Iggins had RUN for his life to the "Battery Tower" building, the one place he knew he'd be able to get batteries. It was over fifty stories high and had battery-shaped elevators on all sides. Running inside, he headed into the futuristic-looking building and up to a clerk, who was sitting behind a booth shaped like…you guessed it…a battery. She was a dark-haired, pink-sunglasses wearing woman who looked QUITE bored.
"WHERE ARE THE BATTERIES?!" Iggins begged. "DOUBLE A?!"
"Batteries? 50th floor." She said, jabbing her thumb at an elevator.
Iggins ran into the battery-shaped elevator and struck the button for the fiftieth floor over and over and over and OVER, panting and squealing like a pig, eyes bugging out more than usual. The elevator button popped out of it's socket and struck his head and the elevator ZOOMED up at top speed, making Iggins sigh in relief. There was no WAY that creepy Gaz could catch up to him NOW!
…then the elevator shot PAST the 50th floor. "AAAAAAAA!" Iggins bawled. Suddenly the door burst open as it reached the top floor and…
There she was! Gaz had CLIMBED up the building and was now glaring at Iggins intently.
"GUAAAAAAH!" Igigns ran back inside, but Gaz followed after him and into the elevator, clenching her fists as Iggins hid in the corner of the elevator.
"Give me the vampire piggies!" She demanded.
"You're CRAZY!" Iggins shouted. "It's MINE! MIIIINE!" He cried out.
Gaz's eyes narrowed. Then she headed over to the elevator keypad and slammed her fist onto it, as a purple light shot out, going through the keypad. Lighting shot out from the keypad and the elevator went into a FREEFALL!
"MOOOOOMMMMYYYYYYYY!"
Down and down and down it went! And then…
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! Take it! It's yours!" Iggins sobbed, holding it up. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" He said, beginning to cry.
Crying? Yep. Crying meant sincerity.
PING!
Gaz pressed the emergency stop button and BOOMP!
It stopped at the fiftieth floor! Gaz calmly took the GS2, headed onto the fiftieth floor, then flung the old batteries that had been in the GS2 into the air. She then tossed the GS2 up into the air, then used her other hand to toss some new batteries which landed RIGHT inside the GS2! She calmly held out her hands and caught the GS2 and then…
It stopped raining. A beautiful light shone down around Gaz as a heavenly choir sang. "Ahhh." She said, her hair returning to normal, no longer wet. "The rightful order has been restored." She remarked, smiling happily as she began to play the GS2.
But Iggins just snarled and clenched his fist. "You'll never be a better gamer than me! Play all you want! I'll always be better!"
SNAP! The cord snapped and Iggins vanished with a cry of "ALWAAAAAAYS!"
"OOH." Gaz shuddered. "...evidently the elevator couldn't handle all that...ah well." She shrugged. "I got my game." She remarked, smirking with delight as she sat down to play her Game Slave 2. She could call the fire department to get her down after beating a few levels...or ten.
But what Gazlene had no idea was that she'd soon be wishing she'd given up the Game Slave.
...
...
...
...Gazlene awoke with a yawn, stretching her arms wide, the purple-haired, amber-eyed little girl nonchalantly making her way towards the bathroom across from her bed, humming the "Poop Dawg" theme as she went to brush her teeth. Splurting out the toothpaste onto the toothbrush, she began brushing before noticing something was...odd. Her security teddy bears that could feed on human flesh were peering right at her. And her Teddy Ruxspin was now lying on her bed.
"...are you malfunctioning?" She asked, putting the toothbrush away and going over to the bed, plucking him up.
"I'm Teddy Ruxspin and I'm gonna do horrible things to you when you're sleeping!" Teddy announced, Gaz staring in shocked surprise, looking down at the stuffed bear with its brown fur, the red longsleeve shirt and white overshirt, and rather glassy, reddish/brown eyes.
Gaz frowned darkly, plucking him up. "I know I programmed you to save that line for when your facial recognition software saw Dib's face, why on Earth are you-"
"I'm Teddy Ruxspin and we didn't care very much for you breaking open our chests and putting your evil in us..." Teddy Ruxspin growled as Gaz's frown began to fade, replaced with a confused look. "...GAZLENE MEMBRANE."
