Dib noted the unusually large military activity while driving through Gaz's college town. He mentally notes with a grimace that the army has arrived here before he did. However, he could take advantage of this by following soldiers in real time to see who they interviewed and why. But first, Gaz. Sure she won't be pleased to see me, he thinks, but I might be able to convince her to come along with the promise of pizza… When he arrives at Gaz's apartment, he parks his car in the visitor spot that's furthest from the black army SUV's nearest the door. Great, they're at the apartment too. Dib gathers his notes and heads towards the building. Not wanting to be seen by any soldiers, he slips in through a back door. Courtesy to Membrane Labs' suped up lock picking set.
He can hear people in the hall, around the corner, quiet whispers of questions and knocking. There's immense temptation to go and demand answers from the soldiers, but he knows from experience that's a course of action that will lead nowhere. Luckily, there's a set of stairs near where he is, and he walks up to the third floor.
Gaz's apartment is near the elevators, for the purpose of avoiding as many neighbors as possible. She's not the most sociable of people. Dib walks up to her door and mutters a silent prayer that his sudden appearance won't annoy her too badly. He knocks. A strange noise catches his attention, and Dib presses his ear to the door.
"… going to… probably… somewhere else…" Snippets of the mysterious conversation slip into the hall.
"Okay." A deeper, masculine voice answers Gaz. Who is that? Gaz doesn't know any men! Dib loses his concentration and focuses on figuring out who could be in her apartment until the door suddenly opens.
"Shit!" Dib explains as he falls forward toward Gaz, thankfully able to grab onto the door frame at the last moment. Gaz looks furious. Her eyes furrowed with her fists clenched at her sides. Dib instinctively steps back, and Gaz immediately steps forward and closes the door, crossing her arms.
"What are you doing here, Dib?" She looks a little flustered and has paint on her fingertips. Shit, I interrupted her art session. He fumbles with his coat and straightens his posture, hoping for some semblance of confidence.
"Well, um, I was just passing through and-uh, aren't you going to invite me in?"
"No, I'm not. Don't lie to me. You were in Wisconsin last week. Last time I checked, that's nowhere near here." He mentally slaps himself for that blunder as she taps her foot impatiently on the ground. Dib doesn't know it, but Gaz is nervous. Dib's obsessed with this kind of stuff… does he know that Zim is here? Does he want to study him, dissect him? How does he know? He never comes to visit, so why now?
"Okay, okay… so maybe I was lying about that, but for the record I was in Montana last week, not Wisconsin."
"I could not care less."
"Um, rude. Seriously though, I'm kind of thirsty so can I please-"
"I said no, Dib. Quit asking." She rolls her eyes and leans against the door.
"Jeez, okay." He raises his hands in a defensive position and clears his throat. "So, I'm following this really interesting case, I mean, you won't believe what's going on!"
"Yeah, I'm sure I won't." She says dryly. "Look Dib, I'm not interested in how bigfoot teleported from Montana or whatever. I want to know why you're at my apartment. Bothering me." Gaz wants Dib to leave, before Zim loses control of Gir.
"I'm trying to tell you! A week ago, there was this-" A loud clang, like metal following to the floor, comes from the apartment, followed by some harsh whispering. Gaz winces. That didn't last long.
"Um. What was that?"
"It must… I left the TV on. It's the uhh, anthology of… loud… sounds?" Dib raises an eyebrow in disbelief as Gaz frowns. Lying was never her strong suit, she's always been too upfront about things to ever get any actual practice.
"Gaz, come on. I heard you talking to someone earlier when I got here."
"You were eavesdropping on me?" Shit. That was not a clever thing to say.
"N-No! Of course not!" He laughs weakly and takes a step back. "I could just hear it as I walked up." Some more noises come out of her apartment, some sort of word synthesizer, although it's hard to make out what it's saying, and more whispering. Dib struggles to hear what the person is saying, but it's too quiet, and possibly in another language.
"Sure, Dib."
"So… there is someone in there?" He points at the door and cracks a grin.
"It's none of your business, Dib. Ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this, but if it makes you feel better, what exactly are you investigating?" Dib's face lights up, easily distracted at the chance of explaining his important work to his sister.
