Author's Note: I do not own the characters of Gaz, Dib or Zim from Jhonen Vasquez's brilliant cartoon, Invader Zim. I do own my original character of Izzy though. A friend of mine helped me write this because she loves Gaz and is convinced that this is the only way she would ever come to like someone. So yeah, um, enjoy the story and rock on.
Gaz's Rival
It was yet another long boring day for Gaz. School had just let out and she was sitting outside on the bench near the basketball courts. As usual, her brother, Dib, was locked in battle with Zim, the alien that had come to conquer Earth. How he was doing that by going to school like any of the other idiot kids Gaz knew was beyond her. She didn't even care; since she knew Zim was so dumb he probably couldn't even take over a fast food restaurant if he tried.
Besides, Gaz was too busy concentrating on her Gameslave 2 portable game console. She was currently playing her way through Super Ultra Giga Mega Hyper Ultimate Super Fighting Tournament: The Sequel: Prime: This Time It's Personal: The Revenge: Special Limited Edition 2, and she was dominating. It brought her the only real satisfaction she felt in life, except for making her brother's life a living hell whenever he happened to piss her off.
Not long after she began playing though, someone stepped in front of her, his shadow hovering over her. "Hey…you're blocking my light…!" Gaz said, sounding annoyed, not looking up at the shadowed figure but continuing to focus her efforts on the game.
"Are you Gaz?" The figure asked. It was a boy's voice. Gaz looked up to see a young man probably only a couple of years older than her standing there looking down on her. He was a pretty normal looking kid. He wore sneakers with black socks, green camo shorts, a Guns n' Roses zip-up hoodie over a black t-shirt. A black train engineer looking cap with a winged skull on the side of it covered his average length red hair. His youthful face carried the exact same expression that Gaz usually had on her's.
"Who wants to know? And I should remind you that you're still BLOCKING MY LIIIIIIIIGHT!" Gaz shouted, as she normally did when some idiot forced her to repeat herself.
"The name's Izzy. I hear you're pretty good at games…" the young boy said, his facial expression still the same despite Gaz's shriek.
"I'm not just 'pretty good'…," she responded. "I'm the best. Now go away before I destroy you…"
"Oh really?" Izzy asked her. "Well then I challenge you to a Gameslave battle."
This made Gaz pause her game, something she did not do often, or like doing. She was not in the mood to mess around with some twerp who thought he had the skill to beat her. She HATED wasting her time on worthless people. But nevertheless, she never ever turned down a challenge, no matter how pathetic the opponent.
Gaz stood up and her gaze met Izzy's as the boy reached into his hoodie and revealed his own Gameslave 2. He then reached into his back pocket and produced a battle link cable. He connected one end of it into his own Gameslave before tossing the other end of it to Gaz, who held out her own Gameslave, which the other end of the cable connected into in a stylish anime-like fashion.
"Try not to whine too much after I've annihilated you," Gaz taunted him, unable to help herself from smiling for a split second at her coming victory over such a pompous challenger. It was a bit of a crazy looking smile, but a smile all the same.
"Whatever you say. Let's do this…" Izzy replied nonchalantly, seeming to be ignoring her slightly, which only made her loathe him more.
"Fool…," Gaz thought to herself.
After that, there was no talking between the two gamers, both of whom were concentrating entirely on their game, despite the fact that as they played Dib and Zim had begun to battle with giant robots, destroying the area as they did. Gaz didn't like having to admit it, even if it was only to herself, but she was seriously impressed by Izzy's gaming abilities. Most people wouldn't last ten seconds against her in any game with a verses mode, but he was so good that Gaz was forced to bring her A game.
"Kicking his ass is gonna be a lot fun…" Gaz thought, once again unable to herself from briefly smiling.
