Two hours later the Spittle Runner plunged to Earth. Spiraling, skipping inches over the electrified fence of the Membrane household, the stolen Irken ship came down with a THUD that shook the block and set car alarms blaring three streets away. It scored a long trench in the lawn and slid thirty-five feet to a dull stop against the garage.
Dib tumbled out of the broken ship, clutching at his side. He stumbled away from the crash, sick and dizzy, and collapsed face-first in the dirt. Tired and beaten, he could barely rouse himself.
Get UP, Dib. Get UP... GET UP!... c'mon, it's only a concussion...!
His tiny frame quivered. His fingers dug into the thick green grass below his hands; his arms shook as he tried to find the strength- and a reason!- to rise out of the dirt he was currently eating. His arms held his chest off the ground, but his head sagged between his shoulders. Sweat ran down his nose and dripped into the grass as he gasped.
He'd been thrown stomach-first into the console and spine-first against the pilot's chair over and over during the fight. Dib was sure he'd find several dark and ugly new bruises under his clothes from all the jostling around. More for the collection...
At least I got Zim pretty good too.
Dib smiled bitterly in the dark, recalling the bone-rattling CRUNCH as he slammed the dying Spittle Runner into the side of the Voot Cruiser, devastating one of Zim's side-pod engines. The Cruiser had gone barreling wildly into the night in a spiral of smoke and flame, the alien ROARING in frustration over the open com line they'd been using to scream at each other...
Clinging to the recollection of his enemy's angry cry and the vision of his fall, Dib found enough strength to push himself up. EVERYTHING hurt, from his ragged black hair down to his booted toes. His lip was split, bleeding; a thin unpleasant taste, like he'd been licking metal, soured his mouth. Each breath came at painful price, as if he were being punished for breathing: sharp pain on inhale, dull pain on exhale. His vision strobed in and out of focus: out of everything it was this that irritated him the most, irrationally. He wondered if he'd taken a blow to the head during the crash. He couldn't remember.
Great, now I'm retarded.
His blurring vision fixed wearily on the dying Irken ship- /his/ dying ship. Sparks and smoke fizzled at its joints. Three grey probe-cables shot out from the ship and curled around Dib's right ankle and left wrist and throat, quivering metal, vengeful, frustrated, hopeless. Tak's system ghost screamed out. "CRITICAL SYSTEM MALFUNCTION! Filthy human MEAT, I HELPED you and you FAILED me...!"
Dib winced. "... I'm sorry...!"
The cables shoved him away. Seconds later the propulsion unit detonated spectacularly, blowing the ship in half. Molten orange fire and broken heat-shielding fragments cascaded into the sky, and the stars above seemed to utterly disappear behind a thick cloud of fetid brown smoke. The flailing cables spasmed, then slapped lifelessly to the grass.
The boy could only stare blankly as his ship burned.
----
The furniture of Professor Membrane's living room was edged in thin green light that blinked. All the lights in the house were turned off: the only illumination came from an LED clock sitting on a table next to the "Probing the Mysteries of Science" commemorative lamp and Membrane-head-shaped ashtray. Dib's eyes were drawn to it automatically through the dark and he frowned at its readout. 11:30. Great. And he still had homework to do...
Guess I'm pulling another all-nighter.
Dib groaned, in pain and irritation, and reached out to flip the light switch.
And BANG a weight came down HARD on his back, two sharp and pointy little knees grinding like corkscrews into his kidneys. He yelped and collapsed under the sudden attack. Hands pushed the back of his head down, rubbing his face into the carpeting. He gagged on dust and polyester carpet-fibers.
"You know, Dad just had that garage remodeled." Gaz hissed into his ear.
Dib twisted his head around, coughing and shooting his sister a weary scowl. "Like he's even gonna notice..."
The younger Membrane sibling gave a dry snort. "I notice." She released her brother and stood, started to brush her hands off, then frowned as she felt wetness on them. Slits of hazel peeked out from behind her near-perpetual squint.
There was blood smeared on her fingers.
"You're bleeding. Go clean up before you get it all over the floor." The little girl crossed her arms over her chest, set her feet firmly.
"Thanks for caring." Dib mumbled dourly.
Gaz frowned at his back as he began to limp away. She was going to let it slide but it snapped out of her mouth in a hot, hurried blur. "You're SO DAMN ANNOYING, DIB! You're impossible to LIKE, let alone CARE about!"
She watched the words slash into her brother. It shouldn't have been possible for him to deflate any further, but he did. He kept his back to her, but his shoulders stiffened, hands clenching. He glared at the floor in front of his feet, head turned down. "Shut up." The words were dangerously, dangerously quiet. Please, no, Gaz.. not right now. /please/.?
