Well this took longer then I thought to edit and finish. Sorry once again for the delay. My work schedule's made it impossible to work on this fic except for in the dead of night, which has left me increasingly tired and unfocused. Luckily I'll be changing jobs soon so hopefully I'll be able to get this and my other fics done in a more timely manner. Anywho, just a warning that this is a more dialog heavy chapter then previous ones but I promise its building toward something. In the meantime, enjoy this overdo chapter.

Chapter 6: Round Two

A couple of hours had passed since Zim and Gaz started playing Super Space Conquerors 2. Thanks to all the upgrades and cheat codes provided by Zim's flash drive, they were quickly zapping their way through enemies and making their way toward the earth capital without showing any signs of slowing down, despite the levels becoming more challenging as well as bizarre.

"Yes! Bow! Bow before the might of Zim! Ruler of the Super Piggies!" Zim shouted as his character blew up a pig pen and now had a legion of floating radioactive pigs following him. Zim chuckled evilly and glanced at Gaz, who kept her attention on her character, which was now being followed by a legion of rainbow colored chickens.

"Just you wait till our final battle Gaz." Zim taunted. "Your pathetic chicken coop may as well jump into the deep fryer now, because they're going to get SERVED later!"

Zim let out an evil laugh and waited for Gaz's comeback. She however, said nothing and instead tapped in a code to summon a bazooka, which she used to fire her explosive chickens at some enemies.

Zim frowned and spoke again in a taunting manner. "I'm sure you have something to say that, don't you? Eh, puuuuny little human?"

Gaz scowled and turned away from Zim as she continued to blatantly ignore him. Between having her game stolen, saving her worthless brother and being forced to play games with a loser alien, Gaz was feeling more annoyed then she ever had in her life, leading her to give Zim the silent treatment, if only because she knew how much it would agitate him. Zim, naturally being oblivious, tried goading her into conversation either through taunting or small talk, neither of which got a response out of her and left him feeling increasingly frustrated.

"Urgh, this is less thrilling that I originally hoped." Zim grumbled to himself. "What's the point of gloating about my superior skills if my opponent doesn't react to it?

Zim then glanced at his wrist cuff, which contained a reading of his suits vital signs and noticed that nothing had changed since the start of the game.

"She's not even trying to use her weird hypnotic influences on me. Either that or the suit's working better then I thought. But how can I safeguard against what she's doing it if I don't see it in action?"

Looking at Gaz and then his controller, Zim got an idea and quickly tapped in a code, causing the screen to freeze and start changing.

"Hey!" Gaz exclaimed in outrage, finally turning her attention to Zim. "What's the big idea?"

"Level 66: Create Your Own Path….OF DESTRUCTION!"

Gaz's eyes widened in surprise as the level they were playing suddenly became a glitchy topsy turvy race track. Enemies floated disjointedly in the sky, roads became blocky and spiraled endlessly around the screen, and many other various obstacles including vampire flowers, missile shooting elephants and tutu wearing dinosaurs would appear out of nowhere. Zim and Gaz's alien characters then appeared inside two small army tanks and began barreling down the chaotic path toward the glitchy madness.

Gaz looked at Zim in confusion. "What did you just do?"

"Oh that? I just activated a glitch is all. It's an unfinished level the programmers forgot to delete." Zim said proudly as their tanks barreled down the glitchy unfinished road. "I discovered it among the cheat codes. If we reach the end of the path unscathed, the game will skip us ahead five levels, which would put us at the final round."

For a moment it looked like Gaz was impressed, but she quickly caught herself and resumed her usual scowl. "Yeah, that's cool I guess. At least it'll make my time playing with you end sooner."

"Aw, what's the matter Gaz? Feeling tired?" Zim mocked, smirking as his green alien drove its way through a barrage of giant walking bowling pins. "If you wanted to call it quits before your eventual humiliation, I wouldn't blame you."

"Oh please." Gaz scoffed, her purple alien hurling exploding chickens at flying ice cream cones. "This is nothing compared to the Super Space Conquerors two hundred hour marathon I played in last year. Out of fifty players, I was the only one NOT to end up in the emergency room for exhaustion."

"I see. Well…good for you then! I'm not tiring either!" Zim added as he quickly turned his attention back to the screen. A short moment of silence passed between them before he glanced sideways at her curiously and spoke again. "Seriously, two hundred hours? How you accomplish that?"

