Hey guys! It's been a while, I know. Sorry for the hiatus but I've had ALOT to do these past few months, the biggest thing being my wedding, which pretty much took all my attention and energy to pull off and has left me pretty drained. But it was a grand, glorious wedding and I'm happy to say that I am now officially married ^_^ With that said, I wanted to update by Thanksgiving so as to not keep you guys hanging, since we are getting to the climax of the story now. Just a brief glance of what's ahead, there will be a lot of action in this and the next chapter, including some violence and even a few gross, icky parts. Action scenes aren't exactly my forte but I do my best to make them somewhat interesting and intense. I swear we will get to the more romantic parts soon but I developed these scenes in my head and just had to go with them. Hope you enjoy and I will try to get the next chapter up very soon.
Chapter 9: Weapon Unlocked
"OOW! OUCH! YEOOUCH! Wait, what is this thing-AHHHHH! GET IT AWAY!"
Zim emerged screaming from out of the toilet chute, sliding across the floor of his base before bumping into a petrified Gaz. She was on her hands and knees, dripping wet, with a horrified look of disgust on her face. Ignoring her obvious discomfort, Zim grabbed onto her shoulder for support as he hoisted himself to his feet, looking over his similarly wet attire with equal disgust.
"Ugh, yuck!" Zim retched as he peeled a piece of wet toilet paper off his head and tossed it away. "Well…not one of my better escape plans but, GENIUS nonetheless! Another successful retreat concocted by the brilliant mind of ZIM!"
Gaz glared up at him, her left eye twitching angrily. "Zim I'm swear, if we get out of this alive, I'm going to-"
"Yes, yes, you can thank me later." Zim said brushing her off as he pulled to her feet. "Now come my disgruntled human sidekick! We must get to my secret weapons wall immediately!"
Zim pulled Gaz over toward what looked like a large empty book shelf and pressed his hand against a small, barely visible tile on the wall. He held it there for a few moments until it turned green, which caused the shelf to slowly sink into the ground.
"Time to arm ourselves against our squidy cheese-filled enemies!" Zim said in determination.
Gaz's look of annoyance quickly turned to surprise as she gazed upon a vast collection of humongous sized alien weaponry.
"Whoa…those blasters are huge!" Gaz exclaimed, looking upward at a blaster that was twice her height.
"Yes, it is most impressive isn't it?" Zim said smugly. "These glorious devices were gifted to me by a visiting alien race. No doubt they were impressed with my superior abilities and overall impressiveness, and left their vast supply of super-weapons in the capable hands of ZIM!"
"Super weapons huh?" Gaz suddenly looked curious. "If they're so super, how come you never used any of these to take over the world? Or at get rid of Dib? Seems like they would do the job quickly and efficiently enough."
Zim paused. "Well…you see I…uh...have been saving it! Yes, for, uh...special emergencies, where my brilliance alone is not enough to guarantee victory!"
"Uh huh." Gaz said, unconvinced. She then looked over one of the weapons, some of which had a dozen buttons and switches on the side and two different trigger buttons. "Is this a bazooka? Didn't think you aliens used these things...wait, you have actually used these before right?"
"Dah, I..ah-of course I have!" Zim said, suddenly looking nervous as he glanced at the many buttons and began pointing at random ones. "This button shoots, this one recharges, this one...does something, and this other one does the thingy or whatever it's called... you know the uh...uhhhh...SILENCE!"
"I didn't saying anything." Gaz stated.
"LIES! Enough with your questions, we are here to prepare for battle, not criticize my knowledge of my own weaponry!"
"I wasn't saying you couldn't handle your own weapons, I was-"
"Oh! So you're saying I don't know how to handle my own weapons! I'll show you!" Zim pushed past her and grabbed the bazooka off the wall, loading in some small missile like ammo before aiming at a nearby table which had a small solidarity can of soda.
"Behold what an Irken elite can do!" Flicking the switch on, Zim launched the bazooka at the can, blasting it along with the table to smithereens.
Gaz arched an eyebrow at the destruction. "Well that was a bit overkill."
"An Invader never goes easy on an enemy. Letting your guard down is what leads to defeat." Zim explained smugly as he loaded more ammo into the bazooka. "I may not use my entire arsenal often, but I know how to use them when the time calls for it. As I said, there are many creatures out there who want to hurt Zim. And with my secret back-up weapons at my disposal, I can hurt them right back."
