It was an icy and cloudy night in New York, but Zim could care less since he was safely indoors. He was in a tall, lavish building with large windows that displayed a beautiful view of Manhattan. Zim looked down at all of the cars in traffic, the hundreds of people crossing the busy streets, and all of the colorful lights reflecting off of the ice on the sides of the windows. Some of the stars were barely shining through the clouds and the moon was an indigo blue. It made him smile, but only for a moment.
Zim heard slow music behind him and he reluctantly turned around to see Peter and Mary Jane dancing together, Luke doing some weird dance moves, Danny asking Ava to dance with him, Sam eating tons of food off of a table, and Harry searching through his MP3 player for songs. Zim sighed, irritated, and looked back out the window. He didn't want to be at this dumb party, but he didn't really have a choice. The music was too loud for him to enjoy the outside view so he walked over to the table full of food. There was pizza, chips and dips, cookies, and lots of other foods he found absolutely repulsive. Zim looked away quickly before he could become nauseous. He saw Danny and Ava dancing together and Mary Jane dancing with Harry. Harry was blushing immensely.
Peter walked over to Zim and casually said, "Harry used to have a crush on her in the third grade, but now I think he is genuinely embarrassed." Zim scoffed and rolled his eyes. Why was Peter telling him this useless information? Is this really what humans discussed with each other? "Great." He mumbled just barely loud enough for Peter to hear. Peter noticed how bored Zim seemed to be and had an idea. Peter, "Hey, Zim we should play video games. Harry has this giant flat screen TV that makes the battles look so awesome." Zim looked over at Peter and replied, "Is it a combat based game?" Peter smiled. "Most of them are combat based. There is one where you choose to be a villain or a hero then battle against an opponent. Spider-man is one of the hero options." Zim, "Okay, I'll play." They walked over to the couch and Peter inserted the disc. He handed Zim a controller and sat down. Zim looked down at the controller and realized how easy of a game this would be. He obviously chose to be Spider-man and Peter chose to be Loki. They had their characters battle for a while and Zim won 7 to 3.
Ava, "We should get going." Mary Jane, "But it's just barely 9 o'clock." Danny, "Our parents need us home by 10 and we live on the other side of town so now would be a good time to leave." Sam, "Aww, but I'm still eating." Luke, "Man, you're not full yet?" Luke picked up Sam and held him over his shoulder. Sam, "No, I need my cheesy nachos!" Ava, "Quit complaining, Sam, there's tons of food at home. And I have to study for that math test next week." Danny, "Good bye. We'll see you at school next week." They all waved, except for Sam, and left the building.
Zim had a huge smile on his face since he had beaten Peter at a stupid video game Peter really should have been a master at playing. He wasn't surprised that an Irken like him would have easily beaten a human though. Peter, "That was fun, except for the part where you totally kicked my butt." Zim, "I am a master at real life combat so it makes virtual combat that much easier." Peter, "I probably only lost because I've never played as Loki before." Harry walked over to the couch, behind Peter, and asked, "Did he beat you at your own game?" Peter, "Yeah, but that's what I get for playing with the same character every time and not using others." Harry looked over at Zim and grinned, though he didn't seem happy. He seemed more intent on avenging Peter. Harry, "Do you want to play against me Zim? I promise I won't lose as easily as Peter did." Zim shrugged and replied, "Sure, why not? Let's see who the real master of this game is."
And if there's one thing we all know about Zim it's that he refuses to lose, especially to an inferior human.
Peter handed the controller to Harry and walked over to Mary Jane standing near the table of food. Harry sat down in Peter's place and said, "Okay, Zim, you can choose your character, but take into account that I've mastered all of them…to an extent." Zim glanced over at Harry and smirked. "Was that a threat? Or was that you admitting that you are a hypocrite?" Harry sneered. "You're stalling, Zim." Zim looked up at the list of characters displayed on the screen. He knew he could win with any of them, but obstinately he chose Spider-man. Harry chuckled under his breath and chose Venom.
