A/N: LONGEST CHAPTER YET! OVER 6,000 WORDS TOTAL! Figured y'all deserve fair warning.
I changed the cover image... And I feel awful, because to be honest in my craze of downloading pretty pictures to look at on my laptop I have no idea who made it, heh... I just felt it suited this better than some generic-ass trees and I figure I'll keep it until I produce my own cover. It's probably from DA, but I can't remember my own account anymore since I never used it like ever lol.
I'm also cracking up, because apparently we've gone from 50-something readers to 22. XD I mean, most would probably be discouraged, but the only way I can seem to take it is that I must be an intense motherfucker or something and... Heh-heh. Well, I don't wanna say I scared them off, but still. I'm remarkably tempted to take the quiet view count as an almost-compliment. Besides, 22 readers is more than I can count on my fingers, which is really further than what I'd imagined I'd get since I've never written for this fandom before lol. Welp, off we go! Buckle in, kiddies! We're gonna have lots of fun this time, I think.
While saluting Becki, I also salute thee, Pirate64! Support like this really goes a long way, and it's reassuring to hear my work's been well-received by others. :P We've about reached the point where I start getting REALLY nervous about writing chapters, too(pressure to adhere to continuity and attention to detail is intimidating like that), so seriously thanks man.
Hope this doesn't disappoint, guys. :) Writing this was a total blast.
All was quiet.
Gaz kept her knuckles tightly laced around her bat, and her shoulders hunched within the main lab. Each reflex was ready. Even though the storm outside had stabbed every bit of her with wind and ice, for some reason, it felt much colder in this chamber. Tenser.
She liked that, at least…
Her footsteps were rather silent, smooshed in the powder that pooled around her ankles, but as far as visual concerns went the lab's sputtering lightbulb was terribly unhelpful in showing the misanthrope the way. GIR's headlights weren't much help, either. Though he'd remained silent under Gaz's instruction, his thrilled form could be seen darting around various broken tubes, spilling cyan beams chaotically whenever he turned his face. As such, it was required of her to strain her memory, and furthermore forced a fair share of careful navigation on her part to step around all the insane debris.
To be honest, Gaz usually went into dark places whenever possible anyway (more than one type, to boot), so this wasn't terribly difficult. Perhaps a bit tense, considering that a hulking brute of a beast (one that'd turned a Sergeant into an asylum patient) could potentially be lingering a few feet away at any given moment… But that didn't require her dusty "panic" switch to activate then and there. If anything, it just required additional composure. Adrenaline often led to crappy decisions, and if Gaz had a choice, she'd like to have died on equal thinking terms with her killer. So, she kept that thrumming urge to swing at shadows a cautiously suppressed one...
Cold sweat subtly rolled down her back, regardless. But she refused to acknowledge it beyond typical disdain.
…Something crunched under her boot.
The girl looked down, and in the flicker of the overhead bulb, saw the nametag of Sergeant R. Slab Rankle gleaming beneath her toe.
"…Where the hell are the corpses...?" whispered the girl, giving the floor a concerned look around. Strange thing to wish for, but it was rather off-putting – being stuck in a place full of death and being unable to see a single trace of it…
A muffled squeal left GIR in the distance, which caught her attention.
In the robot's headlights was Zim's weird little moose toy. In the bluish glow, Gaz could make out that it was dormant, with an array of plugs digging into its underbelly from some bulky terminal. Its expression was vacant, and its eyes were full of codes. GIR was currently dancing in place before it, probably trying to find some way to say hello without use of his mouth.
…It was sad.
Goddammit.
Gaz sighed, taking a hand to rake through her hair. "You. Come here," she growled, unable to believe what she was about to do.
GIR obeyed.
And despite everything she stood for... Gaz unzipped his mouth.
"AW BOY! Thank you~!" GIR shrieked. He leapt up and pecked her cheek (Gaz nearly smashed him right there) before waving frantically at his moosey… Pal? Brother? Colleague? …Eh. "HI LOUISE! DID'JA MEET MAH HUMAN BIRDIE FRIEND?! SHE A TENNIS PLAYER! SHE PLAYS PAINTBALL WITH HER ARMS AN' IS GONNA BUY US USED TACOS FER CHRISTMAS!"
Gaz flinched slightly and tucked her limbs back.
