The Fine [Deluxe Edition]

Chapter 6 - The Resolution

"Ow.....my...head"

For a moment, all that could be seen was a black void.

When his eyelids slowly opened, Gumball could not see pretty well at first.

But when his sight adjusted, he found himself lying on his stomach on the asphalt pavement.

Looking forward, a large brown stone building towered a few blocks down the road, the American flag waving close by. Then, he searched through he jeans to find the envelope labeled "Stream-It is guilty evidence" in sharpie.

"I can still make it". Remembering the reason he was out here in the first place, Gumball made an attempt to get up and make a beeline for the courthouse. But the moment he stood in his two feet, he felt a sharp jolt of pain, his legs beginning to wobble. Guessing it was the stress of getting up after a coma, he lifted his right foot and placed it forward. When he did the same with his left foot, he grabbed it and his face winced in pain as he suddenly fell over again.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed upon hitting the road. He then noticed noticed that his left ankle was in pain and hurt very badly. It wasn't dislocated, but it certainly was sprained and not fit for walking at all.

When he saw one of the plastic bullets lying next to him, he knew how he ended up in his current predicament. "No big deal. I'll just walk it off" he softly said to himself. Getting up again, he made another attempt to walk.

"Ow!"

That exclamation came when the pain in his foot caused him to trip over again.

"Foolish-child" spoke Elmore Stream-It through the TV channels, switching to any channel that was playing a scene of evil laughter.

"No! I won't give in!" snapped Gumball, trying a few more attempts to walk. "No!" he shouted every fall he suffered. He couldn't believe it. He was stopped in his tracks by a small simple injury inflicted from a toy.

"No!". Another attempt to stand up left him falling over. The senses around his foot erupted into so much pain every time he tried to stand on it. "No!". He was beginning to wish his mother was right there to tend to his ankle.

He tried getting up, face-plant.

"No!"

Another attempt to stand, face-plant.

"No!"

He got up only to face-plant.

"NO!"

Screaming in frustration, Gumball made one more attempt to stand up, the pain in his foot only sending his body crash-landing on the pavement once again.

He had lost. He had failed. Elmore's social media was doomed.

Lifting his face off the ground, Gumball's big eyes shimmered in pain and sadness, his lips starting to tremble. A tear left left his eye as he began to whimper. He didn't know how his crying was going to start; the pain in his ankle which hurt so badly, or the very situation before him ending up hopeless.

Hopeless.

That very word or any related to it was what triggered some wise words to echo into his mind.

"It's your perception that the situation is hopeless" echoed a familiar voice inside his head. "If you feel like your legs can't carry you anymore, it's never too late to get up again".

"Smith?" asked Gumball.

"No. I'm just a motivational voice who sounds like him" replied Smith's voice, before it switched to a feminine sounding voice. "I gotta go now. Some driver stuck in a traffic jam in Denver needs me. Just stay strong and save Elmore". And with the sound of shutting the door behind it, the motivational voice left to support someone else.