Rerunning a Disaster

Chapter 5: So Exits a Villain

Everything seemed to happen at once. As soon as Penny had clicked the rewind button, the ground left her, and the world around her began moving in reverse with what looked like an old VHS rewind filter over it. Without any ground, she had begun floating by herself, as had Gumball and Rob. Penny clutched the remote tightly, for she dared not to lose it now.

The odd characters began floating through the mall as the day's events played before them in reverse order. As Penny had willed them back to where the remote was purchased, she found all three of them drawn towards the parking garage. They floated through the rewound masses of parked cars, until Penny saw an unmistakable sight. The rewound world showed Rob at a red van, with him holding the remote.

"This is it!" Penny cried out. She scurried for the pause button, and...

"Oof!"

The sudden change caused Penny to land on her back with a thud. As she got up, she realized they weren't in the parking garage. Instead, there were what appeared to be several giant tables around with what looked like... fine jewelry?

Penny looked down at the remote, realizing she had struck the channel flipper.

"If this is a TV remote," she thought, "then that means..."

Oh god, she had accidentally sent them to the home shopping channel.

She looked over to ensure she wasn't alone, and there were Gumball and Rob, the former looking confused but holding the latter in a stranglehold to ensure he wouldn't escape.

"M-my bad!" Penny called over to Gumball as she pressed her thumb into the channel button. With a flick of static, they all appeared back in the parking garage again, but not before being hoisted into midair again by the channel switch. Penny quickly hit the pause button as she'd intended to do last time. She made a softer landing this time, while Gumball landed on Rob, knocking the wind out of him. How the battered cyclops was still breathing at this point was a mystery to Gumball.

With Rob temporarily downed, Gumball used the moment to scramble over to Penny, standing vigilantly by her side. A moment later, Rob groggily rose, lifting his head to see a serious-looking Gumball and a very stern Penny, remote in hand, standing before him.

"Now then, Rob, before anyone does anything more, I want you to talk. I want you to tell me what drove you to target Gumball, and what made you see your vile acts and murders as justifiable!" Penny demanded.

"Vile? The only one here who's vile is that little blue twerp next to you!" Rob snapped back. "He left me behind! He-"

"Ah, save it, I've heard all of this from you before." Gumball interjected, before switching to a somewhat mocking tone "I made you this way! I'm the reason there's no place in the world for you! I'm a baby, boo hoo!"

"Why you insufferable twit! Is that how it is, then?!? You think my story is some funny little game, you-!"

Rob got no further before Penny hit the mute button, silencing him for the moment.

"Now Gumball," she said to the feline, "this "leaving him behind," do you recall any of this?"

Gumball shook his head.

Penny nodded, followed by un-muting Rob.

"Well he did! When he was in the Void, the dimension full of the world's mistakes, I called out to him, but he didn't even acknowledge me! All he was focused on was Molly!"

"And what, dare I ask, does Molly have to do with this, lest you target her too?" Penny quizzed.

"Because the world sent Molly to the Void, and he came there just to bring her back, with no concern for me! Just like before when him and Darwin didn't even remember me when we crossed paths over a stupid DVD!"