Hey there, thanks for reading this! Now, if you're really friendly, you'll give me a review! ^_^ Shout-outs to:
DibMagician
Thanks for the review; they're like food to me, you know.
Damocles feel hungry… Damocles need more food.
ShangHai
My Beta Reader! Thanks for the input! Hope you like the (semi) modified chapter!
Well, that's it. Hopefully there'll be more next chapter. Ah, well. Onto the story!
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Chapter Two: Unleashed
The Skool day had passed rather uneventfully. Zim remained remarkably silent, substituting his usually obnoxious ranting for a malevolent glare directed specifically at Dib. The ranting, however, continued unabated inside his head. Stupid DIB. Stupid, Bigheaded, Smelly, Rotten, Earthen Stink… uh… HEAD. Thinks my plans are stupid, does he? Well, he'll see. He'll see soon enough. Stupid Dib. I can't wait to see his face when I unleash my creation and the pathetic stink monkey is forced to watch his planet burn… and it will burn… Oh, the brilliant glow it shall make as burns! Zim began to feel slightly better.
After Skool, Dib decided to leave Zim be, for now, anyway. At the very least, Plan A had half worked. He had confirmed that Zim was, in fact, up to something. Now the only thing to do was proceed with Plan B: The infiltration of Zim's base, and the thwarting of his latest scheme, whatever it was. Gaz approached him from behind, her face buried in a large book.
"Are you going home, or are you just going to stand there all day?"
"No time to stand around, Gaz." Dib lowered his voice, obviously trying to sound more like the heroic savior he was.
"I've got to save the world." Dib charged off towards home, his mind already filling with excitement at the thought of all the new equipment he'd get to test out.
"Whatever." Gaz said, a slight scorn in her tone, before walking off towards home, face never once looking up from her book.
Dib rushed around his room. Pulling things off the wall, from the closet, out of his dresser, and throwing it all in a rapidly growing pile in the center of his bedroom.
"I'll need this… and this… and this… and OH! Therm-Optic Camo!"
Dib tossed the blue-green vest into the pile, apparently oblivious to the fact that no human could possibly carry the four hundred and seventeen pounds of equipment he had selected. With most of his room ripped apart and thrown into the pile, a satisfied smile crossed Dibs face. Then, slowly, the smile began to falter as reality set in. With a defeated sigh, he began to pick the essentials out of his pile of mail order techno junk.
In a matter of minutes, Dib had managed to stuff as much as he could onto his person. Laser cutters, thermo goggles, laptop, headset, throwing stars, sticky cameras, glue bombs, sleep cuffs, water pistol, and, under his trench coat, the Therm-Optic Camo.
Dib launched himself down the stairs and out the door, paying no mind to Gaz, who was sitting on the sofa playing her Game Slave II.
"Freak." Gaz muttered, not looking up from her game.
Zim scanned over the information on the monitor, cycling quickly between submenus and progress charts in an attempt to be as up-to-date as possible on his latest project. It was going exactly as he planned. Something rather unusual for Zim. In a few days, and with a little luck (something Zim was positive the fates owed him), the experiment would be ready, and humanity would be powerless to stop it. Once he ruled the Earth, the Dib Human would pay dearly for his transgressions. Dearly.
Dib crouched behind a large piece of alien machinery, watching the Irken work. The Therm-Optic Camo had been invaluable in getting this deep into Zim's base, but the batteries were almost out, and the second they went down he might as well have been carrying neon sign that said "Here I Am.". Dib concentrated on the monitor, unable to make out the Irken characters that danced across the screen. This wasn't good. Dib ducked back behind his cover. How was he supposed to uncover Zim's plot if he couldn't even read the alien's writing? It could have said right on that monitor exactly what it was Zim was up to, and Dib wouldn't have known. He'd have to hack into the system, download the file to his laptop, then take it home and try to figure it out. At the very least he could delete the thing, and maybe set the Invader's schedule back a bit. No… Zim probably had countless back up copies. Besides, he'd never be able to hack into anything with Zim standing right there. Dib poked his head cautiously out from behind the metallic construct to check on Zim, but the Irken wasn't there.
"Are you really that eager to find out what I'm doing?"
Dib whirled around, eyes quickly setting on the source of the voice.
Zim stood atop a circular platform, hovering above a large, steel door. His voice was magnified by the computer's speaker system, carrying it to the far corners of the lab.
"Well then, Dib, I guess you'll finally get what you want. I admit it's not yet ready to conquer the entire human race, but it's more than strong enough to destroy one measly worm-baby. Have fun, Dib. I hope you enjoy being ripped apart. GIR!"
A voice echoed from some far off corner of the lab.
"Yeeeeeessss?"
Zim glared at Dib, a malevolent smile brewing on his face.
"Release the Manslayer."
GIR trudged obediently towards the command console, eyeing a large red button clearly labeled "Cage Release". GIR released a squeal of joy before slamming his head down onto the button.
Sirens blared and red lights flashed as the large steel door began to groan slowly upward, a small amount of smoke escaping through the blackness behind it. Dib stood frozen to the spot, a mere thirty feet from the opening. Two menacing green eyes could be seen in the blackness revealed by the ever-rising door. GIR sat on the command console, a large bag of popcorn in his hands.
"I love this show." The robot said in a calm, singsong voice.
With a loud clang, the door was at last fully opened, and Zim's creation, the creature destined to destroy all mankind and ravage the world from whence they came, stepped into the light.