Zim then looked up and grabbed a smaller gun off the wall, tossing it to Gaz who caught it. "Here. You should practice your aiming with something smaller, given this technology is new to you. Hopefully when the time comes, you won't make the mistake of holding back or letting your humanly weaknesses get in the way of battle."
Gaz glared at Zim for a moment, her anger flaring up as she stared down at the small blaster. Her gaze then lingered on the pile of discarded cans in the corner and drifted back to the weapons wall which happened to contain a couple of grenades. Smirking, Gaz quickly grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it into the can pile.
"Hey! What are you-!" Zim exclaimed in panic.
The device exploded, causing all the cans to go flying through the air toward them. Zim lifted up his hands for cover, but Gaz used the blaster to quickly shoot multiple rounds at all the incoming cans. Once she was done, all the empty cans fell to the ground, nearly burned to a crisp and riddled with holes.
Zim looked down in shock at the burning, laser-ridden cans and then to Gaz, who blew smoke from off the tip of her blaster before twirling it and sticking it in her pocket.
"Okay...now THAT was overkill." Zim said, half annoyed and half impressed.
"Just wanted to see what sort of 'humanly weaknesses' you were talking about." Gaz said smugly. "After all, you are fighting alongside the best first-person shooter this crummy planet has to offer. Or do you need another demonstration?"
Zim smirked, then grabbed a much more powerful-looking blaster off the wall and handed it to Gaz, who looked excitedly upon the deadly-looking alien device and smiled confidently with Zim. Together, they both started loading up on weapons and ammo to prepare themselves for battle, unaware that they were being watched from the shadowy corners of the ceiling by three sets of beady red eyes.
Meanwhile out in the hall, Dib was busy trying to activate the lift so he could finally escape from Zim's base. Upon finding the elevation platform unresponsive, Dib had managed to pry open the control panel and was splicing wires together, trying to summon enough electricity to power up the lift. As the minutes went by and no progress was made, Dib was starting to worry that Zim and Gaz would be done with their game by the time he was able to escape.
"Come on you stupid lift. Work already!" Dib said as he continued to splice the wires from the open panel together, causing them to spark and light up briefly before again power down. "Agh! At this rate I'm never gonna…gonna…oh geez…"
Feeling a gagging in his throat, Dib covered his mouth and dropped the wires, turning away from the panel as he gasped for breathe, swallowing back the sickening sensation that kept resurfacing. Ever since swallowing those pizza puffs, Dib's stomach had been acting up, making him feel like he was going to be violently sick. So far he was able to keep the nausea down but wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up, especially since whatever was making him sick seemed to be crawling further and further up his throat each time.
"Ack..no!No!" Dib gasped, swallowing back the sick. "Escape first! Then I puke my guts out."
Suddenly, Dib heard a banging noise coming down the chute. Thinking the lift was finally working, Dib stood back in front of the door, eagerly waiting for them to open. When they didn't, Dib attempted to pry them open himself. He managed to get them apart a tiny bit before another pair of metal hands grabbed onto the doors, forcing them wide open. GIR then came bursting through the elevator doors and tackled Dib head on, causing them to tumble backwards over each other, resulting in Dib lying flat on his back. Rubbing his head, Dib looked up into the eyes of the frantic robot, who was kneeling on top of his bloated gut.
"You gotta help me Mary!" GIR pleaded, grabbing Dib's jacket firmly. "A big giant chicken wing's comin to get me!"
"Ugh! Get off me you stupid robot!" Dib cried out as he knocked GIR off, clutched his achy stomach as he rolled over back onto his feet. He then noticed the elevator door was still wide open and made a run for it when GIR stood in his way.
"Don't go in there! The big ol chicken monster's coming and is gonna eated us all up, like hot dogs and tarter sauce!" GIR exclaimed as he tried blocking Dib's way.
"That's ridiculous! There's no such thing as giant chicken monsters. Trust me, I know." Dib said with a hint of annoyance. "Now get out of my way!"
Before he could get around GIR, there was a louder banging noise and Dib looked over to see what appeared to be feathered tentacles emerge from between the doors, followed by a large chicken head with a razor sharp beak and red beady eyes. The thing locked eyes with them and let out a loud squawk.
