A/Note: You asked for it Shay! (why do I have the feeling I've been
subjected to a subliminal message??) Sorry it took so long ^^; But it's a
longer chapter, at least!
Chapter Eleven: Doom for All
The car sputtered and finally died a few blocks later as the power propelling it gave out completely. The headlamps faded to a sickly yellow, then fluttered out as Dib and his father pushed the doors open. "We don't have much time," Membrane muttered, more to himself than to his son. "I'm not.. quite certain what Gaz is going to do, but I surmise that it will not be much longer before she does it." Dib shivered slightly in the evening air. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing fully on end, and the strange unearthly quiet of the evening being punctuated by the silence from the tortured electric lines overhead was certainly not helping his nerves any. The power surge had ceased, letting a heavily expectant atmosphere settling slowly on their shoulders.
"We've got to hurry." It was an obvious, stupid, redundant statement, but Dib said it anyway. He shook his head slightly, and began to run down the street. It had just occurred to the young paranormalist that he said a lot of redundant, obvious things. It just seemed to help him keep track of what was going on, he decided.
And besides.. it really added dramatic suspense to the narrative of his life.
Together, father and son raced down the abandoned street, towards the city park.
"You know, Zim, you really aren't taking this the way I'd have expected," Gaz mumbled dryly as the invader glared up at her. The girl had climbed up onto the fence that separated the previously high voltage electrical station from the mundane children's playground like a dangerous animal, and was watching the darkness gather slowly overhead into a malevolent sphere. The alien snarled balefully from his position at the bottom of the fence. Zim leaned against the chainlink, holding tightly to the thick wire mesh with one three-fingered hand.
"I wanted the Earth destroyed, you stupid mutant monkey. That much is true. But NOT with ZIM going along with it!" Zim growled, waving a weak fist in her direction. A few of his metal spidery legs dragged uselessly behind him. His pod had managed to save his life by directing the excessive electrical charge away from its vital systems, but at the cost of the fried devices that now trailed him. He'd never realized how heavy the blasted things were before.
Gaz glanced down at him, unimpressed. "Picky." She turned her attention upwards again, and managed a small, spiteful smile. Thin trails of dark vapor rose from the ground around them, gathering angrily a few feet off the ground. As it clustered together it sank slowly, almost imperceptibly towards the ground, effectively fooling the eye into telling the brain that the object was taking on some sort of mass.
From his vantage point below, Zim clung to the fence. He'd never felt so helpless. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he wasn't sure what he should do. 'There must be something', his ingenious brain insisted. There had to be something that he could do to stop this deranged.. thing passing itself off as a human. "GIR," he whispered, looking back over his shoulder and startling slightly. There was no sign of his robot companion anywhere. He was on his own. Desperate to do *something*, Zim began to frantically shake the wire mesh of the fence. It wasn't much, but in his weakened state, it was all that he could manage.
Gaz looked down at him again, frowning at the display. "What are you trying to do, Zim?" The irken narrowed his eyes angrily. "I'm going to stop you! I'll knock you off of your perch and stop that.. that.. whatever it is!" Zim pointed at the orb that hovered mesmerizingly just above the ground. It was still ever so slowly lowering as the last vestiges of the blackness gathered into its' core. It didn't glow, and it made no sound at all. The dim half-light of the evening rendered it visible as something like an imperfect hole in space. An inky, ill-defined void that was coming closer and closer to the startlingly ordinary, rather dry-looking grass below them. It was like the reverse effect of turning off a primitive human television, where the light and image would shrink and fade when the set was turned off. Zim fought the notion that if he looked away from the darkness again, that it would fall like a strange rock into the ground and once again glared daggers at the girl sitting serenely over him.
"It's out of my hands, Zim." Gaz replied finally, almost reluctantly. "There's nothing I can do now to stop it. Even if.. I wanted to, I couldn't call it back." The void shrank into itself a little, and the outer edges of it seemed to sharpen. Only a few scant inches separated the void of black from the blades of grass.
GIR ran back and forth along the sides of a large puddle, chasing the ripples that crossed its' surface. It was the most fun he'd had since he'd filled Master's ship up with a combination of meringue and live fish! Hm, Master's ship.. there was something he was supposed to remember about it.. GIR stopped running and concentrated, trying with all his might to remember what he'd been doing before he'd noticed the puddle. A thin wisp of smoke began to rise from the side of his head.
