Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Hey sis, we're back, and we got a movie you might like!" Gumball called, shutting the door behind him with his free hand. "I hope we weren't too late this time..."

"Nope..." Anais replied, allowing her brother to emit a brief sigh of relief - before interrupting him. "...you two were only five minutes earlier than last time. What happened now?"

Gumball avoided the question at first, as he popped the disc into its respectable player. The cat then turned around to face his sister, a dull expression on his face. "Just Elmore being Elmore - I swear, the universe does whatever it wants with this place to make sure we can't just relax."

"Yeah, good point." Anais said while her brothers claimed their spots beside her on the couch. The bunny's eyes shifted over to the remote resting on the table, and she began to reach for it. "What movie did you get, by the way? It wasn't anything as bad as 'A Pony's Tail', right?"

Darwin couldn't help but snicker at his adoptive sister's quip. "Not exactly... we picked out one that we thought we’d all enjoy.”

"Well, what is it?"

"You'll see in a minute... now put it on!"

Anais rolled her eyes playfully as her hand hovered over the remote - though before she could touch it, an abnormally strong force shook the house, causing the remote to slide further and further away from the bunny and then fall off the table seconds later. Exchanging confused looks with her brothers, the bunny got up from the couch to get the remote... all three being completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched as if they were the ones in a movie.

The one watching them was none other than The Hacker - who was an entire different universe away. He had a sinister grin on his face as he watched the siblings, the strange force piquing his interest in them and their world. Elmore had caught his eye not too long ago, as he had taken note of all of the oddities that resided there. From the residents themselves, to the more strange elements... to a whole different dimension that concealed itself from everyone's view.

Everything related to the dimension baffled him as well, specifically one being that looked to know a thing or two about it… the cyborg made a mental note to keep an eye on the being until he found a necessary time to introduce himself.

With all the things that went on over in Elmore, Hacker found it weird that it was located on the very same planet that those ‘earth-brats’ lived on - especially when considering just how ordinary those kids seemed apart from their brain-power. Though he decided to just shrug it off, as he was unfamiliar with Earth entirely. The cyborg cackled as he realized just how beneficial these three other kids could all be to him.

Hacker couldn’t help but notice that even though the kids and the rest of their wacky family lived somewhere as erratic as Elmore, it looked as if the town, or more so even their universe as a whole, was focused purely on them… though it seemed that it was mainly the eldest son that everything revolved around.

"...I've done it." the cyborg muttered to himself, which quickly caught the attention of his two henchmen.

The shorter of the two, Buzz, looked up with curiosity lingering in his eyes. "Did you say something, boss?"

"I've done it!" Hacker repeated in a much louder volume, his metallic hands slamming against the control panel in front of him. "I've finally figured it out!"

"Figured what out?" inquired Delete, the taller accomplice, before immediately cowering as he saw his boss slowly whirl his chair around to face him. The cyborg’s eyes glinted, an evil aura illuminating from each of them. 

"A way to take over Cyberspace, once and for all, you left-footed lummox. What else do you think I’d be talking about?" the cyborg hissed, his eyes darkening as he narrowed them. "However, it’s a bit… unique. I must warn you, it is quite similar to the first plan involving those earth-brats… so we may make a few more nemeses. I am more confident this time, though, as I know what I’m doing. Those three new brats look dim-witted enough... and one of them is crucial to this plan."

Hacker’s henchmen approached the large screen that the cyborg was watching before… him being the only one having faith in the aforementioned ‘new brats’ - and for all of the wrong reasons. Said 'brats' consisted of a sky-blue cat, a bubblegum-colored bunny, and a goldfish - with legs for some odd reason - that was about the same color as a marigold… which must be why they call the species a goldfish despite not being gold. 

Buzz and Delete both looked at each other as a myriad of feelings dwelled through their veins - or rather, wires.

"Uhh... Dee-Dee, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Buzz asked in a hushed tone.

Delete nodded, a small smile sprawled across his face. "Yeah, Buzzy! One of those kids is a bunny! I'm gonna keep him, and call him George!"

