"And the winners of the twenty first annual International Collegiate Science Competition is..."
The crowd held their collective breaths while two men—well, really one man and one other being—sat confidently in the front row. It was a no-brainer in all honesty.
"...Team Science University!" The announcer stated as he read the recently opened card in his hand.
Immediately the crowd erupted in a combination of shouts, swears, and ecstatic cheers. The two figures sitting in the front row stood up, along with their teammates, and made their way to the stage before them. The announcer had already started moving aside as a massive trophy wheeled its way out.
The ceremony was quick and to the point—these were college brains after all—before the monetary grant was awarded to the team and final notes of thanks were given. The crowd had already begun to withdraw back to their automobiles and buses.
As their teammates began to pack up their equipment and other assorted gear while trading thank-you's and goodbyes with their competitors, the two figures that had seemed so confident in the beginning stood together looking over it all.
Just like they did every year.
"This will look great next to all the others," Dib Membrane remarked to his colleague as their picture was taken with the trophy for a national newspaper chain. Several more were shot before the two beings were left entirely alone.
"More pathetic half-processed, low-grade human minerals made into an equally imperfect product to place within an even more imperfect and depressing shelf of wood and glass...what joy," Zim said simply, though a small smirk played at the edges of his mouth.
"You're never going to admit you like them are you?" Dib questioned as they shouldered their own gear before walking with their team towards the exit.
And the rain.
"I like them about as much as I like this weather," Zim remarked as he winced at the now harmless drops of water hitting his skin. While he had managed to combat the harsh chemical assault that nature loved to bombard her kingdom with, he had never managed to combat the memories.
"You love the rain."
"No." Zim paused as they loaded everything into the massive and state of the art travel bus that the team had developed years ago for this very competition.
"No?" Dib asked, remembering clearly Zim studying rain storms with almost what could be considered religious dedication.
"I respect it."
The two did not say anything after that and merely boarded their bus along with the rest of the team. The transport was custom made and even had several sleeper rooms for long travels. Luckily for them, the trip would take less than twelve hours to return to the compound of Science University.
Zim, not one for social interaction as much as Dib was, simply pulled on his headphones and randomly started a song.
Set me off like dynamite strapped tight around my waist!
We are the ones that are in competition but claim this ain't no race!
As the music flowed out smoothly from his headphones, Zim let his mind wander and shut down to a state of semi-inactivity.
He was what most would consider to be a "junior" in the educational system known to humans as a college. He had advanced through the numerous classes and levels of learning that were known to the humans by names he had rarely cared to remember, much less dwell on.
He did not really care to remember his graduation. He did, however, clearly remember the day that another human had graduated from his previous educational system. It was a special day, a day that had more to do with him and less to do with the useless paper certificate that had been received.
It was the day he had received his first kiss.
Though much more had followed.
Zim shuddered briefly as a massive thunderhead detonated somewhere up in the heavens, shaking the bus as if it were a measly leaf caught in a storm. That was certainly concerning considering the high-tech rig underneath the bus.
There was talk of stopping for the night.
Zim pulled out his phone—custom made with Irkin technology—and typed a quick message about his possible delay. The message zoomed off like a rocket to its destination and an automated message alerting was sent back in response.
He knew better than to call.
Taking off his lab coat, Zim neatly and meticulously folded the fabric into a perfect square before placing it inside his carry-on bag. The top-of-the-line laptop nestled beside a small gaming device within the bag was left alone as he secured his coat just as a new song began playing.
All because of you, I haven't slept in so long!
Zim smirked briefly at the coincidence as he eyed the device beside his laptop. Deciding nothing could come of it, he pulled the device out and left his bag open.
Power at 98 percent.
Programs opening...
Systems loading...
The downpour was only getting stronger, but the thunderheads seemed to be behind them, so the decision to remain on course rang out unanimously.
Game loading...
Game loaded.
