Author's Note: Jesus, what's wrong with me? It's like my hope in this story(what little there was) has been restored finally! Inspiration coming in from all fronts! Thank you, whatever greater power has given me the divine need to continue this story!
Invader Zim belongs to not me.
Flames will be put out immediately by a cold front coming my shoulder.
=== DOOM ===
I wake to the smell of rain. Then I hear it, a soft pattering against the walls and windows of the house. It's a bit chilly and I curl up under the blanket, closing around myself as I seek warmth.
Then I open my eyes. For a moment I don't know where I am, until I see the Professor Membrane lamp in the far corner. Right. Spent the night at Dib's house. Swollen Eyeballs wouldn't help me. Gaz killed me four times in VPS. Fuck my life, man.
Stretching and yawning out my sleepiness, I glance over to the armchair and am surprised to see Dib curled up in a 'I believe in aliens' blanket, fast asleep and facing my direction. As if he had been watching me sleep. I'm not sure whether I should be touched or creeped out. I'm a little of both.
I watch him for a moment, and I smile a bit. He's kind of cute when he sleeps, the way he's folded up like a puppy and resting his head on the arm of the chair like a pillow. His glasses are laying on the coffee table, easily within reach. He doesn't snore, and he shifts every now and again.
Gaz isn't awake yet, either, or else she's too busy playing video games in her room to bother herself with waking us up. I wonder what time it is. Craning my neck to get a view of the clock on the wall, I raise my eyebrows. It's nearly eleven o'clock. I yawn again and try to remember what I dreamed about. As always, I only see and hear little tidbits of it, only have parts of the adventure that goes on in my head when I sleep. It's rare that I remember the whole dream.
Which is partially why I'm so hung up on the dream from two weeks ago.
For a while, I do nothing but lay on the couch and listen to the drizzle outside. It's a soft storm, unlike the heavy monsoon rains back home. Not that we don't have an occasional calm rain, but they're less common than thunderstorms. And as much as I love listening to thunder, sometimes I just need the sound of raindrops hitting the windowpane.
I almost drift off again. To be honest, I'd rather just sleep this entire day away. It'd be the first good sleep I've had in a long time, that's for sure. I would have no problem just laying here all day and drift in and out of consciousness. I can always figure out the stupid bombing thing tomorrow, or late tonight when I'll be full of energy and unable to sleep.
"DIB! WHERE'S THE LAST SODA?" shrieks Gaz from the kitchen. Both Dib and I groan and stir in response to her anger, too used to it by now.
"I drank it," Dib mumbles, barely loud enough for me to hear.
"What?" Gaz calls from the doorway.
"I drank it!" Dib repeats, more fiercely. He settles back into his previous position. I flip over onto my stomach and bury my face in a throw pillow. I hear Gaz grumble something about revenge and making Dib pay as she stomps up the stairs. I'm sure a trip to Bloaty's will make her feel better.
I pull my head out of the pillow and my eyes meet Dib's. Without glasses, his eyes are a bit smaller. His prescription must not be every strong. He's probably far-sighted, I think, since glasses for near-sighted people make their eyes look smaller. Of course, I wouldn't know about any of that. I've never had to wear glasses before.
"When do you think she'll forgive you?" I ask jokingly.
"Tonight. I'm calling for delivery," Dib replies with a small smile. I return it and fold my arms under my chin.
"I should probably call my parents about now," I murmur. "But I don't wanna deal with her."
"You could ask to stay another night," Dib suggests.
"Nah. I can't leave Raemi alone with the kids for too long- she'll start to act like them," I grimace. " 'Sides, my step-mom would say no. Me, away from the house for two nights in a row? That's a sin and a half to her."
Dib chuckles. "You know, your step-mom's not that bad of a person," he says.
"When you're around, maybe. She's a bitch most of the time, though," I remark with a sigh.
"She can't be as bad as Gaz," Dib jokes.
"No, she's not. She's worse," I tease. He smiles at the thought of somebody being even more tempermental than Gaz, and I begin to giggle. The idea is a bit ludicrous, even I have to admit.
"DIB, ONE OF YOUR STUPID VIDEO CHAT FRIENDS IS ONLINE!" Gaz screams from the top of the stairs. We both flinch and Dib pulls himself out of the chair. He stretches, shoves his glasses on his face, and stumbles up the flight of stairs, his body not quite awake yet. I settle back down, flipping on my side, and give a moan of disappointment when I can no longer hear the rain.
"Hey, Tia!" Dib calls.
"What-a?" I respond, too lazy to get up.
"Come here! You're gonna love this!"
"I'll take your word for it." I give a disinterested sniff and close my eyes.
"It's gotta do with those bombings!"
My eyes open immediately and I spring to my feet. I practically fly up the steps and nearly run smack into Dib. "What the hell do you mean? I thought they said they weren't gonna help me!"
"Agent Darkbooty had other ideas," Dib says with a grin. "He works at NASA, and he thinks he might've found something."
"He works at NASA?" I ask as I follow him into his bedroom.
"Well, sort of. He's a janitor," Dib admits. "But that doesn't really mean anything because janitors can get their hands on a lot of things that the scientists think are junk."
"Hmm. So what's he got that he thinks can help me?" I put my hands on my hips expectantly. Dib shows me his computer. I lean forward and read the data to the best of my ability. I ignore the nonsensical numbers and algebraic equations that I don't care about.
"An unidentified object floating around on the outskirts of the Earth's atmosphere," I murmur to myself as I put things together in my head. "These times, this thing was right above the cities at the exact time they were bombed." I gasp and clap my hands together as the realization hits me.
Dib flinches at the sharp sound but still asks, "What? What is it?"
