Dib approached the school as fast as he could. Before the laptop device had lost its visual contact with the decoy it had shown him the robot was at the playground. What it was doing there he would have to find out personally.
Climbing up the long barbed-wire fence surrounding the school, the bespectacled boy searched for any sign of Zim's double. He saw it, standing by the basketball courts, alone. This was his chance to get the disk, but before he could act he heard a voice call out in the darkness.
"There you are."
It was Zim. The alien had gotten there first. Watching from afar, Dib could only hear voices in the shadows that quickly escalated into yells and shouts. If the boy had not been so worried about the fate of his disk and his own well being he may have found the sound of Zim yelling at himself comical.
Leaning in to hear the argument better, he lost his footing and quickly tumbled to the ground with a thud, his body hitting the suspended end of a seesaw in the process.
"Did you hear that?" Zim quickly turned to GIR.
"Something went 'Ow thud'." GIR exclaimed.
"There's somebody here. I'm going to check it out." Zim turned towards the origin of the sound. "Watch the decoy GIR, make sure he doesn't move."
Zim ran off to where the noise had emanated leaving the two robots together. GIR stared up at Decoy who was still passively watching some pigeons peck the asphalt. The decoy suddenly turned his head to GIR.
"Wanna go play on the jungle gym?"
"Kay."
^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_
Dib struggled to get to his feet. His side and legs throbbing with pain from his fall. He quickly untangled himself from his trench coat as he heard footsteps approach.
"Dib," Zim hissed upon seeing the boy "I should have known you would be involved in this somehow."
Dib looked up ready to retort, getting a good look at Zim standing threateningly in the light provided by the dim and distant street lamps.
"Zim?" he asked stifling back a light chuckle "Is that you?"
"Yes it's me" the green one answered back slightly annoyed "who else could you think I was?"
Dib stood up no longer able to hold back his laughter. The sight of Zim before him dressed in clothing he must have found in the trash and a badly attached false beard was too much.
"You, you look... absolutely ... ridiculous!" Dib shouted between breaths and sniggers. "You look like a hobo! A circus midget! Where did you get that hat? A Dumpster?" He burst with heavy laughter "And those shoes, do you really think those make you look any taller?" He tried to catch his breath only to explode with further chortles falling to his knees "And don't get me started on that beard!"
"Yeah it is pretty funny looking." Decoy chirped from his perch atop the jungle gym.
Zim did a slow burn. His anger then erupted like a super nova.
"Nobody asked you!" he spat with venom pointing at decoy. He turned back to Dib ready to squeeze the human's head off with his bare hands. "And you... you did something, didn't you? You know why my decoy unit is malfunctioning, DON'T YOU?"
Dib calmed himself abruptly now that Zim's anger was present. He stood on his feet and tried to look confident.
"Maybe I do. But it's not like your plan would have worked anyway. I could tell that thing wasn't you from the start." He said lying slightly. "It didn't even act like you."
"So you meddled with it." Zim accused.
"You think I did something," Dib stalled trying to shift himself to appear innocent. "Maybe your technology isn't as advanced as you think."
Zim fumed,
"My planet's technology is unparalleled! None is more superior!"
Decoy balanced himself on top the jungle gym watching the action below half-mindedly. As he strode across a strait bar, arms out for equilibrium, his back sparked. His pupils shrank and his gate stopped in mid-pace, entire body paused. Gravity took the robot clone letting it fall to the ground landing on its side. GIR jumped off the jungle gym shouting with delight as he hit the ground headfirst. Decoy resumed movement and joined GIR laughing about their plummets. Dib gave Zim a confident glance.
"None more superior in being stupid." He said with cocky boldness.
"You dare call my invention stupid?" Zim snarled.
"Well let's just say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." Dib smiled.
"Are you mocking me?" Zim shouted "It this mockery?!"
Dib smirked walking right up to Zim.
"No," he said "but this is." He took a firm grip on Zim's false beard and with a tight tug ripped it off. Zim howled in pain momentarily. Since a recent incident involving his disguises' tendency to fall off he had been using adhesive to keep parts of it on.
Dib laughed again believing he had control of this situation.
Zim growled. This human would not make him look like a fool. With a furious leap he threw himself onto the laughing child slashing with his pointed fingers. Caught by surprise, Dib tried to push the attacking alien off, gripping his wrists resistantly.
"You mock me for the last time laughy boy. You shall know the power of Zim."
Dib managed to roll Zim off his chest and pin him to the ground.
"You'll have to do better then that to beat this human."
