Chapter 6: Dib vs. Mecha-Dib
It… It's me!
Dib stared in disbelief at the form of the gargantuan robot standing before him. It was at least forty stories high and made of a blinding titanium alloy, but its shape was unmistakably that of Dib, from the gunmetal-black boots right down to the pointy spike of hair on top of its head. Its round eyes glowed a dark, neon-blue color
There was only one person who could have made something like this, he knew, and that was his father. Jeez, dad sure whipped that up fast.
With a mechanized whir of it's head, the metal Dib set the real Dib in its sights. In the blink of an eye it came at him. Dib barely managed to dodge out of the way, but the robot turned at a frightening speed and caught him in the back. Dib went sailing to the ground, sending up a ribbon of pavement as he skidded to a stop. The robot was right on top of him. It picked him up by the shoulders and slammed him into a building. Dib struggled, but it held him fast. From his eyes came an angry red flash, but the beam bounced right off the robot's metal body. A force field!
The Dib robot pulled back its fist, aiming at Dib's head, but this gave him just enough time to roll out of the robot's grip. A giant, metal fist slammed into the building where he'd been only seconds before, and Dib took the opportunity to dart around the corner. His mind was in a panic. Just how in the world was he supposed to fight against this thing?! If he knew his dad, the mech's specifications would surely be designed for maximum effectiveness, able to guard against his strengths and take advantage of his weaknesses in order to bring him down as efficiently as possible. That thing is gonna kill me! What do I do?
But there was nothing he could do. Not by his own will, at least. He was still under Zim's power. All he could do was hope that the alien was at least somewhat proficient in hand to hand combat.
"Well, well, well… Look what they've sent in to stop me," Zim snickered. Things just kept getting more and more amusing.
For something the lowly humans had engineered, the robot was amazingly fast, Zim had to admit. He thrust the control to the left, the right, the left, up, down. He fired the lasers, but they didn't seem to damage this new adversary. "Hmm, it doesn't look as if this 'Mecha-Dib' will be easy to defeat." He tried out a few more moves, but the robot proved quite formidable, and Zim forced Dib to retreat momentarily. He was half tempted to just let the robot destroy Dib right then and there, but he wasn't ready to end the fun just yet. And anyway, there was so much more damage left to do, and if one giant monster could cause such widespread devistation, just think of what two could accomplish! For now he'd try to fend off this opponent, and maybe later on, when his hand got tired or he got hungry or something, he'd let the robot finish the boy off while he went and got a sandwich.
What Zim didn't realize, however, was that when the robot had slammed Dib backwards, the force had violently jarred the control chip on the back of his neck. Now normally, this wouldn't have been a concern; originally developed by the Meekrob in order to create massive beasts of war in their fight against the Irkens before it was stolen by the enemy, this technology in particular was made to take a hit in battle. But Zim wasn't as good an engineer as he fancied himself, and when he'd modified it to include the neuro-control feature, he'd weakened the ordinarily indestructible outer casing. Now it began to crackle and spark, and Dib felt a strange current travel down his spine.
Hey, what was that? He turned his head to get a better look, and all the sudden it struck him that he could turn his head! Only a little bit, but still, it was something. He tried to move his arm, but it was unresponsive. He did find he could twitch his left index finger, though.
The implant must have gotten damaged, he figured. It wasn't much, maybe only one or two wires perhaps, but it was enough to give him hope again. And as long as he had hope, he'd never give in to Zim's evil!
Uh-oh. Dib spied his mecha doppelganger heading towards him again. This was it, his only chance. He had an idea, but he'd have to time things just right.
The Mecha-Dib sprinted at him. Dib dove to the ground as it sent a flying kick his way, gracefully rolling back on his feet. The robot spun, its metal fist raised. Dib gathered all his mental power, focusing it on the task at hand. And as the robot lashed out, aiming for his jaw, Dib, using all his concentration, whipped his head around. The blow landed square on the back of his neck.
Success! There was a small 'crunch,' and a sudden shiver ran up and down Dib's body, but this time it wasn't painful. It felt amazing, in fact, like every ounce of tension had just rushed out of him all at once. He gasped, slumping to the ground as he became aware of his muscles for the first time in what seemed like forever. It was like his mind was slipping back into the familiar glove of his body. He felt weak, but elated. He'd done it! He was himself again!
Well, almost. Even though he'd gotten rid of Zim's control chip, he was still ridiculously huge. Simply removing the chip didn't reverse its size-altering effects, evidentially. But he could worry about that later. He still had a killer robot to deal with, and as far as anyone knew he was still a titanic, out-of-control death-machine.
Dib climbed shakily to his feet, but the Mecha-Dib stood before him, blocking his path. In a flash it leaped at him, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground. "Wait!" Dib shouted (noting briefly how great it was to be speaking out loud again). He tried to push his robotic twin off him, but wasn't strong enough. Desperate, he kicked up his legs hard. This was just enough to throw the Mecha-Dib off balance, and Dib managed to slip out from under it and stumble into a run. He raced down the street and dashed behind a cluster of skyscrapers. After several moments of silence, he chanced a peek from his hiding place. The robot was nowhere in sight. Dib lowered a puzzled eyebrow, but just then his metal twin burst right through the center of a building, raining down a sparkling shower of glass and metal. It dove for Dib, but he thrust up his arms and blocked its attack.
The two stood locked in the classic kaiju face-off position, arms raised, fist clutching fist, each straining to push the other one back. Somehow, Dib managed to throw off his opponent. The robot fell back against yet another building, crashing to the ground, and for a moment Dib thought he might just be triumphant. But a split second later, the robot raised its head and fired two beams of energy from it's eyes, catching Dib directly in the chest. With a scream, he flew backwards and landed painfully on his back, sending up a huge cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, the Mecha-Dib was standing over him, blocking out the sunlight as well as any means of escape. "Wait!" Dib cried, throwing his arms over his head protectively. "Stop! I give up! I don't want to fight anymore!"