"I intercepted this signal and-Oh, I can't tell you here Gaz!" He gestures down the hall at the other doors. "There're too many witnesses!"
"Dib, I assure you, that all of those people are too sleep-deprived to care about whatever this is about."
"You don't know that!" He whines.
"Yes, I do. This is a college apartment building. You know, if you're not going to tell me, I'm just going to go inside."
"Fine." Dib leans in and whispers. "My scanners picked up this strange atmospheric disturbance… now as you know I've worked really hard on those, and they're my babies, and I know they never get any readings wrong, but just in case I had to go through diagnostics for like an hour, and-"
"Dib, I don't care. Skip to the important parts. Your breath is annoying."
"Okay, okay. I, um, check the scanners, and guess what I found!"
"I'm not playing the guessing game."
"You're no fun. A spaceship crashed near here, just over a week ago!" Dib grinned ecstatically, and Gaz pinched her leg to keep her face neutral. Shit.
"So?" Please don't say you know about Zim…
"Well, get this: the government didn't find the alien, so they don't know where it is! It could be anywhere!" So he doesn't know. Good. "Now I've been tracking the army, and they're going from town to town interviewing seemingly random people, but only women, and I thought that was odd, so I…" Shit, shit, double shit! Gaz panics inside her head, thankfully knowing how to keep her poker face. Why only women? Do they know something? How? Are they dangerous? They must not know that much if they haven't just come directly. "… and so that brings me here!" Damn, I completely zoned out.
"Ah, okay. Sorry, why does that bring you here? To my apartment, specifically?"
"Oh, well, the army is here, so I was going to follow them more closely to see who they were investigating and why, and I figured I'd stop by and visit you! Maybe bribe you with some pizza to come along?" To Gaz, the whole world around her filled with static, Dib's voice just barely coming through the fog.
"The… the army is here? In this town?" Don't panic, don't panic.
"Oh yeah! They're actually in this building downstairs, so you won't have to go far if you want to come-"
"What!? In this building?"
"Well, yeah, like I said, they've only investigated women, and they must have some sort of DNA sample that they're following that eliminates other women."
"How did they get DNA?" She said through clenched teeth, and every word she says comes out as a loud and hoarse whisper.
"I don't know! I wasn't able to get anywhere near the ship, I suspect it's some sort of blood sample." Gaz rubs her temples as more noises emanate from the apartment, the same pattern as before, the electronic noise followed by the man, whispering what sounds like admonishments.
"God, I'm such an idiot…" Gaz muttered. The cut on her hand must have been how they got it.
"What? Um, you know what, you look angry, I'll come back later." Dib takes a step back, nervously clasping his hands together.
"No, no, I need you to come in, actually."
"Really? Can I get some water?" Gaz turns around to unlock the door, and takes a deep breath to retain her strong demeanor.
"Sure, Dib, whatever." She opens the door about an inch, then turns back. "Listen to me carefully." Her voice is like steel, and her eyes bore into Dib's skull. "Do not make any sounds. Do not do something stupid like scream, and just… be calm. Okay?" Dib nods, confused, and prepares himself for some sort of terrifying artwork.
Gaz opens the door another inch and speaks into her apartment through the crack.
"Hey, I'm coming in now, and I'm bringing someone else with me. Can you guys go into my room? Or the kitchen?"
"I am trying! Gir want to play with the kitchen metal!" Dib reels in shock from the response. It's the same masculine voice from earlier, only now he can hear it better. The speaker has a strange accent, like if French and Russian had a baby? That was raised by Kantonese? There's really no comparison.
"Um, did you get him?" Gaz responds. Sounds of metal scraping on tile and the electronic voice screeching follow, then finally, silence.
"I have him, I am in the kitchen." He responds. Gaz sighs, then opens the door quickly, gesturing for Dib to follow. As soon as he's within the threshold, she slams the door shut and locks it.
"Who's Gir?" Dib asks, incredibly confused by what's happening. Who are these people?
"Dib, be quiet. Listen to me, I'm going to show you something, you are going to stay calm. Do you understand?"
"Uh, yeah, I get that." What is happening?
"Who is that?" Zim yells from the kitchen. Without taking her eyes off Dib, Gaz responds.
