A/N: Thanks again to Kaylee Or Something, Zerg170, Madiphan99 and now InfiniteReader for your reviews and encouragement. You guys help me stay focused!
The last chapter was the end of phase one, and a major turning point of "Don't Leave Me." Now we begin phase two, with another build-up cycle to another significant event.
Later in this chapter I will be writing Zim & Gaz's trip to see a suspense/terror movie, but the focus is on Zim and Gaz watching, so the references to the movie will be few and vague. I am trying to keep most of this story to a K+ rating. Phases three and four will probably be more of a T rating. Oh, and I am NOT encouraging anyone to actually do these things in a theater.
Kudos to anyone who gets the Weird Al reference!
Gaz pulled the headset away from her ears and stretched her arms and back. It was now late Sunday afternoon. She had spent nearly the entire weekend down in the new gaming den Zim had built in his base. Her gaming den, she corrected herself. It was still hard to believe Zim had set all this up, and then labeled it as Gaz's. It was still Zim's base, but this room belonged to her.
Not that Zim would call her up to ask permission to enter or make equipment changes as he saw necessary. Nor did Gaz did require it of him. They were partners, a team.
Zim was sitting in the gaming station behind her running a Main Battle Tank on a desert map. With few obstacles and some care, the alien could actually drive the lumbering vehicle. He was holding a position behind an embankment that served as a defensive line, punching out plasma bursts at an approaching column of heavy armor. Zim, taking heavy fire, was about to deploy a smoke shell from a mini-mortar and pull back to the next defensive position. Gaz in another tank would provide covering fire.
In one week they would be outnumbered against experienced opponents who were the best around in the gaming community. Even though their opponents were only human dirt-beings, it would not be easy all the time and they needed these defensive tactics as well as their offensive ones. They would no doubt be pushed back hard at times. Gaz never let Zim's ego cause him to forget that.
The alien had his antenna pulled into his headset since he did not have any ears. Although they were in the same room and could hear each other just fine, the convention center next Saturday would have tremendous background noise. Thus the headsets. He did however notice Gaz had stopped playing. Zim paused and spun his chair to face the human.
"What is it?" he asked, wincing as several of his partner's joints popped.
"Nothing. Just feeling a little burned out. We've been grinding at this for almost a week straight, except for school, and I could use a break. Maybe do something else for a change."
"Ah, yes. Zim understands. Zim takes breaks from this game every night after you return to your human home. Works on other projects."
"Well I have to sleep sometime, so I haven't exactly had the time to do much else lately."
"Yes. Your human need to sleep a full third of your day..." Zim caught himself when Gaz threw him an expression before he could say something along the lines of weakness. "...must be annoying."
"Yeah, nice save," Gaz retorted, not fooled for a minute. "So what do you do when you're not working? You know, for fun?"
"Zim collects and restores weapons and other tactical systems."
"No, I didn't mean for your mission. I mean as a hobby."
"That is Zim's hobby."
Of course it is, Gaz thought. Invader to the core. "Ok," Gaz responded, letting that one drop, "what have you been working on lately? You know, when I'm wasting time asleep?"
Zim shut the computers down and got up. "Come, Zim will show off his pride and joy."
He nearly ran out of the room, so Gaz had to hurry to keep up.
They took the elevator down another level and into a wide bay. Gaz stopped in her tracks and looked up at Zim's showpiece. All ten feet and twelve tons of armored vehicle. It had an opened single-pilot control pod in the front with a larger backpack portion behind it. The drive system was in the waist section below, connecting two short yet thick arms where weapons would attach and heavily built legs. The thinner reactive armor plates, ablative hull panels and chassis frame were mostly dark red and black.
Gaz couldn't help but feel a twinge of dread as she looked at the thing. It was only natural that this was Zim's pride and joy. A light armored walker. She just stood there as Zim continued speaking.
"When Zim received this Scout Walker from his Tallest, it was just an empty chassis. But Zim persevered! It took years to collect the parts online from too many galactic salvage yards to remember. It is now almost finished. Zim even managed to find the turbine package so it can make atmospheric hops! However the limb servos still need to be installed, and the weapon systems as well.
"You mean this beast is almost operational?" Gaz knew exactly what a disaster zone Zim could be around any vehicle with two legs. Dangerous did not even begin to describe it.
Zim shrugged, clueless to any concern. "It will be technically functional, but it is far too obsolete to be considered operational. It has no stealth system, and still has magnetically driven projectile guns instead of proper energy emitters!" He pointed to some crates waiting in the corner with almost scorn. "It took Zim over two years to find just one!"
Gaz examined Zim very carefully, but discreetly. As she did so, her sense of dread lessened. Oh, Zim having one of these things still made her a little nervous, but the look on his face and the way he talked calmed her. Zim did not see this as a tool, or even as a vehicle. He looked at it as one of those 'classic' cars middle-aged human males restored to mint condition and then parked forever under a tarp in their garage. It was a collector's item to Zim. Not something to be used in action.
Of course Zim was acting like everybody had a walking tank in their private collection. Maybe on his homeworld everyone did.
