Aneera: That was a great idea! But I'd already had half of this chapter written up. Maybe next time!
Chapter Three
Out of the corner of his eye, Dib noticed something he had seen many times before. Immediately he looked up and saw Zim using his spider legs to climb up a wall! No human being could ever fake that without a complicated arrangement of greenscreens and CGI.
Dib now saw the open window Zim was heading towards, and knew he would have to move fast. He turned around and saw an extension cord lying on the floor. He yanked it out of the wall, causing a loud shout of annoyance in the nearest hall as the discussion going on inside it ground to a halt. But Dib heard none of this. He was too busy making a lasso out of the cord and trying to rope Zim with it.
The nearest door burst open and a very angry man with fiery red hair and wearing a trench coat and with a microphone on his ear came out. Despite Dib's protests, he yanked the cord out of Dib's hand and plugged it back into the wall, but it didn't matter. Zim had lost his footing and as the man, his trench coat flapping indignantly, went back into the hall and slammed the door after him, Zim crashed to the floor in front of Dib.
Zim leapt up and ran off once more, past the "JtHM Seminar" sign with Dib in hot pursuit. They ran past big and small knots of people, ran between people taking photos of each other, knocked down signs and standees, and had any number of people shout angrily after them. Finally Zim raced down an almost deserted hall into another room, Dib closing in on his heels, just in time to hear the announcement, "Contestants, choose your weapons!"
Seeing Dib instantly take the handle of a steel katana with both hands, Zim hastily turned around and grabbed a weapon of his own from the nearest table. However it turned out to be a bokken, the wooden practice sword. With a loud scream, Dib charged at Zim, who instinctively held up his bokken to defend himself, but the fight didn't last long when Dib's katana splintered Zim's wooden bokken in two halves down its entire length.
"Ha!" Dib crowed, pointing at what reamained of Zim's bokken.
Zim dropped the halves and ran out the door. Dib flung the clattering katana back on the table and ran after him, shouting, "And that was just the start of it, Zim! I'll do that to YOU next!"
This small taste of victory encouraged Dib a lot, and as they ran into the next room he nearly managed to tackle the alien. The next room was the vending room, and as they ran up and down rows of tables covered with comics, action figures, keychains, figurines and T shirts, they kept bumping into people and knocking both cash and merchandise to the floor.
An angry security guard soon came charging up. "Get outa here now before I grab your passes and chuck you out!" the security guard roared at them.
Zim ducked into another room, but not quickly enough for Dib to miss seeing him which room he went into. However, neither of them noticed the sign on their way in.