"Energy patches, trucker pills and a combination of Fizzy Poop and Power Burst." Gaz explained.

"That sounds…nauseating." Zim said feeling slightly disgusted.

"It gets results." Gaz then took a swig from her can of Fizzy Poop, which quickly emptied, and tossed it over her shoulder. "Speaking of which, I'm running out of game fuel. Got anymore?"

"Of course. Mini-Moose!" Zim called out.

Within seconds, the tiny moose floated in carrying a tray on its head. "Nyah!"

"Bring our guest more refreshments, post haste!" Zim commanded.

"Nyah!" Mini-Moose squeaked and quickly flew toward the buffet table, scooping a can of Power Burst out of the cooler and presenting it to Gaz who took it off the tray and chugged it quickly. Letting out a burp, Gaz then sat up and tapped the buttons really fast, resulting in her alien's tank blowing up a giant barricade made of buttered toast and setting everything on fire.

"YES! Take that stupid toast!" Gaz called out, as she suddenly became more lively with her game play and took another swig of her energy drink.

Zim stared at the screen and then back at Gaz for a bit, unsure whether to be impressed or disturbed. The way she destroyed enemies without so much as breaking a sweat was both admirable and scary, yet also strangely alluring. Once again Zim felt the strange sensation from before start to arise in his chest and quickly forced himself to look away. He glanced at his wrist screen, which contained a reading for his vitals and was pleased to see that they were fluctuating.

"Finally, some activity." Zim said to himself. "As long as I don't let her influence me too much, I should be able to get through this round unscathed-"

He then heard warning sounds and saw that his alien was rapidly losing health, having been pulled out of its tank and was now being beaten up by a big muscular marine with butterfly wings. Trying to regain control, Zim quickly began punching in a complicated cheat code but kept messing it up.

"ARGH! What is wrong with these controls!?" Zim cried out, tapping buttons in desperation.

Gaz glanced at Zim's screen and noticed him struggling with the controller. "Use the power injector combo. It's shorter and simpler then the code you're trying to use."

"Don't tell me how to fight!" Zim snapped at her, causing Gaz to roll her eyes in annoyance and concentrate back on her character.

Once she looked away however, Zim reluctantly began entering the code she suggested to save his character at the last minute. After a few quick taps, a magical syringe appeared which his alien used to inject himself with, giving it the additional health and strength he needed to defeat the marine and continue the race. Though pleased he managed to stop his character from being killed, he resented that he Gaz was the one to come up with the solution.

"I'm bored! Do I really have to stay pinned here the entire time?" Dib asked from across the room. "Can't I just watch TV upstairs or something?"

"And give you a chance to escape? I think not." Zim said as he tapped away at his controller.

"What's the point of keeping me here? You got Gaz to play the game with you, so there's no need to keep me around anymore." Dib pointed out.

"Eh? Oh right that. I was planning on destroying you when this is all over." Zim said nonchalantly as his character beat up more winged soldiers. "I could capture you again, but it's just easier to keep you like this."

"What!?" Dib exclaimed. "But-but…you promised I wouldn't get hurt! Gaz?"

"Hey I only made him promise not to throw you in the furnace." Gaz said, continuing to play the game. "What he does with you after the game is done is between you two idiots."

"But-I, you…argh, fine!" Dib stuttered in frustration. "Can I at least wander around the base or read a book while I wait for you to destroy me?"

"No." Zim said, struggling to maintain his attention.

"Then can I get something from that snack table? I haven't eaten since breakfast."

Zim growled and gritted his teeth in irritation. "Does he ever stop talking?"

"Unfortunately no." Gaz said, not taking her eyes off the screen. "You should see him when he watches his dumb paranormal show. He has whole conversations with himself about it."

"Are they like the conversations he has with himself in the bathroom when he thinks no ones looking?" Zim asked. "Cause I notice he does that a lot. Quite sad and pathetic actually."

"You want to hear pathetic?" Gaz asked, turning her head slightly towards him. "When he was six, he tried duck taping a camera onto a cat so he could sneak it into Bloaty's, because he thought the animatronics came to life at night. Needless to say, the cat didn't cooperate."

Zim let out an amused chuckle. "Foolish Dib! That reminds me of the time he tried using a magical freezing 'talisman' on me and instead, it unleashed rabid angry bunnies that beat him into the ground!"