"No no no, Delete!" Buzz replied as he slapped a hand to his face. "I mean... why is the boss bringing in more brats when he hates the ones we already got so much? Don’t you think that he’s kind of… digging his own grave? He kind of did that last time we brought in some kids that aren’t from here…”

"Because, my dear Buzz..." a slightly affronted Hacker chimed in with a hint of impatience in his voice. "...these brats have something those other  brats don't have."

"Uhh… which is?”

Hacker remained quiet for a moment, turning his gaze back over to the screen. The small pink bunny had picked up the remote from the ground, confusion evident on her face - Hacker took it as his chance, and waited for her to turn the television on.

"Boss?"

“…potential.”

"Huh? Potential in what? I don’t understand, boss..."

"Oh, nevermind, you dunce-bucket. You’ll know momentarily, anyway. Anyways, zip it - this is my only chance, so stay out of my way." Hacker snarled at Buzz, which startled the robot immensely.

Buzz took the hint and backed away meekly, with Delete doing likewise. The duo stared at their boss and then at the screen while waiting intently, as neither of them were filled in on what he was exactly planning…

Anais shared a disconcerted look with Gumball and Darwin, though the bunny couldn’t help but think about what had just happened - that weird experience could have some sort of scientific explanation, but on the other hand, it could also easily be tied with Gumball's prior excuse of 'Elmore being Elmore’… the bunny shrugged it off decided not to think too much of it - or at least not any more than she already had - while she switched the television on. 

Except the screen showcased the opposite of her expectations - she wasn't met with some sort of magical movie that was full of singing unicorns, flowers and princesses, but was instead introduced to a silhouette of an unfamiliar figure standing in front of a faded gray static background. 

Strangely, the sight had surprised her brothers as well… but the bunny didn’t doubt for a second that it was some sort of mean joke.

No longer feeling confused, the bunny's demeanor faded into one of annoyance as she turned to her brothers. "Did you guys seriously get a scary movie? We've already established that this genre is not for me!"

"No, w-we promise we didn't!" Gumball stressed, his facial expression faltering into one that matched his tone. "We got a comedy, it was supposed to be a parody of 'A Pony's Tail'! Not whatever... t-this is!"

"Okay, guys, let's calm down. Maybe this DVD came with a couple of commercials, and this is one for a scary movie... big deal! We'll just skip past it!" Darwin said, secretly hoping that he was right - he didn't have the heart to handle a scary movie, and he certainly didn't have the heart to surprise his sister with one - especially since she hates them just as much as he does - if not more , somehow.

"Right, right, okay... hold on." Anais said, holding down the fast-forward button on the remote... to no avail. The screen remained frozen on the figure, leaving Anais at a complete loss of what to do as she turned to her brothers, continually hoping that this was some kind of joke, or better yet - an accident. 

Darwin smiled awkwardly at his sister, trying to convince her that this wasn't another one of their antics. "...okay, maybe the remote's just broken? Or… oh nevermind. Maybe we should freak out... unless you know what this means, Anais? Since, uh... you're the smart one?"

The bunny, now believing that her brothers had nothing to do with this, shook her head with a sigh. "No, I've never seen anything like it."

Gumball put a finger to his chin in thought, staring at the television as if a solution to the problem was right on it - and it may as well have been, since the cat thought of a potential easy way out. "Why don't we just do what everyone does when their devices are acting up... turning it off and turning it back on? It always works, doesn't it?"

"I guess it’s worth a try, and we better hope it works - because I don’t know what else we could do if it doesn’t.” Anais said with a defeated shrug.

"If it doesn't work, then we can just ask dad. If there's anyone who knows anything about TVs, it's him - let's try turning it off first, though."

Anais nodded and walked towards the television, before getting startled by a loud boom of static that came from the screen. She flinched, and that made her even more desperate to turn the thing off as her hearing was unsurprisingly fragile - but it didn't go as planned… at all.

