Gumball and Rob both ran out of the house and made a beeline for the mall parking lot, where The Awesome Store was usually located, with Gumball unpausing the world on the way. He couldn't exactly interrogate The Awesome Store guy if he was frozen. They had spotted the van and Gumball was just about to rush in there when Rob took his hand to hold him back.

"Hold on. So what's the plan here?"

"We go inside and ask him what he knows, where he gets all these reality warping items, that kind of thing," Gumball explained. He kinda thought that was obvious from the get-go.

"No, I got that," Rob clarified. "But what if he won't tell us? He has no reason to trust two random kids with this information." Gumball paused. He didn't really think about that.

"Well, we do have this remote. We could maybe make him tell us." Rob nodded, he could see how that would work.

"Yeah, we could threaten to delete him if he doesn't tell us everything!" Rob said. Gumball gave him a strange look.

"I was thinking more along the lines of convincing him to tell us everything by showing him the apocalypse in the near future, but I guess that works too," he said. They both went up to the van and knocked on the door.

"Come in! Come in! Look around, see if there's anything you like," The Awesome Store guy said in his best salesperson voice. They walked in and Gumball was in awe of just how much stuff was crammed in there, some of it things that he had never seen before. He had never really seen the inside of it when it was open so he didn't know what to expect. He quickly shook off the feeling and focused on what he came there to do.

"We're not here to buy anything, we're here for information," Gumball said. He couldn't see anything of the guy inside the van, except for his big, piercing eyes, so that was a little intimidating. Still, he held his ground.

"That's an...interesting request. Especially considering I don't really know you," the shopkeeper replied.

"You know me," Rob told him. "You were the one who sold me the universal remote."

"This one, to be precise," Gumball said, holding it up for proof.

"Yes, I remember that now. Though I seem to recall you smashing it right afterwards, so I'm not quite sure how you have it now," The shopkeeper replied, his gaze shifted and focused on Gumball. "And what about your little friend here?"

"My name is Gumball. Gumball Watterson."

"Watterson?" The shopkeeper repeated.

"Yes…?" Gumball affirmed tentatively. He knew he and his family had a bit of a bad reputation around town, but he wouldn't do anything like refuse to talk to him because of that, would he?

"Ah! I knew that last name sounded familiar. Your father is one of my best customers."

"Yes! He is!" Gumball said, lighting up. This was good, he could use this to get him on their side. "So will you help us?"

"That depends on what kind of information you're looking for." Gumball gave Rob a look. How much should they reveal to this guy? If he had items that could warp reality, it was possible he knew about the TV show. Of course, it was also totally possible that he had no idea and was ignorant about most of the stuff he was selling. They wordlessly decided to tread carefully, figure out what he knew without playing their own hand.

"All of these items, they have magical powers, a lot of them can change reality. Where are you getting all of these things?"

"Can't tell you that I'm afraid. Wouldn't be good business practice if I spilled all my secrets to the masses. Gotta stay relevant in the current market, you know."

"We're kids, you really think we're asking this for business reasons?" Gumball asked. The shopkeeper didn't say anything. He had to admit that they had a point, but he still wasn't budging. "It's really important that I figure this out, the whole world could be at stake!" The shopkeeper stayed silent but he squinted his eyes at the duo, indicating disbelief. Rob furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to threaten him until Gumball held up his hand to stop him. "Not yet dude," Gumball told him. He wasn't ready to jump straight into threatening him yet, he wanted to try a more honest option first. If he still didn't listen after that, all bets were off. Gumball sighed and pulled out the remote again. "You know this remote? I'm from the future and I've been using this remote to go back in time and prevent a catastrophe that could lead to the end of the world. I wasn't lying when I said that the whole world could be at stake. I can prove it to you." Gumball turned the remote towards a TV that was in the van and clicked fast forward. On the TV it showed Elmore eaten up by static. "If you don't help us this could be your future. You have items that can change reality, and reality needs to change. So I'm going to need to know what you know about all of this. If we don't do something a lot of people are going to die, and I don't intend on leaving here until I get the information I came for." The shopkeeper's eyes widened as he stared at the TV screen. That static...it almost looked like...it couldn't be.

