UGH! I DELETED THIS CHAPTER BY ACCIDENT!
So now I had to rewrite it entirely. :(
Enjoy my labors of frustration.
Chapter 9
"Abducted"
Dib was kindly asked, in the middle of the night, to move back to his room. It was a mystery why, but he agreed, half-awake, and was vaguely aware he had to be helped into bed. Dib was asleep before his head hit the pillow. He had no idea who was helping him, and maybe it would've made a difference if he'd paid more attention, but it couldn't be helped.
Gaz, on the other hand, awoke with a start.
However, sitting up and looking around, she had no idea why. There was not a soul in sight, not a thing out of place. Unlike the general population, who would've just gone back to bed, Gaz stayed up. In fact she got out of bed instead of just sitting there, stepping soundlessly, eying her room. Something was wrong but she couldn't place it.
Gaz glanced down and frowned at her pajamas. Hardly fighting clothes, if it came down to it.
It didn't, however, because in the end, she was overpowered.
Glass shattering startled Gaz, the giant wall of a window, giving her a beautiful view, now was turned against her. She cried out in surprise, but not fear, lifting her arm above her head to keep the glass from her eyes and face. However before she could further react her arms were bound behind her back and she was restrained. Her foot stomped down on the foot of her captor and they jumped away, but left her with her restraints. Gaz fell onto her knees, trying to step over her wrists.
However suddenly a sharp pain went in her neck, obviously some time of medication. Her mouth opened in a silent scream before a gag was placed around her mouth. She collapsed into someone's arms, blacking out as alarms began to go off.
Dib woke up to those very alarms and his eyes peeled open, blinking sleepily and confused as he sat up in bed. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and got up, opening his door.
He was with the sight of Secret Service and Swollen Eyeball members alike were running around, speaking into walkie-talkies and looking like they were trying not to panic and control whatever situation was going on. A Swollen Eyeball member (once again only evident by the jacket) stopped upon noticing Dib's staring, his mouth agape. The agent attempted to coax him back inside, insisting all was well.
"What's going on?" Dib demanded, stunned by all the chaos.
"Nothing, Sir," the agent said, once again trying to get him back inside. "Please, go back to sleep."
Dib could never really say how he knew then what had happened. Call it brotherly instinct, an investigator's intuition, or even just plain old common sense, but at that moment Dib's blood ran cold as he realized what had happened.
"Where's Gaz?" Dib breathed. And then he was screaming as he took hold of the agent's coat, "WHERE'S GAZ?"
"Sir, please, control yourself-! Sir!"
The agent followed Dib inside his room as Dib ran to their connecting door, banging on the door. "Gaz?"
Of course there was no answer.
"Gaz?" Dib began yanking violently on the handle. The door was obviously locked. "GAZ? GAZ!"
"Agent Moth-Man, compose yourself!"
"Zim did this," he breathed. "He did this! I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!"
Dib fell shaking onto the floor. The agent assisted him onto the edge of his bed as he sat, hugging himself. For the rest of the day he was unresponsive, no matter who tried to coax him from his stupor. Not even Dr. Membrane could get him to snap out of it as he curled onto his side, staring at the wall for the rest of the day.
Gaz woke up to a bag being pulled off of her head.
She moved her jaw around, find her mouth was not gagged. So that could mean two things or both; either Gaz was too far away from civilization to be heard or the walls were sound-proof enough to where neighboring people couldn't hear her. The idea that her kidnappers had made a mistake and hadn't thought about an escape attempt was unlikely, since these people had, after all, kidnapped her from the White House.
Gaz eyed the area and found her vision was a bit hazy. Not necessarily blurry, more as she really couldn't focus on anything. Gaz blinked, trying to rid herself of that feeling as she continued to try and get a feel of the room.
It was all white, like a house under construction. The floors and ceiling were white, with a single hanging light in the room. However there was a gray-blue light filtered through the room from a large window. Blinking and squeezing her eyes shut a few times, Gaz found it actually was sliding glass door. She let out an aggravated huff.
"Am I drugged?" She demanded, out loud, irritated.
Someone cleared their throat and Gaz's fluttering vision brought her to the attention of some boxes and chairs off to the side (and, oddly enough, a porcelain sink), where several men in masks were sitting, three of them playing cards around a small table and the fourth watching her.
"Yes, a bit." The one away from the poker game (or so she guessed, as Gaz knew she was in no state of mind to be judging anything at the moment) told her. "Sorry about that, orders from the boss."
She sighed, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to focus on her words. "Alright, I'm going to make something very clear here. I don't care where I am. I don't care who you are. I don't even give a damn who hired you! All I want to know is what day it is and how long I'm going to be here."
The men stared at her in surprise before looking at one another.
"Well," one finally said. "It's Thursday."
A day gone. Great.
"And when you're to be released isn't up to us. It's up to our boss." Another added, shuffling the cards and dishing them out. "So we can't really give you an answer to that one."
