Chapter 7
After walking all the way down to his enemy's house, Dib slowly made his way past the lawn gnomes and over to the window. He peeked in. The robot was still watching television, tiny Zim was on the couch staring off into space, and the little moose was perched on the sofa next to him. Gir wasn't much of a problem, but Mini Moose was. He got his alien gun ready and put on the helmet. Then he kicked the door open and fired a shot at Mini Moose.
"NYA!" The little moose was hit. Zim and Gir both shrieked out of surprise and turned to the door. Then the smeet looked back at Mini Moose, who was on the floor with one antler bent and broken. He faced to his enemy and hissed.
"Why must you pester Zim so? GIR! ATTACK THE INTRUDER!"
"Not so fast Zim!" Dib fired another shot at Gir, who jumped out of the way and turned his eyes red.
"You will not hurt my master or the moose!" The robot growled. The boy fired again and again but Gir dodged each attack. Then the robot charged at Dib with his own weapon, a buzz saw, coming out of his head. But the large headed kid jumped out of the way and Gir ended up pushing the saw into the floor, unable to move. Dib fired the alien gun and Gir shut down.
It was now Zim and Dib. The little Irken backed up for a moment and then got up on his PAK legs. But they were now very small and he had trouble balancing on them. Dib tackled Zim and pulled the blanket out of his backpack. Suddenly the boy yelped in pain. The Irken was clawing and biting and trying to scratch Dib with the spider-like limbs coming from his back. The boy covered the smeet in blanket and held him down, trying to muffle Zim's attempts at doing any more damage. Then he slowly moved Zim into his backpack, zipped it closed, and picked it up. Zim was now really small, so he fit inside the bag perfectly. And if people couldn't see him, then they wouldn't accuse Dib of hurting something cute and innocent. Of course, now the pack was jittery and making growly noises, but if he moved fast enough, maybe nobody would notice. The boy ran home as fast as he could.
"I'm back Gaz!" He exclaimed as he ran inside. "Look! I got him! I got Zim while he's all…tiny…"
"That's nice." Gaz replied as she picked up some baked ziti with her fork and popped it into her mouth.
"Hey! You're not eating my pasta, are you?" The boy answered. "Oh whatever! I can't stop and eat right now anyway! I have to contact Dark Booty!" Then he dashed up the stairs as his sister proceeded to finish his dinner. He lightly tossed the bag on the bed and popped up one of his floating monitors to contact the Swollen Eyeball Network. Zim kicked around in the bag, yelling numerous insults and threats that he probably wouldn't carry out.
"Alright Agent Mothman." Dark Booty said when he appeared on the screen. "I got your message. And I do hope you have your specimen with you now. I don't have all evening."
"I have him right here! I just got him!" Dib exclaimed. He went over to the backpack. "As I told you, his name is Zim, but right now he's turned himself into some tiny form so he can take over the world by hypnotizing everyone." When he went to open the zipper, the backpack rolled off the bed. "HEY!"
Dark Booty groaned.
"Hold on Dark Booty! I got the bag!" He said. He grabbed the zipper and went to dig out the Irken, but Zim pulled a blanket over his head and tried to wriggle out of his enemy's grasp.
"NO! I AM NORMAL!" Zim yelled.
"Just take the blanket off!" Dib exclaimed. Three little claws swooped through the air and dug into his arm. "OW!" He dropped Zim.
"Don't let it get away!" Dark Booty exclaimed. "Call me back when you get it. I have another call." The screen went to static.
"YES! He believes me!" Dib squealed. Then he gasped and turned to see a blanket being dragged out the door. It never occurred to Zim that he could move faster if he got out of it. But instead he ran forward, tripped over the quilt, bumped into the wall, and then he fell down the stairs. The blanket wrapped around him like a ball as he did so.
"Oh man!" Dib winced as he heard the thump when Zim made it to the floor downstairs. He ran over to the smeet.
"Ooh…" Zim groaned and shook his head. It would've been more fun if his head didn't hurt and his squeedily spooch wasn't feeling so queasy. Then he thrashed about until his head popped out of the cloth. Then he squirmed and wiggled and got to his feet, free from the fuzzy warm prison.