"You havin' good dreeeaaams?" GIR poked the plushie, "Dreams're squishy! In myyyy last dream, I was squishy and everybody gave me a birthday party and the honor to kill EVERYTHING AH' HATE! …But don't tell Carrie, Barrie, or Mary, okay? Barrie's gonna go green an' spin like a top, and MARY, Mary's gonna be sooo sad, 'cause that ain't right to her, and Carrie's gonna…"
"What's it doing?" asked Gaz, hoping to change the subject towards where the hell Zim and his head full of mad-scientist antics had gone, "What's with the codes? Where's Zim? Can it hear us right now?"
GIR looked between them. "Louise is sleeping," he explained with a hush, "Zim don't like it when I cause Armageddon during uploads, so we both have to shut down – 'cause democracy."
"You guys have democracy?" snorted the girl, disbelieving.
GIR shrugged and kept yammering at the moose toy. Gaz, deciding this wasn't worth her time, shrugged and started to wander off for something more interesting.
And wouldn't you know, there was something interesting close by.
Slowly, the gamer edged towards a faint red glow in the floor a few feet away, right on the other side of the terminal. If she strained her hearing, she could've sworn she heard something that sounded like talking…
"…she's the nicest cake in the world, you know. Just a different flavour from…"
"A hole?" she commented, perplexed (thank god she was just with GIR – oh, if she was with Dib, his latest sarcasm streak would've had a field day with just that comment alone – the obnoxious twat). It was perfectly carved in, and totally unnatural. What the hell was that doing here? She appreciated spooky, demonic lighting as much as the next person, but this was downright peculiar.
Voices were definitely echoing out from it, but it was so quiet from where she was, the she wasn't sure whose they were…
"…They're all a lil' mushy, but-Hey!" GIR tweeted and looked to where his current, scary cohort was and zipped on over, "Wazzat, Euna? Wazzat, wazzat, wazzat?!"
Gaz opened her mouth, but GIR kept going and like an idiot peered right into the red pit as whitish light crept out, interwoven with the red. Considering his insane laughter, Gaz's curiosity felt compelled to step forward a bit, and peered on in, too.
About thirty feet down, there was… Some massive summoning circle. It was the source of the light, which was surrounded at all sides by dirt. In its center was a creature she'd never seen before, something she was sure would've triggered her brother's inner fanboy to charge at it like an idiot. What truly caught her eye, however, were the sleek goat horns protruding from its skull…
There you are, Gaz thought, Hope you like hell, because here I am, coward…
Just outside the circle was a green head surrounded by black. At first, Gaz thought she saw him decapitated, but the struggling of his features and his neck said otherwise. Found the alien, and found the killer – Gaz could neatly scratch those off her to-do-list.
One of the walls of the dirt chamber had white… Portals? Covering it. What were those, anyway?
"Hee-hee!" giggled GIR, "He's like a Christmas present! You got presents for me, goat man?!"
"Look stupid," Gaz said, "If I can't hear them, then they can't hear us."
GIR screeched, "YOUUU, GOT, PRESEEEENT-"
It was that moment the whole world shifted. It started with a drop – a sudden feeling something strange was about to unfurl. A line of colourful electricity that slipped through the ceiling a second before vanishing, disrupting her order a touch. Just a drop on a pond.
Then came the downpour.
Gaz did react when the overhead tiles shattered apart under the pressure. When a screeching wave of supernatural bullshit sizzled on down and to descend against the entire lab floor amidst the rotating shards.
…She just didn't react fast enough.
It crashed down on her. Suddenly, her eyes scorched. Each vein lit in pain and salt – reverberated in their gelatin cases against their sockets before sizzling into themselves.
Colours were everywhere.
Screaming violets and teals and mangos slipped into her ears, tearing down in chaotic sounds that broke inside her head and sought to tear her flesh apart. Electricity played on her hairs and she felt her skin unraveling in place. An echoing thing scraped from her lungs and out her mouth, and it wasn't until after the fact she realized this thing was her own voice tearing through the cascade.
More than anything, the smothering. Each pore had no privacy. Each centimeter, each secret, each little feeling was lapped out of her body by all the life shuttling past into the hole. What felt like thousands of electric bodies tugged at her figure to spill everything into each other in this rippling orgy of agony. Licking away at everything that made her an individual to join their collection of souls. Her vision turned sickly, gold leaving faint freckles in the black, and with lead-like legs she pushed herself out best she could. Voices of hundreds of people echoed in her skull. She trudged at a horrifically slowed pace, feeling her limbs weighten. Anywhere to escape this rainbow of death, she thought, in fading sobriety.