As Anais reached for the button, a bright purple portal formed in front of the screen and a metallic, chartreuse hand reached in. It managed to get a hold of Anais' arm, and much to everybody’s horror - it attempted to pull her right through. 

"Anais!" Gumball and Darwin shrieked in unison as they ran over to their distressed sister. The two used all of their might to pluck her back into their custody... though unfortunately, the hand didn’t seem to falter.

The siblings' father, hearing all of the commotion, ran downstairs and was shocked to see what was happening. He rushed over to his daughter and stared at the hand trying to pull her into who knows where, before sinking his teeth into it with no hesitation in an attempt to get it to let go - thankfully, it had worked, and the hand retreated back into the portal.

Panting, Richard looked back at his kids. The three were just as horrified as he was, but the rabbit's face quickly morphed into a more stern one in the blink of an eye. He gestured to them to go upstairs, not wanting them to be any closer to the television as the portal had not closed up yet.

"Kids, g-go upstairs and stay away from any devices. I'll figure out what's going on down here, okay?" he ordered, not taking his eyes off of the portal. "Your mother should be home soon... she should know how to fix this - and if you need me, call for me... just please look out for each other."

Still in shock, the three kids slowly nodded and gingerly made their way upstairs and into their bedroom... each of them cautiously eyeing their computer as if it would pounce at them. None of them had the courage to go up to it and turn it around, as they each feared the worst. Gumball wrapped a protective arm around each of his siblings, completely unsure of what else to do… that surprised him a little bit. Normally, he was used to everything going wrong in a matter of seconds, but this experience felt… different for some reason.

The cat snapped out of his little daze once he felt Darwin and Anais hug him back for dear life. All three of them were afraid of losing each other, especially in a situation like this.

"Uhh... maybe the Internet was just acting up again?" Darwin offered with another timid smile, before it immediately brightened up at a different thought. "Or maybe it finally found a friend, and that weird shadow guy was it's friend?"

Gumball shook his head. "I don't think so, dude. It doesn’t really have any reason to go berserk right now. Also, knowing how it acts, I doubt it'd even want to bother being social in the first pl-.”

The cat and his siblings were startled by a loud crack of static coming from their computer, and the three took that as their cue to stay as far away from it as possible, fearing the worst outcome... but to their surprises, they weren't greeted by the same figure as they were before, but instead with a three-dimensional figure - one that actually had its color.

It had a periwinkle head, with wavy hair and eyebrows attached to it, as well a different line etched on each side of its face - one that was more curved, and the other a straight line with a serial number written on it - all of those features sharing the same bright blue color and circuitry pattern. It also had two eyes - one rectangular, another circular, and crimson red lips.

Gumball, Darwin and Anais all stared at the figure in utter shock, none of the three ever seeing anything like it despite living in Elmore, the town where anything is possible, their whole lives.

"...Hacker alert. H-Hacker... alert." the being blurted out, which alarmed the kids even more.

"Uhh... I think you got the… wrong number?" Gumball replied. "We don't know a ‘Hacker’."

Anais facepalmed and squinted her eyes at her brother. "What are you on about?! She's on a computer!"

"Alright, how about you tell me what’s going on then?!"

"I don’t know! It must be a glitch, or a malfunction, or even a virus..."

"...a v-virus..." the being repeated. "...a virus it is, Anias."

The bunny flinched at the sound of… what was almost her name, bewildered as to how the being said it so casually. "...uhh... close enough, I guess… it’s Anais, but... how do you even know my name?"

"...A-Anais, sorry. Anais, Darwin... G-Gu-." the voice began, malfunctioning as it tried to say the eldest sibling's name. "...Gumball. You three... are in grave danger. Hacker has... figured out the existence… of your world, and the amount of power it withholds..."

"Hacker? Uhh… do you mean the guy that was in our TV downstairs?" Gumball asked, a look of apprehension crossing his face. "If it is, that butt-clown tried taking my sister away for whatever reason. Thankfully, he failed, but... hey, what are you talking about, anyway? What ‘power’?”