The little SIR unit's concentration snapped abruptly like a rubber band with too much pressure applied as he heard the sound of running. GIR's head jerked upwards and he screamed at the apparitions that surged towards him.
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
Dib clasped his hands over his ears at the greeting. "Why doesn't your master install a mute button on you?!" he demanded, trotting to a stop with Professor Membrane close behind him. GIR shrugged cluelessly. "To get to the other side?" The middle-school paranormalist gave one of his patented long-suffering sighs. "Look, we've got to find Gaz." He indicated his father, who was watching in bemused facination behind him. "Dad and I have gotta find her fast, or something. something bad, we think, is going to happen."
GIR peered around the near-disturbingly large head belonging to the small boy speaking to him, and his optic cameras refocused and zoomed outward slightly. "YOU HAVE A FACE!?" he shrieked, pointing at the professor's exposed flesh. It was difficult to tell if the robot was pleased or frightened by this discovery. GIR ran around the tall man, taking in a full 360* view of the strange phenomenon. "What an.. interesting.. toy.." Membrane mused, reaching downwards to pick up the startled alien device.
Dib shook his head. "Dad, I know that this isn't the time, but remember that.. 'alien' I tried to tell you about?" Professor Membrane glanced down from his amazing distraction, "The one under your bed?" Dib groaned. "Dad, that was when I was three! No, I mean Zim! The alien who's infiltrated my class at skool! That's GIR, he's Zim's robot." GIR grinned and waved at the confused man. "How ya doin'!?" Membrane turned the SIR unit over. "So where do the batteries go?"
"Dad.. look we can debate this later," Dib responded, for once letting go of the need to prove he was right about something. "We gotta find Gaz, remember?" GIR squealed happily as he was released and fell with a splash into the puddle he had been running around earlier. "I know where she iiiiiis!" he giggled, spitting out a thin stream of water.
Dib crossed his arms. "The park?" GIR sulked. "Awww, who told? Someone told! I'm telling Master!" the robot threatened, arising from his puddle and running back down the street towards the city park. Dib felt his throat tighten. Zim was at the park with Gaz? It was the worst-case scenario that he'd feared from the start. Grabbing his father by the hand, the boy pursued the robot towards the park, practically dragging the man along behind him.
"MASTER! MAAAASTEEEER!" GIR screamed, running past the smouldering remains of the Voot and towards the surprised green and red shape of his reluctant master. "I gotta tell you I-"
The ball of blackness touched the ground, and not knowing any better or simply unable to see the strange sphere of not-light, GIR ran right into the darkness. The ball moved through the robot's form and flattened into the ground. GIR stood motionless, as if frozen in place. There was a hushed, low-frequency hum, and ripples like thin walls of darkness surged out in concentric rings from the rather unassuming touchdown point.
Zim and Gaz braced themselves against the fence as it surged through them, taking their breath away and causing Gaz to slip from where she had been resting at the top. She grabbed for the wire mesh and held on desperately as she fell forwards, twisting her arm at an uncomfortable angle.
Zim blinked and gave a short gasp as he shook off the effects of the jolt. "GIR?" he called hesitantly, watching the immobile robot. GIR's optics flickered randomly, then blazed abruptly back to full strength as the unit reactivated itself. "Woo! SURGE!" he cheered. Zim slumped against the fence with a relieved sigh. "GIR, you're okay?" GIR nodded gleefully. "Right as rain and twice as wet!" He held out a hand still dripping from the puddle that he'd fallen in. "Wanna see?" Zim shrank away from his overenthusiastic companion as Gaz struggled to climb the rest of the way down the fence.
Ignoring the small female's plight, Zim strode confidently out into the wake of their now all but forgotten peril. "Well, well. it seems that you have saved your master with your advanced.. Whatever the heck that was. Good job, GIR." Zim praised. GIR giggled. "I've been eating bugs!" Zim squinted at the machine, and grimaced at the sight of a few small wiggling insectoid legs that were protruding from the robot's smile. "Urg.. I feel the urge to reverse my digestive process with a MIGHTY HEAVE!" he muttered unhappily.
