After a bit of experimenting with another story, which is proving highly successful, I have decided to take the lessons learned to this story too. I realised the first chapter in this was... waaaaay too big and annoying. People don't want big and annoying, they want to the point, short, good stories.
I realise now that perhaps I was pouring too much on my readers at once. From now on, I will provide shorter, but much better chapters with less crap to dig through!
So without further adoooo, here is the next chapter of the story! Enjoy!
It had been a long two weeks. Dib had come in almost every day gloating over him, telling him how no one at skool had talked about him or even missed him. Zim had been forced to sit there day after day listening to the annoying little human and his stupid head. However, even though he'd been told off by the ugly nurses for getting out of his bed, he'd been working on walking around, as well as a few other disgusting human practices like going to the toilet.
He hated doing that, it made him feel so gross.
Gir however was getting better. He'd been taken out of Intensive Care Unit and placed in what they call an 'Observation Ward'. Zim had been forced to walk down the hallway and tell Gir to let go of his bed to allow the nurses to move him, but even so, he was glad the boy was gaining strength, it only meant that they'd be able to escape this horrible place sooner than he hoped.
Still, he had found this experience so far very... interesting, for lack of a better word. He had made some nice observations on the human race at least, which he could use to further his utter annihilation of their entire race. Apparently they valued 'rich' people like himself, even though he had no money other than the human currency he kept in his base for purely infiltration reasons, Dib's patronage of his healthcare was very well received with the medical class in the hospital.
He planned to use this to his advantage in his next world domination attempt. If he could acquire all of the humans worthless wealth, than he would control them all.
Right now the irken was looking at himself in the small mirror in his room, frowning at the clothes the Dib-monster had given to him out of that detestable word he kept using. His 'charity' was nothing but a mocking hand thrown to a wounded soldier. Zim frowned at this, even as he picked at the t-shirt, the little human had no honour whatsoever.
The clothes he was wearing were equally as pathetic as his benefactor, black pants and a black t-shirt with his father's face on it and 'Probing the Membrane of Science' written around him in a circle.
He had been noticing for the last couple of days that a jet black fuzz of hair had been appearing on his head, as well as what he knew humans called eyebrows. It seemed that his body was still adapting to changes, but as of the moment, he felt no more pain or aches. If anything, he was still wondering why they were keeping him around. Even so, he didn't want to leave without Gir, they were a team, and he had already theorised that he couldn't change back on his own anyway.
He huffed, deciding that his clothing wasn't going to get any better than this and returned back to sitting on his bed. The biggest thing about this place was the crushing boredom of it all. He had nothing to do, absolutely nothing, just sit about and watch TV. Occasionally he escaped from his room and visited Gir, making sure the young boy was recovering as planned.
Gir seemed unphased by everything that had been happening, if anything, he was happy to be able to eat things again, although he'd eaten too much and gotten sick. He was also now enjoying the growth of his hair, which almost opposed to Zim's coal black hair, was a deep metallic silver. Why it'd turned out like that Zim couldn't explain, although when Dib had noticed he'd babbled something about gene memory or image construction or something.
He ran a hand slowly over his head, feeling the rough hair under his fingers. The human body was so... disgusting, more so than he'd even thought. Every bit of it seemed to ooze and leak with something, these human creatures expelled water like it was poison, which wasn't really surprising considering how acidic their natural water seemed to be but now he could drink it, and it tasted horrible.
Purified water was much better for the body, even the human body it seemed, pathetic as it was. He also noticed how foods tasted different, it seemed human taste buds also acted differently to his own, they seemed to base a lot of the taste on the smell of the food, not just the actual flavours. Strange.
He grunted, falling back onto his bed and turning on the pulldown TV he had. There was nothing ever good on... ever and it cost a stupid amount of money to keep on too, but he'd be damned if he was going to miss Oprah. That woman had taught him so much about human nature like how most of the human race were stupid, insane creatures who thought with their fists or their sex organs.
