"Me and Zim figured since you had to spend your birthday in space…and it's our fault…We would make today your birthday." Gaz grinned a little.
"Um, Zim's waiting downstairs. We'll meet you down there when you get dressed, OK? We made you breakfast." Downstairs the smoke alarm blared. The others in the house soon took up the call.
"STUPID HUMAN TOASTER!!!!!!!"
"Ummm. Yeah. I'm gonna go take care of that. See you in a few minutes."
Gaz came down the stairs slowly, hoping that she didn't see a smoking charred ruin. She didn't see anything blackened, so she relaxed.
"Sit down, we'll be done in one second." Said Dib. He was working on something she couldn't see behind the counter. She sat down at the end of the kitchen table. Zim came out balancing two plates on his hands. He set one down in front of Gaz, and the other across from him. Gaz looked at the plate. It was a waffle with whipped cream eyes, and a strawberry nose. It had a banana slice mouth. It was very cute.
Dib came out with a gold-wrapped gift. He set it in front of Gaz. Gaz grinned.
"Ohhh, I get a present!" Dib and Zim grinned back.
"Yeah. We made it ourselves." She undid the gold bow, and tore through the gold wrapping. Tiny pieces fell to the ground feet away.
"WOW! A gameslave! How did you make a gameslave?"
"Basic stuff, really. The main hard drive-" Dib glared at Zim.
"Hypothetical question, Zim." Zim looked at the table.
"Oh. Um. If you have any problems or glitches or anything tell me and I'll fix it."
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Me too."
"What do you want to do today? Anything you want to do is our treat."
"Limit is what, like $20?" The two boys looked at each other mischievously.
"No. No limit." Gaz thought it wiser not to ask.
"I dunno. Coney Island." Gaz laughed at her own joke.
"Coney Island it is." Said Zim seriously.
"I was kidding. That would be fun though. Ooooh, I know."
Zim moved silently through the fog, his weapon held ready. Strange noises echoed through the strange environment. Garishly painted shapes loomed above him.
He saw a slight movement to one side, and whirled around, releasing several shots in rapid succession. A bright light flared up, and he ran the other way. He sent off random shots behind him as he ran. He hid behind a glowing orange wall. He looked around, at the ready.
He didn't see Dib. The boy snuck up around the other side of the wall, his own weapon ready to fire. He jumped over the wall, a red beam emerging from his weapon. It hit Zim directly in the chest. Zim shuddered.
"I'll get you back for that, Dib." Dib ran off.
Zim slowly counted to five, and then took off after Dib. His laser gun vibrated, signaling the end of the stop period. He saw Dib duck behind a black-lit wall. He jumped around it, hitting Dib twice in the shoulder. He backed against the wall, covering his back, and watched Dib, his gun at ready. Dib's target harness vibrated, but before he could fire, Zim shot him again, deadening his gun. Dib, seeing no other choice, jumped the 4-foot wall, and disappeared into the fog. Zim grinned, but stopped when he felt his harness vibrate. Where…?
He looked up into the second level, a maze of twisting passages, riddled with dead ends and mirrors. Sections of the floor were grate, making it easy to catch victims from above.
Gaz grinned down at him, giving him a little wave. She turned to fire at someone else, invisible to Zim. He aimed at her, and fired, but missed. She turned back to him, but was hit with another laser from whoever she had just fired at. Zim took the opportunity to sheath his gun and climb a nearby rope ladder. He was going after Gaz. He ran toward where she was, shooting at a few random kids along the way. They ignored him as just another player. He came up onto the landing where he had last seen Gaz. He saw the place where he had been hiding. Then he went off to look for Gaz again. He knew she'd be here, somewhere. That was her style. Lure 'em in, shoot 'em. Suddenly, the whole place seemed deserted. There was no one but him and Gaz. He saw something move, and shot at it. The red beam reflected off the mirror and hit him. He rolled his eyes.