"ZIM!"
Oh-ho.. If it wasn't his best worst enemy. Zim grinned. Testing gloat readiness- Gloat ready. Cue the gloat. "Well.. DIB. I'll have you know that your little scheme didn't work! BEHOLD! For I am unscathed!" Zim posed dramatically, and just in case the primitive Earth ape had forgotten just whom he was dealing with, reminded him. "I AM ZIM!"
The Dib looked paler than usual, and badly shaken. Not surprising since he was now in the terrible presence of the fabulous Zim. "Zim, what have you done to Gaz!?" the boy demanded, pushing past the alien to attempt and recover his sister from where she was still dangling painfully. "Gaz, are you okay? What was that STUFF, Zim? Gaz, did he hurt you? You're going to pay for this, ALIEN!" Dib's speech shot back and forth as if he were a multiple personality having an argument with his other self.
Feeling justifiably slighted and falsely accused, Zim straightened indignantly. "For your information, Dib, it wasn't I who caused that display." He pointed past the boy. "It was that.. CREATURE you call a sibling! I was merely the intended victim! But, as you can see I have emerged! Singed, yet triumphant!" Zim's victorious pose deteriorated into panic at the sound of footsteps behind him. He was without his disguise, totally exposed. Determined to go down like the brave soldier that he was, Zim whirled to face the danger approaching.
Professor Membrane ran past the hardware-towing alien to rescue his daughter. "You'll be fine, Gaz," he assured her as he checked her range of motion on the abused limb. "It's just a sprain." Gaz stared at him with no trace of recognition. "Who are you?" The man startled. "Gaz, it's me! Your father!" His tone turned slightly pleading as he searched her eyes for traces of the little girl he remembered who had worn a cute pink ribbon in her hair and asked him 'Why' repeatedly until even the might of science was not sufficient to explain the reasons for whatever the question.
"My father is Professor Membrane. The self-styled savior of mankind through science and marketable image," Gaz replied coldly. "If you're my father, you seem to have shed your identity. I don't recognize you at all."
Dib gaped in disbelief. "Gaz, wha..? How can you..?" Their father shook his head, cutting the boy off before he could finish a sentence. "You're right Gaz, I have." Both children blinked at him in surprise. "I've.. I've been a lousy excuse for a father. I lost myself in my work and almost couldn't find myself again. But I- I want to start over. I want to be your dad instead of your legal guardian. If you'll let me, that is."
A single tear welled in Gaz's left eye as she listened. Somewhere deep within, the resolve forged of hatred and resentment was beginning to crack.
Her father's own eyes were watering as he continued. "I can't ever make it up to you, kids. I know that. But I'd like to try. I'd like to learn to excel at something I should have been trying for a long, long time ago. I- I suppose that I got so caught up in saving all human-kind under the pretense of making the world a better place for you two that I forgot to try and nurture your humanity."
Zim eyed the scene suspiciously as the girl who'd tried to doom him suddenly began to cry. What were these *shudder* humans up to? GIR blew his non-existant nose. "I love this show! Jessica! Don't betray Roger!"
Gaz broke into sobs as the dam of anger finally failed and let loose a flood of bottled up emotions. "Daddy, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Her father hugged her closely and tried to reassure her. "Gaz, honey.. it's okay. It'll be okay." She frantically shook her head. "No, no-no! I- I didn't really mean it.. I didn't! But- But I- I killed everyone!" She began to cry anew. Membrane sat his daughter down beside her awestruck brother. "Gaz, what do you mean?" Gaz hugged her arms tightly around herself. "Y-You saw it, didn't you? You must have seen it." She giggled nervously.
Dib shuddered suddenly. "That.. black stuff? I thought maybe I imagined it. It felt.. wrong. Like it grabbed me for a second and just.. evaluated me." The boys' eyes widened. "Gaz, *you* did that?"
His sister nodded again and continued to rock back and forth. "I made it. I let it loose. It's spreading out now, all over the world. It'll take stock of every living thing on the planet. And when it rejoins into itself on the exact opposite side of the world from where it began. it will coalesce then surge back towards us. And this time as it travels, it will snuff out all life. No living creature, even down to single-celled organisms, will survive."
