Chapter 14

A GREAT WAY TO START A MORNING!

"Where is Byron, Gir?" Zim asked irritatedly. He'd been looking for him for the past hour. It had never occurred to him to check the labs, but what would be doing down there anyway?

"I dunno'. He was actin' weird last night and then he went away. I aint' seen him since. I'm worried! He was nice!" Gir screamed. The little robot was very worried about his master's friend.

"Acting weird? Hmmm? Do you have any idea what this means!"

"Nope!"

"Oh, good. I don't either."

Byron awoke from a groggy slumber. He felt like he'd been asleep for a couple of months, but his eyelids were still heavy. He stood up in a daze and, half-asleep, walked back to his room. He reeked of vomit and other smells that he couldn't identify. So, he decided what he needed to feel better was a nice, long, hot shower to wake him up. He had no idea just how much it was going to wake him up.

He walked into the bathroom, completely missing the tall, green alien that appeared in the mirror and turned on the shower. He sat on the toilet lid and waited for the shower to heat up. After a minute's wait, he stood up and removed his clothes and, 'Where'd my other boot go?' he thought. He passed this off as smoking too much weed and walked toward the shower. The steam had fogged up the mirror and any chance of saving him from the shower disappeared along with his reflection. He opened the shower door and, like always, ran straight into the shower as fast as he could.

The water felt good. But it was kind of hot. In fact, it was really hot. It was burning him. That's when his eyes shot open and he muttered those two little words that usually come to be most's last, "Oh, shit!" He sprang from the shower stall so fast, he punched a hole in the glass as he did so. He collapsed to the floor screaming as steam rose of his bubbling skin.

From down the hall, Zim thought he could hear screaming. It was the same screaming he swore he'd heard in his sleep. He smiled for a moment at the thought of it being Dib, but then he decided to investigate just to be sure.

He ran down the hall as fast as he could following the chain of screams that continued to grow closer with each passing second. He got right outside Byron's room when the screams stopped. Zim carefully opened the door and looked inside. The room was a total wreck. He'd never seen such destruction since Operation Impending Doom 1! Steam was pouring out of the door on the other side of the room. Zim proceeded toward the door, the whole time say, "Byron? Are you okay? Byron?" He slid the door open and saw Byron writhing on the floor. The only problem was, it didn't look like Byron anymore. This pathetic creature on the floor was an Irken. Zim decided that, apparently, it wasn't a very intelligent one seeing how he'd tried to take a shower. "Who are you! You've come to steal my mission haven't you! What have you down with Byron? Answer me!"

Byron managed to look up at Zim and whimper, "You fucking moron, I AM Byron!" With that, he fell face down, with a nasty thud sound, on the hard bathroom floor and slipped into unconsciousness once again.

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A/N: Sorry it's so short, but even the greatest works of fiction have a short chapter here and there. Lol Really, I didn't feel like writing another really long chapter tonight. So just be thankful! Hahaha! Please review, I'm begging!