"Dib Membrane, son of the esteemed Professor Membrane has done the impossible. He has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that extraterrestrial life exists on Earth AND captured a living specimen.
This specimen is currently being held in Professor Membrane's lab for examination. It was announced today that the senior Membrane himself will be leading the project entitled 'Project Z.I.M.. What these letters stand for is currently unknown although there is speculation that-"
Dib stopped reading. The article was hanging on his wall amidst dozens of similar ones and he had read them all countless times. It had been three months since he had done the so-called "impossible". At the time he was beginning to believe himself that it would be impossible to expose Zim but one lucky day his life changed forever.
He was no longer the laughingstock got the paranormal community, he was no longer an outcast at skool, and best of all his father respected him. Dib still didn't see him much as he was in the lab now more than ever but whenever he did there was an air of fatherly pride about him which had never been present before. He had finally made something of himself that a father could be proud of.
He wasn't just some kid obsessed with the paranormal anymore; he was a history-maker! He had changed the field of science forever! So many newscasters wanted him for interviews that a dozen security guards were posted around the house 24/7 to keep them away.
Dib slid out of bed and stretched, knocking over several awards in the process. He didn't bother picking them up, they littered his room like discarded laundry. All scientific honors of some sort of another- they no longer carried any individual significance to him now that he had so many.
His eyes turned to the brand new pressed lab coat hanging up in his closet. Today was not just any day. Today Professor Membrane had asked Dib to assist in the "examination" of Zim.
He knew of many who would kill for the chance to work with an extraterrestrial life form. He should have been excited and honored but he wasn't. Instead he felt numb and nervous. Dib hadn't seen Zim since the alien had been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Membrane laboratory. Now that he was being presented with the opportunity, he wasn't sure he wanted to see him again.
Dib dressed quickly and hurried down to the lab. He wordlessly passed through corridor after corridor, trying not to think about where he was going and what he would find at the end.
Finally, he arrived at the entrance to the lab and he could put aside his worries no more. It was time to face the music.
Taking a deep breath, Dib pushed open the door. In a dramatic anticlimax, the lab was empty. He supposed that his father must have been another room making preparations and Zim was nowhere in sight.
The room was dark with the exception of a single illuminated lightbulb hanging at the far side of the lab. The entire room smelled uncomfortably sterile like a doctor's office. The emptiness gave the room a feeling of foreboding, as if Zim would creep out of the shadows at any moment, seeking his revenge.
Dib studied the shadowy corners of the room idiotically, knowing logically that the irken was not really there. He was beginning to break out in a cold sweat, the haunting aura of the room getting to him. Just as he finally relaxed into a chair at the long table adorning the center of the room, blinding light exploded from the corner.
He jumped up, automatically taking a defensive stance, but he was greeted not by an attacker but by the rigid image of his father.
"Ah son, you're early!" Professor Membrane said, as if making an announcement to the world, "Punctuality, I like that."
"Right, yes," Dib replied, attempting to catch his breath.
"Now, do you recall the details of the experiment we will be conducting today?"
"Um..." Dib vaguely recalled his father telling him something about the experiments he had been conducting but in all honesty, he had been trying to tune it out. It wasn't like he cared about Zim, that would be ridiculous, but he found it difficult to dehumanize the alien regardless.
Professor Membrane waggled his finger in mock scolding, "I had a feeling you weren't paying attention! But that's alright-"
He cut off and gestured to a chalkboard that Dib had not noticed before. On it was a diagram of sorts with a drawing of Zim in the center and lines which appeared to be pointing to representations of the five food groups.
"Over the past few days I have been testing the organism's reactions to the different food groups," Professor Membrane explained. "So far its digestive system has rejected any food not high in sugar and fats. Today, we will be testing the last food group: protein!"
Before Dib could process the meaning of the words, his father flicked on another light switch to reveal a room separated from the lab by a glass wall. The room was largely empty with the exception of the small green body in the corner.
