Author's Note: So, after that sucky cliffhanger that wasn't really a cliffhanger but it seemed like it at one in the morning, I hope this will make up for it. I'm sorry for all this puzzle and stuff. I'm not exceptional at mysteries, and I'm compelled to write one after reading Sherlock Holmes for a week and a half.
Without further ado, here's my apology chapter. May be rushed because I'm on a time limit.
Zim is Jhonen Vasquez's, and Viacom's.
Flamers can suck my fat one.
=== DOOM ===
Humans are creatures of habit. I remember Grandma saying that once, when my dad scolded me for chewing on the beaded necklace that I have long since lost to time. People have habits for everything they do- it has to do with reptition.
My thinking habits, for example, generally have something to do with gnawing on things. My mouth has to work in order for my brain to do the same. Dib paces, I've noticed, when he thinks for a while. He needs to be in motion constantly, actually.
So here we are, me chewing feverishly on a piece of bubblegum and Dib walking a rut into my black carpet in my bedroom.
"What is he up to?" Dib asks no one in particular, as he's been doing every few minutes since he got here.
"That's a million and one," I joke humorlessly.
"I mean, it's obvious what he's up to. He wants to destroy the world-"
"But how he's doing it isn't as obvious. You've said that, like, fifty-six jillion and a half times already."
"Really, though, think about it! What do we actually know? That Zim's bombing cities miles above them in the outer atmosphere, and that we have absolutely no legitimate way of getting to him, or stopping him!"
"Yeah, Dib, I know. I've been thinking about it nonstop for a week."
"And even you haven't come up with anything!"
For an instant, I'm flattered by the comment and his suggestion that I'm smarter than even him. But I'm right back to worrying. And being frustrated.
"You know what? This ain't gonna work," I sigh.
"What isn't gonna work?" Dib asks, stopping mid-pace.
"This." I gesture to him and then myself. "Us freaking out and getting nothing done. We just need to relax and get our heads straight." Relaxing sounds really nice right now.
"We can't relax! For all we know, Zim's on his way now to wipe us off the map, and then the rest of the planet from the solar system!" Dib argues.
"Fine, you keep pacing a hole in my floor and letting your thoughts go in circles. I need a break." I flop on my bed and take a few deep breaths. Spread my hands wide and face my palms down against the matteress. My eyes slip shut.
My imagination takes me back in time to Mom and New Mexico, the park that was the staple of my childhood. We sit under my favorite tree, an old twisted oak that I had skinned my knee on climbing once.
I explain everything to Mom, Zim and the bombs and how I've unwittingly thrown myself into saving the world. She laughs and puts a hand on my shoulder. She tells me that I'm looking at this one-dimensionally, that I need to look at the things that originally attracted me to this whole mess.
"We lose sight of the things that could hold the answer when most of the time, it was the red flag that we saw in the first place. Other things take priority in our minds, push out other little details. Even ones we may need later. So think. What was your red flag?"
I think back to the start. Five bombings that were suspiciously similar. No explosive residue, no bomb shells, no craft that the bombs had come from. Three puzzles, one solved already. Two left, then.
No explosive residue. No bomb shells.
Impossible, I decide. All explosives leave some type of residue, even C4. Anything that burns leaves evidence of what it once was. Even if Zim is from another planet, it's impossible that there is a substance on his home that doesn't leave something behind to identify it, at least in our universe, and I'm certain that Zim is from this universe, if not this galaxy.
So what burns things and doesn't leave a detectable residue?
"What if it does leave something behind, but it's disguised as something else?" Mom asks. "Or covered up by something that we have here on Earth?"
Like what? What do we have that's endless here on our humble planet? Water, but the water that put out the fires evaporated immediately because of the heat, which would've left whatever had been soaked into the water behind. Sunlight, but that...
...Is brilliant.
I jolt awake. "Dib!" I shout, though I don't need to; he's hovering above me. He jumps back.
"What? Did you figure something out?" he asks.
"They're not bombs!" I say loudly, the realization soaking in after the initial shock.
"Are you blind, or crazy? Of course they're bombs! He blew up London with them!" Dib stresses, grabbing my shoulders and shaking them to make a point.
"No, he burned London! A majority of the tall buildings are down, yes, but it was merely concentrated heat," I say.
"What are you talking about?" Dib gaves a scoffing sound, like he doesn't believe what he's hearing. I can barely believe the words that tumble out of my mouth.
"He's using sunlight, Dib. That's why he's so high up! He needs to have direct, unpolluted, pure sunlight to pull this off."
"So, he's using what? A big solar panel?" Dib asks.
"Not exactly. More like a solar collector, maybe like a big dish, like the VLA."
"VLA?"
"The Very Large Array. It's in New Mexico. It's got a bunch of giant metal dishes that pick up sounds from outer space and transmit them to a reader in a lab. Anyway, he probably has something like that attached to his spaceship."
"And the explosions?"
"He uses the dish to collect the heat from the sun's rays, and then something like a big phaser to fire concentrated amounts at any point on the globe. No bomb shells needed."