"How dare you!" Zim yelled. "You invade my home and hurt my robots and then kidnap me?"
"Well you ARE an alien menace trying to take over the world!" Dib shouted back. "Now you're coming with me! I have to show you to the Swollen Eyeball!"
Zim hissed and slapped Dib's hands away. Then the smeet backed up a bit and went for the door. He looked up. The doorknob was up pretty high. He tried to reach for it. Then he jumped. His fingertips barely touched the shiny metal handle. He heard a chuckle and looked at Dib.
"What?" The alien asked, irritated.
"You're trying to escape, but you can't open the door because you're so small!"
"Humph!" Zim looked around the room. He went over to the couch where Gaz was sitting.
"What do you want?" She looked down at him.
"I command you to open the door!"
"No."
Zim sputtered.
"Release me from this house! I am your future slave master! You will turn the knob and open the door for Zim!"
Gaz took the empty bowl in her hand and placed it on his head.
"If you're going to hang around and be annoying, then go put my dish in the sink." She said as she pushed a button on a device in her hands and turned on the TV.
"Grah!" Zim threw the bowl on the floor, not worrying about breaking the glass at all, and looked around the room for something of use to him. When he saw Dib he glared.
"Ready to give up?" Dib asked with a smirk.
"SILENCE!"
The smeet took a few steps back and ran to the door, ramming his shoulder into it. Bad idea. He tumbled to the floor and rubbed his upper arm.
"Alright. If you don't mind, I'm going to take you to Dark Booty now." The boy picked up the Irken, who screeched and flailed. But Dib was able to grab Zim by his arms and legs so the alien couldn't hurt him. All he could do was wiggle about.
"Now, to call him back and prove I was right all along!" Dib let go of Zim's legs to push the button on the screen, but the little Irken managed to fling his legs up to hit his enemy's chin. Dib cried out and grabbed his jaw, releasing Zim and allowing the little Irken to look for something to help escape. The smeet looked around the room. It had a big bed, a computer, some dirty clothes on the floor, and a horrible Dib Worm stench. Zim grabbed a large sock, stretched it out, and ran out of the room.
"Get back here!" Dib dove for the smeet, but sadly he couldn't slide quickly enough to snatch the alien. "NO!"
Zim almost literally flew down the stairs, being careful not to trip over himself, and ran over to the door. Then he jumped and hooked the end of the sock around the doorknob like a lasso. After using it as a rope to climb up, the little Irken used all his strength to twist the knob. The door opened, making a little creaking sound, and Zim jumped down and ran outside, not even bothering to close the door behind him.
"No! Zim! Come back!" Dib yelled as he managed to trip down the steps. He ran outside but it was too late. The Irken was gone. "Oh, what am I going to tell Dark Booty? How did I let Zim escape?" He buried his face in his hands.
"Be quiet!" Gaz said. The boy sighed. It was getting late and he didn't eat his dinner. His sister did. Dib grabbed an apple, ate it, and went upstairs.
"Hahaha! Pathetic Dib stink! How dare he think he can imprison ME! The mighty ZIIIM! I am an Invader! Now, to return to my base." The Irken stood proudly on the sidewalk after running for a while, to make sure Dib didn't catch up to him. Zim examined his surroundings. "Yes…to get home…" He said to himself. But…where was his home? Nothing around here looked familiar. He turned around. There were no humans outside at the moment. What's going on? Where is everybody?
The sky seemed to be getting darker. Zim decided that he would use his amazing Invader Instinct to decide where to go next. He walked down the sidewalk and whistled to himself as he moved along. But eventually he had to turn a run screaming "MADNESS" as he came upon a funny looking Chihuahua. After escaping the beast, he ended up in the park. Good! It was something he recognized! He remembered that his home was…down that exit? No! The other one! The one by the statue of a large owl. It gazed at the smeet with spooky glowing eyes. The Irken dashed out of the park, not wanting to be in its presence any longer. It took him about 10 minutes to finally admit…or come to the conclusion that he was lost. He pulled out his PAK microphone to radio his robots. They should have come back on by now.