Pain drowned everything.
PAINPAINPAIN-
The girl suddenly felt air on her leg and with all the strength left in her crumbling form she caved on it. Out she stumbled, sliding into a cold, cold wall, wheezing and shaking. Like an ended hug, the energy slipped off her form and went back to their own kind. Oxygen dribbled down the cracks in her throat in their stead. Gradually, she felt her body stabilize, and she slithered to the floor below to cradle her knees, hissing and cursing as water involuntarily itched her vision.
Her hands gripped her scalp. Was she hyper-ventilating? Everything prickled, even her thoughts. Everything was so strained.
Not two feet away from the girl was an array of nonsensical, burning iridescence. A chaotic mess of shades that should've completely annihilated one another, but remained pure in eye-melting hue. It surged down like a waterfall, crashing into the floor where it all seemed to descend down the hole. Thankfully, she must've been close to the edge of the torrent. If she'd been nearer to the heart of the room…
Someplace too far away to reach the exit…
She didn't even want to think of it. But she did. And she shivered. If the misanthrope had anything to say about it, she wouldn't poke one toe into that hell ever again. Instead, she sat wild-eyed, pressing herself deep into the reassuring chill.
"That guy's head is being funny! It's backways! Heeheehee – hey, he's hugging Zim!" pointed GIR, voice oddly fluctuating, "Aw, master's scratching like a kitty! Bad mastah! …Wait, he don't look happy… …Aww…" a strange, staticy noise left the bright column, and suddenly the gizmo looked to his hands in concern. "Wait, wazzat…?…I… T-That don't feel good…" he knocked against his own head with a frown. "Somethin' ain't right…" he muttered.
"Wu-What's going on?!" Gaz shouted, squeezing herself against the wall to get away from the light.
As if to spite her, GIR stood in it all, glitching slightly in the hues. He turned to her with confused eyes, ones that couldn't seem to make sense of what was messing with his circuits. Cautiously, he started to step towards her, a hand raised.
"I… I dunno!" he murmured, "I feels weird…! Umm... I don't like it, pretty lady! Uh… Could ya please h-"
With each step, though, more fluctuating seemed to occur, and eventually the cyan sputtered into an intimidating crimson. Then – strained and in panic – it went back. Frantically, the blue tried to fight the encoded responses, but…
"W-Where'd I go-?" GIR trembled, hyperventilating and scanning around, like a child looking for their mother. The red started cutting through, and GIR shook, starting to cry, while raising metallic digits to his eyes as if he could stop whatever was seizing them. "N-Noooo…! Mah head's for kitten snacks only! Don't kill the magic snack place! It's scARY IN-!"
Then it went forth.
Seemed the red was there to stay. That frustratingly friendly nature didn't seem to be apparent now… What stood before Gaz was a drone. Its limbs were pin-straight and its march was perfect.
A SIR unit and nothing less...? Gaz felt her eyebrows knit in confusion. The light seemed to suck life out of people - did that mean GIR, a completely metal contraption crafted of wire and circuitry, even had a soul to begin with - one that could've been extracted at all? Was that what she just witnessed? ...She couldn't say...
The philosophical implications were quite... Philosophical.
One foot after the other, it marched to her side. Most of GIR was silhouetted, spare the recent pallet swap. Honestly… He was quite intimidating…
Ending just at the edge, he spoke.
"WE MUST SAVE THE MASTER," outdated Irken 00-2H3 model SIR recited.
In her frenzied state, Gaz didn't respond. Then, with the border breaking around his metal form, GIR reached his torso out to the air. And clamped his hand around her arm.
This GIR did not response to her aggrieved cry. Despite how she screeched that, "it hurt!" and "let go, you crazy moron!" and most importantly, "NO!", his legs automatically leaned back and effortlessly yanked them both into the soul-waterfall again.
He did not care that she bucked, or that he disturbed her skin, or that she was in horrific agony. GIR didn't chirp or smile or provide quirky assistance. The SIR simply triggered his rockets and plunged deep into the hole, oblivious to the agony shooting through his charge's every cell.