"What on Earth?" Dib cried out as GIR let out a scream and hid behind the human boy.
They looked on in horror as the mutant chicken squid pizza monster attempt to squeeze its way through the door. Backing away quickly, Dib and GIR ran screaming down the hall as the creature finally forced its way through and began chasing after them.
After rummaging through the armor, Gaz emerged wearing a laser proof vest, along with a body-length ammo belt and a matching helmet with tinted visor. She had finished browsing through the blasters, picking out two large hand guns before putting a couple more smaller ones on her second ammo belt and then finally grabbing the very large artillery style blaster Zim handed her.
Meanwhile, Zim had finished suiting up by strapping on arm and leg enhancements and readying his bazooka which he activated with a flick of a switch. He then wrapped himself up in straps of ammo, extra blasters and completed his look with an Irken solider helmet.
As Gaz finished powering up her blasters, she noticed an odd shaped gun on display in the corner of the wall. It had a slim yet wide shaped barrel, almost similar to a sheath, had a trigger that resembled that of a shotgun and was covered with weird alien markings that looked like a warning sign.
She then carefully picked it up and held it toward Zim. "Hey what's this thing?"
Zim was tightening his gloves and glanced casually in the weapon in her hands. "Oh that? Just some prototype I've been working on. I wouldn't touch it if I were you, it hasn't been successfully tested yet. If activated the wrong way, it can result in you losing your limbs. Just ask GIR, he's already been through twelve."
Gaz looked wearily at the strange weapon and gently placed it back down on its display. Suddenly she heard a noise behind her and turned to see a chair fall to the ground. She looked around but didn't see anything near the chair that caused it to fall. She then noticed movement out the corner of her eye and turned her head to look but saw nothing. She then heard what sounded like scurrying legs behind her and turned again, but still saw nothing. That's when she realized something was out of place.
"Hey Zim…where's Dib? And that moose pet of yours?"
"What kind of a stupid question is that? Mini-Moose is watching Dib who's right over…"
Zim paused as he looked over to the wall only to see the robot arm hanging limply from the ceiling and Dib nowhere in sight.
"Oh great! Now I have to worry about recapturing the big headed spoot-face too?" Zim exclaimed. "Argh, that worthless moose! Where is he? Mini-Moose!"
Zim looked around and waited to hear the familiar squeak but was met with only silence.
"Mini-Moose! Your master commands you to come forth! Obey me!"Zim waited but again was met with silence.
He looked around in confusion. "That's odd. Usually when I call, he comes immediat...ly..." As Zim looked down, he suddenly noticing a trail of melted cheese on the floor that stretched all the way to the snack bar, which was covered in cheese yet contained nothing else.
"Umm…wasn't that table full of food before?" Zim asked, pointing uneasily at the tables.
"Whoa...how'd we not notice that before?" Gaz asked, looking at the empty table before walking over to investigate. All of the pizza, chips, and even the serving plates and bowls from before were gone. Aside from a few crumbs and cheese residue, not a scrap of food remained.
"Well one thing's for sure. Whoever did this was definitely hungry…ugh, and needs a bath." Gaz said, flinching at smell of the burning cheese.
"Do you think Dib or Mini-Moose had something to do with it?" Zim asked.
Gaz glanced back and noticed one of the tables looked as if a chunk had been ripped out it. She also noticed that the piles of game cartridges lying around were considerably smaller and partially melted, with a few of them sporting teeth marks.
"If they did, then they were more ravenous then we thought." Gaz leaned over to look under one of the tables and spotted two cases of Fizzy Poop and Power Burst, both of which looked to be untouched. "But apparently not thirsty enough."
As she continued to look under the tables, a dark shadow appeared overhead with glowing red eyes. Zim's antenna perked up as he heard a low hissing noise and looked up in horror.
"AHHH! LOOK OUT!"
Gaz looked up and gasped as a large mass jumped down on the table above her and roared, thrusting its tentacles forward as it tried grabbing her. Luckily she was able to duck out of the way and rolled out from the other side of the table before racing back to Zim who held his bazooka at the ready.
"What is that hideous thing!?" Zim exclaimed.