"Gir! Mini Moose! I need you to come and find me!" He said. No answer. Stupid robots. Gir was a special minion built by the Tallest. How could he have been broken by one of Dib's pathetic human weapons. And Mini Moose…well, Mini Moose took the first hit pretty hard. Whatever! Zim was smart. He needed no help from anyone! He could get home by himself.
Still…he would probably get home much faster with their help. The city was pretty scary when it was dark. He shook his head. Invaders didn't know fear! He would be fine! He continued down the street in his military strut.
A while later…he wasn't sure how long…he began to feel tired. The sky was dark and gray. His feet hurt.
"Darn it Gir!" He pulled his microphone out of his PAK for the fifth time. "Answer me!" He started having second thoughts on what that anti alien gun could have done to his servants.
BANG!
Zim flinched at the sound of an alley cat kicking over a trash can.
CAW!
Zim jumped when he heard a nearby crow.
The sooner he was back at home the better! He had a planet to conquer so he would never face these horrors again. Yes, he would destroy each and every…
OW!
He stopped when he felt a powerful stinging sensation on his forehead. He wiped at it to get rid of the pain, when his hands felt something wet be touched by the gloves. Oh no.
He looked around and saw it. The sidewalk had one dot that was a darker color than the rest of the gray dry cement. And it was joined by another drop. And another. And another!
It was raining!
"NO!" Zim screamed as his body was pelted from the acidic water from the sky. Each drop was even worse than the next. He ran around and looked for cover, but he was in the middle of nowhere with no shelter. "AH!" He cried out again and made a mad dash for any place he could go. When he sprinted into an alleyway, smoking and burning, he dove into a cardboard box placed on its side. When he looked back out there it was a huge downpour. And he was stuck in this soggy brown box, soaking wet, in pain, lost, cold, hungry, and tired. But not scared! Of course he wasn't scared! He was Zim.
But…he was stuck as a smeet. And he had no idea where to go to get home. He couldn't go anywhere because it was raining. And his robots didn't answer. He curled up into a ball. Gir and Mini Moose…what if they were really broken? What if that alien gun shot them beyond repair? What if he never saw them again? He shook his head when he felt his eyes well up. No! He was an invader! He wasn't scared and he wasn't weak and he was DEFINITELY not going to cry! He was strong!
But as each second went by the sky grew darker and the rain fell harder. The box was made out of cardboard, so it started getting all drippy, sometimes hitting Zim with yet another little splash of pain.
Okay, he was scared. He knew he was. He silently admitted it. Nobody else was there to see him anyway. But he still felt ashamed, which only made things worse. His mind kept going to Mini Moose and Gir. Now he just hoped he could make it home after the storm.
A strong wind blew, making it extra cold on his soaking wet body. No wonder all the humans were indoors.
It's okay to cry little master. Zim remembered. Little Master…that's what Gir started calling him, wasn't it? He wouldn't mind being called that right now. He just wanted to go home. Everyone cries… He shook his head again. "I'm not gonna cry…" He repeated to himself over and over again. But with each one his eyes welled up until he felt something warm go down his cheeks. Even I cry when you don't eat my waffles or I can't watch my favorite show. It was too late. He rubbed his eyes. The hot water running down his face.
It was tears.
He started to accept this feeling. Sadness…loneliness…fear… Zim buried his head in his arms, making quiet little sniffles and sobs that nobody was going to hear. The smeet made a little wail as he watched the rain fall. Was this really how it ends? Is this how he's going to die? Freezing and starving to death all alone? He whimpered and closed his eyes.
"Why? Why does everything want to hurt Zim?" He sniffled. "I dunno…"
It continued like this for a while until the poor Irken slowly fell to his side out of exhaustion. Then he cried himself to sleep.
It looks like poor little smeet Zim is in a real mess. :'C Poor Zim!
REVIEW PLEASE! Thank you to everyone who's been leaving reviews! They really mean a lot to me! I spent a lot of time with my friend all weekend, but now I'm back for a bit (Until I go on a trip at the end of the month)! So REVIEW PLEASE! And I'll see if I can get another chapter up soon!