The rain storm of the century was coming.
It might actually have been better—in hindsight—to have referred to it as a mega-storm or an oncoming possible cataclysmic-level natural disaster. The weather channel had been predicting it for weeks now.
Reporters and forecasters had ranted and raved for what had come to feel like an eternity about the hydrogen-oxygen onslaught to come.
Some were saying it would be the most dangerous and severe weather event to hit Membrane City in the last twenty odd years. The thunder heads and spirals within the moving front had baffled and terrified experts.
There had been precautionary alert notices, emergency crews had been scrambled, and last—but most certainly not least—all of the schools had been canceled. This of course was met with joyous rapture by the underage masses.
At least until the city's mayor—at behest of the state governor's wishes—had closed all roads and ordered all non-emergency transportation services to shut down. This left thousands of youth practically stranded in their homes unless they wanted to brave the already hellish streets on foot.
So what was Gazelene Membrane to do when she was not forced by societal laws to attend the brick and mortar prison disguised as a school building and instead found herself all but legally confined to her home?
She played her game slave.
The first drops had already started to fall as the game loaded and her checkpoint was found. Her avatar materialized and she began to slaughter pig zombies left and right as the torrent began to pick up outside. She had barely gotten to a dozen kills before thunder cracked somewhere over the city.
For the next few hours she made her way through the well-worn levels and mentally mapped and documented mazes until she had slaughtered enough pigs to fill more than a few pork shacks. Her scythe was dripping thick red blood and her armored avater was sprinkled in gore; yet, she still had not found what she had been searching for.
There should have been another.
And so she continued her hunt, slaying and butchering by the hundreds and by the thousands as her game continued within her game. She had of course started with all the normal places and when that had failed she had gone to the less likely locations. After those had yielded nothing, she blazed onwards to the even more uncertain spots.
Still she was met with failure. Still she was met with a lack of results. And that galled Gazelene Membrane more than her brother hammering on the door for the hundredth-billion time about how she should stay away from the windows.
Scowling at her cherished device, she carefully saved her spot and shut down the game. Without another thought of Dib's wailed warnings, she marched over to the window and flung it open.
The hurricane strength wind and the near literal flood of water did not faze her as she slipped out onto the roof. After closing the window—and ignoring the horrified squealing of her brother—the purple haired girl dropped lithely to the slick grass below.
It was wise enough not to cause her to slip and she was forgiving enough to not scorch the water soaked flora until it was barren rock. Gaz pulled up her hood and advanced into the storm just as Dib tried to open the front door and stop her from leaving.
She vanished into the gales almost immediately and he was flung into the house like a puppet as gallons upon gallons of water flooded inwards.
If there were ever such a thing as a watery version of hell, that would be what Gaz was striding through. Having personally been to the fiery netherworld on more than one fond occasion, the living incarnation of death and fury found it oddly intriguing.
The streets were roaring with near literal waves of water as more and more of the substance pelted down in quantities akin to that of the air normally dominating the earth. Fire hydrants had burst and were now spewing even more water into the air.
Thunder boomed every half-a-second and lighting exploded across the cityscape as if God were painting the background and changing His mind too quick for mere mortals to catch.
Windows and doors—in some cases even roofs and entire sections of walls—had caved in due to the storm's onslaught. Waves of debris and water sloshed around violently as if it were a ballet instead of a natural disaster.
Gaz had to have walked for miles through it all. None of the rain stayed on her clothes for long; she was literally steaming as the water melted away to the ground. The debris was not foolish enough to even come close to approaching her.
Earthly lightening did not intimidate hellspawn.
It was as if the purple haired girl was walking in a bubble. The unbelievable monstrosity that was the mega-storm of February barely even touched her. In all honesty, she really wasn't even all that aware of what was going on around her.
She had simply noted the change in the environment and tuned it all out. Water did not scare her, it was just another element that the world needed to survive. There was only one person that cared about water that she cared about and she had yet to find him.
But she knew she was close.
He was found in the park. It was his place. It was her place. It was theirs. In hindsight, she should have thought to go there first. But people—even demonically inhuman people—all have flaws and are never ever capable of perfection when it comes to logical thinking when other flawed humans are in the equation.
"Zim."
He turned his head to stare at her, his fake synthetic black hair stuck to his fake bleached skin. The former invader regarded his arch-rival's sister with an all to familiar and chest-fluttering look before turning his gaze back to the sky.
Gaz—knowing full well what was going on inside his retarded head—quietly advanced to stand beside him.
When Zim had first come to Earth, he had found out the hard way the brutal chemistry between water and Irken flesh. The liquid burned at the slightest touch and Dib had used it to his advantage at any and every convenience available to him.
The Irken had tried to use glue as a substitute barrier and it had worked wonders on preserving his life. The gel-like sticky material had been his longtime defense against Dib-based water attacks; however, he had learned a hard lesson once again during their senior year trip to the beach.
Glue wears off with enough salt in the water.
Zim had ended up constructing a new layer of defense on top of the old and aged glue-based defensive tactic. He had managed to swindle in Gaz with a video-game bribe. He had used the powers of Irken stealth technology and his own handy talent for engineering. In the end he had managed to create a thin layer of synthetic skin that was completely water proof.
They had spent hours and hours of time studying rain after that. Zim had been hell-bent on uncovering a way to weaponize such a dangerous chemical. They had flown across the world, gone on boating trips, and even tried diving.
In the end the pair had gotten the same result and that result was that water was only harmful to Irkens. Zim had saved that data away as a fail-safe measure in case it ever came down to a life-or-death scenario with his outcasters—The Tallest.
Still, Zim had never given up watching the rain. Gaz had never given up standing beside him either. They never stopped cloud gazing or storm chasing. The former Invader still watched the weather channel as religiously as some read their holy texts. Gaz still sat beside him and either watched until she fell asleep on him or played her games until the same result occurred.
He knew the names of every man and women that came on screen and followed their social media accounts—social networking had been an interesting pandora's-box event for Zim and the Membrane's.
And now the two of them were standing in the greatest storm of the century. Possibly even the millennia.
"Rain represents many things to me." Zim said softly, his voice carrying to her ears despite the ungodly noise from both the rain and the thunder due to their close proximity. Even if she had been deaf she would have been able to read his lips. And even if she had been blind she could have known what Zim would say at a time like this.
At a place like this.
"It displays power. It reveals masterhood. It states dominating authority. And most importantly it demands respect." Zim continued as he stared unflinching into the maelstrom, his face relaxed and his stance akin to that of a fanatic follower being allowed into the deepest depth of the holiest temple.
"Gaz."
Her name breathed from his lips jolted her insides like kerosene on a flaming fuel truck. She hated people. She hated social interaction. She especially hated people saying her name.
But Zim had the nearly sole-exception to those rules.
He slipped his hand into hers and squeezed.
"Today is a good day." Zim said as Gaz leaned into his chest and her bubble enveloped them both. He didn't need a waterproof suit with her. He didn't even need a disguise. Her presence was all he needed.
Despite all the people probably suffering or dying throughout the city due to the terrible storm that had fallen upon its unlucky inhabitants and despite how terrible it might seem to think or do such things, Gaz smiled and understood exactly what Zim meant.
She kept the monsters at bay.