YAY! I'M BACK! Sorry for that long wait. It's all part of a long story I won't bore you people with.
Now it's time for... REVIEWER HUGS!
First, xXAngelOfSweetDeathXx.
GIR: *hugs*
Second, Snowflash.
GIR: *hugs*
The other person didn't have a username (or any name) with their review, but I think it's Invader Lye. If it isn't, sorry random person.
GIR: *hugs*
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Invader Zim.
The metal claw swung down and hit Dib right in the stomach. The force of it sent Dib flying backwards and he hit the wall. His head had already been hurting, but now it was an explosion of pain. He started to lose consciousness, but before he did, he saw that red laser again.
The laser shot down from the ceiling again, and this time it was close enough to graze Zim's shoulder. He jumped back. It was too dark to see where the laser was coming from. Since when was there a laser down here anyway?
Slowly, Zim started to crawl toward the elevator. He felt in front of him until his hand touched the metal around the door. It was open. He crawled inside. But then what was he supposed to do? The computer controlled the elevators, so Zim couldn't get up unless it obeyed him. Should he try? Yes, he could do it. Surely the computer would soon fix itself and obey Zim!
"C-Computer…" he said. "Take me up to the main floor." The doors slid closed, and the elevator started to move upward. That was easy. A normal person would've been suspicious. After all, wasn't that a little too easy? But not Zim. No, Zim didn't suspect a thing. To him, it was perfectly natural that things would go his way. He was Zim, the greatest Irken ever, after all.
Then the elevator stopped. "What's going on now?" Zim asked. There was no reply. The stupid computer just did not want to listen today, did it?
"Hello!"
For a few beats, there was another silence. Then the elevator dropped. It shot down toward the ground, but just before it hit, it sped back up again. And when it neared the top, it dropped once again. Worst of all, it didn't show signs of stopping any time soon. It continuously slammed Zim onto the ceiling, then the floor, jolting him around until he couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down. All he knew was that this was slamming him around so much that it felt like his insides were being rearranged.
Zim tried to grab on to the edge of the elevator as he was thrown around, but it was moving too fast. The force was too much. Finally, the elevator came to an abrupt halt, and Zim fell one last time. So that meant he had been on the ceiling, and fell to the floor, right? Or was it the other way…
Everything was spinning, and it was still dark. Zim blinked, but he still couldn't see in the deep blackness that surrounded him. Then he heard the elevator doors open. He literally threw himself out and then sat up. All of the sudden, that laughter started up again. "You really are very stupid!" shouted that robotic voice. "You didn't think I'd let you out that easily, did you? No, you're never going to make it out of here."
"Nothing can trap the ALMIGHTY ZIM forever!" Zim said. He jumped to his feet angrily.
"Ugh, you're so STUPID! You don't get it, do you? I'm going to kill you." Zim stepped backwards, although that didn't get him any closer or further away from the threat; the threat was all around him. It had been a long time since Zim had actually been threatened with death, and even though he convinced himself that nothing could kill him, that nothing could defeat him, that he was untouchable, a part deep inside of him knew that this threat was not an empty one.
Of course, being Zim, that part of him did not leave the place deep in his mind where it rested. "I'd like to see you try!"was his overconfident response. There was a long pause, and Zim sneered. Looks like he'd confused it. Not that anyone would be surprised by this.
"You would, would you?" the computer finally replied.
"Eh?"
"Well then, I guess I won't get any resistance!This'll be easy."
Then, several wires and tubes began to quickly snake down from the ceiling, straight toward Zim's head. He screamed and tried to move out of the way, but one smacked the side of his head as he jumped in a different direction. He tumbled and landed against the wall.
It was still very dark, but he had started to adjust to the darkness and could see better. He could easily make out the basic outline of things, but the small details were harder to see. Judging by what Zim could see, Dib was about a foot away from him, lying quietly on the ground. Zim didn't know what was wrong with him, because the Dib-thing's mouth was usually moving at an annoyingly rapid pace. He wasn't ever very quiet or still.
Maybe… he was dead? No, he was breathing, and humans only breathe when they're alive. Right?
Well… what was Zim supposed to do about it?
Zim stuck his foot out and tapped it gently on Dib's side. He moved a little bit. Well, he wasn't dead. He wasn't waking up either, though. How annoying. Zim left Dib there and started creeping toward one of the computer's panels. If he just had a second to find a button and press it, he could shut the computer off.
Zim couldn't really see the controls from where he was crouching on the ground, but he felt less vulnerable that way, so he felt around the panel with his gloved hand. If he concentrated, maybe Zim could figure out which buttons and levers were which without looking at them.
Too busy feeling for a power switch, Zim didn't bother to look down at his feet, and therefore didn't see the skinny wires slithering toward him until they wrapped around his ankles. He screamed and pulled himself upward, groping for the control panels in another desperate attempt to shut off the monster he'd created.