"...he has… already found you? That's... n-not good."

Darwin blinked. "Can you please elaborate a little more?”

"Your world has a... s-secret dimension. It conceals itself in Elmore, and it calls itself the-." the being malfunctioned before it could say anything else, and each word it tried to pronounce came out as a glitchy mess. Before any coherent words could be said and understood, the computer shut off, leaving the siblings alone again. All three of them were in disbelief as they stared at the computer, racking their minds for any sort of rational explanation.

After failing to come up with one, Gumball was the first to speak. "...so, uh... any ideas as to what had just happened?"

Darwin and Anais shook their heads in response, both of them being just as unsettled as their brother was. After taking a deep breath, Gumball let go of his siblings and warily approached the desk that their computer rested on. The cat wondered if he could find anything bizarre enough that could have caused that strange encounter… but everything was the same as it was before.

Even all of the wires were still tangled amongst each other underneath the desk - though aside from that, they were still plugged in and in good shape… just like how they have always been.

"...huh. That was weird," Gumball simply said with a shrug. "I'd expect something else to- waaaaauuuuugh!"

The Watterson kids were all equally caught off guard as the cat was suddenly sucked into a portal - the same one that Anais was almost pulled into.

"Gumball!" they both shrieked. Darwin pulled Anais behind him, as the bunny cowered. The fish drew closer to the portal - but after a moment, he was engulfed in the portal dust as well. 

He emitted a loud screech of fear like how Gumball did, leaving Anais alone to ponder whether she should go get her father or to go after her brothers - but before she could make a decision, the portal made one for her as the latter of the two choices came true... sort of. She didn’t get the opportunity to choose it herself. 

The bunny was drawn in as well, and she traveled through some sort of vacuum full of mathematical signs and equations that dwelled across faded purple stardust and bright stars.

Although she couldn't see her brothers from up ahead, she heard them freaking out like how she was - and before she knew it, her surroundings changed yet again. Before Anais could even attempt to process everything, she felt someone catch her, preventing her from landing face-first into the cold metallic ground. Once she looked up, she saw Gumball, much to her relief.

The cat carefully set the bunny down, finally letting her get a hold of their surroundings. The first thing that caught her eye was her other brother on the ground, leading Anais to assume that the fish didn’t have the advantage of landing on his feet like Gumball did.

As Gumball helped Darwin up, they joined their sister in attempting to find even a sliver of familiarity in this… completely new area. Long story short, they weren’t able to.

Anais whimpered to herself. This was the first time in forever where the bunny truly felt stumped - although she and her family were no strangers to anomalous situations - those all happened in Elmore. She didn’t recognize this place in the slightest - and worst yet, she did not know how to get home, as the portal had closed up once she landed in Gumball’s arms.

Gumball himself, however, felt like he was on the brink of a panic attack. The cat could only come up with one plausible conclusion... the universe just wants them to suffer, even if he didn’t want to believe it. He turned to face his siblings, trying to conceal as much fear as he could. "Uh... guys, is this a dream?"

"Nope! This is real life!" an unfamiliar voice chimed in, catching the cat off guard.

He turned around to see a lilac-colored robotic bird, with his head, tail, and stomach being a much brighter shade. He had a crimson-colored cap and bowtie, with the soles of his bright yellow shoes being the same color. The bird had a propeller for a tail, and an antenna on the top of his cap - but most prominently of all, he had a wide smile across his beak.

“Welcome to Cyberspace! Or, if you want to get more specific, welcome to Control Central!” the bird chirped. “I’m Digit, and I assume you’ve already met Motherboard?”

“Mother…who?” Gumball tilted his head, before the being that was on the computer mere moments ago popped up on a big screen from above. “Oh… yeah, we’ve met her.”

Digit’s smile widened. “Alright! That's, uh… look, I hate to move on to such a serious topic so quickly, but Motherboard said that Hacker was peeping into your world…”

"Was Hacker the guy in our TV? If it was... then yeah, I already don't like that guy. Like I said, he tried to take our sister... what's he want with us anyway?"