She stared, then tossed the teddy to the side, the other stuffed animals all glowering darkly at her, and speaking in low, dark tones. "Gazleeeeene...Gazleeeene...we want your skin, Gazlene. We want your skin!"
Gazlene swiftly ran out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut, harrumphing. "I'll just find a priest to do an exorcism later." She grunted, shaking her head. "Dib, don't..." She began to say before hesitating, and then saying "You know what, nevermuind!" She called out. "I'm going off to get donuts." The bratty little girl proclaimed, sauntering off and down the hall, out the door.
As she made her way across the front yard, an odd, disturbing clinking noise filled the air. She frowned a bit and made her way to the backyard, following the clinking noise...seeing something was rising up out of the ground...where...
...where the doghouse had once been before it burned down in a lightning strike from a bad, bad storm.
...where their old dog had once been.
"You never fed me, Gazlene." said the bony, skeletal, charred remains of their dog. His black furry flesh had almost utterly rotted away, maggots resting in his eye. Half his jaw was missing, his bones were slightly cracked, and he foully stared upon her, flies encircling his head. "You never, ever fed me. I died so slowly, Gaz...and you will die so slowly too..."
"You don't scare me!" Gazlene insisted, but now she was beginning to become slightly unnerved. First her toys, now her old dog? She saw the chain collar around his neck rise out from the ground, and it snapped in the air like a snake biting at a bird. She cringed a bit, taking a step back, and then bolted down the street, hearing foul, barking laughter ringing through the air.
At the donut store, she waited in line, grunting angrily, tapping her foot against the floor as "Dippin Donuts" customers ordered again and again. "Come on. Get a move on!" She muttered darkly, some of the customers giving her annoyed and slightly irritated and rather odd, staring looks that made her glower furiously back at them, making them cringe. The faintly pale-skinned Gaz made her way towards the front counter, looking at the doughnuts on display underneath. She was the last customer left in line, at long last. "I want a chocolate frosted with sprinkles."
"Sure. 98 cents."
Gaz reached for her wallet, then stiffened...realizing...
She wasn't wearing anything but her pajamas. She'd been in such a hurry to escape the house that she'd forgotten her shirt, her pants, her shoes. Everything!
Including her wallet that laid in said pants.
"Just give it to me." She said angrily. "Do you know who I am?" She demanded, trying to bully her way into getting hold of a delicious baked good, giving the faintly freckled, red-headed cashier behind the register a look.
"Someone who can't pay." The man said, shaking his head as he adjusted the cap on his large skull before heading off to get a coffee made. Gaz grunted, rolling her eyes when she heard a tiny voice speak.
"Hey. Hey!"
She couldn't believe it. One of the donuts was slightly floating just below the counter. And inches from her hand.
"Who's he to deny you a delicious donut? You're GAZ MEMBRANE. Grab me and run!" It squeaked out, floating in the air. Gaz stared, her mouth agape. It was too perfect for words! She reached out...
THWONK.
Evidently there was a glass casing around it, it was just so well-shined, you almost couldn't tell.
"Heeheeheehee!" The donut evilly giggled, ALL the donuts seemingly giggling at her as she gazed down, then began walking backwards, then bolted right out of the donut shop. This was too crazy! Far too crazy! Dad. She'd go to Dad's laboratory in town. He had bagels and stuff in the morning, she remembered that from his "take your daughter to work" days. Gazlene raced down the street, bolting down the sidewalk, people looking her up and down, finding her pajama-clad form rather odd. It didn't help that, well...she was wearing gaudy Vampire Piggy pjs that had rather ugly-looking vampire pigs stamped all over.
Professor Membrane's laboratory was a gleaming, glittering structure that towered high into the air, a glistening metal facility of might that looked like a silver eye from on high when viewed from above. Rushing into the front door, Gaz saw her father was speaking to some laboratory assistants as they stood in the main hall, munching on some bagels and muffins as Membrane held up a small muffin of his own.
"My newest invention. SUPER MUFFINS." He proclaimed, holding up the muffin as they examined it, biting into their own normal muffins. "I just need to test them out. I believe they may cause adverse reactions to people who are allergic to gluten and-"
"I can handle it." Gaz said quickly, barreling up to her dad, smirking. "I'll test them out for you, Dad."
