Another awesome chapter arriving for yoooou kids! And this time, it's a bit of a perspective shift, another experiment for you, my wonderful test subjects, to be a part off! Do you like the way Zim acts in this? Dislike? Do you like the perspective change or would you rather me keep on Gaz's side? Perhaps you'd want me to move between them both?
Another part of this chapter is that we start seeing the first pangs of LOEV between these two... well, perhaps just Zim for now. But it is a pang nonetheless!
Have fun reading guys!
The irken was, for the first time since he'd arrived on this planet excited to have a visitor arrive at his house. Of course that wasn't to say he was also unprepared, oh no, not Zim. He had practically doubled security and had added extra cameras around his base, just to make sure.
Gaz wasn't going to steal anything, he knew that, but for all he knew Dib could be piggybacking off this and attaching all kinds of spy cameras to her clothes to try and gather information on him.
He practically spat at the thought of that annoying teenager. It wasn't that he was now officially and undeniably taller than him, it was that he seemed to get more annoying with every inch his stupid body gained!
Zim however also felt something more about the situation... he was jealous. Yes it was petty and stupid of him to be that way about something he couldn't help, but still, seeing his arch nemesis grow taller with every year sent waves of subtle envy running through his mind. Zim was over one hundred and fifty years old, and yet he hadn't gained an inch since he turned twenty.
Stupid humans and their stupid growing.
Of course that old temptation was there, the one he'd had since being declared 'shortest' of all irkens. He could always give himself a helping hand in boosting his height, he had the technology after all... no. The irken shook his head at this thought. It was illegal, and not to mention, utterly dishonourable.
He focused on the flip side, after all, he got an extra sense of pride whenever he beat Dib's ass into the dirt. Defeating an opponent taller than he was reminded Zim that while Dib may have height, Zim still had his overwhelming firepower to fall back on.
And soon he would also have the secrets of Gaz's unstoppable fury.
He was currently working in his hologram room, the room where he expected the vast majority of his new training would take place. He was installing the last of the added security needed, a simple matter of some rewiring and some welding, just in case he needed to stop Gaz for anything.
Plus, with the extra cameras, he could record her every move from every angle. He could analyse her technique to perfection.
The last of the sparks from his welder splashed onto his goggles, tiny fragments of metal bouncing off them as he smiled. He was attached to the wall by two long wires holding him to the ceiling of the huge domed room, his Spider-Legs doing all the work for him.
He removed his black and green tinted goggles, large and deep red eyes looking to the tiny camera embedded in the wall.
"Computer!" Zim barked suddenly, "Run a diagnostic check! Make sure this hologram room and all recent upgrades are running perfectly." He let the wire drop him down to the floor, his Spider-Legs disappearing into his PAK. "I cannot afford anything to go wrong with the first training lesson."
"Running diagnostic," The computer replied with a bored interest, "Diagnostic complete, everything is working fine."
"And Gir?" Zim questioned loudly, "Where is he?"
"With Gaz," The computer replied, still sounding bored.
"Ah, good," the little irken nodded to himself before the realisation of the statement hit him. "WHAT?" He almost jumped in panic, "What is Gaz doing here? Why wasn't I informed she'd arrived?"
"Because you told me not to interrupt you when you were working," The computer replied as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"... FINE," Zim really had to wonder sometimes if his whole base was just out to get him. Well, okay, that was a bit far, it wasn't out to get him it was just... annoyingly incompetent. He huffed loudly and folded his arms. "Send her in."
"She's already approaching," The computer replied again, "Really, Zim, you need to keep up with this."
"SHUT UP!" Zim screamed at the... wall. The bad side to having a super intelligent computer was that Zim couldn't yell at it's face when it annoyed him.
A door at the far end of the room swooshed open and Zim turned his head, his eyes landing on the gothic teenager with his own tiny robot running around her screaming loudly. She looked rather displeased at this, which only extracted a mocking smile from Zim. "Has Gir been entertaining you?"
"Entertaining isn't the word I'd use," she spoke through gritted teeth and her eye twitched, "Take him away before I destroy him."
"Gir! Heel!" Zim stood proudly as his robot soldier saluted, his eyes flashing red before launching himself like a rocket into the air and landing with a smash beside Zim.
Gaz only watched this with a somewhat blank expression. Clearly she didn't expect much more from the insane pair of aliens. She sighed in annoyance before walking on into the room, approaching the tiny green irken and looking around the massive dome.
She looked... impressed, her amber eyes flashing as they traversed the great space around them. "So this is your training room." She stopped as he got to his side, putting her fists onto her hips, "Well when do you want to start?"
"As soon as your pathetic human body is ready," Zim replied quickly, "I will bring in the training equipment and start the hologram."
Gaz seemed rather interested in this, her eyes again flashing again. Wow, she seemed almost excited. Zim had to pause, he'd never seem the woman act like this before. For a moment he felt rather proud of himself, then his desire to learn took over once more.
"COMPUTER!" He screamed, causing a visible flinch from Gaz, "Bring me the training equipment!"