Gaz let out a small snort. "Really? Oh man I would've loved to have seen that."

"You think that's amusing, you should see when he tries to sneak into my base disguised as a giant squirrel." Zim replied, causing Gaz to chuckle a bit.

"I'm right over here you know!" Dib yelled out.

Pausing for a moment, Gaz glanced over at Zim and smirked. "Got any more amusing Dib stories?"

Zim glanced back at her and grinned. "Of course. Do you?"

"Plenty." Gaz responded, much to Zim's intrigue and Dib's anger.

Upstairs in the kitchen, GIR was busy making a batch of cheesy-brand pizza puffs for himself in his breezy-bake oven. One of the lifts then opened, revealing Mini-Moose, who was carrying a tray full of canned sodas on his head.

"Nyah!" the tiny moose squeaked, offering a beverage to GIR.

"Not now Moose! I'm making stuff!" GIR said excitedly, his eyes pressed against the oven's window, which grew increasingly hot due to the excessive heat. "Hee hee, it burns!"

There was a ding and GIR quickly opened the oven door, revealing a batch of round, piping hot pizza puffs.

"YAY! Theys done!" GIR yelled out, picking up the tray and tilting it back, dumping all the pizza puffs into his mouth. GIR chewed them all up, cheese and grease now dripping from his mouth, and swallowed. "Mmmm tasty…I'm gonna make some more!"

GIR then dropped the tray and headed to the fridge but was shocked to find it empty.

"Oh noes." GIR said, suddenly upset. "Puffs? Puffs!? Where are you puffs!?

Now desperate, GIR scoured the fridge, the cabinets, under the sink and even in the folds of the couch.

"I gotta have my puffs! I GOTTA HAVE MY PUFFS!" GIR cried out before proceeding to tear apart the couch cushions. "Where you hided them couch?"

After looking through every nook and cranny in both the kitchen and living room, and causing a decent amount of destruction along the way, GIR still came up empty handed and stood mournfully in the middle of the kitchen. "Ohhh...puffs..."

GIR walked sadly over to his oven and stared into the empty chamber, tears welling up in his eyes. "No more cheesey puffs...What do I do?"

"Nyah!"

GIR looked up at Mini-Moose who floated down to the floor, toward a discarded pizza puffs that had rolled under the table. He then picked it up in his mouth and set it down near the cloning machine in the corner, which was still covered in squid ink and letting out small electrical sparks. GIR stared at the machine for a moment before his face lit up with joy.

"Oooooooh! Good idea Moose!" GIR then laughed gleefully to himself and picked up the last remaining cheesey puff, dropping it into the machine before flipping the power switch. The machine let out a loud whirling noise and spun really fast, releasing huge surges of energy before spewing a bunch of pizza puffs into the air, which landed in gigantic piles all over the kitchen.

"YAYS! Now I had plenty for the party!" GIR said excitedly, as he started gathering the cheesey puffs onto metal trays.

"Nyah!" Mini-Moose squeaked expectedly.

"Okay, here ya go!" GIR said gratefully, tossing a pizza puff into Mini-Moose's mouth, who chewed it up gratefully.

The two sidekicks then continued to round up all the puffs, unaware that the cloning device was now sizzling dangerously, causing some of the puffs to grow tentacles and crawl their way across the floor.

"And then, he tried raising the dead cause he thought aliens would use their empty corpses to take over earth! Dad found out and grounded him for a month!"

Both Gaz and Zim let out howls of laughter, all while Dib fumed in anger. The two were no longer looking at the computer screen and had now shifted their chairs so they were facing each other.

"Oh the things humans come up with!" Zim said, wiping tears out of his eyes. "As if any respectable intelligent life forms would use your smelly decaying dead as an army."

"I know right?" Gaz said, shifting in her seat. "At least that theory was more plausible then his book report on undercover hypnotic alien pants. He got three weeks in the loony bin for that one."

Both shared another laugh, causing Dib to finally lose it.

"Enough already!" Dib shouted. "Do you two have to point out every little embarrassing thing I've done?"

"Duh." Gaz nodded. "That's what makes it fun."

"But you two aren't even playing the game anymore!" Dib said motioning to the screen.