Zim hit a few more buttons and waited after the offer was sent off in the same direction as his text. He waited for a short amount of time before a counter signal bounced back to him and the gaming device began to spew more data at him.
Invite accepted.
Connection loading...
Connection secured.
Game starting...
While the others on the bus were enthralled in their own world of schematics and nostalgia, Zim was thrust into another world of someone's own making.
A world of nightmares.
Survival.
Wave One.
Begin.
Zim's digital avatar of a duster wearing alien creature appeared next to a darkly hooded and cloaked figure with wild and outlandish hair.
[late huh?]
Zim grinned at the frustration that was not voiced, but that he was well acquainted enough to see, in the text as he drew his twin blaster cannons from the straps on his back.
[Storm...can't be helped.]
The figure beside him grunted in the game—indicating a headset had been inserted on its end—before drawing the long and deadly looking slayer blade.
Even Zim felt a bit of fear at that weapon's image.
[here they come.]
A perfect world on a perfect day...
The two figures charged towards a horde of approaching ghoulish creatures that looked like a cross between vampires and zombie-pigs.
All smiles and sunshine...
The two forces met on the edge of a sloping hill, flashing plasma and gleaming steel met mutated flesh and dark armor.
I have never felt so fucking great!
Swish, swish, swish.
His partner had no trouble with its blade, quickly reducing the horde in number as if they were nothing more than lumbering meat sticks. Zim, likewise, had no trouble frying the meatsticks at almost as fast a pace as his ally was slicing and dicing.
The battle raged and increased in both size and tempo as more hordes began to pour in. Creatures besides the simple rank and file vampire-pig began to emerge onto the hellish plane of blood and gore.
[pig-troll.]
Zim swung his figure in a quick circle as he booted a vampire-pig in the head while also releasing a volley of laser fire. He spotted the mammoth creature stampeding down the battlefield as if the creatures below it were no more a nuisance than tall grass was to most humans.
[got it.]
He slipped his blasters onto his back straps and began to move through the snarling and ghoulish army of creatures before him as he made his way towards the monster towering over everything else.
His partner was already there, the slayer blade making short work of its meaty flesh. With a roar, the pig-troll swung hard and its attacker was forced to backflip away or be reduced to a shattered rag-doll.
Sadly the slayer blade was still embedded deep within the troll's forearm.
[fuck!]
[don't fret.]
Zim, holding a bandolier of grenades, ran towards the behemoth at a full sprint. It swiped at him and reduced an entire rank of vampire-pigs to ribbons when he dodged. His avatar managed to leap up onto the devastation-inducing arm, run along the appendage, and then toss the grenade belt into the creature's mouth. Wasting no time, Zim grabbed the slayer blade and jumped off the creature just as its head became a fireball.
Landing nimbly on his feet as blood and brain-matter spattered all around them, Zim—wearing a massive smirk from one ear to the other—offered the recovered weapon to its owner.
Though she would never admit it, there was a small smirk fighting to appear as well on her avatar's features.
She reached to reclaim her soul destroyer.
Game disconnected.
Attempting to reconnect...
Connection lost.
Swearing to himself, Zim shut down the game and returned the device to his pack. He would have to tinker with it some more it seemed.
A text entered his phones memory banks and the accompanying buzz followed as his device registered the new data. Not one for self-torture, he did not check to see the contents of the message.
Finally taking off his headphones, Zim found that they were almost back to the campus. At least there was some good news.
Zim stumbled into his apartment well past two in the morning.
Unlocking the numerous devices he had hand-designed to keep intruders out, he stepped into the small hallways that led into his living room and dropped his bags by the door. Locking the door back, he left his bags where they lay and headed towards his possible doom.
The soft beeps and clicks of a video game could be heard despite her headset as Zim entered his bedroom cautiously.
"You're late."
"I told you I might be."
Silence as the game sounds encompassed the suddenly large void between the two.
"I don't like to be kept waiting."