Zim kicked Dib in the kneecap and tossed him aside. Regaining composure and his breath he got to his feet and stood over Dib who was attempting to do the same.
"You and your entire miserable race will bow before me!"
"How do you expect humans to obey you when you can't even control your decoy." Dib inquired getting up.
"And I guess you still don't know anything about that." Zim replied sarcastically.
"Must have been something you did." Dib smiled "it was acting doofy days before I installed that camera disk in its circuits."
"So you DID meddle!" Zim yelled pointing at Dib, eyes slitting.
"Uh oh," Dib squeaked, realizing he had just given away his plan.
Zim advanced enraged and unpredictable. Dib withdrew step by step then blasted into a full run. No help running, he found himself on the ground again tackled by a raging flash of green. Time to fight.
Fists flew; Dib managed to punch Zim in the shoulder. Zim retaliated with a blow to the chest. Rolling on the asphalt struggling with each other, the two seemed evenly matched, neither giving up until the other gave in. Kicks and punches and pushes and pulls. Hands around necks, knees into groins, teeth into flesh, brutal savagery.
"Go master go!" GIR cheered from the side watching gleefully. "I love wrestling."
Decoy watched as well, his face faltered with concern.
"Why are they fighting? Fighting isn't nice."
Dib knocked Zim with a fierce blow to the jaw.
"Stop fighting."
Zim pulled Dib's ear and elbowed him in the back of the head.
"You're not supposed to fight on the playground."
Decoy began to spark, his arms twirling around in their sockets wildly but going unnoticed. The fight consumed all attention.
Dib smacked Zim's head into the pavement but received a fist to the nose.
"Please, s-stop, stop fighting." The decoy flashed and sparked and stuttered, pleading with the warriors, speech slurring, body shaking.
"You have t-t-to p-p-play nice."
GIR looked up, Decoy was having some kind of fit, sparks popping all over his body, head twitching nervous ticks.
"Are you ok?" The little dog bot asked.
Decoy paused, focused straight ahead, eyes wide, expression absent. His voice was pitiful and warped.
"This isn't fun anymore..."
*KABOOM!!!*
The earsplitting sound shook the schoolyard. A sudden ball of fire where the decoy had been standing, blinding gazing eyes. Pieces landed on the ground, a charred hand, a cracked eyeball, a metal leg warped and bent from the heat, a pitch wig still aflame, several shorted circuits, wires and shrapnel everywhere.
The two feuding foes stared frozen in awe. The destruction scattered around them melted or burnt to a crisp. The last the to hit the ground was the decoy's utility pack. It rolled along its side with a rimming sound resembling a freshly lost hubcap on the highway until it landed to a clattering stop.
"This is all your fault!" Both fighters shouted at once.
"My fault?" Zim shrieked "It was your disk that made it malfunction."
"Well you let it run away." Dib contested kicking some scrap in anger. "Nothing looks salvageable. Which means my disk is fried."
Zim laughed,
"And it was your disk that caused it to explode." He hummed a deep chuckle "ironically gratifying karma."
Dib seethed, he HATED it when Zim was right.
GIR whimpered at the debris. The figure that stood right next to him only seconds ago was now a scattered gathering of smoldering rubbish.
"Master?" He lifted one of the busted robot arms. "Master are you ok?" No response "Say something. Speak to me." He shook it, tears welling in his eyes. "No, he's dead, NOOO!"
GIR cried hysterically hugging the metal arm. Little tears running down his fuzzy green cheeks into sloppy puddles at his feet.
Zim rolled his eyes, it was a pathetic sight to see. He calmly came up to GIR from behind.
"GIR" he said sternly.
"Master?" GIR sniffled turning around "Oh no, you're a ghost."
He cried loudly again, rubbing his head against Zim's leg.
"I am not a ghost GIR." Zim replied.
"But you 'sploded." The info unit held up the arm he was still holding.
Zim sighed,
"That was the decoy GIR, I am still very much alive."
"Oh," more sniffles "Poor decoy, he was gonna show me how to hula hoop." He dropped the arm and looked hopefully up at his master, "will you teach me how to hula hoop?"
"Just look at this mess," Zim stated changing the subject. "All the information the decoy gathered is lost."
"Looks like you'll have to go back to learning about earth the old fashioned way." Dib said regaining smugness.
"I don't need you to tell me that." Zim hissed looking over his shoulder as he bent to pick up his fallen belongings.
"I'd love to stick around but I do need to get home. It IS a SCHOOL night after all." Dib smiled and turned to leave. As he walked away he decided to stab his nemesis on last time.
