Gaz is Spirited Away
Written by: Cartman's Girl

Notes: Woo, you get to see BLOOD now. YAY!

~*~

The rain had finally stopped, and work was finally done. No one was more grateful for that, then Gaz. It was a tough first day, what with almost being smothered in oily grease, then drowning in muddy water… but at least she got a present out of all of it. When she'd finally gotten her brain around the whole situation, she found a round mossy ball in her fist.

"Whoa, you got a gift from the River Spirit. Now that's neat." Skoodge had said as he looked at it. Gaz didn't see anything so spectacular about it, but it smelt nice either way. But now dinner was being eaten up in their dorms; and Gaz was sat out on the balcony. Her legs hung over the side, between the planks of wood that supported the railing. Skoodge then wondered up, in his PJ's. Blue with red dots. Ow.

"Here, I swiped you a slice of pizza." Skoodge said, handing her a slice.

"Hey neat." Gaz took the pizza and bit into it. She stared out across the vast ocean that now took up residence where the grass once was. "It really did rain that much…" she murmured.

"We don't get rain like this all the time though." Skoodge said as he bit into his own slice of pizza. "Only once every hundred years or so."

"Wait, how long have you had to slave here?" Gaz glanced at him before picking up a slice of salami.

"Going on two hundred and fifty six years. But I'm going to get out sometime…" Skoodge glanced down, and at that moment a train was driving along the train tracks. "I'm going to get on that train one day, and get the heck away from here." Gaz stared at Skoodge blankly.

"I would have escaped long ago if I were you." She sniffed, finishing off the pizza. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up again. "Hey have you seen Zim around?"

"Ugh, not Zim again. Look, rumour has it that he does Ms. Bitters' dirty work. You know, steal things, set people on fire, doom them… they say he enjoys it." Skoodge scratched at his forehead, leaving a smear of cheese.

"So he's bad. Neat." Gaz said the last part to herself quietly, and then looked at the mossy ball. She sniffed at it's fruity scent, then took a bite. She was shocked to learn it tasted hideous, and promptly threw up over the side of the balcony.

~*~

It was now well into the night, and the bathhouse was empty as… an empty thing. You know what I mean. But a lone figure hurried along the hallways, and stopped at the big tub's room. It was the frog. His name's Frog, if you were wondering. Frog leapt into the room, and picked up a stick he had brought in. With that, he began chipping away at the cracks between the floorboard; for gold no less.

Unknown to him he wasn't alone in the room. The purple figure sat up in the bath, looking over at him. The silent one watched Frog search and search, but then Frog stopped. A gold nugget, small but still gold, dropped from the sky and landed at his feet. He leapt at it, scooping it up hungrily.

"It's gold!" he declared the obvious. Then he stopped and looked up. "Hey what're you doing here? The bath's closed! Go home!" he pointed to the door. His response was more gold, dropping from the unknown one's hands. He scooped them up greedily. Greedy Frog. "More gold bits! …Are you giving them to me?" he asked. Once more, more gold appeared. But this time, remaining in the cupped hand.

"Ehh… ehh…" said the purple one. Frog was enchanted somehow. So much gold, he could afford a ticket on the train now, he could kick Ms. Bitters out and own the bathhouse, and he could do all sorts of neat things! He leapt up onto the bath's rim and grabbed the large pile of gold with his fists.

That's when disaster struck. The hand morphed around his neck, and before Frog could do anything he found himself being swallowed alive by the purple one. After devouring Frog, he simply used the stick to pick at his teeth. At that moment, Bob hurried up.

"What's with all the noise? Ain't you meant to be asleep or gone?" he looked into the room; then gold began to shower down from above. He rubbed his flat head and looked up, and there was the purple one. Now adorned with massive and powerful frog legs and hands, one hand outstretched with gold in it.

"Why good morning sunshine! Look, I'm hungry, practically starving myself here! So feed me NOW!" Bob looked totally confused.