"He's my brother."
"What is a brother?"
"Ask Gir. I'm busy." She says, sounding exasperated.
"Who is that? Who is he talking to?" Dib starts asking question after question while Zim gets his translation. "What language is that? Is that a computer talking? Why are you acting so weird?"
"Dib, for the last time. Shut. Up." Gaz growls. "Come on." She leads Dib to the kitchen, and all hell breaks loose. Dib rounds the corner to the kitchen, and if it could, his jaw would've hit the ground. Zim is standing in the middle of the kitchen, holding a squirming and shrieking Gir against his chest. His face is completely devoid of emotion, but he looks as if he's studying Dib, or simply waiting for Dib to attack.
"New buddy!" Gir screams with happiness when he spots Dib, as Dib just about has a mental breakdown.
"Th-th-th-that's an a-a-alien!" Dib squeaks as he points a shaking finger at Zim.
"Congratulations Dib, you've won a gold medal for Observation of the Year." Gaz retorts. She takes a few steps towards Zim, like a makeshift buffer between the two men, just in case Dib completely flips out.
"I just- but it's-" What the fuck. What is going on. An alien is here. Alien. Dib runs his fingers through his hair as he takes a few deep breaths to calm down. He clasps his hands together in front of his chest, breathes deeply, and turns to Gaz.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD AN ALIEN?" Gir joins into Dib's screaming, Zim flinches from the explosion of noise, and Gaz sighs.
"First of all, I don't 'have' him."
"This is your brother?" Zim smirks, and finally releases Gir, who immediately sits on the floor and stares at Dib. "You are not the same at all." Gaz shoots him a look, and turns back to continue lecturing Dib.
"And I didn't tell you because obviously you would react this way!"
"My reaction is justified!" Gaz rolls her eyes. "It could be dangerous! Gaz, think of humanity here! What if he just wants to… enslave the human race? Destroy earth? Kill us all? Did you think of that?" Zim frowns and takes a threatening step forward.
"Oíz nútwaothu al! I will never do that!"
"Oh yeah? I bet you're just saying that! What evil plans do you have, alien."
"I think I am making one." He growls.
"Okay!" Gaz steps in between them, internally hoping that this doesn't devolve into a fight. "Cut it out, idiots. We have more important things to deal with than your egos."
"Hey!" "Ao!" They yelled together.
"You," Gaz points to Zim. "Quit antagonizing him. Remember, no other aliens on this planet, you're the first he's ever seen. And you!" She whips around to face Dib. "Calm down! Keep acting like a wuss and I'll make sure that portrayal ends up in any future 'first contact' documentaries, got it?"
"Got it." He grumbled.
"Good, now explain to me what is going on with the army."
"The army…" Dib's eyes widened. "Holy shit, the army!"
"Yes Dib, the-"
"They're in this building, right now! They're looking for him!" He frantically begins pacing back and forth in the kitchen.
"Army? What army?" Zim questions.
"The human army!" Dib stops to face Gaz. "You need to make him leave. If those guys find out he's with you, who knows what they'll do to you!"
"I'm not kicking him out, Dib!"
"They're going to come ask questions, and if they see him-"
"That doesn't matter, don't you get it? You said yourself they have a DNA sample?" Gaz raised her hand and pointed at her nearly healed palm. "I cut my hand on the ship, that must be how they got the sample. With him or without him, they'll know I was there."
"Wait, the ship?" Dib turned to Zim. "You have a ship?"
"No… I go through space, with no ship." Zim deadpans.
"Well, where is it? Maybe if the army sees him leaving, they'll stop looking for him."
"Dib, the army has the ship. DNA sample, remember?" He frowns.
"Oh, right."
"Why are we talking nothing? There is one army in this building and we are sitting here. We need to go." Zim says.
"Fuck. We really do, don't we. There goes my college education…" Gaz murmurs. Zim puts a hand on her shoulder and speaks in a low reassuring tone.
"I am sorry, but it is need."
"I know. Okay, I'm going to pack some clothes. Zim, pack up, get ready to leave. Dib, I would suggest you leave before you get caught up in this." Gaz walks out of the kitchen, Gir following her, leaving Dib standing alone with Zim.