"And he knows where to fire using satellite images he probably hacked."
"Or intercepted. He has access to all sorts of information up there. Military codes and files on everyone in the government."
"That's why there's no conspiracy forums! He has full access to the Internet and the codes to hack anything! He could've taken down the forums before they were seen by anyone of importance."
"And then he kept the government quiet, somehow. Blackmail, maybe."
"What about the first five explosions, though? Why give warnings when he could've destroyed us a long time ago?"
"Maybe he was practicing, maybe he was hoping we'd notice... he is an imbecile, after all."
"He's really thought this through, though."
The only thing that doesn't have an answer. Zim's proved himself to be completely incompetent; a bit smarter than everyone else in this backwater town, but still unbearably stupid. How could he have come up with an intelligent, nearly flawless plan for world destruction?
With the major question out of the way, more surface. Has he recruited another Irken to assist him? Or did he steal someone else's idea and use it as his own?
"Dib, when was the last time you went to Zim's base?" I ask suddenly.
"Um, about a week. Since you pointed out the bombings," Dib answers, after an initial confusion of my change in subject.
"Good. Do you wanna break into it or should I?"
Immediately, Dib is on his feet, a huge grin spread across his face. "We can do it together! We could go right now!" he exclaims, eager. I'm less so.
"Or tonight, when I won't have to explain things to my parents," I say slowly, calmly. I'm sure Dad would let me go, since Dib will be with me the entire time, but my step-mom won't let me out the door after sunset under any circumstance.
Dib droops for a moment, but perks back up. "Okay, then tonight! Say, midnight."
I have to give a laugh. Midnight is my favorite time of night. I agree with him, and we spend the rest of the time talking about how we're going to break into Zim's poorly protected base. I've done it before without any plan or notion of what I was actually doing, but it's fun to plan and be a couple of teenagers for the first time in a week.
Sneaking out of my house isn't so difficult. At eleven-forty-five, dressed completely in black, I close the back door securely behind me and lock it with my spare key. I hop over the fence that separates the back yard from the front and walk calmly to the corner that Dib and I agreed to meet at.
I stand under the streetlight patiently, knowing I'm early and Dib will probably be a bit late. So I admire the stars to pass the time. They seem to glitter above in the deep violet sky, wishing me luck. The constellations have come to greet me tonight. Orion, Hydra, Cygnus, and Pegasus all sparkle brilliantly. The Big Dipper hides from me but I find it eventually near the horizon. Venus outshines everything else, though, and the waxing crescent moon hangs high, barely discernable because of its size tonight.
"Hey, you ready?"
Dib's voice startles me back to Earth. "Yeah, let's get going," I say, trying to brush his catching me off guard.
We walk almost hand-in-hand, our fingers brushing each other occasionally. It's not a long walk, but it's quiet and Dib talks in whispers about how excited he is and he can't wait to get into the base and stop Zim from destroying or taking over the planet. He's glad I'm coming with him for once. And I am, too, to an extent. We have a job to do, though, and the fate of the world rests with us finding what we need to finish the picture and stop Zim.
The base is creepy at night, I have to admit. It looms over the fake grass and man-sized garden gnomes like a recklessly-built haunted house, and it glows ever so slightly in the darkness of a nearly moonless night. I shiver unintentionally.
"Cold?" Dib asks.
"Just creeped out. I've seen too many horror movies. I know where this is going."
Dib laughs at the non-joke, and not because he finds it truly funny.
The lights in the windows aren't on, but that doesn't mean much necessarily. Zim could be down below and lost track of the time.
My partner in crime takes a step into the yard, and I immediately tug him back. The last time I was here, the gnomes tried to vaporize me when I crossed the yard. "Have you forgotten something, maybe those?" I hiss in Dib's ear, gesturing to the giant gnome statues that guard the yard like soldiers.
"They're off, Tia," Dib says quietly. He steps onto the walkway that leads to the front stoop. I flinch, expecting the gnomes to start firing. They don't move.
I blink in confusion. "How could you tell?" I ask, stepping up next to Dib.
"It's something you learn when you sneak in enough," the boy grins. "They almost seem to relax when they're turned off." He approaches one and knocks on the surface of its tunic. It makes a metallic clanging at the striking of his knuckles. The gnome doesn't react. "See? Perfectly safe."
This doesn't reassure me much. "Why are they offline? Wouldn't Zim want them on, especially if he's not at the base?"
Dib frowns. "Didn't think about that," he admits, looking at the front door of the glowing turquoise house. "That's kinda strange."
"Which makes me even more nervous," I whisper under my breath to myself. Maybe he's got a trap planned for us. Myabe he knows that we've almost pieced his puzzle together. And maybe I'm just being paranoid. For both of our sakes, I pray it's the latter.
The door is unlocked, apparently not unusual behavior for Zim. The complete silence inside is very disconcerting, though.
"Where's Gir?" Dib breathes. Even that small voice sounds enormous in this engulfing silence. It makes my spine tingle with uncertainty.