He didn't get a chance to view his television however, as the moment he even turned it on there was a knock at the door. Zim growled in annoyance, it was probably another ugly nurse to give him medicine, what did she call it, tie-lee-noll? Whatever it was it tasted absolutely horrible.
Zim looked away to the window and frowned as the door opened, "Go away. Zim does not wish to eat any more tie-lee-noll today, I am feeling fine."
"How about a punch in the mouth?" The visitor growled back, causing Zim to turn his head to the familiar voice.
Standing there was a young girl, a year younger than Dib, with a shock of purple hair which came around her face in a manner which reminded one of a pair of jaws, curling down at her forehead and up at her chin, other sharp, almost spiky curls ended around her neck. Her eyes were small and narrow in a strange change from Dib's wide eyes, but one could still see the glints of their shared amber-gold pupils.
She was wearing a typical long black dress which ended at her thighs, however, she was also wearing a pair of black pants and, under her dress, a purple shirt. Around her neck was a skull necklace and on each ear were a pair of earrings also shaped like skulls.
Her body was also approaching puberty, evident by her developing body. She was taller, though not as tall as Dib and her body was filling out, perhaps a little too much. She had put on weight, it was obvious, even her cheeks were a little more rounded than in her youth.
"Gaz?" Zim raised an eyebrow at this surprising visitor, "What are you doing here?"
"Wow Zim," She commented, her eyes travelling over his form, "You look... weird."
Typical that neither of them would have started their conversation with pleasantries. Zim had talked to Gaz a few times, perhaps more than Dib would like to think and he'd basically realised that any conversation with Gaz usually resulted in blunt statements.
"Gee, thanks," He spat out with a frown before he looked away again, "I take it the Dib-stick was too busy polishing his big fat head to bother mocking me today."
"Actually no," Gaz replied bluntly, walking over to the side of the bed and dropping the plastic bag onto it, "I came to drop off some clothes, thought you'd be sick of the hospital ones."
Zim looked back to Gaz with a raised eyebrow, not yet uncrossing his arms and with a thick suspicion in his voice. "Why would you bring me, the mighty Zim, clothes?"
Gaz shrugged, "I had my tonsils taken out last year, I had to wear horrible bright hospital clothes." She seemed to shudder at the memory, "And besides, Dib picked them out for you, thought I'd get a good chuckle out of seeing you dressed up like an idiot."
The former irken frowned deeply at Gaz before looking to the bag, "I refuse to wear anything that Dib-stink picked out, he can barely dress himself."
The young teenage girl smirked a little before sitting on the bed and getting out some of the clothes, "You're not wrong there."
This was why Zim could often tolerate Gaz more than Dib. She was certain on his list of 'useful slaves' when he took over the earth, unlike every other pathetic ape on this rock, she actually had a brain to think with... plus she insulted Dib.
He frowned deeply again as he looked over the truly stupid clothes Dib had picked out for him. Several pairs of very childish looking underpants, two pairs of black pants and five t-shirts, which Zim couldn't help but wonder at as Gaz tossed them onto the bed.
"Why do all these t-shirts have I, a weird red symbol, and the name of one of your major economic centres on the front?" He picked one up that apparently came from Atlanta. It was white, he hated white coloured things, white after all being the colour greatly associated with death and mourning within Irken society.
"Because dad never knows what to get us when he's off on his business trips," Gaz replied coldly, a strange note of annoyance in her voice, although who it was aimed at Zim couldn't tell, "So he always gets us these stupid t-shirts. Looks like Dib's dumping his onto you."
"He's a complete idiot," Zim growled out as he threw the t-shirt onto the small pile, "You can take these back and throw them at him, Zim does not wish for his pity, Zim grows stronger each day and soon I'll be able to break out of this horrible medical centre and get back to my home!"
Gaz was silent for a moment before looking to the door, "And what about Gir?"