Gaz sighed. "Great. Just great."
She eyed them all looking at her.
Then she smirked. "I find it only fair to warn you that as soon as it gets out I'm missing, someone very powerful and very frightening is not going to be happy, and will come after you."
The four of them shared looks again. "Why?"
Gaz's eyes widened before narrowing in disbelief. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
"No."
"Should we?"
This was baffling. Maybe Gaz had overestimated her time spent on the news, but as far as she'd seen channel-surfing, Dib and her face seemed to be everywhere. "Don't you watch the news?"
"Well, you see-."
"Um-."
"That's Tony's job!" One finally shouted.
"Yeah!" They all agreed.
Gaz sighed, rolling her eyes. However that gave her a slight headache so she snapped, aggravated now, "Well then I recommend you go get this 'Tony' before this conversation continues."
Finally one of them got up and left the room, leaving Gaz to wonder just how these people had been able to kidnap her from the White House. They didn't seem very bright in certain areas but they were obviously masters at what they were doing. Whoever this 'Tony' person was, he probably was in charge of the information supplier of this team.
Gaz eyed the area once again, looking towards the screen doors once more. Her suspicion about neighbors were confirmed when she saw a city off in the distance. There was probably no one around this area. So no chance of escape then.
Speaking of escape, as she began an attempt to do so, Gaz found her wrists encased in metal, flexible wire. Her eyes narrowed as she thought of the money the government had probably paid to have her kidnapped, gotten rid of. Most likely she was probably bait for Zim. There were probably cameras around to see what he'd do, if he really cared enough for her to retrieve her. Gaz had no doubt in his mind he was.
Which was what frightened her.
What if this was a trap for him?
Gaz wished very much that she could get the answers to what was going on, but she'd already assured them she didn't want anymore answers. Not that she really needed one. Gaz already knew that it was the government and the Swollen Eyeball in charge here.
"So let me guess," She said casually, crossing her legs, which were freed. With a quick glance downward she saw the chair bolted to the floor. Clearly she was not the first person who these men had kidnapped before. "You got an anonymous call with a wired money transfer and really have no idea who you kidnapped me for, huh?"
They said nothing, staring at her.
Gaz snorted. Typical under-the-radar government job. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
At that time this one of the masked men returned, shoving 'Tony' (as Gaz presumed) into the room. Oddly enough, Tony was wearing a lab coat and a pair of large, thick-rimmed eyeglasses. He was a lanky, tall, bow-legged fellow. The type Gaz used to watch get bullied at school. She never had anything against anyone unless they did something worth her wrath, such as giving her a funny look or speaking to her.
"Hey! I was busy! What do you want?" Tony demanded, obviously irritated at being so ruffly handled. He began smoothing out his coat, removing gloves and shoving them into his pockets.
The man jerked his chin over towards where Gaz sat, restrained to the chair. If her wrists had been the only thing bound, it would've been no problem, but round her waist was a belt-like object, strapped to the chair, far more effective then tying the ankles to a chair.
"Who is she?" The man demanded, eying her.
The thing Gaz like most about these men was they examined her, not checked her out. They were leering at her like wild animals, they were very business like about the transaction. She appreciated it.
Tony looked over in her direction and then his eyes practically bugged out of his head, stumbling backwards. He tripped on nothing, hitting the floor on his backside, but even still he continued to recoil from her till he met the wall. Gaz smirked. Just a glance and people were running for the hills.
Whenever she got the chance to tell him, Zim would just love that.
"Y-You IDIOTS!" Tony shouted, terrified and shaking as he pointed a finger to her. "I told you to consult me before you took a job! Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"It was a rush job, now or never! And we don't hear you complaining when you make a buck off of our work." One of the men defended. "The worlds' going to hell in a hand-basket anyways, thanks to that little green guy, so we've got to get the money to enjoy ourselves why we can."
Little green guy?
Tony paled as Gaz shot a death-glare at the man who'd spoken. "You want to talk about Invader Zim?" Tony jerked his chin towards Gaz. "Why don't you ask his former girlfriend?"
Former? Ha, so was everyone assuming she'd left Zim now? Well, better that then the truth.
All the men slowly directed their heads toward her, staying wide-eyed. Nobody said a word, not even after Gaz eyed them all with irritation and suspicion, silently demanding for a response.
"Well?" She finally hissed. "Is someone going to say anything or are you all just going to stand and stare at me?"
They snapped out of it.
"Damn."
"Well this sucks."
"Well think of it this way, boys," Gaz replied, optimistically, smirking at them as she leaned back onto the chair. "I'm not exactly on the best of terms with him right now."
They all gave a heavy sigh of relief.
Gaz had done this, first off, to shut them up and secondly to ensure there wouldn't be any news running around that she was still rather friendly with the alien taking over the world while on a team against him.