Gaz could barely focus on anything. There was a jolt when GIR swerved into a foreign figure, grasped that, and sped off for the rest of the room beyond the asphyxiating hues. There was a final second of pain, and then as though breaking through an ocean's surface she felt cool air break against her cheeks…
(-)
His prison shattered, and out he flew. In vertigo, making sense of what was happening was beyond him, but as directives stop scrambling Zim was able to gain control of his limbs back.
Then he fell shoulder-first into the dirt. That didn't matter at the moment, though.
Oxygen.
Greedily, the Invader drank, gasping where he lay. The hideous tingly feeling routing his molecules, though consuming, was slowly dying down, and sure enough he was able to recall what the hell was going on. Despite the strangely weakened feeling spreading in his system, he sat up. The tail still rung around his torso, though the vertebrae was much, much looser from prior, and upon going upright it pooled around his hips. Judging from the inhuman screeching coming from the circle and the way the end was torn, it'd seem that it… Was ripped right off somehow. A contact lay on the ground, meters away, and the second said contact was acknowledged its twin unfastened and fell to Zim's lap. He supposed his disguise wasn't really necessary here, so he didn't bother with that…
He instead bothered to detect the wheezing from someone nearby over the monster's cursing.
Of all the people Zim had expected to see upon glancing over, Dib's fellow spawn from hell was probably the last one on his list. Not to mention, seeing that hellspawn faring in agony seemingly worse than his own, panting and clutching her sides like pins were skewering them, cursing, and gasping in mimicry of an ill fish…
This was a weird day.
"How did you g-"
"Everyone is going to die," her voice clawed out, "I'll do it myself…"
That wasn't too strange of her, he conceded. So he just shrugged. "Uh, yeah, but-"
Someone was behind him as well. Someone metallic and spouting red light and-
"Wait! GIR!?" Zim cried in confusion at his saviour, "How did you get here?! You're supposed to be guarding the house, you-" a bit of caution followed, "…You're in duty mode as well without my instruction? …How did you-"
"Irrelevant. There is an immediate threat," GIR reported with a point to said threat. And that was all GIR said. Attached to a set of cables, an enormous weapon erected from the inside of his head and zeroed in on the monster. Multiple barrels for blasting bullets, and one in the center for rockets. Little speaker systems were subtly installed on the sides, and yellow borders snaked along it. Zim raised an eye ridge at the sight of the delightful RYNO V, realizing that for the umpteenth time GIR had gotten it lodged in his cranium. But he listened to his minion anyway and looked over.
Said monster seemed utterly livid. Who wouldn't be, after their tail had been ripped right off? Its great hands clawed at the Earth beneath it, clenched and zealous as saliva dripped from its maw.
"YOU… INGRATES…" it snarled, "YOU DARE MAKE A FOOL OF ME? I WILL DEVOUR EACH OF YOU AND YANK YOUR SOULS OUT FROM THE REMNANTS LEFT BETWEEN MY TEETH."
Zim gave a weak sneer, and carefully brought himself up to his spider legs with a fair bit of exertion. Wobbling upwards, he felt his PAK cables spark somewhat inside and his hemolymph speed. Suddenly, his nerves were given an additional kick as artificial energy crawled throughout his body. Zim felt his eyes scrunch in worry at this. The back-up generators were in play now… Was he in that bad a condition? The Invader hid this distaste best he could, despite his growing strength. He'd definitely need to sleep after this show-down. There was an hour left at best before his PAK battery gave out, which would force a coma state, leaving him completely defenseless for several hours…
Irrelevant. That was a "then" problem. An hour was more than enough to deal with this… …Whatever this was.
"We're faring better than your spinal column though, aren't we?" he hissed out with a chuckle and a gesture to the useless limb twitching on the ground.
Oddly, these words didn't have their intended mocking effect. The beast actually calmed its anger and crooned somewhat in thought.
"Hmm," it commented, "That's a rash statement, given the current scenario, wouldn't you say?" it slid down into a starting position, "I think you spoke out of turn. Perhaps holding your tongue will be easier once I rip it from your mouth?"
Black matter reformatted itself and a new tail writhed in the air. Without warning, its owner tore out from the circle unfettered with an otherworldly bellow that shook Zim somewhat.