"Maybe we should go," I start to say.
"No! This was your idea in the first place," Dib says stubbornly. "If anything, this proves that Zim is in the bomber!"
I shake my head in disagreement. Never count your chickens before they hatch, Mom used to say. Always be thorough, she taught me, in anything you do, whether it be cooking a steak or doing your homework.
"If anything, this proves that Zim isn't on this floor," I say, my voice low. "There's an entire base below us, Dib. He could be down there, watching us from a screen in one of his security rooms."
"Does he have a security room?" Dib asks. I actually seriously doubt it, but I shrug.
"Irrelevant. We have to find Zim or any evidence that he's here before we can say that he's not."
The farther we venture from the front door, the darker and more sinister the room becomes. I only had a glimpse last time I was here, too distracted by that silly little robot to worry much about the room's interior. A giant portrait of a green monkey hangs above the huge sofa, and the television screen takes up the entire opposite wall. An open doorway leads into a kitchen.
It looks barely used. I swipe my hand across the counter and find it's covered in a thin layer of dust. Other than that and a big poster on the far wall that reads "I eat food", the most prominent and odd thing is a toilet sitting under said poster. It too is dusty and the lid squeaks somewhat when I lift it.
"What on the Lord's green earth...?" I mumble to myself. I always knew Zim was stupid, but this is borderline retarded. Anyone this dumb could not possibly have come up with Zim's plan, that much I'm sure of. He probably stole the idea from a sci-fi movie or show.
"He hasn't been up here in a while, and neither has that robot of his," I say after a moment of thought. I open the fridge. The light doesn't come on, the air inside isn't cold. Something smells terrible. I pull out a container and open the lid. Inside is a fuzzy thing that must've been food at one point. "Two weeks, at least."
"Tia," Dib calls to me. I walk up to his side, looking at what he's pointing at. Something had been in the corner once, but it had been blasted away, leaving a gaping, blackened hole in the floor. "Somebody's been here before us," says the boy beside me."
"And I don't think they were coming for tea and biscuits," I add snarkily. We both kneal to the edge of the hole.
"We should go down there," Dib says suddenly. I glare at him.
"With what equipment? Unless you can magically conjure up a rope and grappler," I say sarcastically.
"I know Zim's base more than you do. The elevators twist and turn like tunnels. It'll be like going down one big tubeslide," Dib explains. "Here, we'll go together."
He takes my hand. I'm glad it's dark enough to hide my blush. "Jesus, your hand is cold!" he remarks in wonder.
"They're always cold," I murmur.
I can almost feel Dib's amused smile. "On the count of three," he says. I swallow and nod. "One, two, three!"
We jump down into the abyss. It takes every fiber of my being not to scream with adrenaline and terror. I do allow myself a squeal of surprise when we suddenly take a sharp turn. In the blackness, I can't anticipate the next turn we'll make so I trust Dib's judgement and the tunnel we're catapulting down.
After a long, stomach-wrenching ride downward, we finally hit horizontal ground. It doesn't feel like it at first, though; we skid along the hard metal floor for a few yards. Dib lands on top of me, and I push him off immediately, not wanting him to feel the heat from my face.
"Really could use a flashlight right about now," Dib says. I hear his shoes shuffle against the floor and he pulls me up to my feet by my hand.
"Where's a lightswitch when you need one?" I ask rhetorically.
The room we're in is pitch-black. Not a sliver of light can be seen in any direction. There's a stench that fills the darkness- something like the food in the fridge. Rotting.
Dib doesn't let go of my hand, and I don't want him to. The darkness seems to close in on us and as we meander around blindly, we press against each other for safety. Just for safety, I have to remind myself.
My foot hits something. I give a sound involuntarily and ty to kick the thing out of my way. It's soft and pliable against the toe of my shoe.
"What is..." I don't finish my sentence, knealing down to the object instead. Dib lets go of me and wanders off a bit; I hear his shoes scuffling on the floor.
My hands travel over the mass beneath me, trying to identify it. It's stone cold and stiff to move, but the surface is soft, almost gooey. I feel my hand brush fabric of some sort and my fingers wrap around something that seems to be an arm...
"I think I found a computer dash!" Dib calls, not too far away.
"Dib, don't turn on the lights," I whisper. He doesn't hear me or else ignores me. I hear the sound of a lever being pulled and some machinery in the distance begins to whir.
"There. That should make this easier," Dib says, satisfaction in his tone. I stand.
"Dib, turn it off," I demand.
"What are you talking about?"
The lights flicker on, as if they haven't been on in a long time. Dib's smug look turns to one of horror as he stares at my feet. I follow his gaze and look down. And I scream at the rotting corpse at my feet.
It's Zim.
=== DOOM ===
That was longer than I expected.
I decided a while ago that Zim couldn't be so clever as to come up with a plan like the one I had. So, it wasn't him that was trying to destroy to Earth. It took a lot of convincing from some undisclosed sources(dA chatrooms) to kill him off, though- I like Zim a lot.
Thanks to SilverJ7 for the idea to move things along again.
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