“Yes.” Motherboard said as her gaze shifted over to the cat. “He… has found out about the... e-existence of your world, and is greatly… interested in its secrets..."

Gumball, Darwin and Anais each shared confused glances, and the latter of the three stepped forward a little bit. "What secrets, though? We don't really know what you're talking about..."

"T-The... the v-." Motherboard sputtered before completely glitching out again, as if just mentioning the secret were to bring a curse upon everyone.

"The what? The 'v'?" Anais narrowed her eyes in sheer discombobulation. The bunny looked at her brothers for assistance -  they went on adventures daily, much more than she had, so she figured that they might know. "Do you guys have any ideas?"

Both boys could feel a small sense of familiarity dwell upon their minds, but neither of them could pinpoint what exactly it was. Both of them stared at the ground as they shook their heads, completely stumping their sister in turn.

“That’s okay! You three aren’t alone in this.” Digit assured as he flew over to Anais. “Y’see, Motherboard has been infected with a virus by Hacker himself, which is why she glitches out so much. It’s okay, though, because thanks to some special friends of ours, we’re getting closer and closer to curing her and stopping Hacker once and for all!”

Anais looked up at Digit with curiosity in her eyes - okay, maybe this situation wasn’t all that bad. “Really? Who are they?” 

Digit smiled. “Come to think of it… I think you’d all get along just swimmingly!”

Chapter Text

“Awh, man, I wish Skwak-Pads could be used outside of Cyberspace…” Jackie said, staring up into the sky. “Homework would be so much more fun... and easier!” 

Inez didn’t take her eyes off of her own work as she opened her mouth to speak. “You took the notes you needed to, didn’t you, Jax?”

“Yeah, yeah, I did. It’s just a lot more boring... and inconvenient without having some kind of unique adventure…”

Inez snickered in response, as she finally looked up from her work. “True. It's a lot better with actual context - nobody has…a hundred boxes of donuts that they need to split evenly among ten people unless they’re in Cyberspace.”

"Specifically if they're Buzz, but knowing him, I'm not exactly sure he'd share with anybody..." added Matt with a small chuckle.

Jackie and Inez joined their friend in a small fit of laughter, before all three of them were suddenly startled by a sharp blare from their Skwak-Pads - it was none other than Motherboard trying to communicate with them.

Being the first one to pull out her own, Jackie stared at the device's screen in anticipation. Matt and Inez stood beside the girl, knowing that Motherboard had only enough power to access one of their Skwak-Pads all thanks to Hacker giving her the virus. "Mother-B? Are you there? It's Jackie, what's going on?"

"Gosh... the virus has gotten so much worse, hasn't it?" Matt said, his voice completely devoid of any former joy.

Inez sighed. "Yeah… it really has."

"Hacker... a-alert..." Motherboard all of a sudden chanted, her voice ever so slightly drowning out the alarms in the background. "Hacker alert..."

"Mother-B! There you are, what's going on?" Jackie asked, a mix of fear and urgency blending into her voice.

Before the being could respond to the girl, a sea of colorless pixels danced around the screen, with waves of even more washing over them. The Skwak-Pad hissed out an obnoxious noise, as static completely took over the screen - though moments later, Motherboard was able to conquer the tension of the virus yet again. "H-Hacker is interested... in an-nother... w-world..."

The kids' blood ran cold, as they each exchanged a disturbed look with one another. What was that supposed to mean? Did Hacker find a way into Earth?

Matt faked a smile - though it came out rather awkward as it was nothing but a vain attempt to conceal his fear. "Uuuh... what do you mean?" 

"He's... found new targets t-to... drag into this whole m-mess..."

XXXXX

As Anais fidgeted with her fingers - the bunny came to the realization that she really didn't know what to make of this whole situation. 

Sure, she was from Elmore, which is a place known for oddities upon oddities gallivanting around the town. Though this situation was like no other.