"So… you're Zim?"
"Yes." Dib nods to himself, in a reassuring manner.
"What planet are you from?"
"… I am going to pack now." Zim says, and swiftly walks past Dib into the living room.
With nothing better to do except for contemplation of the future destruction of humanity, Dib follows out into the living room to observe this potential threat. To Dib, the alien seems unnervingly quick and calculated. A neat stack of clothing seemed to be his only possessions, demonstrating that he was ready to leave at a moment's notice already. Zim places the clothes in a nearby shopping bag, grabs a metallic and rather alien looking briefcase that was hidden in a corner, and places his cargo by the door.
"What is that thing on your back?" Dib asks.
"It is a PAK. Gaz say the long name is hard to say."
"What does it do?"
"Many things. It has helping hands, and has things I need." Zim says as he reaches behind his back. A small mechanical whirring is briefly heard, and Zim pulls his hand back, now holding an object.
"Um. What is that?" Dib says as Zim inspects it and presses a few buttons.
"Help." Zim states, and seemingly happy with it, he tucks it into the back of his pants.
"Yeah, is that a gun?"
"I do not know that word."
"Oh, for fuck's sake-"
"Alright." Gaz emerges from her bedroom with Gir and a suitcase, shutting the door behind her. "Let's go."
"Hey Gaz, I think your alien has-"
"Dib, not my priority right now. We need to leave." She walks past him to the door, stopping to peer through the peephole, and immediately takes a step back. "Shit." She whispers.
"What is it?" Zim takes a few cautionary steps towards the door, reaching for his gun, just in case-
A few loud knocks at the door jars Zim from his thoughts, and someone speaks from the other side.
"This is major Ian Johnson, we're investigating a local disturbance with the police. May we come in?" Zim steps closer to the door in perfect, practiced silence, gesturing for Gaz to walk away from the door. He carefully looks through the peephole and grimaces at what he sees. He quietly leans down, grabbing his clothes and suitcase with his right hand, and steps back, turning towards the siblings.
"What do we do?" Dib whispers, desperate not to make a sound.
"There's a fire escape outside my bedroom window." Gaz replied. "My car isn't far away from there." She tiptoes towards her bedroom door, opening it inhumanly slowly, praying for there to be no creaks from the old wood.
"Good." Zim gently nudges Dib to go to the door, making sure to keep the front door in sight.
Major Johnson knocks again at the door, louder this time. Before he can say anything, Gir's eyes light up excitedly and he moves towards the door.
"The door is noisy!" The little robot shrieks, and their hope of an easy escape shatters. Zim extends a pak leg, and wraps it around Gir to pull him to Zim. As soon as Gir screamed, Gaz broke into a run for the correct window, pushing it open with such force that the glass shook. She threw her suitcase through the window, climbing out onto the escape quickly after.
"Come on!" She hisses at Dib, and he clumsily climbs out after her, Zim a few feet behind.
The knocks resume at the door, faster and louder, and muffled questions from the Major drif into the bedroom.
"Go! Go!" Zim orders, and the two siblings scuttle down the steep stairs as he crawls out the window. When he gets through it, three more pak legs emerge and he easily climbs down the outside of the fire escape, making it to the bottom at the same time as Gaz.
"What the fuck is wrong with your robot?" Dib yells as he jumps the final few feet to the ground, and throws his hands in the air with exasperation.
"Be quiet." Zim snarls through clenched teeth. His antenna twitch, and he straightens up and looks over the area. Dib huffs to himself in frustration, pulling at his hair with stress.
"Yeah! Quiet!" Gir squeals, still in the clutches of Zim's pak leg.
"Al chuchach, Gir." Zim's tone is flat and focused. The little robot pouts, and Zim turns to Gaz. "Where is the car?"
"Over there!" She points to a far corner of the parking lot, the unassuming sedan sitting in the shade. "Come on!" The group starts running for the car, but halfway there Dib hears something he does not like.