Explosive rockets and bullets burst from GIR's head (in tune to some classical piece Zim still didn't recognize), and the beast ran into each of them with no sign of impairment, claws bared for the Irken's flesh. The PAK legs responded completely automatically, jumping into the air, skating across the creature's scalp, and to the sloping wall. One leg met its mark in the vertical dirt expanse-
The thing grinned and a bunch of familiar, black tendrils shot up to grasp the remaining three PAK legs before Zim could reach, yanking him back down with a cry. The free leg held, leaving Zim's body to flail uselessly between them. All too soon, he found his face illuminated in the bloody glow of the monster's eyes, not twelve inches away.
It seemed the tendril thingies were being summoned out of the ground… It probably could've called forth more, but as the green menace had learnt all too well from his brawls with Dib, he knew why it didn't. There was always something too entertaining about seeing the ones you loathe squirm under the barest efforts... Just how many stupid tricks did this thing have?!
"Silly me. You keep acting like them, so I keep forgetting you're not human," it snickered, "Your tongue starts in your throat, right? Tell me, 'Invader'…" so many awful teeth in that grin. Rows of them… "…Ever heard of a guillotine?"
Zim scowled and reached into his coat. "Oooooh, I dunno ever heard of VORTIAN-ISSUED 629-MODEL PISTOL SHOTS TO THE FACE?!" he roared, open firing on his attacker, "DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE! DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE!"
In the concentrated, frost-shaded shots, Zim could see goopy flesh peel off and shatter in a series of bullets. There was exposed bone and twisted lines of black veins that were overridden with bursting, foreign elements. It was glorious. Temperature seared through the tendons binding its head, coupled with the RYNO V's piles of ammo, and as he was starting to feel victorious
Sloggraajath! Zim cursed in his native tongue, it was still grinning at him!
The loaded discs fizzed out and the guns fell hopelessly to the ground. A rasping laugh overtook the room, and as if nothing had befallen it, the demon's skin crawled back over its head, much to the Invader's ire. Milky bone swept out of sight within seconds... In the bursting fires of GIR's bullets and missiles, its enamels practically twinkled like vast lines of stars…
"I thought your brain was supposed to be advanced. God, if that's the extent of your wit, I'm gonna be disappointed when I swallow your head…"
In the background of Zim's bleating threats and GIR's endless onslaught of ammunition bursting against the monster's back, (as well as the occasional swipe from a glowing-alien-knife-weapon whenever a lone tendril decided to try pinning the SIR unit) Gaz groaned and swayed to her limbs. Her head was throbbing, but despite everything – despite almost having her very life torn out, her very existence crushed, and her body exhausted beyond compare to any of her bad mornings – her hands remained clasped tightly at her sides anyway.
She drunkenly glanced to them. They shook. Fatigue played in, yes, but…
With a stagger forward, Gaz's weak, weary legs started marching. Her shoulders struggled to keep her neck still. Her eyelids weighed down. Her blood thrummed. Each bit of her felt so flighty and fickle in keeping her alive…
But her teeth shone, and fire licked her core. This was her role in life.
Vengeance. It would be hers. Even if she had to die to get it.
…Feh. Like death was ever a concern anymore...
She approached… GIR… Or the robot that pretended to be him now, at any rate, and despite her swaying vision she ignored the blaring of William Tell's Overture and gripped him by the antenna with a startlingly formable vice.
"You… Stupid…!" the misanthrope glared, struggling to tug him up, but strength grew in her fury, "You… You let this happen to me. You knew it would hurt me."
The robot carried on firing, not even bothering to look. "Irrelevant. The master is-"
The girl grabbed GIR's head with both limbs, and felt her fingers dig into the metal. Despite turning his body to face her, the rockets kept firing as GIR was forced to stare at her form, blank-faced.
Ugh. He was so dead, it was creepy.
"Did I give you permission to speak…? No? …Then can it," she breathed against his eyes, creating a thin fog, "I don't care what it's statistically capable of. Your oversized toy is useless here. If you want to save your 'master'… Answer me. …Why did you bring me down here?"
GIR answered coldly. "Statistically, whenever you – officially listed as "the Gaz human" – decide to involve yourself, odds of victory increase depending on what you desire by 87%. Data gathering facilities were disabled outside duty-mode parameters, so extent and cause of damage remained unknown at that time. Standard-issued apology-measures are to be deployed in t-minus three seconds. …'Sorry'," a pitiful collection of 'standard confetti' was released from his head, which floated down slowly to a sad trumpet noise, "Please release me, or I will be required to use force on your person."