..to be continued.. Yes, I AM evil, aren't I? Go look at my pics of Evil Gaz! GO! *big pleading eyes* Pleeeeeease..?
Chapter Eleven: Doom for All
The car sputtered and finally died a few blocks later as the power propelling it gave out completely. The headlamps faded to a sickly yellow, then fluttered out as Dib and his father pushed the doors open. "We don't have much time," Membrane muttered, more to himself than to his son. "I'm not.. quite certain what Gaz is going to do, but I surmise that it will not be much longer before she does it." Dib shivered slightly in the evening air. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing fully on end, and the strange unearthly quiet of the evening being punctuated by the silence from the tortured electric lines overhead was certainly not helping his nerves any. The power surge had ceased, letting a heavily expectant atmosphere settling slowly on their shoulders.
"We've got to hurry." It was an obvious, stupid, redundant statement, but Dib said it anyway. He shook his head slightly, and began to run down the street. It had just occurred to the young paranormalist that he said a lot of redundant, obvious things. It just seemed to help him keep track of what was going on, he decided.
And besides.. it really added dramatic suspense to the narrative of his life.
Together, father and son raced down the abandoned street, towards the city park.
"You know, Zim, you really aren't taking this the way I'd have expected," Gaz mumbled dryly as the invader glared up at her. The girl had climbed up onto the fence that separated the previously high voltage electrical station from the mundane children's playground like a dangerous animal, and was watching the darkness gather slowly overhead into a malevolent sphere. The alien snarled balefully from his position at the bottom of the fence. Zim leaned against the chainlink, holding tightly to the thick wire mesh with one three-fingered hand.
"I wanted the Earth destroyed, you stupid mutant monkey. That much is true. But NOT with ZIM going along with it!" Zim growled, waving a weak fist in her direction. A few of his metal spidery legs dragged uselessly behind him. His pod had managed to save his life by directing the excessive electrical charge away from its vital systems, but at the cost of the fried devices that now trailed him. He'd never realized how heavy the blasted things were before.
Gaz glanced down at him, unimpressed. "Picky." She turned her attention upwards again, and managed a small, spiteful smile. Thin trails of dark vapor rose from the ground around them, gathering angrily a few feet off the ground. As it clustered together it sank slowly, almost imperceptibly towards the ground, effectively fooling the eye into telling the brain that the object was taking on some sort of mass.
From his vantage point below, Zim clung to the fence. He'd never felt so helpless. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he wasn't sure what he should do. 'There must be something', his ingenious brain insisted. There had to be something that he could do to stop this deranged.. thing passing itself off as a human. "GIR," he whispered, looking back over his shoulder and startling slightly. There was no sign of his robot companion anywhere. He was on his own. Desperate to do *something*, Zim began to frantically shake the wire mesh of the fence. It wasn't much, but in his weakened state, it was all that he could manage.
Gaz looked down at him again, frowning at the display. "What are you trying to do, Zim?" The irken narrowed his eyes angrily. "I'm going to stop you! I'll knock you off of your perch and stop that.. that.. whatever it is!" Zim pointed at the orb that hovered mesmerizingly just above the ground. It was still ever so slowly lowering as the last vestiges of the blackness gathered into its' core. It didn't glow, and it made no sound at all. The dim half-light of the evening rendered it visible as something like an imperfect hole in space. An inky, ill-defined void that was coming closer and closer to the startlingly ordinary, rather dry-looking grass below them. It was like the reverse effect of turning off a primitive human television, where the light and image would shrink and fade when the set was turned off. Zim fought the notion that if he looked away from the darkness again, that it would fall like a strange rock into the ground and once again glared daggers at the girl sitting serenely over him.
"It's out of my hands, Zim." Gaz replied finally, almost reluctantly. "There's nothing I can do now to stop it. Even if.. I wanted to, I couldn't call it back." The void shrank into itself a little, and the outer edges of it seemed to sharpen. Only a few scant inches separated the void of black from the blades of grass.
GIR ran back and forth along the sides of a large puddle, chasing the ripples that crossed its' surface. It was the most fun he'd had since he'd filled Master's ship up with a combination of meringue and live fish! Hm, Master's ship.. there was something he was supposed to remember about it.. GIR stopped running and concentrated, trying with all his might to remember what he'd been doing before he'd noticed the puddle. A thin wisp of smoke began to rise from the side of his head.