They controlled their virtual combatants masterfully, both of them using the fighter that they specialized in. For Gaz, it was the Clone Cyborg Ninja Specter of Evil Jesus as her fighter. For Izzy, it was Captain Falcon from the awesome F-Zero games. The duo of gamers pulled out every trick they could think of to claim victory, but it was soon clear that they were equally matched. When they were finally reduced to their last bit of health, both of their characters unleashed their special moves upon each other at the same time, striking the other and causing both of them to be defeated. The match had ended in a draw.
Gaz glanced up at Izzy just as he glanced up at her. "Again," they both said before averting their eyes downward toward their Gameslaves once again. Their second match ended in another draw as well, so they went again. The third match was the same way, and so on and so on for all the other dozens, if not hundreds, of matches that the two played against each other over who knows how many hours. This didn't weaken the resolve of either gamer though, as they kept consistently playing as well as they had in their first match.
"Ready to lose yet?" Gaz asked as they started up their next game.
"Nope, but you better be after this battle," Izzy retorted, a devious smirk on his face.
Their fight raged on, and soon enough both players were on their last legs. It would all be decided by one final blow. On both Gameslave screens, the Clone Cyborg Ninja Specter of Evil Jesus and Captain Falcon ran towards each other. Evil Jesus attempted to perform his ultimate technique, Cross Impaler, on Falcon. At the very last second though, Falcon performed a rolling dodge and avoided the attack. This left Evil Jesus completely open to attack. Gaz knew it, and she knew Izzy knew it.
"No…" Gaz thought to herself, her eyes opening wide in horror as she saw Captain Falcon prepare his special attack, as well as Izzy smiling.
"Falcon Punch!!" the digital fighter cried out as he let loose a fiery blow to Evil Jesus' face which sent him flying off the screen. "This game's winner is: Captain Falcon!" the announcer declared.
Gaz's left eye twitched as her jaw hung open in disbelief at what had just happened. This was impossible. Impossible. She couldn't have lost. She couldn't have lost. She never lost!
"I win," Izzy stated casually with a smile, as if it had been no big deal for him. Gaz's very reality had just been shattered by her loss, and he was shrugging it off like it was nothing. Gaz dropped her Gameslave and grabbed Izzy by his hoodie, glaring at him with dagger eyes while gnashing her teeth.
"I….am….going….to….destroy….you….!!" Gaz told him, barely able to contain the rage that had welled up inside of her. She couldn't stand the idea of having been beaten by this boy. The hatred she felt for him was more powerful than any she had ever felt for Dib, but it was also different. She couldn't describe it, but she knew what she was feeling wasn't just normal hate.
"Don't complain because you lost. It's annoying," Izzy said to her, completely unfazed by Gaz's threat against his life. "Anyway, you weren't bad. Wanna play again sometime?"
"Shut up…JUST SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUPP!! You're gonna pay for this if it's the LAST thing I ever do! You will know pain like you've never dreamed you…you….AAAAAAAAAARRGGHH!!!" Gaz screamed at the top of her lungs, which was heard by every person for miles around, and even distracted Dib and Zim from their battle momentarily. She gradually began lowering her voice and eventually it just trailed off. At that point she sighed, then once more locked gazes with the boy.
There were a few moments of silence between the two of them. What she did next she could not explain. Had anyone else seen it, they would not have believed Gaz had actually done it. She could not believe she had done it herself.
She stopped glaring harshly at Izzy, and simply stared into his eyes instead. Gaz then leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. The second she pulled away, she wiped her lips with her shirtsleeve and turned back to Izzy, whose facial expression remained the same.
"You're weird," he remarked before Gaz once again grabbed him by his sweatshirt.
"Stop talking and listen up. You better be back here tomorrow ready to play a rematch, or I will find you and hurt you," Gaz threatened him in her darkest voice, before letting him go, turning away and slowly walking away.
"Hey, Gaz!" Izzy called after her, causing her to slowly turn and look back at him as he gave her a wave. "See you tomorrow."
"….See ya later Izzy," Gaz replied, returning the wave, before continuing to walk away.
Izzy smiled to himself as he watched the girl walk away. And as she headed down the road, Gaz did the same.