Out of all the books she had read, documentaries she had watched, and things she had learned - she had never once heard of an experience from someone going into an entirely different dimension... not one that was even ostensibly true, anyway - even in Elmore standards, that was a bit of a stretch.

At least out of what she herself had witnessed. She didn't know what the rest of the family did in their free time.

But based on the current states of her brothers, and the reactions they had prior, the bunny inferred that it was safe to say that they had never been in this sort of predicament either... which is a little surprising, considering that the two went on all sorts of adventures on a daily basis - much more than she and their parents did.

Aside from all of that, Anais also realized that there was a forked path ahead of them as well - one that possessed different possibilities among each trail.

Possibilities such as: what if these new 'friends' didn't like her? What if they didn't want to be her friend? What if they betrayed them? What if they were all separated? What if they never saw their parents, friends, or home again?

What if that 'Hacker' guy won in the end? What would happen? How bad would things get?

Anais was snapped out of her musing by the all too familiar sight of a portal opening. Fearing the aforementioned possibilities, she dove behind Gumball, trembling like a string on a lyre that was strummed a little too roughly.

Gumball, also feeling slightly apprehensive, placed one of his paws on his sister's head and caressed her fur in an attempt to calm her down. Thankfully, it had worked, and Anais felt a little more relaxed at the gesture. She still felt a bit like a lyre's string - but one that was swept correctly by her brother instead of her fear.

The bunny couldn't refrain from taking a peek at the portal in anticipation, and watched as three humans stepped out - none of them being chartreuse, much to her relief.

The tallest among them was a boy - he had bright ginger hair, with a vivid green eye color. He wore a sweater that was the color of a fern, which significantly complemented his eyes. He also had baggy blue pants, and a crimson red backpack with shoes to match. Freckles painted his face, some of them being covered by a small, beige band-aid plastered on his cheek.

A girl, who was presumably the middle one, had on a bright yellow dress-shirt, with a hair-tie the same color tying her black hair into a neat bun. The skirt that she wore was made of denim - which made a nice, almost pastel blue to go with the yellow. Her shoes were a darker shade of lavender, and she also wore a shiny, red beaded necklace with a matching bracelet and earrings for accessories. Her eyes were a deep, relaxing mocha color, and she had a small smile that went well with it.

The shortest one had dark brown hair, and glasses covering her dark brown eyes. She was wearing a shirt that was about the color of pink lemonade, with a large, yellow star in the center. There was also a vest that was a lot more purple to go with it, along with shorts and boots that were a mix of teal and turquoise.

"Hello, Earthlies!" greeted Digit. "I assume that Motherboard told ya what happened?"

The boy, who was presumably the eldest of the three, nodded. "Yes, she did, are the uh... others here?"

"Yup! The new guys are right over there. Go 'n say 'hi'!" Digit chirped as he gestured towards Gumball, Darwin, and Anais.

After looking over to where the cyboid motioned to, the humans shuffled over with smiles on their faces. 

"Hello!" Darwin, as one would expect, was the first to speak, with a beam and a wave of his fin. The fish was always charged with positive energy, and in turn, he was always eager to meet new people - so it wasn't at all surprising to his siblings to see him instantly brighten up.

His joy, being as contagious as it is, looked like it had spread to the supposed middle of the trio. Her smile widened ever so slightly, which greatly indicated how strong Darwin’s penchants of making friends is. "Hi! Welcome to Cyberspace! You must be, uhh..."

"Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemus Watterson III…” the fish answered in a dramatic tone. “...but you can just call me Darwin!”

“Sounds good! I’m Jackie, nice to meet you!”

“I have a feeling you two are going to get along great .” the boy joked, earning a sharp glare from his friend.

“Ha-ha… very funny.”

“Uh…” Gumball spat. “...can I ask who you guys are, and whether or not you’re working for that ‘Hacker’ guy?”

Opting to leave the previous conversation to Jackie and Darwin, the boy looked over at Gumball. “Oh, no. Far from it - we are literally his most hated enemies.”

Gumball felt a small smirk tug at the corners of his lips as he cocked an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yup! Name’s Matt, by the way. You?”