"Oh, why, Gazlene! Who knew you'd take such an interest in...REAL SCIENCE!" He proclaimed, dramatically pointing upward before leading his daughter towards a room to the side, which had a sign that read "Testing Room". Sure enough, large stacks of muffins with an odd, faintly pinkish tinge to them laid upon the table in the center of the room, along with a notepad and a pencil. "Just test each flavor of super muffin, and mark down your results, my dear. It would be quite a boon to humanity to know the glory of my 15 flavor supermuffins. Just one step closer to creating the ultimate breakfast buffet!" He proclaimed, sweeping from the room with a WOOSH, the door closing as Gaz approached the table.
She plucked up one of the muffins, unwrapping it and chewing away. "Hmm. Tangy, but robust." She said. "Must be a blueberry." She said, munching on it more and more. "...I don't want to fully eat ALL of them. I'll just take a few bites of each, that'll do." She remarked. Now, this was rather...wasteful, admittedly. But Gaz didn't care if it meant wasting food, she just wanted some nice muffins. Besides, she didn't even like poppy seed muffins.
As she began chewing on a raisin muffin, shrugging at ITS taste, she failed to notice the other muffins were slowly rising up, up from the table, and circling overhead like vultures. Gaz chewed away on the raisin muffin for a little while longer, humming a bit before turning around...
Eyes going wide.
"You want some muffins?" said an unearthly, foul voice as the muffins all unwrapped themselves. "Well. TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL! It's what you want, isn't it?! Just everything, all for you!"
And with that, a corn muffin forced itself into her mouth! She coughed and spluttered, hacking madly, trying to spit it back out, but the entire thing was forced clean on down her throat, and into her stomach. "What the...how in the hell?!"
GLA-GLOMPGH! Now a banana nut muffin was being forced into her jaws! She tried to pull it out, but it felt like a gigantic metal ROD was holding it in and forcing it down her throat! And then came a corn muffin! And then a chocolate chip muffin! And then a POPPY SEED!
"You FIEND!" She cried out in between forced gasps for air, flopping onto the floor, her belly slightly bulging and bloated, sweat dripping from her brow as she quivered and shook. She tried in vain to crawl for the door only for ANOTHER muffin to be forced down her throat. And another...and another! AND ANOTHER! AND ANOTHER!...
...
...
...
...Gazlene moaned as she laid in her hospital bed, her stomach getting pumped, as a nurse stood over her, looking at her clipboard. "Now, I've good news, sweetie." She insisted to Gaz, who let out a very long, sad, groaning moan of agony. "You've got some visitors to see you."
"Oh, visitors!" Gaz managed to mumble out as the nurse left the room. "Friends? Oh, good. Good! Nothing better to lift the spirits of man in a physical crisis than a show of loyalty from his companions!"
"Hi."
Then Gaz's smile faded, seeing Dib and GIR the robot in the doorway, the little guy dressed in his big, fake green dog attire with the adorable fake pink tongue and big ol' eyes as they walked up to her bed, Dib holding up a nice tolberone candy, and GIR holding some dandelions in a vase.
"...you're it." Gaz mumbled out, blinking stupidly.
"Dad's in talks to do a new reboot of "Cosmos", he thinks he'd be really good at it." Dib remarked.
"I picked these for you!" GIR said with a delighted smile, putting the flowers next to her bed. But then the vase plopped the flowers out onto the floor, and BANGED over Gaz's head with loud, coconut-sounding THWOK-THWOK-THWOK noises that made the two stare, Gaz giving them a deep, long-suffering sigh.
"I'm being haunted." She realized aloud. "Dib, you're the freaky deeky paranormal expert. Do something! YOU do the exorcism!"
"Um...okay, uh...I'm going to need a great big cross, though."
"That'll be a problem. All of them burst into flames when I'm in the same room." Gaz mumbled quietly, looking at the charred remains of the one that had been up on the wall not too far away...until she' been laid down in the bed.
"What have you done lately that could lead a ghost to haunt you?" Dib asked as GIR tried to put the dandelions back in the vase. Instead, he just got hovered around the room as it swept about...and then the vase deliberately smacked GIR into Gaz's head, making it bounce about over and over.
"GEE. I. DON'T. KNOW." She said in between bounces and gritted teeth as Dib scratched his head, and then asked a question that made Gaz stiffen up, and the vase cease its bonking.
"What about Iggins? He went missing two days ago and I know you two were in a fight..."