That certainly tickled her funny bone. "Heeuh… Hah, ha ha ha… Ah, nice one, blockhead – wanna use force?" Gaz snarled, tightening her grip (even the soulless mech had to respond a bit to that, as he let out a systematic, pained drone), "Go on and blow up the only person who knows this thing's weaknesses. I dare you."
GIR blinked. "What would – the Gaz human – advise, then? Assistance thus far has been… Pathetic."
Gaz glared. "You," she began, "Are so lucky I'm more pissed at that thing than I am at you…"
Zim still tried to yank himself free. By this point, his coat had fallen and had pooled off his head during his struggles, making him almost totally unarmed. Not a good effect to be under when one was blurting whatever threats they could to stall for time under the monster's nauseatingly amused scrutiny.
"-an-and even if you devour the lives of every awful creature here – by the way, how DARE you take ZIM'S job?! – w-what good will that do when the Massive finally arrives to your doorstep, huh?!" the Invader shakenly demanded, "T-They'll notice my absence, you know. They'll at least send fifty of their greatest warships! You will be reduced to ashes! And over those ashes? They'll build a monument dedicated to me – ZIM! – the greatest Invader ever! One that spans this entire, feeble rock! They have records of my laugh, and they'll play it on a loop, for eternity! Mocking whoever dared to render the Armada shortened of their greatest warrior! You will be cursed by the Tallest forever! CURSED! And ultimately done in by me! In the end, a martyr, to the unstoppable Irken race!"
"…Cute," the monster decided with a sneer, "I was trying to think of a word for you. 'Think I'll go with that."
"WHAT PART OF MY PASSING LEADING TO PLANETARY DESTRUCTION WON'T SINK IN?!" Zim yelled, the effect of which diminished slightly with his voice breaking. One over-sized claw pressed into his midsection, increasing pressure to break the uniform and the skin beneath as it gradually rose up his body, much to Zim's belligerent noises of distress.
"Except it won't, will it? Not really," its breath reeked of rot, "I saw enough. You know it too, don't you? On some, buried level, you know they don't-"
"-care, 'Your mission's a lie!', blah-blah-BLAH," Zim spat, clenching his muscles as the claw slowly grazed deeper into his tissues, refusing to let his discomfort fully show, "W-Well, I have news for you, death-smut... You're not the first person to try and feed me that hideous fib! I AM the Tallest's greatest asset – and none of you fools OR your jealousy will EVER knock that fact away! So says ZIM! So… So don't even try! …Creep!"
The claw browsed right into his breastbone, ignoring Zim's now obvious hiss of pain. Pink, sticky liquid trickled into the dirt from the torn line that stopped right at the collar. For a moment, the thing seemed to purr.
"Guess there is no way to tell you Santa's not real, is there?" it mused, giving its digit a brief lick. It seemed to mull the flavour over for a minute before it unhinged its mouth again. A snake-like tongue whipped into the air and licked its rows of two thousand, two hundred and twelve canines, as Zim's PAK automatically relayed.
"You were a fun change of pace," it said completely clearly somehow, without moving its mouth, "Come along now, runt. It's time to be disposed of."
Before Zim could truly analyse why that line broke his composure and had sent a primal fear flowing through his whole body, the creature suddenly screeched as several plasma lazers broke through the vines tethering its captive's form. A metallic hand seized his collar and yanked the alien skyward, away from the great, swearing jaws.
"G-GIR!" Zim cried, ecstatic with his rescue, "You saved me again?! ...How are you being so useful?!"
GIR didn't respond to that. "Irrelevant. Master, the Gaz human-"
Zim didn't skip a beat. "GIR! Scan this monster for weaknesses!"
"Weaknesses unknown."
"ARGGHHH! EVEN IN LINGERING, NOT-HOMICIDAL DUTY MODE, YOU'RE USELESS?!"
With GIR's other hand wrapped around her waist, Gaz spoke up. "Listen moron," she grumbled, trying to keep hold on her consciousness as her legs flailed beneath her, "Buh… Bullets aren't going to do anything against that… Whatever it is…"
The green menace glanced to his strange 'ally' in confusion. "What do you mean, Gaz human?" he asked, "In fact, how did you even get here? Why are you helping Zim? Zim certainly hates you, and has done nothing to earn a favour."
"I'm not here to give you a favour," Gaz hissed, "I-"
The monster's voice ceased cursing and bounded across the room. "Heeey, LOOK WHAT WE GOT!" it exclaimed, "It's specs' dearest, sweetest little sister!"