"Gir is fine," He waved a hand in the air, "He may have not been Irken, but he was Irken-made, and thus he heals as fast as anything designed or produced by my glorious and amazing people."
The young teenage girl didn't really reply, other than a very small 'hum' before she moved off the bed and walked over to the door, "I'm going to go and talk to him, Dib should be here soon." However, almost just as soon as she'd opened the door, she paused and stepped back as Gir burst into the room, leaping over to Zim and grabbing him in a hug.
"MASTER!" He shouted and grinned as he squeezed Zim tightly, "They said I could go with Dib 'cos they have news to tell us about stuff!"
Dib slowly followed after him, breathing heavily. Zim could only guess how long he'd given young teenager the run around before finally letting him bring him to Zim's room. He even stopped to lean against the wall, panting slightly, "Jeez, how can someone so small be so fast?"
"Great, now I have to spend more time around you people," Gaz mumbled, storming over to the corner of the room and grabbing a chair, sitting onto it and turning on her Gameslave II.
Dib shot her an annoyed look before turning his eyes to Zim, "Hey, we were told to come in here for something, apparently they think you and Gir are brothers or something so whatever they tell you they want to tell both of you."
"Unless it is being allowed to get out of this dump, then I don't care," Zim spat out quickly, "I just want to get back to finding out how to reverse this horrible... thing."
"I like being a stinky human!" Gir said loudly, sitting right next to Zim and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, "I can eat ice cream and be sick and go to the toilet!"
Zim rolled his eyes at Gir's statement before looking over to Dib's annoying grin. He laughed and commented, "Looks like we have a convert here."
"He is NOT a convert!" Zim screamed back, shaking a fist at him, "He's a highly trained killing machine!"
Gir waved his arms and cheered, "YAY KILLING MACHINES!"
"See!" Zim folded his arms proudly, "He's a completely unstoppable being of doom."
"Your 'completely unstoppable being of doom' just spent fifteen minutes making me chase him around the ward because he couldn't find a sock." Dib quickly sniped back.
Zim was about to comment more and engage in their usual duel of insults, but they were both interrupted when a tall, almost gangly nurse walked into the room. She carried what looked to be some kind of electronic pad in one hand and a black pointer in the other, her hair slightly fizzed with stress and her blue eyes long since lost the sparkle they had for this sort of work. "Mr Redavni?"
"Redavni?" Zim questioned suddenly, "I know no Redavni."
"Yes you do!" Dib suddenly interjected, his eyes wide, looking from Zim then to the Nurse, "He totally does, he's just kidding."
The nurse didn't seem to buy it however and she held her chart to her chest, raising an eyebrow, "... do you know who you are? You're Zim Redavni, your brother there is Gir Redavni."
"She said ma name!" Gir grinned happily.
"I am Zim!" The young human replied quickly and with a shake of his fist, "But I do not know-"
"Of course you're Zim Redavni," Dib said suddenly, giving a glare at the invader, "I mean, it's not like you're some kind of alien or something, is it?"
"... YES I AM ZIM REDAVNI!" Zim suddenly screeched, again wondering why Dib was putting his neck out for him like this, but than again, he knew it was all part of Dib's plan to totally rub it in his face that he was human now. Still, if it got him out of this hospital, he would take any opportunity. He grabbed Gir and put on a very large smile, flashing his new human teeth, "And this is my... little brother! My very stupid little brother! Gir! Gir Redavni!"
In the corner, Gaz snorted in amusement.
"... well okay," The nurse gave him another sharp look before putting her eyes to her chart, "Well, from what we can tell, there's nothing wrong with either of you. We simply can't explain why you collapsed and lost your hair, although it's growing back fine. You're both a pair of healthy young boys."
"So can we go home now?" Zim immediately pushed, "I have... things to do."
Now Dib snorted, but he said nothing, he just grinned away Zim's look of pure anger.