For the next hour Zim showed Gaz through various training missions, letting her get used to the irken equipment she had to use, the holograms jumping up around them one another another. To Zim's great interest and yet great worry, she aced every one, at one point almost beating his own high score but than again, it was the mission to repel Dib from the base.
When it came to the hand-to-hand training, Zim took a moment out, just to watch Gaz in progress.
As he sat to one side, his eyes monitored her every moment. She was fighting some irken of equal size and strength. His eyes watched as her body moved, she was so supple, dodging the punches thrown by the hologram with ease. Her legs were rooted the ground, centring her small gravity perfectly. She panted, her chest heaving and beads of sweat running from her temple. There was a terrible focus in her eyes, a need to destroy this make believe enemy before her.
Her movements seemed... compelling, a word Zim had never used to describe for a human before.
How long had he known her? This girl of anger and finesse? No, she wasn't a girl, not any more then Dib was a boy. They were becoming adults before Zim's eyes, their bodies moving through their species puberty. They were becoming stronger, faster, smarter... and it worried him.
He had analysed these humans and he had come to a conclusion. They were not mammals, but viruses. They multiplied and consumed every natural resource until there was nothing left. They were dumb but strong and vicious and sometimes all a species needed was strength and cruelty to survive.
Gaz was a female of her race, a fighter, a warrior. He wondered if she would be spared or killed when the Empire arrived. She was too dangerous to let live, yet, to useful to destroy.
"Zim!" The irken blinked as he name was called out. "Zim, wake up."
"I am awake," The irken blinked, the world suddenly rushing in around him. "What do you want?"
Gaz was suddenly standing in front of him, her fists once again on her hips, her body weighted on her right let. "You looked about a million miles away," She was panting, obviously the work out against the hologram had worn her down.
"I was right here, stupid human," Zim quickly snapped, annoyed that she'd caught him spacing slightly. Weird, he never usually did that.
"Right, whatever," Gaz replied with a raised eyebrow before huffing and sitting down beside the small irken. "Well I beat your stupid hologram. It was kinda like a Yuu Fit that could fight back." She groaned suddenly, rubbing her shoulder and wincing slightly, "It packs a bit of a punch though."
"Of course it does," Zim commented back with a note of satisfaction, glad something in his base had landed a hit on the girl, "It's designed to push you to your limits."
Gaz hummed for a moment in thought before looking back to the irken,"Well, what about you? Aren't you going to fight me today?"
"No." Zim put a hand to his face for a moment, the bruises had gone but the memory was still very fresh in his mind, "I've done enough of that today."
"Understandable." Gaz replied quickly and with a nod, a flash of a memory in her eyes.
There was silence for a moment in which Zim could hear the girl gaining her breath back beside him. The silence became heavy and every other sound in the base became amplified. Somewhere a machine beeped consistently, Gir screamed at something and the sound of something heavy clunking against something else echoed from the unknown depths.
"You fight well," Zim only realised what he'd said after he'd said it, "I mean, for a human." He smirked however at his next statement, "It was entertaining to watch."
At this, Gaz seemed to freeze, her eyes, for a second, growing wide. She got up suddenly, turning and walking towards the exit of the room, "I'm going home. See you tomorrow."
"What? Why are you going now?" Zim couldn't help but ask suddenly, jumping up and staring at her.
"It's getting late and I'm hungry," Gaz replied without stopping, her voice again tinged with something that Zim couldn't understand. She sounded as if there was something trying to punch through, but a greater part of her was holding it back.
Zim found himself following her quickly, his short legs almost jogging to catch and keep up with her, "I'll send Gir to get you food."
"Why are you doing this?" She snapped suddenly, turning her eyes on him. "Am I some kind of joke to you? Some kind of subject to analyse?"
"What? I do not remember laughing at any point today," He frowned at her, for the second time that day, refusing to back down to her anger. He paused in front of her, is ruby eyes locking onto hers,"And while I am studying your fighting style I could not care for anything else."
Gaz seemed to waiver for a second before she visibly relaxed, although not completely. "Zim I'm going home. We'll continue tomorrow."
"Fine," His own tone surprised him, he had said that a little more... annoyed than he'd assumed he was.
He watched as Gaz walked away, his mind still running on confusion. Humans were such a confusing bunch of animals, and try as he might, he knew he'd probably never figure them out. But that wasn't too much of a worry for him, after all, you didn't need to understand something to conquer it.
CHAPTER EEEEND. I hope you liked it, it was fun writing for Gaz and Zim in this, although it was hard. I had to make sure I knew what Gaz was thinking, yet, express it through emotion alone. Plus, I had to make sure Zim's 'day dream' about Gaz wasn't too soppy. Right now what's building in him in a sense of respect, that had to shine through regardless of whatever else.
REFERENCES: The line about humans being viruses was stolen from Agent Smith in The Matrix. YuuFit is obviously a cheep Wiifit reference.
Nothing else... man I gotta start putting more references in this.
ANYWAY, next chapter goes back to Gaz-ness... unless you guys want more inner Zim thoughts. Hope you enjoyed it, please tell me what you thought.
Read and review!