Zim sighed and began to remove his blazer before taking off off his white button up and the infernal tie that went around his wind pipe.
"I know and I apologize." He said as he strode shirtless towards the bathroom. The gaming sounds faded away as he shut the door and began to strip completely.
Now clad in nothing but a pair of boxers, Zim grabbed a fresh towel off the wall and headed towards the custom-made shower set up in one corner. It had a number of interesting features, but the primary setting it was used for was releasing Zim's cleaning foam and paste in a two-step spiral process.
Dropping his boxers, Zim entered the shower and activated the shower head. A small rain of cleansing foam fell from it in a strong, but soft, current that rinsed him of both his paste residue and the foul rain and stench of a long day.
The shower door opened and a pair of hands grabbed his face, forcing him to look straight at the annoyed and slightly flushed face of Gazelene Membrane.
"Lets get this straight," Gaz said simply as she entered the shower wearing nothing but her annoyed expression. "I'm doing this for me and not for you."
Zim suddenly had trouble standing up straight as the height difference between Zim and Gaz dropped considerably.
"G-Gaz!" Zim gasped.
Despite his endless ranting at Dib, Humans were better at some things.
"I missed you..." Gaz admitted as she and Zim lay cuddled up in their bed in Zim's apartment. Gaz had her own apartment across the campus near Dib's own hall, but she had long moved out of those quarters.
"As did I," Zim agreed, secretly enjoying the small moment they were having. Gaz would hit him if she knew he enjoyed her expressing emotions, but the feelings that were created in his squeedily-spooch were worth it.
Their relationship had started a year ago when Zim had been a sophomore and Gaz a freshman. They had shared a table in metal working because no one else would dare sit near either of them. Gaz had been avoided because her father had founded the college and Zim had been avoided because he was weird.
They had become fast friends after the initial awkwardness had passed. Partner projects, reports, and a host of studying sessions covering subjects outside of their shared lass had seen their bond grow even stronger.
A walk down a Christmas decorated street with a massive mistletoe at the end had changed it to something more.
The following months had gone by as they quietly went out on numerous dates until their destinations changed rapidly from pizzeria's and arcades to their respective apartments. Gaz had never really sought out relationships as a rule and Zim hadn't even considered them sheerly due to ignorance.
Neither would have ever considered a physical relationship in a thousand years.
Yet here they were.
"Thanksgiving is coming up..." Gaz said softly as Zim nuzzled her neck in a moment of after-glow affection.
"You want me to come?" Zim said, understanding where she was going with this.
"I...I don't know..." She mumbled, so unlike her normally terrifying appearance that Zim felt an even greater sense to shield her with himself.
"We should tell Dib sooner or later..."
They had never gotten around to informing anyone of their relationship. Neither were really open people who liked others looking in. Plus, Dib would either have a stroke or take a swing at Zim when he found out.
"How about later?" She said and kissed him.
He never could deny her when she kissed him.
As they began to warm back up and hands began to explore well known areas of the map, Zim caught a flash of a pair of framed pictures on his bedside table. One showed Zim and Dib glaring at the other while garbed in their graduation regalia with a massive building in the background.
The second showed Gaz in her own regalia a year later, kissing a surprised Zim on the cheek in an attempt to piss Dib off as he took her picture while Zim dutifully held her framed diploma.
It had.
Though it had been brief and not even on his lips, Zim had felt something in that kiss. Gaz had assured both her brother and himself that the kiss had merely been a joke. There was nothing behind it.
Obviously she had lied, as she was halfway straddling Zim while his fingers danced around her hip and threaded through her hair. Her own hands were playing with his antennae while their bodies danced in unison for the second time that night.
"I love you," He whispered in her ear, having long since lost track of how many times he had said such words to her.
"I love you too," She whispered back as Zim moved in a particular way and she groaned loudly before collapsing on him in a boneless heap.
"Victory for Zim..."