Chapter Text
It was a lovely, sunny morning in Elmore, as usual. An assortment of birdlike creatures whistled and chirped, greeting the rising sun as Gaylord Robinson trimmed away at his lawn. He carefully pushed the mower over the last few feet of turf, and exhaled slowly as he finished. The lawn looked great, the hedge around the back was perfect, and it was only eight in the morning! Everything was as it should be.
Predictably, Mr. Robinson’s moment of happiness was shattered by a piercing scream from the house next door.
“...ohhhhhhhHHHH MYYY GOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHH THERE”S A NEW LEGEND OF ZELMROE THEY DID IT THEY REALLY DID IT AGAIN THERE’S A NEW A NEW LEGEND OF ZELMORE AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Various other sounds of excitement and anticipation drifted through the air following that screech, clashing horribly and assaulting Mr. Robinson’s ears.
He scowled. “Hmmpf. Darn kids.” The puppet turned around and walked into his house, trying to escape the racket, which continued for several minutes. An onlooker might have traced the sounds emanating from the house as they started in an upstairs bedroom, raced around the second floor for a while, then clattered down the stairs before whirling through the ground floor as well. Finally, the front door burst open and the source of the noise was revealed as two exhilarated brothers: Gumball and Darwin Watterson.
They made for an unusual pair, the two. Unusual, but strangely complementary. Gumball was a bright blue cat and sported his signature fit of a tan sweater with brown sleeves and dark grey trousers. His brother Darwin was a large goldfish that, years ago, had sprouted arms, legs, and lungs and subsequently been adopted into the Watterson family. Darwin wore nothing at all except for a pair of green sneakers, still perfectly modest in his attire.
The brothers vaulted off the porch with a few crisp banknotes in hand, heading straight for the nearest Laser Video. Their mother Nicole, also a blue cat, stuck her head out the door as they left and called out to them, “Boys! I want you back here by lunchtime!”
Gumball turned around slightly, not bothering to slow his pace. “Okay, Mom! We will be!”
“Have fun and-”
“We will!” Darwin called back.
“-And be safe!”
“Okay!” The brothers chimed together as they continued their mad dash. They soon rounded the corner of the block and were out of sight.
Nicole smiled and shook her head as she closed the door.
It wasn’t more than a minute later that the two slowed to a stop and nearly collapsed onto the pavement with exhaustion, next to the bus station. “Duuude…” Gumball croaked out. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it…”
Darwin, despite his greater stamina, was wheezing alongside his brother. He looked up at the sign for the station. “M…maybe we should… take the bus…?”
“No… not enough money… And besides, Har- uh, Gary’s driving today. I don’t think he’s quite forgiven us for wrecking his house…”
“What makes you say that?”
At that moment the bus came trundling down the road on its usual route, Gary Hedges clearly visible in the driver’s seat. When he noticed Gumball and Darwin he frowned, creasing his forehead even more than usual.
“I’m just gonna try…” Darwin held out a fin and waved. In response, Gary stepped on the gas pedal and accelerated away from the bus station, leaving the brothers coughing in a cloud of exhaust.
“Yeah…” Darwin sighed, looking sad. “Well, we’re just going to have to walk slower if we want to make it there alive…”
“NO!” Gumball shouted, suddenly rejuvenated. “I cannot, I will not rest until that game is in my possession! By the power of-”
"What did you just say?” A low, gravelly voice interrupted Gumball’s manic anime intro, making his fur stand on end.
“Huh?” Startled, Gumball looked across the street, Darwin’s gaze following.
A hunched figure stood on the sidewalk opposite the brothers, grinning at them. The rising sun was to the figure’s back, making it difficult to discern any features. The only clear thing was that big smile.
“Uh, what was that?” Darwin called out
“What did you just say?” The question came again, rattling in the air. “You’re looking for a video game?”
The silhouetted figure started shambling across the road, stooped almost halfway over to make eye contact with them. Darwin started breathing faster at the sight of a stranger approaching them, taking shorter and shorter breaths and then panicky gasps, and Gumball began to tense up. As they came nearer the boys began to make out some details, and what they saw wasn’t pretty.
Bloodshot eyes peered out from sunken grey sockets at them, curtained by matted and unkempt hair on either side. The figure’s body appeared to be quite thin, although that was difficult to tell from the wrinkled and stained overcoat wrapped around it.
“Oh man, oh man, oh man oh man ohmanohmanohman…” Darwin whispered. Gumball grabbed for his brother’s hand and held onto it tightly.
As the person stepped onto the sidewalk to join the brothers, that wide smile grew, lips parting to reveal uneven teeth. Finally, the morning light was blotted out by the stranger’s head, casting the face in full view.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh….?”
Gumball… relaxed as he recognized the person’s face. It was just the hobo that was often seen wandering around Elmore and whom the brothers had bumped into on many occasions. While nobody in town would call him exactly trustworthy, he’d never acted at all threatening and he was mostly treated as a harmless drifter.
Sagging with relief, Gumball quickly dropped Darwin’s hand. “Oh, it’s you. Well, we were talking about the new Legend of Zelmore-”
The hobo’s eyes lit up. “ I THOUGHT I heard you mention a new Legend of Zelmore! Yaaahoooooo- I gotta get to Laser Video!” He spun around with a flip of the long overcoat and scurried away, leaving only a puff of greasy air behind.
“O…kay. Bye then,” Gumball called.
The boys stood there for several moments, disoriented and blinking, before Darwin gasped. “We have to get moving again! They could be sold out of the game if we don’t get there in time and then we would have to wait even longer!”
Gumball shuddered, clasping a hand dramatically over his forehead. “Perish the thought! Then! By the power of friendship! By-”
“Dude, skip the intro! There’s no time!”
“But…but I… fine, you’re right.” The brothers took off sprinting once again.