“Gumball…”

“Cool name!”

Gumball opened his mouth to thank Matt, before feeling movement from behind his legs. His sister was still hiding behind him, with her face buried in her paws - three certainly was a crowd to her.

"Oh, come on, Anais! You’ll never get to know anyone if you don’t say anything!" Gumball said.

“Says who?” Anais replied as she looked up at Gumball. “Plenty of people can talk to me before I talk to them!”

“...you’d be just as shy if someone talked to you first.”

Anais opened her mouth to retort, but couldn’t find the words to do so. “...good point.”

Gumball smiled and began to push his sister towards the last of the three kids. “C’mon, go and speak already!”

 "N-No no no, Gumball, you don't understand! I w-was gonna! I was just-."

The bunny then made eye contact with the girl, which made the former's face turn as red as a strawberry. 

"Sorry! Sorry! I'm so sorry... I was going to say 'hi' to you, I swear! I was just... I don't know, nevermind, I'm sorry..." Anais sputtered.

The girl merely giggled in response. "That's okay! I understand, I really do! Your name is 'Anais', right? That's an awesome name! Did you know that it means ‘graciousness’ in Latin?”

"I-I do! I-It does, yeah! Uhm... what about your name? If you don't mind me asking, that is..."

"I don't at all, no worries! It’s Inez, and it means ‘pure’ in Spanish!"

"I know it does! Name origins are so enthralling, aren't they?" Anais smiled awkwardly, as she realized that Inez may not know what that word means. “Interesting! Interesting! Name origins are so interesting , aren’t they?”

Inez's eyes glistened. "No way... you use big words too?"

As a genuine smile faded back onto her face, Anais turned to face Gumball. The cat gave her a wink and a thumbs up, and the bunny rolled her eyes in a playful manner. 

Although she still had mixed feelings about ‘Cyberspace’, she did feel a bit more comfortable knowing she made a new friend… or maybe even friends - plural. Even though it was rare, the times where she does make new friends are always the highlight of her day… regardless if the friendship lasted for more than that or not.

After answering her friend with a nod, Anais was ready to speak again - only to be stopped by the loud sound of an alarm and Motherboard’s urgent tone of voice.

“H-Hacker… alert!” Motherboard cried. “Hacker alert!”

Matt sighed, disappointed that the cyborg always tried to ruin everything. “Oh, right, we still have to worry about Hacker…” 

“H-He’s… coming for… Gumball, Darwin, and Anais…”

Immediately after the being had said that, Gumball pulled his siblings close to him. The cat didn’t know what capabilities Hacker possessed, nor did he know if he wanted to find out.

All he knew is that they needed their parents - and fast .

“Mother-B, if you can, go back to my house!” Gumball shouted. “My dad should still be there, and if we’re lucky, my mum should be there by now too!”

Digit turned to face the cat, looking at him in utter disbelief. “No offense, Gumball, but I don’t really think that yer parents can handle Hacker… besides, do ya really want them to know about this?”

“Just trust me!”

“Very… well.” Motherboard said, before being drowned out by a sea of static.

XXXXX

Richard stood in front of the television, his chest slowly heaving in and out as he took each individual breath. Throughout his whole life, he had watched almost four whole decades worth of television, yet he could not think of a single time where something as strange as this had happened. A portal sprouting from the television screen sounded ridiculous, arguably even by Elmore standards - but surprise surprise, it happened.

Well... like they say, expect the unexpected, right?

The rabbit feared that anything could happen had he looked away, even for a mere second - and that was a risk he was not willing to take. His feelings of consternation condemned him to stay there and watch , all while ignoring any primal urges that pointlessly tried to coax him away from the television.

Given that the phrase 'sit back and relax' practically defined his life, he figured that this task should be easy enough. He's spent countless hours of his life doing just what the aforementioned aphorism suggested, so surely, he could do it right now, especially when his kids were in potential danger - which is the opposite of relaxing, but... it's close enough.