There was a moment of total stillness as the robot seemed to study Dib, then without warning it lifted its arm and fired a missile from its wrist. Dib thought he was done for, but the missile exploded mid-air, transforming into a bundle of thick cables. Spikes on the ends drove into the ground and tightened around Dib's arms and legs, pinning him down. "Hey! Nngh! Nyuh! Nyah!" He struggled against his restraints as the robot stepped back and emitted a sharp hiss of air. Dib watched transfixed as the frowny-face on the Mecha-Dib's chest opened, and from it emerged a floating platform carrying Professor Membrane, along with a few of his assistants.
"Dad!" Dib cried.
The platform lowered the Professor and company down until they hovered at Dib's eye level. Dib blinked down at his father, not quite sure how he was going to explain all this.
The Professor held up a loudspeaker. "Ah, Son, I'm glad to see you've finally come to your senses," he said in that generally cheerful yet somehow dismissive tone he always spoke to Dib in. "Sorry I had to be so rough on you back there, but you were wrecking the entire city." He shook his head and tsk'd. "What in the world got into you? Is this because I don't spend enough time with you? You know I'm very busy, but that doesn't mean I don't-"
"But dad, it wasn't me!" Dib interrupted. "Well, I mean it was me, but I was under alien control! Zim, he used some kind of weird, alien thingy on me that-"
The Professor held up a hand. "Now, now, I don't want to hear any of your crazy alien stories," he sighed. "And I won't even ask how… this… happened," he added, indicating Dib's immense size. "Just don't do anything like this again, and we'll forget all about it. Now, tell all these people you're sorry."
A large crowd had gathered around by this time, and Dib looked at them nervously, not really sure where to even start. "Um… I'm really sorry, um… everyone. Even though it was really Zim who-"
"Son…" Professor Membrane said in a stern tone.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." Dib sighed.
He figured he was in for a round of booing and angry jeers, but, surprisingly the people in the crowd seemed to take it pretty well. They just sort of looked at one another and shrugged. Mutterings of, "That's fine," and "Hey, no big deal," floated up to his ears, leaving Dib quite astonished. Well, it's about time something went my way today, he thought.
Professor Membrane hit a button on the console, and the cables slid off of Dib's limbs and torso. "Well," he said to Dib in that nonchalant manner of his, "I'd better be getting back to the lab now. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something that'll bring you back to normal. In the meantime, though, you've got a little mess to clean up." He pointed to the several mile long path of destruction Dib had left in his wake.
"But it wasn'tI-! I-I didn't-! It was-!" Dib began, then sighed again. "Oh, never mind." What was the point? If his dad still wouldn't listen to him about Zim even after all this, he never would. Brushing himself off, he stood up and began making his way down the street, picking up over-turned cars and various debris on his way.
"That's a good boy. See you at home, Son." With that, the Professor's hover-platform lifted him and his fellow scientists back up inside the Mecha-Dib. He hummed congratulations to himself as the opening whooshed shut. "Ah, yes, I'm a good father."
"NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOO!" Zim lay face-down on the computer room floor, kicking and slamming his fists against the tile in a tantrum of fury. "WHY!? My plan was perfect! How can this beeeee!?" GIR just stood there, watching him. After a moment, he tapped Zim on the shoulder. Zim raised his head and sniffled back a tear as GIR held out something to him.
"You wanna cookie?"
"Well, children," Ms. Bitters growled, "it seems that until the skool is rebuilt, we'll be holding class out here from now on..."
It was about a week later, and the kids sat amidst the ruins of the classroom in a semicircle of makeshift desks, pieced together out of stuff like boxes, crates, and overturned trash cans. Wearing a scowl underneath a hooded robe used to guard her from the sunlight, their teacher stalked back and forth before them. "So, if anyone wants to thank a 'certain classmate' for forcing us outside on this horrible, sunny day, go right ahead."
Every kid in the class turned to stare at the boy in the glasses and trench coat, who had only a short time ago reduced their entire skool to rubble while being, as his classmate Poonchy remarked afterwards, "weird and giant."
Ms. Bitters had obviously meant her statement to be derisive, but surprisingly, no one shot Dib any dirty looks; they all seemed to prefer the change from being cooped up in that smelly skool building to being out in the nice, fresh air. Not to mention he'd gotten them off of skool for a couple of days. Some of them even flashed him a thumbs-up.
Zim sat there, fuming, on top of a stack of old suitcases, his face resting in his hands. He frowned deeply and shot Dib a contemptuous look, mouthing the words, "I'll get you someday, you stinking human. Just you wait."
Dib just smiled triumphantly. All was right with the world again. Everything was back to normal, or at least what passed for 'normal' in his crazy life. But crazy or not it was his life, the one he'd dedicated to protecting mankind from alien evil, and for the moment he was feeling pretty glad to have it back.
Yep, it was pretty good having things back to normal. Well, normal except for…
Now Zim was making another face at him and sticking his tongue out. Dib glanced at him with a wicked smirk. A bright shot of crimson flashed from his eye.
"AHHH! AAAHHHRRRGGGHHH!" Zim screamed and tumbled off his seat as his wig caught fire. He rolled around on the ground, yowling and screeching, where he eventually curled up into a smoldering little ball of agony.
"Problem, Zim?" Ms. Bitters asked as she slithered up beside him.
Zim rocked back and forth, whimpering. "The pain… Why… such… pain…?"
Dib laughed to himself. Yep, things were pretty good, indeed.
The End!
A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you had fun ^^