GalaxyDancer's "Flowers and Spikes"

Chapter 03: The 8th Dimension Demon

Author's Comments:

And now, all parts come into play. We finally get into the plot of this insane story. Finally. Sheesh, GalaxyDancer, what took ya so long? Well, I just like to carry things on . . . and on . . . and on . . . until you can't take it any more, and THEN I reveal my genius ideas. Well . . . okay. Time to meet this so-called little girl with a crush on Zim. And this is probably the longest chapter besides the last chapter, so don't worry.

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Nervously looking out the window on the upper level, now with his disguise on, sure he was not being watched himself, Zim curiously wondered about the reasons for which the human children were running about like this and touching each other then running off again. It definitely freaked him out. They seemed to be everywhere, like a replay of last October's Halloween without the candy and costumes and trick-or-treating.

Zim squinted his eyes and scowled while he cautiously watched the events from the window. He was half ducked down and peeping over the ledge to ensure his privacy. Sure he was alone, he muttered to himself, "Oh, those terrible human smeets! They think they can scare me with their battle cries and acting as if they are infected with the Germanian Spots Virus! Well, I'm not falling for it. There is no way any Earthenoid will be allowed to mess with the mind of ZIM!"

Popping up out of nowhere right next to his master, Gir screamed, "Go outside and play with them! It looks like fun!"

Startled, Zim jumped backwards and caught his balance quickly by landing on his knees with a hand on the floor. Quickly recovering, he cried, "'Fun'! 'Play'! Gir, I don't think you understand just how serious this is! From what I've seen, I have come to conclude that whoever this 'it' child touches quickly becomes infected with some sort of parasite, or disease, or something of horrible outcome! Words like 'fun' and 'play' do not apply in the slightest!" He walked in front of Gir, who was still looking outside.

Gir stared past Zim out the window through his lime green doggy costume. "Aw, look! One of them's making a samich!"

A bit confused and somewhat curious, Zim turned around to see nothing more than what he had seen earlier: the kids running amok and putting the Irken's entire mission for world conquest on hold. In no way did any of this pertain to "samiches" or sandwiches or whatever Gir had called them.

Zim shook off Gir's weirdness. He took one last look out the window, preparing for what he knew awaited him in the future. Then, his eyes burning holes into his little innocent robot's, he said darkly, "I . . . am going to put an end to this chase. Now. No one will be able to say Zim is a coward!" And with that, he slowly stepped up to his door, and opened it.

He took a few steps out and for about five seconds nobody seemed to notice. Then, without warning, a child ran up to him from the side and touched his shoulder, giggling, "You're it! Can't catch me!" then turning to run away in a whirl of laughter.

Immediately after the child got the first half of the statement said, Zim screamed and ran forward, accidentally tripping over his own feet and landing his face flat on the pavement. He painfully propped himself upright with his arms and looked at his surroundings. Kids had gathered in a tight circle around him and were whispering, sending a chill up his spine.

He shuttered. He felt his life would be ending all too soon now that he had been touched by an infected "it" kid. Watery eyes looking up at Zita, who was standing in front of him, he asked, "How long does it take for the infection to prove fatal? I want to get to destroying the Earth before then."

Zita was confused. "What are you talking about, Zim? You just fell on you face. So what? It's not the end of the world."

A few moments went by as the Irken took the time to compute this new information. In that time, he climbed to his feet and looked at all the faces around him. It took almost a minute for him to realize an important detail. "You mean you're not running from the 'it' child because he is infected?"

"Uh, no. Haven't you ever played Tag before? I mean, everybody's played Tag!"

There were a few comments from the audience of children, agreeing. Zim cleared his throat, his mistake clear and visible now. It was all just a game! A harmless Earth game! How stupid of him, worrying over nothing. He had let his fears get the best of him once again. "Of course I've played Tag!" he said in a half mocking tone, hoping to be convincing. "It was oh such a fabulous game of Tag, yes! And so challenging! I just love running from the It!"

Many eyes stared at the green kid before everybody burst out laughing. Zim couldn't figure out why.

"What? What'd I say?"

It didn't take long for Zim to explain he didn't want to play, just sit on his own doorstep and watch. And the children agreed, deciding they had no need to have him initiated if he didn't even want to join. After about fifteen minutes of just sitting by himself, Zim began to understand how the game was played. It required a lot of energy, which he definitely had, and also skill, evasive actions, and most of all quick thinking. He decided he didn't have the time to contribute to playing with the humans. He had other more important work to do.