From under the table one of the men pulled out a large suitcase and placed it in front of her. Gaz eyed it and then him, a brow raising. "Am I supposed to open this with my mind?" She emphasized her sarcasm by jerking at her bound wrists. Much to her irritation, nothing gave.
The men were filing out of the room (Tony being dragged as he stared after her in horror) until one stopped at the door-frame, turning to answer her question.
"The restraints will be momentarily lifted. We got orders to allow you that bag, but, rest assured, we don't know what's in it. When you're done doing whatever, just sit back down in the chair and the restraints will turn back on."
Automatic self-restraints? These people were good.
The door shut behind him and a moment lazer their was a sort of buzzer noise and Gaz found herself freed. Surprised she rubbed her wrist with one hand, getting up slowly to ensure whatever was in her systems didn't screw up her walking. Thankfully she didn't have much of a walk and knelt before it, unzipping it carefully. After all, for all she knew, it could've been a bomb.
However it wasn't, but the contents surprised her far more.
"Deodorant," Gaz said, listing things as she found them. "A toothbrush . . . Toothpaste . . . Water bottle . . . A hairbrush . . . Clothes . . . What the hell?"
It looked more like an overnight bag (for an extended trip of nights) then anything else. So maybe the government wasn't trying to kill her, they were just trying to get her out of the way for a while until the subject of her innocence was discussed and handled properly. Typical. Push the problem aside until unbiased thought could be guaranteed when it was away long enough.
"Well, this is some pre-birthday present," She muttered, holding up the first garment in the suitcase.
A dress that cinched at the waist, but flared out to her knees from there in a very summery sort of design. It was a casual dress, not one to be worn to a fancy party but more of a walk in the park. It was gray with white pattering all over it and puffy sleeves that hung off the shoulders.
"Well . . . " she eyed her still pajama clothed body with a sigh. "Whatever."
Gaz used the sink to brush her teeth, using the water bottle to rinse her mouth out with. She cleaned herself as well as the supplies allowed, not sure when she would get the chance again. When Gaz was done she figured she looked nice enough in a probably flattering dress. But the only reason she was doing so was because if what these men had said was true and it was Thursday, tomorrow was her birthday. And she might as well look nice for her birthday, even if she was spending it kidnapped and not with family.
When she was done Gaz sat back in the chair, no shoes on, and putting her wrists behind her back. There was another little hum of machinery just before the wire snapped around her wrist and the belt clipped around her waist.
She blew her hair out of her face. "I'm done!"
The president smirked at Zim, hiding his fear like the other men in the room.
"So this is what we mean to say, Invader Zim." He said, hands relaxed in his lap. "Either you retreat from your mission, or we kill the girl."
Zim eyed Dr. Membrane, whose face was unreadable. He gave him a look of complete disgust. This was one of the men who Gaz respected, of about 3 people in the world, and he wasn't even defending her life. He was her father and he looked as if he couldn't care less.
"Curious how you're so calm about this situation when your daughters life is on the line," he commented, giving Dr. Membrane a look of reproach. "It appears you're more concerned with your business ventures then your children, something I'm sure she'll be glad to hear about, whenever I find her."
Abruptly the president's mannerisms changed, ever so slightly, but it was more then enough to notice them. "Find her? Why, she's with us, Invader, as we said-."
Zim sighed, "No, you ignorant buffoon, she isn't, and you know it. While your attempt to fool me was admirable, you fail miserably."
"YOU took her!" One of the men in suits shouted, his face turning red with anger as he stood and pointed at Zim. "You're the one who kidnapped the girl so we wouldn't have anything on you!"
Zim snorted, rolling his eyes. "You might have had a point, Congressman, if some fool hadn't attempted to break into my security systems to deliver me a message for her ransom. However, unfortunately for you, they just wanted money, not my surrender."
Dr. Membrane, however hard he was trying to hide it, was now paying excruciating attention to Zim. At once Zim became a bit more relieved, for Gaz's sake, since he was getting assurances now that her parent did give a damn about her, at least a little bit.
"Rest assured, I will retrieve her. However, I don't trust you to care for her anymore. If I give her back, it will be to someone I know has her best interests at heart." Zim replied with a wave of his hand. "However, Zim has grown tired of your pitiful threats. The invasion of your armies against you starts at night fall, congratulations. Your incompetency and refusal will cost you lives, depending on how cooperative your citizens are."
They stared at him in horror.
He smirked. "Let's just see if the average common folk has more common sense then a bunch of men with too much and too little power, yes? I trust that when next I contact you, I expect a surrender. Goodbye."
And it was over just like that.
CONFUSION ON PURPOSE!
Dib thinks Zim kidnapped Gaz (but Zim says he didnt) . . .
Gaz thinks the government kidnapped her (but they say they didn't) . . .
SO . . . Is one of the lying, or is a third party involved?
WAIT TILL NEXT CHAPTER TO FIND OUT!