Both of them looked upon the grotesquely large creature as it leaped off the table and into the light. It appeared to be a pizza puff squid, only it was ten times bigger than the ones upstairs, had twice as many tentacles and eyes and had a set of antlers sticking out of its head. It flailed his cheesy doughy tentacles threateningly and lashed out its tongue, which was covered in more tentacles.
"It looks like one of those pizza squid monsters...with moose antlers?" Gaz tilted her head as she looked at the strange appendage.
The thing let out a terrible belch, spewing bits of smoldering food wrappers out of its mouth, causing Gaz and Zim to quickly back away.
"Ugh that's disgusting!" Zim said recoiling from the cheesy spit-covered pizza box it coughed up.
"Then let's destroy it before spews any more garbage at us!" Gaz said, flicking the switch on her blaster and aiming it toward the creature. Zim did the same, activating his armor and lifting up his bazooka. The creature let out another roar and leaped toward them as Gaz and Zim unleashed a barrage of laser and missiles upon it.
Back in the hall, Dib and GIR had run into the room full of glass tubes looking for a place to hide. With the giant chicken squid slowly catching up, GIR grabbed Dib and quickly dragged him around a corner, pulling him under a control panel just as the creature caught up. The chicken squid looked around, baring it teeth-covered beak menacingly as it passed by their hiding spot before stopping in front of a tube that contained an unnaturally happy-looking kid floating in a container.
"Hi big giant birdy thing!" The kid said, the corners of his stretched out smile trembling under the strain. "I'm so happy to see you! I'd be even happier if you let me out of here!"
The creature squawked then smashed its tentacle against the glass until it broke through, pulling the kid out and hanging him upside down by his leg.
"Oh thank you! Thank you! You made me so happy! I could just die-IIIIEEEEE!" The kid hardly finished his sentence as the squid tossed him into the air and into its open mouth.
Both Dib and GIR let out horrified gasps and retreated further into their hiding spot as the creature swallowed the boy and continued to search around the base.
"Oh this is not good. Not good, not good!" Dib muttered silently in terror.
"What's we gonna do? Come on big head boy, use your big head brains!" GIR pleaded.
Wracking his mind, Dib looked around at the tubes and thought of a plan.
"I have an idea! Let's trap it!" Dib explained. "Make the monster chase you into one of the glass tubes and I'll slam the door behind it, locking it in!"
"Woohoo! I like this plan!" GIR agreed before pausing, looking at Dib with concern. "But won't I gets trapped too?"
"Uhh…no! Of course not!" Dib said quickly. "Because…I'll let you out before I lock it!"
"Woohoo! I like this plan!" GIR cheered and then crawled out from under the control panel, shouting at the monster as it made it way across the room. "Hey giant chicken squid! You smells like a bus station!"
The creature turned and let out a squawk as it ran after GIR, who quickly raced ahead and began running circles around the lab. Dib took advantage of the distraction and ran over to one of the larger glass tubes. With some effort he turned the large hatch and opened the metal door, pulling it wide open and making sure to hide behind it as GIR came racing back down the hall. Both the robot and the creature lunged into the open tube, causing the creature to smack its head against the glass walls and become disoriented. Dib quickly closed the door and sealed it shut before either could get out.
He was about to walk away when GIR pressed his face up against the glass. "Hey! I helped you catch the chicken thing. Can I gets out now?"
Dib looked uncertainly back at the robot. "Umm yeah…about that…"
The creature then shook its head and towered menacingly over GIR, who looked back with a nervous smile.
"Uhhh..." GIR then paused and took a drumstick out of his head. "Want some chicken?"
Whipping its feathered tentacles forward, the chicken squid seized GIR and lifted the screaming robot above its head. Dib watched uneasily as the creature dropped the robot into its open beak and attempted to chew it.
GIR then popped his head out of the corner of the creature's mouth, giggling out loud. "Heehee! Getting eated tickles!"
The creature then attempted to shove GIR back down its throat with its tentacles and started gagging. Dib then watched as GIR reemerged from the creature's gullet, cackling and holding on to what appeared to be a large metal cooking pot which was emitting sparks of electricity.
"What is that thing?" Dib wondered curiously.
"Woohoo! I found a Christmas present!" GIR exclaimed, riding the device like a mechanical bull.