"See you in school tomorrow Zim."
Climbing up the long barbed-wire fence surrounding the school, the bespectacled boy searched for any sign of Zim's double. He saw it, standing by the basketball courts, alone. This was his chance to get the disk, but before he could act he heard a voice call out in the darkness.
"There you are."
It was Zim. The alien had gotten there first. Watching from afar, Dib could only hear voices in the shadows that quickly escalated into yells and shouts. If the boy had not been so worried about the fate of his disk and his own well being he may have found the sound of Zim yelling at himself comical.
Leaning in to hear the argument better, he lost his footing and quickly tumbled to the ground with a thud, his body hitting the suspended end of a seesaw in the process.
"Did you hear that?" Zim quickly turned to GIR.
"Something went 'Ow thud'." GIR exclaimed.
"There's somebody here. I'm going to check it out." Zim turned towards the origin of the sound. "Watch the decoy GIR, make sure he doesn't move."
Zim ran off to where the noise had emanated leaving the two robots together. GIR stared up at Decoy who was still passively watching some pigeons peck the asphalt. The decoy suddenly turned his head to GIR.
"Wanna go play on the jungle gym?"
"Kay."
^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_
Dib struggled to get to his feet. His side and legs throbbing with pain from his fall. He quickly untangled himself from his trench coat as he heard footsteps approach.
"Dib," Zim hissed upon seeing the boy "I should have known you would be involved in this somehow."
Dib looked up ready to retort, getting a good look at Zim standing threateningly in the light provided by the dim and distant street lamps.
"Zim?" he asked stifling back a light chuckle "Is that you?"
"Yes it's me" the green one answered back slightly annoyed "who else could you think I was?"
Dib stood up no longer able to hold back his laughter. The sight of Zim before him dressed in clothing he must have found in the trash and a badly attached false beard was too much.
"You, you look... absolutely ... ridiculous!" Dib shouted between breaths and sniggers. "You look like a hobo! A circus midget! Where did you get that hat? A Dumpster?" He burst with heavy laughter "And those shoes, do you really think those make you look any taller?" He tried to catch his breath only to explode with further chortles falling to his knees "And don't get me started on that beard!"
"Yeah it is pretty funny looking." Decoy chirped from his perch atop the jungle gym.
Zim did a slow burn. His anger then erupted like a super nova.
"Nobody asked you!" he spat with venom pointing at decoy. He turned back to Dib ready to squeeze the human's head off with his bare hands. "And you... you did something, didn't you? You know why my decoy unit is malfunctioning, DON'T YOU?"
Dib calmed himself abruptly now that Zim's anger was present. He stood on his feet and tried to look confident.
"Maybe I do. But it's not like your plan would have worked anyway. I could tell that thing wasn't you from the start." He said lying slightly. "It didn't even act like you."
"So you meddled with it." Zim accused.
"You think I did something," Dib stalled trying to shift himself to appear innocent. "Maybe your technology isn't as advanced as you think."
Zim fumed,
"My planet's technology is unparalleled! None is more superior!"
Decoy balanced himself on top the jungle gym watching the action below half-mindedly. As he strode across a strait bar, arms out for equilibrium, his back sparked. His pupils shrank and his gate stopped in mid-pace, entire body paused. Gravity took the robot clone letting it fall to the ground landing on its side. GIR jumped off the jungle gym shouting with delight as he hit the ground headfirst. Decoy resumed movement and joined GIR laughing about their plummets. Dib gave Zim a confident glance.
"None more superior in being stupid." He said with cocky boldness.
"You dare call my invention stupid?" Zim snarled.
"Well let's just say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." Dib smiled.
"Are you mocking me?" Zim shouted "It this mockery?!"
Dib smirked walking right up to Zim.
"No," he said "but this is." He took a firm grip on Zim's false beard and with a tight tug ripped it off. Zim howled in pain momentarily. Since a recent incident involving his disguises' tendency to fall off he had been using adhesive to keep parts of it on.
Dib laughed again believing he had control of this situation.
Zim growled. This human would not make him look like a fool. With a furious leap he threw himself onto the laughing child slashing with his pointed fingers. Caught by surprise, Dib tried to push the attacking alien off, gripping his wrists resistantly.
"You mock me for the last time laughy boy. You shall know the power of Zim."
Dib managed to roll Zim off his chest and pin him to the ground.
"You'll have to do better then that to beat this human."
Zim kicked Dib in the kneecap and tossed him aside. Regaining composure and his breath he got to his feet and stood over Dib who was attempting to do the same.