"Holy shit! There it is!" He glances over his left shoulder and spots a soldier a few hundred feet away that's staring and pointing at the group of them. Or more specifically, Zim. The soldier scrambles for his belt to pull his pistol, and Dib can feel his heart leap into his chest. Almost to the car, almost to the car… a loud but short buzzing noise cuts over the sound of his own heartbeat, and Dib looks to the left again. The soldier that he just saw is lying on the ground, seemingly dead. Dib reaches the car and whirls around in place, an accusatory finger pointing at Zim, who was jogging up behind him.
"Did you kill him?" A small part of Dib feels a bit validated that his intuition that this alien is dangerous is correct. The alien's gun even has some glowing lights on it now, showing that it's on, and definitely was used.
"No!" Zim scoffed, looked offended and annoyed. "He is asleep. Get in car." He flings the backseat door open, tossing his suitcase and Gir inside and quickly gestured for Dib to follow. Dib glances back at the collapsed soldier, weighing his options, but as more soldiers come around the building he decides that being interrogated by the army isn't worth it, and he gets in. Just as Gaz turns the car on, Zim finally climbs into the passenger seat. She throws the car into reverse and slams on the gas, the tires squealing on the pavement as the engine roars. Shifting to drive, she pushes the gas all the way to the floor, and the car takes off.
Dib turns around on his seat to look out the back window, and his heart sinks at what he sees.
"Uh, guys? We have a problem." Practically out of nowhere, small envoy of military vehicles has formed and is chasing their car. He slinks back into his seat and puts his seatbelt on. This is not how he thought his day would go. Dib gulped, took a deep breath, and tried not to feel so nauseous.
"Oh, you think?" Gaz yells. "We have a problem?" Her concentration on the road in front of her is like steel, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly her fingers were turning white. "Because I call the entire goddamn United States military more than a simple fucking problem!" The car turns a sharp right onto the exit road so quickly that the right side wheels leave the ground for a second. Gaz is by no means afraid of adrenaline, but the thought of the car flipping momentarily scares her. Unfortunately she knows that she can't slow down, their lives depend on it.
"Big problem." Zim mutters and rolls his window down, having finally figured out how to do it.
"What are you doing?" Dib stammered. Zim poked his head out the window, twisting his body so he faced the onslaught of military cars. His face was calm and focused, a slight frown tracing his lips.
"Making it little problem." Zim aims his gun expertly and shoots, aiming for the army's tires. Every short buzz of Zim's gun is followed by the loud pop of a tire, and the thought to be impressed flits through Dib's brain, but that's overwhelmed by the brief reassurance that they were going to get away… Until the rear-view glass of Gaz's car shatters.
"What was that?" He screams in shock. Zim pulls back instantly inside the car as more bullets whiz by. He scowls at a bullethole that appeared in the passenger side rearview mirror and presses his lips together in thought.
"They have yí gathaícheí also." He mutters.
"What?" Dib braces himself again in his seat as Gaz makes another sharp turn, feeling like his stomach was flipping with every maneuver she did. Through all the chaos around them, Gir is sitting in his seat, buckled in and blissfully ignorant of everything that's happening around him. His eyes were even glowing in his default happy position.
A new wave of bullets pepper the car, and Zim takes action again.
"Gaz, get down!" He orders, pushing her shoulders down as the front windshield shatters.
"Fuck! Zim, I can't see where I'm going!" She struggles to maintain control of the car and keep a level head, but not seeing the road is not helping. The car skids and squeals as she turns the wheel roughly, peeking her head up with every chance to see where she's going. Zim takes a quick look through the shattered rear windshield, before ducking back down again. Muttering something to himself, he leans out of the passenger window again, firing a few more shots towards their pursuers.
"How many are there?" Dib yells over the noise from his spot lying down on the backseat, covering his face to protect himself from falling shattered glass and bullet shrapnel.
"What is 'many'?" Zim retorts, obviously distracted while messing with settings on his gun.
"How many fucking cars are there?" Dib yells, all patience for Zim's inadequate English flying out the window. "It's not a hard question!"
Gaz turns a hard left, skidding onto a winding side road. "Shut up, Dib! I haven't taught him numbers yet!" She would count the vehicles herself, but it didn't matter anyway. One army truck following them is already one too many. Besides, her rear-view mirror got shot out already.
"Why not?" Dib shrieks.
