumball, and although things had clearly gone far beyond disastrous, she knew that there was still something she could do. She knew they could still repair the damage done.

It was time for her to make this Rob fellow pay.

Dearly.