TAWOG: Instinct

The Introduction

The Introduction 

Gumball angrily walked down the sidewalks of Elmore, his face twisted in a glare, his back arched and his arms held stiffly at his sides. After he and Tina had been separated by school officials, both had received a principal’s suspension for the next five days for causing disruption at school. He was covered head to toe in bruises and scratches from Tina's claws but they, and his suspension, were the last thing on his mind. He hadn't even waited for his mom to be called to come pick him up, he just stormed off once the verdict had been reached.

Now he was searching.

It hadn't been too hard to deduce who had been behind the banner incident, there was only one individual who would do something so overly cruel and treacherous to him.

“Rob!” he called throughout the neighborhood he was trotting down. “Rob, come out and face me like a man…cyclops…deformed cyclops!”

Normally Gumball wouldn't be so hot under the hood because of Rob's antics, he carried a fair degree of value in their rivalry, was even jealous when Rob abandoned it momentarily, but this time he had gone too far. He had deliberately attacked his relationship with Penny. A lot of things Gumball could tolerate, but he loves Penny, genuinely loves Penny. So much he doubted he would ever find another girl he would love as much as he loves Penny were he ever to lose her. He may be twelve, but he knew his feelings were genuine.

And he may very well lose her because of Rob's actions.

And he was going to give Rob a piece of his mind, and a piece of his fist, if it took all day. He had five days to kill now, after all. Normally this is when Darwin would play the voice of reason, but because Gumball had decided to let his involvement in these current shenanigans go unnoticed Darwin wasn't suspended like him and they were currently not able to be together as usual. That meant there was nothing to stop Gumball from finding Rob and tearing him a new one.

But the staticy cyclops was nowhere to be found. Gumball wasn't all that sure what to expect at this point, given Rob's schemes had never worked before, but this one appeared to go off without a hitch; if Penny letting Tina pummel him was any indication, but Gumball was sure Rob was the type to rub his success in the face of his victims. Yet there wasn't a trace of him anywhere.

Eventually, Gumball found himself sitting on a bench on a random street corner, taking a short reprieve from his vindictive search. Now that he could focus on things other than his anger, he wondered hopelessly what he was going to do in regards to the situation with Penny. She herself had let a lot slide on his part in the past but he couldn't see a way out of this one where they didn't wind up breaking up. The fact he was innocent was irrelevant if Penny never believes he is and truly thinks he wanted her to choose between him and Mr. Cuddles. Apart from getting revenge for fudging up his love banner, maybe Gumball was so bent on finding Rob was more to get him to confess to Penny about his meddling.

Though how would he do that?

What could he do to Rob in order to force him to confess his guilt?

With a depressed sigh, Gumball looked himself over, at his weak, petite form. He'd always been aware he was what most people would refer to as “puny”, but it'd never truly bothered him for the majority of his life. It was only until he started to date Penny that he began to self reflect on himself in a negative light. After all, what could a wimp like him truly offer her? Sure, he gave her all the love in his heart, as much affection as he could muster and supported her whenever she needed it, but apart from that, what could he do for her? He was as useful in a fight as a blow up bat, evidenced once when he twisted his ankle going to Penny's aid when she was being attacked by animals; a scenario that was his fault and they only got out of it when she got angry when she learned that fact and transformed.