"Oh we are. Our characters are just on cruise control." Zim said gesturing to their characters, who were both driving fast while shooting up enemies with unlimited ammo from their giant lasers. Dib looked at the controllers, which both had wrenches screwed in top of the buttons.

"But, what's the point of you both playing then if you're just gonna cheat your way to the end?" Dib asked.

"So we have more time to make fun of you." Gaz said simply, causing Zim to snicker.

Dib growled with rage.

Suddenly the screen lit up and played victory music as both their characters succeeded in making it across the finish line to the final level.

"Congratulations, you've made it to the Earth Capital! NOW BURN IT TO THE GROUND!"

"This is gonna be a pretty intense battle. Game Pit Magazine said it should take the most skilled gamers at least five hours to beat." Gaz explained. "We should take a quick break before continuing."

"Very well then." Zim said, taking the wrenches off their controllers and hitting the pause button.

Zim and Gaz made their way over to the buffet table while Dib looked on in longing. Gaz started piling pizza and other salty snacks onto her plate while Zim bypassed the food altogether and instead went over to a small door in the corner.

"Where are you going?" Gaz asked.

"I'll be back in a moment. I just have to, er, eh…take care of a MIGHTY need!" Zim said before quickly shutting the door.

Gaz rolled her eyes and began digging into her plate of food while Dib watched Zim leave, exhaling in relief.

"Alright Gaz he's gone. You can cut the charade and release me now."

"What charade?" Gaz asked.

"Come on Gaz, be serious!" Dib exclaimed, struggling against the metal arm. "He's distracted in the other room, so now's the perfect time to escape!"

Gaz paused for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah."

"What? Why?"

"I want to see how this game ends. I did make a deal with Zim to finish it after all. Besides, I want to hear the story about that time you disguised yourself as a cactus and snuck into the cowboy museum to search for robot snakes." Gaz said smirking in amusement.

"Will you listen to yourself? You're letting him distract you with games and stories and all sorts of meaningless junk!" Dib yelled. "But if you press that button over there and let me out now, we can escape together and finally take him down once and for all!"

Gaz scoffed. "You know, you really need to lay off Zim. You spend so much time fighting with him, maybe if you both actually talked you'd see he's not such a bad guy."

"He's trying to conquer earth!" Dib exclaimed. "That automatically makes him a bad guy! How can you defend him when he's so obviously-" Dib then paused as a sudden awful thought came to him. "Wait a minute…you don't actually…LIKE hanging out with Zim do you?"

Gaz paused upon hearing those words. She wasn't sure why, but she suddenly felt really warm and could feel a twinge in her cheeks. She quickly looked away from Dib and scratched at her cheeks. "Of course not. Like I said, we made a deal and I'm just seeing it through."

"Yeah but I've never seen you willingly hang out with anyone for this long before, and definitely not for fun. Unless you count beating someone to a pulp as fun." Dib said, thinking over his statement. "I mean the way you both laugh together, it's like you were best friends or something…"

Clenching a soda can in her hand, Gaz turned sharply and stormed up to Dib, looking angrily him in the eye.

"Let's get one thing straight Dib!" Gaz said poking him in the forehead. "I'm here for one reason only and that's to whoop Zim's sorry butt. And once I'm done, I'm gonna do the same with yours for getting me into this mess! Now shut your pie hole and let me enjoy my pizza in PEACE!"

The walls reverberated with her last biting word. Dib looked at his scary sister, sweat dripping down his forehead, and smiled nervously. "Of course Gaz. Whatever you say."

Shooting him one last death glare, Gaz turned her back and proceeded to pile more food on her plate, unaware that a deep blush had now spread across her face.

Meanwhile in the other room, Zim approached a small computer screen that had been hooked up to the scanner, which still remained focused on where they had been sitting. Pressing the stop button, Zim rewound the footage toward the beginning of their game session. He then pressed a couple buttons to sync up the video with the display of his vital signs over the last couple hours. Looking at the vitals, Zim noticed a couple of spikes in last recent hour and isolated video from that time.

"Now then, let's see how you're really doing this Gaz." Zim said, pushing the play button. Footage of Zim and Gaz casually talking popped up, much to Zim's surprise.

"Oh, oh! And remember the time Dib thought the janitor was a Sasquatch and used a net to try and capture him?" Zim asked excitedly. "Only it turned out –"

"To be a mild case of werewolf syndrome?" Gaz finished. "And the janitor was so mad that he-"

"Used Dib's head as a plunger to clean the toilets!" they both said in unison before both howled with laughter. Gaz was laughing so hard, she actually snorted a bit much to the Irkens amusement.

