"Why are you even bothering to walk home with me?" the ten-year-old boy asked irritatedly as he made his way down the sidewalk. His hair was pitch-black and curved like a scythe, and his brown eyes looked annoyed from behind a pair of thick glasses.
"This is just the way I use to go home, human," the creature walking next to him responded. He had seemingly normal black hair and gray eyes, but he also had strange green skin. Somehow, the way he used the word "human" made it seem like he wasn't one himself.
"Not usually, Zim," the boy muttered, hissing the creature's name through clenched teeth, "Not usually." Zim, the figure he was walking next to, said nothing - he only stared up at the pale orange sky. When he finally spoke up again, he sounded kind of bored.
"You're never going to succeed, Dib," he told the boy, staring straight ahead in a way that seemed somewhat smug, "I'm going to take over this planet. There's nothing you can do about it." He laughed quietly under his breath in a slightly psychotic manner.
Dib scowled. "We'll see about that." he answered, resorting to staring at his feet. In actuality, Dib had no idea how to stop Zim. He was, for lack of a better word, afraid. Nobody believed his theories about Zim being an alien, and even then, he was unpopular and kind of lonely. There was no hope.
Whereas Zim was perfectly calm at that moment, Dib's mind was racing. He was trying to think of ways to at least slow Zim down in his plot to take over the planet. However, at first, nothing came to his mind. The only thing that did was convincing his father that Zim wasn't really a human.
Dib's father, the famous Professor Membrane, only cared about so-called "real" science. He thought Dib's paranormal studies were nothing but a waste of time. Since Dib had been interested in the paranormal since before he could talk, he felt like his dad never really cared about what he did.
Several ideas came into his head as he thought of his dad - reprogram Zim's little robot servant, send him a fake message from his leaders and tell him he was to come back to the base immediately, stab him in the heart - oh, wait, not that last one. Dib really loathed Zim, but not enough to murder him.
Suddenly, one small thought floated around in his mind. It was only one small thing - not enough to really stop Zim, but enough to hinder him for a short time. It was childish - babyish, even - but it still had a chance of working. And Dib was going to put it into action.
The ten-year-old boy sighed and casually stuck out his leg. Zim yelped as he tripped over it and landed face-down on the sidewalk. Dib grinned. "The human race: one! Zim: zero!" he cried triumphantly, pumping his fists in the air and laughing happily.
After a little while of this, he looked down and noticed that Zim was still lying there. "...Er, Zim?" Dib began, staring down at his archenemy, "Are you okay?" His smile faded, but only slightly. Dib knelt down and glared at the body of Zim.
"Great," he muttered after some slight observation, "I knocked him out. Better abandon the scene of the crime..." He looked around, wondering if anyone was watching him. Suddenly, something flashed out of the corner of his eye. His eyes darted down and he was in for a shock.
A fine trail of crimson blood dripped down Zim's head. No matter how morbid it sounded, Dib had always wondered what color Irken blood was like. Now, he knew. For a moment, he merely stared at it, lost in his own world of proving how truly evil Zim was.
When the blood began to form a small pool on the pavement, Dib finally snapped out of it and realized just how much trouble he would be in if someone saw this. He suddenly remembered that Gaz, his sister, would be approaching soon - she always got home later than he did.
Dib shakily got to his feet and looked around once more. Blood was still dripping onto the ground, and it was beginning to really freak him out. He closed his eyes, trying to blot the vision of Zim bleeding out of his head, and dashed down the sidewalk.
...
Zim's dysfunctional robotic servant, Gir, sat upside-down on the living room couch, absorbed in his favorite cartoon. Unlike most SIR robots given to Irken invaders, he almost never obeyed Zim's commands in a precise manner. Most of the time, he never obeyed them at all.
As the show switched over to a commercial about soap, Gir's cyan eyes stared out the window and at the outside world. The sun was beginning to go lower in the sky. Shouldn't Master be home by now? Gir thought, wondering at the same time if soap tasted good.
Feeling bored of watching the soap commercial, Gir got up and walked over to the window. For a split-second, he thought he saw a boy running away, but then he was gone. The little robot looked down the sidewalk and rather suddenly noticed Zim.
Every single command Zim had ever told Gir to perform stood right in front of him. A surge of an emotion Gir had never felt before hit him hard - fear. He got up and immediately slipped into his dog costume before opening the door and racing outside.
Gir sped down the sidewalk, feet making tiny squeaking sounds as he went. Any bystanders would've thought he was nothing but a runaway dog, but things were different inside Gir's head. Other than the huge abundance of random thoughts, the only thing he could think of was Zim.
Gir skidded to a halt in front of Zim's body and paused for a moment just to look at it. His expression was blank and lifeless - he had never actually seen blood before. He whimpered slightly and lifted Zim up into his arms, and even though Zim was heavier than him, he managed.
Suddenly, he looked up and noticed a girl with purple hair and dark eyes walking up to him. Staying silent, Gir raced away, carrying Zim's semi-lifeless body all the way back to their house, and hoping he was still alive...or that he still had a chance at life.