Finally with one big gulp, the chicken squid closed its beak and swallowed GIR back down for good, along with the meal device. After shaking its head and coughing up some metal bolts, it turned its attention toward Dib and began pounding on the glass wall. Seeing his cue to escape, Dib turned and ran back down the hallway, unaware that the glass tube was slowly beginning to crack.
Back inside the control room, Zim and Gaz were running around blasting at the antlered pizza squid which jumped, scurried and climbed its way across the room, spitting acidic pizza cheese at them. Although their shots managed to hit and injure the pizza squid, it did little to stop the creatures rampage as its cheesy dough-like skin kept reforming, healing whatever injury it sustained. It got to the point where Zim had used up all the ammo for his bazooka trying to shoot the creature in the mouth, hoping he could blow it up from the inside.
"Bah, it's no use! That thing is too fast and too reformy!" Zim cried out as he shook the empty bazooka before throwing it at the creatures head, causing it to shriek. "Take that you foul stink creature!"
The pizza squid shook its head, snarled, then lunged at Zim who screamed in surprise. It grabbed onto his ammo belts and started repeatedly slamming the Irken against the hard ground.
"AH! AGH! OOF! AH!" Zim screamed as he was bashed into the ground. "Gaz! Shoot it! Shoot it now!"
Gaz, who was firing her third back-up blaster from behind an overturned table, aimed at the creature and shot through the tentacle holding Zim, blasting it clean off. The creature shrieked as it flailed around in pain while Zim fell to the ground. He quickly slid out of his ammo belts and scurried away, trying to avoid the leaking cheese and ink that was spewing everywhere. Once the creature reformed its severed tentacle, it started chasing after Zim.
"Quick! Throw me your weapons!" Zim shouted as he ran across the room.
Gaz tossed two of her handguns to Zim, who caught them as he slid across the floor and shot backwards at the creature, finally hitting it in the mouth. It let out a howl as its tongue sizzled painfully, shook its head and jumped up towards the ceiling, grabbing onto a metal coil before climbing in and disappearing among the wires. Zim quickly joined Gaz behind the table and both looked up at the ceiling, trying to spot the creature among the mass of darkness and coils.
"Do you think it's dead?" Zim asked somewhat hopefully. "Perhaps I finally managed to vaporize its insides!"
"I doubt that." Gaz said, holding her blaster at the ready. "Over there! Shoot!"
Quickly, Gaz and Zim began firing at a corner of the ceiling where there was slight movement. They fired until their ammo was depleted and retreated back behind the table to reload.
"Man, for a bunch of super-weapons, these things run out of power quickly." Gaz said as she recharged her blaster and grabbed a new one out of her pocket which she handed to Zim. "Here, get ready to start shooting again."
"What's the point!?" Zim exclaimed, tossing down his empty blaster. "That creature's just gonna keep reforming until we completely burn through all our weapons! Face it, there's no way to defeat that thing! Our moose is cooked!"
"I think you mean our 'goose' is..." Gaz was about to finish her sentence when something made her stop.
Zim looked at her curiously at the odd look of revelation on her face. "Is what? At least finish your thought before we're devoured by that filthy cheese beast."
Gaz then looked out from over the table in the direction of the furnace, which was still burning from earlier with its doors still opening and closing.
"Cooked...that's it! We'll lure it into the furnace! It can't reform if it's melting into a puddle!" Gaz said excitedly.
Zim looked blankly at Gaz. "I fail to see how this correlates with a goose and cooking it-WAIT! We can lure the creature into the flames and burn it to a fiery crisp! It's so genius! I'm a genius!"
Gaz scowled and shoved a blaster back into Zim's hand. "Just shut up and cover me. We need to lure that thing over to the furnace and shove it in before it realizes what we're doing." She then went to aim up the creature again but saw no sign of movement. "Wait…where'd it go?"
Looking around, Gaz cautiously emerged from behind the table with her blaster pointed upwards. Zim followed suite and the two walked side by side, carefully keeping an eye on their surroundings.
Suddenly there was a creaking noise followed by the collapse of a pipe which looked to have been corroded from the creature's cheesey spit. As Zim and Gaz looked at the broken pipe, Gaz felt something touch her and looked down to see a tentacle wrapping itself around her ankle. Before she could shoot it, the thing pulled her foot out from under her, causing Gaz to drop her weapon and be dragged across the room toward a cloth covered table.
