The Gift: A TAWOG Story

Chapter 17: The Massacre

"Okay, guys," said Michael, in the boardroom in the Rainbow Factory. "As you all know by now corporate is considering downsizing our office, and we are trying to put a stop to that, right? I had Nicole here put together a presentation on how we can change their minds. So, Nicole, if you wanna take the stage?"

"You all are probably wondering, with all that's going down with Gumball at school right now, why it just cut to our office again," said Michael to the camera in a cutaway one-on-one interview. "Well, two things: One, it is for dramatic effect, and it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats to see what happens next, and two, I feel like this is important. I mean, our office needs to be preserved. We've been open for about nine years now and we only want it to grow." He made a long pause trying to think of what else to say. "Wait, I just listed three things." The scene cut back to the boardroom.

"So here's the plan that I've laid out, people," said Nicole as she queued up her slides. Suddenly, a major headache hit her. She tried to continue to talk. "We all know that... production was slow this quarter but..." She felt her head as her headache got worse. "I have a way we can, ugh..."

"Is everything alright, Nicole?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine," said Nicole. "It's just..." She winced upon the pain she was feeling in her head and grunted. "Excuse me." She turned to leave and stumbled as she walked out of the boardroom back to her cubicle. She sat down and rested her head on her desk, holding it tight with her paws.

"Nicole, are you okay?" asked Cathy, a purple salamander who was one of her coworkers.

"I... I think my son is in trouble," said Nicole. With that, she got up, packed up quickly, and ran out, leaving everyone in the boardroom with no presenter, but that was the least of her worries. She bolted to her car and quickly started the engine and buckled up. "I'm coming, sweetie," she muttered out loud.

Meanwhile, what happened next at Elmore Junior High would go down in history. Within seconds, all the laughter and teasing turned to widespread screaming and panicking as students stampeded in all directions trying to get away from Gumball, who was now down on all fours and hot on their trails. His sloppy joe-covered sweater was now ripped, and so were his jeans.

Some students jumped around corners, some hid in their lockers if they were small enough, and some ran into classrooms, barricading the doors. When Miss Simian watched the entire ordeal unfold, she retreated back to her classroom, barricaded the door, and put on an army helmet.

"It's happening again," she told herself. "Except now it's her son."

Students jumped, trampled, and dove out of the way as Gumball thundered down the hallway making a beeline for Tobias and Jamie, wrecking and leveling everything and everyone in his path.

Around the corner, Penny was telling Darwin and Anais about all the humiliation Gumball was facing when they saw students begin to run for their lives. Past the students was what appeared to them to be a blue whirling tornado of destruction.

"Wait, that's Gumball!!" Darwin shouted.

"Gumball?!" shouted Anais. They all joined the stampede. Darwin and Anais barely escaped the wrath of their brother, but Penny was not as fortunate. Gumball caught right up to her, pounced on her, and pinned her down by the shoulders on the floor.

"Gumball, what's wrong?!?!" Penny wailed as he displayed his predator-like teeth in front of her face. "Gumball, I'm sorry!! I'm sorry I dumped you!! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!!!!" Gumball, who could no longer think straight, impulsively made sure Penny knew exactly how he felt by swiping his claws right across her face, giving her a severe scratch on her cheek. She shrieked on impact, and then rubbed her hand over the wound, and when she saw the blood on her hand, she broke down in tears. "Gumball... HOW COULD YOOOUUU?!?!?" Gumball said nothing, but roared like a lion. Penny shrunk down and turned into her rabbit form, scurrying away amidst the crowd as fast as she could to get away from her savage ex-boyfriend. Gumball sprinted off to make up for lost time. His intent from his berserk state of mind was to try to hurt as many students and teachers as he could.