"You and your entire miserable race will bow before me!"
"How do you expect humans to obey you when you can't even control your decoy." Dib inquired getting up.
"And I guess you still don't know anything about that." Zim replied sarcastically.
"Must have been something you did." Dib smiled "it was acting doofy days before I installed that camera disk in its circuits."
"So you DID meddle!" Zim yelled pointing at Dib, eyes slitting.
"Uh oh," Dib squeaked, realizing he had just given away his plan.
Zim advanced enraged and unpredictable. Dib withdrew step by step then blasted into a full run. No help running, he found himself on the ground again tackled by a raging flash of green. Time to fight.
Fists flew; Dib managed to punch Zim in the shoulder. Zim retaliated with a blow to the chest. Rolling on the asphalt struggling with each other, the two seemed evenly matched, neither giving up until the other gave in. Kicks and punches and pushes and pulls. Hands around necks, knees into groins, teeth into flesh, brutal savagery.
"Go master go!" GIR cheered from the side watching gleefully. "I love wrestling."
Decoy watched as well, his face faltered with concern.
"Why are they fighting? Fighting isn't nice."
Dib knocked Zim with a fierce blow to the jaw.
"Stop fighting."
Zim pulled Dib's ear and elbowed him in the back of the head.
"You're not supposed to fight on the playground."
Decoy began to spark, his arms twirling around in their sockets wildly but going unnoticed. The fight consumed all attention.
Dib smacked Zim's head into the pavement but received a fist to the nose.
"Please, s-stop, stop fighting." The decoy flashed and sparked and stuttered, pleading with the warriors, speech slurring, body shaking.
"You have t-t-to p-p-play nice."
GIR looked up, Decoy was having some kind of fit, sparks popping all over his body, head twitching nervous ticks.
"Are you ok?" The little dog bot asked.
Decoy paused, focused straight ahead, eyes wide, expression absent. His voice was pitiful and warped.
"This isn't fun anymore..."
*KABOOM!!!*
The earsplitting sound shook the schoolyard. A sudden ball of fire where the decoy had been standing, blinding gazing eyes. Pieces landed on the ground, a charred hand, a cracked eyeball, a metal leg warped and bent from the heat, a pitch wig still aflame, several shorted circuits, wires and shrapnel everywhere.
The two feuding foes stared frozen in awe. The destruction scattered around them melted or burnt to a crisp. The last the to hit the ground was the decoy's utility pack. It rolled along its side with a rimming sound resembling a freshly lost hubcap on the highway until it landed to a clattering stop.
"This is all your fault!" Both fighters shouted at once.
"My fault?" Zim shrieked "It was your disk that made it malfunction."
"Well you let it run away." Dib contested kicking some scrap in anger. "Nothing looks salvageable. Which means my disk is fried."
Zim laughed,
"And it was your disk that caused it to explode." He hummed a deep chuckle "ironically gratifying karma."
Dib seethed, he HATED it when Zim was right.
GIR whimpered at the debris. The figure that stood right next to him only seconds ago was now a scattered gathering of smoldering rubbish.
"Master?" He lifted one of the busted robot arms. "Master are you ok?" No response "Say something. Speak to me." He shook it, tears welling in his eyes. "No, he's dead, NOOO!"
GIR cried hysterically hugging the metal arm. Little tears running down his fuzzy green cheeks into sloppy puddles at his feet.
Zim rolled his eyes, it was a pathetic sight to see. He calmly came up to GIR from behind.
"GIR" he said sternly.
"Master?" GIR sniffled turning around "Oh no, you're a ghost."
He cried loudly again, rubbing his head against Zim's leg.
"I am not a ghost GIR." Zim replied.
"But you 'sploded." The info unit held up the arm he was still holding.
Zim sighed,
"That was the decoy GIR, I am still very much alive."
"Oh," more sniffles "Poor decoy, he was gonna show me how to hula hoop." He dropped the arm and looked hopefully up at his master, "will you teach me how to hula hoop?"
"Just look at this mess," Zim stated changing the subject. "All the information the decoy gathered is lost."
"Looks like you'll have to go back to learning about earth the old fashioned way." Dib said regaining smugness.
"I don't need you to tell me that." Zim hissed looking over his shoulder as he bent to pick up his fallen belongings.
"I'd love to stick around but I do need to get home. It IS a SCHOOL night after all." Dib smiled and turned to leave. As he walked away he decided to stab his nemesis on last time.
"See you in school tomorrow Zim."