A crow's harsh laughter flooded out of Gaz, an angry beaky caw of derision. "No. You're gonna LISTEN to me for once. Don't just go running off and lock yourself in your stupid room with your computers and your Bigfeet or whatever." A surge of anger had her moving quickly across the floor, grabbing at his arm.
He tried to wrench free; she dug in sharper and held on grimly. "What is WRONG with you, Dib? Seriously, what is your PROBLEM? Why do you DO this? Is this like some really PATHETIC cry for help that you keep coming home like this?! Used to be I could at least have a CONVERSATION with you without your stupid MOUTH making me want to SLUG you, but ever since Zim showed up."
"Gaz.!" Don't do this, not right now.I can't take any more, you don't UNDERSTAND.!
"NO." She shook him, harder than she meant to, glaring at him one-eyed. "You don't get it- I DON'T LIKE YOU, Dib!" Her voice quivered, but there it was. There was the truth, something that had been struggling to pull free for a long time. And it felt GOOD to let it go. Sickly pleased she said it again, trying to drive it home, make him UNDERSTAND. "I DON'T LIKE YOU! You're my BROTHER and I don't even LIKE you! Hell, I don't even KNOW you! Do you even know who you ARE any more? At least Zim has an EXCUSE to be a loser- he's just a stupid ALIEN who doesn't KNOW any better. /You're/ just being." She felt the words slipping away and struggled with her tongue, grasping for any way to put across her meaning before she lost them all again, "...STUPID! You act like Zim, you talk like Zim, half the time you SMELL like Zim.!"
Dib's face was glacial, but his eyes screamed. He mumbled. "Sorry." Oh, real good comeback there, Dib.That all you can say today? "Sorry"? He turned his head away from his sister. "Can I please go now?"
The brutalized, ruined look that flashed across his features as he turned soured her guts. She defended herself against the gnawing guilt- he NEEDED to hear it! SOMEONE had to say it! But she'd lost her taste for confrontation and withdrew her fingers from his black sleeve. "Yeah."
He staggered up the stairs without another word.
After allowing sufficient time that any seeming concern could be shrugged as mere coincidence, Gaz followed her brother. His trail of burnt-oil scent led straight to the bathroom- to a closed door. Gaz crept nearer and put her ear to the door.
Water was running. There was no other sound.
She leaned in closer, eyes narrowing. Her attention moved to the blood-stained doorknob, and she started to reach for it, then hesitated. Instead she hopped backward and shouted.
"SOME of us wanna GO, Dib...! Hurry UP!"
She bounced from foot to foot to make the appropriate floor-creaking sound of impatience.
No reply- just the continual sound of running water.
Gaz's hands and teeth clenched; one eye opened, she stared at the door as if she expected to blow it apart with her willpower alone.
"...If you're in there killing yourself just because I yelled at you, I am SO going to kick your ass. You know how STUPID a way that is to go? I swear I won't go to your funeral...!"
Pause.
".... c'MON, OPEN UP already!"
Another pause.
"Okay, THAT does it! You are SO doomed!"
She grabbed the knob and twisted. Almost expecting the door to be locked, she was utterly surprised when it wasn't, when it immediately opened under the weight she threw at it. She stumbled in and caught herself quickly, a flash of embarrassment twitching across her forehead; the mighty Gaz was NEVER surprised by ANYTHING and anyone who SAID so was just WRONG.
She was surprised by this, though.
Water was running in the sink, running uselessly into the drain. There was Dib on the floor, on his side, blood smeared along the pristine white tiles, pooled around the tub and toilet. His shirt was off, thrown over the larger towel rack- the towels lay crumpled on the floor nearby. He was half-bandaged; his chest pale and bruised, damp and shining. An unfinished gauze wrapping had been started around his bleeding midsection.
Gaz stood in the doorway and glared down at her brother. The initial heartbeat of horror melted into annoyed recognition. She knew exactly what had happened.
Kneeling next to Dib, she tugged the gauze off the floor, pulled her brother across her knees and began to undo the bandage in grim silence. ". Can't even do a stupid FIELD DRESSING right, and you think you're gonna beat Zim? ..."
With clipped efficiency Gaz finished the dressing properly, sealing it tight with a metal butterfly clip. She hefted her unconscious brother off the floor and lurched off toward his bedroom. Ackwardly slinging him into bed, she wrestled the red coverlet over him and frowned down.
"Idiot."
----
jrandomlurker(at)yahoo.com