"ZIM!" Gaz called out. Zim let out a gasp and summoned his metal legs to quickly chase after her, grabbing her hand before the squid could pull her any further. Gaz tried reaching for one of her blasters but the creature was pulling so hard, it forced her to hold onto Zim with both hands.
"Let her go you filthy pus ball!" Zim shouted, keeping his grip on Gaz as his metal limbs dug into the floor, pulling her backwards along with the pizza squid. The creature then emerged from under the tablecloth, its mouth wide open as its tongue was stretched out across the room holding onto Gaz. It let out a roar as it tightened its hold and began dragging itself forward, getting its large mouth closer and closer to Gaz's legs. Panicking, Gaz used her other foot to kick at the creatures tongue, which proved pointless as it soon got stuck on the gooey cheese spit.
"Do something!" Gaz shouted at Zim, the creature being one foot away from chomping on her.
Thinking quickly, Zim summoned the laser cutters from his PAK and shot the pizza squid right in the eyes and tongue. The creature shrieked and released its hold on Gaz, flailing around its severed tentacle-like tongue, which spewed pizza cheese everywhere. It then stumbled around and fell back into the nearby wall of game cartridges, which toppled over onto the creature, burying it. Unfortunately, the crash also caused the weapons display to shake, dislodging all the blasters and causing some of them to shoot off upon hitting the floor and its lasers to bounce around the room.
Zim had just finished helping Gaz on her feet when the stray lasers beams came zooming toward them. One of the lasers was about to hit Gaz when Zim quickly shoved her away, causing her to fall back onto the ground. She looked up just as one of the lasers hit Zim right in his leg enhancer, causing him to scream while another laser sliced through two of his metal legs.
"Zim!" Gaz exclaimed as she watched Zim lose his balance and stumbled to the ground, holding his leg. Crawling quickly racing to his side, Gaz helped Zim undo his leg enhancer, which was emitting sparks and smoke from the laser blast. Once they got them off, Gaz noticed a painful looking burn mark on Zim's knee, which was also oozing what she assumed was blood.
Suddenly there was a loud screeching noise, followed by the creature emerging from under the game cartridges. Having reformed its eyes and severed tongue, it roared loudly in irritation and turned its attention toward Zim and Gaz.
Gaz looked back in a panic and aimed her weapon at the creature. Unfortunately, it clicked uselessly when she tried to fire it, as she hadn't had time to recharge it.
"I'm out of weapons! We need to move now! Do you think you can you walk?"
"Of course I can!" Zim shouted as he tried standing back up. "It's a just a burn mark. Nothing to-OH SWEET SLATHERING MESABOB!" Upon trying to put weight on his leg, Zim collapsed back to the floor clutching his leg in pain. "Man that hurts like a blorch!"
Gaz quickly grabbed Zim's arm and draped it over her shoulder, lifting him back to his feet as he leaned on her for support. "Come on, we gotta get away from that thing. Isn't there an escape pod around here or something we can use to leave?"
"Forget the escape pods! I am not allowing these things to devour my base!" Zim said, taking his arm off her as he tried balancing on one leg. "We stick with the plan! I'll go lead that giant cheese ball toward the furnace and keep the cover from closing. You go find a working weapon and at the first opportunity, use it to blast that thing back and into the flames! Now go!"
Before she could respond, Zim hopped off on his one good leg and began waving his hands frantically. "Hey! Squid-smelly! Over here!" Zim yelled out before attempted to lure the creature away from Gaz, limping painfully as it continued to chase him down.
Wasting no time, Gaz quickly ran over to the weapons display and began searching for a usable blaster. Unfortunately a lot of them were partially melted from the creatures acidic cheese spit while the ones on the floor had malfunctioned or broken upon landing . The only weapon left that hadn't been dislodged or melted was the oddly shaped blaster she picked up before, the one that hadn't been properly tested. Seeing no alternative, Gaz grabbed the blaster and raced toward the creature, holding it far out in front of her before flicking the button on the side, hoping desperately that she was aiming it in the right direction.