"Alright, I'll tell you, but none of what I'm about to say leaves this van, got it?"

"Got it," Gumball and Rob agreed. The shopkeeper looked around and lowered his voice so that no one else could hear him.

"Have you ever found anything….strange about this world? Things happening that you can't quite explain, that sort of thing?" Gumball and Rob looked at each other again, was he hinting at what they thought he was hinting at?

"Yeah, we have. Things that are a little...cartoony maybe?" Gumball said.

"Yes, exactly."

"Wait a minute," Rob cut in. "You mean to tell me that you knew about the TV show this whole time?"

"I was trying to be subtle about it, but yes. In my line of work, you kinda have to," The shopkeeper said. That wasn't really much of an explanation, Rob noted, but that wasn't his biggest concern at the moment.

"Then why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you try to stop the apocalypse instead of leaving it up to us?"

"Hey, I had no idea that was going to happen," He said, gesturing at the TV screen. "I assumed someone would have told me about something that drastic, but I guess I was wrong." The shopkeeper then muttered something about "upper management" and how "they never tell him anything anymore." Both Gumball and Rob thought he was acting rather blase about the end of the world, but without seeing his facial expression, it was kinda hard to tell how he felt. "Look, I don't know if I can help you, but I think I know someone who can," he explained. "I get all of this stuff through a "special supplier", you plead your case with him and maybe he can give you something that can help. But there's a catch, in order to get to him, you've got to get through to the other side." Rob's eye widened in shock while Gumball just looked confused. He knew that "the other side" was some sort of euphemism for something, but he also knew that he probably wasn't referring to the afterlife in this situation.

"But that's impossible! You can't just go to the other side, not as we are! If you could I would've tried that ages ago." Rob shouted.

"Well, you're partly right. You can't just go, there's a whole process to it, a special journey you have to take, that kind of thing. Plus, there's a ripple effect when you get there. If you're not back within an hour you cease to exist entirely, but it looks like that's going to happen whether you go or not. So what do you have to lose really?"

"And you risk that regularly just to sell your merchandise?" Gumball asked in disbelief. Man, and he thought he was a thrillseeker.

"Selling my merchandise is all I was created to do kid," The shopkeeper retorted. Rob nodded in sympathy. Gumball still wasn't convinced. This guy had a track record of his merchandise causing havoc, what if this was something similar? What if he was evil? He certainly looked pretty menacing. This could very well be a trap.

"Why should we trust you?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, let's see," Gumball said. "Your refrigerator? Trapped my dad. The turtle? Tried to kill us. The remote? Actually did kill some of us. The notebook? Almost destroyed the town. The console? Ok, that one was actually pretty awesome, I'll give you that."

"What about the goldfish?"

"The goldfish…?" Gumball asked curiously. He didn't remember any goldfish. The only goldfish he knew was...oh, oh. Ok, that made a strange amount of sense, but he didn't have time to really process that revelation, so he kind of shook it from his mind. He did wish that Darwin was here with them though, if he knew the guy he could've used that as leverage. "You don't get to take credit for Darwin, he's a person, not an object." Darwin, so that was his name now, The storekeeper thought. He wanted to ask more about how he was doing now, but he could tell that Gumball was agitated and this wouldn't be the best time.

"Alright, but consider this, you came to me, remember? Do you really have any choice right now but to trust me?" Gumball sighed, he had to admit, he had a point. It looked like he had no choice but to go to this "other side", despite how dangerous it seemed. If it was a trap, well, they had the remote. They could get out of it. Probably.

"Alright fine, but you're coming with us," Gumball said. "You're the only one who knows how to get there, and if there's some kind of process to this then I don't want to mess it up." The shopkeeper nodded, forgetting for a moment that they couldn't see him. He figured he would have to come along, the journey would almost certainly kill them without him or his van, or worse...

"Fine, but it's going to be a pretty bumpy ride, so I would suggest strapping in."