Mary Jane and Peter watched the virtual battle while eating chips and talking about college and what they were going to after high school in the background. The score was 5 to 5. Zim had to admit that this was more difficult that battling Peter, regardless he would not tie with such human scum. He had to win this stupid game. He had to be superior. Harry, "You only have 5% of your health remaining, Zim. There's no way you can beat me." Zim remembered a cheat code he heard about one of the kids at school talking about to get your health back to 100%. It was green, purple, up, left, left, X, and hold down blue for at least 6 seconds. This had to work, otherwise he'd never hear the end of losing to a pathetic human. He pressed all of the buttons in the correct order and surprisingly, it WORKED…
…but it gave both players full health. Zim growled and Harry blinked a few times in amazement. Harry, "What the heck just happened?" Zim started beating up Harry's character while he was too busy being paralyzed with awe. Harry tried to block Zim's attacks but his character was too damaged to regain its balance. Harry used a special move that only Venom had and started trying to possess Zim's character. Zim had to press tons of different button combinations displayed on the screen to keep Spider-man from being possessed. For each button combination correctly pressed Venom's health would go down, but for each incorrectly pressed combination Spider-man's health would go down. Zim failed the first combination but focused himself and successfully completed the rest. Harry had Venom release Zim's character before his health reached 0%. Zim, "What's the matter, Harry? Could you only master Venom to an extent? It's time to end this." Zim finished Harry's character off with Spider-man kicking Venom right in the face. Venom disintegrated into the pixelated ground and Zim won 6 to 5.
Peter and Mary Jane clapped and Zim threw his hands up into the air. Zim, "YES! Zim has won! Spider-man has defeated Venom." Harry threw the controller onto the couch and sighed, frustrated that he had lost to this new kid. Peter walked over to Harry and put his hand on his shoulder. Peter, "It's okay, Harry. Even I was surprised that he won. You two were pretty close there for a while." Harry pushed Peter's hand off of his shoulder and replied angrily, "How could he have won? That was only his second time playing. He can't just magically be good at this game. It took me months to master!" Peter took a few steps back and said calmly, "Whoa, calm down, Harry. It was just a stupid video game." Mary Jane, "If it makes you feel any better I don't even know how to use the basic controls. Zim is just a good player, that's all." Harry rubbed his temples and said, "I just need a glass of water."
He disappeared into the kitchen and Mary Jane looked at the time on her cell phone. Mary Jane, "Crap, it's 10:30. I should really get going." Mary Jane walked over to the table and grabbed her coat. Peter, "Do you want me to walk you home? It's getting pretty late." Mary Jane smiled and replied politely, "That's sweet, but I think you need to work things out between Harry and Zim." Peter, "Okay, well, be safe." Mary Jane put on her coat and kissed Peter on the cheek. "Good luck." By the time Peter realized what had just happened Mary Jane was already out the door and long gone. Peter, "What the…" He felt his cheek and blushed.
Zim cringed at the sight and turned around, hoping to avoid hearing it as well. Harry came back out of the kitchen with a half-empty(or half-full) glass of water and sat down in a chair adjacent to the table. He took a small sip and said, "Where did MJ go?" Peter was still dazed and awkwardly rubbing his face. Zim, "She had to go home." Harry, "I was asking Peter." Zim, "He's obviously too caught up in la la land to answer you." Harry stood up furiously and practically snarled at Zim. Zim took a few steps toward Harry and glared at him malevolently. Peter snapped out of la la land and noticed the tension between them, then stood between the two of them. Peter, "Hey, you two need to calm down. I can't believe you're both upset over a little, dumb video game that has nothing to do with assessing real life skills." Zim sneered when Peter looked over at Harry for the last part. "Now I'm going to go to go the bathroom and in the mean time you two need to settle this."
Peter ran upstairs and there was a loud SLAM. Zim crossed his arms and looked over at Harry. Zim, "So are you going to apologize for scaring off Peter's girlfriend?" Harry, "What? Do you mean MJ? They're just friends. We all are, except for you. You're just some idiotic delinquent kid." Zim smiled vastly, revealing strange, pointed teeth. Zim, "Then why did they kiss, Harry? If they're just friends then why did she kiss him? Friends don't kiss each other, unless they're more than friends." Harry's eyes were beginning to fill up with tears and Zim took a step closer to him. Zim, "You're the rich one, so why would she pick Peter over you?" Zim could feel strange power overcoming him and he was losing control of his body. Soon Harry's voice began to sound like a soft whisper and everything was getting darker and blurry. It wasn't long before he blacked out.