"That's it! That's perfect! The bomber is controlling this object to drop bombs on the cities from the outer atmosphere! That's why no one sees them coming!" I'm ecstatic. One piece of the puzzle solved.
"Wait, wouldn't the bombs look like meteors falling, then?" Dib asks.
"Not if they're specially designed not to catch fire upon re-entry," I answer quickly.
"But who would have that kind of technology? Even the smartest people on Earth haven't figured out how to design a space shuttle to not catch fire," Dib says. I bite my lip as the idea comes to my mind and look at Dib. His eyes are wide and his jaw slack with shock.
"Zim," we say in unison.
"We have to stop him," are the first words out of Dib's mouth. I want to agree with him, but something nags at me.
"What if it's not remote-controlled, though? What if the bomb-dropper has set coordinates to bomb at set times and Zim isn't even behind a button?" I ask, more to myself than Dib.
"Oh c'mon! You say it yourself- he's not that smart," Dib pointed out.
"If he's gotten smart enough to avoid being noticed by intelligent people, then he's probably gotten smart enough to think ahead," I say. "We don't know enough to stop him, Dib."
"But you said it last night! He could be planning to bomb New York or D.C. next!"
"Dib, we can't act now. We don't have the information to stop him. We only know what he's been doing, not what his plans are or how to interrupt them. Besides, he might not even be in his base. For all we know, he's up in the bomb-dropper himself, controlling it first-hand. And we have no way to get up into space."
"We could steal his little ship."
"Gir may be completely useless, but the computer isn't. It'll stop us before we get anywhere near that ship. And I was being hypothetical. If Zim is in the base, he'll catch us and we'll too busy getting out of our traps to stop him. Plus, I've only been in there a couple of times and even you don't know everything about the base. He could be anywhere."
"So what are supposed to do? Wait until he destroys the planet?"
"No, just until we have enough information to know what to do. We need a plan, and a plan needs background information and backup plans. Just give it time, Dib. It won't be the end of the world if Zim slips from your surveillance for a day or two while we get everything together."
"It could be."
"I doubt it. If Zim is after world destruction, then these bombings are just practice. Or a warning. Maybe both. In any case, I don't think he's gonna start to be serious for a while."
There's a long, drawn-out silence between us as we think. An idea surfaces in my mind. "Dib, can you get ahold of Agent Darkbooty? I need to ask him something," I say. He nods.
I leave to use the bathroom while Dib calls back his agent friend. I rinse off my face when I wash my hands and scrub my face with a towel. Sighing, I stare at my reflection.
I've never considered myself pretty. Most of the time, I'm too busy being moody to take much care about my appearance. I'm used to seeing the sleepy circles underneath my eyes and my hair in a mess. I take a lock of my brown hair and look at it for a moment. Split ends make it seem unruly and unbrushed, and it's not the most unique color in the world. It could stand to be cut, I think.
My eyes shift back to the mirror. I can't tell my pupils from my irises, they're so dark. I don't like them. My face is rounder than I would like it, and my freckles are aggitating to no end. My lips are thin but pink naturally. My nose is a little small. I'm definitely not someone would consider a 'hero', at least not appearance-wise. I'm pretty unimpressive, unnoticable. Not worth a memory, just another tired, sullen face. You'd never be able to pick me out in a crowd.
Even if I did save the world, and everyone knew it, who would have this face be the symbol of heroism?
"Hey, Tia, what's taking so long?" Dib asks through the door. I clear my throat and bite my lip.
"Be right there," I say, hoping my voice doesn't give away my thoughts. I recompose myself. Set my shoulders back, raise my chin a little bit, wipe all emotion from my face. That's a little better. I look pretty okay for a heartless bitch.
I open the door and return to Dib's room. Darkbooty is waiting for me, his silhouette in a floating screen. He's the man I kept thinking I knew last night.
"Hello, Tia," he greets unemotionally. I smile a bit.
"Agent Darkbooty, right?" I ask, glancing at Dib for reassurance. He nods slightly.
"At your service. Mothman has informed me that you wanted to ask something of me again." Darkbooty's trying to be professional about this, but I can tell he's a bit excited about the information he sent us.
"Um, yeah." I sit on Dib's bed, tired of standing. "First of all, I wanted to thank you for sending that data. It's helped a lot."
"It was nothing. Really easy, actually." I imagine it was, but I don't make a remark about it.
"Second, uh... I hope you don't mind, but I... we need tabs on that object that NASA found. We need to know its whereabouts and its actions. And since you're on the inside..."
"I can get you that information almost immediately, I'm sure," Darkbooty says. I sigh slightly, relieved that someone would be willing to pull a bit of weight for us while we make a plan.
"Thanks," I say. "I'll send you my e-mail address. I'm sure you already have Di- ...Mothman's."
"Of course. I look forward to speaking to you again, Tia."
"Uh, same here. See you later." I have no idea how end a conversation professionally.
"Darkbooty out." The screen goes black.
Dib looks at me. "We? When did this become a 'we' thing?" he asks with a smirk. I roll my eyes and stand up. I'm even shorter to him than I thought. I have to angle my head up to look him in the eye.
"Since you decided to try and be reckless by going after Zim without a plan," I say, teasingly snark. "You have any idea how much of a job it is, being your voice of reason?"
"Probably a crappy one," Dib jokes.
"You have no idea." I glance out the window. It's stopped raining, and there's a bit of sun peeking out from behind the clouds. "I should be getting home. My parents are gonna have a shit fit."
"I'll walk you," Dib offers. I smile at him.
Sometimes, he can be a total sweetheart without realizing it.
=== DOOM ===
Wow. That was a shmaltzy ending.
Holy fuck buckets, two chapters in one day! That's gotta be a first. I have a feeling I'm gonna end up finishing this story for once. :O
Reviews, please. :)