"Looks like its missing something," Gaz looked around. "What do you paint it with?"
Zim pointed to a marking device on a shelf. She went over and picked it up. "May I?"
The alien nodded, and Gaz moved over to the armored hulk of a machine with a stepladder. She climbed up to the level of the cockpit along it's side and began making small twists and turns of her wrist. After a few minutes she stepped back down and let Zim examine her handiwork.
Now along the lower side of the cockpit was a cartoon tornado holding a smoking missile launcher held casually over its shoulder with the word "Whirlwind" scripted underneath.
Zim stepped back down. He was smiling. "Zim likes. Zim likes very much."
Gaz actually felt better too, as if that simple marking made all the difference between a prized personal possession, and a standardized piece of military equipment. Or that bearing her mark somehow made it less menacing to herself. Perhaps it truly did. Zim would always see that caricature and remember his partner.
She turned to walk out of the fabrication bay putting it all behind her. "Come on Zim, let's get out of here. How about we go unwind and see a movie?"
They walked back to the Membrane house for Gaz's Jeep, and to leave her brother a note saying where they had gone. It was annoying to let Dib know where she was going, but not as aggravating as having him trying to track her down if her brother realized the two of them were no longer at Zim's base and he didn't know where they were. More specifically where Zim was.
Next they stopped at a bakery so the now disguised alien could pick up some triple-glazed sugar donuts to sneak into the theater within his PAK. When they arrived they paid for their tickets and Gaz got her own snacks at the counter. A tub of popcorn and an ultra-gulp sized soda.
As they took their seats Zim turned to his partner. "So tell Zim about this 'movie.'" He began munching on his snacks. The film hadn't even started yet and he was chowing down.
"Oh, its awful," Gaz replied. "Probably one of the worst films ever made."
"Then why would you take Zim to see such inferiority? Considering Earth standards are so low to begin with, it must truly be abysmal. You think such a thing would entertain the amazing ZIM?"
Gaz just smirked at her friend. "Just watch the movie, Zim." She began slurping her soda.
The lights darkened and the awful movie started. It was supposed to be a suspense flick. A troop of unsupervised Eagle Scout teenagers hiking in the deep dark and eerie forest found an equally dark, eerie, rundown and seemingly abandoned cabin that happened to be in the same area where a deranged psychopath disappeared that morning. Naturally they decided it would make an excellent camping spot for the weekend. Apparently the bright and sunny meadow with the blue jays and butterflies was too good for them.
After the first camper disappeared into the basement of doom, the group sent another to go look for him with only a tiny birthday candle to pierce the thick gloom of the basement. After all, a flashlight was far more valuable than their chum. Zim was laughing at their human stupidity.
He leaned over and told Gaz he would have illuminated the basement with a flamethrower. She countered with welding the door shut and spending the next few days calmly commenting on how refreshing the mountain spring water was as the psychopath was tormented by his own thirst. Zim countered back with blasting the entire cabin with a fusion cannon. Evacuating the brainless Scouts first was optional. Gaz responded with dropping a large wrecking ball on the cabin and sealing the wreckage with concrete. She eventually won the game with the suggestion of chaining the psycho down and forcing him to watch this movie for all eternity.
During one supposedly suspenseful scene the person in the row ahead of them screamed and Gaz looked over. Zim was retracting one of his PAK's spider limbs from under the seat ahead of him. He had grabbed an unsuspecting ankle at just the right moment. Gaz had to cover her mouth very hard to contain her laughter. Then they began placing bets with popcorn on which doomed moron would be the next to go into the basement of no return.
One result of the bet got to eat the popcorn. The other one got to throw it at the screen. It was difficult to tell who was the loser of that game as it seemed too much of a win-win.
After the terrible movie ended, Gaz drove Zim back to his place and dropped him off. She still had a faint smile on her face. "Thanks, Zim. I really needed that," she said as Zim climbed out.
"Yes, it was very entertaining, despite its awfulness. You must bring Zim along on your next unwinding. See you at school tomorrow?"
"Absolutely," was the reply as she drove off back to her house.
Dib turned from compiling his reports on the jackalope for the Swollen Eyeball Network as Gaz walked in the front door. "Hey, Sis. How was the movie?"
She walked through the living room toward the kitchen to start something for dinner. "It was hilarious."
Hilarious? "I thought you took Zim to see 'Nature Trail to Hell?'"
Dib got up and poked his head into the kitchen to see Gaz banging pots around. "I did," was her only response.
"And you found it to be funny? I thought it was a terror flick."
Gaz looked at him with a definite smirk. "Oh, it's an absolute riot if you go with the right person." She turned to collect the beans and instant potatoes.
Dib left to get back to his own activity. His sister had a very strange way of looking at things sometimes. But Gaz was back home and safe. And judging by that nearly undetectable spring in her step she was also very content with her day.
The next morning at school Zim opened his locker and found a movie stub slipped in at the bottom. Thanks for coming. Would have been nauseating if you weren't there. -Gaz.
Gaz opened her own locker and spied it's twin ticket lying inside. That was indeed a terrible movie. You must take Zim to see more. -Zim.