The little SIR unit's concentration snapped abruptly like a rubber band with too much pressure applied as he heard the sound of running. GIR's head jerked upwards and he screamed at the apparitions that surged towards him.
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
Dib clasped his hands over his ears at the greeting. "Why doesn't your master install a mute button on you?!" he demanded, trotting to a stop with Professor Membrane close behind him. GIR shrugged cluelessly. "To get to the other side?" The middle-school paranormalist gave one of his patented long-suffering sighs. "Look, we've got to find Gaz." He indicated his father, who was watching in bemused facination behind him. "Dad and I have gotta find her fast, or something. something bad, we think, is going to happen."
GIR peered around the near-disturbingly large head belonging to the small boy speaking to him, and his optic cameras refocused and zoomed outward slightly. "YOU HAVE A FACE!?" he shrieked, pointing at the professor's exposed flesh. It was difficult to tell if the robot was pleased or frightened by this discovery. GIR ran around the tall man, taking in a full 360* view of the strange phenomenon. "What an.. interesting.. toy.." Membrane mused, reaching downwards to pick up the startled alien device.
Dib shook his head. "Dad, I know that this isn't the time, but remember that.. 'alien' I tried to tell you about?" Professor Membrane glanced down from his amazing distraction, "The one under your bed?" Dib groaned. "Dad, that was when I was three! No, I mean Zim! The alien who's infiltrated my class at skool! That's GIR, he's Zim's robot." GIR grinned and waved at the confused man. "How ya doin'!?" Membrane turned the SIR unit over. "So where do the batteries go?"
"Dad.. look we can debate this later," Dib responded, for once letting go of the need to prove he was right about something. "We gotta find Gaz, remember?" GIR squealed happily as he was released and fell with a splash into the puddle he had been running around earlier. "I know where she iiiiiis!" he giggled, spitting out a thin stream of water.
Dib crossed his arms. "The park?" GIR sulked. "Awww, who told? Someone told! I'm telling Master!" the robot threatened, arising from his puddle and running back down the street towards the city park. Dib felt his throat tighten. Zim was at the park with Gaz? It was the worst-case scenario that he'd feared from the start. Grabbing his father by the hand, the boy pursued the robot towards the park, practically dragging the man along behind him.
"MASTER! MAAAASTEEEER!" GIR screamed, running past the smouldering remains of the Voot and towards the surprised green and red shape of his reluctant master. "I gotta tell you I-"
The ball of blackness touched the ground, and not knowing any better or simply unable to see the strange sphere of not-light, GIR ran right into the darkness. The ball moved through the robot's form and flattened into the ground. GIR stood motionless, as if frozen in place. There was a hushed, low-frequency hum, and ripples like thin walls of darkness surged out in concentric rings from the rather unassuming touchdown point.
Zim and Gaz braced themselves against the fence as it surged through them, taking their breath away and causing Gaz to slip from where she had been resting at the top. She grabbed for the wire mesh and held on desperately as she fell forwards, twisting her arm at an uncomfortable angle.
Zim blinked and gave a short gasp as he shook off the effects of the jolt. "GIR?" he called hesitantly, watching the immobile robot. GIR's optics flickered randomly, then blazed abruptly back to full strength as the unit reactivated itself. "Woo! SURGE!" he cheered. Zim slumped against the fence with a relieved sigh. "GIR, you're okay?" GIR nodded gleefully. "Right as rain and twice as wet!" He held out a hand still dripping from the puddle that he'd fallen in. "Wanna see?" Zim shrank away from his overenthusiastic companion as Gaz struggled to climb the rest of the way down the fence.
Ignoring the small female's plight, Zim strode confidently out into the wake of their now all but forgotten peril. "Well, well. it seems that you have saved your master with your advanced.. Whatever the heck that was. Good job, GIR." Zim praised. GIR giggled. "I've been eating bugs!" Zim squinted at the machine, and grimaced at the sight of a few small wiggling insectoid legs that were protruding from the robot's smile. "Urg.. I feel the urge to reverse my digestive process with a MIGHTY HEAVE!" he muttered unhappily.
"ZIM!"