Zim gritted his teeth as he continued to limp away from the creature which was getting closer to him by the second. He finally reached the furnace and used all his strength to pry open the cover and lock in it. The creature spit at him again, causing Zim to stumble backwards to the ground. Unable to walk or run, Zim activated his metal legs in a last ditch effort to carry himself to safety. Unfortunately, the two severed metal legs caused him to become off-balanced and he fell over again, landing painfully on his side. Zim looked up in terror as the creature loomed over him and opened its mouth wide, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth as it let out a terrible roar. Fearing it was the end, Zim raised his arms to shield himself as the creature descended upon him.
Suddenly the creature froze as a pointed flame burst out from within its mouth, causing the creature to let out a horrible gargled screech. Zim looked up and was shocked to see Gaz standing behind the pizza squid, impaling the creature through its head with a flame covered sword that emerged from the oddly shaped blaster she was holding.
Gaz looked on in amazement at the weapon she now wielded and grinned. Using both hands to tighten her grip, she drove the flame sword deeper into the creature and dragged it toward the open door of the furnace. Using all her strength, Gaz lifted the creature upwards and kicked it off the sword, straight into the open flames of the furnace. She quickly closed it, listening as the creature let out a gurgled cry and flailed its tentacles through the vents before quickly melting into puddles of burnt cheese.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Gaz deactivated the flame sword and raced toward Zim looking concerned. "You alright?"
"Yes...nothing a little…healing jelly won't cure." Zim said as she helped him sit up. He then took out the tube of pain-relief cream and slathered it on his knee and shoulder, gritting his teeth as he rubbed it in while Gaz kept him steady.
"You know that's not how the cream...works..." Gaz paused when she noticed his wound had surprisingly starting to close up, causing Zim to sigh in relief.
Gaz smirked. "But who can argue with results?" She then tore off a piece of her ripped sleeve and used it to bandage Zim's leg, much to his relief and appriciation.
"Hey...so...thanks for stopping that creature from eating me back there. I could've destroyed it of course if I had a weapon...but I suppose...it's nice to know I have a competent marksmen watching my back." Zim said, trying not to be overly grateful.
"Um, you're welcome...I guess." Gaz said, confused by the compliment. "Anyways, it was the least I could do since you took that laser blast for me. And acted as decoy while hopping on one leg. Seriously, you're a lot tougher then you look..."
"Yeah well, so are you...for a human anyways." Zim admitted somewhat reluctantly. "At least you came out more unscathed then I did."
Gaz looked from Zim's wound, which was quickly healing, to his severed metal legs which had exposed wiring and was letting out random sparks. "A shame what happened to your metal legs."
Zim shrugged. "Eh, it's repairable. Could've been much worse if you hadn't stepped in…not that I couldn't have handled it, of course." Zim cleared his throat. "So, where'd you get that strange fire weapon anyways?"
"Umm, your weapon wall? It's the one you said wasn't properly tested." Gaz said holding up the blaster and pressing the button again. This time it shot a flaming sword out of its barrel which flew through the air and embedded itself on the wall, much to Gaz and Zim's surprise.
"Well what do you know! You fixed it!" Zim said excitedly.
"Fixed what?" Gaz asked as she carefully set the weapon down away from her.
"I designed that gun to shoot swords instead of lasers but they kept getting stuck in the barrel. But it seems you managed to dislodge them! Great job comrade!"
Gaz looked at Zim in confusion. "You designed a gun that shoots flaming swords?"
Zim paused. "Actually, the swords weren't supposed to be on fire. That part is new."
Just then they both heard a banging noise coming from the furnace. Picking the blaster sword back up, Gaz stood in front of Zim ready to fight when the furnace door flew open and spewed a large gooey blob of melted cheese. Gaz took a cautious step forward and paused when she heard a faint gargled squeak. She and Zim watched as Mini-Moose emerging from the melting pile of cheese, covered in grease while looking sickly and disoriented.
"Mini-Moose? What were you doing inside that squid monster?" Zim asked.
"Nya…nyah…nahhh…" Mini-Moose stumbled about woozily before landed on its side and coughing up a small piece of pepperoni.
"How'd it survive getting eaten and burned?" Gaz asked curiously.
"Mini-Moose is built to withstand all sorts of extremities." Zim explained. "The monster must've gained its endurance through ingesting him."
Mini-Moose then let out a loud burp which dislodged a chicken wing from its throat. Attached to the wing bone was a small pizza puff squid which rose up and hissed at the two.