The thing attached its claws to wall. And then it began stampeding up after them like a maniacal, vertical locomotive in pursuit. "Sorry – I was too caught up to really pay attention to you before! Just now, I checked, and wouldn't you know? Along with space kid there, I've got a piece of your soul from that whole show earlier! It's gonna take a while for you to be 100% again! You're not mad at me, are you Skulls? I mean…"
It lunged to the roof above, and upon attachment summoned a whole sea of writhing tendrils to slither out from the concrete.
"…It's not like you had much of one in the first place, right?!"
They whipped down, forcing GIR to swerve downwards and roll amongst various swiping appendages to escape capture. Revolving down and towards the far wall in midair where their range stopped, the robot fired the last volley of his rockets in the Overture to fight them off. As black matter withered in the fire, Gaz practically exploded in the flier's grip.
"LISTEN TO ME!" she roared over the blasts, "I DON'T CARE WHAT DIB DID - YOU CAN TORTURE HIM ALL YOU WANT, BUT NOBODY GETS TO KILL MY FAMILY AND LIVE AFTERWARDS. THAT'S. JUST. FACT," she seethed, "WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, I'M GOING TO SEND YOU DOWN TO MY BROTHER IN BOXES."
Zim waited anxiously, expecting to see the monster plunge down from within the wall of tendrils, as he'd never seen it leave the winding clusters.
He hadn't expected to see it on the wall twelve feet away from them, crouched like a frog. He gaped.
How'd it even get there?!
"Why're you so worked up?" it snickered. Zim felt his squeedily-spooch clench. It must've made it there during the explosions – because if he decided to eat now, even with GIR instinctively shooting for another direction, it's enormous body missing would be a slim chance… "Please, Skulls – like anyone would bother sticking around for you."
Out it bounded. Under the girl's barking order, GIR killed his rockets right as it departed the wall, and in the freefall, she let something leave her palm. As they all dove, the beast just missed GIR's body by an inch. Sadly, thanks to their angling, the end of Zim's left antenna wasn't so lucky.
The scourge of Irk squealed like a pig as part of him was seized by a molar. Easily the most sensitive organ he knew he had, slit right around its column like an ax to a sapling. Translucent hemolymph clotted down the stalk as the monster darted past them – curved and graceful as a goddamn dolphin before hitting the floor like a cat. GIR's feet reignited and went back to the air while the thing mockingly chewed the end of his poor sensory organ.
"OOOOOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW-" the Irken wailed, whimpering, springing his legs and trying to soothe the stem with his hands, "NYYGGHHH-! FFFSSSZZZZ – YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, YOU!"
The thing just laughed. Again. At his horrible agony. While licking his fluid from its lips. Bastard.
Then it hollered in excruciation as the flash grenade it'd unwittingly swallowed detonated.
Zim almost forgot his agony for a moment, as he watched in both awe and in some degree of pleasure as light soared out from its maw and fellow orifices in its head. This left it hissing – before baying and grappling at its chest. The flesh around the stake especially pulsed, much to the pair's curiosity. Its skin rolled down, destabilizing from its bones before crumbling apart. In its ribs, right beneath the stake was a great ball of soft light, which seemed to suck everything into itself – bones, dermis, and eyes like a vortex before disappearing from existence in an almost comical cloud of dark smoke.
All that remained was a small bit of dust in the dirt. The tendrils above crumbled into dark ash, and gently rained down around them. Like real confetti.
There was a quiet moment, with the three hovering inside the chamber within the glow of the circle and the drizzling ash.
"…How did you know that'd work?" Zim asked, turning to look at her slowly.
The youngest Membrane shrugged. "I… Found the old security guy's journal…" even Zim, oblivious as he was, could detect how utterly exhausted she was, "Apparently, this thing hates light. …Well, artificial light, anyway. It didn't mind the rocket fire... But I guess that grenade did it in for now."
Zim's intact antenna drooped. "'For now'?"
"It-"
"Energy spike detected!" blared GIR.
The circle's luminosity seemed to almost lurch. Suddenly, without any of them reacting, it exploded in scarlet light. The Irken could hear Gaz swear, loudly, beside him as it rose up to just brush the ceiling. Supernatural energy sparked through the air in the center, several feet away, rising like a slew of crashing waves. Zim felt the current sizzle through the air and fill everything with an irregular sensation. The whole room seemed to hush in some otherworldly feel, and in said center, the energy gradually descended back down. Seeping back into the lines, it rapidly exposed the beast that lay wheezing in its center, similar to how it had done when he'd first entered.