"You guys stink, you know that!" Dib yelled from off camera.

Eventually Zim and Gaz calmed down, taking deep breaths as their laughter ceased. Zim wiped away a tear before looking curiously at Gaz.

Off screen, Zim noticed a small jolt in the vital signs and watched the footage closely.

Gaz was still snickering a bit when she noticed Zim staring at her. "What? What are you staring at?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing! It was nothing!" Zim said rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly nervous. "It's just, well…this may sound strange but, for some reason I didn't think you were capable of laughing. Or smiling. Or being cheerful in any sort of manner. Hearing you laugh is...different."

Gaz then calmed herself down enough to speak. "Humiliating my brother always puts me in a good mood. A better mood is when someone else does the humilating for me." Gaz then glanced and him and smirked. "Honestly, some of my favorite Dib torturing moments are ones you've carried out. That time you replaced his lungs with a cow toy and sent a rabid monkey to attack him were among the best."

Zim watched in shock as his recorded self turned a strange shade of green and actually smiled bashfully back at her.

"I don't remember changing color. Or making that bizarre smile!" Zim said, suddenly feeling anxious.

"You flatter me, my sadistically-prone opponent." Zim said somewhat humbly. "Perhaps once our battle is over, you may stick around and witness as I remove your brothers brain and switch it with various animals. I was thinking of starting with a chipmunk. They're roughly the same size so it shouldn't make much of a difference."

"Wait, what?" Dib yelled off screen.

"I'd like that." Gaz nodded. "But only if I get to poke it with a stick a few times. And get a bag of nuts to taunt him with afterwards."

"But of course." Zim said, holding up a bag of salted nuts.

Zim then paused the video and noticed Gaz seemed to be looking at him more differently then usual. It was a look that conveyed neither hate or anger, nor even the desire to see him maimed. Instead, it was a look of fascination and intrigue, like he was suddenly the most interesting being in the world. Just staring at her on screen was enough to cause his squeedily spooch to tighten uncomfortable, resulting in a beeping noise from his computer.

"Alert. Vital signs have spiked again." The computer chimed in. "Do you wish to run another analysis?"

"Gah! What is wrong with me? This cruddy suit does nothing!" Zim then unzipped it and threw it against the wall. "I don't know how she's doing it, buts it's worse than ever! Why with just one look, she makes me feel like-"

Zim then paused then re-examined the footage, watching their interactions and examining every instance where she gave him that look til he noticed a pattern with that and the flux in his vitals.

"That's it! Her power lies in that hypnotic stare of hers. All I have to do is not look directly into her eyes and I won't feel the effects! Ha! Nice try Gaz! But you can't hypnotize the almighty Zim! There's no way I'm falling prey to those intense, piercing, hate-filled...radiantly colored eyes of...yours..."

As he looked up at the footage of Gaz laughing with him, he couldn't help but smile and yearned to see one of her amused smirks in his direction again. The computer began beeping as his vitals fluctuated rapidly again.

"Zim! What's taking so long? Did you fall in or something?" Gaz called, knocking from the other side of the wall.

Zim shook his head and looked toward the door as Gaz banged in it again. Gasping, Zim quickly shut off the computer and put his suit back on, hastily wiped the sweat off his brows. He couldn't let her know what he was up to now that he was wise her tricks. Hopefully now he'd have a real shot at winning against her, assuming he could refrain from looking directly at her.

"My business is done!" Zim then quickly stepped back into the room, making sure to close the door and avert his gaze. "Sorry for taking so long. I had to uh…empty my gallbladder! And you know how long that takes."

Gaz looked at him suspiciously but dismissed his stupid comment. "Whatever. Just hurry up and eat so we can continue."

"Nah, I'm good. Let's just continue the game." Zim said, once again walking by the food.

"You sure you're not gonna eat anything?" Gaz asked, taking a bite of her pizza. "This battle could go on for a very long time and I don't need you fainting from lack of energy."

"Ha! Silly human. Irkens are designed to go long periods without food or drink, so fainting it never an occurrence." Zim declared proudly. "Besides, I'd rather willingly starve myself then eat that filthy slop you called food."