Oh-ho.. If it wasn't his best worst enemy. Zim grinned. Testing gloat readiness- Gloat ready. Cue the gloat. "Well.. DIB. I'll have you know that your little scheme didn't work! BEHOLD! For I am unscathed!" Zim posed dramatically, and just in case the primitive Earth ape had forgotten just whom he was dealing with, reminded him. "I AM ZIM!"
The Dib looked paler than usual, and badly shaken. Not surprising since he was now in the terrible presence of the fabulous Zim. "Zim, what have you done to Gaz!?" the boy demanded, pushing past the alien to attempt and recover his sister from where she was still dangling painfully. "Gaz, are you okay? What was that STUFF, Zim? Gaz, did he hurt you? You're going to pay for this, ALIEN!" Dib's speech shot back and forth as if he were a multiple personality having an argument with his other self.
Feeling justifiably slighted and falsely accused, Zim straightened indignantly. "For your information, Dib, it wasn't I who caused that display." He pointed past the boy. "It was that.. CREATURE you call a sibling! I was merely the intended victim! But, as you can see I have emerged! Singed, yet triumphant!" Zim's victorious pose deteriorated into panic at the sound of footsteps behind him. He was without his disguise, totally exposed. Determined to go down like the brave soldier that he was, Zim whirled to face the danger approaching.
Professor Membrane ran past the hardware-towing alien to rescue his daughter. "You'll be fine, Gaz," he assured her as he checked her range of motion on the abused limb. "It's just a sprain." Gaz stared at him with no trace of recognition. "Who are you?" The man startled. "Gaz, it's me! Your father!" His tone turned slightly pleading as he searched her eyes for traces of the little girl he remembered who had worn a cute pink ribbon in her hair and asked him 'Why' repeatedly until even the might of science was not sufficient to explain the reasons for whatever the question.
"My father is Professor Membrane. The self-styled savior of mankind through science and marketable image," Gaz replied coldly. "If you're my father, you seem to have shed your identity. I don't recognize you at all."
Dib gaped in disbelief. "Gaz, wha..? How can you..?" Their father shook his head, cutting the boy off before he could finish a sentence. "You're right Gaz, I have." Both children blinked at him in surprise. "I've.. I've been a lousy excuse for a father. I lost myself in my work and almost couldn't find myself again. But I- I want to start over. I want to be your dad instead of your legal guardian. If you'll let me, that is."
A single tear welled in Gaz's left eye as she listened. Somewhere deep within, the resolve forged of hatred and resentment was beginning to crack.
Her father's own eyes were watering as he continued. "I can't ever make it up to you, kids. I know that. But I'd like to try. I'd like to learn to excel at something I should have been trying for a long, long time ago. I- I suppose that I got so caught up in saving all human-kind under the pretense of making the world a better place for you two that I forgot to try and nurture your humanity."
Zim eyed the scene suspiciously as the girl who'd tried to doom him suddenly began to cry. What were these *shudder* humans up to? GIR blew his non-existant nose. "I love this show! Jessica! Don't betray Roger!"
Gaz broke into sobs as the dam of anger finally failed and let loose a flood of bottled up emotions. "Daddy, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Her father hugged her closely and tried to reassure her. "Gaz, honey.. it's okay. It'll be okay." She frantically shook her head. "No, no-no! I- I didn't really mean it.. I didn't! But- But I- I killed everyone!" She began to cry anew. Membrane sat his daughter down beside her awestruck brother. "Gaz, what do you mean?" Gaz hugged her arms tightly around herself. "Y-You saw it, didn't you? You must have seen it." She giggled nervously.
Dib shuddered suddenly. "That.. black stuff? I thought maybe I imagined it. It felt.. wrong. Like it grabbed me for a second and just.. evaluated me." The boys' eyes widened. "Gaz, *you* did that?"
His sister nodded again and continued to rock back and forth. "I made it. I let it loose. It's spreading out now, all over the world. It'll take stock of every living thing on the planet. And when it rejoins into itself on the exact opposite side of the world from where it began. it will coalesce then surge back towards us. And this time as it travels, it will snuff out all life. No living creature, even down to single-celled organisms, will survive."
..to be continued.. Yes, I AM evil, aren't I? Go look at my pics of Evil Gaz! GO! *big pleading eyes* Pleeeeeease..?