A little girl noticed Zim was all alone, and walked up to him and sat down next to him. He gave her an odd look, but she just stared back at him with a creepy smile. For some reason, this particular smeet made him uncomfortable.

"Hi," said the little girl with a squeaky voice, stretching out her words as a smile was smeared across her face. "My name's Lin. Who are you?"

Zim scooted a little away from the girl. "Eh . . . Zim. What do you want, stink beast? Away with you!"

For some strange unknown reason, Lin began giggling and giggling while staring into Zim's big eyes. Zim was not amused, and felt the annoying child was getting on his nerves, and creeping him out. Her noise became louder with the second, then she took a deep breath and said, "You're funny! Wanna see my collection of mood rings?"

There was a pause, then Zim asked, "What are these 'mood rings' of which you speak? Are they some form of weapon that can destroy all mankind?"

Sighing dreamily, Lin answered, "They can be anything you want because I like you! I'll even give you one, and every time you look at it, you can think of me!"

Zim shuttered. He was not yet completely sure what this weird girl wanted from him, but sure as Hell he did not want to find out. "Could you . . . uh, kinda go away? Now?"

The girl just stared with a dreamy grin on her face, which creeped out the alien to a point of no return.

Still not understanding, and by now almost frightened, Zim gulped and added, "Before I destroy you? I will, ya know. I'll kill you. Without hesitation. And I won't care. And I definitely won't regret it."

Lin said absolutely nothing, did nothing, thought nothing. She hadn't moved.

Undeniably fearful now, Zim stood up and screamed while pointing at Lin, "Don't you feel any fear about me threatening to murder you? At all? Huh? Answer me! I command you! Reply to Zim!"

Still, Lin simply stared with that smile.

Fear turned into panic, Zim cried as he pressed his back against his front door, "It isn't normal! It isn't anything anywhere near normal! IT'S POSESSED BY A DEMON FROM THE EIGTH DIMENTION!" And with that, he opened the door and raced inside, slamming it behind him and keeping his back against the inside of it now. He was breathing hard, as if he had just escaped a horrible beast that had been chasing him. Slowly, he calmed down, and allowed himself to slip down to the floor, where he sat and stayed for a while with his head down.

Gir walked in, doggy disguise now on, carrying in one hand a taquito and in the other an Irken fast-food drink. He made his way over to Zim, who had rid himself of his fears and was now simply sitting with his head still down thinking about what to do of this child monster.

He looked up and sighed, saying to Gir for no reason other than to simply talk, "I believe I have met something scarier than the Dib. She is a horrible thing called 'Lin', who seems to talk of things even insaner than him. There must be some way to annihilate her without anyone knowing, but what?" As Gir came up to him and stopped to stand in front of his face, Zim snatched the drink from the little robot's hand and took a sip of it. Gir did nothing in reaction to this.

Thinking aloud, Zim continued more to himself than his android servant, "Perhaps if I were to receive assistance from the Dib monkey, we could together destroy Lin once and for all. She would no longer be a bother to me." He took another sip of the drink, then yelled at the idiotic SIR unit standing right in front of him, "Gir! Come here! I have devised yet another ingenious plan to kill off one more annoying Earthenoid pest!"

Gir squealed, then cried, "You want to eat my taquito!"

"What? No!" Zim stood up and vigorously sucked at the straw coming from the lid of the soda drink. "We are going to call upon an old enemy for a little . . . eh, what's the word?"

Shrugging, Gir answered with a short, simple hum. "Help?"

"Be quiet!" ordered Zim angrily. "I'm trying to think! Let's see . . . no, that's not it . . . maybe . . . Gir, could you help me here?"

Suddenly remembering something very important, Gir squealed, "My tacos! I didn't feed them yet! TACOS! DON'T GO AWAY!" And Gir ran into the kitchen screaming for some reason that nobody would ever know.

"Hmm . . . ah, yes, 'help'. We are going to call upon an old enemy for a little help. And since you've . . . left . . . already . . ." Zim noticed Gir was gone. "I'll just . . . go down to the lab, and . . . think some more. That's it. I'll think about how to approach the subject, so the Dib will suspect nothing! He will fall helpless to my grasp, and I will force him to assist me!" Zim laughed evilly for a short moment, then ran off to think up an amazing, ingenious, unfathomably flawless way to begin talking to Dib.