"Ugh. Not this again." Gaz said in disgust as she activated the sword blaster. "At least this time it's small."
She then held up the flaming sword and aimed it the tiny snarly creature. She was about to destroy it when suddenly there was a loud banging on the nearby door.
"Let me in! Please! For the good of the earth, let me in!"
Hearing the familiar voice, Gaz and Zim looked briefly at each other and back at the squid puff which had managed to crawl away. Growling in annoyance, Gaz deactivated her blaster sword, stomped over to the door and pressed the panel. The doors open, allowing a hysterical Dib to stumble into the room.
"Oh thank you! Thank you, thank you!" Dib said as he catching his breath. "Gaz, you won't believe this but there's a giant- BEH! BLAGH!"
Gaz had seized Dib by the throat and was now holding him upward, an angry look on her face as she stared her brother down. "I thought I told you not to leave this room! How hard is it to follow simple orders!?"
"Gaz!...Can't….breathe!..." Dib choked out. Gaz then released him causing him to stumble onto his knees as he gasped for air.
"Thanks to you, there's a mutant pizza squid monster loose in this room that'll try to eat us if we let it get too large!" Gaz yelled at him.
"Way to go Dib!" Zim said joining her side. "Leave it up to your big head to- wait a minute…how come you're still here? I thought you would've tried to escape the base by now."
"That's…what I was trying…to tell you." Dib said breathing heavily as he massaged his throat. "There's a giant...chicken squid monster running around the base that's...eating everything in sight! It chased me down the halls as I was trying to escape. Luckily, your robot nobly sacrificed itself so I could try and warn you all! Now where do you keep your escape pods?"
"It's got GIR!?" Zim exclaimed in horror. "Noooooo! Not GIR! My poor, poor…wait, noble sacrifice? My dysfunctional SIR unite sacrificed itself to save a lowly human…without the promise of tacos!?"
"Well…yeah! I mean, uh…" Dib began rubbing the back of his neck nervously as Zim glared at him. "See he did lure the creature away so I could escape but he…kinda got trapped in the process… and was eaten…I woulda saved him but, it just didn't work out that way. Still, it's the gesture that counts right?"
Zim narrowed his eyes angrily at Dib. "You got my robot devoured just to save your own worthless sack of meat and organ sploosh? This is all your fault!"
"I just said it was." Dib confessed before Zim punched him and tackled him to the ground. The two then rolled around, attempting to punch, kick and claw at each other.
"Knock it off you two!" Gaz said as she stood over them. "Save the savage beatings until after we defeat the monsters!"
She then pried Zim off Dib but not before Zim gave a good kick into Dib's bloated gut. Dib let out a painful gasp and rolled over to his side clutching his stomach. As Gaz continued to hold Zim back, Dib crawled onto his knees as the nauseous sickness from before came back full force. He tried breathing deeply and covering his mouth but couldn't hold back and projectile vomited onto the floor.
"Ugh that's disgusting!" Zim exclaimed jumped back along with Gaz who looked equally revolted. Dib's body shuddered as he vomited again and again in sporadic bursts. Gaz then noticed black substance among his vomit and saw a growing amount of semi-chewed pizza puffs. Suddenly all the creatures sprang to life, growing new tentacles and beady eyes as they hissed and began scuttling out of the vomit.
"Oh great! More pests!" Gaz cried out as she and Zim back away from the newly formed creatures. "What else could go wrong?"
They then heard a squeaking noise and looked over toward Mini-Moose, who still laid on his side looking sickly. His face then turned a dark green and he too projectile vomited onto the floor, which also resulted in a pile of half-chewed pizza puffs that also sprouted tentacles and started crawling around the room.
"Oh come on!" Both Zim and Gaz exclaimed as Dib and Mini-Moose continued to barf up more pizza puffs. It wasn't long before the room was crawling with barfed up squid puffs which quickly got to work on devouring the game cartridges that were piled around, causing them to grow, reform and gain strength.
Knowing what they had to do, Zim grabbed a blaster from off the ground and activated it before handing Gaz her blaster sword. "Well…shall we get started?"
Gaz took the blaster sword and nodded. Zim smirked and held up his own blaster as the two stood back to back, launching their attack on the multiplying squid creatures as they closed in.
