Real World's Realities

Home Sweet Prison

Marcie hugged back, doubt starting to form in her head. Was this the right decision? "..It'll be okay.. This isn't permanent.. It's just until you're able to control your abilities... Okay?.."

For a moment, it was quiet. Finally, Gumball spoke in a quiet voice. "..I trusted you Marcie.. I-I thought you were my friend.."

Her eyes widened, fresh tears appearing.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're ready to take him in now." The lady from before appeared behind them, giving a sympathetic frown. It slightly shifted as she noticed the goop dripping off the cat. "Thank you for your time, Miss Williams."

A pair of men stood by the woman, one of them coming over. As soon as Marcie let go, the agent was quick to roll up Gumball's sleeve and stick a simple needle of liquid into his arm. The feline only looked at his friend with sorrow, before dropping to a thud onto the floor.

Marcie took that as her leave, quietly exiting the building. As she entered her car, she couldn't help but grip her wheel, taking a shaky breath. She fought every inch of her not to break down crying right there.

'It's fine. This won't be forever. All this messed up stuff will be over before I even know it.' Her thoughts weren't very reassuring, but she knew it was all she could do now to cheer herself up.

She slowly turned her key into the ignition and began to drive back to her home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gumball groggily opened his eyes, as he was currently sprawled out on what felt like hard flooring. He winced, as a surge of pain spiked into his arm, the memories slowly coming back to him.

Sitting up, he found himself inside a medium-sized glass box. A door was on the side, its cold gray metal standing out from the other materials quite drastically, as its reflection could be seen on a few of the walls.

"That's a terrible design choice.." Gumball muttered to himself, glancing around at his surroundings warily. Admittedly, this place somewhat reminded him of a storefront display, which.. In hindsight sounded cruel to him. All that was missing was a few groups of people to gawk and take photos of him.

As he slightly shuffled his sitting position, he noticed a door, the one belonging to the dark room that his glass box was located in. It began to creak open, and revealed two men standing outside. He could only assume they were government agents like the rest he's seen, telling by their suits and badges.

"Is this the toon?" The first man turned his head to look at the other, stern expression hardly changing. It began to unnerve Gumball.

"Affirmative. Miss Williams dropped it off about five hours ago."

"Should we call then? Hansley wanted to get a good look first before he does anything."

Gumball couldn't help but watch the two men talk, his worry and confusion growing by the minute. What were they going to do to him? Was it going to help his abilities? Something in his gut didn't like any of this.

"Very well, let's go get Hansley." The second man concluded. He soon left the room, leaving only the first agent there.

The cat began to scoot back, seeing the man walk up to the glass. It was hard to hide his look of uneasiness, his mind trying desperately to figure out what was going on. He could only hope that Marcie was right in her assumptions, though.. He didn't want to think about her right now.

"Hm." The agent peered inside, eyes narrowing. He looked almost deep in thought, yet stoic at the same time. "So, this is the so-called threat Allison told us about. Must be more dangerous than it looks."

Gumball had no answer to that, a part of him afraid of the idea to even respond to this man at all. His ears soon perked up, as new footsteps started entering the area, echoing through the empty darkness.

"I have arrived!" A man called out, beginning to approach the glass. He wore a white lab coat, along with a pair of standard glasses. The smile he displayed on his face looked unsettling. If anything, it almost reminded the feline of a horror movie scenario.

The agent hummed, turning his head. "Ah Mr. Hansley, about time you showed up."

"Is this the specimen?"

"Correct. It was dropped off a while ago."

Hansley fixed his glasses, before his gaze focused on Gumball, who at the moment scooted farther away. "Alright then! Let's get to work, shall we?"

Nodding, the agent walked over to the metal door of the box, using a keycard to unlock it. He gestured to the feline, hardly moving a muscle in his face as he did so. "It's all yours Hansley."

The scientist gave him a smile before he entered, killing all ounces of whatever personal space the young cat had.

Gumball tried to back away, fear in his eyes as his heart began to race. He couldn't deny that the previous conversation scared him immensely. Weren't they supposed to help him? He's not some.. Specimen. Don't they know he's just a kid?

"It's alright little one, no need to be frightened. I'm only going to make a few tests." Hansley said, his reassurement feeling rather hollow to the other.

"..H-How should I trust you?.." The feline's voice began to shake, watching the man come closer to him, though seemingly flinch at his sudden sentence, almost as if.. He wasn't expecting him to talk.

"Don't you worry, it's only small tests, nothing big. It's just to sort of understand you." The man replied, the lie sitting on his words like a foul poison. "Now stay still, this won't hurt a bit."

Gumball reluctantly let himself relax, rolling up his sleeve and sticking out his arm for the awaiting needle. As it stuck inside, everything faded to black.