Alright, next chapter.
Hopefully I'll be able to get Dib out of his blah blah blah stage soon and get the real partay started woo. I don't want to lose steam on this story so soon, especially since it's my first one and before I get to the main point xD I… don't really know what will happen though, I mean I have a general idea of where the story is going to go but if you have any suggestions I'm open to 'em. I'm hoping to make this like… 10 or 20 chapters, maybe more. That is, if I even get that far. I'm mainly making this fanfic so I can improve from it, I know it's not very good but I need to start somewhere, right?
The familiar town came into view, on the short trip back there had been no signs of the two Irkens. Dib was glad for that. Questions still raged in his mind though, he hoped they'd be answered soon.
Soon the ship was flying over his neighborhood, he'd be home in a few minutes, but a sudden thought struck him. Could those two Irkens track his ship? If they could he didn't want to lead them to his house, or to Gaz. So instead he opted for the only other choice: the strange green house in the middle of the cul de sac.
The ships energy levels were at 41%, "Wow, flying through the atmosphere really drains it." Dib said. He reached the bizarre house quickly; it wasn't too hard to find. And the fact that he knew its exact location helped a lot. But as Dib drew closer he realized that there was no clear place to land, "Gnomes ahoy…" he mumbled and parked on a makeshift spot in between the creepy garden gnomes out on the front lawn. They didn't stir and he powered off the ship, grabbed Zim and another item, and stepped out.
He was glad he'd planned ahead; the item he had grabbed was a crude substitute for a cloaking device (he made a mental note to install one later). Dib threw the tarp over the ship, he briefly wondered if the neighbors would think something was up. "Nah," Dib waved a hand dismissively and walked over to the front door (which was also a men's bathroom door). The horizons were just starting to turn a light blue.
He entered the house with the beaten up Zim slung over one shoulder, he lay the alien down on the couch. The top floor was dark, which wasn't a surprise seeing as the base was powered down, he blinked and let his eyes adjust. The place looked the same as when he'd last been infiltrating the aliens' house, again, no surprise.
He sat down at the foot of the couch, maybe it had been creeping up on him the whole night, but right then he realized how tired he was. Dib leaned his head back and closed his eyes, though not really intending to go to sleep. He just sat there and let his thoughts consume him.
Okay, so I guess the only thing left to do is wait for him to wake up, he thought and cast a sideways glance at Zim. The Irken was without his disguise, it would be the perfect time to expose him to the authorities.
"No, I can't do that." Dib frowned, "At least not yet."
It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was just that… well, he wasn't too sure. He sighed, it was ironic really; he had a real chance here to prove to Earth that aliens did exist (something he'd been trying to prove for a while now) and he didn't take it.
Dib sat in silence for a while, watching the sky through the oddly shaped windows. It steadily grew lighter, the horizons turning from a dull blue to yellow to salmon pink.
-o-o-o-o-
Gaz clenched her fists and growled through her teeth, frustration threatening to take over her. The idiot still hadn't shut up. What was he screaming about now? Oh, ripping her eyes out of her sockets and shoving them down her throat. She rolled her eyes, partially out of anger and partially out of annoyance that he couldn't come up with anything better than that.
"And why haven't the police arrived yet?" she glared at the phone, "I swear, I called them over two hours ago!"
She stormed downstairs, the phone held tightly in one hand. The only place she could think of to put the idiot had been in the containment chamber down in the lab, not even a rhino could break through it. Why her Dad even had a containment chamber of that caliber was beyond her. Then again, she wasn't that surprised.
The chamber was basically one giant box, the walls were made of a see-through, unbreakable material. As she entered the lab, half a dozen pairs for red eyes turned to look at her from over by the chamber. The person in the chamber also turned to look at her, his yellow-brown eyes narrowed in a hateful glare.
"Mind shutting up for five minutes?" Gaz said, her arms crossed.
"Mind letting me out for five minutes so I can tear you limb from limb?" he retorted.