"Ah, they just don't know when to quit!" laughed the computer voice. The wires tossed him backwards, and Zim went sliding across the floor until the back of his head hit a chair. Zim still didn't understand this. Where had he gone wrong?
Zim sat up and rubbed the back of his head. All he'd done was install the chip that the Tallests had sent him. Nothing should've gone wrong! Maybe the Tallests accidentally sent him a faulty chip? Well, there was only one way to find that out. Zim would have to shut the computer off and take the chip out.
He stood up and stared across the room at his target; the controls. He just had to be fast. Zim could be fast. All he had to do was run and press a single button. He could do it. Zim inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly… and made a run for it.
He was almost there, his hand reaching out to press the button, and then someone else jumped in his way. He tried to stop in time, but he tripped and ran into their back.
Dib.
"Ow!" he said.
"Out of the way!" Zim shouted. "I have to be quick!"
"Just tell me what to do! I was here first, I'll do it!"
"What's the point of that! I'm RIGHT HERE!"
Then, all of the sudden, that robot arm returned with a vengeance. First it smacked Zim in the face and knocked him backwards, and then made another lethal swipe at Dib. He ducked in the nick of time.
"You two are so unbelievably STUPID! Fighting over the stupidest things at a time like this! Hah! The only reason I gave you that long to try is because I knew neither one of you could actually do it."
"Why are you doing this?" Dib cried, looking around as if the voice in the computer was really a person hiding somewhere in the base. "What are you? Who are you? What do you want?"
"What do I want? Revenge. This time, it's revenge."
"This time?" Zim said. "You don't make any sense! What's wrong with you? Are you broken?"
"I'M not broken!" roared the computer. "But you're going to be!"
The control panels started to spit sparks at that moment, and the blue electricity shot out in jagged directions, seeking a target. Zim and Dib stepped backwards and squinted against this light. It hurt their eyes, seeing as they'd become used to the nearly pitch blackness in the last few hours.
"Ok, space-boy, this is your base. What do we do?" Dib asked, suddenly at a loss. For the first time in quite a while, Zim was silent. "Zim?"
The computer cackled. "I think he's finally figuring it out Dib! You two are doomed! Soon, you'll realize it too, and then I'll have my real fun."
That didn't sound good. "No…" he said.
"What? I can't hear you Dib. You'll have to speak up!" the computer taunted a little too cheerfully. It was happy. It thought it had won.
"NO!" Dib shouted. "THAT'S WHAT I SAID! NO!"
"So you still think you've got a chance, do you?"
"No, I know I do! I've fought off aliens, ghosts, zombies… ALIENS! A computer? Bring it on!" Dib tried to smile confidently, but his heart was racing and his hands were trembling, so it probably didn't come out how he planned.
"You're afraid, Dib! You know I can kill you at any moment!"
The red laser shot out from the ceiling once again, and Dib grabbed Zim's arm and pulled them both to the ground.
"Hey, Zim," he whispered.
"Hm?"
"You know, if we can figure out a way to maybe… climb up to the top level of your base, we could probably escape."
"Yes, but the computer controls the doors to the elevator shafts. We'd have to find a way to open one."
"Well, we will then. I'm not giving up without a fight!"
"Who said Zim was giving up?"
"I never said you were giving up, I just thought-"
"Well then who?"
"I never said ANYTHING about you giving up! No one did!"
"Oh."
"Now, I was saying I that we have to find an open elevator shaft and find a way to climb up it."
"I hope you realize, Dib-monkey, that it could take days to find this opportunity. We are up against a high tech security and weapons system paired with some kind of extraordinary brain. The weapons are my creations, by the way."
"Well, great. Thanks for creating those. They'll come in handy for the thing trying to kill us!"
"Zim just wanted to be prepared, stupid earth-boy!" Dib sighed, held his tongue, and changed the subject. "Look, how about for now, we watch each other's backs and try to stay alive. After we get out of here, we go straight back to being enemies again. Deal?" Zim sighed, looked at the ceiling, looked at the ground, and finally looked back at Dib.
"Fine. But this makes us in no way friends, correct?"
"Right."
"Ok."
It had been at least a day or two now. This darkness was starting to make Dib's mind play tricks on him. He would see something moving nearby, only to discover that it was his own hand, it was just too dark to tell at first glance.
Then, at other times, his eyes were somehow perfectly adjusted to this darkness. He thought he could see everything perfectly clearly. Well, at least until he found out that the thing he thought was a chair was actually a big tangled mass of wire. That sure got him into a mess.
Dib wasn't sure what was better, when he argued with Zim, or when it was silent. When he argued with Zim, it was always over something stupid and it got rather annoying. But when it was silent, he felt alone.
This place was making him loose it. It wouldn't be long before he cracked. Worst of all, Dib and Zim didn't seem to be making much progress with their plan.
All they could do was keep hoping.
They could try and feel confident that they'd get out alive.
They could plead to get out soon.
They could only try to believe that one wasn't plotting to turn against the other.
i say 'then' a lot.