It took Dib a moment to realize that the naked, bony figure was Zim. He was so still he could have been dead, his body supported only by shackles attaching his wrists to the wall. The irken's head hung limply to his chest and his eyes were closed. He was thin, too thin. He looked as if he had not had proper nutrition since he had been taken prisoner.
Finally Dib could look at the sorry sight no more and instead looked to his father as if he could say something that would fix this. But Professor Membrane only said, "Now I'll give you the choice, would you rather come in with me or stay out here and watch?"
In a daze, he replied that he would prefer to simply watch and, with a nod, the professor gathered up a pair of tongs holding what looked to Dib like a rubber ball and a recording device, both conjured as if from thin air, and headed towards the door to the hidden room.
At the click of the door's lock, Zim stirred immediately. His head snapped to attention and his eyes flew open, looking towards the door with nothing but exhaustion on his face.
"You!" Zim shouted, his voice hoarse due to frequent vomiting, Dib assumed. "What horrible human 'food' have you come to curse me with today?"
"Today," Professor Membrane said to his tape recorder more than to Zim, "I am testing the organism's reaction to animal-based products."
"A-Animal-based? You don't mean meat, do you?"
"Of course I mean meat, strange extraterrestrial life form." The professor answered, his tone nonchalant.
"NO! YOU WILL NOT FEED MEAT TO ZIM YOU DISGUSTING HUMAN! I'LL DESTROY YOU! I'LL DESTROY ALL THE HUMANS ON THIS FILTHY PLANET!"
"The subject has become violent and delusional at the suggestion of being fed meat." Professor Membrane spoke out loud as he recorded it into his notes. "I am beginning the experiment now."
Dib's eyes widened as his father pushed a button on the wall which prompted two metal claws to protrude from the wall behind Zim.
The irken continued shouting threats of terror and violence until the claws were employed to clamp his jaws open. Even still Zim struggled against his bonds in such desperation that Dib found himself pitying the alien. He had never seen Zim looking so genuinely scared before.
He recalled burning Zim's skin with meat for fun back before Zim was taken captive. If meat could do that much damage to his outer skin, what would it do to his insides? Dib thought for a moment of entering the room, of ordering his father to stop the experiment because he already knew how Zim would react to meat. But instead he remained where he stood, as if frozen in time, watching.
Zim gagged audibly as Professor Membrane lowered the ping pong ball-sized sphere of meat to his mouth as though the mere sight of it made him sick. As soon as it touched his tongue he let out a horrible shriek of pain, struggling ever harder against the immovable cuffs chaining his arms.
With the tongs, the professor pushed the meat down Zim's throat, unfazed by the continued screaming of his test subject. Once he was satisfied that Zim had more or less consumed the meat, he made another note on his tape recorder that Dib didn't quite catch over the screams of agony and entered back into the main room of the lab.
"Now son," he announced jovially, "Here comes the best part!"
With the flip of a switch, both the clamps holding Zim's jaws open and the shackles holding him to the wall were released. Zim fell to the floor, vomiting immediately. The liquid was tinged a sickening pink which Dib would later realize was the color of irken blood.
It seemed for a moment that Zim was going to faint from the pain but he held himself up valiantly and continued to vomit until his system was purged of meat completely. Dib watched, horrorstruck as the irken collapsed panting next to the puddle of sick and swiftly lost consciousness.
"Wasn't that fascinating?" Professor Membrane asked, scribbling down notes onto a pad of paper, "And it was all recorded for science!"
He gestured to a security camera pointed at Zim in the upper left corner of the room but Dib was unable to break his stare from the small green alien laying in the center of the room. It was only possible to tell that he was alive by this ragged breathing and even that was faint.
Finally Dib found his words again, "Is he going to be alright?"
"Alright? We'll certainly!"
Dib relaxed, he had not expected this answer and it certainly relieved him to hear it spoken so confidently.