She raised one eyebrow at this, clearly not impressed. "Here's the deal, how about you tell me why you decided to break into my house? Then maybe I'll let you out so my dolls can eat your flesh and chew on your internal organs." To emphasize her point, she snapped her fingers and the snake doll with a dagger attached to the end of its tale lunged towards the glass, its eyes flashing.
"Touché." He said and stepped away from the glass, giving the doll an annoyed but wary glance. "Funny, I'm not usually the one on the receiving end of interrogation."
Gaz didn't know what he meant by this but decided to ignore it, "So what's your name?" she asked, cracking one eye open. He gave her a long glance as if deciding to tell her or not.
"It's Johnny, but because I'm feeling particularly sociable, you can call me Nny." He gave her a long, exaggerated bow.
She raised an eyebrow at this. "Like knee cap? That's stupid." She commented.
Nny's expression turned angry, "No, Nny as in JohNNY. Spelt n-n-y… and your name?"
"It's Gaz. Now tell me why you're here, in my house, breaking my stuff."
Nny sat down cross-legged with a sigh, "Well if it's any consolation Gaz, my target wasn't you-"
"Kinda figured that. You came busting in screaming about 'someone who lived here'." Gaz said, Nny narrowed his eyes at being interrupted.
"I was looking for someone who has caused me some… trouble, you just happened to be the only person home. I apologize for the inconvenience." His expression said he meant anything but to apologize.
Gaz looked thoughtful, "Well if you're looking for my brother, feel free to unleash your vengeful wrath or whatever when he comes home. I really couldn't care less."
"Your brother wouldn't happen to be Professor Membrane would he?" Nny asked, quirking an eyebrow. Gaz's eyes widened a bit in surprise, "My Dad?"
He smirked, "Ah, so you're Gaz Membrane, huh? I knew you looked familiar."
Gaz took a step forward, now bristling with anger. Her demon puppets caught on to her mood and started to hiss and growl, their eyes flashing a brighter red. "What do you want with my Dad?"
"What do I want?" Nny asked, chuckling a bit, the next second his eyes widened in maniacal fury, "What do I want? Oh that's simple, I want him dead. That fuck had me locked up in some shitty lab for years, undergoing some pretty fuckin' painful experiments. See this?" he gestured to the side of his head where the metal tubes were, "Know what it does?" Gaz didn't respond, her burning glare told him she wasn't going to. "Neither do I. All I know is that it shocks me if I try to rip it out."
"You think I care what happened to you? I'm contemplating just destroying you right now for even mentioning my Dad rather than waiting for the police to show up. As for the revenge thing, you're out of luck. He hasn't been home for over two years, I can barely keep track of where he goes or what he does." She bit out. "You're wasting my time."
With that, she turned to leave, "I'm calling the lab."
Nny seemed to find this hilarious. He burst into an insane laughing fit.
"What's so funny?" Gaz hissed.
When Nny settled down he said, "Oh nothing, it's just that there's really no point in doing that."
"Why?"
Johnny grinned with such malevolence that even Gaz felt something so unfamiliar to her, she didn't even recognize it at first. Fear.
"Because everyone at that lab is dead."
-o-o-o-o-
The first thing Dib noticed when he woke upwas that he'd fallen asleep at the foot of the couch. He rubbed his eyes groggily and sat up, "Ugh, crap…" he glanced around quickly.
The second thing he noticed was that Zim was nowhere to be found. Yep, not good.
"Zim?" he called, uneasiness crept into his tone. No response. He stood up slowly and walked over to the kitchen, he couldn't have gone far…
And then Dib was suddenly aware of mechanical hissing somewhere above him.
The third thing Dib noticed that wonderful morning was that he'd been knocked to the floor, landing roughly on his hands and knees. He turned to look behind him, a hundred percent sure of who he would see.
Zim was there, suspended by his PAK legs, with the extra height he towered over the young paranormal investigator. The Irkens' deep maroon eyes narrowed in spite. "Dib." He growled, his voice filled with hate. It was a mere acknowledgement of his enemy, at this point in there 'relationship' it could more or less be called a greeting between the two. "I almost expected you to be here when I returned, always like you to stick your big ugly head of filth where it doesn't belong!"