"Well, we would let you go home as long as your parents sign you out," The nurse commented simply, "But it seems that you have no parents on record."
Zim's blood ran cold. He hadn't thought that the hospital would want such details and it wasn't like he could just get the robo-parents to come out and sign whatever needed to be signed, they could barely be allowed out the house considering how broken their AI was.
Amazingly, and again very strangely, Dib stepped forward, "He's an orphan, from another country, some European country." Even Gaz looked up at this, she'd never seen her brother so determined to be on Zim's side before. "He's a study for my father."
The invader nodded, "What he said."
Gir copied Zim's motion almost exactly, "What he said."
"... and your father is?" The nurse asked Dib suddenly, her pen resting on her pad.
"Professor Membrane," Dib's voice seemed to take an odd dip when speaking his father's name, it reminded Zim of the way Gaz had talked about her father, but again, the moment he heard it, it was gone, "He's been paying for his healthcare."
She paused, looking to her pad, hitting it a few times before her eyes widened, "Oh... OH. Oh I'm sorry, yes of course, as soon as the Professor says it's okay you can go."
"Zim demands to go," The invader demanded again, "I need no permission to leave this place."
"You do when someone is paying for you to be here," the nurse replied frowning at the young man. It was pretty clear Zim wasn't her favourite patient.
"Gir wants to go hooooome," Gir whined suddenly and somewhat loudly, it seemed the young boy didn't do anything quietly.
Dib turned back to the nurse and quickly explained, "Look, my dad is a very busy man as I'm sure you know, so, you know, how about you just let me call his office and get his verbal permission?"
The nurse raised an eyebrow in thought at this before shrugging and nodding, "Sure why not, he donated a ward after all."
"That was nice of him," Gaz suddenly announced from the back of the room, an unmistakable tone of bitterness in her voice.
The whole process only took a few moments, Dib put his father, or rather, his father's security on speaker phone and they had their answer of 'yeah sure whatever' in only a few moments before being disconnected. This seemed good enough for the nurse, who told Zim to gather his and Gir's stuff and go. Where he was going, well, the hospital simply assumed he'd be going with Dib and Gaz.
Dib had, again, been strangely fine with the idea. However, after gathering up all his clothes in a bag provided by the hospital, he followed Gaz and Dib outside, Gir holding onto his shirt and trotting behind happily.
Zim however was not happy. Whilst Gir was overjoyed to get out the hospital, as he was overjoyed at anything and everything, Zim's mind was running. His eyes were locked onto the back of Dib's big head. He was up to something, something that wasn't just his mock charity. Mock charity didn't extend to providing a roof and medical care for your worst enemy. Yes, the moment Dib thought he was safe and sound and in control in his own horrible little home, Zim would be there. He would corner him, smash his face into the wall and demand to know what was going on in that huge head of his.
No one helped their nemesis this much without good reason.
SO THAT'S THE CHAPTER FOLKS!
Yes I know, nothing really happened here. Sorry, the reason for that is that originally there was WAY MORE than this. Like a ton more. But I decided to cut it out so that everything moved quicker.
For this chapter at least, we are introduced to Gaz and we are given some new questions about Dib. Why is he helping Zim so much? What is he hiding?
ANSWERS WILL BE NEXT CHAPTER! BWAHAHA. And to prove it's coming, here is a bit from the next chapter.
Dib was always amazed to see Zim's lab. It was gigantic for one, almost as big as his dad's, just stretching in all directions like some great expansive cave. He remembered Zim gloating that it took up almost four whole blocks, all underground of course and with three separate levels. But the look of it all, Dib knew it was the closest he'd ever get to stepping foot on Irk. It had this strange pink hue to it all, with dark purples and black and red thrown in. There were oddly few angles, almost everything seemed curved and softly shaped and yet it was so organised, threatening and jagged.
Read, review, comments, critiques, questions, ask em all and I will answer! TILL NEXT TIME KIDS!