Gaz arched an eyebrow. "I'll admit, the human race has come up with a lot of disgusting concoctions, but how can you not like pizza? It's the best food there is."

"Because!" Zim yelled.

"Because?" Gaz asked.

"Because I…..I…" Zim then paused. "Okay, fine! I've never actually eaten it. I've seen GIR devour whole discs of that cheesy mess and the smell alone is enough to sicken me! Besides, all human food tastes the same. Such vile disgusting slop…"

"How about you actually TRY something before you dismiss as 'slop'" Gaz said holding out a slice.

"Keep that filth away from me!" Zim said backing away.

"I'll eat it!" Dib said.

"Come on, at least eat it to say that you tried it." Gaz said moving closer to him.

"I said no!" Zim said.

"I'll eat it!"

"Try it!" Gaz said, nearly shoving it in his face.

"No!"

"Try it!"

"NOOO!"

"I wanna eat it!" Dib repeated.

"SHUT UP DIB!" Gaz and Zim yelled at him. Dib opened his mouth but immediately closed it as Gaz and Zim's both shot him similar looks of anger.

Gaz looked back at Zim and shrugged. "Fine. Don't try the pizza then…..be a wuss."

As she moved to throw the slice away, Zim snatched it out of her hand.

"A wuss am I?" Zim asked holding up the slice. "Would a wuss do this?"

Looking at the slice wearily, Zim ate the pizza in one gulp, chewing it thoroughly. At first he cringed at the overabundance of cheese and grease, but as he continued chewing he started tasting the flavors of the sauce and spices and found himself enjoying it immensely.

"Well?" Gaz asked.

Not wanting to give her satisfaction, Zim swallowed the slice and wiped his mouth in a dignified fashion. "It was acceptable….for human food anyways…not that you'd catch me eating it again!"

"Told ya." Gaz said, as she finished piling more food onto her plate. "Now hurry up and finish. I wanna get this rematch done and over with. And grabs some fizzy pop, you're gonna need it."

"Do not tell me what to do!" Zim retorted, pausing briefly before grabbing a six pack of fizzy pop. When she wasn't looking, Zim shoved another slice into his mouth and grabbed three soda cans, leaving the remaining ones sitting on the table.

"Come on guys can't I PLEASE get some food?" Dib asked. "I'm starving here!"

"Oh just toss him something so he'll shut up." Gaz said, settling back into her seat. "But nothing from my table. I don't want his nasty Dib germs getting all over my food."

"Ugh, fine." Zim pressed a button on his chair. "GIR! Get down here and share your filthy rations with the prisoner."

"Coming!"

GIR then appeared out the lift holding a snack tray and pranced over to Dib, who stared wearily at the tray of pizza puffs, which appeared larger than usual and had some black goo dripping from it. "Uh, are you sure that's safe to eat?"

"Good question...Open wide!"

"Uhh…" Dib glanced nervously at the odd looking cheese puffs but GIR forcefully opened his mouth and shoved in the bite sized bits. Dib chewed hesitantly at first, then with more vigor as he swallowed the cheese puffs and nodded in approval. "Mmmm these are good… what's in them?"

"Pizza stuff!" Gaz said, holding up another one for Dib to eat.

Dib paused, then shrugged and ate another one. "Works for me."

"Quick, let's resume the game before he starts talking again." Gaz said, taking a quick sip of soda.

"Agreed. Let the battle for superiority continue!" Zim declared unpausing the game.

As Zim and Gaz continued their game, Dib finished eating all the cheesy puffs fed to him by GIR.

"Mmm, those were good." Dib said swallowing the last puff. "I sure could use some more if you got um."

"I can make more!" GIR said excitedly. "Be right back!"

"Hey, why don't you let me out of this robot arm?" Dib suggested. "That way I can help you, uh…cook faster!"

"Heehee, silly blimp head!" GIR giggled. "That's what Moose and Piggy is for! But I'll bring you some toys to play with. Be right back!"

As GIR walked away, he bumped into the buffet table, which wobbled causing Zim's discarded soda cans to fall over. One landed on an automatic vacuum cleaner, activating the power button. The vacuum zoomed forward and knocked into a broom and bucket sitting in the corner. The broom fell over and came to rest on a railing just inches from where Dib was being held. Seeing the broom and how it lined up in the direction of the release button, Dib grinned as he started forming his plan of escape.