"I… I know that voice… somehow…" yes, it seemed Frog's voice was being used by the purple spirit, but yet it had a hinting of puberty induced tone to it.

"Look, just go into the kitchen and feed me. Might as well wake EVERYBODY up, I'm STARVING!"

~*~

Running, so much running. The flowers seemed to fold away as she hurried down towards the pig pen. Gaz skidded to a halt as she entered, and all the pigs were milling around doing piggy things.

"Dad! Dib!" Gaz called out, "I have a gift from the River Spirit here, and if you're smart enough to get your fat porky asses over here you might get back to normal again!" Every pig in the pen lifted his, or her, head. The smell of the mossy sphere was enticing. They all rushed at the gate at once, squealing and kicking at a chance to sample the sweet smelling treat. Gaz stepped back,

"Wait, which ones are you?!" there were a lot of boars, sows and piglets trying to get at her. The gate was beginning to give way, it groaned as the weight of pigs pushed against it. Second later it burst and Gaz was over run with a cascade of pigs.

Then she woke up.

Gaz lay wide-eyed in the bed. Her eyes slowly returned to their squinty-angry look, and she sighed.

"Stupid dream." She then sat up, rubbing her eyes. Then she realised that she was alone in the room. All the other girls had left and obviously in a hurry since all the beds were unmade. "What?" Gaz gave her face a wash, pulled on her uniform and started down the stairs. It was totally quiet. But as she got closer to the baths, she could hear voices. Lots of voices, sounding happy and frantic.

"Gaz!" Skoodge hurried up, "Gaz you've got to come see this! There's a guest here, he's handing out fistfuls of gold for free!"

"What?" Gaz asked blankly.

"Look!" Skoodge held out a nugget the size of a chicken nugget. "Real gold!"

"…look, I haven't got time for that. I have to find Zim, all right? I need to talk to him about something." Gaz said, glancing around. She could hear orders being shouted from the kitchen about 'Him being hungry' and to 'Feed him anything'.

"Ugh, fine." Skoodge turned away, and Keef hurried up next.

"Come on Skoodge, let's get some more!"

"Yeah!" the two hurried off, leaving Gaz alone. She sighed, and turned and headed off in another direction.

~*~

"Come on, more food more food!" the purple one was… much fatter. His slim physique was gone now, and he was a giant blob of pulsing purple flesh. He was sat in the tub, his massive legs hanging over the side and people all around him. They carried plates of foods, all types of food.

He was handed a pig on a platter with an apple in it's mouth. He scarfed it down in a second and spat out the bones and core. He continued to eat like this, until he threw more gold around causing people to squeal happily and grab at it. Yep, he had everyone at his command.

But not everyone.

~*~

Gaz stepped out onto the lower balcony, staring out into the water. It was totally still, and little fish swam across the railway lines. She signed and leant onto the support beam.

"…wonder where he is anyway. He wouldn't just take off like that." She then heard a noise. It was a rustling sound, or more like the flapping of wings. Glancing around, she saw it. It was Zim. The long, metallic dragon was flying through the sky quickly. But something was following him.

It looked like white birds, all rushing to get at him.

"Zim?" Gaz blinked, and watched as Zim zigzagged around the sky, slicing through some of the birds in mid-air with his teeth or claws. "C'mon Zim!" Gaz found herself cheering him on. Hey it'd been a while since she'd seen some violence. "KILL EM ALL!" she shrieked.

But then Zim fell from the sky. He splashed into the water, and as he did a pink residue seemed to leak from him. Zim was bleeding.

"Uh oh." Gaz murmured. He swam a long through the water, the white bird-like creatures following above the water. Zim burst forth from the water and straight up. He flew straight past Gaz, blood splattering onto the balcony and onto the wall. "ZIM! ZIM COME ON!" she shouted, waving her arms.