Gaz's eyes widened. Could it be?
"Of course. Of course! It's IGGINS!" She proclaimed, eyes widening even more with every passing moment as she turned to look at the vase, Dib and GIR staring. The vase dropped down, and there, floating in the air...
Was Iggins, ghostly, pale, translucent and transparent and faintly shining as he evilly smirked at her, his reddish hair flopping about atop his large head as he smirked at her. "So, figured it out, huh? Yep, it's me! And I'm going to haunt you until the end of time, Gaz! Serves you right for killing me!"
"I can handle your mild inconveniences. Now that I know it's you, I'll figure something out." Gaz growled back.
"Maybe." Iggins remarked. "...or I could take control of the toilet the next time you're sitting down on it. Or the shower the next time you want to wash off..." Gaz's face began to become paler and paler. "Or the oven for whenever you want something cooked...and of course, you'll never, EVER get a good night's sleep in your room. Not with all those easy-to-take-over killer toys...and maybe I'll take over your Game Slave 2! Yes, you'll never be able to know the secret to level 83 when I'm the ghost in your machine!" Iggins laughed in delight, Gaz now sitting urgently up in her bed, pulling Dib close and shaking him.
"For the love of all things holy! GET RID OF HIM!" Gaz begged.
"Gaz, only you can do that. You need to put his soul at ease." Dib insisted, wiping his nervous brow. "He's haunting you for a reason, I can clearly tell. Just do what he wants to put his soul at rest."
Gaz turned even paler than before. Milky, chalky white, her eyes bulging. She knew what Iggins wanted, but it was too...too AWFUL to think of. But to have to endure week after week of being afraid of her toilet? Her video games? To endure Iggins forever and ever?
"...fine. It'll be like ripping off a bandaid." She mumbled, letting go of Dib and covering her face. "Iggins?"
Iggins raised an eyebrow up, folding his arms over his chest.
"...yesssss?"
"...you're...a better gamer...than me." Gaz mumbled.
"Now do the special song all gaming losers must sing!"
"...I got a terrible voice..."
"SING!" Iggins proclaimed.
"...Iggins is a Super Mario Lord, doo-daaah...doo-daaaaah. Iggins is a Super Mario Lord, because he plays all daaaaaay." Gaz mumbled out, covering her face even more, moaning in aggravation as Iggins cheekily grinned.
"PERFECT." Iggins said, a blissful expression coming over his face as he slowly rose up, up, into the heavens, up through the roof as a Heavenly choir filled the air, soft light bathing down around his form as his voice faded away. "Music to my eaaaaars."
"Phew." Dib said, wiping his brow again as he helped GIR up. "Well, thank goodness its all over!"
"Yeah. Thank goodness." Gaz grunted, rolling her eyes as the two left the room and she flopped back into her bed. Thank goodness it was over, she thought, slowly closing her eyes. Thank goodness it was over...aaaaall over...
A moment later, the bed began to shake and shimmer and quake, and she glanced about, eyes widening. No way. NO WAY. Iggins was gone! He was gone!
"C'mon, Iggins, what more do you want?!" Gaz demanded angrily, eyes narrowing...until more pale, foul, ghostly forms slid out from underneath the bed. A dead dog, an aggravated looking pair of janitors, a familiar-looking irritated secretary, furious looking four year old, and...her mom?! "Wait...that...that WASN'T Iggins in the backyard?!"
"Oh no, Gaz." said ol Scruffy, their former terrier with a dark grin. "I just decided to let Iggins do his thing, but now that HE'S gone, well..."
"Wh-who's your friends?" She squeaked out.
"Meet the two janitors who died when you dropped that elevator down the battery tower, and the secretary on the first floor who choked to death from the dust of the impact, that little kid who you tossed a LEGO block so hard at it got lodged in his brain and he had to have surgery..."
"I died on the table!" The little sandy-haired tyke growled furiously, clenching his tiny fists. "All cuz you were mad I wouldn't share!"
"And, of course, your mother, who died due to the complications of your birth just fifteen minutes after your brother came out because you wouldn't stop kicking."
"Sweetie...I'm very...very dissapointed in you." Gazlene's mother Peg remarked. "Disappointed...to DEATH."
"...oh fuck meeeee!" Gaz moaned aloud, realizing her nightmare was really only just beginning.