"Shot myself. Stupid rookie's mistake. Ris-TEF!" He ended in an Irken curse as Gaz came from behind a mirror, weapon shooting of several red beams. Zim's gun was effectively paralyzed. She grinned evilly. He was stuck in a dead end. A huge yellow light blazed in a corner.
"Game over." Said a computerized voice. Gaz sighed.
"Oooh, I had you trapped, too. Ah well. Wanna do another?"
"Sure." They walked toward the exit.
And the winner with the most hits is… Gamegurl!" Gaz jumped in the air, and clapped her hands. The announcer handed her her score card.
"And the winner who got hit the least is… Invadr!" Zim grinned his 'I'm superior' smile, and took his card. Dib hadn't won anything this time, but he wasn't too upset. They added their score cards to the growing pile.
"Are we doing another one?" asked Dib. Gaz and Zim shared a look.
"Yes." They said in unison.
"Cool."
No. No. Not again. They said that last one was their last one. They've been doing this all day! Every five minutes for the last hour. I need a break. I do not get paid enough for this. They're coming again. They want three more tickets. Codenames? I ask. They smile. Invadr. Gamegurl. Mothman. I know it. They know it. But they think, and debate. They ask me what I think. They go through several different ones. And then they go with the same codenames they've had all day. Only another minute until shift change.
Several hours later, the gaming was interrupted by the sudden, desperate need for food. Gaz wanted to go to Bloaty's. Zim swallowed his horrible dislike for the place. He didn't eat any pizza though. And he yelled at a few of the monster robots. They freaked him out.
Dib and Gaz had a pizza-eating contest. Gaz won after eating ten pieces of pizza. Zim just ate his lick-em-stick. Plus a big bar of white chocolate. Yum. Chocolate.
After lunch, they were all pretty bored with Laser Tag so they sought entertainment elsewhere. They walked around the city. Then they made the fatal error of going into a 24/7.
They bought three Brainfreezys. They sat outside and drank them, watching the world turn. And then they got another Brainfreezy. And then just one more. Did I mention that Brainfreezys are like 197 sugar? Yeah.
"LET'S RACE AGAIN!" Three streaks of color ran down the road, moving at a sugar-accelerated pace. People ran for cover.
"I WIN I WIN I WINNNN!" Yelled Zim. He now knew the pleasures behind Gir's lifestyle. It was great.
"LET'S RACE AGAIN!" They ran back. Some random pedestrian threw a water balloon at Dib in an attempt to calm him down. It didn't work.
"HE THREW BALLOON OF DOOM! GET HIM!!!" The poor helpless man ran away, and the three lunatics followed him. They'd been chasing each other all morning, they could chase someone else.
1 chaos-filled hour later
Six saucer-sized eyes stared at the horror on the movie screen. Gaz wanted to sit in the front row. Which would have been fine if the movie wasn't 'Vampire babysitter murderers 3-D.' Zim screamed. It was a scary movie.
Gaz stared at the violence on the screen. She grinned. You could just see her brain taking notes. Zim stared too. He had never been to a movie before. The glory of it astounded him. Dib stared for four seconds. Then he just watched the movie in brief snatches between unbending his neck. Have you ever sat in the front? You have to keep your head at like a 90 degree angle.
Then there was the sugar drop. They all fell asleep. They missed most of the movie.
"Thanks, guys. That was a lot of fun. I wish all my birthdays were like this." Gaz grinned. The three friends said goodbye. Dib and Gaz walked down their pathway, and Zim went into his glowing base. Gaz wrote everything that had happened that day in her journal. Then she started on her new game.
The first two levels were pretty easy. The demonic squirrels were pretty easy to beat. The third level was harder. In it the chipmunks of evil joined the squirrels. It took her ten minutes to beat that level. For the third level, that was a long time.
Finally, after beating the fourth level an hour later, she had to go to bed. She saved the game, and dropped into bed.