"After all," Professor Membrane continued, "it is imperative that we keep the specimen alive for the good of science."
Dib frowned. 'Okay' and 'alive' did not mean the same thing.
"Can I at least check on him?" he asked in desperation.
"You'd like to take a closer look at it? Why of course! But for your safety, you'll need to take this!" From his lab coat pocket, Professor Membrane produced what appeared to be a small laser gun.
"He's... He's unconscious, what do I need that for?" Dib asked incredulously.
"Son, I insist. It's a necessary safety precaution. It won't injure it seriously- only knock it out. Be sure to use it immediately if it wakes up." He said, offering the gun again.
Reluctantly Dib took it and even more reluctantly, he stepped into the other room.
Dib gagged; the stench was overwhelming. He tried his best to ignore it as he tiptoed closer to the crumpled figure.
Holding his breath, he kneeled down next to Zim, away from the vomit, and ever so gently flipped him from his side onto his back. He looked even thinner close up, his bone structure evident under his pale skin. There was a pinkish trail of liquid leaking from the right corner of his mouth. Blood?
"Oh god" Dib whispered, lower than his father could hear on the other side of the glass. "What have I done?"
Did he feel... Bad for the irken? He wasn't sure. Didn't Zim deserve to suffer for trying to conquer the Earth? But then again had he ever been had much of a threat in the first place?
Before Dib could consider this line of thought any further Zim stirred. Dib jumped back in shock. Zim regained consciousness slowly then all at once. In a moment his eyes snapped open and he pushed himself into a sitting position.
"You? YOU!" Zim's eyes flashed red. "YOU YOU YOU!"
In a pure act of adrenaline Zim stumbled to his feet and started towards Dib slowly.
"You're the reason I'm in this place," Zim said with a mirthless laugh, moving closer. "But they'll come for me."
Dib gave him a puzzled look and Zim laughed again, "The Irken Empire? My Tallests will be concerned about me when I fail to report to them and they will send an invasion fleet! And then, THEN I will have my revenge against this disgusting planet."
Dib blinked, remembering his own conversation with the "Tallests". They didn't care about Zim. There would be no invasion fleet. As he mused on this, Zim continued, now only feet away from Dib.
"But right now," he said quietly, "I will have my revenge on you."
With amazing speed for his sorry physical condition, Zim raced towards Dib. Dib's hand reached for the gun in his pocket but at once Zim was on him, pinning him down.
Zim may have been in a weakened state but the shock alone kept Dib frozen where he was. Zim wrenched the weapon out of Dib's hand.
The irken scoffed at it, "Primitive human weaponry. But it will have to do." he pointed the weapon at Dib's forehead and smiled, blood still dripping from the side of his mouth. Dib squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the gunshot.
A weapon fired, an energy beam flew through the air, and Zim was hurled across the room, again unconscious.
Dib opened his eyes in shock. "I- I'm still alive?"
"Of course you're alive son." Professor Membrane said from the doorway, his weapon still smoking. "You were never in any danger. I was watching the entire time."
"Then why didn't you do something sooner?!" Dib asked, attempting to calm his breathing.
"Because, I felt that the test subject's behavior was of scientific value and I wanted it on record." the professor said, gesturing to the security camera again.
Dib broke his gaze away from his father to stare at Zim, lying unceremoniously in the corner. He was conflicted. On one hand, Zim deserved to be stunned for attacking him but on the other hand, the energy weapon had never been a fatal threat in the first place.
He excused himself from the lab and headed back towards his room, leaving Zim lying in a crumpled heap. He wanted to ponder the situation further but at the same time he wished to erase every trace of Zim and their latest encounter from his mind.
As Dib entered his room, it occurred to him that he existed in his own prison of sorts. Surrounded by congratulatory articles and awards, he was reminded only of the way that Zim's body shuddered as he vomited his insides, the irken's unnatural thinness, the way the blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.