Dib stood up and glared, "The door wasn't even locked you moron! And believe it or not, I'm not here to take evidence or… whatever it is I usually do."
Zim's expression turned to one of suspicion before quickly snapping back to anger "Lies. Why else would you be here?"
Dib was somehow amazed by how stupid the alien could be, "If you hadn't noticed, there were two Irkens out there trying to kill you. Now I know firsthand that that's a sign you aren't liked too much by your own kind!"
To Dib's surprise, Zim let out a yell of rage, he barely had time to move out of the way as a PAK leg came stabbing down. "Whoa!" Dib yelled, "What the hell was that for!"
Zim clenched his fists in the usual fashion, "Insolent Earth-stink! You know NOTHING!"
"Then tell me Zim, why would your own people be attacking you, huh?" He had to dodge around another strike from the metal legs.
"It's none of your business!" Zim said, "Now leave before I decide to do something horrible to your eyes!" A leg shot forwards and caught Dib in the chest and shoulder, the impact sent him flying back into the living room. He landed on his side, winded and coughing. Jeez, way to treat someone who saved your life, he thought, rolling his eyes as he pushed himself to his feet. What did he expect really, a thank you? Coming from Zim, it was about as likely as Gaz quitting video games for the rest of her life.
He expected another attack, for the pissed off Irken to come charging at him PAK legs a blazin', but that didn't happen. Instead he saw Zim kneeling on the floor in the kitchen, his spider legs were retracted and he appeared to be in pain. Well who wouldn't be after crash landing like that? Dib thought as he approached cautiously.
Suddenly Zim snapped his head up to look up at Dib. Yes, up at Dib, the paranormal investigator realized then how much taller he'd gotten then the Irken. When he'd first met Zim they'd been the same height approximately, years later Dib stood at least a full head taller than his nemesis. Zim was obviously vexed by this. He stood up and drew himself to his full height, which paled in comparison to Dib's.
"What do you want?" he seethed.
"Answers, Zim. I want to know where you disappeared to for a year, and why those Irkens were after you. More importantly, does it have anything to do with Earth?"
"As if your miserable planet was of any significance to me or the Irken Empire!" Zim scoffed and then made a shoeing hand motion, "Now get out of my sight!"
Dib was puzzled by this. Zim was acting really strange, "But that's your mission isn't it? I thought world conquest was your goal."
The aliens' ruby eyes widened, then slowly narrowed to slits. His antennae pressed flat against his skull, he was enraged but somehow Dib could tell it wasn't directed at him.
"It was." Zim stated in a low, dangerous tone. Not one Dib heard him use often. He turned and walked over to a certain spot on the wall, "I have business to attend to. Leave." But Dib pressed further, "No, not until you tell me everything."
A panel slid open in the wall, Zim quickly punched in some numbers and the panel soon closed again. "BASE START-UP INITIATED." The familiar computerized voice informed as the base powered on. He turned to Dib, "Last warning, Dib-monkey."
It was made clear to Dib that Zim wasn't going to tell him a thing, he could see two of the metal tentacles that covered the ceiling detach themselves from the tangled mess and lower slowly towards himself. He tried to think of something, anything that could change Zim's mind about throwing him out.
"What about that timer?"
The Irken gave him a very confused look, "What are you talking about?"
"In you base orbiting around Earth, I found a timer counting down to something." Dib blurted.
Zim raised an eye ridge before shouting, "Computer!"
"What do you waaant?" The very annoyed house system answered.
"You let the Earth-pig into my outer space station?" Zim jabbed an accusing finger at Dib.
"Yeah," it answered, not even trying to deny it.
Zim's eye twitched, he glared at Dib again, "What is this nonsense about a 'countdown'?" he demanded angrily, though the undertone of interest was evident in his voice.
Yes, woo! I know it's not really a long chapter but this was seriously a pain to write. A Nny and Gaz situation is pretty… uh, unusual. Anyways, I really wanted to update because it's been more than two weeks, and I really need to get this thing going.
Hopefully the next chapter will be better.
Oh yeah, if you see any typos or errors please tell me!
Thank you for all the reviews!