Richard was confident that the need to protect his children could easily conquer the force of a black hole - he would do anything if it meant that their safety was guaranteed - and that included doing absolutely nothing. He was normally all for doing nothing, but he felt like he really wasn't even doing anything with how long things have stayed the same.

Though, maybe it was better that way. He didn't want to think about what could happen if something did change. The rabbit sighed, and was about to walk upstairs to check on his kids, before he heard the door creak open ever so slowly.

The color drained out of his face, as did all of his former confidence. The rabbit debated on whether or not he should turn around as his mind raced in different directions. Rather than watching a cliché horror movie that he just so happened to stumble across while channel-surfing, it felt like he was in one…

He wasn’t too fond of horror movies on their own… but being in one - especially one with an overused kind of scene like this - sounded like an utter nightmare.

Realizing that he was the one his kids depended on right now, Richard turned around with a hostile facade on his face... only to drop it the moment he realized that it was his wife, and not anything like the entity from before.

"Hey, I'm-." she started, before noticing her husband staring at her. "...Richard? What's wrong?"

"Oh, Nicole, I'm so glad it's you, you have no idea... there's something really wrong with the TV..." Richard replied, as he pointed a shaky finger over at the device. 

Snickering in response, Nicole placed her purse on the couch. "What? Did the static scare you again? Richard, for the last time-.”

"Nicole, this is serious!"

The cat's smile faded. It was a rare sighting for her husband to appear this horror-struck, as he was usually a calm and collected rabbit. "Oookay... what's going on?"

"This is going to sound crazy , but the kids were about to watch a movie, and I kid you not - a portal formed in front of the TV, a hand came out, and tried to pull Anais in!" Richard cried. "I don't know what caused it, who it was, or why, or anything like that! All I know is that I've never seen anything like it before..."

Nicole's face hardened, as she tried to make sense of what her husband said. "That's... odd. Where are the kids now?"

"I told them to go upstairs and stay away from electronic devices while we waited for you to come home..."

"Good, good. That's good. Were you down here the whole time, then?" Nicole asked, closely scrutinizing the television.

"Yeah... I was keeping an eye on the TV just in case, since the portal closed up not too long ago… nothing really happened, though. Hopefully it didn't make its way into... any other devices..." Richard's voice slowed down in realization. No wonder he saw nothing. The rabbit began to bolt upstairs, muttering a quick prayer that they were in their bedroom and at a safe distance away from their computer.

Nicole, after being stunned for a minute, began to run after her husband. "R-Richard, wait!"

The cat stopped upon seeing the rabbit freeze up in the middle of their kids' room. She slowly approached her husband from behind, before realizing that none of their three kids were here - not Gumball, not Darwin, not Anais - none of them.

There hadn't been a single trace of evidence that they were even in the room in the first place either.

"...I..." Richard spoke up, as a cold tear traced a lonely path down his cheek. "...I'm a horrible father, Nicole. I should've stayed with them instead, I... what have I done?"

Nicole's ears rose up in alarm, before she gently placed a reassuring hand on her husband's shoulder. "No, no, no, Richard... don't say that... t-this... is a new situation. We've never seen anything like it before, therefore you couldn't have known what to do. Please don't beat yourself up, okay? We'll find them... and I'll make sure of it. I'll find the source of that hand and kick it into the next universe... I promise."

 "I-I... I appreciate your usual confidence, Nicole, but how do you suppose we do that?" Richard asked. "It's not everyday that we see a portal, not even in Elmore - plus, portals can lead anywhere! So I doubt that finding them will be an easy task..."

"I know, sweetie. I know, and you're right. I guess I just need some time to think... how are we going to find them?"

"I-I can… help you with that." a new voice intervened.

Chapter Text

Hi, everyone! I just want you to know that this story is NOT cancelled, nor is The Getaway! I want to apologize for the HUGE lack of updates, a lot of personal stuff has been happening, school, drawings, and I haven't really had the motivation to write. I promise that I will continue my stories soon enough. Thank you so much for your patience!