Zim seemed to hear her, and did a U-Turn in mid air and flew straight at her. Gaz ducked, and he flew straight through the open door and smacked into the walls of the bedroom. Gaz then began trying to slide the doors shut, but one was stuck! She tried again, and it slowly began to slide. Then the birds struck. Well, they weren't birds.

Gaz swatted at them, pulling them off her, ripping them apart and soon it was over. Those that were stuck outside peeled themselves from the doors and flew away. Those on the floor remained there, ripped.

"…they're just paper…?" Gaz asked herself. "They must have given you really bad paper cuts Zim." She turned to look at him. And wow. He looked worse for wear. Blood was practically pouring down from his mouth, and there were cuts clear through his metallic armour and through to his fleshy self. His blood pooled over the beds.

"Whoa." Gaz said. Zim then leapt up, and flew straight past her; crashing through the sliding doors and splattering blood once again, all over. Gaz grabbed onto the balcony that was covered in blood and looked up. Zim was struggling, very much so, as he tried to fly up to the top room. He slammed into the walls a few times; but then vanished.

Gaz was stuck with a dilemma. Would she stay here and clean up the mess, or go up after Zim and make sure he wasn't dead already? She glanced around at the mess. Walls had claw marks in them, blood spilt everywhere, and the sliding doors had seen better days.

"…I'll go check on him." With that she hurried off. Unbeknownst to her though, one little piece of paper was still 'alive'. It stood straight up, and followed after Gaz as she hurried through the hallways. As she climbed the steps, it stuck itself to her back.

~*~

"All hail the rich man
He's hard for you to miss!
His butt keeps getting bigger
So there's plenty there to kiss!"

That lovely song was being performed by Bob, who was waving pompoms happily. In the long hallway, the workers lined both sides and held onto baskets, bowls, whatever they could get their hands on. The figure climbed up from below, revealing his massive self.

"Everybody bow down!" Bob declared. They all did, but then started screeching for more gold. More gold! Gaz then hurried up from the stairs and tried to get into the elevator. But someone stopped her. Another worker, whose name was Willy.

"Duaahhh, what are yew doin'?" he asked as he grabbed her arm. Oh the pong!

"Going up to the top floor, glue for brains!" Gaz replied nastily.

"No yer-AH! Blood!" Willy released her, grabbing his hand as if lethal acid had been dropped on his hand. Gaz saw the opportunity and ran back the way she came. And ran straight into Bob. Or, squashed Bob in this case.

"Hey! Get off 'n out of the way!" Bob pushed at her, and Gaz stood back. She then stared up, and the purple figure stared back. Gaz bit her lower lip. If he's a  customer now… ugh.

"T…Thank you for helping me before." She forced out of her mouth.

"Don't talk to him you puny h-" Bob was cut off as he was grabbed by the head and flung across the room by the purple spirit himself. Gaz and he stared at each other, until he offered her his open palms that were together. Gold began to mount up, until it was a massive pile. The mask now looked happy. He was repaying her for being so nice to him, if you're not with it yet.

"Uh…" Gaz stared at the gold, as did everyone else. But they made envious noises. "No, I can't take that." She said. The mask looked confused. "Look I have a friend who's really in pain right now, and I've got to help him. Thanks, anyway." With that, Gaz ran off. The mask now looked devastated, and dropped his gold.

With that, an avalanche of workers leapt at it, trying to grab it all. Bob wobbled back over, rubbing his head.

"Don't worry sir… s-she's just a stinking human after all…" he grinned happily, "But now we can move onto-"

"Wipe that smile off your face." came Frog's voice. Bob was sort of too shocked to stop at the tone the voice had given. It was dark, very dark. The spirit leant down, the massive mouth that took up residence under his mask was grinning; revealing teeth. "You're still SMILING!" with that he grabbed not onto Bob but Zita; and threw them into the depths of his mouth.

Panic insured. As you'd expect.

[To be continued!]