"It wasn't important!" It's much harder to maintain the high speeds from the straight road, but she's hoping that the twisty terrain will be enough to lose clunky army trucks. A few miles ahead there's a right turn, followed by a tunnel…
"Gir, fin al vaí jeínze yí lepwaorúzineích?" Gir's eyes flash red, and a panel in the front of his body opens. He reaches inside, and pulls out a few small round devices, and hands them to Zim.
"Here ya go!" He chirps happily.
Dib scrambles to sit upright in his seat, but quickly slides back down as more bullets whiz by. "What is that!?"
"Problem fix." Zim says simply. He holds one device in his hand and presses his thumb to the surface, waiting for a few seconds until it emits a light blue color. He taps it a few more times, and leans out the window and throws it. Dib pushes himself back up, and watches as it sails through the air and lends on the asphalt behind them, sticking to the ground without bouncing as if it were some sort of magnet. His eyes furrowed in confusion as they drove away, the tiny blue light appearing to flicker faster as they went.
"Uh, is that supposed to-" When the closest army truck got one hundred feet away or so, the little device exploded into a fireball spanning the entire road and then some. Screeching tires and shouts of 'stop!' pierce through the roaring of the firewall as Gaz's car gets farther and farther away. The heat is so intense that Dib can feel it on his face.
"Holy shit." He whispers to himself, unable to peel his eyes off the sight. That level of destruction from that one tiny bomb? Dib's stomach drops when he remembers that Zim is holding two more of them in his hands.
Gaz shoots Zim a death glare. "Why the hell didn't you use that sooner?"
"They were so near. They were far now." Zim says calmly.
"O-oh." Gaz's frustration partially melts away with her understanding of his logic, and she focuses on driving. The car falls silent, all the occupants trying to catch their breath and recover in their own way. Except for Gir, who is happily counting the trees passing by the car.
"So… Where are we going?" Dib asked.
"I was thinking that those army guys are probably trying to block us off up ahead, so I'm going to take the side tunnel road coming up. From there I think we should try to get a new car." Gaz sighs. "Unfortunately, I think this one is toast." Gaz rounds the corner, heading towards the tunnel and the metal in the car groans. Both windshields have been completely shattered, and bullet holes riddle the back end of the car. The only rear facing mirror left is the driver's side one.
"Not only that your car is kind of… ruined, sorry Gaz, but the army definitely has your plates on file. We need to dump this car as soon as possible."
"I counted many trees!" Gir screamed. "Can we get some food? I'm hungry!" Dib stares at the robot in wonder and confusion.
"Can he actually eat?"
"No." Gaz and Zim respond in unison. Zim turns around in his seat to face Dib.
"I need to fix him more. He broke when I got to earth."
"Hey, maybe I can take a look at him for you. I'm kind of good with computers." The car entered the tunnel, shrouding the interior with artificial night. The only light to be seen was the soft glow of the dashboard reflecting in Zim's eyes.
He scoffed. "You can try."
"AHHH! It's so dark!" The little robot twisted around in his seat in fear and covered his face with his hands.
"Zhul ezoz, Gir. Git khí isi z̀eír zeʻe." Calm down, Gir. It's only a tunnel.
"Kaí kho wath!" I'm scared! Gir rubbed his 'eyes' with his hands in mock tears. Dib leaned in to pat a comforting hand on the robot's back, even though he was incredibly confused about everything that is going on.
"Hey, what's that language?"
"Irketsi." Gir's whimpering dies down and Zim sits back in his seat.
"Cool, cool… And that's your native language?" He curses himself for having dropped his notes back at Gaz's apartment.
"Yes."
"What planet are you from? Why are you-"
"Dib, shut up. Your voice is grating on my ears." She sighs and runs her hand through her hair. "I am so sick of today." The car exits the tunnel, and it relieved the group to find no one waiting for them.
"No more dark!" Gir squeals happily.
"Look, there." Zim points to a diner in the distance. "We can get a car."
Dib squints at the diner. "Are you seriously suggesting we steal a car in broad daylight?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Gaz mutters. Dib thinks for a few seconds and then shakes his head.
"Not really. Well, maybe when we get there, I can finally get my water."