With snapping bones, it slowly rose to its full height and glowered up with renewed vigor.
It laughed boisterously. "HA! STUPID BRATS! YOU THINK KILLING ME IS SO SIMPLE?" it mocked, "AS LONG AS THIS CIRCLE EXISTS, I CAN ALWAYS RETURN TO YOUR AWFUL CITY!"
Gaz cocked her head in curiosity. "…Wait, that circle's the only thing keeping you here?"
It paused as realization filled its features. Slowly that smile dropped into an uncertain frown.
"…No," it muttered.
Holy shit. And Gaz thought Dib was a bad liar.
Zim raised an eye-ridge. "Heeey, if that's your ultimate weakness, how come it sponged up my plasma shots earlier?"
"Because it is not my weakness!" it snapped, "This circle is impenetrable to all except I!"
Unfortunately for the abomination, Gaz was rather genre-savvy.
"How close were you to the ground? That might have something to do with it," she offered Zim, "Or maybe you have to be in the circle to destroy it?"
Zim scratched his chin. "Possible, possible… Perhaps IT has to be IN the circle in order for that shield-thingy to trigger?" he added.
Both noted the widened eyes of the creature.
"Ah," they both said in unison, both too satisfied to really care about the odd coincidence.
"Well…" the thing fumbled. It looked about, exasperated and fuming, before sighing and clapping its hands.
It leapt out the circle, and a virtual army of tendrils exited the ground to wrap and dog-pile around the entire marking. It landed with a thud and glared up for a long, tense moment. Its eyes flickered grey, before going red again.
"Good job, brats," it spoke lowly, "Now you're both at the TOP of the list."
Suddenly it vanished in a wall of black smoke.
Before the Invader could voice any sort of confusion, a pair of big, eager eyes reappeared directly under GIR in the air. GIR, obeying programming and both their cries, tried to blast up, but the monster's tail looped around his leg and brought the three to descend screeching all the way down with it with a long, delighted howl.
Forty-eight minutes left, Zim's timer warned.
A/N: Action woot-woot. :P Operation "get faster update schedule" is in effect! Hopefully the next chapter will be soon! We're nearing the climax of Act one, everyone! It's gonna be intense-r from here on out for a while!
...How acts are there?
...Probably more than three. I don't know.
And as a bonus for the R&C fans, why, pray tell, did GIR have a RYNO V in his head? Okay, so I was watching Death Battles on ScrewAttack!, and this MONSTER of a weapon got described when they were going over Ratchet and Clank's arsenal. Let me give you the run down: it is a machine gun. And simultaneously a rocket-launcher. With shotgun properties. Capable of carrying 3,000 rounds. It is so uber, according to the wiki: "[t]his weapon was unanimously voted "Most Likely to End All Forms of Life" and put on the black list there forever. It also apparently had songs and poems written over it amongst other things." AND IT PLAYS THE WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE ON A LOOP WHILE FIRING so, with all this in mind, I ask you:
Could you blame me.
Could. You. BLAME ME – THIS IS THE WEAPON I WILL NAME MY FIRSTBORN AFTER HOLY GOD I NEED TO PLAY THESE GAMES AHHHH
And how did Zim get ahold of one? Well, black-listed or no, this is ZIM we're talking about, isn't it? When have petty things like the LAW ever stopped him from getting a hold of weapons of mass destruction? I imagine the only reason he doesn't carry it with him is because it's simply too big to conceal properly. Meanwhile, GIR probably thought it was shiny, so in his head it went... I dunno lol.
Maybe I should've spent this author's note actually talking about the fucked up things that are happening to the characters.
...Nah. That'd be silly.
...Well, see you all again next update, folks! What happened to GIR? Will he be alright? What the hell even IS the abomination our heroes are facing? What's the deal with its deal with Dib? Can the author write a decent action scene? Is resurrecting Earth's Defender a lost cause? Does Zim have some dark secrets not even he knows about? Will our heroes survive without getting their shit wrecked? Will MINIMOOSE TELL BLOATY THAT POOP-DAWG IS THE FATHER?!
Find out probably at least